One of the most amazing trips of my life was backpacking through Ecuador and Peru in 1978. I flew into Quito, Ecuador, experienced my first earthquake, bused my way south into Peru. Flew from Tumbes, Peru to Lima, Peru then flew to Cusco, took an early morning train to Machu Picchu to spend the day.To sit quietly on a terrace where farmers had planted corn in 2000 BC, was truly life changing. Here are some pictures of that trip.
Train, leaving Cusco
Funny story, I got up early to go to the train station to make sure I got a ticket for what they call the “local train”. There was also a Gringo train, however, the cost was higher and did not allow much time at the summit. As I was leaving the station, I overheard a local say that the train was leaving in an hour, not the 2 hours as written on a plaque on the station wall. When I ask the local, in Spanish, why the plaque said an hour later, they said, that sign has been there for years. All the local people know it leaves an hour earlier. So, imagine, running in the thin air at 10,000 feet, back to the hotel, crawling over the hotel guards sleeping on the floor in front of the door, so nobody can leave without paying, grabbing packs, and getting back to the station in an hour. My lungs felt like they were on fire.
The flight into Cusco is interesting. The plane has to fly directly at a mountain, before turning 180 degrees to descend sharply on the runway. Pretty scary.
When I was leaving, I got the airport, exchanged all my local currency and got in line to get my boarding pass. When I got to the front, the agent asked if I had reconfirmed my ticket. I said I had not known I needed to, however, I could reconfirm at the counter. She said, oh no, you must reconfirm at their office in downtown Cusco. Good grief! So I had to give the cab driver $20US because that is all the currency I had – no change, of course, to get back into town. I arrive at the airline office to meet hundreds of travelers trying to get tickets, etc. All of a sudden the guards start ushering everyone out of the office into the street. When I asked why, the guard said, we are too busy, so we are closing the office. I questioned the logic in this and was told, most people will go away and not come back, so that when they reopen in 45 minutes, there will be fewer people to deal with. Amazing logic.
When I arrived in Lima, I rented a car to sightsee for the day. After inspecting the VW bug, I went back to the car rental counter and explained that there was no gas in the car and the windshield wipers were missing. The girl explained to me that the cars are rented with an empty tank and are to be returned with an empty tank. I questioned the logic on that as I had rented cars around the world and never rented one with an empty tank, to begin with. She explained that there was a gas station at the entrance to the airport. It took me a second to figure this out as I asked, does you cousin own the station. She looked pleasantly surprised and retorted, oh yes!. So what happens is the cousin siphons the gas out when the car is returned and sells it again to the next gringo. Actually, pretty creative.
Here are some other pictures of that adventure.
Arrived in Otavalo, Ecuador with Rob Young. He had this rented this penthouse (haha) for trips to Ecuador to buy sweaters for Magic Mountain. He and Kent Griffin would trade off buying in S. America and operating the retail/wholesale business in Canada.
I can still smell the fragrance from the many flowering plants. The outside shower overlooked the countryside.
This is what is called an Ecuadorian wedding shirt. I really enjoyed that shirt for many years.
Local market
Cuenca street corner with local courier service. These guys carry hundreds of pounds at a time. I saw a carrier with an oak desk, plus an oak chair on his back. Unbelievable!
Local construction techniques
Lots of decorated, carved doors.
This disabled musician was carried by friends, maybe he paid, not sure, to this location outside my hotel window near the market. Every morning I would wake up to his pan pipe serenade. Most amazing!
Local merchant of toffee. They stand in the doorway and pull the toffee. I watched as a fly landed on the toffee and was immediately incorporated into the pulled toffee. Interesting added protein, yuck!
What are called Panama hats are actually made in Cuenca, Ecuador. Many times you can see women carrying dozens of hats on their heads through town. All handmade and quite beautiful.
I bought the strap that the lady is weaving in this picture. I have used it on cameras and guitars for many years.
This is my room in Tumbes, Peru, on the border with Ecuador. When I rented the room, I asked for a room with running, hot water. When I got to the room, the toilet had not been used in forever and there was no water, let alone hot water. When I complained to the desk, they said, well, you might get water today, and you can heat it yourself. Might get water meant that a truck came into town each evening and if one was fast, one could get a bucket of water. No chance of a gringo beating out a local.
Funny story. I arrived at the border at the same time as several Peace Corp young adults. I figured they spoke better Spanish to get us through the border crossing so I let them lead the way into the guard house at the edge of a dried up ravine that separates Ecuador from Peru. Very interesting. The border was guarded by a little shack on one side of a bridge over the dry ravine. On one side were local merchants, sitting in the dirt, selling items that are illegal in Ecuador, and on the other, merchants selling products illegal in Peru. It had not rained in Tumbes for years. Even the cactus was dying. One Peace Corp guy really angered the border guard after being told that we needed a Visa to cross the border. He said to him in Spanish, so what is the bribe I have to pay to avoid walking back a mile to the town to get a visa? The guard went nuts and screamed at all of us to go back for the visa. I agreed to stay and guard the backpacks while Liz Marusic, and the Peace Corp group went back to get the paperwork.
I was waiting inside the guardhouse, a small one-room building with a desk, a couple of chairs and several windows with bars over them. As I was sitting there, the guard went outside for a moment. The wind came up and blew the door shut and it locked closed. The guard ran to one of the grated windows and started yelling at me to open the door. As I was walking towards the door, it struck me as so funny, and I couldn’t help but blurt out, in Spanish, how much to open the door for you, with a smile on my face. He initially turned red, then started to laugh as I opened the door. He came in and said, I like you, and proceeded to open his desk and take out a bottle of some kind of alcohol along with two glasses and started pouring. By the time the group got back and looked at me in aghast, we were the best of friends and he had already stamped my passport before getting the visa.
This is the airport in Tumbes to take a flight to Lima, some 3000 miles down the coast of nothing at all going on except dry desert. I had some concern that the cab driver was going to execute us on the way to the airport since I could not see anything that looked like civilization on the way. When we got there, the airport was not open yet. When the plane arrived, the pilot loaded the baggage. As we started to taxis down the runway, the plane turned around and came back. We were told that plane had a flat tire, and we had to wait until another plane had to arrive with a spare tire before we could take off. Needless to say, I was nervous the whole flight over a deserted desert coastline. Too funny.