Hi again, we made it back to Auberge Inn at Quito okay. After leaving the market we had an anxious time trying to sort out Rosalind´s problem getting money with her credit card. No joy at any of the banks and even getting a taxi and keeping him waiting at an international bank just outside town, they were no use whatsoever. We headed back to Casa Mojanda and were able to use their phone to ring the number on her card and luckily sorted the problem out. When she had withdrawn money 2 days earlier, the max one could get was 100 dollars which meant more than one transaction. After two withdrawals her card was blocked. Luckily with the call they unblocked it and she made sure not to ask for more than 2 100 dollar transactions which is the max allowed in one day.
Patricio our taxi driver was taking us to the bus station and stopped at the bank on the way. The car was well loaded up, with our 3 huge pull alongs, 2 suitcases and goodness knows how many bags and rucksacks as well and as we pulled away from the bank Patricio said that whereas the cost of a taxi ride to Quito from Otavalo would be 70 dollars he would take us there for 42 dollars, all the way to our hostel and we gladly accepted. Just getting our luggage from our rooms, up the steps from Reception to the car park and into the taxi was a major task on its own, so the idea of being driven all the way to our hostal in Quito was very tempting and we accepted his kind offer. The trip was fun and he played his own CD for us all the way there. We got on so well with him. We asked him about the volcano eruption that Layla´s Mum Carol had been so worried about and were pleased to learn that in Quito we would be unaffected. The eruption was in the Oriente Cordillera de Los Andes quite far from Quito but I think not too far from Banos. It made us very glad we had decided to drop Banos from our itinerary. That town has been a high state of alert for over 2 years and Volcano Tunguahuara erupted again in February and whether it is the same volcano or another one, I believe there has been another eruption in the past day or two.
Patricio is willing to drive to Quito and meet us off the plane the next time we come to Ecuador and will take us to Auberge Inn like he did today. All we have to do is make contact via Casa Mojanda who contract him quite alot to look after visitors and even just taking them to and from town. This is really great.
After he unloaded our luggage which all together was an impressive amount )and we still have five other bags locked away in Auberge Inn!!!) we waved goodbye and he drove away and we went up the stairs to Reception. I was still hauling the last few bags up when Layla said Ýou are not going to want to hear this´¨. The bus company had phoned and said due to a bridge collapsing in Venezuela the bus was delayed by 12 hours as of that moment and would not arrive in Quioto in 4 pm. As far as I was concerned that was good news as I much preferred getting us and all our luggage to the bus station at 4 pm rather than 2 in the morning and it meant Ros had us for another day. Layla agreed to that it was better. We were anxious to dump our stuff in our room(s) and get a late lunch as it was already nearly 5 pm and we were all starving. That was when we heard the really bad news, that they had only booked one room instead of two, and it was a single room, the one I had arranged for Rosalind. And there was nothing else as the hostel was completely booked. We were taken up to see the room up two more flights to the 3rd floor and it was awful. Okay for one person, a single bed and no bathroom. We asked for a mattress on the floor which took up all the available space, but it would still only house two, not three, with the only space left for luggage being a long window cill, the width of the room about a foot wide. We left the girl at reception ringing round to find another hotel for Layla and me and went to the cafe downstairs to eat.
The food was surprisingly good, Teriyaki chicken for them and a chicken lasagne for me, with a lovely ice cold beer. In the middle of it, the girl at reception came to say that she had persuaded a guy who had a twin bedded room to swop with us, that he was going out and we needed to swop over the luggage. This was done in double quick time, and the mattress hauled up to it too. We were so grateful to that lovely young man from New York who was on his way through South America and off to Machu Picchu eventually too - and very sensibly travelling with just a backpack and a small rucksack. He couldn´t believe it when he saw the room he was taking over with mattress, bed, space behind door and the whole window cill loaded with our luggage!!!
