jourmey to cuenca

I am going to try a questionable experiment right now: type a blog post on my kindle. Why, you ask? Because I am in a hostal in Cuenca wih free wifi and no computers! This is a crazy thing to try if you could see how slow typing is on this thing and if it doesn´t load I´ll be super bummed. I guess I am just excited to share more details so here I go. I left you this AM in Guayaquil with my German friend. She was super cool and had been studying in Buenas Aires since August then went surfing in Peru for the last 5 weeks and today is on her way to do an internship in the Galapagas Islands...yeah pretty sweet. After breakfast, we shared a taxi to the bus terminal. I got a bus ticket to Cuenca for 8 bucks that took 4 hours...

OK that was all I could muster on my Kindle. I am now in Loja for the night at an internet cafe and am going to finish that post. By the way, when I got distracted and stopped typing, one of the owners of the hostal I was at had knocked on my door and had invited me to go with her and another guest to the sandwich shop down the street just to get out, more to come on that later.

Back to the bus trip. It was a very interesting trip at that too. I was sitting on this very nice bus waiting for it to go when an older gentleman from across the aisle asked me in English if he could sit next to me. I didn´t understand why he wanted to switch seats and I was a bit uncomfortable about it, but just said Yes I don´t mind. He starts talking to me in English and I end up learning a lot about him on the bus ride. I am a bit hesitant because I don´t understand his tactics for talking with me, but just try to stay alert and enjoy it as much as I can. I soon learn that he has dual citizenship in Ecuador and the US. He was born in Ecuador, in Cuenca, then moved to Ohio after serving in Vietnam, meets his wife, gets married and they move to Cuenca to raise their two daughers. One of his daughters is like 2 years younger than me and has just joined the US Navy. His older daughter is 22 and lives at home in Cuenca, going to the university there studying special education.

He tells me about his interests in traveling and how he dragged his not-so-stoked-to-travel-wife around the world, including a year or so in Panama, three years in Africa, some time in Mexico and more! It was interesting and I liked talking to him once I felt more like he wasn´t going to rob me. He gave me some very fatherly-advice since I think he felt for my own dad as I was like his daughter´s age traveling around on my own. And to further soothe your nerves, he told me how he works as a helper at the Embassy in Cuenca for Americans and so he gave me his phone number in case there are any problems I have and need his help (along with a warm welcome to his family´s farm in Cuenca to meet his daughter and wife if I return to Cuenca).

The only thing that felt a bit odd was a conversation we had after our little snack time (I shared my empanadas I bought on the bus to Guayaquil the day before and he shared peanut butter cracker sandwiches AND chocolate covered nuts, yummmmm!). We had just finished watching the Blind Side with Spanish dubs when they turned on this SUPER corny movie. I was watching the beautiful landscape when my new friend asked me if I was religious. Remember: almowst like 95% of Ecuadorians are Roman Catholic, and I had already heard him mention how he works with the Baptist church, so I wasn´t too surprised with his question. Once I´d told him how I´m not religious, but I had spent some time exploring religions, he started going on and on. He told me how Jesus could be my best friend for life and be there for me whenever I need him. It went on and on. The most memorable part of that conversation was when a particular scene in the movie played as my bus partner continued talking to me about Jesus; as he went on about how his journey to God, this tacky movie went through a scene where this couple was in the bedroom. The husband pulled out this huge black dildo and gave it to his wife who said "if you want to", and then went and shoved it up his butt (we didn´t see this on the screen but it was clear that was what was going on). I warned you it was a tacky movie and I just couldn´t believe I was watching that as this very religious, but nice and respectful, man was telling me about God and Jesus!

Thankfully he ran out of steam and we talked about other things as we continued our journey through the beautifully lush mountains to Cuenca. I learned a very intersting Spanish lesson on my way to the city as well. The river down the mountains has a lot of trout and I saw a sign that said "trucha". I asked if that was trout in Spanish, he said yes with a smile and then went on to tell me that there is a very small, but Very IMPORTANT, difference between "trucha" (trout) and "chucha" (vagina). So yeah, I´ll be careful with that one if I ever want to order the fish in a restaurant.

Before I knew it, we were in Cuenca, he got off early because it was close to his house, and I got a ride to the bus terminal. There I grabbed a taxi to the Green Spot, a hostal Lee and Doug (volunteers at MP for the inauguration weekend) had recommended to me. I had drawn a map on a napkin to give to the taxi driver, but due to some miscommunication he thought we were looking for a friend´s house. Luckily I finally was able to get it through to him that I was going to a hostal and we got there. It was a very beautiful place but a bit pricey ($18/night). I sucked it up though due to the recommendation and the fact that I was already there. I got some suggestions about where to go and made my way out.

