Da Bus

I seem to recall that one of C.S. Lewis' books was The Great Divorce. If my memory serves me well, the subjects in the story were on a bus ride to hell. Something about free will, choices and consequences, as I recall. The concept of what a bus ride to hell might be like crosses my mind when I think about riding the bus here. It's often very crowded. As in the, "excuse me, I don't even know your name" kind of crowded.

Last weekend the "traditional students" of NILI had a home stay with an Ecuadorian family. So, us "non-traditionals" were left to determine our own destiny. We had received an invitation from an pastor who is indigenous to come visit his church. It's about 2 hours away from Quito. Travel would involve a bus ride. I started thinking of C.S. Lewis. I knew that our destination was supposed to be Guasaquil, about 20 minutes up in the mountains from Otavalo, the home of the world famous artisan market that we had visited previously. As I contemplated a bus ride for Pastor Dan from Michigan, Darlene and me, with me being the most experienced speaker of spanish among the 3 of us, and thought of my experiences on the city buses of Quito, well, I thought again of the destination of C.S. Lewis' bus ride. I wondered if ours would turn out to be a similar route. But, all were up for the adventure, so off we went.

Actually, it was a pretty tame ride. We left early Saturday morning, so the crowds were okay on the bus. I gave Darlene the window seat and planted myself on the aisle. The bus filled up as the assistant to the driver barked "Otavalo, Otavalo" over and over, attempting to drum up business from those arriving at the bus terminal. He would hang from the door like a monkey, shouting for customers. The seats were filled, and there were only about 10 people standing in the aisle on this bus. I didn't envy them standing for 2 hours. I thought about giving my seat to a lady. For some reason that's all I did was think about it for bit.

I should have given her my seat. She was almost in my lap, as she stood in the aisle immediately to my left. Her backside and her backpack were about 6" away from my face. She was with her family of 5. Thankfully, they only rode for about an hour with us before departing the bus.

Some people brought their own food, which added some rich aromas. Others purchased food from "traveling" salesmen or saleswomen who would jump on the bus at a stop in a village, walk up and down the aisles offering sweets, ice cream or chips (sweet or salty) made from the yucca plant. Then after a round trip to the back of the bus and return, the bus would stop and they'd hop off.

Folks tended to look at we three gringos with interest. Little children would flat out stare. Traffic was light on the 2 lane PanAmerican Highway. I thought, "Hey, if we stay on this road for several days, we'll be in California. My second thought was, "Otavalo is a good distance for starters."

We road by scads (that's Spanish for "lots") of greenhouses on the mountainsides and in the valleys as we headed north from Quito. Growing roses for export is Big Business here, somewhere down the line from Oil, Bananas and Shrimp....the big 3 of Ecuadoran exports. A dozen of these beauties (roses) will tap you for $1. That's one (uno) George Washington.

The bus route was $4 round trip, per person. $8 for the two of us was a tremendous price for an adventure on Da Bus.

Darlene was in fine forme as a bargain hunter at the Otavalo market. She thinks I am too soft. I don't feel comfortable haggling over $2. But, she's right...it's part of the game there. I prefer to take pictures and talk with the "casaritas/casaritos" (artisans who sell their products) about the family, etc. Don't get me wrong, I find it fun to shop there and Darlene has to restrain me from buying much more than we can use or give away. A few of the vendors remembered us from our visit a month earlier. That made for a nice connection.

We stayed at the hostel "Valle del Amanecer", which is translated Valley of the Sunrise. Last time we were awake well before sunrise, due to the party-hearty crowd in the vicinity of our room. This time, all was quiet and our $11 a person room with hot water and a scrumptuous breakfast of large pancakes with pineapple, banana and papaya included in the price were bargains in and of themselves.

Sunday, we loaded us and our stuff into a truck with Pastor Luis and driver and headed up to Guassaquil. The service was half in Spanish and half in Quichuan, an indigenous language. It was great to see the people in traditional dress, with women wearing white blouses that were delicately embroidered with lovely, colorful handiwork. Many of the men wore the traditional (for them) white sandals, white pants and shirt and navy blue poncho, with a fedora. Pastor had asked us to prepare testimonies in spanish for the people, so that was an enjoyable experience to be able to share of the Gospel's importance in my life. Meeting the people and especially Pastor Luis' extended family was a genuine highlight. We shared communion together. Pastor Luis' looks just like what I imagine the long lost brother of my friend and former professor, Dr. Gerard Reed might resemble. Gerard has a strong Native American heritage. I emailed Gerard with the good news that I'd found his brother.

The bus ride home was uneventful. We had the back of the bus pretty much to ourselves, with the windows open to enjoy the fresh mountain air. We were even sufficiently adjusted to our environs to take a little nap while the bus wound it's way through the mountains, past the volcano Cayambe on our way back to Quito, once again crossing the equator.

Back from our little "on our own" adventure, we enjoyed listening to the adventures of our younger classmates with their Ecuador families....and then it was back to the books.

This weekend, 5 of us are off to a cloud forest. Ecuador has over 1500 species of birds (more than the U.S. and Canada combined), many of which are exotic. We'll be on the eastern slope of the Andes for 2 days, hiking, "birding", fishing for trout (that's what they said we get to do...I hope so) and I think we get to hike to a bear's cave. I hope Mrs. Bear is off to Quito for a weekend of shopping and not available to personally greet us.