From A to B

So today marks my first full day of my life in Ibarra. Ibarra is absolutely gorgeous. Basically it is at the food of a huge volcano called Imbabura and its surrounding also very tall friends. Imbabura stands at the southern part of the city so if you have to ¨go up¨to get somewhere that means you have to go South, and likewise going down means to the north/in the opposite direction of the huge mountain. The surrounding countryside reminds me a lot of Denver-if Denver´s mountains encircled it on more than just one side of the city. I played basketball today with the locals and after aclimatar-ing myself to Ecuador I picked up my first Southern Hemishphere W.

Obviously this blog will be filled with entries soon about Ibarra so I wanted to for now focus on the wonderful world that is Ground Travel in Ecuador.

First things first: cost
Basically you pay one dollar for every hour you travel. Thus the bus ride to Ibarra from Quito-a 110 kilometer trip ran me a mere two dollars and fifty cents. It really is hard to beat Ecuador´s prices on some stuff. Just a week ago I paid four dollars for two haircuts. It´s also not too shabby. There is just something so special about having an Ecuadorian women shave the back of your neck with warm shaving cream and an old school razor. Absolutely money.

Number 2: Getting There
This is the part that gets sketchy. The first time I attempted to travel I took a cab to the bus terminal with two friends. As soon as we arrived at the terminal two men opened the cab´s trunk and took off with my companeros´s suitcases. Thus Kanedog took off running after the two men yelling ¨LOS TENGO¨while they pretended to not hear me. I finally caught up with them, grabbed them and then grabbed the suitcases. Luckily these Ecua-thieves had really short little legs. Then, unbelievably, I was encircled by a group of about 8 males, ranging from 10 years old to 40, all grabbing for our maletas. Thus I was left with only one choice. I decided to go Charles Barkley on their ass and began throwing elbows and bellowing the Spanish equivalent of ¨GET THE F$CK AWAY FROM ME.¨The Sir Charles tactic worked and we finally claimed our bags. Needless to say from then on out we decided to avoid the bus terminal, which is actually totally money. All you have to do is stand on any major highway and flag down the buses of your choice. Plus you dont have to pay the loading tax at the bus terminal. I belive also that one can take a taxi to Ibarra for about 8 dollars.

Number 3: Bus Ride Action
The absolute best thing about Ecuadorian buses is the entertainment. First off all the buses play cheezy Spanish dubbed action movies non'stop. So far I have had the pleasure of watching Van Damme beat the crap out of - well, Van Damme - since in this particular gem he had been cloned to solve crimes because his evil alter ego rampaged through countless cities. Check it out on IMDB for kicks. The replicate. I have also enjoyed the third installment of the Fast and Furious Franchise, as well as a nice little Chuck Norris medley.

Number 4: The scenery
Ecuador is absolutely beautiful. Words can´t describe the feeling of watching unpopulated landscape sweep by your window. You basically drive on about two feet of road (both lanes combined) that looks down upon unreal gorges-literal holes in the earth. As long as you are fortunate enough to not encounter buses going the opposite direction you are fairly sure that you are not going to die. Once you get to the cities you are prevy to The Ecuadorian razgos-ie photo op faces of wear and tear, as well as the indigneous crafts. Yesterday I saw a huge replica of Donatello´s David yesterday with one small change-They actually built David to be hung like a hoss rather than a nino chiquitito.

Signing off-

Kanedog