The Noisy American

Lucky me

Well, it's the day before my Galapagos trip which I've really been looking forward to so, of course, I'm sick.  Really sick - food poisoning.  I spent the morning vomiting and shitting.  It's been really lovely.  Spent most of the day at the hospital as opposed to doing things that I really needed to do such as buying some shorts and books.  To top it off, it's a national holiday here and I wasn't aware of it so banks are closed and my funds are seriously low.  Other than that everything's great.  Wish me luck. 

Sightseeing

I´m a bit tired of sightseeing today.  Actually I´ve been a bit tired of it for a couple of days.  Charming colonial architecture is no longer doing it for me.  For that reason, I think I´ll have very few pictures of Cuenca, though it, admitedly is a very charming colonial town. 

Guayanquil

Spent two nights in Qguil which is a sprawling city that´s actually hot and humid.  It´s the first heat I´ve felt since leaving Georgia.  I worked up a sweat before 10:00 am and it wasn´t even a sunny day.  It´s an interesting city, but I didn´t love it like I did Lima.  It´s a real city of contrasts, the area around the waterfront is absolutely spotless and shiny with modern architecture mixed in with the restored buildings.  But, a few blocks inland and it´s a completely different atmosphere, noisy chaotic, dirty and congested.  I think that I liked that area better.  There´s a fantastic park in the middle of the city, fantastic because it´s crawling with iguanas, and not just a few, there are hundreds. 

I reckon Gquil is probably one of those cities that you learn to love.  I talked with a few visitors there who had stayed a while and learned their way around and they thought it was a fantastic city.  I think it didn´t help that I chose a really crappy hostel in the suburbs.  I chose it because I was flying in and then (I thought) taking a bus out in only two days.  Thought it might be easier as far as transporting my stuff.  Anyway, if you´re ever in Guayaquil, avoid the Dreamcatcher Hostal.  I know, I know - I should have known by the name.  The rooms are like tombs, the owner is annoying and they have really loud parrots that start squacking at about 7 in the morning. 

I woke up yesterday to find that there was a general strike of some kind or another that was halting traffic through the place where I was supposedly traveling.  My four hour trip was going to take me about  7 hours.  Forget that, I went to the airport and, very luckily, caught a plane and got here in an hour.   Scary plane ride, though, only 36 passengers and I could feel every bump and airpocket we hit.  I never should have read that book by Critchon - Airframe. 

Anyway, I´m now in Cuenca and I think I´ll force myself to do a little sightseeing anyway.

Celebrity Spotting

Well I walked about 10 miles today looking for a Starbucks that I saw from a taxi window last night (surprisingly, even though Ecuador, Peru and especially Columbia are known for their coffee, the coffee of choice here seems to be Nescafe or something equally wretched).  After my unintentional , tour of Miraflores (which included yet another pile of rocks, this one, I think pre-inka (there are four historical periods here - pre inka, Inka, Spanish and McDonaldazation), I finally found what I was looking for. 

So, anyway, I'm sitting at Starbucks (corner of Ovalo Gutierrez & Av. CMDTE Espinar) enjoying the first cup of decent coffee I've had in weeks when to my surprize Kim Jong Il sits down at the next table and lights a fag - unbelievable - the leader of North Korea sitting next to me at a Starbucks in Lima.  So, of course, I leaned over and ask him if he'd seen any decent movies lately.  He told me that he'd rearry riked MI3 and Bewitched (with that hottie Nicole Kidman), but wasn't very pleased with Team Amelica.  "I have special prans for those Souf Pak boys" he said with a devious grin.

Ok, so I made up the last bit, but swear to God, this guy was the spitting image of Kim - from his too high hair to his too big glasses on his squashed face, just like him (but maybe 20 years younger).

BTW, to all my Al Ain friends.  Everything is okay now.  Not only did I find a Starbucks, but there's a Chili's right across the roundabout.

Lonely Planet - Peru

Don't buy the Lonely Planet Guide to Peru.

I don't know what happened but I'm using the most recently updated version - January 2004, and it is way off on information about tours, and, especially prices.  I find it hard to believe that prices have doubled and trebled in only two years.  (When I was in Barcelona and had the same problem with LP it was understandable because Spain had just switched to the Euro, but in Peru...)  For example, every hotel that I checked in Aguas Caliente was, at least, double the price listed in the LP, some were triple.  The ticket bolleto needed for museums and archeological sites in Cuzco was double the price listed.  I understand that prices change, but in this case, I think that someone is just not doing their research.   In addition, their are plenty of train rides to Machu Picchu whereas the LP makes it seem as though there are very limited options. 

For valuable information on Peru, check out the Andean Travel Web.

To be fair, the Lonely planet guide to Ecuador seemed to be pretty much on the mark. 

Catch Up

Well, I haven't been writing as I go because I'm relying on Internet cafes and once I get inside one, check my email, make bookings, check the news on the middle east (fuk!), etc. then I usually feel like finishing up and getting out.  I'm., going to briefly tell you where I've been for the last ten days and then later I'll try to write in more detail.   I've been in Cusco for the last ten days.  Cusco (Cuzco) is a very interesting city nestled in the Andes.  According to my hotel owner "there's always a fiesta in Cuzco."  It was the Inca (Inka) capital before the Spanish invasion and still has some of the original foundation.  The Inkas were great builders and used massive bricks(stones) stacked without mortar to create their cities.  It's surrounded by Inka ruins.  There are three that ring the city and then further out are many more including Pisac and Machu Picchu.  I stayed at the Hostal Cusi Wasi, which has good and bad points.  It's a fair walk to the town center, but not so far as to make it uncomfortable (it's also not on a steep hill like some of the hostals).  Though the price for a single is posted online as 20 USD, they wanted to charge me 25.  The first two nights I didn't have a TV and the last two nights no heat as my heater blew out the electricity (which they fixed the next morning.) But, the staff are very friendly and the rooms are clean, if a bit dark - somewhat recommended.  For other options this site might be useful. 

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is alright if you like looking at piles of rocks.  Okay, I´m lying.  It´s fantastic. Unlike anything I´ve ever seen before.  I must have take 4,322 pictures.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu  The pictures on this site are not mine (duh), but just offer some more information about MP than I feel like supplying.  I spent about 4 hours at the site climbing up and down and was there for sunset.  I think that sunrise is probably a better time as most of the site faces east.  If I had read my ticket, I would have come back the next morning to climb the mountain overlooking the city, but I didn't realize that the tickets are good for three days.  If you ever have a chance, I would highly recommend going for a look. 

But, be aware, it's not cheap.  The only way to get there is on a train and the Peruvians have definitly taken advantage of this and the price for a train ticket is quite high.  I think that I took the cheapest ticket at 53 USD.  This ticket is from a town called Ollayantamba and it's a 1 1/2 hour train ride from Aguas Calienta.  $53 = 1 1/2 hours (whew).  (Unlike what the Lonely Planet writes (and what many travel agents in Cuzco say), there are lots of trains going throughout the day - at least a dozen, and maybe more) Aguas Caliente is the town in the deep valley beneath Machu Picchu and is bloody expensive, but if you want to visit Machu Picchu in the early morning or late evening you must stay there.  In the rest of Peru, water costs 1 sol, here it´s 2 - double the price.  That´d be alright if it was only water, but it applies to everything.  My decent hotel (which Lonely Planet quotes as 10 - 15 dollars) was 35 dollars for a single.  It was comfortable, but not worth 35.  Beers are 5 - 6 sols for a pequina and I paid over 3 USD for a half hour of Internet.  To top it off, the exchange rate is lower than in the rest of the country.  Having said that, it's a very clean town unlike some of the other cities in Peru.  They aremaking a real effort to keep it tourist friendly.  There are signs posted all over town warning about selling and drinking alcohol after 11:00 pm.

Lake Titicaca

After Machu Picchu I visited Lake Titicaca.  (pronunciation is in Quechua - Titichacha (don't know how to write this sound, but sounds like the arabic 'h' - my guide at the site was very emphatic that it wasn't caca, which means 'shit' in Espanol)  Lake Titicaca is the highest navigationable lake in the world at 4100 meters and the air is quite thin.    Surprisingly enough I really didn't have any major problems with the altitude.  Granted, it wasn't easy climbing up hills, but I never got any headaches or dizziness like some people that I met.  The easiest way to explore the lake is from the town of Puno.  In Puno, there are plenty of tour agencies and all of them are going to the same places.  The first are floating islands, which are made out of reeds and the second is Tranquille Island.  I'll write more about them later when I can supply pictures.  I stayed at the Posada Don Giorgio, which is very clean, economical (20 USD for a single), relatively quiet and centrally located.  In addition, the staff are very helpful and they will make bookings (and hold them) thru e-mail - highly recommended.

Unfortunately, you have to pass thru...

On the way to Puno, you must go through Julianca, (the bus passes through and it has the only airport in the region) which is absolutely the ugliest, most depressing city that I've ever seen.  Looks like it's just been bombed and 100% of the buildings are unfinished.  Apparently there is a tax on finished buildings in Peru, so if it looks like you haven't finished building there's no tax.  For that reason, all the buildings in the city have supporting poles coming out of the top of the building, sometimes there will be piles of bricks or an unfinished second floor.  It makes the town extremely ugly.  In addition, many of the roads are either dirt or crumbling, with piles of dirt and/or stones piled up.  It certainly doesn't help that the whole place is covered in rubbish.  (Sarah - don't read the next bit)  The town is circled by earth covered with plastic bags, cartons and whatever else people decide to throw out of their car windows.  (On my (hellish) bus ride, I watched several times as people tossed their food wrappers, bags out the window without any thought at all of what they were doing.)

At the moment I'm in Lima and am being incredibly lazy.  As of yet have done absolutely nothing touristry, it's noon and I'm still in my pajamas.  Last night I had very expensive 'veal stew' with some guys from my hostal.  It turned out to be the very worst parts of veal.  It was completely fat and tripe.  Disgusting.  I ate the potatoes and rice but left the rest of it.  It was the most expensive meal I've had in South America and I had to buy a candy bar after dinner as I was still hungry.  A tres musketeers, first time I've eated one of those in years.  Still tasty after all these years. 

Promise that I'll come back and write soon.  I've got free internet at my hostal, but unfortunately the CD reader is broken so I can't download my pics. 

 

Diet

This is certainly no place for anyone on a low carb diet.  I´ve had meals, and not a few, where I´ve been served rice, bread and potatoes on the same plate.  The food in Ecuador is...well, bland.  We´d celebrate if there was pepper on the table.  But, it is filling and very cheap.  I ate lunch almost everyday at the same restaurant - Cafe Libra - Soup, meat with rice, dessert and juice for 2 USD. 

My best meal by far though was at an Argentenian restaurant in Quito - Mi Viejo Arrabel.  If you´re ever in Quito, you must eat here.  Filet mignon with a grande cerveza for 12 USD. 

In Peru, I´ve been eating at tourist places almost everyday and eating a lot of spaghetti.  Seems to be their national dish. 

The most unusual thing that I´ve eaten would be Quy - Guinea Pig, which actually is the national meal in Ecuador and seems quite popular in Peru, as well.  It´s also quite expensive.  They put it on a spit whole and roast it up.  Can´t say it was the most delicious thing I´ve ever eaten, but it wasn´t too bad.  The only problem was getting to the meat.  There´s lots of bones and very little meat and the skin is as tough as rubber.  I had to toss a coin with my eating partner to see who got the brain and unfortunately I won.  They say the brain is the best part but I wouldn´t agree.  The only way to get the brain out is to hold the head up to your mouth and suck it out.  Yummy! 

World´s Most Uncomfortable Bed

Well, I´ve found it.  At long last, the most uncomfortable bed in the entire world.  In case you want to experience it for yourself, go to Ollayantambo to the Hostal Ollanta (as recommended by Lonely Planet - a book I´m close to throwing in the rubbish bin.)  Even the slightest movement caused incredibly loud screeching noises, magnified by the fact that Ollayantambo is a very quite and peaceful place.  Honestly, I´d move during the night and wake myself up, then shifting again to get ´comfortable´, causing even more screeching - I felt very sorry for my neighbors and not quite rested in the morning. 

In Peru

Well the educatin´ part of my trip is over and I´m sitting in the Lima airport at 12:00 am waiting for my flight to Cuzco in 5 hours - ugh.  I truely hate airports and this one is really not pleasant.  There aren´t even any seats in which to relax.  Anyway, ´the air here is quite easy to breathe (at sea level again).  Not sure about Cuzco as the altitude there is about 600 meters higher than Quito so it should be fun (might be time to stop smoking).  Hopefully I´ll love the gasping enough to venture to Lake Titicaca where the altitude is a pleasant 3800.  Taxi, taxi...

Two weekends ago, I visited the Devil´s nose on a class trip.  It is the only train in Ecuador and passes thru some really beautiful and varied scenery, from fantastically green mountain passes (of at least 325 shades of green) to desert and scrub.  The end of the trip is a 1000 meter descent on Devil´s nose.  Quite a trip though it was not the most comfortable ride I´ve ever taken.  The only seats are on top of the car on a cushion.  The tops are jammed with photo snapping tourists, (but lucky me my camera ran out of batteries the night before the ride and I neglected to bring a charger, so I harrased the woman riding with me to snap pictures of everything.  She was pleased.)  The ride starts at 7 am but in order to get a ´good´ seat, you need to be there at 6.  It was frigging cold and it didn´t help when the train started because then we got the wind as well.  At the first stop (after about 2 hours), there were tons of people selling warm clothes.  I figured it could only get warmer so didn´t buy any, but they were doing a booming business.  I was glad not to have bought anything as the next half of the ride was blistering hot.  I felt like produce by the end of the ride - frozen in the morning, thawed and then fried in the afternoon.  While riding, children in the villages and farms run beside the train and wave.  Unfortunately many people on the trains throw candy to them which I don´t really like.   Yeah, I know I`m a spoilsport but doesn´t seem right to get them addicted to sugar and, even worse, to train them to beg for it.  If you wanna throw something, I´d suggest colgate or floss to help stem their teeth, rotten from all the sugar, from falling out.

My final week of lessons weren´t exactly fantastic as my attention had started to waver and I was going out much more than studying.  If I was doing it again, I think I´d do two weeks on, two weeks off, then two weeks on, again.  I went up the teleferiqa on the last day of class with my teacher and a fellow student.  The teleferica is the newest attaction in Quito.  It´s a trolley car that takes you about halfway up a volcano (to about 4100 meters).  From there, it´s possible to climb to the summit.  I didn´t quite make it all the way, but I didn´t do too bad.  I did much better than my fellow climber, a young healthy woman who almost fainted because of the altitude. 

Last weekend I went to Oltava with some friends.  It{s about 2 hours from Quito and has a huge Saturday market full of handicrafts.  Ho hum for the market as I didn´t carry enough cash to buy anything and anyway wasn´t sure that I wanted to cart stuff all over Peru.  I really liked Oltava though.  It´s a beautiful little city in the mountains with great clubs and a nice atmosphere.  On Saturday, a friend and I went to see the cockfights.  Wow!  Very strange.  Strap some razors on the cocks and let them go at it.  It wasn´t to the death, though there was a bit of blood spilt (and sucked - the owners kept sucking the blood off the birds - never heard of bird flu apparently).  It was definitly a different experience, though probably not for everyone.  Quess what?  Again, I didn´t have my camera.  As I had no idea I´d end up there, I didn´t carry it.  Hopefully my friend will be sending me her pics and I can post some.  So far, I have tons of pics of mountains and waterfalls, but little else. 

For all of you who forgot to ask, yes I had a fantastic birthday.  Ate at an Argentinian restaurant - filet mignon, mashed potatoes, veggies, bread and a grande bear for $12 USD (eat your heart out).  Afterwards went out drinking with some friends.  And I even remembered my camera! 

Well, that took all of 15 minutes to write so now I only have 4 hours and 45 minutes to troll around the Lima airport.  Wheeee!

Ecuador

I hate Spanish grammar. 

Other than that (and a nasty throat thing that's going around), I´m having a great time here in Ecuador.  I´ve been doing the studying thing for about three weeks and have actually been a good student (most of the time).  I´ve got one more week of class and then ... well, I´m not quite sure.  My original plan was to go to Peru for three weeks, but the tickets are expensive and sold out.  Tickets are as much from Quito to Cuzco as they are from Atlanta to Quito.  So, I´ll try and decide something this weekend.  The only thing certain at the moment is that I´m going to spend far too much money to visit the Galapagos Islands.  I won´t even say how much it is, only that it´s close to a full months salary.

The school that I´m going to is alright.  My teacher loves grammar a bit too much and I´d actually prefer to have a class instead of one-on-one, but all the schools that I looked at here don´t offer classes unless you come in a group.  After far too much grammar (from estar/ser (is), future and past tense verbs) I put my foot down on Tuesday and said no more grammar for the rest of the week.  My teacher spent quite a while explaining (en español) why I needed to study even more, but finally relented and we spent the rest of the week practicing speaking, listening and reading.  The school offers free extracurricular classes everyday, such as salsa, cooking and cocktail making.  So far, I went to one salsa class (I suck and had some brute of a Ecuadorian woman tell me that I was muchos chicas - a big girl, as she was doing most of the leading), two cooking and one cocktail class.  They also offer weekly tours of the old city at night and weekend trips.  (Simon Bolivar Spanish schools - I´ll put in a link later, I´m on a crap computer)

Last weekend I went to Baños with a bunch of students.  It was a blast - muchos divertido.  We rode bicycles for about 3 hours (mostly downhill, thank god) and then hiked up to several waterfalls.  One in particular was spectacular.  I don´t remember the actual name of the waterfall but the bottom of it was called the cauldron of the devil.  Once you got there, it was easy to understand why.  The water was so powerful, it was like looking at a hurricane.  Fantastico!  At night, we went to the top of one of the mountains in the area and tried to spot the volcano.  There´s an active volcano in Baños that has caused the town to be on alert and was even responsible for a mass evacuation a few years ago.  Unfortunately it was quite cloudy and we could only spot a few sparks here and there.  I was able to see it during the day (actually you can´t miss it) and got a few photos.  Must be a bit ominous living there with such a threat leaning over you each day.  (a bit like Taiwan?, but much more unpredictable)  Anyway, after the volcano, a few of us went out for drinks and dancing (not salsa).  The bar was quite fun and while there, an Ecuadorian chico gave me his girlfriend.  A bit weird, but fun.  I gave her back later. 

I quite like Quito, or the small corner of it that I´ve come to know.  The weather is close to perfect with warm days and (I think) cold nights.  Perfect, of course, would be warm nights, as well.  It´s actually nice to experience something akin to weather as opposed to the perpetually sunny days in Al Ain.  I can get to most places I need to go on foot, but if not taxis and buses are very cheap, though (unlike what the Lonely Planet suggests) you must negotiate with taxis before getting in.  The food here is extremely cheap.  You can get a full meal for 2 USD.  Unfortunately, it´s a little less than spectacular.  They don´t think much of spices, so much of it is rather bland.  I´ve only seen pepper on the table once since I´ve been here, though most restaurants do have salsa. 

There´s a bit of a nightlife here and many of the kids in the school go out practically every night.  I haven´t really found anywhere that knocks my socks off so don´t go out so much.  One thing that I really don´t like about Quito is that it´s quite unsafe to walk around at night, even in a group.  Since I´ve been here, a couple of people have been robbed, one group at knife point.  It´s a shame as I think the atmosphere would be completely different if strolling the sidewalks at night were an option. 

Last week I was really taking it easy as I got a nasty throat infection that affected serveral of the other students.  I felt really crappy for a few days and still am not a hundred percent, but think I´ll recover enough to be a bit more active this week. 

Tomorrow I´ll be traveling on volcano row on the way to another devil´s something or other.  It´s the only train line in Ecuador and is way up there.  Should be a fun trip, I´ll let you know. 

I´ll try to post some pictures and write more a bit later, but for now I want to go and enjoy the day before it gets dark and the boogeymen come out. 

Holiday Pics

Well, I've finally (after only five months) uploaded my pictures from Singapore, Malaysia and a few from Thailand.  Take a look at the album on the right. 

I've already written quite a bit about Singapore and (probably) too much about Thailand, but almost nothing about Malaysia.  Now, of course, I'm pushed for time as the next holiday is looming and I haven't done a single thing to get ready except for load up my MP3 player which is what I'm doing now.  Anyway, a brief commentary. 

Malaysia is truly Asia'.  (Do I get paid for this?)  It's quite an interesting mix of (if I may be trite), old and new, traditional and modern.  What I found most interesting was the mix of people and how this mix is played out in the political and economic spheres.  Malaysia has a lot of Malays (duh), a lot of Chinese (more than I expected), a fair number of Indians, some Arabs (tourist and native) and, of course, all the western tourists and expat workers.  Malays run the government for the most part, but the Chinese have all the money.  On the surface, it seems to work, though my Malaysian friend said the emphasis should be on 'seems' as he sees it a bit differently.  I did read a couple of articles in the local paper with articles about adding more of a multicultural emphasis to the educational national curriculum.  There also seems to be some debate over whether there should be two laws, one for Muslims (Shari'a) and one for the rest. 

It was also interesting for me to visit a predominately Muslim country where freedom is the norm, not the exception.  KL is a mad city with a teeming night life.  A walk down Bintang at midnight feels similar to any other city in SE Asia.  Loud discos, packed cafes, girls in tiny dresses, boys in tiny dresses, etc.  Away from Bintang, there is also a lot of handholding and PDA going on, something you almost never see here.

So, I only visited two cities, but hopefully I'll get to go back next year and visit some of the other regions.  Should you go?  Why, yes, of course.

First I visited Malacca.  It's a historic coastal city that has been colonized and inhabited by the Dutch and the Portuguese among others and their influence is everywhere.  It's a very picturesque town, with photo opps aplenty.  I quite enjoyed strolling around the streets and relaxing in the cafes.  There's a sizable Chinese population here and it was Chinese New Year when I visited so the streets in Chinatown were packed with hawkers and vendors.  There's also plenty of decent Chinese restaurants around.  I ate the the Happy People Restaurant and they were very happy and the food was amazingly inexpensive.  On the other hand, the Geographer Cafe is outrageously expensive, but also worth a visit.  The service is friendly and the atmosphere is exceptional.  If you go, tell them I sent you (not that it'll mean anything to anyone, just like saying it.) 

Kuala Lumpor is definitely not a relaxing place, but it is definitely exciting.  It's busy, flashy and in-your-face and towering over it all is the Petronas Towers.  Honestly, you can see them from virtually anywhere in town and they are quite amazing.  Downtown KL is segmented in much the same way as Bangkok - ie. the monorail cuts up all of your views, but it certainly is convenient.  I took a friends advice and rode them all afternoon for a cheap tour of the city.  I highly recommend it for anyone.  Getting around is easy on the train, but once you get off, whew.  Seems it's planned a lot like Dubai, you can see where you want to go and it doesn't look very far, but by the time you've gone through some underpasses and crossed and crisscrossed on the overpasses, it can be pretty exhausting. 

I stayed at the Franklin Hotel - it's pricey and not worth it, though they do allow you to bring guests home (not that I would ever do that). 

Ok, that's it for the commentary.  If you need any more info, I'd be happy to oblige.