Mi Ecuador tiene un corazon grande

I´m back in Quito for the last night after a relaxing and beautiful albeit freezing time in the little Andean Village of Papallacta.

It´s another hot springs place that is located on the amazon side of the Andes in this painfully green mountain Valley.

Meghan and I stupidly thought that since it was on the same side of the mountains as the rain forest, that it wouldn't be all that cold. We were painfully wrong.

It is located around 10,500 feet and its winter there. We froze, at night and during the day. The only time we were warm was when we sat in the hot springs. But the mountains were incredible.

But here´s the fun part: Karaoke!

Our hotel happened to be a popular destination for Quiteños, which meant on Saturday night we had to sing Karaoke with them. And being that we are american they passed us the mic for every english song and expected us to know it.

So after a rendition of Hotel California and Yesterday, they told us to sing Barbera Streisand because and I quote, ¨"she is well known." It just wasnt happening but it was fun and the people were great.

After this experience i came to the realization that aside from the thiefs in Quito and the taxi drivers who always charge us more because we´re white, the people here are so wonderful.

The couple who sang with us invited us to their home in Ambato,
The owner of the Hotel gave us a hug when we left and looked sad to see us go
People on all of the streets of the small towns wave to us and say buenas Dias
The lady who runs our hostel in Quito has a smile that could change the world and it has changed mine
The lady who runs the Spanish school has begged us to come back... and so on

It seems that the list of big hearted people goes on and on, the problem is those few scrappers tend to stand out over all.

This is a very peaceful and powerful place.

Expedia ate my Girlfriend!

So as things turned out, Meghan didn´t leave Ecuador... She couldn´t.
She got tot the ticket counter and the Airlines wouldn't take her ticket that was printed by expedia. Her name was in the computer and they still couldn't accept it.

Needless to say, we went the the airline headquarters and got them to make an exception and change her ticket to Tuesday. After two hellacious days in Quito going from Office to office, She will be able to leave South America. I think we have Expedia to blame for most of our problems and we will be writing them a letter and reporting them to the Better Business Bureau, but take this warning:

Be very Careful if you plan on buying tickets through Expedia, they make many mistakes and tend to blame others.

So I will probably not be going to the Amazon based on our time disposition. It takes a long time to get around, and a long time to get there. I guess I´ll have to save that for the next trip.

Tomorrow we are going somewhere for a few days, we just don´t know where. It will either be another Hot spring town or the northern Sierra around the indigenous market town of Otavalo.

I would normally say, these are Latin Companies and they function differently than American companies, and they tend to make these mistakes, but that would be a lie. America f-d up, well Expedia f-d Up.

Anyhow, I´ve been eating strange food here, probably a lot different than you would think:

for lunch I had a Mexican Burrito and for dinner I had Mongolian Barbeque. Last night, I had Italian food after a Thai lunch.

We´re in Gringolandia the traveler center of Quito, and its so strange. There are bars lighting up many of its streets with food and drinks from all over. There are mostly backpackers frequenting them with a mix of ecuadorians who are interesting in practicing their English or their dancing.

Strange Days.

I leave one week from today. Look forward to seeing you all.

Quito Bites

After a nice morning soak in the hot springs at Banos, and a morning siesta, Meghan and I had to leave paradise for the hustle and bustle of crazy Quito.

Meghan got a little bit sick tonight but we had a nice Italian dinner--I know wierd!. Meghan's vegetarianism had made it very difficult to eat in Ecuador. We usually need to look for gringo restaurants that have pasta or pizza or something without meat. People look at Meghan as if she has a serious problem. No meat? so chicken's ok? No hmmm...

Well I was walking home tonight and I walked past a guard ans his dog, and as I said Hello his gigantic dog jumped on me and bit me. It scared the bejeezus out of me. Im ok. The dog has all of his shots, it was just another crazy expierience.

Ciao

The sad state of the Galapagos

Well, I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Baños, its raining out and I´ve got a little bit of time so I think I need to reflect a bit more on my time in the Galapagos.

First, I must say. It is an incredible place. The animals there are unlike animals anywhere else. Each island has its own set of sub-species based on the food available.

The Darwin´s finch has 20 different species with beaks that grow based in if they eat from trees, cactus, the ground, or the sea. Evolution is an amazing thing.

An even more amazing thing was the amount of tourists there-- predominantly American or European.

We arrived and were stunned to find a city with hundreds of boats in the harbor, in a place that we knew of for its wilderness.

The UNESCO just recently identified the Galapagos as one of the most endangered wild places in the world and here´s why:

Thousands, and I mean thousands of people arrive there each day from all over the world. And they all come for similar reasons. They want to see the turtles, the sea lions, the boobies (blue footed ones). But they don´t think about the impact they might be having--just as I did´nt think about it.

As we disembarked to our first island,I saw a crowd of Safari outfitted gringos with telephoto lenses like guns pointed two feet away at the face of a baby sea lion. Up and down the beach there were more groups surrounding the sleeping Lobos Marinos. With a male barking at them from thewater I realized, the animals may not have many predators, and we are taught that they don´tmind humans in their face, but we humans (once again) are their most vicious predators.

Animals accostomed to human contact on the Galapagos have no place to hide. Think of someone walking into your house and taking pictures of you while your eating breakfast. You probably won´t bite them or run away, but when theykeepcoming in hordes, you willwant to run and hide.

In the Galapagos there is control, only 80 boats can be there with tours, but in corrupt country such as ecuador (or the US for that matter) money rules, and nature dosent take the front burner. (80 boats is a lot!)

The people making the money are the boat owners, and they aren´t going to advocate for more control. We were on the cheapest boat and we paid about 550 USD each and our guide was only paid 20usd a day. I wonder where the rest goes?

In a country where an expensive hotel is 20usd and an expesive meal is 4usd, these boat owners are doing alright.

I like to believe that national parks should be for nature first and people second, but I just don´t think it works that way. I think of Yosemite Valley in the summer, Yellowstone, and the supposedlyprotected wilderness of Costa rica and Ecuador that are being mined for tourism and oil andit makes me cringe a little bit.

I see the irony of course, I am here. And I want to be here, and I have a large impact, but I really do wonder what can be done in my own country and in others. It is a dilemma that I think needs to be examined.

Baños-- que Lindo!

Well, I´ve returned from the Galapagos islands and I have so much to say about it, its almost too much to process. I´ll fill in some of the highlights here and come back to it.

Sunrise Sunset. We lived on a boat called Yate Yolita with an obnoxious german man who couldnt stop knocking Americans, but it was also filled with a lovely smattering of international clietelle. It is the cheapest boat in the Galapagos, and for this reason it´s a bit rickety. It tipped to one side or the other the entire 4 day cruise. But the food was great and the sunsets and sunrises were absolutely stunning.

Playful sea Lions. Vibrant memory number one-- snorkelling by myself, while a group of 4 playful sea lions swim right up to me and look me in the eye. Their eyes were so big and so incredible. They swam loops around me and wanted to play. That is not to mention the sharks, penguins, turtles, and massive schools of fish I also saw.

Blue-footed Boobies-- they did their dance, made a little love, and had fluffy little chicks that had absolutely no fear of humans.

....

And there´s so much more that I will get to soon. But now, I am in a little Andean Mountain town called Baños, now, if you´ve practiced your Spanish, you know that means Baths and I am still a little droopy from my evening soak.

Baños is in this stunning green valley surrounded by 2 volcanoes. If you continue down the road, it drops into the Amazon. The air is cool, and the people are the friendliest I´ve met in Ecuador.

There are Baths all over town and they are supposed to have a healing power, I´m pretty sure they do. I feel pretty damn good.

Well I went on a hike today and tomorrow I might go on a little bike ride, we´ll see. Meghan is only here for two more days and then I plan on Heading into the Amazon if I am able.

I hope all is bien tranquillo on the home front.

Ciao!

La Costa de Ecuador

So, Meghan and I spent 10 hours on a bus dropping out of the Andes, through the cloud forest, and into the lowlands going from Quito to Guayaquil. It was a beautiful ride, but damn was it long!

The sky was low and we saw some amazing things. Bananna field sunsets as far as the eye can see and houses where the only structure was a bannana leaf canopy and four bamboo poles. There were people everywhere though. Kids playing in the streets, trucks (camionetas) filled to the brim with the darker indigenous people. I´m always blown away with how many people live in this crazy world. It was amazing and suffocating at the same time (that may have been because no one on the bus would open the damn window!).

After an incredibly long day of travelling we ended in Guayaquil, Ecuadors largest city. We ate half cooked hamberguesas at a Cuban resteraunt and rested our souls.

The next day we awoke to a nice surprize: sunshine and beaches. We woke up, ate our typical breakfast of coffee and bread and hopped a bus to Salinas.

We didn´t know what it would be like but it turned out to be a great surprize! It was a white sand beach lined with palm trees and restraunts and yes condos. It was sort of a mini MIami as people here call it.

When we arrived an ecuadorian man from the US with two children befriended us and helped us to find a nice hotel. And it was great. Hammocks, a pool, huge bed, all for much less than we were paying for a shitty hotel in Guayaquil. I guess it pays to not have white skin.

Anyhow our time in Salinas has been bien tranquillo. Seafood, coco, and patacones by day, cervezas by night.

Tomorrow we are off to our most expensive and hopefully most interesting destination, the Galapagos. Its 1000 miles off the coast, so we´ll be flying. It should be great. Ill let you know as soon as I am able.

I´m living the South American dream.

And if you aren´t posting comments, then send me an email. I hope everyone is doing ok.

Love
Daren

Chicha may have been a mistake

So the day after being so excited about trying Chicha I had a realization...
it was in the form of me hugging a dirty toilet in a andean mountain town. I got sick. and i didn´t get a little sick, I got really sick.

Meghan and I went to this beautiful market town and all I could think of was throwing up. I threw up in a restaraunt, then I threw up in the bus. It was a terrible day, but everything got better quickly.

Meghan took really good care of me and all of our newfound family in Quito were really worried about me. Our host mom made me some special tea, and the lady who runs the school called 3 times to make sure I was ok.

I am much better now, and I´m still not sure if it was the Chicha or the seafood I at night with our irish classmates.

I think its pretty normal to get sick when visiting a developing country, this was just my time.

No se.