A Brit in Ecuador

Last Day in Colombia

2012-01-07T06:33:00.001-05:00

Today we set off back to Quito, by bus from Popayan. It is going to take ages. At least four buses and a border crossing.

Our last days in Colombia were during Popayan's 'Blancos y Negros' festival. Supposedly a celebration of racial diversity, it is mainly a big fight where people hurl water bombs, throw talc and squirt 'fun foam' at each other. Some people carry pots of paint to smear on the faces of strangers. It's loco. Below are a few photos from the festival.

Pavement skirmish

Foam spray attack from a balcony

I might have got somewhat
involved in the fun

Group mayhem at an open-air concert

A drive-by foaming

Cali, Popayan and San Agustín (Colombian Christmas Continued)

2012-01-03T12:25:00.031-05:00

After Medellín we came to Cali, the bus ride wasn´t too bad, and Cali turned out to be somewhat nicer than Medellín. Still hot though, and lots of nibbling insects. From Cali we took another bus to Popayan, which has been the real gem so far. It is a very nice small town, with lots of colonial style buildings.

Popayan

Popayan

We were there for New Year´s Eve. The tradition here is to build a human effigy to represent the problems of the past year, and then blow it up at midnight. Our hostel was run by a Scot and so we had tatties and neeps for our dinner. This hogmany celebration was of course completed by draging the effigy into the street, dousing it with petrol and lighting it at midnight. The guts are stuffed with fireworks so after a couple of minutes it starts to explode.

We only stayed one night in Popayan as we wanted to get to San Agustín, a small town with lots of archeological sites nearby. The route to San Agustín is rough, a long dusty dirt road, it takes 6 hours by bus and four by camioneta (a 4 x 4 pick-up truck with seats in the back). It is hard travelling at the best of times, but we had a particularly loony driver who was taking shots of whiskey whilst driving. But we got there. After two nights we are now heading back to Popayan, via a stop over in San Jose, which has some more archelogical sights to visit.

Statue at San Agustin
archaeological park

Horses on the central plaza, San Jose

San Agustín as seen from our hotel

Colombia for Christmas

2011-12-26T18:27:00.000-05:00

Last Christmas we left Ecuador to visit the UK and it took three days to get there. Snow, closed airports and booked up flights. It really is the worst time of year to travel. So this year we stayed on the American continent, using our three-week long break from work to visit Colombia.

First stop was Bogotá, the capital city. Some say it is a dangerous place to visit, but I’ve been living in Quito for over a year, and it didn’t feel any worse than Quito. That is in terms of general crime risk. If anything it felt a little safer in the Candelaria district where we stayed, due to the high of volume of security personnel. Because of course there is a long simmering civil war going on in Colombia, in fact the FARC are now in their 47th year of guerrilla combat with the government.

As a tourist in Bogotá, the risk of being caught up in this is very small, but there are many reminders that you are in a country at war. Firstly there is a lot of political graffiti. A lot. Secondly, there is a huge amount of security, around the presidential palace in La Candelaria bags are searched at check points and cars are checked for bombs with mirrors on sticks. And there are a lot of dogs, sweet-as-candy looking golden retrievers sniffing out drugs and explosives, hard-as-fuck looking rottweillers for ‘security’. They are the real winners of this drawn-out war, canine employment is at record levels.

Soldiers with rifles and Christmas lights in the colonial centre of Bogotá , Plaza Bolívar, La Candelaria

Shoe shines and graffiti in Bogotá: "In the land of the blind, those with one eye don't reign, but those that see with their hearts"

We left Bogotá a couple of days before Christmas and flew to Medellín. It was actually free to fly as Bogotá was technically just a stop over on route to Medellín, this was also the cheapest route. However, it is worth noting that had we wanted to fly only to Bogota, that cheapest route would have involved a stop over in Medellin. It makes no sense.

So we stayed in Medellín for Christmas. It has a reputation for being a good Christmas location, its festive lights, for example, are said to be the best in South America. High praise. Although, in my opinion they would be a bit shit if compared to those in Blackpool. Bogotá was relatively cool, with a climate similar to Quito, i.e. you need a jumper in the evenings. Medellin by comparison is pretty tropical. To me it looks tropical too, with lots of Palm trees. Though Helen says it looks like Sheffield.

The Christmas lights of Medellín. Said to be the best in South America.

This city has two famous sons, the artist Botero (painter and sculptor of fat-arsed ladies) and Pablo Escobar (the now deceased kingpin of the now dismantled Medellín cocaine cartel). The two come together in some of the works in the main museum in Medellín, as shown below. So that was it, Christmas 2011 in a Medellin hotel. Tomorrow we leave for Cali, ten hours south by bus. Colombia is a big country, and bus travel is the only affordable option. On the upside, the scenery is said to be fantastic. Hope I get a window seat.

Painting by Fernando Botero portraying Pablo Escobar's death, photo taken in the Museo de Antioquia

Easter Island / Rapa Nui / Isla de Pascua

2011-11-20T08:44:00.281-05:00

This isn't current news. I visited Easter Island (also known as Isla de Pascua in Spanish, and Rapa Nui in the indigenous language) in April this year. The reason I've not blogged this sooner is that it is difficult to know what to say about it. It is the most interesting and mystical place I have ever visited, and I've been around a bit.

Easter Island is officially territory of Chile, however, it is far, far from the mainland, in the middle of the South Pacific ocean. Indeed, it is of the most isolated places on Earth. The indigenous population, the Rapa Nui, originally came from one of the islands nearest neighbours, Tahiti, over 2,000 miles away. However, they found themselves stranded on a small island, isolated from the rest of the world. Under these conditions they developed a fascinating religion and culture, personified by the hundreds of stone statues they produced. It is the highly iconic statues that make this small island one of the most important archaeological sites on the planet. However, its isolation means that it is not besieged with tourists.

Easter Island's nearest neighbours are Tahiti (4249 kilometers away), Pitcairn Island (2,083 Kilometers away) or Chile (3,278 kilometers away).

There are plenty of good sources of information on Easter Island, I recommend 'Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island' by Steven Roger Fischer. I'm not going to give my cack-handed summary here, just some annotated photographs.

There are hundreds of moai (statues) on ahu (sacred platforms) all over the island, in fact nearly 900 moai have been catalogued. The ones in this image are located close to Hanga Roa, the only town on the island.

The ahu and moai near Hanga Roa are close enough that you can walk there in the evening to watch the sunset behind them.

Ahu Tongariki has the most impressive collection of moai. There are 15 on the ahu and they are some of the largest on the island, one weighing 86 tonnes.

Two of the 15 moai of Ahu Tongariki. The one on the left is wearing a top-knot. These are made from red scorcia, and came from a different quarry to the bodies. Originally many would have had white eyes made from coral too.

A broken moai in the foreground Ahu Tongariki in the background. This broken one was probably damaged in transit and abandoned.

It is important to consider the position of the sun when visiting the island's many ahu, get it wrong and you can't see any detail. This picture was taken at Ahu Tongariki just after sunrise.

Ranu Rarako is the volcano where most of the moai were made. When it was abandoned, 397 moai were left unfinshed, untransported or broken. The large number of statues on the hillside make this the most visually mysterious place on the island.

Most of the moai at Ranu Rarako are only visible from the chin up, the bodies have become buried with time.

