Ecuador - Amazon Jungle

We left Quito via the old road towards the Jungle which let us see another part of the historic side of Quito. The road we travelled along took us between the Cayamba-Coco and the Antisana National Park, both named after the volcanoes that feature in them. About mid morning we stopped in a town called Papallacta which is famous for its thermal springs. Whilst some of the group went for a dip, we enjoyed a nice warm drink in the adjacent hotel. After this we all went for a walk through the nearby rainforest and along the river. It was absolutely stunning except that about 10 minutes in it decided to rain quite heavily which made it not so enjoyable. 

After lunch we drove to our lodge in the Amazon which sits in the Napo Valley on a tributary off the Napo River. The lodge was set up by a Swiss couple in conjunction with the Native people and runs an animal rescue centre, Amazoonicas, and a school for the local children. 

Ecuador - Otovalo

Today we drove to Otavalo, a small city approximately 84km through the Andes from Quito. On the way we crossed the Equator, and stopped at a lookout. The lookout was to view the snow capped Cayamba Volcano, the valley and the river that runs from the volcano.

Otavalo is famous for its market which extends in multiple directions from one of the town squares. It is huge. Walking around we were able to see the difference in the artisanal styles from Peru and Bolivia as well as see a lot of women dressed in their traditional dress. Otavalo is one of the few towns left that still dress widely in their traditional clothes, for the women it is hand embroidered blouses and the men in ponchos with long braids. This is because the government has financially encouraged the indigenous people to live and dress in a way that maintains their culture.

On the way to lunch we stopped at a second view point which was in Cotocachi-Cayapa Ecological Reserve and overlooks an absolutely stunning crater lake in Cotocachi Volcano. 

We stopped for lunch in Cotachi village and decided it was time to try the Latin American Speciality of Guinea Pig. Once we got over the fact that we were eating Guinea Pig we decided that it really wasn’t anything special. It tasted like the thigh meat from chicken and was quite oily but at least we tried it. Cotachi Village is famous for its leather production and goods so after lunch we of course went shopping! 

We returned to Quito for the night and got ourselves ready to head to the Amazon Jungle again tomorrow, this time from the Ecuador side. 

Ecuador - Quito

This morning our guide took us to the old centre of Quito and showed us around. The trip on the local bus was an experience. It took us three buses to actually get onto the bus because they were so full and one literally had to push past the poor people that were trying to get off in order to get on before the doors closed. It was a challenge.

On our tour we learnt a little about the history of Ecuador and the colonial Spanish occupation as well the revolution to independence in the early 1800’s. We visited some of the old city’s many churches, including the Basilica in which we climbed up to the very top of one of its spires for a spectacular view over the city, the Iglesia De La Compania de Jesus which is famous for its almost entire gold leaf interior architecture and art, and San Francisco Cathedral, where apparently an Incan Palace stood before the Spanish Invasion. After lunch we also briefly went up El Panecillo which is a small hill that also allows you to see a great panoramic view over the city and has a 30m high statue of La Virgen de Quito.

Once we finished this tour we visited the National Museum which has a fantastic collection of artefacts and information about the history of Ecuador from over 6000 years ago. It was a good way to get an understanding of the complex history of this little country.

Todays photo is another from the Galapagos.

Ecuador - Galapagos Islands

Up early this morning to make our shore landing on Seymour Island. While we were waiting to board our tender there were a couple of Sharks cruising around the back of our boat. On the island, which is the well known nesting and breeding ground for Frigate Birds and Blue Footed Boobies, we walked observing the mating calls and dances of these birds. Male Frigates are particularly impressive during the mating season as they have what looks like a bright red piece of skin on their throat which they inflate when they are trying to attract a mate. The juvenile Frigates were very cute as they were trying to learn to fly and they were playing with sticks to teach themselves how to pick up fish. The Blue Footed Boobie chicks were also beautiful balls of white fluffy feathers.  On our way back to the boat we saw a brand new Sea Lion with its mother and father (who was sleeping), so new that it still had its umbilical cord and the mother still had remnants of the placenta near her. The miracle of nature and child birth is touching no matter what the species. 

After this fabulous start to the day we motored to Baltra to catch our transfer to the airport, unfortunately our trip to the Galapagos had come to an end. We said our good byes to our great crew and travelled to the airport.

Our flight back was uneventful and our afternoon in Quito was also pretty lazy. Tonight, though, we met our new guide for the Ecuador part of our trip and two new additions to our group.

Ecuador - Galapagos Islands

This morning we went ashore on Bartolome Island and climbed to the summit of the volcano for an amazing view over the Galapagos. We then went on a short walk to South Beach along the golden sands and saw a giant Turtle on the beach and some white tipped reef sharks in the shallows. On the way to the beach in our tender we also saw some Galapagos Penguins which are the second smallest penguin in the world behind Australia’s Fairy Penguin. After our walk we were taken around the point on our tender and snorkelled back to the beach. The snorkelling again was gorgeous, we saw heaps of different brightly coloured fish as well as a Flounder hiding in the sand, and a Stingray.

We motored to Sombrero Chino which is an island that from a distance looks like a Chinaman’s hat. We went for an afternoon snorkel which was our last snorkel in the Galapagos and was an amazing finale! This afternoon we watched Marine Iguanas graze on the algae on the rocks, three Sharks, lots of fish, and... to finish we swam along side some Penguins! Brilliant! 

Again after a hot shower to warm up we went ashore. Sombrero Chino beach reminded us of home, the sand was white and the water was blue. We learnt that white beaches are the result of thousands of years of breakdown of coral and other organic materials. It was just a short walk around to the other side of the island in which we saw two Hawks, baby Sea Lions, and Marine Iguana’s. On each of our walks in the last couple of days we have also seen a couple of snakes and plenty of endemic Lizards, as well as quite a number of different birds.

Late this afternoon we motored to Seymour Island. It was pretty rough motoring, the swell was massive. The highlight of the trip and a nice break to take our mind off the rolling motion of the boat was a pod of Common Dolphins playing in the distance and a few playful Bottle-nosed Dolphins playing in the bow wave of the boat. They were very cute. 

Once we anchored we enjoyed a Pisco Sour with the crew of the boat to say our thank you’s, and then enjoyed our last delicious dinner of the cruise.

Ecuador - Galapagos Islands

After a fairly average nights sleep thanks to the rough seas we woke at our new destination, Rabida Island.

We went ashore and our guide, Rafael, took us for a walk around the Island to explore the environment. Each island has unique features, for example Rabida has red sand secondary to the Iron oxide content of the volcanic rock that has broken down to form the sand. It also has no land Iguanas or Tortoises therefore is the only island in the Galapagos that has cactuses with soft spines. All cactuses in the entire archipelago are endemic to the Galapagos which means they are found no where else in the world. Some of our group went for a snorkel off the beach but the water was a subarctic temperature so we just hung out on the beach.

After getting back on the boat we motored to Santiago Island and anchored in James Bay to enjoy lunch. We braved the cold water after lunch and went snorkelling in James Bay. It was an awesome experience to swim with Sea Lions, and a Galapagos Green Turtle, as well as many beautiful fish. There was one particular juvenile Sea Lion that was very playful and was swimming with us, sometimes straight at us, and flipping a sea urchin on its nose. She was very cute! We returned to the boat warmed up with a hot shower and then went ashore for a walk. 

James Bay is a black beach owing to the lava flows that constitute its make up. The bays landscape was extremely picturesque. The lava flow patterns combined with erosion from wind and the sea have formed some amazing natural rock formations. James Bay is also the home of the Galapagos Fur Seal and we enjoyed watching a large colony on the rocks. We also saw a huge number of Marine Iguanas, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, and a few different birds including the Yellow Warble, and the American Oyster Catcher. 

This afternoon we motored to Bartolome Island. On the way we passed some beautiful scenery and rocks including Buccaneer bay which is so named because it was a place where pirates used to hide their ships, Elephant Rock, and Monk Rock.  

Ecuador - Galapagos Islands

We finally met our guide this morning at 0600 on our way to the airport to fly to the Galapagos Islands but she was only there to ensure we got checked in on the right plane and got through security, after that it was up to us to get to Baltra Island and find our local guide at the airport.

The flight was 2 hours to Baltra and relatively uneventful until we were landing when saw our first Land Iguana who was sunning himself on the edge of the runway - welcome to the Galapagos! We were met at the airport by our local guide and made our way by bus and ferry to Santa Cruz Island, the second largest but most heavily populated island of the archipelago with 20,000 inhabitants. From Santa Cruz we boarded our boat “Yate Darwin” and enjoyed a scrumptious lunch.

After lunch we visited the Darwin Research centre which is the main centre for research into the conservation of the Galapagos as well as breeding programs to ensure the continuation of species that were once near extinction. During the afternoon we were fortunate to see many Giant Galapagos Tortoises which were the first animals seen by the explorers. These tortoises have 2 different shell shapes but the one the explorers saw was saddle shaped and Galapagos means saddle in Spanish so the Islands were named Galapagos. We also saw the famous “Lonesome George” who is the only Tortoise of his kind left and was found on Pinta Island all alone, hence the name.  The other animals we saw included baby tortoises at varying stages of development which will later be released back to their home island, as well as land Iguanas. It was a very interesting afternoon and great insight into the dangers and threats that the islands face.

We had a brief look around the centre of the town before boarding our boat again to get settled into our rooms and have dinner.

In bed relatively early as we knew that our sleep would not be the best as the boat was due to set sail from about midnight bound for Rabida Island.