The End Has Come

So this is it. I am waiting now in the hostel for another hour and a half or so before I take my bus to the airport. My flight leaves at 11:30 pm so it will be yet another well rested night´s sleep. One more quick update on what has happened the past few days since were in Canoa. First of all here are some photos of Canoa, Ecuador and the tranquil tropical beach atmosphere it has to offer.















Our last evening in Canoa wound down as we waited for our night bus... Im not sure on why we thought this was a good idea, but it sure seemed like a good one at the time. So we went on to take our midnight bus trip back to Quito on a brand new company that ran straight through the little town of Canoa. Somewhat of a mistake I would say. We didn´t sleep at all and I came out of that experience with quite a sore neck actually lol. The worst part is yet to come. With limitted time left we decided that the morning back we would take the teleferico (gondola) to the top of a mountain where you can hike even higher to see some volcanoes. So here´s the trip : We went from sea level on the coast to 4400m in only 8 hours and without any sleep. Then we were hiking with little oxygen...... Awesome!!!! I felt like I was going to die.




























Does it look like I´m in pain? I totally am. We didn´t do the whole hike by the way. But we fell like it was justified. So that about wraps it up for our trip. We came back after the hike and just napped the day away. Then slept good again that night. The final day was some shopping and packing. And that brings us to now. See you soon Canada. Good trip! Ciao

Canoa, Ecuador

We are in Canoa now, about 8 hours away and on the coast. Super tranquil little town that has a laid-back feeling to it. Lots of dogs walking around, people sitting outside there cafes, and a lot less densely populated, obviously. There are no supermarkets, just the little tiendas where people do their private sales. No banks or major facilities, just one gas station on the way in. We arrived at our hostel late last night and it was closed up so we needed to find another one. Its really nice and on the beach. Two levels, so I go up a little bamboo ladder to get to my bed. Its so quaint and... tropical paradise like. Full of sand all over the bar area and hammocks strung up everywhere you look. I really love it here too. Just a matter of keeping busy I think.

We had french toast for breakfast this morning at a small mainstreet cafe. I really didnt know what to expect because I hadnt seen French Toast on the menus yet in Ecuador. Lets put it this way: With enough syrup and sugar, they werent so bad. They had the consistency of three wonderbread slices soaked in some sorta raw egg mixture, didnt seem cooked much. Tasty though.

Now we are thinking of heading to the beach and seeing what the water is like. We need to find some surfboards as well. I will post some pictures next time hopefully.

Ciao

Quito, Ecuador

Where do I start.. I love this city and Im sure that I am going to love the rest of the country. We left Cali and did a night bus to Quito a couple of nights ago. We arrived at the border of Colombia and Ecuador at around 6am and it was so cold after experiencing the tropical climates of Cali. The border was a sinch and there were no hold ups. They never even checked our bags. Just stamped out of Colombia and stamped into Ecuador. We could of had bags packed with drugs. They would have never known, but we wouldn´t do that, would we now.

After catching our 80 cents taxi ride to the bus station on the Ecuador side, we arrived at a really sketchy bus terminal with no offices or sales booths. Just a couple buses, no people except for one guy who comes and tells you to come with his bus. I said ¨to Quito¨? He says ¨Claro!¨So we went. It was like another 4 hours almost but only paid 4 dollars. We were starting to understand the budget travel opportunities people had told us about in Ecuador. We also got coffee and a breakfast cheese empanana for like 60 cents.

Quick side note, check out the roasted ant sandwiches we had on one of our buses. Que Rico!


The set menu for lunches here in Quito is around 1.50 USD and this is what it includes: juice, soup, rice, fries, vegetables, and some meat. Then you also get a small dessert at some places. Not bad if you ask me. It was better than the ant sandwiches. Yummy...

Tomorrow we plan on heading to the coast and checking out the surf. I just don´t know how to express how much I love this city. So affordable, yet still super interesting and so much to do. I will need to come back and see more cities, amazon areas, and some volcanoes. I´ll try and post again before I leave for Cananda.
Ciao Ciao!

Off to Cali

It was another decent sleep and we have already checked out. We are just waiting for our free breakfast of pineapple and croissants before we head to the bus depot and hope for the best. This is sort of what they recommended here so its what we are going to do. If you show up there you will most likely not have a problem finding a ticket. Cali is about 10-12 hours from Bogota and we hope to arrive before too late tonight. Lots of people have told us its nothing special, but some have said that they liked it so we are going to go and see for ourselves. I mean how bad could the third largest city in Colombia really be. From there we will spend a couple nights and then see what the options are for Ecuador. I think breakfast is almost ready so we best be going. Will post again next time I get to, but it might be in a couple days.

Weather says lightning and thunder every day this week in Cali and highs of 31. Will be nice because here its highs of 22 and lows of 10 in the evening. Chilly city Bogota. Until later, CIao

Day 2 Bogota!

What a sleepy day yesterday was. I was literally a zombie all day and wasn`t exactly sure of what was going on. I did end up making myself climb up el Cerro de Monseratte. Well by climb up I mean take the gondola thingy, the "teleferico". Check it out. Great views of the city, when its not cloudy that is.

I then asked one of the many armed guards to get my picture taken with him. I don`t think he knew what to think... Huh

Actually all of this was still my first day, so this is now our events of day 2 in Bogota.

We got some decent sleep but now as Im typing this I still realize its hauling over from the night before. We did a sweet breakfast that we were a little unsure about what we were getting but it was pretty good, lasted us for a couple hours. It came with a hunk of cheese, two different sweet bread things, one called an 'arepa' and the other was something I didn't understand when they told it to me. There was also a really sweet hot chocolate acompanying it. Here's a photo of our spendidito desayuno.

Ryan looks angry about something doesnt he...

After our breakfast we decided to switch hostels.... Yea, the other one had free breakfast and some other sweet amenities that the first one was lacking. Now that we had changed we had the day to explore a bit more so we did the museos. First we did an Andy Warhol exhibit and then went to Donacion Botero where a lot of Botero photos are on display. These are the famous 'fat pictures' you may have seen. I specifically like the Mona Lisa one. Here's one for the albums.

3:58 BOG

I have arrived in Bogota. With the splendid time change and all we actually landed at around 3:58 am. A little early if you ask me. I really only slept a couple hours last night, and they were plane zzzs, not the best kind. After arriving I managed to snag a coffee outside the airport and watch the sunrise (except it was spitting rain and there were clouds everywhere). Inside the airport there was the normal coffee shops and a McCafe but I opted for the streetside one. The little dude showed up out of nowhere and began pouring little coffees for 600 pesos. 2000 pesos is roughly a dollar. It was more authentic and I snapped some good photos.
Here´s the boy setting up shot right now.
And here´s me drinking it back. It wasn´t very strong, but it was hot and sweet. And boy was it cold when I arrived. I could actually see my breathe. Finally after waiting for the crazy collectivos for a long time, I was pursuaded onto the wrong one and off I went. We drove for about 15 minutes and the guy told me this is where I wanted to get off. Of course I was skeptical, but there´s really not a whole lot you can do with the slight language barrier that still persists with certain people. I then did my walk about and used my geography to find my hostel. It was probably only a half hour walk or so and I managed to navegate my way to my first internet stop at my Hostel - "Destino Nomada". So far so good. I think now that I´ve left a post I am off to check out the bed. Ryan should be showing up tonight and then I will no longer be the lone backpacker. Wish me some sweet zz´s , Ciao.

Week Before Colombia

To tell the truth, this trip has really snuck up on me. I am super excited to finally be heading back to South America and its almost here. On Saturday August 15th my father will be driving me to Buffalo and from there I will depart on my little adventure before returning to the deadlines of assignments and student packed lecture halls. I think I should make the most of this for it will be over before I can say..... barrancabermeja..... Thats a place in Colombia by the way, that I unfortunately will not be able to visit.

Anyways, back to the Blog.

So Ryan Andres has been down under the Americas for a while now. He originally went down for the World Mennonite Conference in the first half of July. Then once it was over he travelled around a bit on his own in Argentina and Chile. On the evening of my arrival he will join me in Bogota. From there we plan to spend a few days and then check out one more Colombian city. We really only have a couple of weeks before flying back from Quito, Ecuador so we need to make our time count and not spend too much time in one place. After our segundo destino in Colombia we intend to head on to Ecuador and seek the beach and surf. Atleast thats what I am craving.

En concreto, we don't have a whole lot of plans ahead of us and we will do some itinerary developing along our way. Let our itchy feet guide us on our way, and let God watch over us wherever our itchy feet lead us.

Next post from Sud America Baby. Ciao