ecuador: part one!

so my first impression of ecuador, which i did not allow to taint my experience, was that the people were many times less friendly than in colombia. i boarded my bus and everyone was yelling, screaming at each other, unhappy, the bus driver would leave the stop with people still standing, start the bus as people were getting on... it was hectic and unfriendly. as if crossing the border gives you permission to be incredibly rude. but that feeling soon, thank goodness, faded. the next bus i boarded, there was a wailing child and the bus started to leave and everyone realized that the child´s mother was with the policia outside, so half the bus got out of their seats, looking outside for the mother, while the other half screamed at the bus driver to stop, and one of the men at the front took the child by the hand and led him to his mama. that was touching- made me feel all nice and fuzzy. even though the bus driver eventually left the nice man heh.
in the time we were waiting for the man to return, six colombian thugs, ¨iced¨ to the max, side-caps, pants to their knees came aboard.. and surrounded me. i don´t like to be judgemental, but i was a little frightened. i mean, it says something when the two times we get stopped for ID checks, the six at the back are the only ones the police actually requested cards from. but then it all changed. the first one that sat beside me had to switch with his friend for a window seat because he had motion sickness. the second that sat beside me fell asleep on my shoulder and when i whispered to his friends to take a picture with their cell, he woke up and was so embarrassed that he switched with number three. number three committed the same embarrassment!! it was all really entertaining, and i´m glad they eased my worries the police instilled in me. random and unexpected. lovely. that ride from tulcan to otavalo was beautiful- patchwork hilltains, as usual, with bright green fields separated with dark evergreen somethingrather and interspersed with dark brown fields-in-waiting. in otavalo i stayed with a really sweet lady and fell fast asleep.

the next morn, i was awoken by people singing ¨happy birthday,¨ which sent a bolt of sadness through me, remembering my own pathetic birthday. but the bolt, as bolts are wont to be, was quick and temporary, and i exited my room in a towel to find four super nice people i´d met in colombia on the patio! i quickly agreed to take a hike with them to lagunas mojaldras, and, completely unprepared, we hailed a taxi about ten minutes later. i had water, but that was about where my preparation ended, because the lady the night before told me the lake hike had many restauraunts on it. little did i know, we were going on a DIFFERENT lake hike- five hours long and completely deserted. oh well, i was freezing and hungry and wearing $4.50 colombian market sandals, but as long as i kept walking and it didn´t rain and the swiss leant me some crackers and the americans leant me some sunscreen, i was fine.

the vistas were unbelievable- soft hilltains wrapped in mustard-coloured meadows- when the wind rushed through them, the plants all moved in unison and the sun shone off the grass like the sheen on a clean dog´s coat. the reflection of the mountains in the lake was entrancing and the clouds all hid behind the mountains until we arrived, at which time they slowly emerged to conceal the beauty as we walked away. as if the little secret was presented only for us. there was a lone bull that wanted company. at one point we were extremely high, above all, and it was absolutely phenomenal looking through strips of patterned cloud to teensy indigenous village. we thought we got really lost, and our only goal was.. down. but we magically ended up at the exact place we planned to be! the path lead directly to the indigenous pyramids. when i thought the indigenous pyramids were a group of 6-10 native folk happily kneeling atop each other to create a hilarious human triangle, i was interested. when i found out it was one flat ramp-looking pyramid, built by those native folk formerly so happy in my mind, i was much less interested. especially when the hilarious man that ran the place knocked his own product. we asked him if it was interesting and he essentially said ¨engh, depends what you´re into¨. how funny. as i sat and ate a few crackers he placed large ¨indigenous pyramid¨ promotional caps on my head, which everyone thought was hilarious. ¨blue? you like blue? nono, red- red looks better¨, as he kept exchanging the hats atop mi cabeza. i was never going to pay to see the pyramid, and the others ditched the idea as well when they found out it was three dollars. the ride back was absolutely breathtaking and the lady sitting beside me came to approximately my bellybutton and was impossible to understand, though we still tried to communicate.

that eve we celebrated in the name of birthdays. (can you tell i can´t remember his name?) we all wore party hats and hit the town. we received comments from nearly everyone we passed. i was often at the front of the line of us and therefore was always the bearer of ¨happy birthday!¨s from locals, so i had to continually forward them to birthday boy. there were two really touching elderly ladies that wished him the most sincere happy birthdays i´ve ever witnessed. it made me so happy. at the falafel place (YESSSSS no more colombian beans and rice!!!) we enjoyed strong garlic sauce on delicious falafels and i tried my first rum and tea. this would prove to be a favourite in times to come. after this, we hit a beautiful little bar and played cards. for some reason, in backpacker spots ALL around the world, restaurants and bars are FAR more wicked and homely and funky than anywhere else.

i awoke super early the next morn and decided to check out the animal market, not knowing exactly what to expect. for future reference, THIS is what you can expect: the lowlight being screaming-death hogs being marched to their new dungeons. the highlight being the local indigenous folk nonchalantly exchanging animals for different animals. all in a big pleasant mess in a field. it was funny watching everyone just chill with their cows and such. there was an animal auction in one corner, which reminded me of the farm days. as i walked away to the real, and famous throughout ecuador, saturday market, a native lady started talking to me... in english! i was taken aback and we chatted and she was really sweet and calm, she learned english from a visitor. we sat and she eventually brought out her scarves- though i tried to barter, i paid double the normal price since i felt a connection to her- the way you don´t want to cheat a friend. she got me- damned english!!
on the way to the animal market that morning, all the sellers were walking to the market, towards me, in hoards. it was so exciting i even let out a supressed laugh of anxious excitement! you could feel the energy. at said market, i shopped all day since it was so gigantic and fun to just walk around. i had such a nice feeling about otavalo- i could have stayed there much longer.

that eve, the four people i spent the yesterday with just left the hostel without me! i´m not going to lie, i was pissed, upset and insulted. blatant and terrible rejection. so i got all self-righteous on my own ass, ¨you´re not going to take this, you´re not going to count on anyone, you´re getting drunk and you´re going to en effin´ cockfight, even if it takes going solo!¨ i downed a few cuba libres and hit the bar. at first, i was still alone, so i just journalled with my brandy-snifter-looking beer glass (i REALLY enjoyed that glass! going to invest in those when i return home). then i talked to the bartender and his friend. with my liquid courage, i told him their music was awful so he changed it. eventually everyone else left and we played manuchao videos on the projection screen and danced in our stools and commented on how less tranquilo and more loco manuchao was live. the bartender told me my spanish was good and i told him cerveza certainly loosens the tongue. then more people entered and my two friends suddenly became the evening´s musical act! after this, an awkward businessman joined us and later on, we went to the cockfight i was interested to see because the guidebook said a local described it as not being about the fight, but about the people´s faces, which show the whole spectrum of human emotion. it was 1 am and unfortunately too late for the local drunks to be expressing any range of emotion- they were either already gone, or full of those blank drunken stares. so i saw a bloody beak, a tame crowd, and i got a little glazy-eyed as, a little hypocritically, i thought how cruel humans can be to animals. we were going to go to karaoke but la cerveza tired me out and i hit the sack, VICTORIOUS because i hadn´t depended on stupid foreigners.

i was supposed to have gained some volunteer contacts that night, but i waited around all morning for a promised e-mail, and nothing showed, so i hit the road, as per usual. before that though, i went for breakfast and met one of the strangest men i have ever encountered. he was a canadian with a hilariously nerdy name that i unfortunately forget, and he didn´t speak a word of spanish, nor did he even attempt to try. in fact, he lived in quebec for 20 years and didn´t even speak a word of french (now that´s just ignorant, really). just his fast, nervous english, going on and on about his life, answering questions i never asked or encouraged. the only reason i got stuck with him was because i translated his order to the waitress, and i suppose he figured my spanish to the waitress translated to ¨come, please sit with me!¨ anyway, i seriously think he had a mental problem, the way he spoke, and i think he was also ridiculously lonely, so i took pity and listened to him as long as i could, and when he followed me into the market, i managed to lose him... only half on purpose. i was looking at a handicraft and the lady kept lowering and lowering her price as i repeatedly told her that it wasn´t the price, i just didn´t know if it would fit in my backpack. her tactic was effective though- her price was eventually so low that i couldn´t say no, whether it fit in my bag or not. then i headed to the capital, quito.

i had just photocopied the ecuador map off the canadian, so luckily i was finally able to construct a game plan for the next few days. so on my way to quito i decided i would go to the amazon. unfortunately i picked the wrong day, since everything is closed in quito on sundays and amazon trips in the cuyabeno reserve are nearly impossible without a company. so i wasted two days. my second day, at a book shop, the incredibly social owner called me american and i jokingly acted super insulted so he gave me a discount. i told him where i was staying and he told me that there i was likely to get robbed. i took this comment with alarm, but not enough to make me return straight away. as i took my time and ate lunch, the man at the front desk told me the same thing! i hurried back, checked then grabbed my goods, and raced out!

that eve i walked through the super-sketchy streets to the bus terminal- i was so scared i even walked on the median so i could see if anyone was coming towards me heh. the one dollar for a taxi was apparently too much for me to handle. at the terminal, i saw a man eat a bag of marshmallows like it was popcorn. it may not sound weird, but you had to see it. as if he wasn´t even chewing, just inhaling. then, i was just sitting there when an incredibly small and delicate blond puppy with a red bow appeared at my feet!! everyone else acted as if this was normal, so i followed suite and thought nothing of it until its owner, sitting beside me, yelped and picked it up. it appeared to have escaped from its box! he held it, carressed it, nudged it, and kissed it so tenderly... it was so cute. it eventually jumped over to me too and i fell in love. THEN (this terminal was filled with entertainment) i was watching a hilarious little girl walk around doing random things, and as she wasn´t looking, she ran smack into a pole. i was the only one watching and i did a REALLY bad job of trying not to laugh. it´s one of those things that repeats itself in your mind time and again and make you laugh hysterically everytime. when i finally managed to stop, my eyes filled to overflowing with tears, i looked up to see her holding said pole tenderly, and licking it, which got me going all over again.

the bus from lago agrio to cuyabeno was filled with only myself and four others that were on the tour. spacious, but i couldn´t help thinking what a waste of gas it was. i had the same excitement before this trip as i had before climbing the vaolcano in panama, or after kam ba caves... the kind that forces you to curse in its description: ¨i´m goin to the fuckin AMAZON, bitch!!¨ anyway... we then took an uber long boat ride in which my ass killed and rebecca and i bonded over relationship talk. the ride looked just like costa rica, nothing like the amazon in my head, so i was admittedly a little disappointed. there were three more people at the ¨resort¨ (it was really fancy. again, not what i was expecting at all, but i enjoyed the lap of wooden jungle luxury anyway). i stuck my hand in my pack for my flashlight and was greeted with multiple crunchy, clumsy bugs that could only be cockroaches. yum. i fell fast asleep in my comfortable (and likely bug infested) bed to the shrieks of rebecca due to unwelcome critters of all shapes and sizes. poor girl. i surprised myself with how calm i was about the whole ¨enormous gross bugs everywhere¨ deal. finally, my farm days are catching up to me. aren´t you proud, mom? i even WANTED to see a big fat snake! ever since the 2m colombian snake, i´ve been curious.

we awoke bright and early for the morning animal watch. 5am wake-up and we saw dick all. not impressed. i´m really not meant for these excursions- i don´t have the patience, or the interest. or i don´t have the patience BECAUSE i don´t have the interest. for the next two and a half days, everything´s a blur, so in random order:

