[Above: Effigy heads for sale on the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador (can you see which one belongs to Nick Baggarly?). These effigies are burned on New Year's Eve as part of an annual out-with-the-old/in-with-the-new ritual in Ecuador.]

Journal by Adam Burgess

We arrived in Guayaquil on the 28th of December and ended up in a little hostel on the outskirts of town. Neil and I were the first to arrive other than Rolf, who set up the rendezvous. On Christmas Neil and I decided to leave the dinner party at the Quito hostel and take an overnight bus for 11 hours to the little beach town of Monteñita. Although the waves were small and crowded it was a pleasant little town totally full of happy hippies and local vacationers. Gringos galore were selling handmade necklaces as though it were the hottest new item from Paris. The dirt roads and bamboo-thatched huts lit up at night, revealing what seemed like an adult theme park of Robinson Crusoe. The beards and dreadlocks ran rampantly as did the children, birds and dogs. Dirt roads and tiki torches added to the “Survivor” effect. The natty and sun-damaged Europeans boogied in Birkenstocks in the dirt streets and the trio of fire jugglers seemed to keep timing, but were better at discreetly picking up the dropped torches. It was quite a circus, and everyone seemed pretty happy with what they were all accomplishing -- which in essence was a delusional sense of integration, because as you walk 3 minutes to the edge of the village you discover the quiet little plaza and church façade nestled peacefully in between the houses of local fishermen. We left two days later for a bus to Guayaquil to meet the crew and the cars.

Driving into this city proves to reveal just another large, dirty third world city. Without iconic architecture like Paris or London this place, like many of these large Latin American cities, beckons you to experience the chaos through the eyes of a native. And so that’s just what we have the opportunity to do. It just so happened that Rolf’s hostel selection was 3 minutes walking from a friend’s wife’s house. And it also just so happened that Matt and Fabiola were back in Guayaquil for the holidays. I’m going to film Fabiola as she explains to Neil the crazy ceremony that’s brewing daily here. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and the city is supposed to blow up into a chaotic ceremony of burning effigies of international political figures and Marvel comic characters. According to our hostel manager, everyone throughout the city will drag these large and colorful papier-mâché characters out into the streets for an intense simultaneous midnight burning. Fireworks and dynamite will be packed into some of them before being doused in gasoline. It’s supposed to be intense and so dangerous that they may stop it in two years or so. The crew has decided to take part by building what looks like a massive bunch of grapes but is going to represent the symbolic destruction of Parkinson’s Disease.

This all sounds exciting to most of us, but I have one other thing on my mind -- sickness. I am fighting a fever and diarrhea. I’m blaming this illness on the Chinese food I had the first night here. Surrounding me at this moment are the essentials: six bottles of Gatorade and water, this laptop, and a few DVDs. Muddy footprints now mark my half-hourly route to one of two toilets in the hall outside my room. My guts wrench and churn from my every movement and gulp of liquid. It doesn’t help that today’s diet was white rice and chicken’s feet soup. My ghastly noises blasting from behind the bathroom door day and night has replaced my voice, so that any dignity that may have existed beforehand has been lost. Relieving myself is hardly that at all, in fact “relieving” is a misnomer; it’s an uncomfortable necessity. There’s nothing left inside me and I’m at the point where if this continues I feel as though my intestines will come out next, along with my stomach, lungs, heart, throat and grimacing head, only to leave me turned completely inside out and writhing on the tiled floor like some mutated creature from a sci-fi film.

I hope tomorrow is better, but right now I’ve got business to attend to.

Adam
adam@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 30th, Day 60
Start: Guayaquil, Ecuador
N: 02* 08.171'
W: 79* 54.397''
Finish: Guayaquil, Ecuador
N: 02* 08.171'
W: 79* 54.397''
Mileage: 026
Notes: On the twelvth day without our vehicles, we got 'em back. Today the team successfully sprung the vehicles from the Guayaquil shipping yard. It was exciting being back in convoy again, and it was fun turning heads as team Drive Around the World. We missed our babies! This evening, we made a team decision to remain in Guayaquil for the New Year's festivities before heading on to Peru. (N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.