Travelling Life

cute little hostel room in Otavalo, 13 bucks includes breakfast

Well, I hit the one month mark of traveling today. It´s about one month when I feel as if things are somewhat normal. I have my routines and a certain way to pack. However, not one single thing is normal. Everything from the sugar on the table to the that dinner plate of guinea pig is different from back home. Each day I wake up and sort of forget what town or city I am in. Can I even pronounce the word of this town, I know I can´t spell  it....¨Ollantaytambo¨!  I go from one hostel room to where it was so hot and humid that I couldn´t even put a light sheet over me to sleep. Then one day later, I am sleeping at over 11,000 ft elevation in the high Andean mountains with four wool blankets on top of me.

baby bananas

Today I counted how many buses I have taken so far on my journey. Twenty. Twenty buses. On the bus this morning, an older woman sat next to me and was squishing me against the window. I always take the window seat.  She would point out and speak the name of each ancient ruin in Spanish to me as we zoomed by in the rickety, rackety bus that hugged each curve of the mountain road. Don´t look down. Personal space doesn´t really exist much here. It now feels strange to me to have a conversation in good English. My Spanish has greatly improved and for this I am very excitied about.  

I do not miss much from back home. Besides family, friends, and peanut butter for some reason. Oh, and a hot shower. And the joy of making endless cups of coffee at home. I think Americans are the only ones who unecessarily drink the bottemless cup of coffee. Other South Americans have asked my why we do this. I can not explain it and the more I think about it, the more it does not make sense.

It is a slow pace of life here and for this I am also thankful for and must remember when I get back home.  I mean how many times in an average week, do you wake up and say, ¨Huh....I have nothing that I HAVE to do today.¨ This is my world of a being on constant vacation. I have the best job ever as a Park Ranger where I get payed to hike, and camp. I am fortunate to travel the United States and experience life in these magical places. I get to live in the environement and get to know it.  I refer to my job as a ¨working vacation¨. Folks have asked what I do for work and to explain it simply is not easy! In Spanish, the word for Forest Ranger is {guardabosque} which translates to (to keep, to save, to conserve, to guard ...the forest.) Cool. 

EXPAND YOUR MIND

I saw this post today about 100 Things I´ve Learned While Backpacking. I could not help but laugh and think of what all of us travelers and vagabonds in the world share together and can laugh about.  

The following below are things that made me smile of this traveling life: 

1. Where ever you go, Coca Cola has already been.
11. Homesickness can strike at any point. So can diarrhoea.
15. It will either be a good time, or a good story.
41. Avocados can be eaten with, on and in anything. And be delicious.
61. You’ll meet people on the road who will be incredible…and leave you wondering if a) you’ll ever see them again b) if you’ll ever meet anyone like them again?
67. Fruit shakes are amazing. Who cares how much sugar is ladled into them.
84. Rustling plastic bags at 6am will definitely wake you up when sharing dorms.
93. Be prepared to fall in love; whether with a sun set, a beach, a beautiful person… it’ll happen!

Otavalo

happy cows in the andes...it is SO green here

Huh...I have found myself on the bus again. It´s not too bad...way better than Greyhound ! I peer over the seats and all I see is a sea of thick black haired people.  Once again, it is sort of nice to have dark hair and blend in, in a way. To the North I go, to the town of Otavalo.

I step off the bus and it is jammed back with people. For the first time, I see some Afro-Cubans. They are commonly seen in the North and North West of Ecuador and bring a different flavor of culture with their music and food.

ice cream anyone ? only 25 cents from this

Otavalo is known for its famous artisan craft markets and textiles. Mostly indigenous folks selling handmade goods and they are one of the few groups of peoples that make an ok income off of selling their crafts. The market is filled with colors of the rainbow. Textiles, dolls, leather goods, hats, blankets, alpaca wool sweaters, you name it.


Otavalo was a fun town. Not too big and not too small. Very laid back and a few good places to eat. Here in Ecuador they have like their verison of Chinese - Cantonese food and they are called ¨Chifas¨and are really good when you are tired of eating potatoes and beans.  I loved seeing the Indigenous folk which were in very large numbers here. They have their own unique style and each ¨tribe¨may have different colors. They have a great sense of pride in their dress and woman and men are seen wearing the traditional clothing. I´m not one to really take photos of people but here is a great example of their clothing style.

blog.destinationecuador.com

the men would wear the Panama hat and have their long hair in a braid and a shawl

BA NANA S galore

HEY WHO SPILLED THEIR BEANS !??!

chicken anyone ??

the beautiful traditional dresses and hand woven colorful belts

Once I read about and saw pictures of the lakes way high up in the surrounding volcanoes. I knew I had to go.....I took a taxi up a cobbled stone road for quite a ways. It is a little visited spot and I paid the taxi guy about five dollars to wait for me as I walked around and took photos. He probably spoke two words of English, but we ended up hiking around the lake together. I think he really had fun though! I mean what a great day for a taxi driver, huh ? I doubt he gets to drive up to that lake very often.  

