Ecuador is a rather small country on the northern/middle west coast of South America located directly at the equator, as the country’s name "Ecuador" already reflects. Although situated directly at longitude 0’0’0’ it is not a hot or tropical country. The Andes run through Ecuador from north to south at a height from 2500m to 4000m with some 30 partly snowy volcanic mountains of 5000m to over 6000m height. This of course explains the moderate temperatures in the so called Sierra of 15"C to 20"C. In contrast to this rather densely populated and windy area with sparse vegetation, Ecuador has two other regions called the Oriente and the Costa, with the two being separated by the Sierra. The tropical forests of the lower Amazon or Oriente stretch to the eastern Peru and Colombian borders, present a hot and humid surrounding, luxuriant vegetation and fascinating wildlife. The Costa as the third region stretches for 1300km at the coast from north to south and is marked by rather flat land reaching from the beaches to the mountains of the Andes. While the Costa used to be covered by dense rainforest, today almost every bit has been cleared and is used for farming (sugar cane, rice, coffee, banana, cotton etc.).
The division of Ecuador into three completely different regions explains the fact that you can find almost every climatic type: The coastal area directly at the ocean is (due to the calm winds) pleasant and mild, going further to the inland where humid, warm or even hot surroundings predominate. The days in the Andes are mild, sometimes warm while the nights can be bitterly cold, sometimes below 0"C. Nothing much has to be said about the Amazon rainforests... Due to its location Ecuador does not have much climatic variety over the year but rather a lot over one day.
15 million Ecuadorians comprise about 40% Metizos (children from native Indians and Spanish "Conquistadores"), 39% Indians, 10% White and 5 % African Americans. The two biggest cities Quito (the capital) and Guayaquil have 1.3 million and 2.5 million inhabitants, respectively. Economically Ecuador does not play a major role in world trade. It is an agricultural country with more than 50% of the population working in agriculture. Most of them can hardly grow enough to keep their families alive. Banana, sugar, cotton, coffee and cocoa are cultivated on few big (international) farms or haciendas and exported, but only the banana export is really significant (for those who are interested, bananas have been and still are a major source of conflict in Ecuador due to its control by foreign companies like Dole - not to be mixed up with a particular person in the U.S.). Cattle breeding and fishing play minor roles and so does industry. Again, few international industrials control spinning mills, tobacco or food industries. The growing oil export presents no advantage for the Ecuadorian people, since it only widens the tremendous gap between rich and poor.
OK, this should be enough background information and those who get interested in the country will find many books in public libraries and book stores.
The whole trip began on Saturday, Aug. 10th when Dörte (my girlfriend), Sabine (or Bine - a friend of ours) and I started from the Paderborn airport to go to Amsterdam and then on to Quito with a stop in Curacao, Venezuela. We appreciated what in German would be called "ein großer Bahnhof", i.e. many people came to say goodbye. Dörte’s parents came from Uelzen, mine from Bremen and Bine’s boyfriend, who lives in Paderborn already. After quite a turbulent flight in a small plane from Paderborn to Amsterdam we had to kill more than six hours at Amsterdam airport to get the connecting KLM flight. As you can imagine there is not very much going on between 5pm and 11pm if you have eaten just before leaving and seen all the shops in the airport. One of us had to stay awake to watch the hand luggage while the other two tried to get a little sleep for the 13hr flight. The plane from Amsterdam was OK and we did not get very bored.
At the stop in Curacao we almost got knocked down because of the incredible heat and humidity at the airport - it was 3am in the morning and still unbelievably hot. 6:09 am - 4 minutes later than expected, the touchdown in Quito. Obviously, we had picked a very beautiful day with blue skies and sun. After we had stepped down the gangway the first thing we saw was the Cotopaxi. Her majesty, Quito’s private volcano has a height of app. 5800m and is probably one of the most beautiful snow covered mountains in Ecuador. We had to learn quite quickly that people are not half as organized as in other (western) countries: Quito’s airport has three conveyor belts for luggage and the two operating ones had different departure airports on the display: Amsterdam, Lima. We queued at the Amsterdam belt and about an hour later when nobody was waiting anymore we figured that, due to space problems, our backpacks had been put on the Lima belt ...
Weeks before we left Paderborn we had already got in contact with some friends of ours who live in Quito and who rent rooms to private people, mostly Germans. Astrid used to live and study in Frankfurt until 1989, then she went to Quito to do some research for her final masters thesis. At the university of Quito she met Mario through the university’s mountain climbing club (Mario is a tour and mountain guide) and after Astrid had finished her degree she returned to Quito. They bought a house where they have already lived for 1 year with their little daughter Anais. This house is where we stayed for the five weeks we were in Ecuador.
