to the beach

 

Banos, named for the healing hot springs that bubble from its grounds

 

I landed in Banos during a holiday weekend. the streets were packed with Ecuadorians. it was hard going finding a place to hang my head for a few days but i stumbled on a great spot. $8.50 dorm room in its own little house, no bunk beds and a sweet outdoor garden was just a glass door away. Hugo walked in as i was tossing my stuff on my bed and for the next week he and i and a whole host of others walked the wild life of Ecuador. Hugo and i hit the streets of this remote mountain town swollen with party goers. We decided to try the local variety of guinea pig, which is a delicacy and for 10 bucks, very high for a meal, i had a half. It wasn´t full of meat and the head with the teeth in tact seemed to be smiling at me throughout my meal but it was an experience that anyone that visits this country or the surrounding ones has to try. it didn't taste a lot like chicken, nor pork, it tasted like chork. some combination of both.

Dig in, one of many traditional dishes i have sampled

fried bananas, rice, beans and a hunk of steak, all for 2.50, not the rodent meal

Hannah, Snear and I at Vibes in Quito

I met up with two English girls from my time in Quito, one, Hannah, above, and the four of us spent the next five days together. We went whitewater rafting in a wonderful landscape with rivers bulging from the heavy rains the night before and the rains that continued trough our trip. In total we spent about one and a half hours on the river through class 3 plus and 4 rapids. we all dumped out of our boat on a few occasions and one American who was doing more filming then the rest of us hoped, forgot to paddle and ended up in the wash dislocating his knee. It was a hairy few minutes while we all tried to get back in the boat swallowing more river water than i had desired, when one of the girls used my head as a floatation device, i forgave her after she bought a few rounds at the bar. after only trusting only our 20 minute training course and plastic helmets that had clearly dueled with rocks before, we survived. Albeit one of use would be walking with a limp for the next few weeks. That night we ran into our guide from the river as we bar hopped around retelling stories from the day at sea, river, whatever. We closed the bars down and were thankful that we didn't have to get up till one in the afternoon for horseback riding.

Pinto and I

i had only been once back home and it seemed like it could be a nice day, visiting waterfalls and taking our steads into the endless mountains that surrounded this tiny town. My horse "Pinto" was the worst horse of all four, the girls seemed to have been given the best behaved while Hugo looked like a giant at 6´3´´ on his little horse, it was clearly a pony. Pinto had a habit of biting any of the other horse if they got close and at one point reared up and bucked one that came to close to hit butt, i didn't blame you on that one Pinto. Ecuador is mountains. the mighty Andes. Volcano's here are like cows in Vermont, plentiful and never far away, but they smell better. We road into the mountains and watched as bubbling springs rose from the ground as pure as mountain water can be. We drank and told jokes about various stomach bugs we were going to get once we noticed our guide wasn´t thirsty.

 Hannah getting dysentery

All in all Banos was fantastic but it was time to leave and a few days ago i started my way to the beach, Stopping for the night in Riobamba, nothing much to tell there. I am now in Montinita, sitting by the sea, my room is great side from being in the middle of a town in a tourist boom and starting at 8 everyday building noises of every sort can be heard through my walls and though my ear plugs. Other then that life is grand, I'm on my own again and soon i will be heading north, maybe tomorrow, if I'm not to lazy. I heard there are some humpback wales migrating off the coast and it might be nice to say hello.

be well!

jake 

Gettin Really High

i arrived in Ecuador last Wednesday. Burlington Vermont is 200ft from sea level, Quito, where i finally landed is a shade higher at 9350 ft above sea level. i am the highest i have ever been...

It had been a hellish day full of transit, i woke in Madrid, early, or so i thought, i had a 12:15pm flight. i left the hostel three hours before my flight but i didn't know what awaited me. Iberia airlines needs to get there act together let me tell you. the line to drop my bag off took over an hour with the lady telling me as i put my pack on the scales "your just going to make it", i wanted to respond with "no thanks to you" but the timing didn't seem prudent. So i jumped aboard the plane, and there i stayed while mechanics tried to fix some lights on one of the emergency doors. we waited an hour, then we taxied out, only to head right back in because they didn't actually fix it. so after two and a half hours on the tarmac we were ready to make the 11 hour flight. the flight was uneventful except for the fact that an hour before we were to touch down we were told that we were heading to a different city, Guayaquil. i held in every mean word i wanted to yell, every curse word i had ever muttered throughout my life and some i had just made up, floated through my mind tempting my lips to spit them out. i didn´t. Before we landed we were assured that there would be another plane waiting to take us to Quito. What they didn't say was that the plane wouldn't be coming for another three hours, i could feel my blood boil and as i waited in line to get my new boarding pass, a young man working for Iberia decided that the ten people behind me could go to the freshly opened kiosk. i clenched my fist and the guy looked at me, i must have had fire in my eyes because he rushed behind his desk and gave me a ticket for a free burger. I took it without a word, got my boarding pass and even though i wasn´t hungry, it being 3 am my time, i ate the whole burger out of spite. i sure showed him didn´t I?! By the time i entered the hostel it was 7:45 am, my time, i had been in transit for almost 24 hours and due to the 13 year old next to me with fidgety feet i had slept nearly none of it, i was beat and beaten. the only good thing about it all was i had almost no jet lag because it was time to sleep when i arrived, 11:30 pm Ecuadorian time. So i woke as i normally did, and it felt like just another day. My hostel was called Vibes and i had chosen it like all the others, by chance. At 6 dollars a day including breakfast (toast, coffee and bananas) it was a great steal. Santiago, the owner, was, is, the man. i had booked 7 nights there, i knew i would need sometime to get used to being so high, altitude sickness is real here and for the first few days i was out of breath walking to the mini mart and back. 8 days in one spot is a long time when you have no idea what it will be like but i rolled the dice and they came up sixes, is that even a saying? anyway it was great, pool table, Foosball, wide screen with all kinds of movies, bar open 24 hours and two for one cocktails all day, everyday, i indulged. My top bunk was the biggest single bed i have had on my trip. Built for a giant, just a hair under a double bed. it rocked like the ocean when i moved but it was home, so i made the most of it. The first night was an eye opener. i hadn't felt so unsafe since i left the Philippines. it was wild out there. the wild west, the frontier where anything goes and law is but a word. i wish i could say the 200 cops and security officers everywhere with various sizes of guns made me feel better but they seemed to have an odd way of policing, aka, doing nothing. clumping together in groups of tens telling jokes and texting on there cell phones. i guess they hadn't noticed the prostitutes and Nigerian drug gang not a block from them. in fact they didn't see them all 7 nights i was there. i spent my days in the English book store shooting the breeze with an Englishman who owned the place. I read, walked the streets during the day and hung out at the vibes club house at night where all the other backpackers seem to gravitate too. I met a girl, Sarah, the first night at the book store and for the next three days we dinned and walked the city together. She was waiting on the arrival of her ex boyfriend and she was nervous, they had only broken up due to distance and she had a lot of talking to do before they saw each other. She was excited, i could see, i hope she is doing well. I was happy to listen, i was too busy watching my back to talk anyway. Vibes was a good place to meet people, there are nine Israelis that wont soon forget the name Jacob and two English girls i might be meeting up with in Banos in a few days time. I attended a local soccer match and got my first taste of south American soccer hooliganism, one of the kids we were with had his camera stolen at the game. hooligans! i ate one meal a day a local joint, with no sign, or anything else you would expect in a restaurants, like menus. but the food, oh the food, a huge plate of rice and beans and fried bananas was covered in a large steak for... guess how much, $2.75, i love the third world. i watched as gringos flocked to the gringo restaurants, and ate gringo meals, i eyed the menus but at about five times the price with half the food, and some Ecuadorian guys version of what an "American burger" should be, all i could do was chuckle and say "suckers!" I escaped Quito with all my possessions and all my limbs and I am now in Tena. Which is a Mecca for whitewater rafting. Getting here on the bus i had visions of floating down a river bravely facing class five rapids, saving a young damsel in distress and being the hero of the boat. However the truth was that no company was taking people on anything more exciting than a class three, and for 70 bucks, i passed. Instead i hired a local guide for five bucks for a 2 and half hour hair raising, goosebumps stimulating, nail biting, tubing adventure. Yeah that's right, tubing. what of it? i got in the water and my 19 year old guide, i use the term guide in the roughest of senses, hands me a piece of paper written on it, in English was "the first set of rapids is dangerous" he spoke no English. I watch him get in the water and i could tell i had done a lot more tubing in my day then this young buck. Smiling we set off down a tributary of the amazon river, the biggest in fact. OK, it wasn´t the exhilarating hero promoting day that i had thought it was going to be but the first set of rapids, however not dangerous unless you had a hard time standing up in waist deep water were still great. The whole day was fantastic however, Edwardo and i, two dudes on tubes, floating the amazon. The scenery couldn't have been better. the Jungle looming large on the banks and the mountains foreboding in the background covered with ire clouds made for a day worth more than five bucks. And so we floated and tried to speak to each other, i in English, he in Spanish. Like a little kid, he paddles over with a wide grin and asked, "what is `fuck you` mean"? hahaha, i couldn´t believe it, the kid couldn't say Jake and was now asking about English curse phrases. it took awhile with hand gestures but i think he got the grasp. We floated by lots of birds, at one bend there must have been over one hundred huge black, condors or something or rather. not sure, and if Edwardo knew he wasn't telling. they were amazing, so many in one place and more were dropping in all the time as if there was a condor meeting and anyone who was anyone in the condor world had to be there. i saw a huge python float by me and i managed to grab its tail for just a second but as i got a glimpse of my first crocodile in person i let go to stare. i made up those last parts, there was nothing in the water and i was hard pressed to see even one fish! but the water was a perfect temperature and the small rapids made up for an otherwise disappointing day, having not gone on the whitewater trip i had come the 5 hour bus trip for didn't bother me at all. Tonight i stay in a hole, but the good news is, the hole, being underground, is nice and cool while those with windows on the upper floors fry. and i saved 5 bucks, take that Ecuadorian gentry.

all is well, tomorrow i head to Banos where i will bath in hot springs as my arms are soar from paddling to go faster on the river today. take care all, miss you guys and i hope you all are enjoying your summer. 

the kindness of strangers

i spent the day waiting for my train to Belgium, i was slightly disappointed that i would not have more time there, but when i got Mechelen Belgium i made sure i would have enough time to sample a few local brews and there famous french fries. i would take Al´s french fries with cheese sauce any day however, there weren't mind blowing in the least. I was not able to eat any waffles but the beer was top notch. Not Budweiser but it was still good, none the less. i was nervous about my ride and i thought a few triples might do the trick, at least that's what i told myself to justify having a few relatively expensive beers. Geoffry met me three hours later at the bus stop in a Renault convertible. sick. So i hopped in and we spend down the road to his house, i showered and had some "bicky" flavored chips. i am not sure if Lays has done this in the states but they seem to have had compositions for new flavors all over the world and this was a winner. don't ask me what it tastes like but they were good. We spent a few hours waiting out the traffic before we got on the road. the trip would take 15 hours or so driving through the night. We took off at 9pm and picked up two other people who were also in need of a ride. Charlot and Braum in the back me and Geoffry in the front, it was a great crew in fact. They were all truly cool people. i did my best to stay up through the night but i dozed off a few times waking to find that i wasn't chained to a tree somewhere. Geoffry really helped me, he excepted no money for all his work and all the gas and having to put up with an American for so long. I cant thank you enough and even though he didn't know it at the time he left me at the right train station and one minute before the next train to Barcelona, it couldn't have been more perfect. Thanks a million, for not being a serial killer and taking me with you to Spain, it really saved me. I hope to repay the favor someday. Geoffry was a bowling enthusiast but has never seen the big lebowski haha, i told him he had to see it asap. I arrived in Barcelona and rang my friend Madelane, well friend, friend would be a strong word. We had met for less than a day the first week of my trip. its amazing that i had met her 9 months ago and here i was being welcomed into her home. She had a fantastic apartment with a great dude who was a graffiti artist and graphic designer and he loved reggae. he decided to quiz me with Anthony b, he would have to try harder than that for i had seen him live in concert more than twice and my at that point in time girl friend was almost raped on his tour bus, so yeah i know Anthony b. he tried harder and when i could name the tracks he selected, artist and song title he knew i was the real deal, a white guy who loved reggae. Now spending time with people you don't know in a place you don't know can be tiring. But i had a double bed pull out couch. let me repeat, a DOUBLE bed. After the last months of spending most of my sleeping time in singles attached to someone elses single this was like sleeping on gold. i slept diagonal just to soak up as much as i could of that bed before i was back to bunk beds. Madelena was out of work so had plenty of time to do stuff, we ate tapas and had beers in the sun, went to the beach and her friends where there, the three guys played volleyball as the girls tanned. it was a fantastic day with equally good weather. We left and had enough time to shower before heading to a dinner party, a dinner party that didn't start till 10:30 haha, Europeans. So i, not knowing anyone, ended up at this dinner party and had a fantastic time, She had a great group of Friends who had a lot of fun together you could tell. They spoke Portuguese, English, Spanish and Catalan. and only one of which i could understand so i was able to participate in about one forth of the conversation but it was enough for me. i told them i knew pig Latin but the joke was lost on them, i suppose the three stooges never made it to Spain. the next day we walked the city and had a dinner at her house for a few friends and that was great too. Great food and great beer, she bought Budweiser just for me. I did take one thing away from this time in Spain and that is that everyone seems to think that Americans walk around all day with a burger in there hand. haha. its true, the burger is a juicy, wonderful and amazing part of the American diet but not something i eat more than other things, certainly not every day or week i would say. but they seemed to think its at least one meal out of everyday that we gorge on burgers. i got a kick out of it for sure. part of my trip has been spent defending America, agreeing with some of our short comings and righting a lot of misconceptions. but i don't mind, its fun if you don't take it too personally. You just need to remember that they get there ideas about America life from Music and TV produced in the states so all i have to blame is ourselves really. Anyway i couldn't thank Madelana more, she really went out of her way for me truly, it was a fantastic three days in a fantastic city, one i know i will be visiting again someday. I took the train to Madrid it was a 9 hour train ride but the scenery was really wonderful. it actually looked a lot like new Mexico and parts of Arizona, the landscape anyway. i am now in Madrid which means i have one more day before i fly to south America. wow. I will be on the right side of the pond as home and with three months left its going to go by quickly. My money situations is good, i went slightly over my European budget but i am back to two meals a day and that will fix itself soon enough. i have a lot of pictures to show but they will have to wait. cant upload them at the moment. this past week had been marked again by the kindness of strangers, they are fantastic 90 percent of the time and these guys who drove me, housed me and fed me were really top notch people. i will try to emulate there generosity.