Around South America – Report #4 · Around South America – Report #4 ... The old adage must be...
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Around South America – Report #4 Peru – ‘Time is on our side’’ Give us a brief moment for ‘timely’ observations of time while cruising. On our last grand adventure, as we chased the sun travelling westward around the girth of our planet, each day sunrise and sunset was just a little later. In recognition it was just a little circadian upset that on most days we had to adjust our clocks forward an hour as we entered each new time zone. In fact, if it were not for the imposition of the International Date Line artifice if one adds up all those time zones around the world there are 24 – one complete calendar day. We missed that day! Thus, today we are one calendar day YOUNGER than family and friends that have not circumnavigated the globe. You can perhaps imagine why Bob and Kerrell believe travelling helps them stay young – if not in body, at least at heart, AND in calendar days. ☺ In contrast, on this cruise adventure we notice a different and fascinating consequence of time. Travelling north to south, more or less along the same meridian of latitude, we are not changing time zones. However… having departed Canada shortly after the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year – we are now in the southern hemisphere. Here 22 December is not the shortest day. In this hemisphere 22 December is the longest day. That date has passed, but still, the days are rapidly getting longer. Each morning in the gym at 6AM it was completely dark just days ago. Now, at that time dawn is fully broken and the sun is up. Amazing! Wonderful! To us it seems like we are passing through the seasons at a fantastically accelerated rate. Does this mean we are catching up on all our “one-day-older” family and friends? Or, must we circumnavigate Earth eastward to even the count? Saturday, 14 January, 2012 – Salaverry-Trujillo, Peru Once again, the angel on Kerrell’s shoulder has been at work bringing us terrifically good luck. Being on the first shuttle from Salaverry to Trujillo, we see an arid, sandy coastal plain. Kerrell and Bob hatch a plan with cruise buddies. Hard negotiations lead to day-long services of a taxi driver ($50USD). First stop, ‘Unesco World Heritage Site’, the expansive Mochi temple of “Chan Chan”. Intricate walls made entirely of dried mud brick, adobe, coveres many hectares. The Mochi occupied this area 7 hundred years, from about 100 AD to about 800 AD. The Mochi were renouned for their skills building aquaducts to irrigate these dry lands, hence prospering with abundant food crops springing for these fertile soils. They were also fishers of the sea. However, the Mochi had a dark side. Every quarter century or so El Nino drove the fish away, while concurrently causing torrential rains and floods. To appease the angry god’s wrath, the Mochi people offered escalating ‘offering gifts’ of human sacrafice. (A depictioin of the decapitation god appears on the back of our guide’s vest.) We presume those massive sacrafices reduced the hungry mouths in a time of starvation. Ultimately the El Nino subsided – fish returned and rain dimished, thus proving the power of the gods, and more-importantly the supreme power of the priests and the god-king. The Mochi were ultimately replaced by the Chimu when the El Nino persisted for many years, eroding faith and allegience of the people to the Mochi gods. Ultimately, the war-monger Inca conquest assumed power. Next stop, a popular surfing beach to see the unusually constructed reed boats for which Peru is famous. And finally… the “Huacas De Mochi Del Sol y Luna” (Temples of Sun and Moon). Both at Chan Chan and here at these temples of Sun and Moon, we are astounded at the magnitude of effort by the Mochi people. Each temple is comprised of the accumulation of millions of large adobe bricks into gigantic and intricate constuctions. The old adage must be true, ‘given enough time and enough hands and man can move a mountain’. Sunday 15 January 2012 – Callao-Lima, Peru Thanks to generous cruise buddies Kerrell and Bob were included in a day-long tour of Lima highlights. However, this day in central Lima is the finish of the famous Dakar cross-county race segment. What a thrill! The city is PACKED with excited people and police (prepared for a riot). Our tour bus had 2 police on board merely to clear the way for us through the crowded streets.
Transcript of Around South America – Report #4 · Around South America – Report #4 ... The old adage must be...
Around South America – Report #4 Peru – ‘Time is on our side’’
Give us a brief moment for ‘timely’ observations of time while cruising. On our last grand adventure, as we chased the sun travelling westward around the girth of our planet, each day sunrise and sunset was just a little later. In recognition it was just a little circadian upset that on most days we had to adjust our clocks forward an hour as we entered each new time zone. In fact, if it were not for the imposition of the International Date Line artifice if one adds up all those time zones around the world there are 24 – one complete calendar day. We missed that day! Thus, today we are one calendar day YOUNGER than family and
friends that have not circumnavigated the globe. You can perhaps imagine why Bob and Kerrell believe travelling helps them stay young – if not in body, at least at heart, AND in calendar days. ☺
In contrast, on this cruise adventure we notice a different and fascinating consequence of time. Travelling north to south, more or less along the same meridian of latitude, we are not changing time zones. However… having departed Canada shortly after the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year – we are now in the southern hemisphere. Here 22 December is not the shortest day. In this hemisphere 22 December is the longest day. That date has passed, but still, the days are rapidly getting longer. Each morning in the gym at 6AM it was completely dark just days ago. Now, at that time dawn is fully broken and the sun is up. Amazing! Wonderful! To us it seems like we are passing through the seasons at a fantastically accelerated rate. Does this mean we are catching up on all our “one-day-older” family and friends? Or, must we circumnavigate Earth eastward to even the count?
