We left Guayaquil today. As we packed up last night I felt like I was leaving home again. We made so many friends there, even within the hotel—Angel and Ronald the doormen; Papi (don’t know his real name, we just called him that because we always had to ask him for the sheet to sign out whenever we left the hotel so our instructors would know where we were, and he liked the name); Freddy was our favorite guy at breakfast; and of course our girls that helped us clean our room: Teresa, Lady and Nelly.
We arrived in Quito around 11:30 am today. It is TOTALLY different than Guayaquil. It is super green and the streets are a lot cleaner, and it just seems a little less third-worldish. I have to remember though that we did basically only see the airport and then we drove through the town on our way out to Otovalo. Even though it is cleaner and nicer looking though, Guayaquil will always have a very special place in my heart because of the friends I met and was hopefully able to serve there and maybe even because it wasn’t so nice looking.
We did have an experience at the airport that didn’t leave the best taste in our mouths of Quito though. As a group of 22 people, and even worse, 22 American people, getting around is sometimes a little bit of a circus. After we got off the plane, we went down and got all of our bags at the baggage claim no problem. We then in herd-like fashion started exiting the airport looking for our Quito/Otovalo tour guide, Ornela, and the bus we would be getting on to go out to Otovalo. We found Ornela as soon as we exited the airport and she waved the bus over to get us. As we were walking out to the bus, all of these people started swarming us, some asking for money, others asking to take our bags. I have learned from traveling previously that most of the time people offer to help and then ask for a tip. I didn't have a bunch of extra change and was fine carrying my backpack myself. I just held on tight to my stuff and kept telling them, “No. I’ve got it, thanks.”
So we all form this line to get our luggage put under the bus and still there are like 4 people helping put the luggage in. We knew after, that really we only had one bus driver that probably should have been helping. Where the other people came from, I have no idea. Luckily though, I just stood there until I had handed them each piece of my luggage and watched them load them each into the bus. I then got on the bus.
Anyway, there were six of us on the bus—me, my two roommates (Katie and Mykel), Jerome (one of the 3 boys on the trip with us), Marie and Tricia. Katie and I just sat down and were putting ourselves together—arranging bags, sweaters, etc. Then Katie notices that there is this woman walking down the aisle of the bus. She pokes me and says, “Hey look at those girl’s sunglasses! They are super cute!” I agreed and we kept on doing whatever we were doing (which was nothing). Next thing I know, there is someone tapping on the other side of the bus and talking to Marie, I look over there to see who it is, just as a man dressed in really nice clothes, comes and taps on our side of the bus and starts talking to Jerome. He says, “Where are you from?” As if it isn’t obvious?! We are like a walking American flag everywhere we go. I don’t really pay attention to anything else the man says, but can’t help but notice the big cheesy grin the guy is sporting. It was almost like he was playing the permasmile game himself. Eventually the tappers of both sides of the bus leave and then Tricia is frantically searching for her backpack.
The story is that some man in a white button-up official looking shirt got on the bus and asked Jerome if he could help him with his backpack, and Jerome said no. He then moved on to my roommate Mykel and was able to talk her into giving him her carry-on bag but not her backpack. He put it above her head and then moved it down towards the front of the bus. She noticed and said, “No! Aqui.” (pointing for him to bring it back above her head) and so he did. Unfortunately Tricia was not as lucky. He asked for her bag and she let him put it up on the shelf above her head, and then as far as we can guess, he slid it to the front of the bus with him as he walked off and was able to take off with it while the people were tapping on the sides of the bus! It had everything in it—her computer (with pictures of her and her fiancé that she was going to put in her wedding video), her iPod, her camera and $150 cash. So sad. We all pitched in $10 or whatever, but even still that barely even covered her lost cash! Sondra (one of the professors) said that we could use the leftover money we have from the trip to help her out too, which will hopefully help a little more, but still, such a bummer! We are super lucky though that they didn’t get more bags. It could have been way worse. I still am puzzled as to why they didn’t even ask Katie or I. I know that I probably would have been dumb enough to give them my bag too. He just looked like he belonged to the bus crew! I never would have guessed that someone would have the guts to get on the bus and do that if they weren’t a part of the bus staff or whatever. We know better now I guess.
Taniel, one of my friends here, randomly took a picture of the bus at the precise moment when the distractions were happening. You can’t see any faces, but you can see the man’s shadow in the bus. Freaky. Our tour guide made Tricia go through the whole process of reporting it and everything which took forever and even Tricia herself didn’t want to do it, because she knew that she would never see any of her stuff again regardless, but whatevs. We all are going to be a lot more cautious from now on, even with our own tour guide because there are some reasons for suspicion of her possible involvement, not that we will ever find out for sure, so I will try not to false accuse.
After getting through that mess, we had a 2-hour bus ride to Otovalo to the prettiest little hotel on the lake. Here is the link to it and you can check it out yourselves. http://www.puertolago.com/
It was a fun change up from the city. Everything is a lot greener and prettier here. It is like a new country. Beautiful. I still love Guayaquil though. The rooms here are more like cabins and we also don’t have the best internet service or whatever so that is kind of a downer especially for the married and engaged peeps on the trip, but it is really nice and relaxing here. It has a kind of Tahoe-like feel. Love it.
We went out to the Ponchos Fair right after check-in and we stayed there for almost 4 hours finding and buying lots of cool stuff. They have some beautiful tablecloths, blankets, jewelry, and embroidery. I tried to be thrifty and not buy anything unnecessary. I’m glad I don’t have a house or any kiddos or else I would have bought way too much stuff.
Then we went out to eat at this restaurant our tour guide had picked out for us. It was really good. We had these like cheesey/meat crepe things that I wouldn’t have normally ordered for myself, but loved them. Then we went back to the hotel, had a quick devotional, and then girls night in our room. Of course we had to watch She’s the Man because what else would be more appropriate for girls night? Fun. This unflattering, quadruple-chin picture is unfortunately the only one we took that night!
After the other girls left, Katie was unpacking my suitcases a little, and when she opened her smaller suitcase she was met with an interesting surprise! There were several packages of medications that were ripped open lying on top of her bag.
We all freaked out for a minute and then called our professors to come over and check it out. Sondra and Cheryl were so good and quickly came over. Sondra put on latex gloves (yes, only nursing students probably pack latex gloves with them) and inspected it. It turned out just to be some topical anti-fungal medication and some vitamins. It was funny because as she dug into the box that had been ripped open, there was a piece of paper in there and she was like, “It’s a note!” Of course we all gasped, and then laughed when it turned out to be a prescription for the drugs.
I am still not really sure how those ended up in her bag. It just added to the creepy day. Another girl on the trip, also found drugs in her bag in the same condition—ripped open boxes, just laid on the top of her stuff. Weird. Our guide is supposedly going to try to get the medications back to the person they were prescribed to, but we’ll see if she actually is able to. I hope so, the receipt said it was like $25 or something, which is a lot down here. Creepy, yet very pretty day.
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