Hi, I'm Michael. These are my travel notes and photos taken along the Andean Spine of Ecuador.
I arrived in Quito on the afternoon of December 1, 2019 after a flight from New York City to Guayaquil and finally to Quito. My friends of 55 years, Marie and Jan, who have lived in Ambato for the last twelve years, picked me up, and we drove South to Ambato along the 6-lane Pan American Highway. (This highway and much of Ecuador's infrastructure was built or improved upon by Ecuador's socialist ex-president (2007-2017), Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado. The current "socialist" president, Lenín Moreno, caved in to IMF demands for austerity measures--raising gasoline prices--and, just before I arrived, was confronted by a revolt of Indigenous peoples, many of whom live in the towns and villages throughout the Andes. The Indigenous peoples stopped all transportation in the Andes by blocking roads with cars, trucks and buses; burned down a government building in Quito; and threatened to cut off water supplies to parts of some cities. The austerity measures failed, and Moreno's "reforms" were still in limbo when I left Ecuador.)
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One of my first views when we arrived in Ambato was of the Tungurahua volcano, about 25 miles from Ambato, the capital of Tungurahua Province. There are at least four volcanos near Ambato--El Altar (17455 ft) 15.7 miles, Tungurahua (16480 ft) 24.7 miles, Chimborazo (20562 ft) 25.2 miles, and Cotopaxi (19340 feet) closer to Quito, but seen from Ambato on a clear day.
Marie and Jan rent half a house at the bottom of a hill in Ambato. Ambato is a city of hills, and people get around by either bus or car or walking. There is virtually no bike riding within the city. Marie and Jan are also building two houses for their extended family on a hill in the neighborhood of Martinez, which is across the Ambato River from their rented
We visited some of the towns surrounding Ambato over the next five weeks. Each town seems to specialize in one or two crafts/types of business: Quisapincha lies just up the mountain from Ambato and is known for its leather and textile shops; the "blue jeans capital" of Ecuador is the small town of Pelileo, which is located between Baños and Ambato; the small parish of Píllaro is known for its woodworking and celebrates La Diablada de Píllaro from January 1st through 6th every year. Each afternoon of the festival, locals wearing devil masks made of elaborate papier-mache parade the streets of central Píllaro.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, this event has only been widely celebrated for the last decade but has roots from Spanish Colonial times when the indigenous peoples of the region held the event to repudiate the Catholic teachings of their conquerors.; Salasaca is an Indigenous town near Ambato that has a hand weaving crafts industry; and the town of Pasa is known for its shirt factories.
We also visited Quito and traveled to the Northwest of Quito to Mitad del Mundo where I straddled the equator. We then drove to the cloud forest town of Mindo to see hummingbirds and butterflies. We also ate delicious charcoal-grilled fish in Mindo.
To the east of Ambato, we traveled to Patate for a family reunion and further east to Baños; then to Rio Verde, where we rode a tarabita (a cable car) above a waterfalls; and to Rio Negro, where we stayed at a resort, and where I woke up one morning to see a scorpion in my bathroom sink. We never traveled to places where there were mosquitos (the Amazon or the Pacific coast beaches), and I didn't have to worry about malaria or yellow fever.
One good thing about traveling in Ecuador was that gas stations were open 24/7, and they had to maintain public, accessible bathrooms. Of course, if you didn't have change for the toilet paper machines, or the machines were empty, you were out of luck, unless you had your own tissues or napkins. President Moreno, who is wheelchair-bound, has tried to pass accessibility laws in Ecuador since his vice-presidential years, and every new building in Ecuador must be accessible--the old buildings, however, and many of Quito's and Ambato's sidewalks, are not.
Driving in Ambato is a challenge. Drivers don't seem to stop at "PARE" (Stop) signs, but when drivers do stop at red lights, they are usually entertained by jugglers. Not just any jugglers, though, but by people juggling on very high unicycles, or juggling machetes. Many corners have people selling things like cut open coconuts with straws sticking out of them. Roads on the hillsides above Ambato can be hazardous with narrow lanes and hairpin turns. The sides of some roads are also covered with construction garbage that is waiting to be pushed into ravines to help fill them and create more land to be developed.,
Many areas of the city, however, are decorated with works of art--usually architectural murals made from painted tiles or tile mosaics. These can be found on many building walls, such as sports arenas, columns holding up a roadway, the Public Library, Court buildings, and others. A number of these murals tell the history of the Indigenous peoples and of the country since the Spanish conquest and the wars of Liberation, and many were designed by famous Ecuadorian artists such as Fausto Holguin and Franklin Ballesteros. Some of the wall murals also include architectural advertisements made from tiles or tile mosaics. (Read my article about the "Architectural Murals of Ambato" here: https://tilesinnewyork.blogspot.com/2020/02/architectural-murals-in-ambato-ecuador.html.)
