Thoroughly Visa’d Tales

September 11 1998


Ok, the stuck in Quito chronicles Once Rob had winged off to Southern latitudes, I was left to explore the reality of travel. Some times, the nitty gritty of travel reminds one that its not all wide vistas, exotic climates and way cool people. Quito has been one such time. I love the city, and for me it’s right up with Santiago as an ideal place to get stuck. But Stuck I have been. First I was going to fly. But Barclays, the proprietors of my Visa card, have decided that I should not be able to access my now dwindling, but still existent funds. Phoning them has proved a little challenging, so I have given up and tried to communicate via the web. Maybe, someday, British banking will enter the 19th century, forget this one or the next. It took a massive flood of 100 identical mails to get a response !! So, to save money, now that the plastic was dodgy, I decided on the Colombia route. for 10 days I kept nearly daily contact with a very inefficient embassy, until yesterday I had to give up the idea of Colombia. I had only a few days left on my Ecuadorian entrance stamp, and even less on the Venezuelan visa that I got a year ago. Hence I was left no choice but to fly. In the interim flights had shot up 30% and the failing card actually cost me money. So, given no alternative, I purchased the stupidly overpriced ticket. What hassle Anyway, in the middle of all this, there was the small opening of a weekend, so seeing a chance to get some travelling done, I was off to baños. A little hot springs town in the mountains on the way to the Amazonian basin, Baños is a total tourist dive. A little Cusco, with less to do. I visited the not too bad zoo, but after that could take no more and headed off to the jungle village of Mishualli. Here I spent a pleasant day doing a lot of bird watching and walks through the surrounding lush growth. The Jungle per say doesn’t really exist in south America within walking distance of either a road or navigable river. So needless to say, the only way to see the small pockets of Amazon that remain is to take expensive tours. Unlikely!!! So after all the time I’ve spent in the Amazon basin, I’ve yet to see true blue jungle. Wasn’t bad though, and the drive back to Quito via another road was utterly mind-blowing. From pretty much jungle, through high mist forest to grassy plains and on the alpine meadows as we went to almost 4000m before the descent into beautiful Quito. it was one of the best transAndean drives I’ve done, and in 10 months I’ve done a few. Now I’m finally in Expensive Venezuela. The flight was a blast. A week before I flew a plane didn’t make it off the runway, plowing merrily into the too close suburbs. Our tiny little relic of a jet took the corner at the bottom of the runway at full tilt, skidding onto the track engines blasting. We just just left the ground as those big end of runway lines dipped under the wings. I had more than normally sweaty palms after that. My only sight of Colombia was wonderful. Green and managed like farmland back home, it was beautiful. Bogota looks like an awesome city, full of skyscrapers, parks, water features and open spaces. Golf courses dot the lush suburbs, and it’s a pity I never got to visit the Country. However, Venezuela seems stunning. I landed and immediately got on a bus to Merida the cheap little mountain city. Needless to say, I was trekking the next day. They don’t allow solo trekking, so I had to wait for another group of people to rock up before I shot off on my own. This Northern extreme of the Andes may be the most awesome I have yet visited. I climbed through lush green cloud forest for a day. Rain drilled out the sky, and despite the Macpac trying its best, 4 hours of tropical torrential downpour resulted in a little dampness inside. I camped low, and awoke to a lovely morning to enter the Alpine zone. Known as paramo here, its a fynbos like wonderland, and was in full bloom. I haven’t seen flowers like that since my last hike in the berg in summer. The high camp (only 4200m, the Andes are little here) is stunning, set against rolling outcrop, smooth and glaciated with hairy foliaged plants, like those of tropical African mountains. I spent a lovely afternoon by another green glacial lake, before descending the following day, and seeing my first South American Trogon. Then it’s been an overnight bus, and I’m off to the airport shortly to meet a friend. I’ve just confirmed my ticket, and I will land at Heathrow on the 15th of October at 10:45 am. But plenty to do until then. It’s unlikely that I´ll squeeze another mail off, as things are way costly here, but at least the credit card is finally rolling money out of machines again...