We are leaving Ecuador, well the trucks leave on the 15. 03.07 - very worrying as the trucks will be all alone. We have to leave the key so that a stevedore can drive the trucks onto the boat, which is a roro, (like going to France, drive on drive off). This means, of course, that the cabs are open the whole time they are on the dock side and on the boat. Since we have been back in Ecuador, we have been busy trying to make the trucks secure. I have had bars made for all the windows (including the roof lights), a bar for the habitat side of the door from the cab (the door had a lot of give on it at the top) and I’ve also had a wooden cover made for the panel in the cab which houses the compass and various clocks, I have done as much as I can so really hoping, fingers crossed, that no one gets in, takes any thing or does any damage!! We have to do it, no choice it’s the only way to get to Central America and beyond.
The trucks are sailing from Manta which is a smaller port Esmeralda’s (we hope less corrupt) and have chosen a small port in Costa Rica for the same reason.
We leave Ecuador on the 16. o3. 07 fly to Costa Rica and pick the trucks up to continue north.
So, we have time to kill here and have been exploring the beautiful country side and the wonderful indigenous villages taking the Quilota Circuit, the first day we stopped in the small village of Pujili. We were only stopping for afternoon tea but it was so lovely we decided to stay the night. After a walk around the village we visited a small local craft market in a lovely building, the mayor in this village has spent money in making everything nice and interesting, the pavements around the Square have decorative squares of tiles, each square different but in local patterns. In the town hall there was a glassed in walkway that had a full size man with a musical instrument carved from the most beautiful wood. a garden was surrounded by very nice paintings of all the important people of the town over years. The whole place showed a great pride, unfortunately we were unable to visit the church which the guide book says is very beautiful but, unfortunately, closed most of the time. The following day, just before we were about to set off, we heard matching band music and after further investigation we saw there was a parade of school children, very smartly dressed, playing the music and marching with batons etc. it was lovely.
We left a little late, heading for the most beautiful emerald lake in a volcanic crater at Quilotoa, it was very cold and windy here but the locals came out with some very nice goods to sell - mainly painted pictures on leather. From here it was down to Chugchilanto, a very poor village but one of the most scenic areas in Ecuador, also one of the worst roads we have been on in Ecuador! From the crater it was a very hard hour and a half drive, at the end of this Les had a huge stone between his back wheels "I just pulled it out with my truck" - madness!! This village was going to be our night stop. We all were so shattered we decided to eat out, Les asked one of the locals and we had a lovely meal at the Cloud Forest Hostel. We met a couple of Australians, and we had a nice evening. The road continued the next day just as awful as the day before, thank goodness it was not raining.
We parked the night at the back of a garage in Saquisili. There is a good market here in the morning. Had a great time walking around the market and met up with the Australian couple from last night.
Now we head off for Quito, and on to Otavalo for Saturday, which is market day, and the “book says” the best market in South America. We stopped for our morning drink in a garage just outside a smallish town. On leaving the garage, which was very bumpy, followed by 2 speed bumps, I noticed something hanging down, flapping from under Les’s truck. Wondering what it was and getting a little closer - Panic!!!! It was the gas tank hanging and flapping!!!! How lucky – I am not always as close as I was, for the 2 days on the bad road, I had been some many miles back most of the time – a couple more bumps and ………………… I do not know what would happen if a gas tank fell onto the ground at speed!!!! Because we were near the town, getting the thing fixed was not so bad - 2.1/2hrs including lunch and we were back on the road.
On the way to Otavalo we crossed the Equator – exciting – into the northern hemisphere – its not very hot – I’m pleased to say and now it is winter!!
The market at Otavalo was great, had a smashing day, there was a lot of different stuff from what we have seen before. Friday night we had a lovely meal out and Saturday Les cooked. We ate in my truck I made crumble and custard also had a lovely bottle of wine. Great time was had.
From here we were going to explore more of the north, but the road was so bad we decided to turn around. We did manage to get to the Pyramids at Cochasqui, this is an archeological site which contains 15 truncated clay pyramids dated between AD900 and 1500 built by the Cayambi-Caranquil Indians. The tour was in Spanish but Margaret and Les gave me the gist and some of what we have learnt at other sites, plus the guide book all help to make sense of the site. There were also a couple of chaps on the tour who spoke English and helped us. It rained quite hard for a while we were also very high so my chest was not good, but I enjoyed the visit very much.
Our next stop will be the Mercedes Garage in Quito, where we hope to get the last of our security work done. I also have an electrical problem, I cannot charge up my laptop!!!! Major!! We stayed 4 nights, it was a good camp for a visit into Quito, but first the serious stuff I needed a complete set of leisure batteries which is 5. And joy of joys I got my air con fixed which has not worked since Argentina. I also had a bar made to go across the back of the door from the cab into the house!
Oh, by the way we are back into summer and it is hot, I got my face burnt. Had a lovely day in old Quito, visited the Church de la Compania de Jesus which it is said has 7 tons of gold to decorate it……… In a country with so many very poor people I find this very difficult to comprehend, but that aside it is amazing. From the church we walked to the square in front of the Presidents Palace. There was a very large demonstration, lots of riot police ( they were not needed), and lots and lots of Indigenous people mainly women. It is national women’s day. Just as we were leaving the President came out onto the balcony, he then made a speech which was received very well by the crowd, we stayed until he had finished. I think he hopes, like the president of Bolivia, to improve the life for the Indigenous people, particularly for the women.
We left the garage after lunch, heading North West and to Manta, the drive was just awesome through an amazing cloud/rain forest it rained very hard but we had tarmac. Of course there were no birds or creatures. Everything was so thick and lush with so many shades of green, with beautiful bright flowers, some very large leaves from some plants were used as umbrellas by the locals. We stayed in a tiny reserve village called Mindo. On the square there was a sign which says “poverty is no excuse for being dirty”. The following day the rain had stopped, we continued through the cloud/rain forest, in this part of Ecuador there are very big banana plantations (Ecuador grows more bananas then any where else in the world) and also Palm plantations for palm oil, and pineapple plantations going on mile after mile. All the villages had huge great piles of bananas, which I guess they were selling. I cannot imagine how many bananas they must eat (glad I am not poor and live here!). But the green plantar bananas, fried are lovely. Another very interesting part of this ride where the houses, this is the Equator it is very wet and hot, most of the houses are made from bamboo, on stilts. The bamboo is made into screens which make up the walls and I guess will catch any breeze through the gaps between the bamboo, the windows are just square holes, some had chicken wire over them, the roof is made of corrugated iron. Most had a balcony which people had been sleeping, underneath hung the washing. I must say there was loads of very clean washing, it must take ages to dry in this humid weather, everyone did look clean and fairly tidy, also underneath the houses were bikes and farm/garden stuff. Lots of the houses had lovely bright flowers outside with trees giving shade.
The driving from when we got near Quito has been the worst we have had in South America and it has not improved on this last stretch.
We arrived in Manta on Sunday; Les found us a wonderful park at the side of a hotel where we will stay when the trucks go to the boat on Wednesday. Joy of joys for me, we are overlooking the sea from the seat at my table I can see the Pacific rolling onto the beach.
Well this is me more or less up to date, next time I write we will be in Costa Rica and I hope all is well with the trucks.....
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