Caveat to mobile users: My pictures are hosted on photobucket which so many mobile users despise, but since this will be reasonably picture intensive you might as well find a PC to appreciate the images.
Persons involved: Me (39), My Dad (64)
Flights from DFW to Ecuador were on AA in first class or international business class purchased using dad’s accumulated flyer miles and mainland hotel was again purchased using accumulated points.
Travel from mainland to the islands was on AeroGal, in an Airbus A320 (I think). We booked the AeroGal flight and the accommodations/tours on the island though Nature Galapagos. Total price was about $2,150 per person which included all hotels, meals, island transfers, tours, and the AeroGal flight. Not included was $100 National Park entry fee, $10 migratory control card, tips, and booze.
We started out on May 17 with a flight from DFW to MIA and then from MIA to UIO (Quito, Ecuador). UIO is a new airport that just opened a couple of years ago and is about a 45-60 minute cab ride ($25) to the city center depending on traffic (which can be insane). They are working on a new road to get to the airport which would bypass the two-lane bridge which currently is the only crossing of one of the rivers between UIO and the city center.
I didn’t take any pictures as this was a travel day and we arrived after dark so it was kind of hard to take things in. We stayed at the JW Marriott resort along Av. Rio Amazonas, rooms were big and clean, pretty much what we would expect at a “nice” hotel in the states.
May 18: Full day in Quito
We had breakfast at the hotel and headed south towards Old Town for a walk and some sight seeing. It was still midmorning on Sunday so most of the shops were still closed and there weren’t a whole lot of people on the streets. Av. Rio Amazonas is closed to vehicular traffic on Sundays to allow for bicycle and pedestrian traffic to encourage folks to exercise so it was fairly easy getting around. We walked through the craft market at Parque El Ejido and continued south towards the Basilica del Voto Nationale, were we spent the next several hours exploring this large, Gothic Cathedral.
Construction on the Cathedral was begun in the 1890s and is still not wholly complete. You can see rebar sticking out of walls awaiting the placement of some time of adornment and at the same time see adornments that are already degrading. Many of these appear to be a type of cast concrete which is already corroding.
The interior of the cathedral is absolutely stunning, the stained glass is beautiful and the proportions of the main sept are just amazing to behold.
The elements of the exterior play tribute to the native species of Ecuador (mainly the Galapagos) and feature birds (frigates, cormorants, boobies, pelicans) and land animals (tortoises, iguanas, armadillos) in place of the typical gargoyles.
Climbing the towers affords you some amazing views of the city.
We stayed at the cathedral until mid afternoon and since we had skipped lunch, we bought a “snack” from a street vendor on the walk back the hotel. To the best of my recollection from the top down this was chorizo, potato, plantain, carne, and salchipapa (hot dog) all smothered in a mayonnaise based sauce. We came to realize that mayonnaise is a major condiment down there.
We rested at the hotel and went out to a place called La Brasera a few blocks away for dinner. They serve the popular parillada with various meats. The “for two” was about $30 and looked like more food than we could handle, the “for one” was $17 and still seemed like too much, so I ordered the Junior Plate for $10. It started out with soup and the main plate included lomo fino (steak), chuleta (pork chop), salchipapa (hot dog), two potatoes smothered in mayo, a cabbage salad, and they also brought out bowls of a habenero salsa, chimichurri, and even more mayo. I wasn’t able to finish it. Here it is about halfway through (the JUNIOR plate!):
A fun giggle from our walk:
Got telephone wires?
May 19: Quito to San Cristobal
We got up and ate breakfast at the JW Marriott Executive Club (thanks to Dad’s travel points again) and then grabbed a cab at the hotel to head back to UIO. Unfortunately, the cabs that lay in waiting at the hotel are not the standard yellow taxis that are all over Quito, but an independent car service that charges $50 for the same ride that cost only $25 in the yellow taxi, oh well.
Our AeroGal flight was about 20 minutes late, but we later found out that was pretty much par for the course unless you were catching the first flight of the day. All AeroGal flights also stop at Guayaquil in between Quito and the islands to you will have one ~45 minute flight and one ~90 minute flight with a refueling stop in Guayaquil.
We checked in at customs, paid our $100 National Park entry fee (cash only) and then waited for checked luggage to pass inspection. After we picked up our bags, we headed out to the taxi area to see our Guia Naturalista (Naturalist Guide, licensed by the natural park) Jose-Luis waiting and holding a sign with our names on it. He drove us to the Blue Marlin Hotel in what we called the official vehicle of the islands, the 4WD, four-door, Toyota Hilux. This was the most common vehicle aside from the Chevy LUV 4WD, four-door, which most often had the turbo diesel engine and always had a manual transmission. In fact, we didn’t ride in a vehicle with an automatic transmission a single time during the entire trip.
We checked in at the Blue Marlin and got a key to a standard “Tourist Superior Class” room. We had two queen beds, a tile floor, wall-unit AC with remote, TV, and a small fridge. This room was typical of the three different hotels we stayed in, however this one seemed to lack hot water in the shower so we just had to deal with it. Also typical was the sign telling us to throw the toilet paper in the waste can rather than the commode. I was about 50% on this one, sometimes I would drop it in the commode out of habit and I sure as hell wasn’t fishing it back out of there.
After we checked in and changed into beach attire, we walked over to where we would be taking our lunch and dinner while on San Cristobal, the Rosita Bar and Grill. We had the option of having the three-course “meal of the day” or ordering off of the menu and paying the difference if we exceeded our $10 allowance. We opted for the meal of the day; you know all “when in Rome” and stuff. Meal of the day never failed to start of with a small pitcher of water, a small pitcher of fresh juice, and a bowl of soup. The juices and soups varied from day to day and place to place but were generally pretty good. The main entrée was always chicken or fish (always cooked well done) with vegetables and either rice, papas fritas, and sometimes plantains. Desserts varied, but we tended to prefer the fruits to the dry cakes that sometimes appeared.
After lunch, we headed to the Sea Lion Preserve. On the short hike over we saw marine iguanas and a lone blue-footed booby on the volcanic rocks lining the shoreline and then when we got to the sandy beach area we were greated by dozens of sea lions lounging about. We did some snorkeling and the younger sea lions were curious and would come up to see what we were up to, it was a little scary at first but we got used to it after a short while. I was delighted to have an up close encounter with a huge pacific green sea turtle.
May 20: Isla Lobos
We hopped on a speed boat with a dozen or so other folks and then took about a 30 minute ride along the shoreline observing boobies, frigate birds, sea lions, and the occasional sea turtle. When we got to Isla Lobos, we walked for about an hour to get an up-front-and-personal look at many of the same animals and then we spent the afternoon snorkeling.
We got back to the hotel, showered and changed, and headed back down to the waterfront to grab a beer and an empanada. We sat at a table on the street and did some people and sea lion watching. San Cristobal has about 7,000 residents, most of which were born and raised there, but the majority of the folks walking on the water front were college aged folks who looked like they were island hopping and staying hostels.
May 21: Santa Cruz and Isabela
Because of a scheduling SNAFU with the travel agent, we had to shuffle our schedule a bit. So we got up a little early and boarded a speed boat to take us to Santa Cruz Island. The ride was about two hours, not terribly rough, but one guy that was sitting up front started feeling woozy so they moved him to the back of the boat where the motion isn’t as bad but he ended up chumming the waters anyway.
When we got to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz, we transferred to a water taxi to take us to shore for $0.50 a person for a short ride. Our local guide met us and we took a taxi truck to the Hotel Fernandina to eat breakfast, which was served buffet style and since they had kept it out late waiting for us and everything was cold, oh well. Then we walked with a few others to the Darwin Research Station to see their giant tortoise breeding program. The Darwin station is a facility that has many buildings funded by various entities (think research park in College Station) but the only part open to the public is the tortoise breeding center.
The young tortoises are kept in small cages for the first year or so and then transferred to larger enclosures as they grow. Since species vary from island to island, they have to be marked and numbered so that they can be sorted later before being released into the wild on their home islands, usually when they get about five years old. They don’t have to worry about cross-breeding at this age because the tortoises don’t reach sexual maturity until around age 25.
We toured the facility and endured a bit of rain, which brought out the humidity and then walked back into town, checked out a few stores and went to the water front where pelicans, iguanas, and sea lions were waiting for scraps near a public fish cleaning area as the charter boats came in from their morning trips.
Tortoise in the rain:
We returned to the hotel for lunch and then back to the harbor to board another speed boat headed for Isabela Island. This was another two-hour ride that was quite a bit rougher. I was in the back of the enclosed section of the boat so I stayed mostly try, but it was pretty hot inside. The folks sitting in the open back of the boat were getting pretty much soaked. This is where we met someone we came to know as “Dr. Kickass”. The Doc was traveling with his 14 year old son and he loved to tell everyone who was within earshot of how awesome his life was, in both English and Spanish. That being said, he was a really nice guy but he just wouldn’t shut up, ever. He grew up in Peru and currently lives in Houston and works in emergency medicine, his wife is from Sweden and his kid is evidently home schooled because there is no way he could go to a regular school with all the traveling they had been doing. They had already been to Machu Picchu, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the kid had also just spent two months in Sweden with his mom’s family. Dr. Kickass ended up staying with us at the Hotel La Laguna on Isabela Island so we took our meals together and he would ask what our plans were for the next day and then proceed to tell us what we should be doing instead, sigh.
Anyway, after the boat ride to Puerto Villamil, Isabela we checked into the Hotel La Laguna and then strolled around town for a bit. Puerto Villamil was the smallest of the three towns we stayed in with only about 3,000 residents, and also the most expensive. We looked at menus for the restaurants in the tourist area and most meals were in the $15-$25 range whereas they were $10-$15 on the other islands. The local beers were about a dollar more per bottle. It was a pretty cool little town though, they have a 3km fine, sandy beach, some cool little beach front bars, and you can walk through areas that other places you might consider pretty suspect, but since the crime rate is damn near non-existent you feel safe just strolling anywhere.
Best napkin holder ever:
Some of the residential areas, many homes were in various states of construction or lack thereof:
May 22: Isabela Highlands and Tintoreras Snorkeling
We hopped in the hotel transport (thankfully without Dr. Kickass because he was doing something awesomer) with Bronnie and her husband Gavin from Melbourne, Australia and headed up to the Isabela highlands to see the local tortoise breeding center, look for tortoises in the wild, see the “wall of tears”, and stop at a few scenic overlooks. We liked this tortoise center better than the one on Santa Cruz as it was larger and there was much more to see. We approached an enclosure with ~5 year old tortoises who are to be released later this year and they came running towards us (well as much as a tortoise can run) thinking we were there to feed them. At this age they are only fed once every three days in an effort to acclimate them to the wild where they might not find quality forage on a daily basis. All of the tortoises at this facility are of the species native to Isabela, none from the other islands.
This one declined to show us his “O” face:
We hopped back in the transport and headed up to the highlands. Our guide usually does the volcano hike which is much cooler so he was trying to push us a bit because he evidently doesn’t like being hot, but we still took our time since we were paying to be there. Most of the tortoises in the area we visited were raised at a breeding center and released into this highland preserve to live in the wild.
We continued to walk to the wall of tears, which was constructed, dismantled, and rebuilt multiple times from 1945 – 1959 when the island was a penal colony. They say thousands of prisoners lost their lives during construction, most shot or beaten by guards and the locals claim they can still hear cries emanating from the heavy energy surrounding the site.
Next, we climbed an old volcano chimney that now served as a scenic overlook, you can see Puerto Villamil in the distance:
Next stop was a beach with a lava tunnel that fills with the tide and then some marine iguana spotting.
We headed back to the hotel for lunch with our Aussie friends and then we went back to the harbor and hopped on a boat to go out to Islet Tintoreras for a hike and then to do more snorkeling. Tintoreras is a breakwater volcanic outcropping that is popular for the iguanas, boobies, and sea lions and during better conditions we may have been able to see some sharks in the water but they didn’t appear to be in the shallows that day. On the way out we saw Galapagos penguins, an eagle ray, and a few sea turtles.
The terrain on the islet didn’t seem terribly booby friendly:
Or even sea lion friendly for that matter:
We got back to the boat and found a bay to go snorkeling. It was really windy and the water was rough and turbid so I didn’t get a lot of great pictures, but I did have some fun with a curious sea lion.
There was more booby watching on the way back to shore:
Also of note, this is a popular game down there, referred to as “Ecua-Volley” They set the net up about 9-10 feet up and use a soccer ball rather than a volleyball. We even saw them playing the game on concrete courts and STILL diving after the ball.
May 23 – Sierra Negra Volcano and Vulcan Chico
We hopped in our trusty hotel transport (unfortunately WITH Dr. Kickass this time) and headed north to hike up Sierra Negra, which sports the second largest volcanic crater in the world at 17km and then continue hiking over to still-active Vulcan Chico.
What started off to be a pretty cool day deteriorated pretty quick as the overcast/misty morning turned into a light, but steady rain than never really went away. It might stop for a few minutes, but then it would pick right back up, usually coinciding with Dad taking his big expensive camera out of the backpack, luckily my point and shoot was waterproof.
The trail was muddy, and when we would get to an overlook our guide wouldn’t linger long at all, mainly because visibility sucked and he felt that if you couldn’t see what you were meant to see, why even stop? So he kept walking and would tell the group that it was “only two kilometers more” about every 20 minutes.
Did I mention that it was muddy?
Dad wore plenty of mud that day:
No really, there is a big ass crater down there:
So with nothing to see, we left the crater and turned east a bit to see Vulcan Chico. Vegetation was sparse, lava tunnels were plentiful, and it felt like we were on another planet. The ground was warm in places and every once in a while we would encounter a vent with hot air coming out of it. We stopped at a high point overlooking a volcanic plain and had lunch. When the guide was finished with his lunch, he stood up, said “let’s go make the walking” and then took off. Most of us were still eating and taking pictures. Dad and I said the hell with him and took our sweet time on the hike back, which was just got muddier as we went.
FYI, this is Dr. Kickass and his son (the kid liked to talked as much as his dad, but I’ll give him some credit though, the kid was pretty sharp):
Lunch:
This modified Toyota was our transport. How it made it some of the steep hills with 12 people in the back is beyond me. I’m willing to wager they replace the clutch at least once a year, and rebuild the transmission every other year.
May 24 – Kayaking and a farm visit
We slept in a bit and met our guide Ricardo to go kayaking, also joining us as a 20-something bikini wearing dingbat from Boston, that we were pretty sure had banged Ricardo the night before. At one point while talking with Dingbat I mentioned something about the Texas coast and she said “Texas has a coast?!?!” when I explained about that that whole gulf of Mexico thing, she said “oh, so it must be a pretty small coast then.”
Anyway, we hopped in our kayaks and paddled out towards the breakwater islets and spotted a few sea turtles, and of course penguins and boobies. It was windy and rough conditions again so I didn’t get many great pictures, but it was a fun excursion nonetheless.
Yep, that says Delaware:
See those yellow crates? That’s the beer we have been drinking.
Dingbat and Ricardo:
After lunch and a shower Ricardo picked us up and we went to visit a farm in the highlands that also served as a small tortoise preserve. We walked around, grabbing fruit off of trees to snack on and looked at the tortoises and discussed the vegetation. This was of special interest to me (see username and profile) so I really enjoyed the afternoon. One thing of note, this is an agricultural area and pretty much anything more than 2 meters tall is an introduced species. Guava and passionfruit are to especially invasive species as they are a little more dry tolerant and continue to thrive after the end of the rainy season.
After the farm, we visited Cuero Sucre, a cave that was discovered when part of the ceiling of a lava tube collapsed, revealing a large, wet cave that has yet to be fully explored. I took a few pics inside, but they didn’t turn out very well, but here is the entrance.
We headed back to town and our now usual beachfront bar and were entertained by a wedding ceremony taking place on the beach (Catholic, in Spanish).
May 25 – Back to Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz
We got up really early to catch a 6 AM speedboat back to Puerto Ayora. On our way out of the bay and into open water the captain stopped, climbed down into the cabin area and handed each of us a plastic bag. We soon found out why, as we crossed into the open ocean and were subjected to 2.5 hours of bouncing, rolling, splashing, but surprisingly no barfing.
We took a taxi back to Hotel Fernandina, had a hot breakfast this time and then our guide Edwin took us to Playa Tortuga. What we didn’t know was that the playa was a one-hour walk from the trailhead. We saw finches and lava lizards along the way, and after what seemed like forever we finally reached the open beach. Part of the sands was roped off to keep people from walking over the sea turtle nests. Every time you see a yellow flag, there is a documented nest under it.
We walked the beach for quite a while, wondering where we going and why, as our guide admittedly didn’t have a strong grasp on the English language, but with my broken Spanish and a lot of pointing and sign language we managed to get by.
We finally reached a grove of mangroves that apparently was the reason for our walk as we observed a few hundred marine iguanas congregating in the area.
Humidity kinda fogged up the camera for a while:
On the back side of the mangroves was a nice bay and a boat offering to take us back to town for $10 each, but we elected for the long walk back.
As we were walking along the beach in the bay, we encountered more boobies and my dad, being the dirty old man that he is was taking pics in stealth mode:
Edwin dropped us back at the hotel for lunch and picked us up after to take us up to the highlands to a tortoise preserve. At this facility they were entirely free range rather than being cooped up in pens, so we got a more closeup experience.
Next stop was another lava tunnel cave, this one so big you could have driven two trucks side-by-side through it:
This was our ride today, Edwin’s Chevrolet Jimmy. I had to cram myself in and out of the back seat:
Saw this shirt in a shop while shopping for presents for the wife and kids. I had already spent more than I planned to, so I had to pass on this one despite its greatness:
This was our last night on the islands so we walked down to the water front fish cleaning area hoping to see the sea lions one last time, but alas they weren’t there. We bought a couple of beers and hung out watching the pelicans for a while instead.
May 26 – Baltra Airport and back to the mainland
Our ride picked us up and drove us north to the ferry landing to cross over to Baltra Island where the airport was. The airport was actually built by the U.S. in WWII and the foundations from many of the buildings we put there are still dotting the landscape.
Back on the mainland, we walked over to a Peruvian restaurant near the hotel and had a late lunch/early dinner of ceviche and a fish whose name escapes me:
The beer truck followed us from the airport:
We wandered around a bit and saw a “Supermaxi” supermarket so we decided to go in and look around, point, laugh, and grab some snacks.
For Game of Thrones fans:
No refridgeration for eggs and margarine:
Bags of mustard:
Value brand box sangria:
Craptastically expensive booze:
May 27 – Full day in Quito
We walked over to a botanic garden and took a lot of pictures I won’t bore you with. Afterwards we saw a shopping mall and decided to do a little more pointing, laughing, and walking around. For those of you wondering what they call a quarter pounder in Ecuador:
I bought an awesome wallet from a street vendor:
This is a popular chain down there, strange name and mascot, but food actually looked decent:
And traffic laws pretty much go out the window in rush hour:
I think that is about it for now. I may update with a few other tidbits later. Thanks for reading.
[This message has been edited by Tree Hugger (edited 6/3/2014 2:39p).]
Persons involved: Me (39), My Dad (64)
Flights from DFW to Ecuador were on AA in first class or international business class purchased using dad’s accumulated flyer miles and mainland hotel was again purchased using accumulated points.
Travel from mainland to the islands was on AeroGal, in an Airbus A320 (I think). We booked the AeroGal flight and the accommodations/tours on the island though Nature Galapagos. Total price was about $2,150 per person which included all hotels, meals, island transfers, tours, and the AeroGal flight. Not included was $100 National Park entry fee, $10 migratory control card, tips, and booze.
We started out on May 17 with a flight from DFW to MIA and then from MIA to UIO (Quito, Ecuador). UIO is a new airport that just opened a couple of years ago and is about a 45-60 minute cab ride ($25) to the city center depending on traffic (which can be insane). They are working on a new road to get to the airport which would bypass the two-lane bridge which currently is the only crossing of one of the rivers between UIO and the city center.
I didn’t take any pictures as this was a travel day and we arrived after dark so it was kind of hard to take things in. We stayed at the JW Marriott resort along Av. Rio Amazonas, rooms were big and clean, pretty much what we would expect at a “nice” hotel in the states.
May 18: Full day in Quito
We had breakfast at the hotel and headed south towards Old Town for a walk and some sight seeing. It was still midmorning on Sunday so most of the shops were still closed and there weren’t a whole lot of people on the streets. Av. Rio Amazonas is closed to vehicular traffic on Sundays to allow for bicycle and pedestrian traffic to encourage folks to exercise so it was fairly easy getting around. We walked through the craft market at Parque El Ejido and continued south towards the Basilica del Voto Nationale, were we spent the next several hours exploring this large, Gothic Cathedral.
Construction on the Cathedral was begun in the 1890s and is still not wholly complete. You can see rebar sticking out of walls awaiting the placement of some time of adornment and at the same time see adornments that are already degrading. Many of these appear to be a type of cast concrete which is already corroding.
The interior of the cathedral is absolutely stunning, the stained glass is beautiful and the proportions of the main sept are just amazing to behold.
The elements of the exterior play tribute to the native species of Ecuador (mainly the Galapagos) and feature birds (frigates, cormorants, boobies, pelicans) and land animals (tortoises, iguanas, armadillos) in place of the typical gargoyles.
Climbing the towers affords you some amazing views of the city.
We stayed at the cathedral until mid afternoon and since we had skipped lunch, we bought a “snack” from a street vendor on the walk back the hotel. To the best of my recollection from the top down this was chorizo, potato, plantain, carne, and salchipapa (hot dog) all smothered in a mayonnaise based sauce. We came to realize that mayonnaise is a major condiment down there.
We rested at the hotel and went out to a place called La Brasera a few blocks away for dinner. They serve the popular parillada with various meats. The “for two” was about $30 and looked like more food than we could handle, the “for one” was $17 and still seemed like too much, so I ordered the Junior Plate for $10. It started out with soup and the main plate included lomo fino (steak), chuleta (pork chop), salchipapa (hot dog), two potatoes smothered in mayo, a cabbage salad, and they also brought out bowls of a habenero salsa, chimichurri, and even more mayo. I wasn’t able to finish it. Here it is about halfway through (the JUNIOR plate!):
A fun giggle from our walk:
Got telephone wires?
May 19: Quito to San Cristobal
We got up and ate breakfast at the JW Marriott Executive Club (thanks to Dad’s travel points again) and then grabbed a cab at the hotel to head back to UIO. Unfortunately, the cabs that lay in waiting at the hotel are not the standard yellow taxis that are all over Quito, but an independent car service that charges $50 for the same ride that cost only $25 in the yellow taxi, oh well.
Our AeroGal flight was about 20 minutes late, but we later found out that was pretty much par for the course unless you were catching the first flight of the day. All AeroGal flights also stop at Guayaquil in between Quito and the islands to you will have one ~45 minute flight and one ~90 minute flight with a refueling stop in Guayaquil.
We checked in at customs, paid our $100 National Park entry fee (cash only) and then waited for checked luggage to pass inspection. After we picked up our bags, we headed out to the taxi area to see our Guia Naturalista (Naturalist Guide, licensed by the natural park) Jose-Luis waiting and holding a sign with our names on it. He drove us to the Blue Marlin Hotel in what we called the official vehicle of the islands, the 4WD, four-door, Toyota Hilux. This was the most common vehicle aside from the Chevy LUV 4WD, four-door, which most often had the turbo diesel engine and always had a manual transmission. In fact, we didn’t ride in a vehicle with an automatic transmission a single time during the entire trip.
We checked in at the Blue Marlin and got a key to a standard “Tourist Superior Class” room. We had two queen beds, a tile floor, wall-unit AC with remote, TV, and a small fridge. This room was typical of the three different hotels we stayed in, however this one seemed to lack hot water in the shower so we just had to deal with it. Also typical was the sign telling us to throw the toilet paper in the waste can rather than the commode. I was about 50% on this one, sometimes I would drop it in the commode out of habit and I sure as hell wasn’t fishing it back out of there.
After we checked in and changed into beach attire, we walked over to where we would be taking our lunch and dinner while on San Cristobal, the Rosita Bar and Grill. We had the option of having the three-course “meal of the day” or ordering off of the menu and paying the difference if we exceeded our $10 allowance. We opted for the meal of the day; you know all “when in Rome” and stuff. Meal of the day never failed to start of with a small pitcher of water, a small pitcher of fresh juice, and a bowl of soup. The juices and soups varied from day to day and place to place but were generally pretty good. The main entrée was always chicken or fish (always cooked well done) with vegetables and either rice, papas fritas, and sometimes plantains. Desserts varied, but we tended to prefer the fruits to the dry cakes that sometimes appeared.
After lunch, we headed to the Sea Lion Preserve. On the short hike over we saw marine iguanas and a lone blue-footed booby on the volcanic rocks lining the shoreline and then when we got to the sandy beach area we were greated by dozens of sea lions lounging about. We did some snorkeling and the younger sea lions were curious and would come up to see what we were up to, it was a little scary at first but we got used to it after a short while. I was delighted to have an up close encounter with a huge pacific green sea turtle.
May 20: Isla Lobos
We hopped on a speed boat with a dozen or so other folks and then took about a 30 minute ride along the shoreline observing boobies, frigate birds, sea lions, and the occasional sea turtle. When we got to Isla Lobos, we walked for about an hour to get an up-front-and-personal look at many of the same animals and then we spent the afternoon snorkeling.
We got back to the hotel, showered and changed, and headed back down to the waterfront to grab a beer and an empanada. We sat at a table on the street and did some people and sea lion watching. San Cristobal has about 7,000 residents, most of which were born and raised there, but the majority of the folks walking on the water front were college aged folks who looked like they were island hopping and staying hostels.
May 21: Santa Cruz and Isabela
Because of a scheduling SNAFU with the travel agent, we had to shuffle our schedule a bit. So we got up a little early and boarded a speed boat to take us to Santa Cruz Island. The ride was about two hours, not terribly rough, but one guy that was sitting up front started feeling woozy so they moved him to the back of the boat where the motion isn’t as bad but he ended up chumming the waters anyway.
When we got to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz, we transferred to a water taxi to take us to shore for $0.50 a person for a short ride. Our local guide met us and we took a taxi truck to the Hotel Fernandina to eat breakfast, which was served buffet style and since they had kept it out late waiting for us and everything was cold, oh well. Then we walked with a few others to the Darwin Research Station to see their giant tortoise breeding program. The Darwin station is a facility that has many buildings funded by various entities (think research park in College Station) but the only part open to the public is the tortoise breeding center.
The young tortoises are kept in small cages for the first year or so and then transferred to larger enclosures as they grow. Since species vary from island to island, they have to be marked and numbered so that they can be sorted later before being released into the wild on their home islands, usually when they get about five years old. They don’t have to worry about cross-breeding at this age because the tortoises don’t reach sexual maturity until around age 25.
We toured the facility and endured a bit of rain, which brought out the humidity and then walked back into town, checked out a few stores and went to the water front where pelicans, iguanas, and sea lions were waiting for scraps near a public fish cleaning area as the charter boats came in from their morning trips.
Tortoise in the rain:
We returned to the hotel for lunch and then back to the harbor to board another speed boat headed for Isabela Island. This was another two-hour ride that was quite a bit rougher. I was in the back of the enclosed section of the boat so I stayed mostly try, but it was pretty hot inside. The folks sitting in the open back of the boat were getting pretty much soaked. This is where we met someone we came to know as “Dr. Kickass”. The Doc was traveling with his 14 year old son and he loved to tell everyone who was within earshot of how awesome his life was, in both English and Spanish. That being said, he was a really nice guy but he just wouldn’t shut up, ever. He grew up in Peru and currently lives in Houston and works in emergency medicine, his wife is from Sweden and his kid is evidently home schooled because there is no way he could go to a regular school with all the traveling they had been doing. They had already been to Machu Picchu, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the kid had also just spent two months in Sweden with his mom’s family. Dr. Kickass ended up staying with us at the Hotel La Laguna on Isabela Island so we took our meals together and he would ask what our plans were for the next day and then proceed to tell us what we should be doing instead, sigh.
Anyway, after the boat ride to Puerto Villamil, Isabela we checked into the Hotel La Laguna and then strolled around town for a bit. Puerto Villamil was the smallest of the three towns we stayed in with only about 3,000 residents, and also the most expensive. We looked at menus for the restaurants in the tourist area and most meals were in the $15-$25 range whereas they were $10-$15 on the other islands. The local beers were about a dollar more per bottle. It was a pretty cool little town though, they have a 3km fine, sandy beach, some cool little beach front bars, and you can walk through areas that other places you might consider pretty suspect, but since the crime rate is damn near non-existent you feel safe just strolling anywhere.
