Greetings from the north and south hemisphere

Hola jolly fun seekers. I have been in Ecuador a little over a week. It is a really cool place. Quito is a really nice city. Very european, or so I`m told by the eurpeans I`ve encountered. It is the second highest city in South America only La Paz Bolivia is higher. It is about 2800 meters high. Having wandered around the city I truly believe there are no flat parts. There is high and higher. It almost seems whichever way you go you are going up. There are a lot of cool places to visit. On an interesting note I bought a replica of pre-colombian art in a store beneath a cathedral in Quito, it is a coule copulating. Yep really, imagine the Catholic church approving of such a thing. Of course one of the things you have to do if you are in Quito is go to Ciudad Mitad del Mundo-The city of the middle of the world. This is the spot where the equator goes right through Ecuador. It is pretty interesting there is an impressive monument that marks the spot that contains an ethnographic museum of Ecuador. There is also a planertarium crafts stores and restaurants. Of course there is a line with a sign that says 0.0.0 latitude and everybody stands with a foot on either side of it and has their picture taken, yours truly included. So picture this you go in the park, you walk up this long impressive wide path with busts of all the scientists who were responsible in one way or another for mapping the equator and this path leads to the monument which is probably about 60 ft. high, you go to the north-south quadrant and have your picture taken and then they tell you that with the advent of GPS technology about 25 years ago they found out that the actual line is about 200 meters north. Well, I guess, that`s life. On another note I met an interesting couple in Quito, she (her name is Narcisa) is a holistic practitioner. I am still being bothered by the accident on my bicycle in El Salvador in June. I have been to doctors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, massage therapists. I have taken a variety of pain killers and used a variety of creams and salves etc. Some of it helps a little some doesn`t help at all. As I was wandering around Quito I saw a sign for Narcisa so I went in and talked to her. She worked on my shoulder did a chiropractic adjustment all sorts of cool stuff for about 2 hours and charged me $14.00 and it actually gave me relief for a couple of days. The best result I have had so far. At any rate I asked her if she was familiar with reiki, which is a technique I know and she said she wanted to learn it. So the next day I made an appt. with her and taught her reiki and her husband came and after wards we went out drinking and karaokeing. (is karaokeing a word? I don`t know but if it wasn`t before it is now). Then the next day I left for Cotopaxi Nat`l. Park. It is only about an hour bus ride out of Quito. Cotopaxi is the 2nd largest volcano/mountain in -ecuador at 5900 meters (the largest is Chimborazo at 6300 meters) I wanted see some BIG mountains so I went. The thing about mountains that high is that they create their own weather and are often covered with clouds. So I got a room at a hostel across the street from the entrance to the park. It was a beautiful day when I left quito about 10am but by the time I got there it was raining. So I used the only option I had, I started drinking beer and waited for the weather to clear up. Know that the hostel is at a little over 3000 meters (10000 ft.) at that altitude in Colorado this time of year it is snowing, ask anyone who lives in Leadville. But no snow just overcast and rain. So what did I do, well continued drinking of course. The next day it was overcast but not raining so i made arrangements for a 4 wheel drive tour of Cotopaxi. It is only possible to drive to the 15,000 ft. altitude of Cotopaxi and then, if you want, you have to hike the last 5000 feet to the top. I`m told it requires an overnight camp. Too old for that shit! So picture this: I`m in this 4wd pickup with this local Ecuadorian dude, ostensibly a guide, and he is taking me up to 15000 ft. As we get into the park it starts raining. Having lived in the high country of Colorado for a while I know it is entirely possible to get above the clouds. This is what I am hoping for. Because right now you can`t see anything. So get this, this guy makes his living driving his truck up to 15000 feet but doesn`t have snow tires on his truck. Well several hundred meters from the parking lot which is where we are supposed to be going, he can`t get through the snow. Now several other 4wd`s go past us, a friggin`tourist bus goes past us, but as soon as he hits snow he can`t move forward. ¿Can you believe this shit? He tried for about 20 minutes but he could not move his damn truck forward. Christ what a turkey. Well after that we went back to the hostel and I continued drinking. Other than checking out Cotopaxi there truly is nothing to do at this place which is about 1 mile off the road, so today I left and I am now in Los Baños. It is a cool little burg in the valley surrounded by huge mountains. BUT it is warm and the sun shines most of the time. In case you haven`t guessed, Los Baños is famous for it`s thermal hot springs. Which is the reason I came here. So I am here for a few days to enjoy the warm weather and hot springs then I return to Quito, where most of my stuff is stored, for a couple of days and then off to Guayaquil Ecuador. Guayaquil is the coast. I really need some beach action. From there I think Peru. That`s all for now.
hasta la vista baby
The road goes on forever and the party never ends
Charlie

