Rogers' Law

I couldn't think of what to call this blog entry. Mike's Misfortune? City Slickers? If I Didn't Have Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All?

I feel sad writing this blog. Not that it is any reflection on my time in Ecuador with Mikey. Or maybe it is. Mike is the sort of friend that you don't see for years and when you do finally catch up, it's like it was just yesterday. I think I'm sad that there is a 6 foot+ gap at my side, and also, that my time in South America is coming to an end.

Mike and I started our 9 days together in style, staying at the JW Marriot where men in fancy outfits hold doors open for you, carry your luggage (in my case a well travelled, shabby backpack, that couldn't look more out of place) and even open car doors. It was wonderful until I was told I couldn't check in until 3pm. I felt even more out of place when, at 3pm, I was told I can only enter the room after Mike arrives, which wasn't going to be until after 8pm. So, in hiking boots, pants and fleece I proceeded to change in the glitzy lobby so I could go to my salsa lesson.

Our first night started with mojitos, ended with long island iced teas and had a bar that sold only shots in the middle. At the bar Mike bought a whole bottle of aguardiente (sugarcane rum) and got a group of Colombians very drunk.

Day two started slow because the fuzziness, courtesy of the shot bar, took a while to fade. We did eventually head out to the old town, by bus. Before getting on, I believe I said to Mike, word for word 'Guard all of your things. These places are notorious for pickpockets'. So of course, four stops later Mike realises his wallet has gone. The thief will have been disappointed when he realised it only contained cards (had he gone for the other pocket he'd have been $300 cash richer) but it did create a lot of grief for Mike who spent the rest of the day on the phone to the US cancelling cards. Lucky Mike also got cut off 3 or 4 times right at the crucial moment of the call. So that was the end of that day.

The next day we started with plans to see sites, but they got dropped due to lack of motivation and we caught a bus to Coca, getting off in Baeza (a town on the way I picked for a stop over). Our stop involved finding a hotel for the night (and paying), going for a walk, watching the weekly game of Ecuadorian volleyball, eating some food and .... errr... a gut turning encounter with a rather unexpected site in the trash bin. (check the photo for yourself). Maybe it was the bin that did it, or maybe it was just that we'd been there for 3 hours and had run out of stuff to see and do, but we got on the next bus out of town. I hadn't planned too well since no buses from Baeza went to Coca, so instead our plans changed and Tena became our jungle destination.

We picked a short, but activity packed trip. Things already seemed to be starting off badly when we were told that there were no gumboots in all of Ecuador in Mike's size. As I told you before, gumboots seem to be essential in the jungle. Eventually some turned up that sort of fitted and off we went. The first adventure was climbing a mountain, standing thigh deep in pools and scaling up waterfalls with ropes and all. Heading back we could already hear thunder and before too long, we were soaked by torrential rains and the steep downhill track turned into a muddy creek. Anyone that thinks height might help with walking up or down things, is wrong. Mike couldn't have looked more out of his element. He wasn't wearing his glasses because of the rain, he had to duck twice as far under overhanging branches, his toes were being crushed by going downhill in boots that were too small. He came back 3 times as muddy as the rest of us because he just gave up and slid downhill for some parts on his backside :) To add to his discomfort, Cityslicker Mike packed light. REALLY light (only one bumbag) and spent the time changing from one wet item of clothing to another. He also swore off the gumboots for the rest of the trip.

We had a medicinal plant walk and then changed locations to what seemed luxury jungle accommodation, with electricity, some 60 metres high up on a cliff overlooking river and rainforest. In the morning we headed out on another walk to a village. It was along the flat and thankfully, for Mike's sake, uneventful. The village was pretty deserted but we only went into one of the houses where the guide explained about Quichuan houses, kitchens and their chicha (made from yuca, same as 'taro' in Fiji). We had read, and been told, that this chicha is traditionally made by women chewing it and spitting it into a vat and then collecting and drinking it. Sounds revolting, right? Well, no one said anything about the chewing when we were in the village and I refused to let anyone ask or even bring it up. To refuse chicha that is offered to you is considered rude, but to have to drink something that you KNOW has been chewed by someone else's mouth? Ignorance is bliss I say!

Mike came back from falling asleep in the hammock, carry his glasses in two parts. He's managed to snap them while sleeping and his contacts were back in Tena. Poor Mikey. He chose sleeping over tubing that afternoon. The rest of us went tubing down a fairly quiet, warmish river. It was non-adrenalin pumping but we exchanged myths and legends and I managed to recount the story of why the river people are afraid of pink dolphins, IN SPANISH! That river joined the Napo which was freezing!! The Napo flows all the way to Peru, and specifically Iquitos where I swam in it weeks ago and it was significantly warmer, and then joins another river to become the Amazon.

That night, back in Tena, I was sitting at the internet when I hear a voice behind me say 'If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all'. Poor old Mike. One of the sides of this contact case wasn't closed properly, the liquid had drained out and he had one dried, shrivelled lens.

Back in Quito, back in the luxury of the JW Marriot, Mike with his replacement ATM card. Life was back to normal. We had to do the touristy thing and go to the middle of the earth, of which there are two. At the commercial one we mainly took our cheesy photos. At the 'actual' equator is a museum, and a line, where we took more cheesy photos, I made an egg balance on a nail, and we watched water drain differently in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Our days together ended like they started. With alcohol. Sian, a friend of mine from Canberra, who also happened to be in Quito, joined us. We went from mojitos, to another bar, to the notorious shot bar and finally just made it sitting down in one last one before everything came to pieces. For Sian anyway, who we had to carry home and who didn't leave bed or bathroom until very late the next day.

Mike too, couldn't shake the theme of bad luck. At 5:40am I woke up to find Mike still sleeping in the bed next too me. His plane was at 6:25am. Good old Mikey had hung up on the poor lady making the wake up call, and god knows what happened to the alarms he'd set :) Good one Mike!

All ends well. Hangovers pass, eventually, flights can be changed, and friends forgive friends for getting getting mad at them. I forgive you Mike! Thanks for everything!