Ecuador, the equator, real middle earth! We didn’t see much
of you, did we?
Having booked our Christmas accommodation, and then rushing
the last part of Peru to make it in time, we were ready to settle into our
beach house and do absolutely nothing, and that’s exactly what we did!
Ecuador doesn’t look/feel that much different from any other
South American country, if you hadn’t spent hours crossing the border you wouldn’t
know you were in a new land. The food (apart from the ceviche which is
stunning!) is the same beige and bland fried stuff and no nice bowler hatted
ladies, or gents in poncho’s or sombreros (am I asking too much?)
There isn’t much poverty either. Even in the capital of
Quito, we didn’t see many homeless or beggars, although they may clean them out
of the city to make it more appealing for the tourists (like we did with the
Olympics in London). Plus, the access to free healthcare and benefits (we are
told) are pretty good here too.
So, it’s surprising that the crime rate is so bloody high! I
had read it was a little bit dodgy so made a point of not reading the Foreign
and commonwealth website so I wouldn’t be scared and instead have an open mind
as we had our hearts set on Ecuador. Despite this, everyone we ran into told us
not to travel at night unless we had to, be super careful after dark in Quito
(the significant presence of police did nothing to comfort us) and the majority
of stories of muggings and kidnappings we were told by fellow travellers were
in Ecuador! Particulary Quito, having panic buttons and cameras in taxi’s are a
little unnerving, not to mention being buzzed through two security screen doors
just to get into a bloody tourist office and book a trip! I think it might have spoilt it a little for
us?
However, we loved our little beach house in Ayampe and being
able to chill out and do nothing for a while. But, we probably stayed too long
as we didn’t feel like tackling Quito at New Year. Plus, it seems (to us) that
the more you do nothing, the lazier/more tired you get? We never got to rent that surfboard and It was
an effort to finally leave but once we did, we wished we had done it sooner as
Ecuador really is stunning.
We loved the Amazon and wish we could have stayed longer, I’ll
never forget Glenn’s encounter with the Shamen J
, going to sleep to the sound of the frog chorus, waking up to the jungle
noises and birds, canoeing through the flooded forest and spotting pink
dolphin, how can it be beaten? Even the rain didn’t put us off.
Despite the stories and the warnings (or because of them),
we made it through totally unscathed. The buses are clean, the people are friendly
and the country is beautiful! and all of the top to do’s are in pretty close
proximity. We just didn’t get to do them all…this time!
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