I have now been living in Ecuador for 2 months. I feel settled. Life here is pretty manic but at least it´s never dull, and I prefer it that way. I ´m loving my new room and hostel. The people who run it are amazing. I´m such good friends with the family now all, it makes living there a pleasure. A few weeks ago two of the young guys in the family joined me on a pub crawl around Quito with loads of others from the hostel. Between there and The Secret Garden I have everything. A perfect, private room and relaxing atmosphere or parties over the road. I´ve met so many people between the two hostels and made so many incredible friends - life here is certainly fun.
In The Secret Garden hostel they run a pub quiz every Thursday. Since Ivé been here I have been on the winning team 4 times. The prize is $50 for The Secret Garden hostal in the Cotopaxi National Park. Most times I´ve given my prize away because with working Monday to Friday, it was difficult to get time off to go down to the Cotopaxi Volcano. However, last time I was given the prize so I´m planning a trip at an up-coming weekend. I also want to climb the Volcano. It´s high (5900m) and tough but I have to give it a go. In practice, last week a group of us went up Vulcan Pinchincha. First you get a cable car up three quaters of the mountain. It´s 4100m here. If your not aclimatised, you can feel the lack of oxygen at this height. I had already been up the cable car, during my first week in Quito. I remember feeling the altitude then, but this time it was certainly easier. Last time I didn´t go any higher as some people in my group were struggling, but this time everyone wanted to climb to the summit. It´s a 4 hour round trip. It isn´t particularly difficult in terms of being a technical climb - just a bit of scrambling and some clambering in the final stages. The summit is 4700m. Thats the highest I´ve ever been, and a good way to get my body trained for Cotopaxi. Actually you didn´t really feel the altitude at the top. The first part of the walk was probably when you feel it the most. I think your body gets used to the height once your up there and going up an extra 600m isn´t too strenuous on the body at that height. Cotopaxi is a different matter though. There you start your climb at 4,800m and then going up to nearly 6000m (almost 20,000 feet) is tough, both physically and mentally. I´m definately going to try it though and soon.
Working at the IG is still very exciting, especially with Tungurahua constantly huffing and puffing. It hasn´t yet gone off in a big way yet but it continues to threaten to. I have been out for many drinks with my work colleagues recently. If there´s one thing I have realsied it´s that the pressure of a volcano crisis makes people want to drink!!!
Actually work has been tough for me this following week and will continue to for another 49 days. I have booked a Spanish course at a University round the corner from the Politecnic University where I work. It´s 3 hours a day of learning Spanish, 5 days a week and for 8 weeks. Thats 120 hours in 2 months. I now go to work at 7.00am, work till 9.00am and then head off to Spanish school. Then its three hours of language learning before returning back to work till 5.30 / 6.00pm. It ultimately means I´m up at 6.00am every day during the week now!!!
The Spanish lessons is run as an offical school course, with mid term and end of term exams. I have to get 30 credit points out of 50 to pass and recieve my official (world recognised) certificate. I study with 7 other students - mostly american´s but also an egyptian a chinese guy and an indian priest. It´s a good mix of all ages. We are all starting at the basics though. The course has been really useful so far and I certainly believe my Spanish is improving, if slowly. I´m hoping by the end of the 8 weeks I´ll really be talking fluently, or at least half fluently!!! I´m still having my Spanish lessons on Saturdays with Jackie too, so i´m really pushing hard to get this whole language business mastered now.
After all my recent drama´s, life appears to have settled for a bit. Instead of bailing friends out of jail, I´ll spend a week night going to the cinema. Avatar 3D was incredible - please go and see it if you haven´t already. Not even the Spanish subtitles put me off - in fact it helped my learning. I also play football with some of the guys from work - my boss even has a kick-around with us, and every Sunday I play football with the egyptian guy (Kareem) from my Spanish course, and some of the other guys from the course come to play too. Maybe my life here is returning to normal.........or am I just kidding myself? This is South America, where normal is situated somewhere between crazy and insane. It´s only a matter of time before the next major event pops up and through my bedroom window, but when it comes, this time, i´ll be ready for it..................
Sunday 24 January 2010
Quito Living
Tungurahua Volcano Kick´s Into Life
On the Monday that I found out one of my friends had been put into jail, I also got a shock at work. I arrived back on the 4th Jan, but since the beginning of the month, while I was in Montañita, Tungurahua Volcano had suddenly started showing signs of increased activity. Tungurahua is a large strato-volcano which has in the past showed high energy, explosive activity. It started erupting again in 1999, but has been active since that time, going off on a relatively large scale in 2006 and 2008. The last eruption produced a pyroclastic flow that killed 8 people. This is a dangerous volcano. Tungurahua is located about three and a half hours drive south of Quito, surrounded by a number of small villages but also the town of Baños, populated by 14,000 people and a popular tourist spot.
The seismic data coming through on that Monday was alarming, far higher than the previous month that I had been working at IG, and things were going to get worse. Over the next few days, the volcano stepped up in activity. Everyone in the Institute was running around frantically, checking data and making calculations. I was the same. The press were in talking to the main volcanologists about what was happening there, as local people quickly knew that the volcano was making noise. That weekend I was asked if I wanted to go to the volcano to check it out - of course I did.
Two of us set off. It was a work trip. We first had to head to Cotopaxi Volcano, located about an hour and a half south of the capital. Sitting at 5900m (asl), it´s one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. While it´s considered active (the IG monitor it closely), it´s not currently at the same level as Tungurahua, it´s safe enough even to climb to the summit and many people do. We have a number of seismic monitoring stations around both volcanoes, but one of the stations on Tungurahua wasn´t operating because it was missing a piece of equipment called a digitizer. So we had to collect one from one of the stations on Cotopaxi.
We have a large 4x4 vehicle and it was needed. We entered the Cotopaxi National Park and went through a gate closed to the general public. We then had to travel across rocky terrain and shrubs to get to the station. The vehicle was never once level. The ride was so bumpy, I actually cut my shoulder on the seatbelt. It was cold up there but the views over the surrounding area was incredible. You couldn´t see the volcano though because it was shrouded in cloud. It often is. We took the digitizer from the station and headed off to the next volcano.
Because of the high activity of Tungurahua over the last decade, the IG now has a permanent volcano monitoring station. It´s located about 10 minutes drive from Baños, in a location which is perfect for viewing the volcano but safe from any potential hazards. It has a main work room, but also a kitchen and a number of rooms each with a series of beds for the workers. There are batteries and solar panels operating, so the power never cuts out and there are always two people monitoring the volcano, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That was our destination.
Because of the high activity, there were about 5 people already there. Computer screens reading off all sorts of data. We have a number of helpers (mechanics, secretaries, doctors) all around the mountain too, who watch the volcano from their home and radio in to us when they see or hear any activity. The volcano is often covered in cloud, so you often can´t see it. While I was there I only got a glimse of it once, but on a clear day you can apparently see a plume emerging from the crater. At night, only once we saw an orange glow of lava, but the IG also has a night vision goggle - through it you can see everything. Lava was being ejected balistically from the summit and often it was followed by explosions, which would rumble aloud like thunder. Only the military and the IG have the night vision goggle - I don´t know how but I must obtain one. On the odd occassions the explosions were so powerful that the windows would shake. We sat around a round table all night, drinking rum and coke and chatting. Everyone would tell me stories of Tungurahua over the last few years, and some of the close calls they had had when they were working out on it´s flanks, with some people just getting off before an eruption. Our helpers would stay up all night too, often getting drunk themselves so that their radio calls would become more slurred as the night went on. All the time our computers displayed high seismic data that was coming from the mountain we were looking at.
Around 3.30am, three policemen turn up. They had been sent by the Governor of Baños asking if the town should be evacuated. The noises from the volcano were scaring the locals and tourists alike. It doesn´t matter how many times we tell the authorities they always ask us what they should do. The problem is it isn´t our job to say evacuate or not. All we can do is give them the information we have and the likelihood of an eruption, but only the authorities can decide whether to evacuate 14,000 people or not. We are scientists and we can only give informed opinions, the rest is not our responsibility. we told them we didn´t think the volcano would erupt in a big way - at least not tonight. Actually the problem was, that in 2006 and 2008, the volcano had produced steady signs which could easily be read and a warning and evacuation issued. This time though the signs were erractic. Levels increased dramatically and fast, so we weren´t really sure what was happening at least in terms of timing an eruption. We did know that seismic activity had increased and we were getting a lot of Long Period Events which are a common type of volcano earthquake before an eruption - it generally means magma is on the move. Gas levels and temperatures had also risen and there was now some ground deformation too, but we still didn´t think it would blow tonight.
The next morning, we headed to the flanks of the volcano, near the small town of Bilbao. It takes about 20 minutes from the observatory. We drove over old pyroclastic flow and lahar deposits. If the volcano blew now we were driving over dangerous areas. A farmer took us up to the well hidden seismic station. From here you still couldn´t see the volcano but you could hear it - it was loud, like a constant thunder but with no lightning or rain. Up here, you sort of pray the volcano isn´t ready to go, because if it did, we would have to get out and fast. We have a radio connected to the Tungurahua Observatory and to IG in Quito at all times. We fixed the digitizer. While we successfully got the infrasonic going (that picks up low frequency sound made by the volcano), we had forgotten a cable to get the seismic data going. Just one cable!!! It had meant that we would have to drive 3 hours back to Cotopaxi, get the cable and then drive all the way back to Tungurahua to fix it. It would add another 7 hours to complete our job. Just one cable!!! So thats what we did. We headed all the way back to Cotopaxi, over the rocky terrain again, picked up our cable and then headed back to the active mountain. I know that strech of the country so well now. By the time we got back to the observatory with the cable, it was late, so the guys staying on said they would fix it the following day. We took the 4 hour drive back to Quito.
A few weeks earlier I had moved from The Secret Garden hostel to just over the road - a place called Guayunga hostel. It´s run by an amazing Ecuadorian family, who are incredibly nice. Because I have agreed to stay long term, they have given me my own huge room, on-suite bathroom, couch, television (only Spanish channels though) and all for just US$6 a night. My room is cleaned everyday and I get free internet. Many long termers stay here and when you want to party you just go up to The Secret Garden, because it is a bar and restaurant anyway and I know all the workers so well now they just let me in whenever I want a few drinks. I have been here longer than any volunteer worker or backpacker staying in The Secret Garden now. That day, if we hadn´t forgotten that cable I would have been back in my new hostel by 2pm, but because of the delay, I didn´t get back till midnight. However, luck must of been on my side, because at 8pm that night, two men with guns came into the hostel and stole two computers. They were aparently doing a sweep of the hostels in the area. They didn´t take anything from rooms, just the front desk but it´s horrible to know that I could have beeen there when it was all happening. Guayunga hostel have now put in a lot more security.
Well that really completed my week. In seven days I helped bail a friend out of jail, I had installed monitoring equipment on the flanks of a volcano suddenly showing signs of eruption and then I come back and find my hostel has been raided by men with guns. I will never forget telling this all to my parents a day or so later and then asking them how there week was!!!
Since that week, the volcano has stepped up in activity again. Volcanic bombs have now been observed shooting out a kilometer above the crater. Strombolian activity is common, and people in Baños continue to have their windows shaken. The volcano still hasn´t gone off explosively (and dangerously) yet and so there have currently been no evacuations. The time may yet come though, we are still monitoring it intensively, I guess we will just have to wait and see............
The Story Of Ravi Patel
You meet a lot of characters when you travel, and most of them have a lot of amazing stories. Thats one thing I love about traveling the world, Just meeting new people and listening to their stories. Ravi Patel was one such character.
Ravi had lived in The Secret Garden about 3 months when I arrived. He was from India, but spoke perfect English as well as fluent Spanish. He had been traveling a while, but was here in Quito working on The Secret Garden´s computer system. He worked all through the night, but you would see him around in the day, chatting to pretty much everyone and going out on the town, when a group of us were going on the occassional (or not so occassional) night out. He looked like he should be 32 but was actually just 21 years old. We became pretty good friends.
Anna and I left Montañita a day before Ravi because we had to be in work the following day. When I returned from my volcano monitoring on that Monday after New Years, there was a note waiting for me in the hostal. It read..........
"Alex, it´s Ravi. I am in jail. I need $650 to get out. Will you email my mother in India to wire over the money. Please quote the song "You Are My Sunshine" so she knows it´s not someone trying to scam her. Ravi".
The note also had some other details, like the name of some Ecuadorian guy who we had to get the money to. I couldn´t believe it.
The next two days were hectic. I was on the phone to lawyers, speaking to Ravi now and again, when he would call from jail, and trying to get his money together. One guy in the hostal knew an Ecuadorian politician so we were getting him to help us too. The whole hostal was involved - making calls and running around like loonies trying to get this man free, but I was put in charge of operations.
The reason Ravi was put in jail was because on his bus back from Montañita, the Police made a random bus check, looking at everyones passports. Ravi didn´t have his with him, but they could check his details from his driving lisence - thats when the problems started. If I want to go to Colombia, or another South American country, then generally, I can just head to the border and get a stamp for three months. But if your from India, like Ravi, getting a visa isn´t so easy. He had been trying to get his visa for Colombia for a month or so with no luck, and in the meantime his visa for Ecuador had expired. When the Police checked his details, his visa had been invalid for two weeks and so was put in Santo Domingo Prison.
In the end, we managed to get him the cash without conatcting his mum. The Secret Garden owed him some money and another long term traveler put in the rest. We then had to wire his lawyer the cash through Western Union - the whole thing was a major drama. Most of the money was for the lawyer fees. A few days later Ravi turned up at the hostal a free man. He told us the bizarre story of living in an Ecuadorian prison - not a great experience. Aparently he had to pay for everything, his bed, his food, telephone calls. Ravi is the kind of guy who doesn´t travel with too much cash on him, I think he had about $10 when he went in. He thus had to sell his t-shirt to pay for a telephone call. On his second night, some of the prisoners tried to escape, making a hole through a bathroom wall. Ravi told me the place was so delapidated that if six people ran at the wall it would definately come down.
Ravi paid the fees but was given just a couple of weeks to get his stuff together and leave the country. Before he left, it was his birthday - he was 22. Loads of us went out to celebrate. Twelve days later he took a flight to Puerto Rico where he had an uncle living and so could easily get a visa.
I have since found out that a Policeman can take you to the station even for not having some form of identification on you at all times. Since that day, I always carry a copy of my passport with me. I never did email his mum, to this day she still doesn´t know her son went to jail - I hope she never reads this. I don´t know if I will ever see Ravi again......but never say never.
Montañita - For New Years
There had been talk for a while among many of the backpackers in The Secret Garden, that people were heading down to Montañita for New Years. Many of the long term travelers were thinking of going and now with the knowledge that I had a few days off work, I was also thinking of going to. I didn´t think for long - I just booked it. Anne-Marie wanted to go also, so we booked our bus together and within no time - we were on our way.
It takes 8 or so hours to first get to the huge city (Ecuador´s largest), known as Guayaquil. we took an over-night bus, reaching the city early in the morning. It was then a second bus and two and a half hours or so to get to Montañita.
Montañita is located on the south-west coast of Ecuador. It´s a small, very hippy town with a laid back vibe. The beach is long, and the and the sand is, well, sandy. It´s the place to come if you want to surf, as the Pacific here has decided it should produce waves of colossal dimensions. It thus brings with it a sweeping of surfer dudes along with it´s hippy following. The Rasta vibe has produced a town, where the streets are packed with stalls selling braclets and hair beads, the food is mainly steaming and off the street and the accommodation is cheap but with mandatory hammocks.
We arrived, perhaps a little stupidly, just two days before New Years Eve, without any accommodation booked. Actually it turned out not to be a problem, as we found a hostal on the beach for just $10 a night. Not bad for this time of the year. There are hundreds of places to stay in Montañita as this is considered Ecuador´s party town, yet just a few hours after we arrived, every single bed was taken in every single hostal. Many people brought tents and pitched them up on the beach. After one hectic night out on the town, where we partied in a club which had a live reggae band - New Years Eve arrived.
In the day we swam in the sea, walked the popular beach and watched the incredible sunsets. Anna and I met up (or bumped into) loads of people that we knew. Ravi had come down from Quito, and we met Maha there two. Then we met Mindee and Shaun, who were working in the Secret Garden for some time but had left a week or two before.On our bus down, we met Guilem, a French guy who Anna and I work with at IG, and on the beach I ran into Debbie, who works in the Irish Pub in Quito and who lives just around the corner from me back home in London. One day, while walking the streets of Montañita, a little hungover, I see a girl who I recognise. She recognises me as well but we both couldn´t place where we knew each other from. Eventually we work out that we met in the Fat Camel hostal in Auckland, New Zealand, about a year or more earlier. It´s weird who you bump into and where. We also had other friends with us from Quito, so we weren´t lonley. It was as though everyone was coming here for the party - it was going to be big.
The night started off with drinking in our hostal. Loads of us were there, hanging around the hammocks while consuming our $6 bottles of Rum and Coke. Rum (known here as Ron) is popular here. Then with ridiculously looking headbands on, we all headed out on the town. In Ecuador, the big tradition for New Year, is to make a big fire and then throw on it, a doll. Usually people make them themselves and then dress them up like politicians or celebrities, but others are cartoon characters or animals - its very weird. Some are life size. The idea is that you throw them on the fire and then jump over the fire to put all your sins from the year just gone, behind you. While all drunk, we bought a small duck or chicken, or something bird like - to throw on.
Nearly everyone in town headed to the beach just before the New Year count-down. A series of huge fires were already going. People creating massive circles around them. The count-down began and suddenly everyone starts to throw their dolls into the fire. I´m not sure what they are made of but each one makes a small bang when it is thrown in. Our chicken soon goes up in flames too. At midnight, fire-works go up by the dozen and suddenly everyone is running and jumping over the fire. We all did it too, leaping high over this huge blaze. At the same time - a number of Ecuadorians march through the streets of Montañita holding surf boards above their heads. They head to the beach, past where we are leaping over flames, then take off all their clothes and go naked surfing. Welcome to Ecuador.
The night continued with a huge party on the beach. Drinking and dancing around large fires, while music played from different beach-side bars. Then we hit the streets, one inparticular, where most of the action was happening, reminded me just like the Khao san Road in Bangkok, Thailand. Small stalls were selling fruit cocktails as we all danced salsa in the streets. We briefly made it into a techno club but after that I don´t remember much. I somehow made it to my bed but the time and even the day was a mystery.
The next day Montañita was quiet. I mean people were out but it was a sombre atmosphere. As you walk the streets, you start to see people with New Years Eve injuries. Many had burns who miss-timed the fire jump or were simply too drunk and stupid not to play with fire. The rest were cuts. We had injuries among our party too. Maha, in a drunken state, fell down some rocks and cut her leg badly. We all thought it was a good idea at the time to pour Tequilla on it. Shaun had a bruised and swollen eye because he jumped the fire at the same time as someone else and there was a major collision in mid-air. Injuries or not, everyone enjoyed the night.
I spent five days in Montañita. The days were spent by the beach, in the sea or hanging around the streets listening to Bob Marley. At night we continued to party but not so hard. Most people made small fires outside their tents on the beach. We would sit around them and drink and chat, with other travelers or locals. At one point I remember turning around and seeing two huge cows striding past us. I don´t think I´v ever seen cows on a beach before. It was an odd sight. We continued to party on the streets too. The few nights after New Years were just as busy. Maha had made friends with some local Ecuadorian guys who live in Montañita and who owned bars in the town. so we got a few free or very strong drinks too, which was nice.
Montañita was fun, but it takes it´s toll on you. I don´t think I could have survived longer than five days. In a real state, Anna and I headed back to Quito. The bus journey felt like the longest ever, but it took the same time as on the way down. I collapsed on Sunday and slept. It was back to work for me. Partying time was over. Now it was time for monitoring volcanoes and learning another language. I had had a fantastic New Year, five days of pure chaos. It was 2010. Thats incredible. I think it´s going to be a good year.
Christmas In Quito
Christmas came so quickly. I couldn´t believe it was Christmas day when it arrived. A few days before, my work put on a fantastic party. It was in Pete and Patricia´s house. They live about 40 minutes away, outside of Quito. Their land could be described as a well trimmed jungle. The plants they have there are incredible - it really feels as though your in another world. About 50 people turned up and most of them brought family members along too. It was sweltering hot, and most of us enjoyed playing football or volleyball across the huge land-scape.
Then we had our christmas dinner. I don´t think I have seen so much food before, as everyone had brought something, be it a dish or a bottle. Hugo, our boss, brought three giant turkeys. The food was incredible, which included these amazing mango´s for desert. You dont eat them. You just poke a whole in them at one end and then sqeeze them at all angles to get the juice. They only grow for a few months of the year. I will wait a lifetime to eat another.
We then did our secret santa. Everyone stood up in turn and anounced who their gift was for before they then passed on their present to the next person. I was given a calenda with Ecuador pictures to help me get my bearing of the country - thank you Pete. Everone was also given a fantastic jumper (with removable sleeves), which had the IG logo on it - I now feel like a real volcanologist. By the end of the night, everyone was drunk and dancing salsa - it was a lot of fun.
Christmas is pretty similar to home apart from the fact that the big family day is on Christmas Eve, when everyone in England would be getting drunk in the pub. Ecuador is like Continental Europe in that respect. The food and the traditions are much like in England however, except that no-one jumps into an icy cold lake here. They do have lots of turkey though, so I was happy. My Christmas Day was actually very busy. I was invited to my boss, Mario´s family - for lunch. While Mario lives in Quito, his family doesn´t. They live two and a half hours north of the capital, in a small town called Cotacachi. It took me two local buses and a lot of searching to get there.
Cotacahci is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and has been termed the city of peace. It´s an incredible town, well known for it´s leather shoe and bag stores. When you walk down the street you can smell the leather sweeping out the shop doors. Mario´s family were very hospitable. We had a fantastic meal, which started off very familiar to me. There were some salad dishes which I had never seen before, but generally it was like my Christmas meal at home. However, once we had finished our ice-cream, they then brought out another dish. it was meant to be desert but I wouldn´t of placed it there. It was like a sweet pastry, but inside was vegetables and chicken. Thats the last thing they eat - after the ice-cream. It was deliceous though. Being with Mario´s family was a great way to see traditional Christmas in Ecuador and practice my poor Spanish.
I then headed back to Quito for Christmas dinner round two. This one was with 50 or more backpackers from all around the world, now gathered in The Secret Garden hostal. The food was great, though I was already stuffed like a turkey by that stage. The hostal-made mulled wine came out and everyone drank happily through the night.
I remember last year, spending my Christmas in Taupo, New Zealand. That felt like yesterday. I had a great time there too, though I remember feeling, along with the other backpackers, that in some ways it was a bit depressing. Christmas is when you are supposed to be with your family and we weren´t. I looked around this time, here in Ecuador for those missing their families. The faces were everywhere, but we made the best of it anyway and everyone had fun. It´s the one day when you have the right to feel a little lonely as a backpacker, the rest of the year makes up for it though. I did manage to Skype home again, and see all the family enjoying their Christmas on another continent. That made me happy. You never know, one day I may be back for a Christmas at home again.........but it will have to wait at least one more year!!!
The Amazon Rainforest
One day, I´m sitting at work, proceessing seismic data from the Tungurahua Volcano when in comes Pete Minard. He is an old school volcanologist from the states. If I was around back in the day we would of called him a volcano cowboy - they are a rare breed. He has worked all over the world studying volcanoes and knows pretty much any name you can think of in this business. Back in the 1970´s he was working in Colombia - he´s a hardy man. He has lived in Ecuador for almost 30 years now, working in the Instituto Geofisio with his wife Patricia (also a volcanologist). He tells me that a farmer out in the Amazon Rainforest has found what he believes to be a volcano on his farm and he wants the IG to check it out. He asks me to go along for the weekend with his wife and a young German student working at the IG named Anne-Marie. I don´t refuse.
Before the trip to the Amazon, I had only got out of Quito once. It was a day trip down south. I travelled with some students from the University, to see a fault where two large blocks had been slipping past each other and in the past had produced some huge and devastating earthquakes. It took five hours to get there, past the towns of Banos, Ambato, Riobamba and many others. We left at 5am and didn´t get back till 9pm. It was an interesting trip though and a great way to see the country. Ecuador´s wild-land is stunning. On the way back we stopped off at various sites, including the countries oldest church, some fantastically beautiful lakes and mountain top view-points. During the journey, the students tried to teach me some Spanish. I now know all the colours. I couldn´t wait to get of out the city again. I mean I love Quito, but I wanted to get out there and see some nature, and some volcanoes - now was my chance.
The Amazon (or known here, also, as The Oriente) is actually not so far from Quito. A few hours winding drive east, around, up and over the snowcapped Andes Mountain Range and you start to descend in to the vast landmass of the Amazon Jungle. The Oriente covers more than a third of Ecuadors geographical area yet houses just a tiny percentage of it´s inhabitants, bar a number of small indeginous tribes. Some of these communities have struggled to maintain traditional ways of life, and many have resulted in heading deep into the jungle interior, cutting off all contact with the outside world. But for other tribes adaptation has not made their culture any less diverse. The immense expanse of the Amazon holds an incredible amount of biodiversity. Beyond the cloud forests of the eastern foothills, the rainforest is home to 50% of Ecuadors mammals and 5% of the Earths plant species and prolific birdlife. The further east you travel, the further you descend into the sweltering heat of the jungle. Down here, you can see monkeys swinging from tree to tree and even spot a jaguar prowling silently along your path. Unfortunately we wern´t heading that far east.
Its just 3 hours drive from Quito before arriving at our destination, the small town of Baeza. This is the Amazon Jungle, but its not far enough in to feel the clothes-soaking heat, or see any wild cats. The altitude here is still high enough to be pleasantly comfortable in terms of climate, but still get that rainforest feeling - and what I mean by that - is it always rains!!! This area is known as the cloud forests, as the clouds sweep in above the tree´s canopy line - it´s beautiful. Baeza is a small, old Spanish missionary town. It was founded in 1548 and in 2005 hosted the world rafting championships. I believe thats it´s claim to fame.
On our first day out in the Amazon, we met this old, but very knowledgeable farmer and 6 of his mates. We first marched across jungle terrain, which was apparently his farmland. It rained pretty much the entire time, and it didn´t matter what clothing you brought (I brought very little), you were going to get wet through. Incredibly the farmer was right, he actually does have a volcano on his farm. We found a number of volcanic rocks around the area (in situ) and there is a crater up at the top of this small hill. We now know the volcano is about 4000 years old and is unlikely to cause a stur, at least in the near future. The farmer was delighted that we confirmed he had a volcano on his land and I suspected he would use it as a tourist attraction!!!
The weather was wet and the ground was slippery. Anna, must of slipped over about every 14 steps, it was hilarious to watch. At one point she fell down a hill and completely took out Pete. We all had unbrellas, but most of us used them as walking sticks. Every one was destroyed by the end of the day - Anna snapped hers completely in half. Half way through our trek we stopped off at this little wooden shack, completely soaked and bitterly cold. The farmer made a fire and brought us all hot canelazo. It was home brewed, and tasted like flovoured methanol. It was just what we all needed. We sat round the fire and the farmers told us stories (in Spanish) of their life out here, like the time one of them dropped their shotgun shells in the fire they had made, then everyone had to run out the shack as the bullets exploded.
We continued trekking, this time up the stream of a river. Here the jungle was so thick we could barely get through it. The farmers used their giant machetes to hack our path. We were mostly in the river, or constantly crossing it, before we reached a beautiful and suprisingly impressive waterfall, where we were treated to more volcanic deposits. It was a great end to the day.
Our hostel was situated up on a hill in the rainforest town of Baeza with a fantastic view over the surrounding countryside. At night, we would sit out with a beer, and watch the life of the Jungle. There were these incredible insects that would be completely unoticed in the dark, before suddenly shining bright green, like someone had just switched on a lightbulb. It would then flash off again and they were gone. Suddenly you would see another light up for a second somewhere else before disappearing, like they were communicating with each other. I must find out what they were. During the day we had also seen a selection of amazing birds which included a flock of parrots. It was pretty amazing.
On our second day we met up with a Frenchman. He owned a hostal in another part of the rainforest near Baeza, but you had to walk for about 25 minutes to get there. It was a beautiful place. We trekked with him for the day, along a dried river bed to get some ash samples which were located there. Along the way we passed these giant earthworms. These things are like a meter long and they are as thick as a snake. In fact they are worms that are snake sized, thats a simpler way of describing them. We walked over wobbly wooden bridges and at one point spotted a wild llama, the first I had seen in the country. Eventually, we had to depart, so, covered in mud, soaked to the skin, and half the plant species of the Jungle now attached to my clothes, we headed back to Quito - knackered. I will definately head to the Amazon again while I´m out here - I´ll make sue of that, although next time I´d like to go deeper, into the humid depths of the jungle, where I may just come face to face with a jaguar............but thats for next time.
Monday 11 January 2010
Some Things You Need To Know About Life In Quito (And Ecuador In General)
There are some things you should know about life in Quito and in Ecuador in general, they are;
Spanish is a real must. I mean you can get by with English and some hand signals, well at least most of the time but learning this great language is top on my list of things to really improve. Unfortunately, at this current moment in time my Spanish still needs massive amounts of work, in fact, massive amounts of seriously hard work at that. There are a few people at my work who speak English, but then I don't really want to talk to them in a foreign language. I'm in South America and here everyone speaks some form of Spanish, and I now must join this language party. To be honest, I can get by. Of course you pick things up here and there and I've been taking Spanish lessons every Saturday with my fantastically enthusiastic teacher - Jackie, but to think that I might one day be fluent in this language is more than a far away place that I really think will be a struggle to ever reach. In the opinion of a scientifically brained person such as myself, learning a language is far harder than processing seismic data or predicting the next volcanic eruption, thats for sure. I have however become fluent in ordering beer and I can now successfully say..... "theres no way i'm paying that much for this cab mate", so i'm getting there - slowly.
Food in Ecuador is interesting. Actually, most of the time it´s really good. They eat a lot of chicken (generally fried chicken) and rice too. Fruits of all different kinds are popular, especially in the form of shakes which are always deliceous. There isn´t a lot of beef as cows are rare here and milk is certainly hard to get - at least fresh (non UHT) milk. Mexican food is popular, so you can always find a burrito or empanada and salsa is always on standby in pretty much every restaurant. They have some local, traditional foods too. They eat Yuca, which is closely related to the potato, but actually is a plant root found in the Amazon Jungle. It´s very tasty. The weirdest thing I have eaten is birds skin. Its cooked with potato´s in a peanut sauce. The bird skin isn´t like that from a KFC chicken, its thick and rubbery. It doesn´t have too much taste but the texture is slimy and quite unpleasant. Their main traditional dish however, is guinea pig. Its cooked whole, generally on a skewer and it looks pretty unappertising. I haven´t yet had the opportunity to try it but it will happen, just when I have built up the courage to order it.
In the New Town however, I was shocked to see McDonalds, KFC Pizza Hutt and even Papa Johns Pizza, which I was positively sure you could only get in Palmers Green in London. I tend to stick away from these localitites. Finally the soups here in Ecuador are quite unbelieveable, perhaps the best Ivé ever had. Everything here is so cheap too. The US Dollar is the main currency used in the country although they do have their own coins, used in conjunction with the Dollar. A general meal (sometimes 3 courses) can cost as little as $1.50 and a night in a hostel just a few bucks too.
Unfortunately, Ecuador now has a worse reputation than Colombia in terms of crime. Pretty much everyday someone staying in the hostel comes in telling me they have been mugged usually at knife-point, sometimes with pepper spray, occasionally with a gun. Colombia seems to have cleaned up it's act while Ecuador and particulalry the cities of Guayaquil and Quito (where I am living) have been left to unsavoury characters. It got so bad, just before I arrived, that the Ecuadorian Army were drafted in to help out the police. Now when you go to a cash machine or bank, or walk the streets of La Mariscal at night, there is usually an officer on every corner with a large automatic weapon, which often scares most other back-packers but in an odd way makes me feel that little more protected from lurking thieves. I suppose the key to keeping safe is just to be a little street-wise and use a bit of common sense. You wouldn't walk down the dodgy streets of London on your own at night and you don't do it here. Luckily, I have yet to experience the whole mugging routine, yet I haven't met a long term traveller who hasn't been a victim of crime at least once - I suppose eventually you do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I've just settled for the fact that it's going to happen at some stage and that's that. If your not getting mugged, the people of Ecuador are very friendly.
Seriously though, locals here are so willing to help, will happily chat to you about pretty much anything and are very patient when your getting your Spanish completely wrong during a conversation. My work colleages at the Instituto Geofisico are perhaps the friendliest of all.
Going out in Quito is an experience. The nightlife here really is interesting. You can choose between the more authentic Old Town for some drinks and often live music in one of the plaza's or down the main party road known as La Ronda, or head to the popular New Town, with bars and clubs on every corner and a sea of both locals and travelers alike. Here the drink prices rise, the venues suddenly appear trendy and the next drunken person is usually just around the corner. This part of town is La Mariscal. When you enter a club, things seem normal at first, but half way through the night they stop playing the familiar RnB and Hip Hop and suddenly put on Salsa - thats usually the point I leave. I'm adding it to my list of things to learn in my life, it would certainly be a great asset out in this part of the world. I have had a few lessons in the art of Salsa dancing, from various friends who were willing to teach me the basics. More lessons are certainly needed. Amongst the bars and clubs I have also found the local Irish Pub known as Finns. It not only has a worker there who lives pretty much round the corner from me at home (an Enfield girl), but also shows all the Premiership football, which keeps me very happy.
The weather in Quito is pretty perfect. It´s on the Equator, so when the sun is out it´s hot. Yet because the altitude is so high, when the sun goes in it can get quite cool. As long as you always have a jumper on standby you can´t go wrong. It makes my life very easy. once you get out of the mountain ranges and down low, the sun continues to shine, but the heat is far more humid, staying hot pretty much all of the time.
In Quito, they usually have a major downpour for one hour or so during a typical day, yet because this appears to be an El Nino year, the country is far dryer than it should be. In the month that I have been here, I have rarely seen the rain at all. Actually this has become a major problem for Ecuador, as most electricity is run off water. Since I have been here it has meant that power cuts are frequent, even if my tan is constantly topped up.
This is my world right now. A South American country, where some form of chaos is usually not too far away. As I would soon find out, chaos for me would come thick and fast....................
Sunday 10 January 2010
La Mitad Del Mundo (The Middle Of The World)
Ecuador actually means Equator. The imaginary line that runs through the centre of the Earth were it´s latitude reads 0.00. I´ve been to the Equator before. Over a year and a half ago now I was in Sumatra in Indonesia, were I took a local bus from the nearby town to the site of the Equator. A line was drawn in the road marking the spot but that was pretty much it. Here in Equador though, they appear to have a whole tourist scene set up. From Quito, you have to take two local buses, about an hour north of the city. When you get to the town, there is a large tourist park waiting for you. Inside are shops, generally selling souvernirs and t-shirts with " I made it to the Equator" printed on it. We went on a Sunday when Quiteno families make the trip as well as tourists and there is live music being played throughout the day.
In the centre of the park is a large Monument with a brass globe on the top. The tower represents the site of the Equator. It´s the location where Charles-Marie de la Condamine made the measurements in 1736 showing that this was indeed the equatorial line. His expaditions gave rise to the metric system and proved that the world is not perfectly round but bulges at the Equator.
Actually this is officially not the site of the Equator. When the measurements were made, they were off by about 240m. Around the corner from the tourist park is a small museum, claiming to be the actual site (made by GPS measurements). The museum is called Museo Solar Inti Nan. It´s an outdoor museum where they show you some fun and fascinating experiments even if none of them are technically accurate.
In our group, a guide walks you around. First you see the water being poured down three drains, one either side of the Equtaor and one on the actual line. On the Equator the water appears to head straight down, while either side it spins clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on if your standing on the Southern or Northern Hemisphere. Actually the theory is right, the Coriolis force does make weather patterns veer right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in the Southern. But research has proved that the force is too weak to effect small bodies of water like those in a sink or a toilet. We suspect that it´s the way the water is poured in the sink that causes its spin here. It did look impressive though even if it isn´t real.
They also claim you can balance an egg on a nail on the Equator. Everyone got a go. I couldn´t do it but others did manage it. And they also say its impossible to walk in a straight line with your eyes closed and arms up, but it is possible either side of the Equatorial line, as well as doing other experiments where you lift up your friends and try your forces of strength with odd effects around this magical site. I think most of it was more in the mind than the power of the Equator, although we did achieve something - we all looked positively ridiculous.
Actually one truth about the Equator, is that you do actually weigh less, when compared to standing on the poles. This is because at the Equator there is greater centrifugual force, making you weigh about 0.3% lighter than if you were at higher latitudes. In light of this, many of the women in our group didn´t want to leave.
The museum also shows some indigenous, sacred traditions as this was also once an important site for the idigenous populations. They show some shrunken heads, a technique used by people here 1000 years ago, as well as some animals and bugs from the Amazon Jungle, which is only a few hours drive East of Quito. One creature scared all the men greatly, as it will swim up your urine stream from the river and head straight into your very private parts, where it nestles. You need an operation to get it removed and I believe it´s not particularly pleasant. No-one will be going to the toilet in an Amazon River in a hurry I can tell you that much.
