The Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Buenos Dias Chico's

The Galápagos Islands, official name: Archipiélago de Colón are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, 926 km (575 mi) west of Ecuador of which they are part of.  The Galápagos Islands and their surrounding waters form an Ecuadorain province, a national park and a biological marine reserve. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.  The islands are famed for their vast number of endemic species and were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Now you've had the history i'll get in to our experiences of this magical place. I am sitting in the sun of the top deck of La Pinta - our floating hotel for a week, looking out onto Bartholome Island, one of the many islands that make up the Galápagos Archipelago.  It is one of the youngest islands of the Galapagos and probably the world - 800 years old. Very young in geological terms, which is why there is virtually no wildlife on it, but the volcanic formations are amazing. Sun is out, water is sparkling and the beaches are white to golden. 

Most famous view in the Galapogas

We were lucky enough to pick up a last minute deal from Quito, so had 3 days to organise ourselves and get to Quito airport. Just as well really as Andy had managed to get a chest infection when we left Cusco, so was on antibiotics. He was feeling better until we boarded La Pinta. It was moored off San Cristobal Island and despite its size was bobbing around like a cork in some fairly large waves. Neither of us are the best sailors, but for some reason the ginger tablets did it for me, Andy was put on the stronger stuff! The first night wasn't good for him, but within 12 - 14 hours he came right and has been able to enjoy everything. Needless to say Curtis is born to sail and couldn't understand what the problem was! He is the only kid on board and the guides love him, they are great with him and take time to explain all the information about the animals and islands to him in a really interesting way.

Arrival innthe Galapagos at San Cristobal airport

The locals!! San Cristobal

The first few days the weather was extremely changeable, with wind, spitting rain, large waves, which made getting on and off the boat a challenge, misty one nimute and sunny the next but the temperatures were warm. The first snorkel was windy with big waves, not to mention the seas temperature only being around 20 C,  the visibility wasn't great as the sea was churned up,  but it was exciting! We have still managed to see a huge amount of marine life, fishes of all different shapes and sizes, turtles, sea lions always keen for a play, sting rays, starfish, reef sharks, sea urchins, marine iguanas, sally lightfoot crabs and penguins. 

Resting on Mum!

Male Marine Iguana

Sea lion colony- Gardener Bay, Espanola Island

Espanola blowhole

Basking marine iguana

Stingray

Green Pacific Turtle

Sea lion playing with us!

On land has been just as successful, we have visited quite a few islands, San Cristobal, Espanola, Santa Cruz, Isla Bartholome, Eden and Sombrero Chino (Chinaman's hat) and Santiago Island. Each island has slightly different wildlife as they have adapted to the islands age and therefore environment of flora and marine life that is around.  Espanola was definitely the highlight so far with animals and birds everywhere, we had to watch where we walked - crazy, but they have absolutely no fear of man. There were albatross's and boobies all just nesting in the areas where we walked? I have never experienced this anywhere else in the world. Probably the highlight for us all was the red footed boobies, Galapagos hawk, short eared owl and the waved albatross. The albatross is not there all year around, in fact they spend the majority of their life at sea. The albatross were also courting and doing their courting dance which was neat to watch. This island also had an enormous population of marine iguanas, and sea lions, most of these sea lions were there to give birth and a few had done so within hours of our arriving. It was a magical morning  and one we'll remember for sometime.

Galapagos Hawk

Galapagos sea monkey!

Proud Mum to be!!

Large male sea lion guarding his territory

Pelican

Lava lizard enjoying lunch

Courting albatross's

Red footed booby

Giant tortoise

Giant tortoise

Rare lava gull! 

Male frigate bird - Genovesa Island

The boat we are on turned out to be a good choice for us, even though we were a bit dubious about there being up to 48 passengers! We could all be in a triple room together, not many offered that, the trip was 8 days and visited some good islands for viewing wildlife. The boat had 4 English speaking guides who are all very experienced and knowledgeable. The food is outstanding, with a large selection of just about everything, I have seen Curtis eat before, but he's eating like a horse here and we think you'll notice how he has grown- probably outwards as well as up! Alot of the food is Ecuadorian and that is great to try, luckily I don't like any of the deserts!! 

La Pinta- the floating hotel!

Our very spacious cabin

The second mate!

We were lucky enough to meet some lovely people, for the first few days we got to know a really nice young girl from Canada and a young lad (17!!) from Holland, both were good fun to be with and great with Curtis, he missed them heaps when they left half way through the week. There were heaps of others from all over the world, we particularly enjoyed the company of a British and American couple. The boat itself was flash, with huge cabins, large enough for Curtis to do handstands and other gymnastic moves! It had a jacuzzi that we all dived straight into after our snorkeling trips to warm up! We had a large window in our cabin looking straight out to sea and even saw lots of wildlife through it, the most amazing being stingrays jumping out of the water.

