Gee I´ve got good eyes!

    Aside from the locals passing comments about my blue eyes (which aren´t so spectacular in comparison to others, but obviously stand out here), people who spend time with me always end up commenting how spectacularly good my eyesight is. In groups, I get nominated as the person to look down the street and read the signs when we are looking for something because I usually see better than everyone else.

   For this I can thank the Laser eye surgery I had 3 years ago. It´s been the best money ever spent! And it is such a relief as a traveller not to have to carry bulk supplies of contact lenses, solutions and spare glasses. It is also nice to know that if I get abducted in the jungle and made to trek for days I won´t be having to ask my captors if I could please have my pack and some time to clean my contact lenses, or be concerned that they smash my glasses like so often happens in the movies!
   People say that you can expect dry eyes after the surgery, but in my experience this has been way less than with contacts. The haloing effect they tell you to expect is minimal and I usually had haloing with my glasses prescription as it got a little old anyway. Three years after my surgery, and I still see fantastically well, and apparently I can expect this to continue. They did tell me when I had it done that my close up eyesight would probably be reduced, but guess what? I can still read the poem on the Australian $10 note, although not quite as easily as before. (For those who don´t realise it the shading in the background on the $10 note is writing, on one side it reads TEN DOLLARS repeatedly, and on the other side is the words to the poem ¨The Man from Snowy River¨).
   It´s also nice to wake up in strange places and be able to see.... a view, or the way to the toilet, or the people in the next bed of the dormitory.
   Prior to getting the surgery I did get some advice from an optometrist friend for a particularly good clinic, and since they were offering me Lasik or Intralase surgery, which she recommended.... she said if you can afford the Intralase, do that, so I did.... I think the eyes are worth spending extra on.
   Some people comment to me that their optometrist doesn´t recommend eye surgery. I believe this is probably true. Optometrist companies make money selling glasses and contact lenses, customers who have eye surgery rarely buy another pair of glasses or contacts, so of course they aren´t likely to recommend it.

Notes
Date of Surgery 16 April 2007
Surgery: Laser Sight (www.lasik.com)
Cost $AUD6400, two eyes.

Into Ecuador

Piura, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador
Monday 12 April, 2010

  Eleven hours on a bus without airconditioning, and everyone knows that Ecuador is hot. The word translates to 'equator' in English. But the windows opened and the driver drove like a bat out of hell, and so the breezes flowed fast.
   Passing first Rice fields, then Banana plantations, and then Cocao plantations. I didn´t take a single photo all day so you´ll have to use your imagination.
   The border crossing was the strangest yet. The no-mans land (the area between the borders) was full of activity, there was even a bus stop there where some passengers got off and changed buses. I was worried I was in Ecuador but hadn´t gotten and entry stamp, but all turned out to be good.
   A young American had lost the piece of paper that you are supposed to have to leave the country, some 'helpers' told him to go with them and they would help him him. I said "no, stick in this line, ask the officials", but he went with them. They wanted $20 to help him, he didn´t have $20 and came back to me and said "what´ll I do?" and I said "get back in line and ask the officials behind the counter". So he did. They had no problems that he had lost his paper, and didn´t want money... they just stamped his passport.

Ecuador uses US dollars... this´ll be so much easier!

Notes
Piura to Guayaquil, 11 hours with CIFA $11.

Enough of Peru, keeping pushing on.

Trujillo, Chiclayo and Piura, Peru
9-12 April 2010

   To be honest I was feeling like it was time to get out of Peru. So I left Trujillo for Chiclayo, but found my accomodation so horrible that I left the next day, to Piura where I knew I could take a bus directly to Guayquil in Ecuador.
   Chiclayo is known for having the Museum of Sipan, which is the pride of Northern Peru and houses artifacts from the tombs from in Northern Peru. I enjoyed my visit there, but rarely get too excited about museums. I also visited Chiclayos market, known for selling all manner of herbs. Sellers desparately tried to sell me the hallucinagenic San Pedro Cactus 'stuff'.... but really.... I wouldn´t even consider trying it whilst traveling alone.
   I spent 2 nights in Piura, that is 2 nights more than the town warrants, but I wanted to go to the movies and just wasn´t ready to leave the first day. I saw 'Precious' at the cinema... and was so pleased to be at my first cinema since I left home.

