Wendy arrived in Quito Thursday night, the 17th, with many gifts in hand. My family surprised me with a Christmas card that they had all signed. Considering they live in four different towns and three different states, this was a remarkable feat for them that took some definite planning. And my grandmother was insistent that Wendy bring me some chocolate and peanut butter fudge because she knows it´s my favorite. Emily sent me more CDs than I had even asked her for, and I can´t wait to listen to them, and she sent me two packages of the blessed Tim Tams (one of which we consumed with Viviana and her family, doing the Tim Tam Slam!). I´m sending up a thank you right now to Pepperidge Farms for deciding to manufacture them again, and to Em for knowing that I´d want them. And then Wendy brought me my favorite toothpaste I had asked for as well as the lotion I wanted.
We hit the ground running on the morning of the 18th with a 2-hour taxi ride to Otavalo. We checked in with Viviana and my school and then headed for lunch followed by a trip to El Parque de Cóndors where they have different types of birds. There is a trail leading from the park to the Peguche waterfall where I had been the week before, so we had decided to do that. I asked Viviana and her sister if it was easy to find and they said yes; what they didn´t tell me is that the trail itself wasn´t easy--quite steep actually, nor that at times we might be completely and utterly confused about which trail to follow. Since there are lots of locals that live in and around there, there are lots of little worn paths that may or may not be the trail to the waterfall, and this isn´t a national park with abundant signage. In fact, there was no signage. We crept down the dusty, slippery trail and finally arrived a little after 5, at the same time the rain chose to arrive. A few quick pics and then we headed back the good trail and promptly became drenched. We had no luck trying to call a taxi when we reached the trail head, but only had to wait a few more minutes for a bus. Otavalo, of course, was completely dry, and when we walked into the kitchen, Viviana asked if we had swam in the waterfall. It sort of looked that way, but it had been much too cold for that.
Saturday dawned cold and rainy; in fact, our clothes were wetter that morning than when we had taken them off the day before. We passed time eating, using the Internet cafe, and occasionally walking around town in the market, though it was a sad, sad market day with the rain. Lots of vendors were absent.
Sunday´s weather was much improved and we headed up to Lake Cuicoche, where I had been the week before. We did the boat trip, and I´m glad it only cost $2.50 because it was worth even less than that. It´s one of those tourist traps that I usually try to avoid, and I can´t say that the chilly ride was worth it, especially given that the commentary was in Spanish. I understood only some of it.
That afternoon we quickly hailed a bus back to Quito in the street. It barely even stopped long enough for us to board. I threw my small backpack in the overhead compartment, thinking at the time it was a bad idea because my memory is crap, but without much choice since I already had another small backpack in my lap. Of course, when we arrived in Quito, I promptly disembarked and hopped in a cab. Only when we arrived at the hostel 45 minutes later and I looked for my bag did I realize where it was--in the overhead compartment on the bus. A few minutes later we were headed back to the terminal. The guys there were really nice and tried to be helpful, but given that we had hailed the bus in the street, we didn´t have tickets, so I knew neither the bus number nor the bus company, making it impossible to determine which bus had my bag. I was informed that since I was the last one off the bus, likely the ticket taker on the bus had taken it as there is ¨mucho corrupcion.¨ I don´t think you need a Spanish dictionary to translate that phrase!
Monday morning I hopped up bright and early because I wanted to elicit Franklin´s help with calling the two bus companies I thought might possibly have my bag. He didn´t answer his phone, and trying to find phone numbers for the companies proved equally impossible. I made the decision then to accept what I had lost and begin to replace what I could. Of course, every few hours I would realize something else I had forgotten was in the bag. In fact, just this morning, I realized I had lost a pair of shorts I didn´t know I had lost. I feel like two months from now I´ll still be thinking of things I had crammed in that bag. Here´s the tally on what I lost and what I´ve replaced (as far as my brain can remember at this very moment):
- charger for Zune and electronic book (ordered replacements, will have soon)
- camera battery charger and USB cable (ordered replacements, will have soon)
- dental retainers (my dentist had replacements already, and I´ll have these soon)
- glasses (won´t replace, too expensive)
- 3 pairs of disposable contact lenses (fortunately I have three more pair and if I don´t lose any, I can make these last until June)
- toiletries (replaced)
- two tank tops (replaced)
- two pairs of shorts (replaced at used clothing store today)
- camping towel and washcloth (replaced)
- flashlight (replaced)
- underwear (replaced)
- pair of camping pants (replaced with a skirt at a used clothing store today)
- $100--I think (Terri graciously donated $100, so I guess this has been replaced)
- backpack itself (not replacing; stuff just has to fit in less space)
- jump drive (not replacing; fortunately most everything important I had emailed to myself anyway)
- Keen sandals (not replacing as the cost to replace here is $117; I have a pair of Tevas at my family´s house in Costa Rica)
Of course, I´ll never get back the hours upon hours that I spent shopping for these things in Quito. Fortunately Monday night, Franklin was a big help (since all I had managed to replace at that point was soap, saline solution and a razor--the shampoo I bought was actually conditioner!). He´s not one of those guys who doesn´t like asking for help. You need tampons? Oh, let me ask the saleslady what aisle those are in!
