Towards the Southern Hemisphere (ECUADOR)

Paul and some rays

When we entered Ecuador we had no expectations and had planned to only be in the country for a couple weeks (2 weeks in our minds).  Well two weeks passed and we were no where near the border of Peru; we fell in love with this country.  In this blog we hike inactive volcanos, experience the largest indigenous market in South America, go on a brewery tour in Quito, zip line in the forest and experience the Galapagos!!

July 19^th – To Ecuador!!

We woke up relatively early and arrived at the border shortly before 9am.  We had heard that this border was a bit chaotic due to multiple buildings and various refugees from Venezuela crossing it so we had mentally prepared for a similar border crossing to what we experienced in the Central American countries. 

Leaving Colombia was incredibly easy, within 10 minutes we had our exit stamp meaning the only task we had left in Colombia was cancelling our vehicle import permit.  This should have been easy but we got quite confused by where we were told to go.  We were told we had to go to the Customs Agency, who told us to go the red door, which was locked, so we went to the window beside it, where a woman (who in retrospect didn’t work for Colombia Customs) told us to return to immigration.  Immigration told us to go back to Customs who reaffirmed that I needed to enter the red door, which finally was unlocked.  Once in the door the import permit was cancelled in 30 seconds with confirmation being sent by email.

Driving across the border into Ecuador was easy and stress-free, mostly because there were no “helpers” yelling at us trying to make us hire them to help us import the vehicle or trying to confuse us making it feel like we needed them.  Instead, we were greeted by the army, who inspected our vehicle and told us where to park to complete the immigration and customs processes.

After parking we got in line at immigration and within a couple minutes had a new hot pink immigration stamp in our passport for Ecuador (the person behind the desk freshly inked the stamp just for us).  Getting the vehicle in the country was also quite easy, but time consuming.  It was almost 1.5 hours until we were able to see a Customs official about our vehicle, but once we had his attention the process went quick, mostly because we had all our documents ready and pictures of our vehicle and VIN meaning he didn’t need to “inspect our vehicle”.  They did not care about Rupert.

We couldn’t believe it; we were through the border and it was almost as painless as getting through the USA/Canada border!!

Our first stop was a cemetery in the border town of Tulcan known for its hedges.  It was way cooler than we had originally thought it would be as it was very evident a lot of work and effort has gone into designing these hedges.  What was even more impressive was how many there were and how different each one was.  We were very happy we had made this our first stop in Ecuador!

We were excited to see that Ecuador has a Pueblo Magico program similar (if not the exact same) as Mexico meaning we suddenly had a list of cute towns the government of Ecuador encourages people to visit, one of which, San Gabriel, was close to the border.  Here we went to the market and bought some fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese and eggs for less than $10 USD and ate a massive authentic Ecuadorian meal for $3 USD each. A fun fact about Ecuador is that they use the US dollar as their currency. Another fun fact is that they use the US $1 coins and half dollars as well!

Our final stop of the day was in the community of La Paz where we found a hot spring and a church within a cave.  The Church was pretty neat but the hot spring we probably could have skipped as it wasn’t very warm and we suspect there was a lot of urine in it.  We washed our bodies incredibly well in the extremely cold showers before returning to the van and relaxing for the rest of the night; celebrating our first full day in Ecuador.

 

July 20^th – An “easy” hike

Our first main stop in Ecuador was the area of Volcan Cotacachi where we could find a beautiful and easy 12.3 kilometer hike, according to Alltrails, around the rim of the volcano crater lake, Laguna Cuicocha.  After being redirected due to police roadblocks we finally reached where we would be camping for the night which happened to have an access point into the rim trail.

The weather was sunny but not too hot and it was early enough in the day for a few hours hike so we had a quick lunch, hid any accessible food in the van since Rupert would not be hiking with us, and started our trek around the volcanic lake.  It was beautiful but we HATE the people who said the hike was easy.  We don’t know if it was the elevation (3400 metres) or too many bags of chips in the evenings, but the last 2 kilometers almost killed us.  The hike was beautiful and we are glad we did it, but we were not mentally prepared for how exhausting it would be. Luckily the trail is not dog friendly, so Rupert lounged in the van while we contemplated our life choices and whether we should head to the road in the hopes of finding a taxi.

 

When we finally arrived back to the campground we couldn’t wait to take off our boots and relax in bed fighting off the urge to fall asleep.

After a few hours we were feeling better and left the van to socialize with our campground host, Manuel. Unfortunately, after about 45 minutes of talking Paul abruptly stopped talking, apologized that he suddenly wasn’t feeling well and ran towards the bushes to throw up.  The campground was around 3300 meters and Paul once again was feeling the effects of altitude sickness. Manuel agreed that it was probably the “altura” or height/altitude.

 

July 21^st – To a lower elevation

Paul was feeling far better the next morning, but still not 100%, so we decided to head to a slightly lower elevation to the community of Otavalo.  However, Manuel asked if we wanted to accompany him to his favourite viewpoint of Lake Cuicocha and we knew we didn’t want to say no, and wow were we glad we did. It was a great view off of the trail we hiked yesterday that Rupert was allowed to check out.

We also checked out the community of Cotacachi, a Pueblo Magico, but a lot of the things we would have done were still closed (cute cafes and breweries) so we decided to continue our journey to our next campground in Otavalo.

The campground, located at a hotel/hostel, was only a 10 minute walk from the Central area of the community known for a large plaza where you can purchase many articles of clothing such as ponchos, shirts, sweaters and blankets.  We did some window shopping and browsing but decided to wait until tomorrow to buy anything as tomorrow was when this market grows exponentially into the largest outdoor market in South America.

The rest of the day we decided to become gluttons and went from a restaurant to a pie store to a brewery; eating and drinking whatever we wanted.

After doing a bit of damage to our budget and purchasing a couple shirts, we returned to our campsite where we met an American who had moved from North Carolina to Otavalo.  We chatted for a bit about our plans in Ecuador and after an hour or so she told us that if we wanted to go to the Galapagos islands, something we didn’t think we could do because we had Rupert, she would be willing to dog sit.  Suddenly our evening turned into us researching everything about the Galapagos.  We did want to go we just never thought we would be able to go and suddenly we were given a potential opportunity.  We still don’t know if we will actually book anything but it is exciting to research flights, accommodations and tours.

 

July 22^nd – The Largest Market in South America

We couldn’t wait to leave the campground this morning and experience the largest market in South America so we had a quick breakfast and walked into town.  It felt like every road within the central area had booths of people selling everything and anything.  We had been told that if we wanted to purchase clothing or blankets with unique Ecuadorian or Peruvian designs this would be the best, and cheapest place to do so.  Paul was also in desperate need of new shirts as three of them would be better used as rags than articles of clothing. 

We walked for 3 hours and didn’t even see the whole market, it was massive!!  We did; however, find Paul 3 new shirts, a new sweater and a new blanket.  We also stumbled upon a café with the best cold coffee drinks we have ever had.  After hearing Colombians talk about how south of Colombia has nothing but gross coffee we were shocked to find this café (although we have been reassured that further south we will encounter instant coffee more and more). 

We truly felt we had shopped until we’re ready to drop so we walked back to our campsite and spent the afternoon updating the blog and Instagram before heading back into town for dinner. 

Paul likes this photo of Kendra

It been quite a while since we had explored a community after dark and with our campground so close to the central area and the community known for being pretty safe we thought this would be a good opportunity for a bit of a date night where we went to the “Plaza of Flavours” for some unbelievably cheap but delicious dinner.  However, any money we had saved we ended up spending when we learned that a brewery we previously thought was undergoing renovations, was open and their beer was amazing. 

Our campground hosts assumed we were asleep and had locked the gate to the van so we were worried due to the late hour we would have to “break into” the campground.  But after making a bit of noise trying to break in the campground host popped out his head and let us in.

 

July 23^rd – Researching the Galapagos

Although we wanted to go to the Galapagos, we didn’t think it could be possible because Rupert would not be able to come.  With us finding someone to potentially look after him we were able to finally look into the logistics of going to the islands and believe us when we say it can be confusing.  There are many islands that make up the archipelago each with their own unique things to see and do.  Getting to each island can be time-consuming and the ferries sell out meaning that the tickets we would want needed to be purchased as soon as possible.  On top of that there are two airports on the islands that fly to mainland Ecuador and the airport you arrive at can make getting to some islands easier while others are more difficult.

We had hoped to make all necessary decisions about the Galapagos, but in the end we only decided upon the dates we would theoretically go, as we still needed to ask Gloria (the person who graciously agreed to look after Rupert) if she was still okay with looking after Rupert for those specific days. 

While we waited for Gloria to respond we decided to head south towards the capital city of Quito.

We were quite unsure how to proceed with the day as we didn’t have confirmation that the dates we would like to go to the Galapagos would work so we had some lunch at a brewery and picked up some groceries at a local market.  Interestingly, Quito was in the midst of a beer festival where people could purchase a “passport” to the various breweries in the city and get significant deals on beer and food.  Well, we decided to purchase this passport for when we would explore Quito.

We finally decided to head to the Mindo Valley.  We had been told it is a beautiful place, but hadn’t done any research on the community itself so we decided to just head to the community and see what we could do.  Unfortunately, we arrived quite late in the day so all we did when we arrived in Mindo was stay at a hostel that could be described as having its best days behind it.  At least the price was right to camp in the parking lot with access to our own bathroom.

 

July 24^th – A Day of tours

We could not believe it, we got confirmation that Gloria was able to look after Rupert starting on July 28^th until August 2^nd meaning we spent the morning booking flights, ferries, accommodations and tours for the Galapagos.  We are so excited!!

To celebrate booking these tours we decided to do the top tours of Mindo starting with ziplining. 

Before we knew it we were in a group of travellers with our harnesses secured ready to go down 10 zip lines.  We couldn’t believe how long and fast these zip lines were and how confident they were in their safety.  They often encouraged us to do the zip lines upside down, in groups and made the experience even more exhilarating by bouncing on the cable making it go up and down meaning we would go up and down while speeding down a cable. *There were actually 2 cables for each zipline which is supposedly the safest style of zipline, that way if one line breaks you are still attached to the other line.

After some delicious coffee and cheese cake our next tour was a chocolate tour which was amazing.  It cost $10 USD per person but we firmly believe we were given at least $12 USD worth of chocolate.  The tour was incredibly hands on, showing us the cacao pod, opening it up and letting us suck on the coco seeds. 

From there we walked around the estate with cacao trees and saw fruits and spices that would be later added to the chocolate.  We saw the whole process from tree to chocolate bar while stuffing our face with chocolate.  Although we had done a chocolate tour in Guatemala this one was easily better and based on reviews we had read the best in South America.

Our final tour of the day was a “frog concert” for a few bucks that included a cup of wine.  We were unsure what the frog concert would be but were excited for our final tour.  The tour consisted of walking around a forest listening to 26 species of frog’s croak while looking for the frogs themselves as well as massive spiders and sleeping birds.

We so rarely pay for tours as they are often expensive and there are often free versions that we can do thanks to having a vehicle but in Ecuador, or specifically Mindo the tours were so well reviewed and so inexpensive we felt we had to do a day of tours and we are so happy we did.  Mindo was amazing and our tours were excellent.

 

July 25^th – Officially crossing into the Southern Hemisphere

We debated about staying longer in Mindo but there was so much more we wanted to see before returning to Otavalo and heading to the Galapagos. So we left and drove to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World). 

There were three places associated with the Equator just North of Quito.  The first was the true equator within the community of Calacali where a line had been painted on the road with the number 0’ 0’ tiled on a wall (next to some graffiti).  It was a bit anti climatic but it is where Google and our compass apps said the equator was showing our GPS at 0’0’0’.

The next stop was the Museo de Sitio Intinan a museum arguably on the equator which is a museum about the people of Ecuador that contained various “experiments” to show how standing near the equator makes some things both easier or more difficult.  For instance, supposedly it is easier to balance an egg on a nail on the equator, its more difficult to walk in a straight line on the equator or hold your arms our above your head.  We also saw how depending on which side of the equator you are on will determine which direction water will circle a drain and that it will go straight down if you are draining water on the actual equator (Youtube and “science” may not agree with these “experiments” but it was fun to see).

Our final stop was the Middle of the World City which is like a little amusement park with a fake city and a line painted on the ground which states it is the equator but it is quite a few degrees away from the actual equator.  We felt like we needed to do it but it was probably our least favourite “equator”.

Thanks to the beer passport we had purchased a few days prior that could be used at various breweries across Quito we decided that for the next couple days we would explore Quito during the day and try out various breweries at night. 

July 26^th – A Full day in Quito

Normally campgrounds in Ecuador are around $5 per person, per night, but we were able to find accommodations in Quito for $18 a night (that had secure parking our van fit in and dog freidnly) in an area close to all the breweries taking part in the beer passport program.  Unbelievable!  We woke up well rested and quite happy with the quality of the cheap hotel.  It was owned by a friendly family who were curious about us and excited to show us all their puppies as their dog had just given birth.  Kendra was in heaven!

Obviously it was far too early for breweries so we decided to head to the next best thing, a local coffee roaster in a trendy area of town.  Great coffee, great breakfast and it seemed to be the local hangout with the barista making people’s order the second he saw them.  We really could see ourselves living here!

Our next plan was to head to the old city of Quito for some general touring and get our Yellow Fever Vaccine which we need for Bolivia that was offered for free at the local health centre, unfortunately due to some of the worst stand still traffic we’ve experienced on our road trip we arrived an hour late meaning they had already met their daily maximum inoculations for the day.  On the plus side we did find a jerry can, something we were told we also need for Bolivia.  We will just have to try again next time we are in a major center that offers free vaccinations. (This is pretty common as this is the 4^th city to do so, the other three being Bogota, Cartagena and Medellin).

Old town Quito is definitely not a place to miss.  It has a European feel with a south American look.  Its hard to explain but easy and enjoyable to explore.  Our travels eventually brought us to the Compania de Jesus church, which we had read was the best to see.  Well I could believe it was the best to see because it was an amazing church with many grandiose things to see such as its huge mural depicting hell, its many paintings by local artists during its constructions and history.  It is also home to a saint who asked god to kill her to bring an end to the earthquakes plaguing the city.  I guess god obliged…. She died and there are no longer earthquakes with the epicenter in Quito.  Sadly, we were forbidden in taking photos inside the church, so we only have pictures when we explore the roof, which was also well worth the tour!!

Our tour guide of the church was a 15 year old high school student who had a strong enough command of English to make quite a few quasi edgy awkward teenager jokes which we enjoyed immensely.  These jokes included explaining why one of the angels had a black face (it’s not for inclusivity and representation), that people go to hell for dancing and that some people in the early days of Christianity were “hoes” and would go to Hell.  She did recommend after our tour that we go to the Mirador of the Virgin of the Panecillo and have the local Quito drink known as Canelazo which is traditionally an alcoholic drink, but she “guessed we could have it without alcohol.”

We did make our way to the Mirador but not before checking out Calle La Ronda, a must see place according to guidebooks, but we can honestly say it can be missed as it was very quiet with nothing really to see.  The Mirador was worth it with amazing views of Quito made even more dynamic thanks to an incoming storm.  We did try Canelazo, it was served without alcohol and then some alcohol was quickly added and it reminded us of mulled wine.  It was a delicious way to end our time in the center of Quito and warm us up as the rain and hail started to fall.

The evening was spent in a similar manner as yesterday and we headed to various breweries.  Interestingly the quality of beer followed a similar trajectory as yesterday with the first brewery being amazing, the second being good and the last one being forgettable.  It was fun eating and drinking our way through a trendy area of Quito and having a bit of a date night.  All in all we recommend Quito; this is a city we could live in!!

 

July 27^th – I guess this is actually happening

Although we had already booked our flights, tours and accommodations for the Galapagos we always assumed something would happen that would prevent our trip to the Galapagos from occurring.  We still couldn’t believe the kindness of a stranger to look after our dog so that we could go on this once in a lifetime trip.

We left Quito for Otavalo to do all those things people who are going on vacation are supposed to do, i.e. pack and clean.  By around 4pm our bags were packed, a jerry can we had purchased was attached to the van and the van was spotless. It was at this point Gloria, the person who agreed to look after Rupert, messaged us.  She let us know that she wanted Rupert to stay with her today so that he could get used to his new environment and so if there were any issues during this time she could let us know.  We always assumed that we would be leaving Rupert in the care of Gloria tomorrow morning, but within 20 minutes he was gone and we were dogless for the first time in a long time.  We were a bit out of sorts.

We ended up going to bed relatively early, but were incredibly excited for what tomorrow was going to bring!!

 

July 28^th – Galapagos here we come!!

Even though our flight was at 1pm our campground hosts who had agreed to drive us the 1.5 hours to the airport from Otavalo decided we needed to be at the airport over 4 hours early for what is technically a domestic flight.  We struggle to say thankfully, but thankfully for us, not thankfully for them their vehicle had a coolant leak so our “quick” trip to the airport was slowed by excessive engine heat requiring us to pull off to the side of the road to let the engine cool down.  This was made even more interesting as their 4-way flasher button seemed to be faulty so their 4-way flashers wouldn’t turn off for a couple kilometers.

We did make it with “just” 4 hours to kill in the Quito airport.  Surprisingly this was the most international domestic flight we have ever taken so it was probably for the best we had so much time.  To get to the Galapagos from Quito you first had to purchase a travel card which acted like a visa.  You had to declare when you would arrive and when you would leave the Galapagos and carry it with you in your passport.  You even had to pay $20 USD for this privilege.  Next our luggage was inspected for organic material that could damage the fragile and unique Galapagos environment.  It truly felt like we were going through customs.  We finally got through all these steps and before we knew it we were on the plane, but because we had purchased the tickets last minute and refused to pay for any extras we ended up with a seat at the back of the plane with no window.

Arriving to GPS (Galapagos Baltra Island’s Airport Code), the main airport on the Galapagos was surreal, it was hot, especially compared to the mountains where we had been for weeks and once again it felt like we had entered a new country.  We were required to stand in line and get our passport scanned and pay a $100 USD entrance fee for the national park which after doing so we were rewarded with a new stamp in our passport. 

The Galapagos is known to be expensive and what we quickly learned is it is expensive due to tons of small fees.  For instance, after paying the $100 entrance fee, we had to pay $5 per person for a bus to get a ferry where we paid $1 per person to cross from Balta Island to Santa Cruz Island then another $5 per person for another bus to take us to the main city on Santa Cruz Island known as Puerto Ayora.  We had heard the process from leaving the airport to getting to Puerto Ayora can take an hour or so but didn’t realize that people were not exaggerating.  By the time we got to Puerto Ayora it was around 5pm, 2 hours after we arrived meaning that the beach we had thought to check out and the Charles Darwin Research station were both closed.

Instead of doing things specific to the Galapagos for our first night we ended up doing our old standby, checking out a local microbrewery, which thankfully had delicious beer and great views of the ocean.  Quickly we changed our views from the ocean to the street where a local festival had taken over and people were dancing in the streets.  Well we couldn’t not check out the festival so we left and wandered the streets where we even ran into people we had met in Nicaragua.  We would have stayed up later but we had an early morning ferry the next day so we headed back to our hotel and went to bed.

 

July 29^th – This is why people come here!!

The Galapagos time zone is 1 hour earlier than the mainland of Ecuador and we had to be at the port an hour before our ferry meaning that we woke up 4:30am Ecuador time (the time zone we feel our bodies and brains were still in).

It wasn’t clear were we had to go, but we later learned we had to look for the sign that has the name of our ferry on it and check in with the person near that sign.  The issue is that the signs go up whenever the people who own or represent the boat are ready meaning you do a lot of wandering and worrying that you are missing something.  We are happy we purchased our tickets online since we heard that all the ferries heading to the island we wanted to visit, Isabela, were booked for the day. In fact when we booked our ferry the website showed all sailings sold out, but we were able to send a Whatsapp message and get two seats on a ferry. We also saw others who had a receipt for paying for a ferry but no boat name frantically search for where to find out what boat they were on (most going to every boat registration to see if they were on the list).

Eventually the sign for our ferry appeared, and 20 minutes later a person looking to check us into the ferry appeared beside it.  Very quickly after we were being checked by the government to once again ensure we were not taking organic material to another island, paid a $1 port tax, and checked off by the Ecuadorian military so that we could load into a water taxi for an additional $1 and then board the ferry to Isabela.  Interestingly these “Ferries” are very small, and are reminiscent of an ocean pleasure craft you’d see in Canada.  Thankfully we had anti nausea pills as these seas were rough and a few people ended up getting sea sick.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only 2.5 hours of being tossed around by waves (and the boat not slowing down for any wave, big or small) we arrived in Puerto Villamil, the main city of Isabela, where we were able to check into our hotel (even though it was barely 10:30am) and get ready for the day.

We did have one day where we didn’t know what we would do, tomorrow.  We had left it open to “play it by ear” but we quickly realized that we wanted to do a tour to El Tuneles, which unbeknownst to us just happened to be the most popular tour on the Galapagos.  Our hotel manager had showed us a list of tours he could arrange for us and Paul enquired about if we would be able to do that tour tomorrow at 7 am, and by some luck there was a cancellation.  What we didn’t realize is that this tour fills up a week in advance and that we were incredibly lucky to be able to do the tour tomorrow. When the hotel manager got off the phone he was shocked there was any availability because for the past few days when we would call there were no spaces available.

We did think about relaxing until our first tour of the Galapagos, but we had promised ourselves that we would hit the ground running and do as much as possible during our relatively short time in the Galapagos.  We grabbed our swimsuit and snorkels and headed towards the beach, but only after eating a delicious meal of Ceviche headed towards Concha de Perla which is known for great snorkeling on the side of some mangroves.  Well it was a great place to snorkel as we saw some colourful fish, marine iguanas swimming and even a turtle; however this was nothing compared to what we were about to experience.