Back downstairs we had several cappucinos and a lovely cocktail made from vodka, creme de cafe and amaretto - such a great combination that we ended up having a second lot and all of us finding the funny side at how the day ended up. We were all so relieved that we were all still together and that one of us didnt have to get in a taxi alone and go off to spend the night somewhere else. That would probably have been me due to my Spanish being the best out of the three of us, but Layla did bravely offer to be the one to do it.
Well, that is all for the moment. It seems I completed today´s email here in Quito after all. I am now going to end this session with a copy of Layla´s impressions of the trip to-date as I am on her email list of the messages sent to her friends in USA and Hawaii. I had quite a laugh when I read through them and there is one still left for me to read when I have finished here. More in a couple of days from Trujillo.
LAYLA´S IMPRESSIONS OF THE TRIP
Subject: Ecuador so far
hola! everyone, as most of you know, I have been in South America since July 17. I will be here till end of August, return to Maui on Sept 3rd. Been a very interesting and challenging journey!!! I enjoy writing and when i make it to a reasonably priced internet cafe i will send messages. would like to send pics but that is beyond me till i return home. have loads of really good ones from the galapagos, igaunas, birds, sealions. Been in Quito back and forth, only 1 night at a time, it is magnificant from the air, huge sprawling city sitting at 10,000 feet in the middle of the moutnains, the Andes, many reaching high above it all around it, up to 18,000 feet
i think. these keypads are tricky here, i won't bother with proper capitalization much of the time, takes me forever to type. The journey down here was grueling, and i was sick with a nasty cold and adjusting to altitude and seasickness. went from quito to the galapagos in a day, that is 10,000 ft to sea level, and have been off the boat for nearly 5 days now, and still the land sways, or i sway!
we went to a place southwest of quito to see tropical birds, down the most horrific frightening road i have ever been on, swarming with huge trucks and buses, belting out black smog and fumes, and people pass when ever they want to with no regard to curves or hill or anything, and miss hitting each other by a few feet often. the road is twisting and winding far more then going up haleakala, and we traveled down into jungle crevasses that look alot like Haiku, except miserable poverty and really really ugly from the trucks and fuel and garbage everywhere. it was in my opinion, just awfull. small miserable villages lined the narrow highway full of enormous trucks and buses and fumes, with trashy shacks with whole pig carcasses hanging up and dirty looking guys pulling and twisting taffy that our driver told us had lots of protein in them, refering to the insects and road grit - ack!!
WEll, just so you know, our stay at the place we were heading was peacefull and lovely, lots of birds i have never seen before, in a rain forest. Acess to it is a problem for sure, but the owner is very nice, gave us top rate service and wonderful first class meals. we were there 3.5 entire days, now we go to the highlands where the Indios, the ones I so love, live. Otavalo where the Quecha indians live. hopefully the poverty will not be so bad there. This is all i can manage tonight, i am over my bad cold which actually started the night before i left maui, feeling much better, and looking forward to the rest of my journey. if you would like to hear more from me later, let me know, i will keep you on my list. i can send a few pics when i return in sept, or post them somewhere if i get really ambitious, love Catherine aka layla katrina
Next email to Layla´s friends
Subject: Casa Mojanda
!Hola! Aloha, and Hi Yáll! I have finally found my heaven here in the Andes. I
realize my last email may have sounded a bit scathing, negative, as though I
were not enjoying my trip. I am enjoying it, and it felt so good to vent, as I
was frustrated with that one treacherous journey.
We are now at Casa Mojanda, a beautiful place in the mountains above and out of
sight of Otavalo. It was a much better bus ride here from quito, much safer and
quite peasant highway. I loved watching the people getting on and off the bus.
They were playing bullfighting and rodeo on the TV, really yuck, but so funny to
experience that seedy side of the culture. I was over it after the first 5
minutes, however!
The mountains where our Cas Mojanda sits are beautiful, and the casa is very
nice, done in a traditional Spanish style, elegant and unique. Reminds me of an
ornate monastery with arched windows and spacious mountain views. ¡mucho frio!
at night, and hard to breathe for me because of the altitude. I have to take
ascents very very slowly, rest ok most of the time. I wrote a lot about it, may send some more later. We are having a party there tonight with an Andean band !
