Adios Quito...Hola Guayaquil!!! Bienvenidos a Tumbes,Peru...

First of all, where am I? I write these lines from a lousy keyboard at Tumbes,Peru, a tiny border town...I hope it works by the time I finish to update my blog!!!

We had a quiet Sunday, just walking around, uploading the pics to the net,purchased our tickets from Lima to La Paz from Ormeño and walking through the fleamarkets. After a fruitful TV evening, we were so anxious to get our visas. On Monday,after having our breakfast at Cafeto (the same for the past three days, scrambled eggs, cappucino for me, tea for Piril, two kinds of bread and lovely fruit juices!!!), we headed to the consulate. We promised to each other to swear "okkali" nice words upon getting the visa and having nasty pics holding our passports, with the visa page open!!! I was very quiet, we brought the passports, paid the 30 USD, gave the tickets and they told us to pick the passports up at 3:30 pm...Wooo, finally...We were very relieved, we went to Transportes Ecuador to get our ticket to Guayaquil, returned back to the hotel, packed up and took a taxi to the nearby internet cafe for a lunch and a quick update...Then we took our bus...The bus was a number 13, the bag tag was a number 13...Well, that's my number (3,13,23) but it was everywhere today...The bus was a Volvo, not something very special, but the movie played on the bus was "Saw", the little muchachos and muchachas were technically giggling and kissing each other, a couple gringos on the front rows, the music as usual was pretty loud!!! It took us more than 10 hours to reach Guayaquil. We departed at 4:20 pm and arrived 1:30 am at Guayaquil...I love my IPOD...The road was very scenic, we drove through smoggy roads, through a beautiful nature,very green, simply beautiful...Piril claims that the bus passed the trucks with a couple centimeters distance...The bus was stopped at drug trafficking control points 3 times and the police seemed pretty indifferent, they just throughly checked our tiny backpacks...It was sooo hot...We even saw the famous Dole Banana Factory. Well, probably that's true, I fell to sleep many times, especially after it got dark. I have a book with me, Elif Shafak's Araf, it was a good company for that long bus ride...Finally we were there, we had already done a hotel reservation, a room at Guayaquil for 15 USD!!! We haggled with the taxi driver for 3 USD, arrived at the hotel. The muchacho at the hotel was called Antonio. Our room was a number 13!!! Piril was freaked out... We both decided that he was a slightly improved version of Forrest Gump!!! He claimed that Turkey was a country of beautiful girls (señoritas he said!!!) and we both said "sure", very beautiful at 2 am with our red eyes!!! The room was very cute, we had a good nite sleep and woke up early to wander around Guayaquil. In the morning, I was looking for the Forrest guy to claim our 5 USD back but another Forrest that I had talked on the phone for reservation claimed that one double bed and two beds would differ. I had explained him at least twice that we wanted to separate beds...Well, he handed on our 5 USD, I was tired of the conversation and after swearing a bit, we left it there!!! We are swearing loud in Turkish though, with the hope not to meet one Turkish on the street hehehe:))))

Guayaquil is the largest town in Ecuador with a nearly 2 million people. It has a natural port, like a lagoon or an inland, opening to the Pacific Ocean. All the bananas of the country are loaded to the ships from Guayaquil and exported to all over the world. It is located right by Rio Guayas, a greyish looking dirty river...We were out early, walked through the 9 de Octubre street, which is the most important street of Guayaquil, had a Spanish breakfast at "El Español" (I insisted to eat there with the hope to find a Spanish tortilla but it was a disappointment!!!) and reached the "Malecon", or the beachfront. We wandered around, Piril shot some short movies (you can see them from Facebook, Piril Yay's page)...When we decided to slowly head back, we saw a market which seemed fun. When we entered, it was quite fun. We were the only tourists inside...It was colorful, vegetables,chubby ladies cooking pigs, potatoes and rice, flowers...This time I was able to take a pig head's picture...We had already purchased our tickets from Ormeño to go from Guayaquil to Tumbes...We took a taxi to Ormeño's office, the taxi driver insisted to find the gate and took us right by the bus but we ended up walking to the office for a check in...The bus departed about half an hour late, there were many gringos on the bus heading Lima. The seats were very comfortable, we were even offered a nice lunch (rice, fried bananas and some type of meat)and Inca Cola. On the bus at the toilet, it says "solo urinario" which I found a little funny...

