And so we left the Galapagos behind us, flew to Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-quil) where we split off from everyone else and headed to the international lounge for the flight to Lima. The flight from the islands to the mainland was smooth but we had a Dutch guy behind us with one very serious case of verbal diarrhea! Both of us took turns in holding the other down so that we would not jump up and tell him to be quiet just for 15 seconds! He spoke loudly, very loudly to his friends and sometimes punctuated his remarks with a blow to the back of my seat...... very irritating and we were glad to get off there. On the boat, he was fine, but I guess that we were never that close to him for that long a time. When we checked out baggage in at Guayaquil to go to Lima, thinking only to get rid of our heavy luggage, we were told that we had been put in the Business Section for this next flight and were also handed a ticket to the VIP lounge for a free lunch and beers... Oh it was a wonderful surprise - comfy chairs, ice cold beer - a quiet and gentle place where the hours melted gently past. But it was funny walking in there ........ As I said in the last email, I stood in fresh sealion pee right as we got off the zodiac at the Galapagos (funny how many people laughed at me then) and my other shoes were in the checked in baggage and well........ the smell had ripened somewhat seriously. So there you have two very tired and now very smelly people, looking rather haggard and walking into the VIP lounge. Noses were wrinkled up, eyes shot open in slight surprise and chins were hastily pulled inwards as we passed by.....and we had a very hard time keeping a straight face..... but what was I supposed to do? I bet no one here had smelled ripened sealion pee before!
After sitting down and realizing just how bad it was - and being totally ignored by all the waiters, I went to the ladies room to see if I could at least rinse some of the smell away. I was not going to spend $100 on a new pair of shoes at the airport. The basins in the VIP bathrooms simply dont lend themselves to shoe washing at all - I need to talk to them about this! So I did what any self respecting Business Class Person would do - I decided to wash the shoe in private. I locked myself in the toilet, flushed to check how high the water level rose and also to make sure that the water in there was as clean as clean could be, and then....... yes! I dipped my foot into the toilet, swished it around being very careful to only wash the outside and bottom of the shoe off..... It worked, so I repeated it twice more, did the other shoe too seeing as I was having such great success, and then used a good dollop of toilet paper to dry off so that I would not leave tracks back to our table! It must have worked because when I sat down again, Frank actually remarked that I had stopped stinking! LOL.... I think everyone was very relieved.... and the shoes got a really good wash here in the hotel room and are drying in front of the air conditioner right now. And we even got served beers and coffee after that....
We had the most glorious clouds on the flight to Lima - it was like a fairlyland, like a different dimension and I could almost feel the stories weaving themelves into existance just by looking at those clouds! I taped a good many minutes of it, wanting to share the experience with my grandgirls - maybe they will find the stories hidden in there. The sun was setting and the different layers were different colors, moving in different directions with strange patterns, shapes and just beautiful fluffy formations. Orange sunset lit up the windows on the other side of the airplane as the sun gave the most amazing display as it set over the clouds - I just could not work up the courage to lean over others to get those photos..... so hopefully it will happen another day. Anyway, this was a perfect flight - champagne and nuts to start off with even before take off, a good movie of my choice, reclining chair and only faintly stinky feet faaaar away and a really great take off and landing - now this is what I call flying - I could get to looking forward to it even. We had first class seats on the flight to Galapagos too, but just did not fully appreciate it as the excitement of going there was still too great. Also no champagne on that flight..... ah well.
On landing in Peru we sailed through the customs and immigration a whole lot easier than we have in the USA and headed out to get our luggage and then on to find our guide for this part of our stay..... and there he was and tall guy holding a paper with our name on it. I had to laugh - there stands a whole row of very hopeful, very tired looking guides, all hoping their clients are on time and the relief in the face of our guide, Ruben, was a beautiful thing to see. He quickly led us outside and we started the most incredible drive of my life. I thought Ecuador was bad, but that is cheese by comparison! "Pare" means stop and is pronounced "par-ay", and is totally ignored - totally! We asked why they even have the signs there and he just shrugged in response, together with a laugh. Its a suggestion. Maybe, if you feel like it, which no one ever does...... When approaching a stop street, the trick seems to pick up speed so that you can get your front bumper to the line before the guy coming from the other side, then you honk the horn just once in gentle warning that you are coming and again, louder and longer, if the other car seems to challenge you. By this time my molars have cracks the size of canyons in them and the sweat is starting gently at my temples, creating a new water source for the city..... The white lines in the roads - you know, the ones that you are supposed to stay between? Well, they are not even suggestions, merely white lines that happen to be in the road for some reason. Most of the time there are at least two cars trying to get in the same lane, and again, it seems to be a bumper law here - if your front bumper is a mere 3mm ahead of another - you have right of way..... even to randomly swing across two lanes to turn to the right after being in the far left lane... There is no yelling, no screaming and no gunshots at this behavior - also no crunching of metal on metal - apart from that in my head... I swear there is only a hairs width between cars most of the time and pavements are there to be driven over, parked on and generally used to bypass someone that is taking too long. The constant honking of horns is amazing... the taxis give one sharp honk to ask if you want a ride, as do those wanting to go over a stop sign. Two or three honks say something a tad more urgent - its like a very loud, very constant secret language around here. Only the red light is slightly respected, if there is nowhere urgent to get to and if the traffic is really heavy and if a slight feeling of obligation happens. Mostly it seems that all the cars just go, and keep going, until another one pushes inbetween and eventually everyone will get where they are going to. I will never, ever drive in this country - I think I could easily cause a national disaster by doing so..
