Ecuador 22 - 28 Jul 07

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After arriving in Ecuador, we were picked up by our host Diego. We stayed at a hostel which is a family run accomodation. The family were lovely and we were fortunate to be the only visitors in the lodgings, so we had the house to ourselves. During our stay, Diego drove us to the Old City of Quito, which has many historical buildings and is quite beautiful - so many churches. The following day we flew to the Galapagos Islands which is approximately 1000km west of Ecuador and consists of 13 major islands. We spent 4 days cruising around on a boat.

To be continued...

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Photos

Galapagos Tortoise
A Galapagos Tortoise checking us out at the Charles Darwin Research Centre in the Galapagos Islands.

Land Iguana
One of the pre-historic looking lizards from the Galapagos Islands. The Marine Iguana is similar in appearance but charcoal grey in colour.

Dolphins
A large pod of dolphins escorted our boat for a while. What started as a few turned into dozens of them, leaping out of the water all around us.

Blue-Footed Booby and Chick
A Blue-Footed Booby feeds its chick some fish it has caught. They dive from great heights into the ocean, dropping like a stone, to catch the fish. Unfortunately the chick was not able to swallow the fish quickly enough and we watched as a flock of Frigate Birds harrassed it and eventually stole the fish.

Sea Lion
These guys are so unafraid of humans they will swim up along side you while you are snorkelling and display their swimming prowess. We spent nearly half an hour swimming around a pair of them - they so graceful, playful and cheeky. The roll their eyes up at you as they swim under you and blow bubbles!