Freejan

Well, we are back here nhow and having a rest day after much travelling about! We arrived in Quito on 3rd at about 5pm and got a taxi to the Hotel Real Audiencia, which has been our base camp if you like until tomorrow. We had showers, some food and then went to bed ready for rising early to catch the plane to the Galapagos at 7 am. We had to be there for 5.30 to meet the guide who was bringing our tickets – she was late but turned up thank goodness. We left Quito in warm jackets but were soon overheated as we hit the Galapagos. We were met by our guide for the trip, Jorge. We were taken to our Yacht, The Yolita and proceded to setle into our very small cabins. I shared with a german girl called Caroline next door to Rhonda and Jean. There were several nationalities as our companions for the 4 night/ 5 day trip, German, Danish,Dutch, Italian, Slovian and English. Luckily everyone had reasonable English and we all got on very well.
The first thing that struck me was that the wildlife were right next you – not a million miles across a field or stretch of water. As we got into the dingy to go to our yacht some sealions were sleeping on the benches and brown pelicans sat on the dingy as we got off it! Gob smacking really. Each day was split into a ´hike´ in the mornings on one of the islands while it was cool, followed by snorkelling or swimming off the beach or snorkelling for the daring ones off the little boat we had. some of the others went diving while we sunned ourselves on board. We would travel in the afternoon and usually go onto another island before boarding ready to move overnight or anchor up. We got into the ´wet´landings and the ´dry´landings. We were usually greeted on the beaches with sea lions and/or iguanas (land and marine – different colours and head gear!) When we travelled overnight it was very sick making for us land lubbers because a small boat moves about so much more than a large one. By the end of the week we all had our sea legs and were quite used to walking side to side and rocking as we moved! We saw some incredible wildlife – things have have read about or seen on television but to actually see then within one yard – that was the distance we had to stay to most things! We had to be wary of some sea lions with young ones – they would honk at us to go away! We saw Flamingoes twicew on 2 different islands, blue footed boobies (an amazing blue for those feet!), one with a chick , a white ball of fluff, masked boobies (beautiful), frigate birds, mocking birds – different ones on different islands, sally lightfoot crabs – amazingly bright orange, blue and yellow shells, pelicans as I have mentioned, turtles, some of them saw sharks but I didnt – too frightened to go snorkelling with them – but did see turtles in sea with snorkel and swam with sea lions all round us. On the next to the last day, travelling in the afternoon to reach Santa Cruz isalnd we had dolphins swimming next to us on the boat – 5 of them – so amazing! On the last night we were allowed to go on land and have a drink and shop. The last day we went to the Charles Darwin Centr to see the breeding centre for the giant tortoises. We also saw Lonesome George, thought to be one of thre last of his species – now thinking other wise and trying to breed with him – he is not reponding to the pressure at the moment! The other interesting thing we saw on Santa Cruz island was a whalers post box set up in 1793 to send post to all over the world delivered by hand. I sent a postcard – could only get one – to my 4 granddaughters – will it ever be delivered to them?
We left the boat and said our farewells to the crew and other passengers and headed for the airport to go back to Quito. The flight was delayed because of the weather in Quito – it was raining heavily when we arrived back here – what a shock after the Galapagos! We were later than we thought so a shower, meal and early bed ready for our trip to La Mitad del Mundo on Friday. That was very interesting even for me who didnt eally understand the lack of West 0 degrees latitude. Got a stamp in my passport to say I was there!
We got a bus back and picke dup our bags and went to ge the bus to Otavalo. It was a 2 1/2 hour journey and we arrived about 5.30pm. Checked into a very cheap hotel $6 or 3.50 pounds!
We had a pizza, a few beers and sent a couple of emails. We got up in time for the market at 8am. Weall spent too much but I was glad to find the ponchos I wanted for the girls – just had to buy a bag to carry them home in – more luggage! We left Otavalo at 1pm and arrived back in Quito at about 3.45pm. We have decide to rest a day here to take stock. Going to Tena to the rainforest on 8am bus tomorrow. We are staying until Thurs/Fri when we will return to Quito to the airport and fly to Lima and then on to Arequipa in Peru. A whistle stop tour but all very interesting. Equador, is I think a bit more prosperous than Bolivia. Buses cheap though – $6 for 5 hour journey for example. Ok I think I am now up to date! Will ad more when I can.

Tags: Galapagos, Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 11th, 2006 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.