Quayaquil, Banos, Quito, Otavalo, Ibarra
After I left that bug-infested hotel on the border I got on the bus for Quayaquil on the river which name I don't remember. Q is a big city and a port. It resembled a little Panama City in terms of architecture and the people - people are a mix of indigenous peoples, Africans and Europeans. I spent all Sunday there and enjoyed the very beautiful boardwalk going for a few km along the river - it's called Malacon. There are restaurants along the boardwalk, cafes, cinemas, museums, botanic gardens, and many places for kids to play. The playgrounds are the best I have ever seen. There are many sandboxes, athletic tracks, noiseless cars tracks. Someone who designed them really was thinking how to entertain kids intelligently. There's no noise of any silly machines or rollercoasters or such - the only noise is that of children playing. It was a Sunday so there were many of them interacting with each other. It was really great to watch them. I also went to the old colonial part of the city, read about the many pirate attacks on it in the past, and walked through the winding streets which resembled the narrow winding streets of Vallparaiso. The houses in Q are also painted in various bright colors.
From Q I went to Banos. It's a small town in the Andes and it's famous for its many hot springs. From the windows of my room I could see a waterfall and one hot spring swimming pool underneath it. I went to the hot spring right after I got to Banos and then I walked and admired the artesanas and the vacational atmosphere of the town - it's a place to which many Quitenans go during weekend and holidays. In one of the stalls in the outside market I met Alfonso who is German but has been living in South America for a while in various places. He stayed in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal for three years many years ago and is skilled in many types of curative massages, reiki and shiatsu. I very much enjoyed the conversation with him and a friend of his, Alfredo, joined us. It turned out Alfredo was a guide guiding tours into the jungle so I decided to go with him for three days. We set out at 8 am the next morning. I took my two insect repellents (one for the skin, one for the clothing), sunblock, a few teeshirts, toiletries, and the rubber galoshes which Alfredo gave me. Alfredo got our food supply for the three days on the market and we took a bus to Puyo - a small town on the border with the jungle. From there we took a taxi which took us deeper into the jungle, to cabanas of Senora Teresita. Cabanas are wooden houses built on pillars. There are only beds with mattresses in them and mosquito nets. Alfredo cooked our lunch and afterwards we headed to the jungle. The vegetation in the tropical forest is so dense that we had to clear our way with a machette. We were walking and climbing the hilly terrain until we got to a waterfall. It was magnificient. Along the way Alfredo showed me many pecular plants and insects and showed me many medicinal plants and explained their properties. All the tropical plants I once had in flower pots where there but, of course, much bigger: all the types of ficuses, rhododendrons, philodendrons, many types of banana trees, mosses, ferns, palm trees.... Amazing variety of plants. Whenever we encountered something edible we ate it. I tasted different baby palm leaves, different nuts and fruit and also a type of rhubarb (rabarbar) very sour in taste. We got back to the cabanas tired and soaking wet with sweat - it was very hot and humid. We eate and talked to Senora Teresita and her family - we spent the evening in her kitchen. Except for the electricity in the kitchen there was no light so we used candles. I dropped on my bed thinking I would fall asleep instantenously but just at that time the jugle came to live. The sounds of frogs, creeckets and night birds was so powerful that it was like NYC by night! I couldn't sleep! I also heared all the insects flying and crawling around my bed. I remember when Erika was telling us about her vacation in Costa Rica and how all these bugs were everywhere in abundance. It takes a while to get used to all these gigantic cacroaches and ants... and to checking your shoes everytime you put them on so you don't crush a visitor with your feet. I was listening for a long time to all these animal sounds and finally fell asleep... When I woke up the jungle was quiet. The daytime animals don't make as much noise as the nighttime ones. The next day we went to visit the family of Virginia. It is a family of indigenous Quechua Indians who are related to the Peruvian Quechuas. They also live in the simple wooden huts but they don't have any electricity or any modern technology. They live in total peace... They are friends of Alfredo so Virginia came out to greet us soon as she saw us. Her kids and grankids came as well and we were talking and they were telling me about their way of life. Virginia's son showed me how they use the hollow wooden tubes and needles with the poison currare to hunt for edible mammals, also monkeys. He said they are totally self-sufficient: they gather and hunt for all the food and they know the medicinal plants to cure their illnesses. He said that they only need money when they are made to send their kids to school because then they need to buy clothing, notebooks and pens. They also use money to buy salt and matches. Nothing else. Around them there are 30 communites of about 20-30 peoples. They visit each other for fiestas and weddings. They live to be at least 100 years old! Many live to be 110! Isn't it amazing? And they are healthy people who can take care of themselves until they die. People who argue that progress means longer life expectancy should go to the Amazonas... I got two little pieces of pottery which Virginia makes to sell and get the money to buy the notebooks and pens... During our conversation I was also observing the kids playing in the river - they didn't have any toys except what they could find: sticks, leaves, lianas, and kitchen utensils, and seemed like the happiest kids I have seen. We warmly parted with Virginia's family and went back to the cabanas to get our things and then went throught the jungle to a different family which lives on the river Puyo. We got into a cayak carved out of one piece of dark wood and the man of the family took us down the river to a different camp with cabanas. The ride was really wild. The river has a very strong current and is going down in small waterfalls. It was like whiteriver rafting except it was in a wooden boat. The capitan was very skillful - there were many big boulders protruding from the water and he navigated the boat so we missed the boulders by centimeters. I got totally wet but was guarding my backpack - the only thing I didn't want to get wet was my camera. For the next trip I will have to get the waterproof case. We got to cabanas of Jorge who is also a Quechua Indian - he runs the campsite and is also a sculpturer so his beautiful wood carvings are everywhere in the camp - mostly of caymans. The camp is beautifully set on the river and many animals live there: there are three very friendly dogs, tucans and parrots, some kind of a peacock and a monkey. They are all totally free to go anywhere they want but I think they just like Jorge's cabanas. It was my first encounter with a monkey who played with me the way my cat used to play with me (she was tiny - the size of a squirrel). She was incredibly intelligent. It was like playing with a child - her hands and feet were so similar to these of a human being. I was tickling her feet and she would wrinkle her nose and bite me playfully. I spent a great deal of time with her and the dogs. The peacock followed me everywhere I went - he, too, seemed to be a very curious creature. I went with Alfredo to the jungle again, we went to the hill from which there was a beautiful view of two rivers meeting, I also went with Jorge to see his lakes with fish and he also took me to see the turtles in a bay nearby. It was heavenly. In the evening a group of tourists came, we all had dinner together and talked and then Alfredo and the other guide decided to take us to see the caymans at night since it was full moon. We were walking along the swamps, many creepy crawly creatures surrounding us and making the formidable noise. We crossed a few brigdes and on one of them a bat flew right by my ear and it frightened me and I fell down to the swamp. I had my high rubber boots on so I didn't get too wet and they got me out right away - the caymans didn't get easy supper this time. We didn't see any caymans at night but we saw one the next morning when we walked the same route again - he was suntanning on some logs in the middle of a small swamp. The next morning right after breakfast we went for a swim in the river and spent a long time by the river, observing the various types of butterflies, dragonflies, stones, plants and just suntanning and relaxing. The most formidable creatures there are tiny tiny sandflies - they are fierce and when they bite it itches terribly. I got a fiew bites... I like all creatures of the jungle except the sandflies. When I got back to Banos I went straight to the hot spring - it helps reduce the itching, among other things.
When I was little I read all these adventure books and my favorite were the books of Arkady Fiedler, a polish journalist and writer who wrote many books on the Amazonia. So now finally I got the chance to experience what he experienced and it was wonderful. I would definitely like to go back but not too far into the jungle so as not to disturb the groups of people who live their lives the way their ancestors lived it and don't want any contact with the outside world - I totally understand them. The Guarani who live deep in the jungle don't want visitors. I support them in keeping the pale faces out of their territory. I think progress is the biggest bullshit sold to humanity. For the people who bought it or where forced to it there's no other way to live than to struggle with it and find their way in it, but for the ones who haven't experienced it it is much much better to stay out of it and enjoy the long and healthy life close to nature.
From Banos I went to Quito - the capital. I just spent a day there walking in the old center and riding the clean and new trolley buses. I read in the guide book that it is rather a dangerous place so I decided to spent the night in a smaller town of Otovalo. Otovalo is very nice. Otovalenio Indians made the city beautiful. There's a very good feel there, many plants and fountains everywhere and also a huge market with folk art. Women wear white emroidered blouses and black skirts, jewerly made of gold glass beads, and their hair in ponytail. Men wear their long hair in one braid, they wear white cotton pants and white hats. They all look very elegant. Kids as well.
Today I am in Ibarra, another nice town. It looks very much like Antigua in Guatemala - the same type of architecture. There are, of course, many churches and many parks - like in all towns influenced by Spanish culture. I decided to go through Colombia to Panama so I am going to go today - I am very near the border with Colombia. Keep your fingers crossed.
From Q I went to Banos. It's a small town in the Andes and it's famous for its many hot springs. From the windows of my room I could see a waterfall and one hot spring swimming pool underneath it. I went to the hot spring right after I got to Banos and then I walked and admired the artesanas and the vacational atmosphere of the town - it's a place to which many Quitenans go during weekend and holidays. In one of the stalls in the outside market I met Alfonso who is German but has been living in South America for a while in various places. He stayed in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal for three years many years ago and is skilled in many types of curative massages, reiki and shiatsu. I very much enjoyed the conversation with him and a friend of his, Alfredo, joined us. It turned out Alfredo was a guide guiding tours into the jungle so I decided to go with him for three days. We set out at 8 am the next morning. I took my two insect repellents (one for the skin, one for the clothing), sunblock, a few teeshirts, toiletries, and the rubber galoshes which Alfredo gave me. Alfredo got our food supply for the three days on the market and we took a bus to Puyo - a small town on the border with the jungle. From there we took a taxi which took us deeper into the jungle, to cabanas of Senora Teresita. Cabanas are wooden houses built on pillars. There are only beds with mattresses in them and mosquito nets. Alfredo cooked our lunch and afterwards we headed to the jungle. The vegetation in the tropical forest is so dense that we had to clear our way with a machette. We were walking and climbing the hilly terrain until we got to a waterfall. It was magnificient. Along the way Alfredo showed me many pecular plants and insects and showed me many medicinal plants and explained their properties. All the tropical plants I once had in flower pots where there but, of course, much bigger: all the types of ficuses, rhododendrons, philodendrons, many types of banana trees, mosses, ferns, palm trees.... Amazing variety of plants. Whenever we encountered something edible we ate it. I tasted different baby palm leaves, different nuts and fruit and also a type of rhubarb (rabarbar) very sour in taste. We got back to the cabanas tired and soaking wet with sweat - it was very hot and humid. We eate and talked to Senora Teresita and her family - we spent the evening in her kitchen. Except for the electricity in the kitchen there was no light so we used candles. I dropped on my bed thinking I would fall asleep instantenously but just at that time the jugle came to live. The sounds of frogs, creeckets and night birds was so powerful that it was like NYC by night! I couldn't sleep! I also heared all the insects flying and crawling around my bed. I remember when Erika was telling us about her vacation in Costa Rica and how all these bugs were everywhere in abundance. It takes a while to get used to all these gigantic cacroaches and ants... and to checking your shoes everytime you put them on so you don't crush a visitor with your feet. I was listening for a long time to all these animal sounds and finally fell asleep... When I woke up the jungle was quiet. The daytime animals don't make as much noise as the nighttime ones. The next day we went to visit the family of Virginia. It is a family of indigenous Quechua Indians who are related to the Peruvian Quechuas. They also live in the simple wooden huts but they don't have any electricity or any modern technology. They live in total peace... They are friends of Alfredo so Virginia came out to greet us soon as she saw us. Her kids and grankids came as well and we were talking and they were telling me about their way of life. Virginia's son showed me how they use the hollow wooden tubes and needles with the poison currare to hunt for edible mammals, also monkeys. He said they are totally self-sufficient: they gather and hunt for all the food and they know the medicinal plants to cure their illnesses. He said that they only need money when they are made to send their kids to school because then they need to buy clothing, notebooks and pens. They also use money to buy salt and matches. Nothing else. Around them there are 30 communites of about 20-30 peoples. They visit each other for fiestas and weddings. They live to be at least 100 years old! Many live to be 110! Isn't it amazing? And they are healthy people who can take care of themselves until they die. People who argue that progress means longer life expectancy should go to the Amazonas... I got two little pieces of pottery which Virginia makes to sell and get the money to buy the notebooks and pens... During our conversation I was also observing the kids playing in the river - they didn't have any toys except what they could find: sticks, leaves, lianas, and kitchen utensils, and seemed like the happiest kids I have seen. We warmly parted with Virginia's family and went back to the cabanas to get our things and then went throught the jungle to a different family which lives on the river Puyo. We got into a cayak carved out of one piece of dark wood and the man of the family took us down the river to a different camp with cabanas. The ride was really wild. The river has a very strong current and is going down in small waterfalls. It was like whiteriver rafting except it was in a wooden boat. The capitan was very skillful - there were many big boulders protruding from the water and he navigated the boat so we missed the boulders by centimeters. I got totally wet but was guarding my backpack - the only thing I didn't want to get wet was my camera. For the next trip I will have to get the waterproof case. We got to cabanas of Jorge who is also a Quechua Indian - he runs the campsite and is also a sculpturer so his beautiful wood carvings are everywhere in the camp - mostly of caymans. The camp is beautifully set on the river and many animals live there: there are three very friendly dogs, tucans and parrots, some kind of a peacock and a monkey. They are all totally free to go anywhere they want but I think they just like Jorge's cabanas. It was my first encounter with a monkey who played with me the way my cat used to play with me (she was tiny - the size of a squirrel). She was incredibly intelligent. It was like playing with a child - her hands and feet were so similar to these of a human being. I was tickling her feet and she would wrinkle her nose and bite me playfully. I spent a great deal of time with her and the dogs. The peacock followed me everywhere I went - he, too, seemed to be a very curious creature. I went with Alfredo to the jungle again, we went to the hill from which there was a beautiful view of two rivers meeting, I also went with Jorge to see his lakes with fish and he also took me to see the turtles in a bay nearby. It was heavenly. In the evening a group of tourists came, we all had dinner together and talked and then Alfredo and the other guide decided to take us to see the caymans at night since it was full moon. We were walking along the swamps, many creepy crawly creatures surrounding us and making the formidable noise. We crossed a few brigdes and on one of them a bat flew right by my ear and it frightened me and I fell down to the swamp. I had my high rubber boots on so I didn't get too wet and they got me out right away - the caymans didn't get easy supper this time. We didn't see any caymans at night but we saw one the next morning when we walked the same route again - he was suntanning on some logs in the middle of a small swamp. The next morning right after breakfast we went for a swim in the river and spent a long time by the river, observing the various types of butterflies, dragonflies, stones, plants and just suntanning and relaxing. The most formidable creatures there are tiny tiny sandflies - they are fierce and when they bite it itches terribly. I got a fiew bites... I like all creatures of the jungle except the sandflies. When I got back to Banos I went straight to the hot spring - it helps reduce the itching, among other things.
When I was little I read all these adventure books and my favorite were the books of Arkady Fiedler, a polish journalist and writer who wrote many books on the Amazonia. So now finally I got the chance to experience what he experienced and it was wonderful. I would definitely like to go back but not too far into the jungle so as not to disturb the groups of people who live their lives the way their ancestors lived it and don't want any contact with the outside world - I totally understand them. The Guarani who live deep in the jungle don't want visitors. I support them in keeping the pale faces out of their territory. I think progress is the biggest bullshit sold to humanity. For the people who bought it or where forced to it there's no other way to live than to struggle with it and find their way in it, but for the ones who haven't experienced it it is much much better to stay out of it and enjoy the long and healthy life close to nature.
From Banos I went to Quito - the capital. I just spent a day there walking in the old center and riding the clean and new trolley buses. I read in the guide book that it is rather a dangerous place so I decided to spent the night in a smaller town of Otovalo. Otovalo is very nice. Otovalenio Indians made the city beautiful. There's a very good feel there, many plants and fountains everywhere and also a huge market with folk art. Women wear white emroidered blouses and black skirts, jewerly made of gold glass beads, and their hair in ponytail. Men wear their long hair in one braid, they wear white cotton pants and white hats. They all look very elegant. Kids as well.
Today I am in Ibarra, another nice town. It looks very much like Antigua in Guatemala - the same type of architecture. There are, of course, many churches and many parks - like in all towns influenced by Spanish culture. I decided to go through Colombia to Panama so I am going to go today - I am very near the border with Colombia. Keep your fingers crossed.
posted by Asia Kabat at 5:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home