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Published: July 14th 2008
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ECUADOR - The Galapagos Islands
After fully enjoying my ‘Peru in Depth’ tour, I take an early flight from Lima to Quito - the capital of Ecuador to hook up with my final Intrepid trip group to explore what I hoped to be a highlight in my round the world adventure - five days in The Galapagos Islands. I had once studied Charles Darwin’s Theory of evolution of the species at Wolfson College Cambridge as part of an industry course, completing a thesis on competition and competitiveness and was keen to visit the country which had inspired him.
On arriving at The Sierra Madre Hotel I attended a meeting with an Intrepid reprehensive where I met two new couples joining the trip - William & Julie from New York and Olivia & Marcus from London plus - Melanie from Auckland NZ. Also joining this group are Simon & Tereca and Gill & Diane from my Peru trip.
As we sat down for the usual induction meeting we all soon discovered that there would be nothing usual about this particular trip. Unfortunately the night before our arrival the Intrepid boat The Spondulus which would have taken us around the
many different Islands of the Galapagos had been involved in a serious accident where the previous Intrepid group had to be rescued from a sinking ship at 2.30am the previous morning having collided with rocks. Although no one had been seriously injured the whole event had been quite a scare leaving the boat half submerged in water. This meant however that our trip was now going to become a more of a land based trip.
After a short early evening tour of the downtown city of Quito around their majestic churches and colonial parliament buildings we sat enjoyed a complimentary Ecuadorian mulled drink and a steak supper, after which Simon, Tereca and I decided to join an excited Quito fan base at a local bar who were cheering on their team Liga in the equivalent of the South American answer to the Champions league, where they took on Brazil’s finest league team. At 5 - 5 draw after extra time and with an ever growing rowdy crowd, Simon & I were planning our exit strategy when the Liga goal keeper kept out three of the penalty shoot out goals to become the hero of Quito & Ecuador. That night
the city erupted with the sounds of triumph, with the prime minister giving the nation the following day off in celebration.
The next morning the group rose early to take a three hour flight off the western shores of Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands arriving mid-day to meet Mariano and interesting laid back ‘western Caribbean type’ Island guide who was given the task to look after for the next five days.
Flying into the Island of Baltra famous for being an American military base WW2 - where stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra had entertained the troops. We then took a short ferry crossing over to Santa Cruz Island to visit the highlands and enjoy out first encounter with giant tortoise and a visit to lava caves.
After lunch we then met up with the survivors of the Spondulus accident Karl & Jasmine a father daughter partnership from the US, Salty & Ros a particular positive and nice retired couple from Tasmania (Aus) and Audrey a young oriental lady from New York for a three hour bumpy speedboat ride to Isabella Island, where a number of our group felt the full effects of seasickness on
the way. On the Island we were taken to our hotels which would serve as a base for the next three days.
The following morning we set off to the top of the Island to explore the worlds second largest Volcanic Crater and the witness the affects of recent Volcanic activity around the sites of Sierra Negro & the Chico Volcano, which was completed on horse back.
Later that day we met Rachel - Intrepid’s South American General Manager who joined us for the remainder of our arranged trip, who after an apology for the change in intinery informed us that we would all receive a full refund for our trip.
Over the next few days we saw more flora & fauna including the various Giant Tortoise, both land and sea Iguanas, a couple of Flamingos and the famed Blue Footed Boobies (seabirds). But the highlight for me had to be an afternoon snorkelling and swimming with Sea lions and Penguins and avoiding the ferocious flying sardines.
The trip was completed with a visit to Floreana Island, a snorkel around The Devils Crown and a visit to the Charles Darwin Station.
As our trip came
to a close and we returned to Quito - Simon, Tereca, Melanie and I chose to spend our final day in Ecuador taking a ride out of town to visit the official Equator line site at 00.00 latitude. Ending the day enjoying a meal and a couple bottles of red wine with Salty & Ros at a local steakhouse restaurant.
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