It's A Selva Out There

Hola…and what a difference two brandys and a good nights sleep can make. In theory I should be home in about 48 hours, landing back in Boise at noon on Friday. The trip to Cuzco and Machu Picchu was fantastic, but coming back was a little rough.

First in Lima, it was cold, musty and damp…permeating the walls, floors, and all things cloth. The sun never shined and you could smell mold. I knew my lungs were going to take a hit. The day before there was a woman on the bus tour who was “hawking up” some wet ones…it sounded like she was gargling a beef stew, and I tried to move as far away from her as I could, pulling my sweatshirt up over my head like the “Unabomber” would have done to avoid her coughing, but I knew I was going to breath some of her airborne gunk.

Fast forward next to my early morning arrival yesterday at the Jorge Chavez Lima International Airport, named in honor of the man who flew over the Swiss Alps in his little airplane 100 years ago, and into the Italian Alps the following day, effectively ending his career and life.

I had a quick breakfast of runny eggs and “pre-buttered” toast, and immediately felt disaster chortling through my system. The International Sign I saw posted in the terminal was not a direction sign meaning “Oh my god I just ate some runny eggs with bad butter that Tony Robbins warned me about and where the hell is the bathroom muy pronto rapido”? It's the airport “Quick Exit” indicator, which was also the message my intestines were sending me.

I found the upscale “bano por hombres” at flight level and waited my turn. Well, let me tell you about the “paint by numbers” scenario that followed and you can use whatever colors you want, but as the previous depositor stepped out it became immediately apparent to me that the psychic motion flush indicator that told things to move was not working! I did some frantic hand waving along with some magical incantations (like “voila, abracadabra“ and “shit“) to no avail…nothing moved. Now I was shaking like I was in a “Saint Vitus Dance Contest”, hoping that the more waving and jumping around I did while swearing would be the answer to my present nightmare. Even my best rabid Joe Cocker imitation failed.

Let me just say that I’m not interested in analyzing other people’s eating habits first thing in the morning, but I had little choice. The other stall was occupied by a person who had been in there for quite some time…an apparent airport employee with a “walkie talkie”, who understood what the meaning of “stall” meant, because he was not going anywhere out of his . I would hear several “10-4’s” and “Roger that” (in Spanish) coming from his new "oficina" for about 10 minutes, and resigned myself to an unpleasant fate. At that point I decided to never eat food again.

Anyway, I made it back to Quito, checked into my hotel (Rio Amazonas), and walked around the city until it started raining and I started coughing. That’s when I came back to my room, climbed under my covers, and thought about my next big trip, which will be a “staycation”.

So here I am. I’ll put together the Cuzco Machu Picchu part and post it tomorrow with some good pictures.

Saludos.

Gone Coastal

Hola from Atacames, a Pacific coastal tropical town of 10,000 residents with a few tourists included. My hotel is a pleasantly gated place named Club del Sol, with access to the beach and Pacific waters directly behind…where the water temperature is the same as the air temperature and my shower…all 78 degrees F. It’s overcast so the water color changes from grey to slate green as the sun makes attempts to break through.

I arrived here on a full A-320 Airbus 25 minute flight from Quito landing at Esmeraldas, which is the closest coastal airport to Columbia and right out of a scene from “Miami Vice”. I thought about taking some photos, but figured some of these people probably were “wanted” and wouldn’t appreciate further notoriety.

I only mention this airport because of the way luggage is retrieved from the plane: They pile it all on to a flatbed wagon, haul it into a room smaller than my living room, then start shouting in Spanish, “which one is yours” to over 100 people at a time. Needless to say, I was one of the last to retrieve mine, and I will never check a bag through again anywhere. But, at least I had a driver waiting for me, so the rest was pretty smooth.

The beach behind my hotel is flat and sandy. There are small boats and guides waiting in the morning, wanting to take me to see some sites…they speak in Spanish and show me a laminated menu of what to expect to see on the 90 minute $15 tour…whales (ballenas), the “casa blanca” hotel on the cliff, some birds…but the part that catches my eye is the part that says “Playa Nudistas” (Nudist Beach”), where my guide “Jorge” points out (with a grin on his face) that these people on his menu are wearing nothing except a volley ball in one guy's hands.

Now I’m thinking that this has possibilities…it reminds me of a time when as a kid I would pedal my bicycle down to Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park and sneak peeks at the “Sunshine and Health” magazine that was over in the “adults section” of the store…with people in the pictures like the one “Jorge” was showing me…full frontal nudity of people standing by some volley ball net…at a time when it looked like bikini wax and safety razors had yet to be invented!

Anyway, I looked at the boats and the calmness of the water…the barcos could have been named the “SS-S.O.S.“, the “SS-OSHA, Who Dat?”, or the “SS- Da Propeller Just Cut My Leg Off Mo Fo”. Well, after contemplating the possibilities of going 90 minutes into unknown waters without a bathroom (excusasdo) with my new best friend "Jorge" I told him possibly manana.

Later, as a group of survivors were offloaded from the “SS-Thank God We Made It Back Alive”, I asked one of them if they had seen any whales or “nudistas”… “no” was his only reply.

Malecon means “sea wall” most of the time…like in Habana, but here it means a walk along the playa next to a short strip of small hotels, thatched roof hut bars and a few night clubs.

As elsewhere on my trip this place seems relatively safe…it’s a tourist zone and an economic necessity. Three wheeled moto-tricycles cost 50 centavos for the short ride back and forth from my hotel to the Malecon.

The Hotel Club del Sol has a great looking pool with cabana bar and open air restaurant. Yesterday the pool was closed for “maintenance”…a little murky looking from chlorine and other chemicals. This morning I stuck my feet into it briefly, and now as I write this I notice my athletes foot has been cured.

I like being at sea level…it’s warmer than the mountains. Saturday I fly back to Quito, then catch a flight Monday to Lima.

Here’s to sunshine and health.

Saludos.

The Equator

Hola from Quito where I’ve spent the past few days walking around, taking in the city, visiting the Equator, stopping by a couple little pueblocitos, and a lake that sits below a dormant volcano that rises 19,152 feet into the sky.

I just have a few pictures (but Aviso Warning #1, the WIFI is slow here and my pictures may not post, so I'll try, but if they don't go up you won't see them...I'll just post them later when I can). Quito is warm and alive at night…lots of people are on the streets, dinner is served after 10, and music goes until 5 in the morning. There is a fusion of food and cultural creativity that is electric...and besides that they produce the best organic chocolate in the world.

The city sits at elevation 9,182 feet above sea level, but the altitude did not affect my health as much as a pad of butter on a pancake did. Aviso Warning #2: Don’t eat the butter. I was three weeks into this trip, and as Tom Robbins would say, if you always do the same thing you will always get the same results. I had avoided butter up until breakfast buffet Sunday, and somehow that pancake staring back at me on the buffet platter reminded me of the good ol’ USA, and so like Adam and the apple, I succumbed to the temptation.

I knew in twenty minutes that I should have listened to Tom Robbins and that my Sigmoid Curve was going to be working overtime. But enough of the fun details…I was down (and “out”) in less than a day.

My trip to the Equator was fun…about 15 miles outside of Quito are a couple of tourist stops located directly on the Equator. Mine had a large cigar shaped tube at ground zero rising up about 70 feet to greet the sun, with a round mirror to step on, and a couple of doors exiting north and south. The sun passes directly overhead on the June 21 and December 21st, and I think if you stepped inside that tube at precisely 12 noon on those dates you would get the full effect of the sun on your body much like a hot dog in a microwave would…I wouldn’t advise that (Aviso Warning #3) anymore than I would advise staring at the sun…it was hot enough that day without trying any solar gamma ray experiments on your body.

My guide told me that contrary to public opinion toilets do not flush counter clockwise north of there, or clockwise south of there…that he said is a myth. But, people do weigh more at the Equator because of the gravitational pull…maybe that’s why I look a little larger than usual down here, although after my pancake and butter experiment I'm sure I weigh much less.

About 90 kilometers northeast of Quito are a couple little towns named Otavalo and Cotacachi that have thriving crafts and leather artisan markets. It all looked pretty good, hats, alpaca sweaters and scarves, jewelry, purses, etc., all quality stuff, and inexpensive.

Nearby was Lago Guicacha, with the Cotacachi volcano rising above it. Surprisingly, the lake was as dead as it was beautiful…no fish in it because of all the toxic sulfuric waste that the volcano had spewed into it a million years ago. I didn’t see anybody swimming there either.

Sunday in Quito they close one of the main streets (Rio Amazonas) to pedestrian and bicycle traffic only…leading to El Ejido Parque, which had an interesting and somewhat erotic entrance. It looked like the kind of grovel fest I'd like to go to, but inside it was family day with parents and kids playing around and having a pretty good time.

That’s it from here…I head to the coast for a few days (Atacames), then get ready to go to Lima/Cuzco/Machu Picchu before wrapping it all up.

Saludos

Adios Cuenca

Hola, and it’s off to Quito time, much higher, much colder (mas alto y mas frio), but I’ve heard that they do have heat in the hotel rooms, so we shall see.

I’ve had a great time in Cuenca in spite of the cool conditions. Once again, because it’s easy to say, the people here are wonderful, the food is great, and the price is right…and so what if you have to wear a jacket or sweatshirt inside the hotel room or to bed every now and then.

I’m just going to post a few pictures with minimum comments. The Ingapirca Ruins were fascinating and as mentioned before the stones were cut and placed manually, without mortar and modern tools, literally dragged from miles away...the only possible help coming from aliens somewhere out in the cosmos.


I also got to see a shrunken head collection at the archaeological museum here…a practice no longer applied by the Shuar Tribe in the Amazon jungle region. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed to be taken. Outside of Quito is an open air market where "shrunken heads" are available to purchase...the kind you see on ebay. I'll "head off" that direction Saturday to a town called Otavalo and see what the little "cabezas" look like.

The market places offered the best shots. A vendor was selling fresh goat milk that was “delivered” while you waited. The last time I saw udders like those was in Las Vegas at a porn convention.

Other noteworthy travel thoughts: You can drink the water here straight from the tap, or in restaurants when it’s served to you. The food in the open air markets was tasty and cheap…same for the restaurants…I really did have a four course lunch with juice, soup, medallions of chicken with rice and vegetables, and then a desert all for $2.20.

They grow amazing fruit here…one in particular called “chirimoya”. It looks like a giant green avocado (“aguacate”), with lumps all over the outside of it, but inside is a soft white fleshy fruit with a few black seeds the size of small kidney beans, and it is the best tasting fruit I have ever tried.

That’s it for now…I’ll try to write something about Quito in the next few days.



Saludos

Pees On Earth

Hola, the past few days have been spent meandering around Cuenca in all kinds of weather…taking pictures of buildings, people, and quaint moments in time.

The Pumapungo Incan archaeological site in Cuenca dates from around 1460, at a time when the Incas were continuing to expand and colonize areas north from Cuzco in Peru.


The Pumapungo Museum and ruins in Cuenca give a great indication as to how sophisticated the Inca people were…probably the most industrious and disciplined people in the Americas at the time, with an eye for an advantage that would lead to huge trade surpluses and leisure time...ceramics, textiles, metallurgy, jewelry, and great food would follow. You name it, they could make it, or do it in style…that is, until about 1533 when Francisco Pizarro and his Spanish conquistadors routed the Incas and took Cuzco. A way of life was about to be destroyed.

      

The city of Cuenca (Spanish for “basin”) was founded in 1557 by the Spanish at the Inca village site of Pumapongo, and the rest, they say, is history. The Spanish pretty much dismantled the stone buildings and plundered what they could.


I’ve included a few photos of what I’ve observed over the past few days.

Most of the photos were taken within a few blocks of my hotel (El Conquistador, named in honor of Juan Pizarro).





The streets are always clean…I saw one pro in a blue uniform whose specialty with a broom was cigarette butts. Street industry takes many forms, from children selling ice cream to old men selling chocolate covered coconut balls. The souvenirs I’ve gotten are “hecho a mano” here in Cuenca.

Food is fresh everyday, and tastes like it. Sometimes I make the mistake of ordering two items on a menu, because I’m thinking there can’t be much food there for the low price I’m paying. Wrong. There’s always a lot...

I met a fellow traveler earlier in the week…she was checking out the local Spanish language schools where one can spend a few hours (and dollars) per day to learn Spanish better. The average cost is around $8 per hour, with a minimum of two hours per session….so do the math, and then think about showing up on time in a structured environment doing a bunch of "donde estas" and "yo tengo frio"  Here's a picture of one of the escuelas.


I’ve also included a picture of my Spanish language education center (below), where after two hours and about $16 my Spanish sounds almost perfect to me, maybe a little loud, but only slightly confrontational. It’s the bar in the Hotel El Conquistador, and if you want to learn a few "me gustas" in a less structured environment for about the same amount of money try my approach next time.

Some other observations: There is not much begging on the streets…at least not by children. The picture of the old lady shown below was taken two days ago next to one of the iglesias near Calderon Park. I gave her a one dollar Betsy Ross coin and she let me take her picture. I saw her about an hour later sitting a couple blocks away with a smile on her face.

The two Rorschach Psychological Test photos I included above would probably elicit a religious epiphany from my sister starting with “Holy…” … but the phenomena appears (literally) almost everyday, and no sacred iglesia wall has been spared as far as I can tell. I’m not sure who’s religious statement that represents, but no public bathrooms are available, so perhaps, as the old saying goes: Just do it!


TV is pretty much the same here on satellite as back home…just in Spanish. I actually saw Los Tres Stoogies on TCM the other morning, and realized some things never change…like my bad habits of watching that stuff.

