After a 12 hour bus ride......

we have moved from Banos to Cuenca. The bus ride was amazing! We went up, down, and around mountain after mountain, after mountain. It is amazing to be able to look up and see the road that you have come from and look down and preview the road that you are headed to. A holiday tradition here is for the children to put on masks, and block the mountain roads and then ask vehicles to pay to pass. Seeing this up close is a bit scary, especially if you do not know ahead of time why the hell these kids are wearing masks and putting big stones on the road so that you cannot pass. Funny part- as the children started to move the stones for us, a local vehicle that was behind us, spend around us and forced the children to pick up their pace about moving the stones. They got out of the way pretty quick when they almost got run over. It was amazing to see the number of traditional cuechia (sp) indians that simply sit along the mountain roads waiting for the chicken buses or just hanging out. I felt a little bad riding on the luxury bus and not being able to stop and pick them up.

As we were leaving Banos, maybe a 1/2 hour into our trip, we encountered a spot where there had been a small landslide and the road was covered with debris. The locals were out cleaning it up and we gave them a few coins. It was very nice of them. Did I mention that as we were leaving home stay, they put logs in the road and we had to get out and move them. We think the people were mad because our drive did not pick them up as he was coming up the hill to get us.

The temperatures and elevations are very interesting here. Shorts are always a bad idea because within 5 minutes of g0ing outside, it can rain and/or the temperature can drop 20 degrees. Yesterday for our bus ride, we went from approximately 75 degrees to 45 degrees as we drove through the mountains. We went from an elevation of 9k feet to 12k feet at our highest point.
Since I take my Diamox all the time, the elevation change did not bother me but some people were bothered because they only take it when they know we are going to higher elevatins. Hmmm....we had no idea yesterday until we were there. The views were amazing, waterfalls., volcanos, mountains. and the people.

You should know, the road system here is sketchy at best and if there are "front roads" we took mostly one lane, dirt/gravel back roads. We did have one place where our drive had to pay a 1 dollar toll. Sometimes it was scary on the mountain as the bus swayed a little to much to one side for my liking. No matter, we made it.

I am going to get dressed now and head out to see what Cuenca has to offer. One of my roommates, yes, I had two last night, went for her morning run and said the city is beautiful.

Have a great day and I be back tonight.

Today, I spent the day....

taking care of my friend Bernhard. I have to be careful what I say because one day he might read this. We had dinner last night and the conversation was absolutely excellent. He has told me that he will join Facebook to keep track of me. He has a bacterica and the doctor had to come and see him this morning because he started running a fever around midnight last night. I really like talking to B so I spent the day talking to him and trying, in my broken spanish, to get him food. He was happy in the end so i guess i succeeded.

Speaking of men. Apparently I am very appreciated here in Ecuador. I can´t tell you the number of winks and whistles that I have gotten as we have traveled. Today, our guide for horseback riding told me that I am beautiful and that I make his heart go pitter patter. So, I gave him a hug and allowed him to kiss my cheek. Yes, it does sound bad, the kiss, but hey, Jaime was a cutie and he was very nice. I sure wish I had brushed up on my Spanish verbs before I came. However, I have mustered enough to be dangerous in the following way. I can often get my point across but then the response will be 3 very quickly spoken sentences which I have no freakin idea what they are telling me....heeeee.

Got the jungle lodge ass smell out of my clothes and luggage. This was accomplished by sending my laundry out to be washed yesterday. Did I mention that if you are ever in Ecuador and someone says it´s a 4 hour hike downhill, or a 1 hour bike ride downhill. or a 2 hour horseride, they are lying. Where ever there is a downhill in Ecuador there are 3 god damn up hills that will follow. Don´t think oh up hill, I can do that. Trust me you can´t. Because, it is not up hill it is up a f´n mountain in soft sand or slippery rock. Trust no one and believe nothing. Oh, and when you say to the tour operator, can you pick my up at the hotel for my horseback riding and he says yes. What he means is, I will send someone on foot to walk the 10 blocks with you to the place where we keep the horses. Then you will mount the horses and ride directly past the hotel where you are staying. So, what should have been said is, can you bring a motorized vehicle, with 4 tires, at least a 4 cylinder engine, minimum 2 doors, minimum 4 seats to pick me up at my hotel. Totally my fault, couldn´t have knowñ until the lady walked out the door and said, it is just a 5 minute walk this way, which, if I have to say it, turned into a 30 minute walk 1/2 way across Banos.

I bought a cool shirt today that has the world with a stick figure sitting on top. Everyone that has seen it says the stick figure looks like me the day I stuck my head out the window of the bus when we were going 80. Haaaaa.......I shall wear this t'shirt with pride.

Well, since I cannot get the wifi to connect in my room, my 10 minutes have been exceeded on this computer and somone might be waiting. Tomorrow, I leave Banos at 8am and take a 8-10 hour busy ride to Cuenca. Don´t know about internet there but, I will be in touch when I can.

One more thing, thus far, Banos is my favorite city of those that we have seen. It seems to be the city that never sleeps but I was told today that many travel from around Ecuador to spend the holidays here. But, I love just blending in and no one seems to care that we are here. Very few people even take a second look. Riding horses today, people were so eager to speak and be friendly. I love this and I spoke to everyone. My riding mates did not, but that´s their decision. I love happy, friendly people. :)

I am still running amok in Ecuador and LOVING every minute of it. Bernhard has invited me to come to Austria and have a look around so who knows what 2009 will hold. I think he is a pretty neat guy! Really makes me laugh.

Finally Out of the jungle

and I must say that I am glad to be. We spent two nights staying with a family that lived in a place that I would describe as the most rustic I have ever experienced without actually living in a tress. They were very nice, but WoW.

The first day that we were there, we went for a hike in the Amazon near the Napo river. We hike UP hill for about 4 hours. We did get to see a very beautiful waterfall and we ended at the beach (Napo River). Both very beautiful. However, the terrain to get to both of these places was very wet, steep, and slippery. There were many times that I gave up trying to stand upright and when I would fall, I just resorted to sliding on my behind. You should see my pants.

I have had my fill of chicken and I am another step closer to becoming a vegetarian. Not yet but I figure within the next year, most meat will be out of my diet.

From that first lodge, we moved on to Tena. The lodge in Tena was nestled betwen several mountains and it was beautiful. However, that lodge had every bug ever known to man. Katherine, one of the other people on the tour, had a tranatula in her room last night. Not kidding. Most everyone has red spots on their legs and they think they are flea bites from the first lodge. I have a few bumps but I think I am allergic to the laundry detergent that was used in the last lodge.

We are now in Banos for tonight and tomorrow night. We have a great room! Tile floors, three beds, I can´t see outside through the walls. It´s on the 2nd floor with a balcony. We will leave here and go to Cuenca (I think).

I have met a very nice, good look guy on this trip named Bernard. However, he is from Austria so you can guess where this will go. Yep, no freakin where. But it has been great hanging out with him. He picked up some virus and has been sick. NO, I am not taking care of him because I don´t want to get sick but he is sitting beside me in the internet cafe. Heee.......Yes, I have pictures.

The bus rides here are amazing fun. We ride on the chicken buses but no one thus far has gotten on with a chicken (damn the bad luck). But we drive through everything. Today, we took a 4 hour chicken bus ride from Tena to Banos and we apparently had to drive through a rock quarry. Yes, please think Fred Flintstone....heeee. OMG it was amazing, and the tires on the bus were spinning because we couldn´t get traction. Then, we get out of the quarry but we are not trying to climb a mountain (think City Bus), we are going 3 mph while the truck in front of us is going 2 mph. So, because of our incredible speed, our bus drive decides the best thing to do in this situation is to pass on a curve while trying to climb a mountain. Yep, you guessed it, just as soon as we are even with the truck that was in front of us, here comes another truck in the lane we are using to pass. So now, we have to drop back to 1 mph so that we can take out place back in our lane. Finally we pass them. Then an hour or so later we are passing another truck and I ask, hey didn´t we see those guys before? Yep, we passed them, then they passed us, now we are passing them again.

