Well, I think I get the privilege of being the first person other than Jay to write an entry on here, I feel kind of like Bono being asked to guest edit the Independent for a day................sort of.
I met up with Jay in Guayaquill on Tuesday and the next morning we travelled up to Cuenca which is about 2500m /8000 ft above sea level. The journey itself was pretty impressive, lots of hairpin bends and shear drops at the side of the road. We went to a soccer game that night and sampled some of the local beverages. Pilsener and Club are your 2 options in most places in Ecuador, I couldn't tell much of a difference between them to be honest, sort of like Budweiser and MGD........
After we left Cuenca we travelled north to Riobamba and organised a couple of mountain bikes for descending down from Mount Chimborazoo which is the highest mountain in Ecuador, and higher than anywhere north of it in the Americas. We got as high as 5000m / 17,000 ft, up there you can really feel how thin the air is and walking up even 20 metres really takes it out of you. The descent down on the bikes was great, I'd reccommend it for anyone taking a trip down there.
After Riobamba We headed further north, Jay headed up to his village and I took a bus out to a place called Quilotoa to hike around a lake. I have exactly 14 words of Spanish so I was interested to see how easy it would be to get around (I was surprised during the trip that more people didn't speak English) . You can actually communicate pretty well with a few phrases and a lot of hand gestures. Anyway, the hike was great, but it took about 3 hours and there were some pretty decent climbs so by the end of it I was a bit wrecked. By the time I got back on the bus, where as pretty much always I was the only Gringo, for the return trip I was ready for a snooze. Just as I was falling asleep I heard some Irish music playing, I looked up and saw they were playing "The Devil's Own" on the TV. Now, listening to Brad Pitt playing an IRA fugitive (Frankey Maguire) is a pretty painful expereince. However, listening to Brad Pitt playing an IRA fugitive (Frankey Maguire) while dubbed in Ecuadorian Spanish is actually very entertaining. Sadly it wasn't appreciated by the locals and they soon switched it off to listen to the local Sierra Music.
Next day I met up with Jay again at his village, it's small, very small, but Jay seems to be a hit among the people who live there. We spent a night there and travelled up to Quito the next day. Quito was my favourite place in Ecuador, spectacular setting and a great place to spend a couple of days I thought.
All in all I enjoyed the trip a lot, knowing a few words of Spanish goes a long way. I found Ecuadorians pretty friendly in general (with one or two exceptions) especially if you make the effort to say hello (in Spanish).
Never got around to tasting Guinea Pig unfortunately, still it's something to look forward to for the next time...
Thanks for a great trip Jay!
Conor
I met up with Jay in Guayaquill on Tuesday and the next morning we travelled up to Cuenca which is about 2500m /8000 ft above sea level. The journey itself was pretty impressive, lots of hairpin bends and shear drops at the side of the road. We went to a soccer game that night and sampled some of the local beverages. Pilsener and Club are your 2 options in most places in Ecuador, I couldn't tell much of a difference between them to be honest, sort of like Budweiser and MGD........
After we left Cuenca we travelled north to Riobamba and organised a couple of mountain bikes for descending down from Mount Chimborazoo which is the highest mountain in Ecuador, and higher than anywhere north of it in the Americas. We got as high as 5000m / 17,000 ft, up there you can really feel how thin the air is and walking up even 20 metres really takes it out of you. The descent down on the bikes was great, I'd reccommend it for anyone taking a trip down there.
After Riobamba We headed further north, Jay headed up to his village and I took a bus out to a place called Quilotoa to hike around a lake. I have exactly 14 words of Spanish so I was interested to see how easy it would be to get around (I was surprised during the trip that more people didn't speak English) . You can actually communicate pretty well with a few phrases and a lot of hand gestures. Anyway, the hike was great, but it took about 3 hours and there were some pretty decent climbs so by the end of it I was a bit wrecked. By the time I got back on the bus, where as pretty much always I was the only Gringo, for the return trip I was ready for a snooze. Just as I was falling asleep I heard some Irish music playing, I looked up and saw they were playing "The Devil's Own" on the TV. Now, listening to Brad Pitt playing an IRA fugitive (Frankey Maguire) is a pretty painful expereince. However, listening to Brad Pitt playing an IRA fugitive (Frankey Maguire) while dubbed in Ecuadorian Spanish is actually very entertaining. Sadly it wasn't appreciated by the locals and they soon switched it off to listen to the local Sierra Music.
Next day I met up with Jay again at his village, it's small, very small, but Jay seems to be a hit among the people who live there. We spent a night there and travelled up to Quito the next day. Quito was my favourite place in Ecuador, spectacular setting and a great place to spend a couple of days I thought.
All in all I enjoyed the trip a lot, knowing a few words of Spanish goes a long way. I found Ecuadorians pretty friendly in general (with one or two exceptions) especially if you make the effort to say hello (in Spanish).
Never got around to tasting Guinea Pig unfortunately, still it's something to look forward to for the next time...
Thanks for a great trip Jay!
Conor
No comments:
Post a Comment