Tunnels and Tortoises

Santa Cruz, Galápagos

Exploring the island of Santa Cruz is pretty easy. Just grab any passing taxi (here they are all white crew-cab pickup trucks) and they will take you anywhere you want to go, acting as tour guides along the way.

Our selected driver took us to the Tortoise Ranch, where we were able to wander through the wet, swampy forest in search of giant tortoises. They do provide rubber boots for most people, however my feet proved to be too big a challenge for them, not that I was too surprised. My feet and sandals are used to getting wet anyway. On the plus side, we did get to see some of these magnificent beasts, in their natural habitat.

On the way to the ranch, we stopped to explore a lava tunnel, a natural cave formed when hot lava flowed out after a volcanic eruption, hopefully a long time ago. For the most part, it was a very easy trek, although some places had a very low ceiling. The mud washes off pretty easily.

 

Back in Puerto Ayora, we took a short hike to the Charles Darwin Research Station, where we observed tortoises in a more controlled environment, part of a captive breeding program. A few iguanas were also hanging around there.

That was all yesterday.  Today will most likely be a pretty laid-back day since we have now seen the must-see items on our list. And on Sunday, we will be travelling back to the airport where we are to meet the crew for the "cruise" portion of this trip. I am not sure if we will have any Internet while on the boat, so this may be the last post for a week or more. Remember. no news is good news...

{GMST}00|38.3|S|090|20.2|W|Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador|Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador{GEND}

 

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Darwin, here we come!

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador 

An exciting day of travel, by taxi to the Quito airport (a long way out of town), by air, with a stopover in Guayaquil, finally landing on Isla Baltra, then a bus to the ferry landing, a boat across to the island of Santa Cruz, and a long taxi ride to our hotel in the town of Puerto Ayora. And we still got here by 2 o'clock in the afternoon. A somewhat damp, overcast afternoon though.

 

 We walked around town and observed the boats at anchor in Academy bay. It looks pretty rough out there just now.

 

Really sad internet connection so bear with me if there are few pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

{GMST}00|44.6|S|090|18.82|W|Puerto Ayora, Galápagos|Puerto Ayora, Galápagos{GEND}

 

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Quito conclusions

Quito, Ecuador

We have to say that we are very impressed with Quito. It is, in our opinion, the most "livable" city we have visited in Central and South America. The climate is great, kind of like a cool, crisp spring day, every day. The cost of living is low, the infrastructure is quite modern and it feels like a very safe place. Really, the only thing missing is a coast - unfortunately that is a bit of a deal-breaker for us. We will have a chance to study it more in the future as this is sort of a necessary stop on our way to or from the boat, which is an 8 hour bus ride away.

Over the last couple days we have managed to visit the Museo Guayasamin and the Capilla del Hombre (Yes, we hiked up to the site again - no taxis for us). We also found the Casa de la Cultura, which was an unexpected treat - a very well presented museum with free entry.
Basically, we have walked a huge amount of this city and are ready for a bit of a rest.

 

Tomorrow, we will be catching a flight to the Galápagos Islands. We will spend a few days on the island of Santa Cruz, before boarding a small power yacht for a more extensive tour. Hard to believe that we would actually choose to spend our time off of our boat by climbing onto another. Hopefully we will not regret this decision.

{GMST}00|11.5|S|078|29.5|W|Quito, Ecuador|Quito, Ecuador{GEND}

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Quintessential Quito

Quito, Ecuador

Coffee in the morning - very civilized

Sunday in the park, with everything from skateboards, bicycles and futbol games to a combination beauty pageant and dog show, while the airforce puts on an air-show with jets and helicopters overhead.

Today, Monday, we made the uphill hike to see the highly recommended Museo Guayasamin and Capilla del Hombre, only to discover that the museums are closed on Mondays (Lonely Planet misled us on this). At least we got to see a cool residential district with a great view of the city.

  

After descending back down to into city, we caught an incredibly crowded tram to take us the older, historic part of town, where we found a huge crowd holding a sort of pep rally for the Ecuadorian national Futbol team. Brass bands, screaming fans and lots of speeches.

 

After wandering the streets of the old town for a few hours, we took another tram to a touristy area to have a late lunch or early supper at a popular sports bar. After walking back to our hotel, we collapsed for the night. We have not done this much walking for a long time. Tomorrow we may try the museums again.

 

{GMST}00|11.5|S|078|29.5|W|Quito, Ecuador|Quito, Ecuador{GEND}

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Setting our sights higher

Quito, Ecuador

The promised mooring finally became a reality. Sine Timore is now firmly attached to one of the "single" mooring balls provided by the marina. This is possibly not as good as one their "double ended" moorings, but is all they had available.

On Friday we travelled inland to the Ecuadorian capital city of Quito, some 2900 meters above sea level. This trip was a typical marathon affair, starting with a pickup via a motor boat by a kindly marina dude at around 7AM - we couldn't use our dinghy to get to the marina dock because it is now stowed on deck until we get back. We then caught a local bus to take us across town to the bus terminal, a short trip of about 15 minutes at a cost of 25 cents each.

The bus to Quito left, on time, at 8AM from Bahia de Caraquez, arriving some 8 hours later in Quito,  a few stops at other towns along the way, for a total cost of $10 each. This was a spectacular route at times, as we climbed into the mountainous territory of inland Ecuador. In addition to the change in elevation, we also experienced a considerable drop in temperature. The city of Quito has average highs of 20 degrees, the lows 10, all year long. Actually, it felt pretty good to us.

The last part of our journey was a $10 taxi ride from the bus terminal to our hotel - I suspect we were overcharged as naive gringos usually are.

Yesterday, Saturday, we did the touristy thing and took a 3-hour double-decker bus tour of the city. This is a great way to get an overview of the city and places we may want to visit in more detail in the coming days. We ended the day browsing in some very upscale malls and walking through an immense park, where lots of people were taking advantage of the lovely weather. So far, except for some rain in the late afternoon on the day we arrived, the weather has been perfect, like a lovely spring day back in Edmonton. 

We have booked a trip to the Galápagos Islands, starting on the 29th. For the time being we will just spend our time enjoying what Quito has to offer.

 {GMST}00|11.5|S|078|29.5|W|Quito, Ecuador|Quito, Ecuador{GEND}