🇪🇨 Quito to Banos… and Back - 04.22.23

Here’s a vast collection of short stories… and the accompanying pictures. Mostly murble about getting from A to B… then over to C… then B… and all the way back to A (in the dark)… and the people I met along the way.

I have yet to fully recover from the crud I picked up in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia. And with a less than a rock solid immune system, I picked up some food or water born mush the other day that took me out for an entire day. Considering… being in a new land, with new germs, I have faired. I mean, I get a mild to severe case of food poisoning 3 out of 5 times when I eat at Chipotle. #truth

From Papallacta, I pulled into a joint called Tababela… it’s near the airport, about 40 minutes outside of Quito. I was staying in a funky bamboo house with an extended family. My host Santiago was immensely kind and invited me to the fiesta they were having for his sister who graduated university. I couldn’t refuse… but… I’m in my eff’n hiking gear… dirty and smelly… and they’re dancing, and pointing out large amounts of food to eat…. “Drink this! Eat that!… more over here!!!” They had kombucha and I was all kinds of content. I so appreciated the experience of rubbing elbows with a local family… but it was like being thrown into a nightclub first thing when you wake up in the morning. I thanked them all profusely and tapped out and took a siesta in my lovely bamboo room.

The plan was to casually explore from the bamboo compound and I then would be close to the airport when I disembark in a few days. Well… I couldn’t stand it… and I pushed my flight back so I’d have a few extra days to make it to the hot springs town of Baños de Agua, Ecuador. And that’s my thing…

Before I made my way out of Quito I explored the huge park in the center of town at the Japonés Gardens located within. I have my car so I drove to the gardens… but parking is a production. There will be a continuing theme in this Ecuador chapter about the “Parking Vigilantes.” The blue zones are pay parking… this particular place was 80¢ for an hour… I knew I’d be longer than an hour but I was just happy to get a parking place and I’m quite sure they won’t kill a guy in Ecuador for an expired parking pass… right?!?

I actually don’t know the answer to that but I took 2 hours… and when I returned, my windshield wiper was up (indicating ’bad person’). I saw the ’Vigilante’ gal wayyyyyy down the street… I got to my car, put down the windshield wiper and figured I’d be out of there quick like. Fk no, I literally turned around and she standing there with that “look” 🤨 I was so surprised that she appeared from a block away I just pulled a bunch of money out of my pocket and started handing it to her. She was very cool about it… and I would eventually have an understanding with the Parking Vigilantes of Ecuador… and not run from them as is the typical adolescence response… but go looking for them.

Anymoo, the japonés gardens were beautiful. I saw a long tailed hummingbird and was just beside myself. 🥰

I headed out the next day for the 3.5 hour drive to Baños. There were a couple of toll stations along the way. “One dollar!” So… Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as their (Official) currency... and the tolls would be the place that I learned that they actually use the term “one dollar,” for one buck. They have one dollar coins. Easy peasy. Apparently, in the U.S. they stopped minting the one dollar coin because people collected them, and they failed to circulate. And the thought that old people would mistake them for quarters. Americans! We’re so precioso! 😘

I made a statement in the previous story about the driving in Ecuador being easy. That all ceased when I hit the traverse highway through bottleneck towns and eventually through the sizable city of Ambato. Yup… using the contemporary phrase, “it’s a complete shit show!” driving in that town. And I’d eventually have to go through there 4 different times.

I finally arrived in Baños de Agua Santa, it’s a tourist type town littered with hot springs and waterfalls. My apartment had a room with a view of the “Cascada de La Virgen.” And again… just beside myself.

I wandered the town in the evening looking for snacks. There was a dude painting a mural and I chatted him up. Diego was his name and he wanted me to send him a picture that I took of him painting. New friends 🥰 And in the same joint were 3 British teens that are traveling before they go to university, and one lovely Boliviana belly dancer living in Ecuador. Some concoction was passed in front of me that was filled with smoke and some version of booze… and I didn’t refuse, although possibly I should have… I think I forgot the English language following and tried to have a conversation, which was mostly a lot of nodding, with the British lad who was wearing a WinterPark, Colorado sweatshirt. I recall him saying he was in WinterPark a couple of weeks ago… I think. The concoction. 😵‍💫

So… there’s lots of cars in Ecuador but it is still a luxury to have one. Within the conversations with my new friends, I said I drove to Baños, “You have a car!!” To me… it wasn’t boasting but just ‘a matter of fact.’ And this fact would send me through the hornet’s nest of Ambato once again.

The Boliviana belly dancer politely asked for a ride to her dance class in Ambato. It’s an hour away and I’m that type of dude. The issue was that the place was deep in the center of town, and it was rush hour, and I’d be driving home in the dark in the aforementioned ‘shit show.’

So… to Ambato I drive. I get to practice my Spanish for an hour and half with a Bolivian belly dancer… and I didn’t even complain once… out loud anyways. I feel blessed for a connection and some lovely company in far off lands…but I was quite tired and a rough drive back in the dark. I contemplated the word “compassion” the entire way home.

My parking lot was closed when I returned to Baños and had to park in a blue zone in front of my apartment. I stressed all night about where I was parked and got up 5am in the morning to move my car.

Since I was wide awake that early I decided to walk to the waterfall and hit the hot springs at the base. It is a dreamy place indeed, and although I’m not a fan of the 5-7am, it was nice to have much of the place to myself. That is… except for the hot springs. It was packed at 6am and I couldn’t believe it. I grudgingly passed and went back to bed.

I wanted to hit one of the many hot springs in Baños and drove up the hill to the super nice resort Luna Volcán, with an amazing view… the town below and one active volcano in the distance that was covered in clouds. There were no people at the pools when I was there. I asked why and they looked at me like “duh!” The people come later. Suits me.

I was hoping to get back to Quito before dark so my time there was brief. I was going to have a quick lunch but as I was walking to the cafe I was carrying a freshly made latte I got from the bar. I don’t know if the lid wasn’t fully on or I was overly excited about my coffee… but that fkr exploded in my fat face as I was about to walk in the cafe. Latte all over my glasses, face and arms, “Oh swell!” Except I didn’t exactly use the word “swell.” Listen to the signs in life my friends… and so I did… and so I left at that very moment… with coffee drenched glasses. 🤓

I grabbed my gear at my apartment in town, and had to park in a blue zone in front. Yup… the ‘parking vigilante’ appears from the mists, “cuarenta!” I gave him my 40¢ and I begin to feel some comfort… like they keep an eye on your car… protecting it and your soul from evil spirits. They’re a friend… a friend that costs you 40¢ American… and protects you from evil. ☺️

I headed to Quito in the rain and eventually in the dark. Some shuffling of apartments and one full day of being hunched from a medium case of food-poisoning.

I checked into the last apartment I will occupy on the South American continent for this round of adventure. As I pulled up to the place there was blue zone parking. I didn’t see the ‘vigilante.’ I got out of my car and from 2 blocks down, “blllllleeeeeepppp” There’s my guy with a whistle, quickly making his way towards me… I now know the deal. I walk towards him. He says “cuanto tiempo?”
“Una hora.”
“Cuarenta”
I give him my 40¢ and feel like I have a ‘kitchen pass’ for one whole hour. Maybe some Parking Vigilantes could help out in the San Francisco. Boop.

So… there’s a nice size súper Mercado near my place and I’ve topped off supplies for the week. I picked up some funky Ecuadorian fruit called ‘Achotillo’ from an indigenous gal on the way back. I just recovered from an unpleasant belly ache and I’m now toying with fate once again… eating some fruit that I don’t even know what it is… from a street vendor… in a far off land.

And that is my life… and zen.