deciding it would be nice to not only see how the locals lived, i figured it was only right to see how they died...so off me and my argentinian friend were to the local cemetary and its church...after agreeing that walking around inside the church while a funeral is going on is not socially acceptable, we vacated and proceeded to the cemetary...here, they dont just dig a hole in the ground and shove you in...if you have the money, you basically move into an apartment complex for dead people...many floors of row upon row of body compartments...it was like a miniature city of apartments...i found out that if your family doesnt keep up with the "rent" for more than one year, they will promptly take apart your room, and dispose of you elsewhere...not that you would really notice i guess...
next we took a taxi to the top of the hill, where the virgin mary angel over looks quito(apparently here, she has wings--in revelations i believe, there is a passage explaining it)...
digression----i feel a whole entry could be set aside to describe drivers and traffic in this pollution filled city, but let me just say, that there really is no point to having lights or signs, as people just kinda do whatever they want...i believe it would be best described as semi-cautious merging....
anyways, back at the monument on the hill, which is apparently the 3rd most visited statue in the world after the broad in NY, and the angel in brazil...after being hassled into paying a 1 dollar entry fee before even getting there by a lady in no more than a borrowed "tourist police" shirt, we paid the real entry fee to climb to the top for a view of the city...nice view, but kind of anti-climatic, so we returned to the hostel via the taxi, which now after a few "repairs" was running on a back tire with a few missing lug nuts...i think having all 4 lugnuts on your wheel is only a manufacturers recommendation, but not entirely necessary for safe operating on bumpy, hill streets at high speeds...
well, after a week in the city and a sore throat and lungs due to pollution, it is time to get the hell out to the fresh air of rural ecuador...but first i just need to go to the bank that is on the street where the demonstration is taking place...not sure what is really being protested, but the riot police were out in full force, and all the store fronts had been closed with metal pull down doors...this made it nearly impossible to find the bank machine, until a machine gun carrying officer, noticed the clueless gringo, and proceeded to pull up the metal door to reveal an atm...ah gracias....
ready to depart the city, me and my amiga jump on the bus to the terminal...after getting off and realizing we are at the wrong bus stop, we get back on another bus again to finally arrive at the proper one...good thing fares are cheap, as nothing sucks like paying twice for one trip...finally on the bus and its nonstop 80's music all the way to baeza...they sure do love their 80's tunes here...being that the winding mountain side roads are far from in perfect condition, we spent three hours stopped on the side of the road waiting for the bridge to be repaired...this did give us time to practice our spanish with other passengers...i actually ended up having a good conversation (in my bastardized spanish) with a girl from tena...
apparently it is uncommon here for a guy to be traveling with a girl that you are not involved with, so some of the people on the bus were quite surprised to know my travel partner an i were not a couple...the girl i was chattin with gave me her phone number for when i would eventually get to her town, and the bus drivers assistant, in his only english spoken thus far says to the bus driver " he's good"...
another digression--there exists an entire commercial sector here, known as bus vendors...whether on urban buses or cross country, young kids to grown adults jump on and off the bus at will, trying to sell anything from fruit and veggies to the silliest stuffed toys, watches, or books...if u stop somewhere, just open your window and you will have all sorts of consumer options from the vendors outside yelling out their prices and products...
eventually getting to our desination in the dark, we get dropped off on the side of the road, and ascended what seemed to be about a million steps up into the cloud forest, where a half nutz bloke from england has built a wonderful hostel complex...complete with a couple dogs and about 20 cats, and these are only the ones that are left after many had been poisoned by locals...it was nice to have pets for a few days...the guy who runs the place, ali, is one of the most hospitable hosts i have ever encountered, and before you know it, i am half pissed, and so overfull from the huge plate full of supper that i may not hafta eat for a week...
as his land is vast, and he owns a few waterfalls as well, i decide to go an adventure hike and see what i can see...it is quite interesting to be wandering around the forest when you dont know where you are...after chilling by the waterfalls and getting to a top clearing, checking out the view, it is time to descend the now very greasy (due to the rain) path down...i start to slip, and instinctively grab on to the nearest tree, which is nicely covered in thorns...all the forest is calm, except for the sounds of a few birds and insects, as well as a silly gringo screaming like a wee girl...in a day or two i would spend a few hours removing only 6 of about 12 thorns in my hand....not fun...but a good lesson...
after another night in the diesel fumed cabana (the wood is soaked in diesel to ward off termites) and being woken up by the neighbors cows which are mooing as if they are being tortured, i spent an afternoon down by the river (also known as a bug/fly hiway) chasing butterflies with my camera, and just coming to terms with the fact that this is ecuador i am in...a surreal moment....
time to move on to the next village, and meet up with my amiga i met on the bus from tena...
and this concludes this chapter of the gospel according to stuart...
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