Friday
After breakfast we started off through the centre and south of Lima heading towards the Panamerican Highway again that would take us south to Pisco a couple of hundred kilometers away.
Celso got very frustrated as he tried to guide me through the Lima streets. The problem is that, for some unknown reason, each of Lima's streets has two names so the writing on the street signs is very, very small and nearly impossible to see at even the slow speed we were driving at. However, we finally made it and then had an easy few miles on the dual carriageway to the outskirts of Lima where we stopped to visit the Temple complex of Pachacamac. Started in about 200AD it was still in use when the conquistadors arrived in the mid 15th Century. Pachacamac was an early Peruvian (pre Incan) god (the creator god) and the complex was originally dedicated to him with a painted temple and totem pole like effigy. However, succesive cultures took over the site and added to it without destroying the previous buildings so that it now consists of at least 17 different ramped pyramids dedicated to several different gods. In the temple of the sun they found several hundred mumified virgins who had been sacrificed and on the outskirts of the complex they found a building that appeared to be a kind of school for young girls who were taught all the arts of a 'good wife' for the Gods, such as weaving and ceramics.
Though much of the site is more 'modern' (by 1000 years or so) than the temple of the moon in Trujillo it was not as nearly as impressive because the latter is so well preserved. At Pachacamac there are only slight signs of the grandeur that must have been there with flakes of paint on the painted temple and remains of the red plaster on the temple of the sun.
After our visit we headed on south through yet more desert, punctuated (rarely) by a green oasis, to Pisco. Pisco is home to the drink Pisco (in Pisco sour), yet I have no idea what it is like and have no desire to try it! Pisco was devestated by an earthquake 3 years ago in which over 600 people died (300 of them in the Cathedral attending mass when it collapsed around them). The private companies such as banks and supermarkets have rebuilt but the public buildings and the roads are in a horrific state of repair and many buildings are still not reconnected to the water supply.
We found a hotel and organised tours for Saturday to the Ballestas islands where you can see sea lions, penguins and other sea birds and to the Paracas nature reserve (a 50km stretch of coast and desert designed to protect the whales, dolphins, sea lions, turtles and other marine life of the region.
Saturday
We were up at 6:45 to get ready for our trip, and by 7:30 we were in a little battered local bus rocking and rolling down the poorly maintained roads to Paracas, a small fishing community that is now the place to start boat trips out to the islands. However our plans were foiled as one section of the Jetty had collapsed and they weren't allowing anybody to board the boats. Even by 8:30am the sun was extremely hot and we eventually had to move inside to avoid the intense heat. We waited around until around 10:30am and then boarded another rusting hulk of a bus to go on our tour of the National reserve. It was a great 5 hour trip visiting various parts of the reserve, crossing the desert with other cars whizzing past and very little semblance of safety! We stopped at several points with breathtaking veiws out over the sea, pelicans, seagulls and vultures soared in the howling wind, great collonies of roosting birds suddenly took to the wing as though there had been some sort of signal to all take off at once. The waves crashed against the rocks and clouds rose up out of the sea over the cliffs and raced across the desert towards the mountains (but at such a pace and at such a low level that they never drop any rain here), and all the time the sun beat down on us so that we could feel our skin tightening in the heat and dry wind.
At one place we stopped for an hour to give us a chance to take a dip in the sea, but it was so cold compared to our hot and sweaty bodies that we only managed to get in up to our thighs! We found loads of red and yellow (tiger like) jelly fish washed up onto the shore, some more than a foot across, and a huge pink and yellow crab.
When we returned to Pisco we were hot but happy and we shall try the boat trip again tomorrow before we head south to Nazca.
Sunday
Last night there was a power cut that lasted from about 6pm until the very early morning when we were rudely awakened by the TV coming on! The candle that we were given did not give us enough light to pack so we had to get up at 6am to get everything ready to go. Then at 7:30am we drove down to the dock at Paracas where the jetty had been fixed ready for our trip around the Balestas Islands about a 25min jet boat ride off the coast. Previously there had been a large Guano collection operation on the islands, but since 1975 the islands have been protected as part of the Paracas National Reserve, the remaining buildings and jetty have been well taken over by the natural inhabitants.
On the way out we passed 'The Candelabra', a drawing in the desert on the sloping cliff. It has not been damaged because it doesn't rain here and the wind at that point of the coast seems to blow 25cm above ground level due to the lie of the land. It is made in a similar way to the Nazca lines simply by creating a trench about 10cm deep in the sand. It is not known by whom, when or why the figure was made, but it is believed to be early conquistador as there are no other examples of this type of shape on any indigenous pottery or textiles; so , it is believed that it may have been some sort of sign for Spanish Mariners or perhaps pirates in the mid 15th century.
Then on out to the islands with brief sightings of 4 dolphins on the way. The islands were fantastic, full of sea lions, pelicans, vultures, guillemots, Humboldt penguins and other sea birds (perhaps Boobies, but we are not sure), there were also enormous mulitlegged starfish and anenomies clinging to the rocks. It is breeding time for the sea lions so the beaches were full of mothers and babies and huge males strutting their stuff. Some of the cliffs looked dark from a distance but as we got closer we could see that it was infact just a multitude of birds and the sky was a swirling mass of birds on the wing... fantastic.
On our return to port the fog came down really suddenly so that we could only see about 50m in any direction, and then, just as quickly, it lifted again and we returned to the fishing port well wind blown but really happy.
After a breakfast of boiled choclo (white maize with grains about 1cm across), we continued our journey south to Nazca, again through desert, desert and more desert, but now heading inland from the coast.
We have found a hotel on the main square and organised trips for tomorrow, so we can relax for the rest of the day - bliss.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Friday, 29 January 2010
To Lima 27-28 Jan
In the morning we rang a hostel in Lima to book a room so that we wouldn't have to look for one in the dark when we arrived. Then we set off on our way south again expecting to arrive at around 6pm.
Again we passed through miles and miles of desert with the occasional green oasis filled with Yucca, maize, rice and sugar cane. However the 600km didn't take as long as we thought because the final 200km were on dual carriageway. What a difference it made not to have to queue up behind lorries carrying rediculously large loads and going at rediculously slow speeds (some as low as 25km/h) to overtake. We arrived in the outskirts of Lima at around 3.30pm and reached our hostel about one block from the sea at around 4.30pm. Our first impressions of Lima were that the roads were really badly maintained compared to the ones we have experienced; that the drivers haven't got a clue how to use indicators (they indicate left then turn right and vice versa); that to drive in Lima you need a 3rd hand that is continuously pushing the horn; and, that the mini buses that they have here, whilst less smokey than those in Quito, are much more dangerous to drive around as they nip in and out and stop absolutely anywhere.
Our hostel was a mini fortress and all the surrounding properties had amazing spikey fences and some electric fences, it made us a little nervous but we wandered around to find somewhere to eat and felt no fear at all!
On Thursday we took a taxi to the centre, it was a terrifying journey lasting only about 15 minutes (thankfully), as our driver forced his way through traffic and launched himself into fast flowing lanes. We got out in the Plaza de Armas, with the Cathedral on one side and the Government building on the other, for some reason the square was full of painted cows, I don't know why but they were great anyway! We got told off for going too close to the railings outside the government building. We were told that since a protestor handcuffed himself to the railings it was now prohibited to get any closer to the railings than one paving stone. In one corner of the square was a group of very bored looking riot police, and round the side of the government building was an APC and several police cars. I asked one machine gun weilding policeman if they were there because of the threat of terrorism... but in fact, he told me, it was because there are elections due in a few weeks and there have been protests and marches on the government buildings!
We wandered around and visited the Inquisition Museum in the original Inquisition court building. This was the court only for Non Indigenous citizens, these 'sinners' had to be denounced 3 times before they could be brought to trial; they were given a lawyer if they didn't have one and the only torture allowed was stretching on the rack, water torture (where they pour water in the mouth) and the stocks. The sentences ranged from death penalty (burning or strangulation) and whipping to a prison sentence or having to attend mass or help the poor. However in the indigenous court the tortures and sentences were much worse, burning the feet, cutting out the tongue, chopping off the hands to name but a few of the tortures. Also the records show that only 8 people died from the torture in the court we visited but there were no records kept for the indigenous court and estimates are that 100s or thousands probably died from the tortures there.
We then headed south and westward through the historic centre of Lima. The old buildings here are very similar to those in Quito except that they seem to be more ornate and they have some amazing wooden casement windows, some with incredible carving.
We visited the museum in the National reserve bank that had a great collection of pottery from all of the different cultures in Peru, it allowed us to compare all the different styles in one place and see the evolution of the styles. There was also an incredible gold collection; to view it we had to actually walk inside the secure box with the huge safe door and a policeman armed with a machine gun. There were cups, earrings, nose rings and funerary masks and chest plates. Many of the pieces were cut from millimetre thin sheets of gold, others were moulded around wooden or ceramic moulds and some were made in 'jewelery style' with bending and hammering.
Our 4 hour wander finished with another taxi drive (much less scary this time) back to our hotel. After a bit of a rest in our hotel (and a bit of tennis watching Oz semi finals), we went for a wander down to the sea a block below the hotel and then on to find a restaurant. We hadn't experienced even a spot of bother, so I don't know whether we were just lucky or whether the dangers of Lima had been exagerated.
Again we passed through miles and miles of desert with the occasional green oasis filled with Yucca, maize, rice and sugar cane. However the 600km didn't take as long as we thought because the final 200km were on dual carriageway. What a difference it made not to have to queue up behind lorries carrying rediculously large loads and going at rediculously slow speeds (some as low as 25km/h) to overtake. We arrived in the outskirts of Lima at around 3.30pm and reached our hostel about one block from the sea at around 4.30pm. Our first impressions of Lima were that the roads were really badly maintained compared to the ones we have experienced; that the drivers haven't got a clue how to use indicators (they indicate left then turn right and vice versa); that to drive in Lima you need a 3rd hand that is continuously pushing the horn; and, that the mini buses that they have here, whilst less smokey than those in Quito, are much more dangerous to drive around as they nip in and out and stop absolutely anywhere.
Our hostel was a mini fortress and all the surrounding properties had amazing spikey fences and some electric fences, it made us a little nervous but we wandered around to find somewhere to eat and felt no fear at all!
