Lines and textures and colors

I think I will post a little about Cuenca at another time. I am here till Sunday so I will have more to say later (maybe).

But here is some of the human made loveliness of the town. I am going to purposely mix up the order...

Pen Scratches

Prices and Wages

At a  papelería (think office supplies), I saw a simple bic pen for 50 cents. Today I saw set lunches (the menu of the day) for between $1.50 and $7. A snickers costs about $1.25. A liter of water 60 cents.  A t-shirt between $2.50 and $30. I bought a small notebook for 65 cents. I bought a waffle with fresh strawberries for $2. I bought 5 oranges for $1. I bought a tea for $1.50. My lunch of chicken and fries cost about $3.50 my dinner of chicken, rice, fries, garlic bread and a Pepsi cost $9. I bought 3 books for $35.

I think similar to the Prices in the US prices here have an intricate rhyme and reason, only here I don't understand it. In general I have found that essentials like food, shelter, transportation are fairly cheap.  

Clothes seem to depend on the stigma associated with the brand or area you buy it. Like shopping walmart vs fancy store( I couldn't think up a fancy brand- shows what I know about clothes shopping). 

Candy, and coffee can be pricey for a brand you know. 

School, art and office supplies seem way more expensive than you would hope.

DVDs and music seem way cheaper than you would think. But books are expensive. 

I haven't been paying attention to alcohol prices, but I know there are 2 or 3 brands of beer they sell for around 1 to 1.5 per 20 ounce bottle. 

Spanish lessons cost between $5-10 per hour.

A local of Guayaquil named Brenda who I was fortunate enough to meet up with told me that the average full time worker in her city made between 400 and 1000 dollars a month.   An expert or highly educated person might make 2000 plus. 

The minimum wage is $318 per month. 

Food

My brother asked me about the differences between Colombia and Ecuador. One of the ones I have noticed is food. I usually don't think too much of food because I am so picky and don't eat any of it... But I do notice it. So this is what I have seen In ecuador:

There is less variety of fruit sold here, but you can buy a bag of oranges for a dollar. They sell grilled plantains all over the place. Occasionally you will find a coconut vendor. 

Street food here is kind of interesting 

Kebabs, grilled corn, grilled plantains, bags of ceviche and soups, bean salads.

I am most intrigued by the things that come in plastic bags... Sometimes it looks like a mini salad sometimes clearly a ceviche. I have heard the ceviche here is not as good as in Peru but I will speak to that in a second.

I see a lot of ice cream vendors in Ecuador but unlike in Colombia they sell home made products. In Colombia it is a person with a cart and prepackaged goods(think ice cream truck) here it is frozen goo on a Popsicle stick, clearly made at home, sometimes made in a freezer mold ( like when you made kool aid Popsicles).  Sometimes it is this stuff that looks like whipped cream only more sticky... 

They also sell a lot of potato and plantain chips. Oh I have also seen a lot of pig skin sold as street food. And they are big on sausages - mostly hot dogs.

They are fully stocked in the pastelerias... Cookies, cakes, donuts... Some stuff that looks like French pastries, some that looks like Christmas cookies. 

Food in Ecuador is like a mix of what I have been told Peruvian food is like(supposedly the best on the continent) and what colombian food is like (supposedly the least memorable on the continent). 

Set meals are usually a soup, an entre of chicken or fish, rice and manestra(looks like beans, I've been told it's lentils). Sometimes a salad or potato and a small dessert (often fruit on yogurt).

That is the basic meal here. However there are lots of other standard meals such as papipollo(what I had for lunch fried chicken and fries) and salchipapa (hotdog cut up on fries). 

Seafood is big in certain areas... Lots of trout, shrimp and crab. 

This goes right along with the ceviches which is basically when you cook food using acid (lemon or lime). But part of the reason people don't like them here is that they apparently precook the seafood(sound safer to me)  but I guess takes some of the flavor out of it.

They are huge on soups but I guess the whole Andean region is. Potato, corn, beans, chunks of meat, some other unidentifiable stuff... Often times a cream base.

Cuy ( guinea pig: see last post) is not eaten as often as you would think. People eat chicken here as much as I do. And occasionally you will see some mixed meat things you can't identify. It's like shavings from random animals mixed with innards.

Chifa(Chinese food) is also a big thing, but I can never tell if it will be any good. They sell fried rice and lo mein as the main things. Even non Chifa places will have them, but they look a little questionable and everyone has told me they are not very good. 

I suppose then you have all the standards (Mexican, Italian, American, middle eastern). They don't seem to have much of a twist on any of these... It's all standard. The baklava I had in Guayaquil wasn't very good... But I guess that's fine.

Bathrooms!

Everyone's favorite topic.  I have not seen a bathroom yet in South America in which you could dispose of tissue in the toilet. That is a pretty normal thing in the world and for the most part I have been really surprised with the cleanliness and standards of the bathroom facilities. There is sometimes even soap and toilet paper!   (Years ago I got in the habit of having wet wipes and napkins on me when I travel).  Public toilets usually cost between 10-25 cents. Sometimes 10 cents extra for tp (sorry ladies). You would not believe how many times I have seen men using the bathroom in front of the cleaning ladies. There are rarely towels. Showers are really a crap shoot. In warm climates (Guayaquil) it was all cold water and that was fine. In the mountains you really hope for hot water and sometimes get it(sometimes halfway through). 

I have seen massive bathrooms designed for communal use(sink and urinal troughs!) and tiny cramped bathrooms that were clearly a closet originally (hello Europe!). The most interesting though have been the unfinished bathrooms where you get a view or the birds get a view of you. 

That is all assuming you use the bathroom. The other day i was encouraged to use the sidewalk by a bus driver who didn't want to clean the bathroom on the overnight bus. I realized I was basically peeing on someone's front step at 3 am. This is all too common here. There is really no block in any major town that hasn't been rained on.  

Guayaquil 

The biggest city in Ecuador is often used as a jump off point for trips to the beach towns, or to get to Peru, or to get to the Galapagos... But almost no one goes to see the city itself.  

I went to get my glasses fixed and see what I could see ( which wasn't much considering). 

In the city museum they have the history of the city from thousands of years back to the present. It's a cool collection but was mostly in Spanish. Cool displays though.

Me and this dude hung out.

Along the water front to the river guayas is a big mall area, plus a bunch of public parks and statues...

 This area is called the malecon which I think just means seafront. 

Clock tower at malecon 

Dirty dirty rio guayas  with sweet wooden ship.

The downtown area is kind of just a big business area with a few cool parks... Like the iguana park

Which is right in front of he beautiful cathedral

But other than that there isn't much to see. If I were to go back to Guayaquil I would definitely check out the older area of town where all the painted houses are... And the sweet looking cemetery.

I spent most of my time in an area that was more fancy called Urdesa.  

Urdesa has all the middle class suburban amenities you are looking for including sushi places and malls and giant iguana statues

It's got a couple of malls and is close to one of the big universities.  I stayed in this area because I couldn't see anything... But I did notice that Urdesa must be filled with ninja-like robbers because many of the houses have bars on the first, second and third floor windows! 

Every Drive is a Trip to the Circus

One of the biggest welcomed surprises I have had in South America is the abundance of street performers (non musicians) who are active everywhere. In Europe or the states a street performer hangs out in a pedestrian area and stands their ground. Here the street performers run out into the road during red lights (actual street performance) and do crazy cool stuff for like a minute then ask for change from the first few cars.  Not all of them are great but I have seen some circus level stuff that was totally awesome. Also they practice in all the public parks so basically you are always getting a show. 

The musicians on the other hand, play at restaurants, cafés and on buses. Sometimes this is awesome, sometimes a little rough. It's really awkward when you are in the middle of a conversation.

Alright those are the things I scratched into my notebook to talk about... Until next time - which will probably be about Cuenca or crossing into Peru.