Someone is ripping us off: While in Ecuador, I decided to check out the prices of prescription drugs that I use. I chose the most expensive, non-generic medicine I use for diabetes. In the U.S. I pay a $300-$350 co-pay, and my drug insurance pays about $1000 for this medicine for a three month supply. In Ambato I paid a total of $124, after a $50 discount, for a three month supply of this medicine, and I did not need a prescription. As I said, someone is ripping us off!
One of my first views when we arrived in Ambato was of the Tungurahua volcano, about 25 miles from Ambato, the capital of Tungurahua Province. There are at least four volcanos near Ambato--El Altar (17455 ft) 15.7 miles, Tungurahua (16480 ft) 24.7 miles, Chimborazo (20562 ft) 25.2 miles, and Cotopaxi (19340 feet) closer to Quito, but seen from Ambato on a clear day.
Marie and Jan rent half a house at the bottom of a hill in Ambato. Ambato is a city of hills, and people get around by either bus or car or walking. There is virtually no bike riding within the city. Marie and Jan are also building two houses for their extended family on a hill in the neighborhood of Martinez, which is across the Ambato River from their rented
We visited some of the towns surrounding Ambato over the next five weeks. Each town seems to specialize in one or two crafts/types of business: Quisapincha lies just up the mountain from Ambato and is known for its leather and textile shops; the "blue jeans capital" of Ecuador is the small town of Pelileo, which is located between Baños and Ambato; the small parish of Píllaro is known for its woodworking and celebrates La Diablada de Píllaro from January 1st through 6th every year. Each afternoon of the festival, locals wearing devil masks made of elaborate papier-mache parade the streets of central Píllaro.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, this event has only been widely celebrated for the last decade but has roots from Spanish Colonial times when the indigenous peoples of the region held the event to repudiate the Catholic teachings of their conquerors.; Salasaca is an Indigenous town near Ambato that has a hand weaving crafts industry; and the town of Pasa is known for its shirt factories.
We also visited Quito and traveled to the Northwest of Quito to Mitad del Mundo where I straddled the equator. We then drove to the cloud forest town of Mindo to see hummingbirds and butterflies. We also ate delicious charcoal-grilled fish in Mindo.
To the east of Ambato, we traveled to Patate for a family reunion and further east to Baños; then to Rio Verde, where we rode a tarabita (a cable car) above a waterfalls; and to Rio Negro, where we stayed at a resort, and where I woke up one morning to see a scorpion in my bathroom sink. We never traveled to places where there were mosquitos (the Amazon or the Pacific coast beaches), and I didn't have to worry about malaria or yellow fever.
One good thing about traveling in Ecuador was that gas stations were open 24/7, and they had to maintain public, accessible bathrooms. Of course, if you didn't have change for the toilet paper machines, or the machines were empty, you were out of luck, unless you had your own tissues or napkins. President Moreno, who is wheelchair-bound, has tried to pass accessibility laws in Ecuador since his vice-presidential years, and every new building in Ecuador must be accessible--the old buildings, however, and many of Quito's and Ambato's sidewalks, are not.
Driving in Ambato is a challenge. Drivers don't seem to stop at "PARE" (Stop) signs, but when drivers do stop at red lights, they are usually entertained by jugglers. Not just any jugglers, though, but by people juggling on very high unicycles, or juggling machetes. Many corners have people selling things like cut open coconuts with straws sticking out of them. Roads on the hillsides above Ambato can be hazardous with narrow lanes and hairpin turns. The sides of some roads are also covered with construction garbage that is waiting to be pushed into ravines to help fill them and create more land to be developed.,
Many areas of the city, however, are decorated with works of art--usually architectural murals made from painted tiles or tile mosaics. These can be found on many building walls, such as sports arenas, columns holding up a roadway, the Public Library, Court buildings, and others. A number of these murals tell the history of the Indigenous peoples and of the country since the Spanish conquest and the wars of Liberation, and many were designed by famous Ecuadorian artists such as Fausto Holguin and Franklin Ballesteros. Some of the wall murals also include architectural advertisements made from tiles or tile mosaics. (Read my article about the "Architectural Murals of Ambato" here: https://tilesinnewyork.blogspot.com/2020/02/architectural-murals-in-ambato-ecuador.html.)
Someone is ripping us off: While in Ecuador, I decided to check out the prices of prescription drugs that I use. I chose the most expensive, non-generic medicine I use for diabetes. In the U.S. I pay a $300-$350 co-pay, and my drug insurance pays about $1000 for this medicine for a three month supply. In Ambato I paid a total of $124, after a $50 discount, for a three month supply of this medicine, and I did not need a prescription. As I said, someone is ripping us off!
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