Advertisement
Published: January 25th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Two weeks into the trip, and we´re alive, healthy (mostly) and having a great time
Before we get to the trip details, we would like to thank everybody who helped us prepare, pack and party. We couldn´t have done it without a lot of help, and we really appreciate it.
We´re back in Quito, having completed our tour of the Galapagos islands. Jen is still trying to get over her wicked cold as we prepare to leave for the Andean highlands.
Our fist day in Quito was spend doing mostly nothing....at 2850m (9300 ft), the altitude hit us hard. Between her cold and the lack of oxygen, Jen couldn´t walk more than a few blocks from the hotel. This was basically what we had planned though, as we were both bagged from the packing and organizing.
And then we visited the Galapagos islands! Our tour boat had sixteen passengers and five crew. We thought this was a nice size, as it allowed us to get to know the other passengers, and tour the islands as a single group. The smaller boats like ours can go to all of the islands, unlike some
Giant Tortoise at Darwin Center
Walter, our guide at the Darwin Research Center with a giant tortoise of the 90 passenger cruise ships that can only go to the larger islands.
The wildlife was spectacular. Iguanas, Sea Lions, Turtles and many, many birds. Our first day was spent flying to the islands and touring the Charles Darwin research centre. The centre was the only time we saw the giant tortoises for which the islands are famous. They have a very active breeding program that is working to re-populate the islands. We were able to get up close and personal with them....all of the wildlife we encountered on this trip is strangely tame. They don´t seem to care at all about the streaming hordes of tourists that are passing by and madly clicking away with cameras of every kind.
The second day of the trip was one of our best. We landed at Floreana Island in a heavy rainstorm. We were lucky to witness a sea turtle dragging herself back into the ocean after having laid her eggs in a nest a little ways up the beach. There were several more sea turtles in the water nearby, and we witnessed two of them mating in the breakers. We also got some great views of a pink
flamingo colony. A real trip highlight was snorkelling at the north tip of the island, with white-tipped reef sharks very close by (perhaps ten feet below us), rays and a great variety of starfish. The second highlight was our snorkelling encounter with a sea turtle! We actually had to back away from it, as it swam close to us. Over the course of the tour, we ended up seeing four sea turtles while snorkelling, all very close and not minding our presence.
A favourite animal for us was the blue-footed Boobies, whose feet are surprisingly brightly coloured. We saw two colonies of them, and witnessed their mating ritual. They face each other, and perform a very funny dance....they look like they are trying to learn to walk while wearing shoes several sizes too large. After this, the male Booby picks up a small stick and presents it to the female....if she accepts (which she did), then he´s a very happy Booby.
An unfortunate aspect of the tour was that Jen was still suffering from her wicked cough. Together with some pretty decent rocking of the boat, she didn´t get much sleep. We returned to Quito with plans to
lay low and let her get healthy. This was going pretty well, until Monday night, when she had an allergic reaction to something we ate (might have been a pizza?)... she´s not a very happy camper when covered pretty much head to toe in little red dots! Not really a problem though, as all is well after a cortizone shot in the butt and a few days of Claritin. We did have some fun getting through the hospital visit with a mix of Spanish and English. The hospital was very good. The place was very modern and clean, professional staff, and we were in and out in about an hour, for $40 USD! It would have taken us half a day if we´d shown up at an Ottawa hospital with the same problem.
On Tuesday, after our quick visit to the emergency room, we went to "La Mitad Del Monde", the centre of the earth or, the equator! Having read the travel books and spoken to other visitors, we knew that the ACTUAL equator was 240m from the place they claim is the equator (which has a large monument, a painted line where you can stand with one foot
on each side, lots of shops and restaurants, etc.), and after getting directions from one of the vendors, we finally found the real deal! It was very funny, as you literaly walk out of the main venue with all of it´s grandeur, go down the street a few hundred feet to a tired looking sign pointing down a dirt road, and there it is - the equator. They only discovered that they were off on their original location 9 years ago when GPS became available (and this is not advertised at the main attraction!). The $3 entry fee included a tour guide, who went though a series of experiments to prove that we were in fact on the true equator - very cool!
On Wednesday, we ventured into Old Town Quito, or colonial Quito. This area is far more interesting than New Town, which doesn´t have much character at all. We visited several museums and churches, including one church where we climbed staircase after staircase (Erin Baldwin, you´d be proud - it was almost as bad as Body Pump!) to get to the top of one of the bell towers (we were seriously only a few feet from the
very top). It was worth it, however, as the 360 degree views were spectacular! Later in the evening, we took a gondola up to a viewing station over the city. Unfortunately, we took a risk as the clouds were coming in and we really didn´t get to see much from the top. On the ride down we were lucky to get a beautiful view of the city at night all lit up!
Well, today were hoping to catch a bus to Otavalo, a town in the Northern Highlands about 2 hours north of Quito. There is a very famous market on Saturday (time for some shopping!), and we plan to do some hiking around the area as well. We´re looking forward to getting out of the city for a few days!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.345s; Tpl: 0.049s; cc: 15; qc: 74; dbt: 0.1125s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb