Don and staff greeted us with smiles as we dragged our weary bodies inside - they quickly grabbed my heavy suitcase with a motion of 'I got this, let me help you.'
Side note: I love being a woman in Ecuador, all the men seem so eager to help with heavy items, opening doors, pointing out possible dangers while stepping off a curb, etc. How nice! Too bad the guys here in the States sometimes run into 'crazy women' when they try to be a gentleman. I'll take chivalry any day!
Back on track: we are registered, paid, and with a cold water bottle given to each of us, shown our room. We have a large room facing the street. The room is quite clean, the large bath is rather old, but clean and the best part? No electric/death shower head! (Yesss.....score!)
The air conditioner is already running, the room is nice and cool on this muggy evening. The sounds of the neighborhood are fun sounds, nothing too loud or crazy. Music is playing, people are talking, the normal sounds of a Friday night, and the air conditioner hum covers most of the street noise. We are so tired, we quickly fall asleep.
"MARLENA! MARLENA! Mi ESPOSA!" I open my eyes and yes, the sound I hear is real, not from a dream. "MARLENA! MARLENA! Mi ESPOSA!" Over and over. And over. And....you get the point. Up and down the streets this poor guy is shouting at the top of his lungs. Did he screw up and have to shout out his love for all in the barrio to hear? Or was he looking for his wife? Was SHE the party girl? Hmmm.... and all this around 5am. Couldn't really read my phone clock, at least not at THAT hour....(yawn).
We get up, get our 'stuff' together and I go downstairs for breakfast. Ken is upstairs still getting ready, and I end up chatting with some expats, chatting (sorta kinda) with the staff, and enjoying my very strong, very black, very yummy coffee. The staff was acting surprised I didn't want leche or azucar. The gal who brought me breakfast gave me this HUGE smile when I took a sip of black coffee and liked it. I guess many Americans like their coffee with lots of sugar and cream. After a few cups of coffee, I was ready to tackle the adventures of the day....
One of the guys tried to fix my luggage handle that LAN broke. Yep, went the entire week without rolling luggage, poor Ken, he ended up dealing with that and many times his bag, too. Glad I married a hunky strong guy! When he heard we needed a taxi to the bus terminal, he literally took our bags, and put them in his car. We were at the station in minutes, and he charged us $2. So far, so good.
Terminal Terrestre - Crazy! Busy, that is. While I waited for Dan and his girlfriend Priscilla, Ken went scouting for the Reina ticket window and bus departure times to Manta. The terminal has many stores, it looks like a mall when you enter, and it is HUGE. When Dan and Priscilla arrived, we headed to the Claro store to get a phone since Ken's phone took a mini-sim card and the store didn't have one. We needed to buy a phone. Oh well, now we have an Ecuadorian phone and number, and it's registered.
Now on to get our bus tickets. Priscilla is awesome, she is making sure the tickets we buy are for the air conditioned executive bus to Manta. She repeats in Spanish several times and makes the woman at the ticket counter confirm the right bus. Once we get the tickets, we literally run, across the terminal, up the escalator, and down the hall to the correct 'gate.' Poor Dan is carrying luggage, running (yes, running!) UP the escalator. What a friend :) The bus is supposed to leave and Priscilla says they usually leave on time. That seems like quite a contradiction because nothing leaves on time in Ecuador, right?
We give our 2 bags to the guy who puts a tag on them and gives us a matching tag, and the lady at the door (bus assistant) looks in my carry-on bag, and pats Ken down, even though they do not take away our knives. The knives were not hidden, but they were not loose either - they were in the pockets of our 'day packs.' I notice one guy getting on the bus, and the assistant hops onto the bus after him and makes him get off and pats him down - a real pat down - and all the while lots of chattering and bickering and the guy isn't happy, but she got her way!
And we're off to Manta.....
No time to see the sights in Guayaquil today, but on our return we will be meeting up with Dan and Graciela.....
Hasta Luego, Chao Chao, and all the good stuff,
Tami
You go girl!
ReplyDeleteProud of you for taking the bus!
And you're right - the GYE bus terminal is huge, and we've had to hurtle up the escalators to catch our bus a couple of times too.
Looking forward to hearing about your ongoing adventures and looking forward to learning a thing or two. We are looking to get out of Canada and relocate to the coastal area of Ecuador as well...it's become known as the "5 Year Plan"
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