Chapter Four

Just when we thought things could not be better, circumstances intervene to cause problems. Serious problems. Tony's medications which we sent in advance of our trip to New Zealand and Peru have been detained by the authorities in Lima. They are not being released to our friends, the Salazar family. In Auckland, no such problem arose; they are safety delivered and in the possession and safe keeping of our friends,Tom and Sheila Birdsall and family.

In Lima the parcel of medicines also included a bottle of Irish whiskey, an electronic photo frame, a book, calender, a tier of our wedding cake and some other small items. Typical souvenir items. Nothing special. One would have thought. Not so, according to Peruvian Customs authorities.

From emails received from the Salazar family,the Customs there want to charge us import duties on the medicines on the basis some of these medicines are available in Peru and could/ought to have been purchased there by us rather than imported. After they were informed the medications were required not just simply for the two weeks we were going to be in Peru but also for the four months we intend to be in other South American countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Paraquay, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, the authorities in Lima are apparently no longer relying on this ground for not releasing the medicines.

Instead, they now want the VALUE of each of Tony's medicines- there are about 9 of them - for what purpose, it is unclear. This also causes us a problem, since they were all obtained free of charge in Ireland on the basis of Tony having a medical card, a card which is automatically given him on the basis of being a diabetic. Since his medicines are,therefore, obtained for free, they cannot by definition have a financial value to him. And because they are purchased and paid for by the State in Ireland, he is not in a position to second guess how much the State pays for them. Seeking a value in Peru of imported medicines that are dispensed free of charge in Ireland, therefore, is a nonsense.

Thanks to helpful intervention on the part of Rachael, the name, address, phone and email number of the Honorary Irish Consul in Lima, Mr Michael G. Russell were obtained. He was emailed, all the relevant information and facts were outlined to him and he has promised to look into the situation. Hopefully the matter will be resolved when we reach Peru without recourse to further unnecessary bureaucracy. But we are not too sure. This is South America, not Europe !

Said goodbye to our hosts Dan and Kira O'Brien, his sister-in-law Carina,Tapio (our Finnish friend) and off by taxi to the airport at Porlamar for the 40 minutes flight to the capital, Caracas. But first, we had to pay an exit tax to get from one part of Venezuela to the other. In Caracas, the internal airport is shared with the international airport but you physically have to leave one building for a 300 meter street walk to the other terminal. No trollies unless you are prepared to pay a local for one and have your luggage transported within the same Airport for a fee, of course.

In all it took us three hours to get our luggage checked-in, to queue and pay our exit taxes, this time from the country itself (yes, that's right), and for our hand luggage to be x-rayed and physically searched. About 1 in 4 or 5 other persons were similarly rigorously inspected. In the sparsely-stocked duty-free section, we spent the last of our Bolivars on chocolates for our Peruvian family friends.

The 1800 mile night journey to Lima took three hours and 10 minutes, travelling by Lan Peru, departing and arriving on time.The journey was uneventful except that from the on-board screen, we learned that we were travelling at 38,000 feet with temperatures outside the aircraft of minus 65 degree centigrade. Mount Everest is just over 29,000 feet high ! Out of Lima Airport by midnight and into weather of plus 18 degrees C and a foggy sky.

There to greet us were our Peruvian family, Gonzalo and Marie Elena Salazar and their 18-year-old son, Ivan. While everyone else patiently waited behind airport barriers, there was no containing Ivan who, irrespective of regulations, rushed forward to warmly greet us to the amusement of those outside the barriers. He already has won two gold medals for Peru swimming in the 2003 Special Olympics in Dublin but he could, it now seems, have an alternative sports career as a sprinter for Peru, should he so desire !

Mutual warms hugs and kisses were exchanged with Mom and Dad and it was off home in the family car, to the Jesus y Maria area of Lima, with Ivan holding our hands in the back seat.

Then up to the family apartment which occupies two floors on the sixth level. There to greet us was Abuela de Casa (Grand Mother of the House), Marie Elena's mother, who although she has no English gave us a warm and affectionate greeting. It was like as if we had always known one another. But then, I suppose, Marie Elena and Gonzalo had told her so much about us and our families. We were not strangers.......only friends who had never met.

