London.
My phone rings.
“Hello Emmanuel. Are you enjoying London?”
“Very much thanks. Bit cold and wet here and there, but jolly good fun.”
“That’s great. Look I have a bit of bad news. Well, not bad news, but a bit frustrating. We’ve got a few glitches to sort out so unfortunately we’re going to have to postpone the start date for a couple of months. I know you’ll be disappointed, and you probably won’t want to hang around in London until we’re ready, so maybe we can make it up to you by flying you somewhere warm for a couple of months? Where would you like to go?”
Ecuador.
I am still pinching myself.
Sunday afternoon I was in jolly old England, wearing two jumpers and cooking up dumpster chicken with me mate Erik.
Monday lunchtime I’m eating a gigantic pork chop with fried bananas in Ecuador, South America.
OK. I better rewind here for a second.
I went to London to do a special project. It was supposed to start this week, but there are logistical glitches, so now it is postponed until July.
It’s not like I didn’t like London. Actually I had a blast. But it’s cold, and I’ve never been to South America before, and a bunch of my friends are here too. So since my sponsor offered to fly me anywhere I like…
I know. Crazy isn’t it?
I have a sponsor.
I may be the only sponsored hitchhiker on the planet. I haven’t checked but there can’t be too many. Surfers and skateboarders and rock climbers get sponsored, not hobos, right?
I’ve always said hitchhiking is an extreme sport though, so why not?
My sponsors are planning a big project launch. That’s what they flew me to London for. They’ve sworn me to secrecy until July, so I can’t tell you all the details yet, but I can tell you it’s going to be a big adventure.
More about that later.
So here I am in Ecuador.
That’s the view from my hostel. (Not bad for US$7.00 a night. As usual I went to every hostel in town looking for the best bargain.)
I’m in Baños. It’s a small town in the foothills of Tungurahua volcano.
I got off the plane in Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, but as soon as I arrived it started raining there. I looked up the weather forecast and found this:
Pretty discouraging. Quito is a big, grey city, so it isn’t very nice when it’s thunder storms every day.
My room-mate at the hostel in Quito told me about Baños; a small town surrounded by mountains and jungle and waterfalls. Much more my scene. So I packed my bag up again and here I am.
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Baños.
The town’s full name is Baños de Agua Santa; the holy water baths.
The local legends are all about the waterfalls and the volcano, which is just over the hills on the other side of the steep river valley.
The church is full of awesome artwork depicting elemental conflicts between fire and water.
It’s a pretty extreme landscape here.
Perched between a volcano and a torrential river, Baños is still vulnerable. The free map the tourist information centre gives away has an evacuation plan on the back, just in case the town is consumed by fire and flood.
It’s a pretty chilled-out place though. People are friendly and the climate is mild.
I spent a couple of hours walking around the church yesterday. That’s the courtyard in the photo above.
The church is built from black volcanic stone. It’s made from the stuff that the town was most threatened by.
You can tell this church is still a community hub. The whole time I was there people were coming and going, with elderly parents and young kids.
I noticed little passport photos tucked into crevices and corners everywhere, like people were connecting their prayers to their families in a physical way.
I don’t have a religious bone in my body, but I have this weird obsession with catholic art. Especially if it’s got a folky vibe to it. There’s something about the melding of sado-masochistic imagery and melodrama that is just irresistibly bizarre.
Tomorrow I’ll take a look round the cemetery I think. Not morbid, just curious, I swear!
