From Ecuador to Peru.

Ecuador really impressed.  Especially the colonial city centres, the Andes, and the food.  Most eating places, even the tourist restaurants, offer a really good value menu of the day including soup usually served with popcorn, either fish, pork or chicken fillet with a rice and bean mixture and some salad, followed by a small desert.  Price from £2 - £4.  The mohitos were pretty good too.  The scenery was amazing and the many greens of the Amazon jungle and the Andes added to an overreaching sense of the country being a rich one, much richer than I had thought.  My favourite city and the last one I visited in Ecuador was Cuenca.  Maybe I was getting used to Ecuadorean cities with colonial centres, lots of policeman and bustling markets, but this one did feel a bit special.  I understand Americans are increasingly coming here when they retire; there are a number of tax advantages involved, the air is good, and the cost of living is cheap.  Perhaps the extra money they bring into the city helps.  A fast running river splitting the old town from the new town was certainly well maintained with grassy areas either side. This type of planning was not really that obvious elsewhere.

This all contrasted rather starkly with what was to follow as We travelled down the Peruvian coastline from Mencora through Lima and on to Nazca.  Everything was grey!  To be fair, Peru started with two wonderful days on the beach close to a fishing village.  The beach went on for miles, the sunset was orange and stunning, and it was a great place to relax.  But the sand was grey!  Pisco sours on the other hand are definitely not dull!

It was no surprise then that the main industry after fishing in this area is cement.  The one company based here supplies all of Peru, half of Ecuador and a good proportion of Argentina too.  Its factory dominated the landscape, and yes, it was very grey!  

En route we visited some interesting pre-Incan ruins from the China and Moche periods.  So much has been damaged over the years from earthquakes that it is surprising to find anything in its original state. Most of what we saw had been restored such as the mud city at Chan Chan, but none-the-less it was really interesting to see how advanced these earlier civilisations had been.  In particular the way in which they channelled water from the Andes in the 9 dry months of the year was impressive.  Currently being uncovered by archaeologists is the Huaco del Sol, a temple dating back to BC times.  Each new dynasty brought with it another layer over the previous one; in places there is evidence of 7 layers.  Unfortunately much has been lost from all these sites to looting.