Murphy worked again, the bus broke down...We waited about a 40 or 50 mins for it to be repaired...The weather was getting warmer, probably it was a about 38 C or 90 F. I think there was something wrong with the radiator, because when they poured water from the top, it was down as it is. When our "dombili" chubby driver put on his repair clothes and laid down under the engine, suddenly a couple people gathered around and started watching the repair process by nibbling banana chips!!! A typical Cem Yilmaz joke it would make, according to Piril...There was a Danish girl, a couple young Brits and Americans, a Canadian who has last been in Istanbul at 1970 and a charistmatic Uruguayian, whom I later found out that he was the Uruguayian consul at Antogafasta, Chile and a Chinese looking guy. Maybe three or four street vendors just appeared to sell water or snacks to the gringos all of a sudden...Finally they repaired the radiator and we were back to the bus...

The road was nice. There were kms or miles of banana plantations all around on the road. It was very scenic, miles of greens and greens...Finally we came to Huaquillas , the Ecuadorian Border Post, then reached Aguas Verdes, the Peruvian Border Post and finally arrived in Tumbes...We told the Peruvian Border Police that we are teachers, as he insistently wanted to know our jobs...From our bible (South America Lonely Planet), we called the Lourdes Hostal and decided to stay there. We were already surrounded by two commissioner taxi guys while doing the phone call to the pension. Instead of a regular taxi,we took a mototaxi, almost like a cocotaxi in Cuba...The guys were following us to the hotel with the hope to get some commission, but I had already haggled the price with the guy who picked the phone at the hotel. They were sweet though, we both hoped that they could have gotten something!!! The hostel looked like a school dorm, all in one corridor, ours was the 6th...It was abnormally noisy, I used my earplugs for the 1st time...In the morning, we had a good breakfast at "Si Señor" Cafe, as usual scrambled eggs, milk and strong coffee, bread and Piril had some sort of tea, a different thing then our tea of course!!! We looked around, took photos, updated our blogs, had a great lunch at the same cafe "Si Señor"...Within an hour, we'll be heading Lima on Cruz Del Sur, ultra luxury bus service...We are told 15 hours but that means 20 hours, we know that already!!!

Well, tata for now...

PS: I had Lomo Saltado today....

Otavalo Market

Today we wanted to start the day early because we were going to go to Otavalo Market, one of the largest and most colorful traditional markets of Latin America. The muchacho at Ormeño had told us to go to a bus Station, so we took the trole, walked and reached there. The guys told us that it was the Bus Station for Guayaquil, not for Otavalo...We asked around, took the taxi and went to a street junction to catch the bus for Otavalo. We soon heard the voice of driver´s assistant "muavin".... Otavalaoooooooo.....We hopped on the bus, sat down and relaxed. There were at least 4 vendors jumped onto the bus, selling illegal DVDs, candies, even a woman was selling cooked food...People ate them on the bus with their hands and cleaned their hands on the seats......Ugh, I have a good stomach usually, but even mine got a little upset. Piril was already closing her eyes, as she has motion sickness. Then they increased the volume of the music, all the same style music..I bet the Equadorians can never live without music..The road was winding through a beautiful landscape, all green and fertileI enjoyed the ride. The reached Otavalo within 2 hrs 15 mins in total. We saw the different sections where they tell ethnic clothes, purses, bags, wooden items, key rings, alpaca shawls, different silver and other types or jewelry, fruits,... vegetables, entire chickens, different street food, some churros and some stuff like Turkish Lokma. We found a Sicilian´s Pizza, Piril had a sanduche (sandwich) with vegetables and I had a strong coffee...It was avery colorful market, with baby boys and girls, colorful outfits of the men and women, beautiful items...

...Piril got a great set of necklace and earrings together with an alpaca shawl in color purple...I got nothing!!! My bag is already full and I was dying to by a tapis in red...Maybe I´ll regret that I did not buy it...Ok, to admit it, I have already regretted:(((( C´est la vie again...

When we were done, we took the bus from the bus terminal again, this time it was a bus with blue glass windows, pretty bumpy but a little more faster. I listened to Sezen Aksu from my Ipod on the way as opposed to salsa music on the bus and went into pink dreams, watching the beautiful landscape...The bus station was very close to our hotel this time, we just walked some 10 mins and came back home...I had time to update my blog...Due to the motion on the bus, I still feel like I´m still in the bus and moving...

I dreamt about my camera last night...Que pena...(Ne fena)
If anyone is reading this, please let us know what you think...

Greetings from Quito!!! Nereye gidersek gidelim, yine deriz memleketim memleketim!!!!

Mitad del Mundo, Peruvian Consulate, Bloody Visa and the like ...

There are lots of things to tell you!
I´ll start from yesterday, 8th of Dec, Fri. We were told by the Peruvian Consulate to call them. Piril and I decided to pretend as if we misundertood and go to the consulate. We had our breakfast at Cafe Modelo right next to our hotel, took the ecovia and went to the consulate. The reply was to call them back sometime between 4 pm to 5 pm. We were a little pissed, as it really did not make sense to wait a couple days to give a simple answer, yes or no...Well, there was nothing to do, then we decided to go to the "Mitad del Mundo" which means "The middle of the world", which is the equator line. I seemed a thrilling experience, so we walked from the consulate to the Calle Amazonas, Amazonas Street and took a bus to change for a Mitad del Mundo bus. It was a bumpy experience, they play tropical music in high volume on the buses and yell like "mitaaadddd deeell mundooooo", just like our old "Uskudaar, Asssaraayyyy assaraay yoh mu hemserim" style to attract the customers...It was funny. We changed the bus and after an 1 hour journey, we arrived in Mitad del Mundo. The official site is like a park, they charge 2 USD to enter and charge separate for the separate sections. There is a statue, which the N and S of the planet is clearly marked with a yellow line. We had our pictures there of course, however the site seemed a little poor. We took a little tour around, there were small souvenir shops and cafes available. We sat down somewhere, had something to eat and decided to go the other museum which we read from Lonely Planet that it was much nicer than the official site. We walked a little bit to the left of the road and came to the museum. It is called Inti Ñan Museum. Our guide Andrés, together with some other Gringos told us about shrunken heads, the clocks, the homes of the quechua people etc...We had interesting experiments to proove the actual equator line. He poured water in a mobile sink on the equator line and the flow of the water was just straight down. Then he pulled it to the north (our side) and the flow was counter clockwise. Then he pulled the mobile sink to the south and the flow was clockwise. It was pretty interesting!!! Then he asked for a volunteer (Piril), asked her to make a zero with her thumb and index finger and he tried to break the zero on the north of the equator line. It was hard for him to do!!! (my strong friend!!!). Then he asked her to move onto the equator line and repeated the same thing. She told us that she felt less strong on the equator line. Andrés also told us to close our eyes and try to walk on the equator line, many of us could not make it!!! Finally he showed us a nail and asked us to bring the egg on the balance on the nail. It seemed impossible to me!!! Piril and I tried but could not make it. One of the gringos made it and had a certificate!!! It was very interesting. Andrés also told us that we weighed 1 kg (2,2 lbs) less on the equator line due to less gravity. I did not want to leave there, hehe...When the tour was over, we gave Andrés a "nazar boncugu" (Turkish evil eye) as he was quite a good looking and knowledgeable guide...I had even seen a Turkish Flag, on the floor though, so we should have given him an evil eye...We took the bus back to the city. It was about 4 when we were back. We went to a Cabina and called the consulate. They told me to call back in 45 mins and I lost my temper for a second. When I lose temper, I speak Spanish very well!!!!I was a little insistent that we really needed an answer, they were standing us up,etc...Piril told me to be a little more quiet but I was a little pissed...Well, I said ok and hung up to call back in 45 mins. Meanwhile I updated the page and waited...Then I called and got the answer!!!YES WE GIVE YOU A VISA!!!! BRING US YOUR CONFIRMED TRIP FROM LIMA TO LA PAZ AND 30 USD AND GET YOUR VISA!!!That was what we needed to hear for days!!!We could not believe it for some couple minutes!!! Good news...We just got to Ormeño, the bus company and got our tickets from Lima to La Paz. We came back to our neighborhood (kendi coplugumuz) happily and relaxed, Piril went back home, I went to the supermarket, got fresh fruits and made a fresh fruit salad for dinner to celebrate the good news!!!

A continuación: Otavalo

New Hotel, 6th of December Day,Cable TV and so on...

I started the day early as we needed to move to the other hotel...We had our fixed breakfast with a great fruit juice (we don¨t know what fruit though), showered, packed up, settled the bill, checked the internet for the last time and took off for the hotel 20 m. up the street. The lady who we bargained was not there, there was a "señor" instead but we got the room we were shown (a triple) on the 3rd floor. We turned on the TV which looked much nicer than the other one, and came across with American show "E.R"...We decided to watch it first and go out later. The streets were all packed with hundreds of people, families were out the street. People were dancing, watching the funny shows, eating ice-cream (these people DO love ice cream, no kidding!!). The kids are adorable here, they simply are...Their little faces, dark complexion, black eyes like olives, little noses and curious "miradas"...beautiful...Another thing which is quite interesting is the men pee here just on the street, as people pass by...They don´t care,just pull down their pants and pee!!! We saw 3 men doing that by far, 2 in the park "El Ejido" and one just on the street. That´s why the streets smell urine at every corner...A macho thing I guess..After the celebrations finished, we decided to go to the hill of "El Panecillo" where we were recommended to go by a taxi cab. The cab driver was a young lady. We bargained for a 3 USD ride, climbed quite a lot and got off in the middle of Panecillo Hill. It was almost like a small town "lunapark" (amusement park) where people were sitting, picnicking, eating candies and ice cream, riding on "donkeys" as opposed to horses in a carousel (gauchos)...There is a statue of Virgin Mary with wings, it could be seen almost everywhere in old Quito. It looks gorgeous in the night time...We took an "unlicensed" taxi on the way back. It was a white car and the taxi driver had his 2 year old baby boy, drinking a "Gatorade", he had a darling face, his mouth was all Gatorade but he looked happy right next to papa...A potential good driver of the future!!!

We looked for a place to have lunch but everywhere was packed. Then we found "Caravana Fast Food" which was also selling pastries and freshly baked bread. We found some meatballs like "sucuk koftesi", very close to Turkish taste, and had it with some fresh bread and Coca Cola Zero (some kind of diet coke)...The streets were packed, for my coffee, we headed to the famous "Cafe Modelo" where everybody else was having ice cream. Quiteños do not care much about hygiene, they clean the cups with the same towel which I was watching as if I was watching a Listerine commercial (seeing thru the germs)!!!! It also seemed like a nice place for breakfast...Then we came back to our hotel and watched great movies and TV shows for the rest of the evening. In the evening, I felt like having a cup of coffee, went out but there was nobody on the streets, only a couple ladies looking for a job and some drunk people..I was a little scared, went back home...

When CSI NY started, I was asleep already...

Friday´s plan is Mitad del Mundo and a consular visit!!! Ciao!!!

Quito=ikinci vatanimizdan sevgiler

Still in Quito...Waiting in anticipation...

We woke up early yesterday (wed), had our breakfast (a little panini,jam,butter,scrambled eggs and coffee) and headed to call the Peruvian Consulate. They told us to call back on Friday which means we´ll be around some more days. We walked to the San Fransisco Square and Plaza Grande, watched the concerts and celebrations...Then we decided to move to another hotel (Hotel Auca)on the same street which charges 20 USD per night (without internet and breakfast though) as opposed to 32,4 USD here. Then we came back to our hotel´s patio for a lovely lunch. Lunch was lovely but a professional thief grabbed my brand new camera. It seems like this trip is going to cost me a lot more than I thought...I was left all alone with my 70-300 mm lens and all the filters!!! I had an extra smaller camera, so I think I¨ll be fine with it but my dreams were all shattered. I was thrilled to use the camera but...Anyway, maybe I´ll buy another one, a used, maybe another stolen one!!! We even went to the thieves´market to look for my camera but there was no sign of it. Then Piril headed back to the hotel, I was still in shock, went to the new town with the hope to find a Canon corner but there was none. All the other cameras were smaller, not like my professional camera. I walked a lot, passed through a park where I saw entire barbequed pigs (with heads) and happy Quiteños celebrating their day of independence. I came back on Trole, electric bus which was the most crowded bus I have ever been in. I was feeling the breathing of people around, accompanied with some nice smells of garlic, onion and a very heavy spice, mixed with various different other aromas which my poor nose could not identify:))) Piril was in the room, reading so we decided not go out, had some fruits, chatted, watched the movie "American Pie 2" dubbed in Spanish and went to bed. I received the first call of our trip from Virginia, US from a friend who followed the blog and found the number of the hotel. It was strange, when the phone rang, we looked at each other and said "who is this"...Well, it was a good feeling after all to hear a friend´s caring voice...

Today´s program (thu) is a move to the other hotel, join the celebrations and climbing on to Panecillo Hill.

