AWOL! Em and Chris in South America

More Pictures here: Photo Album – It´s a little cluttered but oh well.

When we first touched down in Quito, Em and I were both impressed with the size of the city. It sprawls North to South in the shadow of a group of tall mountains that stand to the east. The history surrounding Quito is pretty fascinating. It has a lot of history and historical sites as well as having a lot of modern and international influences that resulted after petroleum was discovered. The origin of the city is somewhat interesting. After the Incas defeated the indigenous people, they set up Quito as a second capitol. Quito had particular significance for the Incas because they believed they were setting up a city at the center of the world. Actually there is a mountain in Ecuador that technically is the highest place on earth. The logic is this, since the Earth is the widest at the equator and the mountain is the highest mountain on the equator, if you stand at the top of that mountain you will be standing on the top of the world. So they say.

Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to go either to the “Mitad del Mundo”, which is about 40 minutes north of Quito, or to the top of the world. Instead, we went to Otavalo which is regarded as the biggest market in South America. Saturday is the big day, so we hopped on a bus to see what we could see. The crafts were all quite beautiful (and we bought some of course): woven scarves, socks, blankets, dresses, sweaters, paintings, instruments, spices…..pigs, sheep or horses if you have the need or desire. Eventually it began to blur together as we went down street after street. So we called it a day and returned to the hotel to enjoy a vibrant sunset. On Sunday we strolled around the market, much smaller now, for a little while and then took the bus back to Quito and met our host family.

The rest of the week in Quito we were pretty much exhausted. I think it was the mix of the altitude (Quito is on average 9000 ft above sea level), Spanish classes and the fact that we were living with a host family. At the school we were attending, I think their curriculum and requirements are more geared towards students earning credit for universities. Which means a lot of homework. In addition to that, staying with a host family basically is an extension of school. It’s hard work to even try to get the most basic ideas across! They were very friendly and helpful, but it is fairly frustrating to have to concentrate so much just to talk about the weather or the food. Oy!

We did have a chance for one excursion. There is a group of mountains to the west that towers over Quito. There is a tram that goes way, way up to a vista point that overlooks most of Quito. We thought the air was thin in Quito! After walking just a few feet along the not-so-steep path, we were gasping for breath. The view, however, was amazing. We could see Cotopaxi and a couple other major mountains as well as the majority of Quito.

After finishing our week in classes we headed down towards Cuenca. We stopped over in Riobamba for a night in order to take a train to the “Devil’s Nose”. The train is pretty cool, you can sit on top of the train for the duration of the six hour train ride. It gets really dusty (we returned with basically a layer of dust on our clothes and our hair was totally filthy) and on the day we went it was pretty cold as well. But the elements are part of the experience, and I loved it. Em was freezing much of the time, but it wasn’t too bad for me. On the way back, however, it dumped down rain. Luckily during one of the stops, Em and I had gone inside the minute we felt raindrops because we had the laptop and didn’t want to take any risks. However the other passengers weren’t so lucky, The train did not make any more pauses and the rain started coming down really heavy. By the time we made the next stop there were a lot of drenched and bedraggled passengers.

For us, the rain wasn’t too much of a surprise. It was just one of those weekends. When we were in Riobamba none of the ATMs were working for us. Also, the school we had enrolled in for our stay in Cuenca said that they would be in touch about our host family but we did not get any information back. Normally this wouldn’t be too much of a stresser, but since our funds were running low we really just wanted to be able to stay with our host family and have some sort of home base while we figured out what was up with our bank cards. But…no word. We tried calling the director of the school, but he wasn’t home…we tried emailing to no avail. So come Sunday, we arrived in Cuenca, paid for a night’s stay at a cheap hostel and we were left with only $3 between the two of us. Luckily, food is cheap here, so we had a luxurious diner of three small rolls of bread which cost us all of 30 cents. However, at that point spending ANY money was stressful because we might need it for a phone call or for Internet access or whatever else might be needed to get us out of our predicament.

Thankfully, things worked themselves out and we are now staying with a wonderful host family and have ATM cards that work (we still don’t know what the deal was). There are people constantly coming in and out of the house so we get a lot of practice. A lot of good food as well. Our host mom, Alicia, is a really good cook. We are enjoying Cuenca a lot as well. It is a bit smaller than Quito, but it feels much safer and is much quieter. The cathedrals, churches and other buildings in the central part of town are also quite beautiful. It’s a nice change from the hustle and busyness of Quito.

In our experience so far in Ecuador, the points of interest are the cities, the people and the rich history of the country. In Costa Rica, it was the natural wonders of the country that are the main attraction, but so far there hasn’t been much to see here. From what we’ve seen of Ecuador, at these higher elevations it is a mix of high desert and some sparse, alpine(ish) forests. Things did seem to get a bit greener as we went south towards Cuenca. I’m not sure if that is due to the rainstorm, or if it is just greener in these parts. It is a big contrast having come from Costa Rica where everything is lush, green and vibrant. We have yet to see the jungle or the coast, however. And we have yet to see the Galapagos islands, which we’ve heard are one of most amazing things in the world. So while we are getting a lot of cultural experience, there is a lot we have been missing on the natural side of things. We’ll see how things pan out in the next couple weeks.

Costa Rica has now vanished behind us. Our plane has just pushed through the final bank of the clouds and we are on our way to Ecuador. It’s interesting how happenstance can change the face of things. Had the option to stop over in San Jose never existed in the first place, the Costa Rica “side trip” would have never even happened. I’m really glad we went. After two weeks of time here, we have only skimmed the surface of the country, but I think we experienced quite a bit in our brief time. The mix of attending language school plus visiting several of the ‘must-see’ places, was actually a really good combination. Since the Spanish instructors are ticos, we get to interact closely with them and learn more about Costa Rican culture and character. At the same time, we met a lot of fellow travelers who are going to the same places that we are and share a number of common interests. I’m hoping in Ecuador it will be the same because after just a week, there were already people that I thought it would have been fun to go hang out with, or take a weekend trip, or whatever. We shall see very soon how things pan out in Quito and Cuenca.

As for the last few days, they have been nice and fairly relaxing. On Monday Emily and I celebrated our belated anniversary by treating ourselves to the Tabacon Hot Springs near the Arenal volcano. It was well worth the wait. The whole spa is centered around a cascading creek of water that is heated by the Arenal volcano (I think). They have constructed natural looking conduits throughout the spa and people can take their pick of waterfalls, pools, even a water slide. It’s fantastic. As for the volcano itself, the Arenal volcano is the major thing that draws people to the area, but no-one ever sees it! We talked to one family who had seen the volcano in action, but everyone else we talked to said that it was obscured by the clouds and couldn’t be seen. I would have liked to see an active volcano spewing, minivan sized rocks. But it didn’t happen.

The next day I (Chris) woke up nauseous and feverish. We had a pass to the hot springs again that day but I had to stay in, bleh. Emily, however, did not stay in and care for her ailing husband. Nope. Instead she ditched me and got a massage whilst I got a shot in the butt. No fair.

The shot seemed to work though! We had to catch a bus later in the afternoon and by then I was feeling a bit better, I still had a mild fever but it wasn’t too bad. Fit enough for a bus ride anyway. We rode down to a little town called San Lorenzo where they run Canopy Tours through the cloud forest. We stayed at the “Lands in Love” hotel, which is just 1km away from the canopy tour. In fact, the tour goes through some of the hotel property. Through CRLA we had received a great package deal with the hotel which included the canopy tour and three meals, all at student price which was a pretty good discount. Of all the places we stayed in, this place we liked the best. The scenery around the hotel was breathtaking. The hotel is away from the road, and the area is somewhat remote anyway, so it is completely surrounded by the cloud forest. The staff themselves are a group of about twenty Israeli friends that joined together to buy the hotel and run it together. A lot of them had related businesses back home (catering, landscaping, etc) so they would contribute in their area of expertise. All except for one person anyway, she was a criminal lawyer back in Israel, but in Costa Rica? She does the laundry. While they all have specific responsibilities, it seems like a lot of the daily responsibilities are shared by everyone at one point or another. So the whole place has a different feel to it. Each one of the staff is personally invested in the business so a strong sense of community spills over into how they treat their guests. We felt very welcomed and well looked after. And the food was good too! We were so tired of chicken, rice and beans (plenty more to come too I’m sure) so it was a relief to eat something different. The entire menu is vegetarian, with a lot of variety. In Costa Rica, if you order a vegetarian something or other, it basically means rice and beans. Not so at this hotel. The Isreali food they had was particularly good, humus, falafel…mmmmm

Ok, so you get the picture. The hotel was really cool. You have to check out their menu too. Hah. Here you go.

The next morning we went on the canopy tour. The canopy tours are a tour of the cloud forest via a bunch of zip lines that are strung from treetops and platforms. It was really fun. Em and I both thought that the Tarzan swing was actually the best part. In the photo album, I’ve included some canopy footage so you can get a “first hand experience”. Our guides helped teach us the Spanish names for various parts of the forest, like vines, insects and other things. Unfortunately I just came away with lienas y ojas (vines and leaves). The rest I forgot. Oh and cable, which is cable in both Spanish and English. That one is easy. The tour we took boasts that it has the longest cable in the world, so we can add that to our list of accomplishments. It was a really long cable, and very high up too, at least a hundred feet in places, probably more. It was a blast.

After that we headed back to San Jose, stayed the night, hopped on a plane and now we’ve arrived in Quito, Ecuador. Our connecting flight was in Panama so we got to see an aerial view of the Panama Canal on the way over. So we´ve even seen Panama too – all 20 minutes of it. Ok, I’ve got to sign off now, time to get something to eat.

Pura Vida! Here´s the album with more pictures and movies of Em and I doing parts of the canopy tour. Again, they take a bit to load depending on your connection. Also, we added a link to the Tortuguero picture album as well (see the previous post). http://www.theprudhommes.net/photos/thumbnails.php?album=4

 

 

Update: here are some pics of Tortuguero.

The movies are nothing exciting, just some footage of the boat ride just to show the jungle and they take a while to load.

Be forewarned, this is a long post.

A lot has happened in one week. We finished our four days of Spanish school which was both intense and a lot of fun. I’m surprised the difference that one week can make. Being in full immersion Spanish instruction really gets the brain kicked into high gear. I was in a class with three German speaking students so I never really had anyone to talk in English to. It was pretty much Spanish or nothing, which was good. I can understand a lot more Spanish now then when the week started, of course I’m still very much a beginner and Emily even more so, but in general we can get basic communication across with the most necessary aspects of life. We’ve become more comfortable with speaking bad Spanish in order to work towards better Spanish. So that’s good. I’m hoping school in Ecuador will really get us prepared for the rest of the trip. My speaking skills are what really need work….I understand a fair amount, but when trying to put my own thoughts or questions into words, it’s tough.

But yeah, CRLA (the Spanish School) was great. They really take good care of their students with lots of amenities and services to help students with their stay in Costa Rica. We took dance lessons and cooking lessons after the language lessons were done. We met a lot of people from all over. Quite a few people from the states, a ton from Germany. It was a good week.

On Friday, we went down to Tortuguero – a town and national park that is the center of a major conservation effort in Latin America to protect various types of sea turtles, mainly the green sea turtle. Originally we had not intended to go to the Carribean side of Costa Rica, but Emily found out that the turtle nesting season is at its peak right now, presenting a unique opportunity. So off we went!

We knew that a group of people from CRLA were also going, five Germans girls and one lucky Dutch guy, and we they happened to be taking the same bus as us. We and the group of other CRLA students were staying at the same hotel and actually went on to do both activities in Tortuguero together. We hung out together some, but the Germans seemed a bit standoffish as a group. As individuals they were all pretty friendly but as a group they would go back to speaking German to the exclusion of us and Walter (he could understand some German but didn’t speak it too well). I think one of the girls did not speak English very well, so that probably played a part in it.

When we first got on the bus in San Jose, the driver warned the passengers to keep their bags close rather than storing them in the overhead racks. Apparently the Caribbean areas tend to be a little more shady. A fact I found out firsthand at the end of the line. We arrived at the bus station and were waiting for the other passengers to disembark. A couple of younger guys stopped right next to me and were looking back towards the bus and saying something about a problem with someone’s bags or some such. One of the guys was pressed up somewhat close to me. Something caused me to reach down towards my pocket and I encountered the guys hand!! I kind of slapped it out of the way then the two of them quickly moved out of the bus. Their problem of great concern had, apparently, suddenly vanished. Luckily my wallet was still in my pocket.

And the adventures continued. The trip to Tortuguero involves a boat trip down a small river. Along the way we saw a large crocodile with it’s mouth gaping open. He closed it when we got closer enough to take pictures, so rude. We also saw a couple howler monkeys, a fresh water turtle, a sloth and some egrets along the way as well.

Tortuguero is a small little village set above Tortuguero National Park, a 30km strip of land that is entirely surrounded by water – fresh on one side and the sea on the other. You can walk through the village in probably ten or fifteen minutes. It’s a tiny place that depends almost entirely on the tourism generated by the national park. The locals that speak English have a heavy Caribbean accent, “mon”.

When we got off the boat and were immediately met by a very official looking man named Roberto. He gave us some instructions about where to go and how the canoe and turtle watching activities are organized. He was standing in front of a tour office, so it looked like he was part of that operation. He then took the group of us to the place we were staying, helped us check in and told us to meet him at the table outside so we could decide if we wanted to join him on any of the tours he offered (you CAN’T go onto the beach at night to see the turtles without a guide, so we had to hire someone). Everything about him seemed legit, well organized, he spoke great English. He even helped us get some money changed so we could pay him for the canoe trip and the turtle watching we were going to do the next day. He told us he would meet us back at our hotel the next day at 9:50 to take us on the canoe.

Next day the clock hits 9:50 – no Roberto…That’s fine, we thought, we’re probably be on island time now. 10:00 – no Roberto. 10:05 and then we asked the lady who owns the hotel where we could find him. There were 2 guys hanging around, so one of them took us to the park entrance thinking he might be there and the other went off to look at Roberto’s house for him.

He was not at the park entrance. At 10:30 or so he finally showed up looking like he had just woken up and then he told us unfortunately he has other matters to deal with. He wanted us to go with this other guy. So we did. The other guy was very nice and full of information about his town, but he was not a naturalist and knew only a little about the plants and animals we saw. The canoe ride itself pretty cool, they take you down some of the canals that go through the jungle. At first we were in very wide canyos (creeks) that were big enough for some of the large lodges to bring their big tour-type boats down, needless to say we didn’t see a whole lot while in the bigger canyos. However, eventually we went down a small canal that could only be reached by canoe. We saw a family of howlers, the little babies were cute, a wild turkey – which was very beautiful compared to the ones in California, a lot of fresh water turtles and some caymans. The caymans were fascinating, they were not afraid of the canoe at all. We paddled up to one and the canoe was practically touching it but it only flicked it’s tail once. Apparently they do not have any natural predators. The only thing that harms them, of course, is humans. Mostly the motorboats which will cut them with the propeller. There are also manatees in these waters but they only come to the surface very early in the morning and very late at night because of the dangers from boats, so we didn’t see any.

Out on the canoe there were times when it was HOT. The humidity plus the moderate heat really makes things sticky. There were frequent breezes, luckily, otherwise it would have been a very uncomfortable trip. I’m glad we were able to make a jungle trip up in Costa Rica where the climate is a bit cooler. We have that option in Ecuador as well, but I think we’ll pass. 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit plus almost 100% humidity in places is pretty much a lose-lose situation.

After returning from our trip, Em and I walked along the beach to see if there was evidence of the turtles coming to shore. Sure enough, there were a number of turtle tracks leading higher up to the beach. What was sad however, is that with almost every turtle nest we could see, there was evidence of them being dug up. Even after we had crossed over into the national park, there were signs of egg poaching. I’m sure it decreases the further you go into the park, but it was disconcerting. If there was a fresh nest, it was either completely dug up, or there would be stick holes in it where the locals had been probing for eggs. At times there would be broken turtle eggs strewn around the area close to the nest. The mindset of the people here is that the turtles have always come here in plentiful numbers and that they always will. Luckily the killing of turtles has been cut back significantly, but it was evident from our long walk on the beach that even after conservation efforts have been ongoing for 50 years, some of the same mindset still remains. We found out later that there is only one official ranger that patrols the 30km stretch of beach. There are other groups that are actively involved in protecting certain stretches of beach, primarily CCC (www.cccturtle.org) which has been active in Tortuguero since 1959. But there is only so much they can do.

That morning, after we had figured out the whole canoe situation, Roberto told us that we had to meet him at our hotel at 5:30 so he could tell us what time we would be able to see the turtles. The park doesn’t want everyone on the beach at once, so each group gets a schedule. Roberto pointedly looked at Emily and said that we must all please be on time (this was right after he was 40 minutes late for our canoe trip). HA. So, at 5:30 we are all sitting there waiting for him – no Roberto, 5:45 – no Roberto, 6pm – no Roberto. Finally, at 6:15 we were all pretty fed up with this guy and feeling a little foolish about ourselves for trusting him and giving him the payment for the trips the day before. Thank goodness one of the other people in the group had seen him hanging out at a house earlier that day, so they went back to see if he was still there, and yes, they found him completely drunk and maybe more. They demanded our money back. He wouldn’t do it, but he did manage to stumble out of the house, down the street and find someone else who would take us on the turtle trip

I guess that is the advantage of being in a town of 800 people. You can’t hide for very long. If it had been a larger town, we would have just been scammed. Luckily Roberto is either not very clever or a well-intentioned person with a drinking problem. I think it’s more of the later, because after we hunted him down he did organize the trips as promised. If he was a complete scammer our money would have been totally gone and he would have vanished.

So, ultimately we got to see the turtles as was planned. And thank goodness, because it was amazing. Our group of ten people, plus a little village dog that decided to go turtle watching too, walked along about a 1km stretch of pitch dark jungle with only the tour guide and her flashlight showing us the way. All around us was the noise of the forest, a couple of times along the trail we some some phosphorescent bugs. We had to keep up with the guide though, so we couldn’t stop and see what they were. As we approached the beach, the guides switch to red lights which are used to avoid frightening the turtles. Once we hit the beach, it is basically a lot of waiting around. The turtles take 2 hours to dig out the nest, lay the eggs and cover it up. The first part of the cycle, when the turtles are coming out of the ocean and begin digging their nest is the most crucial, and they cannot be disturbed at that time otherwise they will go back into the ocean and abort their eggs. We were lucky when we first arrived because one turtle had just completed her nest and was headed back towards the ocean. So we just walked along next to the turtle as it headed for the ocean and watched it go into the sea. At one point the dog suddenly noticed the monstrous turtle and begin barking excitedly. The turtle totally ignored it, but the guide quickly shooed the dog away. Ridiculous, a ten pound dog trying to intimidate a 500 pound turtle. After the few minutes of excitement, we waited around. We were just standing about in the dim moonlight talking to each other for about 15 or 20 minutes when they called us to come over. What we didn’t realize is that we had been standing about 20 feet away from a turtle that was building her nest whilst we chatted, totally oblivious. So when the turtle has formed the nest, basically they are going to lay their eggs and nobody is going to do a thing to stop it. The guides bring the groups over and they might move a flipper so we can see the eggs laying. At this time the CCC people also do their tagging, measuring, etc because the turtle is not going anywhere until she has done her duty. They get manhandled a bit, but apparently it is better for them in the long run because the more we can track and appreciate them, the more we’ll be able to conserve them. So we watched the turtle lay her eggs and pat down her nest, and then it was time to go. The whole process is completely incredible, instinct brings them back to the same shores they were born in, almost 30 years later. Hopefully the conservation efforts will be successful and remain ambitious. They are in the process of establishing a natural, protected corridor through four or five central american countries. Hopefully the countries can cooperate, because that is a fantastic goal.

Well, there was a little more that happened in Tortuguero, but I need to wrap this up. The drive back was very beautiful. In fact every drive we have been on has been beautiful. Basically, as soon as you leave San Jose you are surrounded by lush green forests and misty mountains, without exception everywhere we’ve gone, the scenery is stunning.