I´ve been in this town up in the mountains called San Augustine for the last two days. There are a bunch of cool stone sculptures up here from these Indians that used to live up here. I´ve been checking out the archaeological parks and tomorrow am going to head too this village called San Andres, which has these tombs you can go down into. Apparently they are pretty cool.
I was almost going to skip San Andres after hearing that the FARC put in a little appearance in the town the day of the recent presidential elections, but I guess it is pretty safe. That was the first time in years they had been seen there and they only made an appearance because it was election day. I met this German guy who was standing right next to one of the guerrillas when he came into this little shop and asked to use the bathroom. Apparently he was really polite and didn't give the gringo any problems. Should be interesting...
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Pics from the last few weeks
Columbia
After spending a few extra days in a city called Ibarra in Ecuador due to "stomach issues," I finally made it to Columbia last Thursday. I stayed in a town a couple hours from the border called Pasto the first night and then bussed it 7 hours to Popayan, where I've been since. Popayan is a beautiful colonial city up in the mountains at about 6000 feet. I´ve been hanging out, trying lots of local food and walking all over town. Tomorrow I'm going to head to a place called San Augustine to see a bunch of crazy sculptures in the desert made by a bunch of shrooming Indians way back in the day. Should be interesting.
The border crossing from Ecuador to Colombia was strangely easy. I had expected security to be tight due to the fact that guerrillas are still active in the area and there are tensions between the countries over a raid Colombia made on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory a few years ago. Instead it was the easiest I have ever made. If I wanted to be an illegal immigrant I could have just walked across without getting any of the stamps as no guards or anything stopped me on either side. After a hair-raising mini-bus ride to Pasto on the Panamerican I crashed out early. (Dear Colombian Drivers, Maybe if you didn't drive like maniacs, there wouldn't be crosses on the side of the road every few feet. Just a thought. Love, Nate).
The next day I got to Popayan in the evening and checked into a pretty sweet hostel. I discovered that Popayan was recognized by UNESCO as a world culinary city or some such thing, so I was excited to try the local specialties. Ive had some tasty tamales de pipan (chicken with this spicy peanut sauce) but overall the food has been a little disappointing. My favorite thing Ive eaten was the chorizo and white bean soup I made the other night. I got the chorizo from this little meat market down the street and it was fantastic. There was a Mexican restaurant in town that was supposed to be really good, but turned out to be pretty crappy. Today while watching The Battle of the Ghosts of Sovereign Debt Default Past and Future Mundial match, I had my first patacone - a mashed, fried plantain that can be topped with different things. I picked one at random without knowing what it had on it and ended up with a patacone heaped with sausage and shredded chicken smothered with melted cheese. It was so massive I couldn't finish it. I know, I know...
Also of note was the Colombian election. Juan Manuel Santos smoked Antanas Mockus in the runoff round to get elected president. There was a nationwide ban on selling booze from Friday through Monday morning (the election was on Sunday) as apparently political parties used to hand out free booze to get people to vote for them. A nice bottle of bourbon might get me to rethink my no voting stance. Maybe.
Tomorrow I'm getting up early to watch the US play Algeria if I can figure out what channel the game is on as the regular one that televises the games is showing England/Slovenia and then hopping on the bus as soon as it is over for San Augustine. Its a 7 hour ride on dirt roads to the town, which just sounds like a great time.
I forgot my USB cable, so pictures will have to wait until the next post. Until then stay classy.
The border crossing from Ecuador to Colombia was strangely easy. I had expected security to be tight due to the fact that guerrillas are still active in the area and there are tensions between the countries over a raid Colombia made on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory a few years ago. Instead it was the easiest I have ever made. If I wanted to be an illegal immigrant I could have just walked across without getting any of the stamps as no guards or anything stopped me on either side. After a hair-raising mini-bus ride to Pasto on the Panamerican I crashed out early. (Dear Colombian Drivers, Maybe if you didn't drive like maniacs, there wouldn't be crosses on the side of the road every few feet. Just a thought. Love, Nate).
The next day I got to Popayan in the evening and checked into a pretty sweet hostel. I discovered that Popayan was recognized by UNESCO as a world culinary city or some such thing, so I was excited to try the local specialties. Ive had some tasty tamales de pipan (chicken with this spicy peanut sauce) but overall the food has been a little disappointing. My favorite thing Ive eaten was the chorizo and white bean soup I made the other night. I got the chorizo from this little meat market down the street and it was fantastic. There was a Mexican restaurant in town that was supposed to be really good, but turned out to be pretty crappy. Today while watching The Battle of the Ghosts of Sovereign Debt Default Past and Future Mundial match, I had my first patacone - a mashed, fried plantain that can be topped with different things. I picked one at random without knowing what it had on it and ended up with a patacone heaped with sausage and shredded chicken smothered with melted cheese. It was so massive I couldn't finish it. I know, I know...
Also of note was the Colombian election. Juan Manuel Santos smoked Antanas Mockus in the runoff round to get elected president. There was a nationwide ban on selling booze from Friday through Monday morning (the election was on Sunday) as apparently political parties used to hand out free booze to get people to vote for them. A nice bottle of bourbon might get me to rethink my no voting stance. Maybe.
Tomorrow I'm getting up early to watch the US play Algeria if I can figure out what channel the game is on as the regular one that televises the games is showing England/Slovenia and then hopping on the bus as soon as it is over for San Augustine. Its a 7 hour ride on dirt roads to the town, which just sounds like a great time.
I forgot my USB cable, so pictures will have to wait until the next post. Until then stay classy.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Things that are possibly of interest only to me
The economics of change
Last week I was in Mompiche, a little town on the coast of Ecuador. Beyond it being cloudy, one of the things that cause me to leave was the complete lack of change and the nightmare of buying anything. I came to town with about $5 in coins, a couple of non-coin dollar bills, a five and a bunch of twenties (Ecuador uses the US dollar after they switched over, trying to curb rampant inflation). I figured this would be enough money, especially after I had no problem breaking twenties in Canoa, a town somewhat similar to Mompiche. It turned out to be plenty of money, it was just the act of spending it that was a nightmare.
It seemed no one in town had any change. I got a $.20 discount on a milkshake because I only had $.30 in change and a two ones, and the vendor couldn´t give me $.50 in change, so accepted $1.30. A pizza place me and a couple friends ate at couldn´t give us the $10 change for a $20, even after we had spent over $10 there the day before. Numerous places couldn´t break a five for charges in the range of two to three dollars. I was reduced to giving places larger bills, and just keeping running tabs with them so I could buy things. The final annoyance was when my hotel didin´t have five bucks to give me change for $60 on a $55 dollar bill. The frantically scrambled around for 20 minutes trying to find someone with change, almost causing me to miss my bus.
Thinking about this, I coudn´t figure out why on earth a town with a decent amount of tourist dollars coming into town would be so short of spare change. I´d experienced the no-change phenomenon in other parts of the country, but never on the level I encountered in Mompiche. Granted, it is a fairly isolated place, and I have no idea how far away the nearest bank is. At least an hour I´d assume.
Initially, I thought that the influx of tourists dollars would be a boon for getting change - more money in circulation, hence more change. This obviously wasn´t the case. Thinking about it further, I decided that tourist money must be the problem - take me for example. I spent about $120 in the town total. Upon arrival I carried about $12 in non-twenties. Despite adding the aforementioned $120 to the town´s economy, little of that was in bills that helped the change problem. In fact, my $120 actually compounded the problem, putting into circulation money that wasn´t very useful for most purchases you could make in the town.
I did a little looking into academic research on change, and couldn´t find anything on it. I wonder if any economists have looked at this problem?
Political advertising
During the Mundial (World Cup in Spanish) broadcasts in Ecuador about one in two commercials are ones the Ecuadorian government pays to air. There is one that consists of four people talking about how the opponents of the government are variously trying to: return to the rule of the powerful, treat people´s rights like a business, and steal all the countries wealth. They do these stupid hand movements to represent each different thing and then wraps up with a guy saying don´t fall for it and an old lady saying "we already have a free country, to victory always!". I tried to find this commercial on youtube but it´s not there.
I´m not sure exactly how the add is funded (it seems to be paid directly from government funds) and its pretty aggressive. One of the hand motions this girl makes is a gun. I was trying to figure out parallels in US political advertising, and couldn´t think of any real examples with maybe LBJ´s famous "Daisy" ad against Goldwater being an exception.
Being hammered over the head multiple times during each game broadcast with this ad got me thinking about Ecuador´s political future. The President, Rafael Correa, seems to be taking the country in a more and more authoritarian direction - jailing journalists, trying to set up local committees to report on "counter-revolutionary" activities and demonizing his political allies as a bunch of plutocrats looking to loot the country. Though considering Ecuadorian history that last one isn´t exactly crazy.
Yet Correa maintains his approval ratings, which last I saw were at about 60%. I can only imagine that the country is going to look more and more like Venezuela in the coming years. But what do you expect when you elect a guy who openly admires Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro? And now I´m going to get deported as foreigners are not allowed to engage in any political activities while here...
Mystifying decision
I am a big fan in general of SI.com´s soccer reporting. Grant Wahl is very good, and the rest of the crew is solid as well. Yet the editors there decided to send their inane and mystifyingly popular football reporter Peter King (who's reporting consists of penning loving tributes to Brett Favre and bragging about all the players and coaches who reply to his texts) to the Cup. Did I mention he knows next to nothing about real football? His opening column consisted of talking to Tim Howard while Wayne Rooney walked by and then making some stupid American football analogies. Crazy. I would have loved to be at the editorial meeting where this was considered a smart move.
Last week I was in Mompiche, a little town on the coast of Ecuador. Beyond it being cloudy, one of the things that cause me to leave was the complete lack of change and the nightmare of buying anything. I came to town with about $5 in coins, a couple of non-coin dollar bills, a five and a bunch of twenties (Ecuador uses the US dollar after they switched over, trying to curb rampant inflation). I figured this would be enough money, especially after I had no problem breaking twenties in Canoa, a town somewhat similar to Mompiche. It turned out to be plenty of money, it was just the act of spending it that was a nightmare.
It seemed no one in town had any change. I got a $.20 discount on a milkshake because I only had $.30 in change and a two ones, and the vendor couldn´t give me $.50 in change, so accepted $1.30. A pizza place me and a couple friends ate at couldn´t give us the $10 change for a $20, even after we had spent over $10 there the day before. Numerous places couldn´t break a five for charges in the range of two to three dollars. I was reduced to giving places larger bills, and just keeping running tabs with them so I could buy things. The final annoyance was when my hotel didin´t have five bucks to give me change for $60 on a $55 dollar bill. The frantically scrambled around for 20 minutes trying to find someone with change, almost causing me to miss my bus.
Thinking about this, I coudn´t figure out why on earth a town with a decent amount of tourist dollars coming into town would be so short of spare change. I´d experienced the no-change phenomenon in other parts of the country, but never on the level I encountered in Mompiche. Granted, it is a fairly isolated place, and I have no idea how far away the nearest bank is. At least an hour I´d assume.
Initially, I thought that the influx of tourists dollars would be a boon for getting change - more money in circulation, hence more change. This obviously wasn´t the case. Thinking about it further, I decided that tourist money must be the problem - take me for example. I spent about $120 in the town total. Upon arrival I carried about $12 in non-twenties. Despite adding the aforementioned $120 to the town´s economy, little of that was in bills that helped the change problem. In fact, my $120 actually compounded the problem, putting into circulation money that wasn´t very useful for most purchases you could make in the town.
I did a little looking into academic research on change, and couldn´t find anything on it. I wonder if any economists have looked at this problem?
Political advertising
During the Mundial (World Cup in Spanish) broadcasts in Ecuador about one in two commercials are ones the Ecuadorian government pays to air. There is one that consists of four people talking about how the opponents of the government are variously trying to: return to the rule of the powerful, treat people´s rights like a business, and steal all the countries wealth. They do these stupid hand movements to represent each different thing and then wraps up with a guy saying don´t fall for it and an old lady saying "we already have a free country, to victory always!". I tried to find this commercial on youtube but it´s not there.
I´m not sure exactly how the add is funded (it seems to be paid directly from government funds) and its pretty aggressive. One of the hand motions this girl makes is a gun. I was trying to figure out parallels in US political advertising, and couldn´t think of any real examples with maybe LBJ´s famous "Daisy" ad against Goldwater being an exception.
Being hammered over the head multiple times during each game broadcast with this ad got me thinking about Ecuador´s political future. The President, Rafael Correa, seems to be taking the country in a more and more authoritarian direction - jailing journalists, trying to set up local committees to report on "counter-revolutionary" activities and demonizing his political allies as a bunch of plutocrats looking to loot the country. Though considering Ecuadorian history that last one isn´t exactly crazy.
Yet Correa maintains his approval ratings, which last I saw were at about 60%. I can only imagine that the country is going to look more and more like Venezuela in the coming years. But what do you expect when you elect a guy who openly admires Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro? And now I´m going to get deported as foreigners are not allowed to engage in any political activities while here...Mystifying decision
I am a big fan in general of SI.com´s soccer reporting. Grant Wahl is very good, and the rest of the crew is solid as well. Yet the editors there decided to send their inane and mystifyingly popular football reporter Peter King (who's reporting consists of penning loving tributes to Brett Favre and bragging about all the players and coaches who reply to his texts) to the Cup. Did I mention he knows next to nothing about real football? His opening column consisted of talking to Tim Howard while Wayne Rooney walked by and then making some stupid American football analogies. Crazy. I would have loved to be at the editorial meeting where this was considered a smart move.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Overheard in the internet cafe I`m in
"I don`t think I`m going to have a beer while watching the US play because I only like good beer, like Heineken, and thats really expensive here."
You should have your citizenship revoked for a comment like that.
Go USA!
You should have your citizenship revoked for a comment like that.
Go USA!
Friday, June 11, 2010
For a small country...
...it sure takes a long time to get anywhere. After getting sick of not having any sun on the beach, I decided it was time to start making my way to Columbia. So I caught the one daily bus from Mompiche to Esmeraldas (the biggest shithole of a town I have seen yet in Ecuador incidentally). A less than 100k trip on little backroads took over three hours. Having not really thought things through, I assumed that Esmeraldas to Quito would take about 3 hours. WRONG. It took over seven, so I didin`t get into Quito until about 11 last night. I found a little hotel to crash that luckily had tv, so I didin`t have to go find somewhere to watch the opener today. Anyhow, after that scumbag Rafa Marquez ruined what was shaping up to be a nice little morninig, I decided to just stay in Quito for the day. I stocked up on books, got some lunch and am about to go watch Uruguay-France. Tommorow I may head to Ibarra early, or may just stay here untill after the US-England match. It`ll be a game time decision...
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Fron Canoa to.....
After lazing around Canoa for a few days, I got sick of the town and the reggaeton that the bar across the street from my hotel played all day and decided to head out. I was looking to get to this town called Mompiche, but buses only run there in the morning. So I´m now in Pedrenales, which I didin´t even know existed this morning. It´s not bad, but also not really a place you would want to stay for any legth of time. I haven´t seen any other gringos, and definitely no other gringos with mohawks.
Tommorow I try to get to Mompiche. We shall see how that goes...
Tommorow I try to get to Mompiche. We shall see how that goes...
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