Part 2 of 'A Whole New World' or, As Jasmine Says

Note: Remote places do not have great Wi-fi

**Note - several of these posts were written while we didn't have internet, so they're being posted after the fact. We will be posting about our time in Ambato while simultaneously posting about Cuenca, since that's where we are now. **

So. A LOT has happened in the past few days. John talked about our adventures to Mitad del Mundo and Otavalo already, so I won't say much about them except that I thought Otavalo was overrated. We went on Sunday, the day after the HUGE market, and they had some really awesome stuff there, but it's just kind of disappointing to see stall after stall of almost the exact same things. It reminded me of being in Myrtle Beach with all the tourist stores that sell the same stuff on a different block.

Anyway. We left Quito for Ambato on Monday afternoon. It's a two and a half hour bus ride, and we were scheduled to arrive sometime around 3 or 4. We faffed around too much earlier in the day and ended up rolling into Ambato around 5. By the time we found a taxi and made it to our guest house, it was almost 6.

I had booked a little house on AirBnB (if you haven't heard of this site, bookmark it for your next trip. You're welcome.) with owners by the name of Marco and Elena. I had been talking to them the day prior to coming down to Ambato and Elena had said that a 3 or 4 o' clock arrival time would be great, and just email or call when we got into town.

First of all, we roll into town late. Second of all, there's no free Wi-Fi anywhere at the bus terminal, so I can't email OR call. So we're late and we can't call. No worries, I think, we'll just follow the directions she gave us and show up at the house. We get there pretty easily (and cheaply!) and follow her directions to the letter - 3rd house on the right with black gates. I recognized the house from the pictures on AirBnB and was totally stoked to finally be there. The only problem is there's no doorbell to ring. No problem, I think, they're probably at the house next door and we'll just ring that doorbell. I'm not entirely sure where I got the impression that they lived next door, but suffice it to say, I was wrong.

So we buzzed the house next door and the conversation that followed was probably the most uncomfortable one in my life. An older woman came out and was clearly very suspicious of us gringos. I did my best to communicate to her some pretty complex ideas in my very simple Spanish, but she just kept looking at me as if I had grown a second head. I was getting really frustrated because she wasn't attempting to help me out at all and finally I just asked her if she had a phone we could use. She did but it wasn't available for our use, of course. Thankfully, she ended up being minimally helpful and pointed us around the corner to a mini mercado where there was a payphone we could use.

After a $0.47 phone call to Elena and a 10-minute wait, she and Marco and their youngest daughter Anita came to rescue us. They let us in the house (the one I recognized!) and showed us around and were generally very gracious. Also, we confirmed the fact that they actually live about 5 minutes away, so the old bat next door was at least staying true to form by not having any idea what I was talking about instead of just being plain old difficult.

Here are some pictures of our little casita.

From the front door

From the garden

From the sidewalk/garage area

Needless to say, we slept pretty hard that night. Woke up the next morning and began our adventure. We walked around and eventually found a place for breakfast, which was excellent! Desayuno (breakfast) here consists of what almost every meal consists of - rice, chicken, yucca, and bread. You can have soup (sopa) if you want, or you can have eggs (juevos). It also came with coffee and a large glass of juice. John and I left there absolutely stuffed for the outrageous price of $6.50.

We then decided to be even MORE adventurous and head down to Ambato's downtown area : El Centro. So we hopped on the next bus into town and about 10 minutes later, we ended up in a lovely park in front of Universidad Bolivar. I was really needing some Wi-Fi to send off some work (because, sadly, we don't have Wi-Fi here at the casita), so we hit up a couple of internet cafes to see if anyone knew where we could find some. After about 30 minutes and making a large circle around several blocks, we ended up back in the park where I realized there was free Wi-Fi from the Universidad. We plopped down to take care of business and 20 minutes later we were back to being tourists.

Ambato is known for having the biggest market day in all of Ecuador on Mondays. We missed it by a day, but we decided to check out a few of the mercado areas anyway. We ended up chatting with some older ladies selling fruit who managed to get us to buy their wares. After wandering through a few more stalls and buying a few more things for our supper, we headed back to the casita.

This is where things got kind of dicey.

That evening, after we ate and went to bed, John got sick. And when I say sick, I mean really REALLY sick. He was in and out of the bathroom probably 15 times that night. He had a slight fever and couldn't keep anything down or in. We had brought some peptobismol with us, but he couldn't keep it down long enough to help his stomach retain whatever food or water it had left. I knew it was probably something he ate or a 24 hour bug he picked up somewhere, but it still made me nervous, mainly because he was losing so much fluid.

After a long night, he was exhausted, and the next day (Wednesday) we just stayed in bed while he continued to work whatever it was out of his system.

Around noon, the doorbell to the house gate rang, and when I went out, Marco and Elena were there! Elena speaks very good English while Marco understands, and they both speak excellent (and relatively easy to understand) Spanish. I told them what was wrong with John and they immediately started helping. Marco ran to the farmacia (pharmacy) and la tienda (store) for actual medicine and some herbs for a homeopathic remedy while Elena stayed with us at the house and started heating some water and generally being motherly. Then, after bringing medicine and concocting some sort of home remedy, they both ran to their house and brought back some soup for John, since he wasn't able to keep anything else down. They left us to rest more while making plans for us to come over later if John was feeling better.

It was such a blessing. Here we are, far from home and John is really sick. I was worried and trying to figure out how I could get the people at the pharmacy to understand what was wrong and how to help me. I was also worried about John losing so much fluid, and I couldn't think of any place to get PediaLyte or Gatorade or anything other than water, which was just going right through him. The Lord clearly placed us in Marco and Elena's care and they stepped right up to the plate. Once they knew something was wrong, they only wanted to help us in any way they could. It was awesome, especially at a time when John and I were both thinking that maybe we ought to just go home.
John made an amazing recovery that afternoon/night. By the next morning, he was feeling much better, although his stomach was still a little off. We didn't make it to Marco and Elena's the day before, but they had renewed their invitation for breakfast and so around 8:30 Marco came to pick us up and off we went!

We had a wonderful breakfast of fruit and yogurt and granola with (of course) bread and John made his way through a good bit of it. Then, wonder of wonders, they told us they had Wi-Fi and if we needed it, we were welcome to stay and use it for a while! HALLELUJAH. I had missed a deadline the day before so I was kind of anxious to make a connection and reassure my client that all was well. I also wanted to talk to my mom and let her know how we were, because she tends to worry ;)

We caught up with our electronical lives while Elena ran some errands and Marco did some work in his yard, and then they wanted us to stay for lunch and go with them to the store to buy groceries. So we did. We went to the SuperMercado (Super Market) in the mall here in Ambato and it was GLORIOUS to see. I love seeing the little stands of fruit and veggies, but it was reassuring to see that almost all of the amenities that we're used to in the States are available in Ecuador. In slightly different versions, yes, but still there. We don't plan on using a lot of them, but it's nice to know I can go to one place for, say, feminine products and cereal and mayonnaise, if I want.

After a lovely typical Ecuadorian lunch (fruit and bread, followed by soup, followed by rice and chicken with plaintains and avocado) our hosts offered to take us to one of the nearby little towns for the afternoon. We chose to go to Quisapincha, which is apparently famous for its leather goods. It's right above Ambato, about 20 minutes up the mountainside. Ambato lies in the valley and Quisapincha is on top of one of the nearby mountains. So we drove up and checked out a few of the stores, all of which had pretty phenomenal leather jackets, shoes, belts, etc. They were very modern looking, but Elena told us that about 80% of it is locally made. The other 20% is brought in, but only from other places in Ecuador.

An unexpected parade came through as we were window-shopping, so we watched as several small bands with dancers went by, as well as most of the town. Apparently Ecuadorians love a good parade and it seemed like everyone was in it, as there were hardly any people on the sidelines watching it.

Elena said that at night they would add fireworks to this structure

One of the dance groups

Indigenous dance group

After that, we hopped back in the car and drove through the main area of town. We saw the church, which is apparently the oldest in the area. There was also some sort of gathering in the main plaza which looked interesting, but it was getting chilly and it was lightly sprinkling, so we decided to head down the mountain.

We took a few pictures on the way down.

Volcano Tungurahua in the distance

The city of Ambato beneath Tungurahua

On the way down, Marco and Elena decided to take us through a little town called Achota. Elena said that when she was younger, she thought of Achota as being very far away, but now that Ambato has grown, she says it's very close.

In Achota, we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall place for what's called colada morada. It's a very interesting drink, but very good! It's made from a fruit called babacoa, black corn kernels, pineapple, blackberries and various spices. It's thicker than a regular drink, hence the name 'colada.' The black corn kernels and the blackberres turn the drink purple and it's served slightly warm. The spices in the drink remind me of Christmas. Marco and Elena told us that it's traditionally a drink for November 2nd, which I think is a national holiday where they remember their dead and visit the cemetaries.

Colada morada y pan dulce

After the colada morada and some wonderful bread, we drove through El Centro again, this time seeing a few things we had missed on Tuesday. We saw where the Ambato Cathedral was, as well as the main park. We hope to squeeze a visit in before we leave on Saturday.

So far, we really like Ambato. There's not a lot to do IN the city as far as tourists are concerned, but it's just got a really nice vibe. It's smaller than Quito, but still big enough to have a lot of the amenities of a larger city. It's also very centrally located - it's the capital of the region, Tungurahua, and many interesting areas are located within an hour or two drive. We are really enjoying Marco and Elena and their family, and they have been nothing but kind to us. They've even offered us suggestions on where to live when we come back!

V