Photographs aren´t the same as moments in time, and the best moments in time tend to be those that are not captured on camera at all. Still, if you peruse my photos from the past week you will be struck by the same thing that I was most struck by – that every city, town and village in Ecuador that I have visited is utterly different from the next and that those differences are remarkable.
From the colonial style city of Guaranda to the colourful indigenous community of Simiatug, from the garish gawkiness of Guayaquil to the friendly coastal pueblos of Montañita and Puerto Lopez, I feel as though I have passed through a whole world´s variety of places within the bounds of a relatively small country. We travelled down through the Andes, a stunning route I will never fail to gasp at, and later in the week across the banana plantations with their houses on stilts and then up to the lovely, warm, vibrant coast.
In Simiatug, there was a kind of mutual staring game going on, with the locals providing endless fascination for me going about their simple daily lives in their traditional dress and me for them with my strange western clothing and ghostly white complexion (although by my standards I am now quite tanned!!).
We arrived early in the day after getting up at 5am to catch the market traders´ bus from Ambato, and by 8am the place was all a-bustle with people selling livestock, vegetables and welly boots amongst other stuff. We talked to the craftswomen at a local fundacion (kind of a not-for-profit organisation – Ecuador is full of them) who hand-weave bags, children´s clothes, purses, toys and so on for a fair wage. This was the beginning of a week of long-winded interviews in Spanish which must be helping me to develop my language skills but can be pretty exhausting too.
It was also the beginning of a week full of cramped bus rides as varied as the places we visited; after one particularly hair-raising journey – which included a three-point turn hanging off the edge of a cliff – I got up from my seat and my knees were completely filthy from the back of the seat in front. Meanwhile, on a later route from Guayaquil to Montañita we were given the luxury of leg room and air conditioning on a sparkling clean vehicle; the kind of thing I have really learnt not to take for granted!
Guaranda, a city that is not actually colonial but rebuilt in the Spanish style still popular at the time, was a fascinating place in a very different way to Simiatug. Its main square was apparently the only one to have been designed by Guayasamin, a well-established painter and disciple of Fidel Castro, and this is evident from the way the park´s centrepiece is curved into a socialist symbol. We also were taken by one of Martijn´s many contacts to a gorgeous old colonial hospital building which is now used for a multitude of purposes including music rehearsal rooms and an archaeological museum, and to the university which I was excited to see had a student radio programme which was being recorded right in front of us.
Later in the week our task was to review the nightlife in Guayaquil, Ecuador´s biggest and most ridiculed city. The industrial, badly designed waterfront, the Malecon, made me giggle and reminded me ever so slightly of Liverpool or of Brest, although it is far more hideous to look at than the former and a bit less hideous than the latter. Like the down-trodden and stereotyped cities of Europe that I so love, Guayaquil has plenty of quirky character and more than its fair share of friendly people. It also has one quite attractive area, Las Peñas, which we spent an afternoon strolling through, and my god it was hot and humid – I could hardly believe it was November and nearly fainted from the strength of the sun, but a traditional two-course almuerzo (Ecuadorian lunch) in what appeared to be a family´s living room saved me, and we continued up to the top of the 300 steps to see the panoramic view of that odd and delightful city. The nightlife in the “Zona Rosa” was predictably amusing, with the usual selection of chancers grinding up to us and trying their Latino luck, and the choice of bars was a hell of a lot more varied than that on offer in Quito´s gringo-targeted, seedy Mariscal.
With Guayaquil been and done, we headed to the south coast (actually in the west) on Saturday morning to chill and check out the work of the fundaciones there. Montañita is a surfer´s paradise with as many hippies living there as locals and a beautiful beach stretching out for miles. The town was full of cocktail and smoothie bars (I could never tire of their many concoctions) and shops selling pretty things which I had to resist buying as my backpack is already bulging and I have to get to Peru and Bolivia with it yet. The following day we were met by a local lady who took us via trucks and buses to the outlying communities La Entrada, San José and Dos Mangas, so that we could see the work of jewellery makers and other craftspeople in the region. Once again, I was touched by the simplicity and modesty of these people and of their eagerness to help us out however they can. I only hope that our articles result in mutual help for them, and increased interest in their products without contributing to attracting too much tourism as to ruin their tranquil existence. Back in the more garish Montañita I also suppressed smiles as our hosts at the hostel wittered at us through huge stoned eyes and I wondered at their life; smoking themselves senseless day in, day out in a beach town and greeting travellers as they pass through; what a life!
Our plans to head to Puerto Lopez, a fishing village north of Montañita for our last evening, were almost scuppered as we missed the last bus, but we decided to take an expensive taxi costing us each $5 (a bus would be $1 per hour) and it was well worth it in my opinion. I have never been a morning person but in Ecuador I have never slept beyond 8am (and these people seem to think 6am is a reasonable hour to start meeting up!) and so I managed to fulfil my plans to get up at a decent time and watch the fishermen bringing in their catch and selling it in the market tent on the beach. Although many independent travellers have caught wind of Puerto Lopez and take time to visit, the village really retains its genuine feel and the local people still seem pleased to have us in their vicinity. I ate some of the best food I have ever tasted during our time along the coast (fresh fish twice a day; heaven!) although I can´t help but notice that different foods in Ecuador´s different regions is basically a variation on a theme – rice, beans or potatoes, fried platano and fish or meat, always always with a blob of aji spicy sauce – but still quite a novelty to me so I love it.
The bus back up to Quito was nothing short of a nightmare, as we left at 7pm and travelled for almost 12 hours overnight, plus the drivers were absolute maniacs and saw fit to race around corners, often racing against other buses on narrow pot-holed streets. At one point I made the mistake of opening my eyes and was faced with a typical Andean sheer-drop view as the bus continued to speed along. I thought that I would die on that bus, and was starting to mourn my unborn masterpiece writings (!) and the loves I have not yet loved, places I have not yet seen etc etc. So the sight of Quito was for once a welcome one to me yesterday morning and I slept off my exhaustion for the best part of the day.
Now I have a fair few articles to write, based on all those visits and interviews last week, and I am hoping to spend the next couple of weeks catching up with people in drizzly Quito and finishing off my work, as well as learning some salsa if I ever get round to it. I would like to fit in a trip to the jungle, but that depends on my budget and on time. Luis is still under the illusion that he is taking me paragliding, but I am not giving in to the peer pressure; I think I will just watch him and his friends jump instead!
My new flatmates are great and the apartment is really cosy and even has hot water sometimes (a luxury in Quito!). We are a mix of nationalities, and all can speak fluent French or English, but I am not giving in to the temptation and am struggling along in español as much as possible. In any case there are so many places that I have now heard about in South America that I have to visit, so I plan to return here one day for longer than three months – I was tempted to just not go home when I planned to this time, but unfortunately my purse is almost empty already and I also want to be in Manchester for Christmas because I think it would be pretty miserable being away from everyone at that time.
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