American Flag

You guys are going to love this!! In Ecuador, some of the taxi's put pictures or posters on the inside, on the roof in their cab. I am not sure how they do it but then there is like a layer of plastic over it, almost like saran wrap. The only reason I really notice it, is because it sometimes drops the height of the ceiling and my hair gets staticy. Anyways, this guy the other day had this giant American Flag on the roof. It was so crazy to see. I attempted some pictures so you can see what I mean. Enjoy!!

Vilcabamba

Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation. That's where we were at by the time we got to Loja but Loja means my life so when I got back I was very busy with my day to day things. Plus I had to see all my friends and catch up on everything I missed!! We decided though to leave Sunday and go to Vilcabamba for a few days. Vilcabamba is only about an hour away from Loja and is at a lower altitude (1600m) so it's much warmer. Basically the weather never changes there and they claim the people like to be 100. The record age there is supposedly 130 but in my true skeptic nature it's hard to know if it's true since recording keeping isn't what their known for. We took the bus there Sunday and the town itself is very tiny. We hate lunch in the town and then grabbed a truck-taxi up one of the mountains to our hostel Izhcayluma. Izhcayluma means "two hills" in Quechua. Our hostel was absolutely gorgeous. It overlooked the city of Vilcabamba and had a panoramic restaurant. The rooms were set up like little cabins, it has a pool and an entertainment area with a bar, pool tables, ping pong and various other games. We stayed for two days, just laying around the pool and had a fabulous time. While I wouldn't want to live in Vilcabamba it was great to get away and enjoy some peace and quiet and relax!!

Travelling to Cuenca . . .

Okay where was I? Ah yes, traveling home to Loja for censo. So the plan was, get up, fly to Guayaquil, change flights fly to Cuenca and then grab the 5 hour bus home. Easy as pie, right? No. We arrived in Guayaquil at 7am and as our next flight didn’t leave until 10:10 we sat in front of the TV’s in case there were any changes. There were lots of flights coming and going during that time and the TV’s seem to update everything. Mom bought me the strongest coffee I may have ever had in my life so I was on a caffeine high for about an hour but I faithfully watched the TV's and updated everyone on the progress of flights. Ecuador uses funny English sometimes which always makes me laugh. Our flight to Cuenca had been delayed to 10:15am but by 10:00am there was no update to the television, it simply kept saying “Delayed”. We were watching the gate but there was no extensive activity but finally at 10:00am I walked over to ask the attendants what the status of the flight was. I was told that our flight had boarded and was gone. I told them the TV had never said “boarding”, they had never announced our flight and that our names were certainly never called. They admitted no and said they would try and get our flight back, I calmly told them, yes, that might be a good idea. I rushed back and collected the others and our things. When we were all there we were told they were still trying and then finally we were told it was still there and to run. Most of you can probably picture us running along with our bags, but oh no, we had to run down the terminal, down stairs, outside onto the runway and then over to the plane. We looked like a bunch of crazy people but we didn't mind because, well, we had made our flight. When we got up to the door of the plane, we were told whatever carry-on’s we had would not fit and that they had to be put under the plane. We weren’t given a chance to respond and all 3 carry-on’s were taken away. I asked for a tag for them and was told to get on the plane and they would bring it to me. Just before the plane was about to take off, a stewardess came up and handed me one ticket that didn’t have a baggage number on it, it just said our destination and flight number. I told the stewardess we had 3 bags and was told I just needed the one tag for all 3 bags. When we arrived in Cuenca, as we were disembarking the plane, I asked 2 stewardess’ where we should collect our carry-on’s. Both people told me inside the gate. We went in and waited. In total, out of 3 checked bags and 3 carry-on’s, one bag arrived. As most travelers, our carry-on’s had valuable things in them, medication, etc. I inquired as to where our missing bags were and more importantly our carry-on’s and we were told that our carry-on’s were taken off the aircraft and were left in Guayaquil. I asked whether it is Lan’s policy to take carry-on baggage off without the permission of the passenger and was told “no”. We gave the representative we were dealing with the tags from the two missing checked pieces and the one tag I received for the 3 carry-on’s. I kept saying we were missing 5 bags but they were confused since we only had 3 luggage tags. I explained that the one tag represented 3 bags. I was asked why I was not given 3 tags but I said I had no idea, but that I had asked for 3. They said Lan would try hard to recover our bags - ya, thanks! We were then told to go to our hotel and when our bags arrived on the next flight we could collect them. I let them know (without getting too ethnic on them) that we are neither tourists nor do we live in Cuenca and that we needed to travel for another 5 hours to get home. They said there was nothing they could do but that our luggage would be on the next flight from Guayaquil, which was to arrive at 5:30pm. We believed them so we took our one bag and headed to the bus station to arrange a bus that would leave later that night to Loja and then went into City Centre to get some food. Since we had been up at 4am and were completely exhausted at this point and it had started to thunder storm, at 5:00pm headed back to the airport when we received a call from Lan. Our bags had not made it on the next flight and since we had mentioned that there was medication in our bags, they wanted to get us what we needed. We told them we were on our way and would discuss it when we got there. At the airport we went up into the office and we were told that they were still trying to locate the 2 carry-on bags that had not been tagged and that our other entire luggage was still in Guayaquil. There were no other flights arriving from Guayaquil that evening and as the nationwide Censo was happening the next day, there was no business happening at all between 9am to 5pm. The next flight arriving from Guayaquil was not until Sunday evening at 7:30pm. Lan said that we could leave and they could send our luggage by bus but since there was no way that was happening we had no choice but to stay in Cuenca. I was able to book a place to stay pretty quickly and we then had to split up and rush to purchase food for the next day as there were no restaurants open and purchase some provisions like Shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes/paste, etc that we didn’t have and then headed to the hotel. The censo on Sunday was all day and so no one, not even tourists could leave their hotel from 9am to 5pm. We were staying in a pretty fancy hotel and we had a balcony so we could look out and see military trucks driving around and men on foot. We enjoyed the day for what it was though and laid around and read our books. Once the curfew was over, we got a bite to eat and then returned to the airport at 7:00pm, ready to deal with Lan in case our bags still hadn't arrived or worse yet, weren't recovered. Fortunately for them, all 5 of our bags were recovered. We are dealing with Lan though about what happened . . . Monday morning we got up and headed by bus to Loja. We arrived in the evening and I have never been so happy to be back at home!!