OMFG, the best story ever!!!!!!!! I saw someone get bitten by a monkey yesterday. I know you are thinking this can´t be true but it is soooo true. Nola and here daughter Iesha are on our tour. They are from Canada and Nola is interesting and her daughter is 14. So, we go off to the zoo and there is a monkey running about looking incredibly cute and all of that. All I want is for this damn monkey to stay away from me because I want to be let out of Ecuador and let back into the USA on 1-5-2009 (or whenever the hell I´m coming home). However, Iesha gets all chummy with the monkey, the Nola decides hey, since the monkey is at my feet, I should pick it up. I am on the verge of throwing up a little inside. Dirty, filty animal I can´t think of anything grosser at that moment that cuddling with a monkey. I have pictures to prove this mothing of the monkey. Well, finally after everyone else gave a resounding NO when Nola asked if we wanted to hold the monkey, she put it down. Well, then the monkey starts to stalk us. Showing up in random bushes and such unexpectedly. Then Iesha decides she should go and stand next to her mother. Well, monkey goes mad! Teeth come out and he start screeching and carrying on. I mean he doesn´t have many teeth but you can see them all. Then he jumps on Iesah leg and sinks his teeth into here ankle. I am sorry to admit that I do not have pictures of the crazed monkey executing his attack. The reason for this is because the moment it was clear that he was going mad, I got the hell outta there. I am truly not kidding you, I am loving this vacation SOOOOOO much, but I don´t eat off other peoples plates, I don´t let other people eat off of my plate, I don´t buy food from people that get on the chicken bus selling it. AND I DON´T CUDDLE WITH FREAKIN MONKEYS. I swear this story is true.

I know this is all that you can handle so I will say good night. I hope that you all are well and I will still make an effort to post some pictures. Yes, one will be of the monkey love.

Heee....love you all....miss me;)

Trying to survive at 10.000 feet

until we descend into the jungle tomorrow. This elevation change is crazy. We walked in Quito this morning, which is at 8,000 feet and I felt mostly fine. So fine in fact that in the current town, I decided to walk 2.5 mile to the town at the bottom of the hill and then come back up. 5 steps into the "coming back up" I knew it wasn't going to happen. Climbing back up, I could only go about 20 steps then I was down on one knee panting like a dog and feeling as though I was taking my last breathe. After the third time of this, and it was getting dark, I knew that I would never make and I said the first person to offer us a ride, I'm taking it, I don't care who. Believe it or not at that moment a nice man, his wife, and her mother came around the corner, stopped and looked at us and rolled down the window to ask if we needed a ride! Thank you God.

We left Quito this morning at around 1130 and took a "chicken" bus to the village of Papallacta Hot Springs.This is where my tragedy occurred...heeee. We are staying here overnight, then we will take another chicken bus and descend into the jungle for two nights. That elevation is very low so not altitude to worry about there. The good thing is, my meds have kept me from getting dizzy or physically sick. I only have the shortness of breathe when trying to climb up a hill.

I do have to say this, Ecuador is absolutely beautiful and very clean with only a few stray dogs running about. I mention the dogs because when I went to Russia, they were everywhere. The people here are very nice and helpful. Most do not speak english but some do. Oh and the weather, that opposite season stuff was crap. Now that I am here, the locals say, it is our winter. It was raining last night when I got here and it was raining this morning, although it stopped before our walking tour began. It is colder than anything up here in the mountains, I believe it is in the 50s. For me, that is frigid. But, I have new stuff to look at and great pictures to take so I suppose I will be ok.

Our tour guide, Fernando, a little 25 year old sexy Peruvian, went over our activities for the next 14 days and I thought, man, when I read it, it didn't sound so overwhelming. Now it freaking sound impossible. Get on the bus, get off the bus, go hike, bike, white water rafting, blah blah, then get on a plane, get back on a bus, do a little shopping and then go hone.

