Galapagos.. Where the Darwin awards originated…

 The following is a pictorial tour of Albert’s trip to the Islands of the Galapagos. He left the ship early in the morning when we docked in Manta Ecuador and spent the morning driving to an airport 4 hours away to get on a plane that took the band of 8 merry passengers ( plus a few extras who were going on Macu Pichu afterwards,and landed in time to explore the nature filled island. His hope was that he would see lots of wildlife, feel drawn closer to Darwin and experience what Darwin saw… I on the other hand just hoped he would return in one piece…So what follows is his picture diary of the trip. I don’t have him here beside me to explain all of it so forgive me for the lack of commentary.

 

 

The private yacht used to visit the various islands and nature sights.. 

 Along with a private chef? 

In Lima they stayed at the Country Club hotel

 

Below are a variety of pictures taken from Al’s tour of downtown Lima. Of course Churches are always on the itinerary. 

 The bathroom doors in the Larco Museum.. they had lunch

 there.

The flowers at the Larco museum were beautiful.

Lima,Peru pre columbian art,horses and PISCO SOURS!

Albert is still on his overland today and will tour Lima with his own group. I will have a solo adventure today. I’ve scheduled a visit to a museum of pre Colombian art , a step pyramid complex and lunch with horses…  driving through the streets from around the port. I’m always amazed at the city street markets. Such a fun way to do shopping instead of a huge grocery store.  Public transportation is lacking here but many TikTok drivers are around. There are some city buses and a new subway system being built. As with most countries, prioritizing public transport is low on the list.  The Larco museum is a private collection from the explorations of an ametuer archeologist who spent his time excavating the step pyramids right outside Lima   and cactus. The entrance was beautiful with the flowers.The first room we visited were the Erotica sculptures. These were found inside graves in the pyramids. All these have significant meaning to the community that worshiped with them. The natural,sexual and spiritual life was important.    

After the erotica rooms we headed into the open storage rooms.I was not prepared for the amount of

Pottery in these rooms!  The walls were floor to ceiling,wall to wall pottery. Liquid bottles in all shapes, sizes and colors!    There were at least five big rooms of open storage…just imagine what else the museum has stuck away somewhere! The pottery pieces are almost all in prime state with no breaks. They were exhumed from the graves and therefore were handled with care. Larco tried his best to preserve everything he found and wanted to make sure it remained in Peru where the ancients had lived. Because of his work, the gallery provides an over view of 5000 years of pre Columbian art and culture. not all was pottery, there were rooms filled with gold and silver also. I was a very interesting morning and when we finished our tour, the expedition crew were waiting for us in the outside restaurant to celebrate with Pisco Sour’s, civieche, potatoes and Inca Cola! It was a nice surprise and very thoughtful. Our next tour was to head through Lima and find our way into the desert where there was the large collection of step pyramids from which Raphael Larco found much of his collection.

On our way to the pyramids, we needed to drive by the city’s largest cemetery (which is next door to the pyramids) yesterday was Dia Los Mueres ,day of the dead in Lima but since today is a Saturday, everyone was in line to drive on the same road. Plus there were flower sellers, food vendors and everyone would stop .hop.buy and then jump back into the car and drive with thousands of others to the cemetery. 

 

 

It was fun to see the celebration in another country ( we celebrate in Tucson) but what should have been a 15 minute trip took almost 45 minutes! 

The Museum was finally ahead of us!

 
The area just looked like a large small gravel pit and yet slowly we came to the pyramids.

 

 

This archeological sight is right along side the city of Lima. It’s quite amazing that it was even discovered and excavated. This picture is from the bus.. see how close shanty towns are!

 

These houses are made of cardboard, scrap wood and often don’t even have roofs. (Lima gets little rain)

After a hot and dry walk through the site, it was time for another drive to a Hacienda where we were to have a lunch and horse show…

 
The Hacienda Los Ficus, named for the many Ficus trees surrounding it was a beautiful oasis amidst the shanty towns bordering Lima. The owners breed and manage the famous Paso Peruvian horse. The horse is a light saddle horse with a natural four beat lateral gait. I’m not a horse person at all, but the beauty and grace of these animals was amazing!

  

The horseman rode his horse the entire arena with a full glass of water and not a drop spilled! Such an even gaited horse!

Below is a video of a horse,rider and dancer…they all stayed in step!

We had a delightful dinner after watching the horses ( which included Pisco Sours)

It has been a very full day of touring and I’ll be glad to get back to the ship. Al should be waiting there as he was to tour Lima also and return to the ship