Ecuador

It has been a month since we arrived in Ecuador.  The country has a lot of similarities with Colombia, but at the same time it is very different.

First of all, people are shorter here with round faces and high cheekbones- real Indians.  Our first stop in Ecuador was Otavalo- a small town, famous for its artisans market, where its people still dress in the traditional clothing.  Women were long skirts and white blouses with puffy sleeves and beautifully embroidered flowers.  They carry everything on their backs wrapped in a cloth- vegetables, babies or toddlers.  They even work with their babies on the backs, selling vegetables or magazines.  Men wear their long hear under a hat.  We felt as if going back in time to meet people we only saw in movies.  Later, during the Spanish lesson, we learned that over half of Ecuador population in indigenous people, descendants of Inca Indians.

We chose to take one week of Spanish in Quito because everything is cheaper in Ecuador (including the Spanish courses), and we liked the city.  We were considering continuing studying the language for the second week, but Dangis got sick and constant rain and cold changed our mind.  Dangis probably lost 5 pounds that week from losing appetite after getting some parasite, most likely from contaminated food in some restaurant.

The locals seem to be less concerned with cleanliness than Colombians.  We started carrying our own, but I wonder how the cooks wash their hands.  The food in Colombia was more delicious, even though soups in Ecuador are very good, reminds me of Lithuania.  We eat soup here every day for lunch.  Instead of bread, we get plantains with every meal, too.  Also, there are a lot of stray dogs in both countries.  People do not bother them, sometimes even feed them leftovers.

We did not get to see a lot of Quito, since we were studying for the biggest part of the day- 4 hours with the teacher and up to 4 hours of homework.  For most days, there was rain in the morning, hot in the mid-day, and rain or hail in the afternoon.  We had to go through outside to reach the shared bathroom in our hotel, since our room was on the roof with the access to the terrace.

Before starting our classes, we visited Mitad del Mundo (Equator line) and volcano Pichincha park.  At the entrance to the volcano park, the cable car dropped us off at the altitude of 4,100 meters.  Instantly, we started shivering from cold.  We went inside a cafe to dry off the sweat from walking to the park in the heat.  Then, after putting on our jackets, we started our climb to the volcano top, which was at the altitude of almost 4,700 meters and 5 km away.  We had no idea how difficult our climb was going to be.  It took us about 4.5 hours to reach the top.  We were out of breath more and more often the closer we got.  The last hour we probably stopped every 2 minutes for 2 minutes to catch our breath.  We considered and reconsidered to turn back multiple times, even when we were about 100 meters away.  We were unprepared for a climb like this.  We should have, at least, brought more water and gloves.  When we finally reached the top, we could not feel our fingers.  We quickly snapped a few pictures.  The clouds seem to disappear for a moment allowing us to enjoy the magnificent view from the top of the world- the highest we have ever been.  As soon as we turned back, it started to rain heavily.  The rain followed us all the way back for 2.5 hours.  We got back down the volcano soaking wet and freezing.  It was rush hour, soon the sun would set.  It was surprisingly difficult to flag a cab.  In Colombia, the cabs would slow down and beep, passing us to check if we did not need a ride.  But in Quito all the cabs were full.  The driver of the one that picked us up charged us double- 5USD, instead of 2 or 3USD.  He knew that we did not want to stay much longer in the rain, so he ignored our attempt to bargain.  As soon as we were in his cab, though, he started us offering all kinds of overpriced tours, even gave us his card with the description of himself as reliable and honest.

We also noticed that bargaining in Ecuador was different than in Colombia.  In Colombia, there were 2 types of merchants- the ones who lowered the price quickly to be reasonable, and the others who refused to bargain with some explanation, in Ecuador, though, the vendors just kept repeating their original price, as if we did not heat them the first time.

Our next stop Bahia de Caraquez was a nice little town by the coast.  We even considered to stay there for a month or so because of the mild and pleasant climate of the Pacific coast and the relaxed atmosphere of the small town, but big enough to have a market and a store.  We walked the whole town in probably an hour, but we still were looking forward to settling in for a little while- reading books and swimming in the ocean every day.  The little hotel where we stayed was new for a change with a beautiful view of the ocean, access to the roof top, and clean rooms.  It sounded perfect, but we learned that peacefulness was more important.  Somehow we started to feel like we were intruding in the owner's and his girlfriend's lives.  The owner allowed us to use the kitchen of the restaurant down the stairs, but the cook was always there.  We did not feel like paying for our every meal.  We decided to leave Bahia de Caraquez after spending 3 nights in our little hotel, where we were the only guests.

In our bus heading south, we met the first Lithuanian- Vilija travelling with her small daughter.  Apparently, she and her family live in Ecuador for 4 winters now.  Every spring they go back to Lithuania.  Vilija's husband is a famous tattoo artist from my hometown Siauliai, names Giedrius Bardauskas.  He was my neighbor long time ago, even though I do not remember him.  We did not play together because he is a few years older than me.  Giedrius did my sister's tattoo years ago, though.  He also dated my classmate and is friends with my other old friend from Art School.  Small world.

After leaving the bus in San Clemente, very small resort town, we were unable to find reasonably priced accommodations on a big Friday.  Most Ecuadorians get vacation for the week of Easter, and a lot of them go to the coast.  We got onto another bus toward Crucita.  After spending one night there, we really wanted to leave.  The town is so small that there were no stores there.  The restaurants were empty, but very expensive.  The beach was narrow, but very close to the main street.  Our cabin turned out to be very noisy during the night, even though we were the only guests when we arrived.  Talking just outside our door woke us up around 2 am.  After half an hour, I walked outside to see what was happening.  I saw an empty beer bottle on the table. The owner asked me if I needed anything, and I replied 'sleep'.  He said that new people just arrived.  The next morning someone walked in and laid in the hammock outside our door with the music playing from his phone and him singing along.  It appears that people have not heard of headphones.  On the buses we get to listen to someone's music, too.  Nobody seems to mind.  We even saw a blind man getting on the bus, turning on the cassette player, and starting to sing.  After a little concert, he walked with his extended hand, collecting compensation.  The next time we saw another blind man doing exactly the same thing; his voice was not as melodic. 

Nobody waits for the people to get off the bus first before pushing in (Metra culture of Medellin, Colombia, does not exist here).  We did wait once until the people unloaded first, we almost missed it- the doors started closing as we were stepping in.  The girl behind us did not make it.  The bus rides are very cheap in Ecuador.  The city bus rides cost 0.25 USD, and bus rides between cities cost 1 USD per 1 travelled hour.  The gas is much cheaper in Ecuador than in Colombia.  The galon costs from 1.5 USD to 2 USD in Ecuador, in comparison to 5 USD in Colombia.  The roads and sidewalks are equally bad in both countries.  I managed to sprain my ankle because of the uneven pavement in Cali, Colombia.  Dangis banged up his knee into the top of the pole on the sidewalk in Cali, Colombia, too.  In Ecuador, we probably walk on the streets more than on the sidewalks.  Businessmen here have their stands or workshops set up right on the sidewalks.  Also, families walk hand in hand spread across the sidewalks.  Somehow they seemed surprised that we did not vanish by the time they reach us face to face.  We do a lot of wiggling.  I do not recall of having such a hard time walking in Colombia. 

The locals here seem to be extremely proud to be Ecuadorians, more patriotic than Colombians.  When we needed help in Colombia, people would try to help us, sometime even send us the opposite direction.  Colombians would rather give wrong directions than acknowledge that they did not know.  Ecuadorians more often ignore us than not, when we asked them for help. 

We always count our change.  If our change was short, the vendor in Colombia would just quickly and quietly produce the rest of it, but the vendor in Ecuador would argue.  Also, Ecuadorians appear to be more religious than Colombians.  Alcohol is not sold in the stores on Sundays, and most restaurant and little stores are closed.  During a Holy week, Manta, the city we are in right now, was a ghost town.  We found everyone at the beach.  On Fridays, most restaurants serve fish only.  Last Friday we got fish soup and the choice of 3 dishes from fish.  I guess we could here church bells from every hotel room we stayed in, at least in Ecuador. 

Some things in South America remind me of Soviet times in Lithuania.  People cut in lines here all the time.  Sometimes I wish I could speak more Spanish, so I could say something.  A lot stores lock the doors 15 minutes in advance to make sure all people leave before closing time.  The girls wear high heels to the beach, as in Palanga.   Some of the pop music reminds me of older Lithuanian or Russian older pop songs.  There a lot of girls with dancing in all the videos, kind of like in rap videos.  From what I heard, the plastic surgery is the most popular in Colombia.  Also, there are a lot of old LADA cars in Ecuador, way more than in Colombia.  All the cars are taken care for in both counties- always clean and sometimes even pimped.  And everyone drives like crazy in both countries, too.  The crosswalk and stop signs seem to be totally unnecessary, since nobody stops anyway.  There even exists a beeping language.  I believe I started to understand it.  A driver beeps, if he is passing someone to warn them not to change lanes, if he is approaching intersection, if he sees a pedestrian close by, or someone in front of them stops for any reason. 

For now, we settled in Manta, a reasonable size town with 230,000 people.  Our hostel is located on the hill, so we can see the Pacific Ocean from our room balcony.  The only other guests in our hostel are 4 sailors.  They are at work during the day, so we have the hostel all to ourselves.  The building is old with very high ceilings and spacious rooms.  We also have to share our room with ants, but they do not bother us too much.  We do sometimes get bitten by mosquitos and flies, though. 

After travelling for over 2 months now, we learned to not always listen to other people's advice.  We were advised not to visit Manta because it had nothing special to offer.  So far, we enjoyed it the most and plan to stay here for another week.  I have read a couple of books already, started taking surfing lessons for free, and we swim in the ocean during the sun set, while there is always someone playing soccer on the shore.