Baños, la ultima parada (the last stop)

Well, it´s been quite a journey.  After planning this adventure for nearly 2 years, it´s about to come to an end. I set off out of Newark on April 3, and will be coming back to JFK on August 1st.  4 months. I can´t believe how fast it went by. I am both happy and sad that I´m missing Colombia, but I´m sure another day, on a different trip, I´ll make it there. The places I want to go are easily doable on a 3 week trip in the future, when I´m with a friend.
Baños was the perfect town to end my trip in.  It´s this little town 3 hours from Quito, 1 hour from the Amazon, surrounded by volcanoes, lush greenery and a ton of action sports.
My first day here I went to the travel agency to find out about the different activities I could do, assuming at 3:30 pm it was too late to do anything my first day.  Not the case. They said, ¨you can do the bridge jump right now if you want¨, to which I said ¨sure!¨, not even knowing what the lady was talking about.  This crazy, drunken Ecuadorian guide pulls up in a 4x4 and tells me to get in.  We drive to the San Francisco bridge, which is the tallest bridge you can jump off of in Baños. This dude is swerving all over the road and I´m convinced he´s going to forget to connect my harness and I´m going to tumble to my death. Yet still I continue because, well, I´ve had enough trouble in Ecuador so may as well see if my luck is changing!
He puts me in the harness, tells me to stand on the platform, which has two footprints with half the foot only because the other half dangles over the edge. He tells me onthe count of 3 to put my arms out like Superman and jump. Of course I protest, because unlike the times I´ve bungee jumped in Mexico, I saw where I was going to land, and from this place all I saw was rocks and water below.  He promised I would swinglike a pendulum and there was a man at the bottom that would bring me back in.  My legs were shaking like crazy and I don´t know how it happened, but when he counted to 3 something made my legs move and off I went.  It was a crazy rush and I loved all 3 seconds of it!  The town is filled with thermal springs and spas offering every massage under the sun for $20, more than Peru´s $6 running cost but still way less than NYC!  I got a massage my first day, which helped me relax after my hellish days in Quito.

The second day here I went canyoning in the morning.  Canyoning is kind of like rock climbing in a waterfall. But by climbing, I mean slipping, because the rocks are wet and you can´t actually grip them, so you slip and slide your way down while the guide (the same drunk guy Alex) pulls you down.  At the bottom you have to jump backwards into ice water, which was just lovely.  There are 4 waterfalls in all, and one of them you have to slide down, which was somehow more scary than being pulled down by the harness.  When I got back from the canyoning I set off for a 3 hour hike. There is so much to do here I couldn´t sit still at all.  I somehow ended up back at the massage place.  Hope I don´t make a daily habit of this! I met 2 really nice girls from the US at dinner that night, and made plans to take a 80km bike ride to the jungle town, Puyo, with one of them the next day.

So on day 3 I set off on one of the most beautiful rides I´ve ever been on.  Everything was in the jungle so giant green plants, beautiful flowers and countless cascadas (waterfalls).  One was called something like the Devil´s Mouth, and the waterfall was so powerful that as it hit the water the roar it made was deafening.  We got soaked at that one too because it all splashed up onto the viewing platform.  We stopped at km 66 for lunch because we both were about to faint.  It was this little shack on the side of the road that said ´trucha´, which means trout, and we assumed they had food so that was where we went.  We asked for our choices, and they told us ´trout or tilapia´. So we got one of each, but really what they served us was plate after plate of all sorts of different things - salad, plantains, rice- so much food that I was glad when it started raining and I didn´t have to get back onto my bike! The 2 daughters of the man who owned the fish shack were so cute, they were 7 & 16 and they helped us flag down a bus from the side of the road to throw our bikes on to return to town.  Such a fun day, and good training since I´m doing a Century ride in NJ in the end of September!

Day 4 started off with a ´steam health bath´.  I didn´t know what it was, but they offered it for $3.50 in my hostel.  So at 7:30 in the morning I went into the spa and they made me sit in this little wodden box in my bathing suit, filled with steam, for 5 minutes at a time. After 5 minutes just when I felt like I was going to faint, I had to get out and towel myself off with ice water.  This was repeated 4 more times, and after the last time  I got sprayed down with ice cold water.  It is supposed to be detoxing, so why not. I felt good after, grabbed breakfast and then set off for white water rafting. I´ve been rafting a few times before, and I´ve enjoyed it almost every time (favorite was the time in New Paltz when we drank our way down the rapids, least favorite was with my parents when it was less than Level 1 and I napped the whole time because it was SO boring!)  This one was crazy.  The rapids were amazing.  The group I was with was all from a non-profit agency from the states that work setting up volunteers to work in indigenous communities in Latin America, and a guy from Canada who thought I was his neighbor due to the Lulu gear (I still love getting recognized for my Lulu!) I was laughing the whole way down the rapids, had the time of my life, and found out about a ton more things to do while I´m here.

When I got back, I went to the hot springs with 2 new friends from my hostel, Sam from Aus and Jose from Portgual. Two guys sharing a room with me in my all-female dorm. That´s South America for you, you never get what´s advertised! The town Baños is named after the natural thermal baths all around the town, the ones we went to were filled with locals and the water was so murky that although it was natural, I probably acquired 15 different diseases from sitting in it.  After the springs we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and while we were sitting there, there was a big commotion across the street.  A drunk man (un barracho) decided he didn´t like his meal at the Swiss fondue place (what a local was doing at the fondue place is beyond me since I only see them at the small local joints with no menus, or picking up the street food), and he decided he didn´t want to pay and also wanted to pick a fight with the waiter.  That made for an amusing experience, as people kept coming to drag him away and 5 minutes later he was back screaming outside the restaurant again. So apparently the rule in Ecuador is if you don´t like your food you don´t pay, and if you like my bag you steal it.

