Depression

Warning: The authors have both been delecting a delicious novel by the fair hand of Jane Austin and wish to excuse their poor trifling efforts to entertain and apologise for any change in the nature of the script and novel word use. They pray that it will cease to be by the next instalment.

We took a bus from Cuenca to Loja, which was completely uneventful, so we shall say no more. In Loja we both hit a depression (of mind and weather) that was to last for the next few days. It seemed we were paining ourselves by travelling and seeing nothing to improve our spirits. Quito was the only place in Ecuador to have brought relief but it seems the travelling blues had set in with monotonous visits to grey dull towns. We are tempted to blame the cold wet weather that has followed us since Riobamba, but that would be a little unfair to all those back home in England.

We made the best of Loja by finding a hotel that would satisfy our meagre money and our need of comfort. We opted for a hotel called Londres, the Spanish for London, hoping that it could reaffirm our love of travelling. It was a strange hotel which was run by a man with a very distinct resemblance to Jesus; a good ‘Stars in their Eyes’ candidate. The hotel also shared a building with doctor’s and dentist’s surgeries. Excellent surrounded by the ill and suffering! It was a nice clean hotel but upon arrival we were shown to a room with no windows, so we asked to change to one with a lovely natural light source. They agreed but told us it would be 30mins to 1 hour, as it needed cleaning. So we popped out for coffee at a typically unfriendly café, with bad coffee and a large helping of staring. On our return to the hotel, 1 hour later, the room had not been touched so we decided to search for a place to eat dinner. We found a restaurant in LP but it now looked expensive so we asked about vegetarian food and the girl gave us the name and directions to a restaurant she knew served veggie treats. Our blank looks as she told us the directions led her to write them down. Armed with this new information our spirits lifted and we went on a search. A granja and her young relative had assisted in the directions, at the restaurant, and we soon caught up with them in the street, where they persisted to assist us in finding the veggie restaurant. The only thing they lacked were arm directions so we had no idea where they meant. We sped up overtook them and tried to lose them but soon we happened upon a crossroads and didn’t know what to do. Granja and relative were still in eyesight and we were too embarrassed to get it wrong. Again an increase of pace was necessary in a straight direction. It was too late and the road too short, we hit a T-junction. We finally heard the granja and knew the game was up we were drawn into another embarrassing one-sided conversation without any understanding. We eventually located the elusive restaurant after a 20 minute walk and to our great disappointment the veggie restaurant turned out to be ‘Salon de thé’, a small French tearoom. A large sigh was accompanied on percussion by our rumbling stomachs.

We returned to our newly cleaned and very light room to consult LP once more. The town of Loja was filled with millions of ice-cream shops and bakeries but no real restaurants. This made us very sad. We found some very small dodgy cafes that were cheap. Charlie decided to partake in the local delicacy of Humitas. No explanation or standard ingredients were ever given in reference to Humitas, so a brave Charlie strayed into the unknown, and didn’t like it! We perfected the saying of “It’s my first time with Humitas and I don’t like it”, in Spanish, for Charlie to say in reference to leaving food. This situation has never been recorded in either of our histories so we felt we had to explain to the restaurant owner. Unfortunately another family entered the restaurant and thus ended our hopes of speaking; we became far too scared and left saying nothing.

At our hotel Lisa invented the ‘Balcony Game’, this has replaced the ‘Fan Game’, as rooms here have replaced fans with blankets – we are not joking about it being cold! The balcony game too is limited to only hotels with balconies and a safe street below. This game involved Charlie standing in the street whilst Lisa threw all manner of objects from the balcony. The assistance of gravity aided Lisa’s game but Charlie was unfortunately handicapped and the game soon finished as a hair bobble was lost forever on top of the hotel sign.

Due to the proliferation of ice cream shops in combination with their being two possible celebrations; St. Patrick’s Day and a Lisa breaks from the womb early so deserves a second birthday on the day she should have been set free day, Lisa decided to partake in a delicious green ice cream labelled as Irish Cream. Not all that great but as the celebrations were very tenuous no-one was vexed.

The next day was Mother’s Day so before we left, and like good children, we phoned our mother’s to be assured of our inheritance when it is due!!! Only joking Happy Mother’s Day Sylvia and June and all other Mother’s reading this. What a grand job you have all done and we are eternally indebted to you. Much love…xxxx

After buying tickets for the bus we happened upon two other girls staying in Hotel Londres and they told us about a kid’s play park that had horses, peddaloes and other childish entertainments. This wasn’t listed in LP and we were both very sad to miss it.

Final Thoughts: The depression failed to be lifted due to a lack of decent snackage. The town might well be tolerable but there was nothing to see and nothing to do but get a bus out of there.

Mark out of 10: 4

Next Time...... Macara