Yesterday I was invited to an Ecuadorian friend’s house where they had just cooked a pig…a little fiesta was taking place in honor of a family member’s birthday (cumpleanos). I was the only person there speaking English, yet they made me feel welcome and at home. Mi casa es su casa takes on an honest form here. And after some cerveza I think my espanol was pretty good. I’m glad I’m devoting at least two hours a day to learning Spanish in the Hotel El Conquistador bar.

However, a quick cooking tip here: when working a pig of that size don’t try stuffing it into an oven…they just used a blowtorch attached to a 10 gallon propane tank and cooked the outside of it (much like you would to burn off weeds in a field) ...all in less than two hours time on their patio, after which they took a machete to the rest of it and proceeded to butcher it it up, most of it for homemade pork sausage and ribs.

The ladies seen in the next photo chopped cabbage and herbs into that big bowl the whole time I was there...and they had about 25 more cabbages to go.



That’s about it for now….this post is going out a little late tonight as I traveled to Ingapirca today…the largest of Inca ruins in Ecaudor, and I got back late. The second photo in this blog of the perfectly cut thousand pound stone rocks, brought from miles away, and stacked without mortar to last forever, was from there, placed without modern tools or technology. Amazing what could be done once upon a time.

One final note, the bars are closed here on Sundays, so I couldn't practise my espanol with anyone. Que lastima!

Saludos!

What A Difference A Daze Makes

“Hola” here I am…same town, different day, and the weather has improved significantly….it’s now approaching “hot” in the afternoons, and I have learned to stay on the shady sides of the streets when walking around. The sun really is directly overhead at noon, and even with sunblock slathered all over my face I do turn red…at least I did yesterday while huffing up the 89 steps that lead to and from the Rio Tomebamba off Calle Larga north.

“Barranca” means "ravine", and the photo in the area showing the homes above the river is known as “La Barranca”. On Saturday night a bus went off the mountain road from Cuenca to Quito into a barranca 70 meters below when the driver fell asleep, killing 42 passengers. The other photos I took over the past few days are from different areas in the city and nearby surroundings. For the most part they are self explanatory.



Yesterday I moved into another hotel just to see what it would be like staying next to the local casino (Presidente Casino y Hotel). It was like this: I dropped $50 at blackjack in five minutes and called it a night. It was six decks (in a shoe) and I don’t think they had changed any of the decks out in years. This was the first time I’d ever seen cards that could be described as being "unctuous".

The new hotel I’m at (El Conquistador) is more upscale than the previous two, but for some reason my wifi connection doesn’t work well in my room (again, I’m on a 5th floor, “piso quinto”, but this time I have an elevator and amenities), so I’m writing this while in the hotel restaurant having the buffet, some tea, and “jugo de babaco” which I think might be pineapple juice. The picture of me below was taken at a hammock shop, and I'm really not that fat...for some reason it just looks like it, but anyway, I've decided to stop eating so much food all day long...even though it's everywhere and cheap!

Looking a little unctuous myself

On Monday I went looking for a couple of health spas to try to work off some of the food I’ve been eating, and my taxi driver took me to one on the other side of town (great, but too far away), then he took me up the hill to Turi, where the grand vista of Cuenca was shot. The view literally gave me a whole new perspective of the area. It’s absolutely beautiful here.




The newer part of town is south of the river, with many new condominiums and apartments being built in anticpation of more people moving here. I asked my taxi driver Felix how many people he thought lived here now and his answer was simple: "I don't know."

 Anyway, the view from the little town of Turi shows that there are plenty of buildings down in the basin below, with beautiful mountains surrounding them.

I’ve included a few church scenes that I took on Sunday…the one I didn’t take was of an old lady hawking Lottery Tickets outside the Iglesia San Blas as the thankful parishioners flocked out. That church is a few hundred years old, and if I went into it I would be praying that it didn’t fall down on me…at which point I would be buying lots of Lotto Tickets upon fleeing it after the service.

I have some ideas for some further blogs including: “Sombra Means Shade”, “Yes, But Can You Drink The Water”, and “Things That Might Deter My Sister and Cousin Denise From Moving Here”. The meat market lady pictured below was selling fresh meat at the open market, as they do every day...but I wonder...???

So, that’s it for now…I’m going to try to post blogs on Wednesdays and Sundays, but if my wifi connections slow me down so be it. I have to post the dialogue first, then put the photos up, as they take forever, and I can only post one picture at a time, then upload. Just as a sidelight, I’ve tried uploading for fifteen minutes now and can’t get it to move.

