Home Sweet Home

I'm sure everyone knows by now, but Robyn and I have been home safe and sound since Oct. 5. Being home is bittersweet: we're glad to be back in the comfort of our homes and friends, but there's still a lot of world to see and travelling will always be part of our lives.

There are still at least two posts for me to put up here (Galapagos and Macchu Picchu), and then the blog's theme will likely change as our lives change direction again and we chart a new path.

Thanks to everyone for reading along. I've been posting quite a few pics of the trip within Facebook. If you don't have Facebook (or my contact info) then send me an email [steve.gervais(at)gmail.com] and we'll figure out a way for you to see all of the pics. Needless to say I've got plenty more than were posted here in the blog.

Have a good day.

Checking back in

Well, this is my first post of the month and it’s the 19th. Ouch. I think this just reflects how much fun we’ve had since arriving in Ecuador on the first of the month though. I won’t be able to convey in complete detail everything we’ve done for the past weeks, but I can give you a taste of the great places we’ve seen lately. Apologies if the sequence of visits is hard to follow – we’ve had to do some backtracking over this period in order to see what we wanted…

Banos and Montanita

Banos de Agua Santa is in the highlands of central Ecuador. It is a typical tourist stop and one that we were glad we saw. It’s main attractions are the thermal hot springs that surround the town and the ominous Tungurahua volcano that towers above it. Banos is a town for rest and relaxation and we indulged in what it had to offer by signing up for massages and, in Robyn’s case, a thorough facial. The competition in town is fierce for the tourists’ massage allowances so the prices were much cheaper than you’d find anywhere else – full body treatments cost $25 (which was nothing to stress out about). From our massages we managed to drop ourselves into the hot springs to unwind. Once thoroughly pruney we dragged ourselves, in a state of bliss, into one of the local hippy-vegetarian restaurants and had a great meal. Digesting our food was the most intense activity we engaged in that day. The next day we rented a dune buggy and toured around the town and neighbouring areas, checking out the waterfalls and taking a closer look at the immense volcano. Our time in Banos was brief and short on activities but we enjoyed the pace very much and aren’t ashamed to say we welcomed the time to take a breath.



After Banos we travelled to the coastal town of Montanita, still in Ecuador. We had heard of the great surf here and now that we have gained some semblance of skill at the sport we are anxious for any chance to get on a wave. The place was a typically (awesome) surf town where partying and socializing ride the waves between time on the board. The beach was a little crowded for our liking but we did spend an ample amount of time in the water and satisfied our ‘surf or die’ side for the time being. Montanita was our last stop before we organized ourselves for the Galapagos, which is where we’ve been for the past week…

Otaval-OMG Sweaters!

Using Quito as a launching point, we made our way to Otavalo, North of the capital. The draw to this small town is it’s market which runs on Saturdays and is the oldest and largest in Ecuador. While historically an opportunity for locals to hawk their products, produce, and livestock, the growing tourist interest in the event has swelled the market with stall after stall of souvenirs for sale.
Otavalo is nestled in a valley amongst cliffs and ridges, alongside Lago San Pedro and in the shadow of the nearby volcanoes Imbabura and Cotacachi. It is a beautiful landscape, although the elevation gives the weather a brisk bite – it was very similar to mid-autumn in Toronto. We spent our first day in town (Friday) enjoying our quant B&B and walking around the town. A smaller market is always present in the central square but we wanted to wait until the main event the next day before we made purchases, so we (read: Robyn) were able to quiet our pangs of retail hunger and hold off. As the day drew near to a close we were able to visit a local artesian named Miguel who was a master weaver and had been practicing his back-strap loom technique for over 60 years. We went to watch him work and he took us through the process of making one of his intricate weavings from wool collection, darning, threading, setting the loom and ultimately weaving. His work takes a vast amount of time, concentration, strength, and he still manages to inject massive amounts of pride. He had an ongoing friendship with our B&B owner and she told us that his mission is to continue the dying traditions of weaving textiles and we were honoured that he was willing to share with us. Sitting with him for the ninety minutes we did was a mesmerizing, meditative experience and a highlight of our trip as a whole. We eventually toured his shop/gallery and were able to purchase one of his pieces, which will be hung in our (eventual) house with reverence.
Saturday greeted us with sunshine and, after a hearty breakfast full of shopping fuel, we ventured back into the streets. The market had trebled in size and now cut off many of the streets surrounding the central plaza. Cars were diverted and visitors, both local and international, were encouraged to enter the labyrinth of kiosks which were all displaying their wares and fares. The most popular items, both in supply and demand, were clothing and accessories woven from Alpaca fibre. Imagine Merino wool except twice as thick and you get a picture of this luxurious material. Robyn and I each bought sweaters and we also bought a blanket, which we’ve since used a few times. We also bought heavy hand- made wool sweaters which will come in handy during the upcoming Canadian winter. The market was also a great place to people-watch and I was fascinated by the indigenous people, who both tended and frequented the booths, wearing their traditional garb: men wore straw sandals and white trousers with dark tunics and a black felt hat; the women wore ornate dresses and gold necklaces which were used to signify status through the size and number of beads. The tourists, especially nearer the end of Saturday and Sunday, were decked out in their newly-purchased sweaters, proudly displaying their new plumage which declared to everyone around that they were definitely not local (this is a strange behavioural phenomenon amongst the traveller genus). Obviously Robyn and I were amongst this group.
We shopped and watched for most of the day and then enjoyed an afternoon of lounging as the clouds rolled in later on and never left. We retired satisfied with our plundering and slept soundly knowing we had a sufficient load of souvenirs to add to our collection. Sunday we boarded the bus again for the necessary return to Quito en route to Banos, which has to be the most unfortunately named town in South America.

