Transportation in South America

We have been using public buses to get around during our land travels in South America. It has been an interesting experience so far. Yes, I know. Jens is still a little in shock when I suggest taking a local bus instead of a taxi. It just sometimes makes more sense, particularly in the city of Quito where they have designated bus lanes which means they move quicker than anything else on the road. And at $0.25 for a ride, it is even harder to resist.

It is the single best way to get around, without a doubt. The cost of travel is low and the frequency of buses is high. A very good combination. The buses advertise air conditioning (we've only experienced it once), movies (always in Spanish of course), and toilets (but you have to ask the driver's assistant for the key). Oh yes, there is a driver and an assistant. The assistant leans out of the bus calling for other passengers as we travel down the road, collects the money, helps people with their luggage and so on, so that the driver can concentrate on driving. Not a bad plan. Particularly on the steep and narrow roads where they like to overtake slower moving vehicles on hairpin turns. Oh yes, I should also mention that bus travel is not for the faint of heart.

In Ecuador, the cost of intercity buses runs about $1.00 per hour of travel. They usually leave the terminal on time, but they will stop to pick up passengers on the way. They also stop along the way to pick up sellers of food, cd's, chocolates, drinks, fruit, etc. Food is usually a tray of home cooked (or side of the road cooked) chicken, frittata, potatoes, rice, and so on. So you never go hungry or thirsty. But with the long trips and infrequent stops, it's best not to consume too much.

The only danger of riding the buses is theft. We have heard numerous stories of travelers who have had their bags stolen, their backpacks slit open with a knife and their computers and cameras stolen. We have taken to traveling with our bags with all our valuables on our laps. Our backpacks with our clothes go in the compartment under the bus. So far, this strategy has worked.

We haven't actually traveled on a bus where the locals bring their chickens and such on board, but today I did see a man take two bags out of the luggage compartment and on closer inspection you see that he is transporting turkeys and geese. I guess he didn't pay for a coach class ticket for them.

Quito's Churches

Ecuador is primarily a Catholic society and has it's share of large, extravagant cathedrals and churches, especially in the capital cities.  Quito has several remarkable churches.  The Compania de Jesus is the city's most ornate and is said to have been decorated with more than 7 tons of gold (sounds like a lot and I haven't been able to find a verification of this).  Built by the Jesuits in 1605 it took 160 years to complete.

We visited a few churches, but the most memorable was the Basilica del Voto Nacional.  Memorable because you can see this church from almost any point in Quito and for an entry fee of $4.00 per person, you can climb and explore almost every corner of the church.

Walking over the top of the cathedral.  Notice the safety ropes!  Yes, safety is important.

A view from the clock tower.

View from the steeple.  In the far distance you see the statue of the Virgin Mary with wings.

The last set of stairs up to the steeple viewing platform.

Traveling around the world, we realize that safety standards are quite different.  In some countries I don't think the word safety is even in their vocabulary.  But, it does allow us to do a lot and probably see a lot more.  This church is one example.  The areas that we explored would have been blocked to tourists in most other countries.

Waterfalls, Thermal Baths, Local Markets, Volcanic Crater Lakes

Ecuador is a rich and diverse country.  Every day provides a new and interesting experience.  A few things that have stuck with me are the landscape and the people.  The country gives you lush green hillsides to steep rugged and jagged mountains, snow-capped volcanoes and treacherously steep cliffed drops, to lovely alpine meadows, to rolling farmland that looks like a patchwork of miles and miles of crops.  Then you have the Amazon, which is a world unto itself.  And on the other side of the Andes you have the flat lands down to the coast where the banana and cocoa plantations are aplenty.

The crater lake in Quilotoa - the water is alkaline and the lake is said to be bottomless.

San Rafael Falls in Reventador

Another crater lake, Las Orquideas, this time with two islands in the middle.  It was a lovely trek around the rim.

The thermal baths at Papallacta - hot water, straight from the ground!

Another impressive view.

The people are friendly, quiet and kind.  The traditional clothes and lifestyle are still common in the rural areas.  Each community has a slightly different style of dress, but what they all have in common is their stature.  They are a small people, most barely reaching up to my armpits. Both the men and the women wear their hair long - men often in braids down their back, women with a long tail wrapped with a piece of colorfully woven cloth.  The women carry their children on their backs well past the age where they can walk on their own.  But, I have to say, the children are well-behaved and seem to be quite content even though their view is mostly of the back of their mother's head.

Buying Guinea Pigs at the local market - first they are carefully checked for  size and weight before being unceremoniously dropped into a sack.

A healthy bunch of guinea pigs for sale.

Piglets on a string, ready to be sold.  But bring your own string if you want to buy one.

A local lady and her daughter selling their wares.

The ladies in this region wear cloth wrapped on their head while the men wear felt hats.  In the South the women wear the felt hats.  

A busy day at the animal market.

The Poncho Market - this one is a little more geared to the tourists.

Lots of handicrafts and things for sale.  Caution - even here some things are actually "made in China"!

Back to SY SEGWUN for the Holidays

We arrived back to the boat last night after a long day of bus travel from Quito.  She was waiting patiently for us at the marina as we have been out exploring Ecuador since November 26th.  If you don't count for the layer of dust on the topside and the growth of the green algae underneath, she is quite fit and everything looks in good order.

It has been over a week since my last posting.  A couple of reasons for this.  Firstly, I came down with a stomach bug and between fevers, headaches and running to the toilet, I was really not in a mood to do any writing.  After a quick stop at the hospital in Quito to get my fluids topped up, I am back on the mend and feeling quite good.

Also, I had problems connecting my camera to my iPad and could not upload any photos.  In my opinion, an article about the adventures we have taken are a little dull without some photos.  But, I seem to have resolved that problem as well.   So, now I will take a little time to put together some articles about our last couple of weeks.  I hope you will enjoy them.

A Day in Rural Ecuador

As you have noticed, I really enjoy talking about our adventures and our experiences as we travel around the world. But I never discuss what things actually cost us. So I thought to give you a typical day, item by item.

5:30 AM - taxi from the Hilton in Quito to the bus terminal -- $10.00 (note: it is a 30 minute ride when there is no traffic. We could have taken a bus, but we were traveling with all our bags - one duffel bag, two backpacks and quite honestly, it was just too darn early in the morning.)
6:00 AM - bus from Quito to Otavalo - $4.40 (note: this is a two hour bus ride)
6:00 AM - snack for bus ride two buns and two chocolate milks - $2.60
9:00 AM - hostel in Otavalo - $28.00 (note: this is for a double room with private bathroom with hot water, wifi and breakfast included)
9:00 AM - breakfast for two people, muesli, yogurt, fresh fruit, rolls, butter, jam, coffee - $4.00
9:30 AM - lunch to take on our hike with us - $1.30 for two cheese filled bread and two bottles of water
9:49 AM - bus to Quiroga - $0.50
10:00 AM - taxi to start of hike - $2.00 (we shared the cab with another couple)

10:10 AM to 2:30 PM: Hike and view of Laguna de Cuicoche in a collapsed volcanic crater - priceless.

3:00 PM - taxi back to Quiroga - $4.00
3:15 PM - bus back to Otavalo - $0.50
3:40 PM - afternoon snack of 10 Clementines - $1.00; 2 liters of water for our onward journey - $1.60
5:30 PM - two coffees - $2.50 (yes, coffee is that expensive here...surprisingly. As is beer and wine)
6:45 PM - dinner of 1 medium pizza and 1 small pizza - $23.50 (we could have had "street food" and saved on the budget, but this is not something that appeals to either of us. And after looking at a few restaurants, we went for quality and comfort.)

The day's total: $85.90 for two people including meals and accommodations, travel and four hour excursion. Now, of course you can spend more by staying at a hotel (~$40.00), hiring a guide for the trek (15.00), taking a taxi all the way from Quito as was suggested to us by the doorman at the Hilton ($100.00), etc. But, you can also choose to stretch your dollar quite far if you want to.

