Saturday, May 24, 2008

Mi amigo Luis and a Sallah Shabati Moment

Wow, twice in a matter of minutes. I´m on a roll, and there is nothing to do in Guayaquil.

I ended the last e-mail with the end of my time in Quito (Monday afternoon). That night, we boarded a bus and headed an hour and a half to the south to Latacunga (Now is when I wish I had a map I could show you but you could simply Google it and find out).

Mucho gusto (Spanish for ´nice to meet you´)

On the bus to Latacunga, I sat in a window seat near the front of the bus with the aisle seat next to me unoccupied. After we make a few stops in the city to pick up more people, a kind-looking man sits down next to me. Within a few minutes, we start chatting about different things. We talk about his life, my life, politics, sports, his life dreams, Joe Pesci, etc. It´s all inclusive.

Here is what I learned about my this man. His name is Luis, and his a day laborer. He just returned from working on building a gas station in the north but he doesn´t have any stable employment. He makes enough money to feed his family but not enough to save. His life dream is to move to the United States and is very curious about how much money he could make there. He has also never seen Home Alone (which was the movie showing on the bus [bus movies merit their own special category but I will get to that in a later post. Right now, all you need to know that the long buses show movies]). I told him Home Alone was a classic in America and in my family, but the movie kept skipping so you wouldn´t be able to follow unless you knew what was going to happen.

Then he asks me what I am doing the next day, and he says that he lives in a village near the place I planned on doing some hiking. He told me that he would call me, and maybe I would be able to eat lunch at his house with his family. He says he has three sons and shows me a certificate that one of them received in school.

So, the next morning I wake up and get ready to go for the hike. I get in touch with Luis and tell him when I would be near his town. He says that he would meet me at the bus station in Latacunga, which I thought was about 20 minutes away from my final destination. I arrive at the bus station, assuming that Luis would be taking the bus up to his village with us. When we get there, he introduces my roommate and me to his niece and then shows us to the bus we are going to take to where we would hike. He boards the bus with us but then gets off. I ask him why he left the bus, and he told me that it was two hours away but that he would meet me there. I tried calling him when I arrived to see if he was there, but I couldn´t get any service.

The next day, when we returned to an area with phone reception, I sent him a text message telling him what happened and thanked him for his help. He replied with a message thanking me for helping him and answering his questions.

Lake Quilatoa = Awesome

Damn, this is another one of those times when a picture would really help things out. When I set something up for the photos, I promise to include a picture of this really sweet crater lake. It is one of the most beautiful images I have seen. We arrived there late in the afternoon and knew we wouldn´t be able to complete the four hour hike to circumnavigate the lake but didn´t want to miss this opportunity. When we arrived, it was perfectly sunny, but, a few minutes later, the rain came and we decided to turn back. We were lucky enough to get photos of the lake in all weather conditions (gorgeous, ominous, rainy).

Sallah would be proud

If you have never talked Israeli movies with me, you would probably not know that Sallah Shabati is my favorite movie of all time. It is about a Middle Eastern family that immigrates to Israel. The father figure, Sallah, is one of the greatest characters of all time. When I return, I would be glad to loan you this movie if you haven´t seen it. Either way, back to my story.

So the only back to civilization from Lake Quillatoa is to take a shared cab back to a nearby village (30 minutes) and then to take a bus back to Latacunga (1.5 hours). After we finished our breif excursion around the lake, we decided to head back. At the entrance to the lake we found a driver who would take us to the village for $3/each, which was 40% less than the competition. We loaded into his truck and took the bumpy road to Zambuhua.

On the way to the village, we passed the fields where the barley for the most popular beer in Ecuador is grown. Our driver, Daniel, asked us if we wanted to listen to English or Spanish music. We wanted Spanish but he put in a CD of English tunes. Along the side of the road, people were doing a variety of different rural village activities (farming, soccer, carrying stuff, riding horse, riding bike, just walking), With each person we pass, Daniel honked his horn. I asked him if he knew everyone in the town, and he said that he has lived here his entire life so he knows mostly everyone. As we near the village, he asks if we would like to continue to Latacunga (another hour and a half), I negotiate him down to less than half of his initial value, but he says that he needs to stop at home before we go to the city.

When we get to his house, he tells his daughter that he is driving to the city. She grabs her backpack and excitedly jumps into the back of the truck. Daniel grabs his baby boy Joel and assists his wife in putting a mattress in the bed of the truck. I had no idea what was happening. I figured that going to the city was an exciting adventure, so the entire family wants to come along.

We sit Ari, Daniel, and I in the front seat with his daughter, baby son, and wife in the bed of the truck and we drive down the Andean mountain passes. We go like this for about 20 minutes before we see woman in farm clothes running down the side of the hill as the truck passes. Daniel stops and allows the woman to hop in the bed. A few hundred meters later, a large group of farmers is waiting on the side of the road, trying to get a ride in the back of Daniel´s car back to their homes which are many kilometers down the road. At one point, there were 11 people and a sheep sitting in the bed of the truck and the three of us in the front seat, enjoying the gorgeous alpine scenery.

As the people begin to unload from the back of the truck, it becomes clear what Daniel is doing. He acts as a sort of cab for these mountain laborers. With his daughter playing the role of cashier, the laborers pay his daughter and Daniel is able to make a bit more money on this journey to the city.

Well, that will be about it for tonight. I must go to sleep and get ready for the Galapagos. If I have Internet access, I will send another update that details my interactions with the jungle equivalent of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, the saint who Superman is based off of, my volcanic encounters, the most random Oneg ever, and how my bus broke on a mountain pass.

Until then, I hope all is well. Tough loss by the Pistons. On the Ecuadorian football front, it appears that Liga Quito, the best team in the country, will face my favorite team, Buenos Aires-based Boca Juniors, in the quarterfinals of the continent-wide Copa Libertadores.

Quito Playing Gmes With My Heart

This time I am siting in an internet cafe in the coastal city of Guayaquil. It´s Ecuador´s largest city, with a population of about 2 million, but it´s also known as one of the most dangerous (Some people say that Great Theft Auto Vice City was modeled after Miami. I would disagree and say Guayaquil). But I´m trying to keep my time in this place as short as possible (Homer Simpson vs. the City of New York-style). I leave early tomorrow morning for the Galapagos Islands.

Back to where we left off.

To address a few questions you might have had when you read my first e-mail.

1. Instead of working this summer, I decided to travel in South America. I had worked at an internship last summer and didn´t get the chance to travel as I had hoped (instead I churned out a pretty sweet camp newsletter and staffed a trip into Algonquin Park, which I was really glad I did. It just wasn´t traveling the world.) I also asked myself when I would have this opportunity to travel for a few months again. When the answer wasn´t in the next 50ish years, I decided to take this opportunity.

2. I used the term ¨host family´´ pretty loosely. The family I stayed with the for the first few days of my journey hosted a family friend of mine last summer for six weeks. When he found out that I was traveling to Ecuador, he called the family and offered to have my roommate and me stay at their house.

Now, onto further adventures (I promise to get some pictures up at some point, but I don´t have my cord with me at this point)

In the middle of it all, or so you think

As the country name Ecuador seem to say, the Equator passes through the country. In fact, Quito is located just next to the Earth´s waistline. Another fun fact about Ecuador´s location before I go into my adventures. The peak of the tallest mountain in Ecuador, Chimborazo, is the furthest from the center of the Earth and the closest to the sun of any piece of land in the world.

OK, so, to commemorate the country´s location near the equator, there is a museum a few minutes outside of Quito called Mitad del Mundor (literally ¨middle of the world¨). I´m not exactly sure why they chose this location along the equator over any other location along the equator for a museum, but my roommate says that it´s because the spot is one of the highest points on the Equator.

It turns out that the museum isn´t even on the Equator. With the advent of GPS technology and other cartographic developments, it became clear that the mitad del mundo monument isn´t even at the mitad del mundo. So, if you wanted to play the toilet-flushing game, you would have to move 240ish meters from the monument. But I did take the obligatory picture of standing in both hemispheres (and the obligatory Robinson picture of standing in one hemisphere, peeing into the other).

Trying new foods, even if I can find them at home

Although I would not classify myself as a picky eater, there are some foods that I have traditionally avoided, or would never really come across in everyday life. But in my first few days in Ecuador, I already stepped outside of my comfort zone.

I consumed my first hard-boiled egg. I don´t know what it is about this form of the egg that has botherd me over the years, but when I had no other options at a meal, I had to eat something. It wasn´t that bad but I would probably still pass over it when it comes around at the seder (no pun originally intended but after re-reading it I now intended the pun).

I also tried Tang for the first time. In the same logic as the hard-boiled egg. I was thirst and there was nothing else. I felt like Neil Armstrong (Don´t astronauts drink Tang?). At the time, I thought it was tomato juice, and only found out the next morning that it wasn´t. It was pretty good for tomati juice, but if I knew it had been Tang, I probably wouldn´t have liked it as much.

That is a perfect segue into tomato juice. I would have to say of the three foods that are easily accessible in America that I tried for the first time while I was in Ecuador, this was the best, but I would still probably not go out of my way to get it.

A national pastime

Some people might say soccer (futbol) is a national pastime in Ecuador. Everywhere you look, there is a soccer net. But I think I have discovered another - waiting.

These people have no problem waiting for hours for something to happen and do nothing in the meantime. It is still an adjustment. They will sit in their car and sleep or watch traffic go by or read the newspaper as they wait for something to happen. And they assume that I also don´t mind waiting either.

What would Dick Schaap have written?

On my third night in Ecuador, I went with my host family back to the military academy to drop something off for their oldest son. When we arrived, we noticed a booming noise coming from the gymnasium - boxing night.

It was my first boxing match that I had attended. After watching a bunch on TV and reading a bit of boxing journalism and talking to my grandfather, I would have to say that these Ecuadorian soldiers should stick to careers in the military and not pursue a career in pugilism. There was no style or grace involved, but they did have great introductions.

As each fighter was called up to the ring, they played a slideshow that gave the fighters some ridiculous nicknames and played hip-hop songs as they entered. One thing that was unclear was whether there was an undercard and a main event or just a bunch of scheduled fights without a big one at the end.

We then spent the next day and half planning our trip to the Galapagos Islands but did manage to fit in some cool museum viewing times.

Museum highlight

If you get a chance, Google ¨Incan Sun Mask.¨ It´s a sort of national symbol in this country and is really awesome.

Well, that is it for now. I will try and churn out another e-mail shortly because I don´t know how much internet I will be able to access in the Galapagos, but this marks the end of my time in Quito.

I just heard the Pistons are down by 13 in the fourth. On the positive side, the Tigers appear to have done well and the Wings are taking care of business.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I just can't Quito you

As some of you know (and others are about to find out), I am in South America this summer, traveling for three months. I started last Friday in Quito, Ecuador, and will return from Rio De Janeiro in the beginning of August. Right now, I am sitting in Riobamba, Ecuador, in an internet cafe (sans food), following the Gametracker of Game 2 of the Pistons-Celtics series.

I weighed the merits of maintaining a blog versus sending out mass e-mails, and I decided that, given the unpredictability of my internet access, a mass e-mail would be the best way for me to keep in touch and keep people in the loop of what I am doing this summer. I´m also excited to hear what you are up to.

And since I am already a week behind in these journals, I might as well get started. We´ll just hit on some of the highlights because I would be in this cafe all night if I were to write about everything I have done so far.

Ecuador military competition

My first morning in Ecuador, I went to a military competition at a military academy. The youngest son of the family I was staying with was competing, and it seemed like a much more exciting thing to do than lounge around the house. At 6:30 a.m., we left their house and drove through the hills/mountains of Quito. One of the coolest things about Quito is that it is a sprawling city build in the middle of the mountains. So there are houses built up the slopes, and the city doesn´t seem to end.

We walked into the stadium at the military academy as they were playing the national anthem (or some other similarly patriotic song). The academy was divided up into four teams to compete in a variety of events. The most interesting thing about the entire event was how much enthusiasm the non-competing teammates displayed. They brought massive drums and sang and danced throughout the event. This is definitely not something you would see in America. This is probably an extension of the soccer-fan culture that permeates South America.

My host family´s son´s team ended up winning the competition, and he was chosen to be part of his team´s relay squad.

