Top 5: Things I love about Ecuador!

I am taking inspiration from John Cusack in High Fidelity and I am naming my top five favorite things about Ecuador (in no particular order):

1. Alumerzos!!
These are three course set lunches that you can get for under 3 bucks. These meals save my life! They are tasty and oh so satisfying. It is a poor man´s dream come true. It proves that pobres (or poor travelers) deserve some good eats once in a while, plus a 3 course meal makes me feel fancy.

2. COCO!! Coconut is ubiquitous in Ecuador.
They have coconut milk shakes (batidos), ice cream (helados) and aqua de coco (coconut water). I love cocnut everything!! Coconut really makes life feel like a constant tropical vacation. It doesn´t matter if the weather is gloomy, give me a cocnut and I will feel like an islander.

3. People love my spanish here!!
I have gotten so many smiles and compliments, it is ridiculous. It has truly helped this little gringa with her spanish skillz, I want to talk to everyone I can. My ego is getting enormous.

4. Shortest bus journeys in South America, by far.
Eight hours on a bus may sound like an eternity or some peoples personal hell. Here in South America, eight hours on a bus is child's play, you are usually just about half way to your destination. But in Ecuador, this small and cute little country (by South American standards) eight hours can take you almost anywhere. I can go the whole journey with- out even worrying about making the driver stop to let me pee, this is good news.

5. Ecuadorians eat Breakfast!!
This is a first in South America. I am able to get eggs (anyway I want them), toast, cereal, and juice, all for about 2 dollars. In most South American countries they turn up their noses to Breakfast, preferring instant coffee or a stale croissant. Here in Ecuador they know how to start a day off right, with some frickin BREAKFAST! It truly is the most important meal of the day.

Cuenca and the Ecuadorian Keith Moon.

Cuenca is a beautiful city in Ecuador, very charming and full of magestic architecture. The plazas and cathedrals are absolutely breath taking.

But my stay in Cuence was highlighted by my interaction with a brooding seventeen year old Ecuadorian boy who played the drums like he was having violent seizures.

We arrived at the bus station, tired and low in morale. So when we got approached by a friendly hostal owner at the station we figured that they price sounded fair enough and that we lacked any desire to go searching for a better place to stay.

When we arrived at the "hostal" we realized that we were actually staying in the spare room of this man's home. We had our own room by had to share the living areas including the bathroom with a family which included 3 teenage children. The youngest of which was a seventeen year old boy.

The children seemed unaware that their father was running a low budget Bed and Breakfast in their own home.

We were greeted with suspicios eyes and moody glances.

The youngest son was a typical seventeen year old boy, rude, sullen, a little akward. This little rock star was either hogging the computer due to his facebook addiction or letting off some steam on his drum kit.

If you asked to use the internet for a few minutos, or the bathroom or bothered him with questions about the town or the house he would seem extremely put out by your requests. Eventually he would begrudingly help you out or let you check your email and then a few minuted later you would hear him wailing on his drums so hard the house would shake. He would come out twenty minutes later like nothing had happened and carry on being a little prick. t was like clock work. He would become annoyed by the demands of sharing his house with foreigners and then go and wack the hell out of his drums.

He truly was an impressive drummer and he was so easily ruffled that it kind of made you want to piss him off. The reaction you got for any minor offense was twenty to thirty minutes of a wicked drum solo.
With the help of more enraging gringos the kid could have some real skills.

El Chofer y El barro

We got on a 9 hour bus from Peru to Ecuador. We were heading to Cuenca a supposedly gorgeous colonial city and Unesco World Heritage Site. We made it through the shady Peruvian border and then had to travel through the Pueblo of Aguas Verdes.

Due to poor border relations between Peru and Ecuador, they have set aside a 4 km buffer zone of no mans land, this is Aguas Verdes. This shady little region, where their are no police or organization of any kind is a gringos nightmare. In this shady little village, their is nothing but thieves and dodgy people selling basura as far as the eye can see.


Here in this dog eat dog little pueblo is where our bus got stuck in the mud for over two hours.

El Chofer or the bus driver in all his infinte wisdom and prudence decided to take our 25 year old chicken bus filled to the gills with people, and a big old picture of Jesus "El Amigo" down a cramped little dirt road. In this dusty little excuse for a road, there was a huge pool of mud waiting for us right in the middle.

Anyone watching this bus would of seen a driver slowly coasting into a big of black hole of mud, that resembled a prehestoric tar pit. And his great decision to take us through that pit of doom was only the beginning of the fun.



As we coasted into the sea of Sludge El Chofer decided it was now time to panic and started accelerating causing the wheels to spin and thus secured our fate, deep in the mud.

Then as if the bus sent out some kind of signal to the inhabitants of the village, men and young boys began appearing out of the woodwork. They began working on our bus and the surrounding mud sea like mischevious little elves, all doing different tasks.

Without consulting any of the other men, they worked side by side. Some men were digging, some putting rocks and bricks under the wheels.
No one had discussed on overall stragedy or game plan. They just walked up and start working in what ever manner they so desired.

None of the passengers on the actual bus were consulted or listened to for any direction. The locals were happliy digging and getting incredibly muddy, meanwhile the bus driver was constantly turning on the bus and accelerating, causing the bus to sink deep into the back wheels of the bus to sink deeper into the holes the men of the village so wisely dug.

Every now and again the men who were riding on the bus were commanded by the driver to push on the front of the bus or the back of the bus, depending on his mood.

This was all going on for about two hours. Local men and boys digging, men from the bus pushing on the bus. Wheels keep spinning in place while the mud coverd bus driver scream curse words from the drivers seat. El Chofer keeps trying to drive forward and then backward and is doing a fine job of getting the damn bus deeper into the dark thick mud.

Women, children and older people are for the most part ignored and although they are the ones who realize early on that all of these efforts are fruitless and infact only making the situation worse, they are completely written off.

Women who try to help our pathetic situation or give suggestions are ignored by the brillant men who scratch their heads, dig, and keep on pushing that 5 ton bus in every direction.

Rooz is trying hopelessly to coordinate a movement against and digging and create a real plan. I am in the background with the women and children trying to create anarchy and rile the troops. Telling them that the bus driver or El Chofer should call us another bus or go to town for real help.

Finally after watching this circus act for nearly 3 hours a woman goes to talk to some local construction workers near by and gets one of the men to bring his truck and tow us out.
In the end the men all cheered and the muddy little Chofer smiled smuggly at their great accomplishment. In their eyes they were the victorious ones who had rescued the bus!

In reality it was an woman, cast off by the ditch digging local men, who took matters into her own hands and got us out of the man made ditch. And she managed to do it all without getting a drop of mud on her.

Peru! te amo!

Crying babies with dirty little faces, llamas, dusty roads, trash, mangy dogs, cebiche, pre-colombian ruins, dodgy tour guides and smelly ol`buses. Yep I am definitely back in Peru. Back on the road again, happy to be back in South America and ready to see the softer side of Peru, the Northern coast. We flew into Lima and headed up North, chasing the sunshine and the beaches.


We went to Trujillo and the little fishing village of Huanchaco. Unfortunately the weather was hideous and after chilling for a few days and checking out some ruins and eating cebiche in the cold we decided to get up to Mancora.

Mancora is a beautiful little city full of surfers and gringos but the sun is always shining and life is good there. It is easier to handle the touts selling you sunglasses and jewelry while you are laying in the sunshine.

This time I saw Peru through rose-tinted glasses. On the coast life seemed a lot better, more relaxed, and simple. In the end it was still Peru, dusty and dirty and challenging but things always look better when the sun is out and you can see the ocean out of your bus window.