Monday, I took a break from shopping for Wendy and I to visit the equator. I knew that there was both a real one and a fake one, the fake one being much more publicized. What I didn´t realize was that that fake one is literally a waste of $2. You can´t even go up in the monument as that´s another $3. After a brief, very brief stay there, we walked to the real one. We received a tour in English that included information about the indigenous tribes, the Amazon jungle, and then experiments on the equator. We learned that on the two equinoxes for three minutes at noon, a person has absolutely no shadow. And we watched as she drained water from a sink on the equator (no whirlpool--it drains absolutely straight down), and in both hemispheres where it circles in opposite directions. I tried to balance an egg on the head of nail, which is supposedly much easier to do on the equator, but I was unsuccessful and didn´t earn a certificate. Then again, nobody else in my group did either! Bunch of slackers!
Tuesday morning Wendy and I headed to Baños for two nights, taking a 40-minute cab ride and then a 3-hour bus. I´ve almost become immune to the scenery as I had no problem closing my eyes and trying to sleep the whole way. Once in Baños I realized my tennis shoes were among the items I had purposefully left in Quito to save weight in my backpack, but that that left me with only flip flops, not exactly ideal footwear for any of the activities we might want to undertake. So I had to do more shopping. No, ladies, this was not fun shopping. I finally found a pair of flats for $14 with rubber bottoms that I would be able to wear again and that would suffice.
With that task accomplished, we set out to book activities. We decided that night would be a trip to the hot springs, Wed morning would be horseback riding, Wed afternoon would be massages, Wed night would be a trip to the volcano, and Thurs morning would be the waterfall route in a go kart.
The hot springs left a little to be desired as it felt somewhat like a Turkish bath (as if I´ve ever been to one of those). There was just something a little creepy about murky water at night with lots of people I don´t know. We stayed about an hour until we were sweating and headed back to the really nice hostel for $9.50 a night. (They don´t know what hostels are in this country as many of them have private rooms and even private baths.)
The horseback riding Wed morning was fun, although we were both glad it ended early since our legs had had enough. We walked, we trotted, and we even galloped at times, and I talked as much as I could with our guide in Spanish who was wonderful. The scenery was gorgeous, and at one point we got to see the ruins of a house that had been destroyed by the volcano just three years ago. I hadn´t realized the volcano was still active. He did tell us, however, not to bother with the tour that night as the clouds would obscure the view, making it a waste of time. Fine by me, I already had blisters on my heels from the wonderful new pair of flats I had purchased.
Our afternoon massage was warranted after that horseback ride and only set us back $20 each. A small price to pay for an hour´s worth of luxury. That night we had planned to sit up on the rooftop terrace, but I found I was just as content relaxed in my bed with a book, and we opted to stay in instead.
Thursday morning we hopped into a go kart for a tour of the waterfalls, map in hand. We should´ve seen six waterfalls. We managed to see two on the way there, and one on the way back. We´re not sure where they´re hiding the other three. It was quite interesting that we shared the road with regular traffic, despite the fact that we couldn´t have been going more than 30 mph, including heading through mountain tunnels. At one point we stopped to take a cable car across the canyon and back, a quick little trip but well worth the time and the $1 for the views and photos. Not to mention the little flutter in the heart it will give my mom when she sees the photos! (Love you, Mom!)
We arrived back in Quito at the bus station, which is about a 45-minute cab ride from town, and tried to contact our cab driver, who told me he was stuck in traffic. A second phone call to him elicited an I´m sorry, please hire someone else because I can´t get there. Our ride back was eventful to say the least. Traffic on Christmas Eve here was crazy and in intersections where there are no stoplights, it´s literally a free for all. You simply creep into the intersection and worm your way through. At one point, traffic was stuck because of the angles of the cars (we´re talking four lanes of traffic in both directions), and the guy we were blocking wasn´t happy, making our cab driver exit the vehicle and approach his to yell in Spanish something like, What the hell am I supposed to do? I really wanted a birds eye photo of that intersection because I haven´t seen anything like it in my life. At another point we were riding in the part of the street designated for the trolley in order to pass a line of cars; you know you might need to be a little worried when your cab driver buckles his seatbelt. But we were thankful to have an aggressive driver or we would´ve been even later in arriving back to the hostel.
This morning we headed to old Quito to see the historic buildings. We were not prepared for the Christmas traffic. Apparently people here don´t stay home on Christmas morning as they´re all out shopping. After my jackpot at the used clothing store, which was probably the third store we entered, it was a lot of walking around, looking at things and not buying, and trying to avoid being knocked off the sidewalk. We finally extricated ourselves after a little over two hours.
Tonight we´ll have dinner one last time with my friend Franklin and then I´ll see how much stuff I can cram into the remaining space in the backpack. I think most of it will go, and what won´t will go into a plastic sack for me to have as a carry on. What can I say, I travel in style!
Costa Rica, here I come!
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