Can you see the Galapagos from here?
A slightly belated post then on the Visa run to Ecuador! It was much smoother (and shorter) than Bolivia with no illegal immigrancy problems or Andean miner strikes.
We began with a 26 hour bus journey with the "Cruz del Sur" bus company from Lima to Guayaquil, the second largest city in Ecuador, which was amazing. Blankets, air-con and food made it feel more like a flight and the time passed quite quickly. We went on shorter 17/18 rides in Bolivia that felt longer anyway! Once in Guayaquil (quite late, about 7ish) we found a hostel in the Albordaba part of town, a $3 ride from the terminal in a cab. It was a clean, big room of 4 beds for the two of us with a breakfast of scrambled eggs included.
The next day we explored Guayaquil. Although it´s a big city there isn´t a huge amount to do for tourists. We began by catching a bus to the Malarcon 2000, a big walkway along the river (which was huuuge and had island-type clumps of grass floating through it. Very different to the Thames!). Along here we found a Japanese flower park and took lots of naturey pictures. Next we decided to find some lunch and had come to the end of the Malarcon 2000 and to the old neighbourhood of Las Peñas, where 11 of Ecuador´s Presidents have come from! It is styled a bit strangely on an old Colonial Spanish town and was a bit of a hike to walk up, but the biggest problemo was that nowhere was open. We finallyu found something at about 3 but it only sold beer... So we had one. As we passed people they would say stuff like "it´s a little bit further" or "you´re nearly there" automatically so we decided to go and see what they were talking about... It turned out to be a pretty cool pirate exhibition about invasions between the 1500s and the 1800s. Lots of cannons and fake boats and old photgraphs of Guayaquil. We ambled back down and finally found something to eat (I had a soup and Tanya a cebiche (fish dish)). By this time it was 4pm! Before going back to the hostel we found the Iguana park - it only had two but they were huge and there were lots of turtles.
The next day we caught the 121 bus to the bus terminal and found the company for Montañita. There was one going at one or in 5 inutes (it was about 10) so we ran, made it to the bus but then decided we wanted some money out so Tanya ran back down three escalators to the ATM only to find that I had the bank card so had to come all the way back up and managed to get on the bus as we were pulling out. It wasn´t completely fruitless as she managed to get a padlock for the clothes bag which was below in the hold (we shared).
After one change we arrived at Montañita and it was beautiful: so nice to be out of a city after Lima and Guayaquil (one thing we are definitly missing from Cusco is the air and scenery!). It felt so tropical with cocnut icecream stalls everywhere, hectares and hectares of banana plantations on all sides, blue skies and sombrillas (sun shade umbrellas) along the streets. We only had one night there in a funny hostel. It was cheap but you could tell. Apart from the great hammock lined balcony, it was impossible to be in the room for more than 20 minutes during the day. We had the "Matromonial Suite" (if my husband took me there for a honeymoon it might be instant divorce but it was all that was available) which was one bed, a loo and a shower in the room basically. We used the hostel bathrooms! Add that the bag had been completely "fished-out" when on the bottom of the bus, it must have been under a sack of fish or something, everything staaaank. That night was great, with acrobats in the beach front clubs and lots of dancing to reggaeton we were so tired and the next day ate the biggest breakfast ever.
We left the next day at 4ish with the aim of getting to Máncora, in Peru again, and by 2.30am that night we were there. The border crossings were informal compared to Bolivia - pretty much a few marquees 5 miles apart! Here we met 5 of the other Peru Project Trust girls and had an amazing few days of food, sea and pool chilling and MAJOR catch up. We hadn't seen any of them since August and it was really interesting to see how their projects were going.
We returned to Lima on the 3rd of April and since then the time has flown by! I'm trianing now for a half-marathon on the 15th May, which includes 5am runs, skipping and a mini self-made circuits course in our little patio and my legs are aching most of the time! The two other volunteers here, Tania and Jeanette, are doing it too. It goes through San Borja and San Isidro parts of the city, and to be honest I am quite worried! I haven't done any exercise in Peru, especially not when we were so ill in Cusco (and not to mention the altitude!) but we shall see! I am hoping to do it in about 2 and a half hours.
This Sunday we had a really pretty church service. During the morning a few of the boys, staff (called Hermanos) and volunteers went to collect some palm leaves. We cut them and washed them, then put them up round the church. Jeanette and I put two on each of the nearest in columns: much easier said than done! They kept drooping over or twisting over completely! Even just tying them together was a challenge and my first one had so much string it looked like it had a bandage on. Right at the end Jeanette cut a bit of spare string off one of the big ones and it pretty much fell off from the balance difference! I will take a picture to better explain this. It was difficut because they had to go so high up, but it did look good! At 5pm we lined up in houses at the front gate, and followed the head monks down to the Chapel. They swung a bit silver pot of incense (probably has a proper name...) and it was quite a procession, everyone nicely dressed and waving their olive branches and woven palms above their heads. Lots of the children's parents came to the service as well.
I'm never sure how to sign these off! Thanks for reading, the next 4 months are just going to fly by!
- Rach xxxxx
We began with a 26 hour bus journey with the "Cruz del Sur" bus company from Lima to Guayaquil, the second largest city in Ecuador, which was amazing. Blankets, air-con and food made it feel more like a flight and the time passed quite quickly. We went on shorter 17/18 rides in Bolivia that felt longer anyway! Once in Guayaquil (quite late, about 7ish) we found a hostel in the Albordaba part of town, a $3 ride from the terminal in a cab. It was a clean, big room of 4 beds for the two of us with a breakfast of scrambled eggs included.
The next day we explored Guayaquil. Although it´s a big city there isn´t a huge amount to do for tourists. We began by catching a bus to the Malarcon 2000, a big walkway along the river (which was huuuge and had island-type clumps of grass floating through it. Very different to the Thames!). Along here we found a Japanese flower park and took lots of naturey pictures. Next we decided to find some lunch and had come to the end of the Malarcon 2000 and to the old neighbourhood of Las Peñas, where 11 of Ecuador´s Presidents have come from! It is styled a bit strangely on an old Colonial Spanish town and was a bit of a hike to walk up, but the biggest problemo was that nowhere was open. We finallyu found something at about 3 but it only sold beer... So we had one. As we passed people they would say stuff like "it´s a little bit further" or "you´re nearly there" automatically so we decided to go and see what they were talking about... It turned out to be a pretty cool pirate exhibition about invasions between the 1500s and the 1800s. Lots of cannons and fake boats and old photgraphs of Guayaquil. We ambled back down and finally found something to eat (I had a soup and Tanya a cebiche (fish dish)). By this time it was 4pm! Before going back to the hostel we found the Iguana park - it only had two but they were huge and there were lots of turtles.
The next day we caught the 121 bus to the bus terminal and found the company for Montañita. There was one going at one or in 5 inutes (it was about 10) so we ran, made it to the bus but then decided we wanted some money out so Tanya ran back down three escalators to the ATM only to find that I had the bank card so had to come all the way back up and managed to get on the bus as we were pulling out. It wasn´t completely fruitless as she managed to get a padlock for the clothes bag which was below in the hold (we shared).
After one change we arrived at Montañita and it was beautiful: so nice to be out of a city after Lima and Guayaquil (one thing we are definitly missing from Cusco is the air and scenery!). It felt so tropical with cocnut icecream stalls everywhere, hectares and hectares of banana plantations on all sides, blue skies and sombrillas (sun shade umbrellas) along the streets. We only had one night there in a funny hostel. It was cheap but you could tell. Apart from the great hammock lined balcony, it was impossible to be in the room for more than 20 minutes during the day. We had the "Matromonial Suite" (if my husband took me there for a honeymoon it might be instant divorce but it was all that was available) which was one bed, a loo and a shower in the room basically. We used the hostel bathrooms! Add that the bag had been completely "fished-out" when on the bottom of the bus, it must have been under a sack of fish or something, everything staaaank. That night was great, with acrobats in the beach front clubs and lots of dancing to reggaeton we were so tired and the next day ate the biggest breakfast ever.
We left the next day at 4ish with the aim of getting to Máncora, in Peru again, and by 2.30am that night we were there. The border crossings were informal compared to Bolivia - pretty much a few marquees 5 miles apart! Here we met 5 of the other Peru Project Trust girls and had an amazing few days of food, sea and pool chilling and MAJOR catch up. We hadn't seen any of them since August and it was really interesting to see how their projects were going.
We returned to Lima on the 3rd of April and since then the time has flown by! I'm trianing now for a half-marathon on the 15th May, which includes 5am runs, skipping and a mini self-made circuits course in our little patio and my legs are aching most of the time! The two other volunteers here, Tania and Jeanette, are doing it too. It goes through San Borja and San Isidro parts of the city, and to be honest I am quite worried! I haven't done any exercise in Peru, especially not when we were so ill in Cusco (and not to mention the altitude!) but we shall see! I am hoping to do it in about 2 and a half hours.
This Sunday we had a really pretty church service. During the morning a few of the boys, staff (called Hermanos) and volunteers went to collect some palm leaves. We cut them and washed them, then put them up round the church. Jeanette and I put two on each of the nearest in columns: much easier said than done! They kept drooping over or twisting over completely! Even just tying them together was a challenge and my first one had so much string it looked like it had a bandage on. Right at the end Jeanette cut a bit of spare string off one of the big ones and it pretty much fell off from the balance difference! I will take a picture to better explain this. It was difficut because they had to go so high up, but it did look good! At 5pm we lined up in houses at the front gate, and followed the head monks down to the Chapel. They swung a bit silver pot of incense (probably has a proper name...) and it was quite a procession, everyone nicely dressed and waving their olive branches and woven palms above their heads. Lots of the children's parents came to the service as well.
I'm never sure how to sign these off! Thanks for reading, the next 4 months are just going to fly by!
- Rach xxxxx
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| The 121 bus in Guayaquil |
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| Gardens along the Malarcon 2000 |
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| Bolivar "Iguana" Parque |
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| View of Guayaquil and the river Guaya from the top of Las Penas neighbourhood |
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| Hostel room in Montanita |
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| Montanita sunset |
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| With th Project Trust girls in Mancora. It was fancy dress "Alice in Wonderland", hence the playing cards! |
posted by Rachel at
07:31
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