Another great day in Ecuador! We left the condo this morning and took the bus to Otavalo (our favorite bus terminal so far). Then we got a taxi to take us to the Condor Park. This is a beautiful setting for the rehabilitation of rescued birds of prey. “Birds that find refuge here have been rescued from inadequate sites, donated from other centers, or put under our care by the Ministry of the Environment.”
There were birds flying free, and then returning to their handler, lots of birds just tethered so that we could get great pictures of them, and then many owls in enclosures. We enjoyed our time there so much! We got a ride back to Otavalo, and had him drop us off at Plaza de la Ponchos so we could have lunch. We found a restaurant that we had been to before, so we knew it was good. After lunch we browsed around the market and I bought gifts for Faye and Ella and Ron bought a tee shirt.
Then back to the bus station and home. One funny thing was that a guy got on the bus holding a rooster in his arms, cradling it like a baby. That rooster sat quietly in his arms til time to get off . No end to the unusual things you see when you travel outside your comfort zone.
We started out in the morning to go to Ibarra to go to the big supermarket, the Supermaxi. But we decided to stop at the travel agency on Bolivar street to see about tickets to Manta, so we can get to Puerto Lopez, where we can go to the “poor mans Galapagos” Isla de la Plata, or go whale watching.
Well, the travel agency was not like the ones we are used to. We were there for at least an hour and a half. Some other Americans that are staying in our same complex were there trying to buy tickets for his sister and her boyfriend and having a hard time with the language barrier. But finally we got our tickets and the girls were very nice.
I was surprised to see them pull out a piece of carbon paper to copy the numbers on our credit card! I haven’t seen carbon paper since the late ’60’s. We took the bus to Ibarra, about 45 minutes away, for $.45 each. Ibarra is a pretty big city, with more to offer. But since we got there kind of late we didn’t do anything but eat lunch and shop at the market. We bought diapers, detergent, and bar soap for the pre-school, as well as some things we couldn’t find in Cotacachi.
Verda had bought a chicken at the Supermaxi, so she roasted the chicken, we cooked the little fingerling potatoes Ron and I had found at the produce market, I made a salad, and we had fresh peas. What a good dinner! Except that the potatoes tasted like dirt. I didn’t care for them. We will try another variety. No plans for Tuesday. Wednesday we are off to the beach!
Got up when the alarm app on my iPad sounded out the cuckoo’s song. Had two cups of coffee and a banana and we were off. The bus ride to Otavalo was routine, now that we have done it so many times. One of the dozens of bus hawkers came to fetch us for the bus to Quito. It was a comfortable bus, and I actually slept a bit on the way to Quito.
When we arrived at the bus terminal, there was a taxi line and we had no trouble getting a taxi to the airport. The Quito airport is small and we easily found the Tame Airline desk. However, we were told that there was a problem with our reservation. We had to go outside and get in a different line to get it straightened out. When we gave the agent our ticket, she explained that the travel agent had failed to confirm our reservation, so we had seats on the way to Manta, but not to return. So now we will have to fly back to Quito on Saturday morning at 8 am instead of at 1:30 pm. Which means that we will have to go back to Manta Friday evening.
The flight to Manta was only about 30 minutes, but I can’t remember when a flight hurt my ears so much. It took hours for them to pop enough that I could hear. Once we landed, there were taxis, and we got a driver to take us a Hosteria so we could make a reservation for Friday night. Then he took us to the bus terminal.
What unbelievable chaos! We were so recognizable as “rich American tourists” we were almost trampled by men trying to get us a room, or a bus, or a tour, or something – I never found out what exactly, that it was almost frightening. I yelled at Bill that we needed to eat – it was 1:30 and I hadn’t had anything since that banana in the morning. You know what that meant – hangry! We found what looked like a restaurant, but the selection was pretty slim. The other three ordered fish, which they said was good, but it was fried, and I didn’t know what they might have used to fry it in, so I ordered chicken and fries. The chicken was so-so, the fries were mediocre, but they can’t mess up Pepsi in a bottle.
