TravelStream™ news feed for member cweigand on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/cweigand en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:27:05 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1198341540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1198341540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1198341540/tpod.html Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:27:05 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Quilotoa, Ecuador

OK. Lets see here...where do I start. My favorite part of our trip so far. Leaving Riobamba we ventured north to an area 60-70 miles south of Quito called the Quilotoa Circuit, a loop of colorful high altitude authentic villages set amid a highly diverse landscape that I will surely mention later. From Latacunga, the jumping off point to the loop along the panamericana, we bused through patchwork fields and fogged-in/clouded-in mountains....blowing a tire on the bus along the way. We arrived in the little town of Zumbahua and instead of waiting in the wet and cold for a bus to come that was going to take a few hours we caught a little truck with a German couple to the poor high páramo (pristine treeless high altitude habitat) town of Quilotoa set at 12,600 ft. Not soon after, the sun started setting and we stayed the night in very very basic lodging, passing the rest of the night playing Mow with new friends and trying to get wet wood to start a fire as it was raining and extremely cold. Running water was restricted to only a few hours of the day and we had missed the timeframe.The next day we hiked five or so hours around the huge crater lake you'd see in most Ecuador coffee table books. It was beautiful for sure but not yet having seen Crater Lake in Oregon I felt a bit stupid. Along the way, we passed by a ton of miniature flowers which at 12.6k seemed quite peculiar.We are on the equator and I forget that. The going wasn´t too difficult and after five hours of seeing a crater lake to our right, it slowly became less stunning but neverthless a spectacular sight. Great as it was, we had our fill and decided to move further down the valley.Waiting alongside the road in the cloud/mist for a long long time, we thought we had missed the one bus of the day excluding the 3am bus that drives to Chugchilan, the next town along the loop. Thinking we were going to have to spend another night in wet and cold Quilotoa and not overly happy about it, we were soon greeted by the sounds of a bus blasting its horn in the distance as it made its way around blind corners. Upon seeing the bus, we soon understood why it was so delayed; there wasn´t a spot available. And by spot I am not talking about seats. Seats are hardly ever available unless you board early at a bus station and get lucky. A spot is just the space to be able to stand. This bus didn't even have that. So, as if riding in an Ecuadorian bus wasn't dangerous enough, for the next two hours (although we went only 22km), I had the ride of my life atop a rundown bus winding down a narrow, steep, curvy and at spots washed out dirt road which hugged the side of the Taochi canyon as it made its way down into the valley. As exciting as it was scary, I wasn´t too afraid until the boy who handles the bags, chickens, rabbits, beer, cut up beef and sacks of rice stacked atop the bus with me mentions that we are coming to the ´dangerous` spot. I proceed to ask him, "Peligroso? Buenisimo..." As if the last half hour of driving had been 'safe' in his eyes. He begins to tell me that the dangerous spot is where the road has washed out and been half-repaired numerous times and because of the heavy rain the night before, it could be very loose soil and ill-fitted to handle the extreme weight of the bus. Whew. We passed by it ok this time however, as it will turn out two days later, on the way out of the loop (we backtracked) we passed the same spot again half asleep at 5:30 in the morning. It had rained even more since the last passage. We did not know we were at the spot until 80 percent of the people in the bus did a mass exodus and there we sat in the furthest seat from the front, wondering what was going on and why so many people were leaving. We had just opened our eyes and were in the middle of nowhere. As it turns out, it was obviously for precautionary measures. Good luck we made it safely and thankfully this bus to had the 'Dios es mi Guia' aptly located on the windshield. Going back to the first bus ride, eventually, me on top and Maya crunched inside a bus not made for tall people like herself, we sped our way from the very top down the dramatically gorgeous canyon to the town of Chugchilan. The next day we used a milk-trucked for some short transportation and then hiked from Sigchos across the canyon to Isinlivi and the following day back across to Chugchilan passing tiny rural settlements along the way. Each town, no matter how small or remote always equipped with a basic church. One memory that will stand out is meeting a wood carver on one of our hikes and having him show us some of the things he made. He had never left the canyon and was perfectly content. The idea of Ecuador must be so big to him. The coast, the mountains, the low level temperate zones, the amazon... A very good guys he was.By far this is one of my favorite trips. Not only did we get to hike and see some very stunning land and traditional andean ways of life but it was an escape from the hustle and bustle of the cities and towns. I think what turns people away from coming is largely because of the difficulties in getting there and the fact that most people only come to see the crater. In Quilotoa we met 4 or 5 travellers who had just come to see the crater  for that one day. Unfortunate I suppose but at the same fortunate for me, they missed out on the more breathtaking vistas of the region and most beautiful places in Ecuador. Maybe it'll stay just hidden enough to stay that way forever. Hello to all. Next up, coastal time baby!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196035980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196035980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196035980/tpod.html Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:23:43 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Quito, Ecuador

¡Amigos! ¡Familia! ¡Bienvenidos! After nearly 24 grueling hours of extended flight and airport time, Maya and I have finally arrived at our destination, Quito, Ecuador. And so our trip commences...For those of you who don´t know, after graduating from the University of Oregon (Go Ducks) last June, Maya and I spent the next five months living and busting our arses in Enterprise, Oregon for the USFS as wildland firefighters. Not only was it an excellent job (paid to work outside all day) but it was an abnormally hot and dry summer and we got to see a lot of action. No it may not have been the most glamorous of jobs one would choose as a post college occupation or a common one at that, but we enjoyed it thoroughly and barring any huge changes we likely will be returning next June. Truth be told,  there just aren't many jobs out there that you can do seasonally like fighting fire (especially in a place as beautiful as Wallowa County) and earn enough money to subsidize a trip like this. I am pretty impressed with Maya for sticking it out so strongly in a workplace dominated by so many alpha-males! Myself included at times! Metaphorically, on more than one occasion (off of the fire line that is) she had to fight fire with fire... standing up to quell sexist remarks of course (note: this pertains less to non-Enterprise folks and more to off forest folks). Quite easy to foretell from the beginning, knowing her, she proved a lot of people wrong. I guess in a way it was just preparation for the Latin machismo complex that awaits her! So anyway, to those who think you have to be wealthy to travel to far off places or receive a huge handout from your parents to make ends meet, we are your inspiration. You don't have to sacrifice your career endeavors and  with a little planning, sacrifice and due diligence it can be done easily. So go. Don't wait and do not look back. From now until May 15th, we will be mostly traveling overland through Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and into Costa Rica for our flight home. Nothing however is set in stone. This is more like the rudimentary plan. The what, when, where and how are still entirely left open for change as we go. Uncertainty is part of the fun. With that, what we DO know is that instead of tripping across the entire continent of South America in a meager six months, we've narrowed it down to a region so that we have more time to see things and less ground to cover in order to do so. The main reason for heading north. The last thing we wanted to do was become overzealous and start skipping from one famous tourist attraction to another, spending hours and hours in a bus. Our intent is to experience more of what each unique country has to offer more intimately than what we would do coming for only a brief amount of time. Quality over Quantity. Always. We surely want to take things slow, absorb and give back as much as we can, do some unforgettable things together along the way and most of all travel, explore and be free for a change.  Since we both have spent a combined time of more than a 14 months in Spanish speaking countries and have spent time studying it a great deal already, we are looking forward to comfortably being back in a familiar but at the same time, new and exciting 'terra incognita'! We hope that you can keep tabs on us and enjoy our adventure along the way...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1200703980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1200703980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1200703980/tpod.html Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:42:13 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Cuenca, Ecuador

I was hit on by a young gay guy today while hanging out in the main plaza happily reading a book. He came and sat down on the bench next to me, uncomfortably passing glances discreetly my way. When I finally looked up at him a few minutes later and made full eye contact he said hello and asked how I was. I responded, "Muy bien, gracias, un dia hermosa. Y tu?" That was his chance. After that he started asking me what I was doing in Cuenca, how I liked it, how old I was etc.. At one point he asked where I lived and I just gave him the general area...still trying to read if he was just wanted casual conversation of if he had some ulterior motive. That question was answered soon after.He then jumped from regular talk, to if it were true that American guys have 'penes grandes' between their legs and if americans are more sexually free and open about all things, sex, homosexuality, love etc... What about black guys? That was all a little awkward, especially because he had been quite nice at the beginning. I told him that to my dismay on everyone elses behalf, it is the truth, for some reason or another we are a country of well-endowed people. After that, I knew if shouldn't have played around with it like I did because if that was Rated R and he asked about two NC-17 questions afterward that I care not to repeat. I repectfully gave two word answers back or said that I think it is a little bit weird to ask a complete stranger the things you are asking. He went back to asking some normal questions about life in Ecuador and how he wanted to leave and find work and go to America and how he wanted to practice his english with someone. He asked for my email and said that he would like if if he could try and practice some english and write me occassionally. Maybe meet up sometime as he was wating for his younger brother to be done with school. I happily gave him a fake one, sorry helloyellow1979@hotmail.com if you exist out there. Cutting it off there, I packed my book away and said, "As a matter of fact, I need to leave right now and go use the internet before seeing my girlfriend." Maybe he was completely innocent, who knows, but I didn't think so. I tend to judge people pretty well I think. He wasn't dangerous I knew that but just a little pestering because the next thing he said was, "I know where there is one very close." Great I thought, and told him that I have a favorite one with fast internet that I always go to even though it is a little out of the way. That didn't keep him from saying, "Oh, well I would like to know where it is too then so I can go there sometime." YUP, how do I get myself into these situations I have no clue!!We walked to my internet place and the guy at the main computer, seeing who had walked in with me this time, looked at me in a completely different way that he had ever done so before. My new friend, Jorge (because I already forgot his name) had apparently been here before. I asked for a computer thinking that Jorege would get one too. WRONG. He followed me, grabbed a seat next to me and then proceeded to observe quietly as I surfed the net. I obviously couldn't check my email now, and so I had to randomly surf between bbc, espn and msn.com...acting like I was really interested in the things I was reading. In other words...friendship over buddy. I don't mind it if you are homosexual and if you happen to be attracted to me, I can't do anything about that, just don't be so overly aggressive and get the 'mensaje' dammit. Being that forward isn't right in any situation let alone in Ecuador where people aren't generall forward with you!Well, after I thought he got the point and asked if he could show me a website so I reluctantly agreed. To my surprise, actually more like I was already expected it, he showed me some girl on girl porn website and asked if I liked it. The entire time I was completely emotionless, that is, I was past the point of caring so when he showed it to me I didn't surprise me the least bit. I replied, "No, not really" and told him that was enough for me to look at and that I should get going now. I got up, said goodbye and good luck to him and told him to write an email to me if he so likes..." I'll respond as soon as I can. What a day...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1197320640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1197320640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1197320640/tpod.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:01:22 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Reventador, Ecuador

Returning from our wonderful jungle excursion in the Cuyabeno Reserve we headed back west toward Quito through familiar green mountains and valleys on our way to the San Rafael Falls, a thundering cascade where the Rio Quijos virtually comes to a cliff and drops 475 feet. Joined by the two Australian guys we met on our jungle trip who could supply endless comic relief to any situation, we were all not the least bit disappointed to be on our way and escape the mugging humidity, stench and grody streets of L. Agrio that greeted us as we returned from our four nights in refreshing solitude. Although we knew that there must be at least place to stay near the falls, we weren't sure of the costs for accommodation because it wasn't your typical backpacker stopping point and on top of that we had no idea if it would even be open because it was a long bus ride and we were set to arrive at around 22:30pm. Our hope was that somewhere nearby we would find a small houses owned by some local husband and wife who recognized the opportunity for taking advantage of the random passerby and witfully converted their extra living area into basic cubicle-like accommodation for travelers like us. That couple whom you repeatedly see all over South America that run their own local establishments are probably sitting on a nice fat stash of cash too.Back aboard the death-express (bus transportation in Ecuador) we said our good wishes to the future of the Oriente snacked on a few roadside treats freshly or very unfreshly made and set out on our way once again. After enough 50 mph curves to seriously make one nauseated and multiple attempts by the bus driver to overtake slow moving banana trucks and old little cars on entirely blind curves and downhill grades, I was beginning to ask myself if I should start writing a goodbye will, not that I own much of anything anyway. It happens every day. Each time you step on board a bus down here the conductor drives like a speed racer on a bad or good coke high depending on how you see it I guess and you surely believe your live is going to end soon enough and you'll end up 500 feet down some steep embankment in nowhere Ecuador in an unidentifiable heap of metal. Better yet, you know all too well that every other bus driver out there is doing the exact same thing and probably on very little sleep to boot! What does that do for ya? You guessed it Einstein, it increases the probability of it happening! As I was getting at though, with each experience that you live to tell about you become more at east until one bus ride it dawns on you that you really have no concern in the world and you actually enjoy watching your bus swerve back into its correct lane to dodge an oncoming truck. At the end of the day  they just become the same ordinary road maneuvers that each and every driver effortlessly has mastered. After all, Time is money and these guys know it, live it and drive it. And on top of that, rest assured parents, we are safe anyway because "Dios Es Mi Guia." which reads "God Is My Guide" and which adorns 99% of all buses somewhere near the driver.Before I knew it, looking out the window and pondering whether or not I have lived a full enough to be happy with myself, a florescent accommodation light and a San Rafael Waterfall sign blurred past the bus window as fast as the speed of light. Wait a minute! Is this not Ms. Frizzle driving the bus and are we not on the Magic School Bus headed to explore the human body? I swear we told the driver five times where we wanted to be dropped off and he acknowledged it! Too late now! There went our stop and we were now flying down a steep grade wondering if he knew something that we didn't. Maybe the sign was just telling us the SR falls lay ahead? We ran to the front just to make sure and after five minutes of pointless discussion, we were dropped up at 22:30 in the middle of nowhere on a steep grade 1-2 miles downhill from the hosteria. As we slowly made our way along the edge of the road, sidestepping trucks and buses doing the same crazy driving as our previous bus driver and probably wondering what on earth we were doing this late on the road we eventually made it. To our avail, the light was off and the dogs were out on the prowl. We meandered up the path, shouted a few "Holas" and soon found ourselves at the best $10 accommodation money could by. We even got a deal. Hot and sweaty even at that hour of the night, instead of showers we all took a moonlight dip in the river-fed pool and rejoiced, 'HECK YEAH' albeit a little more vulgarly! I can still recall the memory of that 'Heck Yeah' refreshing swim too! Perfect water for a midnight dip...The next morning we arose at six and got a move on to the falls. We were given advice from the hotel owner that if you arrived at the entrance to the park early enough in the morning you maybe able to sneak by without paying the exorbitant $10 entrance fee, a 500% markup from the national citizen price at that. OK, so it really is a small price to pay but common, does it really have to be that big of a discrepancy? I'd give more than two even if they asked for donations but $10 is a little hefty in my opinion. So anyway, feeling moody after our night of adventure we hiked down the trail in silence, everyone in covert/stealth/save-dinero-mode. We quietly tip-toed past the first entrance. Nice. Home Free? Damn! The ranger had just woke up and stepped out of his house/building down the road (inside the park) and obviously wasn't expecting anyone because he wasn't even dressed for work. Nice as he was however, we did manage to fix a discount of 50%. As it turned out, he told us that the people who stand at the entrance normally were not there yet because it was a Sunday and they wouldn't show up for work that day even though the park wasn't really officially closed. Once Aussie Josh heard this we had the upper hand and the discount was bartered under the notion that we all knew the guy who was probably going to take the money anyway and go back to sleep only to tell the other park officials the next day that nobody came to visit. Instead of the official slips of paper that so fortunately seemed to be 'locked away' that day we wrote our names on a little sheet of paper paper and went on our way. Both sides ended the negotiation with a good sense of satisfaction I'm sure. We were saved $20 altogether and he made an easy $20. Probably an honest three days work.As for the San Rafael waterfall? Stunning.         Pictures don't even do it justice.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196204460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196204460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196204460/tpod.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:31:20 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Quito, Ecuador

So let the adventures begin!While Ecuador is new, unfamiliar and obviously exciting, being back in South America brings me great satisfaction. One part familiar, two parts foreign and a dash of nostalgia on ice! The familiarity of cultural nuances years removed vividly brings back the reasons why I loved it here in SA before and sets a new precedent on the reality that here and now, we are living this and doing what we had planned on doing and thought about for so many hours in the past back home. Our six months are finally upon us. Hooray!Shockingly, Quito is a lot nicer of a city than I ever expected. Having already witnessed the realities of a continent which battles (in my opinion) a huge rural-urban migration crisis where the grand megalopolis setting is coated with an ostracized peripheral society, a high rate of poverty and HUGE informal sector population that survives day by day in a world w/o empathy, I half expected a capital far more in shambles than what I was greeted with. I was gearing up for what unavoidably greets your eyes in Lima or what BA tries so hard to shield but never can quite successfully do. So far, though it is much smaller than both and without a doubt it has its fair share of poverty, heart sickening problems and disparity among social realms, it seems like a more balanced city. Maybe it's just because it has less money and high rises to pronounce the contrast...I'll think about it more for sure.One of my most vivid recollections of Buenos Aires and the depths of anguish people suffer that brings them to a state of sensory-numbness (as I can't think of a better term) was walking across one of the biggest squares in the entire city, surrounded by some of the most impressive buildings that I had seen at that point in my life. As a group of us walked by, there in the grassy quarters that covered the massive square like a mosaic, I watched a young boy, a little older than my nephew is now run after a pigeon, grab it by its neck and snap it without an ounce of compassion for its life. A bird - now a lifeless toy. I'm not saying pigeons are evolutions finest but as his dad looked on without affliction, torment or care, himself looking like he was in a state of homeless, and the boy flung it around like a stuffed animal, it makes you wonder if we are all just in the end, doomed. The child is doomed to repeat his fathers life, I am doomed because I witnessed it and walked on and we are all doomed because it continues on. Maybe as human nature instigates, we gradually separate ourselves from what hurts and like them, no longer feel. When it reaches that state though, when people can't care or feel because frankly nobody has cared for them and their life of despair and unending hopelessness is relegated to basic survival. That is when it dawns on you...simply, why? And why them?And to be able to travel and enjoy different places in your life for what they are, do you have to desensitized yourself and just be a spectator with no true immersion into what it is that you see and what 'true life' is for them?Less than 24 hours ago I took a clean hot shower, had my last peanut butter and toast for six months, suspended my cell phone subscription and left behind the comforts of living in the U.S with a very close partner in life. The first thing that you come to realize eating a fresh pineapple-mango-banana-apple fruit salad on a rooftop terrace at a place that costs you a mere six dollars for a private room and overlooks buildings that  would probably break the fire code in the US and subsequently be confiscated and torn down, is that South America as a whole bleeds hypocrisy and is defined by two totally opposite values - two worlds that are so intertwined that even though you can see the blaring differences between them, you no longer can see them as separate. It is what it is. Two different worlds colliding at the core, creating a unique balance of their own. Here even the joys of simple things come bound with a complexity far greater than can be understood. Bananas. The yummy bananas in my fruit salad. Ecuador's largest world export commodity. The money that's involved. The people involved from the very fields they come from to the men and women who ship them internationally. The profits made. The people who see it, the people who don't. The local economies dependent on it nevertheless. The small farms bought up by the large corporations as the former owners and the rest of their family are then herded over to work the ground that once belonged to them, now as a peasant. Less than ideal living and working conditions. The Safeways, Costcos, Walmarts and various other grocery chains that dot the planet and sell Chiquita Banana goodness. The people, the money, the business, the demand, the vicious cycle... The Banana.Machu Picchu. Ancient pre-colombian spiritual site. South America's biggest tourist attraction now reached by bus and train. Great. Now the less capable have a chance to see it now too, right. Equal Opportunity? But to whom? Guides walk past speaking Spanish. Symbolic of never-ending change. Symbolic of the Spanish conquest of South American territories and all the bad that it encompassed. Modern Conquest meets Historical Conquest. Collsion. Visible fissures of the past can still be seen today. Not what people put to much thought into when setting foot in MP. But why do the majority of people go? Could they care less about Machu Picchu or do they go because they respect and value other places, other cultures and things not their own but equally good in this world. The latter. It becomes a huge money maker now. Yes. I've been there twice. Towns resurrected by tourism. Cities now dependent upon it. Indeed it probably does a lot of 'good' to stimulate the local and national economy. It probably helps in the funding of social programs for those in need too. Enter Cusco - long ago its identity lost to tourist companies, gringos and shops that sell Inca memorabilia. I'm a gringo and I own some of that memorabilia.  The people who still live amidst it all like their ancestors did so many centuries ago. Who work the same land that they have for hundreds of years and still speak their indigenous language. Other families - families who have moved from the small outer-lying towns to work in this booming industry. They can't look back now, and the industry never will. Instead of selling their potatoes in the local markets they now sell gum, cigarettes and Nestle candy. They still wear their traditional clothes. They still believe in their traditional customs and way of life. Do they still have their identity or are they just doing what is needed in order to survive in an unforgiving world? I don't know. Their kids help sell now too. The cycle...The blame? Why?It is so much more than that. So much smaller and intricate and real. Machu Picchu and Bananas are are just  two large and easy to write about examples of a situation that is witnessed by travelers every day and lived by those immersed in it every minute of every day. The truth of it all is that it's not just great tourist sites or internationally traded goods such as bananas. It blatantly exists everywhere. In cities, in towns, in the mountains along the coast. In people's ideals, in the things they value, in the things that they buy. Like it or not it is part of what defines South America now. It is also what could change it in the worst way. Beneath it however are the magnetic forces that draw you back. The cultural, geographical and historical beauties that stand out above it all for those fortunate to appreciate it. So, here we begin...Think Quito.The city sits in a beautiful narrow valley at the foot of the Volcano Pinchincha around 9400 feet. It is the highest capital in Latin America so despite it beingsituated so utterly close to the equator it enjoys a more mild climate than you would first think looking at in on a globe. It often is quite cold at night. In 1999 Vulcan Pinchincha erupted after 300 odd years of lying dormant and covered Quito with many inches of ash. Some of the pictures are stunning as you can only imagine what it would look like from the city streets. Because we arrived nearly at midnight on the 24th and the taxi driver and us could not find the location of our place, waking up the first morning in a foreign place not yet seen in daylight and looking out over the beautiful colonial buildings of the old city with some good freeze dried Nescafé was a great way say, 'Yes, we're here'. A view and sensation I´ll hold onto for a good while. We aren't staying in the safest of locations, but the hostel is quiet, clean and away from the discos and clubs that we are trying avoid early on. The last two days we have spent checking out various sights around the city, eating interesting fruits and overall just absorbing the feel and way of life in Ecuador. Adjusting our declination of sorts. Though I am not a huge fan of large cities in general I thoroughly enjoy people watching and taking in the hustle and bustle of a new place. One of the highlights so far has been a visit to the Oswaldo Guayasamin Museum. It was definitely well worth the trouble it took us to get there and I urge you to look up some of his paintings! Fantastically Unique.After a number of awkward moments in several museums and cathedrals in which I was politely asked to remove my hat only to reveal my frightening (but might I add, good looking :-)) mohawk, I decided to have it shaved off. I´m not sure which was worse, me having a hat on in a historic/spiritual building, or cruising around three century old paintings of Jesus Christ with a haircut fit for a heretic. Regardless, now I am getting accustomed to the no-hair look and like it just as well. I've been cutting my hair now for the last five years since I've been in college (too cheap to pay of course) and my mom cut it for years prior (thanks mom) so paying even a dime is more than I am accustomed to. Nevertheless, it cost me a whole two dollars for the buzz and that even included an option for a head massage that I hesitantly turned down. I tipped the barber 50 percent and we both parted ways happily.The Quito City festival is gearing up this coming week and Chivas (open aired buses, some even with room to stand on top) are driving around like stretched limousines in Vegas with partiers riding on top and dancing wildly about as they cruise past. Last night we had to angrily sleep through a marching band as theypractice their last minute tunes in preparation for the festival. Theywere in the room next door. Music blares, people are everywhere in the streets, a homosexual support parade marches by, men and women yell above the crowd in attempt to sell the content of their baskets - homemade ice cream and freshly baked goods, their smells drowned out by that of rotten garbage, human piss and car exhaust. Pollution coats the outsides of glass windows with a filthy residue not removed in ages, a person on stilts walks by handing out fliers, a crowd begins to gather around a street comedian, a nearby family restaurants advertises their delicious seafood on restaurant signs that show random women oiled up in thongs, a lady in traditional Andean dress casually skirts by, newborn in tote, a man with no legs skirts around on a small wooden cart, desperately begging for a gift, his hands callused from years of survival ...we take it all in, nobody gives him a second thought, sheepishly we hand him our change in hand.This is Quito.Pinchincha Eruption - Quitohttp://www.my-quito.com/images/pichincha.jpg
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1197071040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1197071040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1197071040/tpod.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:19:51 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Cuyabeno, Ecuador

Since I was a little kid one of the things I have always wanted to do was to experience the Amazonian jungle and see what it would be like to go deep into the tropical forests. I'm talking Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator style (as I figured out, that's not quite the Amazon)! I'll carry on... East of the Ecuadorian Andes, the mountains fall away to the expansive green 'Oriente', where vast expanses of wilderness conquer the landscape and growing tributary rivers from the eastern mountains eventually feed into the great Amazon drainage. Although large oil companies have unflappably staked their claim on certain areas rich in petroleum and the demand for wood has led to tracts of land standing will little less than the shade of a planted banana tree, the land remains largely unspoiled and just sparsely populated, save for a few colonized oil towns.  After spending a few hours researching different trips into the jungle in Quito (which is the best and safest place to do it), guide obligatory, we decided to head on a five day excursion into the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve or 'Reserva Faunistica Cuyabeno'. The reserve is made up of over 1.4 million acres of pristine jungle environment and home to river dolphins, tapirs, capybaras, caiman, ocelots, various monkeys, hundreds of birds and of course, also where the anaconda and piranha call home too. After visiting Otovalo, a famous market town North of Quito and stopping over in Papallacta (famous for its hotsprings) further to the East in route to Cuyabeno, we decided to stay the night outside of Lago Agrio which is the jumping off point for our trip, in the small town of Cascales. It's only reason of existence is probably because some people, myself included, would die before living in Lago Agrio. There in Cascales we witnessed one of the loudest thunderstorms and hardest rainfalls we have ever layed eyes on! I've witnessed an electrical storm that will never be forgotten with some close friends in Argentina as we drove through the deserted province of San Juan but never before a thunderstorm with so much force. Welcome to the Jungle! Shun, n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,,n,n,n-Lighting Shun,n,n,n,n,n,n-Rain Shun,n,n,n,n,n,n,n-Thunder! It was the perfect way to set the stage for what we were about to experience - a boatride to the eastern reaches of the Amazon and five days exploring its inhospitable depths. Watching the storm all alone from the front porch of our little hospedaje, in order to talk we had to shout across the table above the storms ferocious voice and as the rain came down like...well, no metaphor needed, like an Amazonian downpour there were times when we shreeked outloud because of the downright proximity of the strikes! More than once night turned to complete daylight. I'm sure to everyone living there it was a regular occurence but for us, that night we knew how lucky we were to be where we were and have what we have. Some things are greater than words can explain and  no matter what you cannot explain them in a way that'll do justice. They're just monumental enough that you forever will be able to recall the exact feelings you had at that moment in time. This was one of those moments. That is what wealth means to me and this is the life. Going back a little, I am a little heated up thinking back on that storm. After ending up in Cascales (pre-storm) we met the owners of where we were staying and talked with them about life and Ecuador and all sorts of things in spanish for some time and then believe it or not, we went fishing in their ponds out back and caught Tilapia for our dinner. Hungry fish = Satisfied Craig. After the EPIC storm and a meal which consisted of rice, our tilapia, Ecuador's version of a salad, and patacones (the most filling snack ever) we bid farewell and slept the night away. The next morning we said our goodbyes and hopped on a local Chiva (more authentic to Colombia but LA is near the Colombian border and has a definite influencia colombiana) and were off.  L.A. is the poorest city in Ecuador and is aptly named after Sour Lake, Texas, the headquarters of Texaco and yes, you guessed it, the first company to draw oil from this particular area in the Oriente.  It definitely lived up to its title. Some of most common stores suffocating the narrow streets were those specializing in chainsaws (moto-sierras) and coffins (ataúdes). OK, maybe I'm embellishing the story a little but I kid you not, Stihl and Husqvarna signs filled up multiple storefront windows and I saw not one but TWO stores selling only two products...coffins and headstones! Hell, what amazed we most were the auto-mechanics. Those guys were covered from head to toe in grease, welded things with no eye protection on whatsoever and were working on vehicles some people probably would have thought fun to drive off cliffs ages ago. Take one of them home and they could fix anything....by now I'm sure they've had more experience at fixing things than mechanics back home do in a career. All I can do is shake my head when I think of that city... Believe it or not, deep down I actually want to go back there... Not soon after though, we were on our way outta there and far away from Lago Agrio did we go. After long hot four hour bus ride down dirt roads that led us past banana plantations, an ongoing cockfight, multiple stilt houses and even a school that wouldn't pass for a abandoned cement building back home, we eventually arrived at destination Cuyabeno. Our small group loaded our things and soon after set off five hours downriver in a motarized canoe to our thatch roofed lodging deep into the primary forest. The entire trip over the next four days was mind blowing. I could write on it forever but I´ll save readers and myself the time. In bad grammar I'll just briefly write about the splendors. Over the course of the trip, we: saw beautiful pink and grey river dolphins surface from the murky waters almost in a greeting, walked through overgrown primary forests where Ceiba trees rose like skyscrapers in a city of organic madness, caught and ate piranhas which I did not know tasted so good and unfishy, canoed through lagoons and up and down overgrown jungle rivers where small river turtles looked at us in angst before diving off of their log into the water... and the list goes on. An experience unlike anything else. What I´ve always wanted to do since I was a kid finally came to fruition. From swinging on jungle vines and eating ants off sticks to swimming in the great brown waters of the Cuyabeno and Aguarico rivers or sticking my hands into huge ant piles (not the harmful type of course) I definitely couldn´t have asked for a better experience. That is, aside from not battling an anaconda or seeing a jaguar! In the mornings we would wake up early and go by dugout canoe down arms of the cuyabeno river, looking for awesome wildlife such as turtles, monkeys, birds, dolphins and anything else. In the afternoons we did multiple things such as forest hikes, boat rides and piranha fishing. In the evening, in the dark, we would either head into the jungle in search of nocturnal species or do the same by boat. On the second day before sunset, a few of us spent nearly two hours playing soccer on a large beach with about ten boys and girls from the local Quichua community and then cooling off, or escaping mozzies (mosquitos) by jumping into the Aguarico. Our group included three Belgium medicine students, along with one more doing a three month practicum in the public hospitals of Ecuador, two great Aussie guys....who also happened to be med students themselves and a Spanish- Ecuadorian couple. Needless to say, if anything would have happened, minus the fact that we were hours from any good medical facilities, we were as safely covered as could be. In addition to all the fun things we did, we learned some pretty spectacular things about different flora and fauna. -Plants that create toxic residue to protect themselves from bugs and to keep other plants from growing near them by creating a highly acidic soil where their leaves fall. Trees that find nutrition from a specific fungus which in turn makes them fluorescent at night. Others that ward off overbearing species of vegetation battling for sunlight by shedding their bark or dropping their lower limbs which are overtaken by huge vines as they both try and grow upwards to the light. Vine trees that act almost as parasites and use other trees as crutches to grow up to the top of the canopy as fast as they can before then growing in size and engulfing the crutch tree entirely...as in growing completely around it and taking making it disappear.  Each plant and animal has so uniquely adapted to their environment over the hundreds of thousands of years that it is almost hard to believe something so extraordinary and highly evolved can exist in true life. When you walk through the jungle it looks so pretty, as if everything is peacefully coexisting and offering something nice to look at. People always enjoy scenery and green scenery at that because it largely symbolizes life. However the reality of it, underneath it all, is the constant battle for survival and cycle of birth, death and rebirth. An always changing, neverending struggle for balance, survival and sunlight. What a cool place. To top it off, the group was cool and our Ecuadorian guides Domingo and Enrique, had some pretty incredible knowledge of the jungle; including how to catch cayman. To do so, you must jump out of the canoe in the middle of the night after spotting its two red eyes by flashlight and grab it with your bare hands before it effortlessly swims away....hmmm....sounds easy enough.  Domingo happened to be quite the expert though as his methods held true! Up close, it is definitely one highly evolved, extremely efficient animal. No wonder they have been around for so damn long! We stayed in an awesome little thatch roof cabaña with no electricity and shared it with huge spiders, crazy looking frogs, ants, cockroaches and other unknown bugs! At night all the noises, in addition to the humidity put you right to sleep. No sheets needed. The Howler monkeys were there to greet us in the mornings. I´d do it again in a heartbeat but for now, there is still to much yet to see, to do and to experience. Tomorrow there will always be more. And so I´ll end it at that. Hope everyone is doing well. I´d love to hear from you all! For now, off too the highest waterfall in Ecuador before heading south to Tena.Oh and get this, one last cool thing that I learned. So the water in the Amazon is dark, muddy and murky right? Well, that's what I thought but get this. There are two different types of rivers in the drainage. Those which come from the mountains and run into the Amazon and those which originate in the Amazon. The Amazon itself if you want to call it that. The difference being that tributary rivers are called white water rivers and contrary to what you would think at first, are murky, muddy and full of....yes...sediment. The Amazon river on the other hand, the black water rivers, are in fact clear in the sense that they are virtually void of sediment and grains like hot cocoa would be compared to coffee or wine or like a river carrying with it a bunch of sediment from the mountains above. So at the confluence of two large rivers like these, their densities are so much different that it takes miles before they fully become one. Interesting? I thought you'd agree! It almost symbolizes this continent as a whole. So virtually backwards but at the same time it's the way it is and it makes sense why it is once you think about it...white rivers=muddy and murkey meanwhile black rivers=clear (but wish a lot of tannins that cause the color that the faster moving white waters don't have the time to build up)And where does the coffee-wine-tannin-black water come from? Well, over generations and generations of constant and gradual leaching of the organic material that coats the forest floor, over time as it slowly decays it is brought into the water during rains and such and proceeds to leach into the slow moving, topographically (very) flat rivers of the Amazon which flow through such swamps and ever-decaying wetlands! I love it. What a cool cycle...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196724600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196724600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196724600/tpod.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:39:55 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Papallacta, Ecuador

On our way toward Lago Agrio and the Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve. A few stops and sights along the way...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196462640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196462640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1196462640/tpod.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:02:02 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Mindo, Ecuador

We just returned from a great trip NE of Quito to the little town of Mindo. A stones toss in distance but a world away in similarity. A town where dogs seem to outnumber the amount of people walking the streets and the humidity  can be downright overwhelming. Mindo itself is located in one of the wettest cloud forests in the world and is surrounded by huge lush mountainsides and beautiful rivers. Can you think of any reason why we wouldn't come here? Finding a place at a end of the main dirt road (the sheets were damp from the humidity) we set our things down and not soon after went to check our trips first countryside excursion. To get to "el sanctuario de las cascadas" a waterfall sanctuary nearby as they call it, we walked a few miles along a dirt road through a very pretty forest until the road came to an end. There we had to choose between taking a beat up looking cable car across a huge canyon or walk down and then back up the other sides of the canyon only to walk back down again to get to the actual canyon of the waterfalls. After a season of fires it was a no brainer. No more hiking! We chose to risk our lives, take the cable car and enjoy more time at the sanctuary. We spent an entire day working our way up the canyon on overgrown trails, exploring some very beautiful waterfalls, weird looking birds, hanging orchids and the rest. Ecuador is just so amazingly diverse and we have only caught a glimpse. Absolutely one of the most impressive vistas that I have seen.Unfortunately however, these wonderful climactic zones just so happen to be home to the most annoying bug in the world, the @#%&$! sand fly. Whew, excuse me. I have no clue why things always seem to happen this way (or why sand flies exist really), but the second you stop paying attention to your ankles and expend your energy on things more pleasurable than your legs, the annoying little flies just seem to appear from sand fly-city and go on full attack! In less than a minute, while bartering with a local over how much it would cost to rent broken down bikes for a few hours, both of us had at least 15 blots of blood covering our legs where the lovely sand#$ers had done their dirty work. Wait, ten seconds, Namaste, Oh Shanti Om. OK. Thank you for the bites my little friends, I will itch them in peace. So, supposedly our immune system cannot properly fight the bacteria/toxin that sand flies leave behind after being bitten. What happens is they itch like hell and won´t actually disappear for about a month. Imagine that! Lovely! I wear mine like battle scars...even though I am far weaker than Maya when it comes to resisting the temptation of itching them! I try to come to peace with the itching sensation but if you pay the slightest attention to them, you'll end up with raw legs because it's downright torture and you can't stop. What fun! I´ll send picture updates soon!As for the nightlife here. It is spectacular. I have never witnessed so much partying before in my life! NOT. Something that could still bring us both to tears laughing though is this young boy who drove the main street Mindo not once or twice or three times in the time it took us to slurp down a batido (blended milk and fruit of choice) but something to the count of 5 or so times. The first time he drove by in his awesome little SUV listening to cool music we smiled. Night on the town for him..ain't no thing baby, just cruising the gut in a city of about 2-300 people. The second time he passed by he was on his phone. We laughed to ourselves and thought he must be up to some regular ol' fun now! He's got something planned! The third time he was eating a Popsicle. Once again, the definite man. The 4th and 5th time we loved it and laughed to ourselves repeatedly. Such is the life in Mindo. That and maneuvering around nasty barking dogs is what our nights here entail. Do you remember being a funny 17yr old? I do :-)So the next day we decided to do the bike thing and rode our butts purple down the bumpiest road that exists in Ecuador (although I probably will take back that statement by the end of this trip...probably the night I am riding a bus, the driver is mad, the road is endless with curves and bumps, I'm exhausted, sick to my stomach and there is of course no bathroom). Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya :-) As it rains a lot here, you can make the assumption that with rain comes puddles. Puddles knowingly leave behind potholes in dirt road over time and potholes of course lead to bumpy roads. Therefore lots of rain (a cloud forest remember) naturally leads to a lot of potholes. Massive ones at that. Especially when rains so much that the dirt has mostly been washed away leaving bumpy stones exposed everywhere and potholes that will never go away. And when you don't have a good bike or any sort of shock absorber, it can be a downright torture of a road to ride down. Even the locals we passed by looked at us with concern and complete bewilderment as if we were crazy! We didn't see anyone doing the same and people definitely own bikes around these parts. At one slightly downhill stage, an old dodge pickup coasting with its engine off passed us by. It was rattling so loud I wasn't sure if the driver was just trying to save on fuel or if it truly just didn't run anymore and was days away from completely falling apart. Scrap metal for a house or something I suppose. They too, apart from being shocked to see two gringos biking around these parts looked at us like we were crazy to be going down the road on what we were. We looked back at them with equal astonishment. Ready to see their pickup go off the road any second. Eventually we arrived at a place that was supposed to be some sort of cool, far off place for swimming in the nearby river and to explore around a little. When we arrived they looked at us like we were the first people to come by in a long time. Paying a dollar each we passed through some gates and an awesome garden down to an arm of the river that branched off from the main body. Leading the way, a boy walked over to a small cement damn and closed an iron gate. Two minutes later the arm of the river below the damn flowed to a trickle and the segment above turned into a massive pool for us to swim in. I guess this is what they mean when they tell you there is a place down the road to go swimming and bathe in the river! Excellent I suppose. Why not?Well for now we are alive and well. Sore bums and bloody legs but alive and kicking on the Ecuadorian front. More to come later...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1226283120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1226283120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1226283120/tpod.html Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:19:48 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Playa Conchal, Province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica

 Last few days of relaxation. A sweet journey coming to an end...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1210900500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1210900500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cweigand/latin_america/1210900500/tpod.html Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:15:55 -0500 Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua Maybe More?? -- Let the journey begin!

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Madras, Oregon, United States

 
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