Well, it was hell getting here, but now we are beside the river and have been out walking the town today. No one wants to cash our Amex travelers checks, so we'll try again Monday.,.hrmpph. What I keep laughing about is the way our taxi driver pronounced our hotel, which is the Villa Nova Inn. When he was asking other cabbies where the hotel was located, he would say to them, "Donde es de Bee-No-Bean!" hahaha.
The drive from that awful Guayaquil city was terrifyiing for 3 whole hours....the driver sped and passed everyone in front of him on a two lane road all the way, and even did it in the thick white fog!!! I prayed a lot and somehow we got here without sliding off of a 300 foot drop off and past the mud slide blocking the road. In addition to all that, the driver played latino rap and rock all the way, you know, that continuous shrill beat that never stops? Oh and yes, the air conditioning in the van was set at I'm sure 40 degrees. No way will we go that route back to the airport in Quaya-Kill! Also, that city is devastatingly impoverished, lined along the roadsides in the city and outside the city were tiny rotten wood shacks where they sit all day and sell their farm produce every day of the week. Some houses on stilts had no window glass and they were about large enough for two small rooms for the whole family. A sad sad scene to pass on the road. And the city is huge with this kind of setup.
Cuenca had some of that on the outside skirts, but it got better as we drove into the city. It's pretty, quaint old buildings, lots of good food at little restaurants, nice friendly people. The language was quite a problem in the Quayaquil airport, but we're getting used to communicating now, especially with Allan's IPod language translator. It works great for immediate on the spot translation of Spanish to English and vice versa. So when we had lunch today at Kookaburras (English speaking), we breathed a sigh of relief, whew.
Tomorrow we go to our little studio apartment just around the corner and we'll stay there for I'd say about a week. I'm voting for flying to Quito for the remainder of our trip, as it is more U.S. like and north of it are a group of villages where artists, craftspeople, and artisans gather to market their wares. Each village section makes a particular things, such as copper pots, another does baskets, while another section does weaving and so on.
It is cool here and very comfortable, sunny days, cool nights, breezy, and the river runs fast over big boulders, a nice sound to sleep by.
...and Allan wrote...
Our first full day in Cuenca was all about walking around town, doing a bit of shopping, checking out a few restaurants and snapping some photos. Our hosts at the Villa Nova Inn are super kind and helpful, and they make a point of having an English-speaking person here 24x7. Seems they are catering to norteamericanos and others of the English language persuasion.
It is a relief to come back to the hotel and not have to try to figure out the right thing to say in Spanish. I'd heartily recommend this hotel and its friendly staff. Our daily room rate includes an American breakfast at the restaurant next door and the 22% IVA tax (which is, I believe, a VAT tax). They're even providing the wi-fi we're using to post blogs, check email, etc. Not bad for just $49 / night.
As we walked around town today I had many occasions to use Jibbigo (software app on my iPod) to translate for us. It really is neat to speak to the iPod and have it magically tell me what to say in Spanish. "Is it made by hand?" I ask Jibbigo. "¿Está hecho a mano?" says Jibbigo. I ask the question in Spanish and then...hope to understand the high speed reply from the merchant. Until now I haven't asked the Ecuadoriano to speak to the iPod. I'm just winging it in trying to understand them -- which is actually working reasonably well. It's a lot of fun trying to communicate and learn a bit of the language. Even moreso because the folks here are quite accommodating and willing to help the gringos out. Plus, a good many Ecuadorianos do speak English.
We find that crossing a street can be like Russian roulette: make the wrong move and die. Drivers here not only don't pay much attention to double yellow lines, lane markers and traffic signs. They have right of way over pedestrians. If you step out in front of a car and get hit, it's pretty much your fault. We're double and triple-checking each intersection we want to cross, first to see if it's a one-way or two-way street, and therefore how many directions we have to look to be sure of not getting run down and flattened to the cobblestones. And while we're looking, a small boy maybe 8 years old riding a bicycle zooms by us on the sidewalk, just inches from the curb and passing traffic, with his 4 year old brother sitting on the handlebars. Ouch! I can't imagine letting a small child have the run of the sidewalk amidst all that traffic. I guess he's used to it and probably has a better sense about him, and about staying alive, than a kid at home who is probably watched over continuously and carefully by mom and dad.
I've read that Ecuadorian law is based on civil law, not common law. The difference is that common law uses judges and "rule of law" precedent to determine guilt or innocence. Civil law though is basically a written collection of laws that judges can't interpret much at all; they're pretty much required to follow them. Juries are not much used in civil law countries either. The upshot of this is that laws on the books determine guilt or innocence, not the circumstances of an event. So if the law here says it's incumbent on the pedestrian to watch his step, that's it. No arguing who's guilty because it's already been spelled out.
At least that's my take on the issue. And it turns out to my surprise that our revered "rule of law" and common law approach is used only in Anglo-type countries: USA, Canada, UK and Australia. The rest of the planet seems to follow one form or another of civil law.
Enough for now. Time for dinner! More pics at http://goo.gl/ngZcF
Enough for now. Time for dinner! More pics at http://goo.gl/ngZcF
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