Eating like a whale and headed for Peru with hair cut

intro feat. outro

this is my 2 dollar day: had lunch for 2 dollars with my new 2 dollar haircut I got this morning (see foto on the right - I've been away for quite a while, right?)! well, it's not quite the magic that "my Heidi" usually does, but the muchacha did cut it. have your ever tried to explain in a foreign language what type of haircut you want? there you are. not sure if it was that good of an idea (needs a more accurate inspection first), but sometimes you end up doing silly things when you have to kill time like I do now, waiting for the night bus to peru. anyway, I still have my cap with me which I can wear until my hair has grown again - or till the next hairdresser :-)

andrea left yesterday for australia whilst I took a flight from guayaquil to loja this morning. our 5 weeks in ecuador were great; we had plenty of fun doing and not doing stuff. looking forward to warming up the ecuador stories together once we're back home. my personal highlights when it comes to ecuador itself have been galapagos, the hiking around latacunga (quilotoa, iliniza, cotopaxi) and the whale-watching last week (see below).

the keypad I'm writing this on is quite dusty - la toma is not a busy town at all, just happens to be on the way south to peru. nearby loja and vilcabamba are places to stay and explore as the scenery is wonderful but I'm going to skip those and move on, otherwise I won't get to see bolivia in the end. more specifically I plan to spend the next 3-4 weeks in peru and then head for bolivia.

banos to puerto lopez

before we left banos last wednesday night we did a short hike up the hill to "la virgen de banos" and on to runtun, where there is a pretty nice spa hotel with great views over banos and the volcano tungurahua (around 5'000m). of course we ran into brigitte and martin, a swiss couple we had dinner with once in quito; brigitte went to the same spanish school in cuenca as andrea. after a tasty batido made of a local fruit I forgot the name of we descended, got our luggage, had dinner and took a bus at 7:30pm to ambato together with jill and dale, the english guys we'd had fondue with the night before. after a bumpy ride that allowed andrea to empty her stomach after about 5 minutes (ok, it seems it was the food or something, not necessarily the ride) we got the last four tickets for the overnight bus to manta. (nevertheless it wasn't a lucky strike - jill and dale got the two seats in the back that was overloaded with stuff so their seats were a bit more upright than necessary, while andrea and I had the seats right in the front where everybody went in and out at stops, and believe me: there were plenty!) the screen made us hope for a nice movie, but... we ended up with video clips of some latin american singer with medium length curly hair. (I'm glad I decided to take my ipod with me :-)) anyway, the relief came later when the guy put a DVD with michael jackson's best clips.

intermezzo regarding bus rides

buses are usually equipped with screens, which are sometimes on, sometimes not. if they are on, they usually show a film or clip where you can't possibly know the actors or people acting in it, e.g. silly kung-fu movies. (I remember that from 7 years ago in central america - I spent 170 hours in buses and saw exactly two movies where I knew the actors: the storm (acceptable) and total recall starring arnold schwarzenegger and sharon stone (how bad can it get?).) if there's nothing on the screen, there's definitely music. and sometimes there is music and movies altogether. doors, if there are any, are sometimes closed, sometimes left open. rides are bumpy. the bus stops at every corner, but still the stops seem random as there is usually no sign of a bus stop whatsoever. I also wonder how people in the bus communicate they want to get off. (I'd already wondered 7 years ago.) nicest are the bus rides where people get on after buying fish at the local markets. and everytime the bus stops there is at least 6 guys coming in twice to sell something to eat. it can be fun though, especially if you are not in a hurry...

puerto lopez

we arrived in manta early thursday morning and took the next bus to puerto lopez, another 2.5 hours driving past fancy trees which kind of looked naked, without leaves but blossoms (?) of intense red, yellow and white color. at about 11am we finally arrived in this small, laid-back fishing village (jep, you can smell it) and found a room for 4 at the hostal sol inn, a bamboo-hammock kind of place. right outside the hostal I ran into noortje, a dutch girl (also from andrea's school in cuenca), so we met up with her after dinner for a couple of drinks at the beach. the next day we went whale-watching; puerto lopez seems to be one of the best places in the world to see humpback whales (around 12-15m long), and right now it's high season. what can I say? they are really BIG, wow! and there were quite a few. it was a great experience. funny enough, we naturally met max, the american, on our boat trip - again.

nevertheless I have definitely seen boat trips for a while. thanks to stugeron I however felt more or less fine. dale on the contrary not that much. (it seems like people have vomited a lot right next to me recently.) now I have to state a sad truth in case you haven't been aware so far: people have ugly feet and toenails! also that I've had enough of now after all the days on galapagos' and puerto lopez' beaches. @muesel: waer wuerklich hert fuer dich da.

the afternoon was spent at the beach, and later we all felt like we had deserved a nice dinner at the whale cafe. this is where the big hunger came over me (this might be a little disgusting now, I apologize): I ate my own meal (chicken stir fry, tasty and with more vegetables than I'd probably eaten the past two weeks), half of andrea's (the greatest thai noodle dish), a milk shake and a brownie. it was a little surreal, and the others were a mix of surprised, amazed, scared and amused. I don't know, but I felt surprisingly fine after it and comparatively happy, considering the fact that I still hadn't found any dessert with jam in it.

puerto lopez to guayaquil

on saturday we said goodbye to jill and dale (I might meet up with them in peru or bolivia if the timing is right) and took a bus to jipijapa (cool name) and from there to guayaquil. we had called the elder lady whose place we had stayed at 4 weeks before (way to galapagos) various times, left messages and finally had got someone else on the phone which confirmed there was room for us to stay a few nights. when we got there however it turned out that the lady on the phone had misunderstood - there was a french woman named helene (spanish "helena") staying for the same night before flying to france, and the lady had thought it had been her who called, while I had asked for "maria helena", the lady owning the place. turned out maria helena had left for chile. anyway, this is how uncomplicated and relaxed people here are: the lady (carmen) moved quickly out of her room, the french woman (helene) moved into that one, we were left with our "old" two bed room and the chico that was around (apparently carmen's nephew) slept on the couch. got it? so everybody is having a good time in maria helena's appartment while she is down in chile. yesterday afternoon another elder lady (carmela) arrived and will be staying this week. (want to now where? easy: after helene left on sunday carmen moved back into her old room, andrea and I stayed in ours and the chico slept in maria helena's room. the new elder lady carmela spent yesterday monday night in maria helena's room while the chico slept... uhm, I don't know where. guess on the couch or in carmen's room? :-))

the city was crazy celebrating guayaquil's foundation (july 24./25.), thousands of people in las penas, strolling (fighting...) along the malecon (fireworks), nearby streets and up the cerro santa ana. therefore helene, andrea and I almost couldn't get food at the malecon on saturday night and were glad when we got home with a beer and sprite. sunday we had to run some errands in various shopping malls, and this is where I unexpectedly found... spitzbuebe and other pastry!!! the spitzbueb was not that good (taste, texture), but the other dessert you see down to your right was so good I had to post it here. sunday night we prepared our own dinner (first time) and went for a few drinks up the cerro santa ana, one of guayaquil's hills featuring bars, restaurants and a nice view over the city.

yesterday we both sent a parcel to switzerland, and we are wondering if and how they arrive - it's not easy to wrap stuff in ecuador, even if it's the central post office of a 2.x million city! to make the parcels a bit stronger we bought scotch tape just outside the post office and plastified them. after this I wanted to change money for peru. after stepping into 4 banks, each referring me to the next one, we arrived at the banco internacional. the guard at the door however told me I couldn't change dollars into sol in the bank and referred me to the guy with the alcohol breath right next to the door. and imagine, he had sol to change! but not enough, so he referred me to another guy which we found in the next door phone booth agency (or whatever you call a place in english that has phone cabins), and this guy eventually changed my 60 dollars into 180 authentic soles (I checked). so I should be good :-)

well, that's pretty much it. after spending the rest of yesterday alone after andrea left, I took a domestic flight to la toma airport (near loja in the south of ecuador towards the border with peru) this morning (tuesday), and the nearby town described above is where I continue to kill time...

write to you next time from peru!