Tata for now

Noticias de Quito (news from Quito)

Finally we made it to Quito last night at 10:30 pm.. It was a long and tiresome journey for us. First of all, we met with Piril and went to the Istanbul Ataturk Airport with the family members of Piril...I felt myself like a movie star as nobody shows me this much attention and affection before I leave home for somewhere :))) We were dreaming of a business class trip because of Piril´s father (he´s a pilot in Turkish Air) but it was all full. They put us at the last row before the last, close to the galley and the lavatory which was great for me...It was a bumpy but comfy flight, we both slept and arrived in NYC. There was a problem with the airport, so we taxied quite a long time like 45 mins. The flight for Miami was leaving at 6:45pm, so we exited the plane with great rush, leaving a couple grumbling(or swearing) people behind:)))The bags came a little late, we took the airtrain and delivered the bags, started running to catch the plane...When we were at the terminal 8 entrance, we saw the plane was delayed for 1 hour. Well, "c´est la vie" we said and waited tired...Then we were on the plane and ready to take off but we heard the charismatic voice of our pilot announcing a tecnical problem!!! We waited 2 more hours on the plane by the time it was fixed. I hardly remember it as I was already asleep...When we arrived in Miami, my bag did not come out. We filed the missing bag claim and went to our hotel in Embassy Suites Airport. In th morning, we went to a mall called "Dolphin Mall" to buy a pair of hiking shoes for Piril...On the way back, my bag was there...We went to the airport for our plane to Quito. The security measures were a little strange, you need to check in from the machine, take your bag to security etc...There was no eticket number in my ticket, so the lady(!!) at the counter had to work on my ticket manually:))) Well, no delay, after a quite choppy flight, we arrived in Quito. We took a taxi for 8$ to out hotel. Out hotel is located on the 2nd floor of a lovely colonial building with a nice atrium(courtyard)...The next day (today), we were ready to start our trip, though from Peruvian Consulate for asking a Peruvian Visa for the next part of our trip. We went there, some documents were missing, we completed them, we purchased our bus tickets from Guayaquil to Tumbes, created a false air plane reservation and brought the documents back to the consulate. They told us to wait until tomorrow, so we are waiting with our fingers crossed and I even prayed "Ayet-el Kúrsi" which is an important muslim prayer..(read though ´cause I don´t know it by heart)..

We went everywhere in the new part of Quito, including Museo de Cultura Ecuadoriana and Casa de la Cultura. We walked the handicraft market through El Ejido Park, walked around Avenida 6 de Diciembre...

Now Piril is taking a nap and I´m undating the blog. 6th of Dec is a big festival here, everywhere are people passing with music bands and colorful clothes...We¨ll soon go look for a quick eatery for dinner and join the celebrations...

Hope tomorrow is going to bring us good news!!! OJALA!!! Inshallah)

Tata for now...

We are leaving in a couple hours...

Farewell Party
Originally uploaded by karahanmine

It's a strange feeling, because I still feel like I'm just going to a regular trip, just like the others...I did not calculate the exact figure, but we'll make more than 100,000 miles in the entire trip...I'll be taking notes on everything...

I heard that coca tea it is good for weight loss...I am volunteering to try!!! It is also very good for altitude sickness...

We did the last preparations..I can't believe I take that little stuff with me...If I buy anything, I'll mail it back home, because all we bring is a 55 lt. backpack...

I had a haircut. Everyone thinks I also had it dyed...Believe me, it is my natural hair color. I had not seen it for 10 years either:))) Many think I look like Katie Holmes with this haircut (with a few extra pounds though:-P)...

This picture was taken at our farewell party with Piril, my travel companion... We even had a cake, probably the last cake during the entire trip...

We are flying out today to New York City on Turkish Airlines at 12:25 (American Airlines codeshare flight) and then pass to Miami to spend the night at Embassy Suites Miami Airport(well splurge a little before hard times)...Our plan for tomorrow is a little shopping in Miami, like sandals, pharmacy, IPOD store, electronics store etc...Then we'll catch our flight at 6:20 pm to Quito, Ecuador and will spend the night at Hotel San Fransisco de Quito, at a quiet corner of the city center...I found this hotel, we'll see how good I am in sniffing to find a good place...

I'm not bringing my laptop or PDA, we'll be dependent on internet cafes. Hope they let us upload our photos...

Bueno...tengo que irme (I gotta go!!!)

Hadi bakalim, yolumuz acik olsun:)))