Lago Agrio

SHARLA:  Got up early this morning around 6am after a sleepless night.  The area where our hotel is remains quite noisy even during the night.  Car alarms go off periodically and loud trucks pass by.  It also got quite cold last night, and even with socks on, I couldn´t seem to warm up.  Anyway, finished packing up our stuff so that we could meet Sally and Tim for breakfast and share a taxi ride to the airport.  They are the funniest couple I have met in a long time.  We laughed through our whole breakfast and I´m pretty sure we were annoying everyone else in the restaurant.  haha

The taxi arrived and we had a fun-filled drive to the airport....laughing all the way, of course.  Beautiful weather in Quito today...very sunny and warm.  We got to the airport and said our goodbyes.  We told Sally and Tim to enjoy their trip to the Galapagos Islands and swore to keep in touch.  We found out that the airlines are once again flying directly into Lago Agrio and were able to change our tickets for only $7/each.  Probably would have cost $100 each if we had tried to change last minute in the US.  Got through security, and found some empty seats away from the crowd.  Sat there for a few minutes and looked up to see, who else?  Sally and Tim!  We sat with each other for at least another hour sharing stories and laughing.  We learned some interesting Aussie phrases.  Some I´d never heard before.  And did you know that they never say "shrimp on the barbie"?  That´s just a Paul Hogan thing.  Go figure.  They tried to talk us into coming to the Galapagos with them....said we would have tons of fun...which I´m sure we definitely would!   I have a feeling that they have fun wherever they go!  We said our goodbyes again, and then found out our gate had changed.  To where?  Right next to Sally and Tim´s.  haha.  Must be meant to be.  They made us promise to come visit them in Australia. They live in the country and have horses, etc.  Maybe if they twist our arms, we´ll think about it..."wink"

Finally, we boarded our plane, which was quite larger than I expected.  The short 30 minute flight was smooth and uneventful.  Too cloudy to really see anything until we got close to Lago Agrio.  It is super, super green, but I was surprised to see how flat it is.  Thousands upon thousands of trees, but no mountains.  I guess I had it pictured differently in my mind.  We still have two hours by truck and three hours by canoe into the jungle tomorrow, so chances are the scenery will change drastically.

The hotel had us booked on the wrong day, but luckily they had a room for us.  It is pretty nice as far as Ecuadorian hotels go and luckily there is an air conditioner in the room because it´s pretty hot and humid here.  We spent several hours exploring Lago Agrio.  It is by far the dirtiest city we´ve been to in Ecuador.  Marsha said it is a lot cleaner than Naples, Italy.  I´ll have to take her word on that right now.  We found out that we need flashlights for our night excursions in the jungle and heavy socks for rubber boots, so that gave us something to look for while we were walking around.  We found the socks quickly, and then located a hardware store a few blocks away.  The prices here are high....comparable with the prices at home.  Not sure why, except that maybe because Lago Agrio is an oil town.  Texaco was here for many, many years.  In fact, Lago Agrio means Sour Lake, and supposedly there is a Sour Lake, Texas.  We stopped for lunch (actually at our hotel) and had pizza which actually was decent.  Different from any pizza I´ve ever had, but good.  We also picked up a small cushion for the canoe.  One of our guides in Cuenca recommended we pick one up...otherwise, after sitting for three hours, we would have to find a pencil to draw our butt crack back on!!  Sorry, but it was just too funny not to repeat :)

The hotel has a pool table, so we played a couple of REALLY bad games.  Luckily, we suck at pretty much the same level, so we are equally matched.  Marsha won two games in a row, but only by one ball each time.  We dipped our legs in the really cold pool for a while.  Which leads to now....on the internet....writing this.  Guess we´ll have dinner in a while, and then to bed.  The tour company is picking us up at 9:30 in the morning and we get to start a NEW adventure!  Hasta luego!

MARSHA: rode to airport with our new australian friends. hung out with them and had the whole airport watching us because tim is a mamoth by ecuadorian standards (6ft 5") and quite loud, plus he had me, sharla, and sally laughing the whole time. what great people. the flight was short. lago agrio is a small town 20 km from the columbian border. just kinda hung out, had lunch, walked around checkin out the little stores then came back to the hotel and played pool and stuck our feet in the cold seimming pool. gonna hit the hay pretty early tonight. have a funfilled next few days in the jungle. dont worry about us but will have no communication for next few days as there will be no internet where we are going. love to all. will write when we get back to civilization. ciao