We have 6 months to explore the Western Hemisphere, and this blog will chronicle our journey. It will (hopefully) include Hanford Bay, Niagra Falls, Groton, Boston, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil!
Hey Everyone -- I write this post from the airport in Bariloche, Argentina, as we prepare to fly to El Calafate. Let's just say that it's a whole new world here in Argentina. The culture shock after arriving here from Ecuador was quite incredible! Basically, in Ecuador, we were used to casually showing up at bus stations and taking short rides to our next destinations, then walking around and finding a hotel on the fly. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires after an overnight flight from Ecuador, we discovered that our 3 different options for hostels we had picked out were all completely full!! We ended up walking into a random hotel off the street, which had space but was really a pretty lousy room. This was our view -- which was sort of exciting, but really incredibly noisy!
After realizing that we didn't want to stay in that hotel any longer than necessary, Carrie and I decided to accelerate our plan to leave Buenos Aires and head for the beach! After talking to some traveling friends in Ecuador, we decided that Uruguay would be a neat beach option, specifically the town of Punta del Este. They said that Mar del Plata in Argentina was really crowded and built up, and not as good a spot. With that decided, Carrie and I boarded a ferryboat and headed to Uruguay!
Our arrival at the dock was in the tiny town of Colonia. We spent 1 night here, and it was very pleasant. The town has lots of tree lined cobblestone streets, and is very calm and relaxing. We stayed in a lovely little hotel, and had our first "parillada (mixed grill)" experience! Here are some photos:
Carrie sitting on a bench by the water in Colonia:
That restaurant experience was pretty special... Carrie and I had headed to dinner a bit later than planned, and we ended up walking around at about 10:45 or 11pm looking for a restaurant. While this would be fine in Buenos Aires, things in Colonia seemed to be geared a little earlier. We walked by one meat restaurant where the waiter saw us and invited us in. We sat outside, and ate the large mixed grill, which basically included all parts of the cow besides the parts used for typical steak. Afterwards, the waiter and cook came and said hello, and even though it was quite late and we were the only ones there, the cook / owner insisted that we have coffee. It was quite touching, really!
After the night in Colonia, we headed to Punta del Este. Unfortunately, it was very cold, and so the beach was definitely not an option. Also unfortunately, this cold and sometimes rainy weather persisted for 3 straight days! Since the beach is the main attraction in Punta del Este, we quickly got to know all of the non-beach options for activities. One option was riding a boat to an island containing a large sea lion colony. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough, and the boats never ran. However, when we went to the dock, we got a good look at an enormous sea lion eating fish from a fisherman:
Another activity we did was rent a car and drive! One neat spot was the "Ruta Panoramica", which was basically a road that dead ended at the water. Right near there was also the Casapueblo museum, which as a neat art museum with crazy architecture right by the water:
This was all pretty neat stuff, and we have a bunch more pictures on our photo sight. Unfortunately, when we returned the rental car, the gas gauge floated just under full, and we had to fill the tank. At the gas station, the men "filled up" the car, and since it was the morning and we weren't really alert, we were charged $10 for about 1 or 2 liters of gas, which is too much money. We were pretty angry about getting ripped off, but by the time we figured it out, it was too late. At that point, we headed back to Argentina, where we set up shop in Buenos Aires and waited for the arrival of Joe!
Feel free to check out photos (even the recent ones are uploaded now to the photo sight), and we'll update again soon!
They finally did it. They tried to do it while we were walking down the streets of La Paz, Bolivia, and again while riding a bus from Quito, Ecuador, but they finally succeeded while at the bus terminal in Buenos Aires. I always keep the important pockets of my backpack safety pinned shut. This proved especially essential on the bus from Quito because even though I was sitting with the bag on the floor between my legs, the guy behind me still managed to reach under the seat and open my bag as far as the safety pin would let him. He was gone before I knew what had happened, but got nothing.
Unfortunately, safety pins don´t do much good when they steal the whole bag. We make a point to always keep our passports and most money in our pants. The guy who stole our backpack didn´t get anything of value, or at least of much value to him. When you´re traveling for 3.5 months and each carrying only about 35 lbs of stuff, everything is valuable. The stolen backpack had the following:
- Dan´s jacket - Bottle of nice wine from Mendoza - Half of our toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, shampoo, soap, shaving cream, Dan´s deodorant, Dan´s razor, sunscreen, and laundry soap) - All of our travel books
The other small backpack, that was fortunately not stolen, contained much more, including the better of our two cameras, backup photo CDs, and my medicine. Basically, stuff that is much harder, if even possible, to replace. But it still sucks.
When I realized what happened my hands got all tingly and I thought I might faint, but I ended up just screaming a bunch. Dan remained fairly rational and ran around looking for the bag. We seriously considered finding a way to fly home right then, but that would almost definitely have resulted in staying at least one more night in Buenos Aires. Being in BsAs without a hotel reservation can be very stressful even under good circumstances, so instead we decided to continue with the original plan and take a 20 hour bus ride to Bariloche.
The ride would have been great if our windows weren´t painted over and our speakers actually worked so we could hear the movies (2 of the 3 were English w/ Spanish subtitles, the other Spanish w/ English subtitles), but at least we had the super fancy seats that reclined to be totally flat and we slept fairly well for at least 6 of the 20 hours (it would have been more if I wasn´t so stressed from the robbery). I wouldn´t mind taking another one of those fancy buses for another 20 hours, as long as I didn´t have to go anywhere near the BsAs bus terminal. Maybe from Iguazu to Rio.
We´ll probably survive with just having to buy a new travel guide for Brazil, probably something to keep Dan warm in El Calafate, and of course, the essential toiletries. Definitely Dan´s deodorant, but I doubt he´ll replace the razor.
4. The offseason in Uruguay is terribly cold, the harbors are often closed, and the nightlife is dead (even in November, which is only one month away from peak season!).
1. Uruguay has a surprisingly large amount of mosquitoes. Despite the frigid temperatures, they manage to thrive and I got multiple bites in every city we stayed in. Even when I was totally bundled up, they still bit my hands, face, and scalp.
After Cuenca, we headed for Guayaquil on a bus. There are two bus routes, and we took the one through Parque Nacional Cajas, because it is only 3.5 hours instead of 4.5 hours. Fortunately for us, it also had amazing scenery along the way. Unfortunately for us, the road was extremely curvy, and the girl behind us apparently could not stomach it. She spent most of the trip emptying her stomach into a plastic bag and periodically tossing the plastic bag onto the roadside(including while we were in the national park!).
Once we were in Guayaquil, we began searching for a hotel. It is usually really hard for Dan and I to make up our minds about hotels, but this time we had a clearly defined goal: find an inexpensive hotel that was showing the Patriots vs Colts game (personally, I´m not a big Patriots fan, but both teams were undefeated, and the Colts are probably my least favorite team). In South America it is normal to ask to see the room before taking it, so this time while we would see the room, we would turn on the TV and look for the game (we got into Guayaquil just as the game was starting). After three hotels, we finally found the game, and it was well worth the search because it turned out to be a very close game with the Patriots finally pulling through at the end. Below is a picture of just before the Patriots made their comeback:
The next day in Guayaquil we walked around the Malecon, which is the area along the river that Guayaquil had recently restored for the new millenium. We had gone to the Malecon the last time we were in Guayaquil several weeks earlier, but it was at night and we were not very impressed. However, this time around we were there for a lovely sunny day and it was great.
Near the end of the Malecon is a recently built up neighborhood called Cerro Santa Ana. It is basically a 465 step, outdoor stairwell with shops along the way. By that point in the day it was way to hot to climb to the top of the hill, so instead we decided to cool down at an internet cafe that was supposedly 1/3 of the way up the hill. However, we somehow missed it, because we found the top of the hill before we found the internet cafe. Fortunately, it was still worth the climb because the top of the hill had a very nice view of the city. (On the way back down we found the internet cafe, but it was closed)
That night we took a red-eye flight to Buenos Aires. We had ended up spending so much time in Ecuador and still had so much we wanted to do in Argentina and Brazil, we decided to skip Chile. However, fortunately for us, the cheapest way to fly to Buenos Aires was to have a two hour layover in Santiago, Chile! Unfortunately, Chile charges Americans $100 to enter their country (Chile and Brazil do this because the US charges everyone entering our country $100), so we decided against leaving the airport. However, that time we spent in Chile between 5-7 AM was really swell! Here are some of the highlights of our trip to Chile:
After Baños, we headed for Cuenca, Ecuador. The Cuenca Independence Day celebration is November third, so we decided to go for October 31 through November 4 (Wed night -Sun morning). There was no direct bus, so we first had to take a 45 minute bus to Ambato. Like most Ecuadorian buses, this process was very easy. As soon as we got to the Baños bus station, a guy approached us saying "Quito, Quito, Quito", which is the most common destination for travelers from Baños. We said "No, Ambato" and he led us to a bus. We put our bags underneath and within a few minutes we were off. When we got on, the bus was about one third full, but we picked up more people on our way out of town and soon the bus was full. We like to joke that it´s not a real South American bus experience without an armpit in the face.
When we got to Ambato, we told the money collector guy on the bus that we were going to Cuenca, so he dropped us off on the side of the road a ways before the main station (the guy at our hotel had told us this was the way to go). Across the street were a few buses waiting. A guy came up to us saying "Cuenca, Cuenca, Cuenca". We put our bags under the bus and boarded. The bus was packed, but fortunately the very last two seats were open, and they even had room to fully recline! Sitting in front of us was a family with two screaming babies (about 3 and 6), but we were happy to have seats.
The bus to Cuenca was about seven hours, but we didn´t worry about lunch because of the "bus buffet". In Ecuador, people periodically hop on and off the bus, regardless of designated stops. In addition to regular passengers, many of the people are asking for money, performing for money, or (most commonly) selling food or drinks. It´s great because you get to see whatever food they have as they walk down the aisle, then you can think about it, and on their way back up the aisle you can buy it if you want. Different parts of Ecuador tend to have different types of food, but it usually only costs about 50¢ so it´s okay to experiment. After the vendors make their rounds, they hop off the bus wherever they end up. I suspect they then catch a bus in the opposite direction to get back to where they started. Each bus has a money collector who periodically makes sure all of the riders have paid (he must have a great memory because they rarely issue tickets), but they don´t make the people selling stuff/asking for money pay.
After the little girl in front of us had a nap, she was pretty cute. For some reason she found Dan really funny. I´m not sure if it was because of his Panama hat or maybe his big blonde beard, but she kept tugging at her Mom´s shoulder to get her attention and then pointing to Dan and laughing hysterically. This was pretty funny until all of a sudden she threw up all over the floor (maybe she was turned backwards for too long?). Fortunately, at that point we were only about an hour from Cuenca and the money collector guy came back and put some newspaper over it.
Because of the holiday weekend, we made hotel reservations in advance at the Hotel Milan. It was a little strange because they didn´t accept credit cards so they gave us their bank account number and we had to go to a branch in Quito and deposit $60 in their account (all 4 nights cost $80). However, it was good that we did this because when we got there, the hotel was totally booked. Plus, it turned out to be a great hotel with friendly staff, decent hot water, cable TV, great location, and a free water cooler! Even better, we had a balcony overlooking the San Francisco Market with live music from about 10 am to 10 pm (this was especially lucky because some of Cuenca´s celebrations went late into the night). From our balcony we could just barely see the performers on the stage. Unfortunately, most of the performers were Karaoke style (singing over prerecorded tracks). A few of the groups were apparently inspired by the Backstreet Boys or Pussycat Dolls and had matching costumes and choreographed dances. However, dancing skills were generally disproportional to singing skills.
Our first night in Cuenca we went to a restaurant highly recommended by Fodors, called Villarosa Restaurant. It was listed in the lowest price range, but we were surprised to see all the tables laid out with quite elaborate table settings. We were also surprised to see that we were the only ones in the restaurant. We went ahead and ordered two shrimp bisques for appetizers. For the main course, Dan got lamb and I got black conch ceviche. One of my favorite meals of the trip was the ceviche I had ordered in Lima, so I was eager to try it again. Soon after we ordered, a large tour group of old English people filled the restaurant. We´ve found that Fodors recommendations are sometimes excellent, but sometimes overrun with old people tour groups.
