Meil siin Ecuadoris, nagu ka teistes Lõuna-Ameerika riikides olid möödunud nädalavahetusel pikad pühad. Nimelt tähistati siin karnevali. Kui Inglismaal on pannkoogipäev, Rootsis vahvlipäev ja Eestis vastlapäev(vastlakuklitega), siis siin on karneval rongkäigu, veepüstolite, veepommide, imeliku vahu, munade, jahuga ja kes teab veel millega. Karnevali ajal valitseb Ecuadoris täielik kaos, rannikule minekuks tuleb piletid soetada juba nädalaid enne pühi, teiste sihtpunktidega on veidi lihtsam, piisab vaid nädalast. Kõik inimesed üritavad neljaks päevaks suurlinnadest, eriti Quitost, välja saada ja kas siis rannikule või mõnda muusse linna minna.
Mina otsustasin seekord ranniku asemel koos Stefaniega Austriast Cuencasse sõita. Cuenca on suuruselt kolmas linn Ecuadoris(Quito on teine), elanikke on umbes sama palju nagu Tallinnas. Cuenca on koloniaalstiilis linn täis ajalugu, väljakuid, parke ning tosinaid kirikuid. Linna keskus on meeldivalt pisike, ühest otsast teise on võimalik umbes 30 minutiga kõndida, mida me ka lugematutel kordadel tegime. Cuenca, nagu ka Quito vanalinn, on kantud UNESCO’sse.
Kuna Cuenca asub 9 tunni kaugusel Quitost ning Cuenca lähedal on mitmeid huvitavaid vaatamisväärsusi, siis otsustasimegi need neli päeva Cuenca mägises ümbruses veeta. Jõudsime Cuencas ära näha peaaegu kõik kirikud, ka mõned muuseumid, kohalikud turud, vabaõhu kontserdi, Panama mütside tehase. Tuleb välja, et Panama mütsid on sootuks Ecuadorist pärit. Nimelt transporditi mütsid algselt Panamasse ja sealt edasi kaugematesse sihtriikidesse, nõnda kutsutaksegi mütse eksitavalt Panama mütsideks, ehkki pärinevad Ecuadorist.
Pühapäeval otsustasime kolmes ümbruskonnas paiknevas linnas ära käia, kuna karnevali puhul olid kavas mitmed pidustused. Loomulikult lõpetasime läbimärgadena ning vahuga kaetuna J Esimeses linnas, Gualaceo’s, käisime traditsioonilisel puuviljaturul ning vaatasime rongkäiku,Chorderleg’is sõime traditsioonilist lõunat (mis koosnes sealihast, valgest maisist, tortilladest ja salatist) ning kuna linn on tuntud oma kullast ehete poolest, siis imetlesime ka kohalikku ehetevalikut. Viimasesse linna, Sigsig’i õnnestus meil minna üksnes kohalike abiga, kuna pühade puhul oli bussiliiklus väga hõre. Kohale jõudes hakkas muidugi sadama, nagu peaaegu igal pärastlõunal meie reisi jooksul. Sigsig’i peaväljak oli vihmast hoolimata rahvast täis, inimesi pritsiti vihmaveega ning loobiti jahuga J Taustaks kõlas eemal toimuv kontsert ja linn lõhnas cuy(merisiga, traditsiooniline toit siin) liha järgi. Eriti tiheda liikluse tõttu võttis Sigsig’ist tagasi Cuencasse jõudmine 1.5 tunni asemel 3.5 tundi.
