Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

One of the gemelas…large sinkhole

The first 24 hours in the Galapagos Islands were interesting and relaxing at the same time but of course, it wouldn’t be a trip without a little mishap.  After dinner in the evening of Day 2, my English roommate Claire:

and I were just starting to think about heading to our cabin for the night as the seas were rough and we had a 5 to 6 hour journey ahead of us as Nemo II was headed toward the distant Isabela Island.  Claire and I were sitting in the dining area with several other passengers and our tour guide Juan Carlos when a huge wall of water splashes over all of us coming from the direction of my and Claire’s cabin.  For a few seconds, we were all paralyzed wondering what happened (and I was having flashbacks to the movie Titanic) when the second wall of water struck and Juan Carlos sprung into action…shouting to the capitan to slow down.  As it turns out, there is a port hole/hatch-type windown underneath the steps leading into our cabin that looks like this (picture taken at night so the water looks dark):

It seems that the last time it was closed it was not closed properly and the strength of the waves on the choppy seas blew out the window and thus soaking us and everything on our beds in the cabin.  Fortunately for me I had nothing on my bed but clothes and other dryeable items but poor Claire had her brand new SLR camera without its case sitting on the bed.  I’ll bet you can imagine where I’m going with this.  So…two weeks, two roommates, two cameras ruined by water.  I must be some sort of jinx.

The crew tried valiantly but the window could not be sufficiently fixed to proceed on to Isabela so we had to change our itinerary a bit and slowly proceeded back to the nearest island of Santa Cruz where a temporary fix would be made for the window until Nemo II returns to dry dock.  A little excitement for us but a big bummer for Claire…the good news is that the boat owner agreed to reimburse her for the cost of the camera so hopefully by now she’s purchased a replacement.  Fortunately there were lots of people on board with really nice cameras and great pictures so Claire was able to burn a CD with pictures from the days her camera was kaput…and all was well in the end.

Galapagos Giant Tortoises

OK, so plans changed a little but I didn’t mind as we ended up seeing a part of the islands not originally scheduled which was very interesting.  On Day 3 we boarded a bus and headed into the highlands where things were greener and lusher…more like what one pictures in a deserted tropical island.  We first headed to Los Gemelas (The Twins) which are two gigantic sinkholes…one is pictured at the top though it was so huge I could only get a portion of it in the picture.  Next we headed to a local farm that doubles as a sanctuary for the local population of giant tortoises.  It used to be that the farmers would shoot the tortoises as they competed with their cattle for vegetation.  Fortunately someone had the foresight to convince the farmers that they could earn as much or more money charging tour groups to tour their farms looking for tortoises as they could raising cattle so now most farmers in the area do both…with no loss of

Me with tortoise at Charles Darwin Station

The only cactus in the world to grow in a tree format

income for the farmers.  After an amazing lunch in a beautiful restaurant situated on a local farm we headed to Puerto Ayora (the largest city in the Galapagos) to tour the Charles Darwin Research Station and interpretive center.  The CDRS is responsible for much of the research and conservation that goes on in the Galapagos and also serves as a breeding location for baby tortoises and other endangered island species.

Cactus growing from lava rock on Floreana

On Day 4 we headed to the small island of Floreana where we kicked things off with a panga (small motorized boat used for ferrying us from the catamaran to the islands) ride and a couple of hours at a lovely white sand beach and the famous Post Office Bay (pictured below).  Post office bay is interesting in that it started as a post office for the whalers and other seafarers hundreds of years ago.  People would leave their letters and other mail for others to pick up as they passed the island.  The post office is still functional with tourists leaving their postcards for others to pick up and deliver for them.  The way it works…you leave the postcards you’re interested in sending while simultaneously looking through the bunch to see if there are any from your hometown that you could deliver by hand.  I found two for Madison so will be delivering those sometime in March…perhaps later than the writer intended but that makes it all the more fun to me. 

