Ancient Civilizations

SORRY....PICTURE WON'T LOAD. PICTURE THIS - STEVE AND LAURIE LOOKING LIKE JOE AND MOLLY TOURIST IN FRONT OF AN ANCIENT TEMPLE.

Thursday and we’re in Peru. Our arrival into the harbour in Saleverry was early in the morning. There was such a swell that we just about rolled right out of bed. We’re leaving as I type this, and we’ve got a real swell going on again...must be normal for these parts.

This place was not at all what I had expected. It is desert, right down to the ocean. Agriculture does flourish here, but only because of a canal that was built hundreds of years ago that diverts water from the river several miles away.

The main claim to fame here (from a tourist point of view) is it is the site of literally thousands of archaeological digs. We visited a couple of them....the Temple of the Moon, which was incredible. It was exactly as it had been excavated, with no touching up of paints or restoration. The colors and designs on the walls of the Temple were still vibrant. The sacrificial alter was still pretty grim....they chose black rocks for it.

In the picture of Steve and I in front of the north wall of the temple, you can see a line of men with ropes around their necks. These were warriors who had lost a test of strength with their compatriots. These ‘losers’ were led naked with a rope around their neck. They were housed in a separate part of the temple for about two weeks and fed a hallucenegenic drug to cleanse them. Once they were properly cleansed, they were sacrificed, had their blood drained (which the priest drank) and were skinned and dismembered. This was only done when they were trying to appease their gods, which included the mountain at the back of the temple. After about 600 years, they decided their god wasn’t great after all, and they abandoned the temple. You might wonder how this is all known....our guide kept referencing her remarks by saying “the experts hypothesize..” .

We saw a city of ruins called Chan Chan, and then went for lunch with traditional Peruvian fare. It was pretty good, although no one told us what we were eating (which, in hindsight, perhaps was a good thing.)

Tomorrow we arrive in Lima for three days. However, I am taking a side trip to Machu Picchu with five other people from the ship. Steve urged me to take it (he can’t do it because of the high altitude). It took some fancy work on the part of the travel agent in Atlanta Georgia, but she got me on the plane, the train, and even found me a hotel room. I leave the ship at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) and arrive back on Sunday, hopefully well before the ship sails at 10:00 p.m. Steve assures me he will do just fine on his own. It should be fun.

We also move staterooms this weekend, so I am busy packing up all my stuff now so that Steve doesn’t have to do it on his own. All in all, it’s a busy busy day. There goes the myth that holidays are relaxing!

I will take lots of pictures of my adventure in the lost civilization and will make another blog posting next week.

Hasta luego.

Too many iguanas for me

I TOOK THIS PICTURE WITH A ZOOM LENS. I WASN'T GETTING THAT CLOSE TO THOSE CRITTERS.

From everything we heard and read, we didn’t expect much from our port of call at Guayaquil in Ecuador. It is a large shipping port, and not a tourist destination. We were, however, pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed our tour of the city.

Our tour guide, Jorge, was 36 and very informative and entertaining. He took us to all the usual city attractions...cathedral, waterfront area, drive around the city, and a museum. We also went to Iguana Park. This is an area that was swampy mangrove until the city drained it. Instead of relocating all the local iguanas (or putting them in the soup pot) they created an environment that they evidently love. There are dozens of them in the small one-block park area. We were advised not to stand under any trees because they have been known to fall on unsuspecting people. Also....if you feel something wet, it probably isn’t rain! They are perfectly unafraid of people....they don’t even get out of the way if you walk right up to them. I wasn’t entirely comfortable there, but lots of locals let their small children run and play with them.

We went to a residential area that is currently in transition. Jorge told us it used to be as dangerous as the neighbourhood in Rio de Janeira...if you came out of it alive you would be without shoes, jewellery, wallets, etc. However, they are rehabilitating the area and although it looks like it could take a long time, there are definite signs of progress.

They had a comedian onboard the ship last night. We went to his show and it was hilarious. My face hurt from laughing so much. A quiet dinner and then home early. Steve wandered around a bit, but I was very happy to be in the room just chilling by 9:00 p.m.

Today is a sea day....Steve went to golf classes, I went to keyboard class, and we went to an informative and entertaining lecture about Lima, Peru. It’s a formal night tonight, so will get all gussied up yet again. Sigh....life is tough.

We dock in Salaverry, Peru tomorrow, and then on to Lima the next day. That is the disembarkation point for about half of the people onboard, so we will get about 400 new people coming aboard. We are moving to a cabin more midships, so we are very happy that is going to happen before we hit the heavy seas.

I THOUGHT THIS BOY IN THE BUBBLE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS HAVING FUN. THIS POOL IS PART OF THE RIVER WATERFRONT PARK THAT RUNS THROUGH QUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR.

Panama Hats from Ecuador

PANCHO HELPS STEVE CHOOSE A PANAMA HAT. TURNS OUT HE LIVED IN TORONTO FOR YEARS AND HIS ENGLISH WAS BETTER THAN OURS!

It’s probably a good thing we had cloudy skies today in Manta, Ecuador, as it would have been very hot otherwise, being located right on the equator. As it was, it was humid as we are right in the middle of the rainy season.

Manta is the fourth most important city in Ecuador, and has the largest tuna fishing fleet (in South America I think I heard them say.) It isn’t a particularly pretty city, or even has much to offer, other than being the site of the South American Windsurfing Competition. It does have a reasonable boat building industry. The boats are primarily big fishing boats.

Steve and I took a taxi today to Montecristi, where Panama hats are made. We each purchased one, along with a nice little box to carry it in. The box resembles an oversize wooden pencil case. When we got back to the ship, we took them out of the boxes and tried to get them to look as dashing as they did when we purchased them. Hopefully the look will get better as we practise!

Our taxi driver Daniel was very nice. He didn’t speak much English, but our Spanish seemed to be enough to get us through. We visited the marketplace in Monecristi and purchased a few little odds and ends. The prices are very barrato (cheap). Gas here is less than $1.00 PER GALLON! He said it was because Ecuador has lots of oil. I wanted to tell him that Canada had lots of oil as well, but our gas is nowhere near $1.00 per gallon. However, my Spanish wasn’t quite up to it.

Back onboard ship for a late lunch, then took in a movie. We saw The Candidate with Will Ferrell. Bad language...stupid script...over the top...but sort of semi-funny in some spots.

Tonight we will probably turn in early as we helped one of the onboard entertainers celebrate her birthday last night and we are both feeling the effects today.

Tomorrow we are in Guayaquil where we are booked on an excursion to see some ancient temples.

SHIP BUILDING IN MANTA ECUADOR...PART OF THE TUNA FISHING FLEET.

Sleepy Sunday at the equator

It’s Sunday and it’s a nice, quiet and relaxing day. Both Steve and I walked for about an hour and a half on deck today...a total of between 5 and 6 miles. That just may help ward off the pounds from last night’s extravagant dinner, which included chocolate tres leches cake YumYum!

Today we will cross the equator. In honor of this, a huge mid-earth, mid-day brunch was served, along with beautiful ice sculptures, and every kind of brunch and lunch dish imaginable. We both went to a lecture on Equador, then Steve went to golf class, and I went to music (keyboard) class. We met after for a glass of wine in the lounge and now are resting and relaxing in our stateroom until it is time to venture out in search of dinner. Sigh....is this really real or what? One could become quite lazy and hedonistic. Mind you, is that necessarily a bad thing, especially in small doses?

Tomorrow we dock in Manta in Ecuador. We think we may go in search of panama hats, which are actually made in Ecuador. They are called Panama Hats because one was presented to Teddy Roosevelt while he was in Panama. There are three qualities of panama hats, ranging in price from $300 to $1200. Of course, we can also purchase the other kind of panama hats for about $30 on the street. It would be interesting to see the difference.

Hope everyone is having as relaxing a day as we are. Hasta luego.

Hot Hot Hot in Panama

SUNRISE IN THE BAHIA DE PANAMA

Our ship never did dock last night, instead we spent the night out in the Bay of Panama. At around 11:00 p.m., I went out on our balcony and the sight was spectacular. Way off in the distance were the lights of Panama City. Right beside the boat was a spectacular display of phosphorescence, with dozens of white birds (I don’t think they were gulls) performing an aerial ballet, dipping down into the water and then straight up. It was quite beautiful.

Today we did a shore excursion, visiting the Visitor’s Centre at the Miraflores Lock on the Canal, then travelling through the ultra-modern Panama City. The city is high-rise crazy, with dozens of highrise condo, apartment and office buildings built in the last 15 to 20 years. When asked what fueled this incredible building, an ‘expert’ winked and said that if we guessed Coca-Cola we’d be ‘half right.’ Hmmm.

We also visited the colonial part of the city, which had fallen into a huge state of disrepair. It is slowly being rehabilitated, however, it is up to individual owners to bear the entire cost of renovations. To add to the stress, the government will confiscate the property if it isn’t completed within their stated time period. Sounds like win-win for the government.

We were told that Panama is one of the fastest-growing retirement centres in the Americas. I am hard pressed to determine why that is so. It is stinking hot....they are very close to the equator....and it gets tons and tons of rain. Mosquitos remain a very real health threat. To be fair, we never saw a retirement community, but from what we did see, it doesn’t really appeal to me. (Mind you....I did find a tequila bar, which is a definite plus).

We leave in a couple of hours to continue our voyage south. Next port of call on Monday is Manta in Ecuador. Bring it on.

A PANAMA CITY HIGHLIGHT