It had started to rain but I had heard such great things about the city that I didn´t want the rain to hinder my explorations. I was told that there were several city buses going along this street that will take me to the center of the city, but I had just spent like 2 days on buses and preferred to walk. I made the walk to the center city right when it started to POUR. I found a restaurant in my guide book and ordered a vegetarian crepe (which included either spinach or another dark leafy green inside a crepe with a nice sauce on top; it also came with some french fries, which I ate with sweet and sour sauce that I had mistaken for ketchup but that was still delicious, and some boiled veggies). I ate surprisingly quick for a restaurant, and I think it may have been my first official meal in a restaurant all by myself.

Luckily the rain had started to calm down a bit so I started my way back. Although it was drizzling I really wanted to walk. And walk I did until I got home and was thoroughly drenched. I decided not to worry about it even though I knew my pants wouldn´t dry by the time I needed to pack them (and I just realized I should have pulled them out of my bag before I left for dinner...too bad). When I got back I showered and tried to do the Kindle thing.

Then I was invited to that sandwich shop, that ended up being closed, so we went to a Supermaxi--grocery store, my first in South America! On our journey the other guest, a 29 year old girl from Austria who is living in Guayaquil for six months doing an internship with a travel agency, invited me to get a drink after the store. We grabbed a ride with the brother of the female who took us to the grocery store (the brother and sister own the hostal and the brother was on his way to a wedding at 8PM!). We walked around a bit and after checking out a few places we actually ended up in the exact restaurant I´d been at earlier that day! I grabbed a snack, this corn meal cake steamed in a leaf with some sausage on top (for $1 it was surprisingly filling and wonderfully delicious). We had a beer each, another first in Ecuador, and chatted for a bit. We grabbed a taxi back and I didn´t get to bed until about 10:30, the latest in about a month.

This morning I woke up and met my new friend for breakfast at the hostal table at 8:30. It was a fabulous spread of lots of fruit, yogurt, granola, scrambled eggs, toast, jam and tea and juice. I like trying new fruits and today I got to try another new one that was fun to eat and tasty too. During breakfast another guest came out who we learned was from Toronto, Canada and had spent the last week in Bolivia with her husband at the climate control conference. Her husband is retired and she is only working part time as a home-school teacher at a school (once a week the parents come to the school and put into action the programs she creates including physical education, environmental science, etc). Her and her husband are on their way back to Guayaquil today to fly to California and up to Canada tomorrow.

My friend and I had planned to walk to the center of the city once again to watch a running race take place. On our walk along the river, right by the hostal, to the center we ran into our breakfast friend who was walking to a big market with her brother (who lives in Cuenca). We ended up joining them and I had a fun time seeing lots of different fruits and veggies. There were also a bunch of guinea pigs, rabbits, little chicks, and even puppies and kittens! It was a good market and I liked walking around with her brother and his wife who have been living in Cuenca for awhile and were doing a bit of their grocery shopping at the market.

Instead of walking into the city with my other friend, I walked back to the hostal with the older woman because I needed to take a bus to Loja and hopefully get down to the farm today. I grabbed a taxi and got to the bus station at noon, just in time for a bus that was on its way out. The bus was $7.50 and included a water bottle and was supposed to take 5 hours, which it did. I read the instructions to the church that I´d printed from the website and realized I wouldn´t have enough time to get there safely. So I was contemplating getting to Vilcabamba, a small town south of Loja, for the night but decided just to finish the journey tomorrow and get to a hostal safe and sound.

The bus was a very chill ride as I read the entire way. I´d fortunately grabbed some fruit from the breakfast table so I ate a few bananas, mandarine oranges and trail mix on the ride. I also made my way through "The Appeal" by John Grisham, or something like that. I´ve been reading like a phean down here; I´ve already finished Harry Potter in Spanish, Pretty Women (the abridged version), The Little Prince (also in Spanish), Lucia, Lucia (a stupid book about a girl in the fashion world that I´d grabbed from the free pile at Castro before heading off), Wuthering Heights, Alice in Wonderland (a short book) and How to Disappear Completely (a book I´d downloaded onto my Kindle). I´m very excited to have my Kindle here because I´ve used it lots already and am now starting Ana Karinena on it! I also like to have a paperback with me for days like today when I wouldn´t have felt comfortable using the Kindle on a public bus.

So I arrived in Loja around 5PM, grabbed a taxi to a hostal I´d seen in the guide book (for $5/night, close to the airport, room and warm showers! no complaints--called Hostal Lundres). Unfortunately it is Sunday night so the restaurant recommended in my book was closed, along with almost every other thing on the streets, but I did find something eventually. I was happy that it was simple, basic and traditional. For $2 I got a huge plate of rice, beans, a chicken drumstick, a large white thing that tasted like a potatoe kinda and some tea or juice (couldn´t tell because it was warm and I´ve had warm juice so I wasn´t too sure which it was). I took a picture so sometime I can upload that to show you!

Now I´m here in the internet cafe a block away from the hostal. it is 7PM but I have 30 minutes left on the hour I bought for 80 cents. I think I can scurry back safely so I´m going to now write a little about Malingua Pamba!