Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After leaving Lima, we (our two guides Adam and Robby the surfer dude and driver Dan) travelled up the coast of northern Peru. First stop was Cabo Blanco where there was a famous fishing club in the 1950´s. It is now derelict and abandoned, but fascinating to look around and imagine what it was like in its hey day, when celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart were able to holiday there and fish for marlin from their boats. Earnest Hemingway was a regular visitor and we found a photo of him propping up the bar on the wall.
Then it was on to Mancora, where Robby gave us a surfing lesson, Eric managed to stand up with a lot of help from Robby, Abby still needs more practice!
At a camp site we met Mike and Silke from Liverpool; as they were heading the same way as us we offered them a lift on the truck, and they stayed with us for a week, before joining a voluntary project in the rainforest.
Crossing the border into Ecuador was an experience. Firstly we said goodbye to Adam, as he is from the US and did not have any days left on his Ecuador visa. Then after being the first to use a brand new Peruvian border crossing we were welcomed into Ecuador by a huge mural glorifying the taliban and celebrating the destruction of the twin towers(see photos).
In Cuenca we visited the panama hat factory. Panama hats have been made in Ecuador for several hundred years. Us gringos call them ´panama hats´ because they were worn by the Ecuadorian workers on the Panama Canal to protect them from the sun. Here they are known as ´monte-cristi´hats. Eric found one that fitted his big head to take home.
Making our way into the amazonian rainforest, extreme sports are called for; canyoning which included a 5 meter jump into a pool and abseiling down waterfalls, white water rafting, and drinking red wine whilst in a truck being driven by Dan the mad German on bumpy roads!
Hiking in the rain forest can be treacherous, there are 3 main rules to observe: 1) Do not touch anything (93% of plants here are toxic to man), 2) Never wee in the water (there is a tiny catfish that swims up the stream of urine and embeds itself in your urethra with tiny barbs and then grows by sucking your blood, it can only be removed by surgery), 3) Don´t upset the natives (they still shrink the heads of their enemies here).
On arriving in the capital, Quito we took a day trip to the middle of the world, i.e. the equator. There are two sites to visit, the official equator found by French scientists in 1736. They came to Ecuador as it is the only place where the equator crosses mountains which they could use to map the position of the sun at different times of the year. They wanted to prove that the earth is not perfectly spherical and that it bulges in the middle. Apparently their measurements gave rise to the metric system. About 10 years ago someone brought a GPS here and they discovered that the real latitude 00:00:00 is 200 metres further north!!!!!!! It tickled us to think that the French, of all people, had got it wrong, complete with huge monument and small tourist village. However you have to admire their accuracy considering the equipment that they would have had available to them in the 18th century. At the real equator experiments such as pouring water down a plughole and balancing an egg on a nail (allegedly easier on the equator) can be done. Apparently you weigh less here too, so a good place to come if you are dieting.
A & E
- comments