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!