Hola! Around South America on LAN

[RooFlyer]

I wandered into the Metropolitan Cathedral, hoping to see the painting of The Last Supper, featuring roast guinea-pig and other local items. Unfortunately, I entered just as they were shoo-ing people out, and I was only able to take a few quick shots. Its not very ornate, and the painting behind the altar may or may not have been what I was looking for. I couldn't get very close - this was a long zoom :-| .

When I returned a bit later, the 'official' entrance had opened, and the charge was $3, but they couldn't make change of my offered $10, so I didn't get back in!




Around the corner is the Church and Monastery of San Francisco, and the building was commenced in 1540, a few years after the founding of Quito . However its been re-built at least once after earthquake damage.




A bit like Christ the Redeemer over-looks Rio de Janeiro, the statue of the Virgin of Quito dominates the Old Town. Sitting atop El Panecillo (Little Bread Loaf) the statue is interesting, but the main attraction for me was the magnificent view over the city of Quito. From here you can appreciate how big the place is, stretching way down the valley to the north and south. I'm only looking south here; to the north the city goes much further. The church in the last pic is the Basilica of the National Vow (Basílica del Voto Nacional). Looks big (tall), doesn't it?

 

[RooFlyer]

Walking back from the statue, there was the Merced church, with usual cross outside. Hey, aren't those guinea-pigs?




Walking up and down the hills of the city I was OK breath-wise, which gave me comfort for Peru ahead. The statue of the Virgin of Quito behind (and a Saturday traffic-jam):




And the Basilica of the National Vow ahead.




Now, you don't think I'm NOT going to climb that tower, do you?

 

[drron]

Take the Teleforica cable car up Pichincha.A much better test for Cuszco.Mrsdrron turned blue at the top.Cable car goes up to ~13000 feet.If not affected by altitude sickness you can walk up to higher altitudes.

 

[RooFlyer]

Might not get to squeeze that in. Off to Coca and Sacha lodge tomorrow morning, then back to Quito for a day before Galapagos. Hoping to do a tour of Cochasqui pyramids and a rose plantation that day.

Went to Antisana volcano today; well, the foothills. 4,100m and I managed to walk around OK (but that's after 3 days in Quito!).

 

[RooFlyer]

At the Basilica of the National Vow, its $3 to climb the tower. I was pleasantly surprised that I managed it OK, with the altitude.

The entrance I think is done nicely; JPII visited.




Nice stained glass:




Absolutely loved the 'gargoyles'




Good views over Quito and to the 'gargoyles' on the adjacent tower:




Check out the kids on the pedestal of the statue. Three, between 6 and 9 I would guess. Not a parent in sight and a head-cracking drop to the base.

 

[love_the_life]

I wandered into the Metropolitan Cathedral, hoping to see the painting of The Last Supper, featuring roast guinea-pig and other local items. ..........

There's a very nice Last Supper in the cathedral in Cusco, with roast cuy on the table and other specific South American foods.

Your photos of the gargoyles on the Basilica bring back memories. We had a great trip a couple of years ago.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Take the Teleforica cable car up Pichincha.A much better test for Cuszco.Mrsdrron turned blue at the top.Cable car goes up to ~13000 feet.If not affected by altitude sickness you can walk up to higher altitudes.

Oh yeah, that is a great way to test for altitude sickness, turning blue and cant breathe and can hardly walk ! :shock: :shock:

 

[juddles]

Rooflyer,

thank you for the photos of the LAN lounge in SCL!! Every time we go through there doing SYD-SCL-BOG, we have a 12 hr stopover in SCL. That sleeping área looks fantastic! Just showed my kids the pikkies and they are all very happy for their upcoming trip mid year!!

 

[rogerkambah]

Great TR RooFlyer and fab pics. Love the gargoyles (have a fascination for them). Just wondering what your camera is?

 

[kpc]

Take the Teleforica cable car up Pichincha.A much better test for Cuszco.Mrsdrron turned blue at the top.Cable car goes up to ~13000 feet.If not affected by altitude sickness you can walk up to higher altitudes.

If you read my Galapagos TR, I had severe altitude sickness here...

 

[RooFlyer]

Great TR RooFlyer and fab pics. Love the gargoyles (have a fascination for them). Just wondering what your camera is?

Thanks . The camera is a pocket digital Sony DSCHX50V; 20.4Mpx, 30x optical zoom, 120x digital zoom, wi-fi and GPS. :mrgreen: Its about 3 years old now.

 

[rogerkambah]

Thanks . The camera is a pocket digital Sony DSCHX50V; 20.4Mpx, 30x optical zoom, 120x digital zoom, wi-fi and GPS. :mrgreen: Its about 3 years old now.

You and the Sony are a good combo. 30X zoom is very useful. My Lumix is only 24X, but still quite useful.

 

[RooFlyer]

Now to one of the two highlights of my Ecuador trip - Sacha Lodge. Its an 'Eco lodge' in the Ecuadorian jungle and getting there is half the adventure.

From Quito we flew 1/2 hour across the Andes to Coca, a booming oil town. Oil was discovered in the Amazon basin some years ago. It is a major contributor to the GDP of Ecuador, but not as large as once hoped. Its a delicate balance between oil exploration and production, the wilderness and even 'non contact' tribes in the jungle. Our 'eco-guides' had a bit to say on it and by the sound of it, the government is making a 'fair dinkum' effort to get the balance right.

Then it was a 2 hr high speed canoe (holding about 20) down the Rio Napo to the lodge. The Napo is one of two rivers that join to become the Amazon river to the east. Even at this point upstream its enormous, and fast flowing.




The airport at Coca is very small and has clearly been outgrown. The foundations for a new terminal have just been laid. But in the meantime this is the Coca arrival experience, and then the scrum for bags.




Boarding our canoe and heading under the bridge at Coca.




Evidence of the oil industry out of Coca; well flaring off of gas and a new barge loading dock under construction. The crude is pumped into tankers at the well head, then barged to a collection point then trucked further to the start of a pipeline somewhere near Coca, then pumped over the Andes to a refinery on the Pacific coast. Expensive crude!!




As I said, the river is very wide, and fast flowing. The depth appears to vary a lot. There are many sand islands in the middle, as well as semi permanent islands held together by vegetation. In some points in the area we traversed its about 25m deep. After about an hour it started to rain (its not called rain forest for nothing ), so we donned ponchos and put our heads down!

 

[Rugby]

Just caught up on your trip RF - excellent and very interesting, looking forward to the rest.

 

[RooFlyer]

We arrived at the Sacha Lodge dock in drizzle. Our luggage had gone on ahead, so we were only carrying what we chose to. It was a 30 min walk on a trail but mainly on board walks along the river then into the jungle towards the lodge.



Then it was a final canoe paddle up a stream then across a small lake to finally disembark at the lodge (still in drizzle ). By this time (about 2pm) we were all a bit bedraggled and hoping for an improvement in the weather and the level of comfort! We had stopped at a small mission museum for a sandwich lunch.






The lodge is quite spread out; everything is connected by open boardwalks (LH pic); its swamp (or 'flooded forest) below. On my walk to my cabin I spotted some tamarind monkeys right beside the walk - too slow for a pic though! There is a new eating/bar area right on the main lake where breakfast and lunch is taken (RH pic); dinner is served in the main eating area in the main lodge area (in the back ground RH pic above), and there is a comfy bar above that.




Rooms are in pairs, and quite spread out. The rooms are large, but rather basic (as expected) - an overhead fan but no aircon, phone etc (of course) . Internet is available, but was broken for most of the time we were there. No-one minded; most of us thought it would not be there at all. The RH pic shows the bathroom - yes, all that is between you in the shower and the jungle is fly wire (no glass at all in the rooms - only flywire 'windows'.)



The place is permanently damp; very humid. There is laundry service, but no separate drying facility. There were mosquitos about, but surprisingly few. I made sure I put up my G&T defences every evening before dinner.

 

[RooFlyer]

Each day's intake (we had 17 on our day, said to be average but over the next 2 days only 2 other couples arrived) is divided up depending on whether people are in a group, had a specific want or could be conveniently put together. Our 17 were divided into: a group of 6 from England; a couple from Switzerland (German speaking); a couple of 'birders' from Canada; another pair from England who were joined by another couple the following day, and my group, consisting of father and uni student daughter from England; father and adult daughter from Australia, and me. Each group is assigned a naturalist guide and a native guide. Our naturalist guide was a uni qualified guy about 28 from Quito, who spoke excellent English and had a comprehensive knowledge of the flora and fauna; our native guide was from a local village and could spot things in the jungle that you and I would never, ever notice.

Each day is split up into am and pm activities, with a post dinner night activity usually on offer.

The first morning dawned cloudy and still a bit drizzly; ponchos on . Each group gets a morning shift at one of the two observation towers, best for bird and animal spotting. There is a definite bias towards the presumption that you are interested in birds. I'm not particularly, but with most, just went with the flow, as a 'jungle experience'. Our first morning was to the original 'Kapok tree tower'. We started off with a paddle up a creek, to get really close with the jungle. Monkeys passed of course.




The observation tower is about 40m up an ancient kapok tree (we have similar in tropical Australia). Quite an amazing climb. The views are of course spectacular across the jungle. On a clear day you can see the Andes, but unfortunately for us the rain clouds were still clearing.




We saw a good selection of birds, mostly a reasonable distance away, challenging my 120x zoom. At the bottom left a Many Banded Alcari toucan; at bottom right a Yellow headed vulture. Lots of green macaws in flight. Overall a good mornings viewing, with monkeys spotted in the distance.




Back on the ground, the fungi and flowers were of interest to me:




One of our party had been stung by something in the Galapagos, and her fingers had come up in a rash. No problem, natural jungle medicine to the rescue! Our native guide led us to the Dragon's Blood tree, whose sap can be tapped (its reddy-brown), collected and used as a salve. It did lessen the itching, the 'victim' reported.

 

[JohnM]

Looks remarkably familiar, RF .

 

[RooFlyer]

In the pm the weather cleared. I did a quick trip to the butterfly house, with predictable results




We set out for another paddled canoe trip and caught these guys and then were lucky that the guide spotted a caiman lizard watching us from above




Lots of (elusive) monkeys and then a jungle walk to a huge kapok tree; perhaps 400 years old (BTW, no growth rings here - no 'seasons' to differentiate growth). The second pic is remarkable in that seconds later, we heard a great crashing right above us. RUN! was the cry from the guide and we fled 20m or so, as several lumps of rotten wood, each 2-4kg, came crashing down right where we had been standing! A non planned example of jungle decay :shock:



It was getting dark, so we headed back to the lake and tried our hand at piranha fishing (just handing the poles out in the RH pic . The lunch place at the LH pic.




Finally, after dark we (or rather the guide) was able to see some caiman eye reflections. This was a big guy, but we only saw part of him. On the RH our journey that day; the butterfly house and lodge proper at the RH end of the 'fish hook'.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Have you seen a sloth yet RF ? Easy to take a photo, they don't move too fast

 

[LadyC]

Some great photos there RF!