Whale spotting in Ecuador

My next stop was the small coastal town of Puerto Lopez, situated amidst the beautiful `National Park Machalilla` which is an increasingly popular hot-spot in Ecuador for whale watching between June to September. It also acts as the primary gateway to ´Isle La Plata´, which is more commonly known as "the poor mans Galapagos" because its home to similar species of animals and plants without the exorbitant tourist prices, yet I chose not to visit this time around.

Apparently, the globes population of humpback whales split into a few large groups who make 2 immense journeys each year between their feeding and breeding sites. Cold waters close to the polar regions provide more nutrient rich waters for feeding, whilst the warmer waters of equatorial coastal regions are visited for mating, giving birth and caring for their calves.

Interestingly, such groups stick to either their northern or southern hemisphere routes where the seasons oppose each other, hence there is little evidence of individuals meeting their opposing counterparts. Put more simply, whales feeding in Antarctica will most likely never meet whales feeding in northern Alaska because they stick to specific hemispheres during their lifespans.

The Southeast Pacific humpback stock can be found in groups of up to 200 at a time off the tropical coasts of Colombia, Ecuador and Panama, when rival males occasionally launch themselves above the ocean surface in spectacular shows of dominance and rivalry whilst courting nearby mates. Alternatively, the females can be found more placidly on the surface with newborn calves, making for easier, less split-second photo opportunities for us visitors :)

Whilst whale-watching is becoming increasingly popular in Ecuador, it has a great deal more to develop given I was raced last-minute to the shoreline before being asked to swim out to a departing boat, complete with bag and camera above my head. What followed was a wet, sick-inducing experience in choppy waters, shared mostly by Spanish speaking Ecuadorian tourists with non-English speaking guides desperately attempting to spot whales so as to justify their generous US dollar profits collected from each of us.

The grey El`Nino induced weather was also hardly photo-inspirational, however we managed to sight and approach 6 whales, tail flapping, blowhole spurting and occasionally leaping. It was certainly an amazing experience seeing such animals twice the size of our boat, leaping out of the water in front of you, yet from a photographic point of view it was extremely challenging trying to capture the split-second moments in decent clarity; especially with excited Ecuadorians exorcising the impolite, but common South American behaviour of pushing and shoving for best possible viewing spaces.

I should also add that capturing the scale of these giants on film is also next to impossible, given they are usually surrounded by open sea with few ´smaller´ objects nearby which would give the viewer some reference; and although I did consider throwing in a few of my shorter companions overboard to aid in this dilemma, I was very much outnumbered and preferred my camera dry. So with regards to photography, I guess it really is about the right place at the right time with the right people, however ´off film´ the experience was well worth it, and I luckily seemed to have better sea-legs than I originally thought ( only spewed once :)

A thief strikes in Guayaquil

Having travelled for almost 6 months at this point, I had developed a system of knowing exactly where everything was supposed to be in my backpack and daypack at all times, which of course relied heavily on not rushing around at last minute and packing things in randomly.

Having independently travelled in other developing places in the past (ie. Nepal, South East Asia, East Africa), I was also aware that bus stations were prime locations for 'snatch and grab' thievery, yet a small distraction for no more than 10 seconds at Guayaquil bus station in southern Ecuador cost me over a months worth of original photos on memory cards :(

That morning I was in a mentally exhausted state after spending 2 consecutive back-to-back nights on uncomfortable, unsleepable, buses from north Peru. My plan for the day was to take a connecting local bus to Puerto Lopez on the coast to check in that night and get some real sleep before heading out for some whale spotting the following day.

Whilst piling onto the bus with another 20 people or so, I placed my daypack above my head (I now see this is "always" a mistake), to take a jumper off from around my waist and seconds later realised that my pack was gone from above; instead it was halfway down the bus, and ripped open. I was in disbelief things had been done so fast, yet a pouch containing my memory cards was missing and was convinced that no-one had passed me to leave the bus, hence the thief was most likely STILL on the bus with us.

My wallet, passport and mp3 player were all still there untouched, which further strengthened my theory that the perpetrator was now trying to play a low profile in the bus, yet I knew little Spanish, more people were piling on AND no-one was offering to even help me despite obvious distress. Short of interrogating and searching every single person there, I realised I was never going to get my stuff back and to finalise the indifference people had around me, the bus driver started the engine and began pulling out of the terminal.

I'd normally count this as a new lesson to be learnt, however this time count it as purely "bad luck timing" that I was obviously not 100% on the ball with no-one helpful around me. For the next few days I was stewing about it and hardly took a photo until I made it to Ecuador's capital, Quito.

Ancient sights in nth Peru

With tourism almost completely dominated by the famous Inca site of Machu Piccu near Cusco, northern Peru sees far less visitors than it deserves given the sheer quantity of pre-inca culture wonders still being uncovered there.

Nestled deep within an obscure little valley on the amazonian side of the Cordillera Blanca, I first visited the town of Chavin which is home to 3000 year old ruins representing the first sophisticated work of stone masonry in all of South America; easily predating anything similar in northern Europe.

Ruins of an ancient religious centre consisting of sculpted sunken plazas, broad stone staircases and great rectangular temples take up a huge 50 hectares in the region, all faced with expertly cut ashlars, pillared gateways and air vented, labyrinth-style undergound passages/chambers. One particularly cramped chamber beneath the main temple, houses a 5m-high stone pillar covered in styalised carvings of puma fangs, bird wings, claws, baleful eyes, human hands and swirling symbols, which is believed to represent an ancient god-like deity. The main temple itself had also projected rows of large stone gargoyle heads from it´s exterior, which many now reside in a nearby museum.

My next destination required a visit to the small seaside town of Chimbote which most tour books claim is a dangrous hive of street crime, hence I didn´t linger long. Apart from the nearby ´Sechin ruins´ still being uncovered, Chimbote is on the map as home to Peru´s 2nd largest fishery (eeeew the smell) and as one of the few northern towns to have somehow survived the major earthquake in 1970, despite a local death toll over 50,000 (ironic timing given a similarly sized quake in southern Peru was taking place whilst I was up north there).

The nearby pre-inca Sechin site dates around 1500 BC and represents one of Peru´s most well preserved coastal ruins, consisting of an ancient temple divided into upper and lower sections. The 1st level corresponds to a pyramidal stone construction containing many monoliths whilst the 2nd level´s exterior, made of mud, reveals striking (literally) sculptures of warriors beheading and disemboweling their victims.











Next I visited the coastal city of Trujillo, capital of the region of La Libertad, founded in 1534 by Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro and named for the birthplace of Francisco Pizarro. Of course more ancient cultures (including the Inca) inhabited this region long before the Spanish took residence, which nearby excavated sites such as the 500-acre ´Chimu complex of Chan Chan´ reveals to the north, with the ´Moche temples of the Moon and Sun´ to the south.

Chan-Chan is the world's largest pre-Hispanic mud-brick city, founded by the ancient Chimu kingdom between A.D. 950 to 1400 and housing possibly 200,000 people at the height of it´s regional dominance. Generally accepted as the culture´s capital, it was built entirely on arid coastal desert, hence the dominating architechural feature of the city includes miles of irrigation canals, inter-valley canals and large, deep, walk-in-wells, which most today have completely dried out due to a lowering of the natural water table since.

Ultimately the conquest by the Inca (approx 1470 AD) may well have broken the backbone of the Chimu economy, with the most skilled minds and tradesmen relocated to their new capital in Cusco. The hairless dog in some below photos, belongs to an ancient, local breed known as ´viringos´ which reside as talisman guardians of antiquity at all archaeological centres in Peru.

Other significant archeological sights are located south of Trujillo, consisting of 2 huge stone pyramids known as the "Huaca de la Luna" and "Huaca de la Sol" (ie. Temples of the Moon and Sun respectively), of which the latter represents the tallest adobe structure in the Americas, built with an estimated 50 million sun-dried, mud bricks.

Considered the former capital of the Moche state (another pre-Inca civilisation), this precious site has since seen irreperable damage as a consequence of looting treasure hunters, including gold obsessed Spanish conquistadors who intentionally diverted the nearby Santa Catalina river which washed more than half the huaca away. Visitors can´t currently visit the Temple of the Sun, yet guided tours of the currently excavated Temple of the Moon, reveal 3 inverted platforms and 4 open courts or plazas taking up most of the assemblage.

Large-scale human sacrifice at Huaca de la Luna became evident when archaeologists uncovered the remains of at least 34 sacrificed adult males in the soft clay of the southeastern court. They had been bound and, judging by the type of wounds inflicted, were probably captured in battle. Interestingly these sacrifices represent a single ritual event, linked by archaeologist Steve Bourget to a season of torrential rains caused by an extreme case of the ´El Nino´ weather phenomenon, which strikes the coast of Sth America at irregular intervals, possibly causing the final abandonment of the pyramids themselves.

Lastly, I decided to kick back for a few days on the nearby beach town of Huanchaco, which offers a long, clean beach, good-sized waves for surfing and a thriving artisan market near the pier for passing tourists. Huanchaco is also apparently one of the few places left in Peru where you can find ´caballitos de totora´ still in use, which are original handmade totora reed boats.

Climbing Mt Pisco (5752m)

Most snow capped peaks in the high-altitude ´Cordillera Blanca´ require technical ascension, necessitating the use of snow-boots, crampons, ice climbing axes, anchors for semi-safe crevasse crossings, mountaineering rope, harnesses, carabenas, good clothing, head lights and any other equipment specific to each mountain´s requirements.

I decided to climb Mt Pisco (5,752m) because it came highly recommended as one of the lesser technical peaks in the region, yet offered one of the more spectacular views in the entire Cordillera range, give good weather on the day. Steve, Adi and I planned a 4 day expedition, including the hiring of additional alpine climbing equipment, buying all necessary food, privately hiring a student guide named Michell to lead us up and down safely AND organising donkeys to assist transporting our heavy loads to and from Base Camp.

As I nervously had anticipated, the summit day was a grueling 14 hour affair which would tax each of us seemingly to our limits both physically and mentally. Starting at 1am under the stars in bulky snow boots and carrying all necessary equipment, we trudged for 4 hours by meager torchlight up and down steep ravines to cross a particularly nasty boulder-field of moraine rock beneath a 15m high glacier, which indicated the ´real start´ of the icy ascent towards the mountain summit.

After securing metal crampons on our boots, readying our ice axes and attaching to each other via harnesses, carabenas and rope, we began the ascent into an unforgivably steep world of snow and ice, which would last a further 7 hours before the decent down again.

I´ve climbed non-snowy peaks before and done many multi-day treks, yet this was a new kind of relentless burning pain that surged through my legs, back and arm muscles. Fortunately the surrounding sub-zero wind only picked up a little as we climbed, yet I dared not remove a single item of bulky clothing, despite now being a serious sweat-machine underneath all my layers.

One the began to rise, we were slowly treated to colour-changing mountain vistas, illuminating some of the more famous peaks nearby such as Mt Alpamayo (voted most beautiful in the world at 5,957m), Mt Artesonraju (the cinematic Paramount peak at 6,025m) and the huge hulking mass of Mt Huascaran (highest mountain in Peru at 6,768m).

Fortunately during most of our ascent the sun was not on us, for we climbed up the shady side of Mt Pisco, and it is worth noting that at this point the only effects of gained high altitude here was a sudden increase in breathlessness, which would´ve happened anyway given how hard our bodies were working ( although that didn´t stop me from continuing to talk and joke to my comrades of course :)

As the light increased even further we began to see more immediate details of our route, including strangely shaped snow on Pisco´s surface, the occasional ice cave complete with hanging icicles, seemingly bottomless crevasses in the snow all around us and to our dread, more steep ice slopes before us than previously expected.

Upon finally reaching within 10m of the true summit, with a spectacular view (steeply dropping on all sides) of endless snowy peaks spanning back almost to the horizon itself, we were halted by an unexpected, large, 30m deep, 1.3m wide crevasse, which some alpine mountaineers had evidently tried to jump prior to our arrival that very morning. By then, the snow ledge with which to land on the other side looked very deteriorated, and was destroyed even further after Adi in our group attempted AND failed to clear the jump; instead pulling half the ledge down with her as she plummeted inside.

As you can imagine the scene was somewhat chaotic as she was now dangling in a state of pure screaming hysteria, whilst our guide re-secured his crevasse-anchor before attempting to pull her out back up safely. Meanwhile her wriggling on the rope was complicating things more, and everyone else around seemed to be in shock, so I called out in effort to calm her by presenting the plain facts that she had 3 fully qualified mountain guides on the case (others had come bounding down from the summit) AND that we had her rope secured on both sides so she wasn´t going anywhere but up very soon; despite not being 100% confident of my claims at the time.

Once up and out she collapsed for a minute before heading to the summit, whilst I remained at the advice of the other guides on the ´safer side´ of the crevasse (not that much convincing was needed at that point). Whilst I enjoyed snapping up photos of the amazing view, other approaching climbers were deterred from attempting jumps too, as the crevasse had apparently doubled in size within the last 2 weeks; a sure sign of the ending to the climbing season (when ice recedes enough to compromise safety).

The way down was always going to be harder on my newly healed, but still not perfect left knee, so I spent a slow, agonising 5 hours descending, still attached to the others via the mountain rope, which made things somewhat awkward for us all if any one person tripped, slid or halted unexpectedly. Worse, on the way down I started to feel affects of the altitude in the forms of mild disorientation and nausea that would not leave me for the following 3 days after successfully returning to Base Camp.

A totally amazing experience though, which I would´ve definitely repeated on a few more peaks if not for the precious month left on my trip in South America, which I decided to dedicate on nearby Ecuador.