Our afternoon was filled with a tour to Tintoreras where we were able to see the only tropical penguins in the world, a bucket list item for Paul, learn about the unique animals found on the island of Isabela and snorkel where sea turtles are known to reside.  This tour was an amazing introduction to the Galapagos and reaffirmed why we wanted to come here. Although the tour was only 4 hours we left the tour with tonnes of pictures and memories, one that was kind of gross was about these Marine Lizards.  You may notice that some of the pictures show what looks like dead skin on these animals.  Well it is dead skin that other animals eat for nourishment.  It doesn’t fall off the lizards, other animals just eat it

The evening was spent exploring the community of Puerto Villamil which is known for it’s Pizza, even though it is right on the ocean.  We opted not to eat pizza instead going for local craft beer at the local brewery, which was delicious and seafood.  Sadly the seafood may have been a mistake as the “fresh” seafood was cooked like a well done steak; it was terrible.  We even were given the wrong dish and after eating some of it, letting the waiter know the issue the food was just given to another table.  Really weird and not very good.

 

July 30^th – The Best Tour Ever!!

Our tour to El Tuneles started at 7am from our hotel so it was another early morning wake up, but before we knew it we were in the unique geographical feature known as El Tuneles.  This area was full of tunnels created by lava millions of years ago.  Because of its safe environment and calm water all sorts of marine animals could be found there including tropical fish, sea turtles, golden rays, marble rays, sea horses and even reef sharks.  On top of the land there we a bunch of the famous blue footed boobies. 

Snorkeling in this area was something out of a movie, everything was picture perfect with many tunnels to swim through/snorkel under and views to admire.  After the tour was done it was impossible to wipe the smiles off our faces.

The tour concluded in the early afternoon and because we were leaving Isabela Island the next day we decided to rent bicycles from our hotel and bike the roughly 6 kilometers to the Wall of Tears.  This route is famous on Isabela Island as you can often see giant tortoises wondering the road and it leads to a wall constructed by the prisoners of a penal colony that existed on the island between WWI and WWII.  Many residents of the island say that this wall is haunted due to the amount of people who died in its construction due to the heat of the island.

The trip to the wall was far more difficult than it should have been due to the heat and that after 6 kilometers the front tire on Kendra’s bike went flat.  However, we did see a couple tortoises which made up for this issue.  Once we arrived to the Wall of Tears we decided to hike up to the Mirador which should have been an easy 150 meters up, but due to the extreme heat that felt like a blanket it was one of the toughest hikes we had done.  We truly don’t know which is harder to hike in; altitude or heat and humidity. We were sweating from every pore, but the view was worth it!!

The bike ride back to town was horrible! Paul was chivalrous and decided to ride the bike Kendra chose with the flat tire and then two more tires went flat! Paul just assumed Kendra picked a bad bike with bad tires, but that was now blatantly not the case.  If you are good at math you may now realize that we have 3 flat tires on 2 bikes. So ¾ or 75% of the wheels we are travelling on are not functioning well, meaning we have 6 kilometers of rough road to traverse in the heat.  Thank god we saw so many giant tortoises on the road and beside the road and we were able to stop, get off the bikes with only 1 inflated tire and take too many pictures of them.

We had hoped to go and enjoy a spot highly recommended to us called El Estero, which was a beach encompassed in a mangrove. It felt like a private and secluded beach surrounded by trees, some trees even have poisonous apples on them, but we were too exhausted to properly enjoy the beach so after making the quick walk into the area of the beach we walked back and continued our long journey back to town to return the bicycles.  The only solace from this adventure is we did see everything we wanted to see and didn’t have to pay for the rental of the bicycles.

The night ended with a sunset dinner overlooking the ocean and purchasing some snacks for tomorrow’s ferry as we had to wake up even earlier for this ferry.

 

July 31^st – Just the worst! (It’s true and we are not being dramatic)

This was the day we were dreading, we had to take two ferries, one from Isabela back to Santa Cruz and another from Santa Cruz to San Cristobal for another tour the next day and for our flight back to the mainland the following day.  The first ferry we had to wake up even earlier than before meaning we had to wake up around 4:30am Galapagos Time (3:30 am Ecuador time), and thanks to some people across the road who were partying most of the night we didn’t sleep very much.

We had originally thought to take a couple anti nausea pills and sleep the entire voyage to Santa Cruz but the seats we chose happened to be in the splash zone meaning every couple minutes we were overcome with water.  We were cold, tired, wet and close to miserable; just kidding we were miserable and relatively silent with each other.  Eventually Paul was offered a spot inside as he had received the blunt of the water but it didn’t change the mood of the day.

We had a couple things we wanted to accomplish on Santa Cruz Island as we waited for our afternoon ferry to San Cristobal, namely to drink hot coffee and eat good food then head to the Charles Darwin Research Centre.  At this research centre we learned about the work of various scientist and the continued studies of the unique animals found on the islands.  What we found most interesting about the Galapagos is that although similar animals exist on each island each one is slightly different, it has evolved slightly differently to cater to the unique geography or flora of the specific island.  This is most evident when you look at the tortoises, each have a slightly different looking shell and neck. Obviously something very similar can be observed with finches, which Charles Darwin was famous for observing.

After a bit of window shopping, lunch, more coffee and some ice cream, and drying off in the sun it was time for our afternoon ferry to San Christobal where we were blessed with the ferry we were placed on.  Seriously highly recommend the ferry called Blessing!   We have their contact info if you need for when you plan your Galpagos trip. The seats were comfortable, there was no splash zone because they had a plastic cover to prevent water from getting people wet, there were complimentary snacks and water as well as a TV giving you something to watch.  In general, if you are in the Galapagos we will always recommend using the small inter island flights, but we were on a budget but retrospectively we wish we had splurged and purchased a flight from Isabela to San Christobal, especially since it would have only been a little over double the price we paid for the ferries and saved us so much time and grief. We have also heard and read blogs of people who completely changed their Galapagos trip plans due to the sea sickness and overall uncomfortableness of the ferries, so the ferries are not for the unmedicated faint of heart. Kendra doesn’t usually get motion sick and took antinausea medication on our two ferry day, but we survived!

The main community on San Cristobal is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, but no one seemed to call it that, instead just calling it San Christobal.  It is also the capital city of the Galapagos Province and feels like a city.  It even had stop lights! We wandered around the city a little bit but we were so wiped from the day that we decided to just grab a quick meal and head back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow.

 

August 1^st – Swimming with Sharks!

The morning got off to a bit of a rocky start when we thought we had read that breakfast in our hotel starts at 6:30am but it ended up starting at 7:30am.  This was an issue because we had to be at the tour agencies office for 7am and there didn’t appear to be anywhere else open.  Seriously if you want to start a profitable business in the Galapagos, cheap grab and go breakfast that is open before most tours start and ferries leave would do very well.

We did find a small bakery, luckily, and made our way to the tour agency with a few moments to spare.  The tour today was called San Cristobal 360, aptly named as the tours takes you around the island to many boat only accessible locations.  It was also a full day tour. If you are not a person who loves boats, maybe the Galapagos isn’t your dream destination.

The tour was awesome and we have nothing but good things to say about it.  The first spot we stopped at was a white sand beach where we snorkeled with similar sea life as our tour on Isabela.  The second stop was for lunch and swimming with sea loins.  We were told that we were not allowed to touch the sea loins, but they may touch us. We were also told they may try to play with us or bite us or at least bite our flippers so be careful.  Wow! They were “friendly” and playful.  Kendra started to get a bit freaked out with just how close they would come to us, since they have teeth and do bite.  The next couple spots were just for pictures and showcased the dynamic landscape as well as the famous Kicker Rock (which is said to look like a boot, or a sleeping sea lion).  It was at these spots we technically saw the red footed boobie, but we were so far away for all we knew we were looking at a brown bird in a bush.   Our final stop may have been our favourite of the day.

It's a hammerhead shark!!

We were told that we would be snorkeling at Kicker Rock and that it is dangerous due to the sharp barnacles and the waves crashing upon the rock.  We were also told that there are likely sharks in the area but we may not see any.  We donned our snorkels and jumped in, the amount of sea life was vast and we enjoyed swimming until we heard someone yell “Hammerhead shark”.  You’d think we would have swam away, but we did the opposite we started to swim towards it.  The area is known for sharks including the Hammerhead shark, but usually you need to be Scuba Diving and even then it isn’t a guarantee.  We were so lucky to see two and Paul even dove as deep as he could towards one of the sharks to get a better photo.  Surprisingly there were not just hammerhead sharks at kicker rock but others as well.  We were happily swimming in shark infested waters.

This was another tour that we were so happy we did!!

Being it was our last night we should have just relaxed and celebrated our time, but we had heard a rumour from a fellow Canadian (someone from Sarnia of all places) that we could walk to where Red Footed Boobies were nesting and it would only be 7 kilometers round trip.  We did the hike and found red footed birds, but they were only gulls.  Although we were slightly disappointed we are glad we at least tried. After identifying that these red footed birds were in fact gulls, we reviewed our photos from our tour and realized we did actually see red-footed boobies from a distance.

