Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site mtgzz.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtgzz!ecl From: ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper) Newsgroups: net.travel Subject: Traveling in Peru/Ecuador (Part 3 of 3) Message-ID: <1646@mtgzz.UUCP> Date: Fri, 7-Feb-86 18:40:00 EST Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1646 Posted: Fri Feb 7 18:40:00 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 06:47:48 EST Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 476 Three Weeks in the Wilds of South America A travelogue by Evelyn C. Leeper Week 3 of 3: Ecuador and The Galapagos January 5, 1986: Up at 5AM for our 6:15 pickup. Our flight is at 8 instead of the originally scheduled 7--it probably has something to do with the time change. Strangely enough, it left on time--but then, it's Air Panama, not Aero Peru. Breakfast was very good, with more food than I could eat. The view from the plane was of mountains coming through the clouds; I imagine we'll see more like this on our way to Quito. Guayaquil is a big city; it looks pretty much like any big city. The Grand Hotel is much like a Hilton or a Sheraton--it even has a pool. Since we arrived Sunday morning, everything was closed so we did the rest of our laundry. At 11 we went out walking. Things seemed to be waking up; many small shops and street vendors were open and we browsed through a few bookstores as well as all the other stands. I got a T-shirt in a store not unlike a Woolworth's called TIA, and Mark got a belt from a stand. "The famous street vendors of Lima" seem to have expanded their range! It was very hot so we returned to the hotel and lounged by the pool for a while (how touristy!). then we watched TV for a while. This is the first hotel that has had TV. So what did we watch? The Three Stooges and Woody Woodpecker--in Spanish, of course. When we recovered from all that excitement, we went walking in a different direction. Here we passed several interesting-looking government buildings and eventually ended up by the Guayas River (I think). There was a promenade along the river so we walked along it. Almost immediately we saw something interesting--two iguanas sunning themselves on an old piling. They were so still, at first I thought they were fake. You don't have to go to the Galapagos for all the wildlife, I guess. Their skins looked all shrunken, as if someone had sucked the excess air out of them. We watched them for a while, then walked a short ways to where people were watching the sand below. We looked. It was practically covered with tiny crabs--one every couple of inches at least. The larger ones were only an inch or two across the body but had an enormously developed claw (sometimes the left, sometimes the right). They were most active where the sand was damp but not wet. Further along we saw La Rotonda (a colonnade commemorating the meeting of Bolivar and San Martin in Guayaquil on August 9, 1822). There was also a bronze statue of a wild boar further on. Still, Guayaquil on a Sunday is only slightly livelier than Haifa on a Saturday, so we returned to the hotel. We ate in the coffee shop, where due to the limited selection, I had spaghetti. (We did share a ceviche appetizer.) Then to bed about 8. January 6, 1986: We left the hotel at 9:30 for our 11AM flight to Baltra. At the airport we met some of the other passengers for the cruise. None of them seem to speak or understand Spanish, so naturally the announcements on the plane were only in Spanish. The woman in front of me asked for more water and didn't understand that "No tenemos mas" meant "We don't have any more," so I had to translate. Most items in the airport were priced in dollars. Our flight was un eventful. We needed to go through something like immigration on Baltra, which took a long time. This island does look like Melville's description: "Take five-and-twenty heaps of cinders...." Lunch was good. (Oops, I forgot--we went by bus to the pangas, or small boats, which took us to the SANTA CRUZ, a 200-foot ship. There *is* room to swing a cat in the cabin, which is about 6'x8' plus bunk, closet, and bathroom space. It is air-conditioned, has hot and cold running water all day, and has two chairs, a desk, and a table. It is well-lit also. Bottled water is provided. There is a lounge and a dining room also.) Our first landing was on North Seymour. It was a dry landing, meaning that we took pangas to a natural pier of lava rocks and clambered ashore. The rocks were black here, with many multi-colored crabs on them. Immediately we started seeing birds of all sorts--brown noddies on the water, a red-billed tropicbird overhead, some swallow-tailed gulls with their red eye-rings. Film began to be used at a fast and furious pace. When we had all gotten ashore and collected ourselves into groups (there are 90 passengers, so there