Day 6, I really started to feel settled in here.  I haven´t spent more than 5 days straight anywhere, which never really gives you enough time to get settled in and learn enough about your surroundings.  But this town is really small, and easy to learn, and since I´ll be here another week I´m really trying to adjust and know it in and out before heading back to NY.  I started my spanish lessons this morning, which I can already tell I´m going to love.  My teacher, Yvonne, picked me up at the hostel and said for the first 30 minutes we would walk around having a conversation in spanish so she could evaluate how much I knew and where to begin.  She said that my vocabulary was pretty good, but I can only speak in present tense and have no idea how to conjugate, which I even remember from HS I always had trouble with.  I decided on a week long course with 4 hours a day, and in only one day I felt like I learned a ton.  It´s a different method from Rosetta Stone, which I still swear by, but this is different because it´s one-on-one, I can ask questions when I´m confused, and learn things that are applicable to the situation rather than just what Rosetta thinks I might need to know.  For example, we had a conversation about government and elections, and the corruption in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia.  A much more detailed and interesting conversation than I´ve been accustomed to having due to my limited vocabulary.  I´ll have homework to do each night (except tomorrow when I got to the jungle), and it will definitely keep me busy my last week.  The more I´m here the more I wish I was going to Colombia to practice my spanish and finish the trip, but I still don´t regret my decision to come home because I´m still convinced something bad would have happened if I´d stayed.  Yvonne showed me the secret for lunch (almorzar), which is to buy maiz (corn) from the stands, which they cover in tomatoes, onion, and aji sauce.  For 50 cents, you have a delicious, quasi-nutricious lunch.  I also learned that when you go in to get any kind of spa procedure, they charge you less if you don´t ask how much beforehand.  If you ask how much they know you´re a tourist and they double the price. But I went for a pedicure and just sat down and didn´t say a word, and in the end they charged me $5 - half the price I was quoted when I asked yesterday.  So I´m definitely learning the ropes here, and am so excited to continue my lessons next week!

The jungle unfortunately wasn´t much to write about. We went to a monkey park at the beginning of the day, which was great because there were monkeys crawling all over us, but after that the rest of the day was spent hiking in mud and taking the worl´d worst canoe ride. They put me on a Spanish tour, so I only understood fragments of what he was telling us. Luckily my friend Jose was there to translate, but not enough for me to actually understand half of what the guide was saying.

My friends Sarah & James came on Sunday, and I´m so happy to be spending my last week with them.  Every day I have spanish lessons from 9-12, and then we get lunch and explore Baños. We went on a hike one day, found a hookah bar, and are having a farewell party on Friday with Sarah´s homemade Caprihanas that she learned how to make in Brazil. Since it´s raining the whole week, we decided to spend our afternoons  pampering ourselves at the spa. They have all sorts of weird detox and mud treatments we´re going to experiment with because, for $7, why not!!

Saturday afternoon I´ll head back to Quito, where I will not leave my hostel until 4:00 Sunday morning when I go straight in a cab to the airport and start my journey home. The best part is that Todd graciously offered to throw me a welcome back party, which I´m really looking forward to. I can´t believe it´s been 4 months since  I´ve seen my friends (minus Caryn & Mike, Melissa, & Marlene & Alex).  Almost home!

Made it out alive

Just wanted to let everyone know I made it out of Quito safe and sound. I´m in Baños, I absolutely love it here. I bungee jumped off a bridge 15 minutes after I checked in, got a massage and scheduled a ton of fun activities to keep me busy for the next 2 weeks, including canyoning, rafting, a jungle trip that includes a monkey park, climbing Cotopaxi, and a ton of day hikes, mountain bike rides and cheap massages.
Now I can finish this trip on a good note!

Middle of the World and the end of my sanity

So, as my blog post from 4am entailed, I could not sleep last night. I was just way too shaken up, so I came downstairs and sat, trying to decide if I was brave enough to risk leaving the safe confines of my hostel walls.  Sarah and James showed me how to take the bus to the mall to get a new camera, and then to go to the Mitad del Mundo {Middle of the World, point of 0 0 0 latitude}.  They swore it was totally safe and easy and I would be okay, so against my better judgement I went.  It WAS fine, but I was a crazy girl all day. I was delirious from lack of sleep, and convinced every person that passed me was going to rob me. Not that I had anything with me at all, except a dinky disposible camera to hold me over until I get home and can buy a real one.  I tried to run away from the bus man who was trying to tell me I was going the wrong direction. I did a lot of ridiclous things. I found a movie theater that had harry potter in english, but was afraid to be in the dark with that many Ecuadorians. Every single person that even glanced in my direction I ran the opposite way.  When I got to the Middle of the World, the monument itself was really lame. The best part about it was I found a restaurant that served this traditional Ecuadorian soup I've been looking for, a potato soup with cheese and avocado. And Ecuadorian chocolate. Yes, I had a pity party for myself with Ecuadorian cuisine.  There's a separate museum a 5 minute walk from the monument where the ACTUAL 0 point of latitude is, since it's not wher the giant monument is. Go figure. I went there, and it was pretty interesting despite me being so tired by this point that my eyes were shutting as the guy showed me how the wind vane span one way on the southern hemisphere side of the line, and the other way on the northern hemisphere side. There's all these tricks they show you like how an egg will stand up on its own, and how water swirls opposite ways on either side but falls straight down on the line. Centripical force. Very cool.
I made friends with these 2 girls that had a private taxi taking them back into Quito. Rather than suffer the 3 bus rides, I asked if they could drop me off. They were heading to the airport to pick up someone, so she said they would drop me off a few blocks from my hostel.  We pulled over across from another taxi, and the guy told me it would only by $1.50 to get back to my hostel from there.  I went over to the taxi and asked him how much, and he said $4. I hate getting ripped off and now despise all Ecuadorians, and was not paying more than double to go for a 5 minute ride. I told him it was $1.50, and he said $3. I told him, in perfect spanish, that I was robbed yesterday and my money was stolen and to let me just pay $2 which is more than the fare. Apparently me telling him I was robbed scared him, because he drove away and left me standing on the street. Now I was terrified because I didn't know where I was, and had no taxi and was exposed to all the potential thieves.  I stood in the doorway of a furniture shop until I spotted an open cab who charged me the right amount and hopped in, safe and sound. My paranoia is at this extreme now though, that I decided he was going to take me to the wrong place and rob me, so I sat with my hand on the door handle ready to jump out if I didn't recognize a street name within 10 more blocks. Luckily I did, so I relaxed for 10 seconds.  I got out 2 blocks early to go to the Kellari chocolate shop {a fair trade Ecuadorian chocolate brand they charge a fortune for at Whole Foods}, and then ran faster than I ever have before the 2 blocks back to my hostel, zig zagging across the street back and forth in case anyone tried to follow me. I'm not kidding when I say I'm losing my sanity, I acted like a crazy girl all day long.
I foud sushi for dinner which made me happy since I've missed that SO much. Decided to head straight to Banos tomorrow and just settle in before my volunteer program starts. There's a ton to do there, from hiking and biking to rafting and canyoning. There's hot springs and massages, and most importantly, it's safe.  I wont come back until the day before my flight, where I will then lock myself in my hostel until it's time to go to the airport.
Now let me name all the reasons I'm excited to come home!
Reunion with my family, friends and FOXY!
Summer Streets
New Fairway opening on the UES
Can walk down the street without fear of mugging, rape or deportation
Foxy again. God I miss that dog.
16 Handles
My Lulu order that will be waiting at Caryns house
NYSC!
Fire Island?
Downloading new songs onto my replacement iPod once I buy it
Looking forward to seeing everyone!

My time in SA is coming to an end

I hate to say this, but I have been fighting the inevitable. People warned me about being a solo female traveler and I told them it was BS. However, I'm starting to see that South America is not the safest place for a female traveler, and I am cutting Colombia out of my trip and trying to get a flight home from Ecuador at the end of the month.
So far, I have been almost mugged in Buenos Aires twice, been attacked on a bus in Uruguay, stranded at the Bolivian border for weeks, nearly got deported at the border to Ecuador (I haven't had a chance to update, but yes, the other 8 people were deported back to their perspective countries when there was cocaine found on my bus), nearly kidnapped by a police officer in Otavalo, and robbed at knifepoint today in Quito. 
I was more shaken up by this than the border incident, which had me ready to book a flight home, but this sealed the deal for me. I was extremely fortunate that the cops caught one of the guys and got my iPhone back for me, but my bag is gone that had everything else of value in it. I never carry all my stuff around with me, but this hostel didn't have a safe, just a small lockbox that I left my passport in, so I had my iPod, Kindle, camera, some money (luckily my credit cards and most of my cash were in my secret pouch), and some other random things like souviniers I had just bought at the market.
When I got back to the hostel, my friend Sarah told me that I could put in a claim with travel insurance, so luckily I can probably get back $ for some of the lost items. But, regardless, if this is what is happening in Ecuador, I highly doubt I am going to be okay in Colombia. So while I still have a passport and all body parts intact, I'm going to call it a nice 4 month trip, spenda couple weeks in Banos and Mindo and hopefully volunteering in the rainforest, and am working on getting a flight home at the end of the month.  
If you're thinking why the hell doesn't she leave now, well...it's because I have loved this trip and don't want it to end with such a bad taste in my mouth.  I want to end with a positive experience and I think that going to these places will do that for me.
If you're thinking why don't you just stick it out, well...I'm sorry, but there's only so much one person can handle. I've done my best at dealing with these situations as they happened, but people have their limits, and here is mine!
There will be no pictures to accompany this blog. Hopefully my thief has a lovely time admiring my photos from Otavalo that I'll never get to see.
It's a quarter after 3 and there's not a chance I'm going to be able to fall asleep tonight. I can't stop thinking about what happened today. I think what's bothering me the most is how helpless I felt. Growing up in NY, I always felt that I could face anything. All of us Sheepshead/Marine Park kids grew up well before our time, and I dealt with things and people that hardened me before I even hit college. Once I was back in the city after Albany, I always felt invincible. I could walk around wherever, whenever, by myself or with whoever, and never for a second felt fear. But in South America I'm now scared of everything. The men that leer at me and yell out lewd comments, I'm forced to pretend I don't notice and walk by. In NY these men would get the finger. Everything I do I'm subjected with the possibility of what could happen. I might get into a cab and he will drive me to the suburbs and rob me and leave me there (this happened to people in La Paz). Someone might break the cab window, reach in and steal my bag (Lima). Someone might approach me on the beach with a gun and demand all of my belongings (Rio).  Someone might come up from behind me with a knife and steal everything I currently own (today). If this was NY I'd like to think I would have tried to fight back.  But I trust people here less as to what they're capable of and what they will get away with since they belong here and I am the outsider. When I was thrown on the floor I didn't try to run after them, didn't try to get help, didn't scream. I just sat there in shock. I think my reaction bothered me most of all. No matter what happens here, the little Spanish I know and poor understanding of the culture and my surroundings makes me helpless, which is something I hate to be. All I want right now is to be in an environment where I feel safe again. I don't want to leave my hostel tomorrow, but I know that I will because I can't act like a child. I'm just praying nothing else happens while I'm down here. I guess I shouldn't complain about all those Caribbean vacations I took - at least the worst thing that happened in the Bahamas was a hurricane. 