Back to Baños . . . Volcano or not!

Yes, yes, I realize Tungurahua volcano was erupting at this point but that just makes it "adventure travel" so back to Baños we go! Baños is an awesome little city!! We left early Thursday morning and although the weather wasn't that nice, (yes ash and molten lava doesn't make for clear skies and tanning weather) it certainly cleared up for us!! This time I was smart and checked out what the bus looked like before I purchased a ticket (learn from mistakes - check!). Oh no wait, let's back up. First of all, the bus station is way WAY outside of the city so choosing a taxi for this is key. I've learned that this trip can take anywhere between 30 minutes to one hour depending on who is driving so driver's must be chosen carefully. We stood on the main street and I picked out a taxi, ah yes, the perfect taxi. This man had driving gloves on, perfect!! Not only did this guy get us there in just under 30 minutes but he had fantastic driving music to go with it!! Our bus to Baños, as usual, was filled with on and off stops but it was a lovely ride because as usual, Ecuador is gorgeous. We passed Cotopaxi on the way although it was a little cloud covered. We arrived in Baños, dropped our stuff at the hostel, grabbed a bite and hit the hot springs. We arranged for some massages later that evening and then got some fabulous dinner at a swiss restaurant. The next morning we went back to this breakfast place that I had gone to last time which is AMAZING and the best deal in town and then back to the hot springs. The locals love Baños but because it isn't vacation time for them, the hot springs weren't as full as they were in August when I was there. The sun shining over the mountain and the wonderful mineral water made it a delightful morning. At noon we headed back to our hostel to collect our things, grab a bite and back to the bus station. The next day we had to travel back to Loja as Ecuador was doing a Country-wide censo which I had to be home for. Little did I know I would never make it back in time . . .

Back to Quito

So my Mom arrived at the end of November. I thought since I just came back from Peru on Friday, that taking the bus on Sunday up to Quito would be no problem. There are no sleeper buses in Ecuador but all are considered "executive" and do give you more space then regular buses. My friends in Loja said it would be about 12-14 hours up to Quito so I got the 8am bus and hoped to arrive by 8pm, 10pm latest. But knowing me and buses in this Country, something was bound to happen. When we left from Loja there were about 15 people standing in the isle along with every seat being full. I couldn't believe that people were going to stand the whole way but not surprisingly, we dropped people off randomly along the way and then after an hour and a half we were in Sereguro which has a huge indigenous population and where lots of people got off and on. The ride through Ecuador was definitely beautiful. We changed elevation along the way, sometimes drastically as my ears wouldn't pop fast enough and would hurt. The highway, shall we call it, is only two lanes with no line down the middle and mountain on one side and a drop on the other. It's hard to sleep and even reading a book made me a little ill since it was so winding. At one point (hour 19) we were headed up a mountain and when we came to the top there was an unexpected roadblock. Some of the people got out and wandered around and our bus driver got out and went up and talked to the truck driver ahead of us. When he returned it was announced that we would back the bus up down the mountain and then cut through the last city we just passed-by. I weighed my options of getting out and walking down the mountain as some were doing or staying in the bus and taking the risk of potentially backing-up down the mountain. I opted to stay in the bus . . . it was definitely interesting. We backed up down the other side of the road (mountain side) and one guy was directing the bus but at every turn there were more transport trucks, buses and a few cars that were coming at full speed towards us. The guy would let them know and then they would turn around around us. Crazy!! When we finally made it to the bottom, we were able to do a full turn around and be on our way. Taking a bus for that long really tests your mental stability and at hour 12 I started to loose it but by hour 13 I was okay. We arrived in Riobamba at hour 13 so by then I knew we had 3 more hours to go until we got there. In Riobamba I changed seat mates and got this other who who asked me why as a foreigner I would ever take the bus from Loja (ya thanks!) but then since it was getting really cold, he gave me his jacket so I was able to sleep the last few hours into Quito. I arrived at midnight and fortunately my bag was one of the first off so I jumped in a taxi and headed into the central, swearing I would never return to that bus. Quito was having an unusually cold spell while we were there and it was freezing!! On Monday night mom and my friend were due to arrive. My friend at 9:30pm and my mom at 11pm. My friend ended up being delayed until 10pm and my mom's flight arrived early at 10:20 . . . I waited for my mom at the one and only gate in Quito until midnight when finally I was very concerned and had to figure out what was going on. I wandered around to the military office (lots of military in Ecuador). They took her info and flight info, made a few calls and then finally told me to check with Delta, who she flied with. I wandered around and found 2 Delta offices but because the flight had come in 2 hours ago, everything was closed. I went back to the internet cafe in the airport but that was also closed at this hour. When I went back to the arrivals terminal, it had emptied out a bit and I was able to get up to the guards so I let them know I was looking for my mother, what flight she came in on and her age but that she didn't require assistance. The guy went back to look for her and after 20 minutes returned and said she never entered the country. All the flights had landed for the night and the flight from Columbia had landed last so all that were coming out were spanish people, so we decided to head back to our hostel since there was nothing more we could do. We arrived back at 1:30, I sent a few emails to see if anyone had heard from her and then went up to bed. At 2am I got a call on my cell phone and it was my mom. She was at the airport in Ecuador and needed to know where we were staying. She put a spanish woman on the phone so I gave her directions and then went out front the hostel to wait for her. She arrived just before 2:30am. I guess when her flight had landed, 3 huge planes had arrived at the same time. Quito is a tiny airport, 3 baggage carousels only and when she came through customs, it was caotic. Mom said people were crawling over the belts and baggage to find their bags. She couldn't find her bags so she lined up in a line that she said was over 100 people and when she got to the front they told her they didn't deal with Delta people and she had to go to a different counter. She decided to just find someone who worked there who spoke english. When she did he found out that Delta had her bags but they were locked up for the night. They told her to come back the next morning but she said no and demanded they get them for her. She didn't end up coming out of the airport until after 1am and fortunately there was a local man there with his nephew, waiting to take off to go to Brazil (planes arrive at night and take off 2-3 hours later). It took him and his nephew to carry my mom's backpack (love it!) but they helped her make the call and then get a taxi. Mom said the taxi driver was asleep in his car waiting for the morning but he gladly woke up and brought her to the hostel. Such craziness!! The next day, we slept in and then started a walking tour of Quito. I loved Quito just as much the second time as the first time. In the afternoon we wandered across the street to a Turkish bath that is a little piece of heaven!!

Pisac, Lake Titicaca

Although I am a little late with the posts, here are some details and pictures to update you. From Macchu Picchu we took a tour through the Sacred Valley. First stop was Pisac which is an old Inca ruin that was used for agriculture. It was at a higher altitude then Cusco and we could feel it. It was gorgeous though and well worth the bit of altitude sickness!! After Pisac we headed to Ollantaytambo and then onto the a small town called Chincerro. It was slightly stormy in Chincerro which made it eery but also very beautiful. When the Spanish invaded the Inca Empire, the aspired to destroying everything Incan so that they would not return to their religion and culture. They figured out however that the Incan's were smart and built their structures earthquake proof (at a slant) so they would strip down buildings to their core and then build up from there. In Chincerro there is a Catholic church that was originally an Incan temple and which still has Incan influences in it's design since they were used as slaves by the Spanish. The next day we traveled with a tour bus to Puno. Puno is at an elevation of 3900m so we were prepared for the worst. Although I have never been to India, Puno is kind of how I picture India. There is a train that goes through the middle of the city with children playing on the tracks and then moving for the trains. The city is very dusty and looking at it from Lake Titicaca, it almost blends into the mountain so you can't see it. We did a day trip along Lake Titicaca and visited the floating villages of Uros. This was very different from the floating villages in Cambodia since the people in Cambodia build little rafts with roofs that they float on and then build smaller rafts for their chickens and they are connected by rope. On Lake Titicaca the people live on 2m of reeds that they are constantly replenishing with more reeds as the ones below rot. They can also eat the reeds they live on for food and naturally they eat fish. After that we went to the Island of Taquile which let's just say, we were not warned about the 700m climb to the top of (my apologies SB). At the top was the main square and there was an election going on so there was lots of activities happening. We opted out of the fish lunch (cat fish) so we brought some food and watched the locals who were naturally watching us. Afterwards we had to find our group to catch our boat, fortunately we left early to do this since the way down (which was on the other side of the island) wasn't obvious and well, we got lost. In total we were at about 5000m and boy oh boy could you feel it!! We did the treacherous hike down and caught our boat just in time. Next stop, 6 hour bus to Arequipa and then 16 hours back to Lima. The next day we departed ways as my friend flew home and I got on my 16 hour and then 8 hour bus back to Loja!

Moray, Salinas and Machu Picchu

So Tuesday we were up bright and early and we arranged for a private taxi to take us from Cusco to a city called Maras and then to Moray. As I mentioned, Cusco is 3300m high, however to get to Maras, we climbed to 3900m . . . the first picture is us at 3900m. It was crazy, it felt like you were part of the sky. Moray is an Incan agricultural labratory that was likely used to cultivate different plants high in the Andes. The ruin is HUGE, we walked down and around it but it´s so massive it´s hard to get a picture that captured it. Our next stop was Salinas which is where salt has been made since the Inca time down until today. It was really neat to see and you could walk through it. There were 4,000 of these pools that made salt, it was amazing! Our taxi then dropped us in a city called Ollayantambo and we took the Peru Rail train to Aguas Calientes which is the city where you catch the bus to go to Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes is only accessible by train and so the ride there was amazing. The next morning we were up bright and early and headed to Machu Picchu It´s really hard to get a picture that captures what is looks like and to think that the Inca´s use to walk from Cusco to Machu Picchu through this terrain but hopefully we caught a few that will do it justice. There´s much to tell you about Machu Picchu but I will leave that for another time! Enjoy the pics!

Lima to Cusco

So when I first arrived in Peru and was taking the bus from Piura to Lima, I was horribly devastated by the landscape in Peru. All sand. I had heard it was desert but I didn´t realize the extent of it and quite frankly, it ain´t that pretty to look at, not like the desert in the Middle East. Also, it makes the garbage everywhere feel that much more abundant. The bus ride from Lima to Cusco though (21 hours) started out similar but once we got into the Andes, it was gorgeous. The bus ride was long and a little brutal but we both slept okay. The altitude in Cusco is 3300m and let me tell you, you notice the difference. The first day I was feeling sick but once we got the hang of it, we were okay. The next day, we were onto Machu Picchu.

And the winner is . . .

Okay, if you haven´t read my last blog ´Loja to Lima´, you really must or this one won´t make sense. So I returned to the bus station for 5:30 this evening just to announce to everyone I was there and ensure I didn´t miss the bus. I spoke to the guys at the front who were new and updated them on why I was there. I looked conspicuous since I was a foreigner and wasn´t carrying any bag. Then, I saw my bus driver from earlier today (Juan). Juan told me that the bus was in an accident but that it should be there for 6pm. At this point I was so tired and my spanish was getting worse so I asked him if my bag would go somewhere else but he didn´t know . . . or more likely he didn´t understand me. He knew everyone at the terminal though so he wandered around and talked to everyone. At 6:10 he returned to tell me that the bus was on the street and would pull in shortly. There were tons of buses coming and going from the station so he was waiting for a spot. When the bus pulled in I recognized the driver (and I had memorized the bus number from the night before, just in case). To my suprise, there were people on the bus though . . . in fact I recognized all of the people getting off of the bus . . . it was the same people who had got on the bus in Piura. . . There were 2 girls from the US on that bus and as soon as they saw me they asked me how long I had been in Lima. Apparently their bus got into an accident 3 hours outside of Piura. They waited 2 hours to be told it would be another 3 hours for a bus to come from Piura to get them. . . they had been on that horrible bus for 25 hours . . . guys, to say I dodged a bullet I think is an understatement. I think people would have died had I been on that bus for 25 hours . . . sitting with all of my best friends!! So I got my bag, said thank you and goodbye to Juan and headed on back to Miraflores! It´s funny how a few hours ago you wonder if you made the right decision but then a few hours later who wonder why you ever reconsidered your decision . . .

