Monday, April 10, 2006

Another almuerzo today. It would be nice to find something besides chicken soup, followed by chicken-rice-menestra-bubblegum soda. But the food is good and for $1.50 per meal it's worth it to suck it up and eat chicken every day, at least for a little while. Unfortunately the thing about denying ourselves even just a little bit is that we end up going into a greedy panic and splurging on something else. In the afternoon we went to this little fancy coffee and nut store that Michael had discovered.

Michael is a pistachio fiend, so we got a half-kilo or so of those. We also bought a quarter wheel of cheese. We didn't bother to ask what type it was, but it's locally made and comes in big, pale cream, rind-y wheels. At the supermarket we got some Ritz crackers to go with the cheese. The hostel sells soda, beer and water on the honor system - you just help yourself and then put your name on the list. So we got a liter of Pilsner to go with our small feast.

We offered the hotel guy some pistachios and he popped one in his mouth whole - I was terrified he'd break a tooth before I could show him how to take the shell off first. It turned out he had never had pistachios before, but he seemed to like them a lot, once he started shelling them.

It was over the cheese that we met Ruben and Katrien, from Belgium. I guess they also miss cheese. As soon as Ruben tasted it he was off to buy some for them as well. Katrien is also a writer. They have a blog, but she is also writing a travel column for her city's free Metro newspaper. That would have been fun.

Ruben and Katrien went to the Galapagos and they confirmed what we've heard everywhere: it's amazing. It was one of my top attractions to South America and I'm really disappointed that we didn't go, but we simply couldn't afford it at this point. It's about one thousand dollars each, less if you can get a last-minute deal. Which equals a full month of just doing "regular" stuff down here. But we figure a trip to the Galapagos is something that would be easy to do later as a separate trip on a regular two-week vacation.

But for those who read this looking for tips in preparation for your own trip, I'll pass this along - the number of days quoted in the trip include the first and last day, during which nothing really happens. For example, if you book a four-day trip, you'll get on the boat at maybe 3:00 in the afternoon and not really see or do anything until the next day.

And then on day four, you'll be jettisoned in the morning, so you won't really do anything that day either. So basically you should subtract two days from whatever number of days is advertised. I'm including a link to their website. The text is in Flemish, but the photo captions are in English.

Anyway, they were pretty cool and we all hung out for a while, until they had to go meet their Swiss friends to check out the hot baths. They invited us to come along but we declined. It just hadn't looked that good to us when we tried to go yesterday. But I hope we see them again so they can tell us how it was. I'm really curious to know if we made a bad decision or not. Also they were nice.

For our last dinner in town we went to the Fireplace Restaurant, just down the street, where we had a great dinner of pasta carbonara. I asked for my pasta to be al dente, and it was. Possibly it would have been anyway, but no point in kicking myself later.

The one guy was doing pretty much everything - waiting tables, cooking, playing host - so the dinner took a nice, leisurely two hours, which I like. When there's a crackling fire and we're paying a whopping $15 for dinner for two (thereby cancelling out all our $1.50 lunches), we want to take our time and enjoy it, which we did.

Tomorrow we are leaving Baños for Alausí, to take the famous train. At one point the line stretched all the way from Quito to Cuenca, but what with the earthquakes and the mudslides only a short stretch is left. Possibly this section would also be abandoned, but it's such a popular tourist attraction that they keep it going. The ride starts in Riobamba and then travels five hours to Alausí, where it goes for one more hour, including the famous Nariz del Diablo switchbacks, to Sibambe, and then comes back.

The tourist draw is that you get to ride on top of the train to enjoy the view. It's supposed to be cold in the morning and uncomfortable on top of the train, and the five hours from Riobamba to Alausí can be done in two hours on the bus, so Michael and I have decided to just meet the train in Alausí for its final hour out and down the Devil's Nose to Sibambe and back.

I originally wanted to use the ride as a functional part of our trip between Baños and Cuenca, but I was overruled. We're going to stay the night in Alausí and just ride the train as a round-trip tourist ride, taking an onward bus in the morning. Michael's point of view - safety of our bags, ignorance of bus schedules in Sibambe, etc. - makes sense. but this means there will be no "HOURS ON THE TRAIN" number because I don't count transportation that doesn't help us along the route from New York City to Ushuaia.

 

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Another view of Baños.

Another clown. These were seriously everywhere.

Hospedaje Santa Cruz, Baños.

An extra Palm Sunday photo. A couple dressed up for the holiday and a woman dressed for the beach. Despite the fact that it's quite nippy in Baños.