Tulcan, Ecuador March 3-6, 1979
How did I get here when I was on my way to Riobamba? That’s the story of the left-behind (or stolen?) camera, of a beautiful but non-stop bus-ride from Cuenca right through Riobamba, to Quito. The highlight of this ride was catching a glimpse of Ecuador’s highest mountain, Mt. Chimborazo.
Note: Chimborazo is actually the highest mountain on earth, if measurements are made from the earth’s center to the top. To read more about Chimborazo, from someone who climbed it, go to: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/23/mountain-climbing-chimborazo-ecuador
It’s also the story of an all-day wait at the tourist office there, where I went to report the missing camera in the hopes that someone there might be able to track it down.... But they couldn’t call the hotel in Cuenca because the phones weren’t working (of course). And the story of my decision to go to Columbia while I had the chance to go with a reliable and friendly travel mate, David, an American from Massachusetts.
But anyway… the bus ride north from Quito was just as spectacular as the ride from Cuenca to Quito – more, and more beautiful patchwork quilt hills, rolling and crumpled, dotted with red-tile-roof adobe houses. So rich, so tactile, such a pastoral fairyland. Then an interesting semi-desert landscape, with very arid looking hills all around, but running through the middle a ribbon of green – a lush valley, perhaps and old river or lake-bed, where now the peasants grow their crops in fields separated one from the other by neat rows of shrubs or tall stately eucalyptus trees (imported from Australia many years ago…). Groves of eucalyptus, mostly green or blue-green, sometimes turning red at the tops for lack of water, and shimmering in the breeze. I love their fresh medicinal fragrance. Our road rises and falls, bending and winding its way around, finding its path amidst the mountain scape, sometimes detouring around a recent rock-slide or road under repair by men armed with picks and shovels.
Note: The tall trees in the background of the photo above are eucalyptus.
We passed through several idyllic, almost fairytale, mountain towns. The most striking of these was Otovalo, where very handsome men wore brilliant, wide-legged white pants that ended just below the knee, like pedal-pushers or knickers, and beautiful dark-haired women wore frilly white ‘peasant’ blouses embroidered around the neck and sleeve with colourful flowers, dark blue skirts to well below the knee, and cascades of gold necklaces and often bracelets made of coral. Both men and women wore dark ponchos and black bowler hats, and both had long black braids reaching almost to their waists. But perhaps their most notable feature, was their healthy looking, straight and very white teeth. They made the most of this feature by smiling broadly, and frequently. A truly beautiful people.
http://abyayala.nativeweb.org/ecuador/otavalo/culture.html
The above photos are ones I was able to get with my 'back-up camera'.
The photos below are stock photos and images from post-cards bought during my trip.
At every curve along the road we picked up a few more passengers who crowded into the aisle, carrying wrapped bundles or baskets full of …what? And whenever the bus stopped, vendadores jumped on. Young street urchins selling gum and candy – ‘chicles, chicles!’ Teen-aged girls with fruit or cane-sugar bars. Older women with palm-leaf-wrapped salty country fresh cheese, little bags of fritadas (maybe pork rinds, potatoes or plantains), or baskets of fruits – bananas, pears and apples. Older men, shabbily dressed and unshaven, with helados pulled from sidewalk peddle-carts or insulated dry-ice boxes. And always, young and old vendadores, with buckets, boxes or fists full of coke, colas, and seven-ups. Starch and sugar, sugar and starch.
Reaching the border with Columbia we found ourselves in the midst of the grand opening of a new Ecuadorian border building, complete with displays of stern military might and raucous indigenous music (quite the combo). So it took us a little longer to make our way through to the Columbian immigration office where we promptly and most officiously denied entry. There didn’t appear to be a reason, other than one or two individuals’ determination to demonstrate their power to lord it over us. Having heard this border can be tricky, we decided we’d just try it again in a few days. So here we are, in a cheap hotel, listening to too-loud music. We are in Ecuador illegally, the Ecuadorian’s new border building having been closed down by the time we returned from our failed venture into Columbia, so we were unable to obtain re-entry stamps. And now everything is closed until Monday, so Tulcan it is for the next two days.
Making the best of a not particularly good situation, we decided to go for a walk. Headed out of town and down into a little river valley where cattle grazed and the only crop, up on the hillsides, was corn. The cultivation on steep slopes has its problems – not only are the slopes too steep for machines, they are too steep even for animals. So all of the crops are hand-tended. The people are unbelievably hardly, clambouring up the slopes every day to plant, weed and harvest. Soil erosion is clearly a problem, although the soil itself looks healthy, and the corn is green and vibrant. We climbed back up and out of the valley, wandered back through town and found an old cobble-stone country road that headed again up into the hills. A very pleasant afternoon walk – quiet, green, country-fresh, lots of birds singing. But the very best part was that I saw my first llamas – up close! Such interesting animals, quite inquisitive. Hope to see lots more in Peru!
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