Compare/Contrast essay on Ecuador

Take 1: Intro
I have developed a habit to write these essays in my head while riding a bus or trying to sleep… I even write them while things have not happened yet. Well, I guess these are the consequences of traveling solo, but don’t get me wrong, I would not change my “nomadic” status for the world. Now, the famous college Compare/Contrast essay, I’ll try to reveal some of the truth about (my experience in) Ecuador by comparing it to.., you guessed it: Colombia. I have been “accused” of unreasonably loving Colombia a bit too much, especially after having a blast in Ecuador and particularly Galapagos Islands. I love Ecuador! Yah, its true, like a true middle-eastern decent man I am allowed to love more than one woman, or a country for that matter. However, there is always a favorite wife, or a country. How does one compare wild and “dangerous” Columbia with a pleasant and lovely Ecuador?

Take 2: In the mix
Ecuador. Only positive, truly, nothing and I mean it nothing bad or simply unpleasant happened there. Unlike Colombia, where I had to straggle with the captain, with migration officials, the cold (raining season) and an altitude sickness, in contrary in Ecuador, there was only pleasure. Nice people, great weather, good food, everything is easy in Ecuador. It is quite small, so it is very easy to travel around and see practically all of it within 3 weeks. It also, has it all: the beaches, the mountains (that was actually the only hard thing I have done in Ecuador, when I have climbed Cotopaxi, may it go to hell) and the Amazonian jungle. Because of this, there are a lot of tourists, nice ones though.
I met a cool bunch of Israelis in Quito and we spent some high-quality time together. These children of a constant war zone, bargaining and parting heavily their way throw Latin America… I love them and I hate them at the same time. Then, I did not mind the tourist so much because I was mostly hanging out with locals (I’ll get back to this later)
We split with Israelis, they went to Montanita, a famous beach hang out for gringos and I went to Galapagos. What about Colombia, where is the compare/contrast? Well, here is one: there are no tourists in Colombia, only the some brave backpackers and couple of missionaries who keep on getting eaten by the cannibalistic tribes of Colombian Amazon. I was not really afraid of the guerrillas in Colombia but I did get a little paranoid when the passengers of the long distance buses were filmed on a video camera juts before departure. Nothing like that in Ecuador, I was at ease there, so relaxed, that I stopped watching my backpack and carried large ($100-200) sums of money after dark.. And all that taking into account that Mariscal (gringos’ neighborhood in Quito) is considered dangerous. Aren’t they all? Anyways, no contrast here, I know people who were robbed in Bogota and Quito, so watch out.

Take 3: Vilcabamba: gaining happiness.
First I read about this place in my book: the “Longevity Valley” where people live well over 100 years. Then in stupid glossy magazine, you know, the ones thy put in every seat on the plain. That kind of put me off but it was on my way to Peru so I went. I’m glad I did. It was a pleasant little town where I did not do anything… nothing. It was easy; time did not seem to exist there. I would sleep though free lessons of Spanish in the morning wake up by midday swim in the river talk to some people here and there, take a walk, run downhill to swim in the river again. In the evenings my new friend Michael (a bartender from Quito, who also spoke Hebrew, an important skill in Latin America) and I would drink a lot of booze – that’s how my evening Spanish classes started. By the end of these “lessons” he and I would speak a crazy mix of Spanish, English, Hebrew and Russian the only language he did think he knew. Then sleep.., like a baby, a newborn. A newborn, well I was. Suddenly it hit me, it was on the tip of my tong but I could not say it.., it was a feeling, a feeling of happiness. I am not really accustomed to this strange notion, but I was sure it was it. I played with this thought; I tried different languages, starting with Russian “schast’e”, an odd word, sounds rough to my ear, definitely didn’t describe what I was feeling, happiness, that was a little better, a softer one but yet abused by the hippies and pop culture. The Hebrew substitute I have never learned, or effortlessly have forgotten, not like I have ever used it. Then it occurred to me: Alegría. That was it. How simple and descriptive.

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I have lost it now. Alegría. I had it for several weeks and lost it.., somwhere in Peru.
I have failed to present a valid essay. I started it a while a ago and now can’t really get back to. Somehow it doesn’t seem important anymore. I wanted to write Take 4: Falling in love. It was an interesting story how I felt in love with a local girl who was a missionary. She lived in a monastery, studied to be a lawyer and on her spare time was converting Amazonian Indians into Catholicism. But I won’t write about that. Instead, I’ll write about the jungle…

“I want this booby”

Galapagos, never thought I’d make it here, was not supposed to, but I did. Several things influenced this (very expensive) decision. Mostly the people who visited with their silly smiles and crazy stories, the idea that someday I’ll return (very rich and old) did not look appealing because once I heave made this mistake with the Twin Towers – I never been up on the roof for the reason that I thought I could always do it later, well I cant now… It is ironic but when I arrived UNESCO declared National Park of Galapagos as a “National Park in danger”, so, perhaps a lot will change pretty soon. And the last but not least reason was a strange creature called blue footed booby, a booby with blue feet, can you imagine? I read about them in Kurt’s Vonnegut book. To fly all this way, just to see a freaking bird (it’s a bird, all right), with blue feet? Hell yeah, why not! So I did.

I will not bore you with the details of my tour arrangements, they were pretty complicated. The reason for that was that everything was booked several months in advanced and it was virtually imposable to get anything at last minute (last minute for Galapagos is at least a week or 2 in advanced), but the luck was on my side, considering it was the high season. So, with my improved Spanish skills, Jewish bargaining ability (hanging out with a bunch of Israelis in Quito contributed to that as well), and an unprecedented luck, I got: a 5 day boat cruse tour around the islands, 4 dives at one of the best places, a day tour to an isolated island called Bartolome. I am pretty sure I paid less then anybody would for an 8 day voyage like this, however, I wont name a price, I’ll just say, I could have traveled in Colombia for a month or in Bolivia for 2, on that budget. But it is all irrelevant now, as cheesy as it sounds it is true: it was absolutely worth it, even beyond that, the experience was overvaluing (I believe I have said something like this in the beginning of my travels but that was different). Anywhoo, enough of the vague prelude - vamos!

My first impression was strange. We were parting in Quito the night before (there was a 12 litter pot of rum and coke, every other day in my hostel (free)) then went Salsa dancing than dinking again. So, when I have arrived the landscape puzzled me. I read about Galapagos but still did not know what to expect… I looked like another planet, perhaps Mars. I could not make out what was going on, it was a strange looking desert with weirdly shaped cactuses and red lava rocks. Where the hell were all the animals I read so much about?! I guess, I have expected packs of boobies and iguanas attacking me on the airfield. It still looked pretty cool but I was disappointed, nothing was moving there was no life, just a bus filled with tourists with funny hats and khaki shorts, cutting through the forest.., forest? How in hell there was forest on a volcanic island? Well, it looked like I had a lot to learn about this “new world”. So I did, I went to Tortuga Bay, I wanted to see some animals for god’s sakes. After an hour of walking through a reserve, then another 20 minutes on the beach, there she was, she caught me completely off guard. Huge black, unbelievably real, marine iguana, was walking towards me, I’ve jumped. It looked like a fearless little black dragon, fearless because she absolutely ignored my presence; I was sort of an annoying moving tree or a rock blocking her way… Thus it went on, marine iguanas and giant turtles, sea lions and sea turtles, pelicans, huge frigates, finches and boobies, penguins and dolphins, white tipped sharks, huge eagle rays and hammerheads. Everyday, I would see so many animals, I have never seen in my entire life. On a third day I ignored iguanas, on a forth stopped paying attention to the numerous sea lions which were following me in the water while I was snorkeling and scuba diving. Sea turtles were not as exciting after I’ve seen more then 10 of them. I’m lying! I was like a child chasing the shark in the shallow waters, running after iguanas to take a best shot, waiting for a giant turtle to stick her head out of the shell, I was sitting for 25 minutes on a tree, next to the Galapagos hawk making pictures every second. I could not believe what I saw underwater: sea lions imitating my moves and playfully biting my toes, hammerheads and most of all eagle rays. They looked like a bunch of aliens flying through a thick ocean. I was totally taken by this strange and fascinating new world. The craziest experience was when on my last day, I saw a marine iguana having seaweed for lunch underwater in Bartolome.

It is virtually impossible to cover Galapagos within 8 days but I think I got a good portion of it (maybe ¼ of all the islands). Now I see animals in my dreams and expect dolphins to jump out of the toilet. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in our urban worlds where the only experience a person can get is a zoo (will never go to a zoo ever again!). I urge everybody to visit this dreamland, I have never considered myself a big animal lover (after all I ate that iguana in Belize) but this is something I can’t compare to anything I have seen (or done) in my life, and I thought, that I have seen quite a bit, well I guess, there is much, much more to see…

BTW, I was a little afraid of another experience with a boat, but like I said, I was very lucky that week. The captain of “Queen Mabel” was great, his crew was faultless, and the chef.., 3 meals day (including ceviche) with various deserts.., yam, I did not want to leave that boat.

Well this is it. I thought that I would want to go back as soon as get to the mainland (and I do) but a strange thing happened. I was supposed to go back to Guayaquil, but because of some technical difficulties on my part I had to go back to Quito. And you know what? It felt like going back home after a very pleasant vocation. It feels nice to walk familiar streets, meet familiar faces and hang out with local friends. Strange. Don’t know what to make out of this. Should I move to Quito? Just kidding.

PS Accidentally deleted videos of a seaweed-eating iguana, dolphins and egle rays, maybe more... :( Oh well, at least I got the pics and most importantly: my memory.