Laguna Mojanda with Volcan Fuya Fuya close by

taxi guy

where is waldo ?

my morning coffee and breakfast view at the cute hostel with
the sun shining on the nearby volcano that was peeking out

Volcan

How many times in your life had you said to yourself or a friend the phrase, ``I´m going to climb up a volcano today !`` Most likely such a topic does not enter the casual conservation of every day life. Yet, when the volcano beckons my eyes, I can only go up to it and climb as high as I can.

A still—Volcano—Life

By Emily Dickinson:

A still—Volcano—Life—
That flickered in the night—
When it was dark enough to do
Without erasing sight—

A quiet—Earthquake Style—
Too subtle to suspect
By natures this side Naples—
The North cannot detect

The Solemn—Torrid—Symbol—
The lips that never lie—
Whose hissing Corals part—and shut—
And Cities—ooze away— 

Cotopaxi National Park in the Central Highlands of Ecuador

Second highest active volcano in the world

 

Yeah, there are glaciers up there. Crazy to think to have such when so close to the Equator. Yeah, it was cold. Rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, and sideways of all of the above hit our bodies for over 2.5 hours. 

I happened to over hear another traveler hiking up say to his friend, ``I wish they would have told us it was going to be like this. I feel like we aren´t prepared enough¨. I smiled at him and said ``Yep, I feel the same way. `` 

This was or has been one of the highlights of my trip thus far. There is nothing more I like than feeling the raw elements of the earth testing my mental and physical strength to higher realms.

 

yah sometimes i do wonder why i find the things i do FUN and that I pay to do so ! ha ha

WELL, now my record for highest hiked is 15, 959 feet above sea level,  however most of this was helped with driving up a good part of the altitude

oh it is just a walk in the park kind of day !

Dream Town

On the bus again. It´s about one dollar per hour to ride the bus and it usually takes awhile. However, mass transportation is very common here and the buses are actually pretty nice. It is common to have folks step on the bus for a few minutes and sell fruit, fried food, or ice cream, and then they just hop off at the next stop.

 Two times I also had the pleasure of listening to someone ramble on about the latest health product that they were trying to sell for ¨long life¨. And don´t ask my way, but I bought it for a few dollars. Some herbal product for good digestion and to remove parasites. Which, in turn, I actually needed later as my stomach was in a knot and about one day I felt pretty horrible (most likely due to some strange food I ate). It is bound to happen and I figure only one day of this on my whole trip is actually doing pretty well !


Music on the bus is the popular music of the country and they also seem to love playing American war movies. It is quite surprising and not to mention a tad scary how these large buses go zipping up and down and all around the Andean mountains. For the most part, the roads are paved along the major routes.

I hopped onto the bus and headed South west to the little town of Banos. The streets were lined with sugar cane stalls and sweet treats of all kinds. More of a popular tourist town (for foreigners and folks within the country). Even shops that sell that beloved tourist t-shirt here. A small town with two options for hot springs, waterfalls surrounding the town, and a nice plaza.  It is a town popular for mountain biking, soaking in the hot springs, rafting, jumping off bridges (sort of like bungee jumping), and other adventures.  The town also has somewhat of an active volcano surrounding it! However, it being in the mountains, it was usually surrounded by clouds.

I actually found a somewhat local microbrewery and found out that it was owned by a family in Chicago ! Mighty tasty ! The popular-regular beer here is like drinking water, yet it is only about one dollar for 16 oz.

Enter Into the Jungle

the meeting of two rivers in Tena. One clear and one muddy.

 We arrived in the 33,000 people sized town of Tena in the late afternoon. This town is called ¨ the cinnamon capitol of the world.¨ The bus station was busy and a volleyball game was going on. Folks were very nice in this town and some spoke a little bit of English which is always helpful.  

This town is known for its whitewater and is popular for rafting and kayaking. It´s also a hub for folks heading into or out of the Amazon Jungle. I looked around for tours going into the Amazon, but it seemed a bit out of my price bracket. I was going to take a cultural day tour but the shop was never open. 

So, I started a tradition in 2004, that I have to take a river trip at least once a year. Since it is now 2015 it seemed like the logical thing to do to start the year off right. ! So, I signed up for a full day of whitewater rafting on the Jatunyacu River with Class III+ rapids with The River People rafting company.  It was a fun group of eight and most other folks were from Europe and one from Canada.

photo by ecudorianrivers.org

As with all things in life, it is not always sunny and filled with beautiful roses. We did witness some gold mining going on right next to the river and also some illegal gold mining from common folk that were using disel powered small machines right in the river. We also learned that up river some large mine was using arsenic to seperate the rock as it is a cheap way to do so.

It was mostly an overcast day but when the sun did come out for lunch, wow did the colors just POP.  Also, when the sun does come out it is quite intense here on the equator. It hurts my eyes and you can feel it scorching your skin. Later in the day, I treated myself to some pizza later in the day, and YES dad, it was really good! I was really surprised!

homer likes beer and discotech !

