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Published: March 22nd 2011
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Another flight delay, another blog... ahhh such is the life of international men (and women) of mystery. Stuck in Buenos Aires and hoping to get home today after a 24 hour delay. The five star hotel we’re been put in is lovely though! I thought we should be useful so here is our blog for Ecuador, it was magic – enjoy!
Pure bliss – the Galapagos Islands Words seem so inadequate when we try to describe our time cruising around the Galapagos Islands. Each morning we awoke in a beautiful new bay, explored the island meeting amazing endemic species, snorkelling with millions of fish and were able to get so close to so many unique and wonderful animals. Sometimes we had to pinch ourselves!
You must visit these islands. No other travel experience possibly comes close to what you experience here.
David booked an 8 day, ‘first class’ cruise. Our boat, Xavier III had around seven crew and slept 16 guests. While we were on board there was only ever eight to twelve other guests.
We travelled between many islands, including – Bartoleme, Santa Cruz, San Cristobel, North Seymour, Espanole, South Plaza and Santa Fe. Each
island has its own endemic species and a different feel to it. Most days also included snorkelling adventures in crystal clear water.
The islands were all created due to volcanic activity deep in the ocean. The flora is fairly low growing and hardy given it is dry with scorching sun for eight months of the year. The beaches are amazing. Some are made of crushed coral and are creamy white, cool to walk on with such smooth sand.
Animals on the islands evolved pretty much without human contact or predators so they have no fear whatsoever of humans. You can literally poke your camera under their noses (slowly!) and they don’t bat an eyelid. This in itself is a magical experience, put that against the backdrop of the most breathtaking beaches and clear aqua waters and you have the universe’s most perfect holiday!
During our snorkelling we swam with giant sea turtles, sea lions, eagle rays, penguins, white tipped sharks and thousands of tropical fish – too many to name! On most occasions we swam with sea lions – with the smaller ones checking us out underwater and playing with us.
All the weight we had
lost from our little trekking adventures was quickly put back on with three course lunches, two course dinners, snacks after every activity and a beautiful buffet breakfast each morning. Plus cocktails each evening of course!
I’ll just let the pictures say the rest.
Quito Many people bag Quito, but we liked it. It has its fair share of crime – we met people that were pick-pocketed just before their Galapagos trip. But we really enjoyed it. The buildings, and some streets are beautiful, especially the amazing gothic church. There are lovely colonial streets that feel just like old Europe.
While in Quito we went to the equator – both the real one and the one that was 300 metres off! They got it wrong back in 1963 and thanks to GPS discovered they had erected the HUGE monument and theme park in the wrong place – oops! The real equator museum was hilarious – with bizarre equator experiments, shrunken heads and Indigenous artefacts. At the museum we met Umi and Thomas who are travelling around the world, and are actually doing a giant ride around Japan to raise money for a charity. Wishing them lots of
luck and hope to see them in Newcastle for ANZAC day.
Baños We had heard great things about Baños – a little hot spring town at the foot of a rather unsettled volcano (luckily for us it was dormant during our visit).
Baños is a little like the Ecuadorian version of England’s Blackpool... rock candy stalls galore, tacky tourists buying inflatable toys for the spas, and an overdose of souvenir shops. Despite all of that, the little town, nestled amongst giant mountains was actually lovely to hang out in for four days.
One of the biggest reasons that we loved Baños so much was our wonderful hostel, La Case Verde (The Green House), owned by an Aussie and Kiwi. The rooms looked out over a river and were surrounded by green. It was like staying at a friend’s house. If you’re ever in Baños please stay there!
We visited a few natural mineral spas, David went white water rafting, we even did a 70km mountain bike ride to another town to visit a monkey refuge! While David was having fun rafting I went shopping and found some very cool shops – one that made lovely
bags, another that made jewellery from a nut called Tagua. They say it’s the alternative to ivory! Regardless it was funky.
We left after four days and caught a bus to Guayaquil for our marathon three-flight trip to Iguazu, Argentina.
That’s all folks 😊 Stay tuned for the last South American blog!
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