Sarah's Adventures in South America

Chilly-Chile

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:22:00 -0400

After my 3 day trip in the middle of nowhere FREEZING Bolivia I arrived in San Pedro de Atacamas Chile. The border crossing was built in between two mountains which were at VERY high altitude, just walking onto the bus that would take us to Chile was painful! I almost got frost bite just from the 5 minutes I was outside. As soon as we crossed the border the bus went onto a freshly paved road with white lines down the middle. It hit me then…I couldn´t remember the last time I was on a decent paved road.

Once we got to the town we realized it´s very expensive (especially just coming from Bolivia) so we decided to eat lunch there and then take a bus for Santiago. I started to notice other BIG differences during my time in the small town. I think this was the biggest culture shock I have gone through on my whole trip. People were fit and well dressed. The ladies were wearing make-up! I was coming from not showering in 4 days wearing all the clothes I own in my bag, no make-up. As soon as we got to the restaurant to eat I went in the bathroom and took off a couple layers of clothing. Guess what I noticed…Toilet paper in the bathrooms, but the biggest surprise…hand soap! I hadn´t seen hand soap in sooo long.

A couple quirks about S.P. de Atacames… If you are wanting to cross into Argentina from there, you must take a bus which only comes every 2 days, my friends who I was traveling with found out the hard way and missed the bus by an hour. The other thing which I found quite unhelpful was the fact that all the ATM machines were closed until 4 pm. That didn´t do us any good because we had a bus to catch at 2pm. Luckily in Chile they take VISA! First country in a while that I could actually use my visa card.

From S.P de A. to Santiago was a 24 hour bus ride. Fortunately I got a special promotion and ended up paying $72 dollars for a VIP room. This made my journey a LOT more comfortable especially since I had really bad effects from the altitude because we were coming down from the altitude so quickly.

Chileans are extremely friendly, they are always willing to help you and are always curious as to where you are from. Although this was my first country where I felt like I didn´t stand out, the Chileans can still tell ;)

Chile is a very developed country, once I arrived to Santiago I took a taxi and found my hostel no problem. I was lucky because my brother ended up having a contact in Santiago and I ended up staying with this amazing lady for 2 weeks.

Chile was one of the most expensive countries I have been too. Although Santiago was quite cold…I´m talking 10 degrees cold…I really enjoyed the city. Santiago has one of the nicest metro systems I have ever seen. It´s new but very clean and safe.

I visited Valparaiso which is a UNESCO world heritage site, to be honest… it didn´t impress me as much I it receives credit for. The buildings are beautiful colors and the graffiti on the walls are nice, but it´s actually not really that safe. They have “little boy gangs“ that like to rob people so you always have to watch out.

I personally enjoyed Vina del Mar more. It is only 15 minutes away from Valparaiso, but it just had a better feel to me.

Chile was great, lots of travelers that I met in other countries all skipped over Chile because they either weren´t really interested or thought it was too expensive.

I´m really glad that I went and saw Chile for myself. Having the place to stay made my trip in Chile a lot more affordable, but even so, I think it is worth seeing. I would recommend traveling to Chile during their summer time though because in winter IT GETS COLD! And this is coming from a Canadian.

My next stop was Mendoza Argentina, to get there I had to take a bus through the Andes. This was supposed to be a 6 hour journey…It ended up being an extra day and 12 hours.

I bought my bus ticket the day before we were scheduled to leave…We packed our bags and said our goodbyes. It was nice because the metro takes you right to the bus terminal. As we sat and waited for our bus we decided to buy as much snacks as we could to get rid of the extra Chilean pesos we had in our pockets. Once successfully emptying our pockets, we notice it´s only 5 minutes until our bus is scheduled to leave and it was still not there. This is when I asked the counter and guess what they tell me…The border is closed due to snow, no buses are going through today. SUCH A ROOKIE traveler mistake!

I had heard sooo many stories of people getting stuck in either Mendoza or Santiago for a week to 2 weeks because they close the border all the time during winter. We changed our tickets for the next day and hoped that the border would open. We then had to scramble some money together, buy another metro card and take our bags all the way back to the house where I was staying. The next morning…I called. It was open so we did the whole thing over again.

Things to know about Chile…You tip for EVERYTHING, you even tip the man putting your bag in the bus, so its always good to have spare change with you.

Also- Drink as much Chilean wine as possible…It´s super cheap and sooo good :)

All in all, I really enjoyed Chile, lots more to discover there.

The Beautiful Bolivia

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:05:41 -0400

Ok havent been blogging in a while, but my excuse is because I have been going going going for a while now! Bolivia was one of my favorite countries that I have been to so far. I think the fact that I knew nothing about Bolivia really added to the adventure and the great surprises. Bolivia is extremely poor, it costs you nothing, so buy buy buy in Bolivia! I found La Paz to be kind of a depressing city, it was great for shopping for souviners but nothing more.

We then took a bus to Coachabamba because we were told it was warmer weather than La Paz. It was, but not by much. Coachabamba has a huge Cristo statue and its pretty to take the Gondola to go see it, other than that its a nice quiet city but really not much to see. I felt the same about Sucre. It has a huge French influence there so it had some great resturants and a nice Plaza.

One of my favorite places was Tupiza, it is known for its great horseback riding. We booked a tour and it cost us 30 Bolivianos per hour, that worked out to be 5 dollars! So cheap and it was a beautiful ride amongst cannons.

Uyuni was where you start the Salt Flats tour. We payed 700 Bolivianos which included 3 days and 2 nights. That is about 100 dollars that covers pretty much everything. It was a great trip, EXTREMELY COLD at night it would get down to -25 with NO HEATERS, they make you rent a sleeping bag and you have blakets, but I suggests bringing the warmest clothes you have…and wine. I bought clothes in Bolivia since it is so cheap and it will keep you warm! During the tour you pass through about 25 different Volcanoes, 3 of the active. You see RED lagoons and Flamingos. Its amazing terrain and after every turn its a little bit different.

I decided to get dropped off at the border of Chile- San Pedro de Atacames. That is where I began my trip into CHILE. :)

I didnt write enough about Bolivia… but in a way its best just to discover it for yourself ;)

Peru

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:30:02 -0400

I decided to book a flight from Santa Marta Colombia to Lima Peru in order to avoid having to cross all the way through Ecuador again. When we arrived to the airport for our flight the ticket agent told us that they will not let us get on the plane without proof of a ticket out of Peru. We explained that we would be traveling by bus and that we did not want to buy a ticket. Unfortunetly we didnt have a choice and ended up paying $1000 USD for a flight that we didnt even want. Not a great day of traveling that day. Once we arrived in Peru the immigration officer didnt even ask to see it. Luckily we are able to change our tickets and the location, so I will use it at some point on the rest of my travels.

Peru was great! We took a bus from Lima to Huacachina which is a desert oasis. There isnt anything there besides sand boarding tours and a couple resturants. Really interesting desert worth taking a look.

From there we went to Cusco. Staying at the wild rover hostel is a fun and great way to meet tons of other travelers. Beds are also really comfortable as well.

We booked our Manchu Picchu tour through By Car in Cusco. It included 2 days and one night and then the entrance to Manchu Picchu for $130 which also included meals. It was a really good deal and well worth it considering the entrance to Manchu Picchu is about $75 dollars alone.

Manchu Picchu was great and I think we really appreciated it even more since we had a driver who had a death wish. It was the scariest drive of my life. Not only were we driving on a one way gravel road on a cliff but we had to pass cars, deal with falling rocks, drive through rivers… just to name a few things.

The Incas were soo smart and it was amazing to finally see Manchu Picchu up close and not in a picture.

Chilling in the hostel in Lima, trying to stay warm!

Fri, 25 May 2012 21:52:51 -0400

Chilling in the hostel in Lima, trying to stay warm!

