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Published: June 25th 2008
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Galapagos
I´m in love! We had a fantastic two weeks in Ecuador, spending several days in and around Quito, and also venturing into the Amazon jungle. The undoubted highlight, however, was our seven nights sailing round the Galapagos.
We woke early each morning, typically for a pre-breakfast stroll round one of the islands - an opportunity to practically rub noses with the sea-lions, iguanas and boobies! After breakfast, we often snorkelled, before sailing across the beautiful waters to our next destination - a chance for some sunbathing and a leisurely lunch. Afternoons were spent exploring our new surrounds by foot or by dingy, followed by another swim, before returning to the boat for dinner.
We were blessed with beautiful weather, a wonderful chef and a boat with plenty of deck-space, as well as a lovely group of fellow travellers. We were also joined by a friend from home, Jo, so could we have asked for any more?
Well, yes. Everything was perfect, aside from our guide, who was a complete liability. When he met us at the airport on our first day, he had already enjoyed a number of beers. He continued drinking throughout the afternoon (rendering him almost incapable of speaking
Galapagos
Waiting to get on our boat and Jo makes her first new friend! to us cleary about what we were seeing), and finished the day with a bottle of tequila - hence missing our early morning wake up call the next day! He did improve - he couldn´t fail to - but was pretty poor throughout the rest of our trip.
The guide aside, it is almost impossible to pick a highlight, but perhaps I´d choose the snorkelling. We swam with green sea turtles (majestic), lots of sea lions (great fun), a white-tipped reef shark and a black-tipped reef shark, penguins (kind of!) and a number of different fish! We also went in search of hammerheads, but with visibility on that stretch of water only a few feet, I was relieved not to see them.
The islands were also great with lots of unusual birds, including blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, the waved albatross, frigate birds, dove-tailed gulls, hooded mocking birds and galapagos doves to name but a few. We also saw tortoises, land iguanas, and numerous sea-lions, fur sea-lions and marine iguanas, as well as visiting the renowned Charles Darwin Centre. Indeed, the sea-lions are so prevalent they´re even found snatching fish off the tables in the main market (see the
photo!). The landscape itself was also dramatic, as the islands are volcanic.
We also saw lots from the boat, including a pod of 30 pilot whales - these are a fairly rare sighting, so we were joined on deck by the entire crew. The whales swam with the boat for what seemed an age (although not long enough), swimming under the hull several times. And just as the whales withdrew, a large pod of bottle-nose dolphins arrived.
Our final morning, we visited Black Turtle Cove by dingy. We saw both black and several white-tipped reef sharks, a number of turtles, and lots of golden cownose-, spotted eagle- and sting-rays. Returning to the boat, thinking our Galapagos adventure was over, we found five galapagos sharks circling. A fantastic end to what was undoubtedly the highlight of our entire trip.
We also enjoyed the rest of our time in Ecuador.
Quito is a city of contrasts, with a beautiful old town, rich in colonial buildings. The historical centre was the first UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Site, appointed in 1978 alongside Krakow, Poland, and we really enjoyed strolling the streets, and visiting a number of the churches, museums and
Galapagos
Stunning red crabs! other colonial buildings. The new town, however, is frankly unpleasant, and the deserted evening streets testify to the high crime rate - although it did possess a few nice restaurants.
From Quito, we did a day-trip to the nearby ´La Mitad del Mundo´, the Middle of the World, a park spanning the equator, with a large monument signifying the equator itself . . . or so they thought. Unfortunately, GPS has revealed that the site is actually 240m south of the equator - but we found the smaller, unofficial museum on the true equator much more interesting anyway.
Our other destination in Ecuador was the Amazon jungle. Having spent so long in South America, we felt we ought to visit, and it was definitely worth the trip - unsurprisingly, though, it was very hot and humid, and the mosquitos were ravenous, the spiders scary (finding three taratulas under the dining table was a shock) and the cockroaches huge (and inclined to find their way through the mosquito netting and into our bed). We´re glad we went, but it´s perhaps not a place we´d rush back to.
We flew from Quito to Lago Agrio, close to the Colombian
Galapagos
Sunset on day 1 border, travelled by jeep for 3 hours, and then by canoe for a further 3 hours, to our rustic jungle lodging, home for 3 nights.
Our first boat-ride was perhaps the most interesting. We went fishing for piranhas (sadly, Sarah and I caught nothing, but the nice American couple we were with and the head guide had more success), saw pink river dolphins and watched a beautiful sunset over the water.
Much of the rest of the time was spent working for our indigenous guide. Alright, not quite, but we did get to make yucca bread, which involved harvesting, grating and cooking enough yucca to feed the guide´s family for a month. We also went on another boat trip (in a canoe that haemorraged water), ostensibly to view wildlife, but seemed to spend a lot of time fishing (again, without success) and collecting mangoes. The indigenous guide used her thumb-print to sign her name, but she certainly wasn´t stupid.
In fairness, the indigenous guide knew an amazing amount about jungle life, the flora and fauna. We were even able to try some grubs that allegedly tasted like chocolate (they didn´t!) and live ants, although Sarah sensibly declined
Galapagos
Dove-tailed gull this second offer. But some dodgy grub (or grubs) aside, it was genuinely fascinating seeing how the local people had adopted to life in this harsh environment.
Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Ecuador, and would love to go back . . . especially to those islands!
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