You know that when a proposed couple of weeks in a country turns into a couple of months something either very bad or very good has happened. Despite its reputation as being one of South Americas most dangerous countries and therefore one of the worlds, nothing terrible happened to us. In fact quite the opposite.
You always read and hear the stories of robberies, border crossing nightmares, and violence which of course makes you concerned but if you are taking all the safety precautions and obey the simple rules; don't go to the bad districts and take registered taxis at night, you are largely very safe.
Although we were still sad to have said goodbye to Dave and Susan we like the idea of safety in numbers so had joined forces with an Australian couple Jacqui and James. This theory is particularly appealing when you meet so many great people on the road that are moving in the same direction as you. So off to Ecuador we went.
We had all been up until way past silly o'clock with me DJing and the others carrying on the full moon party style. Unsurprisingly we had quite a time of it in the morning. It was scorching hot, we were very dehydrated, we had hardly any time until our bus, we were delayed because the owner had gone AWOL and needed to be contacted to give me my DJ bonus, we had hardly any money and could not take any more out because we were just about to leave the country. Sound like fun? It was not.
Remember Green Eggs and Ham? That story by that oh so clever doctor. This was not not what our breakfast looked like but where we had it. What a breakfast it was. The Aussies were not delayed and had got there first but we were all pushed for time especially Chan and I as we had not ordered and we had only 20 minutes! We also only had enough Soles for one breakfast to share. Some more evidence emerged for justified faith in humanity as the owner quickly turned into our surrogate mother and took care of everything. She made it fast, she made it delicious, she gave us an extra drink for free and she made us calm.
We made it to the bus stop just in time. Minutes to go until the alleged bus departure time. The bus did not turn up for about another half an hour of course. Some cynics would say that if we were late then the bus would have been early but I don't imagine they have ever been to South America as this is a rather frequent experience. You can not count on it however and if you do miss your bus the chances of a refund are less likely than a lottery jackpot.
With one of the worst borders crossing in South America looming we were all too hung over and tired to really pay it much thought. We snoozed, slept and dreamt of the water that we could not afford. The crossing itself was a complete anticlimax as it has pleasantly turned out to be every time. We arrived in Cuenca very late and the taxi driver and the hostel Mama did not seem to think we would be eating tonight after a day full of undernourishment. We were almost running to the last chance which was the pizzeria. We slipped and slided in our flip flops all the way to the door. A man was outside taking the signs in and with a burst of speed I closed the space between us before he could shut the door. The words "Take away only" were like heaven to our ears and the the pizza turned out to be outstanding.
Cuenca was otherwise unremarkable except for the Panama Hat makers and the best milkshake I have had on the whole trip. I am a sucker for Vanilla but had to settle for Oreo as it was the closest. It was thick, rich, creamy and over in a matter of seconds. Even now the memory is one of pleasure.
The overnight journey despite being only a quarter of the length of the longest trip we have done on a bus turned out to be one of the worst. Being rather larger than your average South American I do not quite fit into the furniture of the country. The seats, beds and cars are all too small unless we manage to secure some extranjero (foreigner) luxury. This was our intention as we paid the most we could for the best bus they had. It was and no doubt still is rubbish. Chan likes the window so I always have the aisle and my shoulders stuck out just enough to be knocked by every single person who entered or left the bus and let me tell you there were quite a few.
The ever helpful South Americans like to say yes or give you directions even when the answer is actually no or I don’t know. The question this time was "is the bus direct" and the answer (lie) was yes of course. It could not have stopped more if it tried, letting people on and off at every possible opportunity. Needless to say we did not sleep well and arrived in Quito rather tired and a little apprehensive due to its reputation.
The over riding feeling though was one of excitement because we were about to get back together with two of the people we have loved so much this whole trip. We were about to be reunited with our antipodean counterparts Matt and Becs.
The ways in which we are similar at times bordered on freaky. It started of with simple tangible things Matt and I are about the same height, same hair colour and blue eyes. We actually met in Thailand because of the girls shared love for dance and in particular hula hoop. Matt fits in on this realm also as he is without question the best poi performer I have ever seen. Matt is a music producer and a DJ and collecting and playing music is at the core of my being. We were into exactly the same music, had the same favourite songs. Becs also spins tunes if not quite so obsessively as us two. Although these things in themselves are not uncommon our friendship became so much more than our similarities. Back in Thailand when we were commenting on just how alike we all are before bedtime, Matt and I it turned out had picked exactly the same make and colour toothbrush from opposite sides of the world. This exact same thing happened the next time we got back together except the girls had managed to do it as well! There are a lot of toothbrushes to choose from out there and this was something we all found to be hilarious. If we ever spent time apart, when we got back together we had always been talking about exactly the same thing and come up with the same ideas or solutions. Mostly though it is our shared love for fun, adventure and laughter that kept us tight for the next month.
We still had a few days to go until the Galapagos and with James and Jacqui we were 6. We spent most of our time cooking delicious meals and drinking South American red wine. We did however make to the Mitad del Mundo or the middle of the world (actually Matt and Becs did not make it as Becs vomitted on route and had to go home).
The equatorial line dividing the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Although I had doubts about just how worth while this would be it turned out to be a great day. The novelty of jumping from one hemisphere to the next does not get old and this brought much entertainment. Apparently a French scientist in the 19th century did not get the point exact due to lack of technology so the line is not where they originally thought. They have corrected this with GPS and it runs 100m away through what was originally a museum for an archaeological find. Now they have a great tour which was really interesting.
The shrunken heads were a gory and insane beginning to the tour which actually had diagrams depicting the whole process from decapitation to scrapping out the brains and boiling the head. The other moments of note were the games we played on the Equatorial line. They had a sink and let water fall through it on the line in the two hemispheres. They must have only moved it several meters on both sides. On the Equator the water does not turn as there is not centrifugal force and just drops straight down through the plug hole. A couple of meters either side and it turns clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and anticlockwise in the Southern Hemisphere . Although we were all sceptical I could not see how they were faking it. The other party trick is to balance an egg on a nail which is possible else where but easier here as the liquid inside the egg is being pulled straight down so is more stable. Both James and I balanced the Eggs on nails but he is the real egg master and I bow down to his yolky holiness.
One more three course meal where each couple cooks a course, a touch more vino and we said our goodbyes to James and Jacqui and went to bed to get ready for the trip of a lifetime.
Vamos a Galapagos!!!
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