More from Bill

Hi. Just a few pictures of me in Quito. Do you like my Panama hat? I don't think it suits me so I gave it to Paul.

Ecuador, Quito and the Middle of the World

We’re currently cruising down the coast of Peru towards our next port, Salverry, but we've spent the last two days in Ecuador.  Ecuador is one of the smaller countries of South America and it was the first country we've been to where we've had multiple stops: the busy fishing port of Manta, the UNESCO World Heritage listed capital Quito (founded 1534) and the largest city Guayaquil.

Ecuador is a land of extreme contrasts in geography extending from the dryer coastal plains to the west, the Andes in the centre and the Amazon to the east united by their common theme: the equator.  There are only two seasons – wet and dry except in the Amazon where they have the wet season and the rainy season.  The sun rises and sets around 6 every day of the year and you can view constellations from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres at once.  As an equatorial country they are out of the cyclone belt however there are active volcanoes and earthquakes occur from time to time.

The country mainly exports primary produce: tuna, prawns, bananas, cacao beans, oil and oddly flowers.  Because they can produce crops all year round, there is a huge export market for their roses which have stems up to 2 metres long!  Russia is apparently a big market.  They assemble some vehicles for Chevrolet, Mazda, Kia and Hyundai as well and use the US dollar as official currency (!?).

A democratic country, there is an election scheduled for February 2013 and they have only 45 days to campaign, so we were in the thick of it.  There are 8 candidates for President, plus Assembly seats up for grabs.   Ecuador was one of the countries Simon Bolivar campaigned for liberation from Spain in his effort to make Gran Colombia – similar to the United States.  That dream didn’t materialise, however independence from Spain did in the early 1800s.  Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela all share the same basic flag bases on the themes of yellow for the sun and gold, red for the bloodshed spent in their liberation and blue for the ocean and sky.  Ecuador’s flag also has the national bird, the condor on it, Venezuela’s has 7 (or 8) stars, whilst Colombia’s just has the three colours.

Ecuador

Venezuela

Colombia

Of course Ecuador is also famous for the Galapagos Islands where Charles Darwin in a brief visit studied the evolution of finches on the different islands that became one of the foundation concepts for evolution.  We didn’t visit there (another trip maybe?) as it’s quite some distance from the coast, however we were lucky enough to fly to Quito. 

Quito at 9,350 ft./2,800 is the second highest Capital City in the world (after La Paz in Bolivia), and is right in the middle of the Andes.  That’s over 2,000 ft. higher than any spot in Australia to put it into perspective.  Of course, the Incas were there before the Spanish and the Quitu and Caras indigenous tribes before then – this is a child’s shrunken head from the Amazon.

The people are a mixture of those original inhabitants and the Spanish.  It is one of the few countries where I am above average height for women, so that was a refreshing change.  Crime is not a major issue however usual big city vigilance was necessary.

Oddly there are a huge number of Australian plants all over the place: bottlebrushes, Grevilleas, wattles, Norfolk Island pines…

In 1736 a French led international Geodesic expedition went to just north of Quito to find the centre of the world and this monument commemorates it.   We’re in different hemispheres - Mitad del Mundo.  With modern GPS systems it's actually in the wrong spot by a few hundred metres, but it's constantly changing so this will do.  Note Paul’s Panama hat – can’t take him anywhere!

The real highlight was the amazing colonial architecture from the 16^th century that extends across the 12 sq kms of Colonial Downtown.  

Fortunately restored and preserved due to the UNESCO patrimony, it is still the centre of government and home to 2.2 million people, although the larger port of Guayaquil claims to be the business centre and there seems to be a certain conflict – it was described to us as Washington DC to New York.  As Canberra residents, this is a concept we understand.   

The food - even watered down for Western palates – particularly the fruit – is amazing.  Ecuador is apparently a popular spot for US citizens to retire and we can certainly see why.

Bill's day at sea.

Hi everyone! As yesterday was a sea day I asked Paul to take some photos of me while I show you around the ship.

Panama Canal - Part 2

OK, I confess I’m no engineer and not really that much interested in mechanical things but even I’ve found this interesting.  Paul was up at sparrow’s, and I joined the action about 7.30 am.  The Observation Deck was 10 deep with eager viewers: our neighbours grabbed their spot at 5.15 am – it’s a really big deal for many fellow passengers.  It takes virtually a whole day to transit so there’s plenty of time to learn about the canal.  Here’s a few things I didn’t know – remembering I’m starting from a VERY low base.  The formatting of this post is appalling but with the ship internet it's just to hard to fix - you can match the text to the pictures.

“Fun Facts” about the Panama Canal

·         The canal runs roughly North South and extends for 80kms through Panama; there’s a five mile exclusion zone on each side (formerly the Panama Canal Zone) to allow the tropical rainforest to keep water in the lakes and locks;

·         

It’s nothing like the Suez Canal in its operation – you go through a series of locks then float across a large man-made lake in the middle then a few more locks at the other end;

·         It opened in 1914 and had its millionth ship traverse the canal in 2010; just over 40 ships traverse the canal each day.  It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year;

·         The French began building the Canal in 1880 but the operation was abandoned due to the enormous loss of life from Malaria (they thought it was caused by bad (mal) air and the freshwater they supplied to overcome this gave the mozzies ideal breeding conditions.  They also went broke;

·          The US built and operated the Canal until 1999 when it was formally handed over to Panama who are currently building a new set of locks to accommodate larger ships.  There is a special type of ship called a Panamax just to traverse the Canal with maximum tonnage;

·         There are two channels at the moment that can either run in the same or opposite directions; the third lock will run in one direction only;

·         There are two bridges across the Canal: the Centennial Bridge (2004) at the narrowest part on the canal the Culebra Cut (12.7 metres)



    and the Bridge of the Americas (1962) near Panama City on the Pan American Highway – looks familiar?

·         Each crossing uses 200 million (yep) litres of water – the new lock will recycle about 70%, but at the moment it just goes out to sea;

·         The only new technology since 1914 has been lights to allow it to operate round the clock, updating the rolling stock and the computerisation of some operations;  despite all attempts to mechanise tying the ships to the guidance vehicles it’s still done by men in a rowboat throwing the ropes

·         The ships are pulled by small - ‘toy’ according to our guide – trains known as mules.  They have never been actual horse like mules;

·         It costs around $180,000 for our ship to go through – it can cost over half a million dollars but the cheapest crossing was in the 20s when some guy (moron, hero?) swam the length of the canal and was charged 36 cents based on his weight;

·         You must pay your money 48 hours in advance and this needs to be cleared before transit; no cheques or credit cards accepted.  There’s always a pool of ships each end awaiting clearance;

·         On entering the Canal, you ship is boarded by a pilot who takes control of the ship and the ship loses its identity and becomes a ‘number’ during the crossing.

·         The 1913 architecture of the buildings is in the Empire Revival style used extensively in Canberra (Old Parliament House, East and West Block, the Hyatt etc. by Government Architect John Smith Murdoch

Well I think that’s enough info to get anyone through a Trivia Night.  We’re now on our way in the Pacific Ocean to Ecuador and a side trip to Quito to stand on the equator!

Panama Canal!

Weehaaa! I've been fascinated by the canal since I was a little bloke, and this is a real thrill for me.

Just entering the first lock, and it will take up a 8 hours to get to the Pacific on the other side.

We're flying to Quito tomorrow and we'll let you know how that goes once we're there.

Wonderful Cartagena!

We're just sailing out of wonderful Cartagena on the Caribbean Coast (now) of Colombia.  Billed as the safest city in Colombia - and by the visibility of the Policia on every corner I have no reason to doubt this - we still took some obvious precautions.  We found birds:

Sam Toucan (who nibbles ankles much to my surprise)

And very big budgies

This smallish city was a gatway for the gold trade as there was easy access to Europe and it acted as the major port for gold and other trade - no Pnanma Canal then.. It was plundered by so many people I lost count but Sir Francis Drake was one of them.  It's full of colour in the lively and friendly people:

And charming 17th and 18th century buildings - Paul (not a building) is with our driver Francisco (also not a building)

It's a walled city and 11 kms remain.  It's also noted for its beaches - but hey we'd stay home for good beaches.

There's a huge fortress: Castillo San Felipe de Barajas begun in the 16th century and this forms part of the 1984 UNESCO heritage listing along with the old city.itself.  It's a long way up - we know, we climbed it. I'm VERY glad we have comfy shoes and gave a small nod to exercise before we left.  This photo is actually from Wikipedia - we would have been swamped by souvenir sellers, traffic and policia if we had stood where this was taken - but you get the picture (groan)!



Another trap of any part of Colombia is their gold, emeralds and leather goods.  A dangerous challenge we chose to accept.  We're off the Ecuador via the Panama Canal.  We arrive at the canal at 6am tomorrow.  Frankly I was a bit ambivalent towards this, but some interesting on board lectures from our reident expert Terry Breen have highlighted this is quite an engineering marvel and given 24,000 lives were lost in trying to build it (in two different incarnations), it does deserve a bit more respect.  Paul's been fascinated with this since he was about five - so there'll be no sleeping in tomorrow.

Candy doing it tough prior to pre-lunch Mojitos.

The picture says it all really.