I saw in the New
Millennium in Vilcabamba, a small town in the south of Ecuador. New Years celebrations
began quite civilized with a bottle of Chilean champagne on the balcony of our hotel. We
spent a few hours with some friends listening to the New Millennium being welcomed in
across the world on short wave radio. We waited for news of the Y2K bug triggering the
predicted end of the world, but all seemed pretty calm so we cracked open another bottle
of wine and then went down into the town. In the town we found a cute little street party
complete with disco ball and danced our way into the New Millennium. Everything seemed to
be going very smoothly until the excessive alcohol levels in my blood triggered a major
Y2K failure in my brain. Apparently I had a great time in the first few hours of the New
Year and was very entertaining to my friends and locals alike! (Pictures by request!)
Next we
traveled up through Cuenca to Latacunga where we did a 'challenging' hike around Laguna
Quilotoa. We began the hike around the magnificent volcanic crater lake at 08.00 in the
morning. The trail followed the ridge of the crater, but quickly became undefined and we
soon were scrambling across almost vertical cliff faces, desperately trying to pick out
the way. After 3 hours of tough hiking/climbing at around 4,000m in the hot equatorial sun
we decided that the next half of the crater looked too treacherous. We spotted a small
dirt road below and so made our way down to it, hoping to find transport back to
civilization! We arrived at the road exhausted, water less, food less and hat less, only
to be told that the nearest village was a 4 hour walk away! Dragging our feet under the
burning sun we began our stumble towards the next village, armed with rocks to fend off
the rabid local dogs. After a few hours Paula started to loose it and murmur that she
wasn't going to make it! (It was just like the 17 km desert death hike in Mali that was
almost our last adventure! - Paula was so happy to be hiking with me again!) Eventually we
managed to find a guy with a truck which whiplashed us to the next village and basically
saved us from early extinction!
The following
week Paula and I pursued more civilized activities. These included visiting the colorful
indigenous market of Saquisili, checking out the artisan market of Otavalo, having
breakfast at the volcanic crater lake of Laguna Cuicocha, shopping for leather goods in
Cotacachi and soaking in the beautiful thermal springs of Papallacta.
We returned
to Quito on 10th January. On our arrival the president promptly declared a state of
emergency due to the severe economic crisis and civil unrest. We were greeted by residual
tear gas and burning tyres blocking the principal roads. During the following days the
situation seem to grow more and more tense, with the people calling for the immediate
resignation of the president - of course the president wasn't keen to go!
We made our way to the the airport day after day trying to get a seat for Paula out of Ecuador. All the planes were overbooked with Ecuadorians fleeing the country. Finally on 19th January Paula managed to squeeze onto to an American Airlines flight to Miami and we said our emotional good-byes.
After the airport I returned to my
hotel and narrowly avoided being caught up in another protest and clouds of tear gas! The
tension in the city continued to rise and by Thursday 20th January tens of thousands of
indigenous people had arrived in Quito to protest and demand the resignation of the
government. My hotel was located only a few blocks away from the presidential palace, so I
was certainly in the thick of things! Getting back to my hotel in the afternoons became
quite a challenge, trying to get through the blockades and dodge the clouds of tear gas.
On Friday 21st there was a coup, quite peaceful but none the less a little scary. The indigenous people stormed the Congress building and amazingly the military put up no resistance. The next day the vice president stepped into power and all seemed to return to normal! It seemed incredible that all this could happen so quickly and virtually without any bloodshed. Once all had settled down I bought another membership for the health club at the Hilton hotel and got back to my normal way of life. With the US dollar at 25,000 sucres everything seemed ridiculously cheap and so I could live a life of relative luxury on US$5 per day! When I arrived in Ecuador in September 1999 the exchange rate was US$1 = 11,000 sucres. Although the prices had risen they had in no way caught up with the dollar.
On
the evening of 5th February I caught an international bus direct to Lima, Peru (34 hours).
After 142 days in Ecuador it felt a little sad to leave, but I was ready to move on. The
journey down to Lima went very smoothly and I arrived on the morning of Monday 7th
February. It was summer time in Lima and it felt good to be back in the heat. I spent 3
days soaking up the sun and visiting Barranco, a trendy sea front suburb of Lima. Not
being able to face the 60 hour bus journey from Lima down to Santiago de Chile I decided
to fly. I convinced myself that I had saved enough money with my long stay in Ecuador and
could afford to splash out a little!
On
Thursday 10th February I took a direct flight from Lima, Peru, down to Santiago de Chile.
The three and a half hour flight certainly beat doing the 60 hour bus journey! One of my
Chilean mates met me at the airport and I stayed at his apartment for few days. I spent my
last couple of weeks in South America in the Santiago area. I had planned to go to the
Viña del Mar Festival on the pacific coast, but the crowds put me off - I must be getting
old! Instead I just took it really easy, enjoyed the hot sunny days, went out drinking at
the street cafes in the warm evenings and caught up with my Chilean mates.
On Friday 25th February I flew back
to London after exactly a year in South America. I had had a great year in South America,
but it felt good to be home! I spent an enjoyable couple of months in the UK catching up
with my family and friends. This time I didn't have to face the normal decision of whether
I should go traveling again or get a job, as I had a plan to go out to Vancouver in
Canada. Paula and I had decided to see how we would get on living together in the 'Real'
world.