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Published: September 9th 2011
Our first stop in Ecuador was Guayaquil where we spent 2 nights. Guayaquil was a great city with a really cool waterfront and pretty plazas, and from here we headed out to the Galapagos islands.
I know this might make you scoff at the screen, but the Galapagos, in a wierd way, felt like a holiday. You can't do much around the islands without a tour guide so we booked our trip with a company who picked us up at the airport (no looking for the least-dodgy looking taxi), booked our accomodation (no scouring hostel-world) and for the 3 days of trips we were on we were picked up and dropped back directly to and from the hotel. Such luxury!
The Galapagos were absolutely amazing. It's like Noah backed the ark in and all the animals popped their heads out, decided they liked the look of the place and hung around. They were EVERYWHERE!
On our first day out and about in the Galapagos we saw seals, penguins, sea turtles, pelicans, land iguanas & lizards. Francis did some snorkelling and got to see octopus, star fish and a sting ray, as well as lots of other amazing fish.
We also got to check out the amazing volcanic landscape of the Islands and on day two we saw hugh craters and got to walk underground inside a lava tunnel. After this we visited a farm where giant tortoise roam about in the wild and you can get up close with them and learn a bit about the Islands conservation efforts to save these crazy E.T. like creatures.
On our last full day on the Islands we visited North Seymour which has lots of amazing Frigate and Blue Footed Boobie birds. The Frigate birds are amazing with their red pouches under their beaks which they puff out to attract the ladies 😊
An unexpected surprise of the Galapagos for us was the amazing beaches. We visited Tortuga Bay with its long white sand beaches which are virtually deserted. There are also lots of marine iguanas lying around on the sand....catching a few rays and ready to scare me. This was definitely one of the most amazing beaches we have seen on our whole trip.
After the Galapagos we had another night in Guayaquil before heading on to Cuenca where we checked into a boutique hotel for 3
nights. To be honest we were surprised that they even let us in the door (which was opened for us!). The rucksacks have been humped and dumped all over buses and planes for the past few months and they didn't look too bad until you see a bell boy in his finest uniform trying to lug them up the stairs!
I was spoilt rotten in Cuenca for the owld birthday and we had a great few days eating and drinking the best that it had to offer (triple chocolate layer cheesecake....Mmmmmmmm).
When we left Cuenca (boo!) we spent seven days on the road and in the air (Cuenca /Puira/Lima/ Arequipa/Arica/Santiago/Mendoza) and here we are in Argentina now! It's the second last country we visit on the travels - unreal to think that the time has flown by so quickly!
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