Ecuador

Friday, April 9. Today was a lazy day. It pretty much rained the entire day, so Keith and I passed our time sleeping, eating, drinking, playing lots of cards, doing some laundry and catching up on the internet. We had a delicious dinner at our B&B and called it an early night. All and all we loved Mindo. The people were very nice, it was very relaxing and the B&B we stayed in was perfect. The bed was nice and hard, the water pressure was great, we had a balcony with a hammock, it was clean, free wi-fi, and delicious breakfast for a grand total price of $39 per night!

Saturday, April 10. We were up bright and early to catch a 6:30 am bus back to Quito. The bus was packed as we picked up a number of people along the way, including a young man carrying a live rooster in a burlap sack. We arrived back in Quito had some breakfast and by 10:00 am we had met up with Carlos – our tour guide for the day. The first stop was the equator. There, we got to see and experience a number of the natural phenomenons that occur only at the equator – i.e. balancing an egg on the head of a nail and watching water drain straight down instead of swirling clockwise or counterclockwise (depending on which hemisphere you are in). Though corny and a bit touristy, I found it all very fascinating. From there, Carlos took us on a tour of the Old Town – a maze of narrow streets, lots of people, beautiful churches and historic buildings. Around 3:00 pm we bid farewell to Carlos, checked out a market, checked out a casino, and had a late lunch. We stocked up on provisions for the Galapagos Islands, had a few cocktails and then called it a night at a very shady, but free, hostel.

Sunday, April 11. We were up once again bright an early to catch a flight to the Galapagos Islands. My Lonely Planet book describes the Galapagos Islands as the following: “A trip to these extraordinary islands is like stumbling upon an alternate universe, some strange utopian colony organized by sea lions – the golden retrievers of the Galapagos – and arranged on principles of mutual cooperation. What's so extraordinarily special for humans is the trait that as made the island inhabitants famous: fearlessness. Blue footed boobies, sea lions, prehistoric land iguanas – they all act as if humans are nothing more than slightly annoying paparazzi.” We arrived to beautiful sunny weather. After collecting our luggage, we were shuttled off to our boat, a 100 foot catamaran named the Queen Beatriz. Both Keith and I were a bit weary of exactly how nice our boat was going to be, after spending the night at a very shady hostel that was owned by the tour company that we had booked the cruise through. Though our boat was supposed to be a “luxury” yacht, we just weren't sure what to expect. Fortunately we weren't disappointed. The boat had three decks, one of which was a sun deck and one of which had an outside bar and jacuzzi. Our room was a beautiful suite complete with our own balcony. After we were brought to our room, we shut the door and high fived! The boat holds only 16 passengers plus 8 crew, 1 cruise director and 1 naturalist. After having a delicious lunch, meeting our shipmates (a seemingly good group of people) and going for a short cruise, we were off on our first “activity.” We were loaded into two zodiacs and went cruising through the mangroves in Black Turtle Cove in Santa Cruz Island. There, we saw blue-footed boobies, Galapagos brown pelicans, spotted eagle rays, cow-nosed rays, a small shark and large pacific green sea turtles – not bad for our first day out!

Monday, April 12 – Our first full day in the Galapagos Islands and it was packed. Our wake-up call was at 6:30 a.m., with breakfast served at 7:00 a.m. Shortly after breakfast we went for a dingy ride where we saw Galapagos sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, and marine iguanas. Next we were dropped off on shore at Post Office Bay on the island of Floreana. Post Office Bay really has nothing, except a a barrel that serves as a mailbox. Today people put postcards in the barrel and then other people who come ashore try and find mail written to people who live near them – those people can then bring the mail back with them to hand deliver. We found one that was address to someone who lives in Mashpee, so when we return, we will hand deliver the postcard. A very antiquated, but neat mail system. Next was trekking down into a lava cave. It was a steep climb down and the water in the cave was quite cold. After the cave we had some time on the beach to swim and snorkel. Keith ventured out and got to swim will two large sea turtles. I had some difficulty with my equipment, so was relegated to lounging around the beach. On the beach however, I got to watch pelicans searching for breakfast and penguins swimming along the shore. We were then back on the boat for lunch, followed by a deep water snorkel at Devil's Crown. With a proper fitting mask, my snorkeling experience was fabulous. In addition to beautiful fish, we also saw yellow, blue and black with red polka-a-dots star fish and a sea turtle. After snorkeling we were shuttled into shore where we went for a hike around Floreana. On Floreana we saw lava lizards, blue herons, great flamingos, fiddler crabs, a number of different kinds of birds and a funky grasshopper. We walked along a beach where the sea turtles had laid there eggs. The fridgettes (a kind of bird), were circling around waiting to gobble up any newly hatched turtles as they tried to make their way to the sea. We were shuttled back to our boat where we found a sea lion lounging on the back stairs. We had just enough time to shower, before it was “briefing” time – where our naturalist gives us the itinerary for the next days activities and shows us pictures of what we are likely to see. Dinner was at 7:00 pm and bedtime was shortly thereafter. As an aside, it seems like this is going to be a packed trip. There isn't a whole heck of a lot of downtime and they keep you pretty busy from morning til night. As a second aside, I don't think Keith nor I have meet a more well-traveled bunch of people. Almost everyone has been to every place Keith and I have gone plus much, much more. Several people have even gone to Antarctica – Keith and I, plus one other woman, are the only Americans – interesting...

Tuesday, April 13 – Our wake-up call was once again 6:30 a.m., breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Shortly after breakfast we were shuttled into a beautiful beach on the island of Espanola. On the beach was a huge colony of sea lions. Clearly they were used to humans and, as long as you didn't touch them, you could really get as close as you wanted. There also were a number of huge marine iguanas. After strolling along the beach with the sea lions, we had some time for swimming and snorkeling. By 10:00 a.m. we were shuttled back to the boat, in time to change and be taken to an area called Gardner Bay were we went deep water snorkeling. There were brightly colored fish and a number of sea lions that were playing in the water with us – it was very cool. After some lunch and a short cruise we were shuttled into Puerto Suarez on the island of Espanola for a long hike. On the hike we saw more sea lions, Nazca boobies, Sallylight crabs, more marine iguanas, lava lizards and albatross. We also got to see a blowhole. We were shuttled back to the boat in time to shower, have our briefing and have some dinner and shortly thereafter, it was time for bed.