Ecuador in 2003 ～1
Another trip to Ecuador after a 4 year absence for me, but an impressive
21 years for Patricia and an all time first for Gabriela and Benjamin,
17 and 16 years old respectively. We spent four weeks there, the first
in the capital city of Quito, the next two traveling around in a rental
car, and the last week back in Quito and the surrounding areas,
socializing and eating with old friends.
The first week was a "work" week for me. My job was to play the Bach
Double violin concerto with a former student of mine, an Ecuadorian by
birth, and now a good friend, Francisco Barahona, followed by
the Sinfonia Concertante for Viola and Violin by Mozart with
the talented Philipine born violinist/violist/conducter, Hector Corpus.
I will spare you the details, but it was a pleasure to play with both of
these talented and dedicated musicians. We performed with the FOSJE,
the youth orchestra in Quito, led by its founder and director, Patricio
Aizaga. I knew Patricio when he was a teenager.
Already a fine French Horn player, he has become a powerful force in the
cultural scene in Ecuador.
But that is another story.
Whilst Patricia and my two teenaged kids adapted to the 2700-2800
meters of altitude, the Spanish language, barking watch dogs, car sirens
and car horns sounding off at all hours of the day, and intense air
pollution near the busy streets, I rehearsed and performed.
We were invited to the "vacation" home of the Yepez family. It lies
in Tumbaco, the rapidly growing valley to the east of Quito.
More importantly, it is downhill from Quito, 400-500 meters lower.
This means warmer. The Yepezs had a vegetable garden teaming with
fruit trees and vegetables ranging from the temperate climes to
the sub-tropical and Mediterranean. They wined and dined us, treated us
like royalty, and we enjoyed the warmer air and views towards the eastern
range of the Andes and to the south. Lovely, gentle, and extremely fecund
countryside, it is being rapidly urbanized.
After my concert commitments were finished, we rented a sturdy car, and set
off on a 12 day, 2000 kilometer trip. We rented a Rodeo, 4x2, an SUV with
a 6 cylinder engine, five forward gears (an extremely low ratio for the hills).
No 4 wheel drive, but it had a high center, a necessity on gravel, stone,
and mud. Only in one spot did we regret not having the 4 wheel drive, but
as long as you do not stop it is safe without it. At one point in the jungle
a truck in front of us had become bogged down, and we had stopped as well, it
might have been a disaster. Maybe this is as good a time as any to talk
about driving in Ecuador.
Tired of video games? Do you want to to play for real stakes? The
driving in Ecuador (and probably a huge part of the developing world) is
your game. Traffic lights, stop signs, lanes (usually there are none
indicated) are to be viewed as suggestions. If the coast is clear and you
are sitting at a Stop sign or red light, you move on. If there is
no head on traffic and the road is smoother on the left side, you drift to
your left. Signaling by drivers is a rarity, even the saving of head lights
at night is not uncommon.
My strong personal advise is do not drive at night outside of urban areas.
Period. Yes, some roads have been paved, in fact there are places where you
can be quickly lulled into thinking you are back in the 1st world.
Invariably that is when danger strikes, be it an axle busting pothole,
a stone waiting to rip out your oil pan, or simply an unpaved area
20-30 cms lower than the paved stretch you were enjoying. All towns along
the roads intentionally build speed bumps. But not just one going in and one
leaving town, but several, one of which is always nearly impossible to see.
Some of these "rompe velocidades" bring you down to walking speed.
To do this sort of driving at night, with no street lights or lanes would be
an unnecessary risk well worth avoiding.
Besides, you miss the big view of truly dramatic and magnificent countryside!
I add to this the caveat about slow moving trucks with no brake lights,
speeding killer buses with their tires squeeling around corners, and drivers
passing on corners in a leap of faith. Good nerves, the right mixture of
caution and aggression, and if available, backseat drivers. Yes, you need
them to see past the truck belching smoke, to warn you of some mad man passing
on a corner, or simply to help decide where to turn at an intersection,
since signing is at times non-existent, or poorly marked at best. It becomes
a team sport. A good lower back and tightly fitting false teeth are also
an asset. 200 Kms is a marathon drive for one day, and maybe next to
impossible in the jungle to the east. Rental cars are also pricey--- at least
100 USD a day, thanks to insurance costs. Gasoline is roughly 2 dollars a gallon.
Heading West.
Our first stop was Mindo. It is a pleasant drive north to the "mitad
del mundo", the equator, and then a left turn towards the west. The newly
paved road (it has its traps and hidden surprises as well) plunges down
from the high and dry central highlands to the coast, a 3000 plus meter
elevation loss. Mindo lies about 3 hours outside of Quito, on the north-western
flanks of El Pichincha, the 4800 m mountain on whose eastern flank is
the city of Quito. This active volcano has given Mindo many rejuvenating
coverings of ash over the centuries. At 1200-1300 meters above sea level,
this lush sub-tropical valley offers some of the richest bird-watching on
the planet, besides hosting a seemingly infinate variety of plants, insects,
and the mysterious masked bear, a small vegetarian bear rarely seen.
We were instructed to find the "Yellow House", Casa Amarilla, where
some relatives of a friend of mine and violinist in the Orquesta Sinfonica
Nacional del Ecuador, Fausto Lopez, owned a pleasant bed and breakfast.
Mindo is very small, and we pulled into the center of town, the plaza ,
and asked for instructions.
The instructions were almost difficult to believe, i.e. turn right on
a driveway sized dirt road and take the first left, open a gate and drive
several hundred meters up this stone driveway. We followed orders. We arrived
to the sound of barking German shepherds. We asked an woman living in a
modest house near the main gate where the Yellow House was. We had found it,
on the opposite side of the gate, but the two sisters who run it where gone
for the day. I mentioned that they should be expecting us. Then her husband
appeared, a farmer and caretaker in his high rubber boots, who showed us
in to the estate, assured us the dogs were really just playful cubs, and
presented us our room. Modest, because the mistresses of the house were
in the big city and not able to open up the more comfortable rooms.
The Yellow House is owned by the Garzon sisters, relatives of my above
mentioned friend. But we found that almost all the estates in the valley
were owned by relatives of Fausto's. It seems a great- grandfather had
emmigrated from Columbia, some family had come from Esmeraldas on the coast,
and another relative was from post WWI Austria. The family history included a revolutionary war general (Ecuador's war of independence). Mindo is all basically privately owned, but eco-tourism is the game being played. Hunting and logging
is strongly discouraged, since it would mean a short term gain and long term
catastrophe, and the Garzon sisters own a tract of land going well into
the forest up the hill, gaining several hundred meters of elevation.
First there is a 30 minute hike on an old dirt track and what seems cut
through an old cattle ranch, then it is forest.
Unlike most tropical and sub-tropical eco-systems, Mindo's soil is rich, and
the density of vegetation and the plethora of life forms must be partially
due to this and the abundant rain fall. The Garzon sisters also grow their
own coffee, the best we had in Ecuador.
The next day the sisters arrive, plus two vivacious teenage girls. Also
relatives, but born and raised in Texas. My teenagers were delighted. These
two girls even played violin/viola, and I managed to give a quick lesson in
a beautiful yellow wooden lodge in the rain forest. It was all delightful.
We could have spent another day or two there. There is a restaurant in Mindo
called the "Colibri". The food was good, but the hummingbirds zipping around
us as we sat in this open air restaurant are really impressive. There are
many of them, all different sizes and shapes. (This restaurant/lodge is also
owned by the same extended family.)
But it was time to move on. We thought about Esmeraldas or Atacamas,
the two hot beach resort areas for the Quites, but decided to
pass(Gabriela was dissappointed) and head south from Santo Domingo
de los Colorados (named after the coastal tribe that dyes its hair and face r
ed). It was a long drive through Porto Viejo and on to Puerto Cayo.
The coastal area north of Puerto Viejo is rolling hills, largely
deforested for plantations and farming. Beautiful countryside, that begins
to get very dry as you approach Manabi, the central coastal province.
This is because of the Humbolt current. This cold water current comes up
from the deep cold waters of the Peruvian trench in the half year May-November,
or June-December. Besides cooling the ocean waters drastically, it chills the air.
Yes, it is still warm, even hot during the day, especially a bit inland. But it
is foggy and cool at night, and it does not rain for the above mentioned
half year dry season. The low mountains along the coast in the central province
do collect the moisture from the heavy fog, hence the term "cloud
forests". Within several kilometers the vegetation goes from shrub and
thorn to dense tropical. Quite remarkable.
(To be continued)
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