THANK YOU SAM AND ALLY (The Carol Edition)

This is a post by Carol, my stepmother. Although it is being posted just hours before we come home, it is NEVER too late to reminisce about the amazing time we had with her and my father in Quito.

See you soon, and enjoy:

It has taken me this long to write about my experience with Sam and Ally in Quito, Ecuador because, even though I’m a writer, there aren’t enough letters in the alphabet to describe it. What do I mention first? The beautiful people who are always willing to offer assistance to tourists? The scenery? The city? The writer in me wants to say that Quito is a city than nestles in the mountain tops. But in all actuality, it sprawls. A city of a million and a half people couldn’t “nestle” anywhere. But in spite of its lofty altitude, 9,000 feet, mountain peaks rise above it in all directions. The food? I write a cooking column so I really got off on the food. But it was the experience of being with Sam and Ally that inspired me the most.

The first page of my scrapbook says, “Eventually you learn that there is no destination to arrive at once and for all, it’s the journey “. I’d like to add to that “and who is traveling beside you”.

The first thing I noticed was the change in Sam—how much he has grown and matured. He has become a man. I know some of the transformation came about because of the hardships he’s endured along the way—lessons that he wouldn’t have learned in a lifetime without this trip or without Ally.

Of all of my experiences, and I enjoyed every one of them, the one I treasure most is getting to know Ally. She is such an inspiration to me. Not only does she have the imagination to dream big things, she has the courage and strength of character to make them happen. In another life, she would have been Amelia Earhart. She knows the importance of living each moment to the fullest and wringing everything it has to offer out of it. In this life, I wouldn’t be surprised if she announced she was moving to Mars to raise pygmy goats. That girl will accomplish anything she sets her mind to. Her amazing sense of humor and ability to have fun in any situation will help her to breeze through life. She knows things that people I know have not learned in sixty years of living, which puts her way ahead of the game. Nothing, (stolen passports, missed flights, hours of traveling on dusty roads in un-air conditioned buses, bot fly larvae under her skin) gets her down.

A grateful heart is a happy heart and Ally has learned to be grateful for the smallest blessings. She doesn’t just embrace life; she tackles it.

I’m so proud of Sam and Ally for taking the time to do something that most of us just sit around and dream about. I’m also a little jealous that I didn’t have the courage to do what they have done when I was their age. Being in Quito with them has shown me that there is a lot of world out there that I haven’t seen yet and it won’t get seen if I sit home in a rocking chair. So thank you, guys, for showing us around, interpreting for us, and teaching us it is never to late to go explore. We’ve made memories that will be tucked away in our hearts forever.

This is a rough translation of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, but thanks to Sam and Ally, also, for teaching us that “to find adventure, you have to get off the beaten path and make one for others to follow.”

THANK YOU SAM AND ALLY!

This is a post by Woody Gimbel (Sam's dad) regarding his visit with his wife Carol to Quito, Ecuador. We all had an amazing time.

This is a bit tardy, I know, but the Inca Roads blog would be incomplete without a record of the incredible time Carol and I had in Ecuador, thanks to Sam and Ally.

We arrived at the Quito airport late in the evening, May 7. We were jaded and just a bit confused as we went through the various stages of security. We looked up, and there were Sam and Ally, our translators and guides, watching out for us as we left the baggage claim area. It was a joyous reunion. We had not been together since late January. Lots of hugs.

TAXIS: We sat back and observed Sam and Ally negotiating with the taxi driver, and were amazed at the nuances and intricacies of this endeavor. Throughout our time in Quito they continued to negotiate deals, refusing a cab if the fare were out of line! Even a dollar out of line! At times I was ready to pay the dollar, just to get going, but it was always worth the wait. One more comment on cab drivers in Quito: Based on our anecdotal sampling, it appears that there are two categories of drivers. Those who use the meters, and those who don’t. Those two break down into ethical, and unethical. The unethical meter users circle the block, meander around as they approach the destination, in order to increase the fare. The non-meter users require negotiation in advance. They will honor their agreement if you have exacct change. If not, “no cambio” is their position, and they expect to keep the change. The worst cabbies get out of their cabs with a pugilist stance, and say things in Spanish you wouldn’t want to translate for your mother.

FIRST EVENING: We loved the “Hotel Los Alpes” where we stayed. Once again, Sam and Ally had checked it out for us. We stayed up way too late catching up, exchanging gifts, and just soaking up the excitement of our reunion in Quito. Sam and Ally had a suite, with kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms, and lots of well crafted wood work. Our third floor room also had two bedrooms, lots of storage, and lots of windows for viewing the neighborhood architecture, and in the distance the taller mountains surrounding Quito, including the morning plumes of a nearby volcano.

MARKET: We had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel, took our time, drank café con leche, made with Nestle’s instant coffee, and as much fresh juice as we wanted. This fortified us for our trip to La Mariscal Handicraft Market, where the selection of textiles and jewelry was overwhelming. Carol would have spent our week’s budget in the first hour, but Sam and Ally came to the rescue, teaching us the steps to making a good deal.

The merchants expect to bargain, and are surprised and disappointed when tourists don’t. Accordingly, their first price is just the beginning of the fun. One shows interest, then asks “Cuanto cuesta?” Now the merchant states the first price. Turista says something like “demasiado” which I think is “too much.” The merchant comes down, say from $12 to $10. Sam and Ally were never satisfied completely unless they bargained down to about 50-60% of the starting price. Carol usually couldn’t wait that long, and we had to talk her out of giving tips!

EATING: It seems like we ate all the time, but we actually lost weight while we were there. Never saw one overweight person in Quito! The food was wonderful, but we wouldn’t have had a clue without Sam and Ally to explain and advise. The indigenous fare breakfasts outside our hotel were about $1.40 for a generous meal. Lunches were not much higher, maybe $2.50 for soup (consommé), salad, vegetable, entrée, and rolls.

Dinners were equally reasonable. Some of our favorites were empanadas, fried plantains, cebiche. Cebiche is a method of preparing fish/seafood for eating, without cooking it with heat. Lime juice is squeezed on, say, Chilean Sea Bass or Conch, and after a time it’s “cooked” and delicious. We’ve missed cebiche since we returned, and have settled for herring in wine sauce.

HANGING OUT: Most of all, Carol and I enjoyed hanging out with Sam and Ally.

Starting with the long discussions over breakfast, throught out the day, and into the evening hours. We went on daily treks, to the Plaza and through a cathedral, and encountered the bathroom nazi who extracted a toll for responding to calls of nature. Not all were willing to pay the toll, sparking the latest international incident. Sam, shave your beard, dye your hair, and you’ll elude the bathroom police!

We went to the Mitdad del Mundo, which is supposed to mark the equator, where even the coriolis effect is confused. Fun, but way too touristy.

We went to the top of a mountain via tram, and it was incredible. The oxygen was so thin that some entrepreneurial genius sold oxygen at the top, in four flavors!

We went to Quito’s botanical gardens, and were enjoying the incredible Ecuador’s incredible diversity of plant life, when something totally unexpected happened: I ran into an old friend from college. Chuck Davis was sitting in the part, reading, and struck up a conversation with my wife who was taking pictures of the koi. Chuck looked good for our age, and we spent hours sitting and talking, catching up. He liked Sam and Ally, but then again, he was only around them for a short time! Chuck married an Ecuadorean woman, lives in Quito, and is trying to persuade Carol and me to invest in a home there.

We’re giving it serious thought.

DAY OF GOOD BYE; We had hoped to visit the HCJB short wave, world wide broadcast facility, but alas, they’re in the process of relocating their towers to make way for the new airport, so they were not open to visitors. We had hoped to see the rain forest, and the cloud forest, and even the Galapogos, but we didn’t. That makes a great case for a return visit, and a longer stay. We’re going to brush up on Espanol, and will be using Rosetta Stone’s programs. But we’ll still need our translators and guides, Sam and Ally, or we’ll be lost! We topped off our last evening by going to a somewhat expensive restaurant, and enjoying cebiche and a wide variety of seafood. Wonderful meal, great company.

THE TRIP HOME: Sam and Ally rode with us to the Airport and saw us off. We were sad to be leaving them. We even considered coming back to join them on their Machu Picchu trek. More hugs. Reflect on the Market: Remember, the market was a great experience, lots of gifts to take back home. But if you go to Quito, don’t be surprised if your suitcase full of fabric items you bought at La Mariscal excites the drug-sniffing dog at security. Happened to us: we were stopped from boarding because the shawls and shirts and tablecloths and other things had absorbed so much marijuana smoke in the market that the dog could detect it. We were led through the labyrinthine bowels of the airport. Of course we were allowed to board when the security officer saw the fabrics. They just smiled knowingly. They were apparently accustomed to this. We will never forget out time with Sam and Ally. We’re ready for a reprise.

Thank you, Mom and Dad...

...for the good genes.

We did it. 4 days total, 3.5 of which were spent hiking 45 kilometers along the Camino Inka, or Inca Trail. We went from 8990ft above sea level at the end of the first day to over 13100ft by noon on the second. That's around 4000 vertical feet in just three hours, and at that altitude, your lungs start to disobey your body. Towards the entrance of the pass from which we descended we were stopping every 10 feet to catch our breath as we pushed onwards. At the end of the trail our legs were screaming, and we had 4 days of sweat, sunblock, and dirt caked all over our body. But we did it, and it was 100% worth it.

This is the part where I have to thank my dad, the marathon runner, and my mom, also a frequenter of the track, for the genes they passed on to me. Thanks to genetics, and absolutely no thanks to 4 months of riding buses, eating cheap food, and drinking exotic alcohol, I had the honor of being the FIRST tourist from the Inca Trail into Machu Picchu the morning of our arrival. We literally ran for an hour and change through the Incan jungle at 4:00 in the morning along cliffs and up original stone stairs to arrive at IntiPunku, the Sun Gate, just minutes before the hordes arriving by buses below started to pour into the ancient city. Thanks to mom and dad, I didn't stop once. Thanks to mom and dad, the bag on my back wasn't tossed idly aside. And finally, thanks to mom and dad, I have tons of great photos to show for it!

So not to toot my own horn, but the trek was an incredible affirmation of what it means to be human. Hiking through unmitigated wilderness with nothing but the sound of streams in the cloud forest, the wind in the upper highlands, and the birds of the jungle to distract you from the immense enormity of the universe above, below, and around you. By the time you've hiked an hour you can feel the presence of Pachamama (the Incan name for mother earth) that resides in this land. From the snow-capped peaks of Mt. Victoria and Salkantay to the sacred waters of the Urubamba river over 5,000 meters below, this territory exudes the harmony with nature most of us profess is essential for the well-being of our planet. By the end of the trip, even though my body would have protested, I did not want to leave the trail. After four days free of TV, computers, ready-on-hand food, water, and shelter, you start to realize that it's actually HEALTHY to be a little uncomfortable, to be alone with yourself, and you begin to detox. Seeing houses, hotels, and restaurants in the nearby city of Aguas Calientes (crappy little town) is a shock to your system after being amongst the spirits of Apus, the Andean mountains.

Perhaps just as impressive was the nature of the tour itself. We were the ONLY two people assigned to our tour guide, an amazing man named Rosel whose first language is Quechua, the language of the Incas, and who believes entirely in the mystical nature of the mountain terrain. He became our friend quickly and provided us with help, encouragement, and advice throughout the entire experience. Even more amazing were the other three trekkers who ate with us, all of whom were over 60. There was Claire, a Belgian who spoke very little english, Guy, another resident of Belgium who at age 67 carried more than us, ate less than we did, never took breaks for tired legs, and by the third day had so much excess energy that he was able to visit an additional, optional archaeological site that we were simply too tired to see. He was accompanied by the no less impressive Eberhardt, an older German engineer whose dry wit and willingness to accept any challenge astounded and slightly confused us. These three were not young of body, but certainly still young at heart. We could not have asked for better company.

So, here we are in Cusco again, waiting for our bus to Arequipa. We come home in a week, people, and we can't wait. The experience on the trail was other-worldly, eye-opening, and inspiring. I know Ally has some things she wants to say about it, but I'll let her tell you in her own words. After that experience, however, we feel we should just be transported via some sort of device directly to New York so that we can enjoy all of your company again. Maybe its hard to look backwards and still look towards the future, but I think at this stage, we're managing it.

To all of you who have followed us on this journey, thank you. Your support has been paramount in our effort to process and verbalize our experience. Thank you, and we cannot wait to see you all!

Love,
Sam