Thursday, September 7th
Sadly, all good things have to come to an end. It is really troubling that today would be the last day of living like there is no tomorrow and just plainly absorbing your surroundings. However, life goes on and we have to do the same..
In the morning, we went around the bus terminal (provisional one since the real deal is being retored) trying to find a bus that would take Alexey directly from Guayaquil to Lima, Peru. This would be a 24 hour bus ride but we find a company ready to do it! Alexey will decide if to take it or not later in the day.
I go to office to fix up a few things. What´s in the future for me? Picking up Rosinante in Miami, doing all his custom proceedings, driving it accross the US to California, putting it back into shape, and selling it! All of this in about 2 weeks :) So all the planning ahead I can get will be useful in the future.
I don´t really remember much of what happened today. It must have been that I was so busy trying to get everything ready. Alexey just kind of hanged in there. My brother and I told him to stay a few more days in Guayaquil since there was much more to see.. My brother and sister-in-law dropped me off at the airport while Alexey finished off his packing.
Saying good bye was kind of tough. But we headed to the airport and I took my flight.. Afterwards, I heard that Alexey left that same night towards Peru and had a great life, married a Peruvian native and had three kids. He named one of them, Rosinante, in honor of our steed.. His family pet is a healthy Llama about 1.5mts tall.
The End.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Alexey, the man of 10 hats..
Wednesday, September 6th
We woke up kind of early and had breakfast at the hotel with a wonderful view of the market and a local church in front. We decided to walk around the town to show Alexey the Tomebamba river which runs through Cuenca. We kept waking until we found a hat store. These hats, also known as Panama Hats, are actually originally from Ecuador, and not even from Cuenca but from a town in the coastal province of Manabi called Montecristi.
In any case, Alexey had a blast buying hats for all his friends as wedding presents, graduation presents, etc.. he had them boxed, all 10 of them!! It took about 2 hours but I became good friends with the attendant, had coffee, etc, etc. After this, it was already late and we still had to eat and get out before the fog started again!!
Given that our stomachs were not feeling that well, we decided to eat yogurt with pan de yucca. We did this and I purchased some piroted CDs (yes, you have done it too!). One of them was unbelievably good!! It was by Calle 13 El Residente. Really good stuff. I have since, even purchased one of their songs in iTunes just as to not feel guilty.
We drove back with my newfound favorite CD. Getting into El Cajas National Park, a cop tells me that I am not supposed to be driving without my passport and he will have to impound El Snoopy or I talk to his boss. So we get ready to talk to his boss, backing up the car towards the police´s offices, when the officer tells us to just go.. I guess he did not really want us to talk to his boss.
Going through the fog once again was not fun, believe us! But we managed with Alexey at the wheel. We got down to the flat, hot and humid weather of the coastal region in about 3 hours. El Snoopy was once again going above 15km/h in the flat lands. I take pictures of the dying sun while Alexey keeps chugging Kms.
We arrived at my brother´s place and I have to start packing for my departure! :( I know, the end is coming...
We woke up kind of early and had breakfast at the hotel with a wonderful view of the market and a local church in front. We decided to walk around the town to show Alexey the Tomebamba river which runs through Cuenca. We kept waking until we found a hat store. These hats, also known as Panama Hats, are actually originally from Ecuador, and not even from Cuenca but from a town in the coastal province of Manabi called Montecristi.
In any case, Alexey had a blast buying hats for all his friends as wedding presents, graduation presents, etc.. he had them boxed, all 10 of them!! It took about 2 hours but I became good friends with the attendant, had coffee, etc, etc. After this, it was already late and we still had to eat and get out before the fog started again!!
Given that our stomachs were not feeling that well, we decided to eat yogurt with pan de yucca. We did this and I purchased some piroted CDs (yes, you have done it too!). One of them was unbelievably good!! It was by Calle 13 El Residente. Really good stuff. I have since, even purchased one of their songs in iTunes just as to not feel guilty.
We drove back with my newfound favorite CD. Getting into El Cajas National Park, a cop tells me that I am not supposed to be driving without my passport and he will have to impound El Snoopy or I talk to his boss. So we get ready to talk to his boss, backing up the car towards the police´s offices, when the officer tells us to just go.. I guess he did not really want us to talk to his boss.
Going through the fog once again was not fun, believe us! But we managed with Alexey at the wheel. We got down to the flat, hot and humid weather of the coastal region in about 3 hours. El Snoopy was once again going above 15km/h in the flat lands. I take pictures of the dying sun while Alexey keeps chugging Kms.
We arrived at my brother´s place and I have to start packing for my departure! :( I know, the end is coming...
Engineers from MIT, huh? Prove it!
Tuesday, September 5th
Today was full of excitement. We woke up and had already decided with my brother, Edgar, that Alexey and I would go to our Land in Dos Bocas where we spent last Sunday BBQing. See, the problem is that the guy who takes care of the land for us, Willian (yes, his name is Willian not William), does not have electricity yet. The problem is that the guy who was the previous owner did not pay $2000 worth of bills with the electric company. In this jurisdiction, the bill remains with the land, not with the bill owner. So that means that for Willian to have electricity, we need to pay $2000 which we won´t. So my brother, with his new company, Powersun (free plug here) has installed a small wind turbine with batteries hoping that this would give him some electricity until we figure out the paperwork.
Our mission today is to try to streighten the wind turbine which appears to be tilted. This may be the reason why Willian still does not have electricity even with the turbine. Before we attempted this, we stopped by the nearest bigger town of El Triunfo to figure out what necessary paperwork was needed for us to get Willian the electricity that he needs, locally. We also ate encebollados once again at a local eatery for about a buck.
Now it was time to use our ingenuity. We had some tools, limited materials and lots of energy. After a while, it was clear that we needed some breakthrough. Nails: we got them off the wodden walls of Willian´s house; Adjustment Level Block: we got a piece of wood and drilled two holes on it; Level Meter: well, we did bring one of these luckily.. In any case, it took us a while but we straighten it enough to figure out that the level had nothing to do with the poor performance of the turbine. There was simply, no wind! Alexey jumped on the roof and moved the turbine with a broom but it seem to work ok, meaning not much friction. Oh well, we did our part.
We now decided to pack up, say good bye to Willian and go to the beautiful city of Cuenca, high up in the Andes. If you have ever been around here, you know that you should never attempt to go through the El Triunfo-Cuenca road at this time. It must have been about 2PM. The road promised to offer the best of its hills and fog.. We certainly felt it.
Passing through thick, meaning, thick fog was really scary. It was as if the sun suddently dissapeared. We were simply guided by the sounds of the ocassional huge buss coming full speed ahead. El Snoopy was performing ok while we were still at sea level. However, once the slopes started, we were doing 15km/h max! Also, there was thick black smoke coming out the exhaust. We tried to do our best and kept it going between 1st and 2nd gears.
Crossing the El Cajas National Park was amazing!! This is certainly a paradise that not many people get to see, we took lost of pictures. When the El Cajas park ends, there is a beautiful valley where I have decided to retire someday :)
We got into Cuenca and quickly got a taste of traffic once again. We searched for a hotel.. it had been a while since the last time we did this, so we were a bit rusty. Alexey found one just on the corner of the market (later I learned this is not a good area to stay). We stored El Snoopy at some guarded parking lot and brough our turbine fixing tools into the room just in case.
We went out on the town and got to see the architecture. It is very pretty and historic. There are quite a bit of tourists too. We now go for dinner at a tourist hangout spot. The food was decent but not extraordinary. I really wanted to have trout which is the local delicacy but had no luck.
Later, we went back to the room and fell asleep. We were exhausted!
Today was full of excitement. We woke up and had already decided with my brother, Edgar, that Alexey and I would go to our Land in Dos Bocas where we spent last Sunday BBQing. See, the problem is that the guy who takes care of the land for us, Willian (yes, his name is Willian not William), does not have electricity yet. The problem is that the guy who was the previous owner did not pay $2000 worth of bills with the electric company. In this jurisdiction, the bill remains with the land, not with the bill owner. So that means that for Willian to have electricity, we need to pay $2000 which we won´t. So my brother, with his new company, Powersun (free plug here) has installed a small wind turbine with batteries hoping that this would give him some electricity until we figure out the paperwork.
Our mission today is to try to streighten the wind turbine which appears to be tilted. This may be the reason why Willian still does not have electricity even with the turbine. Before we attempted this, we stopped by the nearest bigger town of El Triunfo to figure out what necessary paperwork was needed for us to get Willian the electricity that he needs, locally. We also ate encebollados once again at a local eatery for about a buck.
Now it was time to use our ingenuity. We had some tools, limited materials and lots of energy. After a while, it was clear that we needed some breakthrough. Nails: we got them off the wodden walls of Willian´s house; Adjustment Level Block: we got a piece of wood and drilled two holes on it; Level Meter: well, we did bring one of these luckily.. In any case, it took us a while but we straighten it enough to figure out that the level had nothing to do with the poor performance of the turbine. There was simply, no wind! Alexey jumped on the roof and moved the turbine with a broom but it seem to work ok, meaning not much friction. Oh well, we did our part.
We now decided to pack up, say good bye to Willian and go to the beautiful city of Cuenca, high up in the Andes. If you have ever been around here, you know that you should never attempt to go through the El Triunfo-Cuenca road at this time. It must have been about 2PM. The road promised to offer the best of its hills and fog.. We certainly felt it.
Passing through thick, meaning, thick fog was really scary. It was as if the sun suddently dissapeared. We were simply guided by the sounds of the ocassional huge buss coming full speed ahead. El Snoopy was performing ok while we were still at sea level. However, once the slopes started, we were doing 15km/h max! Also, there was thick black smoke coming out the exhaust. We tried to do our best and kept it going between 1st and 2nd gears.
Crossing the El Cajas National Park was amazing!! This is certainly a paradise that not many people get to see, we took lost of pictures. When the El Cajas park ends, there is a beautiful valley where I have decided to retire someday :)
We got into Cuenca and quickly got a taste of traffic once again. We searched for a hotel.. it had been a while since the last time we did this, so we were a bit rusty. Alexey found one just on the corner of the market (later I learned this is not a good area to stay). We stored El Snoopy at some guarded parking lot and brough our turbine fixing tools into the room just in case.
We went out on the town and got to see the architecture. It is very pretty and historic. There are quite a bit of tourists too. We now go for dinner at a tourist hangout spot. The food was decent but not extraordinary. I really wanted to have trout which is the local delicacy but had no luck.
Later, we went back to the room and fell asleep. We were exhausted!
Unproductive day, at least it was cultural
Monday, September 4th
So today we pretty much did nothing. Alexey got some business stuff done, I think.
We spent most of the day in a cyber cafe. After eating at a local eatery where they serve the whole menu for about a buck 25, we head back to interneting.
Nothing much to report until we decide to go visit the city´s landmarks in the centre. Guayaquil has been renewed recently and is much nicer and pleasant to the eye than it was a decade ago. We walked through the center and reached the Parque de las Iguanas where you will find an impressive quantity of Iguanas that just hang out and watch you pass. We actually saw a male Iguana (or so we suppose) trying to hook up with a female (or sowe suppose) on top of a bush.. The position was so unstable that they nearly fell! They must have been about 20 pounds each so it was kind of scary.
Next we went through the Bahias. This is an area of tiny shops where you can find all the piroted CDs you want, Colombian knockoffs of Nike shoes, etc.. We reached the new Malecon Simon Bolivar which is the city boardwalk. This is about 2km, I think, of nice structural architecture and breeze coming from the Guayas river. After finishing our walk through the Malecon, we headed for the Las Peñas neighborhood. Las Peñas is the first real neighborhood that was here in Guayaquil. In this small mountain was also where the city was founded. There are nearly 500 steps to reach the top where there is a lighthouse and a small church. We reached the top and took pictures.
On the way down, we get a call from my brother reminding us that there is a concert at the ESPOL campus.. which is actually just down the hill. The concert is free and the guys performing are a group of rebel musicians playing a mix of cuban son and local rythms. The lyrics, an important component of their music, are incredible and penetrating. The group is not always the same mix of people. The guys performing change depending on availability but they are all friends. The leader of them all is a guy named Hector Napolitano. We had to line up a-la-food-stamp-line. We were given a numbered coin when we arrived and we were supposed to enter on a line ordered by the numbers on our coins.
The concert was great and the guys had to keep playing for a while after the concert was scheduled to end, due to popular demand.
We then went back home, I think.
So today we pretty much did nothing. Alexey got some business stuff done, I think.
We spent most of the day in a cyber cafe. After eating at a local eatery where they serve the whole menu for about a buck 25, we head back to interneting.
Nothing much to report until we decide to go visit the city´s landmarks in the centre. Guayaquil has been renewed recently and is much nicer and pleasant to the eye than it was a decade ago. We walked through the center and reached the Parque de las Iguanas where you will find an impressive quantity of Iguanas that just hang out and watch you pass. We actually saw a male Iguana (or so we suppose) trying to hook up with a female (or sowe suppose) on top of a bush.. The position was so unstable that they nearly fell! They must have been about 20 pounds each so it was kind of scary.
Next we went through the Bahias. This is an area of tiny shops where you can find all the piroted CDs you want, Colombian knockoffs of Nike shoes, etc.. We reached the new Malecon Simon Bolivar which is the city boardwalk. This is about 2km, I think, of nice structural architecture and breeze coming from the Guayas river. After finishing our walk through the Malecon, we headed for the Las Peñas neighborhood. Las Peñas is the first real neighborhood that was here in Guayaquil. In this small mountain was also where the city was founded. There are nearly 500 steps to reach the top where there is a lighthouse and a small church. We reached the top and took pictures.
On the way down, we get a call from my brother reminding us that there is a concert at the ESPOL campus.. which is actually just down the hill. The concert is free and the guys performing are a group of rebel musicians playing a mix of cuban son and local rythms. The lyrics, an important component of their music, are incredible and penetrating. The group is not always the same mix of people. The guys performing change depending on availability but they are all friends. The leader of them all is a guy named Hector Napolitano. We had to line up a-la-food-stamp-line. We were given a numbered coin when we arrived and we were supposed to enter on a line ordered by the numbers on our coins.
The concert was great and the guys had to keep playing for a while after the concert was scheduled to end, due to popular demand.
We then went back home, I think.
The promised land: My land :)
Sunday, September 3rd
NOTE: It has been a while since the last post and many things have happened. I have now relocated to Guayaquil, fully engaged in working here, left all the beautiful moments of traveling with great friends, etc.. but I will try, nonetheless, to fill it what is left, for completeness
This day was marked by us waking up early (noonish) and calling El Abogado, my cousing Cagelito, my other cousing Luis Fernando and a few friends to go to a piece of land that my brother, aunt and myself bought near the mountains in a place called Dos Bocas. This is a really small and poor town if you can call it that. There is a river that runs through it and we plan to host a BBQ next to it.
So we gather everyone and leave in our new road warrior, the Diesel Citroen Berlingo, otherwise known as El Snoopy. We all head over to the meat store to buy a few goodies and off we go. After about an hour and a half we are there, at our own patch of land.. 80 acres of beautiful nothing. We have not managed to have any plants there yet but everything is growing wild, just the way we like it.
We camp out by the river and Fabiola starts cooking. The guys head over to the river, some wearing underware only, and we sit and chat by the river. I also start cleaning up the river banks that have gotten flooded with debris from upstream. Nasty things like plastics and leathers have come down and we take about 45 minutes to clean everything up. We ate afterwards.
All of a sudden, we strike up a game of ¨throw rocks to a bigger rock downstream¨. Part of the rules was that the bigger rock, the target, was far enough that you had to really take some impulse to hit it. The other rule was that you had to sit down in the river so as to not use your body to build up momentum. It was fun and I won the first hand. The second hand had a far away rock that was impossible to hit. Really, we could not hit it until it was late and we had to leave.
We got back and the sun was setting. This reminded me of the times in Guatemala or Nicaragua where we always scrapped off the bottom of the Rosinante against the Topes.. This time, they were called Vigilantes Acostados (or laydown cop) and we were smarter than going with four people in El Snoopy while crossing them. We certainly have learned the ways and disembarked our crew. We walked while El Snoopy passed the hurdles without problems.
We got back and simply relaxed.
NOTE: It has been a while since the last post and many things have happened. I have now relocated to Guayaquil, fully engaged in working here, left all the beautiful moments of traveling with great friends, etc.. but I will try, nonetheless, to fill it what is left, for completeness
This day was marked by us waking up early (noonish) and calling El Abogado, my cousing Cagelito, my other cousing Luis Fernando and a few friends to go to a piece of land that my brother, aunt and myself bought near the mountains in a place called Dos Bocas. This is a really small and poor town if you can call it that. There is a river that runs through it and we plan to host a BBQ next to it.
So we gather everyone and leave in our new road warrior, the Diesel Citroen Berlingo, otherwise known as El Snoopy. We all head over to the meat store to buy a few goodies and off we go. After about an hour and a half we are there, at our own patch of land.. 80 acres of beautiful nothing. We have not managed to have any plants there yet but everything is growing wild, just the way we like it.
We camp out by the river and Fabiola starts cooking. The guys head over to the river, some wearing underware only, and we sit and chat by the river. I also start cleaning up the river banks that have gotten flooded with debris from upstream. Nasty things like plastics and leathers have come down and we take about 45 minutes to clean everything up. We ate afterwards.
All of a sudden, we strike up a game of ¨throw rocks to a bigger rock downstream¨. Part of the rules was that the bigger rock, the target, was far enough that you had to really take some impulse to hit it. The other rule was that you had to sit down in the river so as to not use your body to build up momentum. It was fun and I won the first hand. The second hand had a far away rock that was impossible to hit. Really, we could not hit it until it was late and we had to leave.
