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!
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