The Quito to Ecuador

We flew from Colombia to Quito, which is the capital of Ecuador. It is a beautiful town full of rich history and great architecture. The city has two distinct ‘districts’ of the old town and the new town. The old town houses the ancient buildings such as the central plaza and the city’s grand basilica. We stayed in the old town while in Quito and toured the area and soaked it all in the day after we arrived. Walking day trips around the old part of town allowed us to see most of the great sights, as well as taste the homemade ice cream at a local heladeria San Agustin, which first opened it’s doors in 1858. We also visited the Contemporary Museum, which was a walking tour of Ecuador’s revolution and struggle for freedom from French rule. With key figures and events depicted in life-size wax figures, there was a lot to look at; unfortunately the entire museum was in Spanish and we had no idea what was going on or who we were looking at and learning about. Robyn took the opportunity to pose alongside the wax figures, forever embossing herself into the history of the country (and providing some new stories).
The ‘new town’ is a result of the influx of foreigners and travellers: while light on historic and cultural outposts, the area boasts plenty of great bars and restaurants. We walked this part of town (which was much larger than we had expected) for the second day, sampling the food and spirits. Our day ended at a café which overlooked the North part of the city’s stunning view of the valley below. The sunset and cervezas complimented each other perfectly and capped off a great couple of days.
We did have a troubling experience while departing the city, but it’s only the cost of travelling. When we were checking out of the hotel we had two hours to kill between checkout time and the departure of our bus, Southbound deeper into Ecuador. With the help of the front desk we put all of our bags into the locked luggage storage room, which was a glorified closet. We ventured into the city and returned to the hotel for our things, retrieved our bags from the room, and took off to board the bus. It wasn’t until we arrived at our hostal in Banos, five hours away, that we realized that we had been robbed. An inventory of the losses included a cell phone, an iPod, Robyn’s credit card, and my sunglasses. Because of the timing and sequence of events, we knew that it had to be an employee of the hotel who had access to the locked storage room. More upsetting was the fact that, on the day of the theft, someone attempted to make a $5000 purchase on the credit card. Despite numerous calls to the hotel we were unable to locate any of the items or even get management to accept some of the responsibility. Luckily we were able to prevent any further significant damage and the items we lost are easily replaceable, but it was still a frustrating experience.

Beauty and the Beach

We flew from Panama City into Bogota, the capital of Colombia. I will admit that we both were a little apprehensive in flying into Colombia, given its reputation, but we heard great things about this country from many fellow travellers and decided to throw caution to the tailwind and explore. We stayed only one night in Bogota before launching out again, North to Cartagena.

Cartagena is another walled city and is the oldest in Colombia. Cartagena was used as a collection point for the treasures that the Spanish collected while conquering the indigenous of South America. Once collected, the booty would be packed aboard giant ships and transported back to Europe. Originally built in 1533, it quickly gained wealth and notoriety, which attracted those pesky plundering pirates. After a couple of initial attacks and damage to the city, the walls were erected in an effort to protect the Spanish interests. This set the stage for this beautiful enclosed ancient cityscape, which has been well preserved since its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. Despite the beautiful walls, the plundering continues within the city as the vast majority of the buildings have been converted into tourist shops and swanky cafes. Regardless of the invaded consumerism, the tight streets and overhanging balconies still lend the small town a cozy charm.




While in the area of the old city, we actually stayed in the neighbouring beach town of Bocagrande. The beachside gathering is really only a group of three parallel streets that run along the water and, although it has a spattering of hotels and restaurants, it caters heavily to local tourists as opposed to international travellers. We struggled to find food that could satisfy our vegetarian diet and servers that could understand our malnourished Spanish but we managed. The beach was not the most pristine but it was packed with locals and provided great people watching, especially during sunsets when the police herded everyone out of the water and a whole day of drinking had everyone drunk in good spirits.



Three nights in the area allowed us to see and do everything that we wanted to, and from here we were off to Medellin.

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!

From Bocas it was a short flight into the heart and financial soul of Panama - the capital of Panama City. When the name Panama is mentioned the immediate next thought is of the canals and we weren't about to visit this great country and slide past its most identifiable component without further investigation.

Before we got to the locks, though, we realized that there were other important and interesting places to visit around the city. The first stop of our 'ubertourist' day was to the old town of Casco Viejo, which was the second birthplace of this great city. The first iteration of Panama City, designated Panama Viejo, was attacked and razed by Captain (Henry) Morgan in 1671, and Casco Viejo was built soon after. In order to protect the city from further pirate attacks, the new location was built surrounded by walls on a peninsula a few kilometres away. This area was originally called Las Siete Calles because it is comprised of seven streets that each offered their own distinct wares and services (ie. butcher's street, shopkeeper's) at the time. While these services have evaporated, the numerous churches remain and sprinkle the area with ancient architecture and charm. The narrow, paved streets wind in and out of old convents, cathedrals, art galleries, parkettes and plazas. Not all the buildings have been properly preserved though, and it is evident that the Panamanian government is pouring money into the area to continue developing it into a tourist draw.


If the ancient sights weren't enough for one location, Casco Viejo also holds the distinction of housing the home of the President of Panama, which also happens to be White. We were amazed by the amount of access we had to this important building as we were allowed to walk right up to the front entrance, taking pictures the entire time. We simultaneously felt very touristy and VIP.


Although Casco was big in history and things to see, it is actually quite a small area and did not take very long to peruse completely so we had enough time to kill two sights with one bus pass and see the Canals also. I was interested to know that the Canals were originally built by the States as a means to encourage cross-world shipping and generate profits. In return for the materials and expertise in designing and building the Canals in 1913, the agreement between the US and Panama decreed a small strip of land on either side of the Canals as American soil. As such, the canals and profits generated by them were American property, which were shared with Panama as a percentage. Because of the vast amount of money they generated, the people of Panama sought control of the Canals and eventually won their battle, with the locks being turned over to its native country in 1999. To give you a sense of how much money is made by these locks, while we visited them we watched two huge cargo ships cross through and were told, via the PA, that the Canals generated, just from these two ships, over $500,00US in revenue. When we were told this we couldn’t help but wonder where all this money goes – Panama was not a desolate country but it by no means seemed as if the money easily trickled down into the country’s communities.


The locks themselves were obviously immense and impressive. There are two sets of locks so two ships can be brought from one ocean’s level to another simultaneously. There are plans for expansion, adding three more passageways further West from the current site. It’s amazing to think that there is an ever-increasing demand for shipment considering the size of the ships that can already pass through. The largest container ships in the world are called Panamax ships and are designed specifically to pass through the locks with two inches of clearance all around them. These are massive. I would estimate that, on deck, there are at least 5x5x15 (375) shipping containers visible, and we were told that the ships had a much higher capacity below deck than above. Considering a transport truck carries only one or two of these containers, you can get a sense of the amount of cargo that these vessels can carry. We watched the ships for about an hour and then enjoyed a coffee and dessert at the attached gourmet restaurant. We felt very sophisticated and cultured.

The next day we visited the Causeway, which is a long manmade bridge of land that connects the main city to a small island within the bay. It is about 4km long and very narrow, but provides a great place for locals to walk, run and bike, and is also a favourite tourist stroll, providing an outlet from the hustle and bustle of the city. We rented bikes and went up and down the area, stopping to look off one side at the city and docks; huge yachts obstructing the view to the towering buildings in the distance, and watch the ships lumber their way into the Canals on the other. We ate dinner this night at a great pizzeria at the end of the Causeway, which allowed us great views of the city as the sun set and the light show of a powerful storm that rolled in.


We had officially checked off all of the major sights to see in Panama and were pleasantly surprised – although many can say they’ve ‘passed through’ Panama, we are proud to have stopped and smelled the boat fumes.