On Thursday we took a taxi to the centre, it was a terrifying journey lasting only about 15 minutes (thankfully), as our driver forced his way through traffic and launched himself into fast flowing lanes. We got out in the Plaza de Armas, with the Cathedral on one side and the Government building on the other, for some reason the square was full of painted cows, I don't know why but they were great anyway! We got told off for going too close to the railings outside the government building. We were told that since a protestor handcuffed himself to the railings it was now prohibited to get any closer to the railings than one paving stone. In one corner of the square was a group of very bored looking riot police, and round the side of the government building was an APC and several police cars. I asked one machine gun weilding policeman if they were there because of the threat of terrorism... but in fact, he told me, it was because there are elections due in a few weeks and there have been protests and marches on the government buildings!
We wandered around and visited the Inquisition Museum in the original Inquisition court building. This was the court only for Non Indigenous citizens, these 'sinners' had to be denounced 3 times before they could be brought to trial; they were given a lawyer if they didn't have one and the only torture allowed was stretching on the rack, water torture (where they pour water in the mouth) and the stocks. The sentences ranged from death penalty (burning or strangulation) and whipping to a prison sentence or having to attend mass or help the poor. However in the indigenous court the tortures and sentences were much worse, burning the feet, cutting out the tongue, chopping off the hands to name but a few of the tortures. Also the records show that only 8 people died from the torture in the court we visited but there were no records kept for the indigenous court and estimates are that 100s or thousands probably died from the tortures there.
We then headed south and westward through the historic centre of Lima. The old buildings here are very similar to those in Quito except that they seem to be more ornate and they have some amazing wooden casement windows, some with incredible carving.
We visited the museum in the National reserve bank that had a great collection of pottery from all of the different cultures in Peru, it allowed us to compare all the different styles in one place and see the evolution of the styles. There was also an incredible gold collection; to view it we had to actually walk inside the secure box with the huge safe door and a policeman armed with a machine gun. There were cups, earrings, nose rings and funerary masks and chest plates. Many of the pieces were cut from millimetre thin sheets of gold, others were moulded around wooden or ceramic moulds and some were made in 'jewelery style' with bending and hammering.
Our 4 hour wander finished with another taxi drive (much less scary this time) back to our hotel. After a bit of a rest in our hotel (and a bit of tennis watching Oz semi finals), we went for a wander down to the sea a block below the hotel and then on to find a restaurant. We hadn't experienced even a spot of bother, so I don't know whether we were just lucky or whether the dangers of Lima had been exagerated.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
To Trujillo 24-26 Jan
Sunday
After a walk along the beach again and breakfast with the waves crashing onto the side of the building just below us, we set off south towards Trujillo at around 10.30am. The journey is about 650km and the car has a top speed of about 110kph, the roads are in pretty good shape but with speed bumps at the entrance and exit of every village and town we expected our journey to take around 9 hours, and we were just about right, we arrived in Trujillo at around 8pm.
We passed miles and miles of the driest desert you could imagine, with absolutely nothing growing at all, but then occassionally it would be interspersed with a pool of pink water surrounded by a few scraggy and spindley trees. (we´d love to know why they were pink if anybody has any ideas!) At times there were perfect crescent shaped sand dunes, some of which were encroaching on the road; and, all the time, there was a hot wind blowing from the west, from the sea, and the sun beating down from a nearly cloudless sky. At one point we drove 200km with not a town or petrol station to be seen, just occassionally there was a little shack of a house made from some sort of reed or bamboo with a donkey tied outside; and sometimes there were a few people sitting on the edge of the road waiting for a bus but without any sign of how or why they were there.
We could always tell when we were approaching a village or town of any significance by the sudden appearance of phut phuts on the road and the piles of rubbish on the east side of the road (never on the west side presumably becuase of the wind that would blow the rubbish accross the road), but then the urban area would pass and the desert would return. How the people in most of those villages survive, and what they do is beyond me; there seemed to be very little being farmed and apart from a couple of shops there seemed to be no commerce at all. Occassionally we would come across a town that was a little green oasis; crops of sugar cane or maize were being grown with even enough water to grow rice; where the water came from is a mystery because the few rivers that we crossed were either a trickle or completely dry. Apparently this year they are expecting El nino so perhaps it is drier than usual?
As we drove into Trujillo the whole world and his wife seemed to be returning from a weekend away and it took us over half an hour to arrive in the center of town. We found a hotel that charged us a reduced rate because we would need to be out by 8am because they had a reservation, left our bags and went out to eat in a rotisserie chicken restaurant and to wander the streets after our long day in the car.
On Monday we had our early start and drove out west to Huanchaco about 8km outside Trujillo to find a hotel on the beach. Here the prices are more reasonable than in Mancara with the cost for all 3 of us at about $30 (about 20 pounds) still about 50% above Ecuadorian prices but better than in North Peru.
We left our bags and went for breakfast in a small cafe on the beach and then walked along the beach which is covered in purple sea urchins and small black shells. Some of the sand is really dark, volcanic I assume, and some is really, well, sandy. The two colours seem to come in patches, very strange (presumably one is heavier than the other.) At around 11am we drove to Chan Chan, a Chimu palacial complex on the edge of Trujillo dating from between the 9th and 15th centuries. There are 9 (known) palaces each one was built for a different Chimu king from adobe bricks with an adobe plaster and fine carvings or paintings on the plaster. The carvings depict the important symbols of the culture, fish, pelicans and fishing nets and the palaces had ceremonial areas, residential areas, consultation areas, offering areas and a funerary area where the king was finally laid to rest, mumified and sitting in state in an open grave so that people could come to visit. As one king lived and ruled the next palace would be being built for the next king, when the king died the court moved to the new palace with the new king and the old palace became an open tomb for the old king.
It was very, very hot as we wandered around but amazingly there were people working away, digging and carrying huge wheelbarrow loads of material from here to there.. I don't know how they did it, even Celso had to stop in the shade. Afterwards we visited another small site called the Huaca Esmeralda (the Emerald Temple or Pyramid) which the Chimu built on top of a pyramid from an earlier culture and again had carvings and paintings on the adobe plaster...... it was far too hot by this time so we stopped off in a shopping centre to see what some of the locals were up to then returned to shelter in our hotel to hide from the heat. At around 3.30pm we visited another Huaca, this time Arco Iris or Rainbow Temple / Pyramid. This temple had quite well preserved carvings of a two headed snake in an upside down U shape (this is where the Rainbow name came from as the first people to discover the carvings described what they had found as a rainbow), deities with open mouths and sticky out tongues (which were originally described as dragons), and warriors guarding the site with spears or clubs at the ready. Again this temple was built over a pyramid from an earlier culture (probably Moche).
We took another walk along the beach to try to find the Caballitos (little horses), reed boats used for centuries by the locals for fishing (and now to transport tourists out into the sea and then surfed back in on the waves amongst the modern surfers). We found a couple of guys plying for trade amongst the many tourists on the beach but none being used in the traditional style. They look a bit like a very stylised clog, with an open back and a pointy front which allows them to balance as they ride up over the waves as they head out to sea propelled by a long bamboo pole used rather like the double ended paddle of a canoeist.
Then we were lucky enough to find a little local restaurant in the back streets that wasn't charging huge touristy prices and ate a wonderful chicken soup; strangley enough with ginger in, that I don't normally like; pearl barley (I think), celery, herbs and Yucca, followed by a huge plate of rice, fried beef and lentils. Tristan's lap was taken over by a very friendly cat, and Tristan's craving for boiled carrots was sated after much confusion in which the cook couldn't understand why someone would want plain boiled carrots and kept on offering to mix them with something!
We are feeling a little bit burnt and fairly tired and I'm looking forward to taking a lie in tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 26
After a bit of a lie in (but the locals here just don´t know how to keep quiet in the mornings - and the windows are all open because of the heat!), we got up and went to find a laundry. The people here are even worse than the Ecuadorians at giving directions and they haven´t a clue how to use a map so you can´t even get you to show you on one. Worst of all, if they haven´t got a clue where it is that you want to go they won´t tell you that they don´t know, they just make something up... more frustrations.
Anyway, we finally found a laundry in the very next street only about 3 blocks away and on the way we passed a small hostel with a Union Jack flying from its roof so we returned and had a ´sort of´ English breakfast. The guy is a hippy type who has been living here for 19 years, he is married to a Peruvian woman and has a couple of kids. They moved here when they escaped from Venezuela with nothing after Chavez took over and have built up a little hostel business. He has found a local man who was willing to take instructions from him and cut and smoke pork to make bacon, and along with eggs, tinned mushrooms, a fried tomato and some toast it made a passable English breakfast that was just what the doctor ordered!
Today it was not nearly as hot as yesterday so we set out to find the Temples of the Sun and the Moon from the Moche culture (around the time of Christ to 800AD) that is situated on the far side of Trujillo from where we are staying on the beach. There are absolutely no signs and so we would stop to ask for directions, drive a couple of miles and then stop again. Finally at around 11am we arrived.
The two pyramids look just like piles of rubble from the outside, with some visible adobe bricks but mainly covered in a fine wind blown powder. They were named the temples of the sun and the moon because the discoverers thought they resembled temples of those names from the Aztec culture, but in fact there is no evidence that they are temples to the moon and the sun.
The temple of the moon is being excavated but the temple of the sun has not been touched due to lack of funds. We were guided in English, just the 3 of us, and we were completely amazed by it all.
For some reason the Moches kept on building on top of previous levels of pyramid, completely filling the previous level´s rooms and chambers with adobe bricks. This means that the lower levels of the pyramid are nearly perfectly preserved with the original friezes, paint and all. No restoration work has been done at all, only preservation, so it is like a window back into the past. Many of the friezes are repetitive but no moulds were used so each is unique. The fifth and final level has been nearly completely destroyed by the elements and there is a 16th century hole through the centre of the pyramid where the Spaniards paid locals to dig in to find treasure. The looters tunnel through the front centre of the pyramid is now used as a walkway for the tourists! Fortunately the looters dumped all their rubble in the front square covering all the decoration on the front of the pyramid and accidently preserving it from the elements. The rubble has been removed from about half of the square revealing images of dancers, warriors, their captives and the deities. Of course they will never be able to find out what all the old levels are like because in order to investigate each level you have to destroy the level above, but that which has been exposed is incredible, you can just imagine how awesome it must have been in those early times.
There is evidence of ritual sacrifice with around 87 decapitated skeletons just on the top level, and also of burials of the important priests or kings with grave goods for the after life.
Out, between the two temples (of the sun and the moon) the excavation continues of the Moche city with evidence of metal work, ceramics,trade with mountain tribes, agriculture, weaving and water canals bringing water in from the Moche river. Here there are also people buried with grave goods, but of a much lower standing than those in the temple.
A tad awestruck we left to find our way back to Huanchaco. We stopped at the Chimu museum near Chan Chan, which had been closed yesterday, and met a couple more Peruvian hairless dogs. It was an interesting museum about the rise of the different cultures in the area. The theories at the moment about the fall of the Moche and the rise of the Chimu are either that there were a few drought years that forced the Moche to abandon their city, or, that there was a change in the beliefs so that human sacrifice was no longer acceptable (there is no evidence of it in the Chimu culture), though they do know, from genetic testing, that the Chimu are descendents of the Moche and that there are many people in the area that are descendents still.
The museum had examples of pottery and textiles from each of the eras showing a definite refinement in technique from plain, through symetric designs to detailed depictions of daily life or deities.
One thing that did strike me about their beliefs about their world was that they thought it was semicircular (like a small bowl sitting on the side). This semicircle was filled with water with the dry land floating on the top, then above this was the sky, the stars, the sun and the moon. It seems so much more advanced than our earlier thoughts that the world was flat.... they seemed to take into account that the sea was deep and that if you dig down there is water in the earth.
We have actually found some decent apples to eat which are crispy and a little sour, like Cox apples, delicious after our long apple drought through North America and Ecuador. So later we went down to the beach again, munching on apples as the sun was setting and taking some more amazing pictures as Tris built a tide trap and stacked stones for the waves to splash over.
After a walk along the beach again and breakfast with the waves crashing onto the side of the building just below us, we set off south towards Trujillo at around 10.30am. The journey is about 650km and the car has a top speed of about 110kph, the roads are in pretty good shape but with speed bumps at the entrance and exit of every village and town we expected our journey to take around 9 hours, and we were just about right, we arrived in Trujillo at around 8pm.
We passed miles and miles of the driest desert you could imagine, with absolutely nothing growing at all, but then occassionally it would be interspersed with a pool of pink water surrounded by a few scraggy and spindley trees. (we´d love to know why they were pink if anybody has any ideas!) At times there were perfect crescent shaped sand dunes, some of which were encroaching on the road; and, all the time, there was a hot wind blowing from the west, from the sea, and the sun beating down from a nearly cloudless sky. At one point we drove 200km with not a town or petrol station to be seen, just occassionally there was a little shack of a house made from some sort of reed or bamboo with a donkey tied outside; and sometimes there were a few people sitting on the edge of the road waiting for a bus but without any sign of how or why they were there.
We could always tell when we were approaching a village or town of any significance by the sudden appearance of phut phuts on the road and the piles of rubbish on the east side of the road (never on the west side presumably becuase of the wind that would blow the rubbish accross the road), but then the urban area would pass and the desert would return. How the people in most of those villages survive, and what they do is beyond me; there seemed to be very little being farmed and apart from a couple of shops there seemed to be no commerce at all. Occassionally we would come across a town that was a little green oasis; crops of sugar cane or maize were being grown with even enough water to grow rice; where the water came from is a mystery because the few rivers that we crossed were either a trickle or completely dry. Apparently this year they are expecting El nino so perhaps it is drier than usual?
As we drove into Trujillo the whole world and his wife seemed to be returning from a weekend away and it took us over half an hour to arrive in the center of town. We found a hotel that charged us a reduced rate because we would need to be out by 8am because they had a reservation, left our bags and went out to eat in a rotisserie chicken restaurant and to wander the streets after our long day in the car.
On Monday we had our early start and drove out west to Huanchaco about 8km outside Trujillo to find a hotel on the beach. Here the prices are more reasonable than in Mancara with the cost for all 3 of us at about $30 (about 20 pounds) still about 50% above Ecuadorian prices but better than in North Peru.
We left our bags and went for breakfast in a small cafe on the beach and then walked along the beach which is covered in purple sea urchins and small black shells. Some of the sand is really dark, volcanic I assume, and some is really, well, sandy. The two colours seem to come in patches, very strange (presumably one is heavier than the other.) At around 11am we drove to Chan Chan, a Chimu palacial complex on the edge of Trujillo dating from between the 9th and 15th centuries. There are 9 (known) palaces each one was built for a different Chimu king from adobe bricks with an adobe plaster and fine carvings or paintings on the plaster. The carvings depict the important symbols of the culture, fish, pelicans and fishing nets and the palaces had ceremonial areas, residential areas, consultation areas, offering areas and a funerary area where the king was finally laid to rest, mumified and sitting in state in an open grave so that people could come to visit. As one king lived and ruled the next palace would be being built for the next king, when the king died the court moved to the new palace with the new king and the old palace became an open tomb for the old king.
It was very, very hot as we wandered around but amazingly there were people working away, digging and carrying huge wheelbarrow loads of material from here to there.. I don't know how they did it, even Celso had to stop in the shade. Afterwards we visited another small site called the Huaca Esmeralda (the Emerald Temple or Pyramid) which the Chimu built on top of a pyramid from an earlier culture and again had carvings and paintings on the adobe plaster...... it was far too hot by this time so we stopped off in a shopping centre to see what some of the locals were up to then returned to shelter in our hotel to hide from the heat. At around 3.30pm we visited another Huaca, this time Arco Iris or Rainbow Temple / Pyramid. This temple had quite well preserved carvings of a two headed snake in an upside down U shape (this is where the Rainbow name came from as the first people to discover the carvings described what they had found as a rainbow), deities with open mouths and sticky out tongues (which were originally described as dragons), and warriors guarding the site with spears or clubs at the ready. Again this temple was built over a pyramid from an earlier culture (probably Moche).
We took another walk along the beach to try to find the Caballitos (little horses), reed boats used for centuries by the locals for fishing (and now to transport tourists out into the sea and then surfed back in on the waves amongst the modern surfers). We found a couple of guys plying for trade amongst the many tourists on the beach but none being used in the traditional style. They look a bit like a very stylised clog, with an open back and a pointy front which allows them to balance as they ride up over the waves as they head out to sea propelled by a long bamboo pole used rather like the double ended paddle of a canoeist.
Then we were lucky enough to find a little local restaurant in the back streets that wasn't charging huge touristy prices and ate a wonderful chicken soup; strangley enough with ginger in, that I don't normally like; pearl barley (I think), celery, herbs and Yucca, followed by a huge plate of rice, fried beef and lentils. Tristan's lap was taken over by a very friendly cat, and Tristan's craving for boiled carrots was sated after much confusion in which the cook couldn't understand why someone would want plain boiled carrots and kept on offering to mix them with something!
We are feeling a little bit burnt and fairly tired and I'm looking forward to taking a lie in tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 26
After a bit of a lie in (but the locals here just don´t know how to keep quiet in the mornings - and the windows are all open because of the heat!), we got up and went to find a laundry. The people here are even worse than the Ecuadorians at giving directions and they haven´t a clue how to use a map so you can´t even get you to show you on one. Worst of all, if they haven´t got a clue where it is that you want to go they won´t tell you that they don´t know, they just make something up... more frustrations.
Anyway, we finally found a laundry in the very next street only about 3 blocks away and on the way we passed a small hostel with a Union Jack flying from its roof so we returned and had a ´sort of´ English breakfast. The guy is a hippy type who has been living here for 19 years, he is married to a Peruvian woman and has a couple of kids. They moved here when they escaped from Venezuela with nothing after Chavez took over and have built up a little hostel business. He has found a local man who was willing to take instructions from him and cut and smoke pork to make bacon, and along with eggs, tinned mushrooms, a fried tomato and some toast it made a passable English breakfast that was just what the doctor ordered!
Today it was not nearly as hot as yesterday so we set out to find the Temples of the Sun and the Moon from the Moche culture (around the time of Christ to 800AD) that is situated on the far side of Trujillo from where we are staying on the beach. There are absolutely no signs and so we would stop to ask for directions, drive a couple of miles and then stop again. Finally at around 11am we arrived.
The two pyramids look just like piles of rubble from the outside, with some visible adobe bricks but mainly covered in a fine wind blown powder. They were named the temples of the sun and the moon because the discoverers thought they resembled temples of those names from the Aztec culture, but in fact there is no evidence that they are temples to the moon and the sun.
The temple of the moon is being excavated but the temple of the sun has not been touched due to lack of funds. We were guided in English, just the 3 of us, and we were completely amazed by it all.
For some reason the Moches kept on building on top of previous levels of pyramid, completely filling the previous level´s rooms and chambers with adobe bricks. This means that the lower levels of the pyramid are nearly perfectly preserved with the original friezes, paint and all. No restoration work has been done at all, only preservation, so it is like a window back into the past. Many of the friezes are repetitive but no moulds were used so each is unique. The fifth and final level has been nearly completely destroyed by the elements and there is a 16th century hole through the centre of the pyramid where the Spaniards paid locals to dig in to find treasure. The looters tunnel through the front centre of the pyramid is now used as a walkway for the tourists! Fortunately the looters dumped all their rubble in the front square covering all the decoration on the front of the pyramid and accidently preserving it from the elements. The rubble has been removed from about half of the square revealing images of dancers, warriors, their captives and the deities. Of course they will never be able to find out what all the old levels are like because in order to investigate each level you have to destroy the level above, but that which has been exposed is incredible, you can just imagine how awesome it must have been in those early times.
There is evidence of ritual sacrifice with around 87 decapitated skeletons just on the top level, and also of burials of the important priests or kings with grave goods for the after life.
Out, between the two temples (of the sun and the moon) the excavation continues of the Moche city with evidence of metal work, ceramics,trade with mountain tribes, agriculture, weaving and water canals bringing water in from the Moche river. Here there are also people buried with grave goods, but of a much lower standing than those in the temple.
A tad awestruck we left to find our way back to Huanchaco. We stopped at the Chimu museum near Chan Chan, which had been closed yesterday, and met a couple more Peruvian hairless dogs. It was an interesting museum about the rise of the different cultures in the area. The theories at the moment about the fall of the Moche and the rise of the Chimu are either that there were a few drought years that forced the Moche to abandon their city, or, that there was a change in the beliefs so that human sacrifice was no longer acceptable (there is no evidence of it in the Chimu culture), though they do know, from genetic testing, that the Chimu are descendents of the Moche and that there are many people in the area that are descendents still.
The museum had examples of pottery and textiles from each of the eras showing a definite refinement in technique from plain, through symetric designs to detailed depictions of daily life or deities.
