Before I talk about where we are now I have to comment on Mike´s last post which stated that our newer hostel in Cuenca was "1,000 times better" than the first one. Correction: we ended up having to change rooms TWICE at the new hostel due to the muddy rain water that was pouring down on our beds while it rained outside. We finally decided to just leave Cuenca because the second room was flooding too and we had had enough at this point, despite the fact that we loved the city, the artist we met, the food, and more. So we got on a bus and headed to Vilcabamba, a lush mountain town famous for its temporate climate and the longevity of its inhabitants (attributed to the life-giving water here which, ironically, may also be blamed for my upset stomach).
We are staying at a BEAUTIFUL hosteria on top of the mountains overlooking the small town, and for $14 each a night we have a quiet room complete with a private balcony and hammock, a luxurious swimming pool, a free delicious breakfast of eggs, fruit and crepes, a outdoor bar with ping'pong, pool and movies, and a day-spa where we enjoyed a 75-minute full body massage yesterday for... get this... $18. Mike especially appreciated the massage after his horseback riding trip he took earlier that day. Those who know me don´t need an explanation for why I did not go on that trip. And seeing everyone who went wincing when they sit down today, I´m really glad I opted to lay in the hammock and read "Fountainhead" instead. But Mike said it was fun and he got to practice his spanish with the guide.
The absolute highlight of our stay (ít even surpasses a 75 minute massage) was meeting this middle-aged couple from Cuenca at dinner the first night. He is a violinist in the Cuenca orchestra and had brought his guitar, and his wife her ocarina. They invited us to a private concert that evening on a grassy hill, under the stars of vilcabamba, overlooking the city. He played and sang ecuadorian music for us, including both spanish-style and Andian music in quechua (the language here), and the wife introduced each song by explaining the origins and the poetry. She sang the harmony and played the ocarina and I swear, it was so incredibly magical listening to this live music in the darkness. Unfortunately words cannot really get across how amazing this was to us. Weirdly enough, it was almost so intimate an evening that the next day when we saw them at breakfast all of us had that "morning after" awkwardness as if it had been a one-nigh-stand. Mike and I were all fidgety and couldn´t make eye contact, and I think they were the same! oh well, the awkwardness was worth it.
So, between enjoying the view, riding horses, getting massages, reading in a hammock, enjoying the pool, avoiding dogs on hikes, meeting cool people, playing cribbage, and watching Lord of The Rings when it was raining... it´s safe to say we never want to leave and are dreading the long bus-ride to Peru tomorrow. But we are both really excited to get started in Peru and especially the Inca Trail. We´ll post again when theres something interesting to report, which wont be for at least 2-3 days!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Pictures from WEEK 1
Finally they are here. Sorry for duplicates but we don´t really have the energy to sift through them all right now! Love, Mclivelys.
http://picasaweb.google.com/LivelyLaura/SAWeek1?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/LivelyLaura/SAWeek1?feat=directlink
Down in the dumps and talking birds
So last night we got into Cuenca, Ecuador´s third largest city, after an 8 hour bus ride. We took a taxi to our hostal and it was a freaking dump. We had to change rooms because the first one was so bad...carpets that were moldy and probably 80 years old and a sink that had water that didnt shut off. It was gross and we don´t have high standards. Then the next room we got, the beds were at like 70 degree angles and as soon as we turned off the lights, we could hear the guy in the next room snoring like a hacksaw. Needless to say, after a tiring busride, bad weather in Banos, and this horrible hostal, moral was low.
Luckily, this morning we woke up and explored around and Cuenca is a gorgeous town...the most European-looking of the cities that we have seen so far with mostly whitewashed buildings with red tile roofs and a rushing river that cuts through the middle of town. It also helped that we had one of the best breakfasts that we´ve had so far at this huge market in the middle of town. Breakfast empanadas with cheese and sugar on top, tomales with meat and eggs, coffee, etc. Then we found a new hostal which is 1,000 percent better than the old one. Today we spent the day walking around and the highlight was the city´s main museum.
This thing had an awesome exhibit where you walked through life size models of indigenous huts...the highlight was a room that was full of shrunken heads. The tribal people used to shrink the heads of anybody that they killed during battle. They apparently thought that this gave them the strength of their former enemy. Also (I´m just guessing here), they looked pretty bad-ass walking around with 25 little heads of people that they had killed. Probably pretty intimidating. So it was a cool museum and we were on our way out when the reception person told us that we still had one other part to see. They had this HUGE other area that had the foundations of Incan buildings that had been on the site thousands of years ago (only foundations because all of the former stones were taken and used to build colonial buldings after the Spanish took over). Anyway, it was beautiful with a huge garden surrounded by Incan ruins and bright blue sky. Best of all, the last part of the park featured a mini-zoo with a hill full of llamas (our first sighting) and exotic birds.
Bright green and red macaws, giant hawks, etc. We walked past this one cage full of green parrots and as we were walking by one of them did that cat-call whistle that men do when an attractive woman walks by. You know the one...wheee-WHOOO. So we stopped and started whistling back. He did it again and I laughed. Then the whole cage of about 20 parrots all started laughing at once...I´ve never heard anything like it...it was like they were all people. At the next cage, the parrots said ´hola´ as we walked up. Crazy.
We left feeling very happy, and stopped at a Colombian restaurant for what was the best meal that we have had on the trip so far. I had this stew with pinto beans, plaintains, avacado, and like a tomato sauce...it maybe sounds gross but it was incredible...with a side of Colombian corn tortillas and some of the best chorizo that I have had. Laura had awesome spinach soup, and rice with beef. All of this, with a juice made of tree-tomato and a beer, was 6 bucks. 6. Say what you will about South America, but you can eat amazing food here for practically nothing...I love it.
Tomorrow we are going to just take it easy around Cuenca. Then we head south to Loja the day after tomorrow (5 hour ride). We´ll stay in Loja for a day or two and then we take an overnight bus into Peru. Chances are we will take buses all the way to Lima where we will then catch a plane to Cusco. That´s the plan for now anyway. We´ll keep you posted.
Luckily, this morning we woke up and explored around and Cuenca is a gorgeous town...the most European-looking of the cities that we have seen so far with mostly whitewashed buildings with red tile roofs and a rushing river that cuts through the middle of town. It also helped that we had one of the best breakfasts that we´ve had so far at this huge market in the middle of town. Breakfast empanadas with cheese and sugar on top, tomales with meat and eggs, coffee, etc. Then we found a new hostal which is 1,000 percent better than the old one. Today we spent the day walking around and the highlight was the city´s main museum.
This thing had an awesome exhibit where you walked through life size models of indigenous huts...the highlight was a room that was full of shrunken heads. The tribal people used to shrink the heads of anybody that they killed during battle. They apparently thought that this gave them the strength of their former enemy. Also (I´m just guessing here), they looked pretty bad-ass walking around with 25 little heads of people that they had killed. Probably pretty intimidating. So it was a cool museum and we were on our way out when the reception person told us that we still had one other part to see. They had this HUGE other area that had the foundations of Incan buildings that had been on the site thousands of years ago (only foundations because all of the former stones were taken and used to build colonial buldings after the Spanish took over). Anyway, it was beautiful with a huge garden surrounded by Incan ruins and bright blue sky. Best of all, the last part of the park featured a mini-zoo with a hill full of llamas (our first sighting) and exotic birds.
Bright green and red macaws, giant hawks, etc. We walked past this one cage full of green parrots and as we were walking by one of them did that cat-call whistle that men do when an attractive woman walks by. You know the one...wheee-WHOOO. So we stopped and started whistling back. He did it again and I laughed. Then the whole cage of about 20 parrots all started laughing at once...I´ve never heard anything like it...it was like they were all people. At the next cage, the parrots said ´hola´ as we walked up. Crazy.
We left feeling very happy, and stopped at a Colombian restaurant for what was the best meal that we have had on the trip so far. I had this stew with pinto beans, plaintains, avacado, and like a tomato sauce...it maybe sounds gross but it was incredible...with a side of Colombian corn tortillas and some of the best chorizo that I have had. Laura had awesome spinach soup, and rice with beef. All of this, with a juice made of tree-tomato and a beer, was 6 bucks. 6. Say what you will about South America, but you can eat amazing food here for practically nothing...I love it.
Tomorrow we are going to just take it easy around Cuenca. Then we head south to Loja the day after tomorrow (5 hour ride). We´ll stay in Loja for a day or two and then we take an overnight bus into Peru. Chances are we will take buses all the way to Lima where we will then catch a plane to Cusco. That´s the plan for now anyway. We´ll keep you posted.
A City Called Bathroom and 5 year old Hostal Owners
So when we left off last we weren´t sure how we were going to be continuing our trip...via plane or bus. We decided that we had to go by bus since the cheapest flight from Ecuador to Peru was like 1,000 bucks or something stupìd like that. So the next morning in Otavalo we woke up (to the sound of fireworks...which they apparrently set off every Sunday starting at 7am), and took a 2 hour bus south back to Quito. We then hopped into a taxi and rode to the south end of Qutio which took about 40 minutes or so but was much more fun because we rode with two people from Spain and chatted with them most of the time (thank god laura habla espanol). Then hopped on a 4 hour bus ride south to Banos...which I understand to be the spanish word for bathrooms...but it probably means ´baths´to them because there are some natural hotsprings around the town.
So we got off the bus in Banos, which is a very small and touristy town, and walked around to try to find a hostal. The first place we went to, there was nobody around, but a little girl of about 3 years of age was walking up the stairs to the reception desk at the same time that we were. Nobody was at the reception desk but the little girls turns to us and in this tiny voice, politely asks us in Spanish if we have a reservation. We laugh, and tell her that no we don´t. Then she asks us how many of us there will be. We tell her dos personas. We were about to ask her if she ran the hostal. Then she said ´hold on, let me go get my mommy.´ And walked to a nearby door and tried to get in. When it wouldn´t open she started crying loudly...after about 5 minutes the door quickly opened and someone let the little girl in and then slammed the door in our faces. I wonder what the mom was doing in there...hmmm
Anyway, this was all to weird and so we left and found a nice little place with a great mattress- which is VERY hard to find. Then we were going to go try out the hotsprings but the line to get in was about 500 people long...and when we realized that all these people we going to be heading into two tiny little pools of hot water, we decided to skip that. The night probably would have been a total bust but we walked passed a volleyball court.
I should explain that Ecuador is obsessed with volleyball...but it is totally different from the game that we know in the US. First of all, the net is like 5 feet HIGHER than the net in America. Which makes NO sense because the average Ecuadorian is about 5 feet shorter thant the average american. So when I first started watching I thought, ´these guys suck.´ But, I didnt realize that the ball is actually a soccer ball and about 3 times heavier than the ball we use. After watching for a while, Laura convinced me to put some shoes and and to head back to the courts (there were three of them lit up by lights) and try to get into a game.
Turns out that the games are played for money. I figured that it would be for a few bucks per game, but when we asked around, it turned about that they play for TWO HUNDRED dollars PER GAME. No wonder they were yelling at each other like crazy whenever somebody missed a pass or a set. Not wanted to lose money, I finally asked a couple of kids if I could play with them and ended up playing Ecuadorian volleyball for about an hour...let me tell you that it was a humbling experience. My arms still hurt because the freaking ball they use is like a rock and everytime I tried to spike it I just hit it into the net, and the kids would laugh at me and I would say ¨soy idiota¨...and so on for about an hour. Thanks to Laura pushing me, I got to have this totally unique experience and it totally made the night. Hopefully we can figure out how to upload pictures onto the blog so you can see how high the net is, etc.
Anyway, the next day we were going to go for a bike ride that was supposed to take all day and be great, but it was raining so instead we had to change our plans and hopped on an 8 hour bus ride to Cuenca which is where we are now. The next post will pick up from there!
So we got off the bus in Banos, which is a very small and touristy town, and walked around to try to find a hostal. The first place we went to, there was nobody around, but a little girl of about 3 years of age was walking up the stairs to the reception desk at the same time that we were. Nobody was at the reception desk but the little girls turns to us and in this tiny voice, politely asks us in Spanish if we have a reservation. We laugh, and tell her that no we don´t. Then she asks us how many of us there will be. We tell her dos personas. We were about to ask her if she ran the hostal. Then she said ´hold on, let me go get my mommy.´ And walked to a nearby door and tried to get in. When it wouldn´t open she started crying loudly...after about 5 minutes the door quickly opened and someone let the little girl in and then slammed the door in our faces. I wonder what the mom was doing in there...hmmm
Anyway, this was all to weird and so we left and found a nice little place with a great mattress- which is VERY hard to find. Then we were going to go try out the hotsprings but the line to get in was about 500 people long...and when we realized that all these people we going to be heading into two tiny little pools of hot water, we decided to skip that. The night probably would have been a total bust but we walked passed a volleyball court.
I should explain that Ecuador is obsessed with volleyball...but it is totally different from the game that we know in the US. First of all, the net is like 5 feet HIGHER than the net in America. Which makes NO sense because the average Ecuadorian is about 5 feet shorter thant the average american. So when I first started watching I thought, ´these guys suck.´ But, I didnt realize that the ball is actually a soccer ball and about 3 times heavier than the ball we use. After watching for a while, Laura convinced me to put some shoes and and to head back to the courts (there were three of them lit up by lights) and try to get into a game.
Turns out that the games are played for money. I figured that it would be for a few bucks per game, but when we asked around, it turned about that they play for TWO HUNDRED dollars PER GAME. No wonder they were yelling at each other like crazy whenever somebody missed a pass or a set. Not wanted to lose money, I finally asked a couple of kids if I could play with them and ended up playing Ecuadorian volleyball for about an hour...let me tell you that it was a humbling experience. My arms still hurt because the freaking ball they use is like a rock and everytime I tried to spike it I just hit it into the net, and the kids would laugh at me and I would say ¨soy idiota¨...and so on for about an hour. Thanks to Laura pushing me, I got to have this totally unique experience and it totally made the night. Hopefully we can figure out how to upload pictures onto the blog so you can see how high the net is, etc.
Anyway, the next day we were going to go for a bike ride that was supposed to take all day and be great, but it was raining so instead we had to change our plans and hopped on an 8 hour bus ride to Cuenca which is where we are now. The next post will pick up from there!
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