Although my ceviche in Lima was served as a little pile of seafood pieces, in Ecuador they tend to serve it more like a cold soup, which is not quite as good, but still tasty. However, I was very surprised to see a bowl of thick, black, cold liquid brought out for my meal. Floating in it were totally black pieces of raw shellfish and on the side was a bowl of popcorn and corn kernels. Apparently, black conch refers to the color of the meat, not just the shell. Halfway through the meal the chef came out to see how I liked the black conch. I told her it had a very unusual flavor, so she suggested I put some of the popcorn into the "soup". It helped a little. In the below picture I´m holding a piece of conch on my spoon and floating in the bowl are pieces of popcorn and corn kernels:
A little known fact is that Panama hats actually originated in Ecuador. While in Cuenca, we went to a Panama hat factory. The hats are hand woven outside of the factory, but we got to see them press the hat into the correct shape and apply the finishing touches.
We had left for South America on September 1, and from that day until November 3 Dan stopped shaving. By that point he was looking pretty scruffy, so he decided to go to the barber shop. He told them something like "Quiero tener la barba, pero quiero cortarla un poco" and this is what he ended up with (I think they did a very good job):
One of my favorite things about or visit to Cuenca was the seemingly randomness of all of the Independence day celebrations. We were unable to find any sort of event schedule, but instead, as we wondered around town, we would stumble across various celebrations. Twice we stumbled into parades. The first parade consisted almost entirely of queens of different things (maybe neighborhoods?). Most of the "floats" were decorated trucks with 1-5 young ladies with sashes sitting in the back.
On Friday night we were walking around looking for celebrations when we came across a group of people standing along the edge of a wide stairwell leading down to the river. We were wondering what all the commotion was about when suddenly a bike went racing past us down the stairs. Apparently it was a bike race! Near the bottom of the stairwell was a park with a large bandstand and a huge crowd. The group on stage was performing traditional Ecuadorian music and was very good. Everyone was dancing so Dan and I danced around too, but I think we must have looked pretty out of place because a guy motioned us over and showed us some dance moves. He also introduced us to his entire family, including Grandma. Everyone was very eager to say hello to and dance with the gringos. It was pretty hectic but a lot of fun.
I don´t think Cuenca gets as many tourists as some of the other cities we´ve visited. Many of the locals were clearly amused by telling us¨"hello" as we walked by. At one point an inebriated guy came up to us and in broken English told us that if we ever wanted to speak English with someone, we should talk with him. However, every time we tried to respond, he would just tell us again that we should talk with him because he speaks English. I think that might have been the only phrase he could remember.
On Saturday night we came across a comedian performing in a blocked off street. She got lots of laughs, but our Spanish wasn´t good enough to understand her jokes, so we headed back to the bandstand from the previous night. The bandstand was no longer there, but we walked a little further and soon found a small band playing. There was also a bunch of artwork for sale and people doing caricatures. They were packing up their things to leave, but I asked a guy and he said he would do a caricature of us. People kept coming over to watch him draw, and the next thing we knew, we had a larger audience than the band! It is a little funny having someone intently look at you and draw you. To make it funnier, we couldn´t see the drawing, but we could watch the whole crowd of people (maybe 20?) keep looking back and forth from us to the picture and smiling. I couldn´t help but smile the entire time. Here is the resulting picture:
Note that Dan had his beard trimmed before this drawing was done. I think it is very good, but Dan´s eyes are a little too small. If you cover up his eyes, I think it looks even more accurate. While we were having the caricature done, another artist decided to draw me as well (I must have inspired him!):
Carrie and I are actually in Punta del Este, Uruguay right now! We had stopped over in Buenos Aires (and will be back), but we wanted to try out the beach here. Unfortunately, mother nature is once again interfering, but hopefully things will warm up soon. Ecuador was truly a wonderful place -- out of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, we would be most likely to return to Ecuador for another vacation someday. My last post ended with the Galapagos... After that, we were back in Quito for a more extended stay.
Our main goal after arriving back in Quito was to arrange a flight out of Ecuador to Argentina. We were quickly getting worried when one-way fares were exceeding $600 and $700! However, we got lucky when we ran into another one of our mysterious contacts. In Quito, we frequently ran into a friendly older guy named Diego, who was originally from the US. He seemed well versed in all things Ecuador, and had given us advice on other things before. He told us to go to a specific travel agency (Galasam) to look into airfares. Low and behold, this travel agency hooked us up with flights to Buenos Aires for less than $400. Thank you Diego!
One day in Quito, we headed into "Old Town", or the historic center of the city. We were disappointed by many museums and sites being either closed or under construction, but still enjoyed ourselves walking around and seeing various buildings and plazas. Even walking the streets is scenic. I love how you can look down a street and see mountains looming in the background:
Another neat place we found in Quito was Parque Carolina (recommended by our friend Diego). This was basically a very large park with lots of activities, and we found a little museum containing lots of snakes! One of the feature activities was actually holding a snake. In this photo, the snake is actually licking Carrie's back!
Since we always stayed at the same hotel in Quito, we got quite used to our neighborhood. Our hotel didn't include breakfast, so we quickly found favorite places for breakfast. One of them was called "Friends", and they really hooked it up for only about $3!
All in all, we felt like Quito was one of the first cities we felt that we could live in. It had an easy to navigate transit system, lots of good restaurants, fun bars, and friendly people. I found bars where I could watch the World Series, and was amused by how the Ecuadorians cheered at every exciting play, regardless of who was making it. When we were finished with Quito, we followed some other traveler's recommendations and headed to the small town of Baños, about 3 hours south of Quito.
We quickly realized that Baños was a great town! It is nestled in a valley between tall, beautiful, and green mountains. There is a volcano nearby that we occasionally got glimpses of, but it was frequently covered over by clouds. Since we were missing the wedding of our good friends Jessica and Anthony at this time, we decided we would do a scenic bike ride in their honor. From Baños, you can rent bikes for $5 and follow the road to Puyo, a town about 60km away. The ride is advertised as being all downhill and full of scenic waterfall views. Other than some occasional bike chain problems, the ride did not disappoint! Here are some photos:
After lunch, we found out that the ride wasn't entirely downhill, and faced some rough uphill stretches. For this reason, and because we spent so much time exploring waterfalls, we didn't go all the way to Puyo. We waited by the side of the road, and after about 10 minutes, a yellow minivan taxi pulled up, offering to take us (with our bikes) back to Baños for $3!
Another highlight of Baños was the abundance of thermal springs to bathe in. After an outdoor activity during the day, we would go to one of the bathing areas to relax. Most places had pools of different temperatures, and since we were there during the week, the crowds weren't too bad. We don't have bathing pictures, but here is me at one of the places before we got in:
On the day after the bike ride, we decided to go white water rafting. There are a couple popular rivers for rafting there, and we opted for the more challenging (and more fun) Rio Pastaza with its class 4 rapids. Our company (Geotours) was great, and the guide would often intentionally lead the boat into situations that resulted in everyone getting brutally splashed, without tipping over the boat. I don't have photos from the actual rafting, but we did take a break midway through where we got to jump into the river from the surrounding rocks:
The other major event in Baños was the Red Sox being in the World Series! Suddenly, having cable tv available became a high priority, as the games were all on ESPN Deportes (the spanish language ESPN). After having some room switching issues with our hotel, I was able to watch the deciding game 4. Here are some photos of me celebrating with all of Red Sox nation in Baños:
All in all, Baños was a great time. It was mostly relaxing (other than our hotel situation), and it had beautiful scenery. I loved how you could do fun athletic activities during the day and then relax in soothing baths while gazing at a waterfall at night. How can you beat that?
To any potential Baños travelers reading this post: A note on our hotels... The Hosteria Monte Selva seems like a great place. It has some nice cabins up on the hill, as well as its own jacuzzis and thermal baths. However, their staff is very deceptive and sometimes tells you outright lies. For instance, if your cable isn't working and they say someone will come up to help you, that is not true. Also, despite the cards in the room that say the jacuzzis and thermal baths are open every day, they are in fact only open on the weekends! So, if you're like us and arrive on a Sunday, you will be disappointed the next day when you discover everything you had paid extra for is closed. If you're coming during the week, I'd highly recommend the Hostel Isla de Baños, literally right across the street, with nice rooms for half the price!
After Baños, we headed to the beautiful town of Cuenca, before heading out of Ecuador. Look for a post from Carrie soon!
Top 13 things I learned while in Ecuador (since we were there over a month, I had to do more than the usual 10):
13. The middle of the world monument, near Quito, Ecuador, is not actually on the equator. The French originally determined it incorrectly, but with the invention of GPS, the Canadians realized the real equator is actually a few hundred meters north of the monument.
11. Some Ecuadorian cultures buried their dead in the fetal position so they could be born into the next world. They often put the bodies in large ceramic jars. In addition, if it was a high ranking man, they would sacrifice his wife and children so they could all be buried together.
10. According to a travel guide we picked up in Quito: "In Cuenca, if you are stained with any type of liquid (mustard) do not allow strangers to clean you."
9. Ecological toilets (a pit where you throw on some sawdust after each use) are actually quite nice and not too smelly
7. Female blue footed boobies have much larger pupils and a much deeper voice than the males. In addition, both genders have no fear of humans and love to put their nests in the middle of hiking paths.
6. Frigate birds live near the ocean, but their feathers are not water-proof so they cannot hunt for fish. Instead, while in mid-air, groups of them will literally bully other birds into coughing up their food, which the frigate birds then eat.
5. You can tell the male sea lions apart from the females by their large foreheads. They also love to swim up and down the beach barking as much as physically possible.
4. In the jungle we came across a female spider that was about the size of my hand, but her mate was about the size of my pinky fingernail. Apparently, the males are really small to avoid being eaten after reproduction.
2. Mineral baths are almost as murky as jungle water, but instead of giving you parasites and infections, they supposidley help with acne, muscle aches, stomach problems, stress, and weight loss.
1. There are actually seasons in Ecuador. In the jungle, the rainy season is around January and the wet season is around June. Along the coast, the warmest months are December through February. When we were there in early October it was often cloudy and a bit chilly.
Hey everybody -- Carrie and I are now in Cuenca, Ecuador, preparing for their independence celebrations coming up this weekend. Unfortunately, our stay in Ecuador will be coming to an end soon, and we will be moving on to Argentina. We've decided to skip Chile, because we really want to make sure we have enough time to do Argentina and Brazil some justice. In any case, my last post left off on the coast of Ecuador...
One day trip we did from coastal Ecuador was Isla de la Plata. Our hostel set us up with a tour, and we headed to the nearby town of Puerto Lopez to board a boat. We were told that we might get so see whales on our way to the island, but that the mating season was coming to an end, so we might not. Let's just say we got lucky!
We also got a glimpse of some dolphins, but were unable to get them on camera. When we finally got to the island, we hiked for a couple hours and got our first look at the blue footed boobies.
After the hike, we went back to the boat and did about 30 minutes of snorkeling. This photo is from the boat before we jumped in and went swimming with the fishes...
Overall, we enjoyed the Isla de la Plata experience! If Galapagos is too expensive or time-consuming, this is a great alternative. It is especially great if you can go during whale mating season (I know September is included, but I don't know how much earlier it goes).
After our stay on the coast, we boarded an overnight bus to Quito. As usual, we didn't sleep much, but we eventually made it. Here we found our staple Quito hotel, Hotel Pickett. We settled in a bit here, and then headed for the jungle, which Carrie detailed in her most recent post.
After the jungle, we had a couple days in Quito before we headed for the Galapagos. We decided to head to Mitad del Mundo, or the "Middle of the World", where the true equator is located. First, there was the large monument, which actually isn't at the true equator:
After the Mitad del Mundo, we got incredibly lost on our bus ride back to Quito, so after trying 4 different local buses, we eventually gave up and took a cab. Remarkably, it turned out we had gotten to only a few blocks from our hotel! After that, we got ready to head to the GALAPAGOS!!
A quick note on Galapagos planning: We booked our trip before we headed to the jungle, or about 1 week in advance, in Quito. We paid our travel agent IN CASH, which resulted in many trips to the ATM! With Galapagos, if you have the luxury of time, I do recommend booking your tour "last minute," since that's when the prices drop more, even for nice boats. For truly last minute bookings, you can actually fly to the town of Puerto Ayora in the Galapagos, and book right then! We had booked our tour on a "tourist superior" boat, which basically had small bedrooms with private bathrooms, decent food, transit to the islands, and not much else. When we got back from the jungle, we found out that our original boat had been canceled, and we were re-booked on a nicer, first class boat for the same price!
Our travel agent told us that the boats reserve seats on airplanes so that all of the tourists can fly together. We were given stickers with our boat's name, so we could easily find our guide and group when we landed. However, in the airport, we didn't notice other people wearing our stickers. Our plane was then delayed, and we ended up boarding a plane with a different flight number, which took us to Guayaquil. From there, we switched planes to a Galapagos bound plane, although everything was extremely confusing. Carrie and I suspected that they canceled our original flight, but just wouldn't admit that they did.
When we finally got off our plane, we didn't see anyone from our boat. Suddenly, this older man came up to us and told us that he was the one to take us to the boat, but that we were very late and the entire group was waiting! We told him that we needed to get our bags, and then we'd be all set. While we waited for our bags, he came back up to us and said he was leaving with the rest of the group! We were left behind, and told to join this other group to go to the port, where he would meet us and take us to our boat. Of course, the guide of the group we joined didn't have money to pay for our bus / boat transfers, so we had to pay them ourselves, which was unexpected.
Once we got to the port, the old man rejoined us, and introduced us to our actual tour guide. The guide proceeded to tell us that this was supposed to be his afternoon off, and joined us on a water taxi to our boat. On the boat, the rest of our group had just finished lunch, and Carrie and I ate our meal while they finished off dessert. Luckily, the rest of our group was extremely friendly and understanding, and things got better fast.
What we ended up learning was that in the Galapagos, the logistics can be completely messed up, but nothing can screw up the islands themselves... the rest of the trip was pretty fantastic! After lunch on the first day, we went to the Charles Darwin Center, where they are breeding endangered Galapagos tortoises:
After the Darwin Center, we headed back to the boat for dinner and sleeping. The next day, we went back to the same island we had started in and viewed some lava tubes and did a short hike. After lunch, the boat left for the first time and we went to the Island of Santa Fe for snorkeling and a hike. I don't have photos of snorkelling, but we saw some colorful fish, and Carrie had a sea lion swim directly underneath her! When we got to the beach, we were introduced to the Galapagos sea lions for the first time:
Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit! The incredible thing was that the animals were mostly unafraid of humans! This is likely due to the fact that the islands have been protected for so long, so humans haven't bothered the animals much here... only taken lots of photos!
For the third day, we went to Española island, where we saw more amazing things. Here are some highlights:
For Day 4, we headed to Floreana Island, which featured some good snorkelling that proved to be difficult due to the strong current. We also got our first look at Galapagos flamingos (supposedly the most pink in the world), a beach full of stingrays, and more sea lions!
We also got a look at a newborn sea lion with its mother, and a bird attempting to eat the placenta. The mother had to keep growling to keep the bird at bay:
Unfortunately, during day 5, the boat spent a long time at Baltra, the airport island. This is because some tourists opt for 4 or 5 day Galapagos tours, and those tourists are mixed in with the 8 day people (like us). For the 8 day people, we basically had to kill 6 hours of a beautiful afternoon doing nothing, because they were dropping off and picking up tourists, as well as cleaning the boat. After some coaxing, at least they let us hang out on an army beach for a couple hours, which wasn't particularly exciting, so Carrie built this fortress around a sleeping sea lion:
Bartolome also featured one of our unforgettable moments, when we snorkeled with sea lions! We had snorkeled before and had sea lions swim by, but this time the sea lions actually swam WITH us and really seemed to be playing with us. They would do barrel rolls and jump out of the water, and even pose underwater. While we don't have any photos of this, I doubt I will ever forget it.
In the afternoon of day 7, we moved to a different area of Santa Cruz. While in transit, two frigate birds followed us for the entire time! Notice how happy I look at this moment:
On Day 8, we did a brief (and fairly uneventful) hike before heading back to the airport. In summary, I would HIGHLY recommend the Galapagos to anyone who loves wildlife. If you have the luxury of time, I would certainly recommend the 8 day tour, booked in Ecuador. Just make sure you have something to do midway through the trip when the 4/5 day passengers switch. Also, get the nicest boat you can afford, since you'll be spending a lot of time on it! We took a lot more pictures than were posted on this blog, so please feel free to look at the full photo albums if you like what you see.
