ECUADOR: Maintaining Rigid Flexibility

After going on a wild goose chase around town looking for the so called hotel....(I'm really not sure if our problems finding it was due to our lack of Spanish skills or....I almost think people sent us to a place just because they wouldn't say they didn't know) There were no signs indicating what it was and I am pretty sure they are just available rooms for traveling workmen...this is not a tourista town. We (with help) finally got our guy to answer his door, and he took us to our room. Which was attached to the big church in the center of town.



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Parked our bikes in a gaited area where the owner usually parks his truck...we just squeezed in front.




We took a few pics from the roof of our "hotel"




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Beautiful buildings...woulda been interesting to know the vintage. There is no maintenance though....I'm pretty sure due to a lack of dinero....




I was very curious what this guy was making. Seemed that only guys would buy the drink....slug it down in one bottoms up half minute and move on. It wasn't like anybody was savoring the drink and it almost seemed like it was a challenge to see who could gulp it down faster. Anybody know what it was?




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Same stuff here: http://blog.pro-ecuador.com/living-in-cotacachi-ecuador-the-sabila-man-an-aloe-vera-artiste/?

Awesome trip, BTW

Yup....that be the stuff.....thanks.

The morning cup of coffee is a ritual observed by many people...we're no exception.




Anticipating that Ecuadorian delight, deep in the Andes....at the very womb of it's creation....EvilClown can barely hold back his delight.















When he gets instant coffee.......from Columbia....Nescafe...... with a picture of Juan Valdezon the label.....

It was a bit of a let down, to say the least.

Coffee is not a big player in the typical Ecuadorians regimen as we quickly found out. Con leche is served as a cup of hot milk (if you can get it, also rare) other wise you get a cup of hot water to mix your instant in.


But bread and cheese is...





A very mild soft cheese...almost like a mozzarella

I was very curious what this guy was making. Seemed that only guys would buy the drink....slug it down in one bottoms up half minute and move on. It wasn't like anybody was savoring the drink and it almost seemed like it was a challenge to see who could gulp it down faster. Anybody know what it was?

This is a drink to make your stomach feel better. Mostly made of Aloe Vera I believe. And spit. Did you drink it?

Drank a little, put a little in our crankcases, in the gas tank, master cylinder....it's a cure all I swear.....


Actually I didn't....was hoping he would offer a smaller glass, rather than the double magnum he had out there. But that didn't happen.

Hmmmmmm.........

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11,627......:eek1 Do you ever fuckin work?????

Too much fun guys... just too much fun! :eek1

Thanks for following along....it's nice to be appreciated...


Do you ever wonder what happens to all that oddball money the US Treasury mints or prints? We see it in the U.S. for a few months and then never see it again....you thought people squirrel it away in their big money jars...wrongo, it ends up in places like Ecuador:

Enter...the Sacagewea dollar....


Ecuador went to the US currency system, back in the 90's I think. And they have their own stuff mixed in to keep it interesting. Don't want to be Cliff...so I'm not gonna look it up to see the details of that....Look it up yourself if you want to know...

Anyways, our pockets get filled up with these coins since bills any larger than $5 are just about useless here, unless you're in the city where you might be able to use a $20 bill...but don't count on it. Everything costs less than $5 in the country anyways. When we were traveling down here, one of the problems we had was where to put our enormous wad of cash made up of ones and fives. (first world problem of the first degree I know) Only brought $600 or so dollars with me but that's a heluva stack of bills when it's ones and fives.
We had full intentions to use the ATM's or credit cards when needed, but first of all don't even bother trying to use a credit card...any time we tried, either they weren't accepted (even though the sticker may have been on the front door) or the system was not working (like at the airport) We decided they don't want them and simply will find any reason to not take them. Not sure about the ATM's though since I never had the occasion to try them. I wouldn't count on it though...especially in the country.

Phew...cliff leaves the room...

One more small story...on our way out of town we stopped on the side of the road to take a scenic picture....couldn't find my camera. As you can imagine I tore my luggage apart and eventually decided I had left it either in the room or at the place we got breakfast. I pretty much figured it was a goner. Motored back to the breakfast place and no sooner than I got off my bike, the teenaged guy that served us breakfast met me at the front door and made the universal "camera" sign. He went in the back for a moment and came out with my camera. I couldn't believe it. I handed him a mini leatherman and he handed me my camera. My faith in humanity reconfirmed. This generous caring type of interaction continued throughout our trip, and to an even greater degree later.


Leaving town

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Looking back at San Jose de Minas










Very common "cobblestone" road








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Enjoying the updates, keep it up! Couple of questions. I spent a couple of weeks in Costa Rica afew months before your CR trip. How would you compare the two? The rock road brought back memories
I understand both are getting alot of "snowbirds" but curious if you are seeing much northern influence. I assume its pretty much equal from a cost/security stand point? Was thinking of trying Columbia next but Ecuador looks pretty good. Thanks and be well

Thanks for the compliments....

EvilClown may have his own take on this but I felt Ecuador was much less touristy than CR. Much less english spoken and very few North Americans traveling there. Now that said, we tend to stay away from the typical tourist areas and saw only a tiny bit of the country. It's about 5 times larger than CR and would take a lot more time to get the same feel for it that we did in CR after 3 trips there. There may be areas in Ecuador that are very touristy, and have lots of North Americans there...we just didn't get there. The only real tourist towns we went to were Otavalo, Mindo, and Banos. Out of those we only saw a couple of people from the states. As far as expense, it's a bit more expensive to get there but cheaper to travel in. Food, lodging, and fuel is way cheap in Ecuador.

So sorry....annoying problem, somehow I got my youtube videos playing the whole playlist. In spite of the fact that I checked the box that said not to. Maybe I did it in the wrong order. So I tried to go back and edit them out and start over but was unable to. If anybody has a solution...let me know.

Thanks for all the great info on Ecuador. Done CR a bunch and yep... mucho touristas! But Ecuador is on my bucket list so muchas gracias senior WW!!

Thanks guys! I had been pondering that age old question for forty long years.
Whew... thanks to you, I can now move on. Bless you my sons!