tinto

i cant believe i forgot to mention the very best thing about colombia. not only is it easy to get good coffee, there are actually tons of people walking around in the streets selling the stuff. everywhere you go you see men holding 5 thermoses and shouting "tIN-TO, aRO-MA-ti-co" (black coffee, tea). they have 17000 tiny little cups and if you flag them down they will stop and pour you a shot of coffee or tea, for 200 pesos, the equivilant of 9 cents. you can get the 500 peso cup too, which is larger but not even double the amount, as anthony and i learned this morning after a scientific measuring process. but the 500 peso cup is a good deal because you dont burn your fingers so much since the cup is bigger. you see, they serve the scalding liquid in flimsy plastic cups, not paper or styrafoam cups as you usually get when you order coffee to go (which, btw, does not exist AT ALL in ecuador, save for one very expensive place in quito). so, if you get the 200 peso cup, and even if you get the 500 peso cup, you burn the bejesus out of your hands. its really quite painful and the only way to avoid the pain is to instantly shoot the hot hot shot of coffee, right there in the boiling sun, without giving it a chance to cool. also painful, in a different way, but a different, novel experience. very, very cool.

happy holidaze

im writing this only because i recieved word that it is 60 degrees right now in nyc. god awfully horrifying as that may be (what HAVE we done?), the balmy weather there will make it more bearable for you to read this. if the tempurature were 15 degrees with gusty winds i would not be writing this entry. i mean it! i do have a little compassion.

but, since you are comfy, here we go... colombia is incredible! and you know i dont just throw these kinds of compliments around (think: eh-cuador). picture colombia right now - picture sun, humidity, cloudless skies, multi colored, beautiful people, millions of alien looking fruits and juice stands every three steps blending them together with ice, loud festive music (not only reggaeton!), whole fried fish, great coffee (!) (no, really, i havent seen nescafe once. AND there was a dunkin donuts, a real live one, in the bogota airport, waiting for us when we made our connection to cartegena), and blue blue water. actually, i take that back. the water is more aqua-ish and clear. oh, and its piss warm, in a good way. oh and the sand is white. i know, sometimes i cant stand me either. my future self is really, really, jealous of me right now.

so obviously, ant and i have been having a good time. we landed in cartagena on the night of the 14th. we quickly threw our sweatshirts in the bottoms of our bags, changed into sandals, and set out to explore the city. we spent a few days just walking around cartagena. its a fantastic city. there is a pretty large old, colonial city, filled with plazas and outdoor cafes and pretty buildings. but then, about 1 km away, is the beach. plus there are harbors with all sorts of boats. you know, the kind of place that makes for the perfect sunset. there have been many sunset cocktail hours for us. then, after a few days of enjoying all of that, we went to playa blanca for 3 days. playa blanca is a beach easily accessible from cartagena via 20 minute lancha ride. playa blanca is incredible. we spent all day, each day, in the water. at nigth we watched the sun go down, ate enormous fried fish, and slept in hammocks. nice. after playa blanca we came back to cartagena for a day to do a tour of the mud volcano, which was almost too wierd to write about. basically its a small bump in the middle of flat flat land, and its crater is filled with mud. obviously, the thing to do is to jump in the mud, which is cool and nice and completely lacking in gravity. it is impossible to sink. or move really. really, it was wierd. afterwards these women bathed us in a nearby lagoon. also wierd, to be bathed like that. mine made me take off my bathing suit. i hope she does that with everyone.....

the next day we came here, to sta. marta, another coastal city 4 hours east. the trip was fairly comfortable, another plus for colombia. prices for transport were straightforward and posted, thus relieving a lot of paranoia about being ripped off on my part. sta. marta is beautiful also, with perhaps the second most beuatiful coastline ive ever seen, and cheaper juice. the first most beautiful coastline ive ever seen was in tayrona national park, which we visited yesterday from sta. marta, as it is only an hour away. we hiked through jungle for an hour to get to a wild, jagged beach. then we walked through more jungle for 1-2 hour to get to another beach, which was actually 2 blue blue bays connected by a strip of sand, rocks jutting out and all. obviously we decided to stay the night, although we already had a hotel room in sta marta. we slept in a hammock in this jam packed campground. maybe too jam packed, which is really my only complaint from the past 10 days. we came back to sta marta today, and tomorrow we will go to a fishing village nearby, and then maybe to a town in the mountain range nearby (but not too high up! we have had quite enough of high, high mountains, thanks.)

so, this whole colombia trip has been amazing so far. i know many people have reservations about colombia, as did i at first, of course. but really, it is not to be missed. what i am trying not to think about is how much i miss you guys, esp. now during the holidays. i hope you are having a great time, and i really really hope you are not working right now.

happy holidays!

high and scary

la-ta-CU-nga
la-ta-CU-nga
(think: ma-chu-CAN-do)

we did not go to latacunga. instead, we took a bus to ambato and from there went back to baños. yey, baños. it was prettier than i remembered it. and: different too. you may recall, if you are an avid reader of this blog, as you should be, that we narrowly escaped the disasterous eruption of volcan tungurahua the last time we were in baños, catching a bus to loja only moments before. directly after the eruption baños was declared a disaster zone. it cleaned up real quick but now, 4 months later, there are still entire fields and hills of grey ash. we saw this on the way in. all along the side of the road were petrified, dusty plants that did not really sway in the breeze. interesting. plus: there were less tourists there. this might be more a function of the fact that last time we were there it was august and there were a million american teachers vacationing there. but one must wonder if the threat of eruption dissuades tourists. fine with selfish little me.

but we went, along with our roomates sophia and merryn, and we had a great time. we did the same long bikeride we did last time (that i may or may not have blogged about), on the road that leads from the mountains to jungle. downhill. enjoyable. the road goes through oncoming traffic tunnels, under waterfalls, and around mountians. halfway to the jungle there is a small trail to a massive waterfall, Pailon del Diablo. last time we were there there were about 45 people waiting on line to cross the precarious rope bridge to catch a glimpse of the waterfall. this time, noone, save one lone, friendly man. glorious.

the rest of our time in baños was spent eating at this delicious continental restaurant. i wont mention the name because im not into advertising. but i will say that its a huge tourist place. last time we were there we avoided it because a) we were poor and b) we (i?) thought it was to touristy, sure to be a rip off. but it wasnt at all, and tourists are not always bad, and it was the best food ive had, possibly, since i left ny. we ate every meal there.

but then: we went to this tiny place in the high high lands called chugchilan. chugchilan is tiny, yet filled with plenty of travelers who, largely, fancy themselves hardcore and out to have a unique experience in the indigenous highlands. i know full well that i am not hardcore, but wanted to go anyway for the pretty views. it took 6 long, bumpy hours to get to chugchilan, during which we almost died 26 times. it was perhaps the scariest busride i have taken yet, or at least been concious for (bless the nightbus and dramamine), and there have been plenty of scary ones. but we got off the bus alive, checked into a hostel, at fried fish and eggs from a street vendor (necessary because there are no restaurants), and wandered past the 3 houses and 14 sheep that make up the town. we saw 3 people, all of whom were very nice. then we went back to hostel and sat near the fireplace, played cards and drank canelazo (ive told you about canelazo, right?). it was freezing. we were up at 3200 meters - i dont know what that is in feet, because i dont know math, but its alot. enough to make you feel very very cold. then at dinner we met the meanest person in the world, a peace corps freak from the bronx. he insulted sophia and was just generally horrible, in a peace corps sort of way. nothing against peace corps volunteers in genreal. there are some good, normal, cynical ones, but when they are horrible they are horrible in the same way. i cant really get into it now.

we decided to leave chugchilan for quilatoa, the "town" right next to the famous crater lagoon quilatoa. this required taking a 5 am bus 2 hours in the pitch black, freezing cold. fun. bumpy. again, we didnt fall of a cliff, but i dont know how. when we got off the bus the sun was just coming up and the ground beginning to thaw. we wer at 3900 meters,. do the math, if you can. cold and hard to breathe, and weve been living at 2500m the past 3 mths. but it was just beautiful. we could see mountains in ever direction we looked. we went into a very basic hostel (stone, no electricity or water) and asked to leave our backpacks there while we hiked around the lake. the proprietors kindly agreed but it was intoned that we should Buy Something. so we sat and drank hot tea and ate breakfast. we made friends with their cats and met a belgian couple who spoke perfect spanish.

after breakfast we set off for the lake. we walked up a small hill and there it was, far far below, blue green and surrounded by brown rugged ridges. we could see a white peak in the distance. we shouted and exclaimed for a few minutes and then set off to hike around its rim. after a few easy steps we met a dog, who was sitting regally, overlooking the miles of farmland below, seemingly supervising.he decided to join us for the hike and stayed with us till the bitter, bitter end of it. the hike quickly became challenging - steep and precipice-y. recall my intense, paralyzing fear of the precipice, as described by anthony in his entry about vilcabamba, back in july. but i was fine. great, even. although my chest was about to explode from the steep climb in altitude, i was so impressed by the dramatic scenery. the hike got more difficult, with steep downhills of slippery loose rock and sand leading right to the craters edge. we stopped for lunch and the belgian couple showed up with no water, smoking cigarettes and not panting. amazing. we left them, smoking their cigarettes, to get a head start. within a few seconds they caught up with us and plowed ahead. but then, we somehow got off the ridge and wound up halfway down to the lakes shore. this was Very Bad because we knew we had to get back up to the top of the ridge, and it was very very high and we were very very tired, and we only had an hour to make it back to catch the bus or else we would have to stay in cold, cold quilatoa and possibly miss our flight out of quito to colombia. plus, we had obviously lost the path. the dog was no help. he just kept following us instead of showing us the way, which he surely knew.

so we just kept going up on no path in particular, at times hanging on to nothing but roots of plants to keep from falling into the lake. i admit, this was when i lost my cool. there was crying and hyperventilating involved. i broke my phone too, but that was an accident. eventually we made it back to a semi path and climbed and climbed and eventually made it back to the ridge where we hightailed it and miraculously, caught the bumpy bus to quito. we forgot to say goodbye to our dog. bye dog.

halfway to quito we said goodbye to sophia and merryn, who were headed back to baños. in quito we quickly found an overpriced hostel, took showers and headed out for a well deserved mexican meal of fajitas and mora (blackberry - grow in abundance here) margaritas. in a few hours we will bid farewell to ecuador, at least for the next few weeks, and catch our flight to cartagena, colombia. more later....

back now

alright - im back now. no, really. expect bi weekly blogs from this point on. i mean it.

because - we are off. abandoning our beloved cats, who are really behaving terribly these days. i think they know we are leaving. cats Know Things. also, abandoning our beautiful apartment, and cuenca too. but its all very temporary, we plan to come back and do another term at CEDEI (unless ecuadorian customs officials are in a bad mood on january 1, in which case we may not be allowed back into the country as, apparantly, we will have stayed too long. whatever.) in the meantime, we are off - first to the latacunga/lake quilatoa area, where there is a cold blue lake surrounded by indiginous villages and whatnot, then Back to Baños for 2 nights, then off in an avianca jet to cartagena, colombia. then, 3 weeks later, the southern oriente of ecuador where we might see some jungle animals and hopfully, a shuar village or two (made famous by a notorious tradition of head shrinking.
no-to-RI-ous.)

so we head out tonight, on a midnight bus bound for latacunga. sure to be a blast, that part. and, of course, im in the process of trying to shove everypiece of clothing that i have into my pocketbook sized backpack. ah, traveling. again. i cant lie, i took out my stinky old non absorbant travel towel, stared at it, packed it, cast one last loving glance at my fluffy, absorbant, terry towel and burst into tears. the travel towel epitomizes all the negatives of travel. as the Bible, i mean lonely planet´s South America on a Shoestring, says "travel aint all mangoes and hammocks. sometimes it SUCKS" (sic) oh, it can be fun alright. but having all of your possessions strapped to your back, as you struggle to take a seat on a wildly careening bus that stinks of diesel fumes and spilt coca cola, and sounds of screeching "romantica", and as the bus driver screams at you to SIGA SIGA SIGA NO MAS (the most commonly used expression here makes absolutely no sense) and the woman in the seat next to you curses you as you accidently plop down on her baby´s head, and all the whole while you are trying to fight off a bout of diarrhea and the urge to run off the bus and make for the nearest starbucks (in lima, peru, btw) for a clean bathroom and a real cup of coffee, it can be trying. but then i guess, the idea is that you find an amazing place, sit in a hammock (or hike over the mountains if you are into that. i used to be. i am not anymore.), look at buildings or people or alpacas, and think "it is all worth it. im so glad i am here, doing this. too bad about that baby, though......"

colombia.