Esmaspäeval otsustasime veepommide ja muu atribuutika eest põgeneda, ehkki õhtul visati meid mööduvatest autodest siiski läbimärjaks, ja läksime Cajas’e nimelist loodusparki avastama. Park oli üüratu..... meie läbisime üksnes 4 tunni pikkuse raja, millest viimased 3 tundi matkasin läbimärgade jalanõudega, kuna maapind oli kohati soo laadne ja mul õnnestus laukasse astuda.. .J (Sellest või siis veepommidest tingitult olen nüüd kolm päeva haige olnud.) Loodusparki sisenedes anti meile üks suurimaid kaarte mida näinud olen, lahti voldituna oli ilmselt minu pikkune... sellest hoolimata eksisime peaaegu mitmel korral ära. Rajal nägime peale meie veel umbes 10t inimest, ehk seetõttu, et alustasime oma matkaga kell 8 hommikul.
Viimase päeva jätsime Ingapirca jaoks. Ingapirca on tuntud oma suurimate Inca varemete poolest Ecuadoris. Stefanie teadis rääkida, et varemed ei ole enam nii suured nagu nad varem olid, kuna ümbruskaudsed inimesed kasutasid kive majade ehitamiseks, ei tea siis kas hea õnne/aura pärast või lihtsalt praktilistel põhjustel. Varemete kõrval nosisid Alapacad muru ja pilved katsid ümbruskonna mägesid. Ei ühtki veepommi varemete ümber! Üksnes lahtise autoga mäest alla bussijaama sõites saime taas pisut märjaks. Bussiga meil vedas! Kohalik taksojuht väitis, et 4 tunni jooksul pole ühtegi bussi möödunud... Meie muidugi ehmusime korraks, kuna pidime tagasi Cuencasse jõudma, et siis õhtul Quitosse sõita(Ingapirca on umbes 2 tunni kaugusel Cuencast), õnneks tuli meil üksnes 10 minutit oodata ja olimegi peagi tagasi Cuencas.
Sõit tagasi Quitosse kujunes ootamatult sündmusterohkeks. Umbes kaks tundi pärast Cuencast väljumist peatas meid politsei. Kõigil paluti bussist väljuda, kotid otsiti läbi, pidime censo’d ja passikoopiad ette näitama(koopiad seetõttu, et originaali on ohtlik kaasas kanda, isegi censo’st on mul koopia - kui neid pole, siis on politseisse minek...), bussist ja inimestest tehti pilti ja võisime edasi sõita. Lisaks oli meie ees istuval lapsel terve tee süda paha ja bussi meeskond pidi pidevalt põrandat puhastama. Kõige tipuks oli umbes poolel teel Quitosse olnud avarii, väidetavalt oli 17-20 sõidukit kokku põrganud ja kogu tee oli suletud... Tagasi Quitosse jõudsime kell 4 hommikul, magasime mõned tunnid ja läksime taas tööle :)
Head ööd!
L.
 |
| Cuenca |
 |
| Cuenca |
 |
| Panama mütside tehas/Panama hat factory |
 |
| Müts valmimas/ A Panama hat in process |
 |
| Pipi maja?:)/Pipi house? :) |
 |
| Gualaceo |
 |
| Rongkäik ja vaht/Parade and foam |
 |
| Mõni oli üleni vahuga kaetud/Some were covered in foam |
 |
| Kohalikud murjamid/Local children |
 |
| Lõuna/Lunch |
 |
| Cuy Sigsis'is/Cuy in Sigsig |
 |
| El Cajas |
 |
| El Cajas |
 |
| El Cajas, kuskil seal astusingi vette.../El Cajas, I stepped into the water somewhere there... |
 |
| El Cajas |
 |
| Ingapirca varemed/Ingapirca ruins |
 |
| Naljakas puu/ A funny tree |
 |
| Hüpe :)/Jump :) |
 |
| Alpakadega/With alpacas |
Last weekend plus Monday and Tuesday were public holidays, because Ecuador, like most of the other South-American countries was full of Carnival celebrations. If England celebrates Shrove Tuesday with pancakes, Sweden with waffles, Estonia with special sweet buns with cream, then carnival is celebrated with parades, water guns, water balloons, strange foam, flour and eggs. There is a complete chaos in Ecuador during carnival, because most of the people try to go to the coast or other places away from the big cities. Thus, tickets have to be booked already weeks in advance.
I decided, instead of going to the coast, to go to Cuenca with Stefanie from Austria. Cuenca is the third biggest city in Ecuador(Quito is second), and there is almost as many inhabitants as in Tallinn. Cuenca is a colonial city full of history, various squares, parks and dozens of churches. The city center is not very big, it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other, which we did for a lot of times. Cuenca is a World Heritage as is the old town of Quito.
As Cuenca is located 9 hours away from Quito and there are lots of things to do and see in the surrounding area then we thought these 4 days of holidays couldn’t have been better spent. We used the first day to explore Cuenca, we saw almost all of the churches, some museums, markets, a concert and the Panama hat factory. It turns out that Panama hats originate from Ecuador. They were initially transported to Panama and then shipped to other countries, thus the name has not much to do with the hats.
On Sunday we visited three villages nearby Cuenca, because there were some events due to Carnival. It’s not a surprise that we were both already wet and covered by foam in the first town, as were most of the other people J In Gualaceo, the first town we visited, there was a parade where all of the people(and the animals) who took part in it were covered in foam. We also had a look around the town and went to the local food market. In the second town, Chorderleg, there were lots of gold shops and the town is famous for them, we also had a traditional lunch which consisted of pork, white corn, tortillas and some salad. The bus connections were not very frequent due to the holidays, thus we wouldn’t have made it to Sigsig, the last town, if there hadn’t been some friendly locals who offered to take us there. Unfortunitely it started raining as soon as we got to Sigsig, in fact it rained almost every afternoon of our trip. The main square was nevertheless full of people who had come to enjoy the concert, eat cuy(guinea pig, traditional dish in Ecuador) and play with water and flour J It took us 3.5 hours to get back to Cuenca, even though it was supposed to only take 1.5...
As the weekend had been full of water and other carnival related activities then we decided to escape from it on Monday, nevertheless we were still hit with water balloons from the cars that passed by in the evening. We went to see a national park called Cajas. It was enormous...we only hiked for 4 hours though, because it is only permited to go to the easier tracks without a guide. A part of our trail was a wetland and so I had to hike the last 3 hours with wet shoes J(It’s either because of the wet shoes or the water balloons that I’ve been ill since we got back L.) We were provided with a massive map(almost as tall as me) when we entered the national park, despite that we almost got lost a few times. We only saw about 10 other hikers besides us, perhaps because we started our hike at 8 AM.
We left the last day for Ingapirca. Ingapirca is famous for its biggest Inca ruins in Ecuador. Stefanie had heard from somewhere that the ruins used to be a lot bigger, but people used the stones to build their houses. There were lots of Alpacas who ate grass near the ruins and the surrounding mountains were covered in clouds. There were no water bombs near Ingapirca! We couldn’t escape from them entirely though as we drove down to the bus station at the back of a car with no roof... A local taxy driver told us that he had not seen any busses pass by within the last 4 hours...we were thus scared we might not make back to Cuenca for our bus to Quito(as Ingapirca is about 2 hours away from Cuenca). Luckily we only had to wait for 10 minutes and we got back to Cuenca by the afternoon.
The journey back to Quito was rather eventful. The bus was stopped by the police about 2 hours after we had left Cuenca. We were all asked to step out of the bus, our bags were checked and we had to show our censoes and passport copies(copy, because it’s dangerous to carry the passport around, I even carry the copy of my censo instead of the original one - if you don’t have them then the police will take you to the police station), they took pictures of the bus and the people after which we could continue our journey. Furthermore one of the children was sick for the whole trip and the workers had to constantly clean the floor. And there had been an accident about 4 hours from Quito, we were told that there were 17-20 vehicles in the accident and therefore the road was closed...We got back to Quito at 4 AM, had a few hours of sleep and then it was time to go to work J
Good night!
L.
No comments:
Post a Comment