BOT 2010 - Part 2 Banos, Ecuador to Brazil

I was so glad to leave Quito after what I had experienced. My next stop was down to a hot spring town called Banos. I was so afraid of catching another dodgy city bus, especially this time with all my luggage, I decided to cough up the money and catch the taxi instead to the bus terminal. It ended up costing me like US$25 which was my whole daily budget in Ecuador! Then my 4 hour bus ride to Banos only cost me $6! Talking about paying protection money…..

The town itself was quite small and was very easily navigable. I stayed in a hostel that was quite highly ranked on the website…..by Israelis backpackers. After my last experience in an Israeli hostel, I promised myself not to stay in another Israeli hostel ever again…..until now. Unfortunately they also happened to be the cheapest hostels everywhere I had been. This is my lovely conversation in the hostel:

Backpacker A: Shalom.

Paul: Shalom.

Backpacker A: Where are you from?

Paul: Australia.

Backpacker A: Oh……

End of conversation. What the…..???

I did get along ok with my roommate. We did speak about our travels when we were just by ourselves. I think as soon as there are other Israelis around, their brains just send out signals to one another to bundle up and do group hugs. Maybe that’s how they were trained in the army I don’t know. It certainly was very frustrating being a non-Jew in these hostels!

I stayed for just 1 night and pretty much kept myself busy doing a night excursion and a hot spring visit. The night excursion was such a dud. The company supposed to take us up to a lookout point where we could see this active volcano with lava spewing from the cone. We were also meant to have a bonfire so that we could drink and make friends. Because the weather was poor, we saw nothing but clowns performing (literally!). After 2 hours of just standing there drinking home-brew alcohol and looking at the clowns, I was so glad that they put us back into the truck and took us back into town.

Next day at the hot spring was far more enjoyable than my night excursion. As it was slightly cool, the hot water was perfect for me to just sit there and read. It was also quite busy with school kids. I saw this fat kid probably weighed more than me running around with a snorkel on his face and breathed through the tube. I don’t exactly know what he could see in the water as it was quite murky from the colour of the sulphur. Put it this way, I could not even see my bright red board shorts when I was in the water, let along he sees anything past the first 5cm! I found it quite amusing that I had to take a photo of him with the snorkel.

In the late afternoon, I caught a night bus to Cuenca.

Cuenca, Ecuador

My bus arrived at 6am. The taxi ride into town cost me US$1. I have no idea how people could drive for $1! I found this local hotel that gave me a huge room for $4. Again, real bargain! By that stage of my travel, if there was a bed with a mattress on it – a real treat! A private room was always a luxury. And despite the scungy bathroom, the $4 room was quite comfortable. For those who read my blog re the shower in Kuala Lumpur, you will be pleased to know that I have come a long long way.

I went to visit a local history museum, the local market, an art gallery and wandered around the streets. It was a pretty small town with many friendly people. I found that locals were really interested in me and wanted to find out more about me, how I learnt Spanish, where I am from, whether I liked the local food etc. I was in this ferreteria (hardware shop) buying duct tape to tape up the slash in my backpack, and ended up spending 20 minutes talking to this lady at the counter. There were many warm and friendly people in South America. I felt that I really felt this when I was travelling by myself.

I took the bus from Cuenca back to Peru.

Back to Peru

As I went via the coast into Ecuador from Peru, I thought it was worthwhile returning to Peru via the mountains. And it was nothing but scenic! No more dodgy thieves on the bus, no more corrupted officials! The bus ride was spectacular with again many friendly locals (and gringos) on the bus. I was so relieved that I was back to Peru! I even took the picture of the ‘bienvenido a Peru’ sign at the border. It just felt like home for some reason and I didn’t need to worry about being on the lookout constantly etc. The experience of Ecuador was not exactly great because of the two robberies which I will probably always remember!

I pretty much was on the bus the whole time from Cuenca to Trujillo with one night stopover in Chiclayo.

Back to Chiclayo, Peru

I had a rather interesting experience here. When I was here last time I met a bunch of university students. I swapped emails with them trying to be friendly etc. I was in touch with one of the girls, Laura. We emailed each other a few times and I promised that if I did go back to Chiclayo I would contact her and we could meet up.

It was actually a mission to meet up with her. I wasn’t sure what to expect especially it was all going to be done in Spanish. We eventually met up and went to dinner and saw a movie together. Oh, I forgot to mention that her family came along too. Somehow at the cinema I was expected to buy the tickets for them. Being very naive, I thought it must be the culture that boys pay in Peru. I actually didn’t think about this until afterwards. We ended up going to see some crappy horror movie – Murder on Elms Street.

We also went out to dinner. Again, I paid for the whole family! It cost me AU$40 for dinner! I think my portion cost like $5 maximum. The fun began over the dinner table. The family started to asking questions about me and what I do etc. Then they started asking me questions:

Family: So how long are you going to stay in Trujillo for?

Paul: Probably 2 days.

Family: Then where are you going afterwards?

Paul: Lima then to Brazil then to Europe.

Family: Oh, what about Laura? Are you going to take Laura with you?

Paul: Umm......hmmmm.....hmmmmm.

Family: When are you coming back to Peru?

Paul: Umm.....hmmmm...hmmm...Not sure.

Family: Are you going to take Laura back to Australia with you?

Paul: Umm....it is a little strange....and probably not right now..

Family: We feel sorry for you Laura....

Gosh, I nearly choked on my food! Part of me just wanted to burst out laughing, the other part was working so hard to come up with the right answer and trying to compose myself. It was a struggle!

The next day she invited me to go and visit her in her university. I told her to wait as I needed to buy a ticket back to Lima. 5 miuntes later, she rung me and said that her teacher wanted to talk to me on the phone. It was rather bizarre, but I spoke to the teacher anyway. This conversation was just outright ridiculous.

The teacher said that there was a student ball coming up and Laura was elected the queen of the ball (good for her!). And that they needed to raise money for the event and she wondered whether I could help. I usually donate some money to charities and people in need, so I thought I would ask how much she was thinking off. The teacher said it could be any amount, but she was hoping for $50 or $100. I nearly died when she said that. I was thinking more along the line of $5!

So I politely told her that I was only a backpacker and maybe they need to go and find their sugar daddy somewhere else. I hung up the phone straight away and was bit offended by the teacher and by Laura! Yep, it was true. Gringo = Money.

I went back to Huanchaco and sat on the beach for a little while in the afternoon and had my last cerviche in Latin America. Hmm, cerviche...it was probably my most favourite food in Peru. The beach was a little cold, but it was nice knowing that Australia was just on the other side of the ocean.

Before dinner, I went to an optometrist shop to get my sunnies fixed. Again, I ended up talking to the optometrist and his assist for over an hour, mixing Spanish and English. They were the nicest people ever! They joked and laughed heaps with each other and seemed to have the best time at work. I was actually quite envious of their work attitude. Why can’t we all have this attitude at work??? No se.

Bus ride back to Lima was very uneventful. It also took forever. By the time I checked to the hostel it was almost 10:30pm.

I really had the best time in the Spanish South America. I met so many great and friendly local people. Pretty much had experiences that I never experienced other places. Nearly died in Machu Pichu. Climbed to 5,897m with ice axe. Robbed twice in 1.5 weeks. Learnt Spanish. Learnt how to surf. Saw the biggest penguin colony ever. Went to the most southern part of the human civilisation. Rode a bike at nearly 5000m high. Gosh, the list continues!

Hasta la vista latina America.

Sao Paolo, Brazil

The Tam flight from Lima to SP was very old and uncomfortable. My friend Mauro picked me up from the airport. I didn’t recognise him when I first saw him. I was waiting in line at the tourist counter for this guy to finish his conversation. He took like 5 minutes and I was actually getting impatient and started making myself known to the centre lady. The guy turned around and yelled out “Paul!!!”. I was looking at him and was like....”Mauro???”. Funny how people could look so different with their business outfit on!

He lived in this really nice apartment in front of the weekend homosexual market.

As I was a little jetlagged, I didn’t get up the next day till 11am. The guide book actually said that there weren’t much there in SP. And sadly, I later found out, that it was true. I went to visit the Art Museum of SP with his friend xxxxx. It wasn’t exactly the best collection I had seen, but there were many paintings and sculptures from local artists which were quite amazing.

The next day I visited the Sao Paolo Cathedral, many older churches and buildings. I found the city quite vibrant. There were so much going on just on the streets: People basking, selling souvenirs, buying gold, and heaps of street entertainments. I was mesmerized just gazing at people! It was pretty hard not to find something interesting in a city of 20 million people!

We went out on Friday night to experience the nightlife that SP boasts. Yes, there were many choices but were all expensive! I never realised that Brazil was such an expensive country. It was almost like going out in Australia. The entrance fee was R50 (A$30) to a club that we went to. It did include R50 worth of drinks which wasn’t much at all. Yes, most young people in the club I met spoke English.

One thing really strange about Brazilians and their salads. One night I was trying to cook Mauro and his mate Dayton dinner, and while I was washing the salad in the water, Mauro took out the bleach from underneath the sink and wanted to put it in the salad. I thought it was dressing of some sort initially so I said that dressing can go in later. Mauro was like, no, bleach go in now to kill bugs in the salad. I was in shock. I grabbed the bleach and told him that there was no way I was going to eat bleached salad, let alone it was probably going to kill me! Seriously......apparently he did that all the time and it was quite common.

There were a lot of Japanese Brazilians in SP. And they have all absorbed the Latin culture and outgoing attitude. Mauro, again, what are you doing not going out with these single hot girls?????

SP was quite an interesting city. There were so many rich people driving awesome sports cars, and there were again many beggars on the streets and homeless people living in parks. Definitely a big wealth gap there compared to Australia. In fact, the city was so expensive that I don’t even know how the poor people could survive!

Mauro and I left SP for the coat on Saturday afternoon. Our first stop was Cambury where his friends had a beach house. Apparently it was quite common for professionals from SP to hire out beach houses nearby so they can get away from the concrete jungle. For me, it was an awesome experience to hang out with the locals and did what they did and ate what they ate. That night, Brazilian BBQ was for dinner! It was just like BBQ in Australia. In fact, they are probably all the same around the world. Very yummy nonetheless.

It was funny how after a few drinks everyone were really relaxed and started joking around and poking at each other. I think English because a lot fluid too after the drinking started. They definitely were keen in speaking in English with me, rather than in Portuguese. Fine by me!

We went to the beach the next day. Yes, there were a lot of people and a lot of beach umbrellas but the beach was beautiful. Many surfers, boogy boarders, and swimmers. I actually got into the trouble with the lifeguard in the first 3 minutes in the water. He blew his whistle and as if it wasn’t embarrassing enough, he spoke through the speaker that I had to go and swim outside the surf zones. I understood what he meant but the problem was......there was no designated swimming area. In fact, the whole beach had surf signs all over the place. I gave up after swimming illegally for 15 minutes.

Our next stop was Ubatuba where Mauro’s relatives lived. It was again a new experience to spend time in Brazilian’s household. We were there for 4 nights and I we hung out with his cousins, uncle and aunt. His aunt apparently was expecting this massive fat blonde hair blue eye Australian guy and I, totally the opposite, turned up. It’s weird how when people think of stereotypical Australians, they tend to just think of Caucasians. I hope that through my travel, overseas communities would start to see that Australia is actually quite multicultural and we have people from all over the globe.

His family spent a lot of time showing me nice beaches and the Atlantic forests around Ubatuba. I wish I could have gone surfing as Ubatuba apparently was the surfing capital of Brazil. And THAT says a lot.

Mauro and I then went to a heritage town called Paraty. It was very touristy, but very beautiful with cobbled stone streets, old churches and a spectacular harbour. The centre of town was also strictly for pedestrian and cyclists. We ate in quite a few fancy seafood restaurants there to wind down our time together. Oh I thought since I was in Brazil, I might as well buy a souvenir that everyone knows – yep, Haviana thongs.

In Paraty, Mauro and I went on a day long boat ride to different islands for swimming and snorkelling. Although the weather was awful, I still had a lovely relaxing time on the boat. I was lucky that Mauro did all the negotiations and bargaining in Portuguese so that we didn’t get ripped off.

There were all sorts of crazy actors there in Paraty. You got the obvious Capital Jack Sparrow wannabe, the Captain Hook, and then we met this black Brazilian guy in the hostel who went around as a slave for tourists to take photos of him. Apparently he’d been there for 2 years....Boy, this man could seriously talk. I was lucky that I didn’t understand Portuguese, but this guy could talk as if there was no tomorrow. I think he could even talk when he was asleep!

From Paraty, we went to a nearby beach for a day then a waterfall on our way home. Partying in Paraty didn’t really live up to my expectation. I was expecting a lot considering it was so touristy, but the pubs/clubs were all quiet everywhere we went. Apparently we were too early....Maybe I am old, but I didn’t really think midnight was early....

We stayed here for 3 nights then I caught a bus to Rio de Janeiro by myself. Rio initially appeared quite busy and dull to me. I caught another local bus from the bus terminal to Copacabana where my hostel was. It was interesting that Spanish actually worked quite well in Brazil. I could almost get away with just talking in Spanish, although I had no idea when they answered back in Portuguese.

There were quite a few people staying in the hostel and I made friends with a few of them. We managed to go to Lapa to see the live samba dancing on Sunday night. Rio supposed to be a party central of South America. You can imagine my disappointment when I arrived to the hostel and no one wanted to go out for drinks/dancing on a Saturday night! I almost changed to a party hostel 2 street down! Apparently people were partying till wee hours of the morning on Friday night....and I was just one night too late I was told!

Anyway, the samba music and dancing was just amazing. We were probably the only non-local in the whole place. It was so much fun meeting Brazilians, especially when this random guy just came up to me and said hello to me and talked to me in Spanish. This was the conversation:

Brazilian: Hi, do you remember me?

Paul: Umm, no, sorry.

Brazilian: We were in Ushuaia together.

Paul: What? What Ushuaia?

Brazilian: In Patagonia in Argentina. We stayed in Patagonia Pais together.

Paul: Oh my gosh, you were one of the 2 Brazilians there.

Brazilian: Yeah, my friend is also here tonight whom you have met.

Paul: Gosh. I remember you now. You tried to hit on one of the Israeli girls. You told her that she had pretty eyes.

Brazilian: Umm....that was my friend.

The friend who showed up confirmed that it was the Brazilian who first spoke to me was the one hitting on the girl . But boy, what are the chances??? People you meet once pop up few thousand miles away and say hello to you in a samba bar!

When I was in Rio, I went to check out a couple of Sunday markets. I also had a chance to meet a girl from NYC there. It was rather strange meeting. We met at the bottom of the Christ Redeemer statue because we were both annoyed that the train wasn’t running and the only way up was via taxis and they were charging tourists exorbitant prices. The view from the top was worth every R50 we both paid. From the top we had the most amazing view over the Atlantic Ocean and the whole of Rio de Janeiro.

Alyssa was very paranoid about safety in Rio, or in Brazil in general. She said her parents told her not to catch buses, subways or any sort of public transport. When I invited her to go back on the bus, she thought she was going to get kidnapped. We ended up walking around the centre of Rio checking out some sights there, and had a couple of drinks together in a dodgy side street bar. We then went to Ipanema for dinner.

The next day we went to visit Pao de Azuca (Sugar Loaf mountain). We caught a bus (yes, another bus) to the bottom and hiked up as far as we could and jumped on a teleferico. Again, the view was spectacular as it was right on the beach and we could see Christ the Redeemer from where we were. I tried to get her to take some jump shots for me, but I was disappointed that she was not very good with my camera. You probably could tell by now that I love jump shots! She said she had never tried jumping shots, so I took some jump shots of Alyssa. It kind of worked, but definitely wasn’t the best jump shots I had taken. Oh well, not everyone can be an expert at jumping!

We then went to Santa Teresa to catch the historical tram up the hill and checked out a few galleries and a very old pub. Santa Teresa was a nice cultural area. We had a really nice Japanese dinner there too. The Japanese owners were quite interested in me and spoke to me in Japanese. I was quite proud that I could answer back in Japanese.

It was rather sad saying goodbye to Alyssa. You don’t meet someone you can get along so well everyday. We got on like peas and carrots . Or like the movie Before Sunrise – in fact it was exactly like that. I almost felt like I was falling for her...whatever that meant after meeting someone for 2 days. This will be explained later. We agreed to catch up in London when we were both there 6 weeks later.

I enjoyed my time in Rio I’d have to say. It was different to what I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be quite poverty-stricken with many rundown buildings and violence. But all I experienced was great food, cheap beers, beautiful people, lovely weather, and stunning scenery. Yes, there were beggars around, but I was mostly left alone as most of them thought I was Japanese Brazilian. I would love to return to Brazil one day and explore the jungle and the northern coast.

Brazil was my last country in South America. I felt sad leaving Latin America. I somehow built a quite close relationship with this continent. Like what I mentioned before, it broadened my horizons and made me a more open-minded my person than I would ever know. And that itself was a huge lesson in my life!