Kariana and Eddie 

The guides made this trip for us, they were incredibly knowledgeable and had a great way of imparting the facts that made it both interesting and real, especially for Curtis. There were four of them so we just changed around during the day, we usually had two nature type trips a day and 2 snorkel sessions, we made the most of it and went on every trip on offer, including a kayak along the shores of Genovesa - one of the northernmost islands of the Galapagos.

John one of the guides

Carlos and Curtis on Bartolome

We had a ball and it was well worth the time and effort to get here. We have had a couple of days in Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz just winding down. We head to Quito tomorrow and early the next day head up to Mindo into the cloud forests of Ecuador. We are getting towards the end of our trip now, can't believe it has gone so quickly. We are already planning the next one! 

We'll leave you with a few more photos. 

Kayaking at Tortuga Bay - Santa Cruz

Baltra island at end of cruise

Waiting for his share!! Fish market, Puerto Ayora

Been snorkelling!

Rope lava!

Bartholome Island

Galápagos penguin - the northernmost penguin in the world

Sunset - kickers rock

Now for the next adventure!

Adios

Xxx

Machu Picchu

15 September 2013

Hi everyone

Back again, we are all feeling a lot better today, we really hit the wall yesterday having had an absolutely exhausting and full on first month, culminating with Machu Picchu and the climb up Huayna Picchu,  which majestically sits over MP. We had a bloody awful train ride back from MP yesterday on Peru rail, with a carriage full of older Americans who were loud to say the least, on top of them there was Peruvian music blasting to the point we couldn't even talk and there was no air conditioning working, couldn't get the windows open and to add insult to injury we had to endure a dance and fashion show to even LOUDER peruvian music up and down the aisle while the rail staff modelled their alpaca gear to try and sell it! It was hell!! So by the time we arrived back in Ollantaytambo we were exhausted and could hardly think straight!

Peru Rail to Machu Picchu

However getting to MP was so much more relaxing, we had the front row of seats at the front of the train, and had a birds eye view of the train working its way down the narrow valley to MP. No loud music, just the gentle swaying of the train! On arrival in MP we went to the bus stop to buy our tickets to take us to the entrance of MP tomorrow-  it was a ridiculous amount of money US$18.50 return, but they have you by the short and curlies so we had little choice, apart from to walk of course! Our lodge was down some dodgy looking alley and up a steep set of stairs, but it was all worthwhile, it was set off the alleyway and our room had a little balcony that looked onto some of the terracing of Machu Picchu, some 500m in altitude up the valley. 

We had a quick stroll around town before dinner and it is door to door restaurants and hotels/ hostels with not much else, all the locals are constantly hawking to get people into their place! The town itself is called Aguas Calientas (hot springs) and is particularly unattractive with just about every building looking like it needs finishing, as they don't plaster anything but leave the grey or red brick exposed with dried cement seeping from every join. It's a shame as the scenery around the town is so dramatic with huge towering cliffs surrounding it on every side, scenery that deserves a better looking urban environment.

The bus system up to the MP entrance was efficient and quick, we were up there relatively early so we could watch the sunrise on the ruins, the downside was, so were lots of others! When I was here last (17 years ago) there was hardly a soul around and we stood at the sungate well above MP to watch the sun come up. Still it was a wonderful experience and Curtis was too blown away with it, I think it's his second favourite place on this trip, the Amazon being his first. He loved learning about its history and what each area was for, his interest has surprised Andy & I, as he has been dragged around quite a few ruins since we arrived in Cusco and he seems to have enjoyed them all, particularly the history attached to them. There is much discussion even still about the exact purpose of MP, but it is obvious that it was a very important place for the Incas, enough that they decided to abandon it 2 years after the Spanish invasion to protect it from being found. 

The first rays of the day hitting Huayna Picchu

The joy of being there!

There are religious, agricultural and urban areas within the city and it is thought in addition to these it also played an important political role in the Inca empire. All roads throughout the inca empire lead to Machu Picchu.

The Temple of the Sun

The southern cross

The Condor stone in the temple of the condor

We strolled around for around 3 hours and then we were in the second group of 200 allowed up Huayna Picchu, which is the steep pointed mountain that you can see in the photos behind MP. It's about a 500m climb and apparently is about 2700 steps! Brilliant training for the Kepler Sonja, in fact Curtis was was saying on the way down how you would have been mad enough to go down on your bike at full pelt!! The steps were carved out of the natural stone, many different shapes, sizes and degrees of unevenness. It didn't seem to deter Curtis too much though, he shot up ahead of us, with instructions he was to stop if the path got hairy, (it did in a couple of places!) needless to say he felt OK and continued. His favourite part was a really neat tunnel that went through a natural fissure in the rock where we had to crawl on our hands and knees to get through. The Incas had even carved steps out of there as well!  We managed to catch a couple of glimpses of his backside every now and then, but basically caught up with him at the top!