One thing that did strike me about their beliefs about their world was that they thought it was semicircular (like a small bowl sitting on the side). This semicircle was filled with water with the dry land floating on the top, then above this was the sky, the stars, the sun and the moon. It seems so much more advanced than our earlier thoughts that the world was flat.... they seemed to take into account that the sea was deep and that if you dig down there is water in the earth.
We have actually found some decent apples to eat which are crispy and a little sour, like Cox apples, delicious after our long apple drought through North America and Ecuador. So later we went down to the beach again, munching on apples as the sun was setting and taking some more amazing pictures as Tris built a tide trap and stacked stones for the waves to splash over.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
South to Peru
Fri/Sat 22/23 Jan 2010
So finally we are on our way. We left Quito at around 10am after finding out that there were yet more questions about how we were going to get the car returned to Ecuador from Chile. We had organised for a company to ship it from Santiago in Chile back to Quito, but just today they have said that they think there will be more costs because the car will be considered to be imported even though it is registered in Ecuador. No one here seems to be able to tell us what we need to do or how much anything will cost... yet more frustrations but we decided just to go anyway and try to sort something out later.
We left Quito heading south on the Panamerican highway. We had come back by the exact same route from Guayaquil but had arrived in the dark. This time we were able to see some fantastic views over the mountains to a snowcapped volcano that we assume is Cotopaxi but we couldn't confirm it because it didn't show up on our map. There are some serious road works going on through the mountains on the road West to Santo Domingo, suddenly you turn a corner and there are barrels in the road or a sudden drop in road level of a foot or so - quite terrifying. They are building some tunnels and also widening the winding mountain road, there are diggers balanced precariously on the edge of the cliffs and dumper trucks that appear out of nowhere. Then down, down along the edge of a river and into the heat of the coastal plain. South through endless banana plantations to Milagro where we stopped for the night. Milagro is the pineapple town of Ecuador so there were statues and pictures of pineapples everywhere. Apart from that there is not much nice to be said about Milagro. It is dirty and smelly, we looked for a bookstore to try to buy a road map of Peru but there is not one in the whole town! We wandered the streets after our 6 hours in the car but really found nothing of any note to tell you about.
On Saturday after a breakfast of drinking yoghurt and a bread roll we set off south towards the border. We got a little confused (as usual) due to the lack of road signs but we eventually found ourselves crossing a bridge that had a big sign over the top saying 'Welcome to Peru'. We hadn't even spotted any exit immigration offices on the Ecuador side and we had been warned that we must get a 'Permiso de Turismo' so that when the car comes back it will not be seen as an import. So we had to turn around and go into the border town of Huaquillas to find the immigration and customs offices. Of course they weren't anywhere near each other, nothing can be made simple here. So we filled out forms and queued at immigration to get our exit stamps and then drove through crowds and crowds of people to try and find the customs office. It was market day and the streets were full of stalls and men on bikes with huge trays of goods on the front. This is the main road to the border and it is completely blocked and soooooo frustrating. We had to get photocopies of this and that and the other, change money to Peruvian Soles at a street money changer and all in the crowds and the heat and the humidity. Finally we were ready to cross the border... we could have turned back and gone back over the first bridge we had gone over; but that would mean going back through the crowds; so we struggled onwards through more crowds and phut phut motorbike taxis that were overloaded with people and goods and that lurched without warning from one side to the other. At the Peruvian border control there was a little bit more of a sensible arrangement; at least the offices were right next to each other, first immigration and then some sort of transit police office to get a permission to drive in the country. Apart from the heat making it a very uncomfortable half hour it was all quite efficient and when we returned back to the car we found that we had been fumigated and had to pay for the pleasure, and also had to pay for having parked the car in front of the immigration office!!
We drove south with the sea at our right and high dunes at our left. The coastal region in Ecuador was so hot and humid but here it is hot and dry. No banana plantations, in fact very little vegetation at all, just shrubby bushes, very far apart and a few cacti. There are a lot of adobe structures and bamboo houses with leaf rooves, and towns that are strung out along the road but not a bank in sight. We stopped to get some petrol and found that it was about 3x the price than in Ecuador and we stopped for lunch and found that that too was really expensive compared to Ecuador, again about 3x the price. Finally after about 3 hours of driving we arrived in Mancara where we found a cashpoint that would accept our cards and a hotel (again about 3x the price of those in Ecuador) right on the beach. We went for a walk along the beach and watched crabs scuttling into their holes as we approached; huge waves crashed into the shore; lines of pelicans flew low over the water; frigate birds swooped over our heads on the wind; a huge fleet of fishing boats bobbed our at sea and then the sun dipped down behind a cliff at the end of the beach casting a red light over the whole scene - beautiful.
So finally we are on our way. We left Quito at around 10am after finding out that there were yet more questions about how we were going to get the car returned to Ecuador from Chile. We had organised for a company to ship it from Santiago in Chile back to Quito, but just today they have said that they think there will be more costs because the car will be considered to be imported even though it is registered in Ecuador. No one here seems to be able to tell us what we need to do or how much anything will cost... yet more frustrations but we decided just to go anyway and try to sort something out later.
We left Quito heading south on the Panamerican highway. We had come back by the exact same route from Guayaquil but had arrived in the dark. This time we were able to see some fantastic views over the mountains to a snowcapped volcano that we assume is Cotopaxi but we couldn't confirm it because it didn't show up on our map. There are some serious road works going on through the mountains on the road West to Santo Domingo, suddenly you turn a corner and there are barrels in the road or a sudden drop in road level of a foot or so - quite terrifying. They are building some tunnels and also widening the winding mountain road, there are diggers balanced precariously on the edge of the cliffs and dumper trucks that appear out of nowhere. Then down, down along the edge of a river and into the heat of the coastal plain. South through endless banana plantations to Milagro where we stopped for the night. Milagro is the pineapple town of Ecuador so there were statues and pictures of pineapples everywhere. Apart from that there is not much nice to be said about Milagro. It is dirty and smelly, we looked for a bookstore to try to buy a road map of Peru but there is not one in the whole town! We wandered the streets after our 6 hours in the car but really found nothing of any note to tell you about.
On Saturday after a breakfast of drinking yoghurt and a bread roll we set off south towards the border. We got a little confused (as usual) due to the lack of road signs but we eventually found ourselves crossing a bridge that had a big sign over the top saying 'Welcome to Peru'. We hadn't even spotted any exit immigration offices on the Ecuador side and we had been warned that we must get a 'Permiso de Turismo' so that when the car comes back it will not be seen as an import. So we had to turn around and go into the border town of Huaquillas to find the immigration and customs offices. Of course they weren't anywhere near each other, nothing can be made simple here. So we filled out forms and queued at immigration to get our exit stamps and then drove through crowds and crowds of people to try and find the customs office. It was market day and the streets were full of stalls and men on bikes with huge trays of goods on the front. This is the main road to the border and it is completely blocked and soooooo frustrating. We had to get photocopies of this and that and the other, change money to Peruvian Soles at a street money changer and all in the crowds and the heat and the humidity. Finally we were ready to cross the border... we could have turned back and gone back over the first bridge we had gone over; but that would mean going back through the crowds; so we struggled onwards through more crowds and phut phut motorbike taxis that were overloaded with people and goods and that lurched without warning from one side to the other. At the Peruvian border control there was a little bit more of a sensible arrangement; at least the offices were right next to each other, first immigration and then some sort of transit police office to get a permission to drive in the country. Apart from the heat making it a very uncomfortable half hour it was all quite efficient and when we returned back to the car we found that we had been fumigated and had to pay for the pleasure, and also had to pay for having parked the car in front of the immigration office!!
We drove south with the sea at our right and high dunes at our left. The coastal region in Ecuador was so hot and humid but here it is hot and dry. No banana plantations, in fact very little vegetation at all, just shrubby bushes, very far apart and a few cacti. There are a lot of adobe structures and bamboo houses with leaf rooves, and towns that are strung out along the road but not a bank in sight. We stopped to get some petrol and found that it was about 3x the price than in Ecuador and we stopped for lunch and found that that too was really expensive compared to Ecuador, again about 3x the price. Finally after about 3 hours of driving we arrived in Mancara where we found a cashpoint that would accept our cards and a hotel (again about 3x the price of those in Ecuador) right on the beach. We went for a walk along the beach and watched crabs scuttling into their holes as we approached; huge waves crashed into the shore; lines of pelicans flew low over the water; frigate birds swooped over our heads on the wind; a huge fleet of fishing boats bobbed our at sea and then the sun dipped down behind a cliff at the end of the beach casting a red light over the whole scene - beautiful.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
finally the papers are done!
Hoorah.
Finally on Monday the computer system in the Transit Police was up and running, but with a huge backlog of papers they warned us not to go until the following day. So Tuesday, after I had taught a couple of lessons in the school, off we went to finally get the papers for the car done. We had to pay the taxes for 2010 which meant half an hour queueing in the bank but apart from that the whole process was quite simple. And so, at last, we are able to leave the country and continue our journey south into Peru.
We decided to take one last trip down the river on the Wednesday; we drove the car along a dirt road down the river to within about a 5 minute boat ride of the rescue centre and then spent a good couple of hours at the centre. It was a great way to spend our last day in the jungle.
After much humming and harring we have decided to head south by heading north to Quito and then over to the coast. It is all rather a round about way but we made our decision based on news reports of the volcano, Tungarau, at Baños which has been erupting for the last few day and sending ash over about 100 sq miles of roads that we need to travel along (if we went that way). So, on Thursday we got up early and packed up the car and drove to Quito, only 4.5 hours this time, the car is running much better after her tune up and we know the road like the back of our hands!
Strange to be on the move again but we should be in Peru in a couple of days!
Finally on Monday the computer system in the Transit Police was up and running, but with a huge backlog of papers they warned us not to go until the following day. So Tuesday, after I had taught a couple of lessons in the school, off we went to finally get the papers for the car done. We had to pay the taxes for 2010 which meant half an hour queueing in the bank but apart from that the whole process was quite simple. And so, at last, we are able to leave the country and continue our journey south into Peru.
We decided to take one last trip down the river on the Wednesday; we drove the car along a dirt road down the river to within about a 5 minute boat ride of the rescue centre and then spent a good couple of hours at the centre. It was a great way to spend our last day in the jungle.
After much humming and harring we have decided to head south by heading north to Quito and then over to the coast. It is all rather a round about way but we made our decision based on news reports of the volcano, Tungarau, at Baños which has been erupting for the last few day and sending ash over about 100 sq miles of roads that we need to travel along (if we went that way). So, on Thursday we got up early and packed up the car and drove to Quito, only 4.5 hours this time, the car is running much better after her tune up and we know the road like the back of our hands!
Strange to be on the move again but we should be in Peru in a couple of days!
Saturday, 16 January 2010
still in Ecuador!
We stayed in Quito for about a week trying to get the papers for the car done. Every day we were told a different story. First they were going to be open the next day, then Thursday, then the 18th of January. We tried to keep ourselves busy. We went to a small reptile house which had examples of all the reptiles from Ecuador (of course Celso got annoyed that some of the signs were wrong!), but at least they are trying to inform people about the riches Ecuador has to offer.
We took the car to a Chevrolet dealer to give it a good service, breaks, revs etc, and we bought some baby clothes for Fabi (Celso's younger sister) who is due in about 3 months. But eventually Quito was too much for Celso to bear (the pollution) and we decided to do our waiting back in Misahualli.
Poor Tris suffered for a few days with a bad tummy but now we are having a lazy time in the heat of the jungle! I have been working in the town school as a volunteer English teacher and also giving free English lessons for an hour every afternoon in the town library. It is nice to have something to do to keep my mind off the heat and humidity! The kids here are not used to being asked to take part in the lessons, so when I give them a minute to discuss the answer to a question I have just posed some of them just sit in silence. They are used to just repeating what the teacher says and not actually being asked anything... however some of them have really made progress and can now ask and answer questions such as:- What is your name? Where do you live? Or where is the ...?
Tristan loves the monkeys in the square and the beach and goes down to see them daily, sometimes with some fruit or some water from the river in a bottle. You can see in the photos that they have taken to climbing on him and even have tried to groom him and remove his fleas!
Carmen's other chicken hatched out 5 healthy chicks and she left the nest. Carmen went in to check the other 20 or so eggs but only one had a live chick in it. We hatched him out and named him Bertie but he was very weak. We fed and looked after him in the day and put him under his mum with the other chicks at night. He was never able to walk or peck, we had to push food down him and sadly after 3 days he died. Tris was very upset about it but that is just the way it is.
Celso has been busy fixing up the house a bit; replacing the kitchen tap that leaked; digging the pond, which the ducks now adore, a bit bigger; repainting the statue of the virgin that is in the garden and, apparently, stops any robbers coming into the house because of their superstitions here. He has offered his services as a guide to some of the companies that work with tourists here. He has said that he will work for free, he just wants to go out in the jungle; but there haven't been any English speaking tourists here, just Ecuadorians; which is great, but not for Celso.
Hopefully next week we will be able to start our journey south through Peru to Chile. We have been told that the computer system that will allow us to change the car papers into my name will be up and running on Monday... don't hold your breath!
We took the car to a Chevrolet dealer to give it a good service, breaks, revs etc, and we bought some baby clothes for Fabi (Celso's younger sister) who is due in about 3 months. But eventually Quito was too much for Celso to bear (the pollution) and we decided to do our waiting back in Misahualli.
Poor Tris suffered for a few days with a bad tummy but now we are having a lazy time in the heat of the jungle! I have been working in the town school as a volunteer English teacher and also giving free English lessons for an hour every afternoon in the town library. It is nice to have something to do to keep my mind off the heat and humidity! The kids here are not used to being asked to take part in the lessons, so when I give them a minute to discuss the answer to a question I have just posed some of them just sit in silence. They are used to just repeating what the teacher says and not actually being asked anything... however some of them have really made progress and can now ask and answer questions such as:- What is your name? Where do you live? Or where is the ...?
Tristan loves the monkeys in the square and the beach and goes down to see them daily, sometimes with some fruit or some water from the river in a bottle. You can see in the photos that they have taken to climbing on him and even have tried to groom him and remove his fleas!
Carmen's other chicken hatched out 5 healthy chicks and she left the nest. Carmen went in to check the other 20 or so eggs but only one had a live chick in it. We hatched him out and named him Bertie but he was very weak. We fed and looked after him in the day and put him under his mum with the other chicks at night. He was never able to walk or peck, we had to push food down him and sadly after 3 days he died. Tris was very upset about it but that is just the way it is.
Celso has been busy fixing up the house a bit; replacing the kitchen tap that leaked; digging the pond, which the ducks now adore, a bit bigger; repainting the statue of the virgin that is in the garden and, apparently, stops any robbers coming into the house because of their superstitions here. He has offered his services as a guide to some of the companies that work with tourists here. He has said that he will work for free, he just wants to go out in the jungle; but there haven't been any English speaking tourists here, just Ecuadorians; which is great, but not for Celso.
Hopefully next week we will be able to start our journey south through Peru to Chile. We have been told that the computer system that will allow us to change the car papers into my name will be up and running on Monday... don't hold your breath!
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Guayaquil
1st & 2nd January 2010
The journey over the mountains from Cuenca to Guayaquil was probably one of the most beautiful journeys we have taken in Ecuador. The road was really good (which made a real change) and the views as we crossed the mountains were spectacular. I'm convinced that it was at least as stunning as anything I have seen in Switzerland or Italy etc.
As we started the climb up into the mountains we stopped to have a breakfast of Humitas and Maize pancakes, the best we have had, and then it was up, up, up into the mountains.
We passed through Las Cajas National Park at the top of the mountains. We were warned as we entered that we had half an hour to get through the park and out the other side (14km) or we would be charged an entrance fee for the park. We were given a time stamped ticket and so we charged through, but we managed to stop and take some pictures of the lakes at the top with llamas sitting around - just a fantastic sight.
Then down and down the other side of the mountains through amazing cloud forest and huge 'Jurrasic Park' ferns, down into the humidity and the heat of the coastal region. There were large canals along the edge of the road with large hawks sitting eyeing their territory, each being about 200m apart.
As we drove into Guayaquil we drove straight past the hotel that mum would be staying in on the 2nd before her flight to the Galapagos and, directly behind the hotel, we could see the spires of the Cathedral, a place I particularly wanted to visit due to my memories of the Iguanas that lived in the park infront of the church.
So we did a loop around a couple of blocks and found a hotel to stay in that started on the 7th floor of a multi-storey car park. It was a little more expensive than we were used to paying but it had air conditioning which was a real necessity, and internet access, it was close to where we wanted to be and had secure parking for the car.
We dropped off our bags and went to visit the park. What a treat, even better than I remembered, there are free living giant iguanas just roaming around or lazing in the trees. We spent nearly an hour watching and photographing them along with the turtles, fish and tortoises that also inhabit one corner of the park. Then into the coolness of the church (again too gaudy for my liking) through beggars around the gates who send their children to tug on your shirts and look up at you with their big dark eyes asking for money.
We then wandered down to the waterfront. Guayaquil is a coastal port which sits on a huge tidal estuary that is covered in water hyacinth. Most of the imports and exports to and from Ecuador pass through here so it is quite affluent in some places, but with a large number of poor too. It was quite a contrast to Cuenca with its pleasant climate and cleanliness, to this hot and humid place with rubbish strewn about the streets. But the waterfront area had been kept quite clean and we stopped in a mall to eat some lunch there overlooking the water with a tourist boat plying its trade up and down the river.
We were all a bit overwhelmed by the heat so after wandering through a covered market we returned to sit in our air conditioned room and have showers. At around 5pm mum and I returned to visit the Iguanas again as it was much cooler and later we went out for a meal in a rather expensive restaurant, but it was all that we could find open.
The next morning we emerged to face the heat again from our air conditioned room. We went to buy some lettuce, brocolli, cucumber and bananas and returned to the iguanas once more armed with our booty. They loved it, they ate out of our hands and tried to swallow more than was possible. Their favourite was the bananas which they would climb one atop the other to reach. Fantastically beautifully ugly creatures, and each with such a distinct personality.... just a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours.
Then we took mum round to her posh hotel (from where she will travel to the airport to go to the Galapagos tomorrow) and said our farewells. We left Guayaquil at noon for an 8 hour drive back to Quito. It took us a while to leave the city in the right direction because there were absolutely no signs; then we passed through huge swathes of banana plantations, groves of balsa and palm trees and all the time the humidity pressing in around us. There are lots of houses on stilts in this region due to frequent flooding but not much water was evident due to the recent droughts. However, the cattle, that have been dying in their hundreds during the drought, all looked quite healthy, they are the Indian kind with the humps on the back of their necks and always seem to be surrounded by flocks of small white egrets.
After heading north along the coastal plain for about 5 hours we started the climb up into the mountains along a winding road that followed a river. As we drove many small flocks of the white egrets flew past us in the other direction and the river tumbled over huge stones by the side of the road. It was quite spectacular but lots of people were returning to Quito after the holidays so the traffic was quite bad. We travelled in long queues behind the really slow lorries climbing the hills whilst maniac drivers whizzed past us on the wrong side of the road around blind corners. How there weren't accidents I don't know but we witnessed 2 very close shaves.
When we got to Quito I recognised one of the street names on a signpost and we were lucky enough to find an easy route down to the flat... amazing. We rang mum to check she was ok and then just lazed about for the rest of the evening... it's so nice not to be in a hotel, you really appreciate the ease of making a cup of tea or getting a snack after you have been living in hotels for a while.
Now all that remains for us to do is get the car papers sorted out... I'm sure that will be another saga in itself!
The journey over the mountains from Cuenca to Guayaquil was probably one of the most beautiful journeys we have taken in Ecuador. The road was really good (which made a real change) and the views as we crossed the mountains were spectacular. I'm convinced that it was at least as stunning as anything I have seen in Switzerland or Italy etc.
As we started the climb up into the mountains we stopped to have a breakfast of Humitas and Maize pancakes, the best we have had, and then it was up, up, up into the mountains.
We passed through Las Cajas National Park at the top of the mountains. We were warned as we entered that we had half an hour to get through the park and out the other side (14km) or we would be charged an entrance fee for the park. We were given a time stamped ticket and so we charged through, but we managed to stop and take some pictures of the lakes at the top with llamas sitting around - just a fantastic sight.
Then down and down the other side of the mountains through amazing cloud forest and huge 'Jurrasic Park' ferns, down into the humidity and the heat of the coastal region. There were large canals along the edge of the road with large hawks sitting eyeing their territory, each being about 200m apart.
As we drove into Guayaquil we drove straight past the hotel that mum would be staying in on the 2nd before her flight to the Galapagos and, directly behind the hotel, we could see the spires of the Cathedral, a place I particularly wanted to visit due to my memories of the Iguanas that lived in the park infront of the church.
So we did a loop around a couple of blocks and found a hotel to stay in that started on the 7th floor of a multi-storey car park. It was a little more expensive than we were used to paying but it had air conditioning which was a real necessity, and internet access, it was close to where we wanted to be and had secure parking for the car.
We dropped off our bags and went to visit the park. What a treat, even better than I remembered, there are free living giant iguanas just roaming around or lazing in the trees. We spent nearly an hour watching and photographing them along with the turtles, fish and tortoises that also inhabit one corner of the park. Then into the coolness of the church (again too gaudy for my liking) through beggars around the gates who send their children to tug on your shirts and look up at you with their big dark eyes asking for money.
We then wandered down to the waterfront. Guayaquil is a coastal port which sits on a huge tidal estuary that is covered in water hyacinth. Most of the imports and exports to and from Ecuador pass through here so it is quite affluent in some places, but with a large number of poor too. It was quite a contrast to Cuenca with its pleasant climate and cleanliness, to this hot and humid place with rubbish strewn about the streets. But the waterfront area had been kept quite clean and we stopped in a mall to eat some lunch there overlooking the water with a tourist boat plying its trade up and down the river.
We were all a bit overwhelmed by the heat so after wandering through a covered market we returned to sit in our air conditioned room and have showers. At around 5pm mum and I returned to visit the Iguanas again as it was much cooler and later we went out for a meal in a rather expensive restaurant, but it was all that we could find open.
The next morning we emerged to face the heat again from our air conditioned room. We went to buy some lettuce, brocolli, cucumber and bananas and returned to the iguanas once more armed with our booty. They loved it, they ate out of our hands and tried to swallow more than was possible. Their favourite was the bananas which they would climb one atop the other to reach. Fantastically beautifully ugly creatures, and each with such a distinct personality.... just a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours.
Then we took mum round to her posh hotel (from where she will travel to the airport to go to the Galapagos tomorrow) and said our farewells. We left Guayaquil at noon for an 8 hour drive back to Quito. It took us a while to leave the city in the right direction because there were absolutely no signs; then we passed through huge swathes of banana plantations, groves of balsa and palm trees and all the time the humidity pressing in around us. There are lots of houses on stilts in this region due to frequent flooding but not much water was evident due to the recent droughts. However, the cattle, that have been dying in their hundreds during the drought, all looked quite healthy, they are the Indian kind with the humps on the back of their necks and always seem to be surrounded by flocks of small white egrets.
After heading north along the coastal plain for about 5 hours we started the climb up into the mountains along a winding road that followed a river. As we drove many small flocks of the white egrets flew past us in the other direction and the river tumbled over huge stones by the side of the road. It was quite spectacular but lots of people were returning to Quito after the holidays so the traffic was quite bad. We travelled in long queues behind the really slow lorries climbing the hills whilst maniac drivers whizzed past us on the wrong side of the road around blind corners. How there weren't accidents I don't know but we witnessed 2 very close shaves.
When we got to Quito I recognised one of the street names on a signpost and we were lucky enough to find an easy route down to the flat... amazing. We rang mum to check she was ok and then just lazed about for the rest of the evening... it's so nice not to be in a hotel, you really appreciate the ease of making a cup of tea or getting a snack after you have been living in hotels for a while.
Now all that remains for us to do is get the car papers sorted out... I'm sure that will be another saga in itself!
Cuenca at New Year
From Inga Pirca it was about another hour to Cuenca. We passed loads of people selling or carrying 'Ano Viejos' (Old Years). These are a bit like Guys that we burn on bonfire night. People make up models that resemble someone they know. They write a 'Testimonio', a will (that's what it translates to but it isn't really like a will at all), that is like a whole load of new years resolutions. At midnight when we would all be singing Auld Langsyne (spelling?) they will burn the Ano Viejo and drink a toast.
As we arrived in Cuenca it started to rain and it was getting dark so we couldn't appreciate the city until the next day. There seems to be some sort of civic pride that we haven't noticed in other places, the streets are clean, there is no grafitti and people don't drop rubbish. People greet each other in the streets and there is no pushing or shoving. The air is clean and the climate is warm, but not too hot. The buildings and the roads are well maintained and it is just ... lovely, calm, refreshing.
The architecture here is very Spanish with some very fancy buildings.. you can see some examples in the first couple of photos. The Cathedral was an amazing building but, for me, the inside was spoilt by a huge gaudy statue of the pope and the many blood strewn statues of Christ on the cross. In another church (where I didn't take any photos as a service was in progress) the altar was adorned with flashing coloured stars like gaudy Christmas tree lights - very strange.
We at last found a place with a good internet connection and managed to upload nearly a thousand photos (both mine and my mums) whilst sitting sipping English tea, glasses of wine or cokes... all so very civilized!
New Years eve was a real treat. Everybody was out in the traditional clothes, kids had been dressed up to parade in the streets and there were lots of fantastic people to photograph as they also watched the parades. Not much to say about it really, you just have to look at the photos to appreciate the variety in the traditional dress from the different regions. Later in the evening there was lots of singing and dancing in the streets and the burning of the Ano Viejos. Loads of people were out and about but in lots of small groups, nothing like Trafalgar Square with throngs of people and all a bit dangerous. Of course there was lots of drinking going on but it was all very good natured and we didn't see or hear of any trouble. The only dangerous thing was the fireworks and crackers that all the kids have. Some had hand held tubes that fired out firework stars about every 5 seconds. These flew across the roads, mostly into the air, but were occassionally misdirected into other groups of people. I'm sure there must have been some injuries.
All in all I think Cuenca would be the sort of place that I could live if we came back here, but I'm sure that Celso would prefer to be near the jungle - the climate in Cuenca is just so much easier to bear!
We left by about 9:30am on New Year's day to head for Guayaquil.
As we arrived in Cuenca it started to rain and it was getting dark so we couldn't appreciate the city until the next day. There seems to be some sort of civic pride that we haven't noticed in other places, the streets are clean, there is no grafitti and people don't drop rubbish. People greet each other in the streets and there is no pushing or shoving. The air is clean and the climate is warm, but not too hot. The buildings and the roads are well maintained and it is just ... lovely, calm, refreshing.
The architecture here is very Spanish with some very fancy buildings.. you can see some examples in the first couple of photos. The Cathedral was an amazing building but, for me, the inside was spoilt by a huge gaudy statue of the pope and the many blood strewn statues of Christ on the cross. In another church (where I didn't take any photos as a service was in progress) the altar was adorned with flashing coloured stars like gaudy Christmas tree lights - very strange.
We at last found a place with a good internet connection and managed to upload nearly a thousand photos (both mine and my mums) whilst sitting sipping English tea, glasses of wine or cokes... all so very civilized!
New Years eve was a real treat. Everybody was out in the traditional clothes, kids had been dressed up to parade in the streets and there were lots of fantastic people to photograph as they also watched the parades. Not much to say about it really, you just have to look at the photos to appreciate the variety in the traditional dress from the different regions. Later in the evening there was lots of singing and dancing in the streets and the burning of the Ano Viejos. Loads of people were out and about but in lots of small groups, nothing like Trafalgar Square with throngs of people and all a bit dangerous. Of course there was lots of drinking going on but it was all very good natured and we didn't see or hear of any trouble. The only dangerous thing was the fireworks and crackers that all the kids have. Some had hand held tubes that fired out firework stars about every 5 seconds. These flew across the roads, mostly into the air, but were occassionally misdirected into other groups of people. I'm sure there must have been some injuries.
All in all I think Cuenca would be the sort of place that I could live if we came back here, but I'm sure that Celso would prefer to be near the jungle - the climate in Cuenca is just so much easier to bear!
We left by about 9:30am on New Year's day to head for Guayaquil.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
heading south to Alausi
Tuesday 29th
Everybody was up early to get ready for their departures. Rebecca, Karina, Pablo, Darwin and O'mara were all going on the 8:30 am bus to Quito so we got them ready first and after long goodbyes they were off. Then mum, Tris, Celso and I packed up our car and set off too. We are a bit cramped in the car but it will only be for a few days until we drop mum in Guayaquill on the 2nd.
We drove back to Banos, stopping on the way to eat brunch. Mum was map reading for the road beyond Banos. We had to turn left about 5 miles past Banos to go to Riobamba but a left turn never materialised, instead we drove through loads of dust and an incredible amount of work going on both on and around the roads. After about half an hour we reached a town that was definately on the wrong road... we had headed North out of Banos rather than South. We stopped at a garage to ask for directions to be told that the road we had been looking for no longer existed. A volcanic eruption of Tungarhua about 7 years ago had completely covered the road, it had not been recovered and was probably never likely to be due to continued volcanic activity. So now we had to continue our route North with about an 80 km detour via Ambato. The road was terrible but there was loads of work going on to try to improve the situation, I don't know whether the road condition was due to the volcanoe or just bad maintenance. The Ecuadorian drivers are just crazy, they overtake on blind corners taking theirs, and everyone around thems, lives into their manic hands!
On the map the roads look fairly direct and the distances look fairly short but in reality the roads curve their way around the mountains and we went up and down and up and down so we finally reached our destination - Alausi - at around 6pm whilst all the animals were being driven down off the hillside to where ever they were going to spend the night. We had passed up and over the Alps again with amazing views across patchwork quilt mountains where all the little fields were either tilled or planted with an amazing variety of colours. The sad thing is the lack of trees and the incredible dryness of some areas.
We had come to Alausi to see if we could do the 'Devil's Nose' which is rated as one of the 7 best train rides in the world as the train climbs out of Alausi over a mountain by completing a series of switchbacks. This is the 3rd time I have been here to attempt the journey, the first time 14 years ago the train tracks had been damaged by an earthquake and whilst I was there I had the worst case of diahorrea ever and so my memories of Alausi are not that favourable! The nest time was about 13.5 years ago but still the track had not been repaired. This time the train wasn't running but some replacement tram like buses that ran on the rails were.... but they were fully booked for 2 weeks in advance so again my plans were foiled!
Never mind, we found a hotel and decided to carry on South the next day.