I am in Otavalo now, having just spent a bloody fortune in the Otavalo market on
lots of really nice stuff. I love it here, the people are so sweet. Tiny
little Indio people, in colorful traditional costume, all eager to sell us
things. They are gentle and the energy in the market, though crowded, is not
hectic or frantic like one might expect. I took several good pics of us and the
vendors we bought from. Everyone is peacefully minding their own business - even
down to the tiny little old men and women beggars. I wish I had the money to
give them something that would make a difference. ( Especially when I saw tiny
children in the streets of Quito tyring to sell chicklets and candy. if we buy
from one we would have to buy from all, so we mostly ignored them.)
Let me end here on a positive note - I am in my element now, and we will be
here for another few days. My traveling companion, Angela, and her friend
Rosalind, are having a bit of a disagreement, won´t go into it, the dynamics of
getting on with people. But all is well for me and I am dressed warmly, in fun
layers of skirts, Ecuadorian shirts, scarves, and vest. Loving the people and
scenery. Angela and I will be on my way to Peru at - gulp - 2am on Wednesday -
from Quito by bus. Luxurious bus with reclining seats for sleep. going to take
28 hours to reach Trujillo, where Angela has friends and we have reservations in
a nice place on our own, thank goodness!
one last thing worth noting - everywhere we have been our hosts and guides have
been so attentive, helpful, and gone way out of their way to make things good
for us. The food has always been first class, served elegantly with all the
proper utensiles in all the proper places (more proper utensiles for salad,
desert, main course, soup, etc, then I ever knew existed!) And all very very
good, healthy food, too! Even though it is delicious I think I am losing weight
because my appetite is so much less, not sure exactly why, in between the cold
and the altitude perhaps.
Love and best wishes, Catherine aka Layla Katrina
3rd email – Otavalo
¡Hola from Otavalo! I love it here, the people are so nice, mostly the Quecha Indians, in their traditional dress which I love. All the men the have long black braids down their back, wearing black hats and white slacks and often a big wool poncho over their dress shirts. The women wear white lacey blouses with colorful embraidery, a tight colorful waist band wrapped around the top of their ankle length straigh black skirts with light under skirt showing at the sides. They wear gold beads piled in layers around their necks. their long black hair in braids or pony tails, often with multi colored bands wraped around them. They are friendly, a little shy, and very comfortable to walk around with. As opposed to some big cities where one would feel uncomfortable, unsafe. When we talk to them they are very friendly and helpful, otherwise they pay us no mind even though we stick out like sore thumbs, being so much taller and so white. There are not a lot of tourists from USA or Europe, English speaking tourists. most of the people are small and dark and blend right in.
We had a great time at the Casa Mojanda with the live band, who we kept there way late. they loved us loving their mucsic. On Sunday we went to see the raptors at Condor Park. that was very nice, it was a cool overcast day, the park is up on the mountian overlooking town, and rather challenging to get to. the cab had to stop and go around the road which was all dug up and rocks piled up all around. but we got back in in front of some humble Campesino´s home, the woman and kids all watching the whole process fascinated. We saw a big variety of South american Hawks, Eagles, and Owls in big cages, and the Andean condor, who did not look too happy as a Condor needs whole mountain ranges to soar over, and couldn´t ever fly in even the largest of cages. I got good pics of most of them, and then there was a falconry show in an open amphitheater with fantastic views of the mountian sides and down into the small towns all around. Great place to watch the birds fly. some of them were hawks we also have in USA, such as harris and kestrel (sparrow hawk). The birds there, including the 2 condors, were all birds collected from illegal traffic or who were injured and unable to return to the wild. None of them were captured in the wild to be put in the zoo.