- i loved ana (her name is spelled anne, but it´s dutch, so it´s essentially pronounced ana, so that´s how i will spell it), andy and rebecca, to make clear from the beginning. they were an incredibly fun group and we got along well and i´m so glad to´ve met them.
-on the night walk, we saw nothing but a large toad and LOTS of bats.
- i was silently attacked by them at the back of the line, though they weren´t bothering anyone else. no one believed there were so many bats til the end, when we exited the brush and they were all swooping overhead.
- we visited a bird tower- SO high, SO sketchy, and SO no birds. but nice view with the sun near setting. i kept making my awful joke of a sqwaking bird call because i was bored.
- i´m not going to lie, think i had a huge crush on the native guide.
- ¨native guide¨ was actually written on the back of the guide´s shirt, which eternally cracked ana and i up. we wanted to take our photo with him with ¨turistas¨ written on the back of our shirts.
- i LOVE huge rainboots.
- on one walk, the most interesting part of the whole tour, the guide showed us traditional uses of plants. he made me a backpack out of palms, he painted on the girls´ faces with berry juice, he used a certain tree as a drum, lemon ants, stuff for burns, cuts, malaria, dengue, etc., burn termite mounds for anti-mosquito, made a trap. it was super interesting. at one point, the other guide joked that they have male and female plants in the jungle, and looked down at a piece of a plant that looked remarkably like a penis. we laughed quite hard.
- andy noted that everytime our guide suddenly spotted a track, the native guide had disappeared moments before- he was convinced there was a conspiracy in this, our native guide making puma tracks.
- i drank SO much hot chocolate in those four days.
- please do NOT go to the ecuadorian amazon in the dry season. it´s hot, everything´s hiding, it´s no good. for me.
- one day we saw pink dolphins from where we ate. wooo. we also saw one super tiny super poisonous snake.
- piranha fishing was so boring. i gave up after donating one piece of meat to the underwater world. (i didn´t even want to fish, but he gave it to me, so i stuck it in the water). everyone else was REALLY into it. andy caught a small catfish he was super proud of and hilariously, purposely, continued to exaggerate on its size everytime he retold the story.
- there were coconut-flavoured maggots in little coco nuts. grooosssss.
- there was a huge toad in my toilet. i tried talking to it, but that didn´t work so i gave a lil half-flush and he jumped out.
- had a belt of jungle twine. felt so exotic ha.
- the last day, i was REALLY looking forward to the village excursion, but it ended up just being this huge riverfront area, completely deforested and devoid of ANY charm, full of army folk playing volleyball under a huge, hideous metal stadium. the only ¨village people¨ we saw were those sitting in scandalous, modern western clothes trying to sell us jewelry in their most impersonal manner. it was dreadful.
- on the comment card i told them they need to discount dry season trips and toast their bread, but they did their best and the lodging was really nice, as were the guides.

