Floreana

Our snorkel at Floreana ends of course in a walk ... where we see more marvellous wildlife, flamingos feeding, sea lions taking a free trip on the back of the boat.

Got to know a few more of the people on board. Kathy from England who trains clergy and her husband Peter who was a really keen photographer, enjoyed sharing experiences of England with them. Anita and Eric were another interesting couple. She was a photographer (who had the same camera as me!). Her family were from Hong Kong and had settled in Canada. Eric, worked in events and had just finished the Paralympics in Canada. Gerard and Natalie were from France - sadly didn't get to know them very well as they were quite reserved and didn't really choose to "mingle"

We continued to chat with Kathy and Caroline from US.......plans are forming to visit Kathy in the jungle at the end of this trip. Our plans for UK are also developing as Anna and Ben tell us of fantastic walks across England.... who knows where we will end up!

Devil's Crown

That is a sea lion I'm swimming with isn't it!

I have to admit that it was a bit scary , leaping out into choppy water, especially as it was a bit murkey, bur hey! It was so good to see all those shoals of fish. Like massive shoals of fish. MMM so good.

Walking on Floreana

Floreana is one of the first inhabited island and has a rich history of intrigue not least the story of the baroness. In the 1930's a German dentist and his mistress, a young family (the Wittmer family who still live on the island) and a self-styled baroness with three men came to settle in the island. Shortly after the baroness and her lovers arrived chaos began. The baroness and her entourage terrorized the other inhabitants while planning to build a luxury hotel.

Eventually the baroness, two of her lovers and the dentist all turned up missing or dead. There has been much investigation searching for what really happened on Floreana, but there have never been any hard answers.

We of course heard all of these stories as we walked through an incredible landscape full of wildlife that hardly blinked as you walked by!The walk along the beach was stunning. Frigate birds swooped above us, turtles laid their eggs in the sand, lighthouse crabs in their hundreds swarmed over the rocks, their brilliant colours contrasting with the dark rocks, the blue sky and the white froth of the ocean.

Suddenly their was a shoal of stingrays forming a black shadow in the turquoise water.........water thrashed as sharks arrived and a deadly battle began........mmm aren't we going snorkelling in half an hour.......mmmmmmm!

Floreana

We started off the day by walking to the lava tubes. My what an experience. We climbed down steep stairs into a narrow tube which quickly opened up into a huge cavern. Glad we had our torches as it was pitch black.

After playing the old (childish) game of ghouls we stumbled down another passage which led right down to the sea! Amazing. No wonder no one found the pirates. (Could also be that these islands are so amazingly remote.

Loved the post office - a wooden barrel originally where whalers from US & England left their mail to be picked up by other sailors returning home.

Still works today.... we left 3 postcards and picked up 3. Caleb got his not sure about anyone else. We will drop ours off in Barcelona, London & Manchester!

crabby espanola!

Espanola was our first encounter with the wonderful crabs, sea lions sleeping in amazingly uncomfortable positions and an incredible array of sea gulls.

Viva Espanola Island

After strolling along the beach watching sea lions, mocking birds and numerous species of wrens and swallows it was time to head out for a snorkel. It was VERY choppy and we had to flip or in my case flop off the dinghy into really big waves to swim around the craggy volcanic 'Isla Gardener'. Phew! The snorkelling was fantastic even though because of the waves the visability wasn't great........HUGE shoals of angel, parrot and garfish as well as stingrays and many other multicoloured specimens. All was well until we had to swim between two rocks............none of us went anywhere........ we waved to the dinghies and they came a rescuing!

Hot chocolate with cinnamon and snacks..showers, and then lunch. Siesta time while we motored to Suarez Point. Then it was time to meet the Marine lizards.

An amazing walk along sandy paths through scrubby dry bushes, lizards sunning themselves on rocks or just huddling together for warmth.

Espanola = learning from the sea lions!

Love the fact that you wake up each morning at a different island. Each one is so different. Wet landing onto the island, which seemed to be inhabited once more by lazy seal lions. We learnt that they only fish every few days ... the rest of the time they just chill out.........sleeping, rolling in the surf and of course having sex!

Mmmmmmmm where did we go wrong? Roger and I try to emulate!

San Christobal by night

We sailed back to San Christobal, just had time for dinner and then it was time to go back into San Chritobal. What sights, sounds and smells! Hundred of seal lions lay sleeping on the beach, park benches, roads. In fact anywhere at all! Click on photos to get an enlarged view.

