Peru!

“There never seems to be enough time to do the things you wanna do once you find them.” -Jim Croce

     Everything ends, my time in Ecuador included.  When I first arrived and received that 90-day stamp on my passport it never crossed my mind that I would use just about every one of those 90 days.  I had planned to go to Bolivia and even Chile for a little after Peru, but Ecuador reeled me in.  Such a small country, roughly the size of Nevada, but it has it all (jungle, mountains, desert, beach).  A country where 45% of the population live below the poverty line yet everyone seems to be smiling.

     The last few days were spent either on a bus or hiking in the small town of Vilcabamba.  Nicknamed The Valley of Longevity because it’s inhabitants often reach the age of 100 with some claiming to be 130 and above, it is a small and quiet tourist hotspot. Whether or not the residents actually live longer in Vilcabamba is a judgment call, but there did seem to be a certain magic about the place.

     After getting up at 4.30 am to board a bus for Peru, getting exit and entrance stamps at the border, and spending an additional 9 hours on buses, I arrived tired and thirsty at the hostel in Mancora, Peru, plopped myself down at the bar, and took advantage of happy hour.  The hostel is located right on the beach but also has a pool, bar, restaurant, and very fun clientele.  Unfortunately, I came down with a stomach bug on St. Patty’s Day and made countless trips from my bed to the bathroom while I could hear the party raging along below.  As luck would have it, I found a way to stream the NCAA tournament on my computer to keep my busy while under the weather, but today I am back to normal and was able to stomach a cheeseburger (still eating healthy, mom).

     From here, we travel south to Lima (about 18 hours by bus), where we will meet Jackie’s family who is flying down to do Machu Picchu with us.  Jackie will fly with her family from Lima to Cusco and Angelica and myself will take the cheaper route, a 20 hour bus ride.  I will be sure to have the iPod fully charged for that trip.  For now though we sit stationary on the north coast of Peru, soaking up the sun before heading south.  While I enjoyed Ecuador, much more than expected, it’s time to move forward and see what Peru has to teach me.

The hostel in Mancora

Church in the plaza at Vilcabamba

Story Time

“We wander for distraction, we travel for fulfillment.” -Hilaire Belloc    

     Well, my time in Bahia finally came to a close and I said my goodbyes to the life I had established in that town.  One last meal at my favorite empanada stand, one last swim in the ocean, and one last night drinking beer around the table chatting about whatever the wind blew our way.  Yeah, the last month had been good to me, but as with everything, it had to end.  The girls came out to Bahia for my final two nights and it was good to see their smiling faces and catch up on the last month of our lives.
     I was able to persuade them to make our next stop Puerto Lopez, my second favorite town on the coast.  Here we are, staying in the same hostel I was in a little over a month ago, and life is just as sweet.  Of all the new things I’ve experienced on this trip, the new people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, I don’t think I will find much that I enjoy as much as sitting and watching the sun stain the sky pink while it sinks into the ocean.
     I don’t think we have the next step of this journey planned yet, or maybe the girls have that figured out already, I don’t know.  What I do know is that we have ten days to get ourselves out of Ecuador and into Peru (our visa expires March 17th).
     Temporarily stationary, I find my mind wandering back on the last three months of my life.  The lessons I could only learn from this trip, and the self discovery you go through without even intending on it.  I was talking to my mom a few weeks back, when I was still volunteering at the hostel, and I told her that the fulfillment one gets from traveling is broken down into three parts: 5% self discovery, 15% new culture, and 80% the people you meet.  As a peer helper in high school we were taught to appreciate the saying “How can you judge someone if you haven’t heard their story?”  So true I have found those words.  Everyone has a story, not everyone’s story sticks with you as time passes.
     I look back at my story, making mental cliff notes for the next person who asks, and I have to say it’s pretty much perfect.  Not in the arrogant way of my whole life has been cars and money and whatever I want I get, not in the way that my story is better than yours, not even in the way of when I tell my story to people they will envy it, but in the way that whatever it was that lead up to this point in my life, it was plenty good enough for me to still have a smile on my face.  Perfect.  If I’m the main character then I have had one hell of a supporting cast up to this point.  It’s had ups and downs, twists and turns, just like anything you would read by Dickens, Twain, or Shakespeare.  How can anything be so bad if you still slap that smile on your face.  I have no idea what the future will hold, for any of us, I’ll just try and enjoy the ride.  Sooner or later the sun sets on everything only to rise again.  Sooner or later the plot will thicken.

Carrying A Smile

“When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched. Why? Because a baby, not knowing any better, wants to grab everything, to say, ‘The whole world is mine.’  But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned the lesson. We can take nothing with us.”  -Albert Lewis

     Let’s see, where to begin?  If you stay anywhere too long, whether you think you like it or hate it, no matter if you meant to end up there or if you thought you were just passing through, that place begins to feel normal.  It begins to feel like home. You’re world has shape again.  I already have my favorite hangouts, eateries, beaches, and most importantly… I’ve met plenty of people around town.  It’s nice walking around town and receiving a friendly “buenos dias” from someone you met the previous day.
     Work at the hostel isn’t really work at all.  I keep the lobby tidy, show people to their rooms, but generally I hangout with tenants and talk about where we have been, where we want to go, and our lives back home.  Travelers share whatever helpful info they have about previous destinations and most people are generally on the edge of their seat when I explain what my month in the jungle was like as well as my Ayahuasca experience.
     The hostel is ran by an Australian woman named Susie.  She came out here 6 years ago after the passing of her husband and bought a large house to transform it into a hostel.  Very recently she built a house not far from town.  It sits on a cliff with the most amazing views of the ocean.  I can’t give you a square footage or anything but I will tell you that is a very nice house.  It cost a grand total of $25,000 to build and she has to pay a whopping $4 a year in taxes.
     I know I have mentioned how cheap everything is down here but I will give you a rundown of what I spend on what.  The other day I bought a liter of coca cola and a bottle of pretty decent rum.  My total was $8.48.  On the corner about 40 yards from the hostel they sell burgers.  Pretty decent burgers at that, not just for South American standards.  The price of one of these gems is $1.  For lunch there are a few places I go.  They have a set menu so you don’t exactly choose what you get but they tell you before hand.  Typically it is some sort of meat, a side salad, a banana, a huge scoop of rice, a delicious bowl of soup, and a cup of juice for $2.  A gallon of water is $1 and a 32 oz beer is $1.25.
     Life is simple here.  I have been living with 5 t-shirts for about 2 months.  Each day I see the line between ‘want’ and ‘need’ a little more clearly.  I see people here with barely anything except a smile on their face and I think back to all the people with cars, jobs, family, and more food than they need and those are the people who think happiness comes in a prescription pill.  I do think that every person needs something slightly different to find happiness but I also know that whatever it is that we need, its not much.  I get my fix each morning as I walk to the beach and pass a gymnasium where they are holding a PE class.  The sound of the basketball hitting the floor over and over is my theme song.  I walk down to the shore, wearing the same shirt I had on the day before, knowing that I have to return to the hostel in just one hour for work, and I smile.  No money in my pocket, no car to drive around in, nothing.  Yet each morning I find my tranquility in that 3 block stroll.


PS A very happy birthday to Katie Parucha!!!

The City By The Bay

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” -Mark Twain

     Good news world, I have found a hostel that will let me volunteer.  For the next two weeks I will be working at Hostel Coco Bongo in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador.  It took about 5 hours of traveling to get here from Puerto Lopez.  I wish I had some awesomely exciting stories to tell you of my recent adventures, but its been fairly routine.
     I spent five days in Puerto Lopez, mostly lounging on the beach and swimming in the ocean, which is warmer than any pool I have ever been in.  I spent one day going to a nearby island that is home of Blue-footed boobies, a bird that is mostly found on Galapagos.  They call the island the poor man’s Galapagos because it only costs $15 to go there instead of close to a thousand to get to the real Galapagos.  I did a bit of snorkeling and kayaking there, then headed back to the mainland sporting a very impressive sunburn.
    I chose to stay in Puerto Lopez for the next few days after that since I didn’t have a volunteer job lined up yet and was only paying $8 a night.  However, come Thursday, I was packed and boarding a northbound bus with my end destination set for Bahia de Caraquez.  Bahia is a self-proclaimed ‘eco-city’ and is the hub for many environmental volunteer projects in Ecuador.  Located on a peninsula with a bay to the east and the Pacific to the west, it still fit my desire of a coastal town, and with the volunteer gig all set it seemed foolish not to go here.  I can volunteer for two weeks, which still leaves about two additional weeks completely unplanned.
     My duties at the hostel are simple, sit at reception.  I spend about six hours a day sitting in the lobby in case anyone comes in.  I watch movies on my computer, study Spanish, surf the web, and talk with guests.  I’ve decided there are two types of people that travel.  The kind that haven’t established a career yet, usually mid to late 20s, and then those who have retired and are finally seeing things they have only dreamed of.  This hostel seems to be popular with the latter.  I am the only person under 50 here but we all still get along just fine.  All my days are pretty much the same.  I wake up around 8 and go running on the beach, swing by the market and get some fruit for breakfast, come back to eat and change, then back to the beach for an hour or so before I need to be at reception.  The rest of the day is spent sitting and waiting for someone to need a place to stay.  I basically live on $2-3 a day so life is cheap right now.  I’ll post again when I have something exciting to share.  Hope all is well in whatever part of the globe you are reading this from.  Ciao!

