Mildly moderated chaos

The best way to describe Ecuador’s social infrastructure is mildly moderated chaos. No prices are set, no hours adhered to, traffic “laws” are viewed as mere suggestions, and business licenses are a joke. Canoa is such a poor and small town that I could understand why no one cared but I started to get a clearer picture when I got a photocopied vehicle title to show police if I got stopped on the motorcycle in Banos. International driving license or insurance not required. Also completely legal in Banos is “bungee jumping” off a 100-meter bridge using a climbing rope and figure 8 belay device. (Climbing ropes have a small number of falls they are rated for and a Figure 8 belay device is great for smooth repelling but hardly has the lock off friction I’d want to stop me from a very long purposeful fall.)

It seemed like every other day in Cuenca was a reason for parades, bands, and street closures. “Its Saturday” seemed to hold just as much validity as Cuenca’s founding weekend – which lasted until Tuesday. It was the fireworks displays during these arbitrary parties forced a punk rock anarchist smile of affirmation across my face. Cuenca is a World Heritage site and one of the prettiest Colonial era cities in all of South America, yet no one minded as tissue paper hot air balloons, sparking spinners, and rockets were launched from the main city square by random citizens. As their burning embers fell back onto schools, businesses, and churches I started to realize why brick shingled roofs are still so popular.

Days later dancers in elaborate costumes covered the bridges of the city while spot- and strobe-lights swept across the crowd - everyone moving to the music of a band playing in a 4^th story window of the nearby apartment building. Soon the sky began lighting up and we realized that every major railing-support on the bridges had an arsenal of fireworks attached to it. The dancers moved away a bit but the crowd stayed – a couple thousand people packed inside a half km of the launch zone.

Coming from a place where millions can be made by spilling coffee on yourself and sidewalks have to be repaired before someone trips, its nice see a society that hasn’t been reduced to robotic answers and solving problems though flowcharts. There are benefits to first world culture – drinkable water certainly being one of them – but taking responsibility for our actions is underrated. Getting under a roof if lit fireworks are raining from the sky or stepping out of the way when a motorcycle rolls down the sidewalk is common sense, we don’t need legislation and litigation to do our thinking for us.

Moving on

I took the fastest, scariest bus of my life from Cuenca to Quito listening to the transmission fall apart and the right rear brakes make a hideous metal-on-metal sound all through the night. After 24 hours in Quito I walked to a city bus which took me to the trolley, the trolley took me to the bus station where I got a shuttle bus to another station, and boarded an extremely slow intercity bus bound for Toulcan. At Toulcan I took a taxi towards Colombia, walked through Ecuadorian customs, over the bridge, through Colombian customs, and hailed another taxi to the bus stop where I got a night bus which took 12 hours to make it 450km. 36 hours in Cali is about all that’s needed to walk around the tourist part of the city, dance some salsa, and scale the mountain to the Tres Cruises. A 3^rd night bus in 5 days landed me in Bogota where its been raining constantly, thunder storming intermittently, and cold.

Bridge Festival lighting up the sky.

Yes there's bunnies, chickens, and hamsters here, but think of it as more of grocery store than pet store...

Street art in Cuenca.

Breakdancers come out in force every Sunday in the main park. Here one practices headspins.