Ecuador Arrival

I just blew into Ecuador today. My very first impressions are that generally it seems richer than Peru...at the minimum, most everything costs more here! It was one of those humungo journeys to get here. Forced myself awake at 5 am to shower and finish packing and then Jesus my (very hands-on-travel-agent) picked me up at my hotel to take me to the Cusco airport. There I and my stuff got screened, I paid an airport usage fee and eventually boarded a plane for Lima. There I paid a more extensive airport usage fee (about $30) and sort of slept for a couple of hours on a couple of armless chairs until my flight to Quito was ready for boarding. The flight seemed to have quite a few Americans who were on their way to the Galapagos. After we cleared customs they were all escorted by travel reps to their hotels. I meanwhile nabbed a taxi driver who drove me to a particular spot along the highway to catch a peoples bus to Otavalo. Even though I was the only foreigner on the bus, they knew exactly what I was after. They heaved my now quite heavy bag onto the bus and informed me that once we got to Otavalo I could catch a $1 cab to the hotel. (The bus ride was $2). The bus featured a dubbed American action movie and beautiful views of the countryside including an exquisite looking lake. The expected cab driver appeared the moment the bus pulled into Otavalo and I was whisked to my artfully decorated hotel.

My first Ecuadorian discovery was that THE currency in use is the American dollar. Unlike in Peru where dollars are an alternative currency to the sole, Ecuadorian crucero has not been in use for eight years. While in Peru, dollar bills are carefully examined for their veracity, here the bills in use are very beat up...and challenging them seems irrelevant.

Otavalo sports many markets (crafts, animals and food) as well as a complement of interesting museums. It´s late now (and I´m very exhausted from today´s journey), so much to explore tomorrow and Saturday!