Hello family,
We would first like to excuse ourselves for the lack of news. The unbelievably long wait for visas and the laziness of our urban life made us a little bit sloppy.
In order to counter this spell and to pass time, we found a new couple's passion.
You know that game where you pick a random destination, with your finger, on a spinning globe?
Well that's our game... but with way more suspense!
So we go to Guayaquil's bus terminal and we pick a couragous guy (we prefer when luck picks one of us, but sometimes a perfect stranger gets the lucky opportunity to participate)
Then we ask the stranger to close his eyes, spin on himself 30 times with his finger pointing in front of him.
When the strange stranger finally stops turning (seriously, it's not very responsible for an adult to turn like that in a bus terminal), his drunk finger will point to one of the 45 bus companies.
Every company offers dozens of destination. We have plenty of time to pick one while our strange stranger catch his breath.
Our criterias are the following: fast departure, hours of travelling, cost of the trip.
Our game is named "human globe" and can be played everywhere; train station, airport, etc.
Please note that the patent is ours!
First time we played "human globe", we landed on Riobamba.
Today, we will tell you about our 4000 meters high honeymoon.
After destiny's finger made up his mind, we had 10 minutes to run to our ship-on-wheel.
Awesome! But...
You should know that Guyaquil's bus terminal is a huge shopping mall on 3 floors with terrestrial ships leaving from 6 differents exits (2 parkings per floors).
The departure door number is easy to find and is located on the ticket, but you have to find the floor number too, which will be announced by the ticket agent, only once.
Also, we're pretty sure that in order to get his gate agent diploma, that agent needs to win a who-whispers-the-quietest contest.
Also notice that there is plenty of numbers on the ticket which requires a great capacity to unscribbled it all. Between door number, bus number, seat number, ticket price, time and date, it's easy to get lost.
We managed to find our way because Soa is the daughter of a mathematician. Thank you Gérard!
So, four hours of hapiness on the road was ahead of us to reach Riobamba. The first two hours of the trip weren't quite inspiring. Just getting out of Guayaquil's traffic and it's suburbs was taking forever. Then followed an ocean of banana's jungles (which we remind you isn't very smooth on the eyes).
So we were very happy to watch a very touching story staring Halle Berry on the phone for 2h30 minutes. Obviously, because of a bump on the road (litteraly), we missed the punch line as the DVD skipped a scene!
The rest of the trip tough was quite unbelievable. We were back to mountain views which makes us smile so much. It's quite special to live in a country where you can go from sea level to volcano in few hours.
Unfortunately, our first impression of Riobamba wasn't what we'd expected. We didn't enjoy the city's smell (lots of car farts) which feels more like a big city vibe than a andine treasure.
Let's just say that from Riobamba, the amazing view of the king, Chimborazo's volcano, is less romantic with car's honking every 15 seconds. We should also specify that we came to the mountains to breath fresh air.
We stayed one night to enjoy the animated city. Our hotel had presidential features but with serious renovation delays.
To resume: 4-stars potential with super small price. Perfect for us!
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Mister Chimbo
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Riobamba left us with few emotions, apart from a very good veggie burger at Brothers' café. But we admit, we didn't give the city a second chance.
We will have to come back.
Although, we were really excited at the prospect of our next destination. We heard that the way between Riobamba and Guaranda is breathtaking. The reason: we drive next to the volcano.
No luck there, very nice trip full of mountains and wild alpacas but the "King" turned is back on us.
We're not easily defeated! Next time, will be our lucky day.
Guaranda left us on a complete opposite feeling as Riobamba. On first sight, we were falling in love.
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Crédit :Ivan Kashinsky
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Capital of Bolivar's state, Guaranda is like a little Pujili in the mountains; with wet feet in the heart of the sierra, with his "red square"not red at all, encebollados as good as in the Manabi, very cheap vegetables...
Is that love?
Unfortunately, we were promised to someone else.
Therefore, we went to the search of the community taxi that would bring us to destination.
10 minutes later, we were in the terrestrial boat... 30 minutes later, we were on the road. Yes, "community transport" means it's cheap, but it also means you have to wait for it to fill up before leaving.
Once we were all very squeezed, we were off for a rollercoaster (never-ending zig-zags). Simon loved it, Soa less. But it was all worth it.
45 minutes of slalom later, we reached the end of the adventure... litteraly: Salinas, our final destination, was the last accessible village (by road).
What brought us here exactly?
Two words: culinary quest!
Historically, Salinas was a very poor community, like it's neighboors. But with the help of an italian preist, its socio-economical situation got way better starting in 1980.
Today, Salinas is a role model of communitary development based on a strong micro-organisations system.
With a strong will from the entire community, a little technological and educational help (sanitarization, equipment and expertise) and a lot, lot of work and patience, Salinas now shines of self-sufficiance and economical interdependancy.
Where do we start... let's go in preferential order:
artisanal cheeses, artisanal chocolates, artisanal jams, dry mushroom and fruits, essential oils, wool transformation and clothing making (alpaca, sheep, etc.) and salt mineries!
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Salt mineries
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So we arrived at 1pm and we took a room in one of the three communitary hotels in town.
Salinas is a 6000 people community but we really feel like there is no more than 500.
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The Plaza: that's the place to be... when there is something happening!
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We guess everyone is busy digging, picking, mowing, transforming, sewing, cooking or tasting their products.
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Soa making new friends
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We also wanted to taste everything! We spent all afternoon doing it. We do have to manifest our deception as we taught we would be able to test all of it, but it doesn't work exactly like that here. We filled up our bags with treats we just couldn't not get. Unfortunately (or fortunately) our purchases didn't make it to Guayaquil!
Arri
Arriving at the hotel, we soon realized that when the sun is gone, it's quite cold at 4000 meters high!
Charming as we are, we got our host to build us a fire. And Soa didn't have 3 nor 5, but 7 "carpet-blanket" in her bed!
For those who weren't aware, one of our blanket in Guantubamba was litteraly a carpet!
The next morning, Soa complained a bit about the altitude but Simon is pretty sure it's because she ate all that cheese and chocolate the night before.
So we let our princess sleep and dream under her magic carpets while Simon went climbing to the highest point of Salinas for a great view.
What was up there was unexpected.
And like any proud Bedard, Simon had to go just a little bit further in the wolf throat...
Because indeed, what seemed like the end of the road, was not. Behing the tip of the hill was two huge valleys circa-Jurassic park.
No choice: A Bedard flag had to be put at the top of the prohibited road for adventurous strangers!
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Behind trees, in the valley
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Simon likes to discover the unknown
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Camping-like spot in between mountains
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And then the trip was over, Soa and Simon left because anyways, the day was getting higher in altitude.
Four hours of suffering was upon them. The reason: a driver who never really learned how to drive with a stick and who has never been warned about his "flaw".
Do you remember the first time you tried driving manual? Lost between the brake, the "clutch" and the accelerator. Well, I bet your dad, mom or teacher remembers it!
We really wanted to tell the driver how wrong it was all, but we got scared we would be thrown out!
So we didn't quite enjoy the view on the way back. But it didn't ruin our adventure; it even made us appreciate more Guayaquil's heat wave!
See you soon!
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