We took the shuttle bus back to Guayaquil yesterday, and spent a sultry night back at Ecuahogar. I don't recommend this place--it is too run down with no apparent effort at maintenance.

We sent Nicki and Phil off to the Guayaquil airport at 5:30 this morning. Rather than call a reputable taxi for us, they sent us out on the street to wave down our own taxi. One of the 20 reasons I don't recommend Ecuahogar in Guayaquil.

We haven't heard from them, so assume they are safely back in Melbourne by now.

Dave and I took the 9:45 Reina del Camina bus to Bahia, arriving at about 3:15pm. We are glad to be home!

Now we start our final preps for leaving for the Galapagos.

Labels: Ecuador, Ecuador Inland

We have spent a couple of days sightseeing around Cuenca. Both Nicki and Dave came down with the 'touristas' so we've passed on some of the more strenuous stuff. We have all been enjoying our 'vacation'.

Dave and I took the 'Cuenca City Tour' on a double-decker bus. It is a 2-hour drive around town past the major sights (mostly churches). The last stop is the church up high on the hill overlooking the city. We didn't get much in the way of pictures, because we took our tour at night.


The next day, while Nicki was hanging out in the hotel with 'stomach issues', Dave and Phil and I hiked out to the Arenal Market. This is a HUGE open-air market in which they sell everything from shoes, to plasticware, to fish, to veggies, and even 'Cuy' (guinea pig). But we never found any handicrafts. They may be there, but we did a 'random walk' through the market for about a half an hour and didn't find them. This market is mostly for locals, not tourists.

On our walk out there, we passed the Flower Market and yet another 'Christmas Parade'.

And of course we visited some churches. There is almost an old spanish-style church on every street corner here. The big one on the square is so big that we had a hard time capturing the whole thing. The white one is the first church in Cuenca, circa late 1500's.

Labels: Ecuador, Ecuador Inland

When we set out to see the Ingapirca ruins from Cuenca, we had 2 or 3 choices. Our friends chose a dedicated tour, for $48 per person. We didn't think that was necessary. We chose the $5 bus ride instead. The price was certainly right, and we got to see how the real Ecuadoreans live.

But after it was all over, Nicki commented "Next time, Mom, lets make sure the time at the site is longer than the bus ride." (5 hour bus ride, 1 1/2 hour there)

We had been told that the bus ride was only 1 hour each way. You might be able to make it in a car in an hour, but in the bus, it took 2 and a half hours, each way. Our bus stopped for anyone on the side of the road who waved it down. By the time we got into the major town of Cañar, there were people standing in the aisle. We also had at least one 5-minute wait for 'road repair'. Plus a stop in each major town at the bus station. And on Saturdays, the bus comes back at 1pm instead of 2pm.

But it turns out that an hour and a half were just about enough time to see what there was to see. It would have been nice to have another hour to browse the local craft vendors tables, and get a bite to eat.

Segundo Shows Us How to Grind Corn
We had a good English-speaking guide, named Segundo. He was well acquainted with the local history and the structures there. He guides for tips, so we gave him $5 for the four of us. Plus we had a couple of other people join our group during the tour.

Ingapirka has ruins from two cultures: The Cañari and the Inca. The Cañari started there in about 800 AD, and the Inca first tried to conquer them, and then intermarried with them, in about 1400 AD. The ruins and the architecture are nothing like the quality and the extensive ruins in Cuzco, Peru. But it was interesting all the same. Certainly worth a day and $11 per person (bus + entry).

The Primary Inca Structure at Ingapirka

More about Ingapirka on Wikipedia

Labels: Ecuador Inland

Aaaak! If you're a Gator fan, and you haven't already read about it, you can get it all here on GatorSports.com

Seems his 24-hour-a-day 7-day-a-week super high pressure job is getting to him!! Oh how I can identify with that.

But, I also agree with Dave's cousin Bryan, the quintessential Gator fan:

"Why us?
Just when things were set for years.
Wonder if Bobby Bowden needs a job?
I'm on suicide watch!"

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Labels: Florida Gators, USA 2009

We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We shared Christmas eve dinner with the owners of our hotel (Casa Ordonez). It was very nice of them to invite us to eat with them, and quite a homey touch.

We had a great american-style Christmas breakfast (included in the room price) and then went out to walk around town. Most things are closed, but we did get to go into the big cathedral (amazing) and walk along the 'waterfront' (more like a babbling brook). By afternoon some of the shops had opened up and we went gift shopping for a few of Nicki and Phil's friends. Dave also bought me a nice pair of handmade earings for Christmas.

The evening was capped by a nice Christmas dinner at a local restaurant, the Eucalyptus Cafe. It caters to 'gringos' and does a great job at it. They had Christmas music in english (on CD) and then some live local music for an hour. Very nice.

Today we head out for the Inca Pirca ruins nearby. More to follow.

Labels: Ecuador, Ecuador Inland

I just got this email from my brother John... the brother who used to give me my Christmas present in a brown paper bag.

But I can identify so much with it:

Twas the night before Christmas and when all through the house,
Not a card had been sent,
The stockings were not hung the tree was not even up,
I jumped in my car and dashed out to Walmart to buy cards,
The lines were too long so I cracked open my computer,
In hopes everyone would accept my email card and poem,
I knew in a moment that all would receive their email card,
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And I whistled and shouted, and inserted their names,
(insert names here)
and all those we carry in our hearts!!

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We have been really busy getting Soggy Paws ready for the open sea. Our date with destiny is Jan 7, which is only 2 weeks from now! And we are spending this week with Nicki in Cuenca, Ecuador.

We never put up a Christmas tree, and we hardly listened to Christmas music. We are on teh Equator (almost) and it's been hot and very un-Christmas-like. We got to Cuenca too late to watch the annual Christmas parade. But we have family here, and we know our friends and family in the U.S. and all over the world, are thinking about us, as we are about them.

We are so grateful for the internet, Facebook, email, and blogs!!!

Merry Christmas to all, from Ecuador.

Sherry & Dave

One of the things I love most about the cruising life is the support community, and this is why we missed Bahia so much.

Dave Teaches a Class on Water Pump Repair
Our world is one of shared adventure/shared adversity. So we become nearly instant friends with the other cruisers in an anchorage. At Puerto Amistad, there is a 'palapa' built specifically for the cruisers. A palapa is a Central American word for an open air thatched hut. But this one has a power plug every 2 feet, so no matter how many computers, iPods, cell phones, etc one brings ashore, there are enough outlets to plug everyone in.

The palapa is a cruiser's meeting place, away from the bar, where we can bring our computers in, hang out and use shore power and faster wifi, exchange books, music, DVD's, travel stories, maintenance issues, etc. Not a day goes by where there isn't a long discussion about some important issue... everything from renewing visas in Ecuador, to buying batteries, to outboard motor problems.

For example, a boat here called Dream Caper is looking for new batteries. Over the past couple of weeks there have been discussions on (a) reviving their old batteries (b) shipping heavy stuff into Ecuador (c) the merits of sailing back to Panama for batteries (d) Locating deep-cycle batteries for sale in Ecuador (e) The merits and downside of AGM batteries. I think they finally settled on buying Chinese AGM's via Quito. No Golf Cart batteries to be found here, unfortunately, and they don't want to go back to Panama.

As another example, we were having waterpump problems. We had several discussions ashore about our pump issues, and discivered that the boat next to us, Victoria, is also having water pump problems. So when Dave sat down with this box of spares to take apart our water pump and repair it, Kim and Pierre from Victoria came over and got a lesson from Dave in water pump repair.

Another boat, Amigo, is having his Perkins Front End taken apart by the local diesel mechanic. Dave wants to watch, just to get any tips from the mechanic on attacking the front end of a Perkins diesel.

Another boat is working on dinghy repair. We had been monitoring their progress and hoping to borrow a smidge of their 2-part glue to re-glue one of our oarlocks. But it turns out they don't have enough glue for their project... so ensued a long discussion on (a) whether they could bring glue back in their luggage from their trip home (b) the chances of finding the right glue in Ecuador (c) the merits and pitfalls of using 5200 Fast Cure instead.

Someone has a computer problem... word has gotten around that I'm a 'computer wizard', and any time I'm in the palapa, I get consulted on the latest computer issues (my computer runs too slow, my mouse jumps around when I turn my GPS on, Maxsea can't find my charts, Maxsea won't recognize my GPS, will xyz program run on Vista, what about Windows 7, etc). I have been repaid several times--never in cash--but usually with a bottle of wine or a nice meal.

There is also a "pay it forward" mentality here...I help you, you help someone else, they help someone else, and we all get that warm feeling.

And yes, here like every other anchorage, there are some "lost sheep"... people who's boats and mentality are totally unprepared for the cruising life... While WE were spending hours in Panama City doing maintenance and hunting down spares, they were hanging out in the Balboa Yacht Club drinking beer.

Those people tend to end up in remote ports with broken/inadequate gear, no tools, no spares, and no know-how. They are the bane of every anchorage, but we help them too. (Actually, we end up helping 2 or 3 times, and then ducking around the corner when they come ashore !!)

Labels: Ecuador, Maintenance