Taking a slow river-boat on the Amazon waters requires a fair amount of watching...not just your stuff but your air space. This was definitely a lesson learned on the slow boat from Tabatinga to Manaus (further into Brazil), a trip that takes about 4 days and 3 nights...faster than the other way round since we were heading downstream.
One may rent tiny cabins or hang up a hammock on the common deck, which is what most people opt to do - a) it´s cheaper, b) it´s way more air than you would get stuffed in a cabin. The thing about hammocks is...people can hang them anywhere, and they do. Hammocks can be hung under and below yours if you aren´t watching...often, even if you are. As a result, you find yourself in some sort of a triple-hammock-burger sort of position...which is entertaining for the first couple of minutes while you´re taking a picture...but not so much after that.
That excitement aside, it´s a pretty relaxed trip floating down. You get meals a couple of times a day, read or hang out in the sun during the day, play cards in the evening and float about all day. I have to admit I was the crazy gringo who took a walk on the upper deck each day, which usually comprised of 75 - 100 circles of the deck of 40 or so steps each. I had a lot of time on my hands...so I kept count.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Crossing borders
Fresh off the Amazon...and in Rio de Janeiro. Hola from Brazil!!! That still stays the same even though the rest of the language is way different from Spanish. That being said, one can still get by with a butchered mix of Spanish and French for most part.
In the last few days, I flew from Guayaquil (last stop in Ecuador) to Lima where my first hotel splurge occured. Since I was in Lima for just the night, I opted to stay at the airport Ramada Inn. Nice hotel...with a spa, pool and free internet. Three guesses as to where I spent my time. As an aside, I wonder why people think that showing you numbers on a calculator makes a discount more effective? The guy at the reception desk punched a new number into his calculator each time he gave me a further discount on the room rate. It´s not the first time I´ve seen this happen...maybe it´s all about the power of the picture as opposed to words sort of thing.
From Lima to Iquitos...a crazy little town towards the eastern edge of Peru where one may catch a boat to the ´three-frontier´of Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Iquitos has two main modes of transportation...two-wheeled vehicles (a varied assortment) and ´moto-taxis´, which are the strangest versions of three-wheelers that I have seen to date (photos will be uploaded soon, I promise!). They are essentially front halves of motorcycles that become a little covered rickshaw at the back. Anyone who has seen bicycle rickshaws in India...just think of motorcycle-rickshaws instead, and you´ll get the picture.
From Iquitos to Santa Rosa...a Peruvian border town that can be reached on a fast boat from Iquitos in 9 hours. It was a fun ride that ended with everyone walking off the boat on planks into the town (we were surrounded by the river and wet mud), on planks to the immigration office/police station and leaving on planks towards another little boat heading to Tabatinga, the nearby Brazilian border town. It´s all fun and games until you realize that you forgot to get a country exit stamp while you´re trying to enter another country...we met a French guy entering Peru who was sent back (by boat) to Colombia for his exit stamp. He lost an entire hour on his schedule...damn!
While Santa Rosa needs a boat, Tabatinga and Leticia (Colombia´s border town) border each other pretty closely. Close enough so that one may wander along the road from Brazil into Colombia looking for faster internet...wander back for food...and then head into Colombia again. I´m pretty sure Indian citizens generally need a visa for Colombia, but Leticia is obviously an exception :)
In the last few days, I flew from Guayaquil (last stop in Ecuador) to Lima where my first hotel splurge occured. Since I was in Lima for just the night, I opted to stay at the airport Ramada Inn. Nice hotel...with a spa, pool and free internet. Three guesses as to where I spent my time. As an aside, I wonder why people think that showing you numbers on a calculator makes a discount more effective? The guy at the reception desk punched a new number into his calculator each time he gave me a further discount on the room rate. It´s not the first time I´ve seen this happen...maybe it´s all about the power of the picture as opposed to words sort of thing.
From Lima to Iquitos...a crazy little town towards the eastern edge of Peru where one may catch a boat to the ´three-frontier´of Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Iquitos has two main modes of transportation...two-wheeled vehicles (a varied assortment) and ´moto-taxis´, which are the strangest versions of three-wheelers that I have seen to date (photos will be uploaded soon, I promise!). They are essentially front halves of motorcycles that become a little covered rickshaw at the back. Anyone who has seen bicycle rickshaws in India...just think of motorcycle-rickshaws instead, and you´ll get the picture.
From Iquitos to Santa Rosa...a Peruvian border town that can be reached on a fast boat from Iquitos in 9 hours. It was a fun ride that ended with everyone walking off the boat on planks into the town (we were surrounded by the river and wet mud), on planks to the immigration office/police station and leaving on planks towards another little boat heading to Tabatinga, the nearby Brazilian border town. It´s all fun and games until you realize that you forgot to get a country exit stamp while you´re trying to enter another country...we met a French guy entering Peru who was sent back (by boat) to Colombia for his exit stamp. He lost an entire hour on his schedule...damn!
While Santa Rosa needs a boat, Tabatinga and Leticia (Colombia´s border town) border each other pretty closely. Close enough so that one may wander along the road from Brazil into Colombia looking for faster internet...wander back for food...and then head into Colombia again. I´m pretty sure Indian citizens generally need a visa for Colombia, but Leticia is obviously an exception :)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The big egg
I have to make note of this in case I forget in the next few months or years...I´m in possession of a big egg!!!
This is not an X-rated post.
Salinas is a little town sort of in the middle of nowhere...well, Ecuador...but in the middle of nowhere in Ecuador (Proof: There was no cell reception in that town even on what is possibly Ecuador´s most popular network). There is a big reason to go there though...for me. Salinas makes its own chocolate and exports couverture to Italy and finished chocolate goods to Japan.
It´s all milk chocolate but definitely some of the best I´ve tried in Ecuador so far...and believe me, I have been trying. Hard. So I bought this little egg of chocolate (remember Kinder eggs?) and it had a surprise inside. Unlike Kinder eggs, which actually have a plastic case holding some sort of toy (what do they do with those plastic cases after the chocolate´s gone anyway? I´ve always wondered...such a waste) , this one had a little ball of foil that was wrapped around a bracelet! I love it. I then saw a bigger egg (of chocolate) and had to have it. It was about 10 times the size of my little one!
Now I have a big egg...that also has something inside of it. I´m super-excited. So excited that I haven´t started eating it yet. I feel like Charlie before he found the golden ticket to the chocolate factory. Also, the fact that I´m going to be on the Amazon for 10 days with no access to other chocolate might have something to do with saving it...
This is not an X-rated post.
Salinas is a little town sort of in the middle of nowhere...well, Ecuador...but in the middle of nowhere in Ecuador (Proof: There was no cell reception in that town even on what is possibly Ecuador´s most popular network). There is a big reason to go there though...for me. Salinas makes its own chocolate and exports couverture to Italy and finished chocolate goods to Japan.
It´s all milk chocolate but definitely some of the best I´ve tried in Ecuador so far...and believe me, I have been trying. Hard. So I bought this little egg of chocolate (remember Kinder eggs?) and it had a surprise inside. Unlike Kinder eggs, which actually have a plastic case holding some sort of toy (what do they do with those plastic cases after the chocolate´s gone anyway? I´ve always wondered...such a waste) , this one had a little ball of foil that was wrapped around a bracelet! I love it. I then saw a bigger egg (of chocolate) and had to have it. It was about 10 times the size of my little one!
Now I have a big egg...that also has something inside of it. I´m super-excited. So excited that I haven´t started eating it yet. I feel like Charlie before he found the golden ticket to the chocolate factory. Also, the fact that I´m going to be on the Amazon for 10 days with no access to other chocolate might have something to do with saving it...
Last day in Ecuador
This entry primarily serves as a last-day-in-Ecuador marker and comes from Guayaquil, possibly my favorite city in Ecuador. I think that can be attributed to the tremendously long waterfront esplanade-type thing that I've spent most of my time on, devouring icecream...I'm finally some place hot!
In the last 10 days, I've bus-sed it from the farm (Hacienda Picalqui - http://www.fbu.com.ec/picalqui.htm) down to -
- Tena, one of Ecuador's river rafting and kayaking capitals
- Baños (yes, there really is a city named after bathrooms...delightful touristy destination)
- Guaranda, a little town that takes credit for its access to Salinas, another little town known for its town-made cheese and chocolate (I thought that was reason enough to visit)
From Tena, I made a foray into the Ecuadorian jungle to go rafting, waterfall climbing, stay with a family in the jungle...and get bitten every-darned-where possible. I still resemble a huge mosquito/sand flea bite despite repellent. Aagh. That being said, rafting Class III waves was fun, jumping off a 10-foot high rock into a lagoon was thrilling (I am very definitely scared of heights, I've realized) and body-surfing a waterfall was just plain awesome.
Tonight is the move to Peru, and in another day the river ride down the Amazon to Brazil begins. I ate up my week in Peru right here in Ecuador...so another time, another trip. So much to see, so little time to do it all!
In the last 10 days, I've bus-sed it from the farm (Hacienda Picalqui - http://www.fbu.com.ec/picalqui.htm) down to -
- Tena, one of Ecuador's river rafting and kayaking capitals
- Baños (yes, there really is a city named after bathrooms...delightful touristy destination)
- Guaranda, a little town that takes credit for its access to Salinas, another little town known for its town-made cheese and chocolate (I thought that was reason enough to visit)
From Tena, I made a foray into the Ecuadorian jungle to go rafting, waterfall climbing, stay with a family in the jungle...and get bitten every-darned-where possible. I still resemble a huge mosquito/sand flea bite despite repellent. Aagh. That being said, rafting Class III waves was fun, jumping off a 10-foot high rock into a lagoon was thrilling (I am very definitely scared of heights, I've realized) and body-surfing a waterfall was just plain awesome.
Tonight is the move to Peru, and in another day the river ride down the Amazon to Brazil begins. I ate up my week in Peru right here in Ecuador...so another time, another trip. So much to see, so little time to do it all!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Geronimo under pressure
One fine day at the farm, it was decided that the oldest rooster in the coop had seen his final hour. This decision was aided to a large extent by the arrival of the new rooster (see previous post for that one´s antics), no doubt.
Our resident farm expert, Gimena (pronounced Himena) headed over to the farm compost heap - apparently rooster blood is really good for compost - with Alex (long term volunteer holding rooster in question), Sasha, Derek & Margo (two short-term volunteers from Seattle) in tow. Yours truly stayed at home in order to avoid witnessing the grisly scene. On the way to the compost heap, Alex thought aloud that the rooster shouldn´t die without a name - and it was promptly named Geronimo.
After a pretty gruesome death by all witness accounts, Geronimo´s weird parts were cooked for consumption on the same day - I won´t go into further detail here. His not so weird parts were saved in (possibly the farm´s only) refrigerator to be cooked the next day. Stuart (the farm program coordinator) lent us a pressure cooker for the deed.
We had a strange situation on our hands - on the one hand, there was the person who knew how to operate a pressure cooker (that would be me) who wanted to have nothing to do with the chicken...and then we had the chicken-happy camp that had never worked a pressure cooker. Our cooking sojourn began with 45 minutes of chicken under pressure (Geronimo was a tough, old guy) and was interrupted by a loud POP when Sasha tried to force the pressure cooker open blasting chicken bits and soup over the kitchen floor, walls and ceiling (in my defense, I was standing two feet away telling him to let more air out of the cooker). One of the chicken pieces even made it into a ladle hanging nearby...ready to serve.
To our credit, we continued with cooking the rest of the meal, STILL using the pressure cooker though I was its sole operator this time. Our hypothesis is that Stuart lends the pressure cooker to new volunteers whenever he wants the volunteer house kitchen cleaned. Of course, it could very well be Geronimo taking his revenge from the grave...
Our resident farm expert, Gimena (pronounced Himena) headed over to the farm compost heap - apparently rooster blood is really good for compost - with Alex (long term volunteer holding rooster in question), Sasha, Derek & Margo (two short-term volunteers from Seattle) in tow. Yours truly stayed at home in order to avoid witnessing the grisly scene. On the way to the compost heap, Alex thought aloud that the rooster shouldn´t die without a name - and it was promptly named Geronimo.
After a pretty gruesome death by all witness accounts, Geronimo´s weird parts were cooked for consumption on the same day - I won´t go into further detail here. His not so weird parts were saved in (possibly the farm´s only) refrigerator to be cooked the next day. Stuart (the farm program coordinator) lent us a pressure cooker for the deed.
We had a strange situation on our hands - on the one hand, there was the person who knew how to operate a pressure cooker (that would be me) who wanted to have nothing to do with the chicken...and then we had the chicken-happy camp that had never worked a pressure cooker. Our cooking sojourn began with 45 minutes of chicken under pressure (Geronimo was a tough, old guy) and was interrupted by a loud POP when Sasha tried to force the pressure cooker open blasting chicken bits and soup over the kitchen floor, walls and ceiling (in my defense, I was standing two feet away telling him to let more air out of the cooker). One of the chicken pieces even made it into a ladle hanging nearby...ready to serve.
To our credit, we continued with cooking the rest of the meal, STILL using the pressure cooker though I was its sole operator this time. Our hypothesis is that Stuart lends the pressure cooker to new volunteers whenever he wants the volunteer house kitchen cleaned. Of course, it could very well be Geronimo taking his revenge from the grave...
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Living on a farm
I´m definitely making all my dreams from reading about kids on a farm come true...current whereabouts - on an organic farm north of Quito, volunteering for a while. We are growing (notice how I can say that after two days on the farm) broccoli, lima bean, cauliflower, radish, tomat d´arbol (see post below), mora (blackberries!) and about 40 other kinds of fruits and vegetables.
Yesterday I harvested spinach and lima bean, dug up and made a plant bed (compost spreading included) and then went on a vegetable & fruit selling trip in the back of a van to the neighboring towns, yelling ´Hortalisas Organicas´(organic vegetables) every once in a while. If anyone is wondering how it feels to transition from a suit in a client office to farm clothes in a pickup truck...it´s surreal and fun (and I don´t think it´s hit me completely as yet) but would suck if it rained, which it does most of the time here :P
Today was bed-digging and grub finding day - those were fed to the chickens. If anyone has ever thought hens are lazy just watch them go at slugs and grub for a revised opinion. Ooh...we also chased the new rooster that escaped from the coop with an interested audience in the form of a dog and a duck. Life is good!
Yesterday I harvested spinach and lima bean, dug up and made a plant bed (compost spreading included) and then went on a vegetable & fruit selling trip in the back of a van to the neighboring towns, yelling ´Hortalisas Organicas´(organic vegetables) every once in a while. If anyone is wondering how it feels to transition from a suit in a client office to farm clothes in a pickup truck...it´s surreal and fun (and I don´t think it´s hit me completely as yet) but would suck if it rained, which it does most of the time here :P
Today was bed-digging and grub finding day - those were fed to the chickens. If anyone has ever thought hens are lazy just watch them go at slugs and grub for a revised opinion. Ooh...we also chased the new rooster that escaped from the coop with an interested audience in the form of a dog and a duck. Life is good!
Also making up for the last few days!
It has now been officially a week and a day in Ecuador and not counting the fact that I can´t get to my photographic documentation (see post below), things are good.
One of my most notable trips has been to the Mercado de los Animalos (animal market) in Otavalo, two hours north of Quito. The market is organized by size of animal starting with little chicks, hens, roosters and geese moving on to guinea pigs (also known as cuy, pronounced coo-ee), cats, dogs, pigs, sheep and eventually llamas and cows. It is pretty awesome...I have no other word for it. People come in every Saturday morning with their ¨wares¨and customers pour in from nearby towns and villages. I saw two kinds of rooster backpacks...one where the rooster is tied up to hold other items and the other, a sling carrying a rooster. Possibly the most interesting sight was someone putting chicks in a brown paper bag with holes in it...I think I pick up chocolate with more caution.
Following that was the Mercado de las Frutas (fruit market) - in addition to all the fruits that are so delightfully plentiful in India, there have also been tomat d´arbol (tree tomato), pepiño, sapota (no, it´s not the same thing as chikoo here) and tuna (not the fish but a spiny fruit that is orange with tons of seeds that can be eaten). I do have pictures and they are all very interesting to see...but currently not accessible. Sigh.
One of my most notable trips has been to the Mercado de los Animalos (animal market) in Otavalo, two hours north of Quito. The market is organized by size of animal starting with little chicks, hens, roosters and geese moving on to guinea pigs (also known as cuy, pronounced coo-ee), cats, dogs, pigs, sheep and eventually llamas and cows. It is pretty awesome...I have no other word for it. People come in every Saturday morning with their ¨wares¨and customers pour in from nearby towns and villages. I saw two kinds of rooster backpacks...one where the rooster is tied up to hold other items and the other, a sling carrying a rooster. Possibly the most interesting sight was someone putting chicks in a brown paper bag with holes in it...I think I pick up chocolate with more caution.
Following that was the Mercado de las Frutas (fruit market) - in addition to all the fruits that are so delightfully plentiful in India, there have also been tomat d´arbol (tree tomato), pepiño, sapota (no, it´s not the same thing as chikoo here) and tuna (not the fish but a spiny fruit that is orange with tons of seeds that can be eaten). I do have pictures and they are all very interesting to see...but currently not accessible. Sigh.
Trying to recover lost photos...
...and failing miserably at the moment. Anyone with ideas on how to recover photos that have been deleted from a camera and saved as a zip file on a flash drive, which now gives me a message saying that this is an incomplete file and can´t be opened - please don´t hesitate to comment here :) I promise lots of interesting photos!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
22km from the Equator...and freezing
Bah.
I think it may have something to do with the fact that Quito is almost 3000m above sea level. Just for that, I´m going to the Equator tomorrow :P
I think it may have something to do with the fact that Quito is almost 3000m above sea level. Just for that, I´m going to the Equator tomorrow :P
The power of a quarter
The currency of choice and in use in Ecuador is the US dollar. Even after living in the US for the last few years and feeling the power of a dollar in travel, I am a little surprised by its magnified power here. For instance, it took exactly 25 cents for me to get to the center of New Town in Quito from the airport. Comparing this with the 85 dollars it took for me to get to JFK (since I was running late as always and had no time to take the train), I am left a little speechless.
To be fair, I did take the bus from Quito airport given that I have all the time in the world here, but even if I hadn´t, a taxi would have cost me...wait for it...a full 4 dollars. We aren´t talking about getting from the South ferry to the beaten-up Bull distance here.
That being said, prices all over fluctuate wildly. An icecream (I obviously had to have one of those) cost me a dollar-fifty, lunch was a very full plate for three dollars...and a fresh empanada can be had for 15 cents. I´m learning the power of a dime too...and obviously eating my way through Quito.
To be fair, I did take the bus from Quito airport given that I have all the time in the world here, but even if I hadn´t, a taxi would have cost me...wait for it...a full 4 dollars. We aren´t talking about getting from the South ferry to the beaten-up Bull distance here.
That being said, prices all over fluctuate wildly. An icecream (I obviously had to have one of those) cost me a dollar-fifty, lunch was a very full plate for three dollars...and a fresh empanada can be had for 15 cents. I´m learning the power of a dime too...and obviously eating my way through Quito.
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