history and religion in Quito

I had been advised to arrive in Quito a day early, so as to acclimatise to the 2,800m altitude, but as I felt perfectly fine this morning I set out for a day around the old city - one of the first two places to be made UNESCO World Heritage sites.  It's nice, with a few big squares, old colonial buildings and lots of churches - much as I expected, I suppose.

Although there are hints of the old Inca beliefs here and there (sun motifs in the ceiling at the entrance to the Monasterio de San Francisco, for example), and apparently still some Inca rituals followed in the more remote parts of the mountains, Ecuador is now over 80% Catholic.  As today is Sunday this meant that all the churches were full of people attending Mass.  I visited a few, and thought it sad how many people were clustered at the shrine for the patron saint of lost causes, and even more sad how many obviously poor members of society were begging just outside - whilst inside those churches were covered in gold, seven tonnes of it in one church, I was told.  I'm not a religious person, and I'm sorry if I am now offending those who are, but just how does all this opulence fit with the supposed aims of the Christian faith?  It seems to me that it would be more in keeping with what Jesus preached if this wealth were used instead to provide much-needed services to the poor.

making arrangements

I sit here this evening writing this post having been a victim again of a strange aspect of Panama.

A really nice colleague had suggested we go together one weekend evening to try one of the jazz bars in the old city, and we’d agreed to make it this evening.  I’d given her details of some venues with live jazz or bossa nova to let her decide where we should go, and she was to email me today to let me know where and when to meet.  & I’ve heard nothing.  She’s not replying to her mails nor to phone calls.  I know that if I ask her on Monday what happened, there will be an excuse given; if I don’t ask she will never even mention it.

It has happened to me before with a colleague, and has happened three times with different commercial appointments.  A colleague referred me to a woman who fits window blinds; I met her and we arranged a day when she would come round to measure up, I arranged to work from home that day and then I waited ... and waited.  She never came and never contacted me to apologise or explain what happened.  The same with two guys who were supposed to come round to replaster a rotting wall last month.  Once I managed to get someone to turn up - a carpenter who measured up to make a bookcase, discussed the type of wood I wanted and gave me a rough price estimate - but then I never heard from him again and I've got used to the books living in a cardboard box beside my bed.

I can understand someone cancelling on me if they are ill, or their car breaks down, or even if they just get a better offer, but I do expect them to tell me.  An expat colleague says she has even experienced Panamanians not turning up when invited to her home for dinner.  Of course one of the interesting things about living overseas is the opportunity to learn about and experience other cultures first hand, but this is one aspect of Panamanian culture that I don't get.

It is something that expats here discuss quite a lot as none of us understand it and few of us ever really come to terms with it. 

a day in Suriname

I couldn't resist the chance to add another country to my list, although it was a 12-hour trip by bus and ferry to get from Georgetown to the capital of neighbouring Suriname, not to mention some stress in trying to organise transport there, as there is no fixed bus route but rather a number of private operators who collect you from your address in Georgetown and deliver you to your address in Paramaribo.  However one such operator was finally tracked down by my Georgetown hotel, and although they turned up 20 minutes earlier than arranged and had already driven away in the five minutes it took me to zip up my bag and run down the stairs, they did come back 30 minutes later and I was on my way to see a new country!

Driving in from the border the place seemed almost deserted (indeed the population is less than 500,000).  The road was in place a little pot-holed, and I felt that I must be in a much less developed place than Guyana.  So it was a shock to fimally reach the beautiful capital with its really well-preserved Dutch colonial-style architecture.  Apparently (as I have since discovered) the capital is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  I admit to having done no research for this trip besides the practicalities (visa and transport), so had not seen any pictures of the place to prepare me.  I think it can be a good thing sometimes to arrive somewhere with no pre-conceived ideas or expectations, as in this case where I was astonished by what I found.

I spent the morning visiting Fort Zeelandia and the Suriname Museum, and the early afternoon walking the streets, failing to find vantage points from which to photograph the beautiful buildings without their being half obscured by cars.  Clearly the colonial legacy from the Dutch did not include a love of bicycles.  As with Guyana, the population was really mixed, although here I was told that there was a level playing field for all races to invest and to start businesses, which seems not to be the case in the Indian-dominated Guyana.

Having seen all there seems to be I returned to my guesthouse to get an early night in preparation for my 4am bus back to Georgetown.  It was a great place to visit but a day trip was easily enough.

Karanambu Ranch

Our guide had forwarned us about the difficulties of our final stop in Guyana, a remote and rustic place where the rooms were rather open to the elements thus allowing a plethora of wildlife to come in.  Getting there involved four hours travelling by boat, although that did include stops to look at wildlife on the way.  On one such stop, the guide asked if we wanted something to drink - juice?  rum punch?  With a snack of home-baked cookies?  Bemused, I asked for the rum punch and a cookie and no, he wasn't joking.  & this was to set the tone for our three days there, with rum punch freely available before and during every lunch and dinner (and at a few other times too) and generally excellent food.  The kind of 'remote and rustic' which isn't too difficult to deal with!

He was right about the wildlife in the rooms though.  I walked in to mine to find several cockroaches and a lot of ants, and a gecko fell onto my hand as I put my rucksack down.  Later I realised there was a large and occupied hornet's nest in the rafters as well as quite a few bats, and some of the spiders were worryingly large.  I had to get the owner in to move one for me as it sat in the middle of the doorway into the bathroom and I could not see a way around it without getting too close for comfort.  Another couple in my group found a scorpion in their room, and we were warned that snakes sometimes came in too.  It was the kind of place where you checked beneath the toilet seat before sitting down, kept all your bags zipped up tight and tucked the mosquito net in very carefully at night!  But the beds were comfortable, there was a hammock in the porch - and did I mention the rum punches?

