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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Ecuador
effect Tantalised by the idea of visiting the Galapagos Islands last winter, I finally caved in after all the usual soul searching about carbon footprints etc. and decided to commit the selfish act of being a tourist there. Counter arguments about helping to support the local economy are in the barrel of my gun to counter any criticism! These people are extremely economically disadvantaged and need tourist income - who are we to say the birds and animals come first? The islands belong to Ecuador and this seems to have been undisputed for centuries, unlike the Falklands. So I chose a trip which included a visit first to the Ecuadorian mainland, which has been relatively overshadowed by those famous isles. I was so glad I had done so - I learned so much more about that part of the world and the problems the people face. Ecuador is one of the smallest South American countries with a population of approximately 12 million. The Indians fall outside the Census since it is hard to collect data for them. In the last few years, two million people have left the country to seek work in other parts of the world. Ecuadorian dead were found in the World Trade Centre disaster, in the Etosha train disaster. In the last year alone, 700,000 children were taken out of school in Ecuador because of cost - there is no free education. One school we visited had five teachers, only two of who were paid. Our guide explained Ecuador is sliding backwards. Out of this poverty, of course, comes crime. I had been a bit concerned about travelling in a group following a predictable itinerary - more of that later. Needless to say, we were very careful with our belongings and kept our personal stashes of dollars in all sorts of unmentionable places all over our bodies. It's impossible not to look like a tourist. We Northern Europeans are so physically different from the short stature, wide-chested and dark-haired locals, not to mention our trendy outdoor clothing. If all the political and economic factors were not enough, geography and climate contribute their share of difficulties. As soon as we left the capital, our itinerary had to be changed at short notice. One of the local volcanoes had been erupting over the past few days and the spa town of Banos, where we had intended to spend two nights, was out of bounds as the British Embassy could not guarantee to evacuate us if necessary. In the end we were allowed in for four hours provided we left before dark. Then, as we made our way down from the mountainous plateaux to the Amazonian rainforest region, we became aware of more problems. We had to be very careful not to stray onto land owned by private farmers - our guide was always worryingly looking over his shoulder and I was aware sometimes we were being watched. Heavy rain meant many villages had been cut off by floods. There was nowhere to go anyway, except perhaps to market. In all markets we were ordered to leave all our possessions on the tour bus and to carry nothing of value at all around with us while exploring. To reach the coast from where we were going to fly to Galapagos, we had to take one of the world's special railways - the Devil's Nose Railway. In the event we only got as far as the bridge of the Devil's Nose - landslides and rockfalls gradually barred our way. It was OK to start with, with one-man rocks, then two-man rocks, then three-man rocks, then the whole track would be covered with landslip. Luckily we were able to transfer to a bus at the final surrender point. However, instead of being able to drive onwards to the coast for our island flight, we learned that roads were flooded to roof height and bridges had been washed away, so we had to drive all the way back to the capital Quito, where we luckily managed to get on a flight to the Galapagos the next day. Whilst in Quito, we were taken to a special place which marks the Equator. Here we watched an elaborate ceremony, with water being poured down a portable stainless steel sink actually on the Equator line - it went straight down the plughole. Then the sink was lifted to the Southern Hemisphere where the water went clockwise down the plughole (or was it anti-clockwise?) and then of course to the Northern Hemisphere where it went anticlockwise (or was it clockwise?) to demonstrate the Coreolis effect. I was told I had been tricked - it is an optical illusion. Any comments, anyone with greater knowledge? Finally, after returning safely home and mulling over our adventures, swapping photographs etc. I was alarmed to see an article on Timesonline about the tour group who followed us two weeks later. Whilst staying in one of the jungle lodges in the Amazonian region where I had been concerned about the predictability of our itinerary, the whole group were held up at dinner one night with knives and machetes and robbed of everything...one extension of the Ecuadorian experience I was not sorry to miss. First published in Scrumpy, the newsletter of the South West region of British Mensa, and in VISA 80A (Aug 2008). |