February 8 - March 8, 2014
Our first trip with Overseas
Adventure Travel (OAT) was a multiple week sojourn to Machu Picchu and the
Galápagos Islands with a pre-trip, week-long extension to the Amazon
River. We decided to go a day early to
explore Lima, Peru on our own and to stay six days in Quito, Ecuador after the
tour ended so we could learn more about that place.
We had a great time exploring
Lima before the group accompanying us to the Amazon arrived. Prowling the streets of strange places has
always been our forte. After adjusting
to minor jetlag caused mostly by the duration of the flight and a 2:00 am
arrival, we set out to learn more about the Miraflores district of Lima where
our hotel was located. We discovered
that many streets had been closed for a bicycle race/rally of sorts (it was
Sunday) and to provide space for a number of general physical activity
opportunities. An interesting side note:
Neither
the Peruvians nor Ecuadorians that we saw (and we saw thousands) were
excessively over-weight. In the US,
lard-asses are everywhere, not so in these two countries. It probably has to do with the fact that they
consume little processed food. Almost
all of their food is freshly prepared.
Of course, McDonald’s, KFC, and the like are making inroads, so it may
not be too many decades before they join the US. Not everyone is emaciated with malnutrition,
but obesity was uncommon…go figure.
The better part of two days was spent by us exploring the cityscape as
well as the nearby beaches. We were
especially intrigued by El Parque del Amor, Lover’s Park, featuring a statue
called El Beso, The Kiss, on the cliffs of Chorrillos overlooking the Pacific
Ocean.
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| Presidential Palace, Lima |
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| Shanty-Town, Lima |
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| Convent, Lima |
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| The Kiss, Parque del Amor, Lima |
After the remainder of our
Amazon group arrived (there would be ten of us all together), we had a
welcoming get-together lunch at a local restaurant. Since we had previously explored the streets
of Miraflores, we peeled off from the group when their explorations became
redundant for us. We visited some
pre-Columbian ruins right smack in the middle of this modern city that we had
noticed the previous day, Huaca Pucllana, but had not had time to explore. It
was fascinating how different indigenous groups built on top of what had been
previously constructed. On Tuesday, we
had an early wake-up call for our flight from Lima to Iquitos, the jumping off
place for our Amazon adventure.
Our flight was uneventful…meaning
it didn’t crash, and we lost no luggage.
Iquitos is an intriguing place.
There is no road from Lima or other cities in Peru to Iquitos; access is
by river or air. Its existence has
always been one of boom and bust. It
boomed with rubber discoveries and most recently is booming with oil
discoveries. Like many boom towns, it
reminded us of old mining camps in the Colorado Rockies. Almost everything seem to be tossed up at
random, and people lived where ever they could plop down…often on a small boat
on the river. Our regret is that we had
no time to explore it because after a quick bus ride from the airport to the
launch site on the river, we were off on a boat for Explorama Lodge where we
would be staying for the next couple of nights.
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| Street Scene, Iquitos, Peru |
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Street Scene, Iquitos, Peru
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The Amazon River is a big old
bawdy thing. Seasonally, the river was
on the rise and it was perpetually muddy brown and roily. There was so much debris (trees, etc.)
floating in the water that navigation after sunset was prohibited because of
the danger of hitting something. We
traveled exclusively by boat as does everyone in this region and made
excursions daily for a variety of activities such as fishing for piranha (Susan
won the prize for the largest one caught in our group), finding giant lilly
pads (several feet in diameter), visiting indigenous peoples’ villages, as well
as hiking the longest rainforest canopy walk in the world. Our encounter with an anaconda took place at
an animal rescue center operated on the river where, in addition to the snake,
it had a variety of monkeys, toucans, sloths, and turtles.
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| Giant Lilly Pads |
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| Giant Lilly Pads |
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| Prize Catch |
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| Who Dat Toucan? |
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| Now that's a snake |
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| Most of our Amazon group on the canopy walk |
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| Egad, Hang On! |
February 14th was
Susan’s birthday and her day began with us traveling up the river just as the
sun came up. There were just enough
clouds to make it awe-inspiring. Imagine
being on that big old muddy mile-wide river just as the sun begins to peak up
above the tree tops of the tropical rainforest; it was just the beginning of
another great day on the Amazon River.
