Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

We are now in Ecuador. First stop was Guayaquil, which I believe is the 2nd biggest city here. It was SO SO HOT, there was no coastal breeze, despite it being by a river and this could possibly be one of the hottest places I have been so far, which makes sense given how close we are to the equator, and that we were at sea level. The actual city itself didn´t really impress me, but to be fair, we haven´t really enjoyed cities as much as we have the smaller towns. They have quite an impressive waterfront which they have done up and it looks amazing, so we enjoyed a few strolls down there, but seriously it was just too hot to do anything come 11am we were both dripping with sweat! And believe me this is a big thing for me to say, as usually the hotter it is, the happier I am. We didn´t actually see how hot it was, but we think it would have been close to 40 deg and humid.

We stayed in Guayaquil for 2 nights while we were waiting to fly to Galapagos Islands! Monday 4th May was the big day that we flew over there to San Cristobal Island. A warning before I tell you how cool the place is.... the flights were $320 US return and this is off season prices, and there is a $100 US tax for EVERYONE entering the Galapagos, oh and I forgot about the $10 each depature tax that we had to pay at the airport before we left! SO it was creeping up to $500 US each before we had even started!!!! As you can imagine, we were hoping this place was going to be worth it!

We decided not to book a cruise, which you can pick up on a last minute deal for around $450 US as it was all feeling a bit outta control on our ¨South America on a shoestring trip¨.

So after a couple of hours flight we landed on San Cristobal Island, surf board in tow, which is the island with one of the 3 world class surfing spots, or so they say. Unfortunately for Rod, it is the wrong time of year, and the swell is coming from the wrong direction... so no surfing :( Secretly I may have been happy about this, just a little bit, as it meant we would be doing more island hopping!!

We spent 3 days on San Cristobal (the capital of Galapagos), and did a lot of walking, a bit of snorkelling and had a tour around the island in one of the taxis. Saw our first giant tortoises here in the breeding centre which were VERY impressive to see (the only place in the world that there are giant tortoises). There are only just over 1000 left in the world!! During our island tour we visited our first white sand beach which was absolutely beautiful, and the water was turquoise too.... oh my it was gorgeous and we were the ONLY ones on the beach!! We also visited the crater at the top of the mountain, not sure if you realise that the Galapagos Islands are all volcanoes. San Cristobal isn´t active though, but others still are (and always will be, but I am not going to get into a geography lesson for you!)

We also got our first taste of sea lions here (no, not literally!!). The sea lions are incredible animals and have a great personality. And they are so close to you too, during the day, they even make there way up to the footpath here on the streets sometimes because it´s nice and warm. There was a seal colony literally 1 minute´s walk away from our hostel where we were staying, so a couple of times a day we would go and watch them for ages... it´s really interesting to see them all interact with one another, frolick in the water, and the big daddy get angry. Not sure if you realise that in a sea lion colony there is only one big male, all the rest are females and babies. The boys get kicked out once they have grown up and the big daddy is very posessive so you gotta watch out for him!

We then moved onto Santa Cruz island which is the more touristy island. We met a kiwi family first up, when Brendon the father came up to Rod who was carrying a surf board the minute we stepped off the boat! Another surfer who was keen to talk all about the waves he had caught in Peru and if there were any to be had on Galapagos. This kiwi family were very inspiring, they had a 9 yr old girl and 12 yr old boy and they had been travelling for 6 months, through Central America, then Columbia and were now in Ecuador. The kids were only gonna miss 2 terms. We spent a bit of time with them and it was quite an inspiration! (Previously Rod and I had been having discussions about how our world travels are going to be a little bit hindered with ankle biters!)

We did a day trip to Floreana Island where we had the best snorkelling of all! The first snorkel was cool and really crystal clear water, but the 2nd was amazing as they dropped us off by a colony of sea lions who then jumped in the water (there were prob about 50 of them!!) to play with us. Initally I was a little nervous about it, as they swim right up to your face (at pace!) and then last minute they turn away. They just love teasing you. If you dive under and swim around with them, they mimick you and watch you. It´s really quite incredible how they interact with humans, they remind me of a pet dog! We both decided after this that we want a pet sea lion!! Don´t know how that will go down in London though :) Swimming with the sea lions was definitely one of the highlights of our Galapagos trip. We also visited the highlands while we were on Floreana and saw and even better giant tortoise breeding centre, and watch them munch down on bananas. They remind me of ET, and someone actually said that the guy who wrote ET actually visited Galapagos not long beforehand and these huge creatures inspired ET the character. How true that is, I do not know...

Tortugas on Floreana, Galapagos Islands

Hmmm what else did we do on Santa Cruz... we visited the Charles Darwin Centre, where you learn all about the islands. They are just facinating. How they came to exist and evolve, along with the unique animals that only exist on Galapagos is incredible. This is where we saw Lonesome George, the last giant tortoise of his particular species. They have found female tortoises who have the closest DNA match to him, hoping that he will mate with them and continue his breed, but George ain´t interested!! He is 95yrs old, and apparentely they live until they are about 200, so if he doesn´t get interested in the future then they are going to look at cloning him...

We also spent a bit of time at the fish market, just watching them bring in the huge fish, mostly wahoo and tuna. SO funny because the pelicans and sea lions fight over the fish guts when the guys cut it out of the fish. I also had a very cool encounter with a blue footed boobie here. This is actually the name of a bird which has blue feet! Like baby blue feet. SO weird! This bird landed right beside me and was not afraid of humans so I was able to feed it fish guts and get photos with it. This was rather exicting, as we had seen them from a distance but not close enough to get a decent photo, so I was stoked, and it made my day!

