Around the world in …..148 tea bags

 Around the world in … 148 tea bags ?

You can’t expect the the English man ( and woman, can’t be sexist here, ) abroad not to start the day without a cup on English breakfast tea. So when packing for a world trip , then room has to be made for at least some tea bags . As the trip involved one tea growing country , replenishment would be possible . Image our delight when after only 4 days away we discovered an international branch of our favourite ( food ) store ..Waitrose ; complete with their tea. Required case volume increased; made worse with tea purchases from the Cameron Highlands ( Malaysia ), now deemed necessary for those back home . 

A step back . So this year’s visit to family would include Kuala Lumpur and Quito which invited the exciting possibility of a circumnavigation , taking in friends and family in Australia , then a trip to the West coast of USA. This involved 10 flights with 6 different airlines all with different baggage allowances and seating options . We had tried a multi-trip ticket with one airline ( Emirates ) before  ; but they had proved remarkably inflexible to changes .Passenger stipulation was that trips over eight hours necessitated Business Class comfort . This expense was avoided by careful planning ; except  for Atlantic crossing and the absence of a suitable intermediate stop off . The Pacific distances were substantial reduced by a Honolulu vacation. 

 Packing for a 5 month( 148 days to be exact ) sojourn was not too difficult as our climatic forecasts were generally for warmth, apart from variability in San Francisco and mountain ascents in Ecuador. Then there were plenty of shopping opportunities for filling any unexpected gaps. The only stress ,managed by my packer, was making sure we had enough of our favourite pills and potions ; in the event world pharmacies were well stocked. 

Even long vacations must come to an end ; we need to preserve our post Brexit residency entitlement in France , and the house and garden cannot be left indefinitely to others . We return not only with photographic reminders , but a host of warm memories.

Rescuers 2023

Body retrieval 2022

Cotapaxi as seen from summit of cable car , but year before last . And it is smoking now… too cloudy for us!

Dog trainer par excellence ?

Beware wildlife

Fortunately we never met this one

Paper bark tree

Ah the real thing

Rose sangria in Ecuador, difficult to get in Spain!

Didn’t meet this one either.. before stuffing 

Christian opulence

Too late for this event also

Plenty of raging mountain streams

True Andeans

A posh coffee shop

The only contact with the outside world for these reclusive carmelite nuns , the rotating shelves ensures they are never seen!

This church was built in wood … to look like stone 

Central valley California , after man’s transformation 

The story of our visits , inevitably closed

G&T in Jacuzzi.. at 1500 m 

Not sure I can read too far down the list

Jungle expedition 

Houston hip wine bar … in which we were welcomed

Yep , this was a shop selling coffins

Sydney War memorial to make you think

Tsunami warning tower .  Not heard during our Hawaii visit

Coffee always

Malaysian art

Aussie beach with bathers corralled to avoid dangerous undertows 

Water supply made complicated

Their last resting places

Well there had to be one cheesy photo

A bird park now run by the birds?

Orchids galore 

Sky writer 

Kl skyline 

As if we would

Big guns , without Cher… see her video

Intrepid Amazon explores paving the way , but not for us wimps 

Naturally 

An earlier Indian memory resurrected by renewed contact

An unforgiving landscape ( updated)

 When it’s a near miss , when we had probably seen some of the now missing ; it becomes more than some      Catastrophic event on the TV . 

In thé Andes , there is very little that is flat , and the hills and river valleys are all steep. So life is lived on the slope . Add to that , road construction involves cutting into those hillsides making them even more  unstable. Oh , then there are the earthquakes and active volcanoes. ….and the rain in the wet season . This is literally life on the edge . 

Last year it was a mud slide into Quito itself which killed perhaps 20 , narrowly missing our maid here. This year it was a big landslide which we were diverted around ( see vertiginous descent). A week later it grew into something huge ,  destroying all the roads and part of the town we drove through; plus probably another twenty more Ecuadorians. More cracks have been found in the hillside , 600 families have been evacuated.

…but life goes on , and we keep our eyes on the road , not the cliff  above and the gorge below .

We could have been under that!

Vertiginous descent

 Ecuador is dominated by its mountainous topography interspersed with steep river valleys. So travelling is a challenge , more so before the Spanish arrived with their horses. Llamas and Alpacas only carry the lightest of loads and so kept for their wool . The meat is almost inedible ; guinea pig was then the delicacy . It is of no surprise that the Andean natives are short and study of leg ; they had to be , to walk the steep hills carrying their loads .  A head for heights a must . 

Perched atop a horse only accentuates those heights . At one side there was always that ravine . Sure footedness an essential for man and beast, with a half kilometre drop awaiting those who slip. Our hacienda offered horse riding as part of the overnight package . Not to be outdone by grandchildren , I mounted my steed ; holding firmly to the saddle . Subsequent lessons came without a pommel and instruction that you just had to balance . I tried , the horse promptly stopped ; and I reverted to a tight hold . Horse riding is four times more dangerous than motorcycling . My life as ‘caballero’ came to an end . 

A snow capped summit poked through the clouds . We were fortunate to gain a view of the  6,268.2 m (20,565 ft) equatorial summit of Mount Chimborazo; it is also the closest point to the sun on earth. When measured from the centre of the earth, instead of sea level, it is the highest mountain on the planet; I am still trying to work that one out !! Ascending requires fitness, not climbing skills ; but altitude acclimatisation is essential . Not expensive , the ascent itself costs just $600 , guide obligatory. We tried a 4 km walk at 3500m , and suffered from altitude sickness.   Last year four died in an avalanche on the mountain . We are now retired alpinists!  All this elevation in dangerous .

No more so than to the workers , brought in from abroad, to construct the railways .  Up until 1908 , the only way of moving goods from the main port in Guayaquil to Quito ( at 2800 metres)  was by donkey and horse, across the treacherous landscape . Presidential vision, a considerable investment , engineering skill , and the lives of several thousand of those foreign workers resulted in the completion of the rail route . I can’t help feeling that the locals knew what was in store , hence foreign constructors .

The most challenging , and dangerous , leg was round what is now called the Devils Nose ; so named because the high death rate ( one report of 2000 ) . Here the rail descends half a kilometre in just 12. To achieve that on this mountain side , the rail has to literally zig zag down. A spectacular view , and achievement ( if you ignore the resulting  bodies ).  As there are an odd number of changes in direction , at the bottom is an additional “zag” so the train ends up pointing the the right direction . 

Rail remained supreme , and only started to decay after the construction of the first paved road from Quito to Cuenca , in the south; completed as late as the 1960’s. Last week we took that route which ascended the opposite side of the valley to the famous ( notorious ) rail route . All rail travel in Ecuador has been suspended after El Nineo induced damaged , and the political reluctance to pour a never ending sum into track maintenance . 

The view from our car window should have been spectacular but for  low cloud ..ah actually normal cloud levels .. it is us who is high !! The steep and unstable mountain side means that there are frequent small slips onto the road, but for us a large one  closed the road, and necessitated  a diversion through a conveniently situated village . On the return , however , reconstruction required a  diversion of some 5 km on single rough track, requiring alternate direction. We were fortunate that even this existed; and that we just missed a rock fall with boulders house sized. 

Our destination of Cuenca was worth all this excitement ; in being a beautifully preserved UNESCO sight. Our guide on the first morning was a fount of local knowledge , enhancing our enjoyment . He  clearly however was not a geological expert,  reassuring us we were well clear of volcanoes and earthquakes . The day after we left , an earthquake destroyed a building close to our hotel . Descending rubble proving fatal . 

We will look forward to returning home, closer to sea level ; though with global warming , not too close!

      

A natural horseman ?

Beware falling rocks, one of four!

…and earthquakes!!

Meanwhile Cuenca’s finest, Not damaged