Week 45 to 49 – 16/05/10 Ecuador

Week 45 to 49 – 16/05/10 Ecuador

Guayaquil

Arrived in Guayaquil after what seemed like a very long bus journey even though it is only 5 hours from Tumbes. We had a group of students on the bus who were drinking and smoking, not to mention vomiting all the way. We pulled into the Terminal Terrestre at around 4pm and collected our bags. In search for our next ticket we headed to the Puerto Lopez counter and I suddenly realised that my phone was missing. I quickly dashed back to the bus but it had already left for the depot, so continued with a policeman to the bus. Shock horror, the bus had already been cleaned and there was no sign of the telephone, even though the cleaning team looked very guilty indeed when asked about it’s whereabouts. So had to call my father and ask him to contact the phone company to cancel the line.

Headed into town shortly after, somewhat disappointed with myself and little lost now we had no communication with the outside world. We decided to stay at Hotel California, yes like the song, produced in the 70s and never updated. We were warned to only walk along three streets in the entire city and never to venture away from them for personal safety, hmmm. Had a fabulous pizza dinner before returning to the safety of the hotel.

The following day we ventured around town and the Malecon 2000, a redeveloped promenade which is actually very nice. We took many photos of the street junction of 9 De Octubre and Boyaca, where Mariana’s grandparents lived almost 45 years ago, very strange. We went to the local history museum in the hope of seeing past photos but the history was more on the 16th century periods when the Spanish invaded and robbed South America of it’s riches

Overall, Guayaquil is very nice, a bit scary that you can only walk along certain streets, but as a hole a nice clean city with many beautiful colonial buildings.

Puerto Lopez

At last, we have found bliss by the sea. Puerto Lopez is a small fishing village which is the closest place to Isla De La Plata (poor mans Galapagos) and a perfect place to chill. For 5 days we decided to do nothing but chill on the beach, eat, stroll and sleep. This was so necessary since we have been travelling for almost eight months now without rest. We did plan to dive when we were here but the Manta Rays aren’t around till July and the whales in June so have decided to come back after our month on the farm and dive then.

Puerto Lopez is a true fishing town and every morning when the fisherman return to shore and few hundred Pelicans are lying in wait for them, to dive bomb the baskets of fish as they are being loaded onto the lorries. The fisherman somehow allow this to go on, maybe for luck, maybe because it keeps the birds happy and there is enough to go round.

We have found very nice places to eat in town, a Columbian café, a whale café with divine pancakes and a local fish restaurant, all really good food, oh and yes the beer has started flowing once more to help increase my weight since Mariana noted that I look like a bag of bones, true..

Sarampion

After 5 days in Puerto Lopez we headed to Calceta via Portoviejo on the bus. Panicked for a bit in Portoviejo bus station since we couldn’t remember which store we had left our packs but did eventually find them. Calceta is a small town of about 10,000 and looked much like the rest, a grand plaza, giant church, numerous mobile phone shops, a handful of bars and a supermarket. We took a taxi from the square to Finca Sarita and picked up a French couple along the way, whom were also going to the farm.

Arrived at the farm and met Servio, a really happy guy and made us feel very welcome. We were taken to our tree house just before dinner but we could hardly see a thing since there was no light and we couldn’t find the torch anywhere. As it turned out the French couple had been at the farm for 3 weeks prior and were coming back for a last week. They spoke fluent Spanish which made us feel quite useless since we were still struggling.

The first week on the farm involved harvesting a rice field, ploughing a field with little more than tea spoons, fixing an elevated bamboo herb garden, making chocolate from cacao and starting with our eco shower construction. The shower was going really slowly since we didn’t know what material we were allowed to use and Servio was not around much.

The next week was more enjoyable once the French couple had left, what can I say, they were French! Every morning we would go for a walk with our new dogs Tumbalo and Matalo, to the river to cut fresh reeds for the guinea pigs, goats, pigs and what looked like a large hamster which they kept on the farm. The dogs loved this routine and would jump all over you in excitement, not to mention that we started giving them food as well since they seemed a little thin when we arrived. After feeding the animals, we would take breakfast which would be fresh fruit with chocolate to taste, tortilla and fresh coffee. After breakfast we would work on the farm for 3-4 hours, take lunch then work on our own projects in the afternoon.

Amongst working on the farm, we went for treks into the mountains, took a trip to a reservoir, worked in the local school, and had numerous trips to Calceta for milkshakes and cakes from a Columbian bakery. It was very sad to leave the farm after almost a month since even though completely exhausted, we were use to sleeping in a tree listening to birds, iguanas, numerous insects and flowing river during the nights, and really didn’t want to leave the dogs behind, but that is life.

Bahia De Caraquez

We headed to the ocean after the farm, Bahia is a little over an hour from Calceta so not such a problem getting there. Bahia is a self proclaimed eco town, very clean, friendly people and commected to San Vicente and Canoa by boat. We spent the first day just chilling out and mainly eating whatever we could find. The following day we headed to Canoa just for the day. We were planning to go there for 2 days but heard so many reports of robberies, rapes and murders we decided a day trip would be just fine. After little more than an hour we were bored as the town really has nothing to offer other than getting drunk and surfing, so we headed back to Bahia for lunch.

Our last day we visited a bird santury situated in a tropical dry forest about 30 minutes out of town, which turned out to be a strange safe haven for America fugitives, well that’s what it seemed like. We reckon it was a cover for a drug smuggler ring, delivery merchandise to America via yachts along the river Chone and out into the Pacific. Whilst we were there a group of anti-terrorist police known as SARS turned up randomly to carry out safety checks, which seemed a bit odd for an eco nature centre containing mainly birds. They actually walked around on the guided tour with us which was even stranger.

Bahia was quite nice, but the food was terrible and not much on offer. Felt terrible having pizza 3 nights on the trot, but it was either that or fish which we had each day for almuerzo (lunch). It did make a nice change after almost a month on the farm eating little more than rice, corn and the odd egg here and there.

After Bahia, we returned to Puerto Lopez once more for 5 days of whale watching, diving, exploring Isla De La Plata (discovered by Sir Francis Drake 1528) and the Mantalilla National Park, which is the only surviving tropical coastal park left on the pacific, and it was amazing.

Quito

Arriving in Quito after a never ending 12 hour bus journey was exhausting, both mentally and physically. The bus terminal looked more like a space station, very modern, clean and conditioned, but typically a million miles out of town. Took a taxi to our hostel which was situated on the borders of the Old Town arriving around 9pm.

After chatting to the girl in reception, we went to the local store to buy our food for the evening as she quoted that if we go out at this time we will be robbed. What a wonderful welcome to a new city, instantly we had the vibes of fear driven into us, so decided to play it safe for the time being. The following day we got chatting to another English couple whom had been in the city for 4 days and hadn’t ventured out whatsoever because of the risk of muggings, so we decided to do just that.

Apart from going to the new town for lunch and an attempt of being drugged in an internet café, we hardly ventured further than the old town during the day time. This was fine since they had an ample selection of vegetarian restaurants, a great coffee house, and an ice cream parlour which had being making delicious ice creams since 1858, San Augusta.

Again we succumbed to the pizza delivery every night for 4 days and felt terrible by the time we left. Our flight was at 6.20am so we booked a taxi through the hotel only to be waiting outside at 4.30am with no taxi and no number to call. I eventually flagged down a taxi who charged us double fare but we didn’t mind since it got us off the street into safety. Arrived at the airport and were immediately spotted by 4 young Afro-Caribbean guys hanging around the taxi rank, who then followed us into the terminal. Managed to give them the slip, luckily only had hand luggage so very easy to move around with stealth at that time in the morning. Checked in, paid the extortionate departure tax and went to the lounge to wait for our flight to Colombia.