Lima, Peru
We heard a lot of negative things about Lima….it is overcrowded, polluted, noisy, extremely dangerous and it even has wretched weather. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to have found it the total opposite. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with the day being a Sunday and the weather perfect. We walked out of the port and found a taxi driver who would take the four of us around for $15 an hour in a large Volvo. We docked in Callao and had a 40 minute drive to downtown Lima, the capital and largest city in Peru. We drove to Plaza Mayor, the district that houses the educational and historical sights. We were extremely impressed with the architecture, it was some of the most beautiful we have seen in South America! We toured the San Francisco Convent and Museum, which was incredible but the most fascinating part was our descent into the catacombs, which were dug beginning in 1546 as a burial ground for priests and others. This was a huge maze that you could easily get lost in. As many as 75,000 bodies were interred here. Several years ago archeologist and scientist wanted to make it more orderly so they separated all the body parts, legs, arms, heads, etc. and put them in separate pits. In one large circular pit about 10 feet they really got carried away and made a spiral design with heads and leg bones – very grotesque!
After this we needed something a little more cheerful, so we went to a local park where teenagers dressed in local costumes were dancing for the tourist. We continued walking around the area looking at the beautiful sites.
Our driver then took us to the town of Miraflores to their Indian Handicraft Market. This was the best market we have been to on the entire trip! This is one of the times I’m lucky I live in and RV because I have no room to really buy anything!
Four hours later we went back to the ship after a wonderful day.
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| From Lima, Peru |
March 10, 2009
Manta, Ecuador
Ecuador straddles the equator and is the smallest of the Andean countries; it’s about the size of Nevada. Again, we found a taxi drive to take the four of us around for $15 an hour – such a deal! We gave him the itinerary of what the ship tours were doing. Our first stop was an overlook of the city of Montecristi, we then went to Montecristi, which is the birthplace of the Panama hat. The reason it is called this is Teddy Roosevelt was given one as a gift when he was visiting the Panama Canal and when he returned to the US and was asked where he got it he said “Panama.” The name stuck and Panama has received all the credit for making these beautiful hats even though they are made here in Ecuador.
There was a wonderful market at the base of the cathedral so we spent an hour visiting everything. I even bought myself a hat. These hats can cost up to $200 for the best quality. They are handmade and take a month or more to make. My hat is a step down from the best and an excellent deal at $22! The hats can be rolled up, washed and ironed! They keep you head cool on the hottest of days.
On our way back to Manta we stopped at a tagua nut button factory. Tagua nuts, also known as the “vegetable ivory nut”, becomes solid like ivory and artisans use special tools to transform it into beautiful buttons, figurines or jewelry. This unique tropical palm takes 24 years to reach maturity and grows deep in the rain forest. The pod that holds the nuts weighs about 25 lbs and holds about 200 nuts!
When we arrived back in Manta, LuAnn and I went to the Archaeological Museum while Bob and Bobby went to the Internet. From there we walked back to the ship to go for a swim to cool off!
Tonight we crossed the equator for a second time!
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| From Manta, Equador |
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