No where to go and all day to get there

"Mind on a permanent vacation.  The ocean is my only medication.  Wishin' my condition aint never gonna go away." -Jimmy Buffet


     I’ve covered a lot of ground to get where I am now, which is the lazy beach town of Puerto Lopez.  The drive out here was about as diverse a scene as Ecuador can throw your way.  From Baños, I went across the Andes and down into the tropical plains (if there is such a thing) near Guayaquil.  Arriving in Guayaquil I saw my first highway since I left the states.  Guayaquil, from what I saw, most closely resembles Los Angeles.  Not the skyline but the areas surrounding downtown.  I changed buses there and kept heading west.  Another three hours and I had to change buses again.  This time in the dusty town of Santa Elena.  Who knew that Ecuador had a desert.  Wind blew tumbleweed across the road and cacti were the only other vegetation.  It definitely looked liked it belonged along the US’s famous Route 66.  Another hour and I was in what I had hoped would be my home for the next month, Montañita.
     Montañita is a tourist hotspot that is unlike any other town in Ecuador.  Located right on the beach, the town is filled with hotels, hostels, bars, surf shops, dreadlocks and 20-somethings.  Getting off the bus I was smacked right in the face by the most humid air I have ever experienced.  Reggae music blasts from every which way while the air is occupied with the scent of fruit from juice stands, sunscreen, and burning marijuana.  It is high season in Ecuador (meaning a lot of tourists, nothing related to the marijuana reference) so prices are a little higher than usual.  I had trouble finding a hostel and, after being shot down by about seven, I opted for a hotel.  I got a single room with a shower that did not work for $30.
     At night the streets are full of young adults of all nationalities.  So far on my travels I have encountered a lot of Australians.  Not in Montañita though.  It was like the Olympic games of tourism.  Every corner of the globe was represented.  I met people from all over Europe, North America, a few from Africa, but the vast majority were Argentinean.  A quick side note: Colombian women have officially been dethroned.  The girls of Argentina take the cake.
     I went around to various hostels to see if they took volunteers, which none did.  This left me very little choice but to hit the road and continue north, which may have been a blessing in disguise because I don’t think I could have handled staying in the craziness of Montañita for the long term.  A 1-2 hour bus ride and I arrived at Puerto Lopez.  I found a hostel/hotel that only had one room left. A single with a fully operational shower and a balcony with views of the ocean for only $8.  I will use this as my base camp for the next few days as I try and find a volunteer possibility that will help save money, but $8 a night isn’t a bad alternative.
     Puerto Lopez is located on the edge of Machalilla National Park, which I am hoping supplies me with a few nice excursions into the wilderness.  Each morning dozens of fisherman compete with a few pelicans for the catch of the day.  I will continue to look for a month long volunteer possibility... tomorrow.  For now I’m just gonna relax in a hammock, eat a mango, and watch the sun disappear into the ocean.

The sights, sounds, and.... flavors of Ecuador

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."  -John Muir

     I´m afraid I lied at the end of my previous blog post.  I said that this next week would be pretty routine.  I guess 2 weeks in the jungle isn´t enough to teach me that the word "routine" has no meaning here.  Fresh off my Ayahuasca experience we were back at work on monday, only this time it was not farming.  Marco threw us a curveball and we have been helping him build a larger kitchen.  I use the word "helping" loosely here.  Mostly we do the little things he doesn´t have time for while he builds the entire kitchen himself.  We help move wood, hold things, hand him nails, dig holes for posts, make a path out of rocks, etc.  The entire process has taken all week due to interuptions caused by the weather.  We still managed to work in the fields a few days also but most of the time is spent on the kitchen.
     Yesterday we ventured deeper into the jungle to gather palms leaves to make repairs to the roof which has been leaking.  It took about two hours, five people, three machetes, and thousands of bug bites but we got what we needed with time to spare before the bus rolled through so we went on a jungle walk to find fruit to eat.  There were definately a few interesting tastes out there.  The real meal was waiting for us at home though.  One of Marco´s dogs, Tony, caught an armadillo on Friday night.  Upon our return we were greeted with a plate of rice, beans, plantains, and deep fried armadillo.  Delicous!
     There was one moment that was quite surreal that took place earlier in the week.  After a long day of "working" on the kitchen, the clouds had thinned and to the west you could see Chimbarazo (the largest mountain in Ecuador) and the Andes.  Just behind that the sun was setting.  It was one of those moments when you forget everything about anything and just stop and stare at the scene in front of you.  Of course none of us had a camera to capture the moment and share it with you all but I suspect it would have been one of those intances when pictures don´t do it justice.  It was not something that had never been seen before, or that would never be seen again, but that moment felt special, as corny as it sounds.  None of us said a word.  We just stared.
     I find that each week that passes I am more disconnected from my life in the states and becoming much more used to the culture down here, though I am not really in either place.  I am floating somewhere in the middle.
     This next week marks our last in the upper Amazon, and we leave to rejoin civilization once more.  I have had this idea to make a video and put it on the blog to show you all what our lives have been like for the past month.  Perhaps I will get to that this week so keep your eyes open for that on the blog next weekend.  Everyday is an adventure and I hope it continues to be that way.  The world has so many sights, sounds, smells, and tastes (armadillo?) to offer that one lifetime doesn´t seem to be enough.  Books and photos only do so much so go out and see what this planet can show you!

Welcome to the Jungle

“We can’t let our future become our past if we are to change the world. Won‘t you tell me please, how many miles must we march?” -Ben Harper

                Life in the rainforest is as you would expect… very wet.  It rains everyday.  Sometimes rain falls for only 10 minutes and sometimes 10 hours.  Nothing in the rainforest is wasted.  Rain water is used by all living things, including humans.  We wash our clothes with it, bathe with it, clean and prepare food with it, but only consume large amounts of it if boiled or filtered.  There is no telling what sort of bacteria lives in the water so it is best not to chance it. 

                As with any area where rainfall is this abundant, vegetation is dense.  Where there is vegetation, there is wildlife.  We haven’t seen any large animals yet, but there are enough birds to play us a symphony each night.  The birds hang around because food is easily available for them.  I have heard that it is unknown just how many species of bugs live in the rainforest, and after a week here I certainly believe that.  There are bugs of all sorts: spiders, beetles, cockroaches, ants, mosquitoes, and bugs unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  Legend has it that a mosquito exists with a second needle protruding from it’s chest.  If poked by this needle you have to have sex in the next 30 minutes or else you will die.  Whether or not this is true is yet to be determined but the locals stand by it.  To me it just seems like a pretty desperate pick up line, but needless to say if you are in the Amazon make sure you have a few good looking women near… just in case.  There are huge trails of ants around the jungle too.  Some are dangerous and others just hard workers.  Leaf cutter ants carry bits of leaves hundreds of meters to form a pile.  Out of these piles grow fungi, which is the ants main source of food.  They have been cultivating longer than human beings.  Not all bugs have a strong work ethic or play the jungles version of Cupid, though.  Both Jackie and Angelica received a not-so-welcomed gift from mother nature on Christmas Day.  A nigua (a kind of flea) burrowed into each of their feet.  Jackie’s was removed shortly after it entered but Angelica’s appeared to be in her foot for a while because when it was removed a large amount of eggs came out with it.

                I have been hiking near Tahoe and come across lakes where I have been the only human for miles.  You just sit there and enjoy a silence so pure it almost seems like a dream.  There is no such silence in the rainforest.  Noise is the only thing more plentiful than water.  Birds with varying songs call out, crickets saw on their violin-like legs, frogs croak, and all of this blends into such a deep and wonderful song that you tend to pity the consumers of the CDs they sell at stores titled “Sounds of the Rainforest”.  No imitation can come close to the depth of this sound.

                We live on farm with a shaman named Marco.  His family lives a few kilometers down the road but we see them often enough.  Marco is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and quick to share his knowledge.  He has taken us to a few fiesta’s in town and the towns people are just as friendly.  When you think of Ecuador you may think of great amounts of poverty.  I think that perception is wrong.  There isn’t a constant struggle to put food on the table, they just live a very simplistic lifestyle.  Sure, money is not great in these areas, but its also not greatly needed.  They are happier than you and me and have gotten there by living a much simpler lifestyle.

                A few days ago Marco took us on a trek through the jungle.  I say “trek” because it certainly wasn’t a hike.  We had to wade across a few rivers, venture off the trail, and even swung from a few vines.  All of this lead to a waterfall where we had lunch and swam for a bit.  Marco might be the most intelligent person I have ever met.  Not in the way we often think of intelligence with math, science, politics, etc.  His intelligence is much more useful.  He can feel the Earth.  He knows how to use everything it gives him.  He knows what leaves cure different ailments, and the other day we needed another hoe for the field so he cut down a small tree using only a machete and trimmed it down until the diameter was small enough to fasten the end of the hoe onto it.

                We work Monday through Friday starting at 8 am.  We get to take breaks when it rains because being in the fields when muddy can hurt the crop.  The workday is long but rewarding.  You sleep better each night after a long day of tilling soil and picking weeds.

                The tranquility of this jungle paradise has been broken in recent days though.  A few nights back a German woman, her father, and her two young children showed up to stay with us.  They brought no food or water with them so they just helped themselves to what little food we still had left.  The children are maniacs.  The oldest boy was jumping around until the late hours of the night and spilled water on the floor above me so it leaked into my room.  A really charming kid.

                Each day is a little bit different and we learn a little bit more about the jungle and this simplistic lifestyle.  It really isn’t much of a nuisance at all which makes you wonder why, as Americans, we feel the need to have so much crap.  Also, there will be some delays in my posts since internet access is tough to come by.  Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!      P.S. GO LIONS!

Occupy Ecuador

" But what a feeling, chasing the sun. Living my life like a shot from a gun. Laughing a little bit more with every mile." -Jason Aldean
   
     25 hours of travel and we finally arrived in Quito with time to spare.  If you hate conveniency then you will love this next part.  There are two roads that lead to Ecuador from Bogota, Colombia.  The more direct route is full of guerrilla activity though.  I don't mean the King Kong type either. I mean the drug cartel, machine gun carrying kind.  Needless to say, we opted for the long route.  On our way out of Colombia there would be stretches of highway with military personnel wandering the side.  Everyone we passed gave us a thumbs-up.  I have no idea what that meant but I'm sure a man with an automatic rifle giving you a thumbs down doesn't end well.  We had no trouble crossing the border and got approved for a VISA through March 17th.

     So far Ecuador differs from Colombia in a few ways.  Our bus was stopped two or three times and "policia" boarded.  The first time they ordered all the men off the bus and I guess searched it for something.  The second time they boarded they asked me to show them my passport.  They just don't like dudes in this country I guess.  Ecuador uses US currency, which makes it easy to tell how cheap something really is.  Tonight we are going for pizza and a soda for $1.75.  It costs a quarter to ride the trolley.  People here are also very nice and quick to help out, like in Colombia.  Ecuador does seem to have a lot more poverty than we saw in Colombia.  It makes you think about our "problems" back home and how minuscule they really are.

     A side note: I haven't been able to work this into my blog yet but they are two semi-important points I want to add.  Most of the water from the tap is undrinkable.  You don't realize how much you take that for granted until it's unavailable.  I caved and use tap water when brushing my teeth but I do not ingest it in large amounts.  Time will tell if this is a good idea.  The other thing is that the plumbing in South America is about as impressive as me in the weight room.  When doing your business, you are supposed to dispose of toilet paper in the trash rather than the toilet bowl.  I am a creature of habit however and made the mistake of flushing toilet paper. The end result was not good.

     Quito itself is a wonderful city.  It is the second highest capital city in the world (9,200 feet).  It is divided into three parts.  New Town is to the north.  Most bars and hostels are here in a district called "El Mariscal" which is supposed to be very dangerous after 9pm.  We chose to avoid that all together and stay in Old Town.  A wise choice on our part, as Old Town is amazing.  It has a very European feel to it (cobble stone streets, similar architecture, and a massive church in the center).  Our hostel is massive and has a 5th floor terrace that overlooks the city.

     Tomorrow we are back on the road, to Riobamba this time.  I have no idea what that city is like but at least it is fun to say.  From there we will head to a farm just east of Puyo.  The farm is run by a Shaman and his family.  It will no doubt be an interesting experience.  I don't think we will have internet access so on weekends we may have to go into town and find an internet cafe.  I hope this time apart from technology won't discourage you from following the blog.  I promise to update as much as possible.  Also, don't forget to check the girls blog at http://www.volar2012.blogspot.com/.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season!