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Galapagos Islands, Ecuador – Part I (Post #129)

June 7th, 2006

Michele here…writing from the Galapagos Islands.

On Thursday, May 25th, we boarded a plane going from Guayaquil, Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador). We have been looking forward to going to the Galapagos Islands since the beginning of the trip and there we were…finally going!   

We landed at the airport and it was immediate obvious we were being well catered too (something we are certainly not used to on the trip).  A man from the Galapagos Legend Cruiseship showed us where to go, told us what forms to fill out, where to pay the $100 Galapagos National Park fee, and then got us on the airport bus that would take us to the dock.  We were told our luggage would be transported directly to our rooms on the ship and not to worry. Despite being told this, I realized this was the first time on our entire trip that we did not have control of our luggage and it made me a bit nervous. 

The AeroGal airlines bus took us to the dock where we would board a zodiac (a large, thick, inflatable boat with a motor) that would take us to the ship.  When we got off the bus and were standing at the dock we were immediately surrounded by an abundance of wildlife. There were sealions, pelicans, marine iguanas, and crabs.  It seemed surreal but then again, we were in the Galapagos Islands and that is what it is supposed to be like (and the reason why we came here).

We boarded the Galapagos Legend Cruiseship and whoa! This was indeed a luxury cruiseship.  We got the key to our room and at first I was a bit disappointed because, although our room was large, the window looked out to the zodiacs and not the ocean.  The ship was nearly full (76 passengers) and we learned most of the remaining rooms were smaller than ours so we decided to stay where we were.  (However, four days later we were upgraded to a Jr. Suite!) Our room and bathroom on the boat was fully equiped with every amenity and our shower had glorious hot water!  The bed sheets were clean, the towels were soft, and there was even a blow dryer and shampoo dispenser in the bathroom.  We learned that 3 times a day our towels would be changed and our bathroom would be cleaned. Wow! This was really living!   Here is a picture of our boat:

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365 days on the road (Post #128.5)

June 6th, 2006

We are back in Guayaquil, Ecuador after our Galapagos trip and are leaving for Riobamba tomorrow morning.

We have officially been travelling for over one year now! Just nine days left before re-entry to the U.S.!

Mike writes…

I am looking forward to being back in the states. Long-term travelling is like running ultras (ultramarathons) which is like life which is like running ultramarathons. A person has to push through the lows in order to coast through the highs. For the first 2 months, travelling was new and exciting and the countries we visited were relatively easy to travel through. Months 3-7 (more or less) were difficult for me and more than once i came close to booking myself a flight home. After that, i kind of settled into the traveller´s lifestyle and things became easier. Now, i´m ready for everyday tasks (like eating a square meal) to be simpler.

hell?

Michele writes…

I have loved the trip from the beginning and will be sorry to see it end. I really enjoy the challenges that life throws at you as an independent traveler and the sense of accomplishment when you figure something out (or think you´ve figured something out!) Traveling for one year has allowed me to feel the excitement of arriving in a new city, the thrill of experiencing new cultures and exotic foods, and the wonderment and awe of visiting a place that I´ve read about and longed to visit for years. This isn´t to say it´s been fun every day of the year. There have been days that have really sucked and we´ve lowered our standards tremendously in terms of the food we eat and the places we´re willing to stay (cold water showers and roaches, anyone?) Mike and I have stuck together through the fun and exciting times and the trying, difficult days.

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take this trip of a lifetime and if I had a million dollars I would do it again (although not right away!) For me, the rewards and benefits have far outweighed the stresses and trials we´ve endured.

I guess I should probably start thinking about getting a job, finding a place to live, buying a car, getting a cell phone, filing taxes, and last but certainly not least, getting my hair highlighted!

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Guayaquil, Ecuador (Post #128)

June 5th, 2006

Mike writes…

We landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador in the early afternoon of May 22.  We didn´t yet have a place to stay so I used a call center in the airport to call a couple of places listed in our guidebook.  The first was full but i sucessfully made a reservation at the second, Pacifico Hostelling.  A few minutes later we were in a cab on our way. 

While there´s really only one tourist attraction in Guayaquil (to be discussed in a moment), we were there to arrange our Galapagos trip.  All flights from Quito, Ecuador to the Galapagos go through Guayaquil and the flights from there are cheaper so we thought this would be better for us than Quito.  Besides, we fly back to the states from Quito and didn´t think it was necessary to do any backtracking (other Ecuadorian cities of interest to us lie between Guayaquil and Quito).

…Just so everyone understands what´s going on here, the best way to get a good tour of the Galapagos Archipelago is take a cruise which visits several of the islands.  These cruises are usually from 3 to 8 days and can cost from around $800 to $3000.  It is possible to to day cruises but most sources recommend against this due to the time wasted travelling back and forth to the port of origin.  This, of course, is debate-able.  From early on we felt the week-long cruise was our best option.  We had also been planning to book our cruise at the last minute.  The guidebook explains that last minute tours are cheaper because operators would rather sell a space for a discount than let it go unfilled.  In addition to getting this information from the guidebook, a nice couple from NY whom we met in Puerto Vara, Chile told us they saved 40% by booking at the last minute.  This strategy isn´t recommended for those without some flexibility because one can never be sure what day they will be departing and/or returning…

After dropping our stuff off in our mediocre room at Pacifico Hostelling, we immediately headed out to start looking for an agency to sell us a last-minute Galapagos tour.  Our first stop was an agency called Galasam.  They are recommended in the guidebook but with a word of caution that there have been some complaints.  After talking to them, we weren’t so interested in the options they presented to us and the employee we talked to looked like he had been in a boxing match within the previous few days so we were back out on the street.  We thought it would be a good idea to seek out the Official Ecuadorian tourism office in Guayaquil to get their list of registered/recommended operators.  It was some quest to find the office.  It took us a couple of hours but we finally found it and managed to talk to a woman who gave us some suggested agencies.  Galasam wasn´t one of them allegedly for the same reason the guidebook cited.

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Amazon Basin, Peru – Part V (Post #127)

June 1st, 2006

Mike writes…

Our guide had a morning all planned out for us but it didn´t include a swim in the river.  What trip to the amazon basin would be complete without taking a swim in the mighty river itself?  After discussing a few different plans of action, i came up with a schedule that would allow us to do everything the guide proposed AND get in our swim. 

So, on our last morning in the Amazon Basin, at around 6 a.m. we headed out on the motor boat down the Yanacau river (a tributary) to the Amazon itself.  After an uneventful 30 minute ride, we arrived at our swimming spot.  Michele decided to jump in first. No fear!

Here is a picture of us swimming in the Amazon!

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Amazon Basin, Peru – Part IV (Post #126)

June 1st, 2006

Michele here…. 

On May 20th, our 4th day at the jungle lodge, we got to sleep in.  Yea!  I was very happy to sleep in until 8:00am because I was having a lot of trouble sleeping in this hot and humid environment. During the morning hours, our guide was up preparing for our all day outting – piranha fishing! He prepared a lunch for us, got the bait ready, and put together the fishing poles.  

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Amazon Basin, Peru – Part III (Post #125)

June 1st, 2006

Michele here (in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador).  Mike is next to me and we are catching up on the blogs while we wait for the scuba dive shop to open. It is currently closed for the afternoon siesta – something that is taken very seriously in Ecaudor.

On May 19th, we got up at 5:30am for more birdwatching.  The photo below shows what our typical bird watching mornings are like. 

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Amazon Basin, Peru – Part II (Post #124)

June 1st, 2006

Mike writes….

On our first morning at the lodge, we were up at 5:35 for our 6 a.m. excursion on the boat for birdwatching.  The number of birds in the Amazon Basin is almost uncountable and it would be ridiculous for me to list all the types we saw this morning or any other.  We also saw a couple of three-toed sloths way up high in the trees that border the river’s edge.

The highlight of our morning birdwatching excursion was several long-nosed bats that Moises pointed out to us on the trunk of a tree at the river’s edge.  They are so amazingly well camaflouged that it took us several minutes of staring at the spot (2 inches in front of our face) that Moises was pointing at before we were even able to see them at all!  They looked exactly like the tree’s bark.

Look carefully!!

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Amazon Basin, Peru – Part I (Post # 123)

June 1st, 2006

Mike writes…

On the morning of our departure to the Muyuna Jungle Lodge, the administrative assistant from the Iquitos office came to our hotel at 9:30 and escorted us to the boat jetty just outside of the town center.  Michele and i rode on one mototaxi with our luggage and the Muyuna employee and a 30-something man from England rode on another. 

When we arrived at the jetty we were wisked down to the boat, we met Steve (the English fellow we would spend the next five days with) and we boarded the boat.  Within 2 minutes of our mototaxis stopping, the boat was off down the Amazon river on its way to the Muyuna Lodge.  We were really impressed by how smoothly this all worked because we were picked up exactly when we were supposed to be and were heading off in the boat just 15 minutes later.

The three hour ride began to get boring after the first hour or so but it was interesting how big (wide) the Amazon river is.  Otherwise, the boat was fast and its engine was very loud.  I tried to listen to my MP3 player and when i took it off about 45 mintues later, my ears were really ringing from the volume i had to set it to in order to hear over the engine.

Just before 12:00 noon we made the left turn onto the Yanacau River (a tributary of the Amazon) and in another 15 minutes we pulled up to the dock at the Lodge.  Some lodge employees grabbed our luggage for us and we were escorted into the dining room.  We immediately met our guide who filled us in on how the meals work (breakfast is normally at 8, lunch normally at 12:30…).  He also told us that we would be making an afternoon excursion that afternoon at 3:00 and another that evening after dinner.  He went on to explain that we would generally have 4 daily excursions — one before breakfast, one after breakfast, one in the afternoon and one after dinner.  Wow!  we were going to be busy!  And, we were psyched we would be going on our first excursion just 2 hours after arriving at the lodge!  no messin’ around!

After having a nice lunch of fried catfish, vegetables, rice, filtered water and fruit, we were shown to our room.  The rooms, or bungalows, at the lodge are elevated on stilts about 2 meters above the ground.  Each have private bath with cold water shower and are completely screened from the outside (there are no glass windows, no A.C. and no electricity).  Each bungalow also has a balcony with hammock.  Within ten minutes of arriving in our bungalow, we had already spotted a couple of lizards foraging around on the ground underneath the bungalows.  One of these was a large (1.5ft) Golden Tegu and the other was a smaller (8in.)lizard with a brown head and green body and tail.  This was shaping up to be an excellent experience!

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Iquitos, Peru (Post #122 )

May 24th, 2006

Mike writes…

Very fortunately for us, our flights from Cuzco to Lima and then from Lima to Iquitos were on time and without incident. 

So, we arrived at the Iquitos Airport at around 5:00 p.m. on May 15 and were collected by a representative of our hotel — Hostal Ambassador.  It turns out, the representative was actualy an employee of an Amazon jungle lodge company called Paseos Amazonicos.  Upon arriving at the hotel after the 30 minute ride from the airport, Jesus (the rep.) briefed us on what his company could offer us.  We didn’t want to leave the next day (Tues.) but did want to go for a five day adventure beginning Wednesday the 17th.  His lodge seemed good and off the beaten track.  You see, the jungle lodges that are actually on the Amazon river itself aren’t as good for viewing wildlife because the Amazon river is like a highway for the locals.  So, the Paseos Amazonicos lodge was on the Yarapa river about 140km from Iquitos.  This was a good location and the price was only $45/person/day.  Unfortunately, Jesus could not promise us they would have a guide availible for us on Wednesday.  We really wanted to depart on Wednesday and come back on Sunday so Jesus was good enough to refer us to a couple of other companies he thought were reputable. 

Well, after two hours of talking with Jesus about jungle lodges, we finally checked into our room and headed out to find dinner.  Itquitos has a realy unusual atmosphere that’s kind of difficult to describe. Our first impression is that it is a cross between Africa and Thailand. It doesn’t really appear to be set up for tourism (although there are tons of street touts trying to earn commision from jungle lodge sales) and most of it isn’t very attractive.  Really, most of the buildings look very industrial.  Below is a picture of one of the main streets with the primary modes of transportation shown. (There are very few cars in Iquitos.)

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The Sacred Valley, Peru (Post #121)

May 24th, 2006

Michele here….(Did I mention we are actually in Ecuador? And doing our best to catch up on the blogs.)

Our last day in Cuzco (May , we went on a very inexpensive ($13 each) all day tour of the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley area is incredibly beautiful.  There are many small towns and villages within this huge valley and many crops growing in the surrounding valleys and mountain sides. At various points in our tour you could also see rivers in the valley and snow covered mountains.  The tour consisted of visiting four main places – Pisac, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo, and Chinchero – but we stopped at a few viewpoints along the way.

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