In Peru Matt and I started to regret having already booked our ticket out of South America from Quito for the 13th. We were feeling like it would be a good idea to leave for Canada around the 1st and go and get a place sorted in Revelstoke, find a car and do all that business. When we first looked at rearranging our flights it was going to cost us about $500. We were going to try and leave from Lima instead of Quito. We then did the hike in Arequipa and by the time we got back to internet, the flight change had gone up to $2,000! Eeeek! So we figured we better make the most of being here and go and check out Ecuador, even though we didn’t really feel like it.
So after our week in Mancora, we didn’t want to leave, but had to make our way to Quito at some point. So we went to the bus companies and the Cruz Del Sur bus (which was been a really secure and reliable, we’ve done many overnight trips with them) were fully booked so we took a different bus company called CIFA which were an Ecuadorian company.
We paid for our tickets in Mancora and were told the bus would leave at 10am the next morning. So we were at the place at 10am, no bus came, but then a mini van came to get us, this van was going to drive us to Tumbes an hour away, to catch the bus there!! So we got in the van, and then the van drove up and down the main strip of Mancora and I guy yelled out that we were going to Tumbes and tried to get more passengers for about 15mins!!
Anyway, we made it to the bus station in Tumbes fine. We got on the bus and they videoed us all for security and there were probably only 10 people on the bus, no one behind us. We were in seats 1 and 2 directly at the front behind the driver. During the trip the bus then stopped to pick up other passengers and they didn’t get videoed or their names collected. We didn’t think much of this at first. We had our bags at our feet just behind the foot rest which is what we’ve done on all the buses. Matt also checked the gap under the back of the seat and it didn’t look big enough to get through so we weren’t too worried. We were headed to Guayaquil and we thought a stop they were making was Guayaquil and went to grab our bags, the people behind us kindly piped up, this isn’t Guayaquil, that’s the next stop. I thanked them twice.
At Guayaquil I went for my bag and noticed it had moved so looked straight away where my camera was. It was gone. I told Matt and he told me that perhaps I’d put it somewhere else and forgot! Then he grabbed his bag and it was light!! His camera, computer, hard drive (which was normally in the locked part of my bag) were all gone!!! The worst feeling ever! I turned around straight away but the people behind us had gotten off at that last stop, and the reason they told us this wasn’t our stop so quickly was that they didn’t want us to see our bags. Arghhh…. The lesson was learnt. We were now in Ecuador and you HAVE to keep your bag in front of you or on your lap and HANG ON to it.
We just met a couple and they had their bag on their lap. Were holding onto it, and a guy came on asking for tickets and telling people to put their seat belts on because it was law. So everyone thought he was the conductor. In a split second, he grabbed their bag and ran off the bus. So they had their bag in sight!!! And still got robbed, camera, computer, phone all gone as well. So you have to be as careful as possible. But at the end of the day, these people are desperate and it can still happen to anyone!
The things can all be replaced, but we did lose a lot of photos from the first 2 months of our trip on that hard drive. It also had all our music and movies too… There was about 50GB worth of photos so i hadn’t been able to put them on cloud storage yet. But thankfully we have the pictures on the blog, and we have the pictures we’ve taken on our phones too. So it’s not all completely bad.
The police were also really good. They were very helpful and very kind and they took our report and drove us to a hotel. Quite a few of them were helping us as soon as we mentioned it! Oh, we also told the bus driver and conductor straight away about the theft, they talked to each other, the conductor looked like he went somewhere to get someone then he came back, told us to wait a minute… Then he jumped on the bus and they drove off together, looking at us funny from the bus!! That was it. No help at all, and they pretty much did the dodge as well and just ran away!!! Crazy. We both get the feeling this wouldn’t have happened on Cruz Del Sur… 🙂
Anyway, it took us a few days to get a better attitude about Ecuador. We left Guayaquil the next day and headed for Mantanita, a little coastal town. The trip there went well, we caught a bus to Santa Elena, then a taxi drove us an hour to Mantanita for $4 each! Pretty good!
Mantanita
The town was a happening place, heaps of artisan stores, lots of restaurants and LOTS of loud music. All the restaurants and bars pump out music from their massive speakers, competing for attention, and it’s all just a loud mish mash of beats and rhythms. Pretty funny really. Mums and Dads would hate it!! (“turn off that jungle music” comes to mind hehe)
So we stayed in the main street in Mantanita, bad idea, it was so loud all night, if not the music, the people walking home or talking and being crazy in the street. But we did kind of expect it so couldn’t get too annoyed.
Puerto Lopez
After 2 nights we headed up to Puerto Lopez which the internet says is the best beach in Ecuador. It’s renowned for it’s seafood, fish markets and the whales and dolphins and sea life in the area. We were there at the wrong time though. It was cloudy and the air not raining, but misty. Apparently December to April is gorgeous there and you can see dolphins and whales playing in the ocean, and there’s an island which is apparently the poor mans Galapagos. We had some great seafood there, but most of the time we spent chilling in our hotel and I caught up on some work. Boring!
Next we took a taxi 2 hours to Manta which looked like a cool town. But the plan was to fly straight to Quito and spend the last week around that area. So we rocked up at the airport with no ticket and purchased a $60 flight to Quito!
Quito
We fly into the new airport in Quito as the old one is completely outgrown. Apparently it’s hard to navigate and there’s no room for error because there’s suburbs all around the airport and mountains too. The new airport is 1 hour out of Quito which we weren’t expecting so it was a $25 taxi ride to the city. We spent a night in Quito then took a 2 hour bus to Otavalo which is renowned for it’s massive markets on Saturday morning. This bus ride was a local bus and we had our bags on our laps… 🙂
Otavalo was really quiet on the Thursday, we found some markets on the Friday and then the markets on the Saturday where huge! They covered the streets of about 3 blocks and a main square and we saw a bit of everything! Full pigs on a spit, vegetables, flowers, fruits, hand made jewellery, ponchos, blankets, paintings, bags, scarves. It’s quite fun walking up and down the markets and seeing what there is on offer. A lot of the stalls are selling the same thing and you have to bargain with them. Often you’ll get things for a 3rd of the price they initially say. Matt drove a hard bargain!! He did the walk away a lot in which case they’d yell out “ok, ok” and sell it for the price he asked. Very funny. I would give in a lot and meet them in the middle if I thought it was a fair price. It always worked so well if you didn’t really want the item because they just wanted a sale half the time!
We found a great restaurant there called Sisa’s where we found pork sandwich’s with REAL bacon on them. So tasty! So we had one of them everyday for the 3 days we were there. Needless to say I’ve put back on the weight I lost to gastro. Haha.
It was then back to Quito and to the Mitad del Mundo. Or equator line about 45-60 minutes drive away in a taxi. There’s a little monument there and a big yellow line for the Equator. The funny thing is the French apparently put it there many many years ago and they were 150metres out (shhhh). But it was a good effort for the tools they would have had at the time.
The last 2 nights we’ve stayed in a really nice boutique hotel in the main restaurant part of Quito. Last night we had all you can eat tapas and wine. It was a good idea at the time, but I have a bad headache today. I felt fine last night though!!!
It’s now our last day in South America today! We plan on looking at the old town which I’ll post some photo in here of later.
But then it’s the MUCH ANTICIPATED trip to Canada tonight! We leave at midnight and fly 4hrs to Miami, 3 hrs to Dallas, then 4 hrs to Vancouver and arrive at about 1pm in the afternoon. It’s going to be a long night!! But looking forward to seeing Mum and Brett when we get there!!
We’ve been looking at properties and cars online. We’re looking at buying a 2003, 2004 F150 when we get there. So excited about getting a BIG TRUCK! Woo hoo!! 🙂 Our next blog will be from Canada!!! So hope everyone is well and talk to you on the other side!!!
Timeframe: 1st November – 13th November 2013
PS. Why no photos? I dropped my phone and it’s dead, Matt’s phone doesn’t take a good shot and both our cameras got stolen. Then in Quito Matt found his old camera he’s chucked in for JUST IN CASE. It’s on it’s last legs but we’ve been using that here in Quito. The electronics haven’t fared very well here!!
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