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Location: Montanita - Quito - Otovallo
Temperatur in Quito: 10-20*C avg.
The week in Montanita passed by quite fast without any special events. But during the weekend we took a holiday from our holiday (in Montanita) and headed for Quito. This trip became an interesting encounter with the contrasts in the Ecuadorian culture.
We travelled from Montanita - via Puerto Lopez (1 hour North of Montanita) to Quito with a night-bus (8-12 hours, see below). In Quito we visited both the old and new town. And on the Saturday we went on a day trip to the Otavalo market North of Quito. Strangely enough the weekend in fact offered more transports than sights, but being ´on the road´ offered a lot of interesting cultural observations as well.
Regarding our encounter with the bus drives it is difficult to be definite and clear. In a way the bus drives are both fast and slow at the same time. The buses are fast because all the drivers we experienced constantly were pushing the limits of the bus-engine. In Norway we would use the saying: ´he drove as if they had stolen the car´. In the mountainous and twisty roads around Quito this should logically be a challenging task, as other cars, buses or trucks would prevent the bus from constantly running in a high pace. The bus-drivers in Ecuador, however, creatively solve this by an extensive use of the car horn. If they decide to overtake lane before a turn (which they do quite often), and they do not know whether other vehicles are approaching, the bus-driver signals to potential meeting traffic by honking his car horn. This means that if you as a passenger only hear one horn while the bus is turning you are in the clear. But, if you hear two car horns at the same, you are in deep troubles and should start saying your prayers. A couple of nerve wrecking times during our trip back and forth from Quito we actually heard the sound of two honking horns before suddenly we saw a big truck or another bus swooshing passed our passenger window!?! So, in a way the bus-drives are quite fast.
The bus-drives are also quite slow in that the bus-drivers on any given occasion stop/or slows down to ask passing people whether they want to join the bus-ride. Both on our way to Puerto Lopez and Otavalo we experienced that the drivers slowed down to ask what seemed to be random people walking along the road whether they wanted to follow along. We also experienced that the bus driver (just after picking all the passengers up at the bus-terminal) went to the closest gas station and refueled while we were waiting in the bus.
This contrasted bus-culture made our bus-drive from Montanita - via Puerto Lopez to Quito last 8,5 hours, whereas the drive back again took about 13 hours. I guess I would not choose to use public transportation if I was to commute to a job in Ecuador, but for the sake of cultural investigation it was quite fascinating.
The system regarding buying tickets and entering the bus was also an experience full of contrasts. On most occasions we were buying our tickets over a counter and had to wait at a platform for a bus with a specific number to arrive. There were in fact several buses going to the same area, but you were not allowed to board the bus unless it had the same number as your ticket. This seemed on the verge to unnecessary structured and for a while there I almost believed I was in Germany. On other occasions however it was confirmed that we definitely not were in Germany. For example in Otavalo, when we were looking for a way to get back to Quito, suddenly a guy showed up screaming: "Quito!, Quito!, Quito!". Even if we were standing in line, as we thought we had learnt in Quito (with the numbered buses and all) some people left the line and went for the bus. When I asked the bus driver he just told me that it was not necessary to stand in line at the ticket counter. The funniest experience, however, we encountered later when we were waiting for a corresponding bus to Quito. On one of the platforms a perfect queue had formed. Me and Elise took or place in the line, and people kept piling up behind us. The queue got longer. Then the bus suddenly arrived and all the people standing in the far end of the queue suddenly raced to the front!?! When I and Elise finally managed to squeeze ourselves in as one of the last passengers to enter the bus, we were also surprised to see that there still were a lot of seats left. Apparently the people, who cut in line, had decided to stand in the back rather than occupy one of the seats in the front. In all I found these experiences more funny and interesting than annoying but as you probably can agree with me, after reading this, the transport system in Ecuador is quite difficult to understand.
Now I will share our experience from the capital of Ecuador, and the destination of our journey - Quito. In a way Quito resembles Bergen with its mountains and hills surrounding the city. But opposed to Bergen, Quito has no port as it is located 2800 meters above sea level. I had heard about people struggling with the heights in Quito, but I thought to myself that I would have little problems with this, as I already have hiked Norway`s highest Mountain on 2469 meters (even if it should be mentioned that this hike by no means is something extreme). But, I found to my surprise that even walking the stairs in the hostel we booked to be a breathtaking experience. I did not suffer severely from the height in Quito, as I slowed my pace when I started to feel the fatigue, but the shock of the height made me more humble for our planned trips to Peru and Bolivia. I definitely will be more careful and plan for an acclimatization period when I head for these destinations.
The temperature in Quito was also a bit colder. Opposed to the warm humid temperature along the coast we were welcomed by 10*C in Quito. Compared with the winter temperatures in Norway this should be a piece of cake, but having acclimatized to the climate in Montanita the 10*C in Quito became a cold experience and we had two quite cold nights before we bought some ponchos and beanies at the Otavalo market.
In Quito we lived at a hostel called the Secret Garden. This was a really cool place, and we enjoyed both breakfast and dinner to a quite good price at the top-flor terrace, which also offered a panorama overview of the old-town. To those travelling to Quito in the future I would really recommend this hostel.
As with the busses and ticket system, the City itself also offered some contrast. In the New town they had sport-shops and ´TGI Fridays´ looking restaurants which made Quito resemble any random city in Europe. The old town on the other hand offered more authenticity with its colonial buildings and churches. The churches were naturally majestic and grand, and one of the churches was all internally decorated with gold.
In similar way was the contrast with the people. The restaurants in new-town were full of businessmen and tourist sipping their beers or cocktails in the sun, whereas in the old town more normal looking people and really poor people were walking around selling stuff or minding their own business.
The rich-poor dichotomy in the old-town became quite symbolic when I left the gold decorated church to meet an army of indigenous people with bowler hats and without teeth's reaching their hands out for money and sympathy. Near the presidential residence on Placa Grande there were also a lot of kids running around in ragged clothes with shoe-polish sets trying to make some money.
The begging was frequently seen in the old town and was not that different from what we see in Oslo these days as well. Even if the causes driving the people to beg for money here in Ecuador probably is more sympathetic than those in Norway.
But On one occasion I did in-fact encountered a quite different begging-experience. This was the metro-bus driving around in the city. On one stop, there was a blind guy entering our part of the wagon, almost falling as he tried to get on along with the rest of the squeezing passengers. He looked quite normal in his clothing wearing jeans, a pink pique and a sweater, but you could see that he was not as neat as the pique was torn underneath the sweater. He did not have any sunglasses on either. The guy started by expressing some Spanish words, and initially I though he was talking with someone on the bus, but then he switched on a radio in his backpack and started to sing. It was quite a moving experience seeing the blind guy clinching to his cane and one of the chairs in the bus as he was thrown back and forth due to the Ecuadorian driving style (as explained above). The guy was really pouring his heart out in the song, and a couple of ladies on the bus started to sing along with him as well. Even if I get that there is always a chance for being tricked in situations like these, I gave the man a couple of dollars. He could not see the hand I was stretching out, (obviously) so Elise had to grab his hand to give him the money. I guess being a blind guy in Ecuador leaves you with little options, and it made me think that I am glad that people with similar dysfunctions in Norway are given more possibilities to make their living.
For the next two weeks in Montanita we have less on our agenda, and we will probably continue with the Spanish course, surfing and book reading. On Saturday the 2nd of February we are continuing our journey and head for Galapagos to dive with the sea-lions and penguins. Hopefully I will have more to tell you guys then...
Andreas
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