About the pictures I promised to post, well you can see that I do have access to the internet, but you cannot see that it is not very fast. It isn't and every time I try to upload my pics, Picasa crashes. So, when we are back in town in a few days, I will try to go to an internet cafe and have them put on disk or something.

Tomorrow we leave Papallacta and head for Tena for our stay in an Amazon village. I doubt that I will have internet access so I will post again in 2-4 days!

Love you all - Hi Marie, you had better be reading this:)

Vacation Bound

At long last, I am leaving for Ecuador. The next time you hear from me, I hope to have some interesting stories to tell about my adventures. I also hope to be able to upload some of my pictures while I am running amok:) 

Happy Holidays to All. 

Happy Holidays.

I am feeling extra sentimental this holiday season because I am leaving on my vacation in 2 days. I thought it would never get here. My friends have been absolutely amazing in providing me with everything that I need for my trip. I have also spent more time with my close friends in the last few weeks than I have all year.

I now have the apps for my Samsung Instinct that bring it much closer to being the perfect phone - Thanks Instinct Software guys:) Now I can view my upcoming appointment and I can place a signature on my IMs without having to type it each time. This damn phone is finally exceeding my expectations. Of course, no credit goes to Sprint.

I don't have much to say because I am tired tonight. I have been staying up late trying to figure out how to setup my website. It was given to me as a gift (the domain name) and I love it. But, learning something new is so consuming and before you know it three hours have passed. Not much is there now but you can check it out any time  www.carolynfulton.com

7 Days and Counting

down to vacation. I am very excited and amazed at how seamlessly the preparation has gone! As of today, I am all packed and other than a pocket knife, there is nothing else that I need to put in my bags. Also, I am thrilled that I did not over pack because I packet the items that were on the list. This means that for 17 days, I have 4 pairs of pants, 1 pair of shorts, 4 shirts, and 5 pairs of socks. I have been told that laundry facilities are available in the hotels where we will be staying. We will only be away from hotels for 2-4 days so i have enough clothes for each of those outings. I will be carrying a total of three bags but only 1 of them will be with me unless we are changing locations.

I have matched all power cords with their charges and all chargers with the associated batteries, with the associated electronic device. I have done this about 4 times to make sure that I have everything that I am going to need. Thank God for great friends because they have mentioned little items that I will need and/or have bought me things that I didn't think of. If one more person asks me about what snacks I'm bringing, I will scream...heeee. You can all rest assured that today, I put 21 packs of snacks in my bag, along with all of the cash and Visa gift cards that I have been given! Thanks to everyone that is funding my trip.......heeee I should go away more often. Hmmmm.....are you all paying me off to go away????? LOL!

I have also treated all of my clothing for mosquitoes and ticks. So, I should be well protected from those vicious, potentially deadly bites. I also got my yellow fever vaccine 2 weeks ago on Tuesday. The shot was not bad but the side effects of "flu-like" symptoms were horrible. Then there were the side effects from the flu vaccine.....I had to have someone drive me home I felt as though I was going to pass out. Then, there was the cold that quickly followed the cold which of course came both times with a lost voice. Funny thing, my voice is back, for the most part, but now I get a terrible sore throat every evening. I am starting to believe that I should have left the flu vaccine alone. I am also debating whether I should pay a visit to my doctor tomorrow for some meds.

Speaking of meds, today I tried the Malarone (for the prevention of malaria) and Diamox (for elevation sickness) and both had no negative effects. I actually think I may have a bit more energy but of course that could be my excitement for leaving the country.

Oh and to those of you concerned about how I intend to get to the airport/home, I have now addressed the latter. My dad is going to take the 5th off so that he can come and pick me up. How will I get to the airport, it's a Saturday, so many people to pick from. It is my intent to be at the airport by 1130 on Saturday to make sure that I get to my gate on time. I figure it might be pretty busy the weekend before Christmas.

Again, thanks to all my very generous and loving friends - I feel like a kid being sent off to camp! Love you all!

All that I