Off to South America

We took a Greyhound bus across the USA,
visited with my family in New Jersey for a week,
and then took another bus New York City to Miami.

Our flight was on Ecuadorian Airlines, round trip out of Miami.
We got to the north Miami Greyhound station about 4 AM.
It was dangerous to walk anywhere until it was light outside,
the doors inside the station were locked until dawn.
So we decided to hang there until the sun came up.

All of a sudden a police car pulls up. I'm watching through the window as
a young guy is let out, a huge bandage covering across his face.
He has no suitcase, no possessions except a hospital shirt on
and the pants he was wearing.
The police drive away and he is let into the station.

He is going to take a bus cross country to Medford, Oregon,
which is nearby the home we just left in Northern California.
Being me, I get into his story with him and he had been robbed and razor cut
across his eye and down the side of his face. Blood all over his personal shirt,
and only the hospital shirt on.
I gave him one of my T shirts and a hoodie sweatshirt for his 3000 mile trip.
The hospital gave him no drugs or antibiotics.

I always travel with a first aid kit, pain killers included in case of emergency.

So I gave him 2 shirts and some Tylenol with codeine for the trip.
We said goodbye and headed on to a motel for a day at the beach,
Next day off to Ecuador.

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador late at night.
Went with an American military guy to a safe hotel for the night.
But we wanted something a bit more funky, so moved the next day.
Surprisingly we were quite ill from altitude sickness.
We had spent the summer camping at 8000 feet on Mt. Shasta before the trip,
to be acclimated to high altitudes, but air arrival in Quito, Ecuador's
9252 feet, knocked us on our asses for 3 days.




Recovered, we did the tourist stuff there in Quito, A side trip to the famous market in Otavalo,
I bought some parrot feathers with small beads & real bird beaks on them used for ritual.
Found some lovely old tattered ritual dolls.
We then decided to move on to Riobamba.
At the train station some teenage girls were goofing on us while sitting on the opposite bench.
I started to throw over pieces of candy to them, then called them over for me to paint their fingernails
with glitter nail polish & we all became fast friends.
I carry a photo engagement calendar with me, so we can look at the photos, say the word in English,
then they say it in Spanish.
It's fun.




Fast friends, we say goodbye, and whooo whooo
there goes the trolley train down to Riobamba.
We exited the train at night & standing in the station
we met a guy traveling alone from England.
John became my English gentleman.




He enjoyed being with us because we could protect his bags if he went to the bathroom or someplace,
and we enjoyed him because he spoke fluent Spanish and we spoke little.
So the 3 of us were very happy traveling together.



We spent a day in Riobamba and then south to Cuenca.
The hotel was across from the local mercado.
I went down to look around by myself.
Wearing an apron the local women wear there with a pocket in the front of it.
I put my change purse into the pocket of the apron for easy access.

At one point, I felt a push and when I turned I noticed the apron had been razor cut
across the front and my change purse was gone.
I grabbed the woman's hand and started screaming loudly, ROBBER! ROBBER!
I'm lucky I didn't get my throat slashed with that razor at the time!
but it was my first reaction to scream and hold her arm.

A large crowd gathered, and there on the ground was my change purse she had quickly dropped.
The police enquired, but released her and all I have to show is the photo of my razor slashed apron!



Another day on the road!

We stayed at a lovely town called Banos, in a great hostel for pennies a day
with a view of a water fall out the bedroom window.
Banos is known for it's hot springs & guinea pigs BBQ'd on skewers. URG. not a pretty sight.
Took a long hot bath and rested up.



Traveling over night on a small bus of about 15-20 people,
it was about 2 AM and everyone was dozing off to sleep.
All of a sudden the bus stops and Jerry, John & I are told to get off the bus
in the middle of a banana plantation.
We were the only gringos on the bus,
so here we are off into the plantation without our stuff, just our papers.

We come up to a table with 4 young men with machine guns, wearing military clothes.
They could of done anything they wanted to do to any of us, but while checking our papers,
I notice a HUGE bug crawling up the side of one of the guys shirts near his shoulder.
The thing was like a giant praying mantis but about 6" bigger then that!
They all laugh and he brushes the thing off as it heads for his neck, and it's back on the bus for us!

We journey down to Peru, crossing the lovely border shown here.
They go all out to impress the tourists!



Stayed in Trujillo for a couple of days watching the reed boats on the ocean.
Walked up to the Cathedral on the hill and was surprised
to see it had no roof on it once we got there.



Trujillo had suffered a devistating earthquake and the roof had never been repaired.
The locals still use the large church. We toured the ruins of Chan Chan
& next day it was back on the bus, as we move down to Lima.
Ah, beautiful Lima.

Feeding Empanada's to the street kids,



men playing their flutes for change,
and the best fettucini alfredo I have ever had!
I happened upon this place just walking up the main street.
and WOW, I went back daily for a hit of this wonderful pasta.

One day while wandering around the main plaza, I noticed that within every arch
there was a shoe shine boy.
I pulled out the candy, approached one of the boys, and asked him how much it would cost
for ME to shine HIS shoes.
They loved it!
Before I knew it there was another crowd, all laughing at my technique,
while trying to teach me how to snap that rag
with just the right beat to get the high shine on the shoes.
I think I gave him a dollar for my lesson, which to him was a million and we all parted laughing.



One evening while walking around Lima, we stumbled into a bakery.
There I found a jolly fellow from Austria named Alfred.
I began to talk with him and he was traveling alone and up for company.

Jerry and I didn't mind at all.
Alfred was a pleasant guy, spoke english well, worked in a bank in Austria.
But poor John...
I hadn't thought it would be a problem, but when we'd get to a hotel,
when John would get a room for himself, now he had to share with Alfred.
and much to John's shegrin, Alfred kept his radio on all night long!

There had been quite a bit of fighting in the mountains between Lima and Cusco
with the Shining Path revolutionaries fighting the government & taking some foreign hostages.
We decided to fly to Cuzco and avoid the mountain road.

Jerry, John & I, (Alfred moved onto Cuzco by bus) went to a travel agency
and bought tickets for the 6 AM flight.
we get to the airport in plenty of time and they bumped us!

well wait just a minute, I'm from NY and I don't take that crap!

So here we are, meek gentle Jerry who doesn't raise his voice,
Gentleman John from England,
and ME. The big mouth New Yawker who won't take any shit.
After making more then my share of scene in the airport,
with a raising level of managers assisting me,

I get seat A,
Jerry seat B
and John seat C in the first row on the same plane to Cuzco!

I always say, The squeaky wheel gets the grease! ;-P

We finally made it to Cuzco and loved it. Lots of fun there,
I was shopping up a storm.
And again hooked up with Alfred when we got there.
Here showing us in the main square wearing our backpacks in the front.
Most tourists take to this after realizing they've been robbed from behind
if they leave their day packs on their backs unguarded!



Daily shopping around the Cuzco area,
at one point I had found a traditional Inca poncho I wanted and the man invited us back to his home
to show us more of what he had.
Jerry and I got into a cab with him, drove through some barrios, and got out in front of his home.
down the path to his mud room which was actually 2 mud rooms with a walk way inbetween them.
He and his family were gracious offering us the little wooden stools they had,
so we sat down while they broke out their treasures.
In the meantime I was giving away candy to all the kids,
there goes our spanish english dictionary to his teenage son,
and Jerry literally took the quilted flannel shirt off his back and gave it to the man of the house.
We left with some treasures of textiles, a beautiful ceremonial hand woven coca bag, and lots of smiles.

On to Machu Picchu! We took the tourist train up Machu Picchu



and didn't get off at the town before as we were suppose to.

We weren't going to be spending the night at the ruins,
but in the small town of Aguas Calientes just before it.
So we had to trek on back up the tracks back to town, carrying all our stuff,
through the tunnel and made it to the end,
just before the train came back to hit us in the darkness!



We walked down the sacred Urubamba River to town and got into our hostel room.
Then went back up to the ruins.
We got there just as the gate keeper was closing for the day, he would not let us in,
but after we bribed him with Jerry's watch
and of course some candy, he let John, Jerry and I into the ruins.
Llama to greet us at the gate.

Machu Picchu is a story in of itself, so I won't get into it now.
But I saw an eagle flying and hovering above me with no movement to it.
It just floated above my head.
Sitting by a small cave, out came a tiny animal that looked like a bunny,
but had short rounded ears and a fluffier tail.



It is called a viscachas.



It was getting dark and we walked straight down a path on the mountain avoiding the bus zig zag road.



We learned the next day as we were leaving,
that when you take the bus down the road there is a young boy
that runs and waves to the passengers at every turn on the zigzag.
Then when you get to the bottom of the mountain,
he is there meeting the bus and expects tips from people exiting.



it's quite a feat to do this, and everyone is in awe at each turn when he is there waving,
so he must really make a lot of tips at the end of his day!

To the hostel and bed for the night.
Next morning back up to the ruins.
I was happy we didn't do the tourist day trip to Machu Picchu.
It's not enough time to really experience the place in just a couple of hours.

Following our day and half at Machu Picchu we headed back to Cuzco on the local train.



I put some Peruvian coins on the tracks and waited for the train to run over them!
So now I have some squashed coins from Machu Picchu!
The kids were shocked to see me do it, since any money is so important to them.
Here's this loco gringa destroying it for fun!

While waiting for the train I met a woman that was selling cool crochete rainbow sun hats.
She liked a small piano electronic toy I had and my Timex watch. So we traded for her hats.
In between her head in this photo my little toy piano & watch hang on hooks!
This woman was a pro, no hustling her. She had quite a business going and she knew it!



Back to Cuzco, back to Lima and on to Bolivia!
Lake Titicaca here we come!
We spent my birthday in Copacabana, the town on the beautiful lake.



The boys on the bikes were facinated with us and I entertained them with the photo engagement calendar.

Crossing the Lake the humans have to take a small boat
while the bus carrying all our stuff on the roof, crosses on a ferry.



Across the frontier to the wonderful Peru Bolivia border



A few days in La Paz was about it for me.
I kind of had a melt down in front of the Cathedral.
Enough travel, enough of being tired & uncomfortable.
I was ready to head back to the USA.

We had said goodbye to John and it was somewhat of a trauma for me.
I had really grown to like him a lot & he was going onto Venezuela.
So we headed back to Cuzco by train via Puno, back to Lima and flew to Quito,
Ecuador for our flight to Miami.

Once we got there, Ecuadorian Airlines LOST JERRY'S BACKPACK!
I literally sat in front of the ticket counter for 24 hours shouting to the agents
every time they went in and out of the swinging door,
DID YOU FIND OUR BACKPACK YET?

When they finally came out and responded YES!
WE ALL CHEERED!

They were happy to get rid of us and I was happy to see the back pack
full of all the things we had bought on the trip!
Losing a backpack with a few thousand dollars worth of textiles
in it wasn't a happy experience.
The backpack went to New York for a side trip instead of Miami!

We got back to California in the mid winter,
that spring Jerry starts working again in the forests of Northern California.
One day he was working and the guys were talking about traveling and one guy said,

"Yeah, i got in a mess in Miami, but I met a real nice lady at the Greyhound station who gave me drugs"

Jerry said "THAT WAS NO LADY, THAT WAS MY WIFE!"

Amazing.
So we got to see the Miami bus station kid again, who'd a thunk it!

And now you know part of the story.....