Galapagos in a tortoise shell

As anyone who's ever traveled with me knows, I'm not exactly a fan of organized tours. Especially after backpacking on my own for the past 3 months, to go back to being told where to go, when to eat, and what to take pictures of doesn't make me overly enthused. But when I want to go somewhere badly enough, the rules don't apply. And for Galapagos, to do it the right way, there's no other choice. So I signed on for the 8 day north-bound cruise and off we went.

It was easily one of the coolest places I've ever been. 23% of the animals on the island are native to the Galapagos, so I got to see things you can't find anywhere else in the world. But the even more impressive part to me was that since the animals were never subjected to humans hunting and harming them, they're not scared of people.  The birds will fly inches from your head, and let you come right up to them to take a picture of their mating and nesting rituals.

I'm definitely not going to remember most of their names, but my favorites were the sea lions, seals,  giant tortoises and red and blue footed boobies, mostly because like a 15 year old boy, their names make me giggle.
Most of the days we were treated with a new animal to find in it's natural habitat. Marine iguanas so big they looked like baby dragons. Seals and sea lions and crabs the colors of the rainbow. There were a couple days we hit bad weather and were forced to turn back (after me getting soaked through a white tank top, pitching a typical Lori fit and returning to the boat), and one place where we had an hour-long fancy walk over dead brush without an animal in sight.  But not everything can be perfect (although for these prices they should be!) and  aside from those two, most of the islands were really cool.

The Galapagos islands themselves are actually formed from the lava that erupted from underwater volcanoes. They made all sorts of cool formations that we got to hike on and explore. Darwin found the islands and developed his theory of evolution here 150 years ago, an in 1959 the Ecuadorian government declared it a national park and have been raping tourists for thousands of dollars ever since.

The boat itself was interesting. That's not to say it was bad. It was just very small, and by day 2 everything in my backpack was damp and unwearable. I felt just as dirty as when I went to the jungle, except wet instead of muddy. The rooms are tiny, and you share them 2 to a room. Luckily my roommate was cool and we survived the cramped quarters. The boat is constantly moving to bring us to the next island, so on the choppy waters most of us were sick at least half of the time at sea. I was sick about all of the time the boat was in motion, which resulted in bedtimes of 8pm and going through 4 books over the course of the week while trying to hold my lunch down against the rocking. The second I was on the islands I was fine, but that rocking boat was brutal.

The daily snorkeling was great. I've never snorkeled before for a combination of reasons - fear of drowning, being an awful swimmer, claustrophobia, having a panic attack the one time I tried at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park when I was a kid... But since it was on our itinerary twice a day, I gave it a shot. It was much better than I expected. A weird feeling to swim (or dog paddle in my case) over giant schools of fish, and get right up close with a sea lion underwater. I purchased a waterproof camera for the trip, so in September when I develop it we'll find out if I was able to get anything on film! The last day I was determined to follow Maddie, Mave, Etan and Mordichai during snorkeling because they kept finding the coolest animals - octopuses, sea turtles, etc. I followed them out into the water and Mordichai pointed out a giant sea turtle, probably about 3 feet wide. I was terrified of being so close to it, but it was amazing to see him hanging out under water posing for our pictures. All of a sudden, the seals decided it was time to play. I heard someone call my name to point them out, but I had definitely already noticed. The seals were circling around us in the water, going right up to our faces and then swimming away to surprise us again. That was my cue to get out of the water, because every time the seal came near me I screamed and swallowed a mouthful of sea water. Way to keep my cool. It's not that I didn't find it amazing. It's more that I rarely go in the ocean, and in swimming pools Shamu's friends usually don't come out to play.

