SHARLA: Hello, everyone! Yesterday, we slept in until around 7:30am. Got up, packed our backpacks and got ready to go see the biggest indigenous market in Ecuador! The sun was shining down hard, with not a cloud in the sky! First time that's happened in a long time! We took a quick tour of the Inti Sisa educational facility, where some kindergartners were having school and the handicraft class where for $5 every three months, women can learn to make local handicrafts which will bring extra money to their families.
Chris was kind enough to offer to take us along with some tourists from Holland through the market. I am so glad he did because we would have never been able to find our way around! This town of 3,000 went from deserted streets to probably somewhere around 10,000 people selling cows, calves, sheep, pigs, guinea pigs, geese, chickens, kittens, fruits, vegetables, cooked food of every sort, hats, clothes and every manner of household item that anyone could possible need. I was amazed at how this just popped up overnight, and how they do this EVERY Thursday. These people come in from all over the area, literally carrying their goods on their backs. I have never seen such hard working people in my life! Camille was getting upset by how the animals were being treated. It is hard to understand when you are from a country that values the lives of every living creature. The Ecuadorians view animals as food and as income....only. We have met some people who love dogs and take very good care of their dogs and cats.
After about an hour or so of walking around and trying a couple of local drinks, we headed back for Inti Sisa to grab our backpacks. Chris gave us a map of how to get to the Pan American highway, so off we went to mingle our way through the mob of people who don't mind shoving you aside to get by! We didn't have to go all the way to the highway before we found a bus headed to Riobamba in about 10 minutes. It was full and it was hot and stuffy. After about an hour's drive, we arrived near our hotel, but we didn't know how close we were until we paid a taxi $1 to take us there. It was literally two blocks away!
We headed for our favorite pizza place that we found the last time we were here called D'Baggio. It didn't open for another 30 minutes, so we walked around for a little while until we could eat. We were starving, and we each ordered a pizza. Big mistake! We could only each eat half of ours and had to take the rest in a box. But, it was delicious!
During the evening, we just walked around the streets and peeped in some stores. We walked past a food stand and it smelled so good, so we asked what it was. All we understood was "dulce" which is sweet in Spanish, so we got one. It was a big boiling pot of fruit and the lady put some on a bun with a hunk of cheese. Marsha and I each took one bite and threw it away. I think it was prunes, but it was disgusting. Some of the food here is really good, but some of it is really bad. At least we tried it!
We found out that the Nariz del Diablo train is not running anymore. We were so looking forward to taking Camille. We rode two years ago, and it was so much fun riding on top of the train. They do have a "bus on tracks" that goes halfway as they are repairing the last half of tracks, but you can't sit on top anymore, and it's a guided tour now, and you have to listen to someone talk in Spanish on a microphone with bad speakers. We opted to change our bike tour to Friday, and Edison of Andes Spirit Tours was so nice to let us trade.
Got up this morning to more sunshine! Had a good breakfast of cereal and banana. Edison picked us up at 8:30am, and we began our one and a half hour trip up to Chimborazo volcano. The clouds were hanging around the top of the volcano, so we didn't get good views. Last time Marsha and I were here, you could see it very plainly. There is an Ecuadorian saying that Chimborazo hides its face from tourists. If you can see it, you are considered to be Ecuadorians! Guess we were the first time, but not this time. Sad! We stopped along the way to take some pictures of alpacas. They were right across the fence from us. Really beautiful creatures.
We reached the first hut that is there for climbers brave enough to scale the volcano. Many people have died trying to climb up. We were almost to the snow that covered the top of the volcano. We sat inside for a little while in front of a blazing fire drinking tea. Edison told us of a Peruvian climber who set a record last year at Chimborazo. He climbed to the top and back in TWO HOURS!!! Normally, it is eight hours up and four hours down. WOW....that's incredible! He made it to the second climbers' hut in eight minutes. We climbed up there last time and it took us one hour....Edison said that people in really good shape take 30 minutes. This man's name is Cesar Rosales, so I want to look him up when I get home. Apparently, he has set many climbing records.
Edison says it was 7 degrees Celcius when we started out. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but I do know it was cold! We were bundled up with beanies, and scarves and gloves, and got our helmets on and off we went. The first part of the ride is really great. All downhill, and the clouds lifted just enough for us to be able to see the surrounding countryside. We even saw some vicunas...llama-like animals that you can only see at Chimborazo Park in Ecuador. There weren't as many as last time, but the land is very dry now, so maybe they were in another part of the park today. We stopped at a place and hiked down a little ways. We remembered this from last time....a huge gorge, with waterfalls at each end. The waterfall was pretty small this time, but we are in the middle of the dry season after all.
We rode down the highway for a bit, and then turned off onto a dirt road. At some points it was grassy because it is used very little except by the local farmers and they usually just walk. It was a pretty tough ride, but much easier for me than last time because it wasn't muddy this time. We made it through, and stopped a little church in a village (maybe San Juan?) and had a lunch of tortillas, chicken, guacamole, and tuna fish. It sounds like a weird combination, but it was delicious!
Edison drove us back the 30 minutes to the hotel, we said our goodbyes, and we went in for a much needed nap! It's 5:30pm now, so I guess we will try to figure out something for dinner! Talk to you later!
P.S. I don't know how much Marsha will be posting anymore. She thinks that I write plenty for the both of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment