Busses in Ecuador

I wrote a while ago and when I was almost finished the owners daughter pulled the plug on my machine. I was so upset It has taken me till now to try again. Sooooo... here´s the classic skinny on the buses. As per most of the buses in the world they are....interesting. We decided to go to the coast, to get away from the altitude and the sickness. So from Quito, through some muddy water we were finally helped,and we went with the company Rincon del Camino. What happens is this you hop on and there is this fellah,(we think is actually sponsered by the bus company for soccer training) His job is to solicit more passengers whether they want to go there or not. They have this chant, only the last syllable of the destination, in our case the first time we went by bus, it was valo, valo,valo.(for Otavalo city for example) So you have to be on your toes as to where you are going. Thank god we were listening. To be honest, god and I did have alot of informal chats, I had an open line with him on this journey. Now what happens after you get on the bus is... the bus is semi-loaded and you are jet propelled down the street, slowing slightly only to accost unsuspecting individuals to go to destinations unknown. This soccer pro jumps off the bus to get into their faces and then runs as fast as his little legs can take him and leaps back onto the still moving vehicle. They do this throughout the journey until the bus is full, anywhere there are people on the side of the road.
Now for our driver. As for most of the drivers of the world, they are usually trained in indi racing and drastic feats of daring from Anthony Robbins, walking on hot coals and such, thereby increasing self confidence and all that stuff. Our driver also went to monster car rallies, and bumper cars. He negoticates these roads like a Canadian lawyer in court. He also had a symptom or two of manic behavior as he had illusions of granduer, where by he felt as he was the largest vehicle on the road that every vehicle, person or being was potentially road kill.
Travelling from Quito, one of the highest cities in the world to sea level is...... exciting and some would say rather frightful but I found it a very good time to have personal chats with god, how ever I found another patron saint that I also found time for. She and I were introduced when I took a courageous but much needed trip to the loo. There in all her life sized glory is Santa Fatima´ picture, I have yet to look up her patronage. As I found her in the loo, on a bus journey,,,,, it could be many different things. I felt I couldn´t go wrong and just struck up a relationship not really concerning myself with her purpose, but trying to increase my odds.
The view of the majestic mountains, their waterfalls and jungle is truely awesome however if the roads were perhaps a bit straighter or maybe negociated at a slower speed, say 70 miles per hour, I might have enjoyed it more. I thought some of the roadways in BC were steep, well it just doesn´t compare to here. The only way I have come down faster from such altitudes before was by plane...making a forced approach. I actually felt car sick for the first time since I was a child and had to get to a window seat to ensure the contents of my sickly stomach stayed put. I do say though that we made it through some rather sketchy roads to Manta finally.
The farther away from Quito you get the nastier the roads and also the more slummy the homes and towns. We have finally found the 3rd world and it is here on the coast. We are in a place called Puerto Lopez. It is a has been compared to the sitcom Samson and son. From days long since past, it was supposed to be a junk yard. But even though it is very rough, the people here are wonderful, in fact fantastic. Our host at our hostel. Spondylus. is wonderful, he is very helpful and wants to fulfill our every desire. But then again everyone here has, without exception. It is unpolluted but tourists, although they are still catering to the tourists for business. They have whales here in the summer as well as turtles. I think when we come back to Ecuador in September, we will rent a house here. The beaches are white and the water is warm.
We went kayaking for Rob´s Birthday and the boat is a rather sketchy thing not like the west coast kayak. Bring your own if you want to come. The kids and I took surfing lessons too. That was awesome, our host found us an instuctor. His name is Roberto and he has been great too.
Everyone is soo helpful with the language and my spanish is improving daily.
However, here is the downside. We went and saw the Doctor again, organized by our host thank god. He practices homeopathy and traditional medicine too and gave us a home visit. We all have had to see the doctor and I feel like I am carrying around a pharmacy. We are hardening up, now that we found out where the bugs in our food are from. They are from the juice venders, we are told. Another helpful chap told us and also what to look for. So now we are armed with knowledge and have had a few knocks. Also on the kayaking day, we got sun burned, Of course, I got the worst and have blisters on my back. Dane has realy bad ones on his face. But I noticed with Dane that he really loves the sea and can´t get away from it. He would stay in it all day if his skin held up.
We will be here for a couple more days , and then sadly we will go to Cuenca, and the Imburra Train, The one where you can ride on the top of it, through the andes.
I have to say that I really love it here. And will feel like I am coming back home in September. Talk to you all soon, loving it here is rustic and warm Ecuador.

Busses in Ecuador

I wrote a while ago and when I was almost finished the owners daughter pulled the plug on my machine. I was so upset It has taken me till now to try again. Sooooo... here´s the classic skinny on the buses. As per most of the buses in the world they are....interesting. We decided to go to the coast, to get away from the altitude and the sickness. So from Quito, through some muddy water we were finally helped,and we went with the company Rincon del Camino. What happens is this you hop on and there is this fellah,(we think is actually sponsered by the bus company for soccer training) His job is to solicit more passengers whether they want to go there or not. They have this chant, only the last syllable of the destination, in our case the first time we went by bus, it was valo, valo,valo.(for Otavalo city for example) So you have to be on your toes as to where you are going. Thank god we were listening. To be honest, god and I did have alot of informal chats, I had an open line with him on this journey. Now what happens after you get on the bus is... the bus is semi-loaded and you are jet propelled down the street, slowing slightly only to accost unsuspecting individuals to go to destinations unknown. This soccer pro jumps off the bus to get into their faces and then runs as fast as his little legs can take him and leaps back onto the still moving vehicle. They do this throughout the journey until the bus is full, anywhere there are people on the side of the road.
Now for our driver. As for most of the drivers of the world, they are usually trained in indi racing and drastic feats of daring from Anthony Robbins, walking on hot coals and such, thereby increasing self confidence and all that stuff. Our driver also went to monster car rallies, and bumper cars. He negoticates these roads like a Canadian lawyer in court. He also had a symptom or two of manic behavior as he had illusions of granduer, where by he felt as he was the largest vehicle on the road that every vehicle, person or being was potentially road kill.
Travelling from Quito, one of the highest cities in the world to sea level is...... exciting and some would say rather frightful but I found it a very good time to have personal chats with god, how ever I found another patron saint that I also found time for. She and I were introduced when I took a courageous but much needed trip to the loo. There in all her life sized glory is Santa Fatima´ picture, I have yet to look up her patronage. As I found her in the loo, on a bus journey,,,,, it could be many different things. I felt I couldn´t go wrong and just struck up a relationship not really concerning myself with her purpose, but trying to increase my odds.
The view of the majestic mountains, their waterfalls and jungle is truely awesome however if the roads were perhaps a bit straighter or maybe negociated at a slower speed, say 70 miles per hour, I might have enjoyed it more. I thought some of the roadways in BC were steep, well it just doesn´t compare to here. The only way I have come down faster from such altitudes before was by plane...making a forced approach. I actually felt car sick for the first time since I was a child and had to get to a window seat to ensure the contents of my sickly stomach stayed put. I do say though that we made it through some rather sketchy roads to Manta finally.
The farther away from Quito you get the nastier the roads and also the more slummy the homes and towns. We have finally found the 3rd world and it is here on the coast. We are in a place called Puerto Lopez. It is a has been compared to the sitcom Samson and son. From days long since past, it was supposed to be a junk yard. But even though it is very rough, the people here are wonderful, in fact fantastic. Our host at our hostel. Spondylus. is wonderful, he is very helpful and wants to fulfill our every desire. But then again everyone here has, without exception. It is unpolluted but tourists, although they are still catering to the tourists for business. They have whales here in the summer as well as turtles. I think when we come back to Ecuador in September, we will rent a house here. The beaches are white and the water is warm.
We went kayaking for Rob´s Birthday and the boat is a rather sketchy thing not like the west coast kayak. Bring your own if you want to come. The kids and I took surfing lessons too. That was awesome, our host found us an instuctor. His name is Roberto and he has been great too.
Everyone is soo helpful with the language and my spanish is improving daily.
However, here is the downside. We went and saw the Doctor again, organized by our host thank god. He practices homeopathy and traditional medicine too and gave us a home visit. We all have had to see the doctor and I feel like I am carrying around a pharmacy. We are hardening up, now that we found out where the bugs in our food are from. They are from the juice venders, we are told. Another helpful chap told us and also what to look for. So now we are armed with knowledge and have had a few knocks. Also on the kayaking day, we got sun burned, Of course, I got the worst and have blisters on my back. Dane has realy bad ones on his face. But I noticed with Dane that he really loves the sea and can´t get away from it. He would stay in it all day if his skin held up.
We will be here for a couple more days , and then sadly we will go to Cuenca, and the Imburra Train, The one where you can ride on the top of it, through the andes.
I have to say that I really love it here. And will feel like I am coming back home in September. Talk to you all soon, loving it here is rustic and warm Ecuador.

Busses in Ecuador

I wrote a while ago and when I was almost finished the owners daughter pulled the plug on my machine. I was so upset It has taken me till now to try again. Sooooo... here´s the classic skinny on the buses. As per most of the buses in the world they are....interesting. We decided to go to the coast, to get away from the altitude and the sickness. So from Quito, through some muddy water we were finally helped,and we went with the company Rincon del Camino. What happens is this you hop on and there is this fellah,(we think is actually sponsered by the bus company for soccer training) His job is to solicit more passengers whether they want to go there or not. They have this chant, only the last syllable of the destination, in our case the first time we went by bus, it was valo, valo,valo.(for Otavalo city for example) So you have to be on your toes as to where you are going. Thank god we were listening. To be honest, god and I did have alot of informal chats, I had an open line with him on this journey. Now what happens after you get on the bus is... the bus is semi-loaded and you are jet propelled down the street, slowing slightly only to accost unsuspecting individuals to go to destinations unknown. This soccer pro jumps off the bus to get into their faces and then runs as fast as his little legs can take him and leaps back onto the still moving vehicle. They do this throughout the journey until the bus is full, anywhere there are people on the side of the road.
Now for our driver. As for most of the drivers of the world, they are usually trained in indi racing and drastic feats of daring from Anthony Robbins, walking on hot coals and such, thereby increasing self confidence and all that stuff. Our driver also went to monster car rallies, and bumper cars. He negoticates these roads like a Canadian lawyer in court. He also had a symptom or two of manic behavior as he had illusions of granduer, where by he felt as he was the largest vehicle on the road that every vehicle, person or being was potentially road kill.
Travelling from Quito, one of the highest cities in the world to sea level is...... exciting and some would say rather frightful but I found it a very good time to have personal chats with god, how ever I found another patron saint that I also found time for. She and I were introduced when I took a courageous but much needed trip to the loo. There in all her life sized glory is Santa Fatima´ picture, I have yet to look up her patronage. As I found her in the loo, on a bus journey,,,,, it could be many different things. I felt I couldn´t go wrong and just struck up a relationship not really concerning myself with her purpose, but trying to increase my odds.
The view of the majestic mountains, their waterfalls and jungle is truely awesome however if the roads were perhaps a bit straighter or maybe negociated at a slower speed, say 70 miles per hour, I might have enjoyed it more. I thought some of the roadways in BC were steep, well it just doesn´t compare to here. The only way I have come down faster from such altitudes before was by plane...making a forced approach. I actually felt car sick for the first time since I was a child and had to get to a window seat to ensure the contents of my sickly stomach stayed put. I do say though that we made it through some rather sketchy roads to Manta finally.
The farther away from Quito you get the nastier the roads and also the more slummy the homes and towns. We have finally found the 3rd world and it is here on the coast. We are in a place called Puerto Lopez. It is a has been compared to the sitcom Samson and son. From days long since past, it was supposed to be a junk yard. But even though it is very rough, the people here are wonderful, in fact fantastic. Our host at our hostel. Spondylus. is wonderful, he is very helpful and wants to fulfill our every desire. But then again everyone here has, without exception. It is unpolluted but tourists, although they are still catering to the tourists for business. They have whales here in the summer as well as turtles. I think when we come back to Ecuador in September, we will rent a house here. The beaches are white and the water is warm.
We went kayaking for Rob´s Birthday and the boat is a rather sketchy thing not like the west coast kayak. Bring your own if you want to come. The kids and I took surfing lessons too. That was awesome, our host found us an instuctor. His name is Roberto and he has been great too.
Everyone is soo helpful with the language and my spanish is improving daily.
However, here is the downside. We went and saw the Doctor again, organized by our host thank god. He practices homeopathy and traditional medicine too and gave us a home visit. We all have had to see the doctor and I feel like I am carrying around a pharmacy. We are hardening up, now that we found out where the bugs in our food are from. They are from the juice venders, we are told. Another helpful chap told us and also what to look for. So now we are armed with knowledge and have had a few knocks. Also on the kayaking day, we got sun burned, Of course, I got the worst and have blisters on my back. Dane has realy bad ones on his face. But I noticed with Dane that he really loves the sea and can´t get away from it. He would stay in it all day if his skin held up.
We will be here for a couple more days , and then sadly we will go to Cuenca, and the Imburra Train, The one where you can ride on the top of it, through the andes.
I have to say that I really love it here. And will feel like I am coming back home in September. Talk to you all soon, loving it here is rustic and warm Ecuador.

felling better...mas o menos

Here in Equador when the kids are sick,you sure get alot of advise, but nicely enough I can´t understand most of it because it is not in english. I am beginning to understand the hand gestures more though. The people here are great, and they do remember faces and if you were nice to them or not. Joking, and being able to laugh at yourself is crucial. I often take a moment and step out of my body to see what other people must be seeing and laugh myself silly. I think my facial expressions must be a gas. Speaking of this,,,,, the kids are doing much better, that is Rachelle is, Dane is still a bit of a problem.... His stomach is somewhat better but he is coughing. He is a tough little bugger and only when he says he is in discomfort do you know the real truth. He says he is feeling much better, so we´ll see.
It is officially the rainy season here, and yes it is wet, but it is still warmer than Canada.( Kind of west coast Canada.)
Tomorrow, if all is well, we will go to the coast to get out of the wet a little bit. And into the heat a bit. Remember winter here is wet. So I think it will be still raining quite a bit, but we will see. If we don´t like it we will go higher and into the Valley of Longevity or Cuenca.
We didn´t go to Coatacachi because it was overcast. So we are back in Quito. The hotel said they would take care of our bags and they did. These people are really very honest. Besides, I think if they went through our bags they would have thought we were lower class or something. Remember, I don´t think this is a 3rd world country. You should see how they dress and what they are driving.
Yesterday, Rob and I looked at the news in a local restaurant and their very young president (40 something) was talking and they were discussing caring for the disabled/special needs, their medical and other issues. I think since I have seen it a work, their social system is going to be great. They are not quite up to speed on wheelchair accessibility, but they treat the special needs with huge kindness and awareness, that I have not often seen in first world countries.
I was told this is a very young country, where the people are concerned. The vast majority are young and fairly well educated. I think alot of those my age have been educated out of the country and have seen what they want for their country. It is good. You also see alot of families and young children but you don´t hear unhappy children. For the most part they are happy, well feed and taken care of. Although, I have not seen the really poor parts of town or seen poor schools. On the bus to and from Otavalo their were kids on the bus but not a peep. I was shocked to find out that they were even on the bus. A small mystery.
Ponder it in your own time.
Robin

sick in Ecuador

Hi All,
As you know, any where in the world you can get sick. But here in Ecuador, the people really care. So here the scoop. We went to a place called Otavalo, the largest hub of outdoor market also hoping to get out of the smog in Quito. Ahh, one can only hope. The second day here, Dane started having problems breathing. And Rachelle was still not well. Soooo, on the advise of others, we went to the hospital. The hotel provided us with an interpreter and between my spangesh and latin and her engspan we figured it all out. We were taken in imediately no waiting in any lobby , they checked blood pressure and heart rate etc. The doctor felt that Dane was and is suffering from the altitude, and Rachelle on the other hand had a bit more. For a moment, about an hour we thought she might have apendicitis, but not so. The doctor sent Rob and the interpreter to the pharmacy to pick up intravenous for Rachelle (2 bags) for rehydration for the diarhea and vomiting, that cost a whole $2, then after she was plugged in, the doctor sent them again, this time for a urine sample and blood sample 13 cents, then the lab ran the tests for $2.60 and gave us the results in 20 min. We gave this to the md. and immediately had information, thank god no appendisitis. We then found out it was a urine infection and a gastrointestinal bug. The doctor gave us a perscription for Dane and Rachelle (2 antibiotics) for another $5. Rachelle only needed one bag for rehydration. Then we were kicked out the door with hugs and well wishes. The hotel made sure we got back and checked now and again.
Rob and I found out that the kids were down playing their symptoms a bit and had vomiting games while we went out to get them soup, can you beleive it, this was before we went to the doctor. They said that they were bonding. Well, since visiting the md they are still abit down but we hope that they are getting better we have not heard any syncronized vomiting sound or seen any target practices. Yikes.
Although Otavalo is the center for marketing of textiles and painting and such, apparently are not making the materials much any more. We talking with a local buyer for Germany and he said the changing of the money system from sucres to dollars helped the people greatly. The local indigenous people are now quite wealthy from their weaving and for some of the touristy stuff they buy in peru. You´ll also hear the people selling the sweaters that it is alpaca, but what we found out is they don´t have any alpaca here. therefor not real alpaca sweaters, buyer beware. I found this out after I bought a blanket, but I still love it anyway. Rob says I bought a lying blanket, well he and the kids thinks its funny. I don´t care, its pretty. We bought 3 paintings yesterday that are originals 2 water color and 1 oil, very nice we met the artists. But in the market they have alot of a certain kind of design, basicly 2 styles,the same same thing over and over, I guess there is no such thing as copy right issue. That is kind of yucky.
There are tons of pizza places and internet cafes here and also chinese restuarants.
We moved to a different hotel, the rooms are much much bigger and the people are also nice here.
There seems to be almost no crime here and there are alot of new cars and other sign of affluence, this is not a 3rd world country. I left my umbrella in a resturant this morning and they gave it back to me later on, no kidding.
Maybe we will go to Coatacachit tomorrow depending on the kids. I have the sniffles too, but I am now drinking water with H2O2 in it and it is really helping. That was also recommended. Only a couple of drops in a liter.
Coatacachi has a dormant volcano with an dome in the center so it looks like an island.
Talk with you all later, I hope that you too can laugh in adversity like my kids.

Lost a Blog

I did post another blog but it got lost. So here I am updating you all.
The other day we went to the mercado (market) where we had a fantastic breakfast, there is everthing here, fresh vegies, unbelievable fruits, meats, cooked foods, flowers, etc. Next Rachelle is still feeling bad so in this market there is a natural herb healler and we went to her and it really did help.
Next we went to a used book store in old town and here the husband of the owner is American and he was quite a contrary person, he liked it and hated it here. He has a child and they will be going to America to provide school for her. He feels there is nothing but theives here but honestly I haven´t seen a single thing. Beleive me the locals could have easily taken advantage of us but they never have that we know. There are police everywhere so I guess that is part of the reason. This fellow did say that the taxidrivers were a bit naughty and they are. So what he said is ask if they are metering the drive. If they say no or that it is broken, don´t take them. Here in Quito, it is illegal for taxidrivers to not use the meter, or to have a broken meter. So I guess, they have been trying this little trick for a while. It did help quite a bit.
We bought some lovely art, can´t wait to hang it up. It was very inexpensive. We have only found 1 gallery for painted art here and only some sculptural art.
There is very little painted art here, meaning paintings unless you mean a church. Yesterday, we ditched the kids in the hotel so we could look at the churches and the kids could do some school. Fantastic, the churches are as good as or better than any in the churches in Europe. It´s enough to almost convert you. In one of the churches I actually started crying the painting covered the entire inside of the church, the colors and design were lovely, you could see that this type of painting came straight from their hearts. Lots of gold throughout the insides. Unfortunately some of them are very run down but you can still see the oppulence that was once here. They must have been very wealthy people. WOW. There aren´t many people who go to church here anymore just some stragglers, these are mostly tourist interests though. One one block there were 2 very large churches, we are still wondering why so many per square inch here. It must have been very competitive at one time.
The painting supplies is very hard to find and we have only found 1 store here in old town. The prices of the paints are fairly cheap 75 cent for and ounce any color. And the canvases are 9.00 for 20/24 in stretched and gessoed. Too bad I won´t be able to paint this time but I will be drawing. The airplane wouldn´t allow for gells or other stuff over 2 oz. So If you are thinking about getting on a plane remember ¨ no permite¨. I have pencils here and I will be buying uno libro de dibujo. There are unbelievable sculptures and designs outside the building so I want to draw some of them.
The other day we went to the botanical garden and the orchids were like aliens landing on earth the most beautiful colors and combinations and shapes I never thought of before. Flowers we only see in pots in small quantities in green houses here grow like crazy. Lots of pictures. Thank god for zoom lenses.
Tomorrow for a couple of days we will be going to otovalo, here there is the largest market for local indigenous arts and crafts. We were going to go to one of the volcanoes but they have evacuated the area of all locals. This is how it works here, they locals are evacuated and sent to a evatuation site and housed. After it is safe to go home the president will send them a bill for taking care of them. I found this all out using my famous spanglesh, I am starting to think in Spanish. We went to the Center of the Earth, the equator and now we all have found north and south.
Send e-mails if you are reading this blog to let me know if you want to know anything or have any questions that I can answer.
Talk to you all later
Robin

From Ecuador

Sorry, I got cut off here so I will carry on. We have a little altitude sickness. For us this means headache, joint pain, dizziness and upon exercise shortness of breath. They say it will take 2-3 day to aclimitize. Today we have no headache, my head is still a little swimmy but that would be the norm. Since today is Sunday there is alot to see and we must get on our way. We are changing our hotel to day from the hostel to a hotel where we can have warm showers. Our neighbors last night we a bit noisy and Dane who normally sleeps like a log couldn´t.
There is the crystal palace (art museum) , the creature place zoo of animals in Orient the ecuadorian jungle, the locals are in the plasa. Quito is a long and narrow city that is on the top of hill, If you were a canadian goat this is how you would set up shop. Needless to say all our calves are mooing. There are alot of hills here to climb just to see some churches.
Talk with you all soon
Robin

From Ecuador

After a fairly long flight with lay overs we arrived in Quito. In total only about 12 hours of flight time but in real time 2 days. We arrived at night with 3 other planes so there was a bit of a wait to get processed. Took a taxi to our reservation hostel only to find that we had no place to stay. whatever. So our kindly taxi driver found a room after 2 tries and we slept until ten, the kids slept till noon. Rob and I couldn´t wait to explore, I was very worried I didn´t know enough spanish to get through, thank god I was wrong . Between my soso spanish and the locals kindness and alot of laughs we are doing OK.
There are 7 big churches here and we went to the Basilica. It was based on Notre Dame in Paris and took 100 years to build. It is f----ing tall and huge, it is the largest church in all of South America. Rob and the kids went to the bell towers, barf. Too high for me. Let´s just say that we in Canada would never allow people to go that high and without safety stuffs overload like they do here. To get to one bell tower you actually go over the top of the domes on a walkway to get to the other side up a rebar ladder 30-40 feet. They got down safely and I rewarded them all for surviving. There is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary here called panacillo, and she resides on a mountain top`just over a knoll. The archeteque designed a heart shaped window and in the correct spot you see her in the heart shaped window under a cross. For all you mystery followers there on 2 opposite walls there is three circles in triangle design with the all seeing eye in the center. HMMMMM.