In 1992, alongside an Argentinian friend and cameraman Gonzalo Caparros, we unwittingly accelerated ourselves into Ecuador and Peru’s cholera epidemic. That year, the America’s were commemorating the 500th anniversary of the ‘discovery’ of that part of the world by Christopher Columbus. However, to give them credit, the indigenous people of that continent had been aware of its existence for countless generations.
Our plan was to visit a friend of mine – Sr. Maura Murphy, a Franciscan nun living in the oriente, in the tiny hamlet of Colimes, Ecuador. While temporarily living in Madrid, I decided to make Ecuador my destination of choice. Prior to the journey Maureen and I had raised several thousand dollars to assist Sr. Maura in her works of mercy, within the Colimes community. Sr. Maura had negotiated with local builders to build single family homes for the poorest within the community at the approximately cost of $500 each.
The bus ride from the Ecuadorian, port city of Guayaquil to Colimes, takes over two hours. It’s an exciting noise-filled trip, under cramped conditions that appears to end suddenly at a vacant crossroads. “Where are we”, I thought. If one is really lucky, a pickup truck will drive you to Colimes for a modest fee. The river Daule divides Colimes inhabitants from one another and long balsa boats are employed to ferry people from one side of the village to the other. The whole region surrounding Colimes is covered by a profusion of Amazonian vegetation and fruit. The locals call it lechuga. Palm trees with tropical birds such as parrots and macaws are visible as far as the eye can see, while gigantic grey vultures stare menacingly downward at passing strangers. If Quito is muy tranquilo, and Guayaquil sucio, then what characterizes the town of Colimes is the heat – el calor.
Following our short stay in Colimes, we traveled overland to northern Peru, which at that time was in the midst of a cholera epidemic. Then our travels took us to Lima, Peru, and finally on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the sophisticated city of Buenos Aires, we finally had an opportunity to rest from our travels with Gonzalo’s welcoming family. The Argentinians are a proud race, well educated – every man a deep thinker and philosopher; every woman a beauty! Argentinians find it difficult to identify themselves with the rest of the sub-continent, and to be honest, Buenos Aires is truly the Paris of the southern hemisphere.
Upon my return to Ireland, an enormous volume of interest was generated on Irish national radio (RTÉ), particularly as regards our experiences with those annoying earthquakes we experienced, the cholera outbreak and how particular Irish charities shared their charitable donations in latin America. Our exploits – both good and bad, were later published in book format by Saoirse Press – “In Search of the Unknown, Discovering Ecuador”.
In my rush to write and have “In Search of the Unknown” in the marketplace early, and to my later regret, I omitted our travels in both Peru and Argentina. Perhaps at some future time I can rectify that situation. Watch this space.