Unfortunately, our disappointment continued when we realized we were out of money so couldn’t afford dinner or drinks and the banks on the island were not accepting our cards.  We ended up walking for a couple more kilometers hoping to find an ATM that would work (or have money in it) while ensuring that it wasn’t an issue on our end (like bank fraud or something).  Turns out the issue was just ATMs running out of money or us requesting too much ($200 is too much to take out at one time, even with the bank fee ranging from $5-7 usd per transaction) and eventually we had some money in our pocket for dinner and a couple celebratory drinks.  Thanks goodness!

 

August 2^nd – BEACH DAY?

We had a flight around noon, so after getting ready to leave the Galapagos it was time to walk to the airport. Don’t worry, the airport is a short 15 minute walk from downtown. When we tried to go through security we were told that we could not enter the area as our plane hadn’t arrived.  We didn’t think much of this and sat down at a small café, it was at this time we realized something was wrong, our flight was delayed and wouldn’t be arriving for at least 4 more hours. 

We had often asked ourselves how would we spend an additional day in the Galapagos, we discussed other tours or other locations to visit, like Floreana Island south of Santa Cruz, but normally settled on that we would have a relaxing beach day.  It seemed like we were given the opportunity to have a beach day in the Galapagos.  We asked someone who worked for the airline if it was okay if we leave the airport and they said no problem, just be back at 3 pm.  With that we headed towards the beach!

We had the best beach day we could have under the circumstances with ceviche, beers and cocktails, people watching and wildlife watching.  The time flew by and just when we thought it was time to return to the airport, we looked at google flights just to learn the plane still hadn’t left the mainland so we could spend even more time at the beach.

Eventually our time ran out and we saw the plane was only 1.5 hours away from the Galapagos so made our way back to the airport where we learned three things very quickly.  1) The airport area after security was HOT 2) We appeared to be some of the very few people who had left meaning that everyone waiting for the plane had stayed at the airport for over 4 hours and 3) we were the least sober and most relaxed people there.  You could cut the tension with a knife. We found seats to be able to take in the tension and appreciate what we had missed and we were able to get our mandatory “refreshments” that the airline must provide if the flight is delayed more than a few hours (orange juice and crackers- which wasn’t our favourite, but significantly more than what is often provided in Canada).

Eventually tensions did boil over as another hour from our initial departure time went by with many of the passengers demanding additional compensation. The Passenger Bill of Rights was being read by many people and the Civil Aviation Manager for the airport was now present to manage the tense situation that was arising. Eventually we did get the additional compensation; a meal voucher.

The flight had one stop between San Christobal and Quito, our final destination, in the city of Guayaquil where we should have been able to both get some food from the food voucher and then continue on.  Both these tasks should have been easy, but the flight crew timed out meaning we had to switch planes resulting in another 2 hour delay and the food vouchers we were given were accidently given for a restaurant on the Galapagos meaning the restaurants at the airport in Guayaquil did not honour them.  Que complete outrage by other passengers (Kendra and I were really chill, probably because we spent the day on the beach) and a group of 90 hungry people wandering around in the part of an airport with 5 gates and only 2 restaurants that will not honour a meal voucher that ever single person is hoping to use. No one was arguing or yelling, but two people seem to have appointed themselves to the role of group advocates and spoke with the Avianca representative with 90 supporters behind them. We put on our best angry and RBF’s/resting “beach” faces and stood in the crowd silently supporting them.

The airline did eventually work out a deal with a sandwich restaurant but the restaurant only had time to feed half the plane; however, they compromised for the other half by letting those people use their meal vouchers for boxes of chocolates sold by restaurant up to a total of roughly $25 USD (the amount for the voucher).

 

After a long travel day, and a final 35 minute flight to Quito we did eventually arrive in Quito but as it was almost midnight we had decided to postpone our ride back to Otavalo until the next day and get a cheap hotel near the airport.  In the end we were very happy we had done this as the thought of another couple hours of driving in the middle of the night was unthinkable.

 

August 3^rd – Reunited with Rupert!!

The hotel we picked offered free breakfast but we were confused about where exactly we had to go to get it; however, we found out pretty quickly.  The hotel breakfast was delivered to our room at 8am so we had breakfast in bed!

Eventually our campground host arrived at our hotel and drove us back to Otavalo where we met up with Gloria and we’re reunited with Rupert.  We spent the rest of the day unpacking, going through photos and relaxing before heading up to Glorias apartment (just above the campground) for dinner and to share our stories and pictures with her.  Somehow this was how we could repay her.  Unbelievable generosity!!  Gloria, we are forever indebted to you and we will make sure to pay this opportunity forward any chance we get.