Loja

Greetings from Loja! It sounds like the last two syllables of how you say hello or good-bye in Hawaii.

Loja boasts 2 universities and a law school and calls itself the "cultural center of southern Ecuador." In a sense, that´s true. It´s kind of like calling Quincy the cultural center of Plumas County. Other than Loja, there is little else except beautiful mountains.

The university here is similar to Feather River College as well. Its´an island of education located in the country. "A beautiful place to learn," because of the wonderful setting, surrounding mountains, etc.

Loja is a refreshing change from the cities of northern Peru. Regrettably, those Peruvian cities look much like Mexican border towns: dirty, filled with people and frequently lacking sidewalks; hot, open, no shade trees, and sometimes complete with the disgusting smells of urine or human waste. In contrast, Loja is CLEAN (!). There´s hardly any litter. (How did that happen? After all, this is Latin America! where the garbage dump knows no boundaries). There are genuine wide sidewalks, remarkably free of potholes, lots of shadetrees, and what looks like middle class housing. The people even seem to obey traffic lights. There are fewer beggars and fewer people selling junk. I only saw one shoe shine boy in the whole city center! I asked the bus driver for directions to the botanical garden and he drove an exta couple of blocks at the end of his route to point me off in the right direction. How nice!

How ironic that the Peruvians seem to look down on Ecuadorans. It´s the old story: Argentines look down on Bolivians and Uruguayans, the Bolivians actively dislike the Chileans. Venezuelans look down on Columbians. The only country everyone seems to like is Brazil! Maybe because its just sufficiently exotic or foreign and is known for its fiesta-like atmosphere.

The one thing I miss here is breakfast! Many of the restaurants that are open for breakfast offer what we would call dinner: rice, meat, veggies, etc. Frequetly, there´s no coffee available. I´m hoping that will change when I get to the more sophisticated towns of Cuenca and Quito.

One thing requires little getting used to and that´s the money! Some years ago, Ecuador simply converted to the good ol´American dollar. This eliminateds the risk that speculators will fool around in the currency market and make it difficult for people to buy foreign products or to sell their products to foreigners. They do however mint their own coins (I suspect it´s cheaper) and use them interchangeably with American coins. More than once I´ve caught myself thinking: "Let´s see. This costs 75 centavos. How much s that in American?" (!)

The major downside to using American currency is that it´s so easy to counterfeit. Almost all other currencies have these elaborate watermarks, hologram devices, pictures inside the bill you can see by holding up to the light, bills you can put under ultra-violet light, etc. In today´s world of color copiers, these safeguards are mandatory.

The best currency of all is the Australian dollar, which is made of very thin plastic! It can go through the washing machine and come out good as new, even though laundered. And I´m sure the bills last practically forever.

Fortunately, I´ve only gotten "stung" once, in bolivia, with the equivalent of a $5 bill. It could have been worse. Every time I accept a bill, I do as the locals do, hold it up to the light, examine it closely looking for the watermark, etc.

Tomorrow, off to Cuenca!