<COUNTDOWN: 09/11/2013 | expiration of last T3 visa>

It is Monday November 4th. Monday next week I shall be up in the highlands of the Andes. My friend/host tells me that the contractor who built the guest house made one window too wide, and now it is raining and leaking into my bedroom. Great beginning! Apparently it is very hard to find weather stripping in Ecuador

….the wonderful aliens of Ecuador.

The guys in The Wizard of Oz went to see the wizard - I may as well go to see the Aliens. I may be kidding but some Ecuadorians are not. Check this out: “Ovnipuerto” in Ecuadorian means UFO Airport:

A report of an expat who was there

Can you imagine meeting some aliens that look like the figurines in the blog above? I would hope that my initial reaction is not to run for cover.

December 21, 2012 we are told is as far as the ancient Maya astronomers went in recording a calendar. The pessimists chose to see it as a bad omen - the optimists as the chance for a paradigm shift - which could mean a new, hopefully better consciousness for human beings, and a more promising way to see ourselves and our future.

I pay no heed to dooomsayers. However the fact that so many minds and hearts are focused on that date is likely to create something. Thus, I tell myself, it is wise to take advantage of such a mass mind phenomenon, to assume an open and expectant attitude for whatever we may be ready to feel or experience.

Being lucky enough to expect to be in Ecuador among cousins of those ancient Mayas, I endeavored to find myself in kind and hopeful company, in a beautiful place in the Andes near the town of Cuenca.

Thus for the period of December 20th to 23rd I shall be a guest of the Gaia Sagrada Spiritual Retreat Center. I have a good feeling about the place and the woman who founded it. And for the 3 nights and four days stay in my private room, with all vegetarian meals included, I am paying the astounding sum of $80. Hello Ecuador!

You really need to visit the Gaia Sagrada gallery

It could be said in a fantastic realm that a winged horse was seen traveling from the Bay down the lenght of California to the City Of Angels. And that is the way I felt gliding at 70 to 100 MPH down Interstate 5 accompanied by Sirus music, and an unending procession of trucks, in the rented white Chevy Malibu that seemed at times to drive itself.

American Airlines should be ashamed of carrying that name. On the domestic flight plane was old, with entertainment equipment of 30 years ago. People looked around for missing buttons. One man had a seat without light to read by. The buttons to control the air vents over the passenger seats were gone. The AA international flight out of Miami seemed in better shape possibly because it is serviced in Buenos Aires or Santiago of Chile. However my light switch actually serviced the seat in front of me; weird!

Do not assume that because you have an assigned seat you do not need to bother to push to the front of the line. By the time I arrived at the entry port, staff called me back and told me I had to check in my main carry on because there was no more storage space.I insisted I had computers and my medication in there. They told me to take it out. I took out the new computer, my nexus7 and my Kindle and a bag with all medications. In the heat of the moment I forgot that I also had a dossier with all my important and critical documents: birth certificates, naturalization cert, Italian citizenship papers etc - all irreplaceable items. Worse yet I left two documents from the Ecuadorian consulate that I have to present to some official here. I sweated it all the way to pick up time in Guayaquil. Luckily I found the carry-on all in order when I arrived. There was also a cab holding out my name to ferry me 10 minutes to the hotel; cost was $6

The advantage of this hostel is that it is ten minute walk from the Airport and about the same to the Bus Terminal. It looks like a regular residence changed to hotel. An American Dominick Buonamico is associated and runs their internet services. Generally when an American or other expat is involved prices tend to be higher. The $45 per night is high for a hostal (hostel) in Ecuador.

Run your mouse over the pictures for some explanation:

Got up early Sunday November 11th, to the included breakfast. Seems there were only two who were guests, or who bothered to get up early on a Sunday for breakfast. Just coffee, scrambled eggs and toast. My companion was a British lady in her 60s. Turns out she has been to Ecuador quite a few times for work - first time was 31 years ago. She is a biologist who now contracts out as an expert on banana cultivation and exportation. This time she was attending a banana conference in town. I remind you that Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas in the world. In the past she has been assigned to check on inspections required at the Guayaquil port, before shipment to the UK. She told that when she was still new and naive, she decided to do an un-announced inspection at night. She found that few of the daytime regulations were followed at night. But her contacts here were shocked to learn that she was walking alone around the port in the middle of the night. She was a very interesting person and we had a nice conversation. But I had to rush to catch my bus at 9:00AM. In retrospect I have come to think I missed a golden opportunity to spend a Sunday with this very interesting lady who did not seem afraid to walk around the town alone. She spoke Spanish, certainly better than me; and I would have left more rested the next day. But the momentum was there to keep going to complete what was already an 11 hours journey into the Southern Hemisphere. It is too bad that chances like that appear when we are preoccupied with handling other tasks and we fail to integrate them into our life. I am afraid that I shall always consider myself guilty of lack of a presence of mind; on the very first full day in this land. And as is often the case in a new computer game, there will be many golden nuggets we shall fail to pick up. But we must continue on.

It was not until 8 hours later that I realized I had made the mistake of not calling Mario and Susan my hosts to confirm my arrival and to make sure a taxi would be waiting to pick me up in Lojia. Sometimes I think too many thoughts, but forget the ones I should be concentrating on.

Welcome to the Hotel California

Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador with nearly three million inhabitants, is the commercial, industrial, and import export hub of the country. Situated on the Guayas River and the Pacific coast, Guayaquil is known for its contagious informality, lively social life, and year-round tropical weather. Guayaquil, known as the Pacific Pearl, is the main port of Ecuador. Malécon 2000, the largest architectural development in the last century of Guayaquil;s history, is a waterfront boardwalk that runs from Cuenca Street in the south of the city, all the way to Barrio las Peñas on the north.

This is one hot place, I have to tell you. I arrived at around midnight and it was sweating hot. Way hotter than LA! Was glad to leave it - though I must make a point of coming back to visit the largest and most productive of Ecuadorian cities. A couple of hours out of the station and the metropolis begins to show it third world under garments. Besides the huge fields of all sorts of agricultural products, you begin to see the rural poverty that marks developing countries. Take my advice avoid collectives. The bus company I chose is a collective and I did not realize that the driver is also the owner of the bus. A pretty tough Mercedez-Benz bus, but was nonetheless third class by the condition of its interior. I suspect that middle class Ecuadorians do not frequent these buses. But expats rely of them as very cheap transportation; and the Americans I have met being rather causal and hippie looking do not mind rubbing shoulders with the locals - and believe me you end up meeting quite a few on such a log trip. I found it interesting that in spite of the heat and humidity of the plains I did not get any undesirable smells from those that sat next to me. Actually they do not seem to have any body odor at all; which I find quite interesting. it is apparent by now that most people take me as an Ecuadorian. Once they notice my lack of the language they ask me if I am Brazilian. What is good is that I do not stick out at all, and most people do not give me any second looks. I find them a very warm and kind people. A young American couple did get on for part of the way and they looked like they had just emerged from the jungle. They passed out immediately; the man did not even bother to have a shirt on.

Three hours across the plain covered with plantations of bananas, cocoa and others crops - then 4 hours of climbing up a very difficult highway with rain, fog and slides and much construction delaying us by more than an hour.

The bus ended the journey in the city of Loja at about 7:00 PM. From there I negotiated a $15 cab ride to Vilcabamba which lies 28 miles south, and a lower altitude. After whole day of traveling was I glad to find waiting for me a beautiful bedroom for a good night sleep.

Vilcabamba