Berlin Jipijapa

After some hours of applying for Workaway opportunities we got a positive response from a farm in Jipijapa just 10km or so inland from the coast.

We said goodbye to our wonderful couch surfing host and walked a few blocks to the metro station. This turned out to be a raised and gated piece of pavement with a booth from which you bought your passage. These turned out to just be bendy buses. We were to be riding it to the final stop. After one arrived and appeared impossible for us to board due to a combination of the capacity and our huge backpacks, we decided to wait for the next one. However, as more and more people arrived we realised we would have to just cram ourselves in. At this point the bus was at about 165% capacity and at each stop (about 12 of them) school children and others squeezed them selves in, pushing us further and further into the apparent absence of space. Bare in mind, it was about 28 degrees on that bus and as humid as the rainforest. Standing and clutching my valuables as best I could we finally made it. We were free of that metropolitan hell. We then jumped aboard a second bus which was well within its legal limit of passengers and we were taken up the highway. We arrived and the bus stopped in the fast lane with the doors on the right hand side we jumped off only to realise we were in the middle of a busy highway. Luckily drivers in Ecuador are a lot less homicidal than Peru and they took pity on us. We hopped onto a coach headed for Nobol where we could start hitching a ride to Jipijapa. We were picked up by a clown, yes you read correctly, a clown, not so comically wearing his regular person clothing, on his way to a kid's birthday party and dropped off a km or so up the road at the exit for Jipijapa where we stuck our thumbs out for a few minutes. A grey pickup pulled over with 4 fishermen from manta and collected us this made for a funny journey to Jipijapa. It was here, exhausted, that we decided to spend $3.50 on a taxi  for the final 8 km to the farm.

Upon arrival the house appeared empty and we stood there for a few minutes before a smiley Ecuadorian guy came out to greet us. It was at this point that the confusion began. He showed us up to the third floor of the farm house and began calling the lady. I believed that I had been talking to a women and that this guy was her husband. But he told us that it was a 'he' and that he was German hence the name of the farm "Berlin" either way we sat around talking with him about all the fruits and vegetables that grow in Ecuador and the various times they take to grow etc. They then made us a portion of bolones and we played a few games of pool. The owners finally arrived and the confusion was put to rest. The owner is indeed a guy however he is Ecuadorian and his girlfriend (the one with which I was talking) was from Iceland. They showed us to our room and immediately started preparing dinner. The dinner consisted of a few different kinds of Spanish meat brought from Spain by their friend Daniel who was also staying there, some Spanish cheese and a soup with some fish caught from just down the road at the coast. We were also treated to some Spanish herb licour which was very sweat. We talked and laughed and then Aldo (the owner) told us about a recent event. While they were doing some construction work they found some very old looking pieces of ceramic which he took to Quito to get analysed and they turned out to be from around 800 A.D, before the Spanish arrived and likely part of a burial ground. He was very excited and the following day we would be digging for inka gold before the cement would arrive and bury it for good. We then hit the hay 😉 ready for an early start.

The first day we awoke and were greeted by a huge spider luckily in between the two windows, but just as startling nonetheless. Downstairs there awaited a huge breakfast with meat, huge bolones with melted cheese, breads,  orange juice, coffee and more! And then we began our quest for Inka gold. This was hard physical work, something I'm not used to. And in a humid environment so it was a challenge of the soul. We found some more pieces of ceramic, each time making us think we were getting close. Finally after ending up empty handed we decided to call it a day and continued eating like kings before taking a huge siesta till about dinner time.

I could continue to tell you how good the food is here and how huge the portions are, but I don't want to make anyone feel bad. So just imagine every sentence starting with a description of food and you can save me the trouble. Day two was out back in the fields which as you can see from the first picture were full of dead maiz plants which needed to be cut down. This was left to the professionals with their fancy motorised tools. We were the clean up crew, and there was a lot to clean up. Nestled in amongst them were cacao plants which I've been told take three years to produce anything. There were also various cool plants and things I uncovered during my endeavours.

There is also a resident puppy who is just impossible to leave alone, she's like a little teddy bear and behaves like one too. Cholita they named her.

The work in the fields continued with raking followed by opening the ground (I'm sure there's a farming verb) ready for planting.

We took a trip to the local town of Jipijapa to see what was what, if you'll excuse my semantically null sentence. There wasn't a whole lot on offer. Of course they have a church butt also a sombrero shaped tourist information building in the centre of the plaza which was probably the coolest part. Other than these two structure there wasn't a whole lot happening.

Over the course of the following days birna had her 31st birthday. We celebrated with a grill and some music, not forgetting the cake. I also learned how to make bolones and had a little experiment with them. I call them bolones Italianos. These had cheese, tomato and oregano, delicious. There was also a freshly cut and extremely heavy bunch of green bananas (used for bolones and other cookery) with a huge 600-odd year old tree in the background.

This is my first time fully emerged in nature and its really peaceful. No sounds of car horns or engines. By day the sound of birds chirping and every 20 minutes or so a woodpecker working away and a plethora of critters both big and small scurrying around. By night, just the crickets.

Guayaquil

I am just realising how much more blogging is need with this new form of travelling so, strap your selves in for a roller coaster of a read.

We set off early from the crack den in cuenca for a final visit to our favourite breakfast lady to consume the ultimate empanada and hot chocolate combination. Afterwards, a quick goodbye and a heeding of the warnings about the perils of Ecuador. She would make a good lonely planet fear monger.

We hopped on a bus out of the centre and headed towards the highway. After a short walk and only about 10 minutes with our thumbs out we were picked up by a red Chevrolet pickup truck and began our exciting, ear popping climb through the misty and increasingly tropical Parque nacional Cajas. Not before stopping for a photo from the side of a petrol station we were dropped at a corner on the outskirts of Guayaquil around 17 miles away we walked with our thumbs out for just two minutes and a HUGE red lorry (cameon) with what I could only guess was several tons of dirt in the back guestured us to climb aboard, we did so with glee and after ascending I finally realised why the front of those things are so big but only have two seats..... It has a bed. Talking with the guy was nearly impossible because it was a fairly old vehicle and with a massive engine so as you can imagine it was pretty loud. He dropped us on the side of the highway just outside the city where we caught a quick bus to the centre to find our couch surfing host, Cesar.

We were greeted very warmly and shown in to a super cool, mini apartment with a spiral stair case (he's an architect) and a big opening from the first floor down into the office. We went for some quick night time exploration and then we returned to catch a few winks to in turn catch a few proverbial worms the following day.

We arose with the birds and set off to explore Guayaquil, starting with a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast named Bolon in a nice little local restaurant shown to us by cesar. These are a ball of fried and mashed plantain entangled with melted cheese and a side order of egg. I have a feeling I'll be eating a lot more of these 😁. This gave us the fructose, glucose and sucrose we would need for a full day of walking. After leaving the little family restaurant we parted ways with our host and head towards the centre to the tourist hotspot known as the Parque de las iguanas. On the way there we happened upon a Malecon (it's a board walk type thing but on the side of the river) which we decided to walk along. There were some interesting structures which were held up on stilts this just shows that Ecuadorian real estate won't let some stupid water stand in the way of expansion. A couple of photos was sufficient and we continued on our quest for iguanas.

Upon arrival there was this strange sense that those iguanas didn't find there way to this urban park by them selves. At first you look around and see 4 or 5 surrounded by children pulling there tails, feeding them cheese-its and other unsavoury snacks, pun intended. Your eyes are then drawn upwards as you realise that the iguanas and the pigeons have formed an alliance in the trees, plotting on how to seek revenge on the dribbling, screaming children below.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NsMPyuceQU&feature=youtube_gdata_player & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwp7ENoFHBU&feature=youtube_gdata_player Although it was cool to be up close to what I can only see as dinosaurs that some how survived whatever it was that destroyed the last bunch, be it the wrath of god or more likely death by entropy. Generally I felt uncomfortable with the idea and by the end we just left towards the next stop on the tour.

For the next stage we continued along the Malecon until we reached a set of stairs which were numbered, 001, 002 ,003 they said. Three steps is easy we thought. So we decided the follow the white rabbit (Matrix Reference) these steps lead us through a really cool, colourful and ever ascending neighbourhood. At the final step (444) I must say a little short of breath we found ourselves at the foot of the lighthouse. We proceeded up one more spiral staircase and were met with an amazing panoramic view of the whole of Guayaquil. Breath taking (accidental pun). There are some photos for you to enjoy and one interactive one which can be found here https://plus.google.com/114943289142791995372

Cuenca

Our time in cuenca was generally spent eating. As this was the first time we had real cakes, ice creams and my first taste of real cheese cake since leaving the British isles.

After leaving the Den at the "crack" of dawn, figuratively speaking. And headed out for a full day of walking and soaking up the sights.

We arrived at a giant model planet which turned out to be a planetarium. The walk continued and we found ourselves in a huge and I have to say beautiful park aptly named "El Paraiso" The Paradise. Onwards and upwards we walked up the river at night which was illuminated with coloured lights. On the way back I saw some cool street art and snapped a few photos bedore heading back to the crack den to rest our weary heads.

The Adventure Begins

After a month in a paradise-like campsite in Máncora, northern Peru, living a simple life with little activity and even less money. I joined forces with two Argentinians to begin a journey of hitchhiking, couch surfing and generally living cheap or at least more economic.

We were sent off with a full breakfast from Camping de Tito and after saying a goodbye or two we set off to stick our thumbs out and hope for some friendly Peruvians to pull over and take us to Tumbes (a town close to the Ecuador's border). We were at it for roughly 3 hours before a nice guy who turned out to be running for mayor of Tumbes 2015 stopped and said he could take us about 70% of the way so we jumped in, very excited for the beginning of the journey. He spent almost the entire time on the phone to different people and then decided to take us directly to Tumbes. We arrived and were immediately advanced upon by a taxi driver/bandit who was trying persistently to separate us telling me to be careful with Argentinians because they love marijuana and they are trouble. Eventually we were convinced to take a quick mototaxi which is just a motorbike with an extra wheel and some seats crudely welded onto the back. We held on for deer life as our bags were hanging precariously from the back. We arrived in one piece (luckily) at a street to board a mini bus for 25c headed for aguas verdes which is at the border. We crossed, immigrations was no problem and nothing short of a swift and efficient experience. I paid my 20 days overstay and we stuck our thumbs out once again. Destination Cuenca!

After about 3 minutes a guy picked us up and explained that he was going to a city 2 hours or so south of Cuenca called Machala. We stopped here for the night where we stayed in a hotel which was $8 a night for a full private room, TV, WiFi, balcony, showers, towels and with the added luxury of toilet paper! This was a super modern city, very clean, lots of store names in English and most exciting of all walls ice cream!

We awoke the following day and headed to the market where there were endless streets of fruits, meat, vegetables and most adorable of all puppies. I resisted the urge to purchase a puppy and decided that some bananas and strawberries would be a more sensible choice. Bananas are one of Ecuador's main local produces and as a result are ridiculously cheap (10 bananas for 50c). We then headed back to the main road to once again "hacer dedo" which translated directly is to "do finger", this alone is hilarious. We caught a quick bus to the "Y" of Machala, we then jumped in the back of a pick up truck on the highway to the next "Y" where we could start haciendo dedo to Cuenca. We were picked up by a cool guy who told us all he could about Ecuadorian culture until he dropped us in a tiny village called Pasaje where we were told it would be easy to hacer dedo to cuenca however the cars that were nice enough to stop told us otherwise, we started to walk. We then caught another 25c bus to a much busier road. It was here that we were picked up by a food refrigeration truck, but luckily it was not an active one, instead we were closed into a pitch black metal room. Feelings of fear and claustrophobia maybe have briefly crossed my mind but luckily for modern technology my phone became a lantern/music box. We then sat bouncing around and disorientated for around 3 and a half hours until the guy opened the door, once again giving us the gift of natural light and said "llegamos a Cuenca" we've arrived! A quick bus to the centre and we found a little hostel called cafecito. We spent one night there and then set off to find somewhere cheaper to stay and to look for work. We asked in a few places before and overly, and I must say, suspiciously friendly guy said to us "I know a place half the price of everywhere else" we proceeded to go with him and arrived shortly after at what I can only describe as a crack den, however, it only appeared this way, there was no presence of crack, just a nice old lady who took half an hour to read, write and remember our names.