are four groups; some are bi-lingual) we proceeded along the beach. The black rocks gave way to brown (all guano-spattered since it never rains) and then a beach of shell fragments and purple sea urchin spines. We saw some small lava lizards and a few marine iguanas (and their trails in the sand), but it was the sea lions that got the most attention (and the persistent horse flies, the only species in the Galapagos that you're free to kill). The sea lions would waddle up the beach to pose for us, or so it seemed. Their fur was dark when wet, but dried to a golden brown tinged with green. They barked occasionally but didn't seem to feel we were a threat. (We also saw some sea lion turds, light grey in color. I refrained from photographing *them*.) The guide pointed out several other islands as we walked as well as describing the local geology and ecology. The plant life on North Seymour consists mostly of Palo Santo trees (bare-looking), Palo Verde trees (green thorny branches with long, frondlike leaves--also green--and small yellow flowers), prickly-pear cactus, and leather-leaf cactus (whose leaves are all vertical). There were also some spreading succulents, but that was about it for plants. The main inhabitants of this island are blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds. Blue-footed boobies do indeed have bright (light) blue feet and nest on the ground, often right on the trail. They surround their nests with a ring of guano for territoriality. The females are larger than the males and have a darker pupil--yes, you can get *that* close. The chicks are white and fluffy-looking; they get grey as they get older. We saw several pairs "dancing," lifting first one foot and then the other repeatedly and reaching for the sky with their beaks in a mating ritual, also picking up and dropping sticks as symbolic of nest-building. The females honk; the males whistle. The other major tenant is the frigatebird (both the magnificent frigatebird and the great frigatebird, which differ slightly in coloration). They weigh only about three pounds, but have an eight-foot wingspan. The male has a red pouch on his chin that he inflates as a courtship ritual. The two species nest together; we saw two mixed colonies. (We also saw a couple of Galapagos mockingbirds.) Our trail eventually brought us back to the landing point, where we boarded the pangas. The landing may have been dry, but the front three people or so had a wet ride. Dinner was unexceptional, except for the dessert, which was figs in a sugar syrup with cheese. Odd, and a little too sweet for my tastes. Our table was basically a Span ish-speaking one, with a couple of other people who spoke some English, including a lawyer from Quito that we had a conversation (of sorts) with. After the briefing for the next day's trips, to bed about 10. January 7, 1986: I slept well my first time at sea, although I awoke at 1AM when they started the engines (we had to travel 42 miles to the next island). I got up about 5. (It was too cloudy the night before for comet sighting, by the way.) Breakfast was at 6:45. Our morning trip (at 7:30) was to Tower (or Genovesa) Island. We had anchored in Darwin Bay, formed of the crater of a partially sunken volcano. (The landing was "wet"--the pangas pulled up to the sandy (coral) beach and you climbed over the sides into knee-deep water. The beach had many beautiful, multi-colored shells. There was not the enormous variety of wildlife here as on North Seymour, or at least not the numbers. We saw more frigatebirds on the cliffs. Along the beach we saw the Galapagos mockingbird as well as lava gulls, grey birds with white eye-rings. Crabs (black mostly) scampered on the lava rocks. We saw a sea lion pup skull, looking very out of place somehow. In the trees were many young red-footed boobies. Their feet had not yet gotten their pigmentation. We saw few adults (they were apparently searching for food), but we did see a couple, and we also got to see the white form which comprises only 5% of the total red-footed booby population. We also saw some masked boobies, the largest of the boobies. Our path took us past some tidal pools, where we saw many fish and more crabs, now bright red with blue bellies or black with a white stripe across the back. Marine iguanas (a smaller variety) were the other animal life visible, though we saw one yellow-crowned night heron and one Galapagos dove with its turquoise eye-ring. The path ended up crossing some interesting but barren lava formations. WE returned to the beach for snorkeling (which Mark did, so I'll let him describe it). Our return to the boat was delayed since they were using the pangas to retrieve a lost anchor (not ours!). Lunch was roast beef, artichokes, and salad, with passion fruit for dessert (do you eat the pulp or the seeds?). After lunch I napped for about 40 minutes--the combination of little sleep and much activity got to me. Although the day had started out overcast, the sun had been very strong towards the end of our excursion also. Oh, I forgot two items of note. When we left Darwin Bay, a flock of brown noddies followed us a ways, swooping around the boat and sometimes even lighting on the masts. There were also some smaller birds that I couldn't identify (about mockingbird size). The other event was the lifeboat drill--everyone puts on their lifejackets and goes to their lifeboats. Our afternoon visit was to Bartholome', where we were once again greeted by a sea lion (I think the guides have hired them to shill for the islands ;-) ). The rocks were covered with the red crabs. They are called Sally-lightfoot crabs because their legs are hollow, making them buoyant enough to walk on the water. The walk was of geological interest, there being no animal life to speak of away from the shore, and the plant life consisting mainly of a spreading succulent (currently grey) interspersed with an occasional prickly-pear or lava cactus. (Actually the prickly-pear cacti are mostly on the isthmus of the island along with other less hardy plants.) We were here to see the lava channels and craters. The lava here is old, having oxidized over the millenia to reddish and yellowish tinges. There is a lot of loose grey sand created by the erosion of the lava. The first part of the climb was through loose, shifting sand, so upward progress was difficult. Then we reached a more level area where we could see "moonscape" vistas of craters and lava. Only the sea in the background marred the "lunarity." The remainder of the climb was up a log staircase placed there to slow the erosion of the slope from walking. (Our guide said that this island was going to be closed soon to prevent further erosion. Already we could see where sections of lava shelf had been broken away.) The volcano was 300' high and from the top was an excellent view of the isthmus, Pinnacle Rock, and the spatter-cones on nearby James Island. Bartholome' itself is very bleak-looking, sort of "end-of-the-world" in aspect. After our descent (much easier than our ascent), we rode the pangas to the beach. On the way we saw Galapagos penguins (the second smallest penguins) and brown pelicans. It was really too dark for snorkeling, so we crossed the isthmus to another beach where we saw sea turtle nests (covered-over pits in the sand) and even a sea turtle swimming along the shore, as well as more pelicans. In case you're wondering at this point, we will *not* be seeing any Galapagos tortoises. There are only about 15.000 left of eleven subspecies on eight islands. However, some of those islands are closed to tourists and on the others the tortoises have retreated to the interior which is closed to tourists. Only on Isabela are tourists allowed to see them in their natural state and that is a six-hour hike, overnight stay, and a six-hour hie back. They can be seen at the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz, but we don't go there. At any rate, that is still "in captivity," if only temporarily, and we have seen them at the San Diego Zoo. Programs to increase the population of tortoises include eradicating the predators introduced by man (dogs, rats, goats), sheltering the young until they can fend for themselves, and general breeding programs. (The sea turtle had apparently just laid her eggs, a once-a-year occurrence.) After dinner (chicken), I got involved in a conversation with someone who wanted to know how compilers worked. This went on until 11PM, when I went back to the cabin and read half of GALAPAGOS by Vonnegut (which the person interested in compilers had lent me). I was up until midnight. (Oh, we went looking for Halley's Comet at dusk, but although we could locate the constellation it was in, the ship's lights made sighting impossible.) me). January 8, 1986: Up at 6:45. I slept very well, although the ship was quite noisy all night--we had a lot of distance to cover. We had anchored in Tagus Cove off Isabela Island, the largest island of the archipelago (the official name of the Galapagos is "El Archipelago de Colon"). We saw nothing of the large fire damage from last year's fire, that being at the southern part of island. Due to the extreme dryness, smoking is now prohibited on the islands themselves, however. We had a double excursion this morning. First a dry landing--no sea lions here, but a couple of flightless cormorants and a pelican did wave hello. We saw where sailors from 1803 on had left their names carved in the rocks, then up a steep slope to a path overlooking the salt-water lake in Volcano Darwin, which he visited on September 29, 1835. We heard some Darwin's finches and even glimpsed a couple from a distance, though not close enough to identify the species. There was also a Galapagos mockingbird and those of us with binoculars could see about seven pin-tailed ducks in the lake. The most notable animal life were the large horsehead flies as big as the end of your thumb. (It was still really too dry to support large numbers of finches.) We climbed to the highest point on Volcano Darwin (4350') from which we could see Volcanoes Wolf and Ecuador, as well as Rock Redondo, which Melville described in such detail. We toasted this event with a bottle of mineral water that I had brought (we were told it would be a hard climb). We opened the bottle with my belt buckle. We talked with the guide about the conservation methods, whether killing the feral population to protect the tortoises was "natural." All species will eventually become extinct; should we try to stop this? Will we do more harm than good in extending a species' lifespan? Regarding the specialization of finches, there seem to be four answers. One, evolution. Two, the mysterious work of God. Three, their creation by Satan to mislead man (but this implies Manichaeism (sp?)). Four, their creation by God to test man's faith. Take your pick. We returned over the same trail and returned to the ship for a short break before the second half, a panga ride along the cliffs which form this cove. (Oh, yes, we also saw lava lizards.) At first from the panga we saw flightless cormorants and brown pelicans, along with frigatebirds in the sky. These gave way to blue-footed boobies nesting on the cliffs (a large colony). A small cave revealed brown noddy terns and another yellow-crowned night heron pecking at the crabs. A few Galapagos penguins were visible, including one swimming. Marine iguanas were common, usually sunning themselves, although one was in the water. A few sea lions had found warm spots also. Along one beach we saw a "playita" (I don't know the English), or beach bird. there was so much to see and cameras were going like crazy. Eventually, I think, most people O.D.'ed on the variety and we returned to the ship at noon. Lunch was fish, squid fried rice, and the usual cold salads. Our afternoon excursion (and last landing) was at Punta Espinoza on Fernandina. We landed upon a promontory of black lava, much different (and younger) than the red and yellow oxidized lava of Bartholome'. There are two basic lava formations in evidence here: pahoehoe (ropy) lava which had cooled slowly, and aa-aa (jagged) lava which cooled quickly. Behind the Point was an area of mangrove trees, under which sea lions rested. Along the shore we saw sea lions (and some Galapagos penguins) swimming. Traveling inland we saw dozens of marine iguanas summing themselves, courting, fighting (by butting their heads), spitting (as a temperature regulator--the algae they eat cooks in their stomaches and they spit out the hot water). You had to be very careful where you walked since what at first glance looked like lava could easily be an iguana (or a lava lizard). This part of the island with its volcanic origins evident and its proliferation of dominant reptiles, looks genuinely prehistoric. We walked further inland, to better see the lava formations as well as the mangroves and lava cactus which have forced their way through cracks in the lava. From there we returned back towards the water and a sea lion pool. Although the guide had said there was a chance of seeing some sea turtles here, we didn't see any, but we did see some penguins, which the guide said he had never seen at this location before. On the way back from the sea lion pond, we saw a land iguana, unusual this close to shore since they tend to stay in the highlands. This one was mottled orange and brown, in almost a camouflage pattern (which of course it really was), while the marine iguanas were grayish-black. Its tail was rounded, not flattened laterally, and curved up rather than sideways. We walked further out to another sea lion area, this one populated more by marine iguanas than sea lions, though there was a large bull there who eventually chased us off. On the way over, we saw a Galapagos hawk perched on a Palo Santo tree. We finally returned to the ship, the shores of Galapagos behind us. Though we had seen a lot, there was much more we hadn't seen: tortoises, flamingoes, albatrosses,.... I don't know about Mark, but I'd like to go back! (Oops, I forgot to mention flightless cormorants, brown pelicans, and a colony of blue-footed boobies on Fernandina.) Dinner was filet mignon. The dessert was tree tomatoes in a sugar syrup. It was too cloudy in the west to look for Halley's Comet and there was also a volcano in the way. January 9, 1986: This morning we sailed around the Daphne Islands (Daphne Major and Daphne Minor). In particular, we circled Daphne Minor, an older island which erosion has reduced from a cone to a cylindrical cliff. It's about 800' long and slightly oval. Used as a "stepping-stone" from one island to another, it harbors