Peru & Ecuador, February 2008

( I took lots more pictures, posted here (Peru) and here (Ecuador). They are only some of the almost 700 I took in total! I couldn’t resist posting multiple shots of sea lions, iguanas, blue footed boobies, etc., so forgive the repetition. I just couldn’t decide which ones I liked best.) There are also some fabulous pictures that Alex, one of our naturalist guides, took using my friend's camera. Those shots are here.

To sum everything up in one or two sentences, the experience was hectic, exhausting, and absolutely wonderful, despite a few mishaps. I wouldn’t have skipped it for anything, even though, as you will see, there were some moments during the trip that were not particularly enjoyable in and of themselves.

My traveling companion and I began our trip two days earlier than the official start of the tour in order to spend a bit more time in Lima. Our plane was a couple of hours late in arriving, so it was around 2 AM when we finally arrived at our hotel. However, we were met at the airport by Ofelia, a representative of the travel agency, and she outlined two wonderful days of self-guided tours for us. Because we were not on any schedule other than our own, we slept in, ate leisurely breakfasts, and then set out for our adventures.

We hired a taxi driver at the hotel for the first day and he took us to Museo Larco, a private collection of beautiful pre-Columbian ceramic pieces from several cultures. One of the highlights of the exhibit is a gallery featuring erotic ceramics, depicting sexual encounters between men and women, humans and deities, living and dead. The explanation tells us that the people who produced these pieces view life, death and deity as continua of the same existence, overlapping and interacting. Some of the pieces were quite graphic, others very humorous.

Next we visited the Plaza Mayor, the center of the city, dominated by the Cathedral and government buildings. The buildings were impressive and the Cathedral is very beautiful, but we were struck by the presence of heavily armed police, including armored vehicles and what appeared to be assault weapons. That evening we found a restaurant just a few minutes walk from our hotel that served delicious ceviche.

Our itinerary for the second day started at Huaca Pucllana, an archaeological site dating back to the Lima people about 2000 years ago. It was only about 5-6minutes walk from the hotel, basically in the middle of the Miraflores residential neighborhood. We ran into another member of our tour group who had also chosen to arrive early and the three of us agreed to meet later for dinner at the same restaurant where we had enjoyed our ceviche.

My companion and I then set out for the rest of the walking tour, which took us to the Artisans’ Market about a 30 minutes walk away. We purchased most of our gifts for friends and acquired a few souvenirs for ourselves. Then we strolled down Avenida Larco to Larcomar, a complex on the shore containing shops, restaurants, park areas and play areas for children. It is very nicely designed and we found a pleasant bar overlooking the water where we relaxed with a cold drink and enjoyed the sea breeze before catching a taxi back to the hotel.

Dinner was delicious again, although it turned out the next day that I had apparently made an unwise choice. The rest of the group had arrived late at night and we all met for the first time after breakfast. Victor, our tour coordinator for Peru, gave us some useful information and we set off for our first activity, a visit to the Archaeological Museum where we saw more beautiful artifacts from the various pre-Columbian cultures that had inhabited the area. After lunch we went to the Plaza Mayor where we watched a big parade of mostly young people in stylized Indian costumes, marching, singing and dancing in celebration of La Virgen de la Candelaria. It was colorful and exciting, but part way through I began to feel the ill effects of the previous night’s ceviche. I am embarrassed to say that I was forced to leave a rather unpleasant “offering” in a secluded corner of the Cathedral steps. Once the episode was over, however, I felt better. When Victor realized that I had a sense of humor about it, he teased me (very gently) about my “contribution” to the festivities.

The next day we had a 2:45 AM wake-up call for our flight to Cusco and the Sacred Valley. At this time of year it seems that the Cusco airport is only open in the morning because the weather conditions make it impossible to take off or land later in the day. We were greeted at the airport with cups of coca tea to help us combat the ill effects of the 11,000 foot elevation. The combination of the earlier food issue plus the lack of sleep left me feeling less than 100%, but once we started walking around and seeing the incredible views I was OK, although I did take it very easy as far as what I ate (very little, lots of plain rice or bread, coca cola to settle things down a bit, etc.).

