19 Hours, 5 Buses and 3 Roadblocks Later...

(Hanging out in the hammocks on the roof top terrace in Puerto Lopez)

I arrived back into Banos this morning after a pretty crazy, exciting and long bus ride. I rode 5 different buses, for a total of 19 hours, and crossed through 3 tire burning road blockades. All the excitement took place on the third leg of my trip, from Guayaquil to Ambato. Apparently there are some very angry indigenous people who decided to build walls of burning tires to block the roads and make their point. Usually when I am traveling alone I make an effort to meet someone on the bus, just incase I might need some help. This trip he was young man named Richard, who works as a police officer in Guayaquil but was going to visit his family in Riobamba. It turned out to be very good that I met him, because he helped me a lot along this bus ride to understand what was going on, and also to get me through some of the roadblocks.

Around 1am we reached the first block. The bus stopped and we all got out to check out the scene. There were a few hundred indigenous people standing around a blockade of burning tires. Eventually we walked back to the bus and everyone discussed what to do now. The bus driver decided to take the bus through Santa Domingo, a 6 hour detour. Half of the bus was for that, and the other half decided just to walk across the blockade and try to find a ride on the other side. Richard and I decided to walk. As we were walking towards the blockade, I asked him what the people were so mad about. I did not understand much of what he said, except for the words ¨estados unidos,¨ i.e. the United States. After which he told me to put my hood on, not talk and hold onto his arm, which I did. We walked across the line, then just as we were about to continue out, another bus came through and was going to drive through the blockade. The bus had pooled together a little money and convinced the people to let the bus through. We hopped onto this bus as it was about to go through. The problem then was that while some of the people said it was ok for the bus to drive through, others did not, and some were angry. They had cleared a way through the tires, so that there was 7 foot or so opening. I wish I had a picture of this scene. Fire on both sides of the bus, angry indigenous people on the other side and here we were driving through it! Eventually we made it through and were on our way… well, for about 30 min. until we hit the next blockade. There were police at this one and it was simply a matter of waiting and we eventually got through. We hit one more blockade before finally arriving in Ambato!

From Ambato I simply had to ride one more hour back into Banos. I arrived around 8am this morning, 19 hours after I left Puerto Lopez!

Yesterday morning before I left, I visited the Los Frailes beaches, which were by far the most beautiful beaches I have seen in Ecuador. These beaches exist where the jungle meets the coast, allowing for some amazing scenery. I did a 5 kilometer nature walk that took me through the forest and onto the beaches. I walked along multiple deserted beaches, and hiked up to a look out tower where I was able to see for miles.