many species. At the top of the cliffs were frigatebirds. Lower down were masked boobies and red-billed tropicbirds. Finches can be found here, and brown pelicans. Along the small beach at one end, sea lions rested. It was overcast, and the obvious impossibility of any landing on the Daphnes made us forgive them for only circling them. At noon we transferred to Baltra. We flew first to Guayaquil and then on to Quito, arriving about 5PM. Baltra remains one of the less interesting islands, its indigenous wildlife limited mostly to small groups of marine birds along the shore. Quito is 9000' up in the Andes. Situated in a bowl like Cuzco, it does not present the uniform appearance that the red tile roofs of Cuzco do. It does look very clean and modern, with many wide streets (in Cuzco to widen the streets would mean tearing down ancient Incan walls, but Quito is only 401 years old). We got to our hotel and went out walking. Just about the time we were ready to go back to the hotel for dinner, we met another couple from the SANTA CRUZ, so we ate with them. We had ceviche, cream of mushroom and asparagus soup, and paella. I tried to order sangria for one, but ended up with a liter (counting the fruit, about 1.5 liters) at a much inflated price. The fruits used here were strawberries, bananas, and pineapple. After dinner, back to the hotel and an early bedtime. January 10, 1986: This morning was our city tour of Quito. Our guide was an architecture student at the University, so he should know his stuff. We first saw the colonial district, which has been declared a "legacy for mankind" (loose translation) by UNESCO. The city requires that all buildings maintain the white and blue facades, the iron grillwork, and the red tile roofs of the colonial period. We spent a while driving around this area while our driver looked for on-street parking. Eventually we parked in a parking garage and walked through a street market to the central plaza, which was surrounded by government buildings. In the center of the plaza was a monument to "the first cry of independence" in 1809. We saw the entrance to the President's Palace, but the current president has closed the interior to the public for security reasons. (Ecuador, by the way, has elections every four years--the same years as the U.S.--and citizens are required to vote.) Then we walked to La Compania, a Jesuit church whose interior is completely covered in gold. Well, not completely, but all the walls and the ceiling have decorative patterns in which the dominant external material is gold. It is thought to be the richest Jesuit church in South America. Another church, La Merced, copied the interior design and decoration but without using all the gold. La Merced had a statue of the Virgin near the entrance and on her dress was embroidered a Star of David-- interesting! We also saw a third church, the name of which escapes me (Santo Domingo, maybe?). Then we drove up to La Panecillo for a panoramic view of Quito. (Oh, at the beginning of the trip we saw a monument to Orellana overlooking Gualpa and the mountains to the east where Orellana discovered the Amazon. He was looking for El Dorado and since much of Ecuador's wealth comes from Amazon oil, some might claim he had found it. We also saw the congressional building with a bas-relief mural on the front depicting the country's history. One more interesting note--the river in the country's emblem used to depict the Amazon, but since they lost most of the Amazon to Peru in 1941, it now represents the Guayas River in Guayaquil.) For lunch we went to an Indian (Asian) restaurant near the hotel. Mark had beef curry and I had chicken curry. Unlike in the U.S., where it's usually a la carte, these came with rice, nan, raita, chutney, peanuts, and banana slices. We also had lassi--all very Ecuadorian. :-) After lunch we were going to go to the Archaeological Museum of the Central Bank, but I was just too zonked (from the trip and the altitude, I suspect), so we stayed at the hotel; I rested (slept) and Mark read. About 5PM we went out walking to see what the town looked like. We went into a lot of bookstores and eventually went back to the hotel about 7. At 8:30 we went down to dinner at the hotel restaurant, which is supposed to be one of the best steak places in town. Mark had onion soup and a T-bone steak; I had avocado vinaigrette and cebiche (if the spelling of cebiche/ceviche varies in this log, it's because it does on menus also). We got to watch the waiter flambe' some strawberries for another table and next to us they ordered escargot and fondue--pretty fancy restaurant. Our dinner, with tax and tip, came to 1779 sucres, or $14.83. I soaked in a hot tub (not all hotels have tubs here, by the way, even fancy ones), had a glass of sangria and went to sleep about 11. At about 3:45 I woke up to the sound of a dog barking; he didn't