Just listen to the hubbub!

The bright lights of the wharf attracted the fish, which attracted the young sea lions and the pelicans and so we watched this amazing dance of nature before hopping back on the dinghies to our first night on the Archipel II.

And so to our first night's sailing.Luckily our guide Mauricio had told us would be wild and woolly ... and it was. Cupboard doors flung open the catamaran pitched from side to side and up and down.. oh well I guess there is nothing else to do but sleep.........and we did!

Lobos es stupendo!

We waded through snoring sea lions and hopped onto a dinghy and sailed between fishing boats, luxury yachts and out to the Archipel 2.

We had a fab double cabin and they quickly got us into the routine which was basically, eat, walk, snorkel, eat, siesta, walk snorkel which suited us just fine!

We had lunch of sopa (soup), pork, veggies, rice, salad, fruit and juice all served by the ebullient "William" who would swagger through the cabin, showering smiles and largesse and then immediately dissapear when anyone wanted to order a drink!!

No sooner was lunch served and we were off to Lobos!

WoW! we JUST LOVED IT! We walked throug incredible volcanic scenery where Frigate birds puffed out ther red chests and Boobies danced on their bright blue feet. Little lizards warmed up on rocks stretching their necks to enjoy the heat. None of the wildlife took the blindest notice of us.

Snorkel time, my oh my! What an experience. We flipped off the boat (well everyone else did... I gingerly slipped over the edge but still managed to make a huge spash!) We were surrounded by inquisitive baby sea lions who delighted in swimming right up to us, peering into our faces and then doing gracefull backflips and somersaults before returning to play! What fun!

Back to Archipell 2, to be greeted by William with hot chocolate made from real chocolate from Ecuadorian cocos beans........yum... shower and then dinner.

Got to know a few of the people on board. Anna & Ben an English couple with a passion for travel, theatre and art......hope to meet up with them in England. Katy and Caroline from Oregan and New York, caught up with Katy a week later at Yachana a jungle venture where she had been volunteering!

Then it was time to head off once more in the dinghies to see San Cristobel by night!

Let's go galapagos

Early start from Quito, into a taxi and full of excitement we were off. We left behind murky and rainy Quito for the blue skies of Galapagos. Flew over wide rivers meandering through dense jungle. Little did we know that in a week' s time we would be in that jungle!!!!!

Ages to go through customs .... emerged into the sun and immediately felt like a disgorged tourist as we leapt onto a bus.... always have trepidation about non independent travel. Mauricio was our guide and luckily spoke great English. At the dock met the other 8 members of the group. In the distance our catamaran bobbed up and down. Frigate birds circled gracefully over head, the sun beat down, sealions slept lazily on park benches designed for people............mmm suddenly had the feeling this was going to be good!

Up in the air again

Headed up, up, up this amazing cable car. Found we were at the end of a long queue waiting to buy tickets for the cable car. We looked warily at the long, long queue that had formed to actually get on the cable car. I calculated it would take us 20 minutes in the payment line and another 30 minutes in the actual line. Roger calculated at least an hour and a half in each!!!

When we finally arrived at the counter we realised that we had to pay double price because we were foreigners..... what we didn't realise was that this entitled us to express service and we headed straight to the front of the line! Whoopee!

We headed up, up, up for 2o minutes so reminded me of time we went up the chair lift from Thredbo. We were the pommies who believed everyday in Oz was hot - no matter where you were and so headed up the chair lift in T shirts and shorts. Everyone was pointing and laughing as they saw us go up.... we FROZE hopping off at the top and heading straight back down again.

Lots of people were putting their bikes on the cable car and then careering down narrow, precipitous mountain trails to the bottom.

We were quite content to identify flora.... yeah lots of species of eucalyptus and then at the top it was fantastic to look at the volcanoes and see the vast expanse of the city. Walked for a couple of hours listening to the strains of the ubiquitous pan pipes... had fun imitating statues, unfortunately for me that meant a lot of virgin stuff and for Roger the conquering hero... oh well!

"El Panecillo" The Virgin of Quito

We ventured out and up to see the fantastic statue that looms over the old town. Again we had originally planned to walk ... to the horror of our hosts! SO we got a taxi ... at an extortionate price ($7 return).He did wait for us, which was great as really it wasn't too safe up there and as Gringos we were sitting targets. The views were fantastic.

Theatro Bolivar

On out travels we stopped for lunch and suddenly heard Vivaldi and the sounds of an english voice.... we wandered over to a decrepid building and found it was an incredible theatre being restored after a Pizza Hut housed in the basement of the building caught fire and nearly destroyed the place. We immediately booked into the evening concert... mozart ecuadorian style was just too tempting. During the tour I had a quick debut on the stage... what fun!

Here is a taste of the evening's music.....Estupendo!

El Rincon Hostel

Our experiences at La Posada Colonial made us decide to downgrade to a hostel in the Old Town near La Ronda. We kinda felt we would like a bit of company! So we found a great little place complete with our own little balcony. Really friendly people. We even had a view of "the Virgin of Quito" which was on top of "El Panecillo". Decided that we would walk up to see it. "Ha !" The family who ran the hostel fell over laughing. It was a 4km walk which seemed fine, but they said we would be mugged 10 times on the way up! " Get a taxi" they urged. "Ask it to wait for you. Look behind your back!" After our recent experience we took their advice.

The views from the top were breathtaking! Our anxious taxi driver wizzed us back down and after half an hour we were back in the hostel planning our Galapagos trip.

In the evening we decided to eat at a restaurant highly recommended by Lonely Planet. Mmmmm lonely was again the operative word. We were the only people in this grand restaurant that could easily have housed 200 people! The food was pretty ordinary and by local standards quite expensive. The owner of the restaurant proudly showed his private wine collection of over 300 bottles of prestige wine!

The owner of the hostel was worried about us walking down one section of the street that lead to the restauant and so escorted us down there, making us promise faithfully that we would get a yellow cab home. When we returned the family were waiting for us... the son anxiously pacing up and down the street. Broad smiles lit up their faces as we emerged safely from the cab.

mmmm another day in Quito.

What a scam!

What a scam

We left the Posada Colonial and stood with our luggage looking hopelessly down the crowded road of hooting cars and smoke belching buses. Way in the distance we would see yellow cabs and hope would blossom only to fade as we saw that they were occupied.

We decided to walk to the next corner when I suddenly felt something wet on my back. The next moment a woman rushed at Roger, pushing at him shoving him to one side. All down his back was a long streak of gucky yellow.

People appeared from everywhere and started tugging at our bags. “Hold on” I shouted. Just then a man grabbed hold of my T Shirt and started tugging it up. Somehow I yanked it off him while still clutching my bag. He snorted in disgust and wiped the yellow stuff all down my arm.

In all the shouting and confusion it was really hard to work out what was happening, but we now think we have it worked out. The women who rushed at Roger was in fact the one that shot mustard all over us. The scam was that they would offer to help by taking our bags and wiping them down.

But we automatically backed into the hotel entrance and pushed them away. A goup of people who were just coming out from the restaurant got caught up in it all and tried to help” but we just held our ground. The woman and her male accomplice disappeared instantly when the crowd arrived.

We caught our breath and looked at ourselves, our clothes and bag smeared yellow but we were OK!

Another day in Quito

After a lonely breakfast in a deserted restaurant where we could hardly open our eyes for exhaustion we blearily said that we had to leave the hotel. "No! No! We will put you in a quiet room at the back of the hotel." Which they did. We ventured warily out............walking through the whole of the town without mishap although a motely gang of boys tailing us lifted the heartbeat a bit... everytime we came out of a shop or cafe they were waiting! Bought all sorts of things we didn't want or need to get rid of them!

One of the joys was walking to the Plaza Grande which was just around the corner from our hotel. Flash guards marched and saluted and stood guard to the Palacio del Gobierno. We also enjoyed the Plaza del Theatro with its constant entertainment of crowds of all shapes, sizes and ethnic background walking through. A bronze statue of an old man gained lots of attention as people stroked and hugged him for good luck!

The cathedral was truly incredible Huge with massive stainglass windows. Parks stretched endlessly through the middle of the city and people swarmed through arm in arm or lay out enjoying the sun.

We decided to buy some cheeses, meats, fruit and wine to eat in our room that night. In fact we could spread ourselves out as we had the whole hotel to ourselves. Somewhere in the distance the security guard and his girlfriend raved away to latin music while we ate in the cavernous silence of the empty restaurant.

Definitely leaving this hotel in the morning!