Final Entry from Central and South America

The following are some interesting experiences, situations or facts we neglected to write about in our blog. I’ve tried to put them in the same order as our travels, but some may be a little random. Enjoy….

· During our first week in Guatemala at the resort in Puerto Barrios, I came across a couple of large insects on the walls of our villa and decided to start a photo file of all the strange and wondrous insect life we were to encounter along the way. I was anticipating dozens, if not hundreds of such photos of large and colorful bugs. Much to my chagrin and Susan’s relief, we were to encounter hardly any creepy crawlies for the rest of the trip. We had anticipated having to deal with cockroaches in many hotels, but I think we saw but one the whole trip. And except for the occasional large moth, and, of course, our scorpion at the resort, we didn’t encounter any other insects of note. Maybe we’ll have to downgrade our accommodations next time!
· Sue, I, Rose and Dee were in Panajachel on the shores of Lake Atitlan in western Guatemala and we were on our way to dinner at the Sunset Café. On our way, Dee and Rose noticed two dogs who seemed particularly hungry and Dee commented on the poor things and the general plight of dogs in this part of the world. Well, we had our supper at the restaurant and whether by chance or subliminal planning of some sort, both Dee and Rose had leftovers. They asked our waiter for a doggie bag (literally as it turned out) and as we made our way back to the hotel they kept a sharp lookout for the two dogs we’d seen earlier. As we neared our hotel there still had been no sign of the two canines, so the girls decided to offer their doggie bag to a couple of other strays that chanced by. These two gobbled up their gourmet snack and were soon on their way. Well, wouldn’t you know it that not another minute passed and there in the street were the two dogs Dee and Rose had seen earlier. But what was to do? They had no food to give the poor waifs. So, without hesitation, they marched into a nearby shop where they procured two tins of sardines, which were promptly opened and dumped out for the drooling mutts. Dee and Rose’s effort to end hunger of the third world (canine hunger that is!!)
· While we were touring Tikal one day, our guide gave us a brief dissertation on the Mayan calendar, complete with stick drawings in the dirt in front of the pyramid of the sun. The calendar is a complex system of time periods with names such as “kin” (1 day), “uinal” (20 kin), “tun” (18 uinal), etc. The Mayan epoch is roughly 5125 years. The current Mayan epoch began in about 3114 BC and is set to end on December 21st 2012. Many have speculated that the Mayans foretold the end of the world on this date and support their conclusion with a host of other astronomical facts, winter solstice folklore and various other hypotheses. Many doomsday advocates are already preparing for the predicted apocalypse. But our guide said that this date was just the end of the current Mayan epoch and the next epoch will begin the following day. (Kind of reminded us of Y2K)! I guess we’ll see who’s right in a few years!
· I was cycling along one of the sandy roads on Caye Caulker on our penultimate day on the island when I passed a fellow who looked vaguely familiar. As I cycled away I turned my head and saw the fellow looking at me. He yelled, “Robb ?”. I applied the brakes of the bicycle and stared in disbelief. “Grant?” I said. It was one of the fellows who had been at our casa and Spanish school in Antigua. Grant was a fascinating guy who’d been born near Saskatoon, who now made is home in California, and had a job of some sort for a few months, transferring yachts around the Caribbean (or that was his story anyway). He was in Caye Caulker for a day and was walking to the nearby airport to take a flight back to Placencia in southern Belize. Small world!
· When we left Belize we neglected to change or spend our last fifty-dollar bill ($25USD). We subsequently tried to change it at several money exchanges in Costa Rica and Peru but no one would take it. We are hoping to exchange it at the Calgary airport on the way to Australia, but it makes us wonder what’s the deal about the Belizean currency.
· A waiter at a restaurant in Lima asked us where we were from. We told him we were from Canada, and did he know where that was. He replied he thought it was next to Cuba. He may have confused Canada with Grenada or perhaps had heard something about Canada recognizing Cuba, but it started us thinking about just why we would expect average people in the rest of the world to know where Canada is. If you ask the average Canadian where Nicaragua is, or what countries border Bolivia, I’m sure not one in 10 could tell you. Gave us a sense of Canada’s true stature in the world!
· The airport in Iquitos Peru is closed every day from 9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. because for some unexplained reason hundreds of vultures descend and sit on the runway, presenting a major threat to aircraft. All flights have to land and take off before 9:00 or after 5:00.
· We saw several signs in Costa Rica saying beware of the dog. Only in Spanish the dog is referred to as a “Perro Bravo”…a brave dog.
· While we were visiting a small town along the Amazon one day, we kept hearing periodic pronouncements from a powerful loudspeaker on a high mast located in the centre of town. We initially thought it must be some political announcement or perhaps advertising. But our guide informed us that there was only one telephone in the town and when anyone got a call, their name was broadcast for all to hear so they could come running and take the call.
· While we were walking around the ruins of Macchu Picchu, overawed at the beauty of the place and surrounding mountains, I saw a fellow walking behind a woman, his arm extended and clasping her upper arm while carefully feeling his way over the uneven stones with his feet. He wore dark glasses and carried a white cane. A blind man was touring one of the most spectacularly visual places in the world.
· While on our way to Pisac , being driven by our friend Jose, our cop was waved over by a policeman at some sort of check stop. He asked to see Jose’s papers and then, as best we could tell, asked him for his taxi driver’s license. Seeing Sue and me in the back, he was accusing Jose of being an unlicensed taxi driver. Jose pleaded innocence and said we were friends and I was about to get my digital camera out and show him the picture I’d taken that morning in Jose’s living room of us having tea with him and his wife. But the cop seemed to accept Jose’s story and waved us on our way. Jose told us that he would probably have had to “pay a fine” on the spot had we not stood up for him and this sort of instant corruption was commonplace with the police.
· We were impressed throughout our trip at the impact and influence religion has on people’s lives in this part of the world. Religious beliefs and practices are a common part of most people’s everyday existence…much more so than we are used to seeing in North America.
· One of the strangest things I saw on the whole trip was a woman in a bar somewhere drinking a glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label through a straw.
· 80% of people living along the Amazon will be bitten by a poisonous snake at least once in their lives. These bites are usually not fatal as the snake may not inject a lethal or even harmful dose of poison, it may have broken a fang and be unable to inject, or it may have recently injected its venom into its prey and not yet replenished its supply.
· Fifty pounds of bananas in the markets of the Amazon costs less than one dollar.
· The Amazon River is the world’s greatest river. Although there is debate about whether the Nile is longer (depends where you measure the rivers from – the Amazon is somewhere between 6250 and 6700 kms) the Amazon is certainly by far the most voluminous in terms of water flow. The area covered by the Amazon River and its tributaries more than triples over the course of a year. In an average dry season 110,000 square km of land are water-covered, while in the wet season the flooded area of the Amazon Basin rises to 350,000 square km. Where the Amazon opens at its estuary the river is over 325km wide! Because the Amazon drains the entire Northern half of the South American continent (approx. 40% landmass), including all the torrential tropical rains that deluge the rainforests, it carries an enormous amount of water. The mouth of the Amazon River, where it meets the sea, is so wide and deep that ocean-going ships have navigated its waters and traveled as far inland as two-thirds the way up the entire length of the river. If Lake Ontario was completely drained, the flow at the mouth of the Amazon would refill the lake in 3 hours.
· When we passed through Juliaca near Lake Titicaca, we were amazed to see several roadside muffler shops, all doing a roaring business. Portable metal ramps had been placed at the side of the muddy road beside a pile of mufflers stacked up next to the ramp. Cars would drive up the ramp so that their front wheels were elevated, and a mechanic would crawl under the vehicle in the mud to change the muffler. (Maybe they did oil changes too). In Puno we took a three wheeled motorcycle scooter one night and the fellow pulled up in front of a lady sitting on the sidewalk who had two or three Jerry cans beside her. A few words were spoken, a funnel appeared and a few liters of gas were poured into the tank. Mini businesses abound in the third world!
· We were quite surprised at how cool or even cold many places were on this trip despite being very close to the equator. It is all about altitude!
· We were occasionally able to watch TV in some of our hotel rooms. It was interesting to see laundry detergent ads showing women washing clothes by hand! I guess that’s what they do in this part of the world.
· Parking lots in Peru are called “playas del estacionamiento” or “parking beaches”.
· We sent a bunch of stuff home with Rose and Dee and again with Michael and Sue, including extra clothing we didn’t need. The trip cost 25% more than we had budgeted. The web site advice about “take half as many clothes and twice as much money as you think you’ll need” was not far off!
· It was nice to be back in Calgary, though the cold air dreary brown look of the city indicated that spring had not yet arrived. In fact a few days after we got home we had two or three days of snow and I actually had to get out and shovel the sidewalk and driveway. What a country! Made us more committed than ever to spend our winters in warmer climes in our retirement.
· Robb, Ryan and Maddy are all fine. Ryan is still working as an assistant manager at the Shoe Company and Rob has found his niche as a car salesman for Acura and is doing very well. The house was “mas o menos” in good repair and things seemed to be ok here. Guess we’ll see how they do over the next 7 months!


******* WE'LL BE IN TOUCH FROM AUSTRALIA. THANKS FOR READING ALONG WITH US *******
ROBB AND SUE
robbandsue@hotmail.com