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I began 1997 in Guatemala, Central America. I was staying at a small hotel in the village of San Pedro on the beautiful Lake Atitlan. I stayed at the lake for almost a month and ended up running the hotel for three weeks! The American owners needed a holiday and they asked me to be the manager. It was quite strange trying to run a hotel with Spanish only speaking staff and my Spanish being pretty awful. While managing the hotel I met a group of travelers who had driven down from the USA in a four wheel drive, and were continuing all the way down to Panama. They were looking for an extra traveler, so I joined up. It was certainly a great opportunity to be able to drive right through Central America and have a rest from the rough old buses! All I had to pay for was my share of the petrol!

1997 Travel Diary (Part 1)

Gjcmcclurg
2005-12-23 14:46:53

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The city is right on the equator, but it is at an altitude of around 2,800m, so it has a spring like climate. I stayed in a great little hotel in the heart of the colonial center of the city. I had a nice room for only $2 per night and a three course meal in a local restaurant only cost $1 - you can live really well on $10 per day! While I was in Quito I went to a language school for three weeks and studied Spanish. The school was also great value at only $3/hour, for one-to-one tuition. Much of my spare time I spent drinking coffee at the various of the old town cafes, especially my favorite Cafe Modelo.

I also did a few nice weekend trips out to traditional Indian villages. One of the best trips was a visit to the market at Saquisili, near Latacunga. Indians from all over the region flocked to this market every Thursday to sell their animals and produce. The market had been hardly influenced by tourism and gave an interesting insight into the Indian way of life.

Because I stayed in Quito for some time I managed to build up a good group of friends and have a relatively normal life for a while. The nightlife in Quito was also good, so I had a fun time! In Quito I met up with an English guy, Steve, who had similar travel plans to me and the same lack of schedule, so we decided to travel together for a while. Steve and I had exactly the same birthday but I was 10 years older.

We left Quito in July and began our trip down through Ecuador to Peru. From Alausi, a small town in the highlands, we took the famous train journey down to the coast. The train drops nearly 3,000m in only 4 hours, negotiating steep switch-back tracks, high suspension bridges and tunnels. The trip was made even more exciting by the fact that we were traveling on the roof - the tunnels were a real highlight!

On the steamy Ecuadorian coast we went out on a spectacular whale watching trip. The huge (12m) Humpback whales were leaping from the ocean only 20 metres away from our little boat, it was certainly an experience of a lifetime. The trip also took us out to the Isla de la Plata, which is often referred to as the 'Poor Man's Galapagos'. On the island we saw a good deal of birdlife including Albatross and the Blue Footed Boobies.

Next we visited the beautiful town of Vilcabamba in southern Ecuador. Vilcabamba was an idyllic little town famous for the longevity of the locals. Due to the towns altitude of 1,800m it enjoys a warm pleasant climate and is surrounded by spectacular countryside. Steve and I did a challenging hike up to the peak of the Mandango mountain and from the top we had spectacular views of the Vilcabamba valley and beyond. Unfortunately on the way down Steve badly sprained his ankle and was immobilized for a couple of weeks. Due to the extra time we had to stay in Vilcabamba I needed to get another visa extension. The local immigration office refused to extend it, but cheerfully told me to come back the first day I was illegal so that I could be fined and then given two weeks to leave the country!

From Vilcabamba we traveled directly across the border to Piura in northern Peru.