That day we saw pink dolphins, the only such critter on the planet. Think of it--fresh water dolphins that are
pink in hue due to their diets of small shrimp that tint their skin much the
same as brine shrimp tint the feathers of flamingos. We experienced an indigenous market at the
community of Indiana. It seems that one
of the founders of the village had a son who studied medicine in Indianapolis
and the father named the town after the state.
Today, it is a bustling little burg of several thousand that has a
market daily so the locals and folks from up or down the river can purchase all
of the goods they might need--fresh veggies, chickens, fish, and any number of
different dry goods.
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| Indiana Market |
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| Sunrise on the Amazon River |
On another day we visited an
indigenous village (Yaqua peoples) near our lodge and learned to dance with
half-naked, very small people in a dimly lit hut. It mostly reminded us of a very bad B-movie
set…the whole thing was obviously staged for tourists. Fred proved to be the blowgun champion of our
group, which meant that he was the chief for the day. There were no other honors associated with
that endeavor. I take that back, we were
permitted to purchase hand-made crafts of dubious quality and questionable
origin. We toured a medical clinic that
is supported by the Grand Circle Foundation (which includes OAT) which made us
celebrities for the hour or so we were there, as we provided funding for them
with our purchase of the trip.
Undoubtedly a good cause, but it (the tour) felt a little bit canned and
overly rehearsed. Note that there is no cynicism intended here
as they do marvelous work there on a shoestring, and they need all of the
praise and money they can lay their hands on.
The doctor noted that while they were doing some very good medical work
there, if one of us (gringo tourists) were to become ill, we would be promptly
transported to the “white peoples’ hospital” in Iquitos for treatment. To learn more, visit them on the web at www.amazonmedical.org.
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Can you do the twist?
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| The Chief |
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| Round and around... |
On the other side of the
equation, we paid a trip to the local curandero (also known as a shaman, brujo,
or witch doctor), people who are widely utilized today throughout the Amazon
basin. They do all kinds of healing
ceremonies for folks and chase the bogey men away, but rarely actually cure
anyone of anything. Like snake oil
salesmen of the old West, they peddle all kinds of herbs, roots, leaves, and
potions for nearly everything that may cause you grief. Many of the ladies in our group bought
bottles of dragon’s blood as it is supposed to be good for wrinkles. Now, it must be pointed out that all of the
old indigenous people we saw were all pretty withered, so it may be that this
is an example of linguistic confusion.
When the shaman says that dragon’s blood is good for wrinkles, does it
mean that it causes wrinkles not that it actually is a cure for wrinkles or
prevents them in the first place?
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| Witch Doctor Cleansing Ceremony |
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| Where in Hell are those Malaria pills? |
Our time on the river came to an
end much too soon. We had a surprisingly
good time there. Two of our four nights
in the Amazon we stayed in a lodge with no electricity in our rooms, had to use
kerosene lanterns at night, and we slept under mosquito netting in open-ceilinged
rooms. The other two nights were in a
more traditional motel/lodge that had electricity, air conditioning, a swimming
pool, and a friendly tapir roaming the grounds.
Occasionally, we felt isolated as the only means of transportation was
by boat, and we had no control of the coming and goings of boats. We anticipated an interesting experience and
not much more; however, we were delightfully pleased to have had a genuinely
good time and not eagerly wanting to leave before we saw more of the place.
On our return to Lima, we were
met by Maricela, our Peruvian guide for the next segment of our tour. She turned out to be a dynamo who kept all
fourteen of us (yes, we added some folks for the next round) in tow and out of
trouble for the next week or so. She was
Juan-on-the-spot with restaurant reservations, medical advice for those
afflicted with something and it seemed that several were, and had a good humor
that never wavered. We spent only one
night in Lima before flying to Cusco.