We went back into the bus terminal and didn’t have too much trouble buying tickets to Puerto Lopez, our final destination. Our plan is to take a boat tomorrow to do some whale watching, go to Isle de la Plata, and I guess they take you snorkeling, too. Then, we have Friday morning here at the hostia Nandu before we have to check out and go back to the madness that is Manta.
This part of Ecuador is beyond ugly. The shacks that people live in are maybe one step up from mud huts. The kids are running around in the dust, the starving dogs follow anyone in hopes of a scrap of food, the most sturdy buildings are concrete block, no paint, no decoration at all, might as well be a prison. I could never live here. It amazes me that in China, where people have lived for thousands of years, there are modern buildings going up everywhere, world-class shopping, education for everyone, and a feeling that everyone is moving forward. There is nothing modern about Ecuador. America has nothing to fear from Ecuador!
What an unending dump! Why would people choose to live this way? What is the education level of the population? Long stretches of roads look like the slums of India or Mexico. Mangy dogs running around in every town we go to.
There are two things I like: they don’t drink and they don’t smoke. Apparently they don’t have enough disposable income to be able to do either one. Liquor is phenomenally expensive. Ron had a scotch in the place at the beach and it was $5, but my small (Coke-sized) bottle of wine was $11. There were two glasses of wine in it, so that’s more than $5 per glass.
A 200 year old house in Beijing is better maintained, cleaner and nicer than a house here that may only be 25 years old. These people seem to have no pride whatsoever. In Cotacachi the shops are neat, clean, nicely lit and the goods are well displayed. And our condo is up to American standards. Must be the money that flows into Cotacachi. I guess I shouldn’t be so harsh. Maybe all these people are just scrambling to get enough money for today’s food. We can’t figure out whether paint is something they think they can do without because it is expensive, or whether they just never get around to finishing a building. Whatever, it is not very attractive when all you see is concrete block.
Ok, so we arrived in Puerto Lopez and were instantly accosted by a half dozen men babbling at us in Spanish, opening notebooks with pictures of various hosterias, tour boat operations, and god only knows what else. We just got into their version of a rickshaw which is a motor scooter with a two-seat buggy attached. We did manage to tell the drivers that we wanted to go to Itapoa, a Hosteria we saw in our guidebook. He took us there, but they were full, so they pointed to another one in their picture book. This place, Nantu, had rooms for $33 per night, so we said yes. But, in my opinion it should not be classified as a Hosteria. There is nothing but a pair of sheets on the bed, only two towels, no washcloths, no hand towels, no bathmat. Not even a glass to put water in to take my pills! All I know at this point is that the whale watching had better be fucking phenomenal! I don’t understand yet why no American or European companies operate in Ecuador. I have not seen any advertisements for Apple products, can’t find any Hershey’s chocolate, or any other things we assume would be sold everywhere. There are two things we have seen: Chevy cars and Dial soap.
It was clear immediately that Ecuador is a poor country. What was not clear, and still is not, was why. I couldn’t help but compare China and Ecuador since I visited them both within the space of three months. China has pulled 400 million people up from poverty and has not sacrificed the culture to do it. Actually, one website says the number is 600 million people. Wikipedia states that there has been a decline in the poverty rate in China from 85% in 1981 to 16% in 2005.
When we visited China we were astounded by the amount of new construction being done. In Beijing the government had to designate an area containing the hutongs as “national treasures” and protect them from the bulldozers.
Otherwise, soon there would be nothing left of the old China except the Forbidden City. Everyone has heard of the Three Gorges Dam project which has provided power for a great expansion of modernity but has wiped out many towns and villages where families had lived for hundreds of years. All of those people were relocated, and I doubt that they were ever asked whether they were in favor of the project or not. When the great Reform and Opening began in 1978, China’s economy began to grow. In the second phase of this program, the country was opened to foreign investment and in a short time China became second only to the US as an economic power.