Santa Marta and Taganga

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:00:42 -0400

We took an expensive bus ride from Cartagena to Santa Marta, I forgot that we weren´t in cheap Ecuador anymore, this bus cost us $40.000 pesos each. That´s about $25 dollars each for a 4 hour trip. We arrived in Santa Marta which I have to admit I was not that impressed and we headed strait to Taganga. We started driving through some pretty sketchy areas but when we pulled into Taganga it got even sketchier. Roads were not paved and it was pretty dark everwhere. We stayed in a really nice hostel called Divanga, I recommend it for sure. In the morning I got up and when to the ¨Beach¨ with my friend we got there lied down for about 2 mintues and then decided it was the worst beach we had been too and we just couldn´t stay there. The beach was basically rocky sand, and compared to the caribbean beach that we had just come from…it wasn´t doing it for us. Taganga is a small fisherman´s village but there really isn´t anything there. I decided to do I dive course there because it was $350 dollars to become certified one of the cheapest places that I know about! It was a great 3 day course. I went with a company called Nauticulos, they were a really great company right on the main street at the beach. At night Taganga had pretty good parties as well, there were two bars that you could choose from (Mirador was always popular). I´m glad I was occupied with the dive course for 3 days otherwise I´m not really sure what I would have done to occupy my time there. There are fishermen that will take you to other beaches that are nicer and 15 minutes by boat. Tyrona park is also near Taganga and it is very popular for tourists. My last day in Colombia we decided to go to a beach that was recommened to one of my friends that we were traveling with. Palmino was the name of the town that we went to. We got on a bus in Santa Marta, which is only 10 min. away from Taganga and headed to this beautiful beach. The bus started driving and after about 15 mintues the money collector came and told us it was $8000 pesos each! We asked him why it was so much, and then I asked him how far away it was, he said it was an hour and a half! We were thinking it was going to be a 15 mintue journey…it wasn´t. We then got dropped off in this tiny village. As soon as we got off the bus we had guys in motorcycles coming up to us asking if we wanted rides to the beach. We asked how long it was to walk and they told us 20 min. The motorcycles were cheap they were only charging us $2000 each, so we got on and they dropped us off, they were nice enough to tell us that they could come back when we wanted because there was nobody on the beach! So they came back promptly at 5pm to pick us all up. The beach was really nice and I didn´t mind the scenic hour and a half ride.

Colombia was great and I´m sad that I wasn´t there longer, I will miss it for sure!

Colombia

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:26:06 -0400

I arrived in Bogota late on May 9th. It was freezing! I got a taxi and met my friends at another friends house who had family in Bogota. I explored Bogota the next day, took a train up this steep hill and got a nice view of the city. We also saw the gold museum which had a Lot of gold! (who would have thought). Other than that Bogota really doesn’t have that much to see, not really a tourist city more of a business hub. Bogota was also too cold for my liking, the next day I booked my ticket and headed to the North of Colombia, Cartagena.
Cartagena is a beautiful city, the old part of town is so nice and that’s right where my Hostal was. Makako was such a cute Hostal and I loved sitting on the hammocks writing my blog posts ;) Cartagena is a safe city as well, we would walk around the old part of town at night and I wouldn’t feel in danger at all.
The next day we walked to the port and got a boat that took us to Playa Blanca, this beautiful Caribbean beach with turquoise water and white sandy beaches. It was an amazing Island and we rented a hammock and slept right on the beach for $2.50. They have great snorkeling there apparently but I didn’t do any of that, lying on the beach tanning in the sun and sleeping in the shade was good enough for me. I met a guy riding a horse up and down the beach and he said early in the morning I could ride his horse if I wanted, I asked how much it would cost and he said “however much you want to give me”. 5:30 am I woke up to a stray dog kicking sand in my face, all over my stuff and on my hammock, I decided to get up as I waited for the cowboy to come I got to see all the fishermen in there little tiny canoe like boats going to catch some
Fish before the heat of the day. My cowboy came and he gave me the reins to the horse and told me to go explore. I hopped on the horse with my friends pants and my flip flops and took off along the beach. This horse was testing me and started galloping as soon as I got on, eventually the horse realized I was in control and slowed down. That is also when I realized I don’t know any commands to give to horses in Spanish! Lol. I was relying on my body weight the reins to control this horse! It was amazing nobody on the beach and I was up early enough to see the sunrise. I am now back in Cartagena, staying here a couple more nights before I head to Santa Marta and Taganga. It’s hard to leave this beautiful city…

Galapagos

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:00:32 -0400

Well my trip has really begun!

First I´ll start with some helpful tips on how to do Galapagos as cheaply as possible.

I traveled May 2nd and Airfare round trip from Guayaquil to Galapagos and back was $430 with Aerogal.

Once you arrive on either San Cristobal or Santa Cruz (Baltra) you must pay a $100 park entrance fee.

San Cristobal is a nice Island, one of the bigger ones, taxi from airport to center should only cost $1.00.

You can find accommodation for $15-20 dollars per person per night.

Food is pretty expensive but you can usually get a lunch for about $6 dollars.

Day tours are what I chose to do since cruises cost normally $600 or more.

I did a day tour which allowed us to snorkel in 3 different areas and a lunch for $50. It was worth it to see the marine life along with hammerhead sharks if your lucky.

The next day we paid a taxi $50 for the day and he took us into the highlands. We saw this really neat tree house which included beds, toilets, kitchen! The owner will rent it out if you want to sleep in a real tree house for $20 per night. Really neat idea and definitely worth taking a look. It cost $1 to go in and see it, because it´s private property, but it´s worth it. They also have a bedroom below the tree!

Then the taxi takes you to the Tortoise breading center in the highlands, it´s a nice walk and you see all different size turtles. Then they take you to a beautiful beach, bring bug repellent because the horseflies are relentless.

Boats from one island to the next cost $25 one way and the afternoon boats sometimes cost $30. They leave at 7am and at 2 pm (really inconvenient times). It takes about 2 hours to get from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz as well as Santa Cruz to Isebella.

Santa Cruz is the middle island, it is more expensive than the other two. Santa Cruz is also the best place to book tours to islands that are farther away. Although tours to islands such as Floriana are about $85 just for the day.

I recommend seeing the lava tunnels in Santa Cruz. You take a taxi and ask them to take you to the ones that also have the tortoise breading center. There are lava tunnels that are closer to the center of town, but they are not the same. The taxi ride is about 30 min there and will cost you $30 there and back. The taxi driver will stay with you the whole time. Once you finish looking at the giant elephant tortoises they take you to this lava cave, VERY COOL! It takes about 15 min to walk through it, with a small part where you have to get down on your hands and knees and army crawl. You get a little muddy, but it´s a really neat experience. Total cost for the Breading center and the cave is $3.

Isebella is the 3rd island and the biggest. It was by far my favorite. You can see all types of animals on this island as well as two volcanoes. Volcano trip which includes lunch costs $35. It´s about a 4 hour hike, but a fairly mild hike.

Biggest recommendation is Las Tunneles. They were formed by the volcano millions of years ago. Tour costs $60 includes a snack. You take a 45 min boat ride to one side of the island. These tunnels are unique in the world with crystal clear water and not very deep. As the boat drives through these amazing tunnels you can see everything in the beautiful turquoise water. Tons of different fish! Then they stop and let you climb on the tunnels. You see perfectly,huge marine turtles swimming beneath you. Fishes of all different colors. Then they take you to another spot where you get to snorkel with the Turtles as well as white tip sharks, penguins, manta rays, sea lions. It´s an amazing tour! For my travel budget this $60 was the best I ever spent!

Isebella is also famous for it´s beautiful beaches. Go see for yourself.

When I booked my flight I was flying out of San Cristobal both arriving and departing. If possible, it´s better to book your arrival on San Cristobal and Departure on Baltra. That way it saves you a $25-30 boat ride back to the original island. I didn’t have that option so once I arrived I went and I only had to pay $10 to change my ticket. It saved me $15 and lots of time!

Diving is definitely a popular activity in the Galapagos and it is highly suggested. A dive that starts at 6am and goes until 1pm cost about $150.

The Galapagos is an amazing place to visit, I highly recommend it, although I tried to do it as cheaply as possible it does add up. People on the islands are very friendly and helpful.

Great place! I already miss it!

Now I´m off to Colombia

Taxi, Lice, Parasites and Degree!

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:07:59 -0400

It’s been a month since I’ve update my blog, but I promise I have been extremely busy. So much happens all the time it’s so hard to keep up. So where to start…

I was unfortunately able to experience the lovely Taxi Express while here in Guayaquil. But I knew the risk I was taking when I got in the car. I took the Taxi with a girl friend of mine and we were cautious about which one we got into, we were late for a birthday party so we decided to take a taxi from the street, and yep, we got in a yellow Taxi. Long story short, another taxi pulls up with a man yelling out the window with a gun telling our taxi to pull over. Two men got in our taxi with guns and robs us of everything we had, including my rings :(…then they left us with our sim card from our phones and 5 dollars and dropped us off in a dark road in the middle of nowhere. We got a ride to the bus terminal from some random people who were closing up there shop, and we took the city bus back home. Not the best experience, definitely don’t want to re live it… so lesson learnt, I call taxi’s all the time now, even when I’m late for birthdays.

About three days later after the taxi indecent I noticed my head was extremely itchy, I had to get my friend to look and yep, I had lice. I have never had lice in my life, and it’s safe to say I freaked out. Now I realized that lice isn’t the end of the world, but I have LONG hair. I went to the pharmacy and bought two different kinds of lice shampoo, I went a little over board…My friend stayed up until 4:30am picking out my hair.

Now that I was lice free, I had a week were things were alright. Then about a week later my stomach started to really hurt every time I ate something. I found out that it’s common here for everyone to take Parasite medication about every 6 months because they all get Parasites from poor water and such. So I went and bought Parasite medications and my stomach was feeling much better the next day :)

Yesterday was my last day of exams and papers. I’m officially finished my University Degree. Feels good! I am now on my way to work in a small beach town for a week. Then coming back to Guayaquil for a day, then going to the Galapagos for a week, after that I am starting my real travels all around the rest of South America.

My plan..

Start in Colombia, I have lots of friends who are going to be there, so I don’t have to worry about traveling alone. Then I am going to fly to Peru, then Bolivia, then Chile, Argentina, and then Brazil :) I’ve been doing my research trying to find how I can get my Visa for Brazil since they really don’t make it very easy for Canadians, but I’ve found a loop hole I think ;) Guess we will find out if it works.

I don’t know how much access I will have to the internet on my trips, I know some places of course, but so far in Ecuador…It has not been that easy to find if I’m not at my own house.

Can’t wait for the Adventure I have ahead of me. :) I’ll try to write as much as I can while I’m traveling. As for now, I’m off to a going away party.

Adios

In “Same”

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:46:47 -0400

In “Same”

Time to get caught up!

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:38:29 -0400

Well I’ve been home for a week now from traveling the coast of Ecuador and I feel so behind in everything already!

This sickness that I have is slowing me down as well, but I think I’ve started coughing so I think I’m on the recovering stages now.

The coast of Ecuador was beautiful as always. I started in Esmeraldas then Monpiche, then Same, then Pernales, Canoa, Puerto Lopez, Montañita and home to Guayaquil.

My favorite beach is still “Same”. It had the nicest sand to lie on, nicest water and waves to body board and I liked the people there.

Since we did most of our traveling during the week things were quite inexpensive which was great! Hostels were $5 a night! :) Man it’s going to be hard to go back to Canada where things are so expensive!

All in all it was a great trip along the coast of Ecuador, now I can’t wait to go to the Galapagos. Lots of my friends went during the break and so I have some great advice and tip on where to go :)

"Well I am off to pick up Autumn my Canadian friend who is here for only 2 weeks. I’m..."

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:52:19 -0500

“Well I am off to pick up Autumn my Canadian friend who is here for only 2 weeks. I’m traveling all the way to Quito (9 hours) on a wonderful bus ;) Then we are going to travel the whole coast and back down to Guayaquil. I will have lots of blog posts after this week of traveling, but for now, I will be without internet! Xo Lots to tell!”

- Sarah

The other side of Guayaquil…

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:21:41 -0500

The other side of Guayaquil…

Josephine (Candy) one of the most interesting people I have met,...

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:42:10 -0500

Josephine (Candy) one of the most interesting people I have met, I will never forget this interesting woman.

"I apologize for the horrible spelling and grammar in these posts. But this is how I look at..."

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:33:05 -0500

“I apologize for the horrible spelling and grammar in these posts. But this is how I look at it…I’m here to learn Spanish and I am becoming so immersed in Spanish I am forgetting English. Ok not totally true but I feel my grammar is worse than normal… You get the jist!”

- Me

Hey Sarah. I love your blog! I just read through the first few posts! But how do I comment on each post? Is this a feature you can enable, where I can comment below each post?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:26:09 -0500

Hey Bames, Yep just downloaded something so now you should be able to comment on each post! Go for it! Can’t wait to hear ur feedback! xo

Some useful Information

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:36:59 -0500

For those of you wanting to come to Ecuador these are some common questions answered.

Guayaquil is the biggest City in Ecuador- Quito is the Capital.

Guayaquil is not a very pretty city, and is somewhat dangerous, if your just traveling I think the only reason to stop in Guayaquil would be to transfer buses.

When traveling through South America buses are WAY cheaper than plane.

I take a bus from Guayaquil to Esmeraldas which is basically going from the South of Ecuador to the North (9 hours) and it costs $12.50. Keep in mind the buses are more dangerous at night, because of the lack of proper roads and the fact that most windshield wipers don’t even work if the buses have them at all, it makes for a somewhat interesting ride… It usually rains hard at night causing road closures and the whole bit… Hence why windshield wipers would be appreciated. But I have traveled one night bus and from Guayaquil to Esmeraldas and I’m still alive :)

Food is quite inexpensive, you can usually get a good lunch for around $3.

Taxi’s are cheap as well! So when I don’t feel like experiencing the “O so fun” bus rides I jump in taxi’s. Only problem is that Guayaquil is known for what they call “Express Taxi” which means you get in a taxi, then the taxi robs you and drops you off in the middle of no where…and that’s the nicest they do.

It’s a little bit twisted because, apparently yellow taxi’s are the worst for that kind of thing. It’s sometimes better to get in an unmarked taxi… yep.. that means getting in a car that looks like every other car on the road, but this one is a taxi. lol. My host family gave me the number of a taxi company and they are a reputable company.

Cellphones- There are two carriers. Claro and Movistar. Claro has worst serivce but everyone uses them and it’s cheaper to call another Claro phone than Movistar…So I bought a cheap Claro phone for $40. They have credit here some plans but credit is more common; so I normally put $6 on my phone and that lasts about a week.

Don’t expect internet cafés here… they are tiny little rooms with a long line up of people waiting to use the internet. Internet is still not to easy to find. And even when you do find it, it’s slow…be patient.

Besides the usual abundance of “compliments” from the men, the people in Ecuador are really friendly. They are always curious where the “Gringa” is from. By the way, any white person here is called Gringo or Gringa, here it is not politically incorrect and they do not mean it in an offensive manner either.

Remember no drinking tap water! Unfortunately the water is not safe to drink here, the Ecuadorians do not drink it either. That means bottles and bottles of water. Bottled Water is normally 50 cents. Only problem with this is they don’t have recycling here! Apparently a recycling program was only put in place 2 years ago, and I haven’t seen one bin to put bottles. :( I hope Ecuador catches on quick and starts putting recycling bins right beside the garbage’s.

Well all the tips I can think of for now, more to come! xo

The football game I went to. Turned out great! Emelec won...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:06:50 -0500

The football game I went to. Turned out great! Emelec won againts another team from La Cierra. 3-2

Faces of Ecuador- Making String

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:06:55 -0500

Faces of Ecuador- Making String

Hermosa, Preciosa, Linda, Mujer de mi Vida...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:55:52 -0500

Exams, Papers and all the rest are done for this Bi-Semester! Which means I’m officially on holidays for about a week and a half. I have a few days here before going to pick up my friend from Canada so I decided to go to the first day back at the foundation I am volunteering for.

Now to get to the foundation I have to take the city bus to the Main Bus Terminal of Guayaquil. It’s about 20 minutes away without traffic. I live in a suburb called Samborondon, it’s kind of a big island in between two rivers. So to get to the bus terminal I cross over a big river then you can see the terminal in sight as well as the airport which is right there as well.

Getting to the foundation was not a problem; once at the bus terminal I walk through a bit of a sketchy area where they sell clothes I think I figured out today that it used to be the old bus terminal before they build this new one. I continue to walk on a main busy road and then I arrive at my foundation. Of course a month ago before the kids went on vacation from school they told me that school would start back up on March 1st. So I show up today and no kids :( To bad, I was really looking forward to starting today, but it’s not til Monday.

I proceed to walk back towards the terminal to catch the city bus back home I walk past the same people who say the same things everytime I walk by..

Hermosa, Preciosa, Linda, Mujer de mi Vida… Whistles, Kisses, Stares. If you come to South America and don’t get whistled at and these things said to you, you better check yourself cause these guys say it everyday! I think when I’m back in North America I’m going to go through withdrawal or self-estime issues or something because honestly almost every man you walk by will say something to you. The other exchange students the first couple of weeks would get so insulted, they have now realized…you have to get used to it.

So today I stood at the bus stop that I stand at every time I want to return home number 81 as I waited there weren’t too many people around waiting for the same bus and then I found out why… All of a sudden I start to see bus number 81. I stand by the bus stop where it normally stops..but then I notice people start running for the bus… Keep in mind the bus is still on the major road way… everyone starts getting on the bus from the back door and one man yells my way telling me to run on the bus, as I get closer I notice the bus is jam packed… people are now pushing each other shoving like cattle to all fit onto this bus. (So much for the bus stop). So I had a choice at this second in my life…wait for the next bus, which would probably be the exact same, or enter onto the first step of the back of this bus and potentially risk falling off in the middle of a jam packed highway. Naturally, I got on! The one man helped me push my way on and I managed to squeeze myself up to the top stare where I could hold on to a pole. Now already arms were crossing over faces and armpits in other peoples faces, but as the bus went through the terminal to leave there were about 8 more people who managed to squeeze on the back of this bus. This meant I was literally jammed in between two people with absolutely no room to move my feet what so ever. Not only was it too close for comfort but it was hot! Which means my body only got sweatier with every moment that I was pressed between two people. Of course the bus has to take two major traffic circles, which mean while turning normally you shift your balance to compensate for the turn. But when jam packed on a bus in Ecuador, you unfortunately can’t even move your feet. So yep, we leaned. In the little corner in the back of the bus you just see everyone leaning and falling on each other. The only good thing about touching everyone else is that you were fit in like a puzzle piece which means you almost felt secure. At this point I couldn’t help but laugh. The only advantage to being stuck at the back of the bus right beside the door that might or might not open at any minute was that my stop was the first stop so I could just get off right there right?…

Of course once the bus stopped at the first stop I tell the man that helped me on the bus, “This is my stop, he needs to open the doors” then they all look at me and say “No mi niña, you have to get off at the front of the bus.” So I then had to squeeze my way through a bunch more people until finally I go on solid ground again.

As soon as I got home I peeled off my clothes and took the coldest shower of my life. It was much needed.

Now to be fair to the city transport, I have been on full buses before but NONE like this. So it all depends on what time of day you are taking this bus. Every public bus costs 25 cents, I think it’s a pretty good deal. Dust and dirt is permanently stuck on the side of every bus which I don’t really understand because every night there is a torrential down poor yet the buses seem to be just as dirty as the days before.

When waiting to cross major road ways, my suggestion…close your mouth and try not to face the traffic. I made the mistake while waiting at a cross walk once, and before I knew it my ice creme was covered in dirt and grime. You can only imagine the dirt that was now covering my legs merely from standing on the side of the road. Also, don’t be fooled by the traffic police who stand in the middle of the road “directing traffic”. They are not there to help you cross, they are there… well…I’m not even sure why they are there, because they don’t do anything! I think maybe they become somewhat useful when the traffic lights randomly stop working but whenever the traffic lights stop working for me, they are never around.

Well that’s enough about traffic for now, I could go on and on about it, but let’s face it, traffic is crazy nothing more to it.

Carnival Survial Guide in Ecuador

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:14:47 -0500

This weekend was Carnival in all of Latin and South America. Everywhere celebrates differently but I chose to go to the very North of Ecuador named Esmeraldas. Known as the area of black people, it was very true. Esmeraldas was amazing, also known for it’s beautiful beaches and it was just that. After my weekend of Carnival I decided it would be a good idea to write a set of guidelines if you should ever be in Ecuador for Carnival.

First things first… Getting a bus ticket to Esmeraldas

1) We went Thursday night to get our tickets for Friday night since we knew the bus terminal would be packed. We show up and finally found the booths to purchase tickets to Esmeraldas, 2 of the booths said that there were no more tickets to Esmeraldas until Sunday, finally we went to the third booth, they said that they had tickets but couldn’t sell them to us until the next day (Friday) the day of. As unsecure as it sounded we had no other choice. We talked to one of the men and they told us to come find him tomorrow and he would have 3 tickets for us. He told us to come at 12pm. So the next morning we went to the terminal at 12, the man we were supposed to find was of course no where to be found, so we tried our luck at the booth again and they said no and that the bus hasn’t been confirmed yet and to call at 4pm to get our tickets. We went back to our houses, bags packed, we made the phone call and what do we hear…no more bus tickets to Esmeraldas.

Now normally you would be discourage by now, but it was Carnival and I was going to do anything it took to make sure I got on a bus! I knew buses were normally leaving at 9-9:30 pm to go so we went to the terminal at 8pm to start our search. Once again we went to the booth and they told us the same thing, but this time we had our Ecuadorian friend with us. While we were waiting in one of the many lines he was waiting in another, all of a sudden he disappeared I called him and he was a couple booths down pushing his way through a crowd. He was waiting in one of the lines and a man came up wispering “Esmeraldas, Esmeraldas” He followed him and sure enough they had just opened another bus going. And yep we got tickets! Call it luck if you want, but that’s just how things work in Ecuador :)

2) Always carry toilet paper with you- you will need it.

3) When going out at night for Carnival be prepared to get spray Foamed. It’s inevitable.

4) Bring sunscreen for the beaches! I’ve never burnt so much in my life, I don’t know what I am going to die of first; skin cancer or skin poisoning from the excessive amount of bug spray I put on myself every morning and night.

5) Be prepared to get wet. One the the last nights of Carnival we arrived to the house to find our neighbors and family friends outside soaking wet with homemade water guns. So we left all our important technology in the car and prepared to get wet. It was a lot of fun with huge pools of water and music in the streets everyone spraying you with foam and water. Then they brought out the flour and oatmeal. Yep, they put that all over us too. They were thoughtful and spared us from the eggs that normally gets thrown on us too.

6) When driving 9 hours in car home from Carnival, as hot as it is, when passing pedestrians on the street, DO UP YOUR WINDOWS. When passing trucks with people in the back of them; DO UP YOUR WINDOWS. It was a great way to end Carnival by the simple mistake we made. It happened so fast before we knew it we were driving 100 km per hour and drenched! Yep some how people in the back of a truck manage to splash water in our front window at 100 km per hour. I couldn’t stop laughing.

7) When asking for directions ask 3 different people…If someone asks you for directions in Ecuador it’s rude to say you don’t know (even if you don’t) so they point strait ahead and nod their head saying it’s that way… Hence why you should ask at least 3 people each time. One of the 3 people we asked said it was really close only about 3 minutes (we were trying to find the beach) so we kept on driving, 45 minutes later we proceeded to ask another person who said it was also very close. 15 minutes later we had arrived! So when asking for a time line… be prepared for longer.

8) If you are not from Ecuador, please don’t try driving in Ecuador. Somehow a two lane HWY at 100 km per hour suddenly becomes 4 lanes according to the other drivers.

Well I am learning lots and having amazing experience! If you follow those simple Carnival guidelines you will be sure to have a great trip!