After chatting and talking until 4 a.m., it was time for bed. We were happy, very contented to be with our Peruvian family, and delighted that we easily slipped backed into where we left off in our relationship in Ireland 5 years previously.

Before going to bed, Gonzalo and Tony became partners-in-crime by creatively putting a low value on the medications and gifts contained in the shanghied parcel. This Peruvian value was then faxed to the customs authorities for their computation.

Next day we all went to DHL in Lima to 'rescue' Tony's medication. Again, no luck. They still had to get permission from Customs before it could be released to us.

So off we all went to downtown Lima to see the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace. But en route we linked up with Gonzalo Salazar Junior, to whom we had spoken a few years ago but never met and to their lovely daughter, Nena. We tried to capture the occasion on camera but nothing could capture the joy and delight we felt in our hearts at meeting the entire family.

Next it was off on a tour of the city, first to the burial tomb of the Spanish conquerer of Peru, Francisco Pizarro , a man who with just 200 soldiers managed to subdue one of the mightiest civilisations the world has seen. But it's a long road without a turning, we sometimes say. Eventually the descendants of those soldiers and the indigenous peoples of Peru managed to wrest independence and self-determination from Madrid in 1821. Today Peru is a mixture of all those peoples and more. Spanish is the lingua franca but Quechua and Aymara, the two languages of the once mighty Inca empire which stretched from Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, a small part of Argentina and half way down Chile are widely spoken in the Andes and jungle provinces of Peru.

Pizarro, a Spanish illiterate emmigre, is viewed with mixed feelings in Peru. Some see him as the facilitator of a new post-pagan age in Peru but others say he was little more than a buccaneering adventurer with no respect for the culture he fought his way into and almost destroyed.

That evening a large party was thrown in our honour in the Salazar home attended by all the family, including in-laws and grandchildren. The best of specially-prepared Peruvian food was washed down by good Peruvian wine and preceded by a toast in the national drink, Pisco Sour.

At the party, the Salazar family presented their Irish family with a framed colour picture of all our 'relatives' in Lima. It something we shall dearly cherish.

Next day on the second visit to DHL we learned that Customs would after all release our parcel provided we paid import duties, gave assurances that none of Tony's medicines would be sold to third parties in Peru, and that DHL would be compensated for temporarily storing the parcel in their warehouse - even though they had failed to deliver it to the nominated address they were contracted and paid for so to do. To retrieve the parcel cost 1,100 Peruvian Sols, or about Euros 255 ! As someone remarked when the parcel was opened that night and the bottle of Jameson in it was freed from 'detention': "This is the possibly the dearest bottle of whiskey ever imported into South America, and definitely into Peru.......and because of that it must be drunk drop by drop, instead of glass by glass".

Before our second visit to DHL, Gonzalo and Marie Elena took us the Museo del Oro which houses many precious Inca and other pre-Columbian artifacts missed by the Spanish. We were amazed to discover that women used gold tweezers to pluck their eyebrows and other parts, and that skull surgery was performed to heal broken heads, with pieces of gold expertly inserted into the skull bones, a skill that was lost with the conquest by the Spaniards.

Next morning, it was up early and off to the bus station for the seven and a quarter hour non-stop up into the Andes Mountains, one of the highest in the world. We were now saying hasta luego ('See you later', in Spanish) to our friends on what was the next stage in our journey around South America.

We could have taken the train to our destination, Huancayo, a city of about 350,000 people deep in the Andes Mountains, but it was a 12- hour journey, only arrived after dark, and only operated on a Saturday. Instead Trish and I chose to go by bus and with the help of our friends reserved two upstairs seats with panoramic views out our windows. But despite everything we had read, nothing prepared us for what lay ahead. The bus carried an on-board stewardess who within half an hour after leaving Lima handed out plastic sickness bags. We naturally availed of the offer, as a precautionary measure, of course. On and on the bus rose through the mountains and two and a half hours after leaving Lima, which is at virtually sea-level, we had left the mist and clouds behind us and were into cool, cloudless blue skies.

