Coca

On Thursday we flew from Quito to Coca, an oil town and an outpost in the Amazon. You could tell that the entire economy of the town is built on oil; there are oil workers everywhere, big advertisements for oil companies, and oil infrastructure is quite visible. The Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline runs through the center of the city right next to the main road. There has actually been a campaign to bury the pipeline underground, because if there was ever a car crash that broke the pipeline, it would be a disaster.



Oil pipeline on one side of the bridge, by the road:

And on the other side of the bridge is a finca, or rural home, dangerously close to oil infrastructure:

We all practiced our Spanish by talking to the cab drivers. I asked our driver what his favorite movies were, and he replied: "Me gustan las pelìculas de Arnold. En Ecuador, las películas de Arnold se venden como pan caliente." (I like Arnold Schwarzenegger. In Ecuador, Arnold's movies sell like hot cakes.") Ironically enough, later that night at the hotel we were staying at in Coca, they were showing a Schwarzenegger movie.
The hotel we stayed at in Coca was an interesting place. They had some tropical birds in cages and a nice pool with a waterslide. The crazy thing is that they had about 5 monkeys just running around the hotel wreaking havoc. For example, as we were having dinner, a monkey jumped up onto a nearby table and started licking the ketchup bottle. He pushed it over the edge, it broke open on the ground, and then he started eating the spilled ketchup. When we were done with our dinner, but still sitting at the table, a monkey jumped up on the table and stole a french fry. When he tried to do this again, Irene pushed the chair he was standing on, but he just shrieked at her and took the fry anyways.


Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey. Look closely at the top of the pole and you'll see him.

How much is that monkey in the window?

The hotel had turtles, too, who got into a fight.

Ooh and a funky grumpy monkey, too!

We left Coca the next day for Shushufindi, a smaller oil town, where we picked up supplies for our trek into the jungle. Strangely enough, we found a Clinica Israel. I asked them why it was called that, and they said it was because the doctor is an Adventist.


(If you look real close, it actually says "Shalom Jerusalen". To think for all these years we've been spelling it wrong.)