Friday, September 11, 2009

Y yo me fui a la costa

So Tuesday I stepped out of one ecuadorian world and into another. Leaving the mountains, the sunny but cool weather, ‘civilisation’ and more well-to-do people of the sierra behind for the ocean, cloudy but warmer weather, ‘rustic-ness’ and the simpler people of the coast. The bus ride was not nearly as bad as remember from last year… though I think it’s more that I have changed rather than here. The bus drivers are actually really good. I mean they are crazy but they have to be both good and crazy to drive on these roads! There was tons of construction as always but luckily it didn’t delay us too much, and I can actually see that it is improving something! The road from Puerto Cayo to Machililla and the one from P.L. at least to Puerto Rico have both been re-paved! No more swerving from one side to the other of the road to avoid potholes, amazing!
I guess I also had a much more realistic idea of how far P.L. is, last time they told me 5-6 hours and at least 12 hours later…. And that was good timing I later found out!
The scenery was as fabulous if not even more stunning than I remembered… it’s still summer in the mountains and everything was just so lush. Huge mountains coated with green: grass to plants to bushes to trees and then more plants on the trees and a healthy blanket of vines draped over everything! I still can’t get over how much life there is here, I mean there are these plants that grow on telephone wires, what intense desire for life a plant must have to make an abode for itself on a wire?!?
The nice lady beside me let me have her window seat so I could sleep a bit since we left disgustingly early, there were no more tickets for the bus to P.L. so I got a ticket to Portoviejo in the hopes that I could then take another bus to P.L. or at worst stay at my friend’s place in Portoviejo. But I left real early in the hopes of option A. I thought the last bus left Jipijapa at about 5pm meaning I would have to leave Portoviejo at 3:30 but on the way the hostel owner here called me and said no the last bus leaves at 7pm. So when we arrived at 4pm in Portoviejo I decided to trust him and try to continue on. But then I’d forgotten that Reina del Camino (the ‘best’ bus company aka safest and most comfortable..) thinks they are above everyone else and can’t use the main bus terminal but their own little one the other side of town, so I had to take a taxi that over-charged me to the main one and then local bus to Jipijapa (that almost took off accidentally with my other suitcase, ugh) and then finally the wonderful familiar turquoise Manglaralto bus hasta Puerto Lopez.
I was pretty proud of myself though, it all went smoothly, I had a short conversation with the old Colombian lady sitting beside me, ate at the lunch stop and bought myself an empanada de queso for dinner from a vendor on the bus in Jipijapa. I got into P.L. even before the direct bus did and spent the evening trying to stay in a debate with the owner and a German girl who was staying here.
I am now in Puerto Lopez where I have WiFi,(Crazy!) Otherwise, nothing has changed… I have a place to stay but still not sure exactly what I’ll be doing, there are loads of opportunities but everything just takes it’s time here. Estoy extrañando a todos que estaban aquí el año pasado!!

No comments:

Post a Comment