A quick trip

We don’t usually write about our travels, but a lot happened on our recent one week trip to the States. There were a few important business, tax, and banking problems that could not be done online or in the mail, so we packed up, made some quick travel arrangements, and flew to North Carolina.

One interesting aspect of the flights was the increased level of security. In Quito, we went through Ecuador exit procedure without problems, then at the departure lounge, experienced our first “pat down.” Jonny thought it was fun and asked for a pair of latex gloves from one of the attendants and proceeded to pat down the agents to general hilarity. I was then “selected” to go to the checked baggage area out on the tarmac. Escorted by a guard, we went through many restricted areas for about a quarter mile of walking up and down endless stairs to an area near the runway piled high with hundreds of pieces of luggage waiting to be loaded onto planes. Our four bags were pulled aside and one suitcase sat on a table with an attendant waiting for me to open it. He took out Jonny’s sippy cup that had a dragon’s head on the top that bounces up and down and asked me what it was. I explained that it was a drinking cup and he nodded with some level of understanding, zipped the bag closed and I was escorted back. The guard and I were both patted down again and returned to the waiting lounge.

Our LAN Ecuador flight was almost like flying in the old days, an excellent meal, comfortable seats, and pleasant attendants. Miami airport was a zoo and required an hour on line to get out boarding passes, then again through security, customs, immigration but with no problem with the Sippy Cup. On USAir, we encountered more of what we had been used to, cramped seats, no food, and indifferent attendants. We stepped off the airplane in Charlotte to frigid weather. The east coast of the US was in a cold snap where temperatures in Florida reached into the low thirties and the low twenties in North Carolina.

 In our rental car, we spent four days racing from bank to lawyer to Walmart to friends to a short night’s sleep and then a repeat of the same schedule the next day. We got our fill of McDonald’s Big Macs and Kid’s meals, the usual shock at the excess in the stores compared to our simpler and probably more sensible offerings, plus an observation that, even in this economic crisis, people are terribly resilient and are doing the best that they can. We saw casual friends on the street and in stores and it seemed like we had not even been gone. Our close friends were still as close as ever and Jonny fell right in with his old buddies.

 Then it was time to come home to Cuenca again. Another four flights and the familiar bustle and confusion carrying four suitcases filled with Christmas gifts and items that friends had asked us to bring back. Stepping off the plane in Cuenca sent a wave of gratitude through all of us.

We were happy to be home. Though still tired from our exhausting trip, we kept our promise to Jonny and put up the tree and now look forward to the very festive holiday season ahead. Happy holidays to all. 

Wherever you go, there you are

We’re back after six weeks in the states and want to thank all the people who wrote emails and asked if we were OK as we had not posted anything for many weeks. We are fine, just a little exhausted from living in a suitcase for weeks on end.  The culture shock was, however, palpable. It felt very strange to hear English spoken by almost everyone but that certainly made everyday transactions in the US at the stores and on the phone much easier. It was interesting to hear the background babel in English rather than Spanish. The high ticket prices of almost everything were expected but we had really forgotten what a dramatic difference there is between Cuenca prices and the US.  In the year and a half we have lived in Cuenca and gotten used to the prices here, we have found that we are concerned when a taxi driver tries to extract $2.50 instead of the $2.00 that we know the ride is worth. We have become used to buying local brands at the market rather than imported products and saving 20 cents here, 50 cents there.  And we had changed our diet to almost all fruits and vegetables. In the last year, we had adjusted to the local economy.  But, when we started shelling out, what to us, were huge amounts of money for things we had become used to at a lower price, it was quite a shock.  We did make quite a few purchases of items that are hard to get in Ecuador, enough to necessitate the purchase of a new suitcase to hold all of them. We brought back several things for friends which is an excellent way to avoid the high cost of shipping new items. Almost everyone here makes a special point of asking friends if they need anything that can be brought back in a suitcase.  The visit to Best Buy and Costco made us feel like kids in a candy store.

There are a few ways to fly from the US to Cuenca which of course depends on where in the States you originate but for those of you who are on the east coast and planning a visit to Cuenca we can offer some up-to-the-minute information. Miami and Atlanta are the main departure points for either Quito or Guayaquil, the only international airports in Ecuador. We flew Delta out of Guayaquil to Atlanta then on to North Carolina. Guayaquil airport is quite modern and large. If your connection takes many hours, there is a baggage storage area on the first floor. We had 12 hours in Guayaquil so the storage company was a big help. Atlanta is a zoo and is the busiest airport in the world according to Delta’s information. You need a good hour or two there as almost all connecting flights are in different terminals requiring a train ride between terminals. We made our return to Ecuador from Atlanta to Quito. The airport in Quito is quite antiquated with few amenities probably because the new airport outside of town is almost complete yet has had a year long delay in opening.  The old airport is right downtown and makes for a hairy approach on landing as you skim over roof tops toward a rather short runway.  Depending on what cab driver you get in Quito, a taxi ride to the old part of town is about 12 dollars. We spent the night in Quito as almost all flights arrive late in the evening after the local airline connections to Cuenca have ended for the day.  The three best local airlines to and from Cuenca and either Guayaquil or Quito are AeroGal, Lan Ecuador, or Tame. Between the three airlines there seems to be a flight to Cuenca almost every of the daytime hours but they end around 7 PM which is the reason for the need for an overnight stay.

We are glad to be back as Cuenca feels like home to us now.  But, as the sage said, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

Driving in Cuenca

Though we own a car and are quite comfortable driving now, it took some time to get used to all the idiosyncrasies of maneuvering through the city. Interestingly, a number of our friends, who originally didn’t have a car, have recently purchased one, mainly for trips out of town. We have found that the streets and roads are in good shape compared to other South American cities. The potholes are usually filled quickly after they appear.  If you are a driver, you will find that the gas stations are manned with a half dozen eager attendants. There is no such thing as self service in Ecuador and the attention is quick and efficient. Gas is presently $1.48 for Extra and has been for at least a year or more, a low price compared to America and Europe and is primarily due to the nationalized petroleum cartel. You will also enjoy not having to pay that painful fifty cents for air to fill your tires as you do in the US. Air and water are free at all gas stations. In the Centro of Cuenca, SOAT, an arm of the city government that oversees licensing and ticketing, has agents roaming each street who will sell you up to an hour’s parking permit for a dollar which allows you to park in allowable spots on the street. If you cannot find a SOAT person after you park on the street, you can purchase a permit at almost any store near your parked car. You merely write in the time and date on the permit and put it on the dashboard for the roaming SOAT agent to see. Until we learned this system, we parked and, of course, got a ticket. It took two days of asking and driving around to suggested places before we found a rather obscure location where we could pay our $10 parking fine only to find out later that we were ripped off. It was not the correct place to pay. We recently found out that you can pay parking tickets at the caja at the motor vehicle compound just off Solanno near the main Banco Pichincha. There are very few painted lane markings on Cuenca’s streets and roads and it probably wouldn’t make any difference if there were as drivers often pay no attention to staying in a particular lane and weave in and out at will. It is a little disconcerting to see cars parked along a two way street facing in both directions on both sides of the street. Apparently  this is not a parking offense. However, the city is making a commendable effort to crack down on violations but this appears to be an almost insurmountable task. Almost everyone walks everywhere in the city or takes a taxi for $2 or less so a car really isn’t necessary. Here is a photo of our tiny 4 passenger taxis. 

We have always had a car and it was an addiction too hard to break. We feel that driving into the vehicle crowded Centro is not a problem once you are used to it. There are Parquedero’s or parking lots on almost every block where you can park your car for about 60 cents an hour. They give you a greater sense of safety for your car and anything left inside compared to leaving it on the street. Car radios sold in Ecuador have a pop off control panel that you would be wise to remove and take with you when you leave the car on the street.  Having a car in Cuenca is a personal choice but we enjoy using it to drive up into the mountains and to visit the fascinating small towns and their market places. And, it is amazing how much we end up hauling around.  One way or the other, we find ways or excuses to justify owning a car. 

The Revival of the Automobile Horn

We think we have uncovered a major technological achievement for Ecuador. Dating back to the early 1900’s, when the automobile was in its infancy, the auto horn was an indispensible part of the driving experience. The “Ayooga” sound was critical to chasing cattle off the dirt roads. It was essential for the youth of the day to frighten horses or to announce their existence on the planet.  The horn became a basic and necessary part of the automobile. But, as the car invaded the cities, the horn soon became a nuisance and was discriminated against by one regulation after another to the point where, late in the 20^th century, the use the horn, except in an emergency, brought a violation of city ordinances. The horn quickly fell into oblivion as car manufacturers, especially those in Japan, reduced the horn’s decibel level to a tinny sound that could barely be heard even within the car itself. But, no matter how hard the car manufacturer’s tried to eliminate the horn’s usefulness, it hung on. Enter Ecuador’s discovery of the auto horn. Ecuadorian drivers came to the rescue and, once more, the horn found a place where it was esteemed. It was felt by Ecuadorian drivers that traffic would become permanently grid-locked, if not for their ingenious use of the horn. It was soon codified as follows. One beep is a warning meaning “You’d better stop because I’m going too fast to give way.” Two beeps loosely translated means, “I’m coming” or more definitively, “Move it!”  In those seconds before a traffic light turns green, at least one and sometimes two cars behind you will give two blasts on their horns possibly thinking you are asleep or conceivably blind to not have started moving forward before the light changed. Three beeps take too much effort and too much trouble so they are almost never used. Our understanding of the code is not good enough to interpret what a long, persistent blast means but we suspect it has the same message as anywhere else in the world. Taxi drivers augment their mastery of the horn with flashing headlights. Two flashes of the headlights mean, “I’m for hire.” Frantic continuous flashes and horn blowing mean “Get out of my way.”  Personally, we would prefer pulling our car off the road if we saw a car approaching from behind with flashing lights and pounding on the horn but it doesn’t seem to bother other Ecuadorian drivers who continue on their way as if deaf. This obstinacy covers ambulances, police cars, and other vehicles with flashing lights on their roof top. We would not be surprised to find auto manufacturers throughout the world noticing this revival of the horn in Ecuador and beefing up their horns even with the possible return of the “Ayooga” Claxon. Having a claxon on our car would help at the next red light we encounter and might even the odds a little. 

Getting around Cuenca

It is really not really necessary to have a car if you live in the city as almost everything is within walking distance and taxis are cheap. If you have a home in the countryside it is almost essential to have a car. Purchasing a car here is expensive.  Most private cars appear to be Hyundai Tucson’s and Chevrolet Vitera SUV’s possibly because they are big and can dominate at the street crossings. To compliment the SUV’s there are many small subcompacts from every imaginable country including China and India.  It is interesting to see many old Volkswagen bugs, a lot of them dating back to the earliest models.

They have rusted out and been patched numerous times and, with a new paint job, look terrific yet always touch a nostalgic nerve. We have driven American automatic shift cars for so long that we felt we had to have one. We searched and searched for a used automatic and found they are almost non-existent in Ecuador. There are absolutely no automatics in the small cars and maybe one in a hundred among available SUV’s. We were fortunate enough to find one but also found the price for an automatic approximately 50% higher than a stick shift. However, gasoline is a real bargain. Ecuador is an oil exporter and the gasoline industry is nationalized. The government controls the price of gas which at present is $1.48 per gallon and has been so for the last year. There are no daily price increases or decreases like in the US. Getting an Ecuadorian driver’s license is a real hassle. It is expensive and we understand the driver’s test has to be taken in Spanish. Most gringos who opt to get one hire someone to take the test for them. For almost everything bureaucratic here in Ecuador there is someone who can do it for you. To register our Hyundai Tucson, we hired a taxi driver who specializes in car registrations. It took four stops, one to have the car inspected, another to get official papers that became covered with stamps, another to have copies made of everything in triplicate and lastly a visit to a special office that looked over everything and sent us out for more official papers.  Car insurance is yet another story, one we have yet to investigate. If it is like health insurance, the conclusion will be that you should self-insure as the insurance companies are notorious for not honoring claims. Good maps of Cuenca are hard to find. The best one is provided by Cathy at Cuenca Real Estate. It shows every street on hard, glossy heavy paper. Driving in Cuenca takes some getting used to as there are many one way streets. Most river crossings into town are also one way. There are very few street signs that identify cross streets so learning the basic thoroughfares is important. Home and business addresses in the city are numbered with a dash in the middle like 3-82 or 1-24.  If you have a car you will have to get used to the wild taxi drivers who dodge in an out of unbelievably small spaces often within inches of your fenders. It is a game of bluff where cars, trucks and busses inch their way into an intersection until they intimidate someone approaching to slow down and they then charge into the intersection. There are many traffic and driving rules just like in the US but they are mostly not obeyed. Police sit at the circles and intersections talking to each other and pay little attention unless there is a problem.  If you have an accident, the locals advise you not to call the police as it opens a potential criminal case if you are in the wrong. Most local drivers just leave the site of an accident. Our maid’s father was walking his cow across the Autopista in Challuabamba and both were killed by a car that just kept going and was never apprehended. Traffic circles are everywhere. You enter the circle after giving right-of-way to the cars already in the circle. Then, when there is enough space for your car, you enter quickly yet watch carefully for other cars trying to find a hole in the circular procession. Almost always some small car will dart into the circle from your right side letting your car shield him from oncoming traffic. At intersections, vehicles inch slowly forward, more and more until they are almost blocking the oncoming traffic. Again, they hope someone will get nervous, stop or slow down and let them proceed. Nighttime is even worse. Car radios are one of the items that petty thieves find almost too easy to steal and convert to cash.  Everyone advises that you take the removable radio out when you park the car almost anywhere except in the safety of your home. We have lost two radios due to carelessness on our part. But, driving is not really that bad. It just takes getting used to. Enormous patience and super care are primary requisites to navigating the city.

However, if driving is not your cup of tea, busses run often and go almost everywhere at twenty-five cents per trip. The 4 hour bus ride to the coast from Cuenca is approximately $8. One of our problems with the profusion of buses and the trucks is that they are all diesels and spew enormous quantities of black smoke. 

Taxis are also a bargain as you can go almost anywhere in the city for $1-2 although some taxi drivers take advantage of the Gringos who they think don’t know the system. Taxis at night are sometimes about a dollar more. Almost all taxis are little fiat’s, Yaris, or Chevrolet subcompact cars. Small and agile, they are the best way to get around the city. Just sit back and hang on. If you are driving a car, it is a little unnerving to be waiting at a red light and the moment the light goes green, a taxi behind you will start honking his horn. Seat belts are provided in private cars but are used much less than in the US. It is frightening to see children riding without car seats.  We have often seen a two or three year old’s head hanging out an open front seat window. Older children and the wives often ride in the back of an open pick-up truck along with the family dogs and merchandise.

Then there are the motorcyclists. Dirt bikes, mostly Yamaha’s, dart in and out of traffic with almost no concern for safety. It is a local belief that this is the fastest way to make your way through the grid-lock traffic in the city during the rush hours. Most motorcyclists wear no helmets. We have seen four people on one bike, Father at the handle bars, two kids squeezed into the space between him and Mom who has her arms circling around the kids. He might be wearing a helmet but no one else does. We know three men in their twenties and all three have had serious motorcycle accidents, each have been left with a limp and scars. Motocross racing is a big sports event and many of the bikes darting between cars in traffic have racing numbers painted on back.

Air travel is quite sophisticated in Ecuador with three local airlines serving the larger and even many of the small cities. The airlines are LAN Ecuador, Arogal and Tame. Since this is a mountainous country, air travel will save an enormous amount of travel time compared to road travel. For instance, driving from Quito to Cuenca can take eight to ten hours whereas a flight will take 30-45 minutes and today costs approximately $79 each way. Presently, Cuenca does not have an international airport but LAN Ecuador is planning direct flights from Cuenca to Miami and New York. This will be a great help for those traveling to and from the US as present schedules both ways require an overnight stay in Quito before flying on to your destination. Quito has an airport tax of approximately $45 to leave the country and a similar airport tax at Guayaquil is around $27.