luke's stuff: news of ecuador

cuenca and the storm

ive only been here a very short time (a week or so), but already i like ecuadors atmosphere more than perús. the mood of the people, the chilledoutedness of the place, the greenness, and the quality of life for the people here seems to be much better than in perú. they seem to be better off. the yellow taxis here are more upmarket american chevorlet´s or better japanese models, not cheap korean tico´s.
this post is coming from cuenca, a very clean, european style city that is in my book is better than any peruvian city (although it just makes me miss europe more), and one of the prettier cities ive seen throughout the world during my travels. there seems to be less poverty here in comparison with perú. obviously it exists, but here in the south it seems not nearly as prevalent as it is in perú.
i began my ecuadorian travels in vilcabamba, a very relaxed little town in the south of ecuador that apparently is a stop on the backpacker trail, although i saw very few. it is looked over by a large rock named `mandango` much in the way that arthurs seat looks over edinburgh. i needed a bit of chilling out after a hard week of partying in máncora, so i spent a few days around there and around loja doing pretty much nothing but going for walks up the hill and around the town. i can do the mandango. as soon as i got to vilcabamba i noticed something different. the people smiled more than they did in peru. there is a much more upbeat attitude about the place, less hassle, less people trying to sell sunglasses or shoelaces, less people begging for money. a reason for this could be because of their current government. i think the majority of people support it, which is a nice change from peru where around 15% of people support their government. the current ecuadorian government (led by the Alianza PAIS party, which is an abbreviation meaning in english `proud and sovereign fatherland alliance) has improved economic conditions, and it seems to have made a strong effort to help the people of the country. the vilcabamba attitude seems to be shared throughout the south of the country. new roads are being built all throughout the south (which annoyingly causes a large amount of traffic delays), there is alot of construction work going on, and the rate of unemployment has decreased........but anyway, vilcabamba. the hostel i wanted to stay at was a little out of town. it has spa baths, saunas, a swimming pool, and lots of very relaxing things you cant usually find at any cheap hostel. it was fully booked up for three days because there was some kind of festival going on, so i couldnt stay there. they kicked out all the gringos coz important ecuadorian people apparently were going to stay there. so this festival was a 3 day (well, mostly night actually) festival simply in support of the government, nothing more. i ended up staying at a hostel right in the centre of town, next to the main church, which seems to be the centre of every town throughout peru and ecuador. and after that week in máncora, thinking vilcabamba would be a nice quiet place to chill, i realized i had timed my arrival quite badly. on the first night while trying to sleep after a week of a lack of it, at around 7pm i was rudely awoken by some man with a microphone and then the sound of fireworks just outside my room. my whole room shook and i wasnt then sure what all the commotion was. maybe the noise could be gunshots and baddies were trying to take over the town. then there seemed to be some kind of very loud cheering, and the music began. i had to check it all out. i got up, walked outside, and saw that pretty much the whole town (about 300 or so people) had gathered in front of the church to see some guy singing karaoke reasonably terribly. i pondered this strange scene and decided to stick around a while. his singing didnt get any better, and i couldnt figure out why people were clapping after every song. then some man in a wheelchair surrounded by policemen spoke about how great ecuador is, how great vilcabamba is, and everybody started cheering wildly. afterwards a clown started doing some kind of comedy act which i could only understand half of, and the karaoke continued.........i continued to ponder all of this and wonder what the hell was going on. i couldnt be bothered talking to anyone in my state of tiredness and headed back to bed, hoping to have all of my questions answered ´mañana´.
