The smallest country in the rugged Andean highlands, Ecuador has an array of vibrant indigenous cultures, well-preserved colonial architecture, otherworldly volcanic landscapes and dense rain forest.
And all that in a nation no bigger than the US state of Nevada.
We will visit the Galapagos Islands during a boat trip but also intend to stay a little bit longer on Santa Cruz (one of the islands) to do some more diving.
Ecuador - Quito
Monday morning the 15th of May, we left our hostel in Panama City very early (5.30am), to go to the airport and catch our flight to Miami and then Quito. A few hours after arriving in Miami, it had started to rain heavily. Because of lightening the airport shut down completely, preventing our plane to start boarding.
We finally had to wait for almost 4 hours in total, at the airport and in the plane.
We arrived in Quito at 23.30. Getting a taxi to our hostel proved to be very easy, so half an hour later we arrived in our hostel safe and sound.
Tuesday morning we went straight to the travel agency in the new part of Quito, since we had to pay for our cruise for the Galapagos, which was supposed to leave the next day.
Arrived at the agency they informed us that the 2 places we had booked on the internet, were sold by the owners of the boat the previous day. You can imagine that we were pretty upset!
Especially since we had booked it the Friday before and that we had started to get money from ATM machines already in Panama. So as of Friday we were the head price for any thief we might have run into.
The travel agency had neglected to mention that if we would have made a down-payment via an international bank, the places would have been ours....
After another 3 hours in the office, we finally found an acceptable alternative for our visit to the Galapagos. Since that ship would leave the 26th of May and would return the 2nd of June, we had to change our next plane ticket to Chile, also cutting our trip to Chile short.
To give us some days on one of the islands for some diving, we would now fly to Santa Cruz (one of the Galapagos islands) the 22nd of May.
Thereafter we walked a bit through the new town of Quito. The city of Quito lies between the highlands at an altitude of 2800 meters. We noticed this of course when climbing the streets uphill or the many stairs in our hostel. Our hostel (the Secret Garden) is rated one of the best in whole South America according to the Lonely Planet, and we can definitely agree to that.
It is located on a hill in the center of the old city of Quito and is 4 stories high. Consequently the roof terrace has an amazing view on that part of the city. For only a few dollars, you could enjoy breakfast and dinner there. Since they had put us in a twin room (2 separate beds) instead of a double room (1 bed) and they felt really bad about that, we enjoyed a free dinner there that evening. Because almost everyone in the hostel (and sometimes from outside the hostel) comes to dinner, you really meet a lot of nice people and hear a lot of travelling stories.
Wednesday morning, after having had a nice breakfast on the roof, we did however move to a different hostel which was only 1 block away. This hostel was a few dollars cheaper and there we had our own bathroom and TV. We could also make use of the communal kitchen. Again we went to the new town to get our tickets for the Galapagos trip. We also managed to find the LAN office to have our ticket to Chili changed.
Thereafter we went to the South American Explores club, where we added some more weight to our luggage by buying 3 Lonely planets. While travelling through Central and South America, we are now convinced that we are absolutely lost without them.
After trying to find the right bus for an hour who would bring us to the 'Mitad del Mundo'(Equator), we finally gave up and took a taxi (which cost us 6 times as much!). The official monument of the Center of the World wasn´t really that special, but the place 200 meters north of it was. The French had miscalculated the exact position of the equator with 200 meters (which wasn´t too bad considering the measurement equipment they had in the 18th century).
Ecuador (which means equal distance) is not only on the equator, but also (the Galapagos islands) is halfway the Greenwich meridian and the international date line. Quito is the only place in the world where the equator crosses through the highlands. In the rest of the world, the equator crosses through jungle or ocean.
The small but interesting museum that was built around the actual equator position (determined by GPS), showed us a bit of the history of Ecuador, but also some remarkable differences when doing little tests on the equator and just next to it. For example, balancing an unboiled egg on the equator is not that difficult.
Another experiment: Did you know that draining water turns in opposite directions depending on which side of the equator you are? Well, we saw this was true when we moved the sink just 3 meters off the equator: the water turns clockwise on the southern hemisphere, counterclockwise on the northern hemisphere. When the sink is placed exactly on the equator-line, the water falls straight trough, without turning!
At night we had dinner in our 'old' hostel. They had an Ecuadorian night with typical food and after dinner a small band came to play music.
Thursday morning we went on a tour organised by the hostel to visit the Pichincha Vulcan. With a Land-rover we drove to 4200 mtr. For the last part of the drive, which was almost an hour, we sat on the roof. The ride was extremely bumpy and not quite comfortable, but really big fun.
From that point on we had to walk to a refuge point. Because of the high altitude we could only climb really slow. We also had to drink a lot of water to avoid altitude sickness.
After reaching the refuge our guide - Brad - joined us again with the land-rover. There we had a short break with tea and cookies. For the last part of the climb to reach the summit of the volcano, Brad went with us.
Although quite strenuous, it was a beautiful walk, with amazing views on the city and the surrounding mountains. We sometimes had to climb on and over rocks on our hands and feet.
We finally climbed to 4807 mtr, which is the same as the Mont Blanc! Although people in Ecuador say that the Pichincha is higher. At the top we enjoyed our lunch which Brad had taken with him. We were all really proud of ourselves for reaching the top, also because nobody had gotten sick due to the altitude. The view on the inside of the volcano was also amazing. You could see the sulphur damps coming out of it.
Our descent back to the refuge took us a little over an hour and was quite steep. In the end we were really glad to see the land-rover again! On our way back to the city, Brad took us to the statue of the virgin Mary (La Virgen del Panecillo), which had been given to the city by the French.
After having had dinner at the hostel, we turned in rather early that night since we were really tired.
Friday we took it easy, just walking through the old city and updating our site with all the pictures we took of the city and the volcano.
Saturday morning we left our hostel at 7 o´clock to catch a bus to Otovala. We went together with Dara, a fellow traveller from the USA whom we had met earlier that week in the Secret Garden Hostel.
After a beautiful drive through the mountains we arrived in the town of Otovala at 9.30. The market was set up throughout the whole town and very colourful. It is the biggest Indian market in Ecuador.
Price bargaining is also a big part of the fun of buying things there. Amongst other things, we finally also bought a really nice hammock very cheap. However we now have to ship it back home; which will cost us a bit more.. After spending a few hours on the market and enjoying a beer on a terrace, we returned to Quito.
Sunday was our last day in Quito. The larger part of the day we walked around the old town of Quito. All of Quito is placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which is quite unique since usually only some buildings are placed on it. During our tour around the city, we understood why; we saw a lot of beautiful churches and other historical buildings. Since it was Sunday, a lot of people were watching performances on the different plazas in the city.
At night we enjoyed our last dinner in our 'old' hostel and watched a movie as it was "movie night".
Ecuador - Galapagos
Monday morning we took the flight of 09.30 to the Galapagos, arriving at Santa Cruz island the beginning of the afternoon. When we got out of the plane, we immediately felt the higher temperature in comparison to Quito. Which was quite nice, unless when you had to walk around town with 21 kgs in your backpack, looking for a hotel...Eventually we found one, reasonably priced, just behind the boulevard.
Santa Cruz only has one (small) town called Puerto Ayora which consists of a few streets with restaurants, shops and some hotels. In the afternoon we also booked a dive tour for the following day.
On Tuesday we went diving at Gordon's Rock which is located a 1 hr boat ride east of Santa Cruz. As Galapagos is located in the middle of the ocean, we already knew beforehand that diving would be extremely strenuous due to strong currents and poor visibility. Nevertheless we spotted the famous hammerhead sharks during our first 2 dives which we never had seen before in our lives!
Wednesday we went to one of the most beautiful beaches of Santa Cruz, Tortuga Bay.
After a half an hour walk through a beautiful lava landscape with a lot of cactus-trees, we arrived on the first beach. This beach was popular with surfers because of the nice waves, however it was not allowed to swim there due to the strong current. Just a few minutes walking further we arrived at the second beach which was nicely hidden in a bay. We spent that afternoon enjoying the cristal clear water and the sunshine.
Thursday we went on another diving trip which brought us to two diving sites in the proximity of Santa Cruz. It was pretty relaxed since we were the only 2 divers going on this trip. Unfortunately the visibility was again not so good, but we did see sea lions and a shark. In between the dives we could also spend some time snorkeling and after the two dives we took a nice walk on part of the island.
Friday we checked out of our hotel and went by bus to the airport where we were going to meet our group for the 8 day cruise around the Galapagos islands. Since the cruise was quite expensive we were a bit afraid that the group would consist of only elderly Americans. Later we learnt that they all had had that same fear when booking the cruise! We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the group consisted of 3 couples of our own age and a Swedish lady in her early fifties. The three couples coming from Ireland, Scotland, the UK, Australia and Switzerland were all on longer trips, from 3 months to 17 months! So you can say that we were no exception.
This would be our group for the first four days after which 8 new passengers would join us for the last 4 days of the cruise.
Our guide Angelika (originally from Germany, but been living on the Galapagos for over 20 years), took us to the first class ship:TIP TOP II, which was going to be our home for the next 8 days.
(Click here for TIP TOP II itinerary)
We were all quite impressed with the ship, especially the interior. Since we were all used to living in (cheap) hostels, we really enjoyed the luxury of the cabins and of the living areas.
That same afternoon we started with our first visit to a part of Santa Cruz. Every following day we visited a different island and sometimes a few sites on the same island. All the islands are different when looking at the landscape and the animals living there.
They do have in common however that they are all volcanic. But even in that shared origin you have significant differences, resulting in f.i. black beaches, green beaches, yellow beaches and white beaches. On some islands the surface is almost sandy, but on the younger islands, the surface still consists of lava boulders.
Besides doing walks on the islands, we also had a snorkeling excursion each day. The snorkeling was really quite spectacular. Of course we saw loads of different types of fish, but we also saw turtles, sharks and penguins (the latter are really fast swimmers!). At one snorkeling site, we got to swim (and play) with a great number of sea-lions. They swim around you, approach you swimming up side down and when they are about 10 cm away from your mask they shoot away! If you would hold your fins in front of them, they would playfully bite in them. That was really great fun!.
The islands which we visited the first few days were especially amazing, looking at the different landscapes and all of the wildlife. Some species living on the islands can be found nowhere else in the world!
You could really tell that the animals never had any negative experiences with people before. We could get as close to the animals as we wanted (while remaining on the set paths of course and trying not to scare them). You could sit besides the birds (even the ones that were breeding) and observe them without them moving an inch. The sea lions were also not particularly shy. At one island they came up to us and sniffled on our toes and legs. At two occasions, when I was sitting down next to a sea lion, he approached me and touched my feet, my legs and then my forehead! (I was thrilled of course and could have stayed there all day or even all week).
We were all very happy with our guide;(the price of the cruise also determines the level of knowledge of the guide. She knew everything there was to know of the history of the islands, the different animal species and the plants.
We could also tell that it was a first class ship by the meals we got. Every morning for breakfast we could make our choice out of fresh fruits, eggs, marmalade, granola and toast. Then after our excursion to an island and sometimes a snorkeling trip we had lunch. Not the type of lunch which we were accustomed to, like f.i. a sandwich, noooo.... each day we had a three course lunch with soup, meat or fish, fresh vegetables, salad and desert!
You can imagine that after these lunches we were all glad that we had a siesta of about 2 hrs. each day. Usually half of our group disappeared in there cabins to sleep and the other half could be found reading or sleeping outside on the sun-deck. What a terrible lifestyle! Of course at night we also had a nice two course dinner. And then I almost forgot to mention the snacks in between.....
We have been also extremely lucky with the weather since we arrived on the Galapagos. In May usually the Garua season starts on the Galapagos, resulting in over-casted sky's and sometimes not really rain but a drizzle in the afternoons. However nature was a month behind (lucky for us!), so except for one day, we had clear-blue skyes and sunshine all week.
After four days 8 new passengers were added to our group; a Dutch! family of 6 and two American girls. Only now the ship was fully booked.
This trip has definitely been one of the highlights of our journey. To see so much wildlife up close and learn so much about them has been really an amazing experience. We were of course also lucky to have gotten such a good guide and such nice people on board.
Friday morning after an early morning excursion and breakfast, we left the ship and went to the airport. There we said goodbye to part of our initial group who were going to stay on Santa Cruz a bit longer. The rest of the group also got on the plane to fly to either Guayaquil or Quito.
That night we flew from Quito to Santiago de Chile, arriving there at 5 o´clock Saturday morning.
A new part of our journey begins!
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