South American Sites of Wonder

Sea lion pictures...

2005-09-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

After awhile at the Galapagos Islands, you might think that you'd get sick and tired of seeing sea lions. They are everywhere! Sometimes they're pests as they block a pathway on land or get in your face when swimming. One might think this, but not for me! How could you get mad at a face like that?!

Another boat and lots of Galapagos pics for you...

2005-09-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

I'm actually at home now, but just want to add my photos from the Galapagos Islands. Well some of my photos. Even with the not-so-great camera that I bought in Quito, I took quite a few photos. While my new camera only has digital zoom which is virtually useless, I found that I really didn't need a zoom lens very often as we could usually get within a few feet of the animals that we wanted to see. It's so amazing! Now that I'm back in Vancouver, I have a lot of catching up to do, so I probably won't have time for awhile to add anymore text, but you can get an idea of what it was like (minus the feeling of getting nearly thrown out of bed in the middle of the night because of the waves that were causing glasses and things to also get thrown around on the main deck and minus the feeling of losing your land legs and minus the feeling of having to get back on that Boat from Hell!)...

"Under da sea"...I saw so many creatures, both scuba diving and snorkelling. Playful sealions, peaceful sea turtles, brilliantly coloured fish, a hiding puffer fish, graceful stingrays (and spotted eagle rays), and not-really-scary-afterall white-tipped reef sharks (and Galapagos sharks).

Some land photos...more to come when I get a chance to add them...
Me checking out the blue feet of a blue-footed booby
Marine iguanas keeping warm! Where else can you see flamingos...pelicans... and penguins (it's small, but trust me) all in one place?
Where I did my scuba dive. I actually drove the boat for about half an hour!Me from the functional "Free Enter Prise" boat, happy not to be on the broken "Angelique" boat (in the background) anymore!

Boats from Hell!

2005-08-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

You will not believe what has happened in just the last couple of days. First of all, I´m no longer on the tour boat.

So, as you know, there were some problems with our propeller--i.e. it was broken and we couldn´t go anywhere. Everyday we were told that it would be fixed by the next day. 2 nights ago we had a heated discussion with the manager of our boat. He promised some compensation, but said that the boat would definitely be fixed by the next day to continue on as planned. We asked for some sort of backup plan, in case it was not fixed. He said he would arrange something, but not to worry, it would be fine. So yesterday we got on a bus for 1 hour and then on another boat (THE slow boat to China, I believe) for over 3 hours. We were amused by the sightings of a couple of whales, various birds, sea lions, and perhaps a dolphin. The boat, while slow, was nice enough. At first. We went snorkelling and I was excited to see a sea turtle really quite close. Much of the group also saw some sharks (relatively small ones), but I didn´t see them, unfortunately. On the beach I was also able to get within a few feet of a sea lion and have my picture taken. That was really great! We also saw marine iguanas, penguins (not very close up though), and lots of little lizards. We tried to spot sharks from land, but weren´t able to.
Then we had lunch on the boat and were off again so 2 of the girls could do some scuba diving. We were told that we´d be snorkelling again. Turns out that there wasn´t enough time and really wasn´t a plan for us to do that after all. Our guide was very deceptive. I don´t know if it was on purpose or if he was just telling us what he thought we´d like to hear. Either way, we were very upset. We spent a couple of hours doíng nothing but sit on the boat, nevermind the total of 9 1/2 hours that we spent travelling to get there and back. In all, we only ended up with about 1 1/2 hours of activity for that very long day--up at 5 a.m. and back at around 9 p.m. The whole trip with the Angelique boat has been this way. So poorly organized, no backup plans, ridiculous communication. Even the girls who went scuba diving did not get a good dive. Our guide was supposed to be their dive master and he broke tons of rules that made it very dangerous for them. Oh, and our boat ride back at the end of the day was longer as our driver was lost!

So, last night when we got back to the Angelique boat there was a mutiny. As some of the people were nearly finished their Galapagos trip and as we were told that the boat would not be fixed anytime soon, almost everyone decided to leave. I really didn´t know what to do! I would be taking a chance either way. The good thing is that we were finally reimbursed our money for all but 1 day (as we had actually completed the planned itinerary for 1 day). I know that I still paid more as the tour group that I booked through would have taken a booking fee too (a considerable one, I believe), so I´ll have to deal with them when I get back. I decided that to stay on the Angelique was going to be a waste of time, so I also decided to jump ship.

This morning was an early morning again as we had to take a "ferry" boat back to the island where most of the tours start and where the airport is located. It was a boat ride from hell! First of all, most of us were getting wet by all the spray. Second, it was a very bumpy ride and once one woman was sick (into the garbage pail and a little bag), most of the others started to feel nauseous too. Then we had to rescue another boat load of people as their ferry had broken down. By the way, by ferry I mean speed boat. Stopping in the middle of choppy water made people even sicker. We already had 15 of us on board along with our luggage and about 20 scuba oxygen tanks, so we were already very heavy. Then we were joined by another 9 passengers and a crew member and their luggage! It was absolutely absurd! It was actually a bit frightening as we would sometimes fly into the air with a wave and hit down pretty hard. Again, most of the boat´s passengers were sick or nearly sick. I honestly don´t know how I was okay. I hadn´t taken any anti-nauseant pills, but I kept my eye on the horizon out the back of the boat once people started vomiting and I kept singing a song in my head. When I get home I am going to learn the full lyrics to Bob Marley´s "Don´t Worry about a Thing" as I only knew one verse and the chorus.

Our 1 1/2 hour boat ride ended up being over 3 hours, but we made it! Once in town I was able to find another boat to join on a 3 day tour, but it doesn´t start until Tuesday. The fun part is that I´ll have to get back on the ferry through hell again to get back here on Friday. Oh what joy. I´m not going to think about it until I have to.

Today I went snorkelling nearby and was able to swim with a sea lion! That was really awesome! He was playing with us! There were 4 of us there--the South African couple who´ll leave tomorrow as they´ve given up and an Australian guy who was with us and who´ll actually do another 8 days on the boat that I´ll be on. I think he´s crazy to go for that long now, but he has the time. The first sea lion that came near me (I could have reached out and touched him, but I didn´t) startled me as I saw something out of the corner of my eye and then there he was. The second time he came around he swam straight toward me and I was afraid that we were going to be playing chicken! I don´t know if it was the same one the whole time, but he was a show off, spinning around and doing fast turns and then swimming away quickly before returning suddenly. It was a real thrill! I also saw another sea turtle and tried to get close to him, but he was also faster than me. There were also pelicans in the water and I got within a couple of feet. All of my troubles were forgotten in that time in the water. I just hope that the next boat is great!

Galapagos Islands!

2005-08-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

I´m actually one of the Galapagos Islands right now--the 2nd largest island called Santa Cruz. We got on our boat yesterday, the Angelique, and my first though upon seeing her was, "It´s a pirate ship". Well, if it were, we´d be caught for sure. Our propeller broke yesterday, so we missed a whole island we were meant to visit. We were supposed to do a land walk to see some animals and then go snorkelling. Neither happened. Instead we were towed for 4 hours and then anchored off of the island that we´re at today. It was not a great introduction to a boat as those of us new to the experience didn´t get a chance to stretch our land legs partway through the day.
I had been sick in Quito, but that was entirely different from this. For you TCM people, I had Damp-Heat with Spleen Qi deficiency, and now I have Stomach Qi rising. I was joking that I will get all of my patients who want to lose weight to come to South America. In Peru we did so much climbing that I thought we should create a workout video. It was the Peruvian workout. Now I´m getting the Ecuadorian diet.

Our first step on the boat did give us great hope though as we easily saw lots of wildlife right away. There were 2 sea lions acting as hood ornaments on nearby boats and a pelican doing the same on another. We also had a frigate bird hovering above our boat for awhile and occasionally other little birds check out our dinner table.

Today we visited the Charles Darwin park to see where they breed giant tortoises for repopulating the islands. It was wonderul to see both the babies and the adults. Because the adults are used to lots of visitors, we were able to get right up to them and they didn´t pull their heads back into their shells. This afternoon we visited more tortoises in the wild and they were much more shy. The nice thing about them though is that they can´t run away, so there´s no rush to take a picture! For those of you who want to count the number of animals I see, we also saw some of Darwin´s finches, warblers, flycatchers (birds), marine iguanas, and lots of crabs.

We also walked (and crawled) through a lava tunnel. It was formed when the outer part of the lava cooled and formed a crust while the inner part of the lava continued to flow. There were areas where the tunnel was quite big and other parts where it really narrowed.

Amazon Adventures

2005-08-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

It was a busy few days so I have some catching up to do here. We had 1 more day in Cuzco where we made day trips to nearby sites. Pictures say it so much better, so I´ll wait until I can add photos to this site....

Lots of photos now and I'll let them tell the story...
I called this the Peruvian workout. Who needs a step class or Stairmaster when you get constant slopes and stairs at a high altitude location!

Such beautiful colours! Vancouver is so drab in comparison! The women do some incredible weaving of intricate patterns in vivid colours.

A view from the window of the museum in Cuzco.

The Cathedral in Cuzco

Some of the locals and some of the food (some of the locals are also food--llamas and alpacas!)

After 2 flights we landed in Iquitos, our starting point to get to our Amazon jungle lodge. Unfortunately there were a lot of changes to our schedule, including the fact that we were actually supposed to go to another place in the jungle, not Iquitos. The travel took us all day by plane, bus, and 2 different boats. Because it´s dry season there were areas along the tributary of the Amazon River that were too shallow. We had to get out and walk along the shore for a bit while they dragged the boat. Because of that we only had 1 full day of activities instead of 2 half days and 1 full day so we were really disappointed. Some people were really upset, but I really just wanted to enjoy what time we did have as I didn´t want the experience to be ruined.

The jungle lodge was really nice and the people there were really great! We had a few boat trips to see wildlife. Our guide was great at spotting things that took us awhile to see even with him pointing it out. We saw very small bats, large fishing bats, monkeys (only a couple of them), sloths, and lots of birds--egrets, hawks, macaws, kingfishers, etc. I missed the toucan. We also went on a walking trek where we saw the world´s smallest monkey, a tarantula´(!), and all kinds of bugs. One of those are fire ants. A single bite from them apparently feels like fire and can hurt for about 20 minutes. They are sometimes still used as a form of punishment. For example, if someone is found guilty of aldultery, the guilty twosome are tied naked to a tree that is crawling with those ants and made to suffer for awhile. Bet they don´t do it again!

We tried to see pink dolphins on one of our boating treks, but unfortunately were not lucky. We did get to see gray dolphins though, so that was good. I also got to swim in the Amazon River! While I was in there, all I could think was "I´m actually swimming in the Amazon River!". The water was a perfect temperature. I was a little freaked out about the idea of creatures swimming in there, particuarly the tiny kind you can´t see, but apparently the risk of a particularly gruesome parasite that enters through the urethra only does so if you pee in the water.

One really upsetting thing for me is that my camera broke. We were sitting in the boat and I was just holding the camera in my hand when it all of a sudden started to smoke and the shutter kept repetitively opening and closing. I don´t know what happened, but I guess that the humidity might have gotten to it. So for much of my time there I had no camera. Thankfully I have a few email addresses of others from my group who´ll email me their photos. I am really disappointed though, not only because it´s an expensive camera (although of course that really hurts!), but also because I love taking photos and I feel like I´m missing out. I will see about buying something in Quito before I head off to the Galapagos Islands. I am waiting for a friend I met on the trip to email me his photos and I'll add them here when I get them...

We really needed at least 1 more day in the jungle. A few more days would have been ideal. But it was not to be and we were off to Lima again.

I flew to Quito today and so today is just a travel and rest day. I need the sleep!

Machu Picchu

2005-08-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Breakfast from the train...huge corn kernels on the cob

I think I´ve spelled that correctly. I can´t say it properly though. It´s a native Cetchuan (spelling again?) word that sounds gutteral. Anyway, no matter how you spell and pronounce it, it is an incredible place. The first thing that struck me was how intact it is. Only 10% of it has been rebuilt. If only we built things like that now--it has survived wars, invasion, and earthquakes. The other amazing thing is the sheer size. While it´s high season and the place is swarming with tourists, it is still possible to walk off the main areas and find a place with few or no other people. It reminds me of the Great Wall of China in that way. Actually, in many ways.

I always find it fascinating how different cultures diverge in their ways of thinking. The Incans considered the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to be special. One was special because it signified their one invisible god--our guide might have meant "invincible", I´ll have to check that one out :) . Athough they worshipped many gods, only one was either invisible or invincible. Two was special because it represents opposing and complementary forces, just like the concept of Yin and Yang in Chinese culture. Three represents heaven, earth, and the underworld. Japanese ikebana (flower arranging) stresses the importance of 3 levels--heaven, man, and earth. So, it´s a little different, but no that much. Body, mind, spirit. Heaven, earth, hell. The animals they use to represent those important levels are the condor for heaven, the puma for earth, and the snake for the underworld (another similarity)--mom, you probably really believe the latter to be truth!

I had wanted to climb to the peak of a nearby mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu, but they had already reached their limit of 400 people (for conservation reasons) by about 1 p.m. Can you imagine? That gives some indication of the number of people visiting the site as most people who go there don´t make that climb. It takes 1-1.5 hours each way and it sounds quite dangerous. There´s a section that can be climbed either by climbing through a narrow tunnel or by going hand over hand on a rope section. There are no rails to prevent you from falling and if you do fall, you probably won´t even hit rock until you hit rock bottom, it´s that steep in sections! Yes, and I wanted to do that. It was, however, not to be. Instead I climbed partway up Mount Machu Picchu. I found out later that it´s about a 3 hour climb, so I´m glad I stopped. I wouldn´t have made it back in time to catch the train back to Cuzco with the group!

I have about 50 pictures of Machu Picchu and I have a feeling a lot of them are going to look similar, but it is such a good model, how can I not take lots?

3300 m above sea level

2005-08-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

I´m in Cuzco now, the original capital of Peru. We were up early for the one hour flight to get here. Today is simply a day to acclimatize to the altitude. I thought I might get a headache as I had at Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, but I seem to be fine. As long as I drink enough water.

Such an interesting city! I´m going to go out to take more photos now. Our whole group gets together tonight and then we´re off to Machu Picchu tomorrow!

Initial view of area near Cuzco, Peru

I'm here!

2005-08-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

August 15th

After an incredibly long journey, I'm finally here. The flight was delayed in Vancouver, although truthfully I didn't even notice because I was so tired. I had so much to do before I left, that I was up until 3:30 a.m. and then had to get up at 4:45 to get to the airport early enough. It is no longer just a good thing to get to the airport 2 hours before, just in case. It is necessary. I had to enter lineup after lineup to get though customs to the U.S. as I had a stopover in Houston, Texas. The weather wasn't good, so there was some turbulence and it slowed us down so we were even later for our arrival. Then we left Houston almost 3 hours late again because of poor weather.

I think that maybe Continental Airlines should talk with their staff about what sort of info doesn't need to be discussed with passengers about to get on their plane. The woman checking our tickets as we boarded said to the couple in front of me, "We're leaving late because we don't want to be like the Air France plane in Canada that crashed because of lightning". Thinking about the --even remote--possibility of lightning striking your plane just before you get on it isn't exactly the most comforting though, and I'm not a nervous flier!

I arrived in Lima at nearly 2 a.m. My first view of Peru was vague as it was dark, but I could see the lights of several boats on the water. I wish I could have seen more. I was thankful that I had arranged to have someone transfer me to the hotel. He wasn't there initially which made me worried, but he showed up about 10 minutes later. He was asleep in his car.

There was hardly any traffic at that hour, of course, and for that I'm thankful too. I don't know if it's standard, but there were no seatbelts for the backseat, so while my driver was securely strapped in, I wouldn't be as lucky as him if we got into an accident. I saw today that I was right about thinking that the driving would be a bit crazy here, although so far not as crazy as either China or Egypt.

I meet part of the group and our leader in a couple of hours, so nothing else to report. It's still surreal to me that I'm here.

Getting ready to go...

2005-08-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2005

I can hardly believe that there are only a couple more days before I'm off on my trip! I have been so busy trying to organize myself and my business before leaving, that I haven't had any time to even think about the actual trip itself.

I had plans to learn Spanish, read "The Conquest of the Incas" and Darwin's "Origin of the Species", and write my fall e-newsletter all before heading out for this trip, but have decided that that is pretty much impossible. At this point I will be happy to find enough time to pack a few things and get on the plane!

I doubt that I'll be able to upload any more pictures before I return home, but I will add them when I get back. I will try to add new postings to this site whenever I get a chance (don't have a clue how often that'll be right now) and I will also try my best to make it as interesting as I can.

Wish me luck!