Up and Up

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” –Rudyard Kipling

How true the above quote is. It´s amazing how much our smell plays into our senses and what that can tell us about the environment we are in. From the clean or polluted air that we inhale, to the foods and drinks we ingest. New places, as funny as it sounds, also open us to new smells. Some are enjoyable like a fresh pineapple or mango, or some others are harsh, such as a large diesel bus spewing out black fumes into the streets.

Spent about four days in Quito, which included New Year´s Day festivities, a walk to a large hill, and taking the TelefériQo gondola from 10,226 ft to 12,943 ft. Hiked up and up to the summit of the Volcano which was around 15,413 ft above sea level. Man oh Man, my lungs have never hurt so much and breathing was really hard, but it was all worth it. 

From here we headed into North-Eastern Ecuador, also known as the Oriente. This is more jungle-rainforest land with rivers feeding into and out of the Amazon. Spent two days in a little mountain town called Papallacta.  Now if you have the money you can stay at a very nice place with hotsprings etc at Termas Papallacta.  

However, being a budget traveler. We opted for the cheap hostel about one block away and have hot spring pools all to ourselves! 

The hostel was family run and the mother made us some delicious fresh trout and we enjoyed talking with the young girl working on her homework next to the crackling fireplace in the common area. 

We hiked around (in the rain) and saw llamas and some cool plants.




From here, we planned on going a bit North to visit more volcanoes and waterfalls. However, we learned quickly that it is not an easy task to catch a bus off the highway. Not exactly a bus station out here in the hills.  Basically you have to wave or flag buses down.

The bus would fly by and you would have about one minute to see if the name of where it was going was the one you needed. The one we wanted was not very regular.  Later we learned that you practically have to stand in the middle of the street and wave with both hands to flag it down, then will it stop.  We wasted three hours of our life standing in the cold. We decided to forgo the waterfall and just take the next bus back South to the town of Tena.

And oh what the views! At first it was standing room only, then we finally got a seat as the gorgeous green, lush mountains zoomed by and the wild,roaring rivers cut through them.  

Ecuador

 

ECUADOR!

Here are some fun facts below:

• Capitol is Quito and the Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador
• Ecuador has the most biodiversity per square kilometer of any nation
• Oil accounts for 40% of exports
• In the agricultural sector, Ecuador is a major exporter of bananas (first place worldwide in production and export), flowers, and the seventh largest producer of cocoa
• Since year 2000, Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar
• About 95% of people are Roman Catholics
• The country is roughly about the same size as the state of Colorado

Random things I have noticed:

• Population growth is alive and well here. Many many young children and I must say these are the cutest kids I have ever seen. Ever.
• Most vehicles are Chevy´s and many buses and trucks use diseal fuel
• Once again, for a country that exports coffee, most drink instant NesCafe here
• The best tasting mangos I have ever had
• Not too many people smoke ciggarettes
• Catching a bus is not an easy task
• The culture seems to like Homer Simpson alot
• they really like to sell watches
• lots of chicken, corn, beans, and potatoes here, oh and cheese in and on everything 
• lots of taxis and police everywhere
• it is quite a task to get change for a ten dollar bill, nobody ever has change, if you have a twenty dollar bill, then good luck !!

Foods and drinks and etc I have ingested:

plantains with cheese

new years dinner of ecuadorian pork, veggies, etc

      

my snack of HUGE beansand instant coffee, exciting i know

WOW not sure i want to drink that kola ! and not with salsa either

my two dollar complete breakfast

New

Every day we wake up is a new beginning. A new way to start the day and explore our options, decisions, luck, and timing. Only ourselves have the power to live and change our life.  I found myself in a rut and feeling as if it was time to mix it up a bit. I decided to travel to Ecuador and quit a job that was making me frustrated and unhappy. I am not living to work. I am living to enjoy this thing called life. To make each day anew and to make the most of each day ! Happy New Year 2015 ! What a thrill to start off a new year travelling to a new country ! And a new continent ! My dream for over ten years to visit South America !

Arrive at the Quito airport at midnight via an eight hour uneventful flight from Colorado, which left me with beautiful snowflakes.  I had a wink or two in the airport and hopped the bus around 7 AM. Green large hills-mountains were surrounded by blocks and blocks of streets and basic concrete buildings.

 Cobbled stone streets lined with buildings and important ex-quiste churches. Older ladies dressed in traditional clothing selling mangos and grapes at every corner. We stayed at a family run hostel (picture below) in old town which had easy access to historic buildings, a great view, and easy access to the trolley.  We also ventured into "new town" to watch the New Years Eve festivities.

A basic breakfast costs about $2 for eggs, juice, coffee, and bread roll. A complete breakfast costs about $2.50 for eggs, juice, coffee, bread roll, rice and a piece of meat or chicken. The trolley costs 25 cents and an average taxi ride about $2-5 dollars. Sleeping arrangements anywhere from $8-25 for a moderate place to stay.

More photos soon as I am able to and we are headed into The Oriente region (Northwest) towards jungles, rainforests, rivers, waterfalls, and hotsprings.