This city which is nestled in the Andes at 11,000 feet is the colonial
heartland of Peru. We just passed
through the city on our way to Machu Picchu, but returned for several
delightful nights there after our Machu Picchu visit.
OAT makes sure that their
travelers have some interaction with the people whose country they are
visiting. In our case we saw and
interacted with several groups. The
first on this leg of our trip was at Chinchero, a village at about 12,000 feet
where Peruvian weavers ply their trade.
These indigenous weavers collect, wash, card, spin, and dye the llama
and alpaca wool to make yarn which they weave into gorgeous pieces. We bought a lovely runner for our sofa table
that we thought would make a nice addition to our home. Now that we have it home, we are more than elated
with the way it brightens up our living room.
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| Chinchero Weaver |
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| Our Table Runner and the Weaver Who Made It |
Our base for the next couple of
nights was the town/village of Urubamba, the primary stop in Peru’s Sacred
Valley of the Incas. At around 9,500’,
it was a good place to acclimate to the altitude of the region. The Andes are tall and rugged with peaks
reaching more than 20,000’. Snow only
appears on the tallest peaks as the region is subtropical and enjoys a
temperate climate year round. In
Urubamba, we visited the ceramic studios of Pablo Seminario, a well-regarded ceramic
artist whose works adorn the Chicago Field Museum and other well-known
museums. Some now adorns the display
case of yours truly.
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| Pablo Seminario and his most recent work |
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| Pablo's Studio |
Our next stop was Ollantaytambo. During
the Inca Empire, Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti who
conquered the region, built the town and a ceremonial center. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru,
it served as a stronghold for Manco Inca Yupanqui, leader of the Inca
resistance. Nowadays, it is an important
tourist attraction on account of its Inca buildings and as one of the most
common starting points for the three-day, four-night hike known as the Inca
Trail. We visited the “home” of one of
the villagers where we got a first-hand look at the way people in this town
live. It was eye opening to say the
least when we learned that the skulls on display on a kind of mantel were the
family’s ancestors. Yikes!
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| Indigenous Costumes |
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| The one on the right is uncle Harry.... |
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| A traditional Catholic procession |
The Incas were big on building Sun Temples and the one at Ollantaytambo was
an important one. We could not pass up
an optional hike to the top of the temple several hundred feet above the valley
floor. The view from the top left the
viewer with broad vistas of terraced hillsides that are of Inca origin and are
still used by farmers today.
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| View from the top of the Ollantaytambo Sun Temple |
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| Terracing Viewed from the Sun Temple |
After a busy morning tramping over Inca ruins, we were given a shopping
list of items to purchase at Urubamba’s vegetable market (well, it’s much more
than that, but it’s mostly vegetables).
These items were to be used to cook our mid-day meal at a local family’s
home. We looked like a bunch of fish out
of water scurrying around trying to find items that were written in Spanish or
perhaps the local name of something or other.
Finally, we all managed to find our items and set out to fix our meal at
our hosts’ home. Phil and fred prepared
the local version of guacamole and several others prepared tortillas that were
actually more like pita bread than the flat, thin things we know and love in
Texas. In addition to our contributions,
the family prepared a salad and a chicken dish with rice. The featured entrée was Cuy, a Peruvian
delicacy served with baked sweet potatoes.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot…Cuy is Guinea Pig. A Peruvian saying is,” We eat your
pets.” Actually, Cuy is also a favorite
dish in Ecuador, too. The home visit experience
in Urubamba was the only time we ever actually ate any; we preferred the
piranha.
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| Urubamba Market |
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| Chilies at Urubamba Market |
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| Guacamole Chefs |
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| CUY |
The next morning after breakfast we visited the ceramics studio mentioned
earlier and then we were on a narrow gauge train bound for Machu Picchu. We had anticipated a wild ride on the train,
but it was quite sedate. It did go
through some interesting canyons as it was following a raging river, swollen
with thick, muddy runoff from the rains of the previous days. Much to our disappointment, since it was
rolling along beside the river, we experienced no harrowing, narrow cliff-side
overhangs.
