Ecuador
Everyone works in Ecuador (Drive Day 146: November 22nd, 2003)
I see no evidence of schools in this remote, high-altitude detour. Or electricity to light them if they existed. Kids learn instead how to guide llamas to market, or to lift plastic bowls of cocho beans into the air to let the breeze separate the chaff and dirt. But the father of this little family tells me things are improving. He actually owns his own land. His kids have shoes. There’s a local radio station that plays songs that make the work go faster.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
The potato girls of Chugchilan (Drive Day 145: November 21st, 2003)
The town of Chugchilan is perhaps the biggest stop on the Quilotia Circuit – a graveled, organ-bruising loop around a volcanic lake we still haven’t seen except on a tattered map. This was too off-road even for my father. The town square is lit with charcoal fires and vendors selling chicken and potato stew to workers coming in from surrounding farms. Like these two young girls, who agree to pose for a picture if we promise to send a copy to their parents. The trouble is, when I ask where to send the print, they don’t know what an address means.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Silly sounded Saquisili (Drive Day 144: November 20th, 2003)
On market day, this tiny town bulges with buyers and sellers turning seven city squares into street markets. When I was seven, what astounded me were the men behind foot-pedaled sewing machines selling alterations, and the piles of bananas higher than my head. Thirty years later it is no less overwhelming. Chickens, for one. I’ve never seen so many for sale in one place Live and dead. Big and small. Screeching and terrified silent. Neck gripped by vendors in perfectly straight ques. All different colors, yanked out of burlap sacks for inspection before purchase or rejection. The whole thing resembles a line dance constantly ducking and weaving, changing partners.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Otavalo to Toacaso (Drive Day 143: November 19th, 2003)
Never take North American ATMs for granted. In Ecuador, like many developing countries, those machines of convenience distrust your means and resent dispensing cash that would otherwise say in its country’s vaults. Otavalo’s $300 at a time withdrawal limit is actually generous, but it means we can only travel with enough cash to finance six days on the road. And once we leave Otavalo we have no idea if any of the high Andean towns on the map even have ATMs. If the roads are any indication we might need to start stashing cash under the camper’s carpet. This is seriously remote and rough terrain. The camper’s water tank crack is getting more serious. Instead of ATM’s we’ll have to start searching for a hardware store or market to buy contact cement.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
The comfort of errands (Drive Day 142: November 18th, 2003)
We can walk down a shepherd’s path from our campsite to Otavalo in a little over 30 minutes and realize it’s becoming a regular commute. We’re running errands, buying stamps and cleaning supplies, cooking meals, sending emails from town – not so different than the people we pass on the colorful streets. We know it’s different than belonging and that we’ll never blend in. But traveling this way at least resets your internal clock to something approaching local time.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Cook meat. Add starch. All you need (Drive Day 141: November 17th, 2003)
Although we see market vendors who’ve clearly hauled fresh produce and forest delicacies all the way from lands far lower, the street food is decidedly Andean. Meaning, it’s cold and high and you need all the fat, protein and filler you can get. But even the basics can’t dodge the out-of-sync dollar pricing. A vendor holds up three Ziploc bags of beans and says together they cost a dollar. Which would have been 25,000 sucres if they were still legal. But three years ago, that same 25,000 sucres would buy you an entire basket of dried goods.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Spanish so deliberate you feel smarter (Drive Day 140: November 16th, 2003)
It’s not a surprise to learn that Ecuador is one of the top-ranked places Americans and Europeans come to learn Spanish. I find my hands less necessary, words are making the connections on their own. Which is good, since the camper draws crowds of curious Ecuadorans everywhere we stop. I’m thinking a calendar might finance the rest of the trip, what do you think?
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
A world above (Drive Day 139: November 15th, 2003)
Otavalo may be famous for its indigenous markets but its children are the draw for us. Granted, we are a Pied-Piper-like curiosity. We’ve parked at a hostel but are sleeping on top of our truck in a house-on-wheels. The mountainous ground is so steep that looks like we could roll downhill in the middle of the night. But if we did, there would be a gang of giggling kids running alongside.
They are fascinated with the images of themselves on Gary’s digital camera screen and want to know how the pictures will get out of the box. I expect them to say they want to grow up and be farmers or teachers but they say mathematician, electrician and computer fixer instead.
All I’ve read about this country is about its revolving door of corrupt leaders, five presidents in six years who managed to tank the economy after adopting the dollar as the official currency. I just wish one of these kids had said they plan on becoming president.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
The kindness of strangers to the strange (Drive Day 138: Nov 14th, 2003)
The drive up and out of Manta passes through lowlands that look prehistoric – we stop to ask why the bamboo houses are up on stilts and find out that everything ground level gets flooded each January and February. A little girl wonders if our house is on wheels to stay out of water too. And then she brings us a basket of fresh-picked mangoes: her gift to us for the dangerous drive up the mountain on a trip she can barely fathom. We gorge on them at the gas station where we have to spend the night. The sticky sweetness feels like a continental welcome in a country that hadn’t seemed so lucky to my father the first time around.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
Reunion in Manta (Drive Day 137: November 13th, 2003)
After what I hope is the last night I will ever sleep in a flophouse so filthy we elect the bare mattress over the sheets, I am ready to be reunited with the Avion. I have all the stamps, receipts and official paperwork. But not a broker. Which, as it turns out, is the only way to pay slightly fewer bribes and payoffs than I do today. But in truth I’d sell a finger to get back on the road with my own home over my head.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa.
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