From Zero to Hero

Hi Friends and Family,
By the way, just got to watch the inaugaration. Pretty powerful. It made me really proud to be American.

Fact for the Day: (I´ll keep it relevant to the mood of the day) Foreigners are not permitted to buy any property on any of Ecaudor´s borders. There is a legitimate fear here that it could lead to an covert invasion. I cannot comprehend what that would be like, thinking that at any point there could be an invasion. There are military bases at every conceivable crossing point, including up river from that remote Shuar community I visited a few days ago. Supposedly Peru invaded Ecuador in 1996 and tried to take some land with minerals.

Ok, so the bus from Gualaquiza was uneventful, although extremely long. In the 8 hours, we passed through some cute towns. Its very remote terrain. One pueblo reminded me of ´The Village,´ except not as creepy. I arrived at about 9pm and searched around for a hostel. I found a cheap one, although the sacrifice was evident. It was definitely the nastiest place Ive ever stayed. The bed was wet because the roof leaked, although I wasnt on the top floor so Id rather not ponder what was leaking... In the morning, it wasnt worth me showering.


The shared bathroom for 10 rooms was actually one room with no walls, a toilet, a shower head and a sink. Conceivably you could be showering while sitting on the toilet and washing your hands. The sink even came with company in the form of a South American cockroach...

Maças itself is not much better. It is aptly named, with the translation into English being ´blemishes.´

It is not meant to be a tourist town. It is the access point for all flights in and out of the Amazon, and thus has a well-equipped airport and not much more. It seems the Oriente cities further North like Puyo, Tena, and Coca allow road and water access and are much more visitor friendly. I will be sure to let you know after I visit them. I was contemplating venturing East into a famous national park called Sangay but had trouble figuring out logistics and decided maybe it was time for some city action. After sitting in Maças townsquare

and talking global politics with a local and reading the paper, I caught the next bus to Riobamba.

The bus route to Riobamba is actually new because they have just constructed a road going through Sangay. It is supposed to take 5 hours and have incredible vistas. My trip was a tad less predictable.

It was really cloudly at our altitude and I got stuck next to a box full of little chicks. Finally I told the old Quechua woman that a seat had opened up a few rows back and she seemed grateful. Relieved to have a row for myself and McKinley, my backpack, I tried to appreciate this brilliantly built road through harsh terrain.

My faith in Ecuadorian engineering was shattered, no pun intended, at the next bend. The brand new bridge we could have been on had collapsed.

We found a way around, and I tried to forget what I had seen. Just as I was dozing off, the bus stopped. This isnt abnormal for Ecuadorian buses, which regularly stop for people, animals, just to chat, for the driver to relieve himself next to the bus, etc. This was different. Everyone disembarked, but we were still on a mountain road only halfway through the forest. I asked what was up and a man explained the situation to me. It seemed that they were constructing a 2.5 mile tunnel through the mountain but it wasnt ready. They had just blown the hole, there were no walls and the road wasnt built. That sounded pretty disconcerting. It got worse, they wanted us to walk through it and get another bus on the other side. By this time, the sun had set and the tunnel was not meant for travel by any means.

Heres where the hero part comes in. I happened to have a hand powered flashlight. I took the lead and all passengers followed the well equipped gringo on a 30 minute walk through the dark, damp, treachorous cave.

I felt like Sylvestor Stallone in ´Daylight,´ minus the tunnel collapsing and him physically lifting each boulder out of the way... Anyways, the tale of heroism doesn´t end there. There was obviously no bus on the other side waiting. We had about 30 minutes until those headed in the other direction had the same dilemma. There was a Quechua family with 5 young children. As always before these bus trips, I loaded up on snacks and drinks. The kids looked hungry and dinner was a long way off so I gave them all of my cookies, crackers, and fruit juice.

Maybe some of you can come up with some hero nicknames. All I had was Super Gringo... So there it is. Even when I dont seek adventure, adventure finds me. The bus came 30 minutes later and we waited for everyone to disembark and we all piled on.

Riobamba was still jamming when I arrived at 10 last night. I even came across the ever popular Hollywood ´Coffe.´

I found a nice hotel, walked about for an hour to see some of the late night excitement, and then called it a day.

Love from Riobamba,
Kent