Heading home

After three weeks, I had to say goodbye to Ecuador. My last morning on San Cristóbal I had to get up quite early again to catch the ferry back to Santa Cruz. As it was just start of school holidays, it wasn't only the typical tourists taking the ferry, but it seemed like half of the island was wanting to leave as well. Because of this, it also took quite long until all people (including all their luggage) were actually 'stored' on the ferry. The ride then was accordingly uncomfortable, but after 2 hours, we finally reached Santa Cruz. (Here, all the people and luggage had to he unloaded using the taxi boats again.)

From Puerto Ayora, I was driven to the other side of the island again, took the short ferry over the canal to Baltra, and got into the (completely overcrowded) 5-minutes bus to the airport. With a last view out of the window I said goodbye to Galapagos.

Again, the flight went via Guayaquil, and on the way back to Quito, I once more had a beautiful view on the volcanos. After an hour drive from the airport, I finally reached my hotel in Quito around 7 in the evening. I didn't really do much except for a quick dinner (I finally managed to try some guinea pig), as I was going to be picked up to head back to the airport at 5 in the morning again.

I hadn't managed to get a direct flight back to Amsterdam, so I was heading towards Mexico-City on the next morning. Mexico seems to have special rules for all planes coming from South America, meaning all passengers had to go through immigration and customs, and all luaggage was checked. This procedure took almost an hour, which, for me, was no problem; I had a 6 hour layover. Finally I also figured out, that I actually had to change terminals, and where I would find the train taking me to Terminal 1. And so I waited for my flight to Amsterdam, not without enjoying a Mexican steak and beer for lunch/dinner.

In the evening, I could finally get on my plane to Amsterdam, where we arrived about 9.5 hours later. And after a bit more waiting time, I got on the plane back to Munich.

Islas San Cristóbal and León Dormido (Kicker Rock)

In the afternoon, I took the next ferry, this time to San Cristóbal. The main town, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, is actually the capital of the Galapagos region (although nowadays Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz is larger and more important). Landing in San Cristóbal was a bit different for a change, as the ferry could actually dock directly at the pier, no taxi boats needed. Upon arrival, I could again directly see all the sea lions relaxing all along the waterfront, on the beach, the pier, benches, and one even in the waterslide for the kids. After checking into my hotel (quite a bit out of town, was about 5 walking minutes away from the pier), I enjoyed the last hour of sunlight for the day by walking along the waterfront and watching the sea lions.

On the next day, I was going out on the boat for a snorkeling trip again. We went to visit Kicker Rock (or León Dormido), basically just a huge rock in the sea. It is to steep and to high to actually land on the rock, but we went around it in the boat to watch the birds and sea lions living there. The main attraction, however, is under water. Along the wall of the rock (apparently more than 100 m deep), a beautiful reef had formed, with hundreds of colourful fish, sponges and starfish. In total, I spent almost two hours in the water, enjoying the reef. (After a while, the water actually started to feel quite cold, if with the wetsuit.) I did manage to see some of the seals untie water, as well as several sea turtles, who just didn't em to care that I was there. I had hoped to be able to see some (harmless) sharks in a channel between two parts of the rock, however, unfortunately, it didn't seem to be the right time for it. (Our guide also hadn't seen any, similar to the previous days, and even the divers only managed to see 2 or 3.) Luckly, however, I managed to see 3 Mola-Mola fish swimming together, although it seems to be rather rare to see even one. They really are very odd looking creatures.

After warming up again a bit on board in the sun and having lunch, on the way back to the harbour, we stoped once more at a beautiful beach, back on San Cristóbal, to relax and enjoy the scenery. After arriving back in town, together with another girl from the trip, we headed out of town again (by foot), to another bay, for a little bit more snorkeling. Again, we saw sea lions, turtles, and many, many fish, but also 2 big rays. We didn't stay that long, as we wanted to be back before dark (which was somewhere around 6:15), and the water was really getting cold.

After a mice warm shower, I meat up with 2 of the other girls again, to go out for dinner, for my last night on Galapagos. We ended up in a nice restaurant at the waterfront, where (as the king prawns wee out) we had lobster in a very delicious coconut cream sauce, with rice and platacones (banana chips) (but only for the price of the king prawns).

It was a perfect last night for a wonderful time on Galapagos, but also amazing 3 weeks in Ecuador. Early on the next morning, I started heading home...

Islas Santa Cruz and Seymour

After 2 nights on Isabella, I arrived back in Santa Cruz still quite early in the day. After getting sorted at my hotel, I started heading out to to explore the town, Puerto Ayora. It is a lot bigger compared to Isabella, but I had still seen the the main part quite quickly. (They do have a lot more souvenir shops though.)

I then started heading of to a beach about an hour walking distance away from town, Playa Bahía Tortuga. You couldn't get there by car (it also wasn't really crowded there), but it is a beautiful beach, with the possibility to see lots of iguanas, lizzards, crabs and birds. As I had another trip planned for the afternoon, I didn't go swimming here, but only walked along the beach, enjoying the view, and taking photos of the animals. After about an hour, I headed back into town.

In the afternoon I was going on a snorkling trip to a spot a bit further away from town on a boat. At first we landed at a small pier, to look at the animal in this area. Landing, however, was not that easy, as a group of sea lions had occupied the pier. Only after our captain had managed to convince them to leave were we able to actually get back on land. There we waked a bit through the bizarre landscape with cactusses and iguanas, before we went snorkeling in the bay with lots of colourful fish.

In the evening, the town became quite busy, with tourists, but also with locals going for dinner or a drink. The restaurants right in the first row were manynly visited by tourist. Two streets further back, however, (I had seen that there were some small food places during the day), the whole street had turned into a big restaurant. All the little food placed on the side had put their tables down in the street, offering freshly caught fish and especially lobster, (the amount of lobster there was quite impressive,) to be cooked on the many barbeques put up on the sides.

On the next day, I had planed a day trip to visit the uninhabited (by humans) island Seymour and go snorkeling. Seymour is a small island north of Baltra (the airport island), mainly inhabited by many birds, sea lions and iguanas. The boat therefore was leaving from the north of the island, where the ferry to the airport is as well. Also at this harbour, the boat couldn't come directly to the shore. Our boat had a small dinghy (or panga) boat (which was also needed for the landings on the trip), which braught us to the main boat.

The first stop was still on Santa Cruz, a beautiful beach, Playa Las Bachas. We had a so called wet landing, meaning the dinghy got as close to the beach as possible, so that we would get out with the feet still in the water. After looking around a bit at the areas of sea turtle nests (you couldn't really see much except sand), some of us went snorkeling in the bay. Along the lava rocks, hundreds of beautiful, colourful fish were swimming, from really tiny to quite big. Time flew by, suddenly an hour was gone, and part of the group (not all had actually gone in the water) were already back on board. Just as we snorkelers had finally come out of the water, our guide finally saw a turtle in the water (what we had hope for all the time while snorkeling). We the quickly got in the dinghy, and the guide took us out the the turtle, where we jumped back in the water to shortly see and swim with the turtle close up. Finally then, very happy, we returned back to the boat.

The second stop the was on the island Seymour. There we could actually have a dry landing, meaning the dinghy brought us to some rocks, from where we could climb further up to the island. We walked around the island for about 1.5 hours, watching all the different birds nesting, breeding, mating and feeding their young. We saw fregat birds, the male trying to impress the girls with their inflated red gular pouch. Or the babies (still huge birds) waiting for their parents to return with food. Also, several blue-footed boobies were nesting or trying to mate, looking really cute when they are showing off their blue feet. Of course we also saw sea lions relaxing in the sand or on the warm lava stones, or swimming along the coast, as well as iguanas, which always just seemed to enjoy the sun. After an evenful day, we returned back to Santa Cruz and Puerto Ayora in the late afternoon.

On my last day on Santa Cruz, I went on a tour into the highlands of the island, to see the giant (land) turtles. The turtles like completely free, and just pass though private farms on the way to search food. On these farms then the tourists can go to watch the turtles up closely. It is quite amazing to see how the move very slowly, especially with the size and weight of their shell.

Santa Cruz, like Isabella, has been formed by volcanos (although the volcanos on Santa Cruz are not active now). Still nowadays, labs tunnels can be found at several locations, where the lava on top already solidified, but the lava on the inside was still liquid and flowed out. After spending some times with the turtles, we went to visit one of these tunnels, and went through it (at one position crawled through it).

Afterwards we spent some addational time at another beach. Here the sand of the beach was interrupted at several location by lava fields, which gave it a quite unique appearance. As I was about to catch the next ferry, once more I didn't do swimming, but 'just' enjoyed the scenery.

Isla Isabella

Isabella is the largest of all Galapagos islands, but, of all inhabited islands, has the smallest population. The ferry pier is at about a 15 minute walk from the town center. With my bag, however, I took a pick-up taxi for 2 dollars to my hotel, the Grad Tortuga (giant turtle). The rest of the afternoon I spent getting orientated in town (which really wasn't that hard) and look around at the beach. The town only had a few streets (all dirt roads), and all shops, restaurants and tour operators were within walking distance of the beach and town center. As it currently isn't high season on Galapagos, everything seemed rather empty.

On the next morning, I was visiting part of the highlands of Isabelle, the volcanos Sierra Negra and Chico. First we were taken out of town for about 18 km by bus, the remaining 8 km we then had to walk (there and back). We started in the middle if the clouds (which seems to be quite normal), so it was quite wet and the path quite muddy at the beginning. A while later, the path was less muddy, the vegetation was still very green, and still clouds were around us, so we couldn't really see much apart from our path.

After about 1.5 hours we reached the top, from where (as we saw later coming back) you would have nice few on the crater of the volcano Sierra Negra, which, with around 10 km in diameter, is one of largest craters in the world.

From here we continued downwards again, into a lava field of the volcano. The landscape was pretty bizarre. At first there was still the one or the other cactus growing between the lava, later we were just between the page, with different shapes and colors. The last erruption of this volcano wad just in 2009. We walked through the lava for about an hour, when we reached a nice viewpoint over part of the island and another volcano, Chico. Just as we had reached the viewpoint, the clouds opened up and we had a beautiful view. On the way back we then could also enjoy the whole scenery with more sun and less clouds, and actually were able to see the crater of Sierra Negra. Only in the last, muddy bit, the clouds were still there, although it was slightly less wet.

Back in town, (after cleaning my shoes and pants from all the mud,) I went to visit, and swim and snorkel in the Concha y Perla, a little lagoon right next to the ferry pier. On the short path from the pier to the lagoon, several marine iguanas were enjoying the sun, and many sea lions were sleeping on the path, on the beach, on the benches at the pier, or on the little boats lying in the bay.

From the pier it didn't really look like there would be much to see snorkeling, but I gave it a try anyway. I hadn't even been in the water for 5 minutes, when suddenly 3 sea lions came up to me, swimming around me. It felt like they were curious at what I'm doing there, what my camera was and wanted to play. And like this, for about an hour, I kept swimming around with sea lions. They would disappear after while, but others showed up, and so on... They just seemed to be very relaxed and playful.

Later towards the evening, the last hour before sunset, I went for a walk slightly further inside the island again, along a few lagunas to watch flamingos (and other birds). Unfortunately most of them were quite far away from the path, but I did get to see a few a bit closer as well.

The next morning I, once again, had to get up very early, as I had to catch the ferry back to Santa Cruz at 6 in the morning (plus being there half an hour earlier to get the luggage checked for fruits etc. again). Bye, bye, Isabella, I had a really good time!

On the way to Galapagos

Eventually, my two weeks in Ecuador (mainland) were over, but I still had a week on the Galapagos Islands in front of me.

Again, I had to get up quite early in the morning to catch my flight. (The new airport in Quito was about 1 hour from my hotel.) For all flights to Galapagos, you have to buy a tourist card (for 10 dollars) before you get on the plane, and you have to get your bags checked for any food, plants, seeds, ... (things that could harm the environment on the islands). Then your bags get sealed. (Not always perfectly sealed, depending on the bag. On mine, 2 out of 3 zippers remained open. I guess it's more about the general idea...) Only after this can you actually check in. As I was told several time that this process might take quite a while because of long queues, I was at the airport quite early, 2 hours before the flight. After less than 10 minutes, all was done and I was waiting for my flight. (Although after I was through, I saw that more and more people started queuing up.)

All flight from Quito to Galapagos seem to go via Guayaquil, as did mine. The first part, southwards from Quito, along the Andens, I had a really nice view in all the volcanos along there. As we were heading more towards the coast, it started to become cloudy, and the rest of the flight to Guayaquil and further on to Galapagos was unevenful.

At the arrival in Galapagos, I first had to pay 100 dollar entrance fee (into the Galapagos national park). After getting the luggage, it was checked once more for forbidden  content, and then I was allowed to leave the airport.

The aiport in on Baltra, a small island north of Santa Cruz. Apart from the airport, there doesn't seem to be much on it. Therefore I first took a bus from the airport to the harbour of Baltra (about 5 minutes), and then a ferry to Santa Cruz (about another 5 minutes). It did feel a bit odd as they just put all the luggage on the roof of the ferry. It seems to be ok, as the water in the small channel between the island doesn't seem to be very rough. (I wonder how often a bad fall into the water after all.)

At the other side of the channel, I was taken across the island Santa Cruz with the car, into the main town Puerto Ayora (another 30 to 40 minutes). From here I was supposed to take a ferry to Isabella, where I would stay the next 2 nights. (I would return to visit Santa Cruz afterwards.)

The ferries between the island as small speedboads for about 20 people. In Santa Cruz and Isabella, however, they can't get directly to the pier, so water taxis are used to get from the pier to the ferriers. There are several boats leaving at the same time, with the same destination (but only once a day), hence you have to he careful which boat you are supposed to be on, and listen carefully when the name of your boat is called up.

On the ride itself, there is not much to see (except water). In the current season, however, the ride can be quite rough. I basically tried to sleep a bit, and after 2 hours, we had reached Isabella.

Cotopaxi - on top of the world

After almost two weeks in Ecuador, I had to head back to Quito. Since the Panamericana Highway in this area is also call the Route of the Volcanos, I had decided to visit one of them on the way, the volcano Cotopaxi. Therefore I left the bus from Baños at the highway exist going to the entrance of the Cotopaxi national park, where I was picked up by my guide for the tour. (Another German tourist also waited there, hoping to find a tour he can join, so he came with us as well.)

Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanos in the world, with over 5890 m. (But not as active the the volcano in Baños. The last erruption at Cotopaxi was about 100 years ago.) The entrance to the national park is at about 3000 m, and it is possible to get up to about 4600 m by car. The road is only a dirt road, with some quite had patches. Additionally, the snow starts at about 4200 m. From the end of the road, it about another 300 m in altitude to the base camp. From here, it seems to be possible to climb up the top in about 6 to 8 hours. (Usually the climbers would start around midnight, to get up the top around sunrise.)

I had only planned to get up to the base camp. However, since I had spent the last week in Baños with only about 2000 m altitude, I had to get up very slowly and carefully, not to get the altitude sickness.

Usually, before going up that high, you should aclimatise at around 3500 - 3800 m for a few days, and go up some smaller mountains for training. Since I mainly wanted to see the volcano, and hadn't planned any serious hiking or staying up there longer, it was acceptable not to have aclimatised before. If I had felt altitude sick, I just would have had to stop the trip and return further down. But I gave it a try, and, very slowly, climbed up the last 300 m. I did notice the effect of the height going further up. The hike was not really difficult (even for, you just had to look out a bit because of the snow), but I was out f breath quite quickly (as the air was a lot thinner), and at the end felt slightly light headed. But I also had a really good guide, who took me up thevreally slowly, making sure all the time that I was ok. And after about an hour, I had made it to the base camp, to 4864 m!

The weather was quite crazy this day. When starting in Baños in the morning, it was all covered in clouds, which came quite far down. Just as I was getting closer to Cotopaxi, the bottom clouds cleared up a bit, so I could see the whole volcano, up to the top. During the hike up, the clouds started closing in below us. From the base camp, I could therefore only image how the view from up there would be. Heading downwards, for a short moment, the sun actually came out (for some dice views and photos), before it then started snowing / raining ice on the last bit back down to the car. Heading further back  down with the car, the snow changed into rain. I then didn't really see much of the rest of the park, as it continued raining quite heavily for the rest of the day. I did, however, very shorts see some wild horses, a falcon and a fox.

In the end, I was brought back to the highway exist, from where I caught a bus to Quito. As I had gotten up really early, was going to get up really early again the next day, and as it was also raining in Quito, I just went into my hotel, and had a hot shower after all the snow on Cotopaxi.

Indio market

One of my days in Baños, instead of school, I had the opportunity to visit an Indio market. Every Thursday, the little town of Saquisilí, about half way between Quito and Baños, becomes very busy. Unlike the well known market in Otavalo, which nowadays is focused a lot on tourists, the market in Saquisilí is still from Indios for Indios, and people from the whole region come to sell or buy.

This way it was also possible to see the different traditional cloth of the Indio peoplevin Ecuador. Basically every community has a different way to dress (including a different hat), and quite many people actually dress in the traditional way every day as a standard.

Basically the whole town of Saquisilí is a market on Thurdays, although there are some main areas. At first I went to the animal market, as it closes the earliest. It's the market for all big animals. You could buy cows, sheep, pigs, lamas and donkeys, of any age or size. Next to it was a small food area, and you could see people eating there, with their new sheep on the leash next to them. The animals then were just loaded on the back of pick-ups and taken to their new home.

On another place in town, all the smaller animals were for sale: chicken (and chicks), doves, rabbits, and of course guinea pigs. Those kind of animals were usually sold in large quantities (especially the guinea pigs), usually for some kind of big event, like weddings.

The area, where meat was sold, was actually quite small, I guess most people would rather buy their meat still alive. Fish, however, were not sold alive (except for a few crabs and similar). The fish were mainly freshwater fish, out of the many rivers in this area. (Both for meat and fish, however, cooling seemed to be non-existent.)

In other areas, any kind of fruits and vegetables were sold (especially lots of mandarins, potatoes and yuca), as well as add different sorts of grains (especially rice and all different types of corn).

But not only good could be found on the market, basically everything was sold there: cloths, flowers, baskets, all different kind of metal parts, beds (including matraces), sofas, doors, ...

Leaving Saquisilí, we could see all the fully loaded pick-ups heading home, the back full with animals and food, and in the front a family of up to 6 or 8 people...