Miscellaneous thoughts about Ecuador

One of the first realisations that I had when I arrived in South America was the increased level of personal security that I was going to have to take. But nowhere has that been more apparent than the last few weeks in Peru and Ecuador. In Peru, at the start of each bus ride a representative of the bus company takes digital photos or video footage of each passenger in their seat. The first time it happened I was fascinated by the process, and I speculated why this could be. I am a little embarrassed to admit that my first guess was that it was for promotional footage! However, I later found out it is in case of a kidnapping or hijacking, so there are records of exactly who was on the bus. I think this has duel purposes, firstly it identifies the victims if required, but at the same time if any of the passengers on the bus are involved as co-conspirators in the hijacking, their faces are also on record. When I learnt of the reason for the photos, I couldn’t decide how I felt about it. On the one hand, the fact that the process was necessary was a bit frightening, but on the other if it was going to deter similar crimes then I was happy to have my photo taken along with the rest.

Heading to the border of Ecuador, before I boarded the bus I had to have a mug shot taken, my finger printed, as well as show my passport! I remember thinking to myself, ‘Where on earth am I going?’ And arriving into Ecuador, nothing has made me lessen my guard. This first bus I took, a five-hour bus to the largest city in Ecuador, Guayaquil, had an armed guard complete with big mamma gun and bullet proof vest! And when I asked for directions on how to get to the centre of the city by bus, the lady at the information booth looked at me sceptically and said ‘Are you sure you won’t take a taxi?’ When I assured her that I was determined to go by public bus she told me to take the number 57, because it is ‘goes through a safe neighbourhood, and hasn’t been robbed very much.’ So I took the number 57 bus, and discovered that there was a metal detector just in from the door, so in order to get to the seats in the bus you need to pass through it! I was a little freaked out by the combination of factor, and my first few hours in Ecuador consisted of me trying desperately to look like I didn’t have anything of value and composing action plans in my head for if I were robbed at gunpoint! Despite my initial fears, though, I haven’t found Ecuador to be any different to any other place in South America, and now I look back and have to laugh at myself being so worried on my first day.

Guayaquil was a city with nothing much to recommend itself in terms of tourist locations, but I kind of liked not being in a touristy place for a day. It did have a fantastic park in the city centre with free-roaming iguanas that people can (and do) get frighteningly close to. I was charmed by the iguana park, and spent quite a bit of time sitting watching the people interacting with the iguanas. Everyone seemed to want to get a photo of themselves touching an iguana. The most disturbing moment was when a young local boy picked up one of the iguanas by its tail! And when I looked up into the trees, there were dozens of them just resting on the branches. Another thing that Guayaquil had going for it was the weather. I had to get within 2 degrees of the equator, but I finally found the tropics! It was hot and humid in Guayaquil, regardless of the time of day, and whether the sun was shining or not.

But I’m sad to say that my strongest memory of Guayaquil has to be the hotel that I stayed in. I seriously think that I discovered the most horrible hotel on the planet. The toilet didn’t have a seat, and it didn’t flush. I repeatedly asked for it to be repaired with no success. The shower did not have hot water, which wasn’t such an issue because of the heat, but what was bothering was the lack of a faucet! The shower just kind of spurted water from a hole in the wall! Also there were literally hundreds of baby cockroaches crawling up the walls and on the floor. I gave up trying to wave them away from my luggage. On top of this, the glass window was broken, and backing onto the loudest road in South America! I’m not a bit squeamish about insects, so I dealt with the cockroaches okay, but I never again want to encounter the smell that was coming from that bathroom after a day and night without the ability to flush the toilet!

Needless to say, I was incredibly glad to leave Guayaquil, and particular, that hotel room, and travel to Cuenca. Only five hours away from Guayaquil by bus, Cuenca is located in the highlands, at about 2800 metres above sea level. It sometimes makes my mind boggle when I think that I’ve spent about half of my time in South America in towns that are higher than our tallest mountain in Australia! It was a visually spectacular trip, going from the coast to the Andes, and Cuenca itself is a gorgeous Colonial town, with lots of pretty churches and old buildings and cobbled streets. I stayed there a couple of days before setting off from Cuenca to a town in the jungle called Macas, which is nearly at sea level again, but on the other side of the Andes, with a completely different set of flora and fauna and weather patterns.

And that is another thing that is quite distinctive about Ecuador – the diversity. It is a very small country, the second smallest in South America, apparently, but it has such a dramatic range of climates, and associated with that, different cultures. There is such a range of people here in Ecuador as well, with most people being some sort of mix between Spaniards and indigenous, but there are also quite a lot of descendents of African slaves brought out by the Spanish conquerors. I like watching people on the streets and noticing the range of colours and faces that I can see in the one street.

But my favourite thing about Ecuador so far has been the refreshingly low numbers of tourists, especially when compared with Peru. In Peru I couldn’t sit in the main square of any city without being hassled by people trying to sell postcards, artwork, lollies, tours, or something or other. It got to the stage where I just didn’t bother sitting in public, I would always go to a coffee shop to read the paper, because there I would be hassled less. But here in Ecuador I’ve been able to sit un-hassled pretty much everywhere. From the moment that I crossed the border there was a difference in the atmospheres of the towns, which was like a breath of fresh air after touristy Peru. Even in the most touristy parts of the old town in Quito and Cuenca, the only times I have been approached have been by people wanting to chat with me and find out where I am from, not by people wanting to get money out of me. It's quite relaxing to travel here, and I find myself wishing I had more time to enjoy it. But it's not to be. I'm heading off to the jungle lodge in Cuyabeno National Reserve tomorrow to play with piranhas and monkeys, and then leaving South America for good to fly to Miami.