Ecuador and Galapagos 2011

Dedicated to the memory of my friend Arlan Stone

In February 2011 I visited Ecuador and the Galapagos islands. The former was a mixed treat, the latter was beyond astounding. I took some fantastic photos on the islands, and they go hand-in-hand with the story of my trip.

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Ecuador

Sun-Mon – Quito

I arrived in Quito after midnight and taxied to my hotel in the old Colonial portion of the city. I awoke on Sunday morning to find most things closed, as is common in a Catholic country. Since Ecuador is on the equator I expected warmth when I booked the trip, but I encountered periodic downpours and, being at 8000’, temperatures in the 40’s-50’s.

I toured on foot and eventually found the impressive National Museum with its amazing artifacts - mostly pottery and gold displaying unique and imaginative designs. The period ranged from 12,000 BC until 1500 AD and the pieces were incredibly well-preserved.

On Monday I hired a guide who took me all around the historic portion of the city for over four hours. We spent an hour at La Compania, a gorgeous ornate Church, the jewel of a city of churches. Some of the wood carvings were so shiny; my guide said they were originally polished “with the bladder of the baby ship”! We also walked a zillion steps to the top of the Basilica, which presented spectacular views in all directions.

Otherwise, I wasn’t that drawn in by Quito. Due to mountains it doesn’t extend far north and south, but it’s miles wide. The old town is pretty but dangerous at night, so I moved to the tourist portion, La Mariscal, also known as “Gringotown”. Prior to leaving my original hotel I sat on the toilet seat cover, splintering it into several pieces, and shattering the whole seat to the floor!

Nearly every store has a higher rate for credit cards and I used cash almost exclusively. Ecuador has its own coins, but everything from $1 up is American – there’s no exchange rate, which is nice. And if you’ve ever wondered what happened to all those Sacagawea dollar coins…they’re here. The biggest bill I saw was $20, but most retailers don’t have change…often even for $5 bills.

I loosely planned my week but when I arrived I realized that it wouldn’t make sense for me to take the ski lift to the overhead view at 11000’, hike up the big volcano, or take the train ride through the valley of volcanoes, because everything was shrouded in clouds and I wouldn’t have a view. I also wanted to take the Quilotoa Loop through a bunch of small towns. But I could only find 1-day tours that didn’t leave until Thursday, and the bus schedule was too erratic for me to go own my own. So instead I went to Baños, a city known for outdoor adventure – white water rafting, horseback riding, etc.

Tues-Thurs - Baños
I’ll tell ya’…getting there was half the fun. Following instructions I walked to the Metro (1/2 hr) (think Boston’s Green Line minus the tracks) and rode to the bus station at the end of the line (1/2 hr). When I arrived and asked about a bus to Baños I was told that this was the municipal bus station; I had to go to the intercity bus terminal (another 1/2 hr). Once there I asked how I get a bus to Baños and the man indicated to go around the corner…where I found a men’s room! Baños is the word for bathroom.

Once I explained myself an official notified me that this was the terminal for all buses going north of Quito; I needed to go to the south bus station on the other side of town, yet another hour bus ride away. By the time I finally arrived in Baños and got a hotel, it was time for dinner.

I stopped in one of the many tourist offices and inquired about rafting and other trips. I became engaged in conversation with a young couple from Little Rock, Arkansas, who were intent upon going on a day-long jungle tour. I figured I’d enjoy their company and signed up.

Baños is a pretty, quaint town nestled in the mountains at 5000’. It’s known for the hot springs but I found the old public baths crowded and unattractive. The jungle tour took us toward the town of Puyo at 3000’ feet. The farther we descended the warmer it got, so it was delightful to hike through the jungle swamps in tall boots and swim in a powerful waterfall. The terrain was lush and we encountered some beautiful flowers and birds and one very large spider. The promised monkeys turned out to be ones in a large penned-in area. They were very playful and fun, and one teased a caged lemur-like mammal called a cabeza de mate. We also saw an anteater called a cuchucho.

On Thursday I took a bike ride along La Avenida de Cascadas, a mostly downhill road with sights of several spectacular waterfalls:
Agoyán – A double, one stream white and clear, the other brown and muddy.
Manto de la Novia – I took a cable car 100’ above the river and over the waterfall
Pailón del Diablo – A monstrous, thundering, spraying falls. I was barely able to crawl through a tunnel to get behind it. It was built for Ecuadorans, who are about 5’ tall.

I attempted to hike to one more large falls with numerous smaller falls en route. Although only 2.2 kilometers away the hike was unrelentingly uphill. The smaller falls were off poorly-marked side trails and unimpressive. In thin air, after a day of biking and hiking, it took forever. I finally reached a river I couldn’t safely cross and gave up. I took a bus back to Baños, had dinner, then a massage for my cramping muscles. I liked Baños a lot but it was time to move on.

My Galapagos trip is shifting under me. I investigated a lot of boats before choosing Archipel II, a 16-passenger catamaran. A few days before I departed I received the unsettling news that it was being repaired and I was switched to a different boat. Today I learned that Archipel II is ready to go, and that my Monday 7:50 AM flight to San Cristobal has been changed to 10 AM, which pleases me indeed!

Friday-Saturday – Otavalo
I learned I could take a bus directly to Otavalo in the north, bypassing Quito’s bus stations. What I didn’t realize is that there are different bus companies with their own routes. I ended up on a local and spent another long day traveling. After dinner I walked around the town and discovered a guitar player celebrating the opening of a hotel. Free punch, wine, and cheese, so I joined the festivities. Got tipsy, had some fun conversations, danced with and was (surprise!) French kissed by an inebriated German artist who offered to paint me.

Otavalo is known for its Saturday market; what an amazing experience that was. It went on for blocks and blocks, practically to my hotel door. I followed the stalls a kilometer out of town until I reached the animal market. Along the way I took numerous photos of the indigenous people in their traditional clothes; what fascinating subjects they are.

The small field was filled with people and animals, from livestock (small pig- $30, large boar $150) to household pets (puppy - $30), including the only cats I saw in Ecuador. I took a lot of photos but decided not to purchase a rooster or llama. I did buy a bunch of items in the market itself, and had fun talking and negotiating with the proprietors.

Afternoon I hired a guide who took me on a five-hour tour around Otavalo. We had a fun time visiting small villages, each of which had a different specialty. We saw a woman weaving straw mats and a man who made wooden pipe instruments; a town specializing in wool clothes and artwork and another known for leather.

We saw a dormant volcano; a Scottish-looking lake surrounded by ancient mountains; a gorgeous waterfall that we crawled behind to sit quietly beside the flowing river. On two occasions local people asked me to be in their family photographs. I found that to be a bizarre and funny custom.

Sun – Mitad del Mundo
On Sunday I returned to Quito then went to Mitad del Mundo, a monument to the place where the Equator was first determined. In addition to the monument the park contained Worlds Fair-type pavilions that taught the history of the place; rides for kids; restaurants and numerous souvenir shops; a bandstand with performances. It was so interesting and tacky, Quito’s Disneyland! I hung out a bit with an Argentine kid I met on the bus, and we went to the top of the monument for spectacular views.

I then visited an Ecuadorian cultural museum next door. In addition to interesting artifacts, they determined via GPS that it, not Mitad, was on the actual equator, and thus displayed a number of equator-related exhibits. I don’t know how they pulled off the sleight-of-hand, but they showed water going down a basin counter-clockwise in the north, clockwise in the south, and straight down on the equator.

Due to another bad bus choice I didn’t get back to my hotel until fairly late in the evening, and there I found my travel papers for the next day. One displayed my original 7:50 AM flight, so I called my travel agent. She assured me that those papers were old and that my flight was indeed at 10 AM. That was a relief.


Galapagos

Blue lines show our route


Monday – North Seymour
This was the most emotionally intense, up and down day of the trip. I got to the airport around 8:30 and learned that I was indeed booked on that 7:50 flight. And the 10:00 was full. And I may not be able to get a flight until tomorrow!

I had the airlines call my travel agent, and she located a coworker who just happened to be at the airport. This agent discovered that not only was I told the wrong flight, I was being sent to the wrong airport! She got me onto a flight to Baltra on a different airline and told me that someone would meet me at my destination carrying a sign with my name. It worked out OK, but it was an involved and stressful couple of hours.

When I arrived in Baltra there was no sign with my name. Eventually I saw a man holding a sign saying “Archipel I” and since I knew my boat was Archipel II I went up to him. He said, “You’re no longer on Archipel II, you’re now on Archipel I…come with me.”

Once again the boat I had chosen was taken away from me. I eventually learned that an American travel group had bought out Archipel II at the last minute. And, as it turned out, this switch was the best thing that could happened. Archipel II was filled with sixteen 70 year olds who hiked slowly; Archipel I had 8 people the first four days and 7 the next four, mostly younger and quite mobile.

The man with the sign was Dario, our guide, and he was fantastic. He’s one of the first guides to actually grow up in the Galapagos and he took us on adventures that most boats don’t experience. The first day he said, “I plan to take you out either before or after the other boats; you’ll have your own experience without the crowds!”