In Ecuador, there is some new construction taking place, but it appears to be single-family homes, or condo complexes to sell to Americans wanting to live on their social security income. There are few, if any, office buildings being built to house foreigners working to bring prosperity to an emerging country. Nor did we see any factories, plants, major infrastructure projects or even sports facilities being built. Admitedly, we did not spend much time in Quito or in Cuenca, and I am sure we would have seen more evidence that we were still in the 21st century had we been there. But we did travel around quite a bit on busses, and everywhere we went was the same.
Unpainted concrete block structures that looked like the least tremor from one of the many volcanoes would send them tumbling down. There was very little effort made to make the environment appealing and pleasant. In Cotacachi, on Leather Street, the shops were very attractive and clean, but, of course, the majority of their customers are foreigners. The condo complex where we stayed likewise was beautifully landscaped and the painters were working to freshen up the exterior while we were there. Again, mostly for Americans. When we got out into the countryside, some of the dwellings were deplorable. Even in the beach community of Puerto Lopez, the streets were dirt, the chickens roamed at will, and starving stray dogs begged at every restaurant. We visited the Temple of Heaven garden in Beijing and loved seeing the people playing cards, mahjong, and exercising together in the park.
In Ecuador, people worked every day it seemed, and especially on Sunday when they worked in the marketplace selling produce, fruit, or flowers.
In China there was a feeling of striving, a sense that every person, even the eldest, were working hard to improve their lives and make their country better. I never got that sense in Ecuador. Perhaps that’s why Americans are flocking there to live. They want to spend their retirement years where there is no pressure to accomplish anything.
What a day! Wouldn’t do it again for anything. We had arranged for a moto-taxi to come pick us up at 9 am to take us to the “prettiest beach in Ecuador.” It was a longish ride in this little rickshaw affair, and not even a pretty trip. The landscape isn’t very attractive. And it’s cluttered with trash and tumbled-down shacks. People are cooking right out on the street, or selling bottles of soda and water from a styrofoam cooler.
Once we arrived at the beach, it was as advertised. Very pretty, no people at all, and hordes of little crabs scuttling from their holes to the water and back again. Bill and Ron hiked up to the lookout at the top, while Verda and I sat on the beach. Then we rode the moto-taxi back to Puerto Lopez. We picked up our luggage at the hosteria and all piled back into the taxi for the ride to catch the bus to Manta. What a miserable ride for 2 1/2 hours! And without food! I had some fruit and a roll for breakfast, then nothing for lunch. By the time we got to Manta, I was ready to scream. We checked into our hotel and pretty quick went to eat. Found a restaurant, and everyone had something good. I had fried shrimp and it was yummy. Good French fries, too. Now, it’s time for bed cause we have to get up at 5 to get our flight back to Quito. It will be good to get back to our condo.
Thursday This morning we had reservations to go out on a boat tour, guaranteed to see whales. I was a bit unnerved to see that we had to wade out to the boat to get on board, but it turned out that it was only calf deep, so no danger of the cameras getting wet. It took about a half hour of pretty fast motoring to get out to where the whales were hanging around. It was really exciting when we saw the first spout and the humpback breached.
We took a lot of photos, and we each got one terrific shot; a whale in front of one of the other boats, and a fluke. After about an hour or so of chasing whales, we turned around and zoomed back toward Puerto Lopez.
The captain drove the boat right up to a rocky cliff, and pointed out all the blue-footed boobies on the rock. There were thousands of them! I must have taken 100 shots. A few are framable. A few people on our boat went snorkeling, but not us. It turned out to be a very nice tour. The people were great, and we met a girl who is in the Peace Corps here in Ecuador. Her name was Nickie and we saw her again at the hot dog place for dinner. When we got back to the hostel we asked for a blanket. The guy brought us a quilt and we slept so much better. Don’t know why we were too stupid to not ask them for one the night before.
Travel Like a Scotsman 