Early on the 30th we spent a half day wandering around Alausi which was full of people of various indigenous tribes who had come into town to visit the market. Only the women seem to continue to wear the traditional dress, though we saw a couple of boys with the traditional ponchos. The men used to wear leather trousers still complete with fur so I assume that it is just too inconvenient to continue wearing them. Anyway we had a fabulous couple of hours snapping like Paparazzi before we set off south again for Cuenca.
Again the road looked really short on the map but our route took us winding through the mountains. We passed loads of people in the fields, some ploughing with pairs of cows or oxen. The men seemed to e doing all the ploughing and the women followed behind planting the seed. There were some lovely green patches but also some areas that looked so dry it would seem impossible to grow anything. The views over the mountains were breathtaking. After about 2 hours we found a sign to IngaPirca (the most northerly Inca site of note) and travelled 12km along a twisting, bumpy and mainly unpaved road to reach the site.
The original occupants of the site were the Canares (meant to be spelt with and enye) who were here from 500BC (at least) and were worshippers of the moon. They had lunar calendars which were huge stones with 28 holes drilled into them. It is believed that seeds were placed in the holes and when they sprouted it indicated the date on which crops should be sown or harvested. Many Ecuadorians still use the phases of the moon to indicate when to sow or harvest crops, and when to chop wood for various different uses. The Canares built their structures from stones taken from rivers or found on the land and built eliptical structures. A series of their circular storage pits still remain with built in ventilation channels, but the structures over the tops were all natural plant material and so of course there is no sign of them. There are not many trees at this altitude so they used the long shoots that come out of a cactus like plant to build all their structures, (I have some photos of these from Otavalo) and the plant itself to make string for tying down roof beams and thatch (this plant is still used to make string today).
On site there was a tree with beautiful bell shaped flowers which were, drug, medicine or poison, depending on how you used them (and still used today by Shaman).
Around 1000AD the Inca came North out of Peru to this area to try to conquer the Canares. A 30 year war was fought before they decided to coexist peacefully. So opposite the Canares' temple to the moon the Inca built a temple to the sun. The construction is so completely different with the Incan cut rocks (all had to be of a certain height but the width didn't seem to matter). The stones all fit beautifully together but noone knows how they cut the rocks so precisely as the Incas only had gold and bronze and neither of these metals would be strong enough to cut stone, one theory is that they used some sort of acid treatment.
Below the temple are loads of stones from the temple that have been recovered from local villages where they have been robbed over the years and used for buildings. It means of course that we don't know the true structure of the temple... there is only one original wall remaining (the front of the temple) the rest are attempted reconstruction with the recovered stone... but it shows how skillful the Inca were as the modern reconstruction just isn't up to standard.
The whole site was abandoned when the Conquistadors arrived, and their treatment of the locals meant that the knowledge of many of the techniques used was not passed on, so much of the information that we were told is speculation.
Everybody was up early to get ready for their departures. Rebecca, Karina, Pablo, Darwin and O'mara were all going on the 8:30 am bus to Quito so we got them ready first and after long goodbyes they were off. Then mum, Tris, Celso and I packed up our car and set off too. We are a bit cramped in the car but it will only be for a few days until we drop mum in Guayaquill on the 2nd.
We drove back to Banos, stopping on the way to eat brunch. Mum was map reading for the road beyond Banos. We had to turn left about 5 miles past Banos to go to Riobamba but a left turn never materialised, instead we drove through loads of dust and an incredible amount of work going on both on and around the roads. After about half an hour we reached a town that was definately on the wrong road... we had headed North out of Banos rather than South. We stopped at a garage to ask for directions to be told that the road we had been looking for no longer existed. A volcanic eruption of Tungarhua about 7 years ago had completely covered the road, it had not been recovered and was probably never likely to be due to continued volcanic activity. So now we had to continue our route North with about an 80 km detour via Ambato. The road was terrible but there was loads of work going on to try to improve the situation, I don't know whether the road condition was due to the volcanoe or just bad maintenance. The Ecuadorian drivers are just crazy, they overtake on blind corners taking theirs, and everyone around thems, lives into their manic hands!
On the map the roads look fairly direct and the distances look fairly short but in reality the roads curve their way around the mountains and we went up and down and up and down so we finally reached our destination - Alausi - at around 6pm whilst all the animals were being driven down off the hillside to where ever they were going to spend the night. We had passed up and over the Alps again with amazing views across patchwork quilt mountains where all the little fields were either tilled or planted with an amazing variety of colours. The sad thing is the lack of trees and the incredible dryness of some areas.
We had come to Alausi to see if we could do the 'Devil's Nose' which is rated as one of the 7 best train rides in the world as the train climbs out of Alausi over a mountain by completing a series of switchbacks. This is the 3rd time I have been here to attempt the journey, the first time 14 years ago the train tracks had been damaged by an earthquake and whilst I was there I had the worst case of diahorrea ever and so my memories of Alausi are not that favourable! The nest time was about 13.5 years ago but still the track had not been repaired. This time the train wasn't running but some replacement tram like buses that ran on the rails were.... but they were fully booked for 2 weeks in advance so again my plans were foiled!
Never mind, we found a hotel and decided to carry on South the next day.
Early on the 30th we spent a half day wandering around Alausi which was full of people of various indigenous tribes who had come into town to visit the market. Only the women seem to continue to wear the traditional dress, though we saw a couple of boys with the traditional ponchos. The men used to wear leather trousers still complete with fur so I assume that it is just too inconvenient to continue wearing them. Anyway we had a fabulous couple of hours snapping like Paparazzi before we set off south again for Cuenca.
Again the road looked really short on the map but our route took us winding through the mountains. We passed loads of people in the fields, some ploughing with pairs of cows or oxen. The men seemed to e doing all the ploughing and the women followed behind planting the seed. There were some lovely green patches but also some areas that looked so dry it would seem impossible to grow anything. The views over the mountains were breathtaking. After about 2 hours we found a sign to IngaPirca (the most northerly Inca site of note) and travelled 12km along a twisting, bumpy and mainly unpaved road to reach the site.
The original occupants of the site were the Canares (meant to be spelt with and enye) who were here from 500BC (at least) and were worshippers of the moon. They had lunar calendars which were huge stones with 28 holes drilled into them. It is believed that seeds were placed in the holes and when they sprouted it indicated the date on which crops should be sown or harvested. Many Ecuadorians still use the phases of the moon to indicate when to sow or harvest crops, and when to chop wood for various different uses. The Canares built their structures from stones taken from rivers or found on the land and built eliptical structures. A series of their circular storage pits still remain with built in ventilation channels, but the structures over the tops were all natural plant material and so of course there is no sign of them. There are not many trees at this altitude so they used the long shoots that come out of a cactus like plant to build all their structures, (I have some photos of these from Otavalo) and the plant itself to make string for tying down roof beams and thatch (this plant is still used to make string today).
On site there was a tree with beautiful bell shaped flowers which were, drug, medicine or poison, depending on how you used them (and still used today by Shaman).
Around 1000AD the Inca came North out of Peru to this area to try to conquer the Canares. A 30 year war was fought before they decided to coexist peacefully. So opposite the Canares' temple to the moon the Inca built a temple to the sun. The construction is so completely different with the Incan cut rocks (all had to be of a certain height but the width didn't seem to matter). The stones all fit beautifully together but noone knows how they cut the rocks so precisely as the Incas only had gold and bronze and neither of these metals would be strong enough to cut stone, one theory is that they used some sort of acid treatment.
Below the temple are loads of stones from the temple that have been recovered from local villages where they have been robbed over the years and used for buildings. It means of course that we don't know the true structure of the temple... there is only one original wall remaining (the front of the temple) the rest are attempted reconstruction with the recovered stone... but it shows how skillful the Inca were as the modern reconstruction just isn't up to standard.
The whole site was abandoned when the Conquistadors arrived, and their treatment of the locals meant that the knowledge of many of the techniques used was not passed on, so much of the information that we were told is speculation.
Last day in Misahualli
Monday 28th
Mum and I went on one final walk over the bridge over the Napo river on the road to Shirapuno. It was amazing to still be seeing new creatures, new types of butterflies and spiders, some of the biggest dragon flies you could imagine, turtles (that slipped into the water before we had a chance to photo them), and the most enormous eyed soldier ants of the leafcutter tribe (I think). (The photos from this walk are in with some of the others so that all the creepy crawlies are together)
Then back to the house to pack and get ready for our departure tomorrow. We seem to have gained an incredible amount of stuff since we started out with our two rucksacks! We packed up one of mum's bags with stuff to be taken back to Quito by Rebecca and Karina, some of the stuff that mum bought in Otavalo, some stuff that she will take home for us, and some stuff that we will collect when we return to Quito to get the car papers finally sorted out.
Around 4pm we all went down to the beach to try and cool off. The monkeys were all down there too in really playful mood and we got some fabulous photos. We also tried to recreate a photo that I took about 10 years ago of Celso and Tristan standing on a rock looking down the river.
Again in the evening we played cards and games until well after midnight.
Mum and I went on one final walk over the bridge over the Napo river on the road to Shirapuno. It was amazing to still be seeing new creatures, new types of butterflies and spiders, some of the biggest dragon flies you could imagine, turtles (that slipped into the water before we had a chance to photo them), and the most enormous eyed soldier ants of the leafcutter tribe (I think). (The photos from this walk are in with some of the others so that all the creepy crawlies are together)
Then back to the house to pack and get ready for our departure tomorrow. We seem to have gained an incredible amount of stuff since we started out with our two rucksacks! We packed up one of mum's bags with stuff to be taken back to Quito by Rebecca and Karina, some of the stuff that mum bought in Otavalo, some stuff that she will take home for us, and some stuff that we will collect when we return to Quito to get the car papers finally sorted out.
Around 4pm we all went down to the beach to try and cool off. The monkeys were all down there too in really playful mood and we got some fabulous photos. We also tried to recreate a photo that I took about 10 years ago of Celso and Tristan standing on a rock looking down the river.
Again in the evening we played cards and games until well after midnight.
More Misahualli stuff
We are now in Guayaquil and I'm still trying to catch up with all the blog - which is well behind the time and probably out of order but I have been writing the blog in a word document so hopefully I haven't missed anything major!
Happy New Year
Trip to the Cascadas with Karina, Juan Carlos and Darwin (some of Celso's cousins who had come to stay with their granny (Carmen) for Christmas.
We took the bus about 3 miles down the road to Tena and got off to start our walk to the Cascadas (which simply translates as waterfalls). It had been raining and so the track was very slippery. The owners of the land are making an effort to make the walk accessible so that they can charge, but they have pathed the first part of the path with stones that are so slippery when wet that the going was incredibly slow!
The river below the falls has cut through the rock in a thin gorge (only about a metre deep) through which the river rushes. When there is less water it looks a bit like a bobsleigh run with incredibly smooth sides.
It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the waterfalls which fall into a large pool surrounded by rock covered in the most gorgeous ferns. Of course we had seen more amazing creepy crawlies on the way, including numerous colourful fungi, milipedes and butterflies.
Celso and Juan Carlos made us an excellent lunch on the rocks below the pool from ingredients that they had carried in and then some of the guys who were working on the path came passed and we were able to climb an incredibly slippery ladder and walk through ankle deep mud back to the road. This path was closed off by a locked gate usually (I don't know why, perhaps because the owners of the land do not want to have to monitor 2 entrances to charge the $1 entrance fee). Mum was completely exhausted by the tramp through the mud but very happy to have experienced it!
We sat on the edge of the road waiting for a bus back to Misahualli and then had a game of baseball in the road with a stick and some fallen lemons!
The next day Rebeca (another of Celso's neices) and Pablo (a nephew) arrived and so we were 11 in the house (and O'mara the dog) with people camping on matresses on the floor in various places... and Filemon decided to move out of his room to sleep under the house in the shed!
Christmas day
Christmas day was hot, hot and humid. Mum and I had made a huge pass the parcel with a present for every one inside such as silly glasses, a Kazoo, or puzzle games. We got everyone together at around 11am to sit in a big circle, they were a little confused by the instructions but they got the hang of it after Celso and I had ripped off the first two layers of paper and found our 'gifts' inside! We then spent the next hour or so playing around with all the goodies... it is incredible how these little things are so adored by them as they normally don't get any presents at Christmas at all.
At around 1pm we all set off to go to a hotel down the road that had a swimming pool. We had an enormous beach ball and played volley ball and 'keepy uppy'. It was fabulously refreshing in the water (if a little slimey on the bottom!) and we continued our swim through a really heavy downpour with lightning cracking the sky in the distance.
On our return to the house we started to cook our Christmas meal of turkey, roast potatoes, carrots and brocolli. Celso and I nearly ruined the potatoes as, while we were par boiling them I suddenly remembered about Isangos!!! Isangos are tiny little red mites that catch on your clothes as you walk through grasses and then make their way up your body to anywhere with soft delicate skin, like round your groin or your boobs! Once they have found their ideal home they dig in and cause huge irritation. I was wondering why mosquitoes or aranillas had been managing to cause me such irritation when I was being so careful to keep myself covered..... but it was the wretched Isangos. Anyway... when I remembered about them I asked Celso to check out some of my itchy spots. He treated them with pure alcohol and then opulled out the little Bu......s with tweezers... and so that is how we nearly managed to ruin the potatoes!
We managed to fit all 11 of us round the table to eat. Mum had bought crackers which caused great confusion as, when we opened them in a huge continuous ring around the table, the contents flew out in all directions. The most prized items were mini magnetic chess sets, pens, nail clippers and one of those infuriating puzzle games made of two loops of metal that you have to connect together. Incredibly someone had managed to buy a decent bottle of wine (before the wine that we have managed to buy has been foul) and we also had a bottle of rum. A great meal was followed by some gifts which mum had brought from the UK for everyone. For Filemon a wind up radio (you've never seen anyone so pleased), for Carmen a wind up lantern and a bag, for Rebecca and Karina bags and little games, for Juan Carlos a pair of binoculars, for Darwin a pack of cards and an electronic reactions tester, for Pablo a potato clock and a kit to make an aeroplane and for Tristan a whole load of books and a clock that works on lemon juice! We had also bought Tshirts for everyone from California. They were all pleased as punch.
We played cards and puzzle games well into the night whilst Filamon sat out the front getting the hang of tuning his new radio!
Boxing Day.
Mum, Rebecca, Karina, Darwin and I headed into Tena to go to the market. We found some Chontas, in plastic bags rather than still on the branch, and bought both bags (all that there was!) Karina bought some fish and then we wandered the streets just looking at the comings and goings. Mum and I then went to an Internet cafe for about an hour but again the photo loading time of about 4 mins per photo was too slow to bear so eventually we gave up and returned to Misahualli.
Mum and I then did a load of washing... we are not very expert at the old handwashing bit but we do our best!
Tris and I went down into town to try and use the internet, Eduardo's was closed so we had to use the other place, but after an hour of sitting there waiting for things to load we gave up!
It was a lazy day
Sunday 27th
Mum and I decided to go for a walk along the beach in Misahualli to see what we could see. Again we found loads to look at, bugs and plants etc. The approx 2 mile walk along the river to where we had got into the inner tubes to float down the river in about 10 mins took us over 2 hours. We returned home hot and sticky but satisfied with our findings.
We then spent over 5 hours in Eduardo's Internet cafe loading on about 100 photos. We just had to sit and bear the wait otherwise we wer going to get so behind that it would be impossible to ever catch up. I am sure the load time is going to be pretty similar anywhere we go in Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia. Perhaps Chile will be better!
Happy New Year
Trip to the Cascadas with Karina, Juan Carlos and Darwin (some of Celso's cousins who had come to stay with their granny (Carmen) for Christmas.
We took the bus about 3 miles down the road to Tena and got off to start our walk to the Cascadas (which simply translates as waterfalls). It had been raining and so the track was very slippery. The owners of the land are making an effort to make the walk accessible so that they can charge, but they have pathed the first part of the path with stones that are so slippery when wet that the going was incredibly slow!
The river below the falls has cut through the rock in a thin gorge (only about a metre deep) through which the river rushes. When there is less water it looks a bit like a bobsleigh run with incredibly smooth sides.
It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the waterfalls which fall into a large pool surrounded by rock covered in the most gorgeous ferns. Of course we had seen more amazing creepy crawlies on the way, including numerous colourful fungi, milipedes and butterflies.
Celso and Juan Carlos made us an excellent lunch on the rocks below the pool from ingredients that they had carried in and then some of the guys who were working on the path came passed and we were able to climb an incredibly slippery ladder and walk through ankle deep mud back to the road. This path was closed off by a locked gate usually (I don't know why, perhaps because the owners of the land do not want to have to monitor 2 entrances to charge the $1 entrance fee). Mum was completely exhausted by the tramp through the mud but very happy to have experienced it!
We sat on the edge of the road waiting for a bus back to Misahualli and then had a game of baseball in the road with a stick and some fallen lemons!
The next day Rebeca (another of Celso's neices) and Pablo (a nephew) arrived and so we were 11 in the house (and O'mara the dog) with people camping on matresses on the floor in various places... and Filemon decided to move out of his room to sleep under the house in the shed!
Christmas day
Christmas day was hot, hot and humid. Mum and I had made a huge pass the parcel with a present for every one inside such as silly glasses, a Kazoo, or puzzle games. We got everyone together at around 11am to sit in a big circle, they were a little confused by the instructions but they got the hang of it after Celso and I had ripped off the first two layers of paper and found our 'gifts' inside! We then spent the next hour or so playing around with all the goodies... it is incredible how these little things are so adored by them as they normally don't get any presents at Christmas at all.
At around 1pm we all set off to go to a hotel down the road that had a swimming pool. We had an enormous beach ball and played volley ball and 'keepy uppy'. It was fabulously refreshing in the water (if a little slimey on the bottom!) and we continued our swim through a really heavy downpour with lightning cracking the sky in the distance.
On our return to the house we started to cook our Christmas meal of turkey, roast potatoes, carrots and brocolli. Celso and I nearly ruined the potatoes as, while we were par boiling them I suddenly remembered about Isangos!!! Isangos are tiny little red mites that catch on your clothes as you walk through grasses and then make their way up your body to anywhere with soft delicate skin, like round your groin or your boobs! Once they have found their ideal home they dig in and cause huge irritation. I was wondering why mosquitoes or aranillas had been managing to cause me such irritation when I was being so careful to keep myself covered..... but it was the wretched Isangos. Anyway... when I remembered about them I asked Celso to check out some of my itchy spots. He treated them with pure alcohol and then opulled out the little Bu......s with tweezers... and so that is how we nearly managed to ruin the potatoes!
We managed to fit all 11 of us round the table to eat. Mum had bought crackers which caused great confusion as, when we opened them in a huge continuous ring around the table, the contents flew out in all directions. The most prized items were mini magnetic chess sets, pens, nail clippers and one of those infuriating puzzle games made of two loops of metal that you have to connect together. Incredibly someone had managed to buy a decent bottle of wine (before the wine that we have managed to buy has been foul) and we also had a bottle of rum. A great meal was followed by some gifts which mum had brought from the UK for everyone. For Filemon a wind up radio (you've never seen anyone so pleased), for Carmen a wind up lantern and a bag, for Rebecca and Karina bags and little games, for Juan Carlos a pair of binoculars, for Darwin a pack of cards and an electronic reactions tester, for Pablo a potato clock and a kit to make an aeroplane and for Tristan a whole load of books and a clock that works on lemon juice! We had also bought Tshirts for everyone from California. They were all pleased as punch.
We played cards and puzzle games well into the night whilst Filamon sat out the front getting the hang of tuning his new radio!
Boxing Day.
Mum, Rebecca, Karina, Darwin and I headed into Tena to go to the market. We found some Chontas, in plastic bags rather than still on the branch, and bought both bags (all that there was!) Karina bought some fish and then we wandered the streets just looking at the comings and goings. Mum and I then went to an Internet cafe for about an hour but again the photo loading time of about 4 mins per photo was too slow to bear so eventually we gave up and returned to Misahualli.
Mum and I then did a load of washing... we are not very expert at the old handwashing bit but we do our best!
Tris and I went down into town to try and use the internet, Eduardo's was closed so we had to use the other place, but after an hour of sitting there waiting for things to load we gave up!
It was a lazy day
Sunday 27th
Mum and I decided to go for a walk along the beach in Misahualli to see what we could see. Again we found loads to look at, bugs and plants etc. The approx 2 mile walk along the river to where we had got into the inner tubes to float down the river in about 10 mins took us over 2 hours. We returned home hot and sticky but satisfied with our findings.
We then spent over 5 hours in Eduardo's Internet cafe loading on about 100 photos. We just had to sit and bear the wait otherwise we wer going to get so behind that it would be impossible to ever catch up. I am sure the load time is going to be pretty similar anywhere we go in Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia. Perhaps Chile will be better!
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