Quito & The Galápagos

Ok, it's been a little while since I've written an entry of any length so bear with me whilst I try and remember what we got up to.

We arrived in Quito from Cartagena without much trouble to stop at the Hostel Cartuja, a small and, by my lofty standards, somewhat basic hotel a ten minute walk from the new town of Quito. To my surprise, not only did I not spontaneously combust upon entering a lower than 5 star hotel, I actually found it rather bearable which was something of a shock and will hopefully keep the accomodation costs down going forwards.

We spent two nights and one day in Quito upon first entry, spending the first night getting rather drunk in a very trendy (something I am clearly not, as I still use such a word approaching my 30th birthday) bar, doing our best to sample all the delights of the generous cocktail menu. We were clearly good customers as we started to be given free drinks, despite us not really requiring any encouragement.

The following day was spent in the old town. Following on from the encouragement of staying in cheap accomodation, we took public transport to the old town, not at all the Matt most of you will recognise and spent a pleasant morning and afternoon (if a little damp at times) seeing yet more churches and taking another trip up a little hill to a religious monument, that we were yet again informed was not safe to walk assuming you like your stomach without extra holes.

I'm not sure why there is a correlation between religious monuments and violent robbery in South America, but it does seema rather popular comination so far as we can see so far.

The next day we headed off for the Galápagos Isles, something of a highlight of the trip we were hoping. We got the 3 hour plane from Quito and even got the seats with extra leg room, things were clearly going too well. Not to worry, reality was not far away and we soon arrived to find that the double cabin we had booked was a twin, the diving we'd been assured we could do from the boat was no longer allowed and we were to be living for the next five days in the almost exclusive company of Germans.

Now before I sound a little too jingoistic too early on in the post, I should point out the Germans were all very nice, but it does limit the conversation somewhat when you got a D at GCSE German. One of our German companions even commented he would sue, were he to be sent on a holiday with exclusive German company :)

Despite being very disappointed at not being able to dive, everything else we saw and did was spectacular. I won't bore you all by putting loads of photos in this post, anyone who is interested can see our photos here.

In summary our days in the Galápagos broke down as follows:

Day 1
The first day was spent touring a Tortoise Farm and spending our first night on the boat, which included a 12 hour over night traversal to Isabela Island which was, I think it is fair to say a little bumpy. You can see a little clip of one of the Giant Tortoises below.

Days 2 & 3
The second and third days included a splendid walk to see Marine Iguanas, Penguins, Flamingos and even Sharks hiding in sea connected pools on Isabela Island.
On the afternoon of the second day, we went on a boat ride around a lagoon, see rays and Sea Turtles, somewhat smaller that the Giant Tortoises on the first day, but none the less spectacular.

Day 4
The forth day saw us visiting one of the smaller islands of the archipelago Bartholomew to climb 200m to the top of an extinct volcano. The view was breathtaking, although the 06:00 start was a little early, even for those of us who are still haven't quite adjusted to the six hour time difference. Following the climb there was a chance to snorkel and swim, before heading off to refuel the boat and then onto Islas Plaza another of the small islands to see more sea lions and marine iguanas.

Day 5
We had an early breakfast and had a little time on San Christobal Island before heading back to the airport and back to Quito for a few more days.

The two further days we had in Quito saw us take a visit to the Center of the World, a somewhat underwhelming experience if we're completely honest, although we were rather pleased with ourselves for making the entire journey via public transport, a not inconsiderable task given the distance and our lack of Spanish and it saved us the difference between two 35 cent bus tickets each way and the $45 per person tour cost.

Unfortunately we did not manage to escape Ecudaor completely as we would have hoped either and after going for an extremely nice meal in a local Cuban restaurant on the last night, both Siobhán and I unfortunately fell to a nasty bought of food poisoning, as those following my status updates on Facebook may already be aware, which made the 05:00 start to catch our flight to Peru a little more unpleasnt and challenging that it really needed to be. Not to worry by the time we arrived in Peru we were both feeling much more like our old seleves and have so far had no adverse affects to the altitude in Cusco which is a bonus.

I'll leave the tale there as it is getting late and we have another early morning tomorrow going off on the Inca Trail, it seemed like a good idea when we booked it, but I think it's fair to say we're feeling a little more hesitant at the moment, but I will update you on the trials and tribulations of that in about a week when we should be well on our way to Peru.

Feel free to add some comments, or catch us both on Facebook, speak to you soon.