Four Months in South America

Peru: Lima, the Andes, and an Unexpected Smithsonian Connection

My South American adventure began in Peru. I first flew into Lima and ended up spending quite a bit of time in the country. Peru was one of those places where every time I thought I was ready to move on, another adventure appeared.

Some of my early adventures included a backpacking and rafting trip down the Rio Negra, followed by a long bus trip toward Bolivia. Along the way, I paused at Lake Titicaca, where I became seriously ill and ended up in a hospital after becoming convinced I might have cholera. Fortunately, it turned out to be something less dramatic, but it was still one of those travel experiences that gets your attention.

After recovering, I returned to Lima when I received an email from the director of the Smithsonian Institution. He was going to be in town in a couple of days and wanted to meet with me to discuss my participation in a research project in the Amazon. That meeting led to four weeks working with Smithsonian scientists deep in the Peruvian rainforest.

That entire Smithsonian Amazon experience is a story of its own, and I cover it on a separate page. But it became one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and one of those unexpected turns that made long-term travel so worthwhile.

After my time in the Amazon, I headed back to Lima and then took a bus to Cusco to explore the high mountain villages. From there, I eventually hiked the trail into Machu Picchu, which, as you can imagine, was an incredible time in itself. Arriving at Machu Picchu on foot is one of those experiences that lives up to the hype.

Later, I followed more of the mountain towns throughout Peru and eventually made my way north, crossing into Ecuador.

More photos and stories: Peru · Lake Titicaca · Smithsonian Amazon

Ecuador: Hot Springs, Mountain Villages, and Cotopaxi

Ecuador was a wonderful place, with hot springs, cool mountain villages, lush jungles, incredible fruit everywhere, and the kind of traveler-friendly towns where it was easy to settle in for a while. It had mountains, jungle, coast, and culture all packed into a relatively small country.

One of the first places that really caught my attention was Quito. Quito sits at about 10,000 feet, so even though it is near the equator, the weather is surprisingly reasonable. It was on the chilly side at times, but extremely friendly, with tons of great little restaurants, markets, and neighborhoods where I could have spent some serious time.

For me, Quito also served a practical purpose. I knew I wanted to attempt Cotopaxi, and I needed to acclimate to the elevation. Spending several days at 10,000 feet allowed my body to adjust and build up the red blood cells needed to function at higher elevations.

Cotopaxi is nearly 18,000 feet high and is the second-highest peak in Ecuador. I had plenty of mountaineering experience back home, including several climbs to 14,000 feet in the western United States, but I had never attempted anything close to 18,000 feet.

I found a mountaineering shop in Quito that organized climbs on Cotopaxi and joined a small group of three other climbers. The climb was spectacular, but conditions became rough near the top. We had to turn back just a few hundred meters from the summit, somewhere around 17,000 feet.

Of course, no climber likes turning around that close to the summit, but the mountain always gets the final vote. I still remember standing there high on the slopes of Cotopaxi, thinking that in just a few days, if I wanted to spend the money, I could be in the Galápagos Islands.

At the time, the flight to the Galápagos was about $300, which was a heck of a lot of money for my backpacker budget. I really was not sure whether I could justify it. But the thought stayed with me.

Related story: Cotopaxi Volcano · Ecuador

Baños and La Nariz del Diablo

When I returned from Cotopaxi back to Quito, I knew I needed to get down to lower elevations for a while. Spending time that high takes a toll on the body, and I was ready for warmth, food, and a little recovery. So I immediately grabbed a bus and headed toward Baños.

Baños was an incredible place. It had a warm, temperate climate, beautiful scenery, tons of hot springs, tropical foods, cheap and wonderful accommodations, and lots of other travelers. It also had a noticeable expat community, which gave the town an interesting mix of local Ecuadorian life and international energy.

Somewhere around there, I met a group of about seven or eight travelers in a market. They had hired a bus and were spending several weeks traveling around Ecuador. They invited me to join them for a few days, so for a little while I had something close to first-class accommodations compared with my usual backpacker routine.

One of the coolest things we did together was ride the famous train route called La Nariz del Diablo, or the Devil’s Nose. The train started high in the mountains and dropped several thousand feet on old, rickety, beat-up tracks toward the lowlands.

It was not just a tourist ride. It was also how local people carried grains, crops, animals, and supplies down toward the markets. The train was crowded, mostly open boxcars full of people, animals, and bags of grain. But there was always room on the roof, so that is where many travelers rode.

Riding on the roof meant holding on for dear life while the train rattled through the mountains. The train passed through tunnels where there was only about four feet of clearance above the roof. Some of the more reckless travelers would actually stand up between tunnels and then dive down at the last possible second as the train approached the next tunnel, almost like daredevils.

While we were waiting in the small town of Alausí, I went into a store to buy a beer for the train ride, since it was going to be long and a little scary. I ended up buying three extra dark Negra beers to share with the women in our group. They were rich, dark beers, almost like craft beers back in the States.

The ride was spectacular. The scenery changed dramatically as we descended from cool mountain air toward the warmer lowlands. When we finally reached the bottom, our group went out to dinner together, and then we all headed off in different directions.

I headed toward the hot, steamy coastal city of Guayaquil, the main launching point for the Galápagos Islands.

Related story: Ecuador

The Galápagos: Yifat, a Tiny Plane, and a Perfect Boat

Somewhere on the bus ride toward the coast, I met an Israeli woman named Yifat. I do not remember the exact village or town, but I remember that it was evening, and we were at a bus stop after one of the buses pulled away. I looked around and realized she was the only person there who spoke English.

I said something like, “Are you looking to get a room?” She smiled and said yes. So we found a room, became good friends almost immediately, and discovered that we both wanted to go to the Galápagos.

The two of us decided to fly out the next day and just take our chances. Our plan was to arrive, assemble a group of like-minded travelers, and find a good small boat to spend a week or so touring the islands.

At the small local airport, we ended up on a four-seat plane, with one of the seats taken by the pilot. He asked who wanted to ride up front, and before I could say yes, Yifat immediately claimed the seat.

As soon as the plane leveled off at cruising altitude, the pilot opened a full-sized newspaper and spread it completely in front of the windshield. I took pictures because it seemed so funny. Every once in a while, he would peek over the top of the paper to make sure there were no other airplanes around, then continue reading.

When we touched down in the Galápagos, Yifat and I found a small, inexpensive hostel, dropped our packs, and went out for dinner and music. At dinner, we met a couple of people who were also looking to spend a week on a boat touring the islands. We immediately became friends.

Over the next couple of days, the four of us explored the island, checked out boats, talked with captains, and kept meeting other travelers with the same idea. Eventually we gathered a group of nine people from six or seven different countries.

We all wanted the same kind of experience. We wanted a small, inexpensive boat where we could have some say in where we went and what we did each day. We wanted the maximum amount of time hiking on the islands, exploring by dinghy, snorkeling, and watching wildlife. We wanted to do most of the travel between islands at night, so we could make the most of every daylight hour.

We looked at a bunch of different boats. Captains would take us out, show us their facilities, and explain what they offered. Several boats were very nice, but they were too large and too focused on fancy accommodations or entertaining wealthier travelers.

Eventually, we found an excellent captain with a perfect boat. It was a twelve-passenger boat, with nine of us plus three crew: the captain, the cook, and the guide. It was just the right size.

We negotiated a price of $55 per person per day. That included everything: park fees, fuel, transportation, accommodations, food, and guide services. The only thing not included was beer.

They had a cooler on board, and beers were one dollar each. It was all on the honor system. Whenever you took a beer, you put a mark by your name. The beers were low alcohol, so most of us had several per day. Everyone also brought a bottle of rum, tequila, or something similar, so we had no lack of entertainment after dinner.

Related story: Galápagos

A Week Among Islands

The week turned out to be excellent. We visited different islands, explored by dinghy, snorkeled, hiked, watched wildlife, and generally had one of the best travel experiences imaginable.

We had books on Charles Darwin and the Galápagos, and at night we would read sections to each other, talk about what we had seen, and discuss which islands might be best for the coming days. Every evening after dinner, the guide would explain what we might see the next day, and then we would decide as a group where to go.

Once we fell asleep, or sometimes shortly after dinner, the captain would start the engine and motor through the night to the next island. The bunks were small, with two or four people per cabin, each person having their own narrow bunk. The boat rocked all night, which eventually became pretty pleasant. Several nights I slept up on the roof under the stars.

After our week of touring the islands, most of us spent another week back on the main island. We visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, went swimming and snorkeling wherever we could, and kept looking for low-budget adventures.

One day, I walked over to the Charles Darwin Research Station and asked whether they had any need for volunteers. They told me yes, definitely, but the director was away for the weekend and would not be back for about three days. They said that if I came back, there was a good chance I could get some volunteer work, especially since I had a biology degree and experience working in the Amazon.

Unfortunately, I never went back to find out. I was having too much fun with the group, doing fun stuff every day, and the moment passed.

Another day, we met a guy in a bar who said he had horses and could take us up to explore one of the old volcanoes. For ten dollars, he would take us up by horse, let us explore on foot, and spend the entire day with us. So the next morning, we went.

On the way back down the volcano, one of the women from Canada rode up next to me and said, “I’ll race you back.” Then she took off.

It was only my second time on a horse, and I was barely able to hold on. I tried to follow her as fast as I could, but I ended up falling off. They may have actually been mules rather than horses, but whatever they were, my feet stayed stuck in the stirrups, and for a few seconds my head was dragging in the mud while the animal kept moving.

Fortunately, the Canadian woman stopped, I got untangled, and I climbed back on. I was lucky I did not get hurt.

When I bought my ticket to the Galápagos, I could only get a twenty-one-day permit without paying a lot more. They did not want people coming out and staying indefinitely, so we stayed exactly twenty days and returned to the mainland one day early, just to make sure we did not overstay.

More photos and stories: Galápagos

Colombia: Flights, Buses, Salsa, and Staying Alert

A couple of days after returning to the mainland, I wanted to go north and check out Colombia. I thought Yifat would be the perfect person to travel with, since she spoke a little Spanish and I spoke enough to get by. Together, we could usually figure things out.

At the time, Colombia was trying to encourage travelers and tourists to bring money into the country. They were near the end of a very difficult period involving drugs, cocaine, marijuana, cartels, and the FARC fighting the government. Because of that, flights were surprisingly inexpensive for foreigners. We found that we could fly from Ecuador to Colombia and then take three different flights within Colombia for about $99.

The flights were also much safer than many of the bus rides.

On our first bus ride after crossing the border from Ecuador, only a few miles in, we were pulled over by the military. Everyone had to get off the bus. The foreigners were sent to one side, where they checked our passports. The Colombian passengers were sent to the other side, where they were searched much more aggressively.

Later, after we were back on the bus and continuing on our way, several Colombians told us that some of them had been robbed by the police or soldiers during the search. One man told me he normally carried a gun but had left it on the bus because he would rather be robbed than get shot or arrested.

That was a sobering introduction to Colombia, but the country itself turned out to be a blast.

We visited Medellín, Cartagena, Bogotá, and several other places. Cartagena was especially memorable: a big party scene on the water, with lots of dancing, salsa clubs, great food, and people who really knew how to enjoy themselves.

Bogotá, which we had to fly through as a hub to reach other places, always felt a little dangerous. But the two of us stayed together, paid attention, and did fine. We also met a traveler named Eric, who joined us for several days and added even more fun to the trip.

Related story: Colombia

Venezuela and Isla Margarita

Eventually, I headed over to Venezuela, which was a lot safer back then than it became years later. I went straight to Isla Margarita, where I stayed for eight days traveling around the island, meeting fun people, and having a great time.

Isla Margarita was incredibly inexpensive and beautiful. I had big fish dinners every night for about $1.25. Beers were something like thirty-five cents. The waterfront hotel where I stayed cost about a dollar a night, or maybe two dollars for a fancy waterfront room.

It was actually cheaper for me to stay there doing fun things every day than it would have been to live at home doing nothing.

From there, I considered going to Trinidad and Tobago or flying into Cuba. At the time, Cuba was supposedly welcoming Americans, or at least that was what everyone told me. People said Cuban officials would check your passport but not stamp it, so you would not get in trouble with the State Department back in the United States.

In the end, I decided it was time to go home.

I bought a flight from Venezuela the day before I left. It was less than $200 for a one-way ticket, and I could choose almost any day I wanted, which seemed incredibly inexpensive.

When I landed in Miami, customs officials were checking luggage very closely. There were police dogs and federal agents everywhere, all looking for drugs. That was a huge issue in the 1990s, and arriving from Latin America meant getting a serious look.

As I walked through the airport with my backpack, tired, sunburned, and full of stories, I realized that another major chapter of my traveling life had come to an end.

Related story: Venezuela