Good-bye Ecuador
Well, it’s been seven weeks, and we come to the end of our stay in Ecuador. Time to look back a bit.
We’ve been totally charmed by the people we’ve met. Ecuadorians are the friendliest, most lovely people on this planet. (OK, Newfoundlanders are the friendliest, but we’re here now.)
We use an ‘cabina’ (like a phone booth, but part of a retail store) to make a phone call - by the time we finish, we are amigos with the store owner who will wave at us every time we pass his store. When we return to a coffee shop a second time, the staff greet us like we are family returning from a long trip.
We are adopted by the families that we stay with – including the kids, the in-laws, and the cousins - and they all take pleasure showing us their cities and sharing their time with us. We thought this would be a leisurely few months, with long afternoons to read, study, and loaf. But we barely have time to sit down. Ecuadorians repeatedly amazed us with their generosity and hospitality.
Families are big in Ecuador. It’s still an old-fashioned place (but unfortunately learning our North American ways). ‘Kids’ still live with their parents until they get married, and afterwards drop in to visit several times a week. Meals are still eaten at the family table.
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Ecuador is huge. Not physically huge. There is so much to see, crammed into such a small space. And you can’t see it quickly - it can take 15 hours to drive from here to there, because the terrain is so rugged. Most of the roads are excellent, but the exceptions are painful.
Last year we visited the Galapagos. It is a unique experience, a week there will change the way you look at nature. People who has been there will tell you that it is NECESSARY that you visit it yourself.
Cuenca is an architectural jewel-box. Unfortunately, we can’t show it to you, as much as we want to. The narrow streets defy photography, the crowded urban kaleidoscope doesn’t translate to the still image. Take it from us, it is impossible to walk in the centro streets without grinning like a cat.
We have climbed on Chimborazo. There is a magical draw to this huge mountain – it dominates you. You cannot hike even the lowest foothills without feeling awe. And when you finally climb above the clouds and look down on them, wow.
We have cruised part of the ‘Avenue of the Volcanos’, repeating their ancient names like incantations. After a while we don’t even bother to take pictures of these spectacular mountains (“That’s Cotopaxi over there.” “Is it erupting today?” “No, seems quiet.” “OK, keep going.”).
Tungurahua - (say it as four syllables, Tun-Gue-Rah-Hua, with emphasis on all of them, sort of like saying four separate words.)
The Coast, with its spectacular beaches and balmy weather is a tourist draw. Our bad luck to be there during an ‘El Nina’ event. Anytime in the next 10 years will likely have much better weather. But it was still perfect.
We didn’t get to the ‘Oriente’ – Ecuadorians refer to their portion of the Amazon as ‘The East’. We chatted with another tourist who has just returned, she was gushing about how amazing, how wonderful it was. But Michelle was looking at the insect bites up and down her legs – the size of alligator bites - and vetoed a visit. (Hint: if you go, wear full-body spandex at all times).
We saw just a fraction of the wonders of this country. It’s a magical place.
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The saddest part of Ecuador is the poverty. This should be a rich country, it has natural resources coming out of its ears, and the people are natural entrepreneurs. Like much of South America, it is hobbled by bad government and corruption. But Ecuador has some unique challenges.
Education is important here. Parents dig deep into their pockets to send their kids to University. But people here simply don’t read – it’s not a ‘reading culture’. We have not seen books in any of the homes we visited. Bookshops are rare – especially in the smaller towns - and shabby. The big-city newspapers are closer in content to the Forest Hill Crier than the Toronto Globe and Mail. It’s OK, we hear. The kids read on the internet. But of course they don’t.
We were a little surprised at the high-school schedule in Manta. Lots of kids, not many schools, so they run three shifts. Carlos’s children are on the late shift – they start classes at 4:00 PM and finish around 8:00 PM. I wonder how effective that is.
There aren’t a lot of jobs waiting for University graduates, Ecuador isn’t part of the 21th century knowledge economy yet. The export economy runs on oil, fish, bananas, flowers, and ceramics. Ecuador grows the best coffee and cocoa in the world, and exports it to be processed.
Almost 20% of the citizens are working overseas (2M out of 13M citizens). That’s huge – because the 13M includes children and retired people. Everyone seems has a brother or cousin in the US or Spain or somewhere. Every cabbie says he has spent a few years working in the US. Remittances drive the consumer economy.
A construction worker in Spain earns almost 10 times what a similar worker in Ecuador makes. But every newspaper has a sad story of expatriates having to return to Ecuador – the global financial crisis is drying up work. These are huge surges of people.
One last story – so typically Ecuadorian – about training and process and trying to get anything done. Ecuadorians are lovely, but there isn’t the management layer or commitment to skills and training. Perhaps it’s because salaries are so low.
When we are in Quito, we stay at the Hilton Colon. It’s a 5-star hotel, a bit stuffy but very comfortable and has a terrific location. Rooms are $128 a night, which is very high in Ecuador, but I’ve paid that much for the Holiday Inn Express in Duck’s Butt, Missouri.
We know we’re coming back for one last night, so we walk down to the front desk and ask if we can book a room. Yes sir, it’s $180 a night. That’s the rack rate, we have always paid the lower rate. We argue, the clerk consults with his supervisor and comes back to tell us we can have the lower rate if we book it ourselves on the internet.
Huh? We’re standing right in front of him. But we can’t sway him. We figure we’ll get the travel agent to book it when she books our air tickets back to Quito.
But that doesn’t work either. The travel agent believes the rate is $128 per person. No, we explain – simply look as the last time you booked us there. But she is adamant, the rate is per person.
I try the Hilton Colon website, it redirects to the US Hilton site and I don’t get a good feeling that a reservation will actually be waiting for me when I arrive.
Almost across the street is the Windsor Hotel - a nice looking hotel that has a sign offering rooms for $39 (a bit more for double occupancy) including free internet.
I paid almost that much alone for the internet service at the Hilton – although that includes having a bellboy in a funny hat deliver a secret code to the room). The Windsor website simply sends an email, I sent one and got a confirmation back in about 3 minutes.
www.windsorhotelecuador.com and it was perfect. We’ll be staying there next time too.
So the Hilton has lost about $200 in revenue that night (a month’s salary for one of their staff) and a repeat customer. How much money do they save by not training their staff?
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So goodbye Ecuador, and Thank You. We’ve had a wonderful time, an amazing time.
We’ll be back.