Bad stomach or broken heart... whatever it is they have herbs to fix it.

Taxi´s in Peru, commonly are this type..and I don´t know what type it is, they are so prideless that they seem to be without badges.

Notes
Accom, Chiclayo, Hostel San Jose? Bloody awful. S/15
Accom, Piura, Hostel Aruba, only slightly less awful S/20

Speaking the lingo, or not, whilst travelling

Trujillo, Peru
7-9 April, 2010

   I got off the Cañon de Pato bus trip with an older Australian couple from Darwin. When I say older, I just mean that they where in their 50’s (so older than me, and older than the average independent traveler). We all booked into the same place and I spent quite a bit of the next day and a half in their company.
   The couple had been traveling two and a third years, having started out in Asia. They only spoke English, so it seemed to me they were missing out on a lot, but it was interesting to see just how well they got along without Spanish as well. At times I have felt I just didn´t have the words to express myself, but when Phil was disappointed in the customer service he just told them so, in English. Maybe I should do the same, they seemed to get the point. No attempt was made, by Phil, to speak Spanish. If he wanted a beer, he just kept saying beer, until they realized the man must be thirsty.
   Although I love being able to speak Spanish, I actually don´t feel this (traveling only with English) to be an ignorant style of travel. I think it better than not traveling at all and if you started out in Asia I can see that this might be a natural progression. The languages of Asia are too many, too varied and too difficult for the average traveler to go beyond the very basics of Hello, Thank you, yes, no. And I have always defended the Gold Coast City (Australia) signs in Japanese, saying that if we want to make money from these people, it´s best to be as accommodating as possible. Having spent a little time in Asia, I´m sure many of them feel the same way… if they want to make money from me, they´ll usually know enough English to sell their products to me.

   In Trujillo they had a good value deal to visit the Temple of the Moon and Chan Chan, 2 half day trips, for S/25 (about $9). So that´s what I did. Both are ruins from pre Inca times. Chan Chan was impressive for its’ size (the largest city in the worldbuilt of Adobe), but I was more impressed by the Temple of the Moon, which was temple built upon temple, 5 levels of temples from different times (Chimu culture), each one filled in and built on top of with the next. And the colours still intact!

From the approach, the Temple of the Moon, really doesn´t look like much. But then they started digging and wow!

Here is one of the inner walls of a temple, each temple was filled in with bricks (they have left some in the corner) and built around with bricks too, and then another temple built on top, creating a pyramid effect from the outside.

Here you can see the 5 layers of the different temples. And the original colour still quite good.

I really liked this decoration, it has so much going on in it.

In a musuem they showed what things might have looked like... could you imagine wearing the big nose piece?

Chan Chan, the worlds largest city built of Adobe... was massive.

More of Chan Chan

At the end of the day they took us to the beach at Huanchaco. These are fishing boats... drying when we got there, but if you go earlier in the day you can get a fisherman to take you out for a quick trip in one of these where you surf back in on the wave. I think it cost less than $2, but I was too late in the day.

Notes
Accom; Hotel Colonial **** Haggle the price.... when I got there they saud S/55, then S/45, then I got it for S/30. Private room, cable TV, hot water.
Tours; Chan Chan S/15, Temple of the Moon S/20, together S/25. Lunch at the place they take you too.... well I guess that´s how they get to do the 2 tours so much cheaper. Expensive at C/18. (Lunch usually S/3-9)
Oh, and they are fantastic Pisco Sours at the fancy Hotel by the Plaza.

Hairless dogs

I have seen quite a few of these hairless dogs in Peru. They are endangered and protected, but apparently many people keep them for their rheumatoid arthritis. These dogs maintian a higher body temperature (40degrees I think) and people get them to sleep with them at night to ease the arthritis. The first time I saw one I thought it was completely ugly, but I am getting used to it now.