By the last day we still hadn't seen blue footed boobies, which I was irrationally upset about.  I'd never even heard of boobies of any kind before this trip, but Mave andhad Etan had bought blue footed booby shirts and out of principal I wanted to see them. Otherwise, what a sham to sell those shirts at the souvenir stand! But as we were getting ready to get off the boat, there they were waiting for us - 4 beautiful, blue footed boobies in all their glory. My trip was now complete! Well, I guess it was really complete after we went to get in the dinghys to get to land and 2 sharks were circling the boat. But I'll omit that part and end with the boobies :)

Top 10 things I learned on my trip to the Galapagos Islands:
1) I will never be a mermaid
2) My dreams of working as an entertainment director on a cruiseship are officially shelved
3) Snorkels are not scream proof
4) I am not Steve Irwin
5) Baby giant tortoises are not extraordinary, they look exactly like   Myrtle and Alvin, the turtles I had growing up
6) I will never live on a houseboat
7) Pavlov's theory works - people, like rats, will come for food when a bell rings
8) The word booby is funny, even if you're not a 15 year old boy
9) My name hasn't stopped being Dory in Ecuador
10) I really enjoyed being away from Internet for a few days, although I really miss my daily emails with my friends (Caryn and Becca, you both get a shoutout here because your emails made me so happy when I did finally get to check them!) After a while of being away, you start to think people forgot about you. But seeing that my friends are reading my blog and caring that I'm lost in between countries and just sending me emails to say hi and I miss you here and there really mean a lot and even further solidify our friendships. So, while I'm in a sentimental mode, muchos besos y abrazos to you guys!

Our flight to Quito was supposed to stop in Guayaquil after 1.5 hours, then continue on to Quito for a 3.5 hour total flight. Randomly, our pilot decided to skip Guayaquil, and we made it to Quito in only 2 hours. I have no idea why or how this happened, nor do I care because for once it was in my favor. I decided since I am completely out of clean clothes, to skip my overnight in Quito and head straight to Otavalo, which I had planned on heading to in the morning. So I acted on impulse,  which was taking a cab straight to the bus station and am now on my way to Otavalo.  The 2.5 hour ride only cost $2.20, which was the same price for a Twix bar at the Galapagos airport. I forgot until I was on the bus that my friends Sarah and James were in Quito tonight, since my head is somewhere still in the Galapagos, so I'm hoping they're still there on Sunday when I finally make it there.

A very unwelcome to Ecuador

It's 5:08 in the morning. My bus from Mancora, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador was due to arrive at 5:30 am. However I just spent the last 3 hours sitting at the Ecuadorean border, praying that I was going to be allowed to make it to my destination. 8 people did not, and I don't know what happened to them.

I was never supposed to even be on this bus. I never would have agreed to a 9 pm bus that first gets me to the border at 11 to start the whole customs process. What happened was I had bought a ticket to go to Quito, and when I found out I had a flight to the Galapagos from Guayaquil instead I had to change my ticket. There were a million companies going to Guayaquil, most leaving at 12 to 1pm, but I needed to go with the company who I bought my ticket through, who left at 9pm or 1:30 am. Luckily this really nice Swiss couple, Olivia and Johann, were also on my bus so it was no big deal.
We get to the Peruvian exit border at 11:15. Go through the process, fine. We get to the Ecuadorian border around midnight. I'm getting cranky because I just want to sleep, but we get back on the bus around 12:30 and I finally can rest.
After that I don't know what happened. I first woke up because the steward lady was with Ecuadorian policemen checking our tickets. I wake up, show my ticket, and go back to sleep. I feel the bus move again, but when I wake up again there are more police now asking for our luggage tags. I pull that out, but now I'm getting really annoyed because I'm exhausted. I close my eyes again, and then I feel the bus has stopped and the light are on. Olivia tells me she thinks they want to go through all of our bags. I look at my watch and it's 2:30 in the morning now. What the hell is going on?
We get off the bus, and the policemen are pointing for us to go in different directions. He has some people face different ways, so they're not able to see the rest of us. They make Johann stay on the bus steps and close him in. The Peruvians are all lined up against one wall, and they empty their bags out and an officer goes through them. No one tells us to do anything, or explains what's going on. I'm of course annoyed and am sitting with Olivia making stupid comments and complaining. The policemen walk around with what looks like a bag for a surfboard that's empty and asks whose it belongs to. No one claims it. We then go through the process again of showing our tickets first, then a second officer comes to see our baggage tickets. At this point I'm falling asleep ad getting livid. We've been sitting on the floor of some police parking lot for at least an hour.
They start separating people, and the policemen disappear. They're gone another maybe half hour. No one tells us what's going on. When they come back they're accompanied by a fat Ecuadorian man wearing a ratty t shirt, shorts and sandals. He starts screaming at all of us so fast in Spanish I can't make out what he's saying. The only thing he knows how to say in English is "shut up", which he walks around barking at each of us even though no ones talking.
He makes us take out or cell phones and put them on the floor out of arms distance. I'm convinced at this point we're getting robbed, and am so annoyed that I just withdrew $400 from the ATM in US dollars.
The bus turns on, and they let all the Peruvian people back on, but when we try to move he screams again and the policemen come over. Now I'm getting scared.
He let's a few people back on the bus, including Olivia and Johann. There are 9 of us left. All tourists. 2 Americans, 1 French guy, 2 Isrealis and the last 2 girls and 1 guy I'm  not sure.
They take 2 of the guys away and separate them in these locked caged areas. I see a policeman go in and hear noises, I have no idea what's happening in there. They make us take our bags OFF the bus, an at this point I know we're getting left behind. Someone whispers the surfboard bag had drugs in it and that's what this is all about. And they think it belongs to one of the 9 of us. They tell me to take my backpack off the bus, and while I'm searching I burst into tears because the last thing I want is to be stuck at this border with these weird policemen thinking I'm a drug smuggler. I transferred $1600 for my Galapagos trip that leaves tomorrow, which will be down the drain. One cop felt bad for me and told me to calm down, and he went and talked to the man in charge. The boss man came over and asked me who I was traveling with. I said myself, and he asked if I knew any of the people on the floor. I said no, just the Swiss couple on the bus. Olivia had been trying to tell them I was with them, so this was apparently the right answer and at the last second the guy said "vamos" (we go).  I grabbed my bag, not even caring if my backpack made it back on, and as I made my way to my seat the bus pulled away with the 8 people still there. I have no idea what happened to them and I wish I had one of their emails to make sure everything is okay. I know one of the American guys names and I'm going to contact the embassy today to just let them know in case god forbid he goes missing. I'm calmer now but really shaken up by it. I'm glad to be in the Galapagos for a week but scared afterwards to move forwards into Colombia. I cant even think about that part now because at this moment I'm too tempted to cut the last month out completely. I guess these things happen, but when you're by yourself it's terrifying and I hope nothing like it happens again

Manora/En route to Galapagos!!

I love Mancora. I am so glad I decided to spend a few days here. Not going to write too much about it, it´s just a really chill beach town. Amazing weather, cool people, pool-side bar - what more could I ask for??
The tide was low every day so my surf lesson got cancelled 3 times and I never got to go.  It was okay though, I rented a kayak with some of the girls from my hostel instead. Intense workout! Wished I hadn´t gone for a run this morning because I was physically exhausted from the combination, plus the heat.
I spent half my day figuring out Galapagos stuff. It was way more complicated than I would have liked, but I am 95% sure I got a cruise for Thursday. In short, in case anyone is ever looking to do a cruise while backpacking...

You can leave from either Quito or Guayaquil. Guayaqil is 8 hours from Mancora, Quito is 15.  The flight to the islands is around $50 more expensive from Quito. However, if it takes a few days to get a boat, there´s not much to do in Guayaquil.  The thing that was throwing me off was you have to pay for the boats in cash, and you can only withdraw from the ATM once a day, $200.  To get the $2,000 I will need for the trip, that means 10+ days, not counting the money I´ll be spending on those days on hostels and living. So really 12 days. You can pay by credit card but they tack on 16%, which is around $200.  Not happening.  Luckily, right after I had decided to just hang out around Quito while making my daily trip to the ATMs, one company told me I can pay by Paypal and only have a 3% surcharge, which is nothing. Perfect! Hoping this goes through, as Paypal keeps putting holds on my account because I´m out of the country. I had to call them for the 3rd time on this trip and explain that I´m still here, and to please stop telling me I can´t transfer money from my account into my own account!

But that aside, I just booked an 8 day cruise for $1200, which will bring my Galapagos total with flight and entrance fee to around $1700, much less than the $3,000 people were telling me, and WAY less than going from home ($4,500).  I get to go from Guayaquil, and return to Quito, and continue my trip from there. I am SO excited that it all worked out, and it ended up not being as hard as I thought!




This is the itinerary for the ship I´m going on:

Day 1 - Santa Cruz
Giant tortoises, black turtle cove, mangrove lagoon, iguana colony, pelicans & boobies
Day 2 - Genovesa - Darwin Bay & El Barranco
Sea lions, fur seals, petrels, finches and owls
Hike on volcanic rock
Day 3 - Santiago Island - James Bay, Sulivan Bay & Bartolome Island
Snorkeling with marine iguanas, lava lizards, exotic fish, sharks, rays and turtles
Volcano with colorful rock formations
Pengions, sea lions, pelicans, warblers
Day 4 - Chinese Hat - Dragon Hill
White sand beach with hiking
Day 5 - Isabela Island, Arnaldo Tupiza Breeding Center, Wall of the Tears & Los Humedales
Humedales - lagoons with migrant bird populations
Breeding Center - where giant tortoises are reared
Whale and dolphin watching
Day 6 - Fernandina Island
more snorkeling, penguins, etc
Day 7 - Egas Port, Rabida
Flamingos, pelicans & heron
Day 8 - Back, on to Quito

Yes, I´m obviously very excited about all the animals I´m going to see.  I´ve been dying to go to the Galapagos forever and it´s finally happening!!! After I get back I can figure out how much time I´m spending in the rest of Ecuador, where I¨m going to Colombia, and I´ll figure out after that when my return date will be (and where I´m returning to - cross country trip from the west coast anyone?) For now, I´m spending the rest of the day on the beach, getting ready to see all these amazing animals! Hope they let me bring home a fur seal across the border.

Siempre al Norte - The rest of Peru

June 27th
Since I added a stop in Nasca in last minute, I didn't know what to expect when I got there. My bus ride from Cuzco was nightmarish - I skimped out and bought semi-cama, breaking a rule I've made for myself along the way about taking semi cama on overnight buses. The woman at the agency told me the seats were similar, and I stupidly trusted her. The seats barely moved back and they were blasting the movies in espanol at top volume. The woman next to me pitched a fit that I wouldn`t trade seats with her, even though I was sitting in the right place, and she spent the first 2 hours of the ride complaining and jabbing me with her elbow. I tried to read, but the roads were so windy there was no way to do anything other than stare into the cover of my blanket, which was now over my head trying to drown out the volume of Spanish My Sisters Keeper. I got to Nasca at 7 the next morning feeling awful from the motion sickness from the bus, but once I saw the town was 4 blocks long, I decided to do the flight over the lines anyway and get out ASAP in the morning.
There is a little airport specifically for the flights over the Nasca lines, and I've been told there are lots of accidents on te cheaper airlines so I went with the more expensive one. There were 2 girls from my hostel that came with, who it turned out are skaters with Disney on Ice. They travel around the world 10 months out of the year, and were telling me that Bogota got cut from their SA trip for safety reasons, another reason I won't be going there! We waited an hour and a half for te clouds to lift, otherwise you can't see anything, and got in the tiniest plane I`ve ever seen with the 2 pilots, the Disney girls and another random person. The flight only lasts 35 minutes around the lines, and the pilot wraps around in circles so both sides of the plane can see everything. Somewhere between the monkey and the condor, the movement of the plane and the motion sickness from the night before caught up with me and I felt like I was going to be sick. I had to close my eyes and do yoga breathing for the second half of the flight. So I spent $110 airport tax to see half the lines. Not cool. I kind of wish the clouds had never lifted in the first place! I nursed myself back to health with Ritz crackers and a Sprite, and found comfort in the fact that I was the only one in my dorm, which conveniently had a TV in it as well.

I had an amazing nights sleep in my private room, and when I woke up in the morning felt okay enough to go for my first run in ages. The altitude in Bolivia and Peru has been so high I haven't even tried. I set off down the block, more excited than normal to go running, and remembered that the other thing thats been a major prevention from running has been stray dogs.  1 minute and 43 seconds into my run a giant pitbull spotted me and circled me barking and baring his teeth. I stopped running immediately and walked quickly back to the hostel, with the beast following me barking until I was inside. Majorly disappointing, but I at least had space to do pilates instead. Now I'm off to see Kenzie in Lima for a night before heading up to Huaraz to do some hiking.


June 28th

On to Lima, the wonderful city of nothing but American chain restaurants.


The last time I found myself in Lima, I decided it wasn't worth leaving the airport. I chose to spend 10 or 11 hours sitting in the terminal playing sudoku with Becca rather than go into the city where I've heard not one good thing about. On this trip I planned to bypass Lima again, but I decided to head up and spend a couple more days with Kenzie before heading up to Huaraz.
I got there and my first impression was that everyone was right. All I saw was highway, people that looked like they wanted to rob my cab, and bus stations. We pulled up to Miraflores, and right across from my hotel I found: a McDonalds a block long (complete with McCafe). Burger King. KFC. Starbucks.  Pizza Hut. Dunkin Donuts. Now I'm not a fan of fast food, but after being in places like Nasca that didn't have a mini mart to buy a bottle of water, seeing things that remind me of home are kind of exciting.

 
Our first stop was Dunkin Donuts. I've missed my DD since I've been away. To my surprise, this franchise of DD had an entire Peruvian selection of donuts! They had a chichi morada donut. One called an Incan, with a big smiley face across the front. A dulce de leche filled. It was the best thing I've ever seen (at least since getting to Lima). I don't remember the Puerto Rico DD having a specialty donut selection.  After our coffee break, we stopped for dinner at KFC. Yes, I understand that Lima is know for their ceviche and not their fried chicken. But I wanted a twister! Kenzie took me down the main strip, which was filled with about 40 giant casinos with neon lights flashing Atlantic City. At the end of the strip, there were stairs leading down to an outdoor shopping center over the beach. It was complete with a movie theater, bowling alley, 2 arcades and tons of  stores and restaurants. It was a blast! We spent hours running around, playing Dance Dance Revolution (which had Queen songs DDR style, totally awesome!) and Deal or No Deal en espanol. Our whopping 61 tickets that we won got us Winnie the Pooh hair clips, and tiny plastic babies that we walked around taking pictures of all around the city, until Kenzie laid the last of them to rest by melting them in our candle at dinner the last night.

 
On our second day, we took a cab down to the center, which everyone told us was muy peligroso (Spanish for Danger! Stay away!) Not only was it not at all dangerous, but it was a holiday and the whole city of Lima was in the streets, dressed up in awesome costumes and dancing around the Plaza de Armas. One group of marchers came by all holding beer bottles. Loved them! We found Lima's Chinatown, and had my first wonton soup in a Chifa in 3 months! Then it was back to Miraflores, where we wandered around the shore and parks and found the best chain restaurant of them all - Pinkberry! It's near impossible to find froyo in South America, but to find one I know and love - amazing. Kenzie has never had, and I've been raving about my froyo addiction for months, so of course we had to go. I couldn't make out all of the flavors, but I decided on one that tasted like strawberry Yoplait yogurt. They had different toppings too, like some fruits that were native to Peru. And all for around $3! Best treat ever!
I had a great time exploring Lima with Kenzie, planning our futures, and bringing our fake babies all over Peru. 

June 30th
Huaraz, the accidental destination
Since I had planned on flying straight from Bolivia to Ecuador, once I went off course through Peru I had no idea what I was doing. I detoured to Nasca and then to Lima, and was planning on heading straight up on an 18 hour bus to Mancora when I decided to completely change it all up and go to Huaraz, a town famous for it's proximity to trekking in the Cordillera Blanca.
The day started off interesting enough. The lady where I bought my bus ticket told me the ride was 10 hours, which would have gotten me in to Huaraz at 8:30 am. When the bus stopped at 6:30, I didn't move because I was still 2 hours away. The man sitting next to me was nice enough to point out that all the other tourists were getting off, and I probably wasn't going to whatever local village was coming up next. I scrambled to throw on my sneakers and shove my pink Bratz blanket into my bag and darted off. Once I had my backpack, I opened the door of the bus terminal to leave and was attacked by people trying to get me to take a cab. The hostel was only a 10 minute walk and I needed to wake myself up, so I opted to walk. But no one wanted to tell me where to go. I dont think people know how to walk places because they're ways shoving you in a cab, even if you're going across the street. So after wandering in circles for a while, I found my hostel. The hikes all leave at 6am, which I did not know, so I had to hold off til tomorrow. Which would normally be fine, but this is another one of those towns where there's nothing to do if you're not hiking.  I found a place to rent a mountain bike, but the trail consisted of me taking a taxi 45 minutes up a dirt road and then gripping my brakes for dear life coming back down again. I keep forgetting that mountain biking is not like the biking I do at home. I think since I saw the guy from San Pedro get his head split open, I've been a little bit nervous too - especially on this trail where I was by myself and there was noone around for miles. I need to remember these things the next time I go to rent one. Which I'm sure will happen again next week. I got back and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how I get out of here after I hike. Since I went off the path, I now have to take a bus to a random town, Trujillo, and hang out for the day with my bags til I can catch another overnight bus to a town called Tumbes, and then backtrack an hour to hit Mancora. Oops. I would almost skip Mancora altogether and head straight to Ecuador but I have a feeling finding a Galapagos boat is going to be pretty taxing and I think I'll need the down time at the beach beforehand. Plus I'd love to take a few surfing lessons.

Huaraz has a beautiful landscape, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, but the people in the streets are in a constant game of Frogger with you that you never seem to win, and a homeless lady grabbed me and chased after me at the market when I wouldn't give her money. My first day was pretty unproductive, but on the second day  I took the hike to Laguna 69 tomorrow, which is supposed to be the nicest day hike in the area.  It`s supposed to be a prep trek to get people doing the longer treks acclimated to the altitude before they set off for 4-6 days on the Santa Cruz trek. I took that to mean that it would be a) easy and b) not that high c) not a 3 hour drive from Huaraz. I'm sure you can assume that it was definitely all of these things. I got picked up at 6:15am, and we set off for the mountain.  After a couple of pit stops, we get to the place a little before 10. They tell us it's 3 hours up, 1.5 hours down. Be back at 3. I made friends with the only 2 girls not speaking in Hebrew (this car had the worst group of recent Israeli army grads I've encountered yet) and we set off. I knew off the bat I was in some sort of crazy altitude because I was having trouble breathing on flat ground. Half an hour in, we were stopping for breaks to gasp for breath every few feet. It was well worth it, because this was one of the most beautiful hikes I've done ever. The mountains are looming in the background, behind fields of beautiful flowers and lagoons with crystal blue water. I didn't mind the breaks at first because it was so pretty, but after an hour I realized I was never going to make it to the top at this rate. I latched on to 2 guys that seemed to be going a little bit faster, and we pushed onwards. When we got 2.5 hours in, we were standing at the base of a tremendous mountain, at the top of which was our final point. The kid told me the apex is at 6,112 meters. That is not even a number. I have no idea who declares this an easy acclimation hike, this was like climbing Everest! One of the guys dropped out, so it was me and the other guy left to get up there. I was pretty convinced my lungs were going to explode, but somehow they survived and I made it to the top.  I was ecstatic that I finished it, especially when I realized we were the first ones from both groups (28 people in total) who got to the top. Not only that, but half the people never made it at all! God bless those countless hours at NYSC for making this possible :)

I decided to head out before everyone else, one of my favorite things is just listening to my iPod, not thinking about anything at all, while I'm coming down from an amazing hike. Bands of choice today were The Smiths, Death Cab, Dashboard and Postal Service. Those always seem to be my default iPod choices when I´m hiking. Only bad part of the day was when I just barely made it back in time for my night bus, since the idiots in my car felt like spending an extra hour at the Laguna. I did make it, but it resulted in a dinner of random snacks from the bus station. Which I'm fine with since it was also my cheapest dinner to date - the equivalent of about 66 US cents! And totally acceptable after my 6 hour death hike! I do have to say, I'm really glad that I did the hike today, am not doing another tomorrow, and even more so, and not attempting the 4 day version!


And then, Trujillo.
The timing of the buses left me with a 14 hour stay in Trujillo. The only thing really to do here is go to some ruins nearby. It looked like it was going to rain and since when it rains in NY I have to force myself to get off my couch, I decided to just stay in the town and keep myself occupied. I asked a taxi to take me to a mall, assuming the town had a mall, and sure enough it had a makeshift mall with not too many stores, but a gym, grocery store and movie theater! I went into the gym to see how much a day pass would cost, since I would have to buy clothes to change into I wanted to see if it was worth it. And the guy let me in free! He probably saw how excited I was to have found an elliptical machine to keep me occupied for a few hours. Not only did I get to use the machines and mats, I got to shower too - which I wasn't going to be able to do til Mancora and wasn't happy about. Nothing else worth mentioning about my Trujillo experience, which is pretty sad but I still managed to enjoy myself, mainly due to finding that mall. I also got a heads up for a travel agent for Galapagos that has some cheaper trips, so I'll hopefully figure that out when I'm in Mancora over the next few days.