San Pedro Scare

PREFACE:  You might want to save this post for the john, 'cause it's a loooooooong one.

First off, I'd like to give a shout out to Ecuador.  Not once did any of us get sick!  Thank you for being hygenic.

Also, we have one month left!!!!!!!!!!  That is LOCO!!!  We are trying to enjoy every minute of our trip that we have left and also trying to contain our excitement of going home.

Now- for the rest of the story...

After Vilcabamba we went 6 hours north to the city of Cuenca which is known for it's colonial beauty and charm.  We spent 2 nights there and had a nice relaxed time roaming around town.  After Cuenca we headed towards Salinas.  We should've made it in one day but that didn't happen.  To make a long story short, we got on a bus to Guaranda which is where you catch a bus up to Salinas but we ended up a couple cities past Gauranda and got let off on the side of a highway, at night, and had to walk back to the city to catch a bus back to Gauranda.  By the time we got there we had to stay the night and continue to Salinas the next morning.  It all worked out, though.

Salinas is a cute little mountain village known for its great cheese, salami, and chocolate.  We tried it all and it was yummy!  We needed to leave after one night to make our way to the town of Banos where Shawn was going to drop me off in order to go to Quito to get our friend, Kevin.  When we got to Banos that evening we remembered it was Thanksgiving, so we went to a cute little world cuisine cafe and had a feast of our own.  We ordered nachos for an appetizer, Steph had falafal, hummus, and pita bread and Shawn had pad thai.  We also got milkshakes!  It came out to $18, which is an outrageous amount of money to spend on dinner in Ecuador, but hey- it was Thanksgiving.  

The next day Shawn left for Quito to pick up Kevin.  Because Kevin got in late that evening they stayed the night and came down to Banos the next day.  At the bus station in Quito, Kevin needed to use the restroom.  He wasn't aware that you have to pay to use public restrooms (annoyingly, that has been the case in almost, if not every, country we've been to).  He walked straight past the bathroom attendant and she immediately freaked out and started yelling after him, "Diez centivos!  Diez centivos!!!".  He thought that the lady was just trying to sell him something, so he didn't pay any attention to her.  Instead of Shawn just paying the attendant, he let her anger build in order to see what he knew was coming.  When Kevin walked right past her again, without compensation, she became livid and started screaming this time, "DIEZ CENTIVOS!!!!".  Shawn, laughing his head off, finally went over and paid the poor lady her 10 cents and then explained the situation to his very confused friend.

Back in Banos the first thing Shawn and Kevin did was set up the laptop to watch the Nebraska vs Iowa college football game which was super exciting for them since Kevin is from Nebraska and Shawn is from Iowa.  It was Saturday night, so we decided to try to go out and find some live music.  We were not having much luck roaming around Banos in our search, but we did find another girl doing the same thing as us.  Joining forces, we finally found a place with some guitarists playing and although it wasn't what we were hoping for we ended up having a great time and making a new friend, Cassie.  Cassie is working at a non-profit in Quito for three months.  Since we would be heading back to Quito in the near future, we made plans to meet up with her there.

Day two we hiked around the beautiful surroundings for several hours and then in the evening tried the famous thermal hot baths where the town got its name.  Unfortunately, the hot baths had the opposite effect we were hoping for due to the insane amount of people that were trying to fit into the pools.

Day three we woke up and immediately after breakfast went and booked a waterfall tour and the volcano tour.  The waterfall tour was first and the volcano tour was supposed to start at 9pm that evening.  Besides it raining for most of the tour, we enjoyed getting to see the numerous waterfalls that surround Banos and even getting to ride a cable car across a river valley to get up right next to the falls.  

When we got back to Banos we had some dinner and went back to the hostel to wait for the bus to pick us up for the 9pm volcano tour.  We started to get a little tired, though, and our enthusiasm for our second tour of the day was quickly dwindling but that changed drastically in one second...

At around 8:30pm Kevin came down to our room and said, "You guys.  You will NOT believe the e-mail I just got."  The e-mail was from the U.S. Embassy informing him that the volcano, Tungurahua, the one we were about to go up to, had erupted the day before!  We could not believe that we hadn't even heard a word about it, or that the hostel owners didn't even warn us that we might have to evacuate from the town!!  We were no longer tired, we were PUMPED.  We headed outside to stand in front of our hostel that instant so as to not miss our bus.  

An hour went by.  Nothing.  No bus.  Eventually I went back inside the hostel and convinced the worker (in my very broken Spanish) to call another tour bus to come get us because ours, by that time, was an hour late and obviously wasn't coming.  He called one and said, "Okay.  5 minutes."  A half hour later...nothing.  The hostel employee came up to our room and was trying to explain something in Spanish.  I assumed he was saying that, once again, we were being stood up.  He was saying that...but he was also trying to give us a very good reason why.  Once he took out his lighter and started lighting it and saying, "Ahora!  Ahora!" ("Now!  Now!") I finally got it.  The volcano was erupting this minute!!!!  He said we could get a taxi to take us to a look out point so we could watch.  We sprinted out of the hostel.

From where the taxi dropped us off, we could see lava spewing and hear the earth grumbling.  It was one of the most amazing things we have seen our whole trip, but we weren't completely satisfied.  We wanted to be closer!  From hiking the day before, we knew there was a huge hill with a great view of the volcano that we could make it to in about 20 minutes.  Once we decided to make the late night trek, Shawn started running.  Kevin and I followed behind as quickly as we could.  When we finally made it, the view wasn't much better, but the sound was amazing.  We stood there in awe until the volcano's temper subsided.  Soooo cool.

The next morning we left Banos for the small fishing village of Canoa, on the coast.  This is when Kevin got an essential backpacker experience.  The journey was 14 hrs all together, but we didn't make it all the way to the coast in one day.  We got stuck in a crap city in a SUPER crap hotel after traveling all day and not eating an actual meal for about 30 hrs.  All part of the experience.  Fortunately, for me, I don't remember one minute of this annoying journey or any of the bugs in our hotel room because I was over 2,000 miles away buried deep (and so happily) in the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia.  Okay, not physically, but 100% mentally.  If you love a good book, read:  Marching Powder, by Rusty Young and Thomas McFadden.  It was a completely fascinating true story about an English drug smuggler, San Pedro prison, cocaine and corruption.  If you don't like to read then Kevin, who brought us the book (thanks, Kev!!!!), said that Brad Pitt is producing the movie.  

Once we made it to Canoa, we enjoyed the beach, the Pacific Ocean, the seafood, relaxing, and catching quiz night at an expats restaurant (We lost by one point!!  Bummer!),.  The day we got into town, though, there was some sort of rodeo going on.  There were cowboys on horses everywhere, pageant girls walking around (Kev was upset that we missed the contest), and that night there was a fair with rides!!!  

At dinner we heard some travelers talking about the fair and especially about this one ride called, "The Double Dragon".  They were really going on and on about it, so right after dinner we decided to go see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.  Getting on the seemingly unassuming ride right after eating was a bad idea.  Shawn and I almost lost our dinners, but we sure had fun and the near loss was equally caused by laughing so hard.  The laughing didn't end there because after "The Double Dragon" Shawn and I hopped on the ferris wheel.  I kid you not, we were on that stupid thing for at least 20 minutes!!  Kevin said he felt like a pedophile standing by himself waiting for us to get off the ride!  Hahahahaha!  Sooo funny.  Every time the wheel went past the teenager running the thing, I would try to get his attention to tell him that we wanted off, but he was on his cell phone.  Maybe he forgot he put people on, but probably more likely he just didn't care.  That was, by far, the longest dollar we've ever spent.

From Canoa we took an overnight bus (another essential backpacker experience) to Quito.  Since I learned very early on in our trip to never set foot on a bus without earplugs, I slept pretty well.  Kevin and Shawn didn't have as much luck.  They BLASTED crazy, upbeat, salsa music the entire night.  We got in at 5 am, thankfully found a 24 hr hostel with beds (which we were also thankful for because it was Fiesta de Quito and the city was full) and crashed.  When we finally got up for the day, we met up with Cassie and explored Old Town, had dinner, and had some super yummy cider which was perfect for the cold and drizzly night that it was.  We headed back to New Town where there was some big concert going on, but instead of enjoying the fiesta we ended the night pretty early because we were still really tired and also because Kevin had to leave for the airport at 3:30 in the morning.  

Shawn and I wanted to head to Colombia right away because we've heard so many great things about the country and want as much time here as possible.  It was 5 hours to the border and then another 2.5 hours to a decent place to get stuck for the night.  About a million people were also trying to get a bus to Pasto so we thought we'd be out of luck, but we ended up getting a bus and arriving in Pasto at around 9:30pm.  We found a hostel and asked the owner if there was an ATM around.  He said, "Yes!  But don't go tonight.  If you need money, I will just lend you some!"  Amazing.  We were really starting to like Colombia.

The next day we wanted to get to the city of Popayan, which was supposed to be cool and only 6 hrs from Pasto.  It was 10am and the next bus was at 10:30am, so we bought tickets.  The bus didn't show until 11:00am.  The bus didn't move until 11:30am.  At 11:32am the bus was stopped by the police.  The police got on and checked I.D.s.  The police took both of our passports and said, "Un momento."  It is a really bad feeling to not have your passport in your possession.  While we waited for what seemed like an eternity, but was only about 30 minutes, the police got back on and gave our passports back.  We found out later that they took two foreigners off the bus and tried to scam them out of  $50 each because they didn't have a vaccination card, which they don't need in Colombia.  The travelers were fluent in Spanish and knew a doctor in town so when they told the police, "No problem, we'll just call Dr. So and So and get this figured out right away."  The police said, "Nevermind." and let the travelers back on the bus.  We finally left town at around noon.  

Six hours later the bus broke down.  Three hours later the bus was still broken down.  I was not about to be stuck on a stuffy broken-down bus all night, so Shawn and I got off the bus and for a half hour, in the rain (Thanks for the umbrella, Rob!), I tried to flag down every vehicle that passed us.  Finally a sweet old man pulled over.  Shawn, I, and an older gentleman from Alaska grabbed our bags, jumped in the car, and said, "Peace!".  

At 11pm we made it to a hostel in Popayan and were so thankful.  The older gentlman/angel got a hefty tip for the rescue, which he was anxiously waiting for when he dropped us off.  The Alaskan got a call from one of the other travelers on the bus a half hour after we got to Popayan saying that the radiator hose was still broken, and they were about to remove the hose from the bus toilet to see if that would work.  So thankful we got a ride!

Okay, I promise I'm almost done.  This morning I was sitting on the back porch of our rustic room in the small village of Salento, drinking unlimited free delicious Colombian coffee from the hostel's own plantation, grateful for my freedom.  This is why....

When we woke up in Popayan, for some reason (probably from exhaustion), our senses were so offended by the noise-level and the busyness of the city.  We were desperate to get somewhere quiet and peaceful.  Even though we didn't give Popayan a chance, we didn't care.  We got on a 7 hr bus to Armenia where we could catch another hour long bus up to the small, quiet, beautiful village of Salento.  

As soon as we got to Armenia we found the shuttle bus to Salento.  One must've just left, because we were the first ones to the shuttle.  A couple minutes after we arrived a sweet, smiley, old man came and stood next to us and tried to have a conversation.  When the bus doors opened, he wouldn't get on until we got on first.  How polite, I thought.  After sitting in the bus for a minute, the sweet, old, smiley man asked us if we would watch his bag.  Of course, no problem.  He got off the bus.  A minute later we saw him running back to the bus.  He got on and in a rush, he held out a 50,000 bill ($25) and was trying to ask us for change.  Shawn really liked this old man, so he took out a wad of bills, but he didn't have the right change for the man.  So, the old, sweet, smiley man just started taking bills out of Shawn's hand.  My defenses immediately went up and I started to say, "No.  No tengo.  No Espanol.  No tengo."  But he said, "Esta bien." ("It's okay.") and took what he had already pulled from Shawn's hand, which was about $5, and then hurriedly ran off the bus.  Now, getting change for large bills is a problem in every South American country that we've been to.  But, I had never experienced someone taking both their bill AND the other person's bills.  I asked Shawn, "What in the world!?"  Shawn said, "Don't worry!  I trust him.  Plus, he's obviously coming back.  He left his bag here."  I said, "Okay, okay."  

Five minutes went by...Ten minutes...no guy and the bus driver started the engine.  15 minutes, no guy, and the bus is pulling out.  I start freaking out.  Do we tell the bus driver to stop and wait?  We don't know how.  So off we go.  The bag is a laptop case, so I open it up to see what's inside and if there's five bucks in there.  Hey- that's our dinner money!  All I find is a plastic bag with a couple pieces of clothing inside.  This is where the scare of the book, Marching Powder, and the scare of San Pedro prison came in.  I thought, "Okay, was this just a mistake or was this a scam?"  I immediately assume it was a scam.  Shawn and I go through the chain of events and he eventually agrees with me.  This was a scam.  THEN, I start thinking outloud, "This laptop case is probably lined with cocaine, and now my fingerprints are all over everything!  This is probably a much bigger scam then we had originally thought!  The police are probably waiting for us in Salento, and as soon as we get off the bus, I'm going to jail for the rest of my life or have to pay off the police with thousands of dollars!  My fingerprints!!!"  I am actually starting to hyperventilate, but trying to laugh this ridiculousness off.  Shawn and I keep looking at each other and nervously laughing, but we're both thinking the same thing:  "This is ridiculous, but what's even more ridiculous is that this is the kind of stuff actually happens!" and also, "What are we going to do with this bag?"  

We made the decision at the last second.  The first stop in Salento Shawn said, "Let's get off the bus."  I whispered, "Should I take the bag or leave it?  TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!!??"  He said, "TAKE IT!".  I grabbed the laptop case and we immediately stepped off the bus and started walking.  We walked for a couple of blocks and then stopped to take in our surroundings and to see if anyone was watching us or if police were coming after us.  It was dark, so we had to look really carefully for any hidden persons.  Once we kept going, we came across a dark stairwell, and I threw the bag in!  We looked around to see if anyone saw us.  We don't think so.  But our fingerprints are still on the plastic bag inside!  We decide that whoever uses that stairwell next will find the bag and get their fingerprints on it, which will then make it hard to prove that the bag is for sure ours.  We get to the hostel, and find it very hard to relax, but finally we do.  I was just waiting for the police to knock on our door.  That is why, after breakfast this morning and having multiple policemen walk past us without handcuffing us.  I finally calmed down, enjoyed the amazing view & coffee and was grateful for my freedom.  We're sure now that there were no drugs involved and that our minds were still buried in San Pedro Prison.  

Our next step is Bogota where we're excited to meet and stay with Eric Hansen's (Shawn's Aunt Mary's super significant other) brother, Chris.  After Bogota, maybe we'll get lasik surgery in Medellin, and then head to Cartegena, the most romantic city in the country.  Then hopefully more on the Caribbean coast before we somehow get to Panama City for our flight HOME!!!!!!!

Chao!!!