Tuesday 5 August 1997

Ottawa - Pittsburgh – Miami – Guayaquil – Lima

Got up early to catch an 0700 flight to Pittsburgh. Putting on my clean pants I found that I had washed a tissue- scrabbling around in the dark trying to collect up the pieces with one hand and fight off two cats with the other. The new pre-clearance at Ottawa for US flights works well but there's only a roll on Second Cup cut that will not even honor a second cup frequent drinker card.

Via Pittsburgh to Miami and quickly checked in with Saeta. Miami airport has toilet seat covers that are covered in clear plastic which is advanced every time you press a button so that they are always safe to sit on. I resisted the temptation to see what would happen if I pressed the button while sitting on it.

There was much confusion at the Saeta gate. They started with the pre-boards, then tried to board the back of the aircraft. By this time there was a huge crowd milling around. Nobody knew what row numbers were being called and eventually it was just a free for all. I found my seat on the wide body jet and was delighted to find there was a lot of room. Saeta, the airline of Ecuador, has one-class service and they claim it is first class. It was certainly very good and equivalent to business class service in North America. I had salad, chicken formaggio, orzo in basil sauce and vegetables. Dessert was served from a tray and there was a good selection of Chilean wine. The meals were served on porcelain. My seatmate remarked that the service was good and it turned out that he was on the Trains Unlimited trip as well. We got on well together and by the time we had arrived at Guayaquil we had decided to room together.

We arrived at Guayaquil, Ecuador in the late evening and were taken to the transit lounge where we were to wait for our connecting plane to Lima. The main part of the group was here, having spent the last week in Ecuador. It was just like old home week as there were about 20 of the 50 or so whom I already knew. John and Paul from New Zealand, Dave from Australia, Doug from Langley BC., John from New York (this time with his wife), Esther and Peter from Switzerland, Dieter and Johann from Germany and of course the tour leaders, Chris from Portola, California. Fernando from Guatemala and Thierry from Belgium. It was great to be on first name terms with so many people right from the start. As it turned out there were a lot of interesting, pleasant new people. It was an excellent group.

On the flight to Lima I was seated next to a very forward Peruvian lady, Patricia Angeles from Trujillo, Peru. It was a relatively short flight but she gave me a recipe for fish cerviche and told me all about her daughters, one of whom was Miss Peru a year or so ago. She worked in analyzing water quality in the mining region. As we got up to leave the aircraft she asked me to carry her heavy bag down the steps. I did so but made it plain that I wasn't carrying anything through customs for her. I dumped her bag at the Customs hall and said goodbye.

We got through immigration, retrieved our bags and Fernando had worked to deal to pass us in a block through customs. Even though it was 01:00 we had to push through a mob of people to get to the buses that were waiting to take us to the hotel. I noticed that the group was well versed in surrounding the bags and intimidating any potential thieves who just happened to be hanging around.

The hotel quickly handed out our keys but there was a bottleneck in getting to the rooms because the elevators are hand operated and there were only two operators available to work the four elevators at that time.

Wednesday 6 August 1997 - Lima

An easy day today. All that was arranged was an afternoon tour of Lima and the railway shops at Callao. I had a short walk in the late morning and brought a tamale and churros in the street for lunch. This was a silly thing to do on the first day but they didn't affect my stomach. The tamale was corn with some potato while the churro was crisp and sweet with some dulce de leche.

At the introduction to the tour our guide described Lima as “es gris como la estomaca delburro” (gray like a donkeys stomach).. It never rains in Lima, although for nine months of the year there is a heavy fog off the cool sea. This picks up dust and pollution which deposits a thick dirty gray film over all structures. The city is not very pretty. There are some interesting colonial buildings, most of which have been allowed to deteriorate badly. The guide pointed out that the country has tropical fruit and vegetables as well as cotton in the coastal valleys as well as fishing (anchovies) on the coast, metals in the mountains and oil in the Amazon - she likened Peru to a beggar sitting in a gold chair.

We were told only to walk in one direction from the hotel and then only four blocks to the Plaza San Martin. Even then we were not supposed to walk out at night. Lima is not a safe city and the armed guard at the hotel give us a hard time if we tried to go out walking at night. Most people in the street are very short so it is possible to look above the heads of the crowd as in Honduras and Guatemala.

Callao is the port for Lima and it is quite close although it took an age to get there in the grinding traffic. This was made worse by an international soccer game with Brazil which was shortly to be getting underway. There are some flowering trees, hibiscus, African tulip trees, etc., but these do not have the brilliance of elsewhere because they are covered in dust. The workshops are at Callao - nothing special. We returned to Lima to the central square Plaza San Martin. From there we entered the cathedral to view the coffin containing Pizzaro's remains. We walked across the courtyard to see the monastery of San Francisco which was built in 1620. This was full of people and pigeons. There is an inner calm in the cloister and the buildings contain some beautiful carved wood which shows much Moorish influence. There is a large network of underground passageways with a cemetery where the bones have been gruesomely arranged by type. This was done a few years ago when it was decided to open the catacombs to the public. All the skulls are in one place as are the femurs etc.

We were taken to an Indian craft market where I purchased a set of pipes which are called “Sampona”.. Most of the items available are musical instruments and woolen things such as cloths, hats and sweaters although I did try my hand at an Amazon blow pipe, specially shortened to two feet for the tourists.