Post Office Bay with our tour guide Juan Carlos

In the afternoon we did another snorkel but it was rough water and I didn’t take my camera so no pictures from that. Afterwards we did a late afternoon hike on the island of Floreana where we saw lots of flamingos in a salt water lagoon as well as mating sea turtles and stingrays on a soft, white sand beach.  Various pictures are included…enjoy.

Sea lions…the little one is trying to nurse but is confused.  The big one is a male.

Floreana

Flamingo in saltwater lagoon on Floreana

Sunset through the clouds

Name: Happy Gringo Travel Agency

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Address:
Happy Gringo Travel
Lizardo Garcia E7-11 y Reina Victoria
La Mariscal, Quito
Ecuador

E-mail: eva@happygringo.com

Website: www.happygringo.com/EN/

Review: There is lots of advice going around the travel circuit about the best way to book your Galapagos tours. It’s generally accepted that the cheapest way to do so is to wait until you arrive in Ecuador and book a last minute special. This works better if you’re traveling alone and willing to share a cabin with a member of the opposite sex. Of course, waiting until the last minute limits the available boats and if you’re going to spend a large amount of money for a once-in-a-lifetime-experience do you really want to get stuck with what you get stuck with? I opted for the second best option…using a travel agency based in Ecuador (rather than an agency based in North America or Europe) and can very happily recommend the Happy Gringo agency in Quito.

From the very start, Eva at HG was extremely efficient and helpful. It was a bit unnerving to send large sums of money via wire transfer to a faceless person in a foreign country but Eva and HG made it very easy by providing all of the required information and even having a U.S. bank to wire the money to. This simplified the transaction considerably (and the transfer was cheaper to a domestic bank). Eva kept in constant contact regarding the status of my tickets, a change in flight itinerary and was generally very helpful. I can highly recommend this agency for your Galapagos booking (and I’m sure they do a great job with their other tours as well).

I booked the Nemo II catamaran in large part because it is one of the few boats with a complete 8 day itinerary rather than two 4 day itineraries pieced together. The boat was very comfortable with a spacious dining area, private bathrooms in the cabin and they arranged a female roommate for me as I was traveling alone. The food was fabulous and our guide, Juan Carlos, was very enthusiastic about the islands and conservation as well as speaking excellent English. The itinerary was also good and when we had a minor mechanical problem with the boat the crew was able to quickly adapt and make sure we got to see all of the promised species (in particular the giant tortoises).

The boat has 7 double cabins for a capacity of 14 but two people on our tour had single cabins so we only had 12 people. This was a great size group as you get to be comfortable and close over the week and it’s easy to get around with a small group. I definitely recommend a catamaran for people who may be prone to sea sickness as it is less “wobbly” than some of the other yacht-type boats in rough seas. There are ample places to sit and enjoy the scenery, both shaded and unshaded, and the crew of 7 (including guide) go out of their way to make sure you have a good time.

The only slight downside to this boat is that since its considered one of the nicer boats in the islands, it tends to draw an older crowd (I was the youngest on board at the old age of 30). This was fine for me as we had a great group of folks but for someone looking to travel with a more active and younger group I would probably book in the tourist or tourist-superior category. Otherwise, Nemo II is highly recommended.

Would I book with them again: Yes, definitely

Santa Cruz Island

Hola chicos! Well, I’m off the boat and have tons of photos, etc. to get organized from the Galapagos so please bear with me as I try to get updated this week. I spent the past seven nights on the lovely catamaran Nemo II with eleven other passengers: 2 Belgian, 6 English, 1 Dutch, 1 American, 1 Chinese and of course the 7 Ecuadorian crew members. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to enjoy living on a boat for a week but as it turns out…I had a great time and really enjoyed the small ship atmosphere.

Santa Cruz Island, the objects in the sand are remains of a pier from the U.S Military Base from WWII

Sally Lightfoot Crabs

I only got seasick once (when we departed on choppy seas just after eating dinner) so thought that was pretty good…oh, and no sunburn for me despite the fact that we were on the equator…this is excellent news for my WPP (Wrinkle Prevention Program).

My home for 7 nights…Nemo II

Salt Water Lagoon on Santa Cruz…iguana in the forefront and flamingos on the right

Brown Pelican

So, the Galapagos. Maybe a little refresher on the significance of the Galapapagos Islands would be useful here… 

The Galapapagos Islands were first discovered by a European in 1535 though evidence found on the islands suggests that people may have inhabited the islands at some point prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Initially the islands were used by pirates and other seafaring characters as an isolated point of rest between South American and Central America. Whalers and fur-seal hunters later arrived and ultimately decimated the islands’ population of giant tortoises as the tortoises could survive on board the ships without food or water for long periods of time and thus provided a source of fresh protein for the sailors.

Galapagos Penguins 

Cactus growing out of a lava rock

Ecuador annexed the islands in 1832 and as a condition of successful annexation it needed to establish a colony on the islands. Due to the isolation and barren topography of the Galapagos it was a hard sell to get Ecuadorians to want to move there. In the end, the solution was to establish a prison colony…one without an actual prison as the isolation of the islands was considered secure enough and the prisoners began to settle in the Galapagos permanently. Even now many of the residents of the islands are descendents of the original prisoners sent in the early 19th century. Currently only 1.2% of the islands land mass is inhabited and the rest is national park of Ecuador.

View of Pinnacle Rock (and Nemo II) from top of Bartolome

View of sunken crater from top of Bartolome

Ultimately the Galapapagos Islands became most famous for being the basis of Charles Darwins’ ongoingly-controversial-in-religious-circles book on evolution, The Origin of the Species. Darwin arrived on the HMS Beagle in 1835 where he first noticed the variations in species of finches and tortoises between the different islands. This led to his developed theories on evolution including those of natural selection. After Darwin the islands served as a military base for the U.S. during WWII and briefly as a penal colony for Ecuador in the mid-twentieth century. In the end, though, Ecuador chose to establish the Galapapagos Islands as a national park and tourist/conservation/research location in 1959.

Under the sea…

You can barely see them but there are some long, ribbon-like jelly fish creatures all over.  I didn’t think the picture would take but amazingly you can kind of see them.

The first day we became acquainted with our fellow passengers and went on a brief afternoon hike on the island of Santa Cruz where we saw Sally Lightfoot Crabs, flamingos and penguins in a salt water lagoon as well as the amazingly desolate volcanic landscapes which are included in the pictures above (I seem to have acquired a spot on my camera lens so many of these pictures have a little round flaw in one corner…sorry about that…I suspect my camera may not have escaped the horse-back riding adventure unscathed).

Monument depicting the meeting of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin

OK, three posts in one day (and the fact that I’m retyping this one since I accidentally deleted the first version) and I’m tired.  Sorry for the boring title…but that’s about all I’ve got right now.  I don’t want to leave it for next week though as I’m going to have tons of good stuff from the Galapagos to share…so here we go…

Clock Tower on the Malecon

While Quito is the better known and more historical major city of Ecuador, Guayaquil is actually larger, more modern and quite a bit cleaner (well, at least down here at the Malecon).  I’d heard such horror stories about Guayaquil being dangerous and wretched but I’ve found that without exception, the tourist areas of bus terminal, airport and Malecon are much nicer and better kept than in Quito.  Of course, it could just be that I’m still bitter

Garden on Malecon 2000

about getting pickpocketed in Quito…but I think actually Guayaquil will always have a place in my heart because it is the first place in all of Ecuador that I’ve seen a recycle bin.  Oh the little things that make me happy.

I arrived last night after a longish day of travel…one hour Vilcabamba to Loja…nine hours Loja to Guays…45 minutes for my cabbie to find my hotel.  But find it he did and I was faced with a full day to explore the surroundings.  The main tourist area runs along the riverfront of the Guayas River and is referred to as Malecon 2000.  It is a relaxing place with running paths, riverfront restaurants, observation decks and a beautiful city

More garden on the Malecon…

park with tropical flowers, bridges and park benches.  At the very north end of the Malecon is a neighborhood known as Las Penas which is known for its brightly painted houses and perch high above the river.  With the charming cobblestone streets and interesting architecture this makes for a nice place for a stroll.

Las Penas neighborhood in Guayaquil

I wanted to visit the legendary cemetery with its Mile 5480-like mausoleums (as in New Orleans) but I didn’t quite find the time.  I did however decide to head to the Parque de Simon Bolivar…not to see the statue so much but to see the iguanas.  Did I say iguanas?  Yes I did…I wouldn’t suggest visiting old Simon if you don’t like iguanas because here at the park they run wild.  Like this bunch, feasting on some lettuce when I arrived:

Iguanas galore…

My other suggestion, should you decide to visit the Parque de Las Iguanas would be to NOT sit under a tree.  You see, iguanas climb trees…and do their business from those high perches.  Unfortunately, I watched a group of youths discover this first-hand.  Of course, I think it was a little more unfortunate for them than me.

Brief again today but brace yourself for the Galapagos stuff coming next week.  Have a great week all and type to you soon!

Between the Gigolo, the Earthquake and a damp hike through a beautiful park, Cuenca was an adventure.  By Monday morning I was looking for new adventures and had heard of a beautiful village near the border of Peru called Vilcabamba.  Vilcabamba is actually quite a tiny village but it is surrounded by really beautiful scenery and lots of outdoor activities which is probably how it’s become so firmly entrenched on the Gringo Trail.  The bus ride from Cuenca was gorgeous as we wound through the Andes to an ultimately lower altitude with lusher and greener foliage.

Everyone I’d met in Ecuador who had been to Vilcabamba recommended the same hotel…Hosteria Izhcayluma. Their propaganda (er, brochures) are all over the country…and based on the pictures it promised to be a nice place.  When the bus stopped in Vilcabamba’s bus terminal and the only people remaining were me and three other gringos…I was pretty sure at least one of them would be heading towards Izhcayluma.  I approached a friendly looking blond woman and sure enough, she was going to Izhcayluma so we agreed to share a cab since the property is about 2 km. outside of town.

Church in the village of Vilcabamba

My new friend’s name was Conny and she’s from Switzerland.  I had a private room reserved and she had a dorm bed but when it turned out that I had two beds in my private room it seemed like a good idea to share.  This proved to be a fortuitous decision as Conny proved to be a great roommate and adventure companion over the next four days. 

On our first day we decided to take it easy…relax in the hammock, get a shockingly cheap massage, stuff our faces with the excellent restaurant food.  For our second day, however, we decided we needed a bit more adventure so signed ourselves up for an all-day horse-back riding/hiking tour through the mountains.  It is worth mentioning here that I have only ridden horseback one other time in my life and did not enjoy it.  You see, it was a couple of years ago when I volunteered as camp counselor in Kentucky and was simultaneously in charge of wrangling a bunch of hyper-excited kids and keeping myself alive.  Needless to say…not a fun time.

So why would I sign up for such an adventure knowing that I didn’t like it before?  It turns out that I have a personal philosophy that you should always try things at least twice before you decided you don’t like them….brussel sprouts…persons you’re dating…riding on the backs of dangerous animals…so I agreed to give horse-back riding another try.  How bad could it be really?

Like this picture of me by the horse?  Relish it…because you’re not likely to see another one like it ever again.  Even after the second attempt sans renegade children….I still do not like horseback riding.  There’s a pretty short list of things in life that terrify me but I can safely say the HB riding is number one….with about 10 exclamation points after it.  I don’t know what my problem is really…nothing ever happens to me…I think it’s just the knowledge that I have no real control over the animal.  I really WANT to like it…I just don’t.

So, aside from the fact that I was tense and terrified from the beginning, I was able to enjoy the fact that we were traveling high into the mountains and looking at, what I’m sure you’ll all agree, is gorgeous scenery.  After a couple of hours we let the horses rest and headed out on foot towards some very high waterfalls where we stopped for lunch.  Here’s Conny and me in what can only be construed as the height of fashion in Ecuador:

After the lunch hike we set out on foot again back to the caballos who were waiting patiently for us.  I was quite ecstatic to learn that we would have to walk the horses down an embankment for a while because it was too steep for them with riders (or rather our guide (see below) knew these inexperienced horsewomen might have a meltdown when faced with such a scene).  We walked and walked and I would have been happy to keep walking but it was too far and this was a HB riding tour after all…so we mounted los caballos again and set off for home.  On the trail so far we had crossed several rivers…nothing too big or deep….just rocky little gorges that the horses had handled beautifully.  It was at this one:

where The Incident occurred.  The river didn’t look much bigger than any of the others but as it turns out, it was a little deeper than we expected.  Our guide went first on the white horse…then Conny…then me.  So I’m waiting patiently to cross and am watching Conny with her horse…when suddenly, the horse loses his footing and topples over…  completely drenching himself and poor Conny riding on top of him.  Let me tell you, this scene did nothing for my terror but I have to say she handled it beautifully and everyone managed to get out of the river a little wetter but no worse for the wear.  Well, except for Conny’s camera which at last report was not functioning.

Our Guide

Poor Conny was soaked and a little chilly but we all managed to make it back in one piece…me swearing and on the verge of tears pretty much the whole time.  I really hope that my FH (future husband) likes horses so he can take the kids…their poor old mom is not going to be able to handle it. 

Thursday proved to be a recovery day as both Conny and I felt like someone had come in and beat the s$&t right out of us.  Everything on my body hurt (and still hurts several days later) and poor Conny got a massive bruise on her thigh from crashing into a rock when she took a spill into the rio.  This was, of course, the perfect excuse for us to each get another massage and relax a bit on our last day in Vilcabamba before we parted company…me for Guayaquil and my flight to the Galapagos and Conny to Peru. 

El Cajas National Park, Ecuador (between Cuenca and Guayaquil)

After spending a few days in the fine city of Cuenca, it was time to get back to nature.  When in Cuenca and seeking nature…one heads to Cajas National Park.  Cajas is a beautiful, high altitude park with lots of flora…a little bit of fauna…and roughly 270 lakes and ponds.  Cajas is interesting in that it has quite a lot of life (both animal and plant) for having an altitude that tops 4600 meters (or 15,000 feet for my American readers).

Through the forest in Cajas NP

I was joined on my hike through Cajas by a local guide and two other travelers…a woman named Karen from Norway and a man-whose-name-escapes-me from the Netherlands.  Since Cajas is so high it is almost always in a cloud…read:  it is rainy pretty much all of the time.  No matter, the scenery is beautiful and quite interesting so we barely noticed the mud…though we did notice the lack of oxygen as we climbed. 

While not native to the area, the many lakes in Cajas are filled with trout as the conditions for their existence are ideal.  As in the rest of the world, trout (trucha) are a popular fish so the lakes are stocked with them and many trucha farms exist around the city of Cuenca.  After the hike we headed to a local trucha farm/restaurant for lunch where I had a really yummy fried trout.  After lunch it was off to a different section of the park for some bird watching and more hiking.  We saw some bird that was rare but I missed its name and since my little old digital camera has mimimal zoom capabilities I have no photo.  I do however, have quite a few more photos of the scenery than I have things to type about so this post will mostly be pictures.  Naturally, I do have some random trivia to share with you all and here it is:

Useless Trivia About Both Ecuador and the World’s National Park Systems 

1. There are 38 national parks in Ecuador…run both by the government and private foundations.  The first to be created was the Galapagos in 1959 and while Ecuador has been zealous in the initiation of the national park system they haven´t been so great at keeping them up and maintaining them.
2. With its relatively small territory (109.483 square miles), 0.17% of the planet’s land surface, Ecuador was ranked among one of the 17 most biodiverse countries in the world.  Ecuador holds more than 11% of all the land vertebrates in the world (mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles), 16.087 vascular plant species and approximately 600 species of marine fish. And there is still a lot to learn about Ecuador’s diversity, especially about invertebrates and microoganims. Among the “mega diverse” countries, Ecuador holds the biggest biodiversity of land vertebrates per area.
3. The first effort by any government to set aside such protected lands was in the United States, on April 20, 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the future disposal of the US government. It was known as the Hot Springs Reservation. However no legal authority was established and federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877.  The world’s first “official” national park was Yellowstone NP established in 1872 in the United States.
4. The number of areas now managed by the National Park Service in the United States consists of 391 different sites, of which only 58 carry the designation of National Park.
5. Following the idea established in Yellowstone there soon followed parks in other nations. In Australia, the Royal National Park was established just south of Sydney in 1879. In Canada, Banff National Park (then known as Rocky Mountain National Park) became its first national park in 1885. New Zealand had its first national park in 1887. In Europe the first national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909. Europe has 370 national parks at the moment.[2] In 1926, the British administration in South Africa designated Kruger National Park as the nation’s first national park.  After World War II, national parks were founded all over the world. The Vanoise National Park in the Alps was the first French national park, created in 1963 after public mobilization against a touristic project.

Some fauna…llamas

OK, so I’m a little light on content today but what more can you say really?  We went hiking and it was nice.  Never fear though…I’m not going to leave you all blogless while I’m off gallivanting through the Galapagos Islands.  I’ve discovered a feature in my blog software whereas I can type up a couple of posts but have them released sometime in the future.  We’re going to give this a try…I make no promises, but this week while I’m sailing the Pacific on the catamaran Nemo II my faithful readers should still get their Extravaganza fix.  And if it doesn´t work…well, I guess you’ll all have a lot to catch up on when I return.  Type to you next week!

PS. I didn’t get the delayed post function working for Ecuador 11 so two posts on the same day…lucky you!  I think I did get it working for Ecuador 12 so if all goes well it should turn up on Friday.  I’m off the boat on Sunday December 2 so until then…

Name: Hosteria Izhcayluma

Location: Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Address:
2 km. south on road to Zumba

Telephone: 07 2640095/09 9153419

E-mail: izhcayluma@yahoo.de

Website: www.izhcayluma.com

Review: About an hour south of Loja in the Andes of Ecuador is the little village of Vilcambamba. This village has become a regular stop on the Gringo Trail for those heading south to Peru due to its beautiful scenery and amazing climate (allegedly people live longer in Vilcabamba than anywhere else in Ecuador). For a tiny village, Vilcambamba has quite a few choices of good accommodation, but for sure the best place has to be Hosteria Izhcayluma.

Izhcayluma is run by a couple of German “former-travelers” who were interested in creating a resort-quality place to stay at backpackers prices. They have definitely succeeded. The grounds are gorgeous flowering gardens set up on a hill above Vilcabamba with a view of the village below. They have a lagoon style pool, human-size chess game, a bar, fabulous restaurant and lots of hammocks to relax in throughout the grounds. You can also schedule high quality massages that are super cheap ($12 for 45 minutes, $18 for 75 minutes or other packages).

The menu in the restaurant is huge and includes lots of European specialities. Breakfast is included and there are several items to choose from….fruit, crepes, scrambled eggs, fresh-squeezed juice (of course), etc. The restaurant is open all day though it does close at 8pm which is a little early. Lots of people show up thinking they can eat and are disappointed.

The room options are nice and varied ranging from a $9 dorm room through double private cabins for $34. There is hot water 24-hours a day (really!) and the bathrooms and rooms are nice and clean. The accommodations are spread out over the grounds so it is always nice and quiet though one set of rooms with shared bath is close to the road so a bit louder (rooms 10/11/12). Overall, very high quality and good value for $9 to $17 per person.

The front desk is extremely helpful and can schedule all sorts of activities. There are many self-guided hikes in the area including the Rumi Wilco Reserve and Podocarpus National Park. Lots of people also do the hike to Mandango Mountain though they will always remind you its a bit dangerous…a woman who went by herself was recently raped and several people have been mugged in recent years. They will also set-up horseback riding…by the hour or a full day (including a hike to waterfall, lunch and riding the horses for $25).