arrival back in quito, we waited over two hours for the tour company to open up to i could retrieve my big pack. wandered around looking for a place and found one with a lovely view of quito at night. i loved watching the sparkling city lights on the mountains all against the dark sky. beautiful. the weekend in quito was supposed to be a huge party for the foundation of the city, so i stayed the entire week just to witness this party. when i stay places too long, things jumble, so here´s what happened in random order:
- we climbed the beautiful basilica. this was sooo stressful and scary because it was like climbing ladders with nothing beneath or in front of you, and the top of the basilica had metal floors that would pop as you walked. the view from atop though was spectacular. poor rebecca gets vertigo and she almost had a heart attack, and didn´t make it to the top. i felt so bad for her... even getting moments of vertigo is scary, but hers was super serious. must suck a lot.
- on the front page of a major newspaper shower, close-up, the size of my hand, a dead woman with piercing wide eyes and mouth agape, slit throat and mouth and bloodied face. i was shocked beyond words that this would be on the front page for all to see.
- ana was my role model for simple exercise whilst travelling!!
- we took the teleferico (cable car) up to cruz loma, and at 4100m we walked around, freezing and out of breath from the altitude. we had a photo shoot at one spot. each person stood in front of the mountainscape, then, at my turn, we fond a metal chair so we took glamour shots photos, leg crossing other, elbow on knee, chin on fist, taking ourselves too seriously, looking directly at camera. then a dog randomly showed up. i was laughing til i cried and my scarf was flapping all over the place, which didn´t make for the best photos. but so funny.
- ana and i tried to visit a food fair at the market, but i accidentally led her to the wrong market. while walking back, a man on the street said hello. i usually either give a polite but quick response, or rudely- no response at all. i was a little shocked when ana replied. she said later that she never would have responded if she was solo. this didn´t help the fact though that, as always, it ended a little weird, never fails with these latin men. he told us he was taking us to the real food fair, but we ended up at a bullring. ana told him we didn´t want to see a bullfight, and he told us it was a joke. they just dress up as the bull. as the clowns roled out, we believed him. then the bull came out- VERY MUCH, might i add, a bull! we exchanged disapproving looks. they taunted the bull, made him mad, exploited him and stuck pin things in him. i could NEVER, i realized then, go to a real bullfight, because even this made me sick. such exploitation. they sent children under the bull, stuck them atop the ¨restrained¨ bull, and even used a small child as the red flag!! WHERE IS HIS MOTHER?! it was crazy. last but not least, there was a clown midget matador. random, but pretty impressive, i must say. we left after the first act, and i hope the bull survived the day. the random man then led us to a food fair where we consumed, by far, the worst food i´ve had on this trip yet. so incredibly dull and tasteless junk that even IIIIiiiii didn´t finish even half of it. we did try figs with panela and mozzarella, which was surprisingly delicious. i think, unfortunately, we had stopped enjoying his presence back at the bullring, so we told him we needed to return to the hostel, he gave us his number, and we finally parted.
- we ended up seeing him at a traditional dance show that night. fun. the dancing was fun and phenomenal though, and to get warm we consumed canelazo- a hot drink made of aguardiente, cinnamon, and sugar cane. mmmm.
- indian food was AMAZING- made me so very very happy. twice. plus mongo´s warm salad with peanut sauce. to DIE for. seriously, i´ve been dreaming about it ever since.
- we went to a photo exhibition with AMAZING aerials of ecuador. super beautiful.
- at the book shop the second time, with ana, the owner told us about the fabio book. the front page is a pull-out of fabio lying nakedon the beach and beside it reads something like ¨james, where are you? fabio X¨ sooooooo funny.
- on the way to what translates to ¨half of the earth¨ (the equator), we met a lady who guided us and with whom i exchanged thoughts about marriage and kids. we picked the right day to go because there was more traditional dancing!! it made me so happy. the others stood about 25 feet behind me, and when i rejoined them they told me that i looked more indigenous than anyone else in the crowd, with my indian skirt and shawl over my head and shoulders to protect from the intense equatorian sun. i think the fancy ¨mitad del mundo¨ is a piece of crap- it´s not EVEN on the equator! it´s a quarter of a kilometer off!! everyone´s standing on the lines, one foot on either side, saying ¨aHA! look at me! one foot in each hemisphere!¨, and they´re just completely wrong, legs spread wide, smile spread wider for the camera. ANYway, the REAL equator, 240m away, has a super cool little museum that goes with it, inti ñan. you can watch the water go down clock- and anti-clockwise on respective sides of the equator, and straight down on the equator line. plus balance eggs on nails because the yold settles to the bottom, a test of no resistance, you can´t balance with your eyes closed, but you can to either side of the line. it was so cool. not only that, but we saw artifacts, shrunken heads, p`reserved penis bugs and anacondas and tarantulas and guinea pigs in an ancient hut (and we were told we have good energies, we´re peaceful people, because the pigs were silent. i asked if he´d ever had the pigs go crazy on a group and he said yea, in that case he doesn´t tell them they squeak with bad energies). also, the terra cotta pots into which they fetal-position squeezed themselves after death. AND we got to shoot a dart through a huge tube at a cactus leaf. wearing a headdress. whoooaa indian stereotypes. i was the only one to not stick into the cactus, even after three times. i´m a failure.
- on the way to the crater we never actually made it to, i met and talked to the sweetest woman i have ever seen. she wore traditional clothing (they were bowler hats with a feather in them, their hair wrapped in a ribbon, then a wrap skirt and whatever top.. it´s super classy) and a smile so bright and non-judgemental and indiscriminate and needing no particular reason to exist. eyes so accepting and open and without intentions that they made me happy just to look at. like a little angel. i told her she had a lovely smile and she just smiled a little more and shook her head ¨yea okay thanks¨. she brightened my already bright day beyond belief.
- we went out every single night, would have a fair bit to drink, and then do nothing about it (i.e. dance, go to a bar, etc.) the new town was ALWAYS hopping, which was fun to just walk around and witness. we would end up at tomato (we didn´t realize til the last day that it wasn´t tomate, which we kept adding the spanish flair to) three nights in a row. rebecca, andy´s girlfriend, kept commenting on how gay andy was, which was hilarious, especially because andy would go along with it. (he had a dry and phenomenal sense of humour). at an arabic restaurant one night we had our sheesha pipe, beers all around and lots of food... and the waiter tells us they´re closing in half an hour. to finish the pipe alone would take that longer than that! we were not happy. and the waiters kept asking if we were finished, ushering us out. it was probably the worst service i´ve ever experienced. one night we all went to sutra, where they charged us cover without notifying and, before the band started, a marching band charged in and took over for about five minutes. it was hilarious. chivas (huge open-air trucks, painted and adorned with a jolly musical band, it takes you all around the city) were everywhere. one night ana and i went to her friend´s place- good times playing shithead and too much liquor and then we stopped. which is never good. we tried to start again, which never works, and i just got really tired and two of the friends took us out and paid for food and that was nice. i loved ana´s friend´s roommate, she was really funny and i think we appreciated each other´s quirkiness. the ¨big night¨, the one i stuck around in quito for a week for, was... not as expected. as usual, ana and i (rebecca and andy caught a plane home) drank to start the night. this time, in the streets, since there were so many people out that you didn´t need a roof in order to do so. this guy from los angeles started talking to us, increeedibly drunk. then 17-year old locals came up and talked to us and offered vanilla cigarettes and asked for kisses. so weird. but i was tipsy, so i accepted it. we wandered, saw mimes and jugglers and a unicycle act, flamenco shows, traditional music shows. just experiencing the energy was fun. we drank peach wine (a favourite here) out of a furry pouch that freaked me out. l.a. boy returned and cried while calling both ana and i his sister milly. and we didn´t even dance!! the entire time. sad. i got robbed for $30. my own fault, leaving it in the pouch on my hip.
- in quito, ana and i (it seems we were kinda inseparable, huh?) took a salsa lesson, which was delightful, especially because it´s one of those things i always say i want to never and never get around to it. my teacher hit on me HARD and spun me til my skirt lifted (and until i stopped because i realized what he was doing), said it was a shame i was 22, said we should be ¨friends¨, etc... which is all SO ironic because both ana and i thought he was gay! anyway, the key is for the guy to REALLY lead you, and that he did... and i DANCED! i danced salsa!!! how exciting!!
- quito was lovely, i really enjoyed it for some reason. it´s a shame it´s such a dangerous place because it´s wonderful to just walk around and experience.