i awoke from my saggy bed, took another cold shower (i didnt have a hot one since i left arequipa), went to get some breaky (which consisted of bread, avocado, tomato, and bananas) and headed up mandango. it was a hot and windy day. getting up there to the top was almost like rock climbing, but a nice challenge. i saw a scorpion walking across the trail in front of me, and decided that from now wherever i went in south america i would shake out my shoes before putting them on. it was the first real life scorpion ive ever seen. he didnt seem to be bothered about me though and continued on his weary path in search of other insects to eat. i kept walking. the top of mandango reminded me a little of day 2 of the kepler track (the forest burn saddle part between luxmore and iris burn huts), although the views weren´t quite as spectacular. the track ran right along the mountain top with steep cliffs on either side, and the wind threatened to throw me over the edge. however, i managed to get back down alright (even though the downhill part of the track is very badly maintained and overgrown with aloe vera and all kinds of thistles), and headed back to town. i arrived in the centre to see alot of police cars, policemen with guns, and townsfolk once again clapping and cheering. they seemed to be following someone. then once again i saw this man in a wheelchair. he now was surrounded by policemen with guns and townsfolk, being pushed slowly around the town square and every now and then having a foto taken with some admirer. i kept my distance a little as i dont really like guns, and watched from a distance of about 15 metres as this man was pushed like royalty around the town square. this man gave me a nod and a wave. i waved back and smiled. he seemed like a nice man whoever he was. maybe he waved at me coz i was the only foreigner around, or maybe he liked my shoes. i dont know. i asked a local lady who the man in the wheelchair was, and she told me he was the vice president of ecuador, lenín moreno. i felt a sense of pride that the vice president of ecuador had waved to me. i enquired more into the strange goings on in the town and as to why he was in a wheelchair. in 1998 some stupid baddie tried to rob him, he retaliated, and was then shot in the back. he´s used a wheelchair ever since then. as for the reasons why there was a 3 day festival in support of the government........the popular president, rafael correa, has called for a referendum on the 28th of september to change the constitution. his ideas are reasonably leftist (somewhat similar, though not quite as far left, as those of the bolivian president evo morales), and he seems to have support from the majority of the poplulation. the new constitution would allow the president to run for reelection, allow him to dissolve congress, allow congress to dismiss the president, give the president authority to handle monetary and lending policies, ban large land-holdings, and give the government the authority to expropriate crappy useless farms. he wants the foreign oil companies to give the ecuadorian government more money (for every 5 barrels of oil produced, the foreign oil companies currently give 1 to the ecuadorian government), and pollute less into ecuadorian rivers whose waters are vital for some jungle communities. some of these jungle communities have taken the foreign oil companies to court, suing them for millions and millions of dollars for destroying their water and their way of life. the court case is still going on.
but despite all of this, this is south america. even though the country now seems to be upbeat about everything, things seem to be improving economically, and the quality of life seems to be getting better, the people are generally politically fragile and passionate. if he fails to deliver on his promises to improve the country after the new constitution has been approved, he will be ousted, and things could once again turn sour. but anyway, this all makes for an exciting time to be in ecuador. revolution is graffitied on the wall, there is a sense that something good is about to happen; you can see it on the faces of the people. after leaving vilcabamba and loja, i arrived in cuenca to a huge rally through the middle of town. a rally in support of the rafael correa and his constitution revolution. it was about 3km long, and the people marched through the humid heat of the day which turned to a heavy thunderstorm about an hour after i arrived. after witnessing the march i rocked up to some hostel, showered (a hot one, finally :), crashed, and later on was once again rudely awoken. this time is was not by a man with a microphone, but by 3 bloody noisy roosters. i guessed it must be dawn. i looked at my phone. 3am. the roosters crowed until 8am, and for those five crazed hours i had no sleep whatsoever. in the morning i left the hostel and moved to another one at the other end of town, as far away from the roosters as i could possibly get. i wandered around town with a cool australian hippie guy named andrew all day and we witnessed what cuenca had to offer. theres a couple more things i wanna to do around here, but today is sunday. nothing is open except internet cafes, the odd shop, and the bus station. it is reasonably dead like the large tarantula i saw on the roadside this afternoon. today is another day to chill out in chilled out ecuador, and when i leave cuenca my journey shall continue northwards to the neverending unknown...........