A Jew In Peru (and more)

Just to freshen your minds ... I left Costa Rica on the 14/6/05 after a months travel round this fascinating country and landed at Ecuadors capital Quito.

Over the course of three weeks I can boldly say that these two countries are a world apart; one (CR) is a peaceful, laid back but expensive country, the other (Ec) is the opposite!

I really did not want to spend too much time in Ecuador as there are plenty of countries to visit and only 5 months left but I did need to take a course in Spanish and thus enroled for a weeks intensive training in a Spanish school in Quito. As some of you know I can be a studious (and at times introvert) individual and thus did not hit the bars of Quito for a week. However during time off I managed to explore the fascinating colonial architecture of Quito´s old city ... which was my first real taste of South America.

During one weekend in Quito I did go on an organised tour to the North of Ecuador including the Otavalo market ... the biggest market in S. America. There were all sorts of ´ínteresting´ items for sale that I am pretty sure you would not find in Barnet market including a shruken human head on an antique stall(which I was tempted to buy, post back home and feed to Reggie!). Check some of the attached photos for views of Otavalo. The tour also went to the worlds Equator line (yes I happily hopped from one to the other), Ecuadors largest lake as well as an extremely picturesque lagoon inside a volcanoe (please dont ask for their names as they all have 10 sylables each).

One last thing about Quito ... try to refrain from having your hair cut there. For some reason they also include an ear hole inspection!!!

From Quito I got a bus down to the Southern town of Banos ···· interuption .... buses in Ecuador have to be the most horrendous method of transport anywhere in the world. Not only is there pitiful leg room (as you know I am not exactly the tallest person in the world), but they have no toilet, stop for every peasant (who always happens to want to sit next to me) and the worst part is their obligation to play at, immensely loud volumes, poorly dubbed (into Spanish) Jackie chan films from speakers whose cones are broken and thus sound like thundering traffic on the M1! As you can tell the journey was uncomfortable.

However, Banos was a reflief. Unlike its name sake ´toilet´, Banos was a delightful little town located in a huge green valley. They were a very friendly bunch who bathed in the natural waters of the neighbouring waterfall. One day I decided to climb one of the surrounding hills ... bloody hard work ... but I was rewarded with one of the most spectacular scenes of deep blue azur sky, rolling countryside and tranquility (which was rare in Ecuador). I also tried fresh sugar cane, which is an unbeatable snack for long, torrid coach journeys.

From Banos I headed to Guayaquil, Ecuadors biggest city. In the most part this was a stop off for towns to the coast but I explored it as well as I could and found it to be a pleasant, clean city. One highlight has to be the park near San Francisco church that is literally crawling with 100´s of iguanas. Watching one of these ´chicken of the treés´ pee from a high hight onto a business man´s leg will forever stick in my mind. The stuff falls to the ground like thick ecoplasm!

After Guayaquil I decided to try the coastal town of Montanita, which was basically a cold day in Bognor. So after spending a day there I got on a bus back to Guayaquil and then onto Cuenca ... one of Ecuadors prettier colonial towns. Not much too report there really as it was a weekend and most things were shut so I got a bus to Machala (the banana capital of the world ... supposedly) and on through the boarder to Peru.

To be honest Ecuador was in the most part grubby, noisy and rather impersonal (at times I went for days without seeing another gringo) and I can say that I am glad to be out of there. It did have its highlights but I have a feeling that the rest of South America has a lot more to offer.

I am currently still in the Northern area of Peru and thus Peru´s update will not be for a while.

Pura Vida,

James