Busway

Today we needed to head back to Quito from Banos, since we had a plane to catch the next day to the Galapagos for our "cruise."  We had a nice breakfast at our hotel (the juice here is amazing - all different kinds of fruit - some good, some weird) and went to the bus station.

The busses in Ecuador are amazing.  If you are going along the main roads (in our case, the Pan-American highway), the busses leave with alarming regularity and are super cheap - usually within the $2 USD range.  You don't need to be at a bus station - all you need is to be along the road and raise your hand up - they will stop immediately and pick you up.  We were never targets of any shady attempts to get charged more because we were foreigners (yes - I'm looking at you, Vietnam).  Also, you don't need to worry about food because there are a constant stream of people selling stuff on the bus - some places even had organized sellers who wore uniforms of blue or yellow, so you knew the merchandise was good.  There were potato chips (real ones), plantain chips, "stews," tamales, water, Coke, DVDs, candy, etc.  Basically, you could get off the bus at a town, hang out for an hour, head back to the road, and be back on a bus again without waiting for more then five minutes.  It was like having a subway that runs the length of your country.  We waited less time for a bus going half-way across Ecuador than we do for a bus in Seattle that goes five miles.

We decided to stop along the way at a small town call Latacunga for an hour or so, since it had a huge Saturday Market that attracted a lot of the indigenous population from the highlands around Cotopaxi, the big volcano in the area.  We got off the bus and hoofed it over to the market, which was actually a series of about three huge markets.  These markets were not tourist markets at all.  They sold clothes, food, food, and more food.  The town itself was pretty much a dump, but the market was awesome.

We picked up a bus again (wait time - 0 seconds) and headed off to Quito.

Devil's Bike Ride

Decided that we were going to rent some bikes today and take the road from Banos down to Puyo, a town in the Amazon.  The road is basically all downhill, so you just coast down the 60 kilometers from the high mountain country of Banos to the low-lands of the Amazon basin.

So, we found a place to rent some bikes.  I was, of course, looking for a bike that was half-way decent and in proper working order.  It seems that everyone one in town had the same model of bike (a GT mountain bike), so it was just a matter of finding one that was good enough order to ride.

Wheels?  Check.  Well, they had them, and they went around in a relatively straight fashion.

Gears?  Check.  Yes, you could actually change gears with a minimum of wrenching on the gearbox.

Seat?  Ummm....I guess you can call that thing a seat....

Brakes?  Well....yes...they had brakes that seemed to kind of work.  Anyway, it's not like we were going to ride these things down a twisty mountain road with tricks roaring past and sheer cliff walls off to.....umm...well, yea, the brakes kind of worked.

The ride did require going along the main road from Banos to Puyo which was, of course, the road that all of the trucks and busses took down to the Amazon.  The traffic wasn't that bad, however, and there were a bunch of side roads that we took along the way - mostly to avoid the tunnels that were drilled into the mountains with alarming regularity.  This was good, since we had to go through the first tunnel, which almost caused Allegra to have a coronary.

The road followed the river down, and all along the way their were amazing waterfalls were you could stop and hang out and, of course, buy some totally unique souvenirs.  The waterfalls had names like the 'Devil's Cauldron," which made me reflect on how many devil-related names there are of things down here: Devil's Crown, Devil's Mount, etc.  I guess you could call it ironic that most of these places are highly sought out now by Gringo tourists - maybe "appropriate" is more apt that "ironic"?  Anyway, lots of satanic things happening in the landscape here.

After about 30 K, we decided to pack it up and hitch a ride on a bus back up to town.  While we had originally planned to go all the way, the "seats" on the bike were getting a little rough on our backsides.  The Fauna had changed remarkably on the way down - orchids now lines the cliff sides, banana and papaya trees dangled fruit near the roadside, and the brush had gotten really jungle-like.  We hung out for a few minutes near the river, then caught a bus back up to Banos.

Hike

After a nice, heary brakfast at the hotel, we set out for a hike in the sussounding mountains.  There is a huge volcano overlooking the town, but it has been obscured by clouds.  We had beautiful views of the town as we hiked.  The town architecture is not all that attractive, since it has been oblitterated by volcano eruptons in the past, but the valley is quite pretty and the greenery of the tropics makes it quite pleasant.  Lots of agriculture here - Ecuador is the largest exporter of fresh flowers (roses and carnations, mostly), but the local frams are mostly tomatoes and fruit farms.  The hike was quite lovely - inspiring views, farms, farmers, and pretty well-marked trails.  Spent most of the day hiking, then went down to the motel room to nap.

