We have settled back into the routine of day to day boat life in Cartagena. We are making progress on our boat projects but it feels as if they will never be done! Each day as the workers are leaving, Bill will ask them what time they will be on the boat the next day. Inevitably, the response is “In the morning around 9am”. Then, each day, Bill texts them around 11am to get the actual schedule. The good news is that they do eventually show up and do some work. The most inconvenient project we have going is the window replacement. Since July, we have had a few rainstorms here and there. Since the workers removed our old windows, we have had floods that would cause Noah awe. I woke up one morning to find Bill buried in towels with a large igloo cooler full of rainwater that had flooded through the makeshift blockades. Yesterday, the worker placed the finished windows but did not finish the installation so we literally have them taped into place. After adding more tape at midnight last night during a torrential rainstorm, we have been able to replace the cooler with a small cup to catch the water so we are making progress! We are planning that the windows will be completely installed and leakproof by Monday afternoon but it needs to stop raining in order for the windows to be set. From the look of the current sky, I am not hopeful.
The kitchen project is almost done as well. We are putting some last minute touches in place and need to complete the sprucing up of the floor borders. We had an unexpected twist last week. Bill was cooking dinner on the new stove top unit when we noticed a burning smell. Bill looked under the cabinet to find that the cooktop was ablaze! Luckily he was standing right next to it when the fire started so no major damage occurred. When we took the stovetop back to the Home Center (much like Home Depot), we did not need much Spanish to explain the issue. Bill just flipped the stovetop over and showed the worker the burned out stove bottom. Unfortunately, we had the stovetop past the exchange date so it has been sent off to the manufacturer for replacement which will take at least a month. In the meantime, Bill is getting quite handy at preparing meals in the air fryer/convection oven/microwave we have. Project number three is the bowsprit replacement. This project has been ongoing since August. The bowsprit is the structure that attaches to the front of the boat and holds the forestay (furler sail) and the anchors. Our old bowsprit was made of teak and every time Bill stepped on to it, it would creak and make a cracking sound. Bill drew up the plan for the new bowsprit and the search for materials began. We finally settled on a fiberglass construction because the aluminum available was expensive and reportedly was lower grade quality. All the long wires that hold the masts in place are called rigging. It is all connected in an aligned tension so when the sails are carrying a full load, everything stays in place. Evidently the forestay was the anchor for the entire rigging system because when Bill popped it loose, several of the rigging wires sagged. Luckily, we are not sailing right now so no worries! After two months, the new bowsprit was ready for installation and Bill trimmed it to fit and slid it into place. Easy peasy! Now came the time to reattach the forestay. Bill carefully lifted the forestay. Due to the remaining tension on the rigging system, the forestay was about 2 inches shy from reaching its clasp and no amount of pulling was going to make the forestay reach the shackle. Bill then rigged a pulley system with a ratchet strap in order to force the bowsprit into place. He ratcheted and ratcheted but still an inch and half away from the clasp. His next attempt involved something called a ‘come along’ (usually used to pull trucks out of mud) attached to a chain that was wrapped around the mast and connected to the foot of the forestay. I was in charge of standing on the new bowsprit and holding the forestay to keep it from rocking in the wind. Bill cranked the come along and as it moaned under the tension, I foresaw my inevitable death by decapitation. Not able to get the decapitation image out of my head, I mutinied and ran for cover leaving Bill to continue his torture of the forestay. After a valiant effort, Bill admitted defeat and located a rigging specialist to come assist. The rigging guy ended up disassembling the forestay, removing the jib sail, unscrewing about a hundred screws and after a couple of hours, the forestay was securely attached to the clasp once again. Now all that remains to finish the bowsprit project is to have the rest of the rigging re-tensioned, cut the anchor holes in the bowsprit and set the anchors back into place. It has been a difficult project but hopefully the new bowsprit will outlive us! As the rain continues to fall here in Cartagena, I wish you a wonderful week and we will be sure to say hi to Noah for you all!
0 Comments
The one fact in life I can now depend on is that the Amazon Jungle will defeat you. You will not win. You will not conquer. You may survive but not for long. I always wondered what life would have been like if I had not been born into my life. What would it have been like to be born in Switzerland or Australia? It never occurred to me that one of those options could have been the Amazon Jungle. The tribes that live in the jungle and thrive must be an amazing people. At our lodge, we met the caretaker’s four-year-old daughter and she did not even sweat! Our clothes were wet from the time we disembarked from the plane until we landed back in Colombia! We are glad to have experienced the Amazon but I am calling it lucky that we survived and I won’t tempt fate again.
We flew from Cusco into Puerto Maldanado, Peru. Puerto Maldanado reminded us of the small island towns we have encountered over the past few years. Their main income was tourism and they were all very happy to introduce us to their culture. We hopped into a long boat and scooted down the Madre de Dios river to our lodge. The lodge sat back in the jungle and was reminiscent of summer camp. We had our own cabin that was sparsely furnished with two single beds, mosquito netting and one small side table. Luckily, we had our own bathroom with an actual flushing toilet so that saved the day. As soon as we put our suitcases into our cabin, we were given lunch at the mess hall and then loaded back into the boat for our “afternoon adventure”. A few miles downriver, we hiked into the jungle and were introduced immediately to a tarantula. The tarantulas hide in a small hole in the ground and to coerce them to peek out, the guide teased him with a small branch. The tarantula behaved much like a kitten with a string and he peeked out, trying to grab the stick with his front legs. He was large, cute and fuzzy and by far the least threatening part of the day. Soon, we reached a huge tree with steep steps climbing to the top. As we scaled the steps, the bridge came into sight. The tour companies had built the suspension bridge by attaching fishing line to an arrow and then attaching a rope to the fishing line and shooting the arrow up into the tree. They then used the rope to haul the suspension cables up the tree and across the gorge. Yep, it looked about as sturdy as that description sounds. The guide then told us that “only 4 people can be on the bridge at the same time” and he would wave us to start as he crossed. As we watched people slowly take their turns walking across the bridge over the jungle canopy, the guide suddenly stopped in the middle of the bridge and waved those on the bridge over to him. He had spotted a rare eagle and he was so excited. However, he kept waving for everyone to come to him to see the bird. “What happened to only 4 people on the bridge rule?” I asked. No way were Bill and I venturing out there until some of the people had moved on to the other side. It was finally my turn and I stepped onto the wobbly bridge, reaching for the suspension wires to balance my crossing. I am sure there were some cool things to see in the canopy but not plunging to my death had taken precedence. When I reached the guide to see the eagle, he pointed to my camera, “Do you want to take a picture?” Was he kidding? Taking a picture would have involved letting go of the wires! I shook my head and crept as quickly as possible to the other tree. I noticed Bill did not start across the bridge until I had made it to the other side which indicated to me that he thought he was about the plunge the bridge into the depths of the jungle a hundred feet below. As he made it to the other side, he said, “I was trying to hold on but all the ants on the wire were crawling on me!” What ants?! I was so scared I did not even see the ants (and you all know how much I am terrified of ants). Unfortunately, we now had another suspension bridge we had to cross to get to the stairs. Of course, now I knew about the ants. They were everywhere. I did my best to avoid them but it was either hold onto the wire or fall to my death so I took on the ants and probably set a speed record to the other side. As we made our way down the stairs, I did not hear one person in the group say they enjoyed the bridge activity. I am just glad it was the first adventure so we were fresh and able to survive. We arrived back at camp around 6pm and our guide announced we would leave in a few minutes for the “night adventure”. Oh jolly. Luckily, the night adventure involved sitting in the boat and searching for caimans and capybara. We located one caiman and an entire family of capybara swimming and eating on the shoreline. Much better than the earlier adventure! While walking back to the lodge, the guide got very excited when he spotted a deer and an opossum. Bill and I laughed heartily and told him the USA was inundated with deer and the opossum often lived in our trashcans. The guide was very surprised by this information and Bill promised to send him some pictures from the States. Upon returning to the lodge, we hurried back to our cabin to take advantage of the electricity which was only on between 5:30pm and 9:30pm. As we entered the cabin, we were greeted by half a dozen dead or dying roaches which ranged in size from an inch to 1950s sci-fi sized bugs. Luckily, the lodge workers cleaned up most of the dead creatures while we were at dinner but we did have one large fellow belly up in the shower. Our shower had a glorious showerhead but evidently it had not worked in awhile. We had one stream of water about the size of a drinking fountain stream and the water was freezing. Given the water temperature, the dead roach and the live roach on the shower faucet knob, it was one of the quickest showers I had ever taken. Bill jumped in after me as we raced against the electricity deadline because neither of us wanted to be walking around barefooted when the lights went out. I set up my bed like a small cocoon with my mosquito netting that Bill called my jelly fish. I felt invincible as long as I was in my cocoon. Unfortunately, there were no tables to set our bags on so every morning I would grab my clothes out of the suitcase, shake them vigorously and pray that no bugs jumped out to surprise me. The cabins reportedly had more furniture prior to the Covid lockdowns but “termites ate everything” during the closure. We were awoken at dawn by a bird that sounded like a water droplet. I thought it was a frog but it was a type of weaver bird. In my cocoon, I was safe and enjoyed the sounds of morning even if it was an early wake up call. The macaws joined in every morning at 5:30am and they were not as pleasant as the waterdrop bird. Our first visit of the day was to a native tribes’ home. Bill, of course, heard “naked tribe” instead of “native tribe” so he was all in for the event. When we arrived, the guide went in search of the family but they were nowhere to be found. The guide said they must have gone into the jungle to hunt and gather. We waited for a bit and then headed back to the lodge. Bill and I decided we would have a swim in the lodge’s pool. We went swimming with lots of dead bugs and horseflies that dove about our heads constantly buzzing loudly. After a few minutes, we tired of battling the flies and headed back to change for our afternoon hike. The afternoon hike was through the jungle on a long boardwalk to Lake Sandavol. The hike was about 1.5 miles one way so we were glad it was an easy walk. Along the way we spotted monkeys jumping in the trees. Once we reached the lake, we climbed into a long canoe and our poor guide paddled all ten of us through a canal out to the lake. On the lake, we saw many species of birds and our guide managed to locate the large river otters. While we could not get close to the otters, we could watch them catch fish. When the otters bit into the fish, we could hear the fish bones crack and it was so loud it sounded like gun shots over the water. By the time we returned to the boardwalk, it was 7pm and darkness had settled. Using our cell phone flashlights, we made our way down the boardwalk with Bill and I bringing up the rear. At several points, the group (which consisted of all 20 and 30 year olds) had rounded the corner and left us on our own. I have never prayed so hard for a cell phone battery to last because if our light had gone out, we would have been stuck in total darkness. On the walk back to the boat, we saw a tree boa that was about 7 feet long and bats that easily had a 12 inch wingspan. Even the moths were the size of my outspread hand. After a quick dinner and another blazing cold shower, we huddled into our cocoons until our wakeup call at 4am. Seriously? I was barely hanging on mentally at this time and now we were up and in the boat at 4am. We headed to the clay licks where all the birds in the region gathered each morning at dawn to eat the minerals from the mud on a cliff. We watched as hundreds of birds flew in and landed in the trees on the cliff. At first, the birds would not come out of the tree because there was a hawk sitting in a nearby tree. I think the birds felt my despair with the thought that we had arisen at 4am for nothing because they kindly got over their fear of death and proceeded to flit down to settle on the cliff. Parrots and macaws were everywhere and it was a really cool sight to see. After breakfast, it was time for fishing. Bill caught a fish that was about the size of a sardine but it jumped off his hook before I could get a picture. The coolest part of fishing was the caiman that sat just off the side of the boat watching us fish. Needless to say, most fish are smart enough not to come around a caiman so our fishing day was not successful but it was a peaceful float down the river. The afternoon involved another jungle hike to study the plants in the jungle. Many plants were used for medicinal purposes so it was interesting to learn. At one point, the guide picked up a pod, used his machete to open the pod and pulled out small weevils. He said they were delicious and tasted like butter. One young man tried one but he swallowed it whole so the guide said that was cheating. He then asked Bill if he wanted to try a weevil and Bill responded, “No, because I don’t have to. Same reason I don’t eat squirrel.” A brave German girl took one of the weavils and popped it in her mouth and ate it. She said, “After the initial pop, it wasn’t bad.” Ugh! I do not want my food to pop. Once we made it out of the jungle, I was ready for dinner and a shower but alas……”Once you rest for a few minutes, join me at 6:30 for the night jungle walk and then dinner at 7:30”. Sigh. Quick shower, douse in bug repellent, put on wet long pants and long sleeves and trudge back into the jungle…in the dark. This choice seemed about as wise as the suspension bridge folly. Our first encounter was a huge wolf spider followed by more ants than you could count. Then, we came across bullet ants which are so named because their bite feels like you have been shot with a bullet and the pain continues for the next 12 hours. Following the bullet ants were hundreds of caterpillars climbing up a tree in a massive group that swirled about in a psychedelic, swerving pattern. Basically, the night walk taught us that anything small and colorful will kill you and the other bugs will just make you writhe in pain. Our final dinner at the lodge consisted once again of a protein and a bowl full of rice and potatoes. By this time, I had forbidden Bill to make rice or potatoes for the first ten days we returned to the boat. Our final morning involved a trip to monkey island and a final hike in search of the monkeys. After an hour of hiking, no monkeys. As we made our way back to the boat, three monkeys were on the path and willingly came close to take the bananas that were offered. Only 15 monkeys remain on monkey island so our guide said he was going to eventually need to come up with a different activity for the tourists. We headed back to camp to pack our bags and I had to shoo one intrepid spider out of my luggage. As we walked into the gate at the airport, a cool blast of air conditioned air greeted us as did a bar with ice cold beers. Civilization once again! When we landed in Lima for our last night on our Peruvian adventure, we walked through the airport to our hotel….or at least what we thought was our hotel. We had mixed up our reservation online and accidently booked the Wyndham downtown Lima instead of the Wyndham airport so we climbed into a taxi, drove 30 more minutes and collapsed into a steaming hot shower and air conditioned room. As I stated before, we are glad we did the Amazon Jungle, proud of ourselves for mostly keeping up with the 20 and 30 somethings and getting out without any deadly bites. The Amazon is not a trip we would repeat but it did not defeat us….this time. **More pics on Pictures tab We landed at the Cusco airport and walked into 11,152 feet above sea level. We were armed with our altitude pills and had our previous training in Ecuador so we felt ready to go. As we walked through the “airport”, we began to doubt that Thrifty Car Rental was “on site” as advertised on their website because there was absolutely nothing at the Cusco airport except six gates. We located a taxi driver and asked him to take us to Thrifty. He had never heard of Thrifty. I then told him to take us to Hertz because Hertz owns Thrifty so I figured they would know where it was located. He put us in the taxi, drove us a quarter of a mile, threw a u-turn, drove back half that distance, dropped us off at Hertz and charged us $10.00. I could have spit and hit the airport! We walked into Hertz and were informed that they handled all the bookings for Thrifty and Dollar as well. Hmm, seems like that piece of information would have been useful at some point. After filling out more paperwork than we have had in a while and putting down a $5000.00 deposit, we drove out of the lot and headed toward Ollantaytambo. The drive took us about an hour through beautiful countryside and a few worn-out towns. When we arrived in Ollantaytambo, Bill squeezed the car through the narrow streets until we arrived at the street of our Airbnb. As we stared at the street, we knew our car was not going to make the turn nor fit on the street. I hopped out of the car and walked up the street to find the Airbnb. The host greeted me and walked down the street to help Bill park the car. He gave us the choice of the “street” or his lot. We chose his lot given that we had $5000.00 riding on the line. After getting settled in our very snug room, we walked down the street to find some dinner. At the first restaurant, Bill saw alpaca on the menu and was sold. I ordered a bowl of soup because I was not feeling well. As Bill ate his slightly overcooked alpaca, I made my way over to the sink behind the bar to get sick. Luckily no one else was in the restaurant to witness my low point! I determined it must have been the altitude because I felt better immediately, cleaned up my mess and went back to our Airbnb for some rest. Our snug room had two beds which was a plus because neither bed was big enough for the two of us. So, like Lucy and Ricky, we said goodnight and slept across from each other. The next morning, we headed out to visit the ruins of Ollantaytambo. As we pulled out of the lot and hit a bump, the side mirror fell off the car! Held on only by its’ wires, it dangled precariously and all I heard was $5000.00 flowing down the drain. “How did that happen?” I yelled. Bill said the owner of the Airbnb had pulled on the mirror when he was parking the car and the mirror had come off. On closer inspection, the mirror had obviously been glued back on previously so we voted we would glue it back on as well. In the meantime, we rattled along the cobbled streets, holding our breath as the mirror bounced along with us. Since we had arrived at the ruins early, we had most of the ruins to ourselves and it was a lovely hike. Perched high up on the cliff were several pods that were somehow a hotel, though I am not sure how you would get there! After exploring Olly, we headed to find the next two sites, Maras and Moray. As we followed the signs to Maras, we found ourselves on a one lane dirt road. We passed several locals who pointed in the opposite direction so Bill did a ten point turn and we headed down the road until we ran head on into a group of horseback riders. We decided there had to be an easier route because there was no way tour buses would come down that road. We headed back out to the main road, bypassing all the incorrect signs and pulled up Google maps (which is very hit or miss in South America). Google maps routed us back to the dirt road so we vote to continue on the main road. As we approached the next town, we finally saw signs for the city of Maras. It was obvious that the route was new because the roads were well paved and easily navigated by car. We pulled into Moray which was an ancient Incan agricultural research site. The site had multiple terraces that the Incans used to experiment with which levels grew the best crops. The guide told us we could either hike the long trail that was 3 hours or the short trail that was an hour round trip. As we approached the site, Bill and I voted we could do the “no hike” version which involved standing at the top and taking stunning pictures. Feeling refreshed after our “no hike”, we continued down the road to the Maras salt mines. The salt mines had been used for hundreds of years and were still used by the locals for salt. It is hard to explain the mines in words so see the pictures below. After a long day of back roading, we pulled into the town of Pisac for the night. It was 4pm and our room at the hostel was not ready so we dropped our bags and headed over to the famous Pisac Incan market for some Christmas shopping. The market boasted handmade articles such as blankets, scarves, hats, etc and all the products were made locally. As we wandered through the endless stalls, we noticed when we stopped to look at an item, the vendor would name a price. Then, if we stared at the item for another few seconds, the vendor would drop the price. Given the way I ponder items when I shop, I swear the item would have been free by the time I decided. I explained to the vendor that the initial price was very fair but I was trying to decide if I liked the colors. At that point, items of every color available were piled in front of me, on top of me and in Bill’s arms. It was like a Saturday Night Live skit. As I finally decided on a color I liked, I asked if they accepted credit cards because our cash funds were low. We were escorted two aisles over to another vendor who pulled out a credit card machine. Bill teased that they only had one machine for the entire market but I think the teasing was pretty accurate. On our walk back to the hostel, a huge thunderstorm came and we hid in a restaurant while it passed. A woman said it had not rained for many months so they were happy we brought the rain. The next morning brought lots of sunshine and a trip to the ruins of Pisac. The Pisac ruins were huge and spread as far as we could see. We walked along the terraces and climbed to the highest point which took some effort with the altitude. The views of the valley were spectacular and difficult to capture on film. I visited Machu Picchu in 2017 so we decided to skip Machu Picchu this trip and see what else the Sacred Valley had to offer. After seeing Pisac, I think it was a wise choice. Leaving Pisac we drove down through the Valley in search of a small town called Andahuaylillas which boasted of having the Sistine Chapel of South America. As we made our way through the small village, we came to a simple church on a quiet square. The church may have been simple on the outside but the inside was incredible. We figured some Spanish priest had been exiled to Andahuaylillas so he exacted his revenge by building the most spectacular church possible. The site was well worth the detour! The next adventure involved, once again, following obscure signs to the Pikillaqta ruins. After several wrong turns down more dirt roads, we finally found the correct entrance. Pilillaqta ruins were Pre-Incan and they were in amazing condition. The ruins across the street were Rumicolca which was a Pre-Incan aqueduct. The Incans had also used the spot as a gate for their road and seeing the difference between the exacting rock work of the Incans compared to the Pre-Incans was very interesting. Our last stop for the day was at Tipon. Tipon ruins were the only Incan ruins that were not ravaged by the Spanish. Once we had driven the very narrow and winding road to the top of the mountain to find Tipon, we decided the Spanish had probably never even noticed it was there. We arrived late in the afternoon and had the entire ruin to ourselves which was amazing. While Bill’s favorite of the day was Pisac, my favorite was Tipon. It had beautiful terraces with an aqueduct flowing through the middle. After the lovely nature we had all day, driving into Cusco brought us quickly back to reality. Bill has driven in crazy situations before and we thought nothing could top the Dominican Republic but Cusco managed to be voted the worst drivers we have ever seen. Buses pulled over into traffic at random, cars stopped in the middle of the road for no reason, cars honked constantly even though there was nowhere for traffic to move. To top off the adventure, a parade was being held so we were detoured off the main road and around the main square. After a harrowing hour, we arrived at our Airbnb, parked the car and vowed not to get back in it for at least a day. We asked our host about the parade and he said it was a “we need rain” parade. Bill and I voted it was a “Sally and Bill need a beer parade!” Our Cusco tour began with the Stolen Gold Tour 2023 as we ventured to the multiple churches in town. We had planned the historic district tour on a Saturday to avoid church services. Unfortunately, the first Saturday of the month was evidently First Communion day. Children dressed in lovely dresses and suits with parents trying to corral them for pictures made for an interesting day of sightseeing. Bill finally got to see the Peruvian version of the Last Supper painting complete with Jesus serving up cuy instead of a loaf of bread. Rumor has it that the cuy was the local’s way of taking a stab at the Spaniards and their religion. Others say it was the Spaniards way of trying to relate their religion to the local culture. Regardless, we found it hilarious! If you go to Cusco, prepare for the main square. While we were there, we were offered 17 bus tours, 15 massages, multiple chances to buy cheap jewelry and two shoeshines even though we were both wearing tennis shoes! Our final day in the Sacred Valley was spent exploring the ruins of Cusco. Once again, we managed to plan poorly because the first Sunday of the month was “Peruvians visit free” day so gone was our quiet solitude we had enjoyed at the other ruins. At Saqsaywaman, we were wandering about aimlessly when an elderly gentleman approached. I thought he was asking me to take a picture of him with his family. Instead, he wanted to take a picture with us. He then told us he was seventy years old and Peruvian which was an obvious point of pride for him. Bill told him we were 58 years old and we were not Peruvian. We all had a good laugh and Bill and I decided we were featured on the man’s Facebook page that night. Our Hollywood star experience continued at Tambomachay when we ran into a group of school children. One of the boys asked where we were from and when I answered, he screamed, “United States!!” and beckoned all the children over to us. The children wanted me to take their picture and then a couple of girls called for their mother to take their picture with me. Evidently, we caused quite a stir! For our last dinner in Cusco, we went to a local “fast food” type restaurant that specialized in chicken. We ordered the chicken dinner and were surprised when the meal was accompanied by soup. Bill plunged his spoon deep into the bowl of chicken soup and got an unwelcome surprise…..a chicken foot! After further exploration, he found a chicken liver as well. Needless to say, I sipped the broth off the top of my soup and did not explore any further. Prior to bedtime, Bill superglued and zip tied the side view mirror back on the car so we could return it in the same shape it had been sold to us. I am also happy to report the rain parade worked like a charm and Cusco flooded the last night we were there! I apologize for the long blog but fitting the Sacred Valley into one page was not possible! Join us next week as we head deep into the Amazon Jungle! ***Pictures tab for additional pics Phase two of our South American exploration landed us in Lima, Peru. Lima sits atop a steep cliff and the weather pattern is like the Pacific Northwestern coast of the United States. Each day, we would be greeted by fog that would burn off midday and we only had a few sprinkles here and there. Day one was a trip through the historic city center. We started at the Convent of San Francisco which was famous for having lots of skeletons in the catacombs. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the convent but I did manage to cheat and sneak one pic of some bones. If I had taken pictures of all the bones, we would have been there awhile! After the skeleton tour, we headed to the Plaza de Armas (every city in South America has a Plaza de Armas) and went on another church tour of the Lima Cathedral. The cathedral had an amazing art collection and the bones of Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro was a Spaniard who founded the city of Lima and the locals in Lima seem fonder of the Spanish in their history than the Sacred Valley folks. We are not sure why Pizarro was so loved because he seemed like a conquistador to us and there was a lot of killing involved in his history until he was killed by his own people. In spite of his questionable history, he had his own mausoleum and place of honor at the cathedral so we kept our confusion to ourselves. The next stop was China town. Peru has a large population of Chinese immigrants but we think they must have blended into the society well because we did not see one Chinese person in China town. Every Peruvian was in China town and getting through the crowded streets was an adventure. They sold everything you could imagine and every store claimed to have the best deal of the day. We took a break from the chaos and ate at one of the local Chinese restaurants but we found the food to be a bit bland and voted that we liked Americanized Chinese food more. After lunch, we went on a hunt for shoes. We were both in need of new tennis shoes so we had decided not to pack our old shoes since we could just buy new ones in Lima. Mistake. We failed to consider that the Peruvians are a tiny people. When I told them my shoe size was an American size 9, they shook their heads and said I would need to buy “hombre shoes” because their women did not have size 9 feet. After several stores, I settled on a pair of shoes and my shopping was done. Bill’s saga was just beginning. We made our way through dozens of stores. He needed a size 12 wide and the hunt was not going well. One store had a determined young woman who kept bringing out size 11 shoes and insisting they were going to fit. After about 10 tries, Bill decided to move the hunt out of China town. As our exhausting day of church tours and shoe hunting ended, we headed back to the hotel, ordered a pizza from across the street and watched the Georgia game on our Ipad. Day two in Lima was a lovely walk through the Miraflores area. Miraflores sits at the edge of the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We started our walk in Kennedy Park. The park was named after JFK and had become the home of dozens of stray cats. A volunteer group takes care of the cats by feeding them, having them spayed and neutered and finding them adoptive homes when possible. It seemed to be a daily pastime of the locals to go to the park and play with the cats and they even called the park “Parque de Gato” most of the time. Our next park was Love Park which had a lovely malacon along the top of the cliff down to the lighthouse. Last time I was in Lima, there were dozens of paragliders jumping off the cliffs but I guess the weather was not good for them to take flight this visit. Our best meal in Lima was at a local fish restaurant that specialized in ceviche. We had a good laugh that the kind of music played in the restaurant seemed dependent on the current dining population. When we first arrived, Latin music was playing but as more tourists flooded in, the music selection suddenly became 70s American rock music. So, good food and good music…. can’t complain! After lunch our shoe search continued. In the heart of Miraflores, we found a department store that reminded us of Macy’s. They had a huge shoe department but no size 12 wide shoes to be found. Bill asked the salesperson if she knew of another store we might try. At this time, all Bill had was flip flops so we knew the next leg of the trip was going to be challenging for him in flip flops. A local woman overheard the question and she stopped shopping, gestured for us to follow her and headed out of the store. I told her we only spoke a little Spanish but that did not stop her from carrying on quite the conversation for the next 15 minutes as we walked down the street. I did not get much of what she said but I did understand that the politicians in Peru were crooked, she was a policewoman and Kennedy Park should be called Kennedy Park because Cat Park was disrespectful to JFK. As my ears were on the verge of a breakdown from so much chatter, she stopped in front of a Marathon sporting goods store, pointed at Bill’s feet and ushered us into the store. After hugs all around, she said something else in Spanish and floated out the door like our fairy godmother. Marathon had one pair of size 12 wide shoes in the store. I told Bill I did not care if they had pink polka dots on them, he was going to be wearing them. Luckily for him, they were black and fit perfectly! So, the shoe saga ended successfully. For our evening entertainment, we headed to the Fountain of Lights show. Lima claimed it was the largest fountain light show in the world according to Guiness World Records. The park had 13 fountains that were lovely. As the show began, we discovered we were on the wrong side of the fountain so we made our way around through the crowd to the other side. As far as fountain light shows go, it was a bit underwhelming and Bill and I both questioned whether the show was bigger than the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas. Considering it only cost us $4.00 each and taxi ride, we decided it was an enjoyable evening. Day 3 in Lima we booked a boat ride to Palominos Island. Palominos Island was known for a sea lion colony and penguins. As we made our way further offshore, the sun came out and we enjoyed chatting with everyone on the boat. We saw the island in the distance but we smelled the sea lions long before we saw them. Who knew sea lions could smell so bad? As we approached the island, we saw hundreds of sea lions on the rocks. The sea lions were very curious and dove into the water to greet us. Bill and I decided not to swim due to the cold-water temperature so we stayed on the boat. Bill oversaw taking everyone’s pictures with their phones and I was in charge of trying to get close up pictures of the sea lions with my camera. We only saw one penguin during our trip and our guide said that during an El Nino year the penguins tend not to be in the area. I think that might have been a blessing because bird guano added to the sea lion smell might have been too much. Prior to leaving on our trip, we watched a documentary on Peru and how guano made them one of the richest countries in the world in the 1930s. Peru teamed up with Bolivia and started a war with Chile to steal their guano but Chile won the war and that is why Bolivia has no coastline today. Very interesting watch on Youtube if you want to see how millions of dollars can be made from bird poop! Our last morning in Lima, we took a quick walk over to the flower show in Kennedy Park. We had been watching them set up all week and I wanted to get some flower pictures. It was a small flower event but the vendors had gone all out setting up their displays and it was a nice walk before our flight. We only had one issue with the flight to Cusco and that involved both boarding pass QR codes having Bill’s name on them….another reason to always print boarding passes the old fashioned way! Join us next week for Part 2 Peru: The Sacred Valley ***More pics on Pictures tab |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|