ecuador peru
ecuador and peru are neighbors. ecuador has oil reserves. peru doesn't. the price of gas in ecuador was $1.48. in peru it was more like $4.50. both used u.s. gallons for gas. but they use liters for everything else. weird. neither country has emissions controls on their vehicles. so the air in the cities is quite polluted. however the streets are clean. there are no piles of trash along the streets unlike most cities here at home. the ancient culture passed down their three golden rules: don't lie, don't steal, don't be lazy. good rules. both countries get most of their gdp from tourism. in ecuador the tourists go to the vendors, which was really nice. in peru you get mobbed by street vendors, which sucked. i made it a game to figure out what to say to make them go away. some of the more successful things were: no tenemos dinero (we have no money). queremos mirar, no queremos comprar (we wish to look, we do not wish to buy). "maybe later" se dice va irse ("maybe later" means go away). no somos touristos (we no be tourists). the last one was very effective. not because they believed i was not a tourist but because they believed i was crazy.