Guayaquil and Ayacucho

Our last night in Guayaquil we celebrated with room service and lots of cable.

Here is some typical Ecuadorian potato soup made with three kinds of potatoes and avocado.
We slept for a few hours before getting up at 2:45AM.  The hotel had a shuttle so that was easy.  We had a 6AM flight to Lima.  Immigration in Lima was much faster than the week before and GeGe and I both got the green light (literally) at customs which means no luggage search.  We hung out in the airport wondering if our 3:15 flight to Ayacucho would actually go as they are often canceled for no clear reason.  We were encouraged when we were allowed to check our luggage. Not only did the flight go but it ended up leaving a few minutes early much to our delight. The trip takes only 50 minutes right over the Andes .  Here is our little plane and me pretty happy to be back in Ayacucho.

It took us a bit to get a taxi.  The airport is very small.  The taxis inside the gates always want more money than those waiting on the street so we went to the street but none were there.  GeGe ending up calling a taxi company.  They charged us half of what we were quoted inside.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and feeling the altitude.  Ayacucho is at around 9020 ft and we are about 500ft higher in our neighborhood.  I have had three cups of coca tea and feel OK.  Coca gets a bad rap since it is used to produce cocaine but the plant itself is very helpful for combating the effects of altitude.  You can chew the leaves, drink the tea, or eat coca candy.

Here are some pictures of where I am staying which is also the compound/house where the school is.  If you have been following my blog for a few years then you may have seen these before.

  The kitchen, you can see my computer on the table.

My room for the summer.

The back yard, with two buses, and my laundry on the line.  Hooray for clean clothes. GeGe has a washing machine which is a luxury around here.

The neighbors, extreme poverty and they make the best honey I have ever had!
That's it for now. We are off to eat puca in a bit and I will probably have to have some street ice cream as well. Tomorrow back with the kids.  I'm focusing on assessment this year, lots of planning with GeGe.  Hugs for you all, thanks for following along. C

We got up this morning and said good-bye to our nice hostal in Cuenca.

We went back to the train station and for $8 quickly found ourselves on a bus back to Guayaquil.  It is normally a four hour trip.  About an hour in, high in the mountains we started noticing some odd bus noises.  After an hour and a half we found ourselves with the bus parked on the side of the road.  First just a few men got out, then after a bit seemingly all the men got out.  Then very quickly EVERYONE started getting out.  A pick-up truck had pulled over and about 6 people piled in the back.  Lucky for us our driver flagged over another bus and many of us piled on there.  GeGe and I got two of the remaining seats and settled in for the remainder of the trip. Once in Guayaquil we caught a taxi to our hotel.  At first we thought the driver was drunk but we finally decided that he was just strange and really condescending.  I am normally very tolerant but I was glad when we were away from him.  We are staying at the Hampton Inn which is posh.  We are currently watching Friends on the flat screen.  Here is GeGe looking at the room service menu.

We left the hotel so we could go to the park where many iguanas live.  I wanted to pet them but they said they would only pose with me close by.  Aren't they cute?

After sadly saying good-bye to my new iguana friends (and the abundance of men who felt the need to say things to us in the park) we left and walked to the river.

This is a huge city and pretty hot/humid today.  All in all our Ecuador adventure has been fabulous!  I love seeing new places.  I will admit that I am excited to return to Ayacucho tomorrow and catch up with my Peru friends and the kids who have certainly grown and changed since last summer. We have a 6AM flight which means we leave the hotel at 3:45...yawn.  I will keep you posted.  Love, love, love. C

Back again,
Yesterday we got up and went to have breakfast at the hostal.  As usual we were talking school stuff.  A man from the US asked us if we were teachers.  We started talking.  He was from Austin and spending five weeks traveling around Ecuador.  We told him that we were going to take the public buses to some nearby villages and he asked if he could go with us.  We have been very surprised at how easy the public transportation is here.  We taxied to the bus station.  As soon as we got out men asked us where we wanted to go and then walked us to the bus that was leaving right then.  For one dollar we went to Gualaceo.  We went to a home that produces beautiful weaving and then toured an orchid farm.

Later we took the bus again (.25 this time) to Chordeleg.  This was a quaint little village that had more jewelry stores than I have ever seen.  There are silver mines in the area so the area is known for jewelry.  I was very excited to be there but after about 10 shops everything started looking the same.  I did find three pairs of silver earrings that wanted to come home with me.  We also visited the church and admired the architecture.  The light posts were decorated with ornate silver decorations.

We got back to Cuenca close to dinnertime.  Brian (from Austin) had been to a Columbian restaurant that he said was great so we went there for dinner.  We had amazing arepas (sp) for $3, yum.  OK that was more or less it until we left today.  I will put that in the next post.  Which I am also going to do right now while I have time and internet.

Hi All,
I have wanted to make a new post for a few days but we have been busy seeing the sights.  We are now in Guayaquil for the night before we fly back to Lima in the morning.  Here are some highlights from the last few days.

Cuenca
On Wednesday we gave in and took the double decker bus tour of the city.  It was only $5 for almost two hours and allowed us to see parts of the city that we didn't know about.  Much of Cuenca is very old but part of is is quite new.  We stopped at the Mirador (viewpoint).

GeGe found a world renowned ceramicist's shop near the Mirador but since we were on the tour we did not have time to stop.  We finished the tour and then took a taxi back up.  We each bought some of his art and then GeGe suggested we walk the 6000 steps down.  It was actually several hundred so we could justify the ice cream that we found at the MALL a short distance from the bottom.  This mall had two car dealerships inside, Columbia Sportswear, Adidas, a complete Fred Meyer type grocery store, etc.  Eventually we taxied back to the hostal for a brief rest before returning to Cafe Austria.
The internet is giving me trouble so I am going to try and post this much and will continue with the last two days in a different post.

Greetings from Cuenca, Ecuador!

This may be a short post as it is about time for bed.  I just don't want too many days to go by without an update. Forgive any spelling mistakes as I am not going to proof this.

Journey to Lima
 I left Portland at 5:31 AM on Saturday.  Regardless of how much I love to travel I do not think I will ever enjoy getting up at 2:45 to go anywhere.  I went from Portland to Houston.  Four hours of airport fun and some pretty good vegie tacos and then I was on my way to Lima.  That flight was between 6 and 7 hours.  There were hundreds of people waiting to go through immigration.  Customs was faster as they waved me on through.  It did not take me too long to find the person who would take me to the driver for the hostal since it was the same man that Moyra and I met two years ago.  Once in the taxi it was a quick 45 minutes through lots of tricky back roads to the Miraflores area of Lima.  GeGe was waiting for me in our cozy room.  We stayed up for awhile catching up.

Lima
I have never really explored Lima. On Sunday GeGe showed me some beautiful parts of the city and the most amazing craft markets.  Luckily I did not have room in my bags for more than a couple of treasures.

Journey to Cuenca
On Monday we took a 5:30 AM taxi to the airport.  We put my heavy bag in storage since it was full of things we would not need until Ayacucho.  We flew in to Guayaquil and then spent a while trying to figure out how we were going to get to Cuenca which was four hours away. Eventually we ended up on a bus.  It was actually a very nice, air conditioned bus which played a Jim Carey movie part of the way.  The scenery was beautiful, green, lush and tropical.  We also went from sea level to around 9000 feet with lots of winding roads.  We arrived in Cuenca last night around 6.  Our hostal is very nice.  Our room is huge with hot water and a bidet (which is always a bonus). The beds are comfy. There was fresh watermelon and fresh papaya juice for breakfast.  No complaints.

Cuenca
GeGe showed me today that I am in lousy shape.  We walked about 6000 miles.  Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador and today I walked around it all at least three times.  OK some of that is not true but let's just say that my hiking boots have offically been broken in for the summer/winter. We have two more days here.  We are not sure what we are going to do yet but I do know it will involve eating some of the roasted bananas sold on the street corners, they smell so good.  OK GeGe is already asleep so I am going to try to attach some pictures and go to sleep.  If this works then the first pictures will be in Lima and the rest from Cuenca.  See my FB page in the next few days for more pics.

 

One week to go!

One week from today I will be back in Peru. If you want to follow my adventures I will meet you here. If you ever decide you would like to be part of the adventure then I will meet you in Peru.