Best napkin holder ever:
Some of the residential areas, many homes were in various states of construction or lack thereof:
May 22: Isabela Highlands and Tintoreras Snorkeling
We hopped in the hotel transport (thankfully without Dr. Kickass because he was doing something awesomer) with Bronnie and her husband Gavin from Melbourne, Australia and headed up to the Isabela highlands to see the local tortoise breeding center, look for tortoises in the wild, see the “wall of tears”, and stop at a few scenic overlooks. We liked this tortoise center better than the one on Santa Cruz as it was larger and there was much more to see. We approached an enclosure with ~5 year old tortoises who are to be released later this year and they came running towards us (well as much as a tortoise can run) thinking we were there to feed them. At this age they are only fed once every three days in an effort to acclimate them to the wild where they might not find quality forage on a daily basis. All of the tortoises at this facility are of the species native to Isabela, none from the other islands.
This one declined to show us his “O” face:
We hopped back in the transport and headed up to the highlands. Our guide usually does the volcano hike which is much cooler so he was trying to push us a bit because he evidently doesn’t like being hot, but we still took our time since we were paying to be there. Most of the tortoises in the area we visited were raised at a breeding center and released into this highland preserve to live in the wild.
We continued to walk to the wall of tears, which was constructed, dismantled, and rebuilt multiple times from 1945 – 1959 when the island was a penal colony. They say thousands of prisoners lost their lives during construction, most shot or beaten by guards and the locals claim they can still hear cries emanating from the heavy energy surrounding the site.
Next, we climbed an old volcano chimney that now served as a scenic overlook, you can see Puerto Villamil in the distance:
Next stop was a beach with a lava tunnel that fills with the tide and then some marine iguana spotting.
We headed back to the hotel for lunch with our Aussie friends and then we went back to the harbor and hopped on a boat to go out to Islet Tintoreras for a hike and then to do more snorkeling. Tintoreras is a breakwater volcanic outcropping that is popular for the iguanas, boobies, and sea lions and during better conditions we may have been able to see some sharks in the water but they didn’t appear to be in the shallows that day. On the way out we saw Galapagos penguins, an eagle ray, and a few sea turtles.
The terrain on the islet didn’t seem terribly booby friendly:
Or even sea lion friendly for that matter:
We got back to the boat and found a bay to go snorkeling. It was really windy and the water was rough and turbid so I didn’t get a lot of great pictures, but I did have some fun with a curious sea lion.
There was more booby watching on the way back to shore:
Also of note, this is a popular game down there, referred to as “Ecua-Volley” They set the net up about 9-10 feet up and use a soccer ball rather than a volleyball. We even saw them playing the game on concrete courts and STILL diving after the ball.
May 23 – Sierra Negra Volcano and Vulcan Chico
We hopped in our trusty hotel transport (unfortunately WITH Dr. Kickass this time) and headed north to hike up Sierra Negra, which sports the second largest volcanic crater in the world at 17km and then continue hiking over to still-active Vulcan Chico.
What started off to be a pretty cool day deteriorated pretty quick as the overcast/misty morning turned into a light, but steady rain than never really went away. It might stop for a few minutes, but then it would pick right back up, usually coinciding with Dad taking his big expensive camera out of the backpack, luckily my point and shoot was waterproof.
The trail was muddy, and when we would get to an overlook our guide wouldn’t linger long at all, mainly because visibility sucked and he felt that if you couldn’t see what you were meant to see, why even stop? So he kept walking and would tell the group that it was “only two kilometers more” about every 20 minutes.
Did I mention that it was muddy?
Dad wore plenty of mud that day:
No really, there is a big ass crater down there:
So with nothing to see, we left the crater and turned east a bit to see Vulcan Chico. Vegetation was sparse, lava tunnels were plentiful, and it felt like we were on another planet. The ground was warm in places and every once in a while we would encounter a vent with hot air coming out of it. We stopped at a high point overlooking a volcanic plain and had lunch. When the guide was finished with his lunch, he stood up, said “let’s go make the walking” and then took off. Most of us were still eating and taking pictures. Dad and I said the hell with him and took our sweet time on the hike back, which was just got muddier as we went.
FYI, this is Dr. Kickass and his son (the kid liked to talked as much as his dad, but I’ll give him some credit though, the kid was pretty sharp):
Lunch:
This modified Toyota was our transport. How it made it some of the steep hills with 12 people in the back is beyond me. I’m willing to wager they replace the clutch at least once a year, and rebuild the transmission every other year.
May 24 – Kayaking and a farm visit
We slept in a bit and met our guide Ricardo to go kayaking, also joining us as a 20-something bikini wearing dingbat from Boston, that we were pretty sure had banged Ricardo the night before. At one point while talking with Dingbat I mentioned something about the Texas coast and she said “Texas has a coast?!?!” when I explained about that that whole gulf of Mexico thing, she said “oh, so it must be a pretty small coast then.”
Anyway, we hopped in our kayaks and paddled out towards the breakwater islets and spotted a few sea turtles, and of course penguins and boobies. It was windy and rough conditions again so I didn’t get many great pictures, but it was a fun excursion nonetheless.
Yep, that says Delaware:
See those yellow crates? That’s the beer we have been drinking.
Dingbat and Ricardo:
After lunch and a shower Ricardo picked us up and we went to visit a farm in the highlands that also served as a small tortoise preserve. We walked around, grabbing fruit off of trees to snack on and looked at the tortoises and discussed the vegetation. This was of special interest to me (see username and profile) so I really enjoyed the afternoon. One thing of note, this is an agricultural area and pretty much anything more than 2 meters tall is an introduced species. Guava and passionfruit are to especially invasive species as they are a little more dry tolerant and continue to thrive after the end of the rainy season.
After the farm, we visited Cuero Sucre, a cave that was discovered when part of the ceiling of a lava tube collapsed, revealing a large, wet cave that has yet to be fully explored. I took a few pics inside, but they didn’t turn out very well, but here is the entrance.
We headed back to town and our now usual beachfront bar and were entertained by a wedding ceremony taking place on the beach (Catholic, in Spanish).
May 25 – Back to Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz
We got up really early to catch a 6 AM speedboat back to Puerto Ayora. On our way out of the bay and into open water the captain stopped, climbed down into the cabin area and handed each of us a plastic bag. We soon found out why, as we crossed into the open ocean and were subjected to 2.5 hours of bouncing, rolling, splashing, but surprisingly no barfing.
We took a taxi back to Hotel Fernandina, had a hot breakfast this time and then our guide Edwin took us to Playa Tortuga. What we didn’t know was that the playa was a one-hour walk from the trailhead. We saw finches and lava lizards along the way, and after what seemed like forever we finally reached the open beach. Part of the sands was roped off to keep people from walking over the sea turtle nests. Every time you see a yellow flag, there is a documented nest under it.
We walked the beach for quite a while, wondering where we going and why, as our guide admittedly didn’t have a strong grasp on the English language, but with my broken Spanish and a lot of pointing and sign language we managed to get by.
We finally reached a grove of mangroves that apparently was the reason for our walk as we observed a few hundred marine iguanas congregating in the area.
Humidity kinda fogged up the camera for a while:
On the back side of the mangroves was a nice bay and a boat offering to take us back to town for $10 each, but we elected for the long walk back.
As we were walking along the beach in the bay, we encountered more boobies and my dad, being the dirty old man that he is was taking pics in stealth mode:
Edwin dropped us back at the hotel for lunch and picked us up after to take us up to the highlands to a tortoise preserve. At this facility they were entirely free range rather than being cooped up in pens, so we got a more closeup experience.
Next stop was another lava tunnel cave, this one so big you could have driven two trucks side-by-side through it:
This was our ride today, Edwin’s Chevrolet Jimmy. I had to cram myself in and out of the back seat:
Saw this shirt in a shop while shopping for presents for the wife and kids. I had already spent more than I planned to, so I had to pass on this one despite its greatness:
This was our last night on the islands so we walked down to the water front fish cleaning area hoping to see the sea lions one last time, but alas they weren’t there. We bought a couple of beers and hung out watching the pelicans for a while instead.
May 26 – Baltra Airport and back to the mainland
Our ride picked us up and drove us north to the ferry landing to cross over to Baltra Island where the airport was. The airport was actually built by the U.S. in WWII and the foundations from many of the buildings we put there are still dotting the landscape.
Back on the mainland, we walked over to a Peruvian restaurant near the hotel and had a late lunch/early dinner of ceviche and a fish whose name escapes me:
The beer truck followed us from the airport:
We wandered around a bit and saw a “Supermaxi” supermarket so we decided to go in and look around, point, laugh, and grab some snacks.
For Game of Thrones fans:
No refridgeration for eggs and margarine:
Bags of mustard:
Value brand box sangria:
Craptastically expensive booze:
May 27 – Full day in Quito
We walked over to a botanic garden and took a lot of pictures I won’t bore you with. Afterwards we saw a shopping mall and decided to do a little more pointing, laughing, and walking around. For those of you wondering what they call a quarter pounder in Ecuador:
I bought an awesome wallet from a street vendor:
This is a popular chain down there, strange name and mascot, but food actually looked decent:
And traffic laws pretty much go out the window in rush hour:
I think that is about it for now. I may update with a few other tidbits later. Thanks for reading.
[This message has been edited by Tree Hugger (edited 6/3/2014 2:39p).]
