On My Bus Into Ecuador...
March 28, 2007

Another day, another loooooong bus ride.

Once again, I was a bit misinformed as to the length of the bus ride. But what is four hours, right? Especially when it means that
your bus ride is 29 hours as opposed to the quoted 25 hours.

Departure time: 3:30pm on March 30, 2007

This was supposed to be a ‘business class’ bus. Let me just say it now.
Thank God I would not have to experience was a ‘normal’
bus ride would be like on an Ormeño bus if what I experienced was ‘business class’. The only redeeming thing about the bus was
that it wasn’t completely full so I got to move to the back of the bus in the middle of the night to spread out across two seats.

Wait. I think I am selling this bus short. Here are some other memorable moments from the bus:

  • Absolutely massive sand dunes that our bus was traveling through. Yes, through. On the right-hand side, sand towered over
    us. To the left, the sand was almost a cliff that dropped off to the ocean.
      
  • Ingesting three meals provided by the bus company. Oooh la la!

  • Watching XXX. This gave me a chance to admire the beauty of the city of Prague. Almost made me forget I was on a bus.
    Almost.

  • Waking up in the morning to an incredible landscape: formations as far as the eye could see caused by erosion.

  • Watching Charlotte’s Web. Well, I didn’t really watch this movie. It was kind of just in the background while I was reading my
    book. But I have to admit that the little pig looked oh-so-cute during the moments that I glanced up at the video screen.

  • I started a book that I am actually enjoying. I am now on page 180. I’m telling you…people can accomplish great things on a
    bus ride (I also read ½ of the Cosmo that I am carrying around with me).

  • The Grand Finale of the bus ride would be when they put on Little Miss Sunshine. Lisa (my Irish bus buddy) and I had both
    already seen it. This was a good thing because they were playing it in English with Spanish subtitles. The problem was that
    the volume was so low that we couldn’t hear anything. But since we had seen it, we knew what was going on.

  • Because of the Spanish subtitles during the movie, I now know that ‘al carajo’ means ‘f&*$ that’. What a learning experience
    this bus ride was.

8:30pm – Finally in Guayaquil. I was seriously doubting when this was going to happen. The sad news is that it is too late to check
my email to find out what the verdict was for the Galapagos trip. Looks like I am going to go with my two bus buddies in the
morning to see what the options are. Fingers are officially crossed…
Back to Ecuador.