South America

Thanks to deregulation and mega-mergers, they say that airline customer service has gone down the crapper. And who doesn’t agree?

Our 2016 South American journey began with four nights aboard a riverboat in the Ecuadorian portion of the Amazon rainforest. But before we could get to the boat, we had to clear another aviation hurdle.

Believe it or not, our brief visit to Ecuador’s largest city was the consequence of yet another flight cancellation.

We couldn’t get to Cuenca by plane, so we drove from Guayaquil instead. Well, we didn’t drive. A very nice but completely insane local man drove us.

The city of Quito occupies a narrow valley in the Andes mountains, at a point very near the equator (hence the country’s name). But Quito’s climate and environs are nothing like the equatorial regions you read about in middle school.

When people think of Bogotá – and Colombia in general – they often think of violent crime, vicious gangs, and kidnappings. Nowadays this is mostly not true. I say “mostly” because George and I have, in fact, been kidnapped.

I’m happy to report that I was able to write this blog post from the comfort of our Medellín hotel room. You may be wondering, how did we manage to escape whacko Raoul?

Sent via email to the Ministry of Aviation, La República de Colombia…

A visit to Panama City seemed like an appropriate ending to our South American journey. Granted, it’s not actually in South America. But it’s close enough for government work (or French scientists).

No one knows why the Incas built Machu Picchu in the first place, at the height of their power, or what the heck they did up there.

Why spend time in Cuzco at all? Why not hightail it back to Lima and nibble on some ceviche at sea-level, where God surely intended all people to live?