Today we went to a nearby town, Ibarra, where my friend Tumi grew up, only to find it was most unpleasant, like any big ugly dirty city anywhere, so we called our cab driver got him to bring us back to Otavalo 2.5 hours earlier! We leave tomorrow after one more visit to the big market which is always there in a small way, not just on Saturdays. We go to Quito to catch the 2am luxary bus to Trujillo, Peru, where Angela has lots of friends. It is on the coast, so back down to sea level from upwards of 10,000 ft. 28 hour journey, I hope I can sleep. I hope I survive!!!
By the way, food in the city is really cheap, 1.50 to 4.00 for a full lunch, .25 for a water bottle, and it is all good. 1.50 for a huge bottle of beer!
4th email
Subject – Mercado
HELP! HELP! get me out of this market!!! muchos dinero gasto! no mas dinero! there are so many beautiful things for so cheap, and all the people are so sweet I want to buy from them all! So many beautiful long haired men and sweet little women with beautiful smiles dressed so lovely, get me out of here!!! We leave for Peru tonight, but I so love this town. Otavalo, tiene mi corazon! Hasta luego!
5th email
Subject – Rigours of Travel
Well, I did escape the Otavalo market with some money left, and many very nice usefull and beautiful purchase, all very very much less than what it would cost in USA. still have plenty in my account, so all is well. the plan was to leave for Peru tonight (2am tomorrow, really) from Quito, and in Peru they have soles instead of dollars, so all the money has to be changed any how.
We have been traveling around Otavalo with a very nice cab driver named Patricio, and he offered to drive us all the way to Quito (2 and a half hours by crowded bumpy bus) for an very reasonable rate, saving us unloading all the masses of luggage between the 3 of us, onto a bus and then into another cab at the bus station in Quito to the hostal. I think he took a liking to us, and us to him, and his son had also driven us. so we were delighted to accept his offer, and had a really nice trip through the Andes back up to quito, in much less time. we were often laughing hysterically at our various trials and tribulations so far. I am so thoroughly entertained by my companions, Angela and Rosalind, both Brittish, from Bath in Southwest England. First of all, I love the Brittish accent and the different words they call things (sitting on the bog, for example; bog is toilet, ) I also love the formal cultured sound of Brittish English so when it is used to describe something ridiculously crude or funny, makes it even more hillarious to me. So we were in stitches laughing much of the way. Our driver enjoyed it immensely, as well as me talking to him in my improving Spanish, and him eagerly helping me out. He also plays traditional Ecuadorian music with a band, and Angela and I both bought his cd, which he played for us during the trip. what a great combo!
Well, after our delightfull drive to the hostal, we got out and all our luggage up the 2 narrow flights of stairs to registration, only to find that the bus company had left us a message that our bus to Peru would be delayed till tomorrow afternoon due to a bridge being out in Venezuela. And, not only that, the hostal was totally booked full and had misunderstood our reservation request (Rosalind was to stay 3 nights till her flight back to England) Angela and I had one room to rest in before our 2am bus. But they only had Rosalind´s room. That meant that for the 3 of us 1 tiny single room with a single bed and no bath. What a fiasco! we lugged all our stuff to the 2nd floor tiny room and asked for a mattress and wondered how 3 of us were going to sleep on 2 single mattresses in a room full of luggage. The clerk called other hostals, found only 1 single room elsewhere, we debated who would take it with the other 2 here, and finally a very nice young man from New York gave us his two bed room and we got the mattress in there as well, so we are all crowded in one small room with 3 single beds, and no one has to take a taxi on her own to some other place.
We have been enjoying dinner downstairs in the hostal and drinks called - are you ready - screaming orgasm, which Rosalind keeps calling Screaming Organism. We are really having a good time, I must say, in spite of it all.
One last note, Peru has a hard act to follow. For me that is, after Otavalo!
Tambien, no word of any volcano causing problems here in the hostal. I like hostals, by the way, all the interesting European and American travelers, so casual, all enjoying similiar experiences, many speaking English. much more of a community than in the formal more expensive hotels.