Would I stay here again: Yes, definitely

The great thing about traveling is that you always seem to run into interesting characters. Some good, some bad but there´s almost always a good story. Take, for example, this one:

On my second day in Cuenca I was wandering down the street when a guy points and yells at me (in English) “Germany!!” (I´m

frequently mistaken for being German rather than an American…well, until I open my mouth anyway). Wanting to be friendly, I stop to chat and soon I hear this: “Do you speak Spanish? I know a beautiful place we can go together where I can practice my English and you can practice your Spanish.” While it seemed like a good opportunity to work on my abysmal Spanish, my “Ick Detector” was sounding loudly in my brain. So I did what any girl in this situation would…I lied. “Oh, I´m so sorry…but I´m leaving early tomorrow morning.”

“OK, too bad,” says David the Colombian.

Somehow I had a feeling I would run into him again…and sure enough…the very next day he spotted me while I was in a restaurant having lunch. Damn, “My plans changed,”

lied Stacey again. This time, though, David was accompanied by a gringo-looking person though one whose Spanish was fluent so when asked to go get a cup of coffee I decided it would be safe (plus I felt slightly bad about being caught so blatantly lying).

It turns out that the gringo with David was Mo, a Chilean who is also from Indiana…hence the gringo appearance and really good Spanish. From Mo I learned that David´s only “job” (his real name is Enrique…he has several aliases) is to troll around

The archeaological museum built on Incan ruins (excavated Inca terraces in the background)

the streets of Cuenca looking for foreigners (mostly women) to charm and pilfer money off of. Lucky me. It seems that David/Enrique had been mooching food and drink off of Mo for several days so when it became clear that no one was going to buy The Gigolo any coffee…he departed…off to El Cafecito where some Swedish girls he met on the street were rumored to be. Fun times in Cuenca…

Femke and Remko from Rotterdam

But the fun was just beginning it seems as that very night, after a lovely dinner with the Dutch couple I met on the bus from Guayaquil (pictured above), we were struck by a rather strong earthquake…rumored to be around 6.1 on the Richter scale. I had just switched the light off to go to bed when it struck and it took me about 15 seconds of the 20 second rattle before I figured out what was going on. Personally, I found the quake to be quite fun (no damage in Cuenca) but a few people in my hotel freaked out (especially those on the second floor) and went running out into the courtyard in their pajamas. Definitely better than any earthquake I ever experienced in California…

…So a few notes about the pictures. I´m mostly just including some shots of interesting buildings so you can get an idea of the architecture around here. Cuenca reminds me a lot of Spain and the spanish-style buildings are in much better shape here than in Quito. While it´s been a bit rainy, it´s still quite warm here which has been a pleasant surprise. As in the rest of Ecuador, people are friendly and helpful and I´ve enjoyed my time here. Yesterday I went hiking at about 4600 meters (roughly 15,000 feet) which was interesting and yielded some cool photos of the terrain. More on that later this week…and tomorrow I´m off to Vilcabamba for some pre-Galapagos R&R. Type to you soon…

Name: Hostal Macondo

Location: Cuenca, Ecuador

Address:
Tarqui 11-64 y Mariscal Lamar
PO Box 597
Cuenca, Ecuador

Telephone: (593-7) 282-1700

E-mail: info@hostalmacondo.com

Website: http://www.macondo.cedei.org/

Review: Hostal Macondo is a great hostal in central Cuenca…close to the main square and attractions but on a quiet street. The building is a beautifully restored colonial house with a number of rooms…singles and doubles both with private and shared bath. There is a lovely garden courtyard and plenty of places to sit and relax with other travelers. The rooms are very charming with lots of brightly painted walls and interesting decor. The bed in my single room is extremely comfortable and there are plenty of blankets which is great since it gets pretty chilly at night in Cuenca.

