Iris is a British lady of considerable character and pluck, on a 23 week
overland expedition from Quito in Ecuador to Caracas in Venezuela. After
this, she plans to do a 3-month voluntary placement in Ecuador, and then
visit Central America for another overland trip between Panama City and
Mexico City, ending up with perhaps another 2-month voluntary placement
somewhere in South America again. This amazing journey will take Iris
one year. Here is an extract from Iris’ journey notebook.
30th November cont.: Cuenca
Onward, ever onward, to Cuenca. By the time it had reached 1845 and we
had been on the road for 11 hours we were all becoming increasingly impatient
to arrive. Darkness had descended, quite a lot of the time, after leaving
our lunchtime site, it was raining heavily, and for hours we had had to
make our own fun in the back of the truck, playing cards, some of the
lads giving us a selection of the music they had brought on mini discs
and mini disc players – most of it being quite presentable – Robbie Williams,
Abba, Kylie, to name a few, although when a Turkish member of our group
produced a CD of Turkish music, the reception was somewhat mixed, and
when someone produced a couple of CDs of Australian folk songs, there
were a lot of jeers, even from the Aussies amongst us, about songs like
“Tie my Kangaroo down sport!” or “Waltzing Matilda”
and others of that ilk.
One of our amusements, rather unkindly but not intended so, was our 68
yr old, Judith, my room-mate in Baños. Poor Judith, she had been very
jet-lagged when she had arrived in Quito, but she had had four nights
to recover, so everyone was very amused when she proceeded to fall asleep.
She was sitting with one of our younger men (Matt is about 33, I would
say, and he is a quiet man) and he had an inflated neck cushion and had
dozed off leaning against the window (the seats are like public bus seats,
there are no head rests and support ends at just below the shoulders)
so poor Judith was lolling back with mouth wide open, catching flies.
Kindly, our policeman, Paul, who was sitting sideways on behind Judith
decided she had to be given a cushion and so a sleeping bag, rolled up
in its sack was produced and placed strategically behind Judith’s head,
which seemed successful, but as the sleeping bag roll was in a large empty
cavity between Judith’s front-facing seat and Paul’s side-facing seat,
every movement of the bus sent it sliding away from Judith, or Judith
sliding away from it. Another sleeping bag roll was produced but then
Judith would gradually slip between the two rolls! Then it was decided
to wedge the sleeping rolls in place with a water bottle and this did
the trick but then Judith found Matt’s shoulder and snuggled up to him!
This just went on and on throughout the day. Both Matt and Judith would
wake up at intervals but gradually both (Judith more than Matt) would
drop off into slumberland once more and the whole pantomime would be played
out again, very much to everyone’s amusement!) We reckoned Judith slept
for at least seven of the 13 hours we were on the road!
Eventually, after many small disappointments as one large town vanished
into the darkness to our rear which had been mistakenly identified by
us as our destination, we arrived in Cuenca and got to our hotel. But
we had all to share 3 or 4-bedded rooms, although that is par for the
course when so many have to be accommodated in large city hotels. I shared
with three other ladies – Alison, Eren (our Turkish lady) and Judith,
and after we had all got settled we went off across the road to an Italian
restaurant for a meal (as our last meal had been some 8 hours previously
on the side of the road), however, at 2130 we were not too keen to eat
anything too much and Judith and Eren just had soup and a roll, and Alison
and I had pasta.
Today, the rain has vanished and it is quite sunny in Cuenca. We had
a light breakfast (rolls and jam and scrambled egg) and then I decided
to go my separate way. Judith and Alison and Eren wanted to go to an archaeological
museum out of town, but I wanted to wander around on my own. Unfortunately
Eren is ill today, being sick and feeling poorly so in the end we left
her in the hotel room bedded down. I don’t know what she had eaten and
neither did she, that had made her sick, but it is not diarrhoea, just
sickness, so hopefully, she will be recovered by tomorrow for our next
366 km journey to Punta Sal where we will be camping on the beach for
3 days.
I think this first week is being used to break us in gently to the rigours
ahead of us – the jungle trip and the Inca Trail – so some long journeys
have to be faced and some hotels are used so that we are not faced with
too much hard work putting up tents every time we arrive at a destination,
and camping to show us what we are in for when there are no hotels to
stay in. So think of me on 1 Dec 02 having to face putting up a tent after
a 12 hour journey!
Today in Cuenca I have just walked round the city centre, looking at
the local shops and populace. I got to a little square and realised there
was an art museum there so went in to have a look round. The young security
guard, who watches over everyone coming in, got me to sign the book and
put my passport number and name in the book and then was determined to
practice his rather limited English on me. Anyway, to cut a long story
short he ended up giving me a guided tour and I asked him if I could take
his photo, but although he agreed he was determined the photo was going
to have me in it as well, so I obliged him, when he produced a young friend
to do the honours! After the guided tour I told him that I was returning
to Ecuador next year for maybe two stints of 3 months and 2 months and
asked him for his address so that I could not only send him the photo
but also perhaps visit him when I return. He is a university student working
as a guard at the museum during the day and has another evening job as
well to bring in the money while he is studying. He is at Rio Bamba university
and hopes to travel round the world when he has finished his studying.
He is about 18, I would say, and demanded that we kiss each other on the
cheek before parting to show our new-found friendship and the hope of
it continuing in the future, so I obliged and insisted we do it the French
way of kissing on both cheeks! Then as I left, he ran after me “I
don’t know your name! What is your name?” And I said: “Francisco,
you have it in your book, remember, I signed in?!” And he was so
relieved!
If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her
trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am
sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk
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