Written: Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
One of the problems of not being able to keep this blog up to date while travelling in remote areas is that by the time I am able to write, there is so much to tell about. Here are a few highlights from recent days:
– I did a number of additional hikes with Victor, my Quichua Indian guide at Shangrila — some through primary forest, and some through secondary forest that had patches of agriculture. One one of these, he took me to two Quichua villages where his family lives. There, I took pictures of curious school children, and greeted them with a few Quichua words I learned, but have since forgotten, which amused them greatly. At Victor’s uncle and aunt’s place — a bamboo hut — I was offered the local beverage, chicha de yucca. This, I had read, was made by older women chewing the root of the yucca plant, and spitting the mixture of chewed up yucca and saliva into water, where it is allowed to ferment for a couple days. I knew about this process, but also knew it is offensive to turn down an offer of chicha de yucca. In the end, I sipped a bit of it, and then got Victor to surrepticiously finish off my bowl of the stuff. It really wasn’t bad tasting — just the thought of drinking someone else’s gob kind of made me squeemish.
– One day we did a trip down the Ansu River into the Napo River on two truck tire inner tubes lashed together. It was very relaxing floating on the tube in a bathing suit and watching the jungle go by with exotic birds flying around. The junction of the two rivers is a favourite spot for kayakers and there was a group of Americans kayaking as we floated by. Victor assured me there are no piranhas in these parts, although they do exist further down river. Apparently you can swim with them, and they don’t usually go into a feeding frenzy unless they taste blood.
– After Shangrila, I had planned to spend a night in Tena to get washed up and organized, as all my clothes were dirty from the jungle. But I was warned that a strike was planned the next day that would shut down all roads and transportation in Napo province for an indefinite number of days. I was advised to get out of town immediately, while the buses were still running. To make a long story short, I ended up taking buses all through the night, and having to walk four kilometres on a dark country road around midnight, unable to find a place to stay (hotels close their doors early in Ecuador, and no one answers if you knock). I ended up taking numerous buses right across the Andes and to the Pacific coast, an ordeal that involved 19 hours on slow buses. At several points roads were knocked out by landslides, and at one place there was a 20 km lineup of cars and buses at 3 a.m. until the landslide could be cleared enough that traffic could get through. Then there was a mad race of vehicles passing one another on blind curves on dangerous mountain roads as everyone tried to make up for lost time. At least there was a big picture of Jesus at the front of the bus.
– Ecuadorean buses are not much fun. Riding them right through the night is even less fun, as I can’t sleep. The drivers blare music so that the speakers rattle, or worse, play bad videos. Usually these are bad Hollywood action movies dubbed into Spanish. On one bus, they had the nerve to show one of the Arry PottER movies, until passengers began yelling “fuera!” (out with it!). It was quickly replaced with a more appropriate bad Chinese kung fu action movie dubbed into Spanish, which settled everyone down. Although the buses are infinitely more comfortable than Guatemalan chicken buses, they are much less comfortable than Mexican buses, which in many cases are better than Greyhounds. The buses stop everywhere, and average speed, when they aren’t racing down canyons, is only around 40 km/h.
– Although I generally like Ecuador, and find the people friendly, I have one other pet peeve aside from the buses and the general love of noise. Ecuador is a coffee producing country, but most Ecuadorean restaurants give you a cup of hot water or hot milk and a jar of Nescafe if you order coffee. Yech.
– On the plus side, there’s a fantastic variety of fruits that are made into wonderful juices. These are surpassed among the countries I’ve been to only by Colombia. Aside from the juices that are familiar to North Americans such as pineapple, blackberry, and papaya, there are others that most gringos haven’t heard of — naranjilla, guayabana, and numerous others.
If it’s nice tomorrow I plan to spend the day at the beach on the Pacific trying hard not to think about all the freezing rain, snow, and miserable weather at home. I’ll be back in that soon enough.
