On the way to Croatia

After Peru, I spent July and August in New York.  In early September, I was off to Croatia (via a one way ticket), and unknown parts beyond.  This is when the REAL travel begins.  I had a layover in Munich, where I saw tennis star Jelena Jancovic.  Nobody seemed to recognize her but me, so I thought maybe it was someone else.  Someone else with tennis racquets and U.S. open pants and shirt? I think not.

The other thing of note was the sex shop at the Munich airport.  Magazines, videos, even toys (look closely at the window).  When your trip is over, and you realize you forgot to buy souvenirs for your friends and family at home, the Munich airport sex shop is there to bail you out.

Galapagos: Land

It’s NOT a myth that after you dive, you must wait 24 hours before flying.  That gave us some time to check out the life on land.  I took some great pictures of the marine iguanas, the sea lions sleeping on park benches, and the tropical growth in the cloud forests at the tops of the volcanic mountains.  Unfortunately, those pictures didn’t make it onto my laptop before I left for my extended trip.

But I was able to recover these shots from an email that I sent.  Those tortoises are about 130 years old.

And let’s not ignore the landscape:

 

Food Wars: Peru

As an ongoing feature of this travelogue (the proper terminology for this work is ‘travelogue’, not ‘blog’), I will compare a favorite restaurant at home with the actual food in its respective country.

The first showdown is between EL POLLO RICO (Arlington) and an unnamed challenger in Cuzco.  EPR makes exactly one food–roasted chicken called ‘pollo a la brasa.’  You never ask for chicken there, as this is understood.  You simply say ‘whole’, ‘half’ or a ‘quarter’, and they hack it with the clever right in front of you.  Then you specify hot or mild sauce.  It comes with french fries.

In Cuzco, I asked the hotel worker where to get the best pollo a la brasa.  He seemed to be impressed that I had heard of such a dish.  I guess people usually ask him where to get good cevice or cuy, which is guinea pig (yes, you read that right).  He didn’t seem to have any doubt about what the best place was.  Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the place, though I could find it. If I was back in Cuzco.  The details in this TRAVELOGUE will become more complete after Peru.  I promise.

After trying Cuzco’s best, I have a newfound respect for EPR.  Who would have thought that a little place in North Arlington could even come close to beating the best of Cuzco the Inca capital?  Notwithstanding this newfound respect, coming close is all EPR could do.

Over the years, I have compared EPR with numerous other pollo places in the DC area, usually with fellow food critic Geoff.  As Geoff can attest, EPR is able to infuse more of the flavor of the marinade than any of the other places.  I don’t know if they marinade longer, or they just add more flavoring, or if it’s ancient Inca tecniques, but all of the other places just taste like unflavored chicken by comparison.

If you were only to compare the flavor of the meat itself, EPR would be just as good as the place in Cuzco.  But the Cuzco place went an extra step and did something to the skin, which made EPR taste like unflavored skin by comparison.  And that was the deciding factor.

Even so, EPR, you should be proud.

Peru

I went from sea level in Ecuador all the way up to the ancient Inca city of Cuzco, elevation 11,000 feet.  I didn’t mind the thin air during the day, but I kept waking up during the night, gasping.  Between the high altitude and the SCUBA diving, this was definitely not a trip for someone with any fears of suffocation.

From Cuzco, I headed to Macchu Picchu, which was ‘only’ 7,000 feet high.  I woke up early to catch the first rays of sun shining on MP.  Breathtaking.

 

Flushing the toilet on the Equator

During the 6 days at sea, we routinely drove 8 hours between islands, with the boat pitching and rolling and the plates sliding off the dinner table.  We crossed the equator twice (south to north then north to south).

I decided to TEST the MYTH (trademark violation averted) that the water will flow down the sink in different directions on different sides of the equator.  I read a long time ago that N/S location is just one factor. The shape of the container, where the suction is applied (in the case of flushing a toilet), residual motion of the water, and uneven temperature distributions are more important in determining the final direction.  In other words, in laboratory conditions, where all other factors are eliminated, north/south position will control flow direction.  In the real world, things aren’t that simple.  This is what Penn State University has to say on the subject:

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html

Over the years, I have explained this to people, and I’m always surprised how angry they get.  For some inexplicable reason, the masses want desperately to hold on to the  belief that the toilets flush in the opposite direction in Australia.  I think peoples’ loyalty to this theory is a more interesting phenomenon than any purported change in flow direction could be.

Believe what you want, folks, but the results are in.  I drained the same sink on the south side, the north side and the south side again.

And all three times, the water flowed in the SAME direction.

Galapagos-It’s not just for tortoises anymore

I generally choose my destinations based on suggestions by other people.  Why dig through a bunch of Lonely Planet guides, when I can let my friends do the research for me.  Clement has been raving about the diving in Galapagos for years, so much so that I suspect he is getting kickbacks from the Ecuadorian government.  But, seeing as Clement has been diving all around the world, I figured he knew what he was talking about.

I wasn’t looking forward to living on a boat for 6 days, or diving in such cold water, but it was worth it in the end.  If for no other reason than to see the LARGEST fish in the world, the whale shark.  This one was about as long and as wide as a school bus.  Don’t worry, they feed on plankton.  It was with an entourage of 10 other “small” sharks (about 6’ long).  [I am in the green fins]:

The Galapagos Islands are better known for their schools of hammerhead sharks (background) and the Galapagos shark (in front).

Even though the islands straddle the equator, the current runs up from Antarctica.  I had on a 7 mm wetsuit (that’s really thick), vest, hood, gloves, and boots.  I don’t have a picture of the final product on my laptop, but I looked approximately like this: