Made it to Gualaceo, walked along a nice riverfront trail and along a few streets in the city. We walked across a 1 lane wooden bridge that was pretty rickety, but it was still in use for vehicles. There were cracks in the bridge’s boards that allowed us to see the river below us. Needless to say, Lisa was a little stressed about walking across this bridge. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get her back across the river to catch our bus to the next town, but she grudgingly and carefully came back across the bridge. We went to Terminal Terrestre in Gualaceo, not near as big as the terminal in Cuenca, and hopped on a local bus called Chordeleg Express and went to our next town. There were only about 6 people on this bus.
We got off in Chordeleg, which is quite a bit smaller and the air was cleaner than Gualaceo. Again we paid the bus driver when we got to our destination. We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the town and taking some photos. I got bold and asked an older couple, in Spanish, where the bus stop to catch a bus to Sisig was. IT WORKED, they understood me; but, as always happens, when they gave me directions in Spanish, I didn’t understand a word. I really need to work on listening comprehension. Fortunately, their hand signals and gestures they made while telling me directions was good enough to get us to the bus stop. We made it to the bus stop and sat with a young mother and her 3 year old son for about 5 minutes. We attempted some casual conversation with them in Spanish. The young lady confirmed that we were at the correct bus stop for the bus to Sigsig. A bus pulled up and she and her son got up to board it, and she looked back at us and said something we could not understand, but knew from her tone that she was telling us that that bus was not the Sigsig bus. There are nice folks everywhere.
We waited about 25 minutes before a bus to Sigsig pulled up and stopped. This bus had a driver and money collector on board. The money collector sits up front with the driver, and when you get near your destination, he walks down the bus’s aisle and collects the fare from the riders. When the bus stopped at our stop, the money collector jumped off and asked us, “Sigsig?” and we said yes. He knew enough English to tell us “Welcome aboard.” We got on the bus, and there were not 2 available seats next to each other, so Lisa sat in the front row with an older lady, and I sat in the row behind her next to a young female who seemed to be petrified sitting next to an old gringo. After a couple of stops, enough folks had gotten off the bus that there were 2 seats available next to each other right beside the row Lisa was sitting in, so I tapped her on the head and told her we could move to that row and sit next to each other. Well, I guess she had found her a better bus riding partner cause she said, “I’m good.” So we did not change seats, and, bless her heart, the petrified young girl had to put up with me for several more miles. (This is Lisa— I didn’t want to move because I could see much better on the front seat. But as we were going around many twists and turns and there was a very deep ravine beside us, the lady next to me did the sign of the cross. I thought, well, that’s interesting. I wonder if she travels that way often.)
We made it to Sigsig, which is another nice small town. We walked around the town and took some photos. We ate lunch and then headed back to the bus terminal to catch a bus back to Cuenca.
These pics are of a church and cemetery.
When we were about a block away from the terminal, we saw a bus pulling out of the terminal, but it stopped with the front of the bus in the road. We continued our leisurely pace, and when we got within about 10 yards of the bus, the money collector looked at us and said, “Cuenca?” We shook our heads yes and hurried and got on the bus. That bus was PACKED with people. There were no seats available, and no room to stand in the aisles. The money collector made a young male get up off a platform that is beside the steps to get on the bus so Lisa could sit there. I stood on about the 2nd and 3rd steps of the bus with the door open most of the time while I stood there. Lisa grabbed my leg to help make sure I didn’t fall out of the bus. So picture this, in pretty much the cockpit of the bus, there was the driver, money collector, a young male rider, me and Lisa. I ain’t gonna lie, I kinda enjoyed riding up there.
Well, all good things must come to an end and after several miles and several stops, enough people got off the bus to clear up seats so everyone could sit in the passenger area of the bus. We went from riding in the very front of the bus to riding in the very back seats of the bus. We kept our seats in the back of the bus the rest of the way to Cuenca.
A little tidbit on bus travel in Ecuador. On some of the busses we have ridden on, the bus driver has played Latino music. You know, I have found that the playing of that type music adds quite a bit to the experience. You are on a bus that has been tricked out with stickers, posters, curtains, and other nick-nacks, going around blind curves and up and down steep hills and mountains in the Andes, all the while listening to some upbeat Latino music that you don’t know a word they are saying, but really enjoying and getting into the whole experience. It just hasn’t had the same feel when we have been on busses that did not have the music. I have enjoyed the Latino music on the busses so much I have thought about listening to it at home, but without the bus and the Andes, I just don’t think it would be the same.
On our way back from the bus station, I saw this and had to get a pic. There are a lot of people that have carts that sell anything you may want, coats, sweat pants, cigarettes, fruit, etc., and in this particular cart, there was the sweetest little face riding underneath this cart. We have seen many pre-school children hanging out at the stores and around carts.
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