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Published: April 19th 2009
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Galapagos
Strike a pose! Galapagos
Hi All
Our once in a lifetime trip of the Galápagos Islands started by meeting Tina (Natasha´s mum) and Thelma (Tina´s friend) at Guayaquil airport in Ecuador. It was a nice reunion and soon we found ourselves on an old Boeing 737 100 or 200. I kept pointing out how old our aircraft was to my mother- in- law and her friend but the women remained unphased by my persistent and rather poor attempt at humour simply because the jet had just had a new paint job and therefore looked pretty!
When we arrived at San Cristóbal we took a walk around the rather brief little port and spotted our first sighting of Galápagos wildlife. They were Sea Lions basking in the shade in some little bus stop type shelters designed for people. I love watching thier behaviour as they interacted, with all the groaning and facing up to one another. They are adorable.
Day 2 begun with us being shown to the boat which was to be our home for the next 8 days. The crew, who outnumbered the guests looked very dashing all dressed in white and welcomed us aboard with a glass of
Galapagos
Sally lightfoot champagne shortly followed by lunch. Our first snorkelling experience was that afternoon and we got so see the Sea Lions again, this time in the water where they tease people by coming right up to you in a very playful manner and twisting, turning, disappearing only to emerge behind you nibbling at your flippers. It is so important as well as being park rules not to interact with these animals in any way but it was very hard to do because they are so playful and inquisitive. We also sighted Sea Iguanas on this day, as well as the Sally Lightfoot crab, both of which are quite mysterious looking creatures.
Other highlights of our trip on the Islands were seeing an Iguana narrowly escape the tallens of a hawk. This happened while we were photgraping a hawk sitting in a bush whilst being completely at ease with us who were litterally one metre away. Then before our very eyes a large rather juicy looking Iguana casually and in a slow Iguana like manner walked, again unphased by our presence right between us and directly below the bird of prey sitting 2 feet above. Suddenly (just as one of us
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Sea Iguana catching the waves whispered “Bon Appetite”) the Iguana recognised the shape of it´s predator, did a 180 and raced back where it came from, and in the process running straight over Natasha´s foot! The creatures do not fear human presence because they simple havn´t learned to. Although humans have historically hunted extensivley in the islands, we did not do it long enough for them to learn to fear us. This is just one of the reasone that make this place so unique and you can see why sailors called this place “enchanted”.
Another Fabulous memory of our trip was hearing the Captain of our vessel announce that there were Dolphins swimming around our boat. We all dashed outside and there were dozens of beautiful dolphins gliding through the water just in front of the bow of the boat and occasionally we were lucky enough to see one jump fully out of the water. This was unforgetable. We saw so many fabulous creatures, plants, lava formations and learned so much about this increasingly precious part of the world that we will always remember. I hope the pictures do it some justice.
Banos and the Jungle
After a tiring week snorkeling, lava
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Mum and Thelma enjoying the sun and the breeze trekking and gorging on gourmet food, we felt we needed some relaxation and pampering, so we headed to Baños in the Andes. The town is located in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges and countless waterfalls - oh, and one very active volcano! The town gets it´s name from the thermal hot springs that are dotted around the immediate area. We visited the baths on a couple of occassions, enjoying the warm pool (37 degrees), the hot pool (40 degrees) and even the cold pool. I asked one of the workers the temperature of this latter pool three times and the reply each time was COLD....we confer!
We opted for some light activity as well, taking a horseriding tour to do some volcano watching (no red hot lava witnessed). The tour went smoothly, after Dave and I learned to ignore my mother´s shrieks. The first time this happened, we thought my mum had fallen off the horse. We soon learned however, this shriek was a reaction to her leg brushing against the poo-bag of another horse! Hahahaha! 😊
Baños was our last stop before Mum and Thelma´s holiday ended and they flew back to Toronto. It was
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Dolphins playing in our wake sad to see them go as they were great company, but we were so pleased they made the trip out.
Dave and I carried onto Tena and the jumping off point to our jungle tour. We managed to locate one of only a handful of english-speaking guides to take us around the jungle and teach us about his playground. Walking in virgin rainforest was amazing and slightly more an adventure then we bargained for! We had several adrenaline induced moments, some of which were planned, such as walking up waterfalls. Others were a bit of a surprise....Dave getting stung twice by a jungle bee and our guide nearly stepping on a poisonous snake! Primary rainforest is quite a clausterphobic place to be where leaves were bigger then our heads, spiders resembled small mammals in size and the cute caterpillars stung! But, we have lived to tell the tale....
COLUMBIA
On Good Friday we made our way into Columbia - the last country on our travels. Popayan, located in the south, was a convenient stop over point and apparently an excellent place to be over Easter. In Popayan, the locals are proud of their colonial city, with pretty
Galapagos
This guy is a bit of a show-off...but it is mating season for the Frigatebird white washed builgings and lovingly restored churches - and Columbians descend on the tiny city ever year to enjoy it with them. We caught a glimpse of the religious processions, hundreds of people with candles, musical instruments or floats walking the streets of Popayan.
Dave and I were also lucky enough to experience first hand why all the travellers we´d met describe Columbians as the friendliest people in South America. While wondering around the streets, trying to locate some lunchtime grub, we met a Columbian guy back in Popayan visiting family. After a short discussion, he insisted we join him and his mother for lunch and then afterwards refused to let us pay our share of the bill! After the meal we all went to a local church which was hosting the biggest crafts market we´d ever been too. Three hours walking, chatting and sharing laughs around the market, we parted ways, but not without several mobile phone numbers in case Dave and I ran into any problems or had any questions about Columbia. Lovely people, lovely place.
Dave and I are looking forward to the rest of our time in Columbia - both the places we´ll see
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Panga ride....wet landing...dry landing...wet landing... and the people we´ll meet!
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