okay i needta go, so although i´m still about two to three weeks behind, that is all! except for...... random additions!! mostly about food heh:
- i appreciate spices and condiments. they seem to be seriously lacking here.
- as opposed to mexican, there is a reason there are fewer colombian and ecuadorian restaurants in melting pots like canada- their food is boring and repetitive. i always wondered where the restaurants of all the rest of the world went. now i understand.
- the meals here cost less than a tip in canada. and they don´t tip. s´lovely.
- i think i´m rare in that i find few things too personal to tell another.
- in quito i gave a man a ten dollar bill for a drink and in english he blurted ¨omigod no, please!¨ it was so funny. (it´s uber hard to break bills here. even $10 is a problem).
- i get SO embarrassed speaking spanish i front of fluent people- the MINUTE i left ana i was all spanishy again.. it´s kindof incredible the difference it makes.
- i think if people had the desire to make others feel good about themselves, the world would be a better place.
- from my ¨strong culture¨ comment in an earlier post, i´d like to add that it´s like a strong personality. how can a person be stronger than another in their state of being? well, most.. distinct, immoveable, strong! immersed... i don´t know.
- there are a lot of people who´ve travelled a lot and you´d never know. no seemingly older, wiser, more appreciative, worldly. there are different types of travellers, different reasons to travel, different things people get out of it and expect from it, different places to go and ways to do it. a mendelian cross gene thing would tell us there´s a wide variety of travellers that would spawn from these conditions and options. as much as the majority of us might have in common.
- i don´t think i´ve seen a van damme movie in all my life, but i´ve seen seven in my first two weeks here, on the buses. actions films with little speech, or cartoons where everything is acted out anyway, are super popular. no need for words.
- in the spirit of ¨everything happens for a reason¨, i should note that the disappearance of my new, full-of-wonderful-music mp3player DID have its benefits. now, i read. for pleasure. a pasttime long forgotten between organic chemistry texts and latin workbooks. you wouldn´t BELIEVE the number of books i´´ve gone through! like.. SEVEN or something. wow. also, i can now fully experience van damme in hideous spanish dubbing (when there IS speech) without those pesky headphones filling my ears. how wonderful.
- $50 to post 2kg from colombia. $20 from ecuador. HOW is there possible that much of a difference?! and colombia´s closer to canada!
- my name is how they shorten graciela here- to ciela/shayla. my name means something different in every country. kindof exciting.
- my big belly has lead to me being questioned on my state of pregnancy more than i care to admit. how embarrassing.

aaannndd i´m off. merry christmas in two days!! i will miss you all muchly.
much love,
ciela.