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Published: July 16th 2006
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Juan
The world´s most patient man So that´s Ecuador left behind. We´re writing this from Cuzco in south-eastern Peru, where we arrived yesterday after an epic 24-hour journey from the Galapagos Islands that involved four flights, some sailing, a taxi ride in a rather out-of-shape Toyota Corolla and the combined total of about 11 minutes´sleep. It´s a tribute to how splendid Cuzco is that we managed to last until bedtime without giving to the desire to be horizontal. Bit short of breath, though, as it´s 3600m above sea level.
We´ve been in south America for a whole month now, although it feels more like about 10 days, and so you find us in reflective mood. We were sad to leave Ecuador, too, because we liked it a lot and it felt like we hadn´t seen enough of it, even though it´s not particularly big in the South American scheme of things. The people are very friendly and are always quick to greet you with a smile (especially the thief that lifted Rob´s wallet on our fourth day). Places are about people and we met some particularly nice Ecuadorians who made our stay so memorable. Our Spanish teacher, Juan, combined saintly patience with a warm, dry sense
Home from home
Our ´casita´at Shishink of humour - he could even smile when, after three weeks of his superhuman teaching, Rob was still insisting on calling his bedroom a ´brothel´. He was also a proud exponent of the Ecuadorian male tendency to have unfeasibly small feet, and refused to believe that Wales existed until presented with proof (insert your own joke about John Redwood here).
Then there were Luis Ernesto and Jenny, the couple who ran Shishink, the eco-tourism paradise where we spent our weeks of study. Part Alan Sugar, part Mr Toad, Luis Ernesto is without question the most frightening man we´ve ever been in a car with - not least because he combined driving at 50mph on a rutted gravel track with using TWO mobile phones simultaneously, and delivering the mother-and-father of all bollockings to some poor operative on one of them. His 60-a-day habit meant that he sounded like an Ecuadorian Barry White, but with us he was charm personified. Like many of his countrymen, he is a tireless advocate of Ecuador´s abundant natural resources and utterly despairing of the politicians charged with managing them: over 70 per cent of Ecuadorians live below the poverty line.
Our response to this
Shoes
A typical Ecuadorian´s footwear was to spend the price of a small car on a five-day cruise to the Galapagos Islands, the land that evolution forgot. Thanks to a combination of its isolated location, tectonic plate activity and unusual tidal movements, there´s nowhere like it on earth. During the dry season, when we went, the archipelago looks as if somebody has plonked the Scottish highlands in the middle of the Pacific, all bare silvery trees scattered over the lunar-like landscape. However when the rain comes it all springs to life and looks a bit more like the tourist brochures. Anyway the place is far from dead, of course. It´s absolutely teeming with wildlife. For some reason the usual fear-of-humans gene seems to be missing from the DNA of the animals that live here. In fact it´s quite a feat to get round the place without squashing something underfoot. I never thought I´d go to a place where you can actually get tired of having baby sealions playing with you while you snorkel - but they frighten off all the fish! We saw all kinds of other things, too: ash-black marine iguanas, sea turtles, blue-footed boobies (Rob´s favourite), wayfaring albatrosses, pterodactyl-like pelicans and even baby
Sealions
Too much of a good thing... sharks, which sound cute but are less so when they´re in the water at the same time as you. We were also witness to the sight of two 400lb male tortoises, ahem, getting it on at the Charles Darwin Research Centre - and who says homosexuality is unnatural?
But it wasn´t just the nature that was great, the journey was too: we cruised from island to island in a ten-berth catamarran. It was all Rob could do to suppress the urge to mount the prow, roll up his sleeves and come over all Duran Duran (he certainly had the barnet for it!). Our shipmates were a jolly crew, all European (save one ex-army Israeli - gulp) and a lot more fun than the mammoth American super-groups we were occasionally unlucky enough to bump into.
On the way we also saw a gorgeous pink moonrise (and not just Rob´s arse), had our first-ever (albeit very brief) sighting of a dolphin, dawdled into the flight path of a hunting hawk (which might have finally cured my bird phobia once and for all) and joined the crew for an impromptu game of football on Floreana island. Rob ran the midfield and
sprayed the ball about like a mature Michael Carrick, or so he claims - he looked more like Michael Crawford to me.
Anyway, it´s time for the bi-weekly hell (yes, we do suffer for our art) of uploading the pictures, so I´m off. Tomorrow we start the Inca Trail at 6am, and I´m soiling myself. Quite literally: the diahorrea´s back...
Adele (and Rob) x
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