Waiting for the bus in back of the main building.
Our bus stopping to let people off to get some food.
Roadside food lady, the potato pancakes were great!
Inside our bus, typico scene.
Paramo, the landscape at high elevations above the trees.
An awful accident, later we were told 7 people died.
Hanging out on the bus.
Elevation around 6000 feet.
Dropped off at Cosanga, now all we need is a ride to the lodge 7 km away...
I was sad to leave the city of Quito and our plush hotel room, but Ian
was antsy to get to Yanayacu. He stayed in good humor during our week
in the city, but the low bird count was nearly more than he could
handle :-)
Another hair raising, no seat belt taxi ride took us to the main bus
station where buying a bus ticket is an event in itself. Pushy men
accosted us in loud voices demanding to know where we were going and
telling us we needed to buy our tickets from them. We chose a man who
said the bus was leaving at 11 am, and it was 11 am, so we gave him
money, overpaid it turned out, he rushed us to the back of the station
and flagged down our bus for us. And the journey began.
We didn't get the newest bus, but it was nice enough, had a TV in the
front with Jurassic Park playing full blast in Spanish. You know
you're in South America when you're hurling down a jungle road with
the sounds of people screaming Rapido! Rapido! and dinosaurs roaring.
You don't need to bring food on the bus, because every 15 minutes or
so vendors hop on the bus, walk up and down the isle and sell all
kinds of food: fruit, brownies wrapped in cellophane, homemade potato
chips (which I bought and were good). There was also a stop to get off
and buy food, the photo of the woman with the vats of potatoes and
meat. I got off but didn't notice that I had taken too long and the
bus was leaving. Apparently Ian had to tell the bus driver to wait for
me, I came running and wasn't left behind. But Ian was mad.
Nice scenery, Ian saw a Condor. There was an awful accident that
blocked traffic for miles, a huge truck ran over/into? 2 small cars,
nasty. 3 and a half hours later we were dropped off in Cosanga, one
gas station, 5 building town.
We enjoyed the ride, lots to look at in the bus and out.
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