The Site Visit - This is going to be long

July 24 2009, Friday

So I guess before I get into this long blog I should just put the summary right up here at the top in case you don’t want to keep reading. My initial site visit to the El Retiro Barrio in the El Oro providence of Ecuador went pretty well and I think overall it left a pretty good impression on me and that I left a pretty good impression on them. Now with that said, I still don’t think any of this is going to easy going…but I probably would say that no matter where my site was! You can stop there if you don’t want any more details, because here they are folks.

So the trip started out with a group of five of us and one facilitator going from Cayambe to Quito (a two hour bus ride) where we had to work our way through Quito from the old bus terminal to the new bus terminal. Sounds easy, right? Well of course not. It was a Saturday when we left and apparently that changes how the metros run in Quito and we needed to take the metros to get to the new bus terminal along with walking a block at around 8pm at night. Long story short it took us about two hours total to get from the old bus terminal to the new terminal and this is with us all having our five days of clothes and whatnot for luggage that we are hauling around while not trying to look lost or too foreign so that we don’t get targeted by a pickpocket (Quito I believe is the second highest city in Ecuador for crime with Guayaquil surpassing it).

Before I continue here let me paint a picture of the public transportation here. The public transportation here is used ALL of the time and when you are standing there on the bus with absolutely no room to breathe, much less move, not only one but two or more people will manage to somehow get on. And all of the while you will have your bum into some guy you have never met and a little lady shoving you around in front (something like this…) while people constantly get on and off. I think you are starting to see how pick pocketing is an easy hobby here with the public transportation.

Okay, so now that you have that very important picture in mind I will continue. We get to Quito and head over to the first of three different Metros we ended up taking in the city. We all get shoved on together and we even run into another group of ours that is heading to the New Terminal too. The other group gets off at a stop before our group, and the other group ended up being at the right stop and we were at the wrong one. Luckily, there was a really nice guy on the Metro with us who works for the Metros that our facilitator was talking to and he took us back over to the Metro and got us on for free going the opposite direction. The kicker is that it was a Saturday night and I guess that one Saturday to get from the old to new terminal you have to take three separate Metros instead of just the normal two. So anyways, we got back on and got off at the right stop.

We then had to walk down a little over a block to the other Metro…the only thing here is that since the new bus terminal literally opened up this last weekend, no one had ever really been to it and thus no one really knew which line to take exactly. So we ended up standing in three different lines before we finally decided it was the right one. And then once the Metro comes, well let’s just say that they don’t wait. They open the door, people literally shove themselves and whoever else is in the way on or off, and the doors close whether people are in the way or not. And here is when it gets fun.

The zipper Dana’s backpack broke…now what makes this really funny is that his backpack had actually broken that morning in Cayambe when he first tried to leave. So this second backpack was actually the backpack of his host family. And of course, it had to break right when the metro came and people where being shoved on and off while others were waiting for a different line. Somehow I ended up right at the door of the Metro as it was beginning to shut. I look into the Metro and see half of my group with the other half still on the platform along with our facilitator and Dana trying to frantically stop his belongings from falling all over the Metro floor while at the same time trying to get on the Metro without getting pushed over because he is trying to not lose his belongings…and all I’m thinking is I can’t go around this city without our facilitator right now! So I literally end up holding the door open, by myself, with my bum pushing against the right side door as I yell at the rest of my group to hurry up because I don’t know how long I can hold it open. Thankfully…we all made it on, Dana with his falling apart bag and all, and my facilitator made a comment that it was a good thing I was strong to hold open the door. It was definitely a panic moment for me as I’m sure it was for Dana too!

So we have got one more Metro to get and at this point it is about 8 and we are starting to get tired and hungry since we left Cayambe at 4. Thankfully this Metro we actually had to wait for about five minutes for which gave Dana and us time to re-pack his belongings into the room that each of us had and what bags we could make up since he now no longer had a functional backpack of his own (the mosquito net bags came in really handy here). I ended up having his toiletries in my bag (remember this). So we got all of that situated before the last Metro came and then it was just the normally getting shoved on to the Metro.

The new bus station in Quito is actually a pretty nice modern building. This is where our group breaks up again because not all five of us were going to the same place; just three to el Oro and the facilitator stayed in Quito. So the three of us; me, Dana, and Sarah; head to the Pan-Americana Bus line to buy tickets (there are lines which just go straight from point A to point B and don’t pick up anyone along the way, only drop people off; safer). The tickets were $9 and we all paid with a $20 bill and got a $10 back and a dollar coin. The reason this is “funny” is that one of us ended up getting passed back a fake $10 bill, but we were just so tired for the past two hours of running around that we didn’t notice at all…and go figure, it was Dana (this part comes into play later in the story).

Our bus ended up leaving at about 9pm so we really just had time to grab some snacks and jump on the bus at that point…which the three of us didn’t really mind either, because sitting down in assigned seats with our bags safe underneath the bus, didn’t sound like that bad of a plan at that point. So we all breathed a big sigh of relief and set in for our 10 to 11 hour bus ride. They played some weird movie which I don’t really remember and I ended up half falling asleep for pretty much the whole night. Here’s a little funny side note for you too, they serve you a free cup of coke it you want just about right before you go to bed at 10pm…I guess it’s to try and help you stay up to watch the movie. But anyways, the “sleep” that you get on these buses, isn’t really much sleep.

And then of course at 2am we got pulled over by the Army, which I guess is pretty regular, and they search all of the men. It was really kind of weird though because I think that it is regular just to get stopped and have them check your papers (citizen idea cards, and we have PC cards), but they didn’t do that at all. They just patted down all of the men and pretty much just left the women alone. Either way, it was a nice stretch for the legs.

So morning comes and we are texting one of the current PCV in Machala (the big city we are going to) and trying to figure out where we are exactly and where we need to get off. And of course…we missed all of Machala and drove right through it to Santa Maria where we got off and had to take a 30 minute public bus ride back. Definitely could have been worse, but it was a minor panic moment and way too early in the morning to have to be thinking. My counterpart that I am going to be working with was actually already at the Pan-Americana bus terminal when I got into Machala so I took off and the other two went off for their bus that they needed to take about an hour and a half for Sarah (to Arenillas about 30 minutes from the Peru border) and about two hours for Dana (to Huaquillas basically right on the Peru border).

Now remember Dana’s backpack problem…and remember those toiletries. Well you guess it; Dana went off to Hauquillas while his toiletries went off to El Retiro with me…sorry Dana!!! And of course Dana realized this about 30 minutes after we parted but by then it was too late. So he ended up having to go out and buy some necessary toiletries for the trip. Now remember that fake $10 bill Dana got given back…well you guessed it, he tried to use that for his toiletries which is where he ended up finding out it was a fake. Poor man with bad travel luck!

So I got onto my next bus which costs 0.40 and is about 30 minutes to El Retiro, my barrio, from Machala; not bad at all. My counterpart is a 27 year old man, Romulo, who works with INFA in the El Retiro barrio and lives in a barrio about 15 minutes away of El Cambio (barrio = neighborhood). Machala, which in my opinion is a pretty big city, I think I am really going to enjoying being by. It has a daily market which is about four by eight blocks FULL of fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood, and even clothes. Not to mention that there are some pizza and hamburger places in Machala as well (some food places I can run to for comfort so to say) as well as some super market type stores around and places that sell DVDs in Spanish AND English! There is also a big fishermen’s port in the city and from there you can take a 20 minute ferry ride to the beach which is really an Island called Jambeli. Machala is also where I will be getting my mail at a P.O. box and it is where my bank is. So I am definitely pretty excited that it is just an easy 25-30 minute bus ride away from my barrio.

From there Romulo and I headed off to El Retiro and made small chat here and there. He seems like a really nice guy that will definitely help me out in the next two years. About 15-20 minutes from my barrio just outside of Machala is a center which they actually call “Shopping”. It is basically a mini-shopping center with a food court, a movie theater (which plays movies in English every once and a while too), and a store which is kind of like a super-sized Target from what I have heard. All in all, pretty exciting…oh yeah…I forgot one of the coolest things about Shopping. It has free wireless internet there! It is supposed to be really slow, but still, it is internet…and it is free (some of the current PCVs have even used SKYPE there). So having Shopping right by my barrio is another awesome thing.

So I guess it’s time I actually talk about my barrio, eh? But sadly I am out of time right now so I will have to wait and post up another post for my thoughts on my site. All in all though, I really do think that it is going to be good.

P.S. I posted some new pictures on Facebook of my site area as well.