The smog in Lima is absolutely horrible. This morning we had a good many free hours and used them to walk to the bay area and then across town to a very pretty park. There are many little shops along the way but they are all geared to the tourist and very expensive. Crossing the roads, even at the pedestrian crossings, is a dicey deal and the cars just keep coming - but we made it. After a few roads one tends to learn how to pull your butt in quickly or huddle with the other people dashing across the road. As the day wore on, the air became thicker and thicker and by this evening when we got back from the city tour with the guide, our throats were burning. After walking a ways to the resturant tonight for supper we both drank a goodly amount of water to sooth our raw feeling throats....
Anyway - this afternoon we had a city tour with a guide - part of the package, and even had a separate driver for the day.. They showed us some simply beautiful places around here and again, the churches were the best for me. There are so many old buildings around and a good many of them are empty. When I asked whether they were abandoned, Ruben was quick to say that they were not - they were just waiting for better days......and a multi-millionaire to fix them! Many of the older buildings have balconies, lovely elaborate and very decorative balconies - just a pity that no one uses them any more. We went into two huge churches - one we were allowed to take photos, the other not. They were both just beautiful, so ornate and rich in color and warmth and the carvings were just totally amazingas were all the glass work. The one that we were njot allowed to photograph had many original paintings which apparently get damaged with the flashes from all the cameras, so they have banned all photo taking. It was in this church that we were taken to the catacombs. Katie - it reminded me of Yotgrot - minus the bones, of course! Oh there were tons of bones and skulls all over the place, mostly neatly piled up for public display and oohing and aahing but sometimes they were piled 32 foot deep! These were not people that were killed, but rather those that naturally died and were buried under the church. It was quite amazing and also, surprisingly, not morbid, weird, spooky or horrible in any way.. just a part of life as it was back then.
We also visited the bay area again where they took us to the Park of Love where there is a huge statue of a kissing couple in a very passionate embrace and beautiful mosaics of little tiles all over the place together with a beautifully laid out lawn and flowers... The ocean did not smell like ocean, come to think of it and we could not get to it as there is a huge motorway between the area we were in and the water. Its really pretty though and our view was from fairly high up as there is a huge bank dug out and the city starts from the top of this hill area... Apparently it has not rained here since the 1980's when it rained for three days solid... Today's guide (who's name we still did not catch after asking 3 times) said that he had not felt a drop since then, but Rubin from yesterday said that he felt about 5 drops about 6 months ago...... There is a lot of mist around from the ocean and quite a water problem apparently with the glaciers receding in the Andes and the city water being reliant on the rivers from those glaciers. Many areas around town have green grass and flowers and there are names made out of different grasses or from flowers within these pieces of grass..... these are advertisements. If a company pledges to take care of that patch of grass, they get to 'write' their name on it too. Quite a unique idea and actually very pretty as there is quite a bit of competition to make each as beautiful as possible. Many of the signs around town that we took to be road and directional signs are actually advertisements - its very strange to have an advert right next to a stop sign and I wonder which is more often noticed!
Most of the buildings, shops and houses have serious burglar bars/safety bars around the properties as well as over the windows and doors of the buildings. These are often very serious spikes and glass and other metal things that one really does not want to mess with - often together with electric fences above those too. It's only been a very few years ago since this area was plagued by really big problems and the Shining Path terrorists sort of ruled the area. This is not forgotten at all and the police presence is really heavy everywhere. They stand at every corner, and inbetween, with bullet proof vests and full body size shields at the ready. They are all relaxed and greet one happily, but we are not sure whether this is comforting or reason to be more aware than we are. We have learned that no place is totally safe but we did not feel unsafe here at all - we both carried our camera's and never for one moment felt targeted or scared at all, but all this police presence reminds one to be a tad more vigilant which is not a bad thing at all. We did make a point of getting back to the hotel tonight after dinner, before dark - even though we did see a good many people walking around last night on our way here.... its just not worth pushing it - not anywhere.
As you gather, we have had internet here and I have managed to catch up a bit. Tomorrow morning we leave here around 6.15 for our flight to Cusco, the Sacred Valley of the Incas and Macchu Picchu. I am not certain if we will have internet while we are there - but it is way too slow to upload any other photos anyway. So you will have to wait till early next week for those.
I just found a huge black spider walking on the bed and hope that I killed him when I swatted him with the city map!! I really dont feel like crawling around on my hands and knees looking for him and Frank is not being helpful by reciting 'Inky Pinky Spider" from the opposite side of the bed! And then there appeared an inch worm, slowly creeping upwards towards my pillow......... aaaaaarrgggggghhhh - now everything itches and I know I am going to be awake a million times tonight and dream of all sorts of creepy crawlies!
It's lovely to be here, it was lovely to wander around town, surrounded by the swirling masses of people who live and work in the city, to hear the sounds and feel the pulse of life here. It was great to be away from tourist places and its weird to sit in a resturant and not hear a word of english for hours at a time. It's lovely that no matter that there is often not a single common phrase or word between us and the Peruvian people, we can make ourselves understood, find our way and even buy a twirly whirly icecream in the middle of Lima, Peru. These are such incredibly special days.
I had a lovely chat with both my girls on instant message tonight - what a treat! Now just to get Steven online and up to speed before next time we go somewhere! And now, off to sleep. We have not yet packed up our bags so have to do that before leaving in the morning too. I am even looking forward to the flight :)
Till Cusco.....hopefully
love and light
Especially to U3
Annie and Frank
ps - Welma, I left your note at the Charles Darwin Center - I hope they contact you!
and Bea - a part of you is still in the Business Class section of that aircraft - happy travels :)
1 comment:
What words... super, an excellent idea
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