200910

THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER 2009 – Catch the 8.45am, $2 (£1.20) bus to Riobamba. The direct road is still closed after the February 2008 eruption of volcano Tungurahua so we skirt Ambato then head south along the “avenue of the volcanoes”.  We get a beautiful view of Volcano Chimborazo, at 6310m the highest one in Ecuador and famous as the furthest point from the centre of the earth due to the Equatorial Ridge.  Fellow passengers are kiwi Scott and his Czech girlfriend.  We share a $1 (60p) cab to the centre of Riobamba.  El VIP café is owned by Couchsurfer Juan who advertises last minute beds.  Immediately ahead of us entering the café are 2 young Polish girls, Gosia and Marwina.  Juan says he may have space for us all and walks us to his house nearby.  The girls are happy with the offered mattresses on the floor and we thank him but say we are a bit too old to sleep on the floor and ask if he can recommend a hostel.  Shyris at $8pppn is OK but the rooms are directly over the street so probably noisy.  In fact so noisy that at the junction we hear a terrific crash when a “Coca Cola” lorry takes the corner too fast and sheds part of its load.  Nearby Hotel Tren Dorado has much nicer rooms surrounding a courtyard in the back, $10 pppn (£6).  Drop the bags and head to the nearby railway station.  The famous “Devils Nose” train journey only leaves on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and needs booking, $11 (£6.60).  At VIP restaurant we have an excellent lunch, complimentary herbal water and popcorn and the meal of the day cream of carrot soup, chips, rice and beef casserole, strawberry whirl and a glass of cherry juice.  The Polish girls join us for coffee and Juan tells us of a free guitar concert tonight.  Exploring the town we find many nice buildings, churches and squares and a park with fine views.  In the main square we employ a couple of local lads to polish our shoes.  They ask for 25c (15p) a pair and do a great job using their hands to work the polish in.  We chat to them and they assure us they went to school this morning.  They are cute kids and enterprising so we pay them double.  The concert in the “Casa Del Cultura” is supposed to start at 7pm, arriving shortly after there are few people there and it only really fills up at about 7.30pm with more people piling in with plastic chairs during the opening speeches.  Safety first doesn’t come into it as they block the aisles and all available exits with extra seats.  People are called onto stage, given certificates and musicians are introduced and it is really long winded.  Around 8pm 3 guitarists and a singer begin performing.  The guitarists twang away in the background whilst the singing sounds a bit like opera.  By the middle of the second song we take the opportunity to escape following the first person who leaves.

RIOBAMBA, HOTEL TRAIN DORADO

$10PPPN

FRIDAY 2 October 2009 – We get up at 5am for the 5.30am $3 (£2.40) buffet breakfast.  Notice as we are leaving that a couple of bread rolls and bananas have fallen into our rucksack!  Arriving at the station at 6am they put on a film show about the building of the Guayaquil to Quito railway. Ecuadorians failed, so in 1895 Americans were called in to engineer what was at that time the “most difficult railway in the world”.  At Sibambe the track entered a valley blocked by an almost perpendicular wall of rock called “The Devils Nose”.  A zigzag was carved out of the rock to allow the train by advancing and backing up to climb the mountain to Alausi.  Today’s journey takes us from Riobamba down the zigzag then back up to Alausi.  Instead of the nice old steam train shown in the picture we get an individual carriage rather like a bus balanced on train wheels.  There is a low platform so it looks very strange.  Leaving at 6.30am we pass through Riobamba suburbs and out into farming country.  It is so interesting; cattle are positioned individually in fields tethered to about 6 foot of rope.  They often break free and many times we must stop for them to move off the track.  Around 8am the train goes down the main street of a town, waits for people to push a parked car off the track and move a few stalls and then pulls up for a toilet stop.  Further on the farming changes to pocket fields of crops and huge areas of fir trees.  There is a lovely section following a small stream through the mountains and here we have to stop as a JCB is clearing part of the track after a landslide.  A short stop in Alausi then we are into the most exciting part of the journey.  There are 2 carriages in use today and we often see the other one higher on the track.  Shunting down the “Devils Nose” is quite a spectacle and after waiting for the other carriage to arrive at the bottom we repeat the process giving all passengers a change to be on the side hanging over the drop.  A few years ago you could sit on the roof of the train but a Japanese tourist fell off and died.  There is a clause on the back of the ticket saying it includes life cover but you can no longer sit on the roof.  Alighting in Alausi at 11.30am we check into Hotel Europa, $24 (£14.50) on the main street.  We are doing rather well fitting into our hoped for $15 - $25 a night room budget and apart from in the remote community Quilotoa have had nice en suite rooms with a double and single bed and often cable TV.  Take a wander round town and up to the huge mosaic covered statue of San Pedro.    In the evening Steve gets the set $4 (£2.40) at the Chinese adjoining the hotel, the main course and coke are great but the tube soup is a bit dodgy even for him.

ALAUSI, HOTEL EUROPA

$24

SATURDAY 3 October – Waiting for the bus I see many locals buying hot herbal drinks from a man with a cart.  I tell him I need something for an upset stomach and get a honey based drink with some of the inside of the aloe Vera leaf and lots of other herbs, 50c (30p).  The bus arrives at 7am, $5 (£3) pp for the 4 hour journey.  After a couple of hours the bus pulls up in a small village at the road junction to Guayaquil.   The driver comes through the bus with a long speck and we pick out bus, problem, road, indigenous, Cuenca.  Many people get off and although we ask him to explain slowly we don’t know what is happening so opt to stay onboard with a few other passengers.  At the next village with a minor road turn off to Guayaquil the bus stops and tells us all to get off.  It seems there is a road block ahead and he can go no further.  The passengers that are left get off.  The driver refunds $1.50pp and says we must get a camionetta to the road block, walk through that and keep repeating the process.  We are not too happy and by the time we have got our luggage back we are alone at the road junction with our bags.  I spot a Police car coming from the direction of the road block and in broken Spanish learn that there are many road blocks but they are not dangerous for tourists and we should be able to get through.  Figure we could try and go back to Alausi or Riobamba, on the side road to Guayaquil almost 200km away or carry on.  In fact we have no options as there are no buses or camionetas in sight. Maybe if we had understood the situation and got off at the last junction we would have had more options.  We hitch a ride and along with another lady get into a truck.  The driver insists we sit with him in the cab and she goes in the back.  He speaks broken English, worked in America as a chef for 15 years, and tells us he is going to Cuenca and will get us as far as he can.  We start to see rocks in the road, sometimes the remains of roadblocks but others that have been thrown at cars.  Driver tells us when we see the partial roadblocks and have to slow down we must look out for people hiding nearby as they may try to hi jack the car.  We reach an area with a continuous line of lorries parked at the side of the road but press on further.  Eventually driver stops a car coming towards us to learn there is a complete block a little further ahead.  Our driver says he must turn back and try the coastal road to Cuenca and invites us to join him.  By now we have realised he has been drinking so we decide to take our leave whilst still in one piece although he’s a nice enough guy and refuses our offer of money.  A bus pulls up behind us so we transfer to that to get a mile or two further on.  The blockade is rocks and burning tyres.  Everyone disembarks, walks around the blockade then continues to walk along the road now lined with lorries.  We feel a bit afraid as we don’t really understand what is going on so make haste to stay with the group of walkers.  After walking for a couple of miles and up a hill we get to the end road block where there are lots of protesters.  If this is what we saw on TV a couple of weeks ago it is about the local indios being asked by the government to pay for their water.  They seem happy for us to skirt the side of the roadblock where another bus is waiting.  No idea where it is going but for $1 pp (60p) we are happy to be on it.  It doesn’t get far before protesters and telegraph poles across the road prevent progress.  Think the driver is making the most of the opportunity to shuttle people the short distance as the locals all complain bitterly about the price.  By the time we have got our luggage the other passengers are way ahead of us.  At the end of the blockade the others have piled into a truck but there is no space for us.  We wait for another one and this takes us to the town of El Tambo.  Walking round town we see lots of lorries and a few buses parked at the side of the road.  In theory we could get another camioneta to the next road block but people seem to be saying there are many more blocks and up to 10km to walk between them.  The opinion is that the road will not be passable until at least 5pm on Monday when the government makes an announcement on TV.  There is no sign of the other bus passengers so they may have tried to get further but given our lack of understanding of the situation and comparatively heavy luggage we are wary.  We phone a Couchsurfing friend in Cuenca who says the next stretch is the worst but if we can get through Canar it will be easy however this is the area where we may have a 10km walk.  We check into a Hotel for the night to chew over our options.  Even if you can get through the way we have been doing with short rides and walks we feel like it would be better to start afresh in the morning.  Reckon the road blocks must come and go and maybe the weekend is when they are worst.  At least we haven’t had the experience we saw on TV of a bus being set on fire.  Wander the town and eat at the Chinese.  Try to gather information on the Internet but there doesn’t seem to be any fresh update about our stretch of road.  We buy some fruit at the market and a big bottle of drinking water and return to our comfortable room to watch TV so could be a lot worse off.

LA TAMBO, HOSTAL CHESKY WASY

$9 PPPN

SUNDAY 4 October 2009 – We’ve had a very disturbed night, our room has a false ceiling and the family lounge is above us.  They had the TV on loud until 2.30am and again from 6.30am so we move rooms.  Looking at a map we may be able to take the side road out to Ingapirca ruins then continue on that to south of Canar.  Walking the town we see lorries now parked both sides of the road for as far as we can see.  Chat to the Police who say the town is effectively sealed off with road blocks on all exit roads including the one to Ingapirca.  A local taxi driver who speaks English confirms this but says we could do the ride, block, walk, block, ride thing to visit the Ingapirca ruins but certainly won’t get onwards from there.  He agrees there is nothing else to do in town and that would be our best option for a trip out.  However he also agrees that the road blocks are at their worst at the weekend and more may spring up and we could end up stranded in Ingapirca so kick that idea into touch, even though we could actually walk the 9km back.   Late morning the lorry drivers are getting restless and create their own human blockade to stop any movement of traffic or other lorry drivers getting ahead of them.  It seems that occasionally lorries are let through the blockade but then they cannot park as the roadside is full and the other drivers get cross if they appear to be trying to push ahead.   After taking lunch at the local café we walk to find out where the road block is on the road towards Canar.  There are small partial blocks but the main one including many people is about 1 mile out of town but more importantly we see a sign saying 9km to Canar so think we misinterpreted the information about having to walk 10km when in fact that was the total distance so we will give it a go tomorrow.  Settle down to sleep around 8.30pm then awake an hour later when I hear English speaking voices.  When I hear a man’s voice saying “we must have walked f…king miles” I reckon I must investigate.  The people are in the room above us and I figure we could exchange information so I give them a knock.  John is English and his girlfriend Sue from Canada.  They have come from Riobamba today, reckon they have walked around 10km between road blocks as there are many more blocks than yesterday and some with piles of earth.  Comparing notes we decide we will try to get further tomorrow together.

EL TAMBO 2, HOSTAL CHESKY WASY

MONDAY 5 October 2009 – We set off together at 7.30am.  Pick up a camioneta in town and ask him to take us as far as he can.  He does exactly what we ask but down dirt roads and finally stops and says we must walk down to a stream, over the bridge then up through the fields to join the PanAm highway.  Not an easy task with all our baggage so we ask him to take us to the PanAm highway even though this is further back, $2 (£1.20) for the ride.  A bus is coming by and takes us further but only for about ¼ mile.  There is a huge road block with telegraph poles, burning tyres and rocks in the road beyond it.  Get out and walk but at least on the road we can trolley our bags along.  In fact we probably walk less than 1km to get beyond the next blockade.  A camioneta pulls up and we explain we are trying to get to Cuenca.  He asks how much we would pay to get there and we offer $5 pp. In the back of his 4wd we set off on a track up in to the mountains.  By asking people coming towards him he manages to navigate a route to take us around the Canar blockages and back onto the PanAm.  After that it is relatively plain sailing as all the blockades have been breached.  He stops at Azogues bus station from where a 50c (30p) ride gets us to Cuenca.  Amazingly we do the whole journey in around 4-hours and cannot believe our luck.  Taxi into town to check out hostels.  By chance Sue & John are on a similar budget to us looking for the same price and standard of accommodation.  We are all happy with the deal of $28 (– 10% for taking 2 rooms) at Casa De Barranco overlooking the river.  It is one of the colonial mansions with lots of character, breakfast is included and we have a room with a proper bath and a nice terrace outside.  There is an Indian curry house nearby so we walk there for lunch.  At this stage John & Sue are struggling to walk far after their long hikes yesterday in flip flops.  The menu looks great but the food is all heavily salted and not great.  With Internet at the hotel we check out our onward options but with flights around $400 to Lima we are reluctant to book.  Around 5pm we meet up with Couchsurfers Diego and Betta.  Betta is from Slovakia and Diego Ecuadorian but has lived and worked in the States so speaks excellent English.  We go to a Columbian restaurant for a snack then they take us for a drive.  There is a great view point south of the city giving us an idea of the size of it.  The centre is a UNESCO site because of all the colonial building and feels quite compact whilst we now understand why it is the 3^rd largest city in Ecuador.  Next we go to the bus station where Diego kindly gathers information for the International bus to Peru.  It is $11 ($6.60) and takes 8-hours but the bus didn’t get through today because of the blockades.  Will try to catch it in a couple of days If the roads are clear, at least there is more to do here if we are stranded!

CUENCA, CASA DEL BARRANCO

$25.20 INC BREAKFAST

TUESDAY 6 October – Set out to explore the town with some really nice churches.  The main cathedral is magnificent with lots of roof domes and a statue of Pope John Paul inside to commemorate his visit to the city.  There is a flower market and a clothes market that includes hotel sized kitchen pans etc, stalls manned by the indigenous people in costume.  The Panama Hat museum is here and we learn that they were called that because they were made in Ecuador but shipped up to the people working on the Panama Canal.  The river walk is lovely and there we spot the quirky medical museum, $1 (60p).  Along with lots of old equipment they have medical magazines that you can look at, Steve enjoyed reading the one for the year he was born.  In a cabinet I am fascinated by a 3-month pickled foetus along with the skeleton of an 8-month one and a mummified 5-year old.  Walking back we pass a church closed for renovation and the guard invited us inside where we have no idea how they are going to have it finished in the 1-year available.  Spot a traffic warden taking photographs of the offending cars – now isn’t that a good idea.  In the market Steve has a freshly carved roast pork dinner, $2 (£1.40) with excellent crunchy crackling and tender meat whilst I have a large glass of freshly squeezed juice, 50c (30p).  Meet up with Diego & Betta at 3pm and they take us out to his parent’s weekend house in the country nearby.  It feels much more than 20 minutes from the city as you are out in farming country and at 200m lower the weather is considerably warmer.  His Dad Miguel soon has us set up drinking beers outside.  Diego has made the American game “corn hole” and we have great fun trying to throw corn bags onto a ramp and into a hole.  Of course our combination of ten pin bowling and petanque skills give us the edge.  They drop us back at the hotel and arrange to pick us up along with Sue & John for an evening of cards at their place.  At 7pm we leave and order a pizza en route.  To begin with we play “Hoopla”, an American game that is a sort of combination of charades, Pictionary and a word game where you have to describe the word on a card you have chosen.  It is great fun and lots of laughs.  After eating we learn the card game “Arsehole”, that the others all know.  Neither of us becomes President but we do manage to rank as arsehole and neutrals a number of times.  Diego asks us all to sign his world map.  You have to sign and put the town you come from with an arrow pointing to it.  It is amazing to see just how many visitors they have had from around the world.  We all agree what an excellent evening out it has been with good like minded company and lots of laughs.

CUENCA 2, HOSTAL DEL BARRANCO

WEDNESDAY 7 October – At the bus station we buy tickets on the 9am International bus to Mancora in Peru, $11 (£6.60).   It is supposed to take 8-hours and be a through bus but today we have to change at the Ecuadorian customs and wait 1 ½-hours for a second bus meaning we will arrive just as it is getting dark. The journey to the Ecuadorian coast is through more spectacular mountain scenery and we are amazed at the journey as Diego & Betta once cycled the 200km in a day.  At the Ecuadorian customs (3km before the border) we get our exit stamps noting we have been in Ecuador exactly a month.  The next bus arrives but is already packed with people and our allocated seat numbers are in use.  It would appear they have merged buses but we are lucky and do get a seat whilst others have to stand.  Entry into PERU is over a bridge then beyond the border town we reach immigration.  You have to queue up to get your entry papers stamped then go to another line to get your passport stamped and registered.  The currency here is Nuevo Soles with approx 5 = £1.  In Tumbes a few people get off so we all have seats.  Our initial impression of Peru is that it is considerably poorer than Ecuador and in many ways more like Mexico.  Near the border there are many villages of huts.  Our journey takes us along the Pacific coast through lots of fishing villages.  After about 50km we arrive at customs, have to get off the bus and file through a buildings whilst the bus is checked then drives on to meet us at the other end.  Arrive in Mancora just after 6pm.  We want to check out a 2-bedroom bungalow seen on the Internet and hop into a couple of motocyclos (tuk tuks) to get there.  The lads say it is 5-minutes away inland but having gone on a dirt road they reach a big hill they cannot get up and say it is a long walk from there so we pass.  It seems that the main resort town of Mancora, with the PanAm passing through, is a small village dominated by back packing surfers and renowned for all night parties.  South along the coast is a dirt road behind the beach lined with big expensive hotels and a few bungalows.  We try a couple of the bungalows but one is full and the other asks PS200 (£40) per room.  After telling the cyclo boys the kind of price we are looking for they suggest we go to “The Point” near the town.  It is now dark and arriving at Estrella del Mar it is hard to see what we are getting other than fairly simple cabin style rooms but at PS80 (£16) it is affordable.  Pay off the cyclos, PS8 (£1.60) each and check in.  At least this place has a swimming pool and grassy lawns, is near the beach and a short walk to the town centre whereas the beach road was isolated.  Walking together into town we see lots of menu of the day offers P5 (£1).  From this Steve & I pick cervice (marinated fish) for starters then I have fish fillet with rice and Steve fried rice with sea food and the price even includes a fruit juice.  Better still you get 4 huge beers for P10 (£2) so maybe the food and drinks prices will offset the more expensive accommodation.  The restaurants are full of back packing Brits.  We take a wander around town and find lots of rooms at PS40 (£8), the rooms are similar to ours but the places have no gardens and are nearer the area where they have discos.  Mind you our room is not exactly quiet overnight as we realise it has no windows just fly screens so we have background noise of the ocean, the main road and the disco’s and are accompanied by ants in our bed.

MANCORA, ESTRELLA DEL MAR

http://www.mancorahotelestrellafugaz.com/

Thursday 8 October 2009 – Compounded by a very firm mattress, mosquitoes buzzing round (at least there is a net) and being cold I have little sleep.  The music goes on until after 4am and before 7am they are watering the grass in front of our bungalow.  We had heard such good reports on Mancora but suspect it was from people who came down and just stayed in the posh hotels further down.  We really like the small town area with shops, bars and restaurants but need to find more suitable accommodation.  When Steve gets up we walk north along the beach and settle on The Sahara Hotel PS110 (£22) night. http://vivamancora.com/saharahotel/index.html we get a nice room overlooking the ocean and a hotel with swimming pool directly behind the beach, gardens, gym, pool, table tennis, internet and breakfast.  We quickly re locate and settle ourselves on the comfy loungers by the pool.  It is hard to get shade here because being near the Equator the sun is almost always directly overhead so we decide on an early beach walk.  We are just about at the end of the northern development and other than a nice new backpackers at the point there are just local houses.  In the afternoon Steve spots a whale out on the horizon.  Late on John & Sue arrive with a bag of beer so we sit and watch the sunset together.  In the village we end up at a local burger bar with freshly made huge burgers and ships and delicious passion fruit juice.  Pick up more beers on the way back and learn another new card game “Yussa”.  We will be sorry to see our new friends go on ahead tomorrow.

MANCURA 2, SAHARA HOTEL

PS110 (£22) INC BREAKFAST

FRIDAY 9 October 2009 – It is a lovely sunny morning so after breakfast we make a quick walk to town to book our onward bus.  The direct walk takes us through a very poor but interesting area of house built with all manner of materials.  There are numerous coach companies in Peru and all seem to have quality buses so we go for the cheapest one with the time to suit us.  Spend the rest of the morning by the pool.  We have new neighbours, John from America and his new Internet girlfriend Marie.  They originally had the nice room with Jacuzzi but have opted to move to the basic rooms.  We ask if they would like to join us for our evening in the village.  Begin at the cheap PS5 (£1) restaurant then go to the La Badjadita for deserts.  Recommended in the Rough Guide they sure live up to expectations and we all enjoy it.  During the evening we learn that John’s English wife died 2 years ago and he now has a travel trailer in America and “met” Marie on line and has come over to visit.  It is so nice to see how well they have hit it off.

MANCURA 3, SAHARA HOTEL 2

Saturday 10 October – Walking to the bus office we are amazed to find no one around.  Steve heads off to draw some cash and get bread and fruit for the journey.  When a lady appears in the office I realise why it is quiet.  We are booked on the 9.30pm bus not am which we wanted.  The error has risen because the Spanish word manana can mean tomorrow or morning.  They have no other bus going where we want and I end up pleading with her to get our money back.  This eventually works so I race to the next nearest office where they do have a 9.30am bus.  El Dorado charge PS25 (£5) but it arrives a little later at 4pm but at this stage I am just happy to have the tickets.  Steve is happy with the upshot and we board the bus for our long journey.  We are soon out into barren desert area where there are many “nodding donkeys” bringing up oil.  Nearer one of the towns there are lots of paddy fields which is quite a contrast.  In Piura we change buses with a half hour wait.  Arriving in Chiclayo we have arranged to be met by a Couchsurfer.  Carlos speaks little English but his Peace Corps girlfriends Sara is on her way into town and we talk to her on her mobile.  She suggests we go to the same hotel she is staying at and arriving at the Hostal Amigos we are more than happy with our double ensuite room with TV.  Carlos seems to know everyone here and introduces us to another Peace Corps worker Matt who spends ages talking to us.  They are all going out to a birthday party later – and I mean later as it starts at 11pm so unable to spend the evening with us.  We take our evening meal at the nearby “Esquina” corner restaurant and really enjoy my fish fillet and chips.  Being in the centre of town we don’t have the quietest of nights.

CHICLAYO – HOSTAL AMIGOS

PS50 (£11)