Mario had promised to pick us up at the airport and when we finally got out of the main gate he was patiently waiting in front of the airport. He drove us through the still sleepy Sunday morning Quito and we had breakfast with him, Astrid and Anais. And here it was: My biggest problem... Although Mario speaks German quite well, he presents an exception since only few people speak foreign languages (not even English). Astrid and Mario used Spanish as well, and I was totally lost. Consequently, I had to learn Spanish! I wasn’t too worried about this, since I get along with languages quite well, but I was afraid of getting lost on one of my later trips, anyhow. I might be able to ask for directions, prices and so on, but would I understand the answers? What would happen if I took a wrong overland bus because I had misunderstood the driver? What if I got hurt or ill and wouldn’t be able to articulate my needs?
On Monday Dörte, Bine and I went to check out the various Spanish schools in Quito. I should explain that learning Spanish was the main reason for the two girls to come to Ecuador. They both had to pass an oral exam in September and did not feel happy with their Spanish capabilities. Hhhm, I didn’t either with mine. After a while we had checked-out some schools, including one which Mario recommended and which we finally chose. We all booked one-to-one lectures, i.e. one teacher for one student. I accepted the level one (beginner) course which is normally scheduled for a week, but I had to do it in four (!) days. Dörte and Bine booked four weeks since they had to go through a number of books on economy, culture and they had to prepare a topic list for their exam.
So the first week was occupied by my Spanish courses from 8am to 1pm plus homework until late in the night. Believe it or not, after those four days I passed my level one! I had studied quite a number of verbs, nouns, adjectives and two tenses: Present and some easy form of future (similar to "going to" future). OK, I wouldn’t be able to tell people what I had done yesterday and the day before (i.e. in the "past"), but it would be sufficient to get along when traveling.
For the first day off we had planned a hiking and climbing tour onto the Pichincha, another volcano within walking distance to Astrid’s and Mario’s house. Diego, a friend of Mario’s from the mountain club was our tour guide and two other Germans accompanied us. This was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. We started at 2800m (Quito, ground level) and walked up to 4798m (!). It took us 11hrs to get almost up to the top and back to the house. Unfortunately, it was windy, foggy and really cold at the summit so we decided not to do the rest, but turn back. We wouldn’t have seen anything anyway...
For the second week in Ecuador I had planned a four day hike through the Andes with some other tourists and two tour guides. Mario was one of them and he had actually recommended this "Condor Track" to me. We had to pack a backpack with our personal belongings, sleeping bag, some water and enough warm clothing. Food and tents would be supplied by the tour company and most of the stuff would be carried by those thin and small carry horses (probably mules, but no donkeys), which have already been used on the first expeditions by first Spanish settlers. Mario and his friends picked us up in Quito and drove the van out of the capital to a meeting somewhere in the highlands. There we met the horse drovers and some five Belgians who were also going to join our group of eight Germans. Wearing rubber boots we walked between five and seven hours per day on the so called Paramo. The Paramo is the poor vegetation of the Andes high lands which is very tough and durable. Only few other plants can be found in this area which explains why only few animals can be found up here. Once we saw a herd of wild horses and a condor! The Andes have a very impressive landscape due to their wide expanse with kilometers between two mountain ranges and beautiful views onto the surrounding volcanoes Cotopaxi, Antizana, Cayambe and the Ilinizas. Every night we camped at a different fresh water creek or lagoon and we appreciated wonderful sunsets and sunrises at heights of some 3000m to 4000m. It was amazing to watch how much I was able to actually "switch off" from the stressful and hectic life back home or even in Quito. Hardly anything but the howling winds can be heard and the calmness around you is just fantastic. I wouldn’t say that I want to be in area like that for long but those four days were a magnificent feeling. This trip ended a few kilometers away from the foot of the Coto(paxi) and those who had booked another day where driven to the beginning of the walking track up to the "Refugio", to the shelter at 4800m. We had planned to climb the Coto the next night in order to reach the summit early in the morning. This would have been my first "real climb" on a glacier and I had rented out all my equipment (crampons, pick, ropes, straps, snow clothing, headlamp, glacier sunglasses etc.) at a shop in Quito. Of course, I had not carried all this stuff, but it had been brought here in the car. But now I had to carry it! From the parking area to the shelter it was another 200m difference in altitude but it was an almost vertical ascent. Those 200m took me half an hour and I was completely exhausted when I reached the shelter - partly because of those four days trekking, partly because I was not used to this height. At midnight I would have to do yet another 1000m difference in altitude.
The four of us who were left from the trekking group made our "beds" on the floor of the wooden shelter and squeezed our mattresses and sleeping bags somewhere between the other 60 people in the hut. Not all of them were planning to "do the Coto" this night, though. After we had a nourishing spaghetti meal prepared by Mario, we went to bed at about 8pm. The noise only slowly calmed down, so that we had not slept much, when Mario woke us up at around midnight. It is necessary to start this early because the climb takes about 6 hours and at this height after 10 am the equator sun becomes so hot that the glacier starts to melt and presents a danger to climbers. So starting at midnight ensures reaching the top at sunrise (6am) and since returning takes only three hours the climbers have safely reached the hut at about 9:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, during the night it had begun to snow and the winds had become much stronger so that I decided not to try the climb. I considered it not sensible to try something like this for the first time with such bad weather conditions, plus I was quite exhausted from the hike the days before. It would undoubtedly have been very dangerous. The other three were quite skilled climbers and left the hut at around 1 am. I went back to my sleeping bag and got up again at around 6 am to the sun rise. I would have never expected to see something so beautiful like a sunrise from a viewpoint of 4800 m! Very quickly (and unlike to what we know from the northern or southern hemisphere) the sun came up and puts all the snow covered peaks around us into a glowing orangey color. At this day the clouds were exactly at the altitude of the shelter so that we were able to see underneath and on top of the clouds. Quito still looked like it was night, many street lamps where visible and the whole city seemed to slowly wake up, while the top of the clouds already reflected the orange sun with the volcano summits sticking out at different directions. After an hour I was frozen and went back to the hut where I waited for the others to return to Quito. On the way back we picked up the rest of the group who had camped for another night in the highlands. On the Panamerica, South Americas main highway stretching from north to south, we drove back to Quito and dropped the different tourists at their respective accommodation.
During the next days I did not do something very important at all! Sure enough I was quite content to hang around and just relax in the hammock from the strenuous trek. I visited the "Mitad del Mundo" monument, which marks the location of the "middle of the earth" and is positioned right on top of the imaginary equator line about ten kilometers north of Quito. It is a funny idea to be on the northern hemisphere with your right foot and on the southern hemisphere with your left one. Because it was a weekend the girls had time to go for a stroll through the Old Town. On another day I took a bus to get to some volcanic thermal baths three hours out of Quito. Since our first visit to the Old Town was only for an afternoon, I made another, longer visit there, took pictures, tried some "native" food and watched people.
From Friday to Saturday Dörte, Bine, Britta (another friend) and I went to the old market town Otavalo north of Quito. The process of getting there was an adventure. Astrid had told us not to go to the central bus station but to walk down to the next main street where the buses would pass by and pick us up. Strangely enough no buses heading towards Otavalo passed and later we found out that the route had been changed some weeks ago. Fortunately, a friendly bus diver stopped, picked us up and dropped us at another corner where we would be able to catch a correct bus. But none of them stopped. All busses were heavily packed with people and they simply drove past. After about 2" hours we finally got picked up and had to stand or sit on the unbelievably hot diesel engine cover. The busses in Ecuador are mainly discarded U.S. school busses in poor condition with little space per person and since we were almost the last passengers we did not get a seat anymore. After all we reached Otavalo and a friendly lady showed us a tidy and neat hotel. The market would start at six in the morning so we wanted to have a small dinner and go to bed. This is what we thought. But this night was the night of Otatvalo’s biggest yearly town festival and after we had a tasty meal in a restaurant we watched the Ecuadorians dance and celebrate all over the town - a big experience. The alarm clock went off at five and we really managed to be on the market at 6 in the morning. Otavalo’s crafts and vegetable market is a tourist attraction and souvenir shop, as well as trading spot for the Ecuadorians of the area. We watched the traders, tried clothing, checked handcrafted works and bought a number of souvenirs for our friends and ourselves. After a visit to a nearby lagoon we returned to Quito late in the evening.
The following week I did a four days bus and train trip with another German around the Andes. On the first day we went down to Guayaquil and further on to a small township named Bucai. From there we wanted to catch a famous train, which weekly winds its wind up from the Costa to the Sierra (over 2500m altitude) and allows for a very good impression of the Andes’ landscape and nature. Although, we had been told the train would leave at 11 am, the next morning we suddenly had to rush, since at a quarter to nine we heard a loud whistle indicating the very near departure of the train. Well, yet another indicator that we should not expect to find our own regulations and habits to be valid in other countries (trains do not have to start at 11 am although you might be told they do...). We quickly handed our backpacks up to the people on the train’s roof and also climbed up. In contrast to the natives, who consider this trip rather boring, the few tourists tend to sit on the roof to be able to watch the landscape on to take pictures. Sometimes the train gets so close to the rock walls, that people sitting in the compartments are not able to see anything anymore. Although the tour took five hours it was fun to chat with the other travelers from Switzerland, Germany, Britain, Scotland, French Guiana and Ecuador, to observe how the flora changed from fresh vegetation in the Costa to the dried out bushes in the Sierra and to watch people in the small townships and settlements when we passed by. Children cheered at us, people in the fields waved and truckdrivers honked. As on all tours before, people were very friendly to foreigners, hardly anybody did not try to help or explain and whenever I had to ask for directions or help, people would smile and be patient. The destination of this trip was Riobamba and we stayed there for the rest of the afternoon until we took another bus to Baños. Baños is the Spanish word for bath(s) and this is what the township is well known for: Thermal baths. Over the years it developed into a tourism city with bars, hotels and shops. It is also well known for Balsa wood-carvings so that Britta and I bought some as souvenirs for ourselves and our families and friends. On our way back from Baños to Quito on the next day, we stopped in Saquisily, which has a genuine food market which is still hardly influenced by industrial age. The bus trip from Saquisily to Quito really stressed me since two kids, their mothers and a third lady started questioning me. Although they figured that I effectively did not speak Spanish they kept asking questions about me, my girlfriend, my income, Germany, living conditions, incomes and so on. Since I was really pleased that I got into contact with Ecuadorians I tried my best and was constantly juggling with my lecture notes and my dictionary for almost two hours.
After my return from this Andes trip, Dörte’s and Bine’s course was finally over (3" weeks had already passed) and our first bigger trip as a group of three should start: Galapagos. The Galapagos archipelago belongs to Ecuador (I did not know that before - did you?) and is located 1000 km away from the Ecuadorian coastline in the pacific ocean right at the equator. This formation of 32 islands is well known for its exceptional wildlife and in particular for the giant turtles, the sea iguanas and the albatrosses (who has not seen Walt Disney’s "Bernhard and Bianca" as a kid?). The islands are of volcanic origin and more than 5 million years old. Charles Darwin lived here in 1835 and from Biology lectures we all know he developed the theory of evolution which was founded on his research on "mutation" and "selection/survival of the fittest". Because only very few kinds of animals exist on these islands, none of them have natural enemies, nor have they developed any sense of fear. They are not shy at all and we could have touched them if it had not been forbidden (for sensible reasons, of course).
From Quito our plane started very early in the morning to Guayaquil and from there to "Isla Baltra", the island where the tiny airport is located. Since I love flying I always ask to have a quick view into the cockpit and this time I was lucky: Shortly before we landed at Galapagos I was asked to come into the cockpit and the captain actually invited me to sit down and stay until we had landed. With this the day had already had a great beginning and there was not much which could have damped my good spirits. We were picked up by our young guide for the next five days. He introduced himself as Gustavo Castro Martinez (his common joke was: "My grandfather was Fidel..."). The bus took us down to a small anchorage with many beautiful boats. Then, when Gustavo waved at the ship’s boy on a particular boat and my good mood was instantly gone. There were six or seven attractive and new boats and other tourists got picked up by their dinghys while "our" Elisabeth II was a rather shabby and small boat. There was not much we could do since we had booked economy class. On the boat we had to take off our shoes, but not because the boat might have gotten dirty but because it is forbidden to bring seeds from one island to another, which could easily happen, if shoes were not cleaned after every shore leave. In the humid cabin we joked about the old boat but the meal which we got afterwards compensated for the inconveniences. Three other Germans were already on board and later in the afternoon we picked up another four. The cook was just great, Gustavo seemed to be quite friendly, Cesar, the captain, did not talk much and the ship’s boy wasn’t seen much. Our first trip in the dinghy took us into a mangrove lagoon where we saw sea turtles, brown pelicans, blue footed boobies, eagle, golden and sting rays, tiger and puffer fish and white tip sharks. Jo and Derek (see the note at the bottom) have informed me about the misleading meaning of this bird’s name, but I fear it is the only English name it has... This word is not my invention! The flora of Galapagos is just incredible to watch and for somebody who is grown up in a western country this natural paradise is hard to believe. After a short cruise we reached "North and South Plazas", of which South Plaza would be the destination of the next day. On the next day we saw our first sea lion colony, different lizards and iguanas, gulls and the famous Darwin finches. After lunch yet another island presented turtles, hawks, snakes, various birds and doves and all of them did not flee or show any fear when we got closer and had our cameras click at them. Gustavo turned out to be a knowledgeable guide and told us many facts and details about the islands and their animals. This day I went snorkeling with sea lions, sting rays and sea turtles which I would judge my biggest private experience on Galapagos. With every meal Carlos, our cook, surprised us with even better food and everybody on board ate more than on every trip before. Hamburgers, soufflés, vegetables, cakes, lasagna, fish, meat or even freshly caught giant prawns belonged to our diet on the Elisabeth II.
The following night turned out to be my worst time in Ecuador. At dinner time Cesar had told us that we would use the nighttime to bridge a great distance between two islands and that we would cruise for almost six hours, until we would reach the destination island. For 1" hours I was able to stay calmly in my bunk until I had to rush to get to the close by toilet and vomit. A few more times I had to "visit" the toilet until Dörte advised me to go on deck, rather than staying below deck. I was hardly able to put on my clothes (due to the motion of the boat, of course), but as soon as I reached the open deck I felt much better. For the rest of the night (another 4" hours) I stayed up until we reached Española Island at 3 am. On this third day we finally spotted the albatrosses nesting on their huge eggs, saw the blue footed and masked boobies, cactus forests, many more other animals and a giant blow hole at the cliff of Española. Back on the boat I wasn’t feeling like eating very much of the great meal and on the trip to the next island I felt worse every minute until I had to lie down with high temperature and stomach ache. Although I got up on the next day, I did not go ashore but stay on the Elisabeth while the others visited Floreana Island (also called Santa Maria). Afterwards Dörte had told me that I had not missed out on much, since the previous spots had been nicer. A quite boring 5-6 hour daytime trip back from Floreana to Santa Cruz was fortunately highlighted by the appearance of a school of dolphins who accompanied the boat for over an hour and made all passengers gather in a cheering crowd at the bow of the boat. In Porto Ayora, the main town on Santa Cruz Island, Carlos prepared deliciously fresh giant prawns and a farewell cake for the final dinner before we had to pack for our departure the next day. Day five meant getting up at 5:30 am because before leaving the archipelago we wanted to visit the Darwin station. I hadn’t slept much since my stomach was still rebelling, but I have to say that I really felt good, if only because we were leaving the boat. We were brought to the Darwin station by dinghy where Gustavo introduced us to the history of the turtle preservation campaign and showed us the different types of giant turtles from various islands. We walked back to the bus stop where our luggage was already waiting and took a tour bus which took us back to the airport. We had to wait a while at the airport but finally everything was settled and we got into the plane, which took us back to Guayaquil and Quito, where we arrived at Astrid’s and Mario’s at 5 pm.
This night was another short one, because we had to unpack and pack for the next and last short trip: Sacha Runa, a number of fancy lodges in the Oriente rainforest would be the destination of the next day’s 7 hour horror bus trip from Quito. At ten o’clock in the morning we had to catch a bus from the central bus station to a larger city in the Oriente from where we would be picked up by somebody from the Sacha Runa lodges. Shortly after we had left the central bus station the first frightening incident happened: The gearbox of this rattly, old bus started smoking quite intensively and the bus driver had to stop at the shoulder of the street. The conductor (as usual in those busses a young person), took some tools, scotch tape and some pieces of cloth and disappeared underneath the vehicle. Some male passengers had to prove their knowledge of busses and also stepped out while the majority stayed in the bus and waited. After ten minutes the man came back into the bus and the driver started the engine. First very slowly and then faster and faster the tour went on. Don’t ask me how someone can repair a gearbox with scotch tape and cloth.