Loja to Lima

Well I have been travelling for about 48 now but I have finally arrived in Lima. Tired and weary and without my pack . . . let me explain!
It all starts Tuesday! A group of about 60 of us went to Zamora for the day. Zamora is the province beside Loja and is also the name of the capital city where we went. The drive is only an hour and a half but it´s maybe the curviest road I have ever driven on AND I was sitting facing backwards . . . yep for those of you that know me well, not an ideal situation. I was feeling slightly sick but I put my head back and just stayed calm. I was doing good BUT THEN, one of my roommates who was sitting across from me started throwing up . . . yep, I thought I was going to loose it (and I know my sister won´t believe me) but I made it the whole trip and was okay. Even though it´s fairly close, the climate there is much more tropical and they have a lot of flowers and even birds that are considered exotic. We went to this place that was sort of a South American resort. It has this giant stone swimming pool, volleyball court, professional soccer stadium, chairs and we also had lunch there. We had a fantastic day and left at about 5pm to do the drive all over again . . . We got home around 7pm and I was wiped, I tried to sleep for a bit but that didn´t really work but at 9:30 I had a shower and by 10 was headed down to the bus station. My bus left at 11pm for Piura. I was on the Loja International line and on their executive bus which is much roomier then a normal bus. I sat next to a french guy who was really tall though and needed space. As my mom said, it was like sitting beside my brothers except I didn´t have the advantage of using him as a pillow. We made it to the Ecuador and Peru boarders at 3am exactly. We had to fill out paperwork at both boarders and I was near the end of the line but as this isn´t my first rodeo, I was naturally the first done clearing both boarders and back on the bus. We arrived in Piura at 6:30am. Naturally, I was completely exhausted when we arrived but there isn´t a lot to see in Piura so I decided to stick it out and do what I could. I was able to leave my pack with my next bus line and ventured out for the day. Yep, was done breakfast and seeing the sights by 8am. Kidding, but not by much. I had time and felt up to it so I decided to take a collective taxi to a town called Catacaos. It´s about a 20 minute drive from Piura and is considered the biggest and best handicraft village in the north. That it was . . . Peru has a lot of silver here so I looked around, grabbed lunch and then headed back to the bus. My bus left at 5pm so by 4pm I was seated in the station. I had booked my ticket online in advance and that morning I had gone to the station to confirm everything. Our luggage was weighed before we got on and put to the side. I had purchased a cama (which means bed) ticket which is a seat that reclines 180 degrees so you can sleep. I was beyond exhausted at this point so I couldn´t wait. As I stood in the terminal, I started to watch people. There was this little girl who kept rolling on the floor (ya, deffinitely not clean!), then she would try to go through other passenger´s bags, run screaming as loud as she could and just generally be annoying. Her mom wasn´t watching but when she would she would slap her and tell her to stop. The girl would start crying and then then mom would comfort her. Tell me, why do parents do that, discipline and then undermine themselves. Whatever happened to the good old ´I´ll give you a reason to cry´, it worked on me . . . anyways, deffinitely didn´t want to sit near that kid. Next, this guy kept walking by me and every time my eyes would well up with tears because, yep, he smelled SOO badly! Deffinitely don´t want him sitting near me. . . see where this is going? Next there was this family of 4 sitting together. The kids were like 8 months and 2 and they were being so loud and I thought ´they didn´t buy 4 tickets´ . . . don´t want to sit near them. There were 3 buses departing around the same time so there was a chance they weren´t even on the same bus as me . . . ya right. The first bus pulls in but it isn´t a cama bus and I don´t move. They are calling for my bus though . . . I wait for the bus to load and go over and ask the only girl who works there. She tells me, yep, that´s my bus . . what?!?!? I get on the bus and oh it´s not cama and it´s not even the roomier executive bus . . . and who is sitting in front of me .. . yep family of 4 on 2 seats . . . across, yep, little girl who is still acting crazy, getting slapped and then consoled . . . whose sitting beside me, smelly guy. I sit down and realize this is a 14 hour bus (so I thought). There is no way I can do this so I jump off. I go over to the desk and tell the lady there is no way that is my bus. She looks at my ticket and says yep, 5pm. I explained to her (in spanish might I add) that I booked a cama ticket. She looks again and sure enough I had. Apparently online the system shows the 5pm but as being cama, but it ain´t so it gave me the time and seat number and charged me for a cama but gave me a regular seat. Fortunately there was another bus that was cama leaving at 6pm AND there was space so the girl moved me over, one problem. My bag was loaded onto the original 5pm bus though. We ran to the bus but it was packed full and it was 45 minutes late and they refused to take it off. At this point I would only be 20 mintes behind that bus so fine, I had no choice but it would be okay. Then the girl told me the 6pm bus was going to Lima but to a different terminal in Lima. . . what?!?! I asked her if something could be arranged. While she was checking and making a call, I start to chat with the man standing at the counter also. When the girl finishes she says she will tell me where it is and they will arrange for me to be taken over. Fine. Then the guy who I was talking to starts talking to the girl, asking what´s going on. Weird, but okay. He then asks me if I have to be in Lima at a specific time, nope, so he says he is driving the 6:30 cama bus and I can go in his bus, it goes to the same station as the 5pm bus and he can help me get my bag. Great, done and done. I sit in the station, wondering whether I will ever see my bag again but figuring it will all be okay! Our bus left promptly at 6:30, at around 7pm we were served dinner and by 8pm I was dead asleep. I slept the whole night and awoke at 6am feeling refreshed. The bus ride was deffinitely more then 14 hours. We arrived in Lima and at our first station at 10:30 and to the final destination at 11:30. There were 2 other buses at the terminal so I ran around to see if any where the one I wanted, nope. I went back to my bus and the driver was looking for me. He took me around to the area where my bag should have been, explained what had happened to the guys working there and left me. I thanked him profusely and started to wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. No bag . . . there is a huge warehouse there since lots of people ship things back and forth on the buses so I asked the guy if I could walk through. He said no but when his manager walked away he was like ´follow me´. We walked up and down but it wasn´t there. I had the ticket stub for my checked bag and another guy was on the phone with someone trying to find it. Well they claim they tracked it down. It wasn´t claimed when it arrived in Lima so they kept it on the bus, why? No idea, makes no sense to me but it´s apparently still on the bus and when it returns to the terminal tonight at 6pm to head back to Piura, I can pick it up. Will I get my bag . . . only time will tell. Stay tuned!

Our dog Chester

Views from my house

My House

Bus Ride in Ecuador

So my bus from Quito to Baños was actually really pleasant. I was on a big bus, like a greyhound, I was in the second row and had both seats to myself despite us stopping and picking people up. I thought I had grabbed my IPOD but it wasn´t until we were pulling out that I realized I had left it on my bed. I thought to myself, ´it will be alright, I won´t really need it´ and I didn´t. . . .The bus ride back however was a different story. It wasn´t the same greyhound type bus but a more local, put together with spare pieces kind of bus, much smaller. First of all, I didn´t realize they assign you seats on the bus. On the way there, it obviously didn´t matter and no one said anything. No prob, I went to the back to find my seat, but wait, there´s a family of 4 sitting in my seat and the one beside it, oh well, I will just grab the row over and explain if anyone comes. Then an older local lady comes and sits down beside me. She gives me a big toothless grin and I just smile back with my best Canadian smile! I look out the window and there is a couple making out, I think, ´I sure hope they don´t get on my bus´, but wait, they are getting on my bus, and sitting right in front of me, excellent! The bus is full but as we pull out of the bus station there is a crowd waiting. The bus ahead of us (which is much larger and nicer) stops and grabs a few of them and then we stop but I just think ´we have no space, there´s no way people are going to get on´, yep the more the merrier here! A lady ended up putting her baby in the overhead space and secured it with her bags so it could sleep. I looked around and there is another family of 3 on the other side of the isle from us and the little girl, around 2, is sick and is coughing, sneezing, you name it, I could go on . . . I grasp for a window but I then realize I am the row inbetween both windows, crap! Then I realize that no one on the bus has their window open and we are slowly running out of oxygen . . . I look ahead and just brace myself for the road ahead when suddenly loud spanish radio comes on and starts blaring rapido spanish talking! Well it can´t get any worse, I better just hunker down and get ready for the ride ahead, wait, what´s that? someone else in the middle of no where wants on, sure, hop right on, plenty of room here, you can sit beside the driver (who by the way is sitting on a plastic lawn chair - oh ya, I have a picture!) Okay, on the road again, oh sheesh, couple in front of me is making out again, well I think it can´t last that long, they need to breath at some point. . . ´wait, bus driver, someone wants to get off the bus here, in the middle of no where, that´s right, please let him off so we can be the last people to see him alive´. . . . ´shake ur bon bon shake ur bon bon´ I look over and the 70 year old lady beside me whips out her cell phone which is screaming Ricky Martin´s big hit and starts talking in rapido spanish, okay now I´ve seen it all, oh and look, the couple just finished. People, you know it´s bad when the sound of Kei$ha on the radio warms your heart . . . wait wait, are we picking someone else up? ´Helado, aqua, lemonada, helado, aqua, lemonada, helado, aqua, lemonada´ as if we don´t have enough people on this bus already, we pick up someone who wants to yell louder then our spanish radio station and crawl over the people standing in the aisle to sell items. . . maybe the baby wants something in the overhead, why don´t you ask them . . . oh wait, there goes making out couple again . . . oh and the baby with the cold is starting to sneeze on the window again . . . someone, please open your window . . . we stop to grab more people (naturally) and these guys are carrying what looks like over 100 bags of milk, so of course, there´s always room for 2 more and 100 bags of milk, hop right on. . . . all of a sudden I see the sign for Quito, we´re here! And we´ve just lost our radio signal so perhaps it will be a quiet coast in, nope, spanish man with sneezing coughing baby to the rescue! His cell phone has music which can be played loud enough for all to hear . . . and there goes his baby sneezing again, and there´s goes making out couple all over again . . .I look over at my 70 year old lady waiting for her to do something but I notice she has simply gone to sleep on my shoulder, excellent! After 3 hours we are finally in Quito and it´s then and only then I realize this was the best bus ride ever! I don´t even know where the time went!

