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.
Friday, September 08, 2006
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.
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