Week 2: From Ecuador onward to Peru

On Monday morning we visited the home and studio of Santiago Guillermo, a internationally acclaimed artist who was born without arms and cannot move his knees!  Mr. Guillermo started painting as a boy using his feet but soon realized he was much better painter when he painted by mouth.  He is absolutely amazing in his skill using a specialized ultra realistic style in portraits of both food and people.  But he will also do other techniques on a commissioned basis.  For example, the commissioned painting he was working on here is a style where the faces are realistic but the bodies are caricatures.

These are photos of his paintings.  Note that the paintings really look like photos!

Next on the way to the Cuenca's airport, he shopped at the Panama Hat factory of Homero Ortega.  This is one of the most famous hat factories in Ecuador.  Still, the basic hat is weaved by small town women who sell the 'raw' hats to factory who then trim them, wash and bleach/dye them, size them and finally band and finish them.  It should be noted that they made the famous hat worn by Walter White in Breaking Bad!  After the hat factory, we caught the plane to Quito and had dinner at the hotel.

Tuesday was a big day.  We started by going to the Inti Nan Museum which is on right on the equator.  This is a nice museum which has its own guide who describes the various cultures of Ecuador and has displays of such things as a real shrunken head of a twelve old boy.  This boy was the chief's son and died of illness.  The chief decided to honor his son by having his head shrunken.  I guess each to his own.

Of course, the main attraction to the museum is the odd effects of the equator.  For example, water right on the equator will drain without a whirlpool action.  But move the water 10 feet on either side and you will experience the normal whirlpool of counterclockwise for the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise for the Southern Hemisphere.

After the equator we stopped for ice cream or actually a frozen sherbet made from only fruit juice that is beaten in a brass bowl on salted ice.  This particular shop was owned by the relatives that had founded this process and I got to admit it was great.  It really tasted creamy like ice cream.  After this break, we went back into the city of Quito for lunch and a bit more of the old city.  Here is a closeup of statue of the Virgin Mary that came from Spain in the 1980s in 4,000 pieces and was assembled to overlook the city.

He had lunch in San Francisco plaza

After lunch we headed to the airport for the international flight to Lima, Peru.  We said our goodbyes to our Ecuadorian Group Leader Sophy at the airport.  But since we had 3 hours before our flight, I decided to see if I could get into the airport lounge club without my lounge club card (I had this stolen as it was in my wallet that was pickpocketed).  Although I was armed with my membership number (received by email from the club when I noticed them that my card was stolen), I was a bit surprised that the club readily welcomed me with open arms.  I just hope I have success like that when I try to use it on my return trip to the U.S.

After arriving in Lima about 10:20PM, it took about an hour to go through immigration and customs.  There we were met by our Peruvian Group Leader Carmen.  Carmen joined us and took us by a large bus to our hotel Jose Antonio in the Miraflores part of Lima.  We arrived at the hotel shortly after midnight.

On Wednesday morning Carmen had a get together briefing.  Here we got to meet the other 5 members for our tour of Peru.  There are a couple from Ann Arbor, MI and a couple with their granddaughter from Savannah, GA.  So our tour group will be only ten people as 3 other people cancelled at the last minute.  After the briefing, we had lunch and then took a short walk to the Pacific coast.  Here is a famous beach love statue and a restaurant that sits of the jetty.

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Although we didn't have so group dinner tonight, six of us with Carmen went to a local restaurant and ate together.  

Week 1: Friday & the Weekend

On Friday morning we left Riobamba in a southbound direction to see the oldest Church in a Ecuador.  It is small and unpretentious temple but is impressive in many ways: its historic value, as a true relic of the Spanish Conquest; the dramatic stone façade with a large arched doorway, supported by two columns and the unmistakable feeling of history. The church was built by the Spaniards in 1534, one year before the Spanish foundation of Quito, and stands there as a living testimony of those years and historic events.  Originally it was made of adobe and straw, and later “fortified” with the use of stone for the main structures.  The temple was destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1797, but it was reconstructed shortly afterwards.

Right beside the church we found this man who is a master carver of the tagua, the fruit of the Ivory Nut Palm.  The tagua is the nut like outgrowth included in large coconut looking thing on the table in front of the carver

Next we we off to a ride on the Devil's Nose Train.  Along the way, the scenery was impressive

With lots fields of crops, like these of quinoa

The train itself is just for tourists.  They run three trains per day, all of which are diesel.  The train transverses down the volcano rock mountain using two switchbacks here the train actually changes direction!  The ride takes 45 minutes down.  Then the Government makes the tourists stay one hour there (to help the locals) before going back to the original station, which only takes 30 minutes as the train goes faster.  

The rock formation known as the Devil's Nose

The locals who do their best to entertain us as we wait for the return trip.  They are paid by the Government

After the train trip, we had a 4 hour ride in our little bus to Cuenca, which is the third largest city in Ecuador.  Cuenca is also known as the largest Expat communities in South America.  We are staying at the Hotel Santa Lucia, which I'd an upgrade from the original hotel.  It is a boutique hotel that is in a converted colonial house.  The rooms are small but are very well furnished - including washcloths in the bathroom!  

On Saturday, we first took a quick tour of the downtown plaza

And the massive Catedral Nueva

It is said that this church can hold 10,000 worshippers.  

Nearby there is a convent where the nuns sell all kinds of things from cookies to wine.  It is interesting to note that this sect of nuns do not allow themselves to be seen by others. 

After the quick your of downtown we took our bus outside of Zcuenca in the valley and visited a home/factory that still makes shawls the old fashion Ecuadorian way.  They use all organic dyes and all work in done by hand.  Next, we had a took of an orchid conservatory by the name of Ecuagenera.  This is a large family run business that boasts it supplies over 6,000 varieties of orchids.  Our orchid guide, daughter of the owner, claims there are roughly 3,500 distinct varieties of orchids of which there are 240 native in Ecuador, the most of any country in the world.  

Lunch on Saturday was at a beautiful resort called Santa Barbara that overlooked the valley.  Then after a jewelry shopping stop we went back to Cuenca and visited the Central Bank Museum. The highlight of the visit was seeing several real shrunken heads they had on display.  To end the sightseeing part of the day, we walked among the ruins of the Inca settlement in Cuenca.  There isn't too much left of this settlement but the Government has outlined the buildings and made a nice little park out of it.

Today, Sunday, we left at 8 AM for the 35K bus trip up to Parque Nacional Cajas.  

 We had a day guide for the park, Flavia, a local girl who was very knowledgeable about its plants, wildlife, etc.  we started off with a hike around this lake.  

Flavia is pointing out that many old vines are so big they really look like trees

After the hike we went by bus to Tres Cruces which marks the continental divide - water on one side of the mountain drains to the Pacific and water on the other side drains to the Amazon Basin.  It is pretty high up there at 4,167 M and the weather proved it.  It was miserable, very cold and raining with a terrific wind.  So much so, I didn't spend much more time out of the bus than necessary to take a couple photos.

After Tres Cruces, we went back towards Cuenca and had lunch at Dos Chorreras, a modern hacienda hosteria.  It was very scenic but not as much as Santa Barbara hosteria was on Saturday.  Of course the weather was still bad here as it was cold and raining.  I was glad to get back into the city of Cuenca where it was overcasted but dry and pleasant.  This afternoon we had free time so I spent about two hours walking around the city.  Unfortunately it is Sunday and many of the museums and shops were closed

Week 1: Wednesday & Thursday

Wednesday morning I had breakfast at my b&b and then took a taxi downtown to the hotel, Reina Isabel, where I would be staying the night with my OAT tour group.  It is a very nice looking hotel.  After checking my bag here, I took the bus down to the old city to meet up with the city walk.  At the meeting point we had to sign in on a sheet with our nationality and hotel.  I noticed the signer before me was also staying at the Reina Isabel hotel.  So I mentioned the consequence to him only to discover he and his female companion were from Falls Church and Burke respectively!  Any way, the city tour was very entertaining and lasted about 3 hours.  

A side street in old Quito

The Madonna looking over the city

After the tour, I went with my new VA friends inside the La Compania, the most opulent church inside in Quito.  No pictures allowed inside!

The church was built from 1605 to 1765 and most everything inside is gold leaf.  The tour guide says there is 47 kilos of pure gold in all the leaf.  After this experience, we signed up to for a 5 o'clock tour of the Presidential Palace

This palace is on the far side of Independence Plaza.  

While waiting for the tour, I notice a small demonstration that had about just as many police standing nearby - just in case

I learned later that there are demonstrations most everyday as many people here think the President has overstepped his power.  Among other things, he has the assembly pass legislation that allowed him to run for more than two terms and to arrest, as terrorists, any demonstrator that is violent - with no definition of what constitutes violent.  He is presently on his third term which he won with 51% of the vote but many believe there was widespread corruption.  

Once on the tour, we saw the door of the office of the President

the courtyard outside the presidential wing

The meeting room

We also saw some of the past items given by gifts by foreign governments.  What really caught my eye here is a crystal bowl given by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  But instead of stating was a gift of the United States or even the Secretary of State, it simply has Hillary's signature engraved in the bottom!

After the tour, we all took a taxi back to the hotel.  I then checked in and discovered I had a very large room with two double beds.  What made the room so big was that it had a 6 X 9 ft. area with no real purpose - other than it had a telephone in it on a stand.  Still the room was nice.

At the hotel's breakfast buffet this morning I used the neatest machine.  You put whole oranges in a shoot and you can watch the process as the machine turns it into orange juice.  The process was fascinating and the juice was great.

After breakfast I met up with my small group.  There are a married couple, both retired dentists from Fl, a woman who is a nurse and a PhD from Hawaii, and a retired woman from MS.  After meeting with these folks, we took off with our guide, Sofy, and driver, Juan.

This is looking down on Quito from the road.  

We then stopped at an old hacienda that goes back to the early 1700s with a chapel which is a hundred years older.  After that, we stopped at a rose nursery.  The roses not good enough to export are called National Roses and are sold here for $1.50 for 25!

These are really long stemmed roses

The roses growing and being processed

For lunch, we stopped at the house of a local artist, Evita Lopez.  She was very hospitable and the meal was outstanding.  But the biggest surprise to me was the design of her abode house with these stairs

And the windows she makes which look just like stained glass but really are painted

After lunch we drove to Riobama.  This is the largest city (about 200,000)  in this area of the country but was destroyed by earthquake about 1900 and then rebuilt in a safer area.  For this church, they took the facade from the destroyed church and built a new church behind it.

We are staying the night outside Riobama at another nice hotel, Abraspungo, where we had a good evening dinner of local trout.