travel

The exit polls of the September 28th election showed a wide margin of support for approval of the new Ecuadorian constitution, in what President Rafael Correa claimed as an “historic victory”.  There are indeed a handful of interesting chapters of the constitution that not only reform Ecuadorian’s state institutions and personal rights, but also rights for nature to run its course.  There are clauses for State supported programs to deter human exploitation of non-renewable resources, destruction of ecosystems, and giving explicit rights to nature for an “integral restoration”.  It also states that any person can demand to any governmental agency that these rights be upheld, and may be arbitrated in a court of law.

Fellow expat Gary Scott has an intriguing article about investing in the excellent beach area known as Bahia, just north of huge port town of Manta.

Unfortunately, AFAIK right now Bahia is pretty much the farthest beach area to reach in Ecuador from Cuenca. It should be soon remedied when neighboring Manta gets improved airport connections…. but untill then, it takes two flights from Cuenca to Manta and the peak travel time (aka weekend flights) cannot really be considered “connecting” flights in that you have to stay overnight in Guayaquil or Quito. A drive to Bahia by private car is about 7-10 hours depending on roads and traffic, add a few hours if going by bus. For fellow North Carolinians, its analogous to driving to The Outer Banks from Asheville along HWY 64 in 1960.

That being said, Bahia ROCKS! Its clean, calm and picture perfect. Its the first coastal city thats more or less “environmentally aware” lots of sustainable horticulture, agriculture, and other ecolodge / projects going on in that region. Across the bay in neighboring and burgeoning Canoa, the surf and sun is right for a tranquil getaway that’s hip with the backpackers and surfer crowd. Its much more downtempo than Montañita to the south.

I hope the purported growth of Manta doesn’t pollute the environment in the Bahia de Caraquez …. but its almost inevitable.

Continuing with a series I’m calling SAGEFAQ this entry addresses frequently asked questions about getting around in Ecuador.

1. In general, how is bus travel in Ecuador?
2. Do Ecuadorians travel with livestock on buses?
3. What is the lechero?
4. How can I avoid the lechero?
5. What are the travel times between the major terminals in Ecuador?
6. Night bus versus day bus for long distances?

1. The Quito bus terminal… logistic Read the rest of this entry »

Part One of my series on SAGEFAQ tries to help solve your money problems… no, we’re not giving away free money

Money Issues, a.k.a ”$end mon€¥ ₦ow, Mom!”

1. How do I carry around my money?
2. Should I take traveler cheques with me?
3. Are Visa, MasterCard useful and are ATMs available in South America?

1. Debit Versus Credit? Read the rest of this entry »

Being one of few (active) members of the HospitalityClub.org and CouchSurfing.com living in Cuenca, Ecuador, I have the really nice opportunity to be contacted by lots of people traveling through ecuador. On my profiles, I advertise my willingness to help people with any questions they have. I’ve been receiving travel questions for quite a few months now and always try to be as detailed as possible in my responses, and so decided to start logging them here on my blog for posterity and to be able to refer people to view my views on my website, given that providing a link, albeit not heartwarming as a personal response, is 1000 times more useful and efficient that responding with the same answer twice.

[ my HospitalityClub profile ] [ my CouchSurfing profile ]

So here comes a series called “SAGE FAQ” or South America, the Galapagos and Ecuador Frequently Asked Questions. Topics being updating over the next week few weeks include:

Money Issues tips on traveling with cash, traveler cheques, ATM/Debit & Credit Cards in South America and Ecuador.

Ecuador by Bus tips on how to make the most of Ecuador’s transportation system; logistics and tips for avoiding the infamous lechero.

Galapagos Islands how to experience evolution and pure nature on a budget.

Host Families some people come to South America (and Quito or Cuenca Ecuador, in particular) to study Spanish or Portuguese (in Brazil). Its a good idea to bring a token of hospitality to their host families. Here is an outline of tips for choosing a gift. coming soon…

Guided Excursions Helps you choose whether or not you need a I need a guide to summit a volcano, do a National Park trek, visit the Amazon, et cetera. coming soon…

SA Geography an outline of the typical Ecuador travel route, a.k.a the Ecuadorian stretch of “The Gringo Trail”, as well as some lesser-known out-of-the-way travel gems. coming soon…

Statistics How about some Ecuadorian superlatives? The highest volcano, the farthest point on earth you can stand away from the nucleus of this planet, etc.

I just arrived in Manaus deep in the middle of the amazon this morning at 4:15 AM a bit battered and beaten by 6 days and nights on a riverboat headed upstream from the delta into the interior. sleeping in hammock on the crowded boat was not very comforable at all, and the bathrooms were fairly substandard, but what the boat lacked in quality and efficiency was made up for ten times over by the unbelievable sensory experience of the Amazon. oppressive heat combined with the afternoon doldrums where there is no breeze to cool you off. Then, taking a shower on the top deck in an incredible torrential rain beating down for 30 minutes. Surreal sunrises and sunsets, not to mention the full moon that just passed over. The end of the dry season means the waters are at their lowest points and the high water mark being a good 30 or 40 feet (10 or 12 meters) above the current point of surface tension.Yesterday reached the dubius climax of the trip when the capitain in a fit of pure brazilian logic, spite, anger (whatever you want to call it), just couldnt wait another minute for me to get back to the bottom of the dock along its incredibly steep and precarious bridge… [in stead of arriving in Manaus at 4:17 AM] decided he would leave me stranded behind during a minor express mission to find a bottle of water in a tiny amazon village. The story from folks on board coraborates my suspicion that capitan did indeed blow the “warning” horn twice as they were throwing the moors from the dock imediately without the customary 2 or three minute wait. Some brazilians and other travelers I had befriended on the boat begged him to wait for me, but he only yelled at them to go away and threatened to throw one nice girl who was sticking up for me in the water! So i had a bit of a drama act to run down the riverbank to hire a small motorized canoe to chase down the big boat that was over kilometer away! Everyone on board was watching the events unfold from the three decks of the riverboat. It was a great moment of intense drama for many of the passengers whose only other exposure to that kind of action on the trip was the daily dosage of evening novelas (brazilian soap operas) piped in by a ginormous satelite dish on the top deck. Throughout the trip, I became hugely popular on the boat and had conversations with everyone, met some interesting locals and a few other travelers and overall had a pleasant time getting to know the amazon bugs from the sweaty confines of my hammock.

Well I´ve been in brasil one week and have pretty much been exposed to only one group of capoeira.  So based on my impressions thus far, I just want to get some of the thoughts out of my head that i´ve been running around with for the past few days.   My goal is not to offend here, but simply to critique a couple things from an outsider´s point of view. One of the bigest things GUETO has been preaching is that capoeira is these days exploited for tourism. They are trying to distinguish themselves as a more of a cultural association and teach students appreciation for the arts and apart from capoeira, incorporate other aspects of afro-brasilian cultural dance like puxada de rede, maculelé, and samba de roda. They also told me that they dont like the group of which i was a part of in the US called ABADA Capoeira based on their style of play, and according to them, their goal to own the world….. so,  my goal the past few days has been to attempt to let them see that critiquing is ok, but they could be much more useful to be happy of who they are and where they are going, and not put so much negative energy to badmouth other guy.  As far as i can tell, every group has an external appearance as well as their internal practices.  From the outside, and from what i´ve seen in their presentations, GUETO could easily be mistaken for just another extravogant capoeira show with their university and mall presentations attempting to sell their instruction to prospective students and families looking for alternatives to drugs etc. for their kids.  Of course they are not just show, they have structure and good intentions as does every group of capoeira I imagine.  

ABADA has their own style and their own method of teaching, perhaps different from the free-style vibe of Salvador Bahia. But to GUETO I say: calm down here, you cant negate their existence as one of the largest groups in the world…. even if they have emerged as the McDonalds of capoeira, their system of training, and instruction must be doing something right!  A few members have told me that my abada t-shirt is not well received in Bahia and that i shouldnt wear my corda crua (a beginners cord in the ABADA cord system) because this color in general is the color of mestres cords, which is true. I´m fine to forego the advertising and wear and wear all white with no cord, however the constant negativity against ABADA as a group and persistent badmouthing of other groups that to them have lost something of the “true essence” of capoeira, I find it to be redundant, petty and even offensive. I explained to them to take it easy and step back and look at what they are saying and to whom they are speaking…  Im not Brasilian and i dont care about petty bickering, machismo, and competition for new $tudent$ between schools.  Furthermore, i reasoned to them that without ABADA I would have never been introduced to capoeira and its highly likely i wouldnt be where i am today, and perhaps wouldn´t even exist as a capoeirista. Unlike Brasil, in the exterior much of the time there is no choice of schools / methods / mestres, in fact there is only ONE school in my city.   I understand that the dynamic between mestres and personalities here is a complex, living, changing situation, but i believe capoeira is a beautiful means for cultural exchange and its really tiring to see so much negativity intertwined with the art.

My friend Marek, after a recent visit to Ecuador, found and sent me a link to an article about climbing Ruca Pichincha near Quito.   I really liked the article and upon browsing the site, called Live Travel Guides (www.livetravelguides.com) for a few minutes found many other great articles filled with tons of great advice and travel tips of locations all around me here in Ecuador I realized how useful this gem could be.   With the help of the travel comunity this site could effectively overrule the need for hauling around a thick bible, (a.k.a, LP Guides, Shoestring, Footprint) of where to go and what to do in South America.   Along with the other list of webtools I’ve put together on my site,  its really becoming much easier to get to many interesting and unique places a bit further “off the gringo trail”.  Of course, the caveat being that as sites like this become more popular,  the places they elaborate about become more turistic and less off the gringo trail.   But I believe the goal is not to hide away all the cool places in the world,  rather, to keep the information about these places as up to date as possible. Much of the information in these softback ”bibles”  we travelers follow is VERY often outdated,  missinformed,  or misleading.   I will suggest this site to the CouchSurfing.com community’s South America group. 

As a traveler, a tech person, and occasional internet addict, I’ve been slowly scouring the web over the past few years for the most useful sites and computer tools I can find to help the independent globetrotter while on the road in distant countries. These tools range from travel forums, to wiki guides, to finding free worldwide accomodation, to getting there cheaply. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently received an email inquiry about how to go to the Galapagos Islands on a budget. I have an Ecuadorian friend that has worked on a cruise ship that frequented the islands, as well as a friend that purportedly made the trip on a budget. Perhaps the most relevant fact though is that I’m now (relatively) close to the islands and therefore have more immediate access to the kind of first person local information one needs to get informed about a place; not to mention that I myself was curious to find out if such a thing as “Galapagos on a Budget” even exists. Below is a copy of what I was able to find out and send in reply to the recent inquiry…

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