While having lunch we headed to the nearby island of North Seymour, where we went snorkeling. The water was a bit cool and we all rented wetsuits for the week. We saw sharks, manta rays, yellow puffer fish, and sea lions. We snorkeled twice most days, 45-60 minutes each time.

The afternoon hike was amazing, with some of our best wildlife of the week. Huge, otherworldly, and very personable land iguanas. The famous blue-footed boobies. Male magnificent frigate birds that inflated their chests bright red to attract females. Swallow-tailed gulls with bright orange irises. Most of the animals we saw all week have no predators and we could walk right up to them…even mothers with babies or sitting on eggs. As a result we all got incredible photographs every day.

Dario loaned me his laptop for the week and I was able to go through my photos. It was a mistake to do this tonight because I was seasick. My 4gb camera chip was mostly full, so late evening I opened and installed my new 8gb chip, only to learn that it was defective. Another passenger, Jeremy, tried it in his camera and it didn’t work there either.

I freaked out – here I was in the middle of photographer’s paradise with no camera stores in sight and I had no storage. I deleted some videos which gave me room for the next day. I went to bed feeling queasy and emotionally spent from an incredible, long day of travel turmoil, visual paradise, and camera angst.

The next day Jeremy gave me his extra chip and I gave him my extra disposable underwater camera, since the nice one he brought didn’t work. So it worked out.


Tuesday - Genovesa
Today we hiked and snorkeled both morning and afternoon. On land around Darwin Bay we saw Red-footed Boobies (including ones with chicks or sitting on eggs) and great frigate birds (as opposed to the magnificent ones we saw yesterday. Yeah, that’s what they’re called but I couldn’t tell the difference).

The Bay is a crater with deep walls 270 degrees around. We snorkeled among beautiful yellow and pink coral. Two big events – I saw my only hammerhead shark, which was scarily beautiful and passed by about 20’ from us. What really blew me away, however, was when an entire armada of Manta and Spotted Eagle Rays went swimming below us. They were each around 5’ wide and there must have been two dozen of them.

What else? I saw a blue fish with 4 light blue spots that glowed like stars in the sunlight. A pelican swam with us our entire journey. Once I looked up and a sea lion was staring me in the face!

Our afternoon hike featured a few skirmishes. We saw two Nazca boobies pecking at each other; two mockingbirds delightfully prancing and posing and snapping their feathers at each other; one fur seal barking and snapping and staring down another.

Dario took us off trail and onto the rocks along the shore, in search of the elusive diurnal (awake in the day) short-eared owl. He occasionally discovers one and the other guides don’t believe him, and on this day we saw two! Like most other species they stood stationary regardless of how close we came. Dario pulled mouse bones from one bird’s nest and the owl gave us an evil eye.

Wednesday – Bartolome
Dario said that as soon as it gets light the Galapagos penguins enter the water. So we woke up at 5:30 and by 6 we were in a little launch along the rocky shores looking at small penguins with rather ill-defined features. At 6:05 they jumped into the water and were gone. I later swam with a couple that zipped around me at incredible speeds.

We hiked to a viewpoint that was certainly the prettiest spot in the Galapagos. We felt like we already had a full morning but it was only 7:30 when we got back to the boat for breakfast.

Snorkeling was amazing. Fields of large starfish, some with brilliant, shiny orange dots connected by geodesic-like lines. Spotted rays, darting penguins, 10’ sharks, a long, striped eel. Then a landing on a gorgeous beach.

The morning on Bartolome was so beautiful. Afternoon, by contrast, we hiked a portion that had been covered in lava. It was totally desolate with almost no vegetation but featured sensuous lava swirls.

We then took our only day-time boat trip to the island of Santa Cruz. I spent it on the deck reading, and watched a rain storm approach, then pelt the boat, water, and birds. In the midst of the storm our boat’s waiter brought up my afternoon pizza snack. He saw I wasn’t below and set out to find me. This was the awesome level of service we experienced throughout the week.

Thursday – Santa Cruz
A relatively quiet day on this inhabited island. In the morning Dario led a tour of the Charles Darwin Center, where they raise tortoises and release them into the wild. We saw newly-hatched ones about 6” wide, some larger juveniles, and a few adults that weighed 350 lbs. It’s fascinating to see how slowly they move.

The most famous inhabitant of the Galapagos (he even has his own hats and t-shirts!) is Lonesome George, the last member of his subspecies. They’ve been trying to get him to mate for years, but the eggs haven’t been fertile. If you’ve never seen a giant tortoise, this is a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyOLK3QVprE

When we finished the tour of the research center we said goodbye to four people who were only touring for 4 days, and we later welcomed three new passengers. We had some free time in the small town for souvenir shopping. I was amused by the outdoor fish market with its cluster of begging pelicans.

Afternoon was the perfect time for our only other rainstorm. We put on high boots and walked through the rainforest to see the giant tortoises in the wild. They don’t seem to do much more than walk and eat, but it was fascinating watching these huge, ancient animals.

Although the Galapagos cover a small area, their climate is affected by two northerly currents to the east and west, and a southerly up the middle. The center islands are hotter and more humid, and that’s where we encountered rain. Even when there was no rain the sky would occasionally drip like the ceiling of a steam bath. It didn’t bother me; I was glad to be away from winter.

Friday – Floreana
In the morning we visited the flamingos and learned that of all the Galapagos inhabitants, including even the giant tortoises and iguanas, these are the most ancient & closely descended from dinosaurs. They happened to be foraging across a pond so we couldn’t get too close. However, their long, spindly legs reflected in the water made for some fascinating images.

One of our most memorable stops was at a beach where we shuffled along in the shallow surf and small sting rays (12-18” across) swam all around us and occasionally bumped into our legs. We were safe as long as we didn’t step on their tails. We saw some small sharks too and, no, they weren’t scary.

The highlight of our day’s snorkeling was seeing a fish superhighway – thousands of fish, in large schools or alone, all swimming on the same current.

Afternoon we toured lava tubes, in which the outside lava had solidified but the inside had escaped and formed a tunnel. Next, we visited Post Office Bay, the islands’ ancient postal system. You examine the mail in the mailbox and if any destinations are where you're heading you hand-deliver it!

We cheered our crew in soccer against another boat's team, then I walked along the beach and studied the beautiful, speckled orange crabs. Just before dinner Dario took us on a little boat trip around a tiny island filled with boobies, sea lions, seals, and penguins. That night (and others) we lay on the boat's deck and viewed the Milky Way and shooting stars in the pitch black ocean sky.

Saturday – Española
What an awesome morning! We spent 90 minutes among hundreds of sea lions sunning themselves on the beach. It was readily apparent that they have common ancestors with dogs. They rolled all over each other in puppy piles, played, barked, and snapped. It was thrilling to watch their humorous interactions, and I took dozens of photos and videos.

Afternoon we boated to Punta Suarez, landed at a gorgeous beach, then climbed a cliff for a beautiful view (and one very active blowhole). We hiked the ridge and saw numerous animals: red/green/black Española iguanas, sea lions (one eating rocks to aid digestion), a crab in a mating pose, a snake; and birds: a small Galapagos hawk, Galapagos dove, Nazca and Blue-footed boobies – one juvenile putting its head in its father’s mouth to eat. Dario found a large albatross egg, but those birds were elsewhere at this time. They and whales (in California) were the only animals we didn’t get to see.

Sunday – San Cristobal
Awoke to more beautiful scenery – gorgeous cliffs rising above the blue-green sea. Punta Pitt was swapped into our original itinerary at the last minute and Dario wasn’t familiar with this area, so we explored. Saw a number of Red-footed boobies with their young.

We snorkeled twice. In the morning 10-20 sea lions swam and played all around us. They are so lumbering on land but graceful in the waves. And in the afternoon we spotted a large number of sea turtles. Like their land counterparts they are pretty chill, gliding effortlessly and unhurriedly beneath us.

On the afternoon hike we encountered ghost crabs, which have eyes on top of their heads and when they see somebody they duck into a hole in the sand. So we didn’t have much of a look at them and I was surprised to get a photo. In fact, this island has been inhabited by humans for many years and the animals are noticeably more wary. Birds quickly flew off and the iguanas scurried away when we approached.

Monday-Tuesday – San Cristobal to Quito to home
We took a short, uneventful hike, although I finally found a golden finch that stood still long enough for me to get a picture – most of my earlier ones were yellow blurs! Walked around town and bought more souvenirs. Said goodbye to the crew and went to the airport.

Back in Quito I had a nice Mexican dinner, picked up a duffel bag I’d left at the hotel, then returned to the airport for my midnight flight home. It left late, I arrived in Atlanta an hour before my next flight, and just missed my connection. The killer was having to wait 20 minutes for our bags, exit, and check them back in. In all I was “on the road” around 24 hours.

Footnote- On Wednesday I awoke with vertigo. Whenever I stood up I felt like I was still on the boat and swayed side to side to maintain balance. I took a bad fall and injured my leg; I couldn’t walk for a day and it took weeks to fully repair. But the vertigo disappeared the next day. It was a weird sensation.

Looking back on the vacation I enjoyed the Ecuador portion; the Otavalo market stands out. The Galapagos feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I won’t ever forget.