Banos to Vilacabumba

We are now in Vilacabumba in the south of Ecuador. This is a lovely valley which is inhabited by many ¨gringos¨ who came here for a week and never left. Great climate and the valley is surrounded by hills which make for wonderful hiking. We did a hike yesterday which had a 1500 foot climb straight up a mountain then along a knife edged narrow ridge for an hour or so--I had just been telling Mike about the dangers of hiking up mountains alone and the next day was looking down either side of a ridge which dropped several thousand feet on either side realising that although Ken and I were together the only use would be that he would know where my broken body would be if I fell--luckily neither of us fell so can now enter a new blog entry. We have learned that if a hike is described here as difficult or dangerous it is!!!
We left Banos and went to Cuenca--the third biggest city in Ecuador and the most gracious and lovely we have been to in a long time. The buildings are beautiful and we loved wandering the city.
There is a great museum exploring the culture of the many different tribes of the indigenous people. Ecuador is very diverse as it encompasses the coast, the mountains and the Amazon jungle so the cultures are very diverse. The museum also had a great garden which had flora from all regions. There is also an aviary which has great birds.
As in all Latin countries we came across the festival which was celebrating the coronation of yet another virgin. The religions here are a hybrid of Catholic and the original indigenous religions so are very confusing to the uninitiated. It makes for a lot of colour. This particular celebration was just at dark and involved lots of dancing by various ethnic groups and the lighting of huge square balloons which had a kerosene burner inside. The heat let the balloon soar hundreds of feet into the air. Amidst the balloons, music and dance there was a constant firing of fireworks which were set off at the edge of the crowd. As they fell ashes and pieces would fall on the watching crowd. Quite amazing--there seem to be no controls and the unfortunate victims would laugh as they shook the sparks off themselves!!!
Cuenca is the capital of the ¨Panama hat¨. It appears that it was never the Panama hat as it was originally made from a special reed grown only in Ecuador and the hats were made here for the workers who built the Panama Canal hence the misnomer. We both bought hats after much trying on--one more thing shipped back to the boat to keep our packs to a minimum as we travel.
We also took a trip to an Inca ruin which was not large but the bus ride as all around here was spectacular.
A little more on the bus travel. Bus travel is amazing in Ecuador--very few people can afford to buy cars so buses are the main transportation method.
You first get a taxi to the terminal (you must roll the rrrr in the word terminal or the taxi driver will not understand where you want to go) it will cost $1--the cost of most taxis. Then upon arrival there are various men yelling the destination of the bus they are responsible for. You will then say your destination where they will point to the particular company which will get you there. You will then pay 10 cents tax and get on your bus. It will leave and slowly drive along the street with the original man yelling the destination and stopping to let on anyone who wants to go there. A lot of people will catch it outside the terminal presumably to avoid the 10 cent tax. You will now purchase a ticket which will cost $1 for each hour of travel you intend to take--mostly our trips have been between 1 and 6 hours so are $1 to $6 respectively. Now to add to the fun, various people will get on and off the bus to sell whatever they have. There are two options here, the one that takes the longest is when a man gets on and delivers a long compelling speech from the front of the bus. He then walks the length of the bus handing out samples of his wares--candies, soup, pills or whatever. He then goes back to the front and tells everyone why they should pay anything from 10 cents to $1 to buy them. He then goes back down the bus and collects either the money or the candies--it is the original travelling salesman!!! They avoid the gringos as we are generally less than impressed by the speech. Perhaps the language barrier is the problem.
The other is the person, man or woman who will come on yelling whatever they have to sell as they walk the bus offering their wares and being paid directly. They all get off after they have sold enough and presumably catch the next bus back doing the same thing. On one trip of an hour we were offered the following: chicklets, ice cream cones (we are still not sure why they don't melt), fresh fruit salad in a cup, potato and banana chips, mandarins, apples, peaches, chocolate bars and either water coke or fanta. It all makes for a fascinating ride and along with the spectacular scenery and relative comfort of the buses it makes travelling fun. The other amazing thing is that people—often women with babies on their backs and laden with whatever else they have-- will stop the bus in the middle of the mountains with no apparent dwellings sight to obviously walk to wherever they live—I think often it means many hours of walking. We have had people get on struggling with 30lb propane tanks. They are truly a race of hardy people.
We will leave here in a few days and will go into Peru where we hope to do a trip up the Amazon in a river boat for a couple of days to Iquitos--the largest city in the world with no road access.
Hope you are having a great summer,
Love Wendy and Ken