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Hey Everyone,
First off, I'd like to say welcome to my travel blog.I've been meaning to get this thing started for about a week and a half now and well, it just hasn't worked out. Anyways, all this is to say that this first post is going to be a bit of a long one, but if you check back every few days, I'm hoping I'll be able to post more often.
So with out further adieu, here's a quick summary of our trip plan.I'm in Ecuador write now with Jacquie who arrived two weeks ago.The two of us have spent the last two weeks travelling around Ecuador and tomorrow we're heading to Tumbes in northern Peru to hang out on the beach for a couple days before going to Lima to meet up with another friend Preeti.Preeti's arriving on the 6th and on the 7th we'll be catching a night bus to Trujillo, before heading to Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Cusco and Puno/Lake Titicaca in Peru.From there we're heading to Bolivia to check out Lake Titicaca/Isla del Sol (birthplace of the Incas), La Paz, the salt flats of Uyuni, the mines of PotosÃ, Parque de Torotoro, Sucre, and of course, the Amazon.The whole trip is going to be 10 ½ weeks with a planned return to the homeland on the 2nd of August.
For those of you who I haven't talked to in a while, I just spent the last nine months teaching English, leadership, theatre and computer classes to elementary school kids in three communities on the skirts of Chimborazo in Ecuador.The work was good, the location was beautiful, and I had an all-round pretty amazing year.On the 21st of May I officially finished my work in the communities and left for Quito to meet Jacquie, a friend from Pearson who is here with me for the whole trip.As weird as it was though, I didn't really feel the sadness of saying goodbye, I guess because Jacquie and I had already planned to visit the communities the following week.
So from communities near Riobamba I left for Quito, about 4 hours to the north, where Jacquie was scheduled to fly in.When I got to Quito I headed straight for Lucia's house (another friend from Pearson whose family lives in Quito and has become a sort of host family for me here in Ecuador).While waiting for Jacquie to arrive, I was eating lunch with Lucia's mom who mentioned John Perkins was going to give a public apology to Ecuador the following night.For those of you who don't know who John Perkins is, I highly recommend you read his book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, in which he describes how it was his job as an economist to convince developing countries to take on loans that were far greater than what they needed and far greater than anything they could ever conceivably pay off.The result was such that that country would eventually default on its payments and essentially be locked in a position where they would have to give up UN votes, access to natural resources (i.e. Petroleum here in Ecuador) etc., depending on what was needed by the main funder of the IMF, the US!The result here in Ecuador was such that it help to lock the country into a cycle of poverty whereby for example, for every $100 of petrol Ecuador sells, $47 goes to the multinational oil companies (e.g. Shell), $50 goes towards paying the debt, and only $3 actually stays in the country.(don't worry though, under the new government, things are changing slightly) Anyway, there's far more to it than that, but what happened is that this man, John Perkins, eventually felt his conscience take over to the point where he quit that job about 25 years ago.Then 4 years ago he wrote his book and now came to apologize to the county.Needless to say, we went!
So we arrived to the venue a bit late and were quite far back in the line when they started opening the doors.We made it to within 10 feet of the doors when they shut them because the seats were filled. Now, normally in Canada that's it.No one else'll enter and people will eventually leave.Well thank god we were in Ecuador because a few locked doors weren't about to stop the crowds from getting in.People started banging and shaking the doors (glass doors mind you, and to the point where I thought they were going to break them), and screaming "Cambia la Sala" (Change the room).It was only a matter of time until the organizers of the event decided to ignore all fire safety rules and let in just about anyone who could fit through the door.And the place filled up until the room was so full that no one else could fit in.It was really one of those moments when you tell yourself "you know your in Ecuador when?"
As for the talk itself, it was quite interesting, as he outlined what he did and how it all worked (ironically enough, the book still isn't on sale in Ecuador?).In the end I got to meet him briefly and shake his hand, before we left and got into the car which was neatly parked on the sidewalk (once again, only in Ecuador?or at least never in Canada?).
So what I forgot to mention is that Jacquie arrived the night before and we spent that day around Quito, checking out the historical centre, picking up a few last minute things, and of course, drinking fruit juice.
The next day Jacquie and I left for Mindo, a gorgeous town that sits at the edge of a cloud forest, about 2 ½ hours from Quito. Our accommodations there were amazing and the cloud forest was even better.Now Jacquie and I have planned from the beginning to do this trip as cheap as possible (minus a few splurges), so before going to Mindo we borrowed a tent from Lucia with the plan of setting it up beside a hostel and paying $2 for the night.So we went to one place recommended in the Lonely Planet where I had stayed with my dad the pervious time I was in Mindo and asked about setting up our tent.The lady was really nice and said that was fine, but asked if our tent could withstand the rain.I told her I had no idea, but we'd find out that night, and the lady told us, well , there's no one staying here right now so if you want, you can just take a room for the same price as the tent (rooms generally being $5).So instead of sleeping in a cramped tent with our bags stuffed inside with us, hoping the rain wouldn't enter, we went upstairs, dropped off our stuff in a room, and made a B-line for the hammocks she had set out on the gorgeous wooden deck.Seriuosly, this place was like a really big tree house.It was gorgeous, relaxing and only $2!
We then basically spent the two days hanging out in the hammocks, hiking to water falls near the cloud forest (unfortunately there aren't trails that actually enter the cloud forest since it's a protected area), and tubing down the river.Needless to say, it was an amazing two days and I really didn't want to leave. Oh yeah, and when we were hiking to the waterfalls, we even made two friends.About 15 minutes into the 5 ½ km hike to where the waterfalls began, we ran into a dog that started following us.I thought that after a while he'd eventually leave but no, he just stayed with us until we reached the entrance to the waterfall trail where we found another dog that joined us as well.The two of them just started following us, playing around, pushing us off the already narrow trail, and stopping every 20 feet to try and get us to pet them.And they just wouldn't leave!We eventually got lucky and snuck away while they were distracted with other hikers.But of course, an hour later we ran into one of those hikers who sure enough had one of the dogs by his side, apparently having already been followed by two others one the way from town to the trail entrance.Either way, the hike was gorgeous, the dogs were quite nice (at least they didn't try to eat us like the dogs in the communities?), and the only really annoying this was the frickin' school field trip who showed up behind us yelling and blasting music on their cell phones.So much for the serenity of nature?
After two days in Mindo though, the time eventually came to catch the bus and from Mindo we went to Otovalo.Now for those of you who aren't familiar with Ecuador, Otovalo is 2 hours north of Quito (the capital) and has the largest artisan market in the country.The market is centred on two or three squares but stalls sprawl out all over the town.When we arrived at 7:30 Friday night there was hardly anyone there.Very few shops were open and the streets were more or less deserted (with a few exceptions).However, when we got up the next morning, all we had to do to find the market was walk outside our hostel door.The place was packed with stalls, vendors, locals and of course, plenty of tourists.And it was amazing too.I don't think I've ever made so many "friends" in one day.Not only that, but all of my new found "friends" were dead set on giving me discounts on EVERYTHING!I guess in Otovalo calling someone your friend isn't quite enough.This is the type of town where you really need to show it. Unfortunately I wasn't in the mood for making too many friends and so I only bought myself some much needed jeans, but the market was excellent and one of the best I've seen here in Ecuador.
After spending 3 or 4 hours wandering the market, Jacquie and I decided to head back early to Quito so we could spend some more time exploring the city.In the end a lightning storm kept us inside for the rest of the day (except when I went to La Mariscal to buy a book and ended up getting drenched from head to toe after walking a single block).Either way, it ended up being a good day all in all.
Finally Sunday (a week ago today that is), we went to El Mitad del Mundo (the Middle of the Earth, AKA the Equator).This was my third time there and quite frankly, I find the main compound overrated, especially considering the actual middle of the earth is a good 2 or 3 hundred metres away from the monument and French declared middle of the earth (oh those French?).Beside the main compound, however, is a museum that lies directly on the Equator.Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the museum this time, but last time I went it ended up being the best part of the trip.The museum offers guided tours where they run all kinds of demonstrations to show the different gravitational properties on both sides of the equator and give a pretty good cultural history of the indigenous who used to live in the area.
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