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View from the train to Machu Picchu |
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| We could only take one bag per person.... |
Our basecamp at the foot of the mountains leading to Machu Picchu was a
small burg called Agua Caliente or, occasionally, Machu Picchu town. We were in a small, but serviceable hotel
called, sadly, InkaTown. We spent the
afternoon at the ruins after a bit of a harrowing bus ride up the switchbacks
to the site. It was a warm and mostly
clear day providing us with majestic views of the surrounding mountain ranges. FYI, Machu Picchu is not located at the
highest elevation in the area.
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| Agua Caliente |
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| Terraces at Machu Picchu |
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| On the Inca Trail above Machu Picchu |
When the Spanish encountered the Incas in South America they did two
things: Fist, they killed everyone they
could and, secondly, they destroyed everything they could. Lucky for us and the rest of the world, they
didn’t find Machu Picchu, which is why it survived. Words do not adequately describe the place. The Inca were phenomenal builders. They utilized huge stones (thousands of
pounds) to build structures without mortar of any kind, and the gaps between
stones will hardly accommodate a credit card.
They used trapezoidal- shaped doorways and window openings for
strength. Their structures celebrate
both the sun and moon and are aligned in order to capture sunlight in certain places
at the two solstices and the equinoxes--and they did it all without a written
language or GPS.
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| Tight-fitting stones without mortar |
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| Trapazoidal Doorway |
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| Stone Walls |
It is easy to become enamored with Machu Picchu, which is why we returned
the next day even though it was raining, dare I say it…llamas and alpacas. This high mountain village is much different
when covered by clouds and rain than it is in the clear warm sunshine. It somehow changes the shadows and the timbre
of the place…and I mean that in a positive way.
Since most people are fair-weather tourists, we didn’t quite have the
place to ourselves, but it was a lot less crowded than the day before. You could actually get photographs without
people in them if you wanted. The downside
was that a couple of the hikes we wanted to take were out of the question. One was closed by the park and the other just
seemed too much given the weather. Had
it been warm and dry we would have been all over it.
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| Our favorite view of Machu Picchu |
Back on the train late that afternoon, we were on our way to catch our bus
to Cusco where we would be spending the next two or three days. Have you ever noticed that going back to your
starting place is always much quicker than it was coming out? Wait, did that make any sense?
Our return to Cusco was uneventful save for the reintroduction to purple
blooming potato fields all along our route.
Did you know that Peru grows the most potatoes of any country? Well, perhaps not in gross number, but in
terms of variety of potatoes. They have
many different sizes and colors and we managed to eat most of them during our
stay. Potatoes are a staple of the
Peruvian diet.
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| Potato Fields @ 12,000' |
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| Potato Fields @ 12,000' |
While speaking of things that go into your mouth, it would be a shame to
not spend a little time with the national drink of Peru--the Pisco Sour. The Pisco Sour is made from a particular
variety of grape grown in Peru. The
resulting brandy is fine in its own right and yet it is this drink made with
the brandy, egg whites, and angostura bitters that is celebrated the first
weekend in February every year. Alas,
our arrival was just one week later than this annual shindig; we had to settle
for drinking them without the festive atmosphere. They are quite good and one could see how
easy it would be to become overly enamored with them.
Sorry for the aside. Cusco is an
interesting old colonial city sitting at 11,000’ in the Andes. It is often referred to as Peru’s capitol of
the highlands. As it name implies, it is
loaded with Catholic relics and post-Columbian structures built on Inca
ruins. You can always tell when the foundation
of a building is Incan, the building stones are very tightly fitted and there
is no mortar present. While in Cusco we
stomped around more Inca ruins although not as complete or as attractive as
Machu Picchu and got another healing ceremony by a local shaman (he wasn’t as
impressive as the witch doctor in the Amazon), and shopped. Shopping is always an important aspect to any
foreign travel. It’s almost a matter of
national pride to see who can be most successful at separating us from our money. The jury is still out on who was most
successful.
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| Peruvian Woman with an Alpaca |
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| Main Square in Cusco |
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| Main Square in Cusco |
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| Main Square in Cusco |
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| Cityscape Cusco |
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| Cusco from above |
Every square in every town we were in on this trip had lots of shoeshine
boys. I imagine the rip roaring success
of the sneaker business has sorely cut into the profits of shoeshine boys,
especially among gringo touristas, but the locals seemed to have shoes that
need regular polishing. One is tempted
to generalize when writing these travel summaries and I’m no less guilty than
the next writer. Keeping that in mind,
let me say that it seems like almost everyone who doesn’t have a job working
for someone else is working for themselves as a shop owner or street-side kiosk
operator selling everything from bottled water to candy, to skin mags, to
mystery meat on a stick. There are
thousands of them in every town and city.
South Americans tend not to go for big shopping malls or even big
stand-alone stores. Almost everything
you need to buy can be acquired at a small, local store front not bigger than
my two car garage. And then there are
the markets. There are clothing markets,
meat markets, vegetable markets, hand-crafted items of every ilk markets. If everyone is selling something, who is
buying?
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| Shoeshine Boy in Lima |
The following shots are in markets all over Ecuador & Peru.
Our stay in Cusco sadly came to a screeching halt with an early wake-up
call for a flight to Lima with a continuing flight to Quito, Ecuador. Yes, it is an out of the way trip, but there
are no other choices. Though
bleary-eyed, we were excitedly anticipating our next adventure.
Before continuing with our journey to Ecuador, I would be remiss without a word
or two about air travel in Peru, both domestic and international. Who among us hasn’t cursed the TSA long and
hard as we shuffle half-naked through their interminable lines hoping that we
have left enough wiggle room between flights so as to not have to run helter-skelter
though the terminal to our departure gate?
Well, unless you are unfortunate
enough to be flying to the United States, you won’t have to put up with much at
security in SA. Sure they point out that
there is stuff you should avoid bringing on the plane and will confiscate it if
you do, but water in bottles and food are not among the banned items. You also don’t have to remove your shoes,
belts, and most other items. Anyway,
it’s a much more pleasant experience. Once
you clear security you actually have to go through the duty free shops to get
to the international gates in Lima. They
aren’t about to let you leave the country without one last opportunity to
enrich the economy of Peru. Earlier, I
hinted at bad luck for you if headed to the US; more about that after we finish
up with Ecuador.
Quito, Ecuador, sits in a valley at 9,700’ surrounded by volcanoes, none of
which we saw because they were shrouded by clouds during our whole stay there. It is about a half a degree south of the
equator (that’s roughly 30 miles at this latitude), and is often referred to as
the middle of the earth. Because it is
subtropical, it never snows there either.
We spent a day and a half there before going to the Galápagos Islands
getting a familiarization tour of the city.
After returning to Quito from the Galápagos, we spent six days there on
our own. For ease of composition, I will
talk about Quito at the end of this missive.
We had an awfully early flight from Quito to the Galápagos in part because
we flew through Guayaquil. Our wake-up
call was at 4:30 am--outrageous in anyone’s book--because our flight was at
7:30 am. The good thing is that we were
on our boat by noon.
The Carina was a lovely 95’ boat (too small to be called a ship). It had cabins enough for our group of 14 (six
couples and two singles) plus a crew of 10.
We spent four nights on the Carina and had three meals a day. Our two chefs were fantastic. Our meals on the boat we among the best of
any we had anywhere on our four week stay in SA.
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| The Carina our floating hotel in the Galapagos |
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| Resident Flamingos |
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| Land Iguana |
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| Marina at Santa Cruz Island |
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| Darwin Finch |
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| Lava Lizard |
We spent the day time going from boat to shore via pangas (kodiak boats) or
simply exploring the coasts in the pangas.
The Galápagos are smack dab on the equator and are volcanic in
origin. Some are very old and some are
quite young and several are still growing; all of them are moving
eastward. It is the isolation and the
lack of predators that have resulted in some unique developments that help lead
Charles Darwin to his theories of evolution.
It was wonderful being free from TV, Wi-Fi, cell phones, and other
civilized gadgets for several days. It
was the most relaxed we have been in ages.
The weather was delightful throughout our stay in the Galápagos. Even though the islands are on the equator,
it was not hot. There are moderating
ocean currents that keep the islands fairly temperate given the latitude. Clearly, some seasons are wetter than others
and while we were there during the so-called rainy season, we only had the
occasional shower and not every day.
It was remarkable to see how animals normally skittish around humans were
totally unafraid and unaffected by our presence. Imagine swimming and snorkeling with sea
lions, penguins, and sea turtles that will gladly frolic with you without the
lure of bait fish. The most ubiquitous
critter in the part of Galápagos that we were in (the itinerary of every boat
is tightly controlled by the National Park Service, so it may be different
elsewhere) was the marine iguana. These
black to dark grey, ugly varmints were everywhere. They were in the midst of
reproduction…burying their eggs in the lava sands on every island we were on;
they were literally underfoot on every trail we took.
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| Marine Iguanas |
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| Marine Iguana |
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| Marine Iguana |
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| Sea Lion |
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| Sea Lion |
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| Galapagos Penguin |
Everyone has, upon our return, asked us if we saw blue footed boobies. If there is a critter more abundant than the
marine iguana it is the blue footed booby.
They are all over the place.
Initially, it was exciting to point one out; by the end our stay people
were yawning when it was mentioned that there was a booby present. The response was usually something like,
“Yeah, so what’s he doing, riding a marine iguana?”
Although we saw many land tortoises…these are the giant tortoises of
Galápagos fame…we were saddened that we only saw them in either captivity (used
for breeding purposes to maintain the species) or on privately held ranches
that tried to cash in on their presence with gift shops, snack bars, and the
like. We never saw one actually in the
wild, so to speak. Perhaps there are
areas that they inhabit without human interaction, but we never got to see
them.
Quito, Quito, Quito. In addition to
the two days we spent there before going to the Galápagos, we spent six days
there exploring the city on our own. As
mentioned above, Quito is very near the equator and sits in a valley at 9700’
surrounded by volcanos. There is some
dispute as to whether or not the monument the Ecuadorians have constructed to
mark the equator is accurate. According
to some, GPS coordinates put the equator some small distance from the monument
itself. The Museo de la Cultura Solar
claims to have the measurement correctly depicted, but who knows for sure. They do have “science experiments” to
demonstrate swirling water down a drain in the north, in the south, and on the
equator to prove that it’s the correct location. In any event, we had fun taking pictures and
trying to get an egg to balance, etc.
A visit to old town in Quito is a must. This is the original downtown built during the colonial period. It is home to many plazas and squares including the Plaza of Independence where the state government building is located. There are block after block of colonial style buildings and homes as well as scores of churches. Some of the most ornate cathedrals in all of Ecuador are located here. We happened to be there during Carnival. This is the four-day holiday before the start of Lent and culminates on Fat Tuesday. The Ecuadorians do not have a formal celebration like New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro. Instead most of those who can afford it go to Manta on the coast for their celebration. The remainder hang around town shooting each other with stuff that looks like shaving cream. We occasionally got caught in the crossfire.
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| Many of Quito's homes are built on the hills |
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| La Ronda Street |
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| La Ronda Street |
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| Independence Square |
The government did have a big shindig to celebrate
Carnival with soldiers, military bands, and cavalry at the governmental palace
which we stumbled on to one day. It was
a hoot.
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| El Presidente & other dignitaries |
We walked all over Quito getting to know the city quite
well. During our explorations we
discovered many interesting museums and visited more churches than we even knew
existed, but the one place that struck our fancy the most was Oswaldo Guayasamin’s
Capilla del Hombre (the Chapel of Man) that is located on property right next
to his home which is located in the hills overlooking Quito. Guayasamin (1919-1999) was of
mestizo/indigenous mixed race. Much of his
art work depicted the deplorable treatment of indigenous peoples everywhere,
but especially in Ecuador. Even though
he began life in poverty, he became a very wealthy man, yet at the end of his
life he and his children created a foundation and gave all of his wealth and
property to Ecuador to be used as a museum for his works because he was
saddened by the fact that most of his art work had been bought by foreigners and
was on display elsewhere in the world.
We were captivated by his art, if not his politics, and acquired a
couple of prints of his that we will hang in our home.
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| Capilla del Hombre |
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| Guayasamin's Home |
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| Guayasamin's Home |
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| Capilla del Hombre |
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| One of Oswaldo's pieces |
We had great meals at interesting restaurants and made the
alfresco coffee shop in the Hilton Hotel Colón a daily ritual. There were lots of local markets to explore
and from which to acquire goods of all kinds.
We both became enamored with scarves of all kinds. Susan, in particular, added several to her
extensive collection; fred procured a new “Panama” hat. An Interesting note: Panama hats are made in Ecuador and always have been. It seems these hats were provided to workers
on the Panama Canal and thus became known as Panama hats…more than you ever
wanted to know. La Ronda was a restored street of artisans in
Old Town that was a delight to explore and right smack in the middle of the
long block was a chocolate maker; too bad we discovered that. Several of our friends have been on the
receiving end of many of these excursions in the markets.
One day, toward the end of our stay, we found out that
there was a botanical garden in Quito.
We walked over there and spent most of the morning exploring their
offerings. The most impressive was the
vast collection of orchids. We have
never encountered such a wide variety of these delicate plants in one place.
I almost forgot to tell you about our departure and my
promise to comment on a person’s misfortune to be flying to the United
States. Our flight from Quito home
departed at 5:30 am. Since it was an
hour to airport and we needed to be there two hours early for an international
flight, we had to depart our hotel at 2:00 am.
Needless to say, we got very little sleep before leaving. Our flight was a one stop with us needing to
change planes in San Salvador. No
problem.
Well, it turns out that if you are catching a flight to
the US in San Salvador, you have to go through special screening. Since El Salvador is a poor country with no
resources for buying screening devices, every piece of carry-on luggage had to
be searched by hand. The El Salvadorians
had taken half of a boarding lounge and set up two dozen tables manned by
individuals who searched not only your bags by completely unpacking them, but
did full body pat-down searches. I’m not
sure the young woman who searched me truly appreciated my comment, “Well, this
should be fun.” Did she give me a little
extra squeeze? After the pat-down, we
were ushered to another area where we had to remove our shoes and have them
physically inspected. Once in this
boarding area we were stuck; no way out except to get on the plane. It was the biggest hassle we had in the
entire month of traveling in SA. Thank
you TSA!
Peru and Ecuador are enchanting countries. Both offer a large mix of geographical
features and climate zones that range from coastal regions to the high
Andes. While their cultures are similar,
they each have unique features. Both
countries count cebiche as one of their national dishes. We aren’t especially keen on raw fish, but
they do prepare it in a manner that we can not only tolerate but even enjoy.
We already talked about their obsession with Cuy. One of the worst things they share is an
antiquated sewer system that requires toilet users to place waste paper in
small bins next to the toilet rather than flushing them down…ugh! We never got used to that. Another negative thing they share is a
history of mass destruction by the Catholic Spaniards. Both countries are over 90% Catholic today
and that stems from the annihilation of their indigenous populations by the
Conquistadores in the mid to late 1500s.
While most Peruvians and Ecuadorians would lament the loss of the
dominance of their indigenous populations, they have had much of that bred out
of them and they have had 400 years to become something
else. They also share a tumultuous
past. There have been a string of
dictators in both countries and violence has been a way of life for many, many
decades. Each country now seems to be
somewhat settled and there is no obvious turmoil politically, at least none that
casual visitors can easily discern.
Our
OAT trip to Peru and Ecuador was marvelous.
It was the kind of travel we like best; active, a small number of
participants, and somewhat off the beaten path; it was just off kilter enough
to give us amazing stories to tell all our friends.
Our OAT trip leaders: Maricela & Javier
