Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Trilogy Trip



We are back in Miami, Florida with better access to internet and so here’s a recap of the last two weeks in Peru & Ecuador.


The Overview of our travels

This trip has involved more air, water and land in a short span than we’ve ever done before-9 flights and multiple bus & boat trips. 



 To reach Machupicchu we took a train and various bus rides out of Cusco (better for us than the 4-day hike on the infamous Inca trail or the very cheap bus on a dusty winding dirt road to the electro power plant followed by a 3 hour hike).

The altitude in the Sacred Valley (including Machupicchu) was quite a  challenge. We were in towns from 8,000-11,000 feet for a week. “Altitude sickness” is common and while we chose not to take “western medicine”, we gummed coca leaves daily supplemented with coca tea or a sweet, hard candy with coca leaves in the center. The Andean people continuously suck on a wade of coca leaves and bowls of dried leaves were offered on all of our buffet lines.  I was told this gives “energy”, but really I think it is more of a stimulant like caffeine.   Too much, though, gave us a headache or nausea. Mostly water was the best remedy—lots and lots (so much we were up 3-4 times in the night!).  It was humorous to watch us huffing and puffing as we walked slight hills or even just while getting dressed!


The people in both countries were extremely friendly and only a couple of words in Spanish from us prompted a rapid conversation.  Most people asked us where we were from (we could understand that) and were absolutely fascinated when we explained that we lived in a “caravan” or house on wheels.  Most had never heard of that.

Peru was definitely less expensive to travel in, as their currency is the Sol and Ecuador is the US$.  We’ve never been in a foreign country that uses the US currency!  They mint some Ecuadorian coins, equivalent to our quarters and dimes, but use them interchangeably with ours. 


Machu Picchu was magical and was less hiking than we expected. Of course there are other paths and Karen hiked out to the Inca Bridge which ended at a very spooky trail that skirted a 1,000 foot sheer cliff. Others in our group hiked further but this was just fine for us.  We respected our limits.






We flew from Cusco back to Lima then ran to catch the flight to Quito,Ecuador. Every one of our internal flights were late- guess that’s just routine. Our group was certainly a “team” as we were constantly counting uno, dos to catorce (14) and looking out for one another. Great group of new friends!

Quito seems more modern and prosperous and we visited some great sights including the changing-of-guards at the Presidential Palace complete with  political protest. We also heard a special performance of the Sinamune Disabled Children's Orchestra. 






Middle of the World-we are on both sides of the Equator at the same time

shopping for unusual food in the open market


Changing of the Guards (this happens every Monday)


riot police on the ready

Jack bought a handmade Panama Hat-these originated in Ecuador not Panama!



The icing on the cake were touring the Galapagos Islands on the 95 foot boat, Carina.  We were surprised at the population of people on the islands but thankful  that there was no “high-rise” condos or resorts. We had a naturalist from the Galapagos National Park with us at all times which was awesome as there is so much to know beyond just what we could see. Ecuador is working hard to maintain, protect and bring back species of “endemic” animals, reptiles and plants. Endemic means those that evolved into a distinct species such as the swallow-tailed gull, world’s only nocturnal gull who evolved to hunt at night because of the competition from other sea birds. Many of the animals are only found in the Galapagos-penguin, hawk, dove, mockingbird, giant tortoise, and blue-footed booby. 



Karen ready for snorkling


we snorkeled with a white tip shark and a Galapagos shark!



Endemic uncommon Galapagos Penguin the only one found north of the Equator


Galapagos Hawk-the largest predator in the Islands
endemic subspecies of Brown Pelican
our boat in the background

Galapagos mockingbird-enedmic to the islands-these birds adapted to not actually
mock" as other mockingbirds do because there were less birds around them

baby sea lion


this is a "wet landing"


zodiac trips around the islands
Galapago Hawk-(endemic) the largest predator in the Islands

Blue Footed Booby-endemic subspecies found in the Galapagos
the Boobys do a comical mating dance

Galapagos Sea Lions (they don't have seals in the Galapagos)

The male sea lion came out of the water roaring as we got too close to the baby
we saw many animals and reptiles peacefully sunning together-here a Sally Lightfoot crab and a Marine iguana

Black Neck Stilt one of the resident seabird

Uncommon Galapagos Flamingo
Yellow warbler (endemic Subspecies)

Giant Tortoise reach 150 pounds-Endemic and found only in the Galapagos Islands

what do you call a bunch of sleeping tortoise?



they are really BIG, and fortunately very slow


This was definitely a super special trip and more challenging than expected. We’re exhausted!



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Sunday, December 3, 2017

Amazon River in Peru



We flew into Lima, Peru and promptly were dropped off at the wrong hotel in the Miraflores District. Oh, oh not good!  But within 30 minutes the driver was back and we found the hotel. 



We are on an adventure by OAT-Outdoor Adventure Travels. We have 3 segments, the first being 5 days in the Amazon. We flew from Lima to Iquitos, the largest city in the world (pop. about a million) that can’t be reached by road. 
We came on a 2 hour flight then took a transfer boat 100 miles down the Amazon.  The mighty river flows west to east through Peru to Brazil. Iquitos is 2,300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean yet is Peru’s largest river port for cargo ships and barges. 
Our naturalist guide and lodging are with Explorama, started in the 1960’s as a unique system of 3 lodges & a research center that houses students,  researchers, environmentalists and inquisitive travelers,  boats to move people and several foundations to help improve the lives of the indigenous people of the area with clean water and education.


Shaman , or healer, using plants of the jungle

Canopy walk

Small motorized canoe

Used to move supplies and produce to market


We stayed 3 days at the fairly remote Explorama lodge and another 2 nights at the Ceiba Lodge that is much more of a resort (hot water, air conditioning and even a swimming pool).  

The Explorama Lodge, built over 50 years ago is on the edge of small tributary of the Amazon in the middle of the huge rain forest. It’s very similar to a “summer camp”!  A screened-in wooden main dining room, individual rooms with screen windows and paper-thin walls that made for hearing lots of laughter from the adjoining rooms!  Showers were only cold water, beds were wooden cots with thin mattress and mosquito netting and lot of jungle sounds around. As rustic as it sounds, there was wi-fi (!), a well-stocked bar and individual bathrooms-which of course we appreciated and not necessarily in that order. 

Mosquito netting over our bed

Our days were packed full of excitement always traveling by small open boat or on foot.  Since the Amazon is very near the equator the temperature maintains a steady 85 degrees with stifling 90% humidity!!  Our “safari-type” clothing was soaked with perspiration matter of minutes. The 13 of us figured we are all in the same boat, so to say. 

Some highlights were:
•fishing for piranha (collectively we caught only 1);
•a tiny single person rum distillery that has a 200 year old sugarcane press powered by a horse;
•meeting two different healers-one in a micro sized medical clinic run by an American doctor and the other a skilled Shaman who studies and utilizes medicinal plants in the forest;
•the longest treetop canopy trek in the world-1/4 mile with 14 iiplatforms and cable walkways 120 feet above the forest floor; has 
•visiting the Yagua people to learn about their culture and how the arrival of Europeans and time has affected them;
•demonstration of how the Yagua make and still utilize poison tipped darts in blow guns to hunt (and our opportunity to try it!);


We were so fascinated by life along the Amazon and its tributary rivers. Between Iquitos and Brazil there are several large villages of 4-5,000 people, many tiny villages of a few hundred people and numerous solitary families “squatting “ out a living with what they can use from the forest for their homes. The Yagua homes generally don’t have electricity, toilets or even running water. They are large in space because of the extended families but very sparse inside often with little or no actual furniture.  In very recent years the Peruvian government has been supplying individual homes with a 40 watt solar panel and battery. This provides a single light bulb in the main room and kitchen and electric plug for perhaps a radio.  Kitchen stoves are often still open flame. While the benefit of the solar is immense the reasoning behind is less altruistic. The government really wanted to thwart the drug traffickers who were supplying the people with kerosene and lamps!  So now there is no kerosene produced in Peru. 

Most all of the small villages have at least a primary school and those with around 400 people also have a preschool and high school. Teachers, many from villages themselves, have 6 years of college in Iquito. The government pays their salaries, the village provides a house for them to board in during the school year and many books and supplies come from foundations such as Explorama. We got to interact with the school kids several who proudly showed us their pets (turtle, puppy or parrot) or a simple pinwheel made from a leaf. 
Kitchen in a home in the Yaqua village


Huatzin bird-a prehistoric bird that can’t fly

Woolly monkey (baby)


Piranha ( our only catch of the day)

Prehistoric Amazon Turtle about 2 feet in diameter

Four month old sloth