Expat Community > Ecuador

bentparrot
Joined 2010
Posts: 286

Traveler vs. Tourist

14 years ago

ILA... Shame on you girl. You have traveled around the world and you don't know how to protect a tourist from himself! You even question the difference between a tourist and a traveler! Okay, I'll assume you are really not joking and cannot tell the difference between the two.

You have spent a lot of time in the Middle East which is not a tourist area.

In 1964, my MG sped down the streets of Burgos, iSpain. I was pulled over because I was not registered for a race. I wheeled into a Parador and entered the dining room. There, a woman accosted me, APOLOGIZED for presenting her hand without diamonds to kiss, and she blessed the protection of the Guardia Civil. I then told her about a lost/kidnapped American girl near Madrid,and the action the Guardia Civil had taken to locate her. She was very interested. I told her how the Guardia Civil raided this Gypsy camp in the hills outside Madrid, killed every man, woman, child, and animal, and returned apologetically to the their Torreon headquarters.

While they were killing gypsies, the 14 year old girl was simply a hooky player from her local school.

That dumb ass bitch was a tourist.

FRANCO was a good friend of the USA.

In Cuenca, a couple showed up. As I meandered down the stairs, after stopping on the second floor to check the computer, the BW was asked, "Do you speak English.?" "Thank God," they replied. We need help. No one speaks English here!" "Maybe he can help you, she replied," My husband speaks a little bit of Spanish."

To make a long story short, this couple, who could not say "thank you", "good morning", or any word of Spanish, accepted a room I had found for them in the Mansion Alcazar, chastised me because there were no American hotels in Cuenca, and asked me to have the desk clerk call a taxi (van) to take them there. They had four steamer trunks between them, and not one dime for the hotel staff.

In Zoe's, last week, we met a Dutch couple.Those guys were travelers. They were checking out Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador on $745 per month.

Finally, on the way to GYE at 5:30 AM, the taxi blew a tire. This was not a flat or a road hazard blowout, simply a poorly maintained car. As we waited on the side of the road, the cabbie kept saying "5 more minutes". Till what, I asked the BW, till we get ripped-off as stranded passengers on the side of this road." NO WAY. Another taxi pulled up behind us and I told the BW to get in. Our original driver wanted us to pay for the trip to the airport. In my limited Spanish I jumped all over his case and essentially told him where he could go. No questions asked!!!

Only a traveler could do that.

Ray

P.S.

I hit the coast last week, all the way up to Montinita. You never suggested Crucita as a stopping point - or where we might find you!

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