The bus ride to Cosanga, Ecuador. Nov 21st

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...

Friday, November 21st, 2008

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.

December 2, Tuesday 9am

This is day 18 in Ecuador, a beautiful country. We've met many
Americans who visited 20 or 30 years ago and never returned home. I
can see why, the people are friendly and helpful, the weather is
perfect and the landscape is stunning.

My Spanish is improving greatly, I still sound like a gringo, but I
can get my ideas across to the staff fairly easily. They call me
Senora, or La Senora, and I know most of their names, about 12 to 15
people, some shy, all very hard workers. They don't have access to
cameras, so I've been taking their photos and they have been eager to
see them on my macbook. Before I leave I'll have them pick their
favorites and send them real paper photographs. The baby is especially
preciosa. Some meals I take with them in the kitchen and listen to
their stories.

Yesterday a new guest from England arrived, Chris, who is an avid
birder and extremely well traveled. Even the Himalayas to find certain
birds, and he's here with his guide to find 4 or 5 specific species.
Ian befriended him so this morning at 5am the 3 of them took off in
search of the elusive birds. Today we have a couple arriving before
lunch. It's always fun to meet the new people and see what they're
about. This job is like having guests to your home but not having to
do the work of cooking or cleaning. I enjoy making people feel at
home, finding out about them and taking care of requests, such as "Do
you have a pair of rubber boots, size 42?" I ask the staff and they
get them for the guest.

I've tried to find an internet connection that will send photos, but
so far no luck. I even went so far as to take a bus to another town,
but the internet cafe didn't know how to hook up my macbook to their
internet and neither did I. Ian wasn't with me. I logged onto their
computers to check my email and let Joe know we're fine. I may walk
the half hour to Yanayacu, known around here as Harold's place, and
try their wifi again. I just need to get back here in time for lunch
and it's been a bit rainy this morning. Maybe I'll do it after lunch.
This where the manana stuff kicks in...

Just wanted to let people know Ian and I are doing well. Ian has seen
over 320 species of birds in our short time here, his yearly count of
species in MA is about 310. I love the incredible variety of birds,
very colorful, exotic and they have lovely songs. The Antpittas that
live here are very darling little ground birds that are given extra
worms by the lodge and fairly tame. Photos to come.

You can check out the lodge's web site at www.cabinasanisidro.com

San Isidro Adventure

This photo should be at the end of the post, not the beginning...

Sunday, November 30th. We're at Cabanas San Isidro on the Eastern slope of the Andes.

I made it into the town of Baeza yesterday, but was not able to hook
up my laptop to the available internet connection, even with lots of
help from the young girl who worked there. So, I'll keep writing
because it keeps me sane, and others may read it someday, or not.

Bus rides in Ecuador are a bit scary. I don't hear of many ending up
over the cliffs, but the drivers do not inspire confidence. On the way
back to Cosanga, the driver was flirting with a young lady in tight
clothes and high heels that shared the driving area with him. He
passed a large cement truck on a winding road that he thought was too
slow. I thought it was a perfect speed for both of them. We came to a
single lane bridge with another bus heading for it too coming from the
opposite direction. Neither bus slowed down and met on the bridge
windshield to windshield, inches away from touching! This time the
entire group of passengers in our bus inhaled at once in a big
oooohhh, in Spanish. So I guess this wasn't a common occurrence, they
said nothing about the crazy passing of the cement truck.
Turned out our bus driver was the more macho, and the other bus had to
back up.

To add more excitement the bus TV was playing a Bruce Willis movie,
loudly in Spanish, with a chase scene of Bruce driving a tractor
trailer through freeway underpasses, LA?, while a stealth bomber was
flying low trying to annihilate him. Great sound track when you're on
the bus in the mountains of Ecuador! Maybe the action movies are there
to distract you from knowing when you careen off the road into the
great beyond, you'll just think it's the movie.

The guests that have been here for a week left this morning. Breakfast
at 5:30 and I joined them to say good bye. It's sad to see a group
depart, I get attached to a few of them, and then they are gone. We
exchanged emails and as they are birders we may see them again, very
nice Americans.

Ian went with them, and will have to find his way back to San Isidro
on his own, on a public bus. He's used to the groups private bus, but
decided to give it a try, he didn't want to miss today's birding. The
staff will all leave this morning as we have no other guests until
tomorrow, so I'll hold the fort down on my own. There will be one
other person around to take care of the grounds. No fancy meal
tonight, I'll be fending for us with whatever I can whip up from the
kitchen.

I miss Joe. I liked it much better when we were able to Skype every
evening when we were in Quito, but I haven't talked to him in over a
week. Skype is great, when we have a high speed internet connection we
can see each other on our laptops and speak in real time, so cool, and
there is no extra charge above the usual internet connection. Great
technology.

Here's a photo of the American birding group that Mitch led as they
were on their way back to Quito. I asked them to gather together for a
group photo, but some birds flew overhead and distracted them. Typico
behavior for birders! Ian's on the far right.

An amazing development!

Ian and I arrived safely at Yanayacu biological reserve yesterday, but my was it primitive! That I expected, well maybe not quite such basic facilities, but there weren't any people staying here except for us and a rather keep to himself Polish man.

The bus ride was 3 and a half hours and vendors hoped onto the bus every 15 minutes to sell us something. Pleasant and entertaining. 

Ian and I visited the San Isidro Lodge 3 km away this morning and really liked it and were contemplating jumping ship and staying there. Turns out the owner, Carmen, needed someone who spoke English and Spanish to take her place while she left town for awhile and asked if I'd do it in exchange for room and board. YES!! I am so excited to be moving there, they are coming to pick me and Ian up in a few minutes, but there is no internet connection there.  It's a lovely lodge, one of the finest in Ecuador with excellent cuisine. Yes, cuisine, not the banana we had for breakfast here at Yanayacu. 

We are both very excited, we met many birders over lunch today and I had a crash course for 2 hours on how the place is run and now I'll go to it. Can you believe it?? Amazing to me, that's for sure. I'll get to play hostess and help people have fun. Carmen said we could stay as long as we wanted and gave us a lovely 2 bedroom 1 bath bungalow to stay in.

Ian already took a group on a birding expedition this afternoon, he's in his element and loving it!!

No photos as they are too slow to download, but I'll be back...

I'll miss getting the comments and the connection to all of you.

Old Town Quito, Ecuador

The things we saw today! (as in on Mulberry street),  everywhere Ian and I went had another surprise for us.

Tomorrow we leave for Yanayacu Biological Reserve in the Andes rain forest, so this is the end of any city photos for while.

The Lavanderia. The day started with dropping off our laundry at the local hole in the wall.

 5 pounds of laundry washed, dried and folded for $1.80. No need to own your own washing machine here.

Walking through the Parque El Ejido we came upon a comedian doing a show to a large group of  laughing fans.

Street vendors and fresh fruit are everywhere.

There was a huge peaceful protest by  university students that stopped traffic and took over the street for a mile.

Culturo authentico.

Iglesia de la Basillica do Voto National.

Not sure why someone parked their car halfway into the store???

Wonderful babies everywhere being held instead of in a stroller or baby carrier.

The main attraction is this plaza, a must see in the tour books.

A communal lunch in a very popular vegetarian restaurant. If there is a free chair, the next in line gets it, so we ate with other people. Two women we met said they commute an hour a half each day to work! Lunch cost $2 for the complete meal of the day: soup, main dish and dessert and was delicious.

La Ronda, a famous street featured in "The Week".

La Ronda above and below, very picturesque.

More street vendors, this time with fresh coconuts, yummmm.

The Military College.

Not sure what kind of internet will await us at our next stop, and we are going to be there for a month. I know it's not going to be anything like the hotel we've been in the last 6 days! Here's what the directions to the reserve had to say: The bus is only $3 for a 4 hour trip... ask the driver to make sure you get off where you are supposed to... walk for an hour ... look for Jose... the dog is friendly... 

A hike to the Forest

Ian was feeling better this morning, so we climbed the steep streets to the forest we can see from our hotel.  The day was warm and sunny, Ian even got a bit of a sunburn. I'm having such a great time finding interesting things to photograph, a city teaming with life.

Not sure if executives would be eating here, but a good price for lunch: $1.60.

Basic Spanish here: bread, milk and eggs. My Spanish has improved markedly every day, I can get my point across in most situations.

The entrance to the eucalyptus forest, or Parque Metropolitan, and the sign to announce it.

My favorite subject :-)

My first Bromeliad in Ecuador, I'm sure to see many more.

After an hour and a half hike to the top of this hill/mountain we came upon many school children laughing and playing. We think it may have been multiple field trips judging from the buses.

After a roller coaster of a taxi ride (I had my eyes closed for some of it) we visit the gardens at Hotel Quito were we may stay at a later date. See Ian's blog for his take on the taxi ride!

Hotel Quito dinning room on the 7th Floor for a fancy lunch.

View from dinning room.

More Quito views.

The mall where the MegaMaxi supermarket is located. The Spanish translation for food court.

A pretty girl doing a food demo at the mall.

Food, lodging and other details

Ian's not feeling too well today, very weak and a sore throat, chills so I went out for supplies in the morning. So far today I've been posting to the blog and Ian's been sleeping a lot and watching Myth Busters on Discovery in English about sea sickness. Appropriate.

The entrance to this gigantic supermarket/department store. The guard told me no photos in the store, too bad as it was all fascinating!

Entrance to the shopping center that has the entrance to the MegaMaxi. I had no idea there was a market  here on the second floor, just thought I'd take a look inside the building.

Don't really know what this is, but a helpful fellow shopper said I could eat it like a kiwi. On the receipt it rang up as pitahaya granel. Looking it up on the internet I think it may be Dragon Fruit. Anyone know for sure?

The cheese empanadas that Ian loves, warm from the oven, 5 for $2.63. 

3 Kiwis for .77 cents.  Papaya .63 cents.  The peach nectar, Durazno here in Ecuador, Melacoton in Spain, in the carton is $1.52. The Miami Herald International Edition is at our door in the mornings, nice touch. The grocery bag on the right is to show that they are advertising biodegradable bags and asking people to clean up... it's your planet.

The lobby of the Sheraton, our timeshare, very luxurious and spacious. This

will be the best lodging of our whole trip and we are thoroughly enjoying it!

The Sheraton, white building with small black windows, from our bus stop.

How we managed to pull off a 2 month trip to Ecuador:

First off you need a loving, supportive husband who thinks it's a good thing for his son and wife to broaden their horizons by experiencing life in another country. And who supports his son's birding passion.

Then you plan ahead. Years ago we moved all of our spending to one milage accumulating

credit card,  which I hope is still solvent. 

To get the most milage points charge everything you can on it, but this only works if you pay off

your balance every month and don't spend more than you have. Hmm,

maybe our government could take a lesson here.

So we were able to fly to Quito on our miles/points we have

accumulated for many years on our credit card. For our first week in Quito we used a

timeshare we traded into from one we own in Orlando. So that's 2 big

expenses minimized right off the bat.

On Friday Ian and I travel by bus, $4 one way for each of us, to

Yanayacu and volunteer there for about a month. The charge for our

stay there is $15 a day for each of us and includes 3 meals a day.  Not sure I can feed and shelter the 2 of us in MA for that little.

Here in Quito we've found the food to be extremely cheap and most of

it is grown locally.  So far with one meal out and buying produce and fresh bread at the market we are getting by on less than $20/day.  This is a no car rental trip, which has been great so far! I've enjoyed not having to navigate a unfamiliar city and I see so much more by walking and taking the bus. We're getting lots of exercise and saving money.

So you don't have to have gobs of money to travel in Ecuador!

Another side benefit, for me, is that I am a tall person here. Everyone my age or older is quite a bit shorter than I am and it's very refreshing.