Higher and higher we climbed, passing dozens and dozens of heavily-laden articulated trucks each bringing precious cargoes of goods and materials into the hinterland. An equal number made their way against us, all full to the brim with similar loads for Lima and the coast.

Our destination city, Huancayo, has an elevation level of 3,600 metres (just short of 11,000 feet) and higher than Mount Blanc - Europe's highest mountain. To reach our two-mile-high accommodation, we had first to make our way up a further mile to a gap towards through the high peaks where the Andes is crossable by road. Thin depleted air at high altitude makes it difficult to breath. In severe cases, oxygen is needed to recover. Typical symtoms of oxygen depletion include weakness, breathing difficulties, swollen ankles, headache and, in severe cases, complete collapse.

Despite our not having to exert ourselves, breathing became difficult at around the 10,0000 feet level. A young boy near us became sick.Visits to the on-board toilet on the bus became more frequent for other passengers. Trish and I became aware of our need for long gasps of air into our lungs every few minutes. Other passengers ignored the beauty outside their windows and simply pulled the curtains and wound back their seats to rest. But we could not. We marvelled at the scenery outside, watched alpaca and llamas graze the mountain sides, looked at the terraced patches of land used to eke a living by the peasants (campesinos), watched them, their brown prematurely worn Indian faces,and the colourful dresses of the women, and knew that we would never pass this way again. We could not allow the discomfort of the moment prevent us being witness to what lay around us.

Higher and higher our bus pulled us into the heavens. Gradually vegetation became sparser and mining became more predominant. Peru is one of the richest countries in minerals in the world, and no school child needs reminding of the rapacious plundering of its gold in the 16th century when priceless icons, temples, body armour, artifacts were first stolen and then melted down into ingots for easier shipment to Spain. But not all the country's vast mineral reserves were discovered by the Spanish.Today Peruvians themselves are doing the excavation. Holes are gouged into mountain sides in search of fresh mineral seams while narrow gauge railway lines are etched into their sides helping bring ore to crushing plants and smelters.

Although Peru is rich in gold, silver,copper,lead,zinc and oil, about 70 per cent of its population of 28 million live below the poverty line. Gross National Income is under US$3000 or around 2000 Euros per person per annum. There is great economic and social disparity with an elite, controlling most of the power and wealth, and the racially-mixed and indigenous peoples of the interior.

On route we passed through small towns and villages where tough living conditions lined the faces of their inhabitants. No sign of Lima luxury here. Houses were often of un-plastered brickwork with upper floors being un-finished. Vehicles were scarce and those that could be seen were marked with the ravages of time and work. Some of the villages were quaintly named. Trish noticed a Los Angeles and a San Francisco.

At 4,818 metres (almost 16,000 ft) high we reached the highest point in our journey across the mighty Andes. Around us we could see snow-covered peaks and sun-melted glaciers.Most passengers now found it difficult on the bus. Their breathing became strained. Headaches developed and their legs swelled up. Even the few steps to and from the toilet in the bus became laboured. Alighting from the bus at the terminus after a seven-hour non-stop ride in to the sky made old people out of young.

Nevertheless, we had arrived in Huancayo, located in the Andean Central Highlands. Located at 10,659 feet above sea level, this semi-developed city of 350,000S population is the major commercial centre of the central Andes. And short though the distance was between the bus station and our accommodation, we took a taxi. Our rucksacks shared the boot with sand and cement. Our driver charged us three and a half sols, about 90 cents.

Inside Posada de La Abuela (Granny's Guesthouse, in Spanish), we were given a double room with a large comfortable brass bed. Exhaustion and continuing altitude discomfort drove us to bed. It was 4 pm. We did not get up until next day. Even then, our condition had not improved substantially. Although we had
passed over the high Andes peaks, we were still at almost 11,000 feet above sea level. Fatigue, headache and heavy breathing will not easily go away at this height. Exercise is difficult and carrying heavy loads on one's shoulders virtually impossible. But we were safe, happy and grateful to have gotten this far without major incident.

The postman is knocking at the door, see you next chapter.