Familiarity and Difference

6/25/15

   
         (This is a short entry. I spent most of the day on buses.)

It is amazing how fast something we do becomes a habit. It is even more interesting how sights and sounds become familiar. Having been away for a while, it is an effort to remember all the various emergency numbers, currencies, rules on tipping, bathroom requirements (are there toilet papers? Toilet seats? Running water?!). You feel like you are in a RPG all the time. Warning new coins, getting new missions and trying to gain more experience across different countries. 

Since I was leaving for Guayaquil and Cuenca, I woke up early for a quick but healthy breakfast (vegetables and fruits!). I was trying to do something stupid: going all the way to Guayaquil then back across to Cuenca, all because of security (well, and I was told the bus ticket prices are cheaper that way: not true!). I arrived early at the bus station for the 10am bus. The bus came surprisingly on time: at 10:20am. We all boarded the really packed bus and headed to the border.

We arrived at the border around 1:45pm. The border looks surprisingly clean and spacious (ah, later I realized why they needed so much space), modern and sleek. We started to line up for the Peru exit stamp and the Ecuador entry stamp. Everyone was moderately excited, and we all to chatted a little under the hot sun. After  20 minutes, I realize why they need space: the process is  much slower than expected. There were 2 agents from each country, but the guards allowed locals or your agents to cut queue. At the same time, the agents asked certain citizens from certain countries lots of questions. There is also the process of charging people whom have lost their paper (the little slip of paper tourists have to keep, comes with the immigration form). 

While I was waiting, I picked up the local brochure and was surprised to discover: apart from the currency, Ecuador also adopted the emergency number, cab system, and many things US. It is nice to get back to a system I have learned. We finally left the immigration at 3:30pm and arrived at Guayaquil at 8:00pm. I immediately jumped into a local bus to Cuenca. Again, I was back on familiar ground: the bus is quite similar to those in Bolivia. There was no bathroom for the 3.5 hours trip, and people used natural ventilation (windows) for climate control. I eventually arrived at Cuenca at midnight, took a cab (yellow cab!) to my hostel: only to hear they gave my bed away. They finally found a bed somewhere, and I crashed (literally. I had to climb up and accidentally fell into the bed). 

On one hand, it was an exhausting day, with lots of sitting and not much eating. On another hand, I am in another country, which had seemed to adopt the U.S. system for many things. It felt a little bit like I have come back to a place I am slightly familiar with. At least, I can call the emergency number now without having to look it up….

Immigration and Passport

4/21/15

a bus

scenery

scenery

mountain

river

scenery

to custom

entrance

more downhill

steep

Is this safe

FHWA

so many water choices

expensive

Chilean Chinese Restaurant

So bad…

It always confuses everyone when they ask where I am from, and then see my passport. I am still one of the few (a relic, I am sure) that hold a UK overseas passport. It was the reason I was stuck behind many borders. When I was in Singapore, I went on a trip to Malaysia with the Chinese Orchestra. I was stuck behind both the Singaporean and Malaysian border. The whole orchestra had to wait approximately 3 hours. When I get to the US, I am a frequent visitor to the waiting room at the Border patrol From JFK to Canada, I was used to being detain every time I cross a border. So it was with some apprehension I started this trip, since I have to cross quite a few borders by bus and planes.

Around 9am, I ate my last breakfast at Mora Hostel in Mendoza. I will definitely miss the most awesome breakfast so far: omelets, crepes with Dulce del Leche, hard boiled eggs, coffee, cold milk, warm milk, orange juice, oranges, toast and croissants. It was beyond compare, except breakfast in Poland (which had included ham). I ate as much as I could, since I thought I would not be having lunch on a bus to Santiago. (Well, you know how cheap I am. You don’t? Have we met?) After eating a very “healthy” portion of breakfast and saying good bye to Ellie (who was enjoying some very fine tomato…long story), I walked to the bus station, boarded the correct bus, checked my bags, found my seat and sat with an uncomfortably full stomach wondering why I ate so much.

I have heard a great deal about how great the scenery is during the ride from Mendoza to Santiago, and so I kept myself awake. The bus was only 30% full, and everyone had a lot of space. I met a surfer from Newport Beach, and a Swiss working in Brazil. With nothing much to do, we all just sat around watching some pretty great Spanish music videos (which had a lot of dancing, love sick male, Shakira, and an unexplainable animations). An hour in, the driver switched over to American movies, and we all watched some weird shows I have never heard of. As we ascend the mountains, the views were majestic. I think you can see most of them from the photos above. I would highly recommend the bus trip. Oh, and they actually served lunch on the bus, which made me even more full.

Arriving at the Chilean border at Paso Paso Internacional Los Libertadores, we all got off the bus while our driver lined us up. Since the immigration building looks like a ski resort, it felt a lot like a ski instructor trying to bring us to a chair lift. The 17 of us went inside a border control office in a single file. It was slightly confusing, since we had to get an exit stamp from the Argentina side, and then step across to the other counter to get an entry stamp into Chile. Finishing that, we got back onto the bus…and then off the bus again as they took all our luggage onto the xray machine. We all waited while our luggage were checked, and a border agent came around and asked if we were carrying meat or/and fruits. In the end, we all got through with no problem, which was a relief. Once we boarded the bus again, we were served some form of dessert and coffee/tea. Having eaten so much, I sat bloated and just sat watching Dumb and Dumber II and watched the scenery.

We got into Santiago around 4:30pm, and I decided to withdraw some cash from the atm at the bus station. I tried to withdraw US$200 worth of pesos, but an alarmed sounded on the atm. I got some pesos, but no where close to what I am supposed to have received. Checking online, the bank charged me more than US$300, but only gave me $100 worth of pesos. No one in the bus station knew anything about the atm, and I finally had to give up and went looking for the subway. Luckily, subway was relatively easy to operate, and with Ellie’s BIP! Card, I got to the hostel without too much issue.

As I am typing this up, a group of English travelers in the mid 20s are obviously drunk and making a huge ruckus. It was the first time this trip I met travelers this drunk and obnoxious, even calling the front desk lady a bitch. I guess everything balances itself out: while I had an easy time crossing the border, I was “robbed” by an atm machine and am now surrounded by drunks who think they are awesome. (I wonder if I am that bad when I am drunk…) I am not sure which is worst: getting stuck in a room at the border, or losing money and dealing with drunks.

(No, I have never had a cavity search. Why would you even think that? What’s wrong with you?)