Top of Huayna Picchu

The top! 

Machu Picchu from top of Huayna Picchu - condor??

We spent at least an hour having some lunch and enjoying the spectacular view of Machu Picchu from here and the vista of the surrounding mountains. Apparently the shape of all the buildings and terracing of MP are in the shape of a Condor - can you see it?! Huayna Picchu was also very important to the Incas, it had a religious significance and they had built temples towards the top, which were also amazing to see, the effort it would have taken to build so far up and on such steep terrain.

On returning to the ruins, we still had more to see of MP, so wandered around listening to other group's guides to glean some local knowledge on the area and we also had a guide book we could refer to. We chose not to get a guide as then we could wander at leisure and go where the crowds weren't! The Peruvian government now restrict the number allowed to visit the site each day to 2,000. Apart from the really large groups that moved around together, it didn't seem too many people, and was easy enough to find some solitude and try and transport yourself back 600 odd years to imagine life as it might have been. MP is officially one of the modern wonders of the world and a UNESCO heritage site. 

A fine example of the Inca's skillful masonry 

Machu Picchu

Inca door and window

One of the finest walls

Royal household

Urban area - Machu Picchu

By 2 pm we had had a long day already and Andy had a cooking class booked at the hotel for 4 pm. So we made our way down the hill to Aguas Calientas. The cooking class was for about an hour and he started with learning how to make a pisco sour, which I got to drink! Very nice too, so could be a few of those being made at Christmas! Then he went to the kitchen and did a ceviche starter, they use trout as its really the only fish they can get fresh. It comes from the local river, the Urabamba.  - great gives us another dish to do at Hatepe and I definitely feel happier about eating the trout coming out of the Hinema River, the Urubamba looks alot more polluted! Anyway having said that it was delicious and the three of us wolfed it down! Next course was Quinotta Pollo - chicken with quinoa - apparently they have many types of quinoa, they used just three in this dish - red, black and white, again delicious and even better washed down with a gin and tonic at happy hour,  a good end to an amazing day. In fact it was so good Andy was a little disappointed the chef didn't offer him a job! - it must have been because of the language barrier! 

The chef at work!

Looking very serious! Typical chef

Making the ceviche

Finished product- delicious - like the hat?!

Second course - Quinotta pollo

Our abode at Rupawasi Wasi Lodge

View from room - can you see the Inca warrior in the rock?

Rupawasi Wasi - on the move again!

We had a night in Cusco before we flew to Quito, Ecuador. Cusco is a wonderful city and although it has grown ten fold in the last 17 years, it has still retained its historic character in the centre. There are great restuarants, we got to try the guinea pig, wasn't too impressed, but we had to give it go, hardly feeds one really! Mind you the Peruvians eat the whole lot, including the brains, needless to say we weren't that hungry! 

Leaving Peru was frustrating and in fact most of our airport encounters in Peru have shown Peru to still be an incredibly backward country although they have got incredibly skilful at fleecing the gringo and charging well over the value of the service they offer! LAN is particularly bad at the airport organisational stuff, we turned up the obligatory 2 hours before and as usual there was the most enormous line snaking its way to the 2 LAN check in desks. There would have been over a hundred people in this queue. The other 2 that were open were for those who were lucky enough to be able to pre check in in the LAN offices in advance. We have done that a couple of times but LAN's system is having problems and won't allow us to do it! So we waited and slowly advanced, meanwhile locals were turning up late to check in and got moved ahead of the queue so they didn't miss their flight. Just as they managed to clear the 50+ French group in front of us they opened up 2 more counters! By this stage we had steam coming out of our ears. However we made it and just made the call for our flight. 

The flight into Quito was probably the worst of the trip, we swung and dipped quite significantly for the whole descent including just before he landed it on the runway to great applause and relief! Anyway we are here and unfortunately Andy is not too well, Curtis has had a cold and cough since we left the jungle and now Andy seems to have got something, but he's got a chest infection, luckily we had some antibiotics available thanks to our mate Chris! He's feeling loads better and we are now off for our next adventure - guess where??!!

We leave tomorrow early and return in 9 or 10 days. We may have some wifi, but it's minimal. Curtis is extremely excited as we are. Managed to pick up a great deal.

Adios for now

Karen, Andrew and Curtis