Following days of deliberation and intense argument we made the heart wrenching decision to cut our time in Colombia short and go on a lavish 8-day cruise around the Galapagos Islands - it's a tough gig. After 3 flights and a delightful 13 hour lay-over in Quito we landed at the Baltra airport near the main island of Galapagos.
We were greeted at the airport with the now very much familiar Latin American efficiency: one person on customs checking 2 plane loads of people (it only took 55 minutes) typing with one finger, followed by a 45 minute wait in a sweat pit of a bus waiting for it to fill up with passengers before it would leave, so 7 fat Americans later we were on the way to our boat.
After a short dingy ride out to our floating palace we were finally on board and were greeted by our fellow travelers. As per our expectations the average age of our shipmates was somewhere near 70 years old. We spent the first half of the week traipsing around the Galapagos checking out the wildlife that was on offer. We hadn't even made it on the boat before seeing our first sea-lion which was laying on a bench at the landing pontoon where we caught our dingy. Our first afternoon we went to an area where we could see giant tortoises and took 3 steps off the bus to find one cruising around the car park. On our first full day we headed out in the morning and found a pack of sea-lion cubs playing around in some rock pools (one of which was especially curious and had to give KG the once over) and after a walk around the island we could comfortably say we have seen our fair share of iguanas. Throughout the week we managed to see basically everything the Islands have to offer: giant tortoises, sea turtles, marine iguanas, those funky looking orange crabs, sting rays, manta rays, heaps of boobies (get your mind of the gutter, they are a type of bird), stacks of sea lions and the occasional shark. One of the highlights was Katherine managed to keep her bowels in order while we went snorkeling with a school of hammerhead sharks!
Now sit back and prepare to be bombarded by all the awesome stuff we saw in the Galapagos!
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| KG and a curious sea lion pup - despite KG's insistence, we did not bring the pup home with us... |
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| KG hanging out with some of the locals |
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| A funky looking crab |
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| A marine iguana |
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| A short eared owl |
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| Our guide almost wet herself with excitement after seeing an albatross! |
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| A super artistic picture of some blue footed boobies - HA! Boobies! |
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| The Galapagos ball sack bird, more commonly known as a frigate bird |
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| Kicker Rock (not pictured: the school of hammerheads swimming in the gap between the two rocks) |
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| How is a man supposed to select a magnet with a range like this on offer... |
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| Tom discussing the Bomber's current form with a local lad - the sea lion did not seem as impressed as Tom was |
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| Giant tortoise eating a banana |
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| A land iguana in a tree - where else would you find one? |
Once our jaunt around the Galapagos had ended it was time to return to the real world of travelling as we flew back to Ecuador's capital, Quito. We managed to check out a lot of Quito's old town in our first couple days in the city, including a magnificent KFC outlet as well as the Basilica del Voto Nacional. The latter was definitely an interesting experience with the high standards of Ecuadorian OH&S on full display in what has been labelled the Clock Tower of Death thanks to it less than sturdy wooden walkway and possibly the steepest and thinnest stairway we have ever encountered. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the 'Middle of the Earth', a 3 hour public bus ride to a tourist park where the Equator crosses through Ecuador. After standing in each hemisphere and taking the stock standard tourist photos, we visited the cock fighting ring and submerged ourselves in more Ecuadorian culture at the local Subway. We also visited the actual Equator, which is 300m from the Middle of the World monument. Of course.
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| The rather impressive Basilica del Voto Nacional - home of the world's shittiest staircase |
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| Got stained glass? |
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| Standing on either side of the equator |
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| There is enough Tommy for both hemispheres! |
After our near death experience we decided it was time to see the real Ecuador, so we headed to a Vietnamese restaurant for a Pho and some 2 for 1 cocktails. Needless to say the following day was used to recover from the strenuous activities from the day before (it in no way had anything to do with the amount we drank). After our 'day off ' we made the decision to do some physical activity and headed off to the world's highest active volcano, Cotapaxi, for a spot of hiking and even a bit of bike riding. Prior to our cycling adventure we thought that taking the "short" hike up to the refuge (where hikers start their climb to the top) would be a good idea - 900m of elevation later we decided we were horribly wrong. Climbing at 4800m turns out to be ridiculously difficult - we were like 3 fat kids at the gym. It wasn't pretty. The day went incident free which was a surprise to all, the only major hiccup being the torrential rain the started with us still 10 minutes of furious cycling away from our final destination - we managed to experience all 3 of Quito's weather conditions in the space of 3 hours: it snowed, rained and for a brief moment it cleared and was a spectacular day.
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| 4,864m above sea level (not pictured: our fitness, can't take a photo of something that does not exist...) |
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| KG and Sheryl cruising down Cotapaxi |
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| Halfway down the mountain at a lake, hadn't starting pissing down just yet... |
With our exceptionally short but action packed time in Ecuador over we are now heading off to Peru to see just how horribly unfit we are whilst attempting the Inca Trail. So on that note, if this blog is not updated in the next 2 weeks or so we have perished somewhere along the way...
