Flights and Taxi Scam

25th November
Quito to Lima
Originally when I was weighing up the price of flights versus a "round to world" ticket it seemed like a clear cut choice. For a little bit more money I was able to visit south america on the way to australia and asia on the way back. On top of that the ticket that I went for allows numerous flights within each contenent visited what could be better?
As with everthing of course there are plusses and minuses.
One of the big limitations is the availability of the flight accross the pacific.
This flight tends to be booked up for months and because of work comitments I ended up missing my prefered date and am spending alot longer in south america then I originally intended.
This isnt all bad of course cos its quite fun here and I think that it you could easily spend a whole year getting to know this vast contenent.
Another mixed blessing is the inflexablity of booked flights which makes it a little bit more difficult to adapt.
It also makes you a target every time you arrive at an airport late at night.
Arriving in Lima agreed a price and where I wanted to go with the taxi man before getting the taxi.
However half way through the journey he started making up a story about anti-gouvournment protests caused the centre to be closed to cars that night. This was a load of rubbish however but it isn´t that easy to make someone go where you want in a strange city. He also inflated his price which was allready over the odds. So I ended up staying in a 3 star hotel and being ripped off by the taxi driver was a bit of a blow to the budget. To
but it in context the 40 sol fare would buy you a 16 hour bus journey on a cushy couch half way accross the country. Ah well you can´t avoid every scam and when viewed in euro it doesn't seem that bad.

26th November,
I got up this morning and enjoyed my rare luxuries of cable tv and hot en-suite showers.
Then I had to figure out where I was and went for a walk accross Lima to get to know the city a bit.
I think its quite nice here. It is a very big city. Of the 26 million people in Peru 12 million live in Lima.
It is very buisy. There is always someone beeping a car horn within earshot.
After Equador it doesn't seem that poor with people trying to sell you software instead of fruit.
I found the hostel that I asked the taxi driver for on the other side of town and it seems quite nice. It's in a grand old 19th century house with art and parrots included.

Lagoon photos

Cotopaxi volcano from the bus,


Hanging out in Zumbhua more kids insist on having their photo taken,



Fellow passengers on pickup truck,



Lagoon photo,


Protesters in Latacunga,

Zumbahua

23 rd of November
I spent the morning wandering arround Latacunga, there were some students protesting about the recent free trade agreement with the usa.
I then got a bus up to a small town called Zumbahua. This was most of the way off the beaten track as I was the only person staying in the hostel and the only Gringo in town.
I hitched a lift in the back of a truck and then pickup truck up to a the Quinatola lagoon which is in the crator of a volcano.

24 rd of November
I stayed the night in the hostel and went back to the lagoon in the morning.
I hiked down to the water and back. Back was harder, it was like a big sand doon at altitude.
I then got the buses back to Quito.

Latacunga

22nd November 2005
Latacunga

So I had a great time hanging around in Cuenca for the last few days with Max and Malin.
Today I got an 8.5 hour bus to Latacunga.

Equadorian food.
Good value is to be had with a lunch menu of the day.
This typically cost about 1 dolar and consists of soup, a main cource and juce.
The soup can be quite tasty often with odd things like chicken feet or spine in it, mmmm.
The juice is quite good often from fruits that we don´t have at home.
The main course can be quite dull with rice some salad and meat or chicken.
In equador the definition of meat or chicken can be a bit broader however.
With "meat" you never really know what cut or even animal you will get.
Today my "chicken" turned out to be two big lumps of chicken fat, mmm, really no flesh, skin or anything edible.
Other popular roadside food option include ginny pig or a whole pig where you get lumps cut out of it´s back, mmm.

Cuenca photos

Nice cathedral and hanging out on Talbot st Cuenca.

Photos

Crazy Road from Riobamba to Baños, these can´t really show how far the drop is.

Cuenca at night

19th November
This is quite a nice town.
The hostel has a lovely view of the cathedral.
The architecture is quite good which is not typical for equador.
The most common roofing material in equador is corrigated iron and whenever anyone builds anything they like to leave the option open to build another story. This means that most building have metal bit sticking up to alow for the next story when they get around to it. This creates the typical equadorian unfinished style of arcitecture. Here is quite different though. We went to quite a snobby bar last night. A drunk guy claiming to be an off duty police officer kept showing us his id and insisting that we buy him a drink. We just fained ignorance of the language and lost him as soon as possible. So I had quite a plesent lie on this morning and am off to see more of the town.

Cuenca

18th of November Cuenca,
I got the bus back to Riobamba yesterday.
Some other people were getting the train that I was already on.
I stayed the night there.
Max who continued to Cuenca last night had quite an eventfull time being blocked by roadblocks set up by protesters and had to hitch to the nearest town to stay the night.
I arrived today after a much less eventfull 5 and a half hour bus journey.
Cuenca seems really nice. Alot more wealthy and european in character.

photos

Cable car to waterfall

Cycling and waterfalls

16th Nov We rented bikes and went cycling from Banos today. It was fairly cushy as it was downhill all the way (we got a bus back with all the bikes on the roof). The scenary was spectacular. Too much for a camera to capture. We passed loads of waterfalls and rode a cable car accross to one of them.

Bathing in Baños

15th of November
Some of the guys who came with us from Quito moved on to Peru today.
They were a really sound bunch,
Damian, from Belfast, cool lad no end of slags and partying.
Paul from Sydny, matched him pint for pint and tollorated our Ausy words and accents.
Brendan from Dublin, laid back cool and generous to a fault.
We still have a good crew here in Baño though, Max from Cork and some very nice Swedish girls Therese and Maline so it´s not all bad.
I went and relaxed in the thermal baths today, quite plesent.

Cable Car in Quito

So good I went up twice.

Photos again

Typical view in Equador and a tacky but fun photo of us at the equator line.

More Photos

Us at middle of tiny village shop which they opened for us drinking the two cokes that were in the fridge.
And volcano errupting in the background.

Laughs

Hiking

14th November Today we went for a hike. Up the cross again then on to a little village. We had a chat with a local guy who showed us his crops. We then made our way accross to an angel that also overlooks Banos. At this point the clouds cleared from the volcano which caused the evacuation of the town in 98 when in became active. When it didn´t errupt after a few months all the locals forced their way back. We could see some smoke coming out of it. Half way down the million or so steps to the angel I realised that I forgot my hat and legged it back up like an ejit, I shouln´t have bothered it wasn´t a great hat.

Banos

This is a lovely town a bit lower than Quito and so a bit warmer, just nice. The name means "bath" and has this name because there are many hot springs. Today I went for a walk to a big cross that overlooks the city.

More Photos

This is Banos from a hill behind, it is kind of in a bowl.

Photos

Bull fight

We went to a bull fight today, a bit grusome. We then got a quite extreme road condition bus ride to Banos where I am now.

Devils nose train

11 November Riobamba, We got the train which starts from Riobamba. This is one of the few trains still existing in Equador and is purely for turists. We rode on the roof of cattle wagons. The train ride was pretty cool, with all the kid and adults you pass waving at the tourists. The scenery was spectacular.

Riobamba

10 November Riobamba We got the bus to Riobamba in the afternoon. We being, me, Damian, Max, and Paul followed by Brenday, Roanna and Karin. This was a 4 hour journey and I was a bit paranoid about minding my stuff since this was the first time travelling with things that I really didn´t want stolen. Everything was fine though of course.

Birthday fun

9th November Had a great Birthday, I went up the cable car again because all of the Irish crowd were going and I realy liked it the last time. Took it easy in the afternoon and had a big party that evening. It was a good laugh, I told everyone that it was my birthday so I got lots of good wishes.

Photos

High Cathedral Looks a bit like Ireland.

Colonial Quito

Monday 7th
Today I went to the old part of the town which has many nice buildings in the Spanish colonial style. I met up with a guy from Cork called Max who had just arrived the night before. So for the first time I felt like I was the one showing someone else arround, and I had better Spanish too. We got a trolly bus accross town which was packed and someone managed to get my wallet, doh! This isn´t as bad as it might seem though because you have to go out with about 10 dolars and no cards or anything assuming that this is going to happen. There is quite a high level of crime here. Since I arrived I have heard of two people in the hostel who have been mugged outside the hostel at night. Again this isn´t as bad as it seems since these encounter are all about getting 10 dolars and a cheap watch and aren´t violent. With that said it is necisarry to take precausions like planning to arrive from a day out before nightfall which happens quite suddenly at 6pm.
Anyway colonial quito was nice, was saw protesters and riot police gather outside the presidential palace which is on a central square. The protesters disbersed peacfully. We climbed to the top of the big cathedral which gave great vistas of the city. I think most of my photos are of great vistas. In the evening there was a bit of a party back at the hostel and the Irish managed to outnumber any other nationality with 2 from Dublin 1 from Cork and 1 from Belfast giving a good spread.

Day´s out from Quito

Nov 4th
Today I went for a walk today in Quito and was planning to look at all the old architecture and stuff but was overwhelmed by the huge volcano hanging above the city so I started to walk towards that instead. As I got higher in still in the suburbs of Quito I noticed this was where the cable-car that I had read about was. So I bought a ticket and went up. Quito is at an elevation of 2800 meter, which is high enough to feel the first day you arrive. The top of this cable car was 4100 meters and there were signs up the top telling you not to run or smoke or anything like this.

Nov 5th
Today I went on an orginised tour to Mindo. This is a town a bit lower than Quito in the cloud forest. The landscape on the way was amazing changing from city to semi-desert to forest in a matter of 2 hours drive all the time with amazing peaks and valleys. When we arrived we walked through the forest to a waterfall that we had to jump off, scary. We then went white water rafting in a river that hadn´t had too much rain so that wasn´t too scary.
On the way back we stopped at the equator where there is a fairly tacky but fun museum.

Nov 6th
Today I went to hot springs a Papallacta again about 2 hours from Quito but this time we went using the public bus. This was a bit higher than Quito and the landscape looked a bit like Donegal. We sat around in the hot water relaxing for most of the day. On the way back a load of buses wouldn´t stop because they were full, eventually one stopped for us but we had to stand for most of the journey, not as relaxing.

Culture shock.
One of things you notice walking through Quito is the number of armed security guards. Every bank has a guy in para-military style uniform with a machine gun and a bullet proof vest. Even all the ordinary shops in the center has a security guy who is armed, hmmm.

Great Start

3rd November 2005 Quito Equador
So everything went well on my journey over the atlantic.
I arrived in Madrid on tuesday evening and got the metro straight to my hostel.
Having asked for a bed in an 8 bed dorm I ended up having the whole dorm to myself.
I went for a stroll soaking up the atmosphere breafly.
At the airport in the morning I went straight to the gate when boarding got bumped up to buisness plus class and got pampered for the 12 hour flight, cushy.
I got a taxi straight to my choice of hostel. There were loads of interesting international types there to chat to including some from as far afield a Bray.
The staff were very friendly alltogether.
Today I went for a bit of a stroll to get my bearings.
I don´t feel that I am a hardened traveller type yet and am picking up many tricks of the trade.
Neadless to say I am quite tired after all that travelling so I find my writing style suffering a bit.
The weather here is quite plesent mid twentys.