We got back and the sun was setting. This reminded me of the times in Guatemala or Nicaragua where we always scrapped off the bottom of the Rosinante against the Topes.. This time, they were called Vigilantes Acostados (or laydown cop) and we were smarter than going with four people in El Snoopy while crossing them. We certainly have learned the ways and disembarked our crew. We walked while El Snoopy passed the hurdles without problems.
We got back and simply relaxed.
Friday, September 08, 2006
The beach is cool
Saturday, September 2nd
Well rested, we got started today with a good breakfast. We ate an Encebollado at El Pez Azul in the Alborada neighborhood. Eating this plate on a weekend morning is a tradition for many Guayaquileans. The plate is a local delicacy made with fish, tons of onions and lime juice, and yucca.
What we have to look forward to today is nothing less than the beach. After breakfast and about 1h30m of a drive, we were in Salinas, the closest real beach to Guayaquil. Actually, we stopped by my brother's beach house to pick up boogie boards and towels, etc.. It was the afternoon already when we sat on the sand for the first time. We had gone a bit passed Salinas into the beach of Chipipe. I immediately went to the water which was actually quite cold. See, here in Ecuador it's what you would call winter. It's still sunny and hot outside but there is some cool winds and the water lowers its temperature. It was still swimmable nonetheless.
While we were there, I spotted my good friend Pablo Mario who is now a comedic star on Ecuadorian TV :) We enchanged a few words and promised to get in touch again as soon as I come back permanently. We drank and ate coconut on the beach and just plainly relaxed by the palm trees. My brother and I took a chance to catch up on business talk and what his ideas were for the future. I will be joining our company here soon so this was a great opportunity to hear what needs to be done and where I can help.
It had been a few hours since we got here to the beach so Fabiola wanted to take off back to Guayaquil. The problem is that she does not like to drive at night. We picked up our stuff and drove out to eat at the Salinas side of the beach. This was amazing!!! We had an increible meal!! Alexey had Octupus ceviche while I had the Oyster kind. We all shared then the succulent grilled mixed seafood or "Parrillada Marinera". Name the sea creature, it was there! Grilled octupus, crab, fish, clams, squid, prawns, lobster, etc. etc. It was a daunting task to finish the whole grill but we accomplished it!! Delicious!
The drive back was uneventful and at home we rested a bit. My sister in law, Fabiola, decided to stay home and my brother, Alexey and I got ready to go out. We met up my brother's friends, El Pollo and El Abogado, and my friends, El Chino and Joao at the infamous El Manantial in the neighborhood of Urdesa. We started drinking and without knowing it, we were down 7 pitchers and a few appetizers. El Abogado was completely wasted but he rest of us were still pretty sober. As a sidenote, here in Guayaquil, we end up most sentences directed towards guys with the word "maricon" which literally means "gay". Due to this, Alexey thought that all our friends thought of him as gay!!! This was certainly not the case and we all had a great time. I think our Spanish was a little too fast for Alexey but at least he will get some more practice by trying to make out what we are saying.
It was about 1AM and my brother remembered that a friend of his, who randomly enough is finishing his priesthood studies in Rome, was having a birthday get-together at his house. El Chino had a car so we all got in and drove toward this party. On arrival, we were welcomed into a patio where a few people were gathered around playing guitar and percussions. Some people were singing as well. It was weird to be drinking and smoking at the place of a saint man but heck, we were already on third gear. After devouring the pork sandwiches at the table, Alexey sat with the group to hear the singing. My brother took the stage and sang a few tunes. We were all having fun but after a while it was already 3:30AM so it was time to leave. We did so and headed for a small cart in the Garzota neighborhood (across the bridge from La Puntilla). This cart sold Encebollado which we gladly ate for a second time in the day. Joao and El Abogado took a taxi home while El Chino drove the the rest of us home. The night finally came to an end about 4:30AM.
Well rested, we got started today with a good breakfast. We ate an Encebollado at El Pez Azul in the Alborada neighborhood. Eating this plate on a weekend morning is a tradition for many Guayaquileans. The plate is a local delicacy made with fish, tons of onions and lime juice, and yucca.
What we have to look forward to today is nothing less than the beach. After breakfast and about 1h30m of a drive, we were in Salinas, the closest real beach to Guayaquil. Actually, we stopped by my brother's beach house to pick up boogie boards and towels, etc.. It was the afternoon already when we sat on the sand for the first time. We had gone a bit passed Salinas into the beach of Chipipe. I immediately went to the water which was actually quite cold. See, here in Ecuador it's what you would call winter. It's still sunny and hot outside but there is some cool winds and the water lowers its temperature. It was still swimmable nonetheless.
While we were there, I spotted my good friend Pablo Mario who is now a comedic star on Ecuadorian TV :) We enchanged a few words and promised to get in touch again as soon as I come back permanently. We drank and ate coconut on the beach and just plainly relaxed by the palm trees. My brother and I took a chance to catch up on business talk and what his ideas were for the future. I will be joining our company here soon so this was a great opportunity to hear what needs to be done and where I can help.
It had been a few hours since we got here to the beach so Fabiola wanted to take off back to Guayaquil. The problem is that she does not like to drive at night. We picked up our stuff and drove out to eat at the Salinas side of the beach. This was amazing!!! We had an increible meal!! Alexey had Octupus ceviche while I had the Oyster kind. We all shared then the succulent grilled mixed seafood or "Parrillada Marinera". Name the sea creature, it was there! Grilled octupus, crab, fish, clams, squid, prawns, lobster, etc. etc. It was a daunting task to finish the whole grill but we accomplished it!! Delicious!
The drive back was uneventful and at home we rested a bit. My sister in law, Fabiola, decided to stay home and my brother, Alexey and I got ready to go out. We met up my brother's friends, El Pollo and El Abogado, and my friends, El Chino and Joao at the infamous El Manantial in the neighborhood of Urdesa. We started drinking and without knowing it, we were down 7 pitchers and a few appetizers. El Abogado was completely wasted but he rest of us were still pretty sober. As a sidenote, here in Guayaquil, we end up most sentences directed towards guys with the word "maricon" which literally means "gay". Due to this, Alexey thought that all our friends thought of him as gay!!! This was certainly not the case and we all had a great time. I think our Spanish was a little too fast for Alexey but at least he will get some more practice by trying to make out what we are saying.
It was about 1AM and my brother remembered that a friend of his, who randomly enough is finishing his priesthood studies in Rome, was having a birthday get-together at his house. El Chino had a car so we all got in and drove toward this party. On arrival, we were welcomed into a patio where a few people were gathered around playing guitar and percussions. Some people were singing as well. It was weird to be drinking and smoking at the place of a saint man but heck, we were already on third gear. After devouring the pork sandwiches at the table, Alexey sat with the group to hear the singing. My brother took the stage and sang a few tunes. We were all having fun but after a while it was already 3:30AM so it was time to leave. We did so and headed for a small cart in the Garzota neighborhood (across the bridge from La Puntilla). This cart sold Encebollado which we gladly ate for a second time in the day. Joao and El Abogado took a taxi home while El Chino drove the the rest of us home. The night finally came to an end about 4:30AM.
The Pearl of the Pacific welcomes travelers
Friday, September 1st
This morning we thanked our friend Juan for hosting us since there was a chance we would leave for Guayaquil today. Juan's parents left for the beach last night so Juan was kind enough to put together some breakfast for us. He left, and Alexey and I went into deliveration about what to do today. There was a slight chance that my Mom, who was going to fly today from Guayaquil to Boston, would actually get delayed until Sunday. This would mean that if we went to Guayaquil ASAP, we would be able to meet up with her. Unfortunately, she was at the airport and would not know if she would stay until Sunday until about 3PM. Given this, we decided to take the next bus to Guayaquil and hope that my Mom got delayed.
We packed and got ready quickly. We sent an email to Juan telling him our decision and left the apartment complex. After a walk we took a taxi which drove us to the bus station. There, we realized that the bus was leaving and the next one would be in 1 hr, at 1:30PM. So we bought two tickets in Transportes Ecuador and went to eat. We have been fascinated about how popular the "Almuerzos" are! They are really cool.. normally consist of a soup, a main plate and a drink.. all for about $1 to $1.75. We found one such plate near the bus station and took advantage of the time, and the prices. After this, we hopped on the bus.
The ride was long. At least it felt that way since we were so excited to reach the final destination of the diaries! We passed through some amazing landscapes which made us realized that we were in the middle of the jungle after all. The weather went from cold to hot and then to super hot and humid. After making stops at Santo Domingo, Quevedo and Babahoyo, the bus pulled into Guayaquil. The bus terminal here is under reconstruction so it dropped us at a makeshift terminal in front of the airport. My brother and his wife were there waiting for us at arrival.
After pertinent introductions, we went to my brother's apartment in EntreRios. We did this because he had brought this mini truck in case we brought with us large luggage. So we went home to drop our bags and to change cars to a more appropriate one. We then took off for a quick tour of the city center and then went to eat in the Las Penas neighborhood at El Galeon de Arthur. This, my native city, has undergone a massive overhaul in the last few years. If you see pictures of what it was like to live here about 10 years ago and compare it to the city that it is now, you would not believe it. Now, at least there are cool places like the boardwalk (Malecon Simon Bolivar), Las Penas, etc. etc.. that you could come and enjoy.
So we eat to the tunes of some bad musician but had plantains the way they are meant to be done :) Also, we were very tired at this point and after picking up our car, we went home to rest. Tomorrow we would try to head to the beach and see the Pacific once again!! Yoohooo!!
This morning we thanked our friend Juan for hosting us since there was a chance we would leave for Guayaquil today. Juan's parents left for the beach last night so Juan was kind enough to put together some breakfast for us. He left, and Alexey and I went into deliveration about what to do today. There was a slight chance that my Mom, who was going to fly today from Guayaquil to Boston, would actually get delayed until Sunday. This would mean that if we went to Guayaquil ASAP, we would be able to meet up with her. Unfortunately, she was at the airport and would not know if she would stay until Sunday until about 3PM. Given this, we decided to take the next bus to Guayaquil and hope that my Mom got delayed.
We packed and got ready quickly. We sent an email to Juan telling him our decision and left the apartment complex. After a walk we took a taxi which drove us to the bus station. There, we realized that the bus was leaving and the next one would be in 1 hr, at 1:30PM. So we bought two tickets in Transportes Ecuador and went to eat. We have been fascinated about how popular the "Almuerzos" are! They are really cool.. normally consist of a soup, a main plate and a drink.. all for about $1 to $1.75. We found one such plate near the bus station and took advantage of the time, and the prices. After this, we hopped on the bus.
The ride was long. At least it felt that way since we were so excited to reach the final destination of the diaries! We passed through some amazing landscapes which made us realized that we were in the middle of the jungle after all. The weather went from cold to hot and then to super hot and humid. After making stops at Santo Domingo, Quevedo and Babahoyo, the bus pulled into Guayaquil. The bus terminal here is under reconstruction so it dropped us at a makeshift terminal in front of the airport. My brother and his wife were there waiting for us at arrival.
After pertinent introductions, we went to my brother's apartment in EntreRios. We did this because he had brought this mini truck in case we brought with us large luggage. So we went home to drop our bags and to change cars to a more appropriate one. We then took off for a quick tour of the city center and then went to eat in the Las Penas neighborhood at El Galeon de Arthur. This, my native city, has undergone a massive overhaul in the last few years. If you see pictures of what it was like to live here about 10 years ago and compare it to the city that it is now, you would not believe it. Now, at least there are cool places like the boardwalk (Malecon Simon Bolivar), Las Penas, etc. etc.. that you could come and enjoy.
So we eat to the tunes of some bad musician but had plantains the way they are meant to be done :) Also, we were very tired at this point and after picking up our car, we went home to rest. Tomorrow we would try to head to the beach and see the Pacific once again!! Yoohooo!!
Monday, September 04, 2006
At last reaching the Equator
Thursday, August 31st
It was 8:30AM and everyone had left for work. Juan´s mom was nice enough to prepare breakfast for us which tasted like heaven. The plan for today was to explore the capital of Ecuador: Quito, as well as to go out an party at night. So without further to do we got out onto the streets and decided to take the bus towards the Mitad del Mundo monument. After walking around for a while we asked around and it turns out that the mentioned bus does not pass by this area anymore. I guess we will have to take the taxi.
The monument is quite far north from the city so the ride took about 15 or 20 minutes. At arrival, we paid the entrance fee together with a whole bunch of other tourists and got into the complex of the Middle of the World City. The significance of this monument is that his is the place where French and Spanish technicians in the 1800 determined the equator passed. In fact, this area has a painted line that divides the globe into two pieces: The northern and the southern hemisphere. I was incredibly excited since we had cross the tropic of Cancer about 7 weeks back and now we are crossing another geographical mark. Here, given the irregularly spherical shape of the earth, gravity is weaker than in other areas of the world so you weigh about 1 kg less!! Yuhhooo!! So after having seen other oddities of being in the center of the earth and taking tons of pictures we decided to go next door, about 50 mts north on the highway, to a very low end museum called Inti Ñan. The entrance there was steep at $3 per person. We had already turned around when we made up our minds about going it. The thing is that they promise to prove to us that the water flushes one way on the northern hemisphere and the opposite on the southern.
After our guide told us about the natives of this area in English, he took us to do some experiments. All of the experiments were highly suspect and marginal in conclusive power. We saw how the water flowed in to directions depending on whether he placed the sink on the northern or the southern hemisphere. They also have their own equatorial line because, according to this museum, the original was measured with inaccurate tools and theirs was measured with GPS :) After the whole tour, Alexey and I sneaked back to the sink and tried to duplicate the amazing results. We cannot say certainly if the water really flowed in two different directions. However, we do think that water seems to go straight down the drain, without going either clockwise or counterclockwise which makes sense. A result of this, is that the water goes one direction or the other with the slightest twist or help. Basically it is in a state of metastability which our guide took advantage of by perhaps twisting the plug at the bottom of the sink in a specific direction when taking it off. In either case, the visit was enlightening and we learned about the sun and telling time with it.
We got out to the highway and flagged a bus that took us to the city center. After about 25 to 30 minutes we got off at the cross road where we took a free shuttle to the new funicular service of Quito. The base of the funicular is full with restaurant and any other tourist service you need. There is even a theme park there! We bought the regular tickets for $4 and not the express ones for $7. Now, we were waiting in the long queue until the attendent needed 2 people to fill the latest gondola so we jumped to the opportunity and saved at least 20 minutes of waiting. The ride was incredible because it took us to about 3800 mts above sea level. Once there the view was awesome! You could see the city of Quito, the Cotopaxi and Illinizas snowed covered top volcanoes and other major peaks as well. This was a cold paramus environment. We sat down to eat some empanadas and sausage at the top. There is also a little trail were one can go up to 4100 mts in no time. We did this and after much effort (lack of oxigen really gets you tired fast!) we were overseeing the wonderful Andes mountains to the west.
It was now a bit late so we decided to get going. Our next stop was to go visit the PaloSanto Solutions´ office in Quito (this is my new employer). We took a taxi and were there shortly after. We talked to Luis, Rafael and Francisco who work at the office there about work, then they told us to be careful outside and we said good bye. We took another cab and reached the city center to explore. This is the colonial part of the city where we had been yesterday for a little while. This time, we visited the Plaza Grande, the Iglesia de La Compania, Palacio de Carondelet, Plaza and Iglesia de San Francisco and walked around the narrow streets of the old colonial town. It was pretty cool. Now it was time to head back to meet our friend Juan back at home.
We had to walk and wait quite a bit to get a taxi in this busy hour of the day. Arriving back to the apartment we waited a bit for Juan who got back from work. We got ready quickly and relaxed watching some TV. I called our friends Eva and Ana whom we had met in Panama and now are in Ecuador. They are Spanish and I wanted to see if they wanted to come out in Quito with us. Eva tells me that they stole her bag in a bus and now has no money nor passport so she won´t be able to hang out with us tonight. Perhaps tomorrow.
So the three of us were ready once again to hit the town. First, we need to eat and we did so at this burrito place. Not sure what the name was but the burritos were excellent! We each ate two burrito combo meals! We were stuffed and noticed that the fog was coming in. On the streets you could see the clouds coming down just like in San Francisco, California. However, it was much colder here. Across the street there was a Casino which we decided to visit just for curiosity. Once in, we were tempted to gamble a bit. We settled for a safe and innocent bet. We would only spend $10 between all of us. So we went to the roulette thinking we would bet just a few hands at the minimun bet of $1. I attempted to place a $3 bet on black since 80% of the past 15 numbers had been red. The last number had been a zero! yack! The lady tells us that the minumum for a color bet is $10 so we have no other choice than to put all our money on black to save our dignity and still look cool in front of the young good looking ladies at the table. The roulette goes and guess what came out? ZERO AGAIN!!!! This is unbelievable! two zeros back to back! Perhaps it is not so coincidental and they pressed a button that triggered an electromagnet and stole our money. This is not so far fetch from the truth since earlier we had seen the dealer pulling a Four of a Kind with Kings at the poker table! But oh well, we say good bye and walk out promising to come back and win next time.
We get back to the Mariscal area where we were yesterday. went into a bar but walked out rather quickly after hearing the life music which was horrendous to say the least. By a little plaza we noticed the same concert as yesterday and about 80 policemen nearby. We thought that something had happened but no, it was just the end of the concert which we missed completely. We sat at an outside bar next to four girls which refused to talk to us for long. We had a few drinks and moved on to another place. This place was really cool! At the beginning we thought about leaving right away but stayed after hearing a cool song. Soon after the DJ went nuts, changing from hiphop to rap to top to salsa to eighties to reggaeton, etc.. everything was a hit and people went dancing like crazy. We kept ordering drink after drink. We met our waitress Eny who was pretty cute. She took Alexey out dancing but he claims he messed it up by asking ¨Quieres trabajar?¨ which could be translated as ¨Do you want to work?¨ or ¨Do you want a job?¨. Alexey came back to our table and it was Juan´s turn to try. He took the waitress dancing for a little while without any change in luck. However, we had a great time and she remained our friend.
We got out of the place while there was a hiatus of great music. We decided it was time to go back since Juan has to work tomorrow. At home, we cooked some humitas in the microwave, ate them and hydrated ourselves so as to not be hangover tomorrow. Tonight was cool but don´t know what it is store for us tomorrow. We´ll see.. so close to our destination!!!
It was 8:30AM and everyone had left for work. Juan´s mom was nice enough to prepare breakfast for us which tasted like heaven. The plan for today was to explore the capital of Ecuador: Quito, as well as to go out an party at night. So without further to do we got out onto the streets and decided to take the bus towards the Mitad del Mundo monument. After walking around for a while we asked around and it turns out that the mentioned bus does not pass by this area anymore. I guess we will have to take the taxi.
The monument is quite far north from the city so the ride took about 15 or 20 minutes. At arrival, we paid the entrance fee together with a whole bunch of other tourists and got into the complex of the Middle of the World City. The significance of this monument is that his is the place where French and Spanish technicians in the 1800 determined the equator passed. In fact, this area has a painted line that divides the globe into two pieces: The northern and the southern hemisphere. I was incredibly excited since we had cross the tropic of Cancer about 7 weeks back and now we are crossing another geographical mark. Here, given the irregularly spherical shape of the earth, gravity is weaker than in other areas of the world so you weigh about 1 kg less!! Yuhhooo!! So after having seen other oddities of being in the center of the earth and taking tons of pictures we decided to go next door, about 50 mts north on the highway, to a very low end museum called Inti Ñan. The entrance there was steep at $3 per person. We had already turned around when we made up our minds about going it. The thing is that they promise to prove to us that the water flushes one way on the northern hemisphere and the opposite on the southern.
After our guide told us about the natives of this area in English, he took us to do some experiments. All of the experiments were highly suspect and marginal in conclusive power. We saw how the water flowed in to directions depending on whether he placed the sink on the northern or the southern hemisphere. They also have their own equatorial line because, according to this museum, the original was measured with inaccurate tools and theirs was measured with GPS :) After the whole tour, Alexey and I sneaked back to the sink and tried to duplicate the amazing results. We cannot say certainly if the water really flowed in two different directions. However, we do think that water seems to go straight down the drain, without going either clockwise or counterclockwise which makes sense. A result of this, is that the water goes one direction or the other with the slightest twist or help. Basically it is in a state of metastability which our guide took advantage of by perhaps twisting the plug at the bottom of the sink in a specific direction when taking it off. In either case, the visit was enlightening and we learned about the sun and telling time with it.
We got out to the highway and flagged a bus that took us to the city center. After about 25 to 30 minutes we got off at the cross road where we took a free shuttle to the new funicular service of Quito. The base of the funicular is full with restaurant and any other tourist service you need. There is even a theme park there! We bought the regular tickets for $4 and not the express ones for $7. Now, we were waiting in the long queue until the attendent needed 2 people to fill the latest gondola so we jumped to the opportunity and saved at least 20 minutes of waiting. The ride was incredible because it took us to about 3800 mts above sea level. Once there the view was awesome! You could see the city of Quito, the Cotopaxi and Illinizas snowed covered top volcanoes and other major peaks as well. This was a cold paramus environment. We sat down to eat some empanadas and sausage at the top. There is also a little trail were one can go up to 4100 mts in no time. We did this and after much effort (lack of oxigen really gets you tired fast!) we were overseeing the wonderful Andes mountains to the west.
It was now a bit late so we decided to get going. Our next stop was to go visit the PaloSanto Solutions´ office in Quito (this is my new employer). We took a taxi and were there shortly after. We talked to Luis, Rafael and Francisco who work at the office there about work, then they told us to be careful outside and we said good bye. We took another cab and reached the city center to explore. This is the colonial part of the city where we had been yesterday for a little while. This time, we visited the Plaza Grande, the Iglesia de La Compania, Palacio de Carondelet, Plaza and Iglesia de San Francisco and walked around the narrow streets of the old colonial town. It was pretty cool. Now it was time to head back to meet our friend Juan back at home.
We had to walk and wait quite a bit to get a taxi in this busy hour of the day. Arriving back to the apartment we waited a bit for Juan who got back from work. We got ready quickly and relaxed watching some TV. I called our friends Eva and Ana whom we had met in Panama and now are in Ecuador. They are Spanish and I wanted to see if they wanted to come out in Quito with us. Eva tells me that they stole her bag in a bus and now has no money nor passport so she won´t be able to hang out with us tonight. Perhaps tomorrow.
So the three of us were ready once again to hit the town. First, we need to eat and we did so at this burrito place. Not sure what the name was but the burritos were excellent! We each ate two burrito combo meals! We were stuffed and noticed that the fog was coming in. On the streets you could see the clouds coming down just like in San Francisco, California. However, it was much colder here. Across the street there was a Casino which we decided to visit just for curiosity. Once in, we were tempted to gamble a bit. We settled for a safe and innocent bet. We would only spend $10 between all of us. So we went to the roulette thinking we would bet just a few hands at the minimun bet of $1. I attempted to place a $3 bet on black since 80% of the past 15 numbers had been red. The last number had been a zero! yack! The lady tells us that the minumum for a color bet is $10 so we have no other choice than to put all our money on black to save our dignity and still look cool in front of the young good looking ladies at the table. The roulette goes and guess what came out? ZERO AGAIN!!!! This is unbelievable! two zeros back to back! Perhaps it is not so coincidental and they pressed a button that triggered an electromagnet and stole our money. This is not so far fetch from the truth since earlier we had seen the dealer pulling a Four of a Kind with Kings at the poker table! But oh well, we say good bye and walk out promising to come back and win next time.
We get back to the Mariscal area where we were yesterday. went into a bar but walked out rather quickly after hearing the life music which was horrendous to say the least. By a little plaza we noticed the same concert as yesterday and about 80 policemen nearby. We thought that something had happened but no, it was just the end of the concert which we missed completely. We sat at an outside bar next to four girls which refused to talk to us for long. We had a few drinks and moved on to another place. This place was really cool! At the beginning we thought about leaving right away but stayed after hearing a cool song. Soon after the DJ went nuts, changing from hiphop to rap to top to salsa to eighties to reggaeton, etc.. everything was a hit and people went dancing like crazy. We kept ordering drink after drink. We met our waitress Eny who was pretty cute. She took Alexey out dancing but he claims he messed it up by asking ¨Quieres trabajar?¨ which could be translated as ¨Do you want to work?¨ or ¨Do you want a job?¨. Alexey came back to our table and it was Juan´s turn to try. He took the waitress dancing for a little while without any change in luck. However, we had a great time and she remained our friend.
We got out of the place while there was a hiatus of great music. We decided it was time to go back since Juan has to work tomorrow. At home, we cooked some humitas in the microwave, ate them and hydrated ourselves so as to not be hangover tomorrow. Tonight was cool but don´t know what it is store for us tomorrow. We´ll see.. so close to our destination!!!
Facing the darkest hours to see the dawn
Wednesday, August 30th
It is hard to fall asleep when the curvy roads and bumps make your face hit the window glass and other interior objects with violence. It was 2AM and it seem like we had been going on the road for 8 hours where it was only 3. The radio made sure we added to our fears but broadcasting government messages telling the population to report acts of terrorist by the guerrillas. In fact, the would play messages by ex-hostages that would say things that happened while they were kept by the guerrillas. It was quite freaky and everywhere you could see reminders that this was unsafe territory.
Tried to sleep but couldn´t. It was now about 4:30AM and the worse was visibly over. We had stopped at Popayan and now at Pasto. This is the closest major town by the Ecuadorian border. Shortly after 5AM we left Pasto and you could see sun rays peaking through the sky very dimly. The landscape has changed quite a bit and it´s getting really cold. The Andes mountain range have taken over and the pleasant heat of Cali is way behind us. At this point Alexey and I noticed that some people got off the van so we moved on those seats and attempted to sleep by making use of the reclining feature of our new seats. Alexey did sleep some but I could not. This was way too close to Ecuador, my final destination, so I wanted to experience what I was living to the fullest. It was now morning and we arrived into Ipiales, the last town in Colombia before Ecuador. There are about 2 km from here to the Rumichaca bridge which divides the two countries. It is freazing in here!!! It must be something like 5 degrees celcius and we really don´t have any warm clothes.
We take a taxi to the border and reach there around 6:30AM. After stamping our exit from Colombia at the migration office we crossed the final border of the trip. We spent some time in the middle of the bridge taking pictures and enjoying having met our goal to reach Ecuador by land. In the other side we do migration work once again and we are in! There are ¨colectivos¨ that go the 6km between this border and the next major Ecuadorian town of Tulcan. We take one of these vans and reach Tulcan before 7:30AM. The colectivo drops us at the bus terminal where we are hackled by a myriad of bus people trying to take our bags to their own busses heading for Quito. We get mad and they back off. After a little decision making we take a bus for $4 each to the capital of the country. We thought about stopping by a few cool towns in between but we really need to reach Quito to sleep comfortably tonight after the long trip from Cali.
The bus leaft around 8:20AM and picked up passengers along the way so it made it much longer than expected. The trip was supposed to be only 5 hours. Along the way, we were stopped by armed police dressed in fatigues three times. The first time, they checked our bags. The second, they checked our IDs and asked someone in the back to get off the bus. And the third one, somewhere near Otavalo, the took everyone off the bus and lined up women and men in different queues. They searched us and checked IDs again. Not sure why so much security but it was very weird.
The bus passed by a few cool looking, snow covered volcanoes and the San Pablo lake. It was past 2PM when we reached Quito. Ahh.. finally a place where I have been before! Now there is nothing to worry about! We arrived at the bus station after a bunch of bus vendors had told us everything about their products in vane. We were sooooo hungry and tired. I called Juan Francisco, on of my best friends, who has recently moved from the Bay Area to Quito. He tells us that he won´t be able to meet us before 8PM because of a business meeting. However, we can go to his home, drop our stuff and relax for a bit as soon as 5PM when his mom gets home.
So we decided to walk around town to kill time until 5PM. We took the Trole (Quito´s version of Bogota´s TransMileno) into the city center and we were there in 5 minutes. Walking through the narrow colonial streets of the Ecuadorian capital we passed by many restaurants with set menus. Most of these were between $1 and $1.75 US. So we decided to splurge with the upper end $1.75 which included a delicious soup, rice with beef stew and juice. We also bought some bread and other drinks since we were hungry. We chilled sitting at this restaurant for a little while to relax and then continued walking with our backpacks towards the Plaza Grance (main square). There, one can see the Palacio de Carondelet (governmental palace) and some really nice and old churches. We sat down at the plaza by a water fountain to observe people passing by and to read our books. Now I have started Around the World in 80 Days and Alexey has taking the plunge into Brothers Karmazov.
It was now 5PM and we take a taxi to Juan Francisco´s place. We reach his house and meet his mom, a very nice lady who is really easy going and welcoming. We put our stuff in Juan´s room and chill at the couches watching TV. We are so exhausted that Alexey falls asleep in the living room while watching TV. I took a shower and waited for my friend. Juan´s sister came from work and soon after, the electricity went out. We were in the dark for a while with candles (so romantic :)) when Juan got in.
It has been a while since I have seen Juan so we do a little catching up and get ready to go out. The three of us then went out to the area known as La Mariscal. First we went to dinner at a kebab place where food was abundant and the price was low. Then, we walked past a few strident musicians who were offering a concert. Everyone was out, which is great if you consider it is Wednesday! We settled at a place with a live band and had a few drinks there. We are so incredibly tired now so we decide to head back. The crowd here seems very young and fun with even some gringos mixed in. We can´t wait to come out tomorrow.
It is hard to fall asleep when the curvy roads and bumps make your face hit the window glass and other interior objects with violence. It was 2AM and it seem like we had been going on the road for 8 hours where it was only 3. The radio made sure we added to our fears but broadcasting government messages telling the population to report acts of terrorist by the guerrillas. In fact, the would play messages by ex-hostages that would say things that happened while they were kept by the guerrillas. It was quite freaky and everywhere you could see reminders that this was unsafe territory.
Tried to sleep but couldn´t. It was now about 4:30AM and the worse was visibly over. We had stopped at Popayan and now at Pasto. This is the closest major town by the Ecuadorian border. Shortly after 5AM we left Pasto and you could see sun rays peaking through the sky very dimly. The landscape has changed quite a bit and it´s getting really cold. The Andes mountain range have taken over and the pleasant heat of Cali is way behind us. At this point Alexey and I noticed that some people got off the van so we moved on those seats and attempted to sleep by making use of the reclining feature of our new seats. Alexey did sleep some but I could not. This was way too close to Ecuador, my final destination, so I wanted to experience what I was living to the fullest. It was now morning and we arrived into Ipiales, the last town in Colombia before Ecuador. There are about 2 km from here to the Rumichaca bridge which divides the two countries. It is freazing in here!!! It must be something like 5 degrees celcius and we really don´t have any warm clothes.
We take a taxi to the border and reach there around 6:30AM. After stamping our exit from Colombia at the migration office we crossed the final border of the trip. We spent some time in the middle of the bridge taking pictures and enjoying having met our goal to reach Ecuador by land. In the other side we do migration work once again and we are in! There are ¨colectivos¨ that go the 6km between this border and the next major Ecuadorian town of Tulcan. We take one of these vans and reach Tulcan before 7:30AM. The colectivo drops us at the bus terminal where we are hackled by a myriad of bus people trying to take our bags to their own busses heading for Quito. We get mad and they back off. After a little decision making we take a bus for $4 each to the capital of the country. We thought about stopping by a few cool towns in between but we really need to reach Quito to sleep comfortably tonight after the long trip from Cali.
The bus leaft around 8:20AM and picked up passengers along the way so it made it much longer than expected. The trip was supposed to be only 5 hours. Along the way, we were stopped by armed police dressed in fatigues three times. The first time, they checked our bags. The second, they checked our IDs and asked someone in the back to get off the bus. And the third one, somewhere near Otavalo, the took everyone off the bus and lined up women and men in different queues. They searched us and checked IDs again. Not sure why so much security but it was very weird.
The bus passed by a few cool looking, snow covered volcanoes and the San Pablo lake. It was past 2PM when we reached Quito. Ahh.. finally a place where I have been before! Now there is nothing to worry about! We arrived at the bus station after a bunch of bus vendors had told us everything about their products in vane. We were sooooo hungry and tired. I called Juan Francisco, on of my best friends, who has recently moved from the Bay Area to Quito. He tells us that he won´t be able to meet us before 8PM because of a business meeting. However, we can go to his home, drop our stuff and relax for a bit as soon as 5PM when his mom gets home.
So we decided to walk around town to kill time until 5PM. We took the Trole (Quito´s version of Bogota´s TransMileno) into the city center and we were there in 5 minutes. Walking through the narrow colonial streets of the Ecuadorian capital we passed by many restaurants with set menus. Most of these were between $1 and $1.75 US. So we decided to splurge with the upper end $1.75 which included a delicious soup, rice with beef stew and juice. We also bought some bread and other drinks since we were hungry. We chilled sitting at this restaurant for a little while to relax and then continued walking with our backpacks towards the Plaza Grance (main square). There, one can see the Palacio de Carondelet (governmental palace) and some really nice and old churches. We sat down at the plaza by a water fountain to observe people passing by and to read our books. Now I have started Around the World in 80 Days and Alexey has taking the plunge into Brothers Karmazov.
It was now 5PM and we take a taxi to Juan Francisco´s place. We reach his house and meet his mom, a very nice lady who is really easy going and welcoming. We put our stuff in Juan´s room and chill at the couches watching TV. We are so exhausted that Alexey falls asleep in the living room while watching TV. I took a shower and waited for my friend. Juan´s sister came from work and soon after, the electricity went out. We were in the dark for a while with candles (so romantic :)) when Juan got in.
It has been a while since I have seen Juan so we do a little catching up and get ready to go out. The three of us then went out to the area known as La Mariscal. First we went to dinner at a kebab place where food was abundant and the price was low. Then, we walked past a few strident musicians who were offering a concert. Everyone was out, which is great if you consider it is Wednesday! We settled at a place with a live band and had a few drinks there. We are so incredibly tired now so we decide to head back. The crowd here seems very young and fun with even some gringos mixed in. We can´t wait to come out tomorrow.
Cali Pachanguero gets discovered
Tuesday, August 29th
It´s so exciting to be in this city where salsa is heard and danced everywhere! However, before we plunge into the city we must get a few chores done. Alexey has been having a few personal issues to deal with in the US so he needs a little internet and phone calling time early in the day. We walked to a cyber cafe at the EXITO super market but it´s not what we expected so we reach for a cab to get us to the ChipiChape shopping center.
In here we get into the Matrix internet cafe and use their phone and internet services for a couple of hours. We have promised our hosts that we will be back at home at noon to have lunch with them. See, here most working people come back to their homes for lunch most days of the week. Either they elect to cook or have a maid who helps in the house with chores such as cooking. The lady who helps in our host´s house is Lida, a black women from the Choco region. Her food is delicious!!! We were treated to a bandeja paisa like dish which was out of this world!
We then stayed back chilling with Margarita and talking about a bunch of local issues. She runs a chemical laboratory where they manufacture drugs for animals such as cows and horses. But it was time for her to get back to work since she wanted to come back early. In Cali as well as in other Colombian cities, Margarita cannot drive during peak hours on certain days of the week depending on the ending digit of her license plates. This is called Pico y Placa here. Today, Tuesday, is her day of restriction.
Since Margarita is now gone back to work, Alexey finished off his internet duties at home, and I put a big dent on La Aventura del Tocador de Senoras which I have been reading, we decided to take a taxi out into the city. It was nearly 2PM so we need to be very efficient in our tourist activities. The taxi takes us through territory which we already recognize and soon we are in downtown. He dropped us off at the Plaza de Caycedo which is Cali´s main square. Alexey and I walked around this plaza for a little while and discovered the city hall building (very pretty and colonial white structure) and saw the working people doing their everyday business. We walked through a passway where tons of machine typists filled out forms for their customers in the middle of the way! There must have been 20 of these people! I am not really sure why their services are still needed in the age of computers and internet but hey, they seem happy doing it and we are happy seeing that a bit of the early 80s is still alive.
Alexey tried a coconut drink and ate the ¨manzana¨ that grows inside old coconuts. We also visited the famours church known as La Ermita (Alexey thinks it looks like a gingerbread house) and walked around some more by the Cali river to get the flavor of the city. Following our stroll, we went to see the oldest church in Cali and got into the Museum of Gold hosted by the Banco de la Republica. This was a cool museum with tons of information on the exploitation and use of gold by the indigenous of this area about 500 years ago and before. However, Alexey went to the ATM and when he came back, the museum closed (sorry man).
Now we walked pass a plaza full of birds in from of the Iglesia de San Francisco and through the connecting streets high into a small mountain at the top of which there is a park and another church: San Antonio. The views from here are impressive! The houses below seem to have spanish tile on the roofs. The bells in the church signaled it was 6PM and time to go to mass so we fled.
Now below, in the heart of the city, we got onto a taxi once again and headed back home so we can meet Margarita and Felipe and go out to dinner somewhere. We reached the house and our host got there soon after. It was shortly after 6:30PM and we just sat outside by the porch to talk about the day. She tells us that the drive tonight is quite dangerous but the dad of a friend of hers did it a few weeks back. She calls the friend to ask for more information. At this point we are thinking of leaving tomorrow for the border with Ecuador. The trip is quite long to the border (about 10 hours) with curvy roads, major guerrilla activity and unknowns along the way. Margarita´s friend tells us that the Bolivariano bus has ¨bought the vaccine¨ or basically paid the guerrillas to allow them to transit with their busses through this territory without hassle. However, most of the transit through this region, for some reason, happens at night and if we want to reach the border before the close for the day, we will need to leave tonight!!! The three of us looked at all of our options considering safety, border crossing details, and convenience, and determined that leaving tonight makes more sense.
The bad thing about our decision is that we won´t be able to hang out longer with our host family. They are REALLY cool and at least we want to take them out for dinner. So we made our bags and went out. Margarita´s daughter, who is studying in Bogota at the moment, was supposed to be featured in the Colombian equivalent of Business Week so we went around looking for this magazine but it was not out yet. So we headed to dinner at a place called Crepes y Waffles. This is a cool place that employs exclusively single mothers (wonder if this would seem discriminatory in the US). The crepes were excellent!! I had the strogonoff and was delighted! Felipe had dessert but the rest of us were wayyyy to full for this. Now it was time for our departure :(
We had already placed our bags in the trunk before we went to dinner so we headed straight for the bus terminal. Once there, we bid farewell to our wonderful hosts and bought tickets to Ipiales, which is the Colombian border town with Ecuador. The tickets were 35K pesos and we waiting for the bus on the 3rd floor of the terminal. Shortly we were called in the bus and took our seats. Unfortunately, we got stuck with seats all the way in the back of this EuroVan small bus. This meant that our seats did not recline!!! We will see how it goes and if we can sleep. Someone comes to peak into the bus and it´s the figure of a lady who works for this bus line. Now, Alexey and I are fully aware that this is probably the most dangerous zone that we are to cross in our trip. The guerrillas can stop us anytime and if they get to see our American passports we would be fresh meant for them. We had already agreed that we were, under no circumstances, to speak any form of English on the bus. We almost blew our cover near the bus driver who noticed that Alexey did not speak Spanish but I told him he was an Italian friend. To add to our worries, the lady who came in the bus informs us that for our security she will go ahead and videotape our faces to keep a record. She goes one by one through everyone on board and gets a record of how we look like. The door closes and were are just plain scared!
It´s so exciting to be in this city where salsa is heard and danced everywhere! However, before we plunge into the city we must get a few chores done. Alexey has been having a few personal issues to deal with in the US so he needs a little internet and phone calling time early in the day. We walked to a cyber cafe at the EXITO super market but it´s not what we expected so we reach for a cab to get us to the ChipiChape shopping center.
In here we get into the Matrix internet cafe and use their phone and internet services for a couple of hours. We have promised our hosts that we will be back at home at noon to have lunch with them. See, here most working people come back to their homes for lunch most days of the week. Either they elect to cook or have a maid who helps in the house with chores such as cooking. The lady who helps in our host´s house is Lida, a black women from the Choco region. Her food is delicious!!! We were treated to a bandeja paisa like dish which was out of this world!
We then stayed back chilling with Margarita and talking about a bunch of local issues. She runs a chemical laboratory where they manufacture drugs for animals such as cows and horses. But it was time for her to get back to work since she wanted to come back early. In Cali as well as in other Colombian cities, Margarita cannot drive during peak hours on certain days of the week depending on the ending digit of her license plates. This is called Pico y Placa here. Today, Tuesday, is her day of restriction.
Since Margarita is now gone back to work, Alexey finished off his internet duties at home, and I put a big dent on La Aventura del Tocador de Senoras which I have been reading, we decided to take a taxi out into the city. It was nearly 2PM so we need to be very efficient in our tourist activities. The taxi takes us through territory which we already recognize and soon we are in downtown. He dropped us off at the Plaza de Caycedo which is Cali´s main square. Alexey and I walked around this plaza for a little while and discovered the city hall building (very pretty and colonial white structure) and saw the working people doing their everyday business. We walked through a passway where tons of machine typists filled out forms for their customers in the middle of the way! There must have been 20 of these people! I am not really sure why their services are still needed in the age of computers and internet but hey, they seem happy doing it and we are happy seeing that a bit of the early 80s is still alive.
Alexey tried a coconut drink and ate the ¨manzana¨ that grows inside old coconuts. We also visited the famours church known as La Ermita (Alexey thinks it looks like a gingerbread house) and walked around some more by the Cali river to get the flavor of the city. Following our stroll, we went to see the oldest church in Cali and got into the Museum of Gold hosted by the Banco de la Republica. This was a cool museum with tons of information on the exploitation and use of gold by the indigenous of this area about 500 years ago and before. However, Alexey went to the ATM and when he came back, the museum closed (sorry man).
Now we walked pass a plaza full of birds in from of the Iglesia de San Francisco and through the connecting streets high into a small mountain at the top of which there is a park and another church: San Antonio. The views from here are impressive! The houses below seem to have spanish tile on the roofs. The bells in the church signaled it was 6PM and time to go to mass so we fled.
Now below, in the heart of the city, we got onto a taxi once again and headed back home so we can meet Margarita and Felipe and go out to dinner somewhere. We reached the house and our host got there soon after. It was shortly after 6:30PM and we just sat outside by the porch to talk about the day. She tells us that the drive tonight is quite dangerous but the dad of a friend of hers did it a few weeks back. She calls the friend to ask for more information. At this point we are thinking of leaving tomorrow for the border with Ecuador. The trip is quite long to the border (about 10 hours) with curvy roads, major guerrilla activity and unknowns along the way. Margarita´s friend tells us that the Bolivariano bus has ¨bought the vaccine¨ or basically paid the guerrillas to allow them to transit with their busses through this territory without hassle. However, most of the transit through this region, for some reason, happens at night and if we want to reach the border before the close for the day, we will need to leave tonight!!! The three of us looked at all of our options considering safety, border crossing details, and convenience, and determined that leaving tonight makes more sense.
The bad thing about our decision is that we won´t be able to hang out longer with our host family. They are REALLY cool and at least we want to take them out for dinner. So we made our bags and went out. Margarita´s daughter, who is studying in Bogota at the moment, was supposed to be featured in the Colombian equivalent of Business Week so we went around looking for this magazine but it was not out yet. So we headed to dinner at a place called Crepes y Waffles. This is a cool place that employs exclusively single mothers (wonder if this would seem discriminatory in the US). The crepes were excellent!! I had the strogonoff and was delighted! Felipe had dessert but the rest of us were wayyyy to full for this. Now it was time for our departure :(
We had already placed our bags in the trunk before we went to dinner so we headed straight for the bus terminal. Once there, we bid farewell to our wonderful hosts and bought tickets to Ipiales, which is the Colombian border town with Ecuador. The tickets were 35K pesos and we waiting for the bus on the 3rd floor of the terminal. Shortly we were called in the bus and took our seats. Unfortunately, we got stuck with seats all the way in the back of this EuroVan small bus. This meant that our seats did not recline!!! We will see how it goes and if we can sleep. Someone comes to peak into the bus and it´s the figure of a lady who works for this bus line. Now, Alexey and I are fully aware that this is probably the most dangerous zone that we are to cross in our trip. The guerrillas can stop us anytime and if they get to see our American passports we would be fresh meant for them. We had already agreed that we were, under no circumstances, to speak any form of English on the bus. We almost blew our cover near the bus driver who noticed that Alexey did not speak Spanish but I told him he was an Italian friend. To add to our worries, the lady who came in the bus informs us that for our security she will go ahead and videotape our faces to keep a record. She goes one by one through everyone on board and gets a record of how we look like. The door closes and were are just plain scared!
Almost back to California: At least we got the Cali
Monday, August 28th
The morning had us awake early and making use of our complementary breakfast at the hotel we got ready and took a taxi to the bus terminal. We wanted to get on the 8AM bus to Cali and it was 7:30AM so we needed to rush. Soon after crossing the whole city we got there with just a few minutes to spare. This was enough for us to call Mauricio from the terminal to thank him for showing us his city (given that we did not see him yesterday), getting a few snacks for the road, and buying some pills for my motion sickness. We were now on our way to Cali.
The bus ride was full of a weird and different scenery. There were gorges with small rivers running on them. The vegetation was dry but intriguing. We fell asleep for a little while and woke up at a rest stop. There were some nice fish on display which were swimming on what must have been 2 inches of water. Some of them had to swim sideways to stay under water! Here we had lunch and continued our trip a few minutes later. The remaining of the trip brought us a change in landscape with more sights of the major coffee plantation regions, sugar cane and cotton.
At arrival into the Cali bus terminal we were to contact Margarita who is the aunt of a good friend of mine from undergrad. We called her and she picked us up in about 10 minutes. Margarita is a wonderful young mother of two teenagers who was gracious enough to be our host in Cali. We got to her house located near the EXITO super market in the north of the city and met Felipe, her son.
We got cleaned up now from the trip and got ready to go out on a quick night tour of the city. At this point, I am really excited because this is a city that is highly talked about in Ecuador for its proximity, the happiness of its people and the beauty of its girls. The four of us got on the car and drove around downtown by the river Cali, eyed the Chipichape mall, saw the affluent areas of town and even went up a mountain nearby to get an aerial view of the city at night. It was all pretty cool but we were getting hungry. We decided to go for a very typical place to sample some of their delicacies.
The chosen place for eating was small but very nice. We ordered a platter for 4 people containing colombian empanadas, almojabanas, etc. The perfect accompanyment for this feast was a drink called lulada which is made with the lulo (aka naranjilla) fruit. Very delicious! I also had another drink made in the same way but with corn in it.. it was very vietnamese in style but latin in flavor. The name of this drink was Champus.
After the meal we were so tired that decided to go back home and relax a little so we can go and explore Cali during the day. We are so close to Ecuador now but need to get a good feel for this southern Colombian city before crossing the border.
The morning had us awake early and making use of our complementary breakfast at the hotel we got ready and took a taxi to the bus terminal. We wanted to get on the 8AM bus to Cali and it was 7:30AM so we needed to rush. Soon after crossing the whole city we got there with just a few minutes to spare. This was enough for us to call Mauricio from the terminal to thank him for showing us his city (given that we did not see him yesterday), getting a few snacks for the road, and buying some pills for my motion sickness. We were now on our way to Cali.
The bus ride was full of a weird and different scenery. There were gorges with small rivers running on them. The vegetation was dry but intriguing. We fell asleep for a little while and woke up at a rest stop. There were some nice fish on display which were swimming on what must have been 2 inches of water. Some of them had to swim sideways to stay under water! Here we had lunch and continued our trip a few minutes later. The remaining of the trip brought us a change in landscape with more sights of the major coffee plantation regions, sugar cane and cotton.
At arrival into the Cali bus terminal we were to contact Margarita who is the aunt of a good friend of mine from undergrad. We called her and she picked us up in about 10 minutes. Margarita is a wonderful young mother of two teenagers who was gracious enough to be our host in Cali. We got to her house located near the EXITO super market in the north of the city and met Felipe, her son.
We got cleaned up now from the trip and got ready to go out on a quick night tour of the city. At this point, I am really excited because this is a city that is highly talked about in Ecuador for its proximity, the happiness of its people and the beauty of its girls. The four of us got on the car and drove around downtown by the river Cali, eyed the Chipichape mall, saw the affluent areas of town and even went up a mountain nearby to get an aerial view of the city at night. It was all pretty cool but we were getting hungry. We decided to go for a very typical place to sample some of their delicacies.
The chosen place for eating was small but very nice. We ordered a platter for 4 people containing colombian empanadas, almojabanas, etc. The perfect accompanyment for this feast was a drink called lulada which is made with the lulo (aka naranjilla) fruit. Very delicious! I also had another drink made in the same way but with corn in it.. it was very vietnamese in style but latin in flavor. The name of this drink was Champus.
After the meal we were so tired that decided to go back home and relax a little so we can go and explore Cali during the day. We are so close to Ecuador now but need to get a good feel for this southern Colombian city before crossing the border.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Japanese tourists, get ready!
Sunday, August 27th
So far we have gotten a pretty good feeling for what Bogota is like as far as night life and food is concerned. Now it was time to discover the real Bogota, the center of town, the colonial areas, the plazas where people go on a weekend with the family, etcetera.
This morning, Alexey and I had breakfast at the HJ and checked out. After a quick 3 block walk with our bags we were checking in at out new hotel, La Casona del Patio Amarillo. This was a pleasant little hotel with all the amenities you could need and actually quite cozy. We were pretty happy here with the hotel and the price. Tried to call Mauricio on the phone to tell him about the change of place but could only leave a message. We still did not know the number at the hotel so we will call him later to meet up. After this, we walked in the direcion of Avenida Caracas to take advantage of the great public transportation system of Bogota. Here they have what is called ¨TransMilenio¨ which basically consists of a bus system that ressembles a subway system but it goes above ground. The buses have dedicated lanes on the road which makes it for much faster service.
It took about 20 minutes to get to the center of town and there we were in the middle of the Solidarity Walk which basically consists of a yearly event where local soap opera stars ride on beautified trucks and wave hi to the masses. This walk is for a good cause however, the people affected by guerrillas and natural disasters. So we walked around and had some meat buns that frankly looked like had been in the shelf for quite sometime. After I discover some mold spots on mine, we bailed out.
Reaching the Plaza de Bolivar was awesome! The architecture of the official buildings around it reminded us of Berlin, Germany. We took picture after picture after which we decided to walk around the colonial town. Today is also the last Sunday of the month which spells free entrance to museums so we took advantage of this and visited Manuelita Saenz house. She was basically Simon Bolivar´s love affair aside from also helping out with the revolution that in the end freed 5 countries from Spanish rule.
Walking a little further took us through very beautiful houses and parks. However, it was time to eat and we did this at a hole in the wall spot. The beauty of being in South America is that set-menu restaurants are more prevalent. Basically, you order ¨Almuerzo¨ and they will bring you the soup, the second plate (consiting of rice with some other accompanyment), juice, and sometimes even dessert. We had a wonderful lunch for about a dollar each. The food has definitely changed radically ever since we crossed from Central to South America and we find more potatoes and corn (not in tortillas).
The city of Bogota is located between mountains and the local tourism board has taken advantage of this geographical attribute by setting up funicular and cable car service both leaving near the center of the city and taking you up into the clouds for an impressive view of the city. Believe me, the views were breathtaking! It was pretty high up too and up there, there is a church and a few other tourist places which combine pine trees with chalets giving you a feeling of being in the Alps. We went up there by funicular and came back by cable car, both cost the same and tickets are interchangeable.
On the way down we took a taxi cab and requested to be taken to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogota (MAMBO). Unfortunately, this was closed due to repairs and Alexey was utterly dissapointed since he wanted to buy a MAMBO t-shirt as a souvenir. However, there was a great way to curb that dissapointment: let´s go to the stadium!! At 5:30PM at the El Campin stadium, Junior from Barranquilla plays Millonarios from Bogota! We take another taxi ride and are at the stadium in no time. Purchasing the tickets was easy. Us, being the high rollers that we are, purchased the most expensive (and safer) tickets at 40K pesos each. This is a big match in the local league so we want to make sure we are not in the middle of the mosh pit when things go downhill.
We were a bit early and waited around before the cheerleaders made their magestic appearance. Truthfully, the stadium did not fill up completely but there were two spots where rowdy fans were going nuts. The match ended 3-1 in favor of the local ¨Millos¨ to the delight of the people in the mosh pit that had been wreaking havoc on the north side of the stadium. The highlight of the game: the cheerleaders. Not that they were incredibly hot or that they did wonderful pirouettes. Their beauty lies in the effort they put to be so perfectly NOT synchronized and scaring the heck out of the expectators by letting their partners fall from high altitutes and barely being able to catch them before reaching the ground. All in all, it was really amusing.
Now it was time to call Mauricio and see if we are able to hook up. Unfortunately, in some South American countries, the way that cell phone service works is that the person calling a cell phone has to pay a higher rate than if calling a land line. The problem with that is that most people disable the ability to call to cell phones from land line, especially in hotels, to avoide incredibly high charges. So Alexey had to go and procure a phone card from a nearby supermarket following the front desk´s advice. He comes back with the card and it does not work. This is a $10K pesos investment so we need to make sure what´s going on. After half an hour of playing around and talking with the 1-8000 line (this is the Colombian version of a 1-800 number) I find that the card that Alexey bought works only to make calls froma landline or cellphone, and only to a COMCEL customer. Mauricio´s cell phone is with another company, Movistar. Therefore, there is no way of reaching him at all with the card. What is worse, is that once we tried to use the card on this particular phone at the hotel, we could never try to use the card, if we wanted to call someone with COMCEL, ever again at another phone line! What kind of service is this?
So we head down to the local supermarket where Alexey bought the card and the lady there argues that she asked him if what he wanted was a COMCEL card to which Alexey had responded: Yes. I would have done the same if I had only 3 days worth of Spanish classes. In the end, they refused to give us our money back. We made a big deal in front of their managers and others but afterall we are not in the US where customer centric management is the norm. Carullo is the supermarket, never buy anything there; and COMCEL the company, crooks.
Our time to call Mauricio is running out and we are not able to make a single phone call to his cell. We even tried Skyping from Bogota to Bogota :) We are not able to get good reception. After all, we decided to grab something to eat and try calling him tomorrow at least to say good bye. Tonight for dinner we have a mexican burrito at this posh gas station. This place really seemed happening for a Sunday evening. Tons of dressed up young girls and guys hanging out by the flat screen TV projecting non-stop videos of Madonna. Pretty cool! So having satiated our appetite but still mad about the cell phone incident, we went back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will head out to Cali. Tough ride with tons of new adventures in store.
So far we have gotten a pretty good feeling for what Bogota is like as far as night life and food is concerned. Now it was time to discover the real Bogota, the center of town, the colonial areas, the plazas where people go on a weekend with the family, etcetera.
This morning, Alexey and I had breakfast at the HJ and checked out. After a quick 3 block walk with our bags we were checking in at out new hotel, La Casona del Patio Amarillo. This was a pleasant little hotel with all the amenities you could need and actually quite cozy. We were pretty happy here with the hotel and the price. Tried to call Mauricio on the phone to tell him about the change of place but could only leave a message. We still did not know the number at the hotel so we will call him later to meet up. After this, we walked in the direcion of Avenida Caracas to take advantage of the great public transportation system of Bogota. Here they have what is called ¨TransMilenio¨ which basically consists of a bus system that ressembles a subway system but it goes above ground. The buses have dedicated lanes on the road which makes it for much faster service.
It took about 20 minutes to get to the center of town and there we were in the middle of the Solidarity Walk which basically consists of a yearly event where local soap opera stars ride on beautified trucks and wave hi to the masses. This walk is for a good cause however, the people affected by guerrillas and natural disasters. So we walked around and had some meat buns that frankly looked like had been in the shelf for quite sometime. After I discover some mold spots on mine, we bailed out.
Reaching the Plaza de Bolivar was awesome! The architecture of the official buildings around it reminded us of Berlin, Germany. We took picture after picture after which we decided to walk around the colonial town. Today is also the last Sunday of the month which spells free entrance to museums so we took advantage of this and visited Manuelita Saenz house. She was basically Simon Bolivar´s love affair aside from also helping out with the revolution that in the end freed 5 countries from Spanish rule.
Walking a little further took us through very beautiful houses and parks. However, it was time to eat and we did this at a hole in the wall spot. The beauty of being in South America is that set-menu restaurants are more prevalent. Basically, you order ¨Almuerzo¨ and they will bring you the soup, the second plate (consiting of rice with some other accompanyment), juice, and sometimes even dessert. We had a wonderful lunch for about a dollar each. The food has definitely changed radically ever since we crossed from Central to South America and we find more potatoes and corn (not in tortillas).
The city of Bogota is located between mountains and the local tourism board has taken advantage of this geographical attribute by setting up funicular and cable car service both leaving near the center of the city and taking you up into the clouds for an impressive view of the city. Believe me, the views were breathtaking! It was pretty high up too and up there, there is a church and a few other tourist places which combine pine trees with chalets giving you a feeling of being in the Alps. We went up there by funicular and came back by cable car, both cost the same and tickets are interchangeable.
On the way down we took a taxi cab and requested to be taken to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogota (MAMBO). Unfortunately, this was closed due to repairs and Alexey was utterly dissapointed since he wanted to buy a MAMBO t-shirt as a souvenir. However, there was a great way to curb that dissapointment: let´s go to the stadium!! At 5:30PM at the El Campin stadium, Junior from Barranquilla plays Millonarios from Bogota! We take another taxi ride and are at the stadium in no time. Purchasing the tickets was easy. Us, being the high rollers that we are, purchased the most expensive (and safer) tickets at 40K pesos each. This is a big match in the local league so we want to make sure we are not in the middle of the mosh pit when things go downhill.
We were a bit early and waited around before the cheerleaders made their magestic appearance. Truthfully, the stadium did not fill up completely but there were two spots where rowdy fans were going nuts. The match ended 3-1 in favor of the local ¨Millos¨ to the delight of the people in the mosh pit that had been wreaking havoc on the north side of the stadium. The highlight of the game: the cheerleaders. Not that they were incredibly hot or that they did wonderful pirouettes. Their beauty lies in the effort they put to be so perfectly NOT synchronized and scaring the heck out of the expectators by letting their partners fall from high altitutes and barely being able to catch them before reaching the ground. All in all, it was really amusing.
Now it was time to call Mauricio and see if we are able to hook up. Unfortunately, in some South American countries, the way that cell phone service works is that the person calling a cell phone has to pay a higher rate than if calling a land line. The problem with that is that most people disable the ability to call to cell phones from land line, especially in hotels, to avoide incredibly high charges. So Alexey had to go and procure a phone card from a nearby supermarket following the front desk´s advice. He comes back with the card and it does not work. This is a $10K pesos investment so we need to make sure what´s going on. After half an hour of playing around and talking with the 1-8000 line (this is the Colombian version of a 1-800 number) I find that the card that Alexey bought works only to make calls froma landline or cellphone, and only to a COMCEL customer. Mauricio´s cell phone is with another company, Movistar. Therefore, there is no way of reaching him at all with the card. What is worse, is that once we tried to use the card on this particular phone at the hotel, we could never try to use the card, if we wanted to call someone with COMCEL, ever again at another phone line! What kind of service is this?
So we head down to the local supermarket where Alexey bought the card and the lady there argues that she asked him if what he wanted was a COMCEL card to which Alexey had responded: Yes. I would have done the same if I had only 3 days worth of Spanish classes. In the end, they refused to give us our money back. We made a big deal in front of their managers and others but afterall we are not in the US where customer centric management is the norm. Carullo is the supermarket, never buy anything there; and COMCEL the company, crooks.
Our time to call Mauricio is running out and we are not able to make a single phone call to his cell. We even tried Skyping from Bogota to Bogota :) We are not able to get good reception. After all, we decided to grab something to eat and try calling him tomorrow at least to say good bye. Tonight for dinner we have a mexican burrito at this posh gas station. This place really seemed happening for a Sunday evening. Tons of dressed up young girls and guys hanging out by the flat screen TV projecting non-stop videos of Madonna. Pretty cool! So having satiated our appetite but still mad about the cell phone incident, we went back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will head out to Cali. Tough ride with tons of new adventures in store.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Who the heck is Andres anyways?
Saturday, August 26th
Recovering from a crazy drinking and dancing night is never easy. The compounding effects that 7500ft of altitute has on your body made this not a very pleasant morning. Alexey and I wrestled to get out of bed and even then, we could not do so without feeling nauseous. However, Bogota had proven itself a tough city to crack so we were up on our feet and ready when Mauricio called to tell us today´s itinerary.
The first order of business was to get something to eat which we accomplished at a nearby (near the Carrera 4th and Calle 69A address where the Howard Johnson is located) hamburger joint. As you could have guessed, we all ordered soup! :) We needed to get back on our feet afterall. The lentil soup was great and the guys told me that the tortilla soup was very good as well. Soon after, we headed back to the hotel.
At this point we still had not picked up our laundry. Alexey made some attempts but it wasn´t ready so he had to go back 3 times to get it. He also scoped out the hotel we had considered yesterday because it was cheaper than the HJ.. much cheaper. His opinion was that the other hotel was great and he even paid for 1 room reservation for tomorrow (Sunday) night in advance.
Back at the hotel, now with clean clothes (another festive day), we went back to rest due to our hangoverish condition. Mauricio did the same and went home promising to come back to pick us up in the late afternoon to show us the city while driving like a maniac and to take us to a restaurant we will not forget.
As promised, Mauricio was there in the hotel lobby at exactly the time agreed. We met him and went through the city in his BMW at full speed. The landscape in Bogota is great! Tons of pine trees, incredible buildings, lots of brick style houses and apartments. He even took us to his family´s home. This was a really well furnished old style home with a great view. Overall we were very impressed with Bogota after the drives and the views.
So now it was time for eating and dancing. Yeah!! After talking to a few friends, our well connected Mauricio decided to take us to a little town outside Bogota called Chia. This is a town where people come to eat and to party, primarily. The most salient attraction here? ¨Andres Carne de Res¨ (translation is in order: Andy Cow Meat).
This place is hands down the best restaurant we have seen south of the US and up there compared to American places. The atmosphere was a mix of what the tin man´s house would look like, plus a little german beer hall layout, plus a little bit of TGI Friday´s. Not really sure what the hell is going on in this place as all the details (and there are many) are off the hook and completely make sense (some how). If you are ever in Bogota, you NEED to check this place out.
After having a great duo of tenderloins both blackened with peppers and free style we starting the drinking session. With all the crazy driving and still recovering from last night, I was initially out of commission. However, after dinner this quickly changed and I was back on the team. We drank some vodka and aguardiente (Colombian national drink). The three of us had met Ian and Juliana at this place. Juliana was a friend of Mauricio´s and Ian was a friend of a friend of Juliana visitinig today all the way from London on a business trip. Ian was a great guy and actually paid the whole bill!!! For him 70 pounds for 5 people after feasting and drinking the way that we did was nothing so he took the blame, all of it. In any case, Ian and Alexey, pretty much by themselves drank a whole bottle of Absolute which was pretty impressive.
The eating ended and the dancing got started. Everyone was dancing to old salsa (featuring Colombian legend Joe Arroyo) and other older local tunes including the Cumbia genre. Everyone was dancing and in short, we had blast! Soon after it was about 11:30PM and it was time to move. Juliana decided to take Ian to Cha Cha Club but considering that we were there last night and it did not go too way for our health we decided to pass. Don Hector, the driver, took Mauricio home and them Alexey and I to our hotel. We crash and later learned that Mauricio had gone to an after party in the early hours of the morning.. what a crazy guy!!! He really has tons of energy. On the other hand, we were sooooo happy to be home and sleep well tonight.
Recovering from a crazy drinking and dancing night is never easy. The compounding effects that 7500ft of altitute has on your body made this not a very pleasant morning. Alexey and I wrestled to get out of bed and even then, we could not do so without feeling nauseous. However, Bogota had proven itself a tough city to crack so we were up on our feet and ready when Mauricio called to tell us today´s itinerary.
The first order of business was to get something to eat which we accomplished at a nearby (near the Carrera 4th and Calle 69A address where the Howard Johnson is located) hamburger joint. As you could have guessed, we all ordered soup! :) We needed to get back on our feet afterall. The lentil soup was great and the guys told me that the tortilla soup was very good as well. Soon after, we headed back to the hotel.
At this point we still had not picked up our laundry. Alexey made some attempts but it wasn´t ready so he had to go back 3 times to get it. He also scoped out the hotel we had considered yesterday because it was cheaper than the HJ.. much cheaper. His opinion was that the other hotel was great and he even paid for 1 room reservation for tomorrow (Sunday) night in advance.
Back at the hotel, now with clean clothes (another festive day), we went back to rest due to our hangoverish condition. Mauricio did the same and went home promising to come back to pick us up in the late afternoon to show us the city while driving like a maniac and to take us to a restaurant we will not forget.
As promised, Mauricio was there in the hotel lobby at exactly the time agreed. We met him and went through the city in his BMW at full speed. The landscape in Bogota is great! Tons of pine trees, incredible buildings, lots of brick style houses and apartments. He even took us to his family´s home. This was a really well furnished old style home with a great view. Overall we were very impressed with Bogota after the drives and the views.
So now it was time for eating and dancing. Yeah!! After talking to a few friends, our well connected Mauricio decided to take us to a little town outside Bogota called Chia. This is a town where people come to eat and to party, primarily. The most salient attraction here? ¨Andres Carne de Res¨ (translation is in order: Andy Cow Meat).
This place is hands down the best restaurant we have seen south of the US and up there compared to American places. The atmosphere was a mix of what the tin man´s house would look like, plus a little german beer hall layout, plus a little bit of TGI Friday´s. Not really sure what the hell is going on in this place as all the details (and there are many) are off the hook and completely make sense (some how). If you are ever in Bogota, you NEED to check this place out.
After having a great duo of tenderloins both blackened with peppers and free style we starting the drinking session. With all the crazy driving and still recovering from last night, I was initially out of commission. However, after dinner this quickly changed and I was back on the team. We drank some vodka and aguardiente (Colombian national drink). The three of us had met Ian and Juliana at this place. Juliana was a friend of Mauricio´s and Ian was a friend of a friend of Juliana visitinig today all the way from London on a business trip. Ian was a great guy and actually paid the whole bill!!! For him 70 pounds for 5 people after feasting and drinking the way that we did was nothing so he took the blame, all of it. In any case, Ian and Alexey, pretty much by themselves drank a whole bottle of Absolute which was pretty impressive.
The eating ended and the dancing got started. Everyone was dancing to old salsa (featuring Colombian legend Joe Arroyo) and other older local tunes including the Cumbia genre. Everyone was dancing and in short, we had blast! Soon after it was about 11:30PM and it was time to move. Juliana decided to take Ian to Cha Cha Club but considering that we were there last night and it did not go too way for our health we decided to pass. Don Hector, the driver, took Mauricio home and them Alexey and I to our hotel. We crash and later learned that Mauricio had gone to an after party in the early hours of the morning.. what a crazy guy!!! He really has tons of energy. On the other hand, we were sooooo happy to be home and sleep well tonight.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Bogota: Against all expectations
Friday, August 25th
We woke up to the sound of the bus engine roaring through the mountains of one of Colombia´s cordilleras. The scenery was very different than we had seen through our trip. Pine trees were prevalent as well as beautiful mountains nearby. It was barely getting brighter outside. I ressumed reading my book while Alexey kept sleeping a bit longer.
Another loud movie was played and soon it was time for breakfast on a roadside bus stop. This was a very welcomed time for resting since I felt that the motion sickness pills were wearing off. Took a second dosis and had some greasy breakfast. Alexey had a soup. We moved on.
After an uneventful rest of the bus ride, we arrived at the Bogota bus terminal. We still don´t know where we are going to be staying. Mauricio, our friend from school, has told us to call him so he can hook us up. We did as told after we managed to convince the bus driver to release Alexey´s bag from the storage since he had lost his claim ticket. On the phone Mauricio tells us that there is a Howard Johnson that has availability (his apartment is being remodeled so we can´t stay with him) for only $190K! Well, let me tell you guys something, we have been staying at places that come nowhere near to the quality of the HJ to say the most. We thought Cartagena was expensive at $65K per night! But oh well, this is going to be a splurge city for the sound of it. We had another hotel in mind for a bit cheaper but we´ll go with Mauricio´s suggestion due to it being more convenient for him to visit and take us out.
The hotel was incredibly nice. We had a queen sized bed for each of us!! The price was $240K in the end but oh well.. this is living! Soon after taking a shower, sending our clothes to the laundry place and resting Mauricio showed up to welcome us. We shared a glass of our remaining Flor de Cana Nicaraguan rum with him to celebrate. At this point all of my clothes are in the washers and the only thing I have left is this Guatemalan shirt that I bought, black pants, black shoes and white socks!! Ugly. So Mauricio calls his contacts and promises to hook me up with black socks soon after.
We leave. The first impression is that we are in for quite a bit of fun.. and spending. Mauricio´s driver (yes, you read me right) welcomes us on this brand new BMW. He is definitely living large and well here. He works as a Director of Sales Planning for the Bavaria brewery in Colombia. We head over for what he calls the ¨best sushi in the whole world¨. No no.. really, this guy has travelled quite a bit and he says this is the BEST. So we go to Watakushi and meet up with his friend Paola, quite beautiful and fun. We devoured the succulent treats of the sea before getting the succulent (for the owner) bill. No problem we say and play it as if we are also high rollers.
It´s time for starting the night well and we do so by going to a bar (name unknown) for drinks. This is supposed to be a casual encounter with Mauricio´s friends, a few (female) friends of theirs and us. We sat down in this packed bar with great music! Some U2, some Billy Joel, even some 80s latin rock. It is here where we met Luis (a Romanian Colombian fellow), Diana, Angelina, Patricia, and other friends. Between all of us we put down something like 2 or 3 Johnny Walker bottles and felt quite in a great mood. Having kicked this bar good bye, we headed to Cha Cha. This was a dance club in the 41st floor of the Orquidea Real building. The views of the city were awesome (or saw we heard because we were barely in a state that would warrant any credibility).
Our group danced the night away and saw alcohol come and dissapear rather quickly (same as our hard earned cash). We started going for RBandVK and Alexey got excited as he frequently does, and purchased a bottle of Absolut. Word on the street is that some of the girls got mad at Alexey for dancing too close or touching them.. not sure why but we don´t remember. It was fun nonetheless!
Mauricio called Don Hector, his driver, and we picked up Paola and drove home. This was definitely a great partying night and look forward to tomorrow. However, we will have to recover from this one first. One thing at a time.
We woke up to the sound of the bus engine roaring through the mountains of one of Colombia´s cordilleras. The scenery was very different than we had seen through our trip. Pine trees were prevalent as well as beautiful mountains nearby. It was barely getting brighter outside. I ressumed reading my book while Alexey kept sleeping a bit longer.
Another loud movie was played and soon it was time for breakfast on a roadside bus stop. This was a very welcomed time for resting since I felt that the motion sickness pills were wearing off. Took a second dosis and had some greasy breakfast. Alexey had a soup. We moved on.
After an uneventful rest of the bus ride, we arrived at the Bogota bus terminal. We still don´t know where we are going to be staying. Mauricio, our friend from school, has told us to call him so he can hook us up. We did as told after we managed to convince the bus driver to release Alexey´s bag from the storage since he had lost his claim ticket. On the phone Mauricio tells us that there is a Howard Johnson that has availability (his apartment is being remodeled so we can´t stay with him) for only $190K! Well, let me tell you guys something, we have been staying at places that come nowhere near to the quality of the HJ to say the most. We thought Cartagena was expensive at $65K per night! But oh well, this is going to be a splurge city for the sound of it. We had another hotel in mind for a bit cheaper but we´ll go with Mauricio´s suggestion due to it being more convenient for him to visit and take us out.
The hotel was incredibly nice. We had a queen sized bed for each of us!! The price was $240K in the end but oh well.. this is living! Soon after taking a shower, sending our clothes to the laundry place and resting Mauricio showed up to welcome us. We shared a glass of our remaining Flor de Cana Nicaraguan rum with him to celebrate. At this point all of my clothes are in the washers and the only thing I have left is this Guatemalan shirt that I bought, black pants, black shoes and white socks!! Ugly. So Mauricio calls his contacts and promises to hook me up with black socks soon after.
We leave. The first impression is that we are in for quite a bit of fun.. and spending. Mauricio´s driver (yes, you read me right) welcomes us on this brand new BMW. He is definitely living large and well here. He works as a Director of Sales Planning for the Bavaria brewery in Colombia. We head over for what he calls the ¨best sushi in the whole world¨. No no.. really, this guy has travelled quite a bit and he says this is the BEST. So we go to Watakushi and meet up with his friend Paola, quite beautiful and fun. We devoured the succulent treats of the sea before getting the succulent (for the owner) bill. No problem we say and play it as if we are also high rollers.
It´s time for starting the night well and we do so by going to a bar (name unknown) for drinks. This is supposed to be a casual encounter with Mauricio´s friends, a few (female) friends of theirs and us. We sat down in this packed bar with great music! Some U2, some Billy Joel, even some 80s latin rock. It is here where we met Luis (a Romanian Colombian fellow), Diana, Angelina, Patricia, and other friends. Between all of us we put down something like 2 or 3 Johnny Walker bottles and felt quite in a great mood. Having kicked this bar good bye, we headed to Cha Cha. This was a dance club in the 41st floor of the Orquidea Real building. The views of the city were awesome (or saw we heard because we were barely in a state that would warrant any credibility).
Our group danced the night away and saw alcohol come and dissapear rather quickly (same as our hard earned cash). We started going for RBandVK and Alexey got excited as he frequently does, and purchased a bottle of Absolut. Word on the street is that some of the girls got mad at Alexey for dancing too close or touching them.. not sure why but we don´t remember. It was fun nonetheless!
Mauricio called Don Hector, his driver, and we picked up Paola and drove home. This was definitely a great partying night and look forward to tomorrow. However, we will have to recover from this one first. One thing at a time.
Moving up the chain
Thursday, August 24th
Last night after doing blogging we realized it was about 7PM. The circus function starts at 7:30PM!! So we quickly got moving and even though my body still did not feel any better, we walked to the circus quickly. This was the circus of the Hermanos Gasca which every child born in the last 30 years must recognize by name. Raul Gasca, grandson of the original Gasca, was basically a one man show.
We saw everything from elephants and tigers to a woman who could bend in the most awkard positions.. Amazing! Then the juggling knifes while standing on top of a galloping horse, four motorcycles running at full speed on a sphere smaller than a typical bedroom and other oddities came about. I wish we would have seen some sort of four legged woman or something more esoteric but no such luck.
The performance ended with Raul singing a sad song in front of a mirror while he took his clown make up off his face. This was a very, very emotional moment and you could see a virtual tear coming down Alexey´s right cheek. But it was time to move on and after walking back accross the bridge, we went into the old walled city once again, had dinner at this local hangout and then went to sleep hoping that my sickness, whatever it was, would go away.
Moving on to today´s activities.
We walked around the city once again after having gone for breakfast at the same place where we had dinner last night. They have awesome fruit shakes or Aguas con Leche as they are known here in Colombia. After this hearty meal, we decided to walk to the famous beaches of Cartagena.
The closest beach is called Boca Grande is is about 20 or 25 minutes by our trusty good method of transport as of lately, namely both of our legs. We walked there. It must have been shortly after noon. The beach has black sand and we saw tons of locals hanging out there and bading. Women here are really very beatutiful even though they have no effect on me as of June of this year :) Alexey was pleased, however. We sat down at a bar/hut on the beach and had fresh orange and lime juices to quench our thirst. It was really cool just to be there drinking juice and watching people at the beach on the burning sun but sheltered under the hut´s roof. There was good Colombian Vallenato playing in the speakers. Really cool feeling to it.
We then decided to call our friend Mauricio since he graciously agreed to be our host in Bogota. We did this somewhere in an establishment close to the high rises of the Boca Grande beach. Then we walked back to the hotel, picked up our bags that were in the hotel´s storage room and run for the local Metrocar Bus. This bus took much longer than expected to reach the bus terminal. On our way in it had taken us about 45 minutes but it was already 1 hour and this bus kept taking side streets to pick up more people. We arrived to the bus terminal with just enough time to pick up some motion sickness pills (for me) and some food for the long trip (for both).
The tickets were expensive (original $103K but $77K after student discounts) but we took the best bus there was, the Brasilia which takes about 20 hours to reach from Cartagena to Bogota through Barranquilla. We both stocked up on reading materials in Panama knowing they would come in handing in Colombia. So we simply hope that the trip is pleasant and there aren´t any security issues. It is freezing in here! These buses compensate for the heat outside by cranking the AC or perhaps they just want us to freeze so as to not feel the pain of sitting for this long on a bus. Roads seem to be ok so far.
Last night after doing blogging we realized it was about 7PM. The circus function starts at 7:30PM!! So we quickly got moving and even though my body still did not feel any better, we walked to the circus quickly. This was the circus of the Hermanos Gasca which every child born in the last 30 years must recognize by name. Raul Gasca, grandson of the original Gasca, was basically a one man show.
We saw everything from elephants and tigers to a woman who could bend in the most awkard positions.. Amazing! Then the juggling knifes while standing on top of a galloping horse, four motorcycles running at full speed on a sphere smaller than a typical bedroom and other oddities came about. I wish we would have seen some sort of four legged woman or something more esoteric but no such luck.
The performance ended with Raul singing a sad song in front of a mirror while he took his clown make up off his face. This was a very, very emotional moment and you could see a virtual tear coming down Alexey´s right cheek. But it was time to move on and after walking back accross the bridge, we went into the old walled city once again, had dinner at this local hangout and then went to sleep hoping that my sickness, whatever it was, would go away.
Moving on to today´s activities.
We walked around the city once again after having gone for breakfast at the same place where we had dinner last night. They have awesome fruit shakes or Aguas con Leche as they are known here in Colombia. After this hearty meal, we decided to walk to the famous beaches of Cartagena.
The closest beach is called Boca Grande is is about 20 or 25 minutes by our trusty good method of transport as of lately, namely both of our legs. We walked there. It must have been shortly after noon. The beach has black sand and we saw tons of locals hanging out there and bading. Women here are really very beatutiful even though they have no effect on me as of June of this year :) Alexey was pleased, however. We sat down at a bar/hut on the beach and had fresh orange and lime juices to quench our thirst. It was really cool just to be there drinking juice and watching people at the beach on the burning sun but sheltered under the hut´s roof. There was good Colombian Vallenato playing in the speakers. Really cool feeling to it.
We then decided to call our friend Mauricio since he graciously agreed to be our host in Bogota. We did this somewhere in an establishment close to the high rises of the Boca Grande beach. Then we walked back to the hotel, picked up our bags that were in the hotel´s storage room and run for the local Metrocar Bus. This bus took much longer than expected to reach the bus terminal. On our way in it had taken us about 45 minutes but it was already 1 hour and this bus kept taking side streets to pick up more people. We arrived to the bus terminal with just enough time to pick up some motion sickness pills (for me) and some food for the long trip (for both).
The tickets were expensive (original $103K but $77K after student discounts) but we took the best bus there was, the Brasilia which takes about 20 hours to reach from Cartagena to Bogota through Barranquilla. We both stocked up on reading materials in Panama knowing they would come in handing in Colombia. So we simply hope that the trip is pleasant and there aren´t any security issues. It is freezing in here! These buses compensate for the heat outside by cranking the AC or perhaps they just want us to freeze so as to not feel the pain of sitting for this long on a bus. Roads seem to be ok so far.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Cartagena de Indias and its riches
Wednesday, August 23rd
Last night I felt a bit ill. Not sure if it was Jacky´s (Chloe and Andrea´s mom) cold in Panama that I got but I really did not feel well. In any case, I decided to take a tablet of the almighty Cipro antibiotic just in case it was an infection which would not be totally outrageous in our seventh week of travelling. This morning I followed through with the prescription and feel a bit better but not 100%.
The hotel is centrically located so we went out for a stroll to learn more about the city. This city is really one of the most beautiful cities we have seen so far. There is colonial architecture whereever you turn and the people are pleasantly caribbean in attitude. The hot climate adds to the equation to make this a very unique place. There are horse pulled carriages on the streets and high wooden balconies in the streets. At night, weak street lamps give you the impression that you are in the XVII or XVIII century (1600s or 1700s for the romanly challenged).
We get student discounts at the local museums so we took advantage of this opportunity to increase our cultural awareness for cheap. The Museum of History of Cartagena was really cool. This is actually the building of the Inquisition. That is, they used this as headquarters to the witch police. If you were caught misbehaving you were put through all these methods of turture. One of them was intriguing in that it was a table with ropes at both ends tied to circular cranks. The infractor was tied by its extremities and the cranks tightened the ropes ever more with every twist. Until bones and muscle was broken or a confession was made, which every one was earliest. The intriguing thing is that there were two ropes in one end, for both arms obviously, and three ropes in the other extreme, two legs and one... well, we´ll leave it up to your imagination.
We walked through the streets taking pictures like a good Japanese tourist would. We saw the Cathedral, the Simon Bolivar Park, Convent and Church of San Pedro Claver, Plaza de la Aduana, Plaza de los Coches and the city walls. FYI, this city was important because it became a warehouse for all the gold that the Spaniards stole from the indians in Latin America. They would transport the gold and riches to Cartagena and store them until they were picked up by ships bounded for Spain. Of course, this would only happen if pirates did not steal the gold before the ships arrive. This was a great problem and the Spaniards decided to build a wall around the city which still stands today. The building of this wall lasted 200 years.
The Spaniards also built the Castle of San Felipe on top of a small mountain which is actually a fort that was used to spot pirates approaching the caribbean coast. We passed through the Getsemani neighborhood and ate at the Coroncoro restaurant (great cheap food!) on Calle Tripita y Media. The sitting was tough since it was packed with hungry locals. We could not spot a gringo in the whole restaurant! After being sat on a table we realized it was a german-beer-tent-like arrangement in that we were accompanied by two other strangers in our same table. This local lady was very pleasant to talk to and smiled at our struggled way to order local delicacies. She was sure of what she wanted and ordered it in 2 seconds. She tells us that the restaurant is really not that busy right now even though there are people standing waiting for tables. She says that when it is really busy you cannot even walk in between the tables! After this, her male friend sits with us but the start talking about guys and how mad she was at this other guy. Alexey and I are thinking her friend is gay at this point.
Now on to a food comma. What better way to deal with it than to climb to the top of the castle. Once again we get student discounts!! WHOOOOHO! We sit at the top in the shadow of a roof and feeling the breeze cool down our skins which had been pounded by the heavy Cartagenian sun all day. Then we explore the dungeons were Spanish watchmen spent endless hours spotting pirates. It was kind of scary at some points since you could get confused in the dark dungeons and never come out! :)
Let´s now take a cab and stop by the circus to see their hours of operation. I have not been in a circus in such a long time that it´s very tempting. The cab does not charge us to stop by the circus since we already negotiated him to take us to the Bovedas by the north side of the wall close to the ocean for 4000 pesos (rate is $1:2370pesos). We walked along the wall and stopped to see a bunch of fishermen pulling the nets with their catch. After this we walked by Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s house and went to do some internet catching up. Hopefully, we will be able to upload some pictures soon.
Last night I felt a bit ill. Not sure if it was Jacky´s (Chloe and Andrea´s mom) cold in Panama that I got but I really did not feel well. In any case, I decided to take a tablet of the almighty Cipro antibiotic just in case it was an infection which would not be totally outrageous in our seventh week of travelling. This morning I followed through with the prescription and feel a bit better but not 100%.
The hotel is centrically located so we went out for a stroll to learn more about the city. This city is really one of the most beautiful cities we have seen so far. There is colonial architecture whereever you turn and the people are pleasantly caribbean in attitude. The hot climate adds to the equation to make this a very unique place. There are horse pulled carriages on the streets and high wooden balconies in the streets. At night, weak street lamps give you the impression that you are in the XVII or XVIII century (1600s or 1700s for the romanly challenged).
We get student discounts at the local museums so we took advantage of this opportunity to increase our cultural awareness for cheap. The Museum of History of Cartagena was really cool. This is actually the building of the Inquisition. That is, they used this as headquarters to the witch police. If you were caught misbehaving you were put through all these methods of turture. One of them was intriguing in that it was a table with ropes at both ends tied to circular cranks. The infractor was tied by its extremities and the cranks tightened the ropes ever more with every twist. Until bones and muscle was broken or a confession was made, which every one was earliest. The intriguing thing is that there were two ropes in one end, for both arms obviously, and three ropes in the other extreme, two legs and one... well, we´ll leave it up to your imagination.
We walked through the streets taking pictures like a good Japanese tourist would. We saw the Cathedral, the Simon Bolivar Park, Convent and Church of San Pedro Claver, Plaza de la Aduana, Plaza de los Coches and the city walls. FYI, this city was important because it became a warehouse for all the gold that the Spaniards stole from the indians in Latin America. They would transport the gold and riches to Cartagena and store them until they were picked up by ships bounded for Spain. Of course, this would only happen if pirates did not steal the gold before the ships arrive. This was a great problem and the Spaniards decided to build a wall around the city which still stands today. The building of this wall lasted 200 years.
The Spaniards also built the Castle of San Felipe on top of a small mountain which is actually a fort that was used to spot pirates approaching the caribbean coast. We passed through the Getsemani neighborhood and ate at the Coroncoro restaurant (great cheap food!) on Calle Tripita y Media. The sitting was tough since it was packed with hungry locals. We could not spot a gringo in the whole restaurant! After being sat on a table we realized it was a german-beer-tent-like arrangement in that we were accompanied by two other strangers in our same table. This local lady was very pleasant to talk to and smiled at our struggled way to order local delicacies. She was sure of what she wanted and ordered it in 2 seconds. She tells us that the restaurant is really not that busy right now even though there are people standing waiting for tables. She says that when it is really busy you cannot even walk in between the tables! After this, her male friend sits with us but the start talking about guys and how mad she was at this other guy. Alexey and I are thinking her friend is gay at this point.
Now on to a food comma. What better way to deal with it than to climb to the top of the castle. Once again we get student discounts!! WHOOOOHO! We sit at the top in the shadow of a roof and feeling the breeze cool down our skins which had been pounded by the heavy Cartagenian sun all day. Then we explore the dungeons were Spanish watchmen spent endless hours spotting pirates. It was kind of scary at some points since you could get confused in the dark dungeons and never come out! :)
Let´s now take a cab and stop by the circus to see their hours of operation. I have not been in a circus in such a long time that it´s very tempting. The cab does not charge us to stop by the circus since we already negotiated him to take us to the Bovedas by the north side of the wall close to the ocean for 4000 pesos (rate is $1:2370pesos). We walked along the wall and stopped to see a bunch of fishermen pulling the nets with their catch. After this we walked by Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s house and went to do some internet catching up. Hopefully, we will be able to upload some pictures soon.