Dinner was pretty good - I had a nice steak (lots of cows here) and Allegra had trout.  Two American girls blabbed on and on about their Ecuadorian boyfriends - luckily we got out of there before their third round.

By the way - for the worriers out there - Anywhere outside of Quito is pretty safe - we walk here at night - lots of people out enjoying life....

¡Banos!

Got up and headed to the bus station, which maps showed convenetaly located a few bocks away from our hotel in the Old Town.  When we got there, there was a problem - no buses.  The policeman told us to take the trolley (bus rapid transit system) to some place we never heard of.  Went to the trolley, and the person told us to take it to that stop, but there did not appear to be that stop on the map.  Confused, we gave up and grabbed a taxi.  Turns out the new bus station is about a 20 minute drive outside of Quito.  It has to be the most amazing bus station I have ever seen  -gleeming steel and glass.

We grabbed a bus to Banos, a tourist destination for both locals and foreginers about 4 hours outside of Quito.  The ride was nice - we went through the highlands, with peaks of the volcanic peaks every now and then (it is kind of cloudy here).

Banos is quite nice - in a subtrpical valley about half way between the highlands and the Amazon basin.  It is famous for it´s "baths" - mineral baths that you pay a buck for.  We found an awesome motel room with wrap-around windows facing  the steep peaks and the hotel garden.  After dinner, I went for a quick dip in the baths.  It was quite nice - about hot tub temp, but there were also cold pools that you could dip in.  Lots of Ecuadorians milling about with their families.

Had a nice peaceful sleep for the first time in days....

Wasted Day

Started the day with a trip on the tram up one of the volcanoes surrounding Quito.  Expensive, but a lot of fun.  The City was laid out beneath us and we could see everything, including the planes landing at the airport several thousands of feet beneath us.  The tram went up to about 12,000 feet.  At first glance, this seemed like on e of those tourist boondoggles that the developing world is quite good at - we seemed to be the only ones there.  However, on our way down, the lines were forming and people were heading up at a steady rate.  Apprantly, the place is mobbed on the weekends.

After the volcano, we headed to to the tourist ghetto (Mariscal) and shopped for a Galapagos tour.  Wasted a lot of time doing this, but eneded up getting a half price deal (not that cheap to begin with, though) on a decent boat.  Our travel agent was great - we go the sweetest cabin on the boat, but we have to pretend it is our honeymoon.

Food here is not as good as Lima - we´ve had enough meat, potatoes, and rice to last a lifetime.

¡Quito!

After a not so good night´s sleep, we headed out into the street of old town Quito.  It is quite a beuatiful city - lots of colonial archeticture and people wandering about (during the day, of course).  We wandered the plazas (lots of them) and went to some chruches and museuems.  Quito is pretty high in altitutude (a little under 10,000 feet) and surounded by mountains, some of them volcanoes.  It is also pretty dry - similiar to Cusco, in many ways.

We went out to dinner while it was stilll dark.  There were still some people walking around, but the shops cloase up not long after sunset and people did a lot of looking at their watches.  The place we ate dinner at was literally two blocks away from our hotel.  The first block was fine (still a fair amount of people), but the secind block was deserted and made us a bit nervous.  The guide book suggests taking a taxi for a block or two, if need be, and I can see why.  The taxi drivers are what makes the City operate after dark.  I think the problem is more physcological than anything else - people think it is dangerous, so they don´t go out, there fore the streets are empty and it is really sketchy.  Perception is everything, and I think the perception of unsafety is preventing a critical mass of people from taking the streets back.

Transit

Oh my God - didn´t have to leave early for our flight to Quito.  Strolled through Lima and then had a big lunch.  I had fish and garlic - wanted to make sure the person sitting next to me on the plane stayed as far away as possible (unfortunatley, this included Allegra).  Our filght went to Panama City first (free ticket), which was mobbed - "Hub of the Americas¨" apparently.

Got into Quite late on Sunday night.  Took a taxi to the Hotel in "El Centra," Lima.  No one was on the streets, except for the occasional groups of young men.  When we got to the hotel, the driver told us to wait in the car while he got th security guard.  The gurad came to the car, hand on gun, and usheredus into the hotel.  I must admit, it was really freaky and scary.  Quito feels safe during the day, but certainly not at night.