Rally for Insanity

Arrived last night for the Rally to Restore Sanity here in DC. Spent the morning walking around the mall and seeing the memorials.  Feels good to be out here. It'sthe first time Ash and I have been on the East Coast together so it makesit extra special.

We have no idea what'sin store for us tomorrow at the rally, but that's part of the fun!
Dave

Gringos on the Road Part II

I can’t remember my first taxi ride, probably because it was scary, and I’ve blocked it out. I’m guessing that taxi drivers all over the world are about the same. My experience with them is that they are fast, dangerous, and a little nuts. The same goes for taxi drivers in Ecuador. Yesterday we left Vilacabamba via taxi. It took 1 ½ hours from our Hostel to the airport. It was all we expected plus car sickness for 2 hours after. I only had to gasp loudly three times over 1 ½ hours to get him to look up from his phone to see he was driving off the road. We made it though, even with him texting most of the way there. He did slow down when he texted, which I guess was nice, although it was not on purpose.

We were kind of sick of public transportation at this point, mostly because we squeezed in as many places as possible into 2 ½ weeks, which meant a lot of travel time. So, we got to Quito and opted for a rental car! Gringos on the road!

There are two allotted lanes on the roads in Ecuador, but three if you have a good imagination; which all Ecuadorians do (I’m sure this is similar in many countries). Dave drove, although I think I saw the third lane much earlier than he did. He became an Ecuadorian yesterday! Weaving in and out of the lane, passing cars no matter how many yellow solid lines there were, using the horn to tell people it was our right of way. If a car comes while you are in this imaginary lane, everyone just adjusts and three cars seem to fit. Besides our taxi driver yesterday, it does seem that most everyone wants to stay alive; for the most part.

We made it to Otavalo yesterday afternoon. It was a very pretty drive, actually the first pretty area we have seen. Did you know that Ecuador is the number 1 import of roses to the United States during the month of February? Once in Otavalo, it was just like every other city we have been in, but minus the smog, which was very nice. Otherwise, very run down and dirty.

We are staying at Casa Mojanda, the nicest hotel (beside that 12 hour layover hotel in Quito a week ago) we have stayed in, and more of the honeymoon style we were hoping for after our trip into the jungle. We are in a cute cabin, overlooking the farmlands of Otavalo. There is a fire place in our room! How romantic. If it were clear outside, we could see the volcano, which peaked through this morning, and was pretty awesome. Dinner comes with the price of the room, and last night was hands down the best meal we have had since we left the US. We were pretty hungry, since we weren’t sure how to get off the road for a lunch, and had 2 pieces of bread for breakfast at 7am, a small snack at 10am, and then nothing until the dinner at 7pm, but I’m pretty sure the food was actually very tasty. I guess we’ll find out tonight at dinner.

This morning we woke up at 5:45am (not honeymoon style), showered (not sure why) and took our new friend, Gustavo, to the animal market by 7am. It reminded me of Iowa, only up close and personal, and just a tad bit dirtier. Gustavo was shopping for Casa Mojanda. I guess they need 2 more horses, but really he was just our tour guide through cow and horse poop. Although that didn’t make it sound fun, it really was. People travel for hours to get to this market on Saturday mornings to sell and buy their farm animals. We saw horses and calves, cows, bulls, chickens, roosters, chicks, pigs, sows, piglets, dogs, puppies, kittens, rabbits, and of course the ever famous guinea pig (gui) which you can find on many street corners, whole of course, turning on a spit. They are only $7 alive, but I would opt for a whole chicken (who can no longer lay eggs in it’s old age) for $4. The cute two month old piglet is $20, but I really just wanted a puppy. Dave said no; what a downer.

Sorry there are no pictures, it's cold in here and the photos take forever to download. We will send more than you care to see when we get home. Our new camera is taking amazing pictures!

Pictures from Banos and Vilcabamba

This is Vilacabamba.  It's cool.  Much cleaner than any city we have visited yet.  Also a lot more Gringos!

Tomorrow we leave at 8:30am on horseback to ride into the pocadorus national park.  We will be camping somewhere up there for one night, probably checking out the birds.  See you on Thursday!







Not sure why our pictures are not uploading!  This is all you get right now.

This photo is a picture from Banos.  These 2 guys were on our trip into the jungle and were in Banos at the same time as we were.  They thought it would be great to get a honeymoon picture of two guys kissing the girl!

Gringos on the side of the road.

Lonely Planet. The name of one of the most common guide books available. In the past, Lonely Planet has been the Yelp.com for traveling. This time, I'm not sure I can say it's been as helpful. One thing we usually would have agreed with, but were brave enough to dismiss when the need presented itself, was transportation. We have choices here in Ecuador; flights, buses, bikes, walking, taxis, and of course hitchhiking. Lonely Planet's take on hitchhiking: 'Hitchhiking is never entirely safe in any country, and we don't recommend it. Travelers who decide to hitchhike should understand that they are taking a small but potentially serious risk.' It goes on.

We boarded the 11:30am bus leaving from Banos yesterday. I was very proud of myself, I purchased the tickets in Spanish without Dave's help. They told me it was direct to Quito and would take 3 hours. Just as the bus from Quito to Banos was 2 days prior. We had a 4:30pm flight to Loha and needed to be at the airport at 3:30pm for check-in. The taxi ride would be 1/2 hour - 1 hour from the bus station to the airport. You do the math, it was perfect timing.

At 12:30, we had already stopped about 40 times, picked up and dropped off 50ish people, listened to the bus driver get out of the bus and yell 'Quito' for 5 minutes at each stop and then of course, collect the money as we continued down the road. At 1:30pm, we were getting very nervous. At 2:15pm, the bus stopped (again) but this time no one got off, and no one got on. The bus had broken down. We had an hour and 15 minutes to get to the bus station, catch a taxi and be at the airport by 3:30pm. No way we were going to make it on the bus.

Lonely Planet cont. 'Hitchhiking is not very practical in Ecuador for three reasons: there are few private cars, public transportation is relatively cheap and trucks are used as public transportation in remote areas.

Few private cars? I beg to differ. Smog and traffic is awful in the cities. How does a city get so smoggy that it burns your eyes and throat without private cars? Public transportation is cheap (our bus cost $3.50 per person for our 3 hour bus ride) but this price does not include non stop or timely arrival.

We were inbetween 2 cities on a highway when the bus stopped. We watched about 10 cars drive by ignoring our thumbs before Santiago pulled over in his shaky, but running, Chevy. He was on his way to Quito and lived near the airport. He was wonderful. He drove about 110kph(66mph) the whole way, and only stopped to drop us off at a taxi close to the airport because he needed to be somewhere.

We made it to the airport at 4:00, checked in, went through security right as they called for our flight to line up at gate 1 for boarding. We were on the airplane for 10 minutes before take off. We made it!

Dave: My favorite memory of yesterday was standing on the side of the road with our suitcases looking at the bus we had just left with force (they didn't want to let us off or give us our bags) and seeing all these people looking out the windows of the bus at the gringos with their thumbs in the air. All in all, the bus breaking down was a blessing in disguise, as there is no way we would have caught our flight otherwise. When we arrived at our hotel, all of the day's events made our cervezas de Pilsener that much more refreshing!

Back from the jungle

We made it back to Quito last night after spending 5 days in the Cuyabeno Reserve in the north eastern part of Ecuador.  What a phenomenal experience!

We saw so much over the last few days and I only have a few minutes to write, that I can't begin to accurately share everything that I want to.

Getting there and back was half the fun:

• 35 minutes by airplane
• 2 hours by a hot, bus without air conditioning
• 3 hours by motorized canoe to the camp where we spent most of our time

In the process we went through a number of small towns that primarily serve Ecuador's national oil company - PetroEcuador.  Unfortunately the jungle sits on top of  vast oil wells and over the last 30 years there has been ongoing conflict in trying to preserve the jungle and way of life for the indigenous people while the government wants to generate as much revenue as possible from oil exports.

The people:
We were the only "Americanos" in our group of 11.  The rest were German and Swiss.  Our guide was Ecuadorian and the crew of our tour were indigenous people belonging to the Siona tribe.  Almost everyone was in their late twenties or early thirties with one exception of a Swiss couple that were in their late forties.  We all enjoyed each other during our "fiestas" every night at camp after a day of exploring the jungle.

Animals:
We saw quite a bit of wildlife.  The jungle is always noisy with animals, even more so in the evenings.  Birds of every color, insects everywhere you look on the ground, fish jumping every few minutes from the rivers.  Caimans (related to alligators) on the shores of the rivers .  .  . the list goes on!

Where we stayed:
The first night we paddled 3 hours and arrived at camp as the sun was setting.  Camp consisted of a dirt opening next to the river with small tents next to each other under a a large tarp held up by stick and rope.  The next 3 nights we stayed at an actual camp - where we each had our own room, running water (pumped directly from the river for the showers and toilets and a large common area where we ate our breakfasts and dinners and enjoyed relaxing in hammocks.

Last night we went out in Quito and experienced the nightlife - reminded me of TiaJuana, but much cleaner and more upscale.  Today we're headed to Banos by bus for a few days.

We're having fun and are both healthy and enjoying ourselves.

Ashley's Birthday in Quito!

We arrived safe and sound in Quito last night after a long day of flying.  Ashley enjoyed telling the customs agent that it was her birthday day . . . .right, right, right . . .now!  We went through customs exactly at midnight and our driver for our hotel was waiting for us as we exited the airport.

Unfortunately our suitcases didn't make it from Bogata, but they should be dropped off at our hotel around noon today.  Luckily for us, we don't have much planned.  The birthday girl will likely sleep in this morning, we'll take in a few sites and sounds of Quito and make sure we're rested up for our big adventure into the jungle tomorrow!  I do have a little altitude sickness (headache and shortness of breath in the middle of the night), but guess that's what you get when you live 130ft above sea level and suddenly find yourself above 10,000ft.

A picture from our hotel (behind glass).

And now the power of our new zoom lens (the hillside in the above picture).

A few pictures from a park two blocks away.  How many sports can people do?  Running, cycling, basketball, futbol, volleyball, bmx racing, foosball, this park has it all!

Embarking on our honeymoon!

So we're embarking on our honeymoon this Saturday, August 21, 2010.

The purpose of this blog is allow our friends and loved ones to subscribe to our posts in the event they want follow our wanderings through Ecuador.

While we are not sure what wi-fi access we'll have, we will do our best to provide updates along the way.

Below is a quasi itinerary of our trip:

• 8/21 - 8/22:  Quito
• 8/23 - 8/27: Jungle (Northern Orient) Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve
• 8/28 - 8/30: Banos
• 8/31 - 9/2:  Vilcabamba
• 9/3 - 9/4:  Otavalo
• 9/5 - 9/6:  Papallacta

Here is a very pretty map of our individual destinations - okay not pretty at all, but you get the idea of where we are headed.

View Honeymoon in a larger map