Panama, Ecuador and Colombia

South America Trip - December 2013

Our journey started on a cold Calgary day. The temperature was -27 c (or -16 F) when the taxi came to pick us up. And since our garage door didn't close, I was forced to go out in my thin denim jacket and shut that stupid thing manually.

The airport check in was smooth, but our flight was delayed by thirty minutes. Normally, that isn't a big deal, but our total layover in Houston was a total of fifty five minutes, that put us on the edge. When we landed, we sprinted across terminals to make our flight. I have always hated large airports - never had to run in a small airport!

We landed in Panama City, where is was a humid 32 c (90 F). Our hotel was the extravagant Trump Towers Hotel, which was shaped like the Burj Al Khalifa in Dubai (the world's only seven star hotel). Taking tripadvisors advice, we went to the

On the morning of the 7th of December, we headed to the Gamboa forest. The highlight was the aerial tram, which was an open tram through the jungle.

Aerial Trams

We were then taken to a butterfly farm, and a snake farm, and we saw a sloth ( he was sort of sweet looking)!

A Sloth

The takeoff and dropoff hotel was a nice tropical paradise. An awesome place for people to stay if they want to get close to nature.The Panama Canal is in the background.

Our dinner was at this really nice restaurant called 

Our hotel was located at this posh upmarket area of Panama City, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Mojitos were in order, considering the warm 32 c weather.

Ecuador was our next stop, and a revelation. We landed in Guayaquil, and were told not to chance going to the city, since it could be unsafe for tourists. Since we were transiting for a couple of hours, it didn't seem worth taking a risk.

We then flew to Cuenca, which is a UNESCO World Heritage city. It was the first one in Latin America, according to our guide Ramos. He was a very pleasant young man, with a parent in the US. He dropped us to our hotel, the very lush Mansion Alcazar. The room in the hotel was from a bygone era, with rich furnishings and a poster bed. The hotel restaurant had a very exclusive feel to it. We ordered ceviche and a grilled fish. To drink, we had a canelazo, which used the local alcohol named agua ardiente (literally fire water) with hot water, sugar and cinnamon. It was a nice warm drink for a chilly night - Cuenca is 2500 metres above sea level, so it does get chilly at night..


The next day we went out with Ramos.  He first took us to the local central market, and showed us the great variety of fruits that grow in an around Cuenca. He bought a few different types of fruits, each of which was the first time that we had sampled them. There were different types of corn, including white corn.

Our starting point was a sculpture of a Inca game, similar to basketball.

After the market visit, we saw the Catedral Nuevo, or the new cathedral. It was built by a German born priest. The three domes were made of local blue marble. The photo below was taken from a hill overlooking the city.

We then went to a monastery that had been converted to an art gallery. There is a world wide competition every year held here. We relaxed in a park in front of the San Blas church, shown below.

We went to lunch in an highly recommended restaurant - Tiesto's (
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g294309-d1576866-Reviews-Tiesto_s-Cuenca_Azuay_Province.html). The chicken curry, with macadamia flavour, was very rich.The service was awesome. The chef came out to explain to us that while curry was from India, this was his version with local flavours. We also tried the zhumir, a local liquor. After tasting it, we went straight to a store to buy it! That night we flew to Quito, the capital city.

The new airport in Quito is quite a distance from the city center. Our hotel, the Radisson, was well located near the bars and restaurants section of the city. The next day our guide came by to take us to the Middle of the World Monument

The Mital el Mundo (middle of the world in Spanish), is beautifully laid out.The busts of people involved are on either side of the monument. However, with GPS technology, it was determined that this was not on the actual Equator Line. The actual spot was determined to be a few hundred meters away. We were then taken there, and a couple of cool experiments were conducted to prove that we were on the Equator. First, we had to walk on a straight line, blindfolded. No one could do this in our tour group. Second, a portable sink was brought and filled with water. A few flower petals were put on the water. The sinkhole was opened. When the sink was on the North side of the the equator, the water moved counter clockwise (the Coriolis Effect). South of the equator, the water moved clock wise. On the Equator line, the water did not rotate, and went straight down the sinkhole.

A scalped head, dried and put on a fruit.

Quito was far prettier than I expected. The Spanish colonial styles buildings, the busy roads, the lively streets with bars and cafes and restaurants.

 The Church and Monastery of St. Francis was closed for most of the year.

The Plaza San Francisco was as pretty as the ones in other Latin American capitals.

Here was a photo with my panoramic app on my iphone. 

We were also taken to the elaborate and rich looking church - the Church of Society of Jesus. It is made in the Spanish Baroque style. It is Ecuador's most ornate church, with gold leaf decorations everywhere. We weren't allowed to take photos, so these are from the wikipedia site.

             

Lunch was at the traditional Ecuadorian restaurant anmed Hasta La Vuelto at the Centro Commercial mall. It was on the third floor, overlooking the mall. Living in a landlocked city makes the both of us crave seafood, which is what we ordered. Along with my favourite Ecuadorian cocktail, the Canelazo, it turned out to be a good meal. We then headed to the

The next day Harry picked us up to to the Otavalo market. This is a traditional market which is a 2 hour drive from Quito. Saturday is the main day, and locals sell souvenirs, clothes, artifacts, live animals,etc. After buying a few gifts for friends, we stopped at a restaurant for a local combo meal (soup, sandwich and a fresh juice for roughly 3 dollars). There were a few restaurants and bars that were owned and run by American expats in the neighbourhood.

On the way back to Quito, we stopped at this beautiful lake:-

Our first port of entry to Colombia was Cali. Since they don't get a lot of international flights, immigration and customs was a breeze. I so much prefer smaller airports - there is less walking involved, especially with baggage. We were picked up by John Victoria, who despite his name was very very latino. He had lived in the US for many years, and so his English was pretty good.

Our hotel had an unusual name - Spiwak Chipechape. It was attached to a shopping mall with the same name. The one thing I liked about the mall was that there were many booths with different types of foods, drinks, etc. We headed to a Caribbean looking booth with sold empanadas. The staff didn't speak any English, but luckily we had learnt Spanish in Calgary. Incidentally, our Spanish teacher is from Cali, and always promotes it as the salsa dancing centre of South America.

That night John Victoria took us to a salsa performance. It was in a restaurant far from the city. The heartening part was that the place was filled with locals, so we knew that this wasn't some touristy fake performance for gringos. The dancers were young - they all looked like teenagers. With lithe bodies and rapid moves. Of course, when they asked us to join, we had to politely refuse. There was no point being utterly humiliated!

Our friend in Calgary, Andrea, had suggested that we meet her mother while we were in Cali. I love these little spontaneous moves. Also, there is nothing like a local taking you around their city. Gloria is a art surveyor and seller for the high end market. She is also full of life, and very cheerful.

Our first order of business was getting some Colombian jewellery. Gloria took us to this nice large store which had gold ornaments in a Native American pre Spanish style. This was typically Colombian, and got Dear Wife's attention. There was also some emeralds, which Colombia is famous for. Luckily, it was too expensive even for DW.

We then headed to a local Cali favourite, the . It had a rooftop patio, from where one could overlook the entire city. Gloria ordered some empanadas, which were divine. The restaurant had photos of famous visitors, including Anthony Bourdain. A former state governor, who Gloria knew, was also there, accompanied by his much younger girlfriend. Politics does have a lot of perky perks, no pun intended!

That night we headed to a tripadvisor recommended restaurant named Carambalo. There was a very attractive girl at the entrance who was handing samples of Colombian rum. I was told to stop staring at her - she did have a very revealing outfit. The food was really good - Lillian ordered the  and I ordered the . A little hitch was that when we asked to order the taxi, as requested by our hotel, the waiter couldn't get through. So we went out and hailed a taxi - the whole street was full of bars and restaurants, and looked safe.

On Sunday morning, we decided to hang out at the mall. We went and tried little items of food from each othe booths. My favourite item was the blood sausage, which is rice and sausage mixed together. There were empanadas with different sauces, and a naranjilla fruit juice (being on the Amazon basin, there are a lot of fruits in Colombia which are not available in North America).

Later that evening, we took our flight to Medellin. It was a short flight, in a small aircraft. The national football championship final was going on, and the Cali team was playing against the Medellin team. By the time we landed, the team from Medellin had won. This caused us a few problems. For one, our car couldn't go to the hotel, since the road was blocked. Second, since our car driver had left his window open, young teeagers threw flour at us. I was coated in flour, which was OK. I mean, it could have been worse!

After checking in, we sat in the patio restaurant while youngsters celebrated all night. This mainly involved throwing flour or soap foam at each other. It was fun to watch.

The next day we started our city tour with a visit to Pablo Escobar's grave. He was the biggest drug trafficker in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time, Medellin had the highest murder rate in the world. We met his gofer, who wasn't with him the day he was shot dead. We were then taken to the house where he was shot dead. This happened in 1992, and yet you can sense an uneasiness when talking about him.

After the Pablo visit, we were taken to the Francis Botero museum. He is a famous artist, who made paintings and sculptures of very fat people. Apparently, he was actually showing regular people as fat, so as to enhance their presence. So he showed royal figures as fat, his own family members as fat (including a young son he tragically lost in an accident; apparently that is his favourite painting). Outside the museum, there are large Botero sculptures in the city centre.

We had lunch in the museum restaurant, which was pleasant. We then headed to another famous sight in Medellin - the cable car to their hillside neighbourhoods. This cable car starts from a metro station, and goes up the hill where these poor neighbourhoods are located. There is a large library, built in a modern architectural style. In earlier times, a bus would take hours to navigate through these poor neighbourhoods. Now the residents can be home in minutes, from the city. This has been now copied by other cities around the world.

That night we had dinner in a tiny Peruvian restaurant named Peru Mix 10. Their ceviche was awesome, the best in South America ( we could make this judgement after trying ceviches from Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru). After that we were picked up for our night tour of Medellin.

We started near the river. 80 million light bulbs, and millions of dollars were used to light up all these locations, for Christmas. There were scenes of housing, trees, etc.

We then headed to the city of . It is also Pablo Escobar's birth place. Therefore the police present, who graciously allowed us to photograph them.

The lights were present here too.

The next morning we wandered around the hotel. It was located in an area full of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. We decided to try the local version of Starbucks, a company called Juan Valdez. It had a covered patio, and we sipped on some delicious Colombian coffee while watching the rain. Next to us, some retired American expats were exchanging notes about where to go shopping, banking, etc.

The journey to the airport was through a couple of hills, which was very scenic. When we reached our check in counter, we were told that our flight had been cancelled. Luckily, they put us on a direct flight to Cartagena.

When we landed in Cartagena, it was fairly hot and humid. The temperature at 8 pm in the evening was close to 30 c! The airport was only a ten minute ride from the old town, where our boutique hotel was located. It was called the Alfiz Hotel, and was an old colonial mansion that had been converted to a hotel. Luckily, since dinners are consumed late in Colombia, we dashed towards a restaurant in the old city called El Boliche Cebicheria. As its name indicates, the house special are different types of Ceviche. It is a tiny restaurant, with two tables squeezed outside, and maybe three tables squeezed inside. The food was good, though the portions were quite small. A cold Colombian beer was very helpful in dealing with the heat and humidity.

The next morning we went on an hop on hop off tour. Our tour started from the house of the President (who ruled in the 1880s) . The city outside the old town was less interesting, save for the fort that overlooked the coast. This part of Colombia has a large Afro-Caribbean influence - most of the locals seemed to be of African origin. During our two hour lunch break, we got caught in a sudden downpour, that caused the water from the drains to back up. I haven't seen that kind of a tropical storm in a long time. We had to dash into an Italian restaurant, which unfortunately had its air conditioning cranked up. After a decent meal, we thanked the host for rescuing us.

The afternoon tour was a lot more interesting. We walked through the old city, starting with the  church. The buildings were all traditional Spanish style colonial buildings - very bright colours. The churches were full of gold, and the roofs had bright domes. The old city had relatively narrow cobblestone streets, and only one car could fit in at a time (the number of cars is restricted here).




















A quick side trip from Cartagena was to the island of Rosario. It was an hour and a half by speedboat, and we could indulge in swimming and other beach activities.











Our final destination on this trip was Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Our Brazilian friends live here, and it makes the visit a lot more fun when there is a local to take you around! The city has improved a lot in the last fifteen years, as per the locals. Our first stop was the church. A funicular took us up  Monserrate (after Catalan homonym mountain Montserrat) which is a mountain that dominates the city center of Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. It rises to 3,152 metres (10,341 ft) above the sea level, where there is a church (built in the 17th century) with a shrine, devoted to "El Señor Caído" (Fallen Lord).We got to see the size of the Bogota city, which was impressive. Like all cities, there were the upper, lower and middle class parts.

Black Madonna in Monteserrate

The next stop was the Gold Museum, or the Museo El Oro in Spanish. This indicated how much gold was here when the Spanish came, and shows how much must have been stolen!

Muisca's golden raft found in Pasca in 1969, that represents the El Dorado ceremony.The heir to the chieftaincy assumed power with a great offering to the gods. In this representation he is seen standing at the centre of a raft, surrounded by the principal chieftains, all of them adorned with gold and feathers.

Our last stop in Bogota was in the government center, where the presidential palace is located.

The next day we headed to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá (Spanish: Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirá). This church was partially underground, and very cool (literally and figuratively!). The original section was built by miners, and later the church was extended. However, since there is no priest, this is not an official Catholic church!

Entrance tunnel to Cathedral

A traditional Inca setting