Many people dwell on the mystery of how the moai were moved, but really that isn't such an interesting question, given that we know that they were moved. Far more interesting is what led the Rapa Nui people to destroy their statues. Every single one was toppled and many deliberately broken between the first contact with the West in 1722 and a later visit in 1868. The majority, like this one, remain in their toppled state. These are perhaps the more poignant sites, compared to the spectacular sites re-erected for tourists, such as at Ahu Tongariki.

The archaeology and history isn't all about moai and ahu. The volcanic crater at Ranu Kao was the home the Bird Man Cult, a religious practice in which an annual leader was selected based on a dangerous expedition to climb down cliffs, swim to an islet and find a sooty tern egg. The village of Orongo on the edge of the crater has numerous stone houses and petroglyphs, many of 'Makemake' the god of the time.

Department of Fatherland Security

2011-11-08T17:51:00.004-05:00

I made a return trip to the UK recently, my route between Quito and Manchester involved flight connections in Miami and New York. Flying via the USA was the cheapest option, but not the simplest. Just to make a flight connection on their soil, you need a visa. On checking in for the return to Quito, I was issued my boarding cards, each had ‘SSSS’ printed on the bottom. This is the code to alert airport staff that I’m to be given extra security checks. Travelling by air in the USA is a hassle as it is. Since 9/11 security has gone through the roof. Many years ago, but post 9/11, while waiting to board a flight in San Francisco I noted that everybody in the queue without a US passport was pulled out and given extra checks. So on this trip, as on that one, I was to be frisked, swabbed and questioned, a lot. To add to the suspicion, I had a sword in my checked baggage. Legal to travel with, but a red rag to already paranoid airport security.

Whether you are covertly singled out for additional checks or not, you can expect to be mildly bullied by little men in uniforms, who can be as surly as they wish. They represent an unpleasant mix of bureaucracy and authoritarianism. One such official that I noted in Miami, had his stamp for approving passports ready on his right hip and on his left hip a pistol. But for him daily work is not just a matter of stamping passports and presumably shooting the odd foreigner. Just to transit at a US airport you have to consent to being photographed and also have your finger prints taken. This is routine. While you are going through this pseudo-arrest procedure, they will bark odd questions or commands at you, and combine it with a surreal politeness: “Sir, did I say that you could move? Well don’t move then, I’m busy at the moment, Sir, I will tell you when I am ready for you to move”. I’ve never seen this arrogance in border guards anywhere else, and I’ve visited about 40 different countries.

On arrival in Quito, I found that in transit one of my bags had been ripped open by US security, this was the one with the sword in it. A small sticker informed me that under US law they have the right to damage bags during inspections. The bag wasn’t locked, it just had zips, but they didn’t use the zips, because under US law they don’t have to. Tossers.

'Embrace the red, white and blue reich'

Dogs of Ecuador

2011-09-18T15:27:00.002-05:00

There are lots of dogs in Ecuador. Here are a few of my photos, of dog related activity which seems strange or curious to me as a Brit.

1. Police dogs are not just Alsatians. At a show for the public in Quito I noticed this Saint Bernard cop-dog. I've no idea why the dog is on the copper's back, but he seems to be enjoying the ride.

2. Dogs are very popular here. Puppies are sold on street corners, or even to commuters in their cars at busy junctions. Only a complete arse would impulse purchase a puppy, and an incomplete one whilst waiting at traffic lights. This picture is of puppies on sale at Otavalo Animal Market.

3. The middle class don't usually walk their own dogs. They pay dog walkers to sort that out for them, in large but well-behaved dog gangs. You tried that in the UK you would just end up with the mother of all dog fights.

4. At least in Quito, dressing up dogs in clothes is considered perfectly normal behaviour, and not in the slightest bit pathetically anthropomorphic. The second photo is from the clothing section of a pet shop near my house. Notice the black leather gimp-dog manikins.

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5. Dogs attend university in Ecuador. Where I teach, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, students regularly bring their dogs to classes. They also bring hamsters sometimes. This picture is of Loba, who lives in the university. She is a snob, I gave her a dog biscuit and she spat it out, glared at me and sauntered off. This university has a reputation for having brat students, a brat dog too apparently.

The British Riots, the Views of a Psychologist

2011-08-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

British rioting youths attacking and robbing a Malaysian student

Here I give some of my observations of the recent events in the UK. This is based partly on my experiences as a psychologist. In the last ten years I have spent a great deal of time researching individuals on the edges of British society, including homeless adults, drug addicts and criminals. However, it is also partly based on my experiences of living in Birkenhead, which was one of the towns that experienced the rioting, and is a town with more than its fair share of anti-social young men.

From my apartment in Quito, I’ve been watching the ‘riots’ on the streets of England, via BBC news. These are apparently quite different to the British riots of the past. They used to be based on political unrest, but now the underlying theme appears to be nothing more than stealing tacky consumer goods. The main targets have been sports clothing shops, mobile phone shops and consumer electronics outlets; added to this has been a substantial amount of violence and arson. There is no political motive here. It is true that anarchists and those with an anti-globalisation agenda sometimes use these direct action tactics. But they attack the symbols of big business, the banks, the huge commercial chains. In the recent unrest many small community businesses have been destroyed.

So who are the rioters? To those outside Britain, these gangs must be almost unrecognisable as a part of modern Britain, but they are there in many towns and cities and have been for a long time. They are maladjusted and do not fit into society. In Merseyside, where I grew up they are called ‘scallies’. They are young men who dress mainly in sportswear and shave their heads, this style appears invariable. They don’t really have gangs such as you might see in the Americas, but they always stay in groups. They are very dangerous people, simply because they are so maladjusted. Some of my friends in Birkenhead have been badly beaten by scallies in unprovoked attacks. Their tactic is frighteningly simple, they pick a lone individual who will be easy prey and find a reason to savage them, often they ask for a cigarette, if you agree and reach into your pocket, that is when they strike. It is very much an exploitive mentality; they want to bully these who can’t fight back. They move in large groups and attack weaker individuals.

A couple of years ago some scallies in Birkenhead town centre came across a man incapacitated by drugs, he was on a mushroom trip. Unluckily for him it was early November, bonfire night. The scallies dragged him onto a fire and watched him burn to death. In this single act of violence you can see the mentality of the scallie, if you can exploit a situation to cause harm, then do it. In the last week they have realised that if they organise into groups of 100+ then they can create these exploitive situations which overwhelm the softly-softly British police.

As a research psychologist I have met many of these people, and have had the opportunity to delve into their emotions and thoughts. They are indeed scary people; they exude confidence and street-wisdom. However, talk to them and you find that they are the least worldly members of society, and of generally low IQ. Their experiences are extremely limited, they know very little about modern life. Their interests are very shallow, really nothing more than having consumer goods, and then this is limited mainly to mobile phones, fast cars and branded clothing. All things that are very visible and can indicate ‘success’ to their peers. Their showiness extends to choice of alcohol consumed on the street corner, they have to be seen with the in vogue alcopop. Nor are they truly confident. Tell somebody that you are a ‘doctor’ and they will open up and tell you about the most private inner experiences. Many of the scallies are incredibly lonely. They can’t trust any of their companions. They don’t have an honourable gang structure, just loose associations of bullies that regularly result in them exploiting, attacking or even raping each other. They have no best friends, or real friends at all.

They are likely depressed, quite possibly with past suicide attempts. Family life is almost invariably broken. Most will have been raised in situations that would be considered as abusive by the middle class. This may be just beatings as a child, loosely based on discipline, or it could be out and out rape by their parents. These are not the confident hustlers they may appear to be, they are scared and damaged. When you read the case notes of troubled children you read of drugs, family violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and the like; truly horrific contexts. Drug use by the youths is of course widespread, and this is primarily self-medication, not hedonism. The drugs are often used to stop them thinking about their current situation, and in particular their past.

So why are they so dangerous? The public hear expressions such as personality disorder or psychopath and associate it with sort of intelligent warped but charming criminals. They also think it is incredibly rare, that they you won’t ever meet one. Wrong. They are all around us. The people rioting at the moment are the same people who populate the criminal justice system, and the majority of them have personality disorders. In fact about one fifth of people in prison are psychopaths. About two thirds have a personality disorder of some sort, usually what is called anti-social personality disorder, a tendency for violence and crime in adulthood, but starting in childhood with bullying, cruelty, theft and arson. Do these sound familiar?

This is who we have running around the British streets at the moment. Profoundly maladjusted youths, the majority have been or will be in the prison system. The majority will have screwed up backgrounds and nascent personality disorders. Their psychology is exploitive. The solution is actually quite simple, it is to stop creating maladjusted youths. This is the role of efficient social services and mental health services. But this never happens, the screwed-up go to prison, their mental health deteriorates and they have children. And so on, and so on.

That, in a nutshell, is what is happening in the UK at the moment. So if you feel extreme anger at these people, remember that they are depressed, damaged, and lonely. They are destined for terrible lives. Does that make you feel better?

Santiago

2011-04-30T08:06:00.000-05:00

We have been in Chile for a week now, but four days of that was on Easter Island, a blog about which is to follow. So the last three days of this holiday have been spent in Santiago, we return to Ecuador, and work, tonight.

Santiago is a typical South American capital city; large, cosmopolitan, rich, poor, polluted. Yet it lacks much of the charm of other Latin American cities, there is very little indigenous presence, and not so much colonial architecture. It is also relatively expensive, e.g. a two hour bus tour costs 18,000 pesos (about £27 or 36 US$). Everything is significantly more expensive than Ecuador, probably around the same level as UK prices. We are staying in the Plaza de Armas Hostel, which is located in the historic centre of the city (an apartment for 3 people is costing US$70 per night). In many other world cities, you just wouldn’t have a hostel in such a location. This place has one of the best ever window views, over the plaza.

The view from our window in the Plaza de Armas hostel

In many countries, a location like this in the splendid colonial heart of the city would be highly prestigious. But not in Santiago, the middle classes have moved out of the city and despite its grandeur, the Plaza de Armas is considered a ‘poor’ area.

View from the Plaza de Armas, the building where the hostel is located is in the background.

A feature of many Latin American cities is the grand cemeteries. Traditionally, the rich have been represented by huge structures that are often architectural works of art. The accumulation of these in the cemeteries creates bizarre miniature cities, often the most aesthetic features of the cities in general.

There are hundreds of these structures in Santiago cemetery, laid out out in streets

I’ve visited similar cemeteries in Havana and Buenos Aires, often off the average tourist’s radar; these are definitely worth a visit. In addition to the vain follies of the rich are large monuments of national significance, often there will be a huge structure, for example, to commemorate firemen who have died protecting the city. In the case of Santiago cemetery, probably the most important of these is the monument to President Salvador Allande and the 2,000 Chilean ‘desaparecidos ‘ (missing). All victims of the right wing dictator Pinochet.

During Pinochet's presidency around 2,000 Chileans went missing, i.e. were arrested , tortured and murdered by the state security. Margret Thatcher was a friend of Pinochet.

Lima

2011-04-22T23:49:00.003-05:00

I've only been here in Lima for two days, but I've packed a lot in. I had been expecting a crowded, dirty and polluted city. But in fact Lima is surprisingly pleasant, at least in the areas I reached. I've been staying at a hostel in Miraflores, a suburb of the city. It is very different from Quito, there seems to be no significant crime problem and the place is very developed. Also it is on the coast (with a long malecon) so there is a refreshing ocean breeze. Overall, a very pleasant place to stay.

Copies of ´Nazca Lines´ designs on the malecon, Miraflores, Lima

Miraflores is about 15 kilometers from the historical centre of Lima, but it is easy to reach on the modern bus service. In fact the public transport is better than anything I've seen in the UK. I understand that Lima, like Peru overall, is still a divided place, divided between riches and poverty. There are also huge squatter camps in the greater Lima area. Nevertheless, the capital city is impressively developed in general.

Plaza Mayor, Lima

A dog sleeping under an armored vehicle, near the government palace, Lima

Well, now my stay here is finishing, I'm at Lima airport awaiting a flight to Santiago in Chile, and then on to Easter Island.

Of Gringos and Goats

2011-04-08T07:48:00.001-05:00

I went on a chiva ride last week. Chiva means (female) goat in Spanish, but I wasn’t riding an actual goat, the reality of chiva riding in Ecuador is somewhat less dignified than mealy mounting small farmyard mammals. A chiva is what they call a sort of flat top lorry that has been converted into a travelling disco. Not a travelling DJ, but the whole disco; dance floor, bar, light show, mislaid handbags, the whole caboodle.

Mobile disco, complete with lazer show, disco ball, pole dancing, and rope to hang on to

It was Tony and Alyssa’s leaving party, they are a couple of English teachers from the USA. They have been friends since we arrived in Ecuador. These are nice gringos, but many other gringos just aren’t. The majority of proper gringos (i.e. from the USA) are not necessarily the opposite of nice, nasty, but are at best useless. The problem seems to be that they come here to pep-up their resumes, but have absolutely no concept that things could be done any differently to how they are in Pigsknuckle, Arkansas. They object to the public breast feeding, because this should be taboo, as it properly is at home. They travel to remote towns to experience the culture and then complain that there are no KFCs or Burger Kings. They really do, they whine about this and multiple other differences all the time.

A nice looking vehicle, seriously pimped

The chiva ride was a shining example of gringos abroad. A group I spoke to were here to do ‘charity work’. The resourceful but poor Ecuadorians must be so bursting with glee that some naive rich college kids from the USA have come down to explain to them how to live. Essentially these kids are allowed to hang around, for a fee, until they have enough fodder for their resumes and a return to corporate fascism at home. So these charity workerss on the chiva, showed there respect for the host culture by flashing their arses off the side of the disco/bus. At police cars. After a police warning they switched to a new technique of showing their affection, pissing off the side of the disco as it careered through the city centre.

Blurred arse to the cops

Pissing on Quito

I suppose British people do the same thing to mainland Europe, some Spanish towns have been culturally ransacked to provide ersatz British style retirement and holiday resorts. It’s almost a national preoccupation for the British to do this. Perhaps it’s a good thing then that the majority of people from the USA don’t have passports, only a minority ever venture abroad. The rate of cancer spread is limited.

One of the chiva-pissers sent me a Facebook friend request the following day, yeah right, that’s going to happen. When Hell freezes over, or a person from the USA comprehends why Ecuadorians are Americans too.

University life

2011-03-13T12:14:00.006-05:00

The Universidad San Francisco de Quito is possibly the most pleasant place to teach in Ecuador. It is built in a mixture of classical styles, but was actually constructed within recent years. The main campus of the university is located in Cumbayá, a town, twenty minutes by bus from Quito.

Although, it is only twenty minutes from the city, it is 2,000 feet lower in elevation. This means it is significantly warmer than Quito. Although virtually on the equator line, elevation above sea level makes all the difference here, this can be between sweltering heat at the coast to permanent snow on the Andean peaks. But at 7,200 feet, Cumbayá has it just right. This climate, combined with the neoclassical architecture, gives it a very Mediterranean feel.

I teach English at the university. Luckily for me some academic classes are taught in English, so I teach Psychology too. In fact, I was able to design my own classes and curriculum, and the students generally speak good English so the language barrier has not been a problem.

This is the most expensive private university in the country and has the richest students. It is expected that many will want to go and take postgraduate courses in the USA. Hence, courses taught in English are valued by the students and management. However, this may not be the case in less privileged private or state universities, were teaching in English may not be common.

This dog, lives on the campus. He is described as 'sometimes friendly' though I've never met him on any of those times. I gave him a dog biscuit once and he spat it out and walked off. He seems to resent the presence of humans on his campus.

Bag Arrived

2011-03-04T11:27:00.000-05:00

My luggage eventualy arrived last night, God bless Continental Airlines, less than two months.

Back in Quito

2011-01-15T10:14:00.002-05:00

I'm back in Quito and the weather is fantastic, a nice change from the British freeze. My suitcases didn't seem to make it back though. That is the third consecutive intercontinental trip in which my bags have gone travelling independently. We flew with Continental this time, they really are crap. For one of the legs, a five hour trip, you had to pay $7 with a credit card to active the in-flight entertainment system. Our stewardess chewed gum throughout the flight.

Happy Christmas

2010-12-30T13:03:00.000-05:00

I’m back in Birkenhead (UK) for Christmas. It should have only taken 18 hours or so to get from Quito to Manchester (via Madrid and Heathrow). However, runway snow and other hassles put paid to that plan. In fact the plan fell apart pretty quickly. It should be simple leaving Quito, as they have an intercontinental airport, slap bang in the city centre; an air disaster waiting to happen, but awfully convenient.

So we set of at 6pm on Friday for a westbound trip to Europe. However, the flight from Quito to Madrid stops to pick up passengers at Guyaquil airport, which is on the coast and consequently to the East of Quito. And it wasn’t so much as a quick stop as a disembarkation then waiting for a different aircraft to take us on the actual flight to Madrid. We are behind schedule, tired and 200 miles further away from our destination than when we started.

But eventually we take off for Madrid. On arriving there we find that our connecting flight is cancelled due to snow at Heathrow. But this is not so bad, we would have missed it anyway, and we get given a night in a hotel and tickets for the next flight in the morning (7am). Trouble is, that flight gets cancelled too, then the next one, and the snow situation is getting worse at Heathrow. We eventually wangle a flight to Amsterdam and when there ask if we can change our destination from Manchester to Liverpool. Presumably because of all the flight chaos none of the airlines had any issues or extra charges, they just wanted rid of stranded passengers.

We arrived at Liverpool about 10pm on Sunday, 24 hours later than planned. In that time we visited 5 different airports in four countries and had at least eight different boarding cards each. But at least we made it. Unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky. One case limped home four days after us, the other two are missing in action, presumed dead.

Work Visa

2010-12-11T08:07:00.000-05:00

Ecuador is an interesting country to come to work in. But the work visa situation is a major a problem. Whereas many countries actively encourage the arrival of native English speakers, Ecuador’s overly bureaucratic systems actively stifles it.

We came in on 12-ix visas which you arrange in your own country via the Ecuadorian consulate. However even these are expensive and require a lot of paperwork. They let you enter the country and study or work for six months. But then of course you need to obtain a full work visa to stay any longer, and that is where it gets tricky. There really is a lot of paperwork this time, and now you are based in the dragon’s lair* of bureaucracy (Ecuador). Doing it on your own probably isn’t an option; you will still be queuing up somewhere when your current visa expires. So there are two other routes. You can pay a lawyer several hundred dollars and they will bribe the correct people and make it happen. Alternatively, you find an employer who will do the paperwork; this is what we have done.

So this week, after several hours travelling to and from and waiting in government buildings, we were issued with work visas. Work visas with errors on them as it happens, so it’s back to queuing on Monday. But at least we have something. We paid out $230 each to the government for these visas. Our employers may or may not charge us an undisclosed sum for the paperwork. Bizarrely they won’t tell us how much. This is because they now have control over our very presence here in Ecuador. If they fire us, our visas become invalid and we have to leave, we can’t just search for another job. So this gives them considerable bullying power. Add in the mysterious paperwork fee, and they can also refuse to hand over any pay that they owe us, claiming that they are recouping their paperwork expenses.

There probably are some good jobs here, but most of the language institutes are used to having a rolling stock of semi-travellers, who they are not treated as teaching professionals. I also have a University job. They pay more than twice as much as the language institutes, but were not able to provide a visa.

There are other options of course. One language institute here arranges ‘cultural exchange visas’ for its staff. They provide Spanish lessons to the English teachers, hence it’s not work it’s a ‘cultural exchange’. But these only give you six months, and as far as I know are non-renewable.

So how and where you work here is completely dependent on what type of visa you have and who is willing to facilitate it. Effectively you can’t change jobs, and the employer who does facilitate your visa then owns you. Nice.

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*Despite what the idiotic TV show suggests, dragons live in lairs, not dens.

National Curfew in Ecuador

2010-11-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

We are not allowed to leave our flat today; the entire country is in lock-down. Only a select few are allowed outdoors. It’s not another coup attempt or other national emergency. Far more mundane, it’s census day in Ecuador.

To make sure that everybody is included, everybody has to stay at home and wait for the knock on the door. Considering how carefully the census organisers are being to ensure everybody is surveyed, it is strange that the actual data collection is entrusted to school children. That’s right, today every single household is being visited by school children. Anybody found outdoors today, not in either a police or school uniform is likely to be arrested or fined. To show that we have participated, we get a sticker on our front door. Presumably lacking this sticker also gets you in trouble.

Even stranger, to make sure nobody is drunk when surveyed, there is a complete nationwide ban on the consumption of alcohol. The prohibition period is much longer than the actual census period and has been in force since midnight on Friday 26th and lasts until midday on Monday 29th. So I have been in all day, and even if I went out all public transport is suspended and all shops are closed.

Being under house arrest has at least given me the opportunity to catch some Ecuadorian daytime TV, and take this photo. Bumble bee man isn’t just a character in the Simpsons. There really is such a person on Latin American TV.

This TV show is popular is shown across Latin America and always features this insectoid character

Working for the Yankee Dollar

2010-11-20T10:46:00.000-05:00

Ecuador doesn’t really have a national currency anymore. Since the year 2000 the US dollar has been the official currency. This has apparently brought economic stability, but presumably eroded cultural identity somewhat. The bank notes are identical to US dollar bills and they also use the one dollar coin extensively here, unlike in the USA itself. The coins of less than a dollar are minted specifically for Ecuador, and the minor unit is the centavos, not the cent. Though they are the same size as US cent coins and are interchangeable here.

The main one dollar coin that is in circulation is a year 2000 mint bearing the image of an indigenous woman with child. This gives the coin an Ecuadorian feel. However, it is in fact still a USA coin and displays the words ‘In God We Trust’. The indigenous women pictured is Sacagawea a North American Shoshone Indian guide who aided explorers in 1804.

The adoption of the US dollar has served to attract many estadounidenses* to live in Ecuador. Particularly, retirees who find that there US pension goes a long way here. The city of Cuenca is particularly popular with retirees from the USA.

At the time of writing one USA/Ecuador dollar is worth about 63pence in British money. The cost of living is very low compared to Britain. Intercity bus travel costs about $1 per hour. A dollar will also buy you a taxi ride equivalent to a 25 minute walk, or a dozen oranges from a street vendor. You can easily rent a good apartment in the capital, as we did, for under $500 per month. In general things cost only about a half to a third of what they would cost in Britain. Though some imported goods as just as expensive, brand name sports shoes for example still cost a minimum of $60 a pair.

Pay for teaching English varies tremendously, but the minimum is usually about $7 per hour. One job I had recently paid around $20 per hour. In addition, the tax rate is low. I pay only 8% and even this I can apparently claim back as a non-resident. This is a breath of financial fresh air. I was paying 40% of my pay as tax while working in the UK.
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* estadounidense is a Spanish word for somebody or something from the United States of America. English doesn’t have a word specifically for this, so most English speakers just say American. However, this grates with the majority of people who live on the American continent but are not from the USA.

Day of the Dead

2010-11-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

The day of the dead is a festival celebrated across Latin America. It isn’t as spooky as it sounds, at least not in Ecuador. The main activity of the day is visiting the cemetery to spend time at the graves of dead family members, but this is not just a flying visit to drop off some flowers as it might be in the UK. The whole family comes along, and they spend much of the day at the grave. They bring food and have a sort of picnic, they tend to the grave and add ornamental crosses or flowers. Of course as everybody in town is doing this on the same day, the graveyard becomes quite crowded. In addition, there may be market traders around (or in) the cemetery, supplying the crowds with food and religious wares. Overall, the festivities transform the graveyards into something you would rarely ever see in the UK. There may even be entertainment laid on.

Andean rock band Cocha Marka playing ive at Otavalo cemetery

The day of the dead is celebrated on November 2nd, which this year was a Tuesday, in Ecuador November 3rd is an Independence day. This year the government gave Monday as ‘bridge’ public holiday which means most people have had a five day weekend. Consequently, everybody in Ecuador has gone away somewhere. We took the opportunity to come to Otavalo in the northern highlands. This town is famous for its indigenous textiles and its markets, but is also a good place to observe the customs of day of the dead.

The day that it is celebrated on is actually all souls day in the Catholic religion, and the day of the dead is likely an indigenous adaptation of this European religious custom. Christianity is big over here, and has been since the Spanish arrived with Columbus. However, it tends to be integrated with traditional local customs, particularly by the indigenous groups. An example of this is the Ecuadorian custom of eating guaguas de pan- little dolls made of bread, with colada morada- a think fruity drink that looks like blood and guts. The combination is reminiscent of the Catholic bread and wine – body and blood symbolism. This is likely an example of syncretism, the merging of religious belief systems to avoid conflict. It isn’t at all uncommon, and is for example why Easter in the UK is celebrated with eggs and bunny rabbits; these native customs were syncretised with Christianity when Pagan Europeans adopted that Middle Eastern religion.

Guaguas de pan, these are from a supermarket, better ones are sold by street vendors

Guagua and colada morada

I visited the cemetery in Otavalo on the day of the dead, and it was a struggle to get through the crowds to get there. The last few hundred yards of the route were lined with traders selling guaguas, fruit and other food. When I arrived the cemetery was packed and there was a stage set up for an Andean rock band to play. I bought a CD. There was a balloon seller and hundreds of families spending time at the family graves. It is quite a scene, but I coudn’t stay long as it felt something of an invasion of privacy, and being the only gringo there, I stood out as a gawky tourist. Nevertheless, I wasn’t the only one there who took photographs. Locals were doing that too, and I didn’t encounter any hostility.

At what temperature does water boil?

2010-10-25T20:27:00.000-05:00

It boils at about 90c in my apartment, and the vegetables never quite soften up. This is a consequence of living in one of the highest altitude cities in the world. Denver in the USA is know as the mile high city, but is pretty low altitude in comparison to Quito. The height above sea level here varies because the city sprawls across a valley. The Altitude is said to be about 9300 feet (2850 metres) in the central area, but go up to the suburbs on the valley sides and you will be closer to 10,000 feet up. If you were piloting a light aircraft at that height you would be required to use oxygen tanks for safety. You can go even higher. A main tourist attraction here is the Teleférico, a cable car ride up the side of Volcan Pichincha, to over 4,000 feet. Up there the air really is scarce. I felt sick and had to return to the city, but that was only a week after I arrived here, so I may not have fully acclimatised.

When you first arrive it can be a bit of a shock, your fitness drops considerably and a stroll to the shops can leave you feeling woozy and out of breath. You get used to it, somewhat. The body makes lots of changes to adapt, such as increasing your red blood cell count. For this reason, high altitude living is popular with some athletes, as it is thought that these physiological changes give a competitive advantage when competing back at low altitude. However, it is my impression that the body can’t fully adapt to the lack of air up here. I’ve started some fairly intensive batto-jutsu (Japanese sword training) classes. Although I expect to feel tired afterwards, the fatigue is much longer than anything I’ve experienced at ground level.

At least I'll be fit when I return to the UK at Christmas, thanks to all those extra blood cells.

Busy

2010-10-19T14:33:00.000-05:00

This teaching lark is really easy to get stuck with. I have 26 hours of teaching this week, with preparation and travel, this is more than UK full time work. I don't need to work so much, but I keep getting asked to teach, and it pays quite well. In addition, my six month visa is more than half way through, so I need to find somebody to help with that, the more I work the more likely that is.

Hopefully things will settle down and I'll be able to get back to doing things I want to do. There'll be a better blog post soon.

Crime in Quito

2010-10-09T17:44:00.000-05:00

The whole business with the coup seems to have blown over pretty quickly, though there is technically still a state of emergency and apparently there are tanks driving around the city. President Correa held firm, until the day after the coup and then made some concessions to the revolting coppers. I now know that the ‘fireworks’ I heard last week were not people celebrating the end of the coup, it was actually the gunfire between the army and the police. A police officer on the side of the state was shot and killed by one of the revolting ones. Loco. One of my students went to work the next day and found a bullet in the wall of their office. The police had little respect here before and virtually none now.

Perhaps this is one reason that there is such a crime problem here in Quito. You can’t really walk around outdoors after dark, and being on the equator, the sun sets at about 6:30pm every day, all year round. If you do venture out there is a very real chance you will held-up at gun point. Some areas are safer, but only relatively so. My apartment block, like most here has 24-hour armed guards. So you are safe while you are home, but you need to take taxis for most journeys, if you can afford it. However, much of the crime here doesn’t involve any actual violence. The murder and serious assault rate is apparently only about one third of that in large cities in the USA. But the petty crime rate is astronomical.

Since the last blog I have started a new job and consequently become of those victims of petty crime here in Quito. Out of the blue I received a call on my mobile on Tuesday AM, asking me to an interview at a university. I had dropped a CV into the reception a few weeks ago, but had heard nothing up until now. They interviewed me Tuesday afternoon and I started on Wednesday, teaching an intensive English course. The university is considered the best in Ecuador by many; certainly it is the most research active. However, it is located outside the city and so I would have to take the Ecovia, the rapid public transit system.
The Ecovia is well known for petty crime, pickpocketing mainly, as it is so crowded. I’ve taken it before and had to keep moving to avoid pickpockets, sometimes other passengers notice them and warn you, sometimes you notice them yourself as they stand just too close to you, and sometimes they get lucky and nobody notices them. On a crowded bus it is impossible to fully protect yourself from pickpockets. There are so many hands and so many people brushing against you, every second of the journey. Any one of them could be your money leaving you.

Knowing how common pickpocketing was and how difficult it is to detect, I took as many precautions as possible when going to work at the university. I kept nothing in my pockets and my work bag was securely around my neck and at my front where I could see it. Still I was targeted as soon as I got on the Ecovia. She stood too close and when I moved she was standing next to me again. She wore business clothes but her left hand was covered in scares, this wasn’t right. I moved again and still somehow she is pressed against me. I kept checking my bag, my pockets; I couldn’t fathom what she was up to. Then the bus stops and she rushes off, followed by the tough guy accomplice, who I hadn’t noticed was with her until now.

With the door open I had room to check myself properly. There was a large gash in one side of my work bag, she had cut it with a scalpel. They had given up and left before taking anything, but in that confusing minute my bag had been badly damaged. Further inspection revealed another small cut in the opposite side of the bag. Presumably her first attempt before I tried to move away from her. At least it was just bag damage, of the six people from my training course who stayed in Ecuador, two have been robbed at gun-point so far.
So what else can I do? I had the bag in my sight and was watching her and still she cut it, twice. Even if I had noticed exactly what she was doing and challenged her, she was six inches away from me and had a scalpel in her hand. This week I’ve obtained two things, the university teaching job I came to find and the realisation that living in Quito is going to be more challenging than I anticipated.

Que será.

Ooh, a coup

2010-09-30T19:02:00.000-05:00

Something political happened today in Ecuador, but it isn’t clear quite what. The army has taken control of Quito airport which is in the middle of the city. But whether that is part of a coup, or to protect infrastructure for the government isn’t obvious. The head of the army has apparently sworn his allegiance to President Correa. But the police force is rebelling. My work was cancelled today due to the potential danger of travelling in the city, but otherwise where I am based, nothing seems any different, and that is only maybe four miles from Quito airport. There were rumours that the supermarket next door to my flat was being looted, but when I went to investigate, it was still open and trading cat food to old women as usual.

The issue seems to be mainly with the police force which is protesting against austerity cuts. At a demonstration the president challenged the rebels to try and kill him ´si me quieren matar, mátenme´. They didn’t kill him, but he did have tear gas fired at him by his own police officers. One Ecuadorian friend said that it is about the police loosing things like their free turkey at Christmas, presumably there is more to it than that. The main problem seems to be now that with the police force rebelling, the country is unprotected from crime. It is dangerous after dark as it is, a friend was held up with a gun thrust in his chest two days ago. It seems that if you walk around the streets after dark a weapon will be pulled against you. It is just getting dark now, so the night might bring some chaos. The police aren’t going to get much sympathy from the public. They are widely considered to be corrupt and self serving.

The politics here are similar to the rest of the southern continent, so people aren’t particularly surprised by a possible coup being underway. Ecuador is part of the ´marea rosa latinoamericana´, the pink tide of Latin American countries shifting to leftish politics. Indeed, several of Correa´s equivalents have seen similar coups in recent years. President Chavez in Venezuela held on to power after his, President Zelaya in Honduras was dumped out of the country still in his pyjamas.

Baños

2010-09-22T23:51:00.000-05:00

Baños is a small town about three hours by bus from Quito. Its name comes from its thermal baths, which are heated by Tungurahua, the volcano that the town sits on. Eruption is a real threat, and visitors are advised to briefly study the evacuation procedure upon arrival. There are also street signs pointing out the evacuation route. Despite the risk, the town attracts a lot of national and international tourists. We stayed over here at the weekend as a break from Quito, and found it a lovely place to visit. It is a real change from the hustle and constant but vague threat of robbery in the capital. We stayed in the very recommendable Hostal Transilvania.

The town draws people for two main reasons 1) the open air hot baths and 2) it is a stop off on route to the Amazon jungle. But there are also other quirks of interest here, such as stunning scenery with lots or waterfalls and their very own dangerous sport: puenting, some odd cross between a zip wire and bungee jumping. In the town, there is sugar cane on sale everywhere and also the melcocha, a nougat like substance made from the cane.

Cuy (guinea pig) on sale in the market

Melcocha (sugar candy) makers at work

However, for me the most interesting part is the town museum, located in the cloisters of the Basilica. This is possibly the most unintentionally bizarre display of artefacts in the world, due in large part to its taxidermy collection.

First job

2010-09-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

And so it just sort of happened, without knowing how, I had got a job. That seems to be how things work here. There isn't much of an application and interview system, just right time and place. Helen had agreed to do some teaching at a language school specialising in British English. They asked her if I would do a couple of hours next week, I could pop in to get the details on Monday. I turned up at 2:30 and was given my coming week’s schedule, my first class starting at 7:30. I only have about 10 hours per week of teaching time, but it’s enough to wreak havoc with my leisure time.

A language institute isn’t quite what I was after. But most of the work is in the evenings, so I can still look for some university based work. This also beefs up my teaching CV a bit, so is probably increasing my chance of finding an additional university job. I’ve heard that there is a desperate shortage of English teachers in China, 30,000 unfilled teaching posts at any one time. However, the market seems to be pretty buoyant in South America too, at least in Ecuador. Most, if not all of the CELTA trainees who stayed in Ecuador are now in teaching positions. The course only finished 11 days ago.

Quito

2010-09-16T10:40:00.000-05:00

Quito has a fantastic climate. Located only 15 miles south of the Equator it has a lot of sunshine, but being high in the mountains, at aver 9,000 feet above sea level, it doesn’t get too hot and has a permanently spring like feel. We have been here for about six days, mainly looking for jobs. The plan was to move onto Cuenca or Loja next and distribute our CVs there. However, although we haven’t found work yet, there have been some positive signs. So at the moment, it is looking like Quito will end up being where we settle. One possibility for me is the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito. This is the top research university in the country, and is located in Cumbayá, a town just outside of Quito. Being at a lower altitude it gets somewhat warmer than Quito and has less rain. Although they have no English teaching vacancies at the moment, I may be able to teach a psychology course for them in the spring. This is dependent on enough students signing up to take a psychology course taught in English, and me obtaining a full work visa before then (my current 12-ix visa has only 4 months left on it).

In the meantime I need to continue looking for English teaching work, the procedure is quite simple, you just arrive somewhere and ask if they need teachers and leave a CV. It seemed ridiculous when I first heard this, but that really is how they do things here. As I've had no call backs from my initial trip out around the campuses, I probably need to try a few more. Though I'm getting out of the city for the weekend, to Baños.

View over Quito from Volcan Pichincha

Teacher I am

2010-09-10T18:32:00.000-05:00

So I have finished the course today, and passed. One of our group has already been hired to go and work in Puerto Viejo, starting Monday. They urgently needed a British teacher which they didn’t have, so the first Brit to accept it got it. All the Brits on the course were virtually begged to take the job. That is the way it is here, as I’m a native English speaker with the teaching qualification, I am a sought after commodity. If they have foolishly advertised the course as being taught by a British born English teacher, then more so. But I’m hanging on for a University job in the Sierra. Unfortunately, my interview with a university on Monday has been cancelled. Somebody who could get to the capital for the interview before me now has that job. But I have plenty of other options, Quito is full of universities, and they all need a steady supply of English teachers.

Teachers and trainers after the last class of the course, the thing behind is the classroom.

As expected, I eventually found a scorpion in my cabana. A large chap, but he was looking pretty ill, I suspect the owners of Playa Kamala has used insecticide, as it was starting to look like a plague. And that wasn’t the only biological challenge sent to us this week, there has also been an outbreak of vomiting illness. I am one of the four people who have managed to avoid it, that is out 12 trainee teachers. But that is pretty much finished with and we’ve all passed the course. So tonight we party, and go our separate ways in the morning. For me it is to Quito.

This one was half dead when I found him on the floor of my cabana. He is huddled up so looks smaller than he would if healthy, but you can see how long his tail his. That packs quite a nasty punch.

Virtually certifable

2010-09-05T19:54:00.000-05:00

I've completed four weeks of the five week CELTA course now, just 5 more days of this and I'll be qualified to teach English. To qualify you need to have six hours of assessed teaching, i.e. a trainer watches your class and decides whether it is up to standard or not. I've pretty much got my six hours now. The actual teaching isn't so hard, but you spend a lot of time on preparation and documenting that preparation. There are a few other requirements too. For example, there is coursework that totals about 4,000-5,000 words of written material and a requirement to observe six hours of lessons given by qualified teachers. Other than that it is mainly all about attending classes.

This is the classroom at the Playa Kamala CELTA course. They do things a little differently here.

Hopefully once I have the CELTA qualification I'll be able to get a job fairly quickly. So far the signs are positive. I have sort of already had one job offer, to start full time English teaching next week in Quito. But it is in a language institute, and I really need to get a university job. Otherwise, my CV will look too wonky when I do return to the university job market in the UK.

As I have a PhD in psychology, I also have the possibility of teaching that, however it would have to be in English and most of the university level education here is, as you would expect, delivered in Spanish. It is going to be a while before my Spanish improves enough to teach in it. I've contacted two universities so far, stating clearly in my CV that I can't teach in Spanish. Both have emailed me back asking if I could take on a module teaching psychology, in Spanish. At least it's encouraging that there are jobs out there, and they are still keen to take me on as an English teacher. Quite possibly I'll take an English teaching job at an Ecuadorian university and then get a bit of academic work too. I'll just have to play things by ear. When this course finishes next Friday, I'm going to quickly plunged back into the real world. I have my first job interview at Quito's Universidad de los Hemisferios on the following Monday.

Scorpions

2010-08-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

I don't know whether it is just the time of year, or if the place is always like this, but there seems to be a lot of scorpions around. Many are tiny, but there are some big ones that look like they could give a very nasty sting. We are three weeks into the five week course here at Playa Kamala, and about half of the residents have found them in their cabinas. They have been found, ominously, in the cabanas on either side of me, but I’ve yet to find one in mine. However, if we assume that most go unnoticed, then logically there are likely to be several in each cabana right now. I checked the internet as I thought I should know what to do if anybody gets bitten, but that just put the fear of god in me. We have to check inside shoes before we put them on, and there is always an air of trepidation when we need to root around inside a rucksack for clean clothes etc. Apparently they like to hide in dark places.

This bitch here just walked into the communal work room this evening, before we caught it in a plastic tub and removed it to a less dangerous place (for us). The coin in the box is a US dollar quarter that we put in to give an idea of scale, ditto for the mobile phone. Even when these things are potentially lethal, people don’t like the idea of just squashing them, and prefer to humanely remove them to places that we don’t congregate. However, when the one below turned up while we were eating dinner, the owner of the site caught it and removed the stinger from its tale. Without that it was harmless, but still pretty creepy to have it walk up your arm.

Scorpions are members of the arachnid family, of the genus: nasty bastards

Life on the dune 2

2010-08-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

Well that last blog seems to have put the wind up some people, but that was just how I was feeling at that moment. I had an email from one person concerned about life here at Playa Kamala, so I tried to give them a more balanced view, this is an edited version of the response I gave them.

The cabanas are pretty ‘rustic’, but I am in a two story one with my wife, I believe the single story ones that most people have are a bit cosier. At the moment the weather isn't that great, it is fairly damp, and the cabinas are built to let the air in for when it is hot, so we had a problem with the rain coming in and soaking everything. But the handyman here fixed it with some plastic sheeting. Things get a bit dirty because your feet get muddy walking around outside, so you have to sweep out the sand periodically.

There are not many spiders, we have only seen a few small ones, but there have been several sightings of scorpions in the cabanas. One person found a scorpion on their toothbrush this morning. Though, you don't see that many insects at all, and most people are not even bothering with repellent. Though a minority seem to be getting lots of bites from something. The constrictor snake is apparently out there, but nobody has seen it for a while and I don't think it is a risk to humans. The local creatures are not all bad, we can see whales from the site at the moment, even sometimes from the classroom (read as big cabina). There are also two nice dogs that live here and a cat with two kittens. The dogs regularly come into the classes and then sit there in the centre of the room licking themselves.

The only hot water is in your shower in the cabana, that apparently runs out frequently, but I haven't noticed it run out in the time I have been here. There was a bit of a crisis the day before I wrote that last blog, when we were told that the electric system was failing and there might be far more limited hot water and IT facilities. But that crisis seems to have dissipated for the moment.

The IT facilities are fairly limited. There is a basic photocopier; they really should have a better one. There are three PCs and two printers, but having all turned on at the same time blows the electrics, so two PCs maximum at the moment. You need to use those two PCs to print out from, but otherwise most people work on their laptops. There is Wi-Fi reception in all the cabanas, but it can be painfully slow at times, and it never gets very fast. However, many people are managing to use it to Skype home.

As for escaping from the site, it is just that we spend all our time together on a fairly small location. It makes sense to try and do other stuff at the weekends, just to clear your head before the next week starts. The problem is that there isn't that much nearby. Montañita is fairly close; most people go in a couple of times a week for shopping. It is a 20 minute walk down the beach, and then two dollars back in a taxi (with shopping). Montañita is a very boozy, back-packer and surfer town. So some people will love it, others will avoid it. Activities can be organised here at Kamala as a group, it will be down to you or another student to arrange something, but the staff of the Kamala sight can help with that. We are all going snorkeling and whale watching this weekend, for example.

Overall it is not too bad. Character building they call it, and we will all have characters built like brick shit houses by the time we have finished.

Life on the dune

2010-08-22T13:57:00.000-05:00

Living in a rustic cabina is wearing us down. It is nice and peaceful, if you don’t count the continuous roar of the ocean. But it is a hassle just existing here. Everything always has some sand on it, and everything is a bit damp. There are no wardrobes or cupboards to keep clothes etc in, and you have to check everything you put on for scorpions. A British health and safety executive would have a seizure if he checked out the wiring, and indeed it has recently started to cut out due to an overload of the system. That coupled with the local power cuts has resulted in a further limiting of our access to IT facilities and hot water.

Last Friday, as classes were finishing a little earlier than usual at 7:3opm, we decided to escape to a real hotel with walls, and hot water and only minimal indoor grit. We had to pay $20 to get a taxi to the Alandaluz ecoresort, and then it was $64 per night. We had booked in and intended to stay for the weekend, but after the first night, straight after breakfast, we were told by the desk staff that they had booked our room for somebody else, and if we wanted to stay another night, we would have to move into a seafront cabina, fully equipped with grit and dank. So that was it, we could move on or pay $64 per night for what we had come to avoid. A quick search of the internet revealed that there were no other hotels with vacancies within 30 miles of us. Comfortable weekend over, we had no choice but to head back to our cabina, with the sand and the damp and the scorpions and the local snake called matacaballo (horse killer).

This is starting to feel like we are stuck in the Prisoner, seemingly idyllic coastal living, but any attempt at leaving will be thwarted. Or perhaps we are stuck in an episode of Tenko.

Scene from Tenko

Life at Playa Kamala

1/3 of the way to being an English teacher

2010-08-19T09:48:00.000-05:00

Well I am now nearly two weeks into the five week CELTA course, and it has not been too bad really. I had received warnings from several sources that it is an incredibly stressful course, but I’ve not found that yet. Although, I have noticed that some people on the course are really suffering mentally. We have all individually taught for 140 minutes so far over 4 lessons. It starts short with 20 minute lessons, the 40 minute lessons, and we start giving 60 minute lessons from next Monday. Next week is also when the first coursework deadlines are, and is supposedly the peak point of course-stress. The classes we teach are to local Ecuadorians who are offered free English lessons. They are all really keen and motivated, we couldn’t ask for better learners while we are being trained. Usually there are between 5 and 10 in each class.

Myself and other trainee teachers, on the way to the training centre, day 1

We have all been stuck on the same beach/mangrove/dune for a fortnight now. It is pretty basic living. There are some shops in the nearby town of Manglaralto, but they don’t stock much and there is a river between us and them. You have to paddle to get there. One of the course trainers, who only started the job two weeks ago, has already packed it in due to the isolation and ‘rustic’ living conditions.There really isn't that much else to blog about, all we do is study, teach and eat, with the occasional walk to a local town to stock up on on water, chocolate and other luxuries.

Walking along the beach to Montañita, a gang of dogs came along for the trip

Thanks to Tony Robinson for these two images.

The Beach

2010-08-10T23:13:00.000-05:00

For the last two days we have been at Playa Kamala, a small beach resort on the Pacific coast. We are two days into a five week intensive Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA). The course is run by the Ecuadorian company Southern Cross, but the qualification is accredited by Cambridge University. Once passed, this will allow us to consider jobs as English teachers, worldwide. So far the course hasn't been too stressful, this evening we did our first actual live teaching to Ecuadorian students. Seemed to go OK, but they were just 20 minute lessons.

The course is residential, based on a formally run-down hippy beach resort, near the hippy-hedonist town of Montañita. It is a job in itself trying to study and work, while virtually living on a beach. The roar of the pacific ocean is ever present, even when in bed. There are no shops, but there are scorpions and geckos around and there is at least one boa constrictor in the near-by mangroves. The cabinas are not at all air tight, so being indoors feels just like being out on the beach, but we'll get used to it. Either that or we will kill a pig and start bickering over a conch shell.

In Guayaquil

2010-08-08T08:37:00.000-05:00

Today we head off to Playa Kamala, where we will be doing an intense course in becoming English Teachers. The last couple of days have been in crazy, crazy, Guayaquil. It is not so bad really, but the pace of life here is fast, just taking a taxi feels like you are playing Mario Kart. It also has a vague feeling of menace, but I’ve been told it is no more dangerous than other Ecuadorian cities. I suspect, we are just experiencing the contrast between the cool, calm, sierra cities and the hot, humid and fast costa cities. Guayaquil is not dissimilar to other large Latin American cities I’ve visited further north, e.g. Guatemala City and San Salvador. One interesting thing about the city is the wild iguanas that live in the parks, particularly Parque Bolivar. These are big lads, many are over a meter long and are not shy. Some of the more idiotic locals feed them peanuts.

Once the teaching training starts on Monday, I’m likely to be very busy, by all accounts it is the most difficult and intense course most people ever undertake, and it goes on for five weeks. But assuming we pass, we will have qualifications that allow us to find jobs in almost any country we wish to. Will post more from the beach, when we get time.

Our route so for

From Cuenca to Guayaquil

2010-08-06T17:45:00.000-05:00

Today Helen and I have been travelling separately from Cuenca to Guayaquil. She has flown to Quito to collect bags from storage (at the South American Explorers club) and then to take another flight to Guayaquil. I have come direct by bus, so I am now reporting live from a burger bay in Guayaquil airport via my laptop and free Wi-Fi. The wonders of I.T.

My previous experience of long distance bus travel in Ecuador wasn’t good. But this time it was a great journey. The route from Cuenca high in the Andes to Guayaquil on the pacific coast takes about 4 hours and gives views of spectacular scenery. First you rise high in the mountains and then, start to descend. At this point, looking down out of the bus window, you can see the clouds.

Eventually after half an hour of twisty downhill roads, you meet the clouds. It took twenty minutes to pass through, what is probably now best called fog. But when we emerged the Andes were gone, the land was flat and the vegetation had changed from sparse to tropical. The fog was now above us, and probably now best called clouds. You just don’t get bus journeys like that in Sheffield.

View from the bus window

2010-08-05T17:49:00.000-05:00

Well I’m still in Cuenca, which is one of the main cities in Ecuador. It is also the most pretty with loads of colonial buildings, it is also favoured by USA citizens. Since I posted details of my cuy / guinea pig lunch, I’ve had several people ask me how it tasted. Well there wasn’t that much of it, cuy are not very fleshy it would appear. It took ages picking off enough for a fork-full. When I did find enough, it tasted much like roast chicken, but more fatty. Also, here is a picture of the cuy shortly before I ordered it in the restaurant:

From Loja to Cuenca

2010-08-03T21:58:00.000-05:00

Arrived in Cuenca yesterday evening, after spending four nights in the really cheap 'Londres' hotel in Loja ($10 per night, about £6.70 for two people). Loja is a really nice small city in the Southern part of the Ecuadorian Andes. It has a great climate, being at a lower altitude than the other sierra cities in Ecuador. The guidebooks said that this was the place to try out cuy, the local name for guinea pig. So on Sunday (the most popular day to cook cuy apparently) we set off in search of 'Salon Lolita', which despite its dodgy sounding name turned out to be a really nice open air restaurant. The cuy could be ordered by size and either as a full or half. Cautiously I ordered a half, which turned out to be the arse end.

And before people get all moral about this, cuy was a food source of the indigenous Americans long before they were children's pets in the West.

Cuy before

Cuy after

To leave Loja we took the bus to Cuenca, this promised to be a relaxing 5 hour drive through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. In fact it was a very squashy, humid and generally uncomfortable trip on an overcrowded coach. Think of a London bus in rush hour, with a 5 hour journey. But it was cheap and got us there, and we did have seats, unlike some of the poor souls who had to stand.

1st Blog

2010-08-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

Well I am in an internet cafe in the high Andes, in the city of Loja. This is just a first blog to get things started. Hopefully, I can keep this updated and of interest to friends and anybody else interested in how I get on relocateing my life from England to Ecuador.

So far, Helen and I have just been getting used to the country, and have been here for almost excatly 7 days. Much of the first week was taken up with the burocracy of gainng work permits and Ecudorioan ID cards. Bizzarly, you have to provide your own stationary. For the first attempt, we were sent out of the immigraciion office in Quito to buy envelopes for them to store our paperwork in. In addition, we were sent to a bank to pay in $10 each to the governments account. On return, they took our passports and ushered us out with a ´Mañana´.

The next day we returned and were sent out to buy more stationary. This time card folders for our application, finally after waiting two hours for the police officer in charge to return from lunch, we were given ID cards.

Now with that sorted we have come to Loja, a city in the Southern sierra. This is a place with several universities, so we are checking it out as a possible place to look for work, once we do our teacher training.