Ecuador

Ecuador (September 17th - October 21st 2003)
Written by Adrian, corrected by Carrie

This was the start of the foreign part of the trip, as everything we had done up until coming to Ecuador was in the US, and therefore not very foreign. Ecuador is not really famous for anything, I cannot think of any famous Ecuadorians, I certainly didnt know who the president was, or anything about it in fact, other than the equator goes through it and they own the Galapagos Islands.

We decided to stay for a week in Quito, the capital, to try and get used to the idea of being in South America, and also to take some Spanish classes. This was described as "Survival Spanish" for me, where I learnt about verbs and numbers and so on, one-on-one, but Carrie had a much more advanced, concept based method, where, I believe, she said whole sentences and thoughts without breaks to think of words. Though I found the 4 hours a day, and homework, very hard going, it did some good, and I am now in the position of being able to understand spoken Spanish, if its done slowly, but cannot say much without a few minutes preparation first. We also looked around Quito, which I thought was a fine city, surrounded by mountains and greenness. The center has a considerable amount of Spanish influence, especially in the cathedrals and squares. The cathedrals tend to be of the very ornate catholic type, with as many carvings and paintings of saints experiencing as much pain as possible. We didnt like them very much once inside, but they looked good from outside.

We visited the equator on the equinox to see our shadows disappear as the sun goes overhead. Apparently in the 1800s, the French dispatched a scientific expedition to discover the equator. This they did, and it looks like they got it right, more or less, and the whole business is celebrated by many statues and pictures of French types. While we were there, the Ecuadorians saw fit to put on a demonstration of Andean dancing, with music and costumes from all over South America. It was a very pleasant display indeed and everyone there seemed to like it - until some type of Panamanian singing started, which we, along with everyone else, did not like.


Noon on the vernal equinox at the equator.


Otovalo market


A colonial square in Quito

By this time we had had to take a few buses. For those not familiar with the buses of South America, they are a bit of a shock to start with. I will describe. Though the whole continent generally drives on the right, if the left side of the road looks quicker or preferrable, then it is used by buses. If a passenger appears to need picking up on the other side of the road, across traffic or pedestrians or chickens, then the bus goes over to get them. Driving is done in as fast a method as possible. All of the buses have both driver and conductor, so as the driver can concentrate on swerving while the conductor hangs from the bus shouting the destination and tries to persuade people to get on - even those that dont want to go anywhere get hustled in an attempt to get them onto the bus. All buses are also adorned with a considerable quantity of religious paraphernalia - stickers, posters and signs, presumably to protect the passengers, as well as fancy curtains, fringes, and flashing lights. Somehow the whole system works very well. Buses are cheap, get where you are going as fast as possible, and leave very frequently.

On occasion in Ecuador we had to make quite long journeys by bus which went along very steep canyons and switchbacks. In this situation the only method to avoid the feeling of crashing at every bend is not to look forwards. We went on one ride where our bus and another from a rival company were racing along such roads, which even made the locals sit up.

Little known facts about Ecuador No 1:Currency is the US dollar, though they have their own versions of the coins, but they are the same size and shape

After Quito, we flew directly to the Galapagos islands for an 8 day visit. These are the islands that have wildlife that has adapted to the islands, with species on each island being slightly different, and all of the species being different from those on the mainland. Charles Darwin based his "Origin of Species" on what he saw in the Galapagos, it has been alleged many times. Either way, the creatures there certainly are unusual. The main difference is that most of them are not afraid of people, at all. We were able to walk right up to sea lions nursing their babies, birds feeding their young and lizards basking in the sun. This is not some 6 feet away "right up to", but 3 inches "right up to". It was almost unnatural how close we could observe the wildlife from and it almost felt like we were intruding into their lives by watching them.

We took a boat, the good ship Angelito, to look around the islands, as everyone has to unless they want to go to only the larger, populated islands. On board were 16 of us turistas, from various countries, a guide, cook and crew of about 6 - all of whom were Ecuadorian. There are maybe 20 islands of significant size, and we saw perhaps half of them. Each day we would go around a few islands on carefully marked walks, lead by Efraim, our guide, and return to the Angelito for meals and bed. In this way we would not spend time eating or relaxing on land. Sailing between the islands was generally done at night so we would wake up to a new location. If we were not up all night with sickness from the rocking of the boat all night that is.


Adrian and a blue footed booby in a stand off


Adrian and a blue footed booby in a stand off, again


The good ship Angelito


Baby giant tortoises in their corral


Carrie and a baby seal


Inside the Angelito


A loser seal, recouperating on the rocks

The Ecuadorians seem to take good care of the islands and we could not see many examples of pollution or interference. We also did a fair amount of snorkelling amoung the reefs and bays of the islands where there are numerous small fish, sea lions as well as some sharks and rays, but only the sea lions have lost their fear.

The islands themselves are all the remnants of volcanoes, so are very dry, dusty and inhospitable looking, and most of the time we were walking on sand or lava, and the only vegetation was cacti and some very hardy trees that can cope with the dry. The plants are probably interesting as well as the animals, but noone in our group thought so. I was most impressed by the birds I think - it makes them so much more interesting to be able to see them so closely. The blue footed boobies, which really have bright blue feet (the one in the photo is a youngster), seem to have a very friendly and inquisitive disposition, and would look you in the face and follow your eyes. Also the sea lions were popular as they are playful in the water and relax in a very human way, sprawled out on the beaches.

We saw some of the giant tortoises in a breeding center as they cannot lay eggs on the islands without introduced species eating them. They take 30 years to reach breeding age, and live to over 120, so they reckoned. At one time sailors used to remove them and keep them on their ships as a source of fresh meat, as they can live for up to a year without food. Its a bit of a miracle that any of them are left, but the breeding place is releasing them back into the wild now, though they cannot breed there.

A land iguana


Giant tortoise in the Darwin center


View from the highest point of he Galapagos


A Masked booby on 'nest'


Us with the Angelito


The aquatic, swimming iguana


The Angelito with an iguana in the foreground


Another baby seal and booby


Blue footed booby observing us


The Magnificent Frigatebird following the Angelito

If anyone is wanting a real adventure, then I can highly recommend a trip. However, it is very expensive and you have to really want to go to swallow the cost!

Little known facts about Ecuador No 2:There are more species of birds in Ecuador (size of UK) than the whole of North America

After that, we returned to Quito and travelled southward through the country towards Peru. First stop Baños, which has an active volcano next to it which was covering the town with ash and dust all the time. This was very annoying. We decided to go on a "jungle tour" for a few days from here. The Amazon starts in Ecuador and the east of the country is inaccessible jungle. We went to "secondary jungle" which refers to jungle which is not "primary", that is, hasnt been cut down ever. Though it was not seeing the primary jungle, it looked pretty much like jungle to me, with tarzan vines, monkeys, butterflies, bananas and lots of moisture. We stayed in small cabins made from sticks, but still drank Coke, like everyone seems to in Ecuador.


A hillside near Banos with the almost erupting volcano in the background


A cusumbo (or Coatimundi) in the jungle. Sort of.


Camping in Podocarpus

After this we travelled, by bus, with eyes shut, to several of the towns and cities on the Panamericana. Notable here was Urbina, a village so tiny that we stayed in the only house, a converted railway station with llamas and sheep grazing outside. This is at the foot of Chimborazo, a very very big volcano. We didnt go up but walked around the bottom of it a bit. At the station we met several of the locals whose children it would appear we ended up looking after. The kids were very outgoing and bright and very friendly indeed. They even knew a little bit of English, though its probably their 3rd language after Spanish and Quechua, the indigenous language, but insisted on testing my Spanish.

We then visited Cuenca, which had large colonial squares, and decided to try some back packing in the Ecuadorian countryside. There is a system of National Parks, but its not very developed and barely used. We found this one park called Podocarpus, which was on some very hilly countryside, the base of which was thick forest and the top was something called paramó - waist high shrubbery. The whole place was a cloud forest, which meant it was wet. Going was very hard, as the path went up and down everything, but we managed to spend 2 nights outside in reasonable comfort, and see a whole load of strange plants. The sun sets at 6pm and rises at 6am everyday on the equator, so the nights were long! On the way down we tried to go cross country, but got a bit lost and ended up walking through fields of cows, bananas and coffee before getting back after a 7 hour epic. Walking in other places is easier.

Little known facts about Ecuador No 3:Chimborazo, Ecuadors highest volcano, is the furthest point from the center of the earth.

We were pleasantly surprised by the Ecuadorian people. We never heard a raised voice or argument while we were there - even street sellers speak their wares. They also have several good newspapers which are read by much of the population, the tabloids being relatively uncommon. And they speak quite slowly, which I liked. The food however, we were not too impressed with. Most of it involves fried chicken, but the fruit juice was excellent. Most nights we stayed in Hostals or small hotels. These ranged from basic (no hot water) to really quite nice (cable TV).

Animal check list: too many to mention