We finally made it to Cuenca yesterday, a day late. Thank you for the offer to help us get another netbook. We could buy one here...maybe. The hardware is not actually the issue, rather it is all the software for editing that I had loaded on it. We stayed an extra day in Guayacil, the big city, hoping they would have a place to repair the fan and recover the files if they had fried.... a totally wasted day! And, we will never go back to Guayacil. Too much big city and you add the language issue... it was frustrating!
So, yesterday, we caught the 10:20 am executivo (read: express bus, not a local) bus for the 4 hour trip to Cuenca. Very comfortable, clean, not crowded, with a bathroom in the back (toilet paper dispenser at the front of the bus?). A beautiful trip as the bus went past rice fields, banana orchards, cacao crops, then started into the mountains. I do mean mountains.... The western range of the Andes. Since we were going uphill, the bus was fairly slow navigating the curves. We went into the clouds... Because of the mist of the clouds, the pictures wouldn´t do the view justice even if I could post them.
We passed cascades of water, small waterfalls, coming down from as high as we could see thru the bus window. That actually should have been a clue for us of our next "adventure." The bus had just reached the summit and begun it descent, when we came to stopped traffic.... We couldn´t see beyond the curve ahead of us, and as we sat, the bus driver´s helper walked around the curve to find out the problem. A mudslide had blocked the road just around the corner. So, we waited. The driver shut off the bus, and he and his helper went to see what they could do. We waited some more. It started raining, not just misting. Two military guys from somewhere behind us walked `past us to the mudslide.
Remember, we are in a huge bus on what is basically a 2 and a half lane road. We cannot turn around. After about 2 hours, the drivers all came back and said one lane was passable. We began to see trucks coming from the Cuenca direction that had made it past the mudslide. For almost 30 minutes, the other direction of traffic was moving, but not our direction. The bus driver got really mad, and sent his helper walking back up to the slide area. Apparently, this helper talked to the 6 or so truck drivers ahead of us, because in a few minutes, our bus driver just took off into the oncoming lane of traffic, passing the waiting cars. As we rounded the bend, we saw that the trucks in our lane had done the same thing, effectively blocking the lane that was moving and forcing the incompetent military guys who we not letting us thru to let us thru... or else we had a stalemate with no one moving. We could see that those two military guys were angry, but our bus driver was laughing as we drove over the mudslide. Cars would have still gotten stuck, as the left side of the roadway was completely impassable, and the right side was about 6 inches deep in mud in the tracks that had already been made when we went thru. No further incident and after six and a half hours on the bus, we finally made it to Cuenca...
Cuenca is a beautiful city and we will be walking around today. Yesterday, we just had time for dinner before it got dark. Ah yes, dinner. A four course meal... French onion soup, salad, an entree of beef medallions and rice, then a dessert of a fruit compote. By candlelight. $4.50 each. Every bit of it delicious.
Sorry no pictures! I´ll keep trying. This computer is almost modern... it has a DVD drive. No SD card slot or USB port....Of course, even then, the pictures may not post because I´ve been compressing them with software.... Que sera, sera. (can you hear Doris Day singing in the background? OK, you kids won´t get that one....)
Well its good to hear from ya'll again. Go figure,with all the planning who would have ever thought the computer would crash. Well if it was a choice of computer or vehicle from place to place,good bye computer.Its still no problem to send you any software you might need if you want too? Whats the outlook on Skype? Lets not cut corners on this once in a lifetime trip,WE CAN SEND YOU WHAT YOU NEED. I think I know the answers to some of those questions,(Que sera sera), if you need anything ASK. USPS,overnight is no problem! Hey heres another little ditty (when God closes the door look for a window) alright keep having fun and call if there is anything we can do .
ReplyDeleteSee Ya, Your Cuz.
It's good to hear from you again, even without pictures!! It seems the prevailing themes for this trip are about soaking in the beauty and rolling with the punches. I hope morale is still high. You're absolutely right, too- some things can't be captured with a camera and shared, anyway. Some experiences are for you alone. And I just love *reading* about your adventures, too!! Glad the inability to post pictures isn't keeping you from writing!!
ReplyDeleteIf we don't get to see more pictures, though, can we get an invitation to view them with you upon your return? :-)