Markets and cemeteries

My new trousers ...

It’s still cold here in Ambato, down to around 12 degrees in the house first thing in the morning. Everyone is moaning about the weather – I think they might be turning into Englishmen.

Lucy arrived back from Quito today, I walked to the burger restaurant with Tim for lunch and she was there when we got back, complete with Nidia, Emilia and the children.

Carlos is caring for his brother (who I haven’t yet seen) and he looks very weary.

We’re off to the Pacific coast tomorrow and it will be a long drive. Lucy’s mum wanted some shoes, so I went to the shoe market in Ambato with them. There’s  a specialist market for shoes and it’s pretty big. There are some brands that I didn’t recognise and some that I did, although I’m told they’re all fake. Some of the fake brands are direct copies, others change a letter in the brand as a gesture towards legality.

While Nidia was trying shoes on, there was a TV screen above the stall with a football match showing. I had a look to see who was playing and it was with Lucy, Nidia and Emilia. Mushuc Runa, whose stadium we passed on the way to Santo Domingo two weeks ago, were playing. The standard was like English Division Two and there was no-one watching.

I had a tour of Ambato markets with Tom yesterday. We went through a couple in the city centre. They are well organised in market halls, just like we used to have in English towns when I was a lad. Produce is piled up in layers and the stallholder stands in front. There are little shrines in every market, some of them rather twee and some rather gruesome.

All sell food and the speciality food in Ambato is Llapingacho, a type of stuffed potato patty. Ambato has its own recipe and there’s a line of shops selling them in the market.

Earlier, I’d picked up my trousers from the tailor. They were a good fit. I’m not going to wear them in Ecuador, I’ll wait until I get home.

One of the covered markets in Ambato

Llapingacho sellers in the market - competition is intense

Tom and I also visited the cemetery in Ambato. This is a huge walled area (with coffin slots filling the walls. Some of the richer families and some business organisations have their own tombs – quite large constructions – with slots for coffins. It’s peaceful and has a nice atmosphere, although some of the graves are decorated with fairy lights and solar-driven animatronics (I saw at least one dancing flower) which would be considered bad taste in the UK. An Ecuadorian-style cemetery in Thorney would certainly save space!

Coffin slots in Ambato cemetery (above) and (below) one of the private tombs

The terrible Ambato earthquake

Pictures from Time Magazine.

Our mission today was to get a birthday card for Margaret. It’s easier said than done (as I’m discovering), but Tom, Julia and I headed into Ambato central where Lucy thought we might get one in the Centre for Culture.

I’d only been into Ambato as far as the Mr Joy mall and that’s at the southern end, I guess. To reach the old city (with some colonial influence) you have to go down a steep hill until you reach the bottom of the valley where the Ambato River flows. The population was 180,000 in 2010 and it does seem about the same size as Peterborough.

The old colonial city wasn’t designed for cars and like colonial Quito, it’s a bit of a clash between old and modern … people and cars. We nosed our way through a series of narrow streets until we found a car park. Car parks are not like Peterborough with barriers and cash machines. It’s a patch of spare ground where something was knocked (or fell) down; you drive in and give them your keys. Cars are parked in a large block, so if yours is at the very back they have to move half a dozen to let you out. Actually, that’s a very extreme example and it takes no time. The keys are left on the windscreen and you get a slip of paper to reclaim your car.

We walked down towards the centre and passed the cathedral. Tom had never been inside, so we popped in for a look. The cathedral was completely destroyed, along with the rest of the city in a massive earthquake in 1949. This killed over 5,000 people and was a 6.4 magnitude. Around three-quarters of buildings in Ambato had to be demolished, but other areas were worse hit. The small town of Libertad was swallowed into a massive fissure, which sounds about as scary as it can get.

The new cathedral is quite modern in style and isn’t very big. On the steps are a number of people begging for cash. There are a lot of very poor people in the city, including many Venezuelans who are fleeing the economic collapse of their country under US sanctions. The USA should be a much better friend to its neighbours and work with them instead of trying to control them. The Venezuelans will sell you a 10,000 bolivar note for $1, the currency is worthless. Other people will offer you a sweet in exchange for cash, it’s a small way of trying to preserve your dignity – you’re not asking for something for nothing. Unlike beggars in the UK, who are often addicts or mentally fragile, these people are just unlucky and poor. In a poor country, to stand out as being poor, you are absolutely poverty-stricken.

There was no gift shop in the cathedral and the cultural centre turned out to be a series of rooms where workshops are held. We went into the city museum, which turned out to be an art gallery. It had some strange Inca-erotic paintings, but no gift shop. An erotic Inca-inspired artwork card might have been ideal.

Tom got his shoes shined by an old man, whose skin resembled the leather of the shoes he was polishing, Julia enjoyed chasing pigeons in the park and we were eventually directed to a shop that sold cards. They were heavily religious, not perfect, but suitable and brought them home to write.

I wanted Julia to write her name in one and for Aureliano to make his mark; I would send the other from me. Julia set to work with gusto and soon both cards were covered in felt pen, destroying some of the religious iconography. On top of that, the envelope had no stick, so I borrowed some of Julia’s glue. With her help, it will be a miracle if the cards can ever be removed from the envelope.

Tom wanted to drive up a very steep road he knew from where you could get a view of the city. It took a while to find it, but we did in the end and you do get an impression of what a steep valley the town is built in.

Some modern buildings look pretty good, there’s another mall under construction, but others seem as if they might fall down well before the next earthquake. There’s a lot of building, but no planning controls. If you’re building your house, it’s your right to build it however you like. Breeze block is the standard building material and often a house will have just the front rendered and painted, leaving the sides and back as Breeze block. People don’t seem to mind. The other common thing is to put in the reinforced concrete skeleton of a building of maybe three storeys and only build the ground floor, the rest has to wait until there’s enough money.

To a tidy north European mindset, it’s very troubling, but here the practicalities of life and making things work on a tight budget are the priority.

Later in the afternoon, we went back into town to post the cards and to get some cash for Lucy. Instead of parking, Tom went round the block (the old colonial square). We went round three or four times, creeping through three sets of lights. Eventually Lucy emerged. She said the main in the post office was an idiot and, if she hadn’t been able to go in front as a pregnant woman, she would have been in there an hour. I don’t know if that means our cards won’t arrive!

Ecuador – a hot bath that might be about to get a lot hotter

Bath is one of my favourite cities in England; it’s a lovely place, full of history and great architecture and it has the added mystery of a hot spring – something of great wonder to ancient people (and to us).

Ecuador also has a city called Bath, or rather the Spanish equivalent – Baños.

The two cities couldn’t be much different. The Romans didn’t get as far as Baños, of course and while John Wood was laying out the Royal Crescent in Bath, Tungarahua (the local volcano) was laying out Baños.

In Ecuador, you’re never far from a volcano and in Baños, you’re literally at the foot of the volcano. Tungurahua is a particularly troublesome character; it likes to go off every 100 years or so and it’s going off right now. In 1999, everyone in Baños (19,000 of them) got out double quick when there was a red warning and in 2013 (into 2014) it has been rumbling and grumbling.

The most recent eruptions have killed "only a handful" of people (five to be precise), deposited millions of tons of ash on the surrounding countryside, buried roads and destroyed a bridge. I can’t help thinking that it’s just flexing its muscles for the big one.

Sadly, I didn’t get to see Tungarahua - a 5000m job, complete with snow cap (its summit glaciers melted in 1999 when it started its latest active phase. The weather was cloudy and grey, but there are some pictures here, including one (taken by Tom) of Ambato, with an erupting Tungarahua in the background.

Images from the current eruptions. No wonder the glaciers melted!

Panorama by Tom of Ambato, with an erupting Tungarahua at the far right. See the original here.

The day was quite cloudy and grey, especially on the paramo, adding to its similarities with Scotland, but it picked up as we lost a little altitude. On our way to Baños, we called in at Ambato to visit the hospital built by the agency run by Lucy's father, Carlos. This is an impressive facility, used for training and healthcare, but most of the agency's work is done out in the remote communities in mountain and jungle.

Tom and Lucy, with help from some friends, put this website together: http://www.allicausai.org/en/

There are also a couple of videos on YouTube by Tom and Lucy: http://youtu.be/WhTeG57uAWg and with an English commentary: http://youtu.be/_UYC3WEPlE4

There was also time to call in at an Indian market on the way to Baños. I bought myself an alpaca wool jumper for $19, which is a really good price, also a colourful tablecloth which Margaret wanted for the kitchen table.

The drive to Baños is quite spectacular, you're losing height (although Baños sits higher than most Alpine ski resorts) and travelling through deeper and deeper valleys. As you lose height, you can see the foliage becoming more lush, more jungle-like. Baños sits in a bowl and it's quite a pretty town, catering for tourists and backpackers. Conveniently, the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision nearby, so there has been a steady stream of pilgrims for many years, now replaced by backpackers. It was quite strange to see so many bars and nightclubs; also signs everywhere for bungee jumping, rafting, quad hire, etc. Tom had suggested we might hire a couple of motorcycles and do a quick tour along the old road, but there simply wasn't time.

The hotel Luna Runtun above Baños

After lunch in Baños and a visit to a bank with a cash machine which recognised my card, we headed for our hotel. Lucy had pre-booked all of our hotels. She'd done a good job, but in Baños, she excelled herself. We stayed at the Luna Runtun, which is sited above Baños on the flanks of Tungurahua and this was a fantastic place in an amazing location.

The drive up was quite steep and the hotel comprised a central building with restaurant, plus lots of separate chalets dotted around the grounds. Our room was fantastic and we had a balcony overlooking Baños about 200 metres below. The trees outside were full of hummingbirds. At first they were quite hard to spot, but once you'd got your eye in, they were flitting around here, there and everywhere.

There was a jacuzzi and swimming pools, so we were able to take a dip before dinner. It seemed as if we were the only people there, so we had great service. When night fell Baños looked even more pretty all lit up below us.

iPhone panorama of Baños, taken from our balcony at Luna Runtun