It took us quite long to get up to the highest point of the main street through the Andes but when we had reached it, the driver stepped on the gas and drove like crazy on the narrow sandy roads with much oncoming traffic. We were really relieved when we finally reached the destination and were able to get out where Edgar was already waiting for us. In order to reach Sacha Runa, which is located on an island in the river Alzun, we had to get into a narrow canoe, which Edgar guided across the strong currents of the river. The Alzun is a tributary of the river Napo and this again is a tributary of the Amazon. We were the only guests at Sacha Runa and therefore only two of the six two person lodges were occupied. Edgar prepared dinner for us and afterwards we sat together and talked about the rainforest, Sacha Runa and other things before we went to bed. We quickly figured out that the rainforest has its very unique sounds and cannot at all be compared to any forest in other countries. It seemed like millions of different insects made a horrible noise which made it hard to fall asleep and since Edgar had told us about the pumas which live in the area, we were even more excited. Nevertheless, the bus tour was quite tiring and the heat of the Oriente did the rest to let us sleep well. The next morning we got a very good breakfast and shortly after we set out for an all day jungle tour. Edgar and another employee of Sacha Runa (who is the medicine man of the nearby community) were Dörte’s, Bine’s and my guide. For the whole day we walked through dense rainforest, visited an Indian community, crossed creeks and rivers, spotted tucans and parrots, examined plants and fallen trees with fungus or snakes inside. Dripping with sweat we had lunch somewhere in the forest and finally returned to the lodges at two or three in the afternoon. Matthias, the owner of Sacha Runa, already welcomed us. For the rest of the day Matthias suggested to do some tubing. Tubing is a word made up from tube and rafting and it describes the fun sport of taking truck tire tubes as single person rafts on white water rivers. Because we considered the river a good opportunity to cool down again, we took some tubes and paddles, got into the canoe and took Matthias’ car to drive up aside the river Azun. Bine, Matthias and I really enjoyed the time in the water, while it was Dörte’s most horrible experience. She does not really like water very much and the shaky and insecure tube underneath her plus the turbulent waters did not please her. In addition, shortly before we reached the exit point we all had to cross the most tricky water turbulence which made her tumble and fall into the water. Due to the strong current she wasn’t able to immediately get her head over water and got really afraid, so that she did not want to get into the tube again. After Matthias and I had safely left the girls behind at the lodge, we went back to the river and did another hours trip. After we had had dinner we all had a beer and some drinks at the bar where Matthias and Edgar told us about the story of Sacha Runa. The two know each other since they are kids, because Matthias’ grandfather used to work for the German embassy and his father (already a German-Ecuadorian) has a huge farm were they met. In 1992 Matthias started the Sacha Runa project and for two years they have guests already. Before we went to bed we were planning the next day’s event which didn’t seem to please Dörte much, too. Matthias suggested to take the rubber dinghy and to do the lower and calmer part of the river Azun. We were able to convince Dörte to join in and we spent a calm and pleasant last (holi)day without any trouble.
On the way back to Quito on the next we almost got into trouble with the Ecuadorian military forces, when our bus got stopped by a road block. Soldiers came in to the bus and wanted to check identity cards and passports and for some reason Dörte and Bine had only brought their Xerox copies, but not the originals. Of course the copies did not show the visas and we were asked to get out and see the leader. Fortunately, I had my real passport with me and the soldier was content with the information he got from there for all of us. This night we had to pack all our belongings into our backpacks plus the large number of souvenirs (Balsa carvings, a hammock, ceramics, books, jewelry etc.) which we had bought. At around midnight we had finally stuffed everything and on September, 15th at 7 am we got into the plane, which safely took us back to Paderborn.
Five weeks in Ecuador in "quick mode". Much has been written about what happened, but I fear too little has been expressed of what the country and its people are like. It is of course not an easy country to travel in. No doubt it is a third (at least second) world country and many things are difficult to realize on the one hand or to understand on the other hand. Everyday things like shopping and transportation differ immensely from those in our usual life and it is not always easy to adjust to. Next to that, living conditions of everybody in Ecuador, but especially of the poorer and the very poor, are frightening to see and hard to comprehend when you are used to our prosperity. On the other side these people very often approach someone in a friendly way which is unknown in our industrialized world, as well. And nature is simply overwhelming! The Andes and the imposing volcanoes are an area which has most impressed me, but the rainforest is also superb to see. Galapagos’ wildlife is yet another extraordinary element of Ecuador.
And last but not least "Thank you very much!" to Jo and Derek Oliver. They have spent quite some time for proof-reading, giving advice upon stylistic phrasing and reviewing this document. We know each other from Melbourne (Australia) where we met at the Monash University. Already then, amongst others, Derek and Jo were a big help in improving my written and spoken English (always with a bit of British humor, as far as Derek is concerned). Pay Derek a visit, if you like! Back to Marcus Ott