There were a wealth of activities too.  Of course our main focus was birds and wildlife (which included pinnated bittern, pearl kite, jabiru stork, capuchinbird, giant anteater, savanna fox and squirrel monkeys) but the three of us who were interested also got to play with a rescued giant river otter that was being brought up before its release back into the wild.  Its fur was so incredibly soft but unfortunately the muddy bank where we played was full of sand flies so I paid the price for the next few days.

There was also a small lake near the ranch full of water lilies, and we all took the opportunity to go and watch these open one evening.  As the sun goes down the big buds gradually unfold - within an hour all the flowers were wide open although the process was too slow to be visible (mind you, after a couple of rum punches I thought I saw movement in one...).

But too soon, I really could have spent another day or two at Karanambu, our stay came to an end and we had to head back to civilisation.  We flew back from the airstrip behind the ranch; here are three of the others at the departure gate.

there's a small bird in a distant tree

The 'birds and wildlife' part of my Guyana trip began with a visit to the botanical gardens (where a great horned owl was a nice sight) and to a narrow coastal strip of forest, where two great local birds - blood-coloured woodpecker and rufous crab hawk - put in appearances within five minutes of our arrival.  If only the birds had been so cooperative through the rest of our trip.

Then we flew to Kaieteur Falls.  Five times the height of Niagara Falls, with the water falling 227m (741 ft) in a single drop, they are spectacular but attract few visitors, our group of eight having the place to ourselves on our visit.  On the bird front, the resident Guianan cock-of-the-rock (the orange one above) showed themselves well.

From there we visited three different eco-lodges around the one million acres of primary rainforest that makes up the Iwokrama Protected Area.

Two of my target species for the trip, the jaguar and the harpy eagle, were nowhere to be seen (an old harpy eagle nest was no compensation), but I had not had particularly high hopes for these two.  Some other desired birds were absent too, largely due to a lack of rain this year.  Rivers and ponds were low or in some cases dry, and even up on the 30m high forest canopy walkway there were times when the forest was eerily quiet.  Several times our desperate guide was reduced to pointing out small birds on distant trees that were barely identifiable even through his telescope.

Even then, however, it was actually full of life, you just had to look hard to spot it.  Frogs and toads blended perfectly with the leaf litter, as did the butterflies when they perched.  Our guide found a snake and I could not see it even when he shone his laser pointer directly at a vine and said "it's there!" - it was only when the head appeared on the path that I realised that the vine was not a vine at all, but a superbly camouflaged vine snake!  Some birds, too, were well camouflaged, like this roosting blackish nightjar:

Generally though, when they appeared, the birds were highly colourful, like the toucans and macaws, for example.  Many of the best-looking birds followed a consistent colour theme, from scarlet ibis and crimson fruitcrow through Guianan red cotinga and red-and-black grosbeak, to the amazing red-necked woodpecker and red-fan parrot.  Even the mammals we saw the most often were the red howler monkey and the red-rumped agouti.

Accommodation was fairly comfortable and the food was okay although as ever when I travel I found myself missing a good cup of tea with milk in.  The final place we stayed in, however, deserves a post all of its own.

a few days in Georgetown, Guyana

Guyana has been on my wish-list of countries to visit since I first set foot in South America in 1992.  Not that Guyanans consider themselves to be part of South America, looking instead to their Caribbean neighbours with whom they share the English language, a love of cricket and that beautiful lilting accent.

The country is nearly the size of Britain, but with a population of only around 800,000, made up primarily of people of Indian/Pakistani origin (>40%), of African origin (30%) and Amerindians (10%).  The latter live mostly in the interior and culturally align themselves more with Brazil than with the Caribbean, but the other 90% of the population live mainly in the narrow coastal belt.  This area is mostly below sea level, protected by a sea wall and drained by a large number of canals with sluice gates opening into the sea - developed, I presume, by the Dutch who were early colonisers before the British took over.  British influence remains in terms of the language, imports of agricultural machinery and the requirement to drive on the left, but otherwise is not really noticeable.  The dominant group is clearly the Indian population - and I was lucky to be visiting during the diwali festival, so was able to see their illuminated floats pass by.

I had organised a trip to see 'birds and wildlife' but added on a few days before and after to see the capital, Georgetown.  It is a surprisingly pretty town, with some wide, tree-lined avenues that follow the layout of the old sugar estates, with drainage ditches kept reasonably free of mosquitoes by regular treatment.  A good proprotion of the old colonial wooden buildings still survive, including the City Hall pictured here and the 44 metre high Anglican cathedral.

As well as familiarising myself with the commoner birds in the botanical gardens, I visited a couple of museums and an art gallery, and went to look for the Umana Yana, a traditional meeting hall built by indigenous Indians in 1972 for a conference, but found it had burnt to the ground about six weeks ago.  Very sad, but apparently there are plans to rebuild it.  In compensation, however, I got to go up to the top of the Georgetown lighthouse, which I discovered later is only supposed to be open to those with special permission from the government.  Unaware of this, I asked the security guard at the entrance to the Ministry of Works car park if I could get to the lighthouse by going through their car park and he said yes.  Reaching the lighthouse, I was asked if I had permission to enter, and I pointed to the (car park of) the Ministry and said the guy there had told me to come through this way ... the two staff in the office three quarters of the way up looked surprised to see me but didn't stop me ... and I was in!!  So for those who will not be able to secure the necessary permission from the authorities, this is what you will not get to see: