Ambato? No!

August, 2011

This was Bill and Verda's last day in Ecuador.  We got a guy in Cotacachi to drive us to Quito in his van for $50, so we split it.  We got dropped off at the bus terminal so we could get a bus to Latacunga.  For a little bit, I thought we were in an episode of Amazing Race. There were no ticket windows that said Latacunga, and everyone we asked just yammered at us in super fast Spanish. It was pretty dicey until we figured out that we had to go to a different bus terminal.  

One taxi driver told us he would take us for $30.   You know me, I uttered a few choice words that I don't know the Spanish for, but another man approached us and offered to take us for $10.  It turned out that Quito is a very, very large city, and the new bus terminal in the south was about as far away from the terminal where we were as you can get.  It did, in fact, take us an hour to get there, but once there, it was a piece of torte.  

The bus to Ambato was comfortable and the views were incredible.  Cotopaxi is the largest volcano in Ecuador and it is a grand sight. Staying in a sleazy hotel for $26 per night.  It's clean and has tv and wi-fi. But scratch Ambato off the list of possibles. Loud, lots of crazy traffic-kind of a 42nd Street and Broadway feel. Not at all "tranquillo.". We will be out of here first thing in the am.

Reflections

August, 2011

We have been home for two days now, and our experience in Ecuador is beginning to be processed in our brains.  My very first thought as we drove home from the airport was how beautiful this country is.  The roads, the landscaping, the homes we pass, even the shopping centers - they all looked lovely after the concrete walls and concrete houses we saw in Ecuador.  When I drove to Sarah's house the next morning to pick up the kids, I realized that every family that lived in one of the houses in Seville lives in a house that only the richest families in Ecuador have.  

However, I truly missed the wonderful markets in Ecuador when I went grocery shopping today.  Pineapples were $1.00 for three in Cotacachi.  In Queen Creek I paid $3.99 for one!  Bananas were 79 cents a pound here; there they were 5 cents each.  But I could buy everything I needed at one store rather than going to several different shops.

It will take a bit longer to decide whether the lack of government interference in people's lives in Ecuador works better than the overwhelming intrusion of the government into every facet of our lives here.  It is pretty clear that when people are spending so much of their time just providing for the necessary basics for their families they don't have time to worry about a lot of other things.  They also don't have time for leisure activities.  We never saw a single movie theater in our entire time in Ecuador.  Nor did we see any professional baseball stadiums, basketball arenas, or football stadiums.  I am sure there are soccer stadiums somewhere, but probably only in the largest cities.