We visited an agricultural university where we learned about local crops and farming methods. The roads and building surrounding the university were in very poor condition, so much so that we had to get off our bus and walk along some very muddy stretches. Our lecturer said that the poor conditions were due to lack of support from the central government. We also visited a jewelry factory where we learned how the raw pure silver is turned into exquisite pieces of art. I managed to resist temptation, although all of the jewelry was gorgeous.

Finally we stopped at Pisac, a well-known Artisans’ Market in the Sacred Valley. I had already fulfilled a few of my personal shopping quests – a CD of Peruvian folkloric music, a book of Peruvian poetry and an adorable little owl made from a painted gourd, and at Pisac I found my last remaining treasure, a beautiful tapestry in red orange and brown tones on a black background. It is quite large and will fill the wall over my couch once I get it hung.

The next day’s wake-up was at 5 AM to catch the train to Machu Picchu. It was a comfortable and scenic ride, complete with a lovely box lunch and beautiful views of the countryside – not at all the scary ordeal I had been anticipating. (That would come later!)

Our hotel was literally across the street from the Urubamba, one of the rivers that eventually joins to become the Amazon. We had a lecture and slide show about Machu Picchu and the Inca Empire from Eddie Pizarro (no relation!), our local guide and then set off by bus to visit Machu Picchu. The ride up was what I had imagined the train ride would be – gorgeous scenery but some hair-raising heights that occasionally had me staring at the floor rather than looking out of the window. It began raining as we neared the site and we waited a bit for it to let up and then decided to go ahead with our visit, rain or not.

Machu Picchu is incredible, literally. It is difficult to believe how the people who built it managed to transport the huge rocks that make up the many building, hew the rocks so that they fit together perfectly without any mortar and design structures that have withstood centuries of weather, earthquakes and other natural forces – all without having developed the wheel and all without the use of metals other than gold, silver and copper, none of which are hard enough to hew granite. Each building and each site is more awe-inspiring that the last. Toward the end of our visit the sun came out and we had glorious panoramic views of the whole thing. There were a few places where I felt a little uncomfortable, but all in all it was not a scary as I had expected and I was mostly pretty comfortable walking around and negotiating the various paths, stairways, etc. There was one place where the group split and height-phobic among us took one route while the braver folks went up to a higher point where they had a different view. Needless to say, I took the low road.

Victor, our wonderful tour coordinator, rearranged our final day so that we had a free morning with no ungodly wake-up call. We roamed around the neighborhood a bit and then several of us accompanied Eddie to the Museo de Sitio about a half-hour walk from the hotel. The museum was interesting, with lots of information about the excavation of Machu Picchu and lots of information about the daily life of the people who built it, and the walk to the museum was beautiful.

In the afternoon we took a train to another archaeological site, Ollantaytambo. It is another marvel of engineering with multi-level terraces, structures designed to record the winter and summer solstices and a beautiful purification fountain. As at Machu Picchu, the engineering skill shown in this work is mind-boggling.

Later, when we arrived at our hotel in Cusco, we got a funny surprise. It turned out that we had been given a quadruple room – two full bedrooms with one bathroom! We didn’t really use the “spare room” but it was fun to know we had the space.

Cusco is a charming city. We did a lot of strolling around the main square, the Plaza de Armas, just around the corner from our hotel. Our schedule in Cusco was rearranged a bit because of a general strike. It seems that the government in Lima has passed a law that will allow foreign interests to build in Cusco very close to many important sites and there is concern about preserving the historical and cultural integrity of the area. The strikers were out in force by mid-morning, carrying signs saying “Cusco is not for sale” and making some rather uncomplimentary remarks about President Alan. However, the march and demonstration around the plaza was peaceful and most of us came out to watch, cheer the demonstrators on and take lots of interesting photos. Later in the morning we had a wonderful lecture and demonstration on Andean music, with a chance to see and hear many of the typical wind, percussion and string instruments, followed by a concert and dance performance.