The Amazon of Ecuador

After extracting 5.3 billion liters of oil between 1964 and 1992 Chevron left behind hundreds of pits of toxic waste. Their explanation is that this was in keeping with the environmental standards at the time and they did not feel obligated to clean up the mess. After years and years of legal battles, they have been ordered to pay some 18 billion dollars to aid in the clean up but this ruling is still being disputed by them. And, unfortunately this won't change the fact that the ecosystem has been badly damaged and the lives of the indegenious Cofán people have been destroyed with cancers and other life taking illnesses.

A trip to the Cuyabeno Reserve, which is in the northern part of the Amazon and only about 20 kilometer from the Columbian border, starts in the town of Lago Agrio (Bitter Lake) which is still an oil town and offers very little to tourists. We arrived on the overnight bus from Quito, taking our breakfast at the local hotel just in time to see the prostitutes heading home after a busy night. Bleary-eyed and in need of a shower, our transportation finally arrived for our onward journey. We jumped in the van and were off again. It was a two hour trip to the river where we were met by a motorized canoe. After a quick lunch we loaded the canoe and were on our way into the Amazon.

Although the area had been terribly abused by the oil industry, the local people and the government have been doing a lot to restore it and to protect the remaining land and wildlife. There is more oil here in the Amazon, but there are currently discussions to pay the local people to leave the oil in the ground. There are a handful of ecolodges that are supporting the efforts and educating people about the Amazon. We stayed at the Siona Lodge which is one of the newer facilities established here. They aim to minimize the footprint of tourism in the area and amongst other things use solar power. This means we only have electricity in our rooms between 6 and 10 pm but this is quite fine with us. The nice part is that the lodge blends in beautifully with the surrounding nature with it's palm thatched roofs, bamboo railings and rough wooden walls.

Knowing very little about 'the Amazon' and having a picture in my mind of a long meandering river, I was surprised at the complex waterways that we have been exploring these last few days. There are numerous lakes, lagoons, streams and rivers that seem to stretch for miles and miles. We have been told if there is no rain for a few weeks that the area where our lodge is literally dries up leaving schools of fish stranded in small ponds.

We arrived to the lodge after a two hour canoe trip and were met by our guide, Luis, at the dock. He jumped into the canoe, shoved us off again excitedly telling us we were going to see an anaconda. And, we did. We crossed the lagoon and made our way through a dense outcropping where we found her sleeping in a mud nest of sorts. What a great start to our Amazon adventure.

The last two days have been filled with canoe trips, night walks, visits to a local Shaman and Cofan village, night explorations on the river where we came up close to a Caiman, fishing for pirahnna, spotting monkeys, birds, freshwater dolphins, frogs, scorpions, spiders and other weird and wonderful insects. We heard about the complex relationships and interdependencies amongst species and plants. We have learned about the medicinal and psychotropic properties of some of the plants, how to make a pizza bread from yucca, how to weave a basket from a palm leaf and if that wasn't enough we were entertained with some local music by our guide and staff at the Siona lodge during the evening.

Now, just a quick word about our guide. Luis is a fountain of knowledge. He was born and brought up in the forest and was taught about the plants and animals by his Father. He is from a local Tribe (there are five still inhabiting the Cuyabeno: the Secoya, Siona, Cofán, Kichwa and Shuar). He spent four years in the Ecuadorian army where he learned to speak Spanish and then learned to speak English and German. Having already known about the animals, birds and plants in the area from his Father, he still wasn't qualified for a tour guide as he didn't know the official Latin terms. But he took the courses and now is a well-rounded guide with an intense and personal knowledge of the area, the people and culture and the world around him and he carries with him an enthusiasm and passion for all these things.

I hope I have left you with a sense that the Amazon is a treasure worth protecting and even with today's environmental awareness, the oil industry is still hovering to take the resources from the land which comes at a great cost to the people and wildlife. The only way to stop this is to reduce our dependency on oil. We all have to become more clever in finding ways to do this.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A few more birds in Mindo

 

Posted with Blogsy