From Maya to Inca: The battle of Pichincha and other things

Saturday 1 June 2013

The battle of Pichincha and other things

The 24th May is a holiday in Ecuador to remember the battle of Pichincha in 1822, which was won by the army under General Antonio Jose de Sucre and marked the beginning of the independence of Ecuador. For the little piece of trivia, the battle of Pichincha took place on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano just outside Quito, and if I stick my head around the screen of my computer, I can see it as I write this! Anyway, back to the Galapagos islands. In the morning of the 24th we went up into the highlands of Santa Cruz. This is the less inhabited part of the island, by humans at least, it gets much colder as you get higher, and sometimes drizzly, and the vegetation is incredible - from oranges and passion fruit to plaintain and yucca plants and all sorts of other plants and trees that I can't even begin to name. And if you want to see giant tortoises living in the wild, this is where you should be.

In the afternoon, we went to Las Grietas (see tour de bahia post if you have no idea what I'm talking about!). The water is freezing but very refreshing once you've clambered over a kilometer of rocks to get there. We passed a couple of herons along the way, not to mention the odd cranky pelican!

La Dormilona
This plant closes up when you touch it.

A rare photo - in the distance the highlands of Santa Cruz on a clear day.

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Interesting facts

Another slightly subjective fact. Peruvian mountain roads are among the most dangerous in the world.
Kuelap is a Chachapoya fortress in Northern Peru built before Machu Picchu.
Peruvian men are the most persistent men on the planet.
Blue zones are called blue zones simply because Dan Buettner and his research team (who first identified the blue zones) used blue ink to circle the areas on a map with the highest life expectancy. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Inca civilisation arose from the highlands of Peru sometime during the early 13th century.
Contrary to popular belief, Panama hats are not made in Panama but in Ecuador.
Ten of the volcanoes along the Avenue of Volcanoes are higher than 5000 metres.
Rafael Correa has introduced the "pico y placa" system in Quito, following the Colombian example, "pico" meaning "peak" and "placa" meaning "plate". Cars are restricted from circulating in Quito on certain days during morning and evening rush hours according to the last number of their registration plate, in order to ease traffic congestion.
Quito is 72 kms long and 10 kms wide.
Quito is the oldest capital in South America and lies 2800 metres above sea level.
The sex of the tortoises bred in the breeding centre in Puerto Ayora on the Galapagos islands depends on the temperature of the incubators. The eggs kept in incubators at 29.5 degrees celsius become females and those kept in incubators at 28 degrees celsius become males.
The giant cacti of the Galapagos islands are the only species of opuntia cactus in the world that grows like a tree.
Legend has it that the Incas discovered the Galapagos islands in the fifteenth century but no solid evidence has been found to prove this.
Slightly subjective. Playa del Carmen sells the most expensive ice cream in the world. But it tastes pretty good.
The piece of lime in the top of a bottle of beer was originally not for the taste. It was used to wipe the rust off the rim.
Mayan mothers used to wrap planks of wood around their children's foreheads to flatten them.
The dazzling blue ocean along the Mayan riviera is due to the fact that there are no rivers feeding into it. And because of the lack of nutrients flowing into the sea, there is also less animal life along this part of the ocean.