From Banos to Cuenca: The Drive With Freddy

We left Baños on Wednesday, January 12 about 8:30am. The plan was for Darwin, our Baños waterfall guide, to drive us to Cuenca.* About an hour before departure, I received a WhatsApp message from Darwin; he was sick and couldn't drive us. But he had identified another driver: Freddy. Freddy would arrive for pick-up at our hotel in Darwin's car. We rolled with it.

At the appointed time, Freddy showed. We realized right away that he had limited English, and of course, we have poor Spanish. We put our bags in the trunk, said goodbye to Karl (Posada del Arte had been so wonderful for us), and got in the car. Off we went! Very quickly, we found ourselves on a windy road to Cuenca. We even found ourselves in white-out conditions, driving through clouds in the mountains. Freddy had told us it would be about a six hour drive, which we knew. What we didn't know was that we'd be on this windy, two-lane road for pretty much 98% of the trip.

For the first couple hours, we occupied ourselves by looking out the windows. We could see some volcanoes, lots of cows, and towns. We also passed several signs warning of rockslides, and drove around big rocks already on the road. We watched as Freddy would pass a slow truck or bus -- popping out into the other lane to pass the large vehicle. Most of the time he was patient and careful when passing, but I will tell you -- I said a lot of prayers.

Soon enough, the kids fell asleep. I got out my phone and took a few Duolingo Spanish lessons. But still, the windy road. The kids woke up, and Taylor complained that her tummy hurt. We urged her to drink some water and roll down the window. Freddy pulled over so that we could all make a bathroom run at a random gas station, and then we got going again.

Our view from the bathroom stop.

Peace, from Wyatt at the bathroom stop. Little did we know what was ahead of us...

We drove through rural and poor Ecuador. Once we got past Riobamba -- a stepping off point for those wanting to climb another famous volcano, Chimborazo -- the towns and homes looked very basic. We imagined that some of these homes most likely had dirt floors. We saw men and women in traditional dress walking their cows along the road, or carrying what appeared to be tall grasses in scarf-made pouches on their backs.

On we drove. In between Riobamba and Alausí, we were stopped at a police checkpoint. Freddy had to produce his driver's license, car registration, and maybe one other document (from what we could tell), and the police had to inspect everything. Turns out that Darwin's car registration had expired, although when Freddy frantically called Darwin to ask about the registration, Darwin was convinced his current registration was in the car. The police made us pull over to the shoulder of the road. Freddy anxiously said to Tim: "Señor, ten dollars, please." Tim didn't move; the policeman was right outside Freddy's window. Freddy shuffled through the car's documents again, and the policeman then asked him to pull a bit further up the road, so the cars behind us could get through.

Freddy pulled up the road, put the car in park, and said to Tim again: "Señor, money, please." With the policeman behind us at that point, Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out his cash -- which was several $20s and $10s. He gave a $10 to Freddy and said, "I didn't want the policeman to see my cash." Freddy may not have understood, but by now the policeman had caught up to our car. Freddy got out, said something to the policeman, and handed him the $10. The policeman nodded and let Freddy get back in the car, then waved him on. We didn't talk about it until about another mile down the road, when things felt a bit less tenuous. Freddy seemed fairly nervous the rest of the way to Cuenca. And between his weak English and our weak Spanish, there wasn't that much we could say to each other.

Another hour passed, and Taylor again complained about her stomach. This time, she started crying. I asked her if she was going to throw up, and she replied that she didn't know. A few minutes later, she did. I grabbed the Ralph's plastic grocery bag that held our snacks, and jerked it under her face. We saved Darwin's car from the result, but all of our snacks were toast. That is how windy this road was -- it caused Taylor to throw up in the backseat.

Freddy asked if we wanted to stop, but we urged him to keep going. We had earlier agreed we'd stop for lunch, and where Taylor threw up, there was no lunch.

So Freddy drove to the next town, and pointed out the stalls selling food from the sidewalks. He pulled over to a stall that had an entire pig carcass hanging from a hook, still dripping blood. Tim took one look from the front seat, and suggested to Freddy that we keep driving -- maybe till we see a restaurant. 

About 20 minutes later, we came to a much bigger town -- with restaurants. Freddy stopped at the first one, and we jumped out. We ate our standard chicken and rice (Taylor was feeling better and ate most of her meal), and looked out the window to a horse tied up in the back. After lunch, we left the restaurant, walked 50 feet, and entered the bathrooms. No toilet paper (as is the case in many places, including our above-mentioned gas station bathroom stop), but I had brought my own!

Tim and I had a chance to talk about the drive thus far over lunch, and we both agreed that Freddy seemed in a hurry to get us to Cuenca. We piled back in the car, and confirmed no more stops till we reached our Cuenca hotel.

Close to 3pm, we finally got on the highway leading into Cuenca (I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a highway in my life). Just after 3:30pm, Freddy dropped us off at our hotel, La Posada del Angel (hostalposadadelangel.com). We learned then that he would be driving back to Baños that moment...! We thanked him, paid him, and saw him off. Then we checked into our hotel, were shown to our room, and collapsed onto our beds.

We had made it to Cuenca. And ¡Dios mío!, we would not get on that two-lane road again.

*We had also considered taking a bus to Cuenca, but that would have been an eight-hour trip, and we didn't think the kids could tolerate that drive and the many stops the bus would make.