At the end of the concert, the dancers pulled three of us up onto the floor to dance with them and I was one of the ones picked. The guy who picked me, wearing a funny/scary devil/monster mask, was a terrific partner and I was able to easily follow him through turns, spins, switches and crossovers. My personal bragging point for this trip may be that ALL of the musicians and several of the group members complimented me on being an excellent dancer. It was great fun and I discovered later that one of the hotel workers had used my camera to take a couple of good pictures of my partner and me strutting our stuff.

We finished the day with a visit to the Cathedral in Cusco and then three more smaller archeological sites, Qorikancha, Sacsayhuaman and Q’orinqo, led by a British author named Peter Frost who has written what some consider to be the definitive guide to Cusco. Qorikancha is a Dominican Cloister, built on the site of an Inca temple and incorporating much of the original Inca structure. It was a fascinating example of the way one culture built on top of another, both destroying and saving the original at the same time.

Our morning wake-up was at 4:45 for our flight to from Cusco to Lima where we said goodbye to Victor and Peru, and then on to Quito. By now lots of us were getting pretty grouchy from all the very early mornings and lack of sleep. Unfortunately the situation was not helped when we got to Lima and found out that our next flight was over three hours delayed. I think I can draw a map of the Lima airport from memory after all the time we spent wandering around to fill the time. By the time we got to Quito and cleared customs and immigration it was 6 PM – way too many hours after our wake-up call.. We got into our rooms and then met again in the lobby at 7:15 for an essentially useless bus tour of the old section of Quito, followed by a not very good dinner at a touristy restaurant. The consensus of the group was that our visit to Quito was a waste of time and energy. Even if we had arrived on time we would only have had a couple of hours more to see the city and still would have been too tired to enjoy it after our very early wake-up and two flights. It’s a shame, because I suspect that we would have enjoyed a day or two in the city under other circumstances. As it was, we didn’t get back to the hotel until nearly 11 PM with another 4:45 AM wake-up and a 5:45 departure for the Galápagos. This trip is not for the faint of heart! By now just about everyone was showing the effects, some with a sense of humor, some very grouchy, some just looking shell-shocked.

We arrived at the Galápagos Airport on Baltra Island at about 9:15 AM local time (one hour earlier than the rest of the trip) where we were met by Alex and Julian, our two naturalist guides who would be with us for the rest of the week. Entering the Galápagos requires passing through a fairly rigorous inspection to make sure that no invasive species or organic matter is being imported. The baggage compartments of the plane were sprayed before we landed and we were carefully questioned to make sure we weren’t carrying any fruit or other contraband. We had a short bus ride to the pier, where we saw our first sea lions lolling on the benches. We got a quick safety lesson about boarding the dinghies called pangas that would take us to the ship and would ferry us on our various excursions to the islands we’d be visiting, and then off we went.

Our daily schedule during this portion of the trip began with a charming wake-up call from our cruise director, Catalina, who greeted us each morning as “my dear friends” and eased us into the day. After breakfast we had a couple of hours excursion to whichever island we were visiting, sometimes a second optional activity (deep water snorkeling, a second walk, a beach visit, etc.). Lunch was around 12:30, followed by a siesta on most days, and then a second excursion to another location. Each evening at 7 PM we had a briefing with some information about the birds and animals, the formation of the islands, the history of the islands and so on, followed by an outline of the next day’s schedule and activities. We received a printed schedule each day which now can serve as a sort of condensed diary of our visit. Dinner was at 7:30 and I think most of us headed to bed not too much later. Our group was joined on the ship by a charming couple from Great Britain who has been all over the globe and who were experienced snorkelers, hikers and kayakers. They were at the beginning of a trip that would take them in to the Ecuadorian highlands and then to an Eco-lodge on the Amazon. We enjoyed meeting them and hearing about the all the adventures they had already been on and I think they enjoyed being with us. By this point in the trip we had formed a very congenial and cohesive group. Each afternoon we arranged the chairs in the outdoor bar into a huge oval and all shared some cold drinks and good conversation. It was really a pleasant way to spend an hour or so and a huge relief after the frantic pace of the Peru portion of the trip. The only sour note in the shipboard experience was that both my traveling companion and I suffered a couple of bouts of seasickness and had to get medicine from the ship’s doctor. However, we were always fine once we were on land and the medication seemed to work quickly.

How to describe the experience of the Galápagos! I could list all the amazing birds, reptiles and animals we saw, but I don’t think that would really give the right impression. The most amazing part of the visits was not so much the variety of creatures we saw as the fact that we could get literally within inches of each one and they seemed to know that we posed no threat. They mostly ignored our presence, allowing us to come very close to take pictures or observe details. Only once or twice were we warned to keep our distance. One beach we visited was “ruled” by a rather territorial male sea lion who didn’t much like visitors of any species getting to close to his “kingdom.” But for the most part, if we were reasonably quiet and stayed still for a few moments we saw dozens of species of birds (including some that were nesting and some very newly hatched chicks), iguanas, sea lions, giant tortoises, sea turtles and lizards so close that we could have reached out and touched them. We had a couple of snorkeling trips where we also saw lots of colorful fish, several kinds of rays and, the highlight of one outing, a group of hammerhead sharks.

Some of the walks were quite easy, on coral sand or crushed lava, and some were quite rocky. Wet landings involved sliding over the side of the panga into knee deep water, mostly quite warm and calm. Dry landings sometimes required scaling steep staircases carved out the rock face before we reached the trail. One of the rocky walks took place on a rainy morning and a few people, including me, took falls, but no one was really hurt. I got scratched up a little, but I’ve gotten more impressive bruises in dance class.

One of the dry landing sites was pretty scary for me. I made it up to the trail, but when we finished our walk I needed a lot of help to negotiate the way back down into the panga and I was nearly in tears by the time I got seated and felt safe. But with all of that – falls, scary moments, seasickness and all – I would not have missed a single minute of the trip.
The Galápagos Park Service has done an incredible job of preserving the indigenous and endemic species while also allowing visitors so see these species without bars or barriers, an experience I know I have never had anywhere else. And they are continuing to work on protecting the islands, removing invasive plants and animals that cause damage to the native species and educating the visiting public about this fantastically beautiful place. Our two guides were both native Galápagueños who both clearly loved the islands. They gave us lots of information and added little anecdotes about having visited some of the places when they were kids. One of them was also very knowledgeable about the plants and about some of the medicinal applications of the various leaves and berries. He had a more spiritual approach, it seemed, and my traveling companion and I found that we preferred being in his group whenever possible. But both guides were excellent and our days with the other one were just as informative and interesting, although in a different way.

Our trip ended with a day in Guayaquil. We arrived at around 12:30 and had a bit of free time before meeting at 3 PM for a bus and walking tour of the city, including a visit to the Malecón, a waterside promenade with parks, gardens, markets and vistas. We also visited an older part of the city and saw some of the recent redevelopment of what had been a poor and somewhat dangerous neighborhood and which is now a tourist attraction. Near the hotel is small park called familiarly the Iguana Park, and that’s exactly what we saw there! The park is inhabited by about 200 land iguanas, all quite friendly, quite used to being patted and fed by the human visitors, roaming around alongside the pigeons and squirrels that we are more accustomed to seeing in such surroundings. It was a fascinating contrast to the way we had seen iguanas in the Galápagos.

Some of the group had red-eye flights back to their homes, so after dinner we said good-bye to about half of the group, mostly the folks from California, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska and Arizona. The rest of us left early the next morning for Miami where we connected to our various flights back home. Both of our flights were comfortable and quick and I was in my apartment by 9 PM, almost an hour earlier than I had expected to be home.

I have to say that it felt good to sleep in my own bed, on dry land with nothing rocking or bouncing during the night and to eat breakfast in my pajamas with the New York Times. It was also good to start the day with tai chi practice, something I managed to do every day in Peru but couldn’t do during the time we were on the ship (too little space, convex decks for water drainage and too much movement even when we were anchored).