We left the middle of the world and headed back to Quito. Even though the science disproves most of the Equator mysteries, it was still fun seeing them all in action. And just being on the Equator I guess is exciting enough. However, it was back to the big city for more Quito living.................
The Founding Of Quito Festival
One thing you have to understand when you arrive in Quito is the altitude. High up in the Andes Mountains, Quito is about 2850m above sea level. If you fly in here from the level of the sea (0m) then for your first few days you really feel it. It´s different for everyone. It makes generally no difference of your age, physical health, if your a smoker or not, each person reacts differently to having less oxygen flowing through their body. I didn´t suffer too badly. I had a headache for a day and getting up stairs was hard work, but the effects soon go. When we took the cable car up Pinchincha Volcano, it drops you off at 4600m. Here you feel the effects even more as the higher you go the less oxgen there is. Some people really struggled at this height, but again I didn´t feel the effects too strongly. However, it´s when you do any form of physical activity or exercise that you really feel the strain. I found this out during the Founding Of Quito Festival.
In late November Quito celebrates its biggest party of the year. The annual event of the founding of the city by the Spanish is actually on the 6th December, however the festivities start much earlier. In late November, Quito chooses a Queen, and the evenings are dominated by colourful Chivas (open topped buses) which maneuver through the narrow streets of the town packed with dancing revelers. A few nights before the 6th, our hostel rented a Chiva bus for all the backpackers. The bus was brightly coloured, made mostly of wood and has an odd open-topped compartment. Here a hired band plays festive local music. The backpackers then get as drunk as possible (generally on this sweet, hot Ecuadorian drink called canelazo, which is made from cane alcohol and sugar or cinnamon) and then grip onto the bus at any spot available as the vehicle rides through the city. In an alcholic mess, you blow your whistle at locals and toursits alike, who equally blow their whistles back at you. Local Ecuadorians would also hire out their own band and Chiva buses and often you would end up on their bus in a drunken accident, but party just as hard nevertheless. At one point a few of us got onto the top of the bus where the band was playing. It didn´t occur to me why they were all seated but I soon found out. Chiva buses are quite tall and around the streets of Quito, the power cables hang quite low. It therefore occured that during the night, whilst speeding around on this open-topped bus and dancing, standing up on the top - I did manage to get completely taken out by one of these cables. I hit the deck quicker than an over-dramatic footballer and stumbled up with a very bruised ear. The party continued through the night.
Throughout the festive season, bull-fights are also held regularly. The Spanish tradition of teasing a bull around a ring before slaughtering it in front of a crowd of people has never really appealed to me. Some people who went to the event said either that they really enjoyed it and it was a great experience, or they literally had to leave after 15 minutes because of the horror of the whole thing. I think one day I will attend a real bull-fight and probably here in Quito, but not this time round. Actually a huge group of us did go to a bullfight, but it was a kids show. They do exactly the same thing as the real event except they don´t kill the bulls. In fact we didn´t know this at the time. The only reason we went was because the matadors were in fact midgets and we all thought it would be an interesting experience. How many times in your life can you say - "see ya, im off to see a bullfight with midgets".
It was held in a packed stadium at the Plaza de Toro. The problem with being a midget and a matador is that you can´t run very fast or in large enough circles. As such, they were pretty useless and I got many a photo with a bull´s horn piercing a midgets rear end. They then got about 14 midgets out on the arena, but some goals out and started playing a football match. Then, after 5 minutes of this weird midget football game, yes youv´e guessed it - they unleashed a bull, who proceeded to chase them all around the pitch while they played. I can quite positively say that I have never seen any thing like it before and will unlikely see anything like it again. The whole thing was just bizarre.
Momentum of the festival builds towards the 6th December, with huge parties in the street and live music from local bands and DJ´s playing in many of the cities big outdoor plazas. The whole experience was immense.
At work the parties were out in full swing too. We had a huge meal and played football on the University pitch. All 50 of us, men and women, played in a fun but very unserious game. The University also held a football 5-A-Side tournament. Each department has a team and battles it out for the trophy of University Football Champions. The tournament had actually been going for a few weeks, with the final being played just before the founding of Quito day. When I got asked to play, the Instituto Geofisico had already made it to the semi finals. I played in that game, setting up to goals and helping to take our team to the final. It was here that I really noticed the altitude. If you live at low altitude with lungs like mine, then your red blood cells haven´t built up enough to get the lowered levels of oxygen around your body, at least they haven´t built up enough within a few weeks. I guess after living here for a year I will come back home running marathons, but at this moment in time, playing in the 5-A-Side football tournament final was hard work.
The game was none like I had ever played before. It´s on a concrete pitch, with a ball made of some sort of volcanic rock. It was small, hard and didn´t bounce. Around the edge was about 150 people watching. There was also a band playing music on the side during the game and about 3m from the pitch, spectators were setting off fireworks. I then had to play in this final, in the intense equatorial heat and no oxygen in my lungs. I did manage to score the first goal, a sweet inside of the foot shot into the top corner that would have made Steele Senior proud. I´v never played ina game with so many spectators, nor fireworks going off around me but it was fun. It was shortly after I put my team 1-0 up, that I started to feel dizzy, nearly fainted and then substituted myself off. I can´t explain the feeling. It´s not like getting tired at home - its like your breathing intensely and nothings going in - a very odd feeling. I did manage to get back on the field again but our team lost the final 5-2 in the end. A good effort though.
And with that my first Founding of Quito Day festivities were over. I had riden around Quito on an opened top bus, partying till the early hours and getting taken out by a power cable. Id seen a bullfight with midgets and played in a football final, with fireworks and bands on the touchline, scoring one goal before almost passing out. It was fun. I thought about it after - I can´t think of any festival in england or anywhere in the world for that matter - where probably any one of those things could be experienced. I´ll remember it for a while, I´m sure of that.
With the weekend approaching, a few of us decided to make a day trip north of Quito. It would take us to the site that this country is actually named after.............The Equator.
Working At The Instituto Geofisico
The Instituto Geofisico (Geophysics Institute) is just one department of Quito´s Polytechnic University known as EPN (Escuela Politcnica Nacional). It has the sole responsibiliy throughout Ecuador of monitoring the many active volcanoes in the country, whilst deals with other natural hazard mitigation, for example looking at earthquake activity and other geological phenomena. If there are any issues regarding volcanoes in Ecuador, then the IG are the people to call. It´s a large deaprtment of perhaps 50 - 60 people, most Ecuadorians, but with a scattering of international workers, of whom I would now be a part of.
I have been assingned to the volcano seismology team. That means, we look at the earthquake data coming from volcanoes to understand what the mountains are doing. In Feburary 2010, the Institute is expecting a whole load of instruments to arrive, which they have recently ordered. These monitoring instruments will then be sent around the country to improve our knowledge of the geological and geophysical activity. I will be part of a team for installing these high-tech pieces of equipment, which will be great for learning about volcano monitoring and I´ll also get to see a fair bit of the country too. For now however, I have been made responsible for seismic data processing. essentially looking at the seismic information coming in (in real-time) from several seismographs that the Institute has already monitoring some of the volcanoes. I am using various computer programmes to process the data, which at present involves picking non-seismic events and deleting them from our records, and using a powerful geophysical computer tool - matlab, to calculate displacements of the volcano earthquakes from their velocity. This information is being made into a database (which I am currently constructing) for analysis of earthquake attenutaion around the volcano, which ultimately can tell us a great deal about how the volcano might behave.
The people I work with are fantastic, so friendly and helpful and I can tell from just my first few weeks here that this is going to be a lot of fun and a great experience for me.
I didn´t plan it, but I really have arrived in Quito at the right time. For just one week after I arrived, it was celebration time - for one week before the 6th December, is the biggest parties of the year in this city. I had arrived just in time for the Founding of Quito Festival.................
Arriving In Quito (Ecuador)
I knew my flights to Ecuador might be hassle but I didn’t perhaps realise how much hassle. I somewhat rashly booked flights to Quito via New York and Atlanta in the States. There wasn’t much time between the connections and I knew that I would be running around several airports for most of the time. In the end it didn’t actually matter. Through some combination of the cockpit window playing up at JFK and bad weather in Atlanta, I had already missed my flight to Ecuador before I had even left New York. It resulted in me staying in a seedy motel room in Atlanta, just around the corner from the airport and catching my flight to Ecuador the next day. Eventually I had made it to South America.
The capital of Ecuador, Quito, and my home for the next year is situated in the northern highlands of the country, within the Guayllabamba river basin. The city has been built along a plateau lying in the heart of the Andes Mountain Range. I flew into Quito at night. The landing was precarious to say the least, as it appeared to most passengers that we must of at least scraped a couple of mountains along the way, which resulted in a particularly hair-raising landing (the worst I had ever experienced). For many griping the arms of their chairs, you could tell from their faces that most thought we weren’t going to get of this plane in one piece. We did however, and I have since found out that most landings into Quito are like that.
I didn´t start work for a few days and so I thought it a good idea to quickly make friends with a few backpackers in my hostel, known as the Secret Garden and head off with them to check out the town. The central or main part of Quito is divided into two broad sections. The New Town is located towards the north. At the northern end are high rise buildings, shopping centres and all other modern accessories that you would expect to find in a capital city. However, for some reason or another, it just doesn´t feel right driving past McDonald´s in this part of the world and when you eventually broaden out to the rest of the country, it makes even less sense. At the southern sections of the New Town, is La Mariscal or known locally (and very affectionately) as Gringoland. This is the backpacker region, taken up by bars and clubs, tourist travel shops, hostels and some hippy markets. Local Ecuadorians do love to spend their time mixing in with the backpackers and so when you walk La Mariscal, it isn´t all gringo´s, yet it doesn´t have a particularly South American feel to it. For that, you head south to the Old Town, with it´s narrow streets, restored colonial architecture and lively plazas. Quito´s Centro Historico is a whole different side of the city. This is the real South America that you would come to see, with old churches, chapels and monasteries built centuries ago by indigenous artisans and labourers - it´s where I spend most of my weekends. It doesn´t matter what time you visit, during any day of the week the whole of the Old Town is packed with local people going about their daily routine.
The Secret Garden Hostel, where I have been living, is a popular backpacker spot located pretty much between the Old and New Towns but is a closer walk to the historical sections of the city. The hostel is great for meeting people and every backpacker is keen on meeting. I´m currently staying in a dorm, sharing with 7 others but I´ll have to move out eventually - I can´t live in this hostel for a year. It does have some nice features though, with it´s most appealing being the roof-top terrace. Its also a bar and restaurant and at night they light a fire in the wheel-barrow and people sit around it chatting, drinking and admiring the spectacular view of Quito´s Old Town.
It´s difficult to get too lost in Quito, as the whole city is built in a valley between the Andean Mountains, which happen to run North-South. It means that the town is long but narrow. and when your not sure where you are you just look for the mountains either side which point out where East and West are and the rest you can work out for yourself.
Not all of the mountains that surround Quito are mountains, however. Some of them are volcanoes, with the main one being Volcan Pinchincha. The volcano is situated just on the western end of the city and takes just a few minutes by taxi to get to its base. Quito has built a long cable car, known as the TeleferiQo, that takes you up most of the height of this volcano. From there you can continue to walk or scramble up to the top. I went with a few friends that I had made during my first few days here. When you get off the cable car, there is a large restaurant and shop (of course) and also a weird (science experiment) looking machine. You then pay to suck pure oxygen out of the tubes as the altitude up here is high. You really notice the effects. We didn´t climb to the top of the volcano as some in our group were feeling the altitude a little too much. I guess I´ll head back one day to climb it. We did however bypass the cable car down and decided to walk. If we had known how long it would take we may have reconsidered. Two hours later, of spiralling around farms and local villages we decide to ask a local how much further to Quito. She explains it´s another two hours but you can get a bus about 30 minutes down the road. The bus wiggled down the narrow dirt track. Never at one point where all four wheels on the ground as it rocked back from side to side. We eventually make it back to our hostel in one piece.
I could tell from my first few days that I was going to like this country. I mean sure, health and saftey for one is not so high on ther priority, I found that out quickly enough. But for most part, the town has some charm, it is very different from home, but in a kind of fun, new exploring sense and as I would soon find out - there were more volcanoes here than a volcanologist could dream of. It was time to head to work, where I would find out all about them................
