Those of you familiar with anywhere Latin America will know that Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a big deal (and that may be an understatement). Friday is of course a holiday, but Thursday is too, and sometimes the whole week is a holiday, filled with fiestas and fanesca (the traditional soup) and processions.
For me, unfortunately, the week was one of work. But at least it was the traveling kind and not the behind the desk kind. I was north in Carchi, the province of Ecuador bordering Colombia, on my second to last visit with the ministry of public health, the hospitals and health areas.
Before sharing my stories from my weekend, some of the other excitement...
It was in Carchi this week that I witnessed my first bus accident, and experienced my first broken-down bus episode. You may recall my earlier
post regarding bus travel in Ecuador. Thankfully neither of these bus-related dramas were 'bus plunges', and this is one other thing that we can positively say about bus travel in Ecuador: you may not plunge, you may crash or break-down, and survive to tell the tale.
The winding roads north to Carchi are not the place you would (if you ever would) want to be involved in an accident. Luckily for those involved in the accident I witnessed, the bus went off the side of the road that was not a huge cliff with no guard rails. Also luckily, there was another bus not far behind more than happy to pick up the stranded, unharmed passengers. I should add that this bus was of a company that I had been warned about and never take. Nevertheless, for the last 4 hours on my trip north, I was a little on edge.
It was two days later when I was on a bus from El Angel to Ibarra that I had a bus adventure of my own. I was leaving El Angel at 6PM since I had missed the 5PM bus by minutes (as in saw it driving down the street away from me when I walked out of the hospital), which is later than I like since traveling at night is not always as safe. About 30 minutes outside of El Angel on the road to nowhere the driver pulled over and got out of the bus, followed by his helper. "What is happening?" everyone was asking. About 10 minutes later we heard that the bus was 'damaged' and immediately almost all of the men, thinking they were mechanics, got out to help 'fix' it. Those who were not traveling far decided to hitch-hike or walk, and took off into the hills. But those of us traveling a distance were stuck waiting for (1) the bus to be fixed, (2) another bus to pass by (since only one company drives this lonely road, we would hopefully be able to catch a bus leaving El Angel at seven). As it got dark, we chatted about TLC (the hottest topic of the day) and Canada as we waited, making new friends with our fellow stranded passengers. The bus that finally arrived for us was rocking with latin dance music, had shiny red curtains with white tasels and red mood lighting, making for an interesting rest of the journey!
