sick sick sick

For the past two days I've been stuck in bed. I think I have a fever. I barely have enough energy to make it to the bathroom which has turned into my new best friend. It feels as if I've got a carnival's worth of funnel cakes and mayonnaise milkshakes in my stomach. My right ear is completely clogged to the point I can't hear anything. I feel drainage in-behind my eardrum and it hurts so much. I know I'm dehydrated but I can't seem to keep anything down. I'm in bed typing this right now, but it hurts to move. Everything hurts—knees, head, muscles, joints—the cold sweats are the worst. I can't seem to get situated. I've been good about taking my vitamins everyday, but I guess they don't work anymore. I finally broke down and took some Tylenol and medicine for my stomach. I had an allergic reaction to the stomach medicine. I hope I start to feel better within the next day or two. I don't want to go to the doctor here, I hate going to the doctor. I hate it so much that the last time I went for a check-up was when I was 12. All I want is some hot soup and a soda. I remember that always seemed to work when I was little. The only soup they have here contains some sort of bone or animal intestines in it. That won't help. I'll just go to bed and wait for the medicine to kick in. This really isn't fun at all.

Cuenca

Pretty Spanish architecture




delicious ice cream




bought a bad ass Panamanian hat

Bus ran into a bull

Yep. That is right. On the exhausting ride from Montanita to Guayquil and then from Guayaquil heading to Cuenca we ran into a bull. The front of the bus got smashed with the imprint of an animal, we swerved into a curve, almost flipped, and came to a halt after the fuel tank started leaking. Everyone got off and stood next to the leaking bus as people from all over town came to look at what must have been the most exciting thing to have happened in a long time. Cars were stopping, people were waving, and I was just wanting to be going to Cuenca. Finally another bus came to pick us up, but that bus wasn't any better. The entire bus ride from Montanita to Cuenca was supposed to be 7 hrs max. Instead, it was a grueling 13 hr hell ride. The 2nd bus had some tough terrain to drive through. There was one part in the journey after dark when the fog was so thick, there were no street lights, and it started to rain, all while we were on a narrow, winding, dirt road. Usually when one of these conditions are present you slow down, if many of these conditions are present, you really slow down, but not this bus driver... We just kept trucking along until he slammed on his brakes right before we almost drove over a cliff! Awesome. First we crash into a bull, next we almost nosedive off a cliff. By the time we finally made it to the Cuenca bus terminal, however, it was 1:00AM. I didn't think anything would be open so I found me a nice little corner close to where the homeless people were sleeping and decided to call it night. It was the coldest, dirtiest, shadiest, bus station ever, but everything worked out fine in the end. I slept with my backpack in my lap and woke up at 6:00am, caught a cab, checked myself in a nice place, took a bath, and then went back to bed—in a real bed this time..

MTV Montañita

Strange. Strange. The little beachtown called Montañita. It literally consisted of 3 blocks.. The first one being what I named cocktail cove (a street that was nothing but cocktail stands equipped with boom-boxes that played the worst remixes of 50cent & Guns N Roses I've ever heard) restaurant rank (a row of over-crowded, over-priced, and over-smelly restaurants) and buy my shit block ( where the locals post up everyday trying to sell the same ol' shit). The reason I went to Montañita in the first place was because I heard it was a decent beach where there is a lot of stuff to do. Wrong. The beach was a bit too crowded and there was nothing to do but watch tourists get way too hammered and get taken off with locals. I felt like I had stumbled onto an MTV goes to Ecuador reality show. It really was quite bizarre. Some of the locals were cool, but they had this strange aura about them.. I wish I could explain a little better, but just bizarre is about the best I can do. I did, however, met this cool dude from LA who taught me how to surf. I suck at it. He told me not to worry about not being great because it takes about a year before a person can even half way do anything. I believe him because that shit is difficult. I did manage to get up one time, though. If I lived on a coastal town I might would try to pick it up.

Mountain bikes, alpaca fields, and more volcanos

Volcano Chimborazo is like the Holy Shit of volcanos. It is grand. It is gorgeous. It is gnarly. The sheers looks of it reminded me of a Doberman Pincher at a junkyard. Stunning from a distance, but if you get too close, it won't hesitate to eat you. At a whopping 6,310m in elevation, it is recognized as the closet point to the sun in the world. However, it has a reputation for unpredictable weather and a terrible history of people being killed every year by getting struck by lightning and avalanches. Only experienced climbers are supposed to attempt the summit, but of the few who attempt, far less ever reach it. With that being said I decided to hike half and mountain bike the rest:)

I found this really great guy who runs ProBici (a bike shop who specializes in mountain bike rides of Chimborazo). He drove me and a couple of Canadians from Riobamba to Chimborazo where he explained a lot of the history along the way. The drive there was gorgeous. We drove through several indigenous villages where he explained some facts about Quechuas, their language, and religion. He said that most of them in that area converted to Christianity from Catholicism because there was a large influx of Western missionaries who started to come.

It took about 1hr and 30min before we made it to the base of Chimborazo and the view of this volcano was mindnumbing. The sky was the color of mouthwash, and felt about as clean and crisp as it too. You could see a few of the glaciers and the snow looked like white glitter. It was freakin' awesome! The start of the hike wasn't as difficult as Cotopaxi for me because even though it was higher in elevation the incline wasn't as steep. The wind, however, got up to 50mph- and this was just before the refuge! Once I reached the top I tried to reclaim my breath and took refuge in the base camp. There, I met this Australian family of 4 who were on a 6 month—24 country—family vacation. They looked like the happiest family I'd ever seen, which is strange to me, because a 6 month vacation with my family would be the equivalent of getting bullwhiped with snake fangs (okay maybe not that severe, but close..) I was happy for them, it looked like they were having a great time; plus, the mom gave me the rest of her porridge, which was the most delicious leftovers I've had in South America.

Once I climbed back down from the refuge the Canadian guys and I geared up for our 6 hour mountain biking trek. It was an intense ride through sand, snow, boulders, cobblestone streets, and alpaca fields. I don't think I was supposed to actually ride through the field, but since there were a few dogs chasing behind me I was in no position to stop.. I just kept trucking along... It made me realize how much I miss bike riding. I biked a lot in Austin—a whole lot—but when I got off that 6 hour bike ride around the volcano I have to admit I was a little sore. It was a wonderful day. Perhaps my favorite adventurous activity I've done in Ecuador.
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Skinny dippin in the Oriente

For the past three days I've been living in the Amazon Basin. If you imagine bugs the size of bats and anaconda snakes when you think of the Amazon then you have the right idea. What I saw in the Amazon was beyond interesting, but how I got there is a lot more exciting.

I decided that if I went to the jungle I wanted to stay with someone who lived there and experience how they survive, even if was just for a few days. I didn't want to find a hostel and join some tour where we all sheepishly follow an English speaking man in a safari suit with binoculars while we stare at birds from afar and snap photos of indigenous individuals as if they are a part of the landscape. Nu huh. After scrapping my brainbone trying to figure out how in the hell I was going to find someone who has never left the Amazon I decided to turn to my dear old friend— www.couchsurfing.com and came across Wlady, a guy who happened to have a hut in-between Puyo & Macas. I was completely shocked to find out that someone that far away knew about couchsurfing.com & had the internet! After a few corresponding emails trying to figure out when to go and what bus could take me there we finally came up with a plan. Wlady told me that even though he wouldn't be there to show me around he would get his friend, Marco, to take me to the hut. What Wlady didn't tell me was that Marco is a Quechua (Ecuador's largest indigenous population) and.... a Shawman!

I was supposed to meet Marco at the Terreste bus terminal in Puyo @ 1:00pm. Once I got there I realized one very important thing that I forgot to ask Wlady..What does Marco look like? For about forty-five minutes I sat at the bus stop hoping that Marco could pick me out. I didn't think it would be too difficult since it was just 7 drunk Ecuadorian men and a woman selling pig heads and Powerade. He found me right away.

We attempted to conversate for the first 10 minutes of the 40 minute bus ride to the hut. I would say that I'm about 30% to 40% fluent, however, talking to Marco was freaking difficult because he spoke a blend of Quechua & Spanish, and I speak fragmented Spanish mixed with English curse words. We soon became experts at charades:)

When we got to the tiny, tiny town he introduced me to his family... which was the town. I met his 7 children, wife, brother, sisters, their husbands, sisters, etc... They were some of the friendliest people I've met, and oddly enough I met them all while they were in church. It was 6:00pm on a Tuesday in a shack that they also use as a school for the kids. The teacher (they don't use the terminology preacher) was this lady who was the only one who could read out of the 10 people in that room- all adults. Literacy for all is a something I feel strongly about so it was really disheartening to see firsthand people whose own language is a foreign entity to them when written. I won't get off on a tangent now, but if you don't read- please do! Read anything because it really is one of the greatest privileges, and plus, sometimes you find some good stuff in 'em books:)

Okay. Back to the Amazon.. The following day was when Marco & his wife led me through the Amazon. WOW. First, the mud is outrageous. There were a few times when I was walking and then all of a sudden I'd find myself knee-deep in a thick mud-slush that was struggle to get out. We encountered banana spiders, who knows what kind of insects, Marco showed me plants used for Shawminsitic rituals, and even introduced me to a baby anaconda he found. I made a terrible joke about when the snake gets bigger it will probably eat his dog. He laughed and said that he would probably eat him since this type of anaconda can grow up to 6 meters! I quickly gave the little tyke back to Marco and realized why he carries 2 machetes.

After 5 hours of hiking I was relieved when we made it to this waterfall. With no reservation I stripped down to the bare basics and cannonballed into the coldest water in my life. It was amazing. I swam around a bit while Marco caught tiny fish with his hands. His wife even caught a couple like that too. They caught about 10 total which was what we ate for dinner that night. Tiny fried fish and white rice. I can't say it was filling, but the entire experience was definitely rewarding. It is fascinating to me to see the varying ways people live and the means they have to go through in order to make it to another day.


below is what I saw
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The anaconda Marco had was actually a little bigger and whole lot prettier, but you get the idea..




This is a banana spider. These guys are highly dangerous from my understanding. I held the anaconda, but I wasn't about to hold this guy.

still alive..

in the past 5 days I´ve put my body through the most climatical shock possible. I hiked to Volcano Chimborazo´s refuge ( the summit of this deceased volcano is the closet point to the sun in the world- pretty awesome, huh?!) stayed with a Quechua Shawman in the middle of the jungle, held a baby anaconda, skinny dipped in the Amazon Basin, got chased by dogs while mountain biking through a bull field, and have survived a 10hr bus ride to a beach filled with white people (it is a bit strange..). Going to do a little partying since I´m in the 3X1 cocktail land before I begin my voyage into Peru.. wish I had time to say a little more but I see an ocean in the distance that I´d like to jump in..

Just wanted to say that I´m alive and kickin & will put up pictures shortly..

Todas bien!