Funny statues and other stuff

Sorry for the delay in posts, I´ve been having fun. San Agustin is a nice place. It is a nice little mountain town in the middle of Colombia. But it ain´t near anything. The climate is more agreeable than Bogota it rains less and is somewhat warmer. The people are very friendly the women are cute and petite, and friendly. As I said in my previous post the main attraction of San Agustin are the statues, and there are lots of them. They are all located outside of town in the Archeological Park and various sites. The first day here I went on a 4 wheel drive tour of various sites and locations. It was fun, it was an all day affair and it´s only about $15.00 what a deal. The second day I did a tour of other sites on horseback. That was even better. We went places i would not have walked to or been able to take my bike on because of muddy conditions or whatever. It has been years since I rode a horse and I loved it. My guide was the delightful Ana. Remember what I said about cute, petite and friendly that´s Ana. One of the places we visited was called the Chaquira, no not that one her name is spelled Shakira, as opposed to being a statue this is acarving in a rock or carvings I should say. On one side is a carving is a carving of a male figure, facing the sunrise, on the opposite side is a feminine figure facing the sunset. Apparently the site was used for ritual sacrifice or something. But it was pretty cool, the scenery in the area is fabulous. I have close to 200 photos of the statues and of the local area--but mostly statues. I had heard that the statues were like those of Easter Island. I have not yet been to Easter Island but from the photos I´ve seen there is not much similarity. The tallest statue I saw was perhaps 10 feet high (3 meters). All the rest were perhaps 1-2 meters high. Many of the statues were tomb guardians for high ranking people. Variously featured were shamans, farmers, warriors, eagles and women of various social stature. Almost all are carved on a thick flat surface. The skill that went in to carving these statues using stone tools is absolutely incredible.
San Agustin is a nice place but after eating and drinking and possibly smoking weed there isn´t much to do here. The nearest movie theater is a 45 minute drive. Mall surely you jest. While in town I stayed at the Hostal Itaca. The owner is a nice friendly sort. Some of the locals told me to be wary of the guy, and I took their advice, but I couldn´t really see what the problem is. He´ll bend over backwards to make your stay pleasant. He makes an excellent breakfast for $2.00 and is all in all a very pleasant guy. At one time I was in a hammock reading and he comes in with a bud in his hand and says "Do you like this?" Of course I enthusiastically said SI. He said "this is for you if you want more no problem." So I smoked that and asked if he could get me $5000 pesos worth and he said no problem. (5000 pesos=2.50) I wasn´t expecting very much but he comes back 5 minutes later with a 4 finger bag. I was impressed.
Cute women and dope dealing hostel owners are all well and good but it was time to move on from San Agustin. The place sort of grows on you. Land is incredibly cheap. I checked out a couple of farms. I could have bought a small coffee farm (real small maybe half acre) for about $7000.00 I was tempted but then I looked at my stocks and said no. My plan for when I left San Agustin was to go to Popayan Colombia, spend a couple of days there and go to Quito Ecuador. As often happens plans changed. The owner of the hostel talked me out of going to Popayan because it went right through the area where FARC is the strongest. Several other people concurred with him. So instead I went to Mocoa and from there to Pasto. The trip to Mocoa was nice and pleasant but from there to Pasto things got really interesting. When going to Mocoa we were following a valley and everything was fine. To go to Pasto we had to go over the mountains. Soon after we left Mocoa in a full size bus the road turned to dirt and we started going up. This is when it started getting interesting. Imagine a city bus going over the mountains on a 4 wheel drive jeep trail. Yup that was the experience. We were actually above the clouds for a while. Quite a few times when we encountered another vehicle on the road one or the other of us would have to back up and let the other one by. The distance was a little over 100 kilometers yet it took us about 8 hours of driving time to do it. The busses in Colombia have a digital speedometer in the passenger compartment so you can see how slow you are going. We spent an awful lot of time doing about 12-14 kilometers per hour. Even on rare occasions when we got onto pavement we rarely got above 40 kmh. We were stopped twice by the military and made to exit the bus and be frisked. But only the men. I wonder how long it will take the FARC to figure they can have women armed to the teeth and they won´t get frisked. I finally got to Pasto and get a room across from the bus station and go out to have a few beers. There is a disco right across the street.So I go. I´m sitting there and the police come in and tell all the men to get in line to get frisked. It is only on this part of Colombia that I have experienced this. They must be really worried about terrorists down here. I had heard that the gov´t really hadn´t goten control of that part of the country yet. I guess they are right. I am now in Quito Ecuador, I got in at about 9 last night. I will report more soon.
hasta la vista baby.
Charlie

Bogota Update-----Dead nuns

Well I bet that got your attention. Since my last post I´ve been museum hopping around Bogota. One of the places I went was the Banco Nacional de La Republica Museo de Arte. I´m not quite sure what the Banco Nacional is but I think it might be their treasury or whatever. Regardless they have a couple of pretty cool museums in one building. The first is a numismatic museum, a history of the coins and money used in Colombia. It is pretty interesting. But the other is the art museum. It isn´t huge but what it lacks in size it makes up for in quality. They have paintings and sculptures by a number of heavy hitters: Degas, Chagalle, Picasso, Renoir to name a few. They also have a collection by a Colombian artist named Botero. His paintings are very popular all over Latin America. They never did a thing for me. He paints fat people and fat things. Every subject he paints is fat. People, with and without clothes, animals, trees, fruit all fat. I don´t deny the man´s talent but as I said looking at fat people does nothing for me. I imagine if you google him you will find pictures of his art and you can decide for yourself. But I digress, there is one wing of the museum dedicated to------Dead nuns. In fact that is the title of that section Monjas Muerte. It is nothing gross or disrespectful they are all paintings of nuns in coffins. I don´t know what the motivation was for this and as much as I don´t wish ill on anyone after all those years of catechism I can´t say I was sad to see all of them in one place. So now you know the reason for the second half of the title. Another museum I went to was dedicated to Colonial Art. I actually found that sort of boring. Most of the paintings were portraits of people of whom I knew nothing about and cared even less or they were all religious in nature. So no great reviews for that place. The next place was the museum of fabric and clothing. If it hadn´t been free I never would have gone in. Actually it was more interesting than the museum of colonial art. It showed what people wore before the Spanish got here (the natives) and what the Spanish wore and the Colombians have been wearing since colonial times to the present. It was interesting but I´m still glad it didn´t cost anything. Next was the Military Mueum. This was actually pretty cool. The Colombian Military through the ages. Displays of swords, uniforms, guns, airplanes, artillery all sorts of cool stuff. So if you are into that kind of stuff, as am I it is really cool. And it´s free. Then the big one, the Museo Nacional. It is a good way to blow off a few hours on a rainy day, which is what I did. After Simon Bolivar I know nothing about Colombian history. So all the portraits of the countries forefathers didn´t really do anything for me. But the rest of it was pretty good. The dioramas of colonial dwellings etc. There are also some art exhibits. I know I´m not doing a very good job of making this place sound interesting because it truly is. I truly enjoyed it. I think I may be Bogota´d out. I yearn to get back to tropical weather. It has been in the 60s here most days. It also rains a little every day. However they do have hot water here. The first place since I left Mexico. So either tomorrow (saturday) or Monday I am going to leave and go to San Agustin. I don´t know if it is going to be any warmer but it will be interesting. There is an archeological park there where they have Easter Island type of statues. Nobody knows anything at all about the culture that created them. So that is what is next on the agenda. Then from there to Quito Ecuador. So that´s it for now.
Hasta la Vista baby
The road goes on forever and the party never ends
Charlie