Saturday, 14 January, 2012 – Salaverry-Trujillo, Pe ru
Once again, the angel on Kerrell’s shoulder has been at work bringing us terrifically good luck. Being on the first shuttle from Salaverry to Trujillo, we see an arid, sandy coastal plain. Kerrell and Bob hatch a plan with cruise buddies. Hard negotiations lead to day-long services of a taxi driver ($50USD). First stop, ‘Unesco World Heritage Site’, the expansive Mochi temple of “ Chan Chan” . Intricate walls made entirely of dried mud brick, adobe, coveres many hectares. The Mochi occupied this area 7 hundred years, from about 100 AD to about 800 AD. The Mochi were renouned for their skills building aquaducts to irrigate these dry lands, hence prospering with abundant food crops springing for these fertile soils. They were also fishers of the sea. However, the Mochi had a dark side. Every quarter century or so El Nino drove the fish away, while concurrently causing torrential rains and floods. To appease the angry god’s wrath, the Mochi people offered escalating ‘offering gifts’ of human sacrafice. (A depictioin of the decapitation god appears on the back of our guide’s vest.) We presume those massive sacrafices reduced the hungry mouths in a time of starvation. Ultimately the El Nino subsided – fish returned and rain dimished, thus proving the power of the gods, and more-importantly the supreme power of the priests and the god-king. The Mochi were ultimately replaced by the Chimu when the El Nino persisted for many years, eroding faith and allegience of the people to the Mochi gods. Ultimately, the war-monger Inca conquest assumed power.
Next stop, a popular surfing beach to see the unusually constructed reed boats for which Peru is famous. And finally… the “Huacas De Mochi Del Sol y Luna” (Temples of Sun and Moon). Both at Chan Chan and here at these temples of Sun and Moon, we are astounded at the magnitude of effort by the Mochi people. Each temple is comprised of the accumulation of millions of large adobe bricks into gigantic and
intricate constuctions. The old adage must be true, ‘given enough time and enough hands and man can move a mountain’.
Sunday 15 January 2012 – Callao-Lima, Peru
Thanks to generous cruise buddies Kerrell and Bob were included in a day-long tour of Lima highlights. However, this day in central Lima is the finish of the famous Dakar cross-county race segment. What a thrill! The city is PACKED with excited people and police (prepared for a riot). Our tour bus had 2 police on board merely to clear the way for us through the crowded streets.
After seeing a little of the rally, and a visit to a magnificent historic home, church and monistary, we headed out of Lima to Miraflores (in English = ‘look at the flowers’) where locals crowd a beach below a tall cliff face (Whooee, with a paraglider launch). But the best was still to come! Passing colourful ‘shanty towns’ of squatters (slums) we are off to Casa Hacienda Los Ficus . ‘What is that?’, you say. This is Peru’s premiere ranch for pure breeding the amazingly wonderful and gorgeous Paso horses! Many generations ago, by lucky chance a horse from Spain had a genetic mutation that caused its forelegs to flex to the side as it trots. You can clearly see this anomoly in these pictures. The consequence….. riding on a Paso horse is amazingly smooth and steady.
And… Bob and Kerrell had the great priviledge and joy of riding a Paso horse!! Fabulously smooth riding. One could ride a Paso horse all day without fatigue. The Hacienda owner, the statuesque lady in the photo with Kerrell below, spoke beautiful English and was able to tell us all about the history of this horse breed, and their training regime here. Following our ride the Hacienda put on a terrific barbeque luncheon before we headed back to our ship, still exilarated by our Paso experience!
And back at the Princendam we find many of the early Dakar racing vehicles, motorcycles, trucks and cars, all ready for loading onto the adjacent ‘care carrier ship’ bound for the next segment of the race. The race trucks all carried spare tires on their roofs.
The disaster with the Costa Cruise Ship near Rome has been the universal topic of conversations aboard our ship. We have complete confidence in our ship’s Captain Tim Roberts. None of us are concerned he will capsize Princendam.
Kerrell and Bob are becoming recognize aboard ship as exuberant. At showtime each evening the Cruise Director, an attractive, lythe, statuesque English woman, comes to chat with us. Last evening the performer joined that chat and characterized Bob as “adorable”. Honoured, while at the same time wondering if he should feel a little like an adorable pet? We are LOVING this cruise meeting wonderful people, fellow passengers, ship’s staff, and, residents in our ports-of call!
Next stop, Tuesday 17 January – General San Martin-Pisco, Peru thence on to two days in Antofagasta, Chile
‘Till next we have the pleasure of seeing you, love to all, Bob & Kerrell http://lincolnshome.wordpress.com/
PS: ‘Spell Check’ no longer works on this computer, so please forgive spelling errors. ����
