Wrapping Things Up
We spent the last week showing our friends from Wisconsin some of our favorite spots in Ecuador. Unfortunately, towards the end of the trip, most of us were suffering from some horrible food poisoning. It hit us on Friday night so we weren't able to go to any of our favorite peñas for our last weekend in Ecuador. Our flight back to the US is on Friday morning. We're going to spend our last full day here relaxing in Chachimbiro, an ecotourism complex built around a bunch of natural hot springs. There are also pools, waterslides, ziplines, a cable car, horseback riding, and lots more. I'll have pictures and details once we're back in the US.
2008-01-29 13:16:35 UTC
Advice from the Andes: Part 2
This installment of Advice from the Andes focuses on Strange & Ominous Fart Warnings:
- When you are told to run an errand, you must go and return quickly before the smell of a fart [fades].
- When a grain of toasted corn or a bean is swallowed, it must be kept quiet or else you might fart in a meeting or in front of a special person.
- When a star falls it must not be told or else when you are at the wedding altar you might fart in front of everybody.
- The tail of a cat must not be pulled or else one might let out a silent fart in front of people.
- One must not sit on the onions because they can become very gassy.
Andean culture seems to be quite the flatulent culture, hmm?
2008-01-28 11:40:58 UTC
Back to the Beach
Our friends are arriving in Ecuador tomorrow and after a couple of days in Quito, we're going back to the beach. I'll begin posting again in a little over a week. Sadly, we've only got two weeks left in Ecuador. I'm not ready to go back to Wisconsin. I intend to enjoy the shit out of the next two weeks.
2008-01-18 20:06:42 UTC
Advice from the Andes: Part 1
Noah and I bought this interesting book called Recipes for Life: Counsel, Customs, and Cuisine, from the Andean Hearths. It's written in Spanish, English, and Quechua and it's chock-full of useful information. Over the next couple of weeks, I will share some of this wisdom with you. Learn from it.
This installment of Advice from the Andes includes advice about food:
- The churu (earth snail) must not be eaten while pregnant because the child will be born with a runny nose.
- When women eat lying down, it is said that they can give birth to children with sewn-up buttocks.
- A man must not eat sweet potatoes with their skin because when he gets engaged and is drunk, a dog might urinate in his mouth.
- One must not eat meat in front of a dog because it will absorb all the food.
I hate it when dogs absorb all my meat! Stay tuned for more Andean wisdom.
2008-01-18 20:02:34 UTC
El Malecòn y Las Peñas
As I mentioned before, Guayaquil is in the midst of some major changes. The city seems to be improving faster than the guidebooks can keep up with. The most recent Lonely Planet doesn't even mention the city's trolley-like transportation. The stations looked brand spankin' new.
The biggest urban renewal projects have focused on the riverfront area. The 2.5km strip along the RÃo Guayas has been given an extreme makeover. The Malecón has been transformed into a gated, policed public park filled with sculptures, river views, gardens, playgrounds, fountains, and exercise equipment. There's a mall, a few museums, restaurants, an IMAX theater, and more. The wide brick walkways are lined with benches and the whole park is kept very clean.
There are also several public bathrooms, which is a rare sight in Ecuador. Ecuador's the kind of country where public urination is widely accepted. I can't tell you how many times I've walked by men pissing on sidewalks. There are stairwells in Quito that turn into urine waterfalls by the end of the night. They'll pee on anything in this country- animal, vegetable, or mineral- but Guayaquil's Malecón is remarkably free of public urination. This is a place for urban sophisticates who prefer not to pee in public.
As you walk north along the river, you come to the other major riverfront project: the restored historic neighborhoods of Las Peñas and Cerro Santa Ana. Here's me on the edge between the Malecón and Las Peñas:
As you leave the modern, urban city and step into this colorful, charming, old-timey neighborhood, it feels like you're entering a theme park. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's not sanitized and empty like a theme park, it just feels like you're walking into Storybook Land or something.
It seems like cartoon characters should live here. It's the cutest little storybook neighborhood I've ever seen.
And people actually live in these brightly-colored storybook houses. There are also bunches of cafes, bars, restaurants, and little shops. The abundance of cozy, intimate bar/cafes reminded me of Bogotá.
I was still stuck with prescription sunglasses at this point:
Notice the right side of the stairs in the above photo. You can't see it clearly, but those are plaques that tell you what number stair you're on so you can note your progress as you climb the hill (Cerro Santa Ana). The topmost one in the picture is 288. I didn't notice how high they went, but there are at least 400. Here's the fantastic view of the city from the top:
We were in Guayaquil on a weekend and while the Malecón and Las Peñas were brimming with locals, we didn't see too many tourists. Lots of travelers avoid Guayaquil. I imagine that will probably change as word of the city's extraordinary improvements and its cosmopolitan future spreads.
2008-01-18 10:19:02 UTC