Here in Cuenca “Mas tarde” means "later", and “Manana” means maybe if you’re lucky you might get it in a few days. Well, I say Buena Suerte!

My First Week

“Hola” and welcome to my blog from Ecuador. I arrived in Guayaquil six days ago on the Delta flight out of Atlanta. After a minor one hour delay for a possible “mechanical problem” with our 737 we took off and and landed four hours later, only to be told that the airport had just been evacuated due to a possible “bomb threat“, and we would not be allowed to deplane until they removed the suspicious suitcase and searched for others….we remained on the plane at the gate for almost three more hours before clearing into Customs and Immigration. It all turned out to be a false alarm but the anti-bomb squad blew up a suitcase later and it was reported on the news the next night. Better safe than sorry on all delays these days even if it means checking into your hotel at four in the morning.

Guayaquil is a port city with the Rio Guayas floating by it. I was told more than 4 million people live around this area and it looks it. The “Malecon” is a newer and nice 1.5 mile long city river walk (park) adjacent to the river, which is brown in color, wider than the Mississippi, conjuring up images of the Amazon or New Guinea and "Papillon". The downtown city area of Guayaquil is busy and cosmopolitan, with a another interesting park nearby named Parque Centenario. There were lots of iguanas roaming through it, along with turtles in ponds, and a huge church across the street, all quite interesting.

After three days I took a taxi from Guayaquil to Cuenca, and although it cost more than a regular scheduled airline flight I wanted to see the country and didn’t want to land in the dense fog in the mountains that afternoon, so paid the financial price for the four hour drive past rice fields, banana plantations, cocoa fields (chocolate!), and at times things and places indicative of immense poverty.


 The mountains were some of the most amazing I’ve ever seen, with the engineering to build the roads unbelievable at times, literally blasting away the sides of entire mountains and jungle with it. My driver was pretty good, but I don’t think he was going to appreciate the trip back at night through them.

I’m now in Cuenca, a quaint 500 year old city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Site. My first boutique hotel here misrepresented a few things on the internet to me, so I moved after one night. I was on the 5th floor, and my hotel did not have an elevator…it did not have a mini bar…it did not have a bar period, or a restaurant, or hot water in the shower. Needless to say that after making four trips up to my room carrying my bags, then going back for water, food, and much needed alcohol, I had climbed the equivalent of a 20 story flight up. That was enough for the night…and forever.

Did I mention the hotel room didn‘t have heat? None of the older hotels have heat, maybe figuring that at 2,500 meters up in the mountains you’re close enough to the sun to not need any. Wrong, you need heat here.

My current hotel doesn’t have heat either, but it does have hot water and a mini bar, so I’ve been told that when it’s cold you should take your mini bar into the hot shower to stay warm….until it warms up outside! Last night when I returned to the hotel my “receiptionista” had on a jacket and gloves and asked me in Spanish if I was cold?

However, inspite of unseasonably cool weather it is easy to get sunburned and SPF 60 or more is not a bad idea. My face is a little more red than usual from sun and wind after walking the city streets the past two days… trying to stay warm before going back to my hotel to drink and sleep.

Now the good stuff: The local people I’ve met are friendly and helpful. The streets in the old section of the city are mainly one-way, and at times one lane, with crowded tiny sidewalks, which makes walking them interesting and precarious. There are lots of old buildings and plenty to see. The restaurant food is excellent and inexpensive. The foods at the open markets and bakeries are even less expensive. They have it all in these “mercados“, no body part or organ is spared from being sold or eaten. Last night a fellow blogger explained how she prepared an excellent cow’s hooves soup, and although the preparation reminded her of the essence of a leather tannery on a rough day, it all turned out well…..and cheap!

I’m just discovering the night life….at first wary about going out alone into streets that are dark and empty in many areas, reminding me of scary black and white movies out of the 40’s where people are creeping around in alleys ready to jump out at you. The safety suggestion here is to never take more out with you than what you need for the night… apparently petty theft was on the rise here so the government has recently dispatched 600 more police personnel to the town to keep the tourists safe from the “ladrones” and pickpockets. But cabs are cheap, $2.00 maximum in any direction, so that’s not a bad plan.



Anyway, that’s all I know. The pictures I’ve included are of the iguanas in Guayaquil, the food and produce mercados here, the Rio Tomebamba, an old church, along with a picture of me holding a lottery ticket for tonight’s drawing and one of me in the lobby of my hotel holding a copy of today’s El Mercurio newspaper, to prove that I am really here. I like it here, it’s interesting and relaxing, but it could be a little warmer. In the meantime I’m using my laptop as a heater to keep some body parts warm. Saludos!