A fresh-cooked continental breakfast is served every morning by the hard-working hostal staff. There is always fresh filter coffee (a rarity in Ecuador), fresh-squeezed juice, fruit and a hot item. The hot items vary everyday and have so far included: scrambled eggs, hot ham and cheese sandwiches and pancakes. The kitchen is also available to hostal residents who want to cook…as long as they clean up, of course. In the kitchen there are some board games, a TV with DVD player and just outside in the courtyard book rental is available (mostly English titles but some other European languages are included).

Rates for a single room with shared bath are about $14 and go up from there. A good value in a nice place that is one of the pricier locations in Ecuador.

Would I stay here again: Yes, definitely

After four weeks of cramming my brain with conjugations and the subjunctive mood it was time for me to depart the seaport of Manta and head to the beach for a little rest and relaxation. With a little trepidation but more excitement, I bid Camila and Nelly farewell and it was off to Canoa on the central Coast of Ecuador. Canoa is a little tourist/fishing village with several “beachy” hotels and, of course, lots of great seafood. More importantly though: there are a lot of hammocks in Canoa. I love hammocks…they are the epitome of R&R and I have been dying to lie in one since I arrived five weeks ago. So, armed with a book completely in English (that was not my guidebook or my grammar book) and two complete days to do nothing…I checked into the Hotel Bambu for a couple of nights.

Hotel Bambu – Canoa, Ecuador

As you can see from the pictures…November is not exactly the best time for sunny and bright beach weather in Ecuador. This is probably OK however…if it had been sunny I probably would’ve fried my pasty-white-girl-skin a delightful shade of scarlet. What Canoa lacked in sun it more than made up for in beachy charm (and edible sea critters) and some good photo ops.

All too soon it was time to go and I decided to spend one night in the eco-city of Bahia de Caraquez so as to catch an early bus to my current location of Cuenca in the mountains.  To get to Bahia from Canoa one needs to take a passenger ferry like this one: 

to get across the Rio Chone.  Bahia has declared itself an eco-city and while I’m not entirely sure what that means I can assure you that it was, until that point at least, the cleanest place I had yet been in Ecuador.  You see, in Ecuador there is trash everywhere.  Everywhere.  There appears to be no organized method of garbage collection and consequently people just throw their trash wherever they wish.  On the bus ride to Canoa a girl reached across me and threw a bunch of plastic water bottles out the window.  Naturally the anti-litter American girl in me was appalled by this.  It’s really a shame…the beautiful landscape of Ecuador is forever marred by this unfortunate occurrence.  In Bahia I stayed in a very charming, ocean-front room with balcony for the grand sum of $20 and managed to make it to my early bus on time for the trip to Guayaquil…the bus changing point enroute to Cuenca. 

To get to Cuenca I needed to change buses in Guayaquil…the largest city in Ecuador.  I had heard from multiple people that the Guayquil bus terminal is nothing short of a nightmare so I was slightly concerned about the said transfer.  As it turns out, there was no reason to be concerned…people in Ecuador continue to be friendly and helpful and multiple people pointed me in the direction of where I needed to go…one nice man even walked me directly to the bus company that would take me to Cuenca.  Nice people in Ecuador.  Very nice people.

I made it in one piece and had the good fortune of meeting a nice Dutch couple on the bus whom I’ve been having dinner with here in the great city of Cuenca for the past several nights.  More on the Dutch couple and Cuenca to come later this week…a beautiful city is Cuenca.  So far, my favorite place in Ecuador.

Once again, I have become concerned that I’m failing to properly educate my dearest Extravaganza readers so will leave you all with a few facts about Ecuador.

3 Extremely Intriguing Things You Did Not Know About Ecuador

1. The Panama hat is actually of Ecuadorian origin where it is known as “Sombrero de paja toquilla.”
2. 95% of Ecuadorians are Roman Catholic….though Mormonism and other protestant denominations are gaining popularity.
3. Ecuador’s largest exports include:  petroleum, bananas (world’s largest producer), shrimp, flowers (roses especially), and other primary agricultural products (including coffee).  The coffee is especially ironic considering here in Ecuador we drink 100% Colombian instant.  Ick. 

Rio Muchacho basin – Canoa, Ecuador

Beach in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador