09/26/2009, Puerto Amistad, Bahia De Caraquez, Ecuador
We left Cusco yesterday morning and flew back to Lima, where we spent the night at the Miraflores Park Hotel. This is the same hotel that we ate the Sunday brunch at with the Kennedys almost two weeks ago. We liked the hotel so much we decided that we would stay here when we returned to Lima. We made the right choice, as our room was to die for. The bed was the best bed we have had in a very long time. We had a wonderful view of the ocean and the paragliders that drift along the bluffs above the ocean use this hotel as their marker to turn around and return to their starting point. The photo I posted with this blog shows one such paraglider.
Once we checked in we called Shane Kennedy and invited him and his girlfriend, Sonya, for dinner. We wanted to treat them as a small way to show our appreciation for all of the work they did to make our 16 days in Peru so enjoyable.
They arrived at 1800 and after a drink and a billiards game in the bar, we settled in for a delicious dinner in the hotel's restaurant. By 2100 we were in bed since we had to get up early to go to the airport and catch our plane to Guayaquil, our port of entry back into Ecuador.
The next day we grabbed a cab for the airport and soon had cleared security and were waiting for our plane. That wait also soon passed and before we knew it, we had landed and were back in Ecuador. We were curious to see how many days our new visa would be for. The government of Ecuador is closely aligned with the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela. All three highly dislike the American government, mostly due to the former policies created during the Bush presidency. One of the ways they show their displeasure is by refusing to grant new visas for the full 90 days allowed. We had been told of various stories of injustices when it came to renewing of visas. Well, we can confirm the inconsistencies between the way they treat Americans versus people from other countries. The immigration officer asked how many days we wanted on our new visa. Mary Margaret asked for 90 and he ended up giving each of us just 30 days. Fortunately, we leave for the US in just about a week, so the 30 days is more than enough for now. However, we plan on visiting the Ecuador Consulate when we are in Los Angeles and make a request for a 12X visa, which will let us stay in Ecuador until we leave for the French Polynesia in late March/early April. We have been told that you can get extended visas much easier when you are out of the country. We shall see.
From Guayaquil we took a 5-hour bus ride back to Bahia de Caraquez and good ol' Leu Cat. By 2030 we were back aboard our lovely boat/home and soon we were in bed, thankful that the trip home was so easy.
Travel Tip Of The Day: Visas
Before you set sail to a foreign country, it would be wise to research the visa restrictions of the country(s) you plan to sail to. As in our case with Ecuador, it would have been better to get an out of country visa for 180 days than to do what we did. We got a 90-day visa when we arrived with hopes of renewing it for another 90 days. We have discovered that this will be highly unlikely and now we are forced to apply for an out of country visa when we return to the US. When we are back in the US, we plan to call the New Zealand and Australian consulates to see what we need to do to get 180-day visa for those countries as well. Next year we will be in New Zealand for the hurricane season and the following year we will be in Australia. Since the hurricane season is just about 6 months, we will need the longer visas to be safe and sound in protected waters.
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No respectable tour is complete without a beautiful sunset.
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Here are the royal baths used by the Inca.
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Here is a photo of the Pupaukarea ruins. This is where the amzon Inca paid their toll before they could sell their goods and foods in Cusco.
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This was some sort of special rock that had the spirit of the frog in it. The frog was special to the Inca as it represented rain, which was critical for crop production. You are suppose to be able to see the shape of the frog in this rock. I could not but Mary Margaret could. To help me, here is Mary Margaret possing for me so I can being see the frog.
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