The land of Coffee and Cocaine
Tuesday, August 22nd 2006
We bid our farwell to our AMAZING hosts at our halfway house in Panama and we were on the road again!
Ahh... South America! Upon arrival to Colombia, our bags were promptly torn apart - my shoe soles, cigars, back pack frame, and chapstick were inspected quite closely. They seem to take customs quite seriously here. Lots of guns too, which we hadn´t seen many of in Panama and Costa Rica. The shotgun, which was ubiquitos in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, didn´t seem to be popular though. Just handguns.
We arrived in Barranquilla and decided to quickly check out what had been labeled as a more industrial Colombian city. We took the bus from the airport (which, for the first time in more than a month was not a school bus) and started strolling around. With our large bags and gringo skin, pretty much everyone was looking at us like we were animals in a musem. The heat, the sketchiness, and our gringo bags, all made the prospects of completing an afternoon stroll a little hard. (Note: since we are now carrying all of Jose´s extra payload that he has picked up along the way our bags are quite a bit heavier) Thus, after several blocks (and a very nice woman who advised Jose to take off his gold chain and hide it) we decided to resume the tour in a cab.
Our first glimpse of this mysterious country where over 43 MILLION people live (second most populous spanish speaking country after mexico) was spectacular! The majority of population is mixto; a mix of african, indian, and european decent. The city planning of Barranquilla was quite different from any city we had seen in central america thus far. Large wide streets, grid city planning, and no buildings over two stories were some of the charactaristics of this city of over one million inhabitabitants. There were also many new and shinny cars - one of which was our taxi. Our driver gave us the history of the city and his perspectives as he took us on a leasurely drive-tour on the way to the long distance bus termanial. We arrived and after a quick meal were off to Cartagena!
The bus to Cartagena was luxurious; could get used to this! The Colombian rural landscape was spectactular and I was glued with my nose to the window, and managed to avoid watching any of fast and furious 2. The sun was setting as we arrived in the long distance bus terminal and we needed to make tracks since, as in Barranquilla, the terminal was far from the city. After a 40 minute ride, and some nice pointers from some locals, we arrived to the old town. Our first few attempts at hotels didn´t pan out but we finally landed a spot right near the old town.
Our first glimpses of Cartagena proved that this could be the most beautiful city that we have seen yet on this voyage. The old colonial city was beautrifully preserved but was integrated into modern life and had become the epicenter of greater Cartagena. Not too many tourists either.
Jose was coming down with a cold so we had a nice meal of fish and juice, bypassed the beautiful outdoor cafes and squares, and headed home for an early bed. As a final highlight, I managed to give myself a hell of an electric shock when grabbing for the light in the bathroom after my shower. My arm was still tingling a bit in the morning.
We bid our farwell to our AMAZING hosts at our halfway house in Panama and we were on the road again!
Ahh... South America! Upon arrival to Colombia, our bags were promptly torn apart - my shoe soles, cigars, back pack frame, and chapstick were inspected quite closely. They seem to take customs quite seriously here. Lots of guns too, which we hadn´t seen many of in Panama and Costa Rica. The shotgun, which was ubiquitos in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, didn´t seem to be popular though. Just handguns.
We arrived in Barranquilla and decided to quickly check out what had been labeled as a more industrial Colombian city. We took the bus from the airport (which, for the first time in more than a month was not a school bus) and started strolling around. With our large bags and gringo skin, pretty much everyone was looking at us like we were animals in a musem. The heat, the sketchiness, and our gringo bags, all made the prospects of completing an afternoon stroll a little hard. (Note: since we are now carrying all of Jose´s extra payload that he has picked up along the way our bags are quite a bit heavier) Thus, after several blocks (and a very nice woman who advised Jose to take off his gold chain and hide it) we decided to resume the tour in a cab.
Our first glimpse of this mysterious country where over 43 MILLION people live (second most populous spanish speaking country after mexico) was spectacular! The majority of population is mixto; a mix of african, indian, and european decent. The city planning of Barranquilla was quite different from any city we had seen in central america thus far. Large wide streets, grid city planning, and no buildings over two stories were some of the charactaristics of this city of over one million inhabitabitants. There were also many new and shinny cars - one of which was our taxi. Our driver gave us the history of the city and his perspectives as he took us on a leasurely drive-tour on the way to the long distance bus termanial. We arrived and after a quick meal were off to Cartagena!
The bus to Cartagena was luxurious; could get used to this! The Colombian rural landscape was spectactular and I was glued with my nose to the window, and managed to avoid watching any of fast and furious 2. The sun was setting as we arrived in the long distance bus terminal and we needed to make tracks since, as in Barranquilla, the terminal was far from the city. After a 40 minute ride, and some nice pointers from some locals, we arrived to the old town. Our first few attempts at hotels didn´t pan out but we finally landed a spot right near the old town.
Our first glimpses of Cartagena proved that this could be the most beautiful city that we have seen yet on this voyage. The old colonial city was beautrifully preserved but was integrated into modern life and had become the epicenter of greater Cartagena. Not too many tourists either.
Jose was coming down with a cold so we had a nice meal of fish and juice, bypassed the beautiful outdoor cafes and squares, and headed home for an early bed. As a final highlight, I managed to give myself a hell of an electric shock when grabbing for the light in the bathroom after my shower. My arm was still tingling a bit in the morning.
Monday, bureaucracy Monday..
Monday, August 21st
The alarm sounded at 7:15AM and we had slept for quite a while. This day promised to be a really hectic one as we try to get all the paperwork for Rosinante to leave from Panama into Miami. Our appointment was at 8:30AM and Lic. Hermandez, who is helping us send the car, called to remind us. In his office we met his wife who would carry us through all the paperwork necessary. Really, it´s only two things we need to do but you know how our governments work.
The lady is a good looking tall dark skinned woman which actually played in our favor when a man was behind the bureau. We breezed through in the PTJ (equivalent to the US FBI) but then had to wait until the Secretary of the PTJ came in since he had to sign the car release. Basically, this paper asserts that the car is clean and there were no crimes committed with it. We try to get ahead by going to the Customs office to see if they can stamped my passport so I can leave the country. See, when we came into Panama they stamped my passport to say that I brought in a car. If I leave the country by plane, the way we are planning, customs there will think that I left the car in Panama or sold it! So they need to put another stamp over the old one, basically saying that the car is leaving by boat.
At Customs, we arrive at the precise moment when they call for a weekly administrative meeting so they will not be taking requests for the next 5 to 10 minutes. No one is there at the office now and it has been 40 minutes since the announcement. We go back to the PTJ and see if the Secretary has arrived and signed our paper. No such luck. Let´s split and reconvene at 1:30PM to come back and hopefully get all this over with. We drop Don Hernandez´s wife at the office and head over to ExedraBooks to find a Lonely Planet South America. We accomplish this in under 1 hour plus bought some interesting books to read through Colombia.
Now we are back at the PTJ and the Secretary finally has signed the paper. After picking it up we head over to Customs where they inform us that the lady has just gone to lunch, and ¨she can take a looong time lunching¨ the guard tells us while gesturing at her figure. Alexey is outside caring for Rosinante while the lady and I are sitting there waiting to be serviced. Nothing happens for more than half an hour. Two young girls arrive and sit next to us. They seem Spanish and trying to do the same paperwork as we are! These girls, Maria and Eva are as crazy as we are and more! They have driven from L.A. in this minibus all the way to Panama in 9 months. Their final destination is Argentina but given the current situation in Colombia are shipping the car to Guayaquil and restarting their voyage there. Check out their website. We exchange information as the lady finally arrives. The work gets done and ufff!! Rosinante is finally cleared for take off.
Finally home at 4PM freed from all the red tape we decide to head for the mall to buy some presents. Also, by now we are ready to leave tomorrow if there are tickets available. We find two sits in a COPA flight to Barranquilla, Colombia tomorrow. So we buy them and tell our lovely hosts that sadly, our stay has come to an end! :( We are really sad because being here has been like being at home for us. Everyone including Nina, the dog, has been wonderful to us and at all times felt welcomed. THANK YOU JULISSA AND FAMILY FOR THE WONDERFUL TIMES HERE IN PANAMA. Andrea seems sad to know that we are leaving. So cute!
At the mall we do a round of male shopping (less than 30 minutes at the mall total) and head back since we have invited everyone to dinner tonight to thank them for their hospitality. Doña Irma is our accomplice and promised not to cook anything so they are forced to go to dinner with us. However, to our surprise we come back to the beautiful smell of rice, beans and chicken a la milanesa. What happened?! Apparently the family had decided to eat at home to avoid us paying the bill and the go out for ice cream. So we reluctantly agree to the deal and eat at home.
We go out to the causeway (strip of restaurants lined up on a stretch of filled land connecting 3 islands, the filling of which came from digging the Canal) to find a dessert shop but it´s closed on Mondays. So we head to Fridays instead :) We all have icecreams and say nice things before departure. Really we are both sad to leave. :( Joyce rides in the trunk due to lack of space and falls asleep throughout the whole ride back!
We go back and try to sleep. Tomorrow we will be in Colombia so we must save energy.
The alarm sounded at 7:15AM and we had slept for quite a while. This day promised to be a really hectic one as we try to get all the paperwork for Rosinante to leave from Panama into Miami. Our appointment was at 8:30AM and Lic. Hermandez, who is helping us send the car, called to remind us. In his office we met his wife who would carry us through all the paperwork necessary. Really, it´s only two things we need to do but you know how our governments work.
The lady is a good looking tall dark skinned woman which actually played in our favor when a man was behind the bureau. We breezed through in the PTJ (equivalent to the US FBI) but then had to wait until the Secretary of the PTJ came in since he had to sign the car release. Basically, this paper asserts that the car is clean and there were no crimes committed with it. We try to get ahead by going to the Customs office to see if they can stamped my passport so I can leave the country. See, when we came into Panama they stamped my passport to say that I brought in a car. If I leave the country by plane, the way we are planning, customs there will think that I left the car in Panama or sold it! So they need to put another stamp over the old one, basically saying that the car is leaving by boat.
At Customs, we arrive at the precise moment when they call for a weekly administrative meeting so they will not be taking requests for the next 5 to 10 minutes. No one is there at the office now and it has been 40 minutes since the announcement. We go back to the PTJ and see if the Secretary has arrived and signed our paper. No such luck. Let´s split and reconvene at 1:30PM to come back and hopefully get all this over with. We drop Don Hernandez´s wife at the office and head over to ExedraBooks to find a Lonely Planet South America. We accomplish this in under 1 hour plus bought some interesting books to read through Colombia.
Now we are back at the PTJ and the Secretary finally has signed the paper. After picking it up we head over to Customs where they inform us that the lady has just gone to lunch, and ¨she can take a looong time lunching¨ the guard tells us while gesturing at her figure. Alexey is outside caring for Rosinante while the lady and I are sitting there waiting to be serviced. Nothing happens for more than half an hour. Two young girls arrive and sit next to us. They seem Spanish and trying to do the same paperwork as we are! These girls, Maria and Eva are as crazy as we are and more! They have driven from L.A. in this minibus all the way to Panama in 9 months. Their final destination is Argentina but given the current situation in Colombia are shipping the car to Guayaquil and restarting their voyage there. Check out their website. We exchange information as the lady finally arrives. The work gets done and ufff!! Rosinante is finally cleared for take off.
Finally home at 4PM freed from all the red tape we decide to head for the mall to buy some presents. Also, by now we are ready to leave tomorrow if there are tickets available. We find two sits in a COPA flight to Barranquilla, Colombia tomorrow. So we buy them and tell our lovely hosts that sadly, our stay has come to an end! :( We are really sad because being here has been like being at home for us. Everyone including Nina, the dog, has been wonderful to us and at all times felt welcomed. THANK YOU JULISSA AND FAMILY FOR THE WONDERFUL TIMES HERE IN PANAMA. Andrea seems sad to know that we are leaving. So cute!
At the mall we do a round of male shopping (less than 30 minutes at the mall total) and head back since we have invited everyone to dinner tonight to thank them for their hospitality. Doña Irma is our accomplice and promised not to cook anything so they are forced to go to dinner with us. However, to our surprise we come back to the beautiful smell of rice, beans and chicken a la milanesa. What happened?! Apparently the family had decided to eat at home to avoid us paying the bill and the go out for ice cream. So we reluctantly agree to the deal and eat at home.
We go out to the causeway (strip of restaurants lined up on a stretch of filled land connecting 3 islands, the filling of which came from digging the Canal) to find a dessert shop but it´s closed on Mondays. So we head to Fridays instead :) We all have icecreams and say nice things before departure. Really we are both sad to leave. :( Joyce rides in the trunk due to lack of space and falls asleep throughout the whole ride back!
We go back and try to sleep. Tomorrow we will be in Colombia so we must save energy.
Reintroduction to civilization
Sunday, August 20th
There is someone punching me in the stomach. Ouch! It really hurts, what is it?! It cannot be the morning already! These days I find myself being incredibly regular. That is, as soon as I wake up, I need to head to the restroom. The morning was barely peaking through in the form of sun rays. Where is the restroom? I asked myself. We are anchored of the coast of some uninhabited island. Oops. We have a problem.
I wake Don Armando up and ask him what we should do. He wakes the rest of the captains and we all head over to a close island where there was a small town. Presumably, I would be able to find a BR somewhere in there. I disembark and we are now ready for some early morning fishing! Baby marlin, I hope you are as beautiful as I saw you in my dreams.
We go for some buoys nearby the Panama Canal. We are staying in between large ships transporting all sorts of stuff in colorful containers. Marginal luck brings me a larger fish, perhaps a 2 pound Pargo (English name?). Marco finds another similar fish and we start getting enthusiastic. However, we did not place the anchor well enough and we are drifting so we leave the fishing sweet spot soon and no more fish are caught. After a while of navigating and a small breakfast we have not caught much. Perhaps it is best to go back to the coast as we need to head back for Don Pedro to test drive a new boat for a customer (he is a motor boat technician). We make a stop under the Bridge of the Americas (which connects Central America and South America above the Panama Canal). We are hanging out there when something catches Luis Xavier´s line and mine at the same time. My line was pulling really hard! Surely, my line must have been caught on Luis Xavier´s and this is why we are both trying to push our ways. However, he brings out a good fish. This must only mean that I caught some sort of larger fish. My fingers were struggling for a little while but after the wrestling match, I brought up a beautiful Uriel (English name?). It was the largest catch of the session but not sure how big. Now, if I can only get my hook on a baby marlin!
The fishing patrol came by to tell us that this was no fishing ground. So the party ended and we went behind some structure to fish hidden from the boat police. At this point, Don Gregorio was teaching Alexey how to clean fish. He seemed to be a good apprentice but after he was done there was no good meat left! Just kidding, he was actually covered in fish scales but the fish looked ok. Don Gregorio resumed his cleaning routine while the rest of us tried to fish something. At some point, Don Gregorio was cleaning the Pargo that I had caught earlier this morning and his cleaning table (a wooden paddle from the boat) wabbled a bit sending the fish in the water. He must have felt bad since it would have been really cool to have eaten that fish, that I caught with my own hands.. so in a feline reaction, he jumped in the water to save the fish! After putting the fish back in the boat he realized that his cell phone was in his pocket :( We all felt bad but after a little while we all laughed.
Back on shore Don Gregorio´s car did not start. We needed to get some ice since the fish from last night had started to smell. We spent some time waiting for the boat to be picked up and for our car to start. After jump starting it we were on the road. We returned the boat and went home. Doña Irma had prepared some food for these hungry and stinky fishermen. The shower and the food felt marvellous and immediately, Alexey and I went to bed for a few hours. We were only awakened by Doña Irma calling us to eat the fish that earlier on had been caught with our own hands! They tasted pretty good with Patacones (fried plantain medallions).
Joyce and Jessica (Joyce´s pretty cool friend) took Alexey and I for icecream. We all had Miel de Caña with Coco (Sugar Cane and Coconut) except for Alexey who went for the Tamarind sorbet. We dropped Jessica off and headed back home. This was the end of our fishing experience and really a worthwhile one. There was no baby marlin involved but it certainly made us appreciate the job that all artisan fisherman go through in their everyday lives. This was for us an unforgettable experience!
There is someone punching me in the stomach. Ouch! It really hurts, what is it?! It cannot be the morning already! These days I find myself being incredibly regular. That is, as soon as I wake up, I need to head to the restroom. The morning was barely peaking through in the form of sun rays. Where is the restroom? I asked myself. We are anchored of the coast of some uninhabited island. Oops. We have a problem.
I wake Don Armando up and ask him what we should do. He wakes the rest of the captains and we all head over to a close island where there was a small town. Presumably, I would be able to find a BR somewhere in there. I disembark and we are now ready for some early morning fishing! Baby marlin, I hope you are as beautiful as I saw you in my dreams.
We go for some buoys nearby the Panama Canal. We are staying in between large ships transporting all sorts of stuff in colorful containers. Marginal luck brings me a larger fish, perhaps a 2 pound Pargo (English name?). Marco finds another similar fish and we start getting enthusiastic. However, we did not place the anchor well enough and we are drifting so we leave the fishing sweet spot soon and no more fish are caught. After a while of navigating and a small breakfast we have not caught much. Perhaps it is best to go back to the coast as we need to head back for Don Pedro to test drive a new boat for a customer (he is a motor boat technician). We make a stop under the Bridge of the Americas (which connects Central America and South America above the Panama Canal). We are hanging out there when something catches Luis Xavier´s line and mine at the same time. My line was pulling really hard! Surely, my line must have been caught on Luis Xavier´s and this is why we are both trying to push our ways. However, he brings out a good fish. This must only mean that I caught some sort of larger fish. My fingers were struggling for a little while but after the wrestling match, I brought up a beautiful Uriel (English name?). It was the largest catch of the session but not sure how big. Now, if I can only get my hook on a baby marlin!
The fishing patrol came by to tell us that this was no fishing ground. So the party ended and we went behind some structure to fish hidden from the boat police. At this point, Don Gregorio was teaching Alexey how to clean fish. He seemed to be a good apprentice but after he was done there was no good meat left! Just kidding, he was actually covered in fish scales but the fish looked ok. Don Gregorio resumed his cleaning routine while the rest of us tried to fish something. At some point, Don Gregorio was cleaning the Pargo that I had caught earlier this morning and his cleaning table (a wooden paddle from the boat) wabbled a bit sending the fish in the water. He must have felt bad since it would have been really cool to have eaten that fish, that I caught with my own hands.. so in a feline reaction, he jumped in the water to save the fish! After putting the fish back in the boat he realized that his cell phone was in his pocket :( We all felt bad but after a little while we all laughed.
Back on shore Don Gregorio´s car did not start. We needed to get some ice since the fish from last night had started to smell. We spent some time waiting for the boat to be picked up and for our car to start. After jump starting it we were on the road. We returned the boat and went home. Doña Irma had prepared some food for these hungry and stinky fishermen. The shower and the food felt marvellous and immediately, Alexey and I went to bed for a few hours. We were only awakened by Doña Irma calling us to eat the fish that earlier on had been caught with our own hands! They tasted pretty good with Patacones (fried plantain medallions).
Joyce and Jessica (Joyce´s pretty cool friend) took Alexey and I for icecream. We all had Miel de Caña with Coco (Sugar Cane and Coconut) except for Alexey who went for the Tamarind sorbet. We dropped Jessica off and headed back home. This was the end of our fishing experience and really a worthwhile one. There was no baby marlin involved but it certainly made us appreciate the job that all artisan fisherman go through in their everyday lives. This was for us an unforgettable experience!
Gone fishing..
Saturday, August 19th
Well well.. today is the big day! We have been mentally preparing for the big day and night that stand in front of us. Last night, as we mentioned previously, we sat down to have some rum with Don Gregorio and aside from discussing changes that the governments of latin america should implement, he gave us a lecture on Fishing 101.
As you may realize, we are not really what you would call experts in the art of fishing so we needed him to explain to us how it feels to catch a fish, how to reel in the fish, how not to get burned by the nylon thread (who needs a fishing pole anyway), etc.. However, this morning we decided to burn some of the stress that is building up by going to this area called El Valle. This small town is about 1.5 hrs from Panama City.
The drive was very quick due to the beautiful new 4 lane highway that has been built. After this, we went up some mountains and there it was, the hidden town of El Valle. Many hard-to-believe promises were made to us. Among them, that we would find a golden toad, a mountain that looked like a sleepy indian woman, and square trees!!!! We could hardly wait so we consulted our good old trusty lonely planet and set our course for the nearest golden toad outlet.
We went to the El Nispero botanical garden and zoo. The entrance was quite steep but we were so exited that not even the rejection of our student discount request kept us from entering. After going through some animal cages and beautiful gardens we came across a sign next to a cage that said ¨Rana Dorada¨. We looked and looked and finally, all the way on the inner wall of the cage, there is was! Actually more yellow and orange than golden but it was definitely something amazing to see! We stared at the thing for a long time while we tried to find a big enough whole in the covering mesh that would allow us to take pictures. We did our best but the pictures may not illustrate all the beauty of this toad.
Our next stop, the square trees. We made it a point not to ask anyone about what they meant by ¨square¨ trees because we were very intriged and wanted to be surprised by what we find. ¨Behind the Hotel Campestre there is a trail that takes you through 2 bridges. The trail is a 10 minute walk and after the second bridge, make a right and you will see a big tree. This is not a square tree. You must look to the right of this big tree and that is one. Then look across from it and you will find more square trees.¨ Those were the directions that we had.
After the beautiful and welcome walk through the dense vegetation, we saw our big tree and next to it this smaller tree that kind of had the base of the trunk in a shape close to a square. This is it!! We found our tree! To be perfectly honest, it was not the squarest thing I have seen in my life but certainly unique. We were the only tourists there in the midst of the jungle. Alexey wanted to see if he could find a more square looking one and he succeeded. We finally had find a tree that resembled a square (at least at the bottom). We were pleased.
So the only thing left to do was to find the sleeping indian. A piece of background information is that our beloved Julissa was herself a sleeping Indian. That is, she was the lead character in a Panamanian film that told the story of these mountains!! I am not certain about the whole story but in brief it states that this Indian woman had an Indian boyfriend. However, the girl then fell in love and left with one young Spanish conquistador and because of this betrayal, she fell asleep and never work up. Now she rests on top of these mountains. The actual mountain looked kiiiiind of like a sleeping woman. The breasts were large for one thing so we could see how someone can believe the story :) Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse and worse and we only saw it for about a minute before it got completely covered by clouds, hence, not pictures.
We needed to rush back to Panama City were Don Gregorio must be getting ready for our voyage. The excitement was clear on this pair of novices and I had even promised to catch a baby marlin tonight! After a couple of false starts due to my leaving my camera charging in our room, trying to find weights for our fishing lines, fresh batteries for my super powerful flashlight, and other mishaps, we arrived at the port. The family had gone there to wish us farewell. Afterall, if we did not catch anything, there was nothing to eat tomorrow :) We jumped on board with a whole bunch of stuff including a box full of alcohol and other presents from Joyce!! (Thank you Joyce!)
There we were, crossing the outskirts of the Panama Canal. The captains: Don Armando, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio (three brothers in a family of 11 children, presumably, all highly skilled fishermen and fisherwomen), Luis Xavier (Julissa´s brother), and Marcos (nephew of Don Gregorio), the crew: Alexey and yours truly. We tried to make a good impression by talking about swells and star formations but it did not seem to impress them. The sun went to bed and we were left with the HUGE boats making their way across oceans and the water next to us. After a while the boats also went away and it was just us in the middle of darkness and water. Never had I been in this situation and I must say that it was incredible! You have enough time to think about 1000 things and you don´t have to rush either, because you still have all night to go :)
But I digress, back to fishing. Soon after we anchored behind a small island I had a strike of what Paolo Coelho would call Beginner´s Luck (Thanks Jana Karla for the book). It was fish after fish.. really only 3 fish caught in a matter of 20 minutes but it pleased me that I knew now how it feels like when fish bite your bait. Baby marlin, here I come! There was a drought that lasted for a looooong time. Alexey managed to catch a fish too. It was actually pretty big. We anchored the boat next to another one that housed three local artisans of the sea. Our boat´s catching rate must have been about one tenth that of those guys. They were harvesting those greenjacks like crazy! We settled on spending more time on meditating than catching fish.. that´s it, we are more of the thinking types!
The night came down hard and we made no progress. Our cooler must have had about 8 fish. We moved on and anchored near another island. This time we could see a small town in the island diagonal to the one where we had anchored. After repeated attempts to pull in fish, we gave up. The rains started to pour and we had no other protection but to embrace the rain. If we were going to sleep at all, it would be with rain in our faces. This sounds worse than it actually is. Alexey found a comfortable place in the front of the boat. I did the same on the side. Don Gregorio had gone to sleep after setting a line with a larger hook and half a fish for bait. I asked how it was possible that he would notice if a fish got hooked if he was sleeping! He just said ¨you will know¨.
Sure enought, in the middle of the night, the whole reel of line started jumping around the boat. Don Gregorio, the captains and the rest of the crew (Alexey and myself) got up to see what was all the fuss. After a quick struggle with a great force under water, we saw this small but strong fish, a barracuda! Hmmm... ceviche tomorrow! Don Gregorio went back to bed under the small covered area that the boat had and placed the line the same way again. Less than 20 minutes passed when the line was pushed harder than before. The crew could hardly believe the pull that this creature had. Alexey held the line for a while and almost got burned by the nylon when he tried to wrap it around his arms. After the long struggle, we saw the catch of the night: A Manta Ray!!! Poor Ray, flapping its fleshy wings and trying to keep aline. Its white bottom was as smooth as Todd´s face (even when he does not shave). Repeated attempts to bring this large creature on the boat were fruitless. Don Gregorio decided to cut the line close to the hook and let the Ray go.
By this time we were pretty tired. Everyone assumed their sleeping positions and tried to catch some sleep given that it was easier to catch then fish apparently. A few minutes later, the sound of the line making the reel dance awoke us once again. This time, Alexey decided to keep sleeping as some of the other captains had done. Don Gregorio asked me to hold the line to learn how a big fish feels. It was quite interesting but it did not seem like a large fish since I was reeling it for a while. After a few minutes, the thing started swimming away. I tried to hold it back a little but this thing kept swimming as if it did not hurt it. I started getting worried after it had pulled so much line that I thought we would run out of line. At this time, everyone woke up to see what this was. They assured me that there was enough line and just keep letting it go. At some point it would get tired!
I give up! Marcos, Luis Xavier, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio take turns in dealing with the beast. Nothing yet. We have to put in the heavy hitter. Don Armando comes in with his experienced hands and tries to control this monster. He has to immerse his hands on the water and keep holding the line to avoid getting burn. The reel at this point is jumping up and down and even went out in the water for a while. This thing must be immense if it´s pulling that hard!
After about 15 or so minutes (which seemed endless) of fighting with this creature, the force of the fish broke the line and we were all left wandering for the rest of our lives, what kind of fish was that? and, how big was it? No one will ever know. At least the story will linger in our heads for a long time.
Now it was time to go to bed and rest if we want to catch some fish tomorrow. Soaked in rain we proceeded to sleep without any further fish waking us up.
Well well.. today is the big day! We have been mentally preparing for the big day and night that stand in front of us. Last night, as we mentioned previously, we sat down to have some rum with Don Gregorio and aside from discussing changes that the governments of latin america should implement, he gave us a lecture on Fishing 101.
As you may realize, we are not really what you would call experts in the art of fishing so we needed him to explain to us how it feels to catch a fish, how to reel in the fish, how not to get burned by the nylon thread (who needs a fishing pole anyway), etc.. However, this morning we decided to burn some of the stress that is building up by going to this area called El Valle. This small town is about 1.5 hrs from Panama City.
The drive was very quick due to the beautiful new 4 lane highway that has been built. After this, we went up some mountains and there it was, the hidden town of El Valle. Many hard-to-believe promises were made to us. Among them, that we would find a golden toad, a mountain that looked like a sleepy indian woman, and square trees!!!! We could hardly wait so we consulted our good old trusty lonely planet and set our course for the nearest golden toad outlet.
We went to the El Nispero botanical garden and zoo. The entrance was quite steep but we were so exited that not even the rejection of our student discount request kept us from entering. After going through some animal cages and beautiful gardens we came across a sign next to a cage that said ¨Rana Dorada¨. We looked and looked and finally, all the way on the inner wall of the cage, there is was! Actually more yellow and orange than golden but it was definitely something amazing to see! We stared at the thing for a long time while we tried to find a big enough whole in the covering mesh that would allow us to take pictures. We did our best but the pictures may not illustrate all the beauty of this toad.
Our next stop, the square trees. We made it a point not to ask anyone about what they meant by ¨square¨ trees because we were very intriged and wanted to be surprised by what we find. ¨Behind the Hotel Campestre there is a trail that takes you through 2 bridges. The trail is a 10 minute walk and after the second bridge, make a right and you will see a big tree. This is not a square tree. You must look to the right of this big tree and that is one. Then look across from it and you will find more square trees.¨ Those were the directions that we had.
After the beautiful and welcome walk through the dense vegetation, we saw our big tree and next to it this smaller tree that kind of had the base of the trunk in a shape close to a square. This is it!! We found our tree! To be perfectly honest, it was not the squarest thing I have seen in my life but certainly unique. We were the only tourists there in the midst of the jungle. Alexey wanted to see if he could find a more square looking one and he succeeded. We finally had find a tree that resembled a square (at least at the bottom). We were pleased.
So the only thing left to do was to find the sleeping indian. A piece of background information is that our beloved Julissa was herself a sleeping Indian. That is, she was the lead character in a Panamanian film that told the story of these mountains!! I am not certain about the whole story but in brief it states that this Indian woman had an Indian boyfriend. However, the girl then fell in love and left with one young Spanish conquistador and because of this betrayal, she fell asleep and never work up. Now she rests on top of these mountains. The actual mountain looked kiiiiind of like a sleeping woman. The breasts were large for one thing so we could see how someone can believe the story :) Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse and worse and we only saw it for about a minute before it got completely covered by clouds, hence, not pictures.
We needed to rush back to Panama City were Don Gregorio must be getting ready for our voyage. The excitement was clear on this pair of novices and I had even promised to catch a baby marlin tonight! After a couple of false starts due to my leaving my camera charging in our room, trying to find weights for our fishing lines, fresh batteries for my super powerful flashlight, and other mishaps, we arrived at the port. The family had gone there to wish us farewell. Afterall, if we did not catch anything, there was nothing to eat tomorrow :) We jumped on board with a whole bunch of stuff including a box full of alcohol and other presents from Joyce!! (Thank you Joyce!)
There we were, crossing the outskirts of the Panama Canal. The captains: Don Armando, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio (three brothers in a family of 11 children, presumably, all highly skilled fishermen and fisherwomen), Luis Xavier (Julissa´s brother), and Marcos (nephew of Don Gregorio), the crew: Alexey and yours truly. We tried to make a good impression by talking about swells and star formations but it did not seem to impress them. The sun went to bed and we were left with the HUGE boats making their way across oceans and the water next to us. After a while the boats also went away and it was just us in the middle of darkness and water. Never had I been in this situation and I must say that it was incredible! You have enough time to think about 1000 things and you don´t have to rush either, because you still have all night to go :)
But I digress, back to fishing. Soon after we anchored behind a small island I had a strike of what Paolo Coelho would call Beginner´s Luck (Thanks Jana Karla for the book). It was fish after fish.. really only 3 fish caught in a matter of 20 minutes but it pleased me that I knew now how it feels like when fish bite your bait. Baby marlin, here I come! There was a drought that lasted for a looooong time. Alexey managed to catch a fish too. It was actually pretty big. We anchored the boat next to another one that housed three local artisans of the sea. Our boat´s catching rate must have been about one tenth that of those guys. They were harvesting those greenjacks like crazy! We settled on spending more time on meditating than catching fish.. that´s it, we are more of the thinking types!
The night came down hard and we made no progress. Our cooler must have had about 8 fish. We moved on and anchored near another island. This time we could see a small town in the island diagonal to the one where we had anchored. After repeated attempts to pull in fish, we gave up. The rains started to pour and we had no other protection but to embrace the rain. If we were going to sleep at all, it would be with rain in our faces. This sounds worse than it actually is. Alexey found a comfortable place in the front of the boat. I did the same on the side. Don Gregorio had gone to sleep after setting a line with a larger hook and half a fish for bait. I asked how it was possible that he would notice if a fish got hooked if he was sleeping! He just said ¨you will know¨.
Sure enought, in the middle of the night, the whole reel of line started jumping around the boat. Don Gregorio, the captains and the rest of the crew (Alexey and myself) got up to see what was all the fuss. After a quick struggle with a great force under water, we saw this small but strong fish, a barracuda! Hmmm... ceviche tomorrow! Don Gregorio went back to bed under the small covered area that the boat had and placed the line the same way again. Less than 20 minutes passed when the line was pushed harder than before. The crew could hardly believe the pull that this creature had. Alexey held the line for a while and almost got burned by the nylon when he tried to wrap it around his arms. After the long struggle, we saw the catch of the night: A Manta Ray!!! Poor Ray, flapping its fleshy wings and trying to keep aline. Its white bottom was as smooth as Todd´s face (even when he does not shave). Repeated attempts to bring this large creature on the boat were fruitless. Don Gregorio decided to cut the line close to the hook and let the Ray go.
By this time we were pretty tired. Everyone assumed their sleeping positions and tried to catch some sleep given that it was easier to catch then fish apparently. A few minutes later, the sound of the line making the reel dance awoke us once again. This time, Alexey decided to keep sleeping as some of the other captains had done. Don Gregorio asked me to hold the line to learn how a big fish feels. It was quite interesting but it did not seem like a large fish since I was reeling it for a while. After a few minutes, the thing started swimming away. I tried to hold it back a little but this thing kept swimming as if it did not hurt it. I started getting worried after it had pulled so much line that I thought we would run out of line. At this time, everyone woke up to see what this was. They assured me that there was enough line and just keep letting it go. At some point it would get tired!
I give up! Marcos, Luis Xavier, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio take turns in dealing with the beast. Nothing yet. We have to put in the heavy hitter. Don Armando comes in with his experienced hands and tries to control this monster. He has to immerse his hands on the water and keep holding the line to avoid getting burn. The reel at this point is jumping up and down and even went out in the water for a while. This thing must be immense if it´s pulling that hard!
After about 15 or so minutes (which seemed endless) of fighting with this creature, the force of the fish broke the line and we were all left wandering for the rest of our lives, what kind of fish was that? and, how big was it? No one will ever know. At least the story will linger in our heads for a long time.
Now it was time to go to bed and rest if we want to catch some fish tomorrow. Soaked in rain we proceeded to sleep without any further fish waking us up.
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