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