We also went to Tortuga Bay (turtle bay) a couple of times, which is a HOT 2.5km walk to a beautiful white sandy beach. The swim was one of the best swims I have ever had by the time you reach the beach here! Stunning stunning stunning! This is a beach that the sea turtles lay their eggs at, so everyone has to be gone by the time the sun is setting, and there are places you are not allowed to walk incase you stand on the eggs.

After 5 days on Santa Cruz, we decided to head over to Isabela Island which was just stunning. Turquoise water, white sandy beaches, coconut trees, I couldn´t get enough! We did a bit of snorkelling here and I saw a sea turtle underwater! Very exciting! We have seen lots in the water from in a boat, but this is the only one I saw underwater.

We also met a dutch couple here and did a bay tour with them. Rod convinced the guy that did our bay tour (snorkelling, looking around the bay in a boat) to take us fishing the next day (in exchange for payment of course!) and the dutch couple were keen to join us....

SOooooooo this was the day Rod has the best fishing of his life! (and me too!)
We had the lines out for 2 minutes and got a strike! A big wahoo! When it was right near the boat, a sea lion started attacking it the little bugger! But fortunately it let it go, and we pulled this huge thing in, which was prob about 6ft 5 long! Rod started pulling it in initially but believe it or not, we were fishing on handlines!!! So as you can imagine, getting used to pulling in the nylon is a bit hard, and when the fish starts swimming away from you, its pretty tough on the hands!

The 2nd strike was a wee while later, and it was my line!!! Exciting! So I was pulling it in and doing quite well (even if I do say so myself) and then suddenly it started swimming away at pace, too fast for my hands to handle the nylon, and the local fisherman had to take over! Turns out the reason it started swimming away because it must have seen a shark swimming towards it, when we pulled it in, it was only the head, a damn shark had eaten the rest of it!

Poor Saskia, our new dutch friend was horrified, this was her first time fishing ever!!

We then did a bit of snorkelling by a nearby island and an hour later had the lures out for some yellow fin tuna. We had already seen some amazing performances by these fullas, jumping super high out of the water, I reckon they would have gotten up to 1 and a half mtrs out of the water! Rod got a strike and it was all on.... he pulled in on a hand line, a 20kg yellow fin tuna!!!! He was stoked. An awesome day with the locals, another Galapagos stand out highlight.

That night at our hostel we cooked up some juicy tuna steaks and wahoo steaks... oh my they were DEVINE! The dutchies were pretty impressed with Rodney's man vs wild display, as he carved up the fish and cooked it on a homemade bbq with some carbon underneath. Was a great night, with great company.

I won't bore you with too much Galapagos Islands, I think that pretty much cover the highlights. Other amazing animals (again unique to Galapagos) include the marine iguanas which are everywhere. They are very interesting to watch. They lie in the sun to warm up and then go into the sea to eat algae (they're vege thank goodness!) and then lie in the sun again to warm up. That sounds like a good life to me! We also saw a frigate bird from a distance, which is a black bird which has a red patch under his neck (only the boys have this) and when they are mating they blow it up like a huge red balloon to attract the ladies, who will then hopefully want to mate with him. Our camera wasn't good enough to get a photo of one of these, but it was a pretty spectacular sight, the balloon was huge!

That pretty much brings me to the end of Galapagos. The weather was so gorgeous over there, it was like being on a tropical island, but with lots to do and see, which is great because I can't see Rod happily lying on a beach for more than 2 days with nothing to do!

After Galapagos we missioned it straight to a surfing town called Montanita where we met up with Brad the Aussie who we met in Ecuador and had a big night with him and a few Canadian ladies that he met and was travelling with. We stayed there 3 days, and then went north to visit the town that that Panama hat originated from. That's right, it was NOT invented in Panama, it was invented in a town called Montecristi in Ecuador. Rod bought a very cool genuine Panama hat which we hope lasts the rest of our travels so he can wear it in London (at the appropriate times of course!) It was uber hot in this town, they had a temperature gauge and it was 37 deg!

We then cruised to Quito, the capital of Ecuador where we are right now. This is the part that will all make you feel good.... it is NOT warm here! We are in the mountains at an altitude of 2800m!! I am not a happy chappy to not be in the sun, and I am not enjoying wearing warm clothes. Yes I know, I know, London will be cold, be mentally I will be prepared, I was not prepared for this!

But it is an interesting city, there are two areas, new town and old town. Old town has actually been named a World Heritage Site because of all the old amazing buildings.

Today we went to Mitad del Mundo which is the place where you can stand on the Equatorial line! I was very excited, given I have never been to the northern hemisphere... but I think I had built myself up a little bit too much... it was just an orange line.... but it was pretty cool to think that we were in the middle of the earth, and I'm stoked we went.

Tomorrow we are going up some cable car, which is supposed to have amazing views, and the day after we will head to Columbia!! Whoo hoo! Looking forward to Columbia, every tourist that we meet that has been there, says it was their fav Sth American country... so I will be sure to have some cool Columbian adventures to tell you.

Oh yeah, we have changed our itinerary too. Orginally we were going to do a jungle trip and fly out of Rio in Brazil, but this country is FRICKEN huge. We could not possibly do that in the time we have, all by land, so we have decided that we will sail through the Carribean via the San Blas islands for 6 days, when we will arrive in Panama. We hope to spend a week in Panama (we will find the beaches!) before we fly to London, arriving on the 11th July now (yes we extended our trip by 2 weeks hehe).

So there we are! Still having a fab time.... and recommend Sth America to anyone... but make sure you learn at least a little bit of spanish first, unlike us!

Until next time, hope you are all happy and well, and are coping with the cold in kiwi land for those that are there.

Much love to you all,
Daile and Rod xxx