SO, after leaving Mexico City, Nancy & I spent a couple of days in Quito, Ecuador, the world’s second highest capital city…. at over 9,000 feet we are happy we stopped in CDMX (at about 7,000 feet) so we could get a little used to the thin air.
We had a great guide who showed us around. Antonio took us to the Equator interactive semi-amusement park and to a few local market towns towns and of course it would not be a Chris trip without – a waterfall!
(A word to the wise… there are a LOT of photos here. I am afraid to count them all up but rest assured, I severely culled down the 3100 total photos and videos!)
The pictures above and below show that we were not in the big city anymore. Ecuador is a VERY large producer and exporter of flowers. Valentine’s Day is HUGE there – especially for ROSES!
We visited a museum dedicated to Oswaldo Guaysamin, Ecuador’s most famous artist. We were very impressed with his art and architecture.
The Historic District of Quito is quite impressive – from shops selling beautiful pastries and desserts or soccer balls to a street vendor peddling glasses of water – you see most everything. Even Another Bloody Cathedral (or two around the corner from each other).
We ordered ice cream at lunch. Little did we know we would be treated to this creepy floor show! Enjoy the video….?
We bid Adios to Antonio and Quito –
– and flew out to Baltra airport in the Galapagos. A small airport on a small island – the runway and taxiway are the same. But…the plane was big – a 737-700 flown by Equiair. We met up with most of our fellow boat passengers there. We would be a total of 11 travelers to go with 10 crew + our guide on the M/V Integrity. This is a beautiful and meticulously maintained 16 passenger ‘luxury yacht’ permanently chartered by INCA (International Nature and Cultural Adventures) out of California.
The other adventurers we met at the airport were four couples and friends of long standing. They were from Washington and Oregon so they are neighbors. The last guest we met shortly later – an Italian lady on her own.
Our first excursion was a short ferry ride to Santa Cruz Island where we were bussed to the Giant Tortoise Reserve. We spent the afternoon with these big, lumbering, magnificent creatures. They were not the first ones we saw – there were a couple crossing the road. Why? I don’t know.
What a great start to the National Park!
We enjoyed a delicious lunch at a lovely seaside restaurant in Puerto Ayoro with marine iguanas at our feet. We were fitted for our snorkeling wetsuits and then out to the Integrity – our home for the next week.
You will see photos that have boats other than ours throughout this essay. The Galapagos National Park is a very highly regulated region. They have strict rules about how many visitors can be in the park at any one time, where they may go and for how long. (They also mandate that visitors cannot be closer than 6 feet from any animals. Sometimes though, the creatures come right up to you.) Therefore, the other boats and visitors were our shadows for the week. We even got to know some of them as they had shore excursions at the same time as us. The Park even has stringent rules about who can live on the islands (only 4 of the named 24 Galápagos Islands are populated by people). If you are not born on the islands or not married to an island born person or you have not been living there since a certain year (not sure when), you may only be there for two months at a a time – even if you are a native and citizen of Ecuador.
Our days were action packed. One reason I did not write and send blog posts while at sea is we were very busy all day, everyday. See the typical day’s activities below:
The second reason I did not write as we traveled (we have been home about 10 days now) is the boat, while super comfy and smooth, the wifi was sooooo slow. The third reason is it takes a very long time to go through 3100 photos and videos from 4 cameras wielded by 2 shooters.
All goods brought to the islands are thoroughly screened to make sure there is nothing present that may harm the native flora and fauna. They have a precious resource to protect and they seem to do a good job. The entire time we were there, we only saw a few pieces of litter (mainly in the water – which we picked up). We very much appreciated the efforts put in by the government, park service, rangers and everyone involved in the tourism industry, to protect this amazing place. That way we could experience this:
We met our guide – Pati, who showed us around the ship, gave us the safety drill and briefed us on what to expect for the week in general and the next day (Sunday) in particular. Just a note about Pati – she is an excellent guide who is very passionate about her calling. IF you manage to make this trip, Nancy & I strongly suggest you go on the same boat and make sure Pati will be your guide. She works for INCA and is their full time naturalist but does take vacations.
The rest of the crew consisted of the guys who made the ship go where it was supposed to and kept everything working, the ‘panga’ (zodiac) drivers,
and the dining room/bar/stateroom staff. Plus of course the chef and his sous. Great meals were served.
Most days’ activities included early morning kayaking, two shore excursions (wet and/or dry landings) with easy or not so easy hikes and one or two snorkeling sessions. This adventure is NOT for people with mobility issues.
In addition to the fauna, there is flora on the islands you won’t find elsewhere.
We visited nine islands in total and the terrain varied from solid lava fields to sandy beaches to rocky hills to almost forest like plains. Sometimes we needed hiking boots and other times we could be barefoot. Watershoes were popular amongst the gang.
We saw a LOT of wildlife. The biggest critters were the tortoises & sea lions.
The smallest were probably the Lava Lizards and Sally Lightfoot crabs.
Other reptiles (other than the lizards that is – not the crabs as they are NOT reptiles as we all know (now)!) include Marine & land Iguanas.
The iguanas are red & green this time of year for mating season reasons.
The land iguanas don’t need fancy colors!
Do you suppose the fly is toast? It almost looks like they have opposable thumbs.
The Islands are especially known for a very diverse group of birds including Red Footed, Blue Footed & Nazca Boobies. Many of the creatures are Endemic, most of the rest are natives, visitors and a few are introduced.
Here comes the winged section of this post. When the different booby species are chicks, it is hard (for me anyway) to differentiate them. Upon maturity, you look at their feet – blue, red or tannish. It is funny the red footed boobies have blue beaks though! The Nasca are not so colorful. ALL of the boobies look like Pixar creations!
Good old Chuck Darwin loved the finches of the Galapagos. There are also the Galapagos Hawks, Short Eared Owls, Galapagos Mockingbird, Brown Pelican, American Flamingo, Yellow Crowned Night Heron, Red Billed Tropicbird, Magnificent Frigatebird, Shearwaters, Albatross, Swallow Tailed Gull and the Galapagos Penguin (penguins on the equator? – yup!) These are just the birds we saw. There are MANY others.
These darn penguins get their own group- doesn’t it look like they are in Arizona?
Underwater we saw Galapagos Sharks, White-tipped Reef Sharks, Spotted Eagle Rays, Galapagos Green Turtle, and tons of fish. We did not see any hammerhead sharks – guess we will have to go back. Nancy even had a close encounter with 8 dolphins!
The water is warmest this time of year and after the first snorkeling session in a wetsuit, I decided to do without it. Nancy kept hers on (btw, she was NOT thrilled about the prospect of snorkeling at the start of the trip but really grew to enjoy it – what a trouper!)
The weather was hot and sunny and hot. When it was 30F at home it was 30C in the islands. We went through a huge tube of reef safe sunscreen. One of us forgot to apply it to his shiny dome while snorkeling the first two days and ended up with a pink glowing head. Ow, did that hurt! It has been a long time since I have had a sunburn. We saw several species of sea life underwater and from the surface. Fishies, penguins, other birds, turtles, lobsters, sea stars to name a few.
Nancy had a birthday while we were on this trip. Hugo, the chef made her a birthday cake – it was very nice of him as she did not want a fuss but a fuss was made!
I have mentioned the M/V Integrity. Here are some photos of, from and related:
This was the route we traveled – two crossings of the equator. It did NOT cool off when we went back to winter in the northern hemisphere!
One drawback to the ship though was the lack of a gym. Not to worry Nancy said – I’ll lift weights on the beach.
Due to airline issues we had two nights in Quito on the way home. Probably the best part was finding Tratorria Pizzeria Napoli! Authentico pizza from my grandparent’s home town. Delicioso. We also ran into a bit of election weirdness. Just know we flew into the Q on Saturday at noon and left Monday morning.
This was posted in our hotel lounge!
As you can most likely surmise, we had a very adventurous trip. This was a bucket list item for me and it is now checked off. Now, if only I can convince Nancy we should go to Antarctica before it melts!
Adios for now,
Lots of love, Nancy & Chris
chrisnnancy 