(O.K. So, that wasn´t the most exciting story to start my South America journals with, but I figured I would go chronologically and thought that this experience merited a place in the journal)

Buses in Ecuador

Most of my bus-riding experience comes from the time I spent in Israel a few summers ago. One person is employed by the bus company to drive the bus, act as the cashier, and answer passengers´questions about directions. In Ecuador, it´s quite different.

There are two employees on the bus: a driver and an official. The driver´s job is simply to drive the bus. In my week here, I have not personally interacted with one bus driver. The other guy does everything else. He walks up and down the aisle, collecting fares, standing at the door to yell the buses destination to people on the side of the road, and answering other general question about the bus and directions. But, by far, the most exciting task of the official is to interact with other cars on the road. If he, or the driver, has something to say or whistle at another driver on the road, he is not shy about sharing his feelings (I haven´t seen a driver talk to any other drivers on the road). Also, if there is a bad traffic jam, and the bus is trying to get better position on the road, the official will get off the bus and stand in front of the other car on the road (setting a pick, if you will) so the bus can get by.

There are a few other interesting tips about Ecuador buses.
1. They don´t really stop. If you are getting on or off the bus, you have to be prepared to do so onto a moving vehicle.
2. The bus door never really closes. The official will stand at the door, taking in the fresh air, yelling at pedestrians (or, in the official´s mind, potential passengers), or sharing his feelings with other drivers.

Old Town

I guess it´s in the name, but one of the oldest neighborhoods in Quito is known as Old Town. There are plenty of churches, museums, municipal buildings, tourists, and people trying to hawk products for you to buy. In fact, it was recently featured in the New York Times´ travel section. Ari, my roommate who is traveling with me for the first three weeks of my summer adventure, and I ventured to Old Town Saturday afternoon.

After walking around the main square for a bit, we found the Numismatic Museum, which tells the history of the Ecuadorean currency. Now, normally I´m not fascinated by foreign currency museums, but the thing about this museums is that, for an American, it is a domestic currency museum. A few years ago, the country dropped its currency of the Sucre and decided to adopt the American dollar as the national currency. They still maintain their own currency less than a dollar but everything else is American. A few years back, the U.S: Department of the Treasury released a Sacajawea coin dollar that didn´t really thrive in the U.S. It seems as if the U.S. just sent all of those coins to Ecuador because they love the dollar coin here. (Also, they don´t accept the $2 bill, one of which I still had in pocket that had been change from Dominick´s).

A new personal record

At the top of Quito sits the Pichincha Volcano (one of the two volcanoes that sits atop the capital). Within the last few years, they installed a gondola that will take you up the Pichincha Volcano (4,100 meters above sea level). The view from the top is spectacular. We were lucky enough to be there on a clear day when you don´t have clouds or smog that blocks your view of the city down below. In future posts, I will try to include pictures so you can get a better sense of where I am and what I am doing. This would be one of those times.

At the bottom of the gondola, I saw a hotdog stand that was selling a hot dog and pop for $1.50. This is a better deal than the Hillel Hotdog Cart on North University. I really like to pride myself on serving the cheapest meal in Ann Arbor (hotdog for $1 and a pop for another dollar). I was in a bit of a state of shock when I saw this and spent the majority of the gondola ride trying to reason how this stand could sell its meal for a lower price than the Hillel Hotdog Cart, when we are looking to break even instead of making huge profits. Then I came up with a few explanations:

1. I serve kosher hotdogs in Ann Arbor, which are of a higher quality than whatever meat was sold at the base of the gondola.

2. A dollar goes much further in Ecuador than in the U.S. I did have to travel to the Equator to find this deal. The Ecuadorean equivalent of the Hillel Hotdog would be about .50.

Well, it´s getting late. I noticed the Pistons went to work on the Celtics tonight and head back to the Palace tied up at a game apiece. That´s good stuff.

I will continue to fine tune my mass e-mail, travelogue skills. And this is just two day´s worth of adventures. To give you a flavor for what is to come in future e-mails: think active volcanoes, 11 people in the bed of a truck, homeopathic medicine, and saving a bus (Superman-style) from crashing down a ravine.