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Hi Gang,
The last email send by my good self was all about the happy and sunny land called Columbia. An interesting border crossing later and I was in Ecuador. I got on a bus straight to the countries capital city, Quito. This city was to be my home, on and off, for almost 3 months. To cut a very long story short I made some really good friends in Quito and managed to spend a lot of time just hanging out, partying and drinking copious amounts of Rum and Coke. Some will agree that a bottle of San Jorge and 2 week old Inca Cola does make the finest pre-going out drink available to mankind. The 'gringo' part of the city is just rammed full of bars, clubs, restaurants, internet cafes etc. Quito is well known to be one of the tourist capitals of South America, and the hostal I stayed in proved to be one of the main places to these tourists. One of the main draws of El Centro Del Mundo was the thrice weekly vat of rum and coke that was supplied free of charge. Happy days, and it often got fairly messy. Obviously my entire stay in the Quito area wasn't used up just drinking and hanging out with friends. I explored the old city as well, which is a beautiful area. Some fine churches and other colonial buildings to be looked at. And the market area is absolutely mad at times. It can be, at times, a hard place to walk around, especially when you are new to the city. At 2850m above sea level the commonplace hills can leave you breathless (made worse after a San Jorge night!). We also had a number of games of football with some Ecuadorian friends. After the rest of the world team gave them a good battering in the first game more and more better players appeared in the following weeks to get revenge – needless to say...they did! One of the most common excursions from Quito is the trip to Mitad del Mundo, the Middle of the Earth. There are two equatorial areas to look at and a couple of museums and a monument. One is actually on the equator, and the other is comically inaccurate and the monument was misplaced by the French expedition back in the 1700's. Most worryingly for the French was the fact that indigenous peoples of the area had correctly identified the equator more accurately hundreds of years before. The museum we checked out has a range of fun things to see and do. The best were the authentic shrunken heads and the blow darts we were able to fire at the cactus'. There was also a demonstration of water spiralling down a plug in opposite directions just inches on either side of the ecuator. Also there was the egg balancing on a nail which is meant to be easy at the middle of the earth. Not so, only one of our number achieved it (well done Dom). Nearby to the museums there is an impressively named 'Geobotanical reserve' called Pululahua. It is a huge crater with a fairly treacherous walk down but the views are worth it. The walk back up again was fairly tough with yet another rum and coke hangover - damn that hostal. It was made no easier having to help drag my friend Amy up as she may have collapsed otherwise - always the gentleman. Another interesting period of my time in Ecuador was the 4 day weekend trip to Mindo that turned into a two week jaunt up the coast. Mindo is a gorgeous little town surrounded by cloud forest and is inhabited by the nicest people. The evening we arrived (initially four of us) we boys (the lady with us opted out) almost immediately found ourselves embroiled in a game of footy with a bunch of local kids which was loads of fun, despite the fouling tactics of having 5 or 6 hanging them from your arms and legs. One cool day was spent doing the majority of the touristy things on Mindo. The first was a visit to the nearby butterfly reserve, where we saw all sorts of the local butterfly’s at differing stages of life. From chrysalis' to full grown, we were even lucky enough to see three hatching. Straight after this we went inner-tubing down the next door river. Lots of watery fun, even if I did manage to fall out a few times. Bruised bums all round. On arrival back in Mindo we find that 8 more of our Quito friends have come to join us. We managed to completely fill the hostal we are staying at. A group of us then decided it would be a cool idea to go and catch ourselves some fish for supper. So we head off in a guys truck to some nearby lakes and started, Zen style, fishing with long bamboo poles for oversize goldfish (I don't know what type they are really). We eventually get enough to feed the crew and head back to town to bbq them up as part of a great team feast. The highlight of the fishing trip by far (just overshadowing the monster I caught) was Inon's celebration when he finally caught one. You have to imagine a 10-12ft pole with an equal length of fishing line. Now picture this setup being swirled above his head like a helicopter with a very surprised fish on the end. It drew many a stare. I will even admit to going bird spotting while in Mindo. The elusive Andean Cock-of-the-Rock can be seen in only a few locations so a few of us decided on an early morning tour to go see them. It was actually kind of cool, I will admit. Our group then split in half, some returning to Quito while the rest of us headed to the coast and the small town of Canoa. The area has a lovely beach, great for playing footy on with locals, and a nice chilled atmosphere. We spent a lot of time relaxing at a different hotel in town, we were in a cheap hostal, mainly (for me anyway) because of the banana coladas. Tasty. We arranged a funky trip there as well. It was a day trip that took us to a different beach and on the way we stole papaya's (now my favourite fruit) and other unknown fruits. We joined a local fisherman to check his nets .... well we some of us did, the other three of us struggled to get our raft moving. We cooked freshly caught lobster on the beach and had some delicious smoked snapper. On the way back to town we stopped to monkey spot - which is always cool. Our group then shrunk down to three, leaving just Simon, Inon and myself to make the journey to Ecuador’s second city and largest port, Guayaquil. Within 15mins of arriving in this colourful city we have been propositioned by perhaps the most unlikely looking 'professional' women in the world and Simon has a pack of three pickpocketed while walking through the market. An interesting start. We spent the weekend there and certainly made the most of an all you can drink offer at one of the bars. Six usd to get in and drinks are all free. We just sat at the bar and drank like thirsty Englishmen (which two of us were). It was certainly a drunk weekend. The only real sightseeing was a trip to Las Peñas. Its the only remaining well looked after colonial sector in town. Lovely views of the city and river. We even went on a forgettable booze cruise, the highlight of which was a pirate like version of Barry Hayles (for those of you who follow footy) threatening to throw Simon overboard for wearing a Boca Juniors shirt. Leaving Guayaquil we headed back up the coast to the seaside resort of Montañita. This is one of the finest beaches in Ecuador and is famed for its surfing and windsurfing. We met up wih let another friend from Quito, and in about a week there achieved almost nothing again. Highlights include making Inon vomit violently on his birthday (he made the mistake of telling 3 Englishmen and an Aussie that he had never been sick due to alcohol), going on a sea fishing trip and taking a monkey called Titi crab hunting on the beach. We had recently started the new sport of Crab Coliseum, a large hole in the beach with stones around the top with captured crabs thrown in. Unfortunately they don’t make the best gladiators, so the introduction of our monkey friend helped no end. I’ll try to get a photo available so you can all appreciate how much fun we had during the week with our tree dwelling chum. Apart from that all we did was lounge in hammocks, eat fatty food and muck about on the beach. I must confess I did almost get myself a new girlfriend on a day trip to Puerto Lopez, where we went to go fishing. This girl was fascinated with me and followed me everywhere, even into the restaurant we went to afterwards. The problem was she was only about 8 years old. Oh well.... From Montañita we headed further north up the coast for a brief stop in Manta, Ecuador’s second largest port town. It was a nice place but here we learned that Ecuador were playing Peru in a world cup qualifier the next day so we scarpered back to Quito on a night bus so we could get to the game. So, there I was back in Quito again. I promised myself it would be for a short time only, so we grabbed tickets to the game and went along. A rather dull 0-0 draw. The only highlights were learning a few footy songs in Spanish and seeing a chap dressed up as the Incredible Hulk hitting a doll in Peruvian footy kit with the Ecuadorian flag. As I mentioned before this trip was planned to be a 4 day weekend. On arrival back in Quito we found Simon was in trouble with his university (nothing exactly new there) and that he had been kicked out of his flat. Oh well, at least I was hassle free to finally leave the city. And leave the city I did. My small Israeli buddy, Inon, and I took a bus down the road to Baños, famous for its hot springs (hence the name). We spent a few enjoyable day here. The absolute highlight was bumping into some more Quito friends and watching the rugby world cup final. There was a nice number on English and Aussies present in the only pub staying open for it. It was an utterly glorious event, shame it ended at 7am our time. There were some drunk and tired folk staggering back in day light for attempts at sleep. We also had fun on a downhill bike ride to the town of Rio Verde. Its 17km of pretty much down slope, which is my kind of cycling. Along the way are numerous waterfalls and stunning views of the canyon. There is even a slightly unnerving cable car across, which we were obliged to do (rude not to). Its powered by an old lorry engine an turned out to be lots of fun. The final thing I had to do in Baños before leaving was to try an Ecuadorian delicacy which can be obtained there – Cuy. For those that don’t know, Cuy is (and I apologise in advance to at least one person who is rather fond of these creatures) Guinea Pig. What can I say....delicioso! And the claws make perfect toothpicks for afterwards. On that disturbing note I will end this note. I still have a few more weeks of Ecuador to describe, but it will have to wait a little longer. I hope everyone is okay and had a lovely christmas and new year. Take care all stay well, With love, Roberto Toro.Back to Rob's Diary