Baños

I´ve learned there are buses in Ecuador and then there are buses, I have now experienced both, more details to follow later though. I arrived late in Baños and it was dark but fortunately the city was very must alive and kicking. The city isn´t all that big and I had studied my map well so I knew which direction I wanted to go in to find a hostel to stay in. It was freezing there (like everywhere) so once I had a room, I had some dinner and then headed back for bed. I guess I am use to Toronto where it´s so flat and I knew that Baños was in a valley in the mountains but to actually wake up and see wall to wall green mountains surrounding you was more magical and amazing then I could have anticipated. The drop is pretty much straight down so you feel very much protected. And naturally there are evacuation directions so if anything happens you know what to do. I was out the door at 7:30 as the hot springs opened at 4:30am so I had already missed a bunch of time but I stopped and booked a one and a half hour massage and one hour facial on the way and was there and in the water by 8:30. Baños isn´t a huge city and it´s pretty flat so you can make it around pretty quickly! The hot springs were amazing. There was a freezing cold pool, a warm, almost bath water temperature pool and then there was a hot hot hot pool which you then went from and took a FREEZING cold shower and then got back in. I swear, they somehow found glacier water and shipped it up, it was sooo cold! But when in Rome . . . The pools were all full (expect the cold one which only had a few children who didn´t care about living) but there was this one guy who looked like he just climbed over the mountain and had never seen civilization. He had long hair and it looked like he should have been carrying a witch doctor stick. I am sure you all guessed it but yep, he became my friend. He spoke some english, well more then anyone else in the Country really, and he owned the only local health food store. He was very interesting and entertaining and he knew everyone there so I made lots of new friends! After all my treatments, I walked through the city back to the bus terminal. Although it wasn´t warm, the sun was out and everyone was out and about. I looked in a few shops and then grabbed the next bus to Quito and that is where my true bus ride in Ecuador began . . .

Quito

So in case you haven´t heard, it took me longer to get here then anticipated. I was suppose to connect through Houston on Monday but due to weather we were grounded in Alexandria Louisiana (that´s right, look it up!) for about an hour and a half. By the time we landed in Houston, my flight had taken off over an hour ago. There is only one flight a day from Houston to Quito so I had a full 24 hours to wait so I headed to my hotel! The next day went smoothly, my flight was extremely full as I wasn´t the only person to have not made it. We arrived in Quito late, around 11:40pm and once I cleared customs and realized my bags weren´t there it was almost 1am. My transfer to my hostel was there waiting and before I knew it I had arrived in the historical part of Quito. In true travel fashion, I was awake bright and early the next morning and started on my Lonely Planet walking tour. Unfortunately due to exhaustion and what seemed like an insurmountable climb up I swear a mountain to the Basilica, I opted to retire for the day and headed back to my hostel for a 3 hour nap. Fortunately my hostel is very centrally located in historical Quito so I am never that far away from it! The buildings in Quito are really magnificient, the city is so old and it has so much personality. Some of the smaller streets actually remind me of Europe a bit. The buses pass the hostel frequently and you will often hear "red off the red nose reindeer" to alert people that they are coming. As with some SA countries, if you want a bus, you merely step out and flap your arm around like a crazy person. No matter the speed the bus is travelling in, it will stop. Thursday morning I finally received my bags and then finished my walking tour which took me up into the new part of Quito. Thursday evening I headed to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Baños.

Alabama and Pensacola Beach

AK's Wedding - May 8, 2010

Rio to Salvador

So we said goodbye to all of our travelling companions and then mom and I headed out for our last day in Rio. To our surprise, the rain had still held off from the night before and it had actually cleared up and was sunny out. the one good things about our hostel was the location so we walked down to Impanema beach. We walked along for a while and then found a good little spot to sit and enjoy the *site*s. Rio is really beautiful as it's so green everywhere, there are huge mountains/hills all over the city and coming out of the water are islands which no one lives on as they are basically giant rocks but that are completely overgrown with green. And naturally on the beach . . . there were a few sights to see. The rumors are true about this place, that's all I am going to say. We were there early so we watch people arrive and then splash around in the water, which is a beautiful blue/green color. While we were sitting there, I guess the locals started to trust us as this girl came up, said a bunch of stuff in portugese and then handed me her purse. I help onto it while she went into the water to swim. Then, this other guy came up holding a plastic cup with clear liquid, and asked me to hold his cup for him while he swam. When he came back, he introduced himself, offered us some of his drink and then walked off drinking it. We decided to walk over to Copacabana then and on the way we stopped at one of the many freshly squeezed fruit juice stands. By this point we had figured out what most of the fruits were in portugese since they have there are tons of freshly squeezed places and they are amazing! We walked over to Copacaba which was packed! Way more hopping then Impanema. When you go to the beach in Brazil, there are people who will rent you chairs and umbrellas for the day, which most people do so all you can see is a sea of people, umbrellas and chairs! We took some pictures, grabbed some lunch and then headed back to our hostel to grab our stuff to head to the airport. Our flight to Salvador was an hour and a half with a one hour time change. The airport in Salvador is far from the main city and further for us since we were staying in Barra, but we grabbed a cab since it was already so late . . . local buses it was though for the rest of our stay in Salvador.

Rio de Janeiro - December 31

So we woke up on the 31st and what . . . its raining . . . in Rio? How strange! The cloud cover was pretty bad but we couldnt stay in our hostel (as nice as it was) so we headed to a mall for a few hours. The mall really wasnt that interesting but it was air conditioned! After a few hours there we went to a Churrasaco which was amazing! It had amazing sushi as well as crazy crazy amounts and varities of meat that they brought around on spears and gave to you! We were there for a few hours, mostly just seeing what went by, but it was soooo good! It started to clear up a bit after that so 4 of us decided to brave it and go back (for some of us) to Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar) to see if we could go up. Sugar Loaf isnt as high as Corcovado and so it was really beautiful! Its so high up we could see all of Copacobana, the islands off Rio and the National Airport and all the mountain around it. We were really glad we went, it was really worth it! You have to take 2 cable cars to go up which I found a little frightening. When you stepped off them there was a gap that undoubtedly a small child could go through, but I figured how many tourists have gone up here before and not died . . . After Sugar Loaf we tried to jump in a cab to go back to our hostel but because it was about 6pm, New Years and our hostel was at the corner of Ipanema and Copacabana, the main roads had been closed and a cab just to the top of the strip was about all we could afford, we got dropped at the top of Copacabana and walked down. Now, if you have ever seen a map of the place and imagine its about 40C with the sun hitting you, there are hords of people everywhere coming out for New Years, we have been walking all day, well it was about the longest walk of our lives . . . We finally made it back at about 8pm and for lack of a better word we were exhausted and so overheated I thought my ears were going to start whistling! We lied down for a few and then at 11, the girls headed over to the beach to meet the 2 boys who had gone over earlier. We walked down to the beach with the other million and a half people that had to have been there. They had 2 stages setup on different parts of the beach but we stayed further down and just stayed for the countdown and then some amazing fireworks that followed! It was really beautiful! 2 cruiseships also sat in the harbour although after the fireworks going off we couldnt see them anymore! Everyone in Rio dresses in white for New Years and the beach curves and slants (if that makes sense) so you could see the masses on the beach all dressed in white! It was really amazing and great to be there! Also, at midnight everyone comes armed with at least one bottle of champagne so at one point my mother had champagne running down here back and legs. I used her for protection so I was pretty clean (thanks mom!) After the fireworks we headed back to the hostel (home sweet home by this point). The next day the boys flew to Ouro Preto, the happy couple went to Sao Paolo and mom and I headed for Salvador!

Rio de Janeiro

Our hostel was almost too horrible to explain. If I had to describe it, it was like an old apartment building that was originally 300-feet apartments that had been converted into rooms with 4-6 beds in them. We actually booked a 6 bed room with an ensuite but apparently in Rio you have to email them to clarify that you want all 6 beds to be in the same room . . . and the first room that 4 out of 6 were given, the AC wasnt working, there was no window and already 2 people sleeping in there! After much negotiation we were given a 4 person room with AC that worked and a 2 person room with AC for the night and the next night we were to get a 6 person room, ensuite with working AC. Since we were there over New Years, the hostel was already extremely expensive and we really didnt have any other options so after coming to terms with our new *home* for the next few days we set out to see the city. When we woke up on the 30th it was raining . . . but we hadnt come this far to be scared of room AND our hostel was so bad AND there was no common area we could hang out so we headed out to Corcovado. We jumped into 2 cabs, 3 in one and 3 obviously in the other. The first cab, which had myself in it, went to the base of Corcovado, where you catch the train to go up the mountain, and jumped out to wait for the others . . . and we waited . . . and we waited . . . 40 minutes later and with every possible scenario of them being dead or robbed somewhere, one of the vendors told us that you could actually take a cab halfway up the mountain where you catch a the bus and elevator the rest of the way to the top, so hoping the other 3 were there we headed up. Rio use to be a rainforest and the only rainforest that is really left are on these crazy mountain-like-rocks they have all over the city, which actually makes Rio even more beautiful! So going to the top was like taking a jungle tour through the rainforest. They took you first to a mountain that was attached to Corcovado where you could take pictures of the city and of course, Christo standing uptop of Corcovado! We got out and took a bunch of pictures, hoping we would find the other 3 but they were no where, so we got back in and headed for the top. When you get near the top, there is a parking lot with cabs and cars where people have brought their own cars up and from there you have to jump in these vans that take you up pin-hair sharp turns to almost the top where you take another elevator up a few more stories and then when you get out and think you must be there, you take 2 escalators the rest of the way. It wasnt raining at the top but it was very wet and Christo was covered almost completely by the clouds. The clouds would clear for a few seconds though and you could see around you! We looked for the others there and when it started to rain got some shelter and waited a bit but they werent there . . . so we did the whole process in reverse . . . got to the bottom and jumped in a cab back for our hostel. So even though there could be 6 people sleeping in a room, they only give ou one key and since the person with our key was in the other taxi, we were locked out. We knocked on both room doors though but they werent there. We asked the guys working at the front desk whether they had seen them, but it wasnt the same guy from the night before so he had no idea who we were talking about. It was raining pretty hard by then and we were starving so looking like wet poodles we started to roam the streets looking for food. After lunch we felt a bit better and we had to grab our laundry so we headed back to the hostel . . . hoping the others would be there, all in one piece with no holes in them! When we got back they were there! Apparently, although they had the guide book with the book, they had been confused and got dropped at Sugar Loaf, they waited for us there, then realized they werent in the wrong spot, had rushed over to Corcovado but by that time we were up the mountain! Everyone was okay though. We spent the rest of the afternoon staying dry in the hostel and by the evening we found all of us together in one room in our hostel!