stop until about 6. Quito is a nice city, but it has very noisy dogs. January 11, 1986: Our Air France flight was about 45 minutes. The food was excellent--pate', cheese, fruit, I could even have had champagne! When we got to Lima, no one was there from Receptour Peru, but there happened to be a bus from the Hotel Crillon, so we took that. It turned out that Ladatco hadn't telexed our last stay in Lima to them. We finally got it straightened out. Our room is a whole suite, complete with balcony, refrigerator, TV, two sinks, a tub *and* a separate shower--real posh. (They must have been out of regular rooms when we showed up with our pre-paid voucher. We took a taxi to Pueblo Libre (a suburb of Lima). This was a large fancy taxi from in front of the hotel and it cost us about $4.80 for the ride (about 7 miles? I'm guessing). Our first visit was to the museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (entrance fee 30 cents each). Except for the fact that the exhibits are labeled only in Spanish, I would say this is a must for anyone interested in pre-Incan art. Actually, I'll say it anyway. The section on Nazca ceramics is excellent and I could translate most of the signs. We spent about an hour to an hour and a half here, then walked to the Larco Herrera Museum (about a mile away--we had been told seven blocks). The first part of this museum is an exhibit of ceramics. Well, exhibit is the wrong word--warehouse is more like it. There are rows and rows of cabinets 30' long and eight shelves high, filled with ceramics. It demonstrates its owner's acquisitiveness more than the ceramics themselves. (The collection, like the Museo de Oro, is privately owned but will go to the state on its owner's death.) The rest of the museum was better arranged and included a surprisingly unpretentious exhibit of work in gold, silver, and precious and semi-precious stones. What it is most known for, though, is its collection of erotic ceramics. One book describes them as "disarmingly exuberant." be that as it may, none of the figures looked like they were really enjoying themselves; maybe the pre-Incans were weak on facial expressions in ceramics. After this we stopped at a small market for sodas and then got a small taxi back to the hotel. (You don't have to hail one; if you look like a tourist, they stop and ask *you*.) This cost $1.80. Moral--stick to the small cruising cabs. Then we went out walking along a street with a lot of used book stands. As best I recall what happened then was this: Mark was distracted by a vendor whose confederate then grabbed Mark's wallet out of his front pocket. Mark grabbed the pickpocket and tackled him to the ground. I turned around, saw the struggle and ran over, also grabbed the guy and started yelling at him. At some point (whether before or after I arrived I don't know), he decided that he had made a mistake and threw back the wallet, saying something in Spanish like "I give it back." I grabbed the wallet and told Mark to let go (the police would never do anything even if we could find a policeman). The guy ran off, we retrieved Mark's glasses (which didn't even get broken), and returned to the hotel. I suspect as soon as the pickpocket realized he wasn't going to make a clean getaway (about the time Mark landed him face down in the gutter), he decided to cut his losses and return the wallet. Apparently recovering one's wallet from a pickpocket is unusual. People were kind of staring at Mark, and people we talked to later found it unusual too. We went back to the hotel and had dinner there. January 12, 1986: We took off a half hour late from Lima to Montego Bay, then an hour late from Montego Bay on a Rich International plane on loan to Air Jamaica. (We almost missed that flight since we could barely hear the announcements in the airport.) In Miami, we cleared Customs and waited for our Eastern flight. It was 3 hours late and had three gate changes (and not adjoining gates either). People kept talking about all the Eastern flights that had been canceled and how the rest had all been over- booked. I had packed all our souvenirs in my suitcase and carried it on to the return flights, figuring if I was going to get stuck in Jamaica, I at least wanted my suitcase. As I hauled this 25-lb suitcase (and 10-lb backpack) around, I found myself asking, "Why didn't I check this?" When we got to Newark (midnight) and the luggage finished coming out (1:30AM) I found out. They had lost Mark's suitcase. (Happy postscript: They found it and delivered it to us in two days. Apparently when you check your luggage at the "Connecting Flights Check-in" just outside Customs in Miami, there's a very good chance that it will get side-tracked just long enough to miss your flight.) (End of Week 3) T H E E N D Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl (or ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl)