Middle of the Earth

We had breakfast at 9am, checked out out of the Hilton and then at just before 10am picked up our pre-booked guide to the Mitad del Mundo as arranged for us by the concierge last night. Our guide's name was Jose, he spoke reasonable English and his vehicle was a modern SUV so we had a comfortable, elevated ride as we drove north to the Equator. He took us to the Intinan Museum rather than the Mitad del Mundo monument. Apparently the monument is sited where the first global geodesic mission in 1739 placed the equator but modern GPS measurements place it about 250 metres away at the Intinan. It is amazing they were so close all those years ago. Entrance fee was a reasonable $4 each and included a guided tour which had an amazing amount of padding around the actual photo op on the Equator line itself. By coincidence we met Connette and T there and joined the tour with them. 

The guided tour, which was a bit of a joke, included a section on shrunken heads, a replica of a Pre-Columbian tomb, some ridiculous pseudo science about Coriolis Force and whirlpools in sinks, egg balancing, tightrope walking and strength of grip, plus a retail opportunity dressed up as a short presentation on the origin of chocolate. The guide claimed that new archeological evidence showed that the ancient Ecuadorians actually discovered chocolate before the Mayans in Mexico. Anyway we bought some Chilli Chocolate for Mum. When we were left to our own devices, which was more fun, we found that our iPhones were showing the purported Equator line as 0.0009 degrees south which would mean it was about 100 metres south of the real line of zero latitude.  Now they claim that the line was fixed using military GPS which is more accurate than civilian devices but we walked across the road outside and both of our phones showed that point to be 0 degrees. It was all a bit of fun anyway.

Jose let us stop for a photo of the official Mitad del Mundo monument, and the impressive UNASUR (confederation of S American nations – which we hear is in disarray) building next door, and then we drove to Quito airport.

 

Easy checkin, reasonable lounge, decent flight to Panama, back into the lounge, missed the call for the Paris flight so had to run/walk smartly to the gate (getting there when the economy passengers were loading ). We had a couple of pods, 2E and 2F, which was the only way of sitting together but they are clearly designed for single travellers who prefer privacy because their angled design meant that it was difficult to talk to each other.

Dinner soon after boarding, time for a couple of films and then sleep on a good flat bed. Landed in Paris a little late, around 1.45pm Friday local time. We then walked straight to our gate for the Edinburgh plane, and were taken on a very round about bus route to the Hop plane. Landed in Edinburgh about 3.30 local time. I got a text saying our luggage wasn’t loaded with us, but on checking we discovered both cases were there. So a taxi and home. Sad it’s all over after a tremendous trip.

 

Galapagos - Day 5 and return to Quito

We again moved overnight from Floreana to Santa Cruz with a very early start today.

         

Our farewell day

Bye Oswaldo! 

 

Sunrise from the quay

Those of us leaving the boat had breakfast at 5.30am and then 10 of us departed at 6am with Jonathan by Zodiac for the pier in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. Tijs left us at this point to go and climb a volcano crater. The rest of us transferred to the Charles Darwin Research Centre for an early visit. Jonathan led us round the centre since it wasn’t fully open yet. It was good to see adult dome and saddleback tortoises, adapted for lush and sparse vegetation ( the saddlebacks can reach upwards to find more food ).

Many huge cactus trees!             

3 huge tortoises, about a metre long, taking their early morning dip

A saddleback tortoise, also more than a metre

  The airport is on Baltra Island which is just to the north of Santa Cruz so we had a 45 minute bus ride across the island and through the remains of an American World War 2 base. Then, very strangely for an airport, a transfer to a tiny ferry to cross the channel and a public bus to the airport. It is an area ripe for a bridge I would have thought. I asked Jonathan and he says the locals want it but the government is against it as it is a safe haven for sharks.

Our ferry to the airport...  

..and our luggage being loaded by Sassimo

After checkin we said a sad farewell to Jonathan and waited in the lounge until our flight departed.  Once again the plane dropped down in Guayaquil before flying on to Quito. No problems with the landing in Quito this time. We were met by Estephanie again and transferred to the Hilton. At the hotel we said goodbye to everyone else as we all had different plans for the following day. After a short chill and a repack of our stuff into our two big cases we headed out to Plaza Foch, had a beer in the Orange bar, and had dinner in Miskay. This restaurant came with rave reviews in Tripadvisor but was actually quite disappointing.

Nice cerviche though

On the way home we decided to walk down the main drag rather than the quiet street that we had used the previous weekend, this strangely turned out to be a more threatening walk home as we passed a couple of street walkers and and a couple of shady characters. Back at the hotel we were not long before going to bed.    

Galapagos - Day 4

We had a rougher crossing last night from Espanola to Floreana Island, way out to the West.  The crew said that the sea was getting up due to the approaching full moon on 29th April.

  After breakfast we used the Zodiacs for a wet landing on Floreana Island at Cormorant Point. This is a younger island thus there are higher peaks and poorer soil than Española. There is even the visible remains of some lava flows even though all the volcanoes in the Galapagos are extinct. On the way in we saw some Brown Noddies ( terns ), Pelicans and Blue Footed Boobies. Once we had landed we walked to a brackish lagoons to see the endemic Flamingo. They were quite red.  Tree finches, native bumble bees (large and black), Annie birds (introduced to pick parasites of cattle), yellow warblers, stingrays at the white powder sand beach, and once again blue footed boobies displaying in the mangroves at the degraded ash beach on which we landed.

 

  Back on the boat for 30 minutes and then I went off snorkelling at Champion point (Howard feeling unwell). The water was clear and the snorkelling was superb. Lots of fish and, best of all, lots of sea lions who played around us, coming right up to my mask.  Lunch on board, then some of us watched a documentary about a murder mystery in the 1930s when some Germans came to the island in search of Paradise, and didn’t find it. Very strange. At 3 when it was a bit cooler we went to the Post Office on Floreana. This is apparently an old tradition from whaling times but it is kept alive now as a novelty for the tourists.  You look in the barrel and find postcards for your homeland.  You take those with you to deliver/post them when you get home. You then leave your cards for other people to collect later and, hopefully, deliver for you. There were many many cards for the US but only a few for the UK. We only found one, but delivered 6! 

Then we went snorkelling again, off the beach this time, with luckily Howard feeling better.  On the way to the beach we had a bit of a tour round the shore and the rocky outcrops, with marine iguanas feeding off the seaweed in the waves. Aurelio managed to catch his prop badly on a shallow bottom - it didn't sound good.

The snorkelling was in green turtle territory and sure enough we saw lots, all feeding off the algae. Howard managed to see an absolutely whopping specimen, the size of a man someone said! I await photographic proof from the others!  Back to the Montserrat for juice and snacks as always, and then a shower and chill, with some packing for our departure tomorrow. We had a final get together with a briefing for tomorrow and separate info for those of us leaving the boat (Tijs, Peter, Ian, Ruth, Connette, Tee, Brian, Sue and ourselves) versus those staying on (Monica, Tony, Jackie, Tom, Anne, Sue, Mary Lou and Derry). We had a farewell cocktail and toast with the crew, all turned out in whites, and a slide show of photos from the trip. Then we handed over the envelopes with our tips, all of which we thought were well deserved. 

  Anthony, the chef, had pulled out all the stops for our final dinner (a roast turkey dinner) which was superb and our dessert was an 18th birthday cake for Tee who had achieved adult status today.

  Coffee on the top deck and then we retired to our cabin for a last sleep on the boat.    

Galapagos - Day 3

We moved overnight again.  There didn't seem to be as much noise as the previous night but there was a fair bit of sea motion which woke us a couple of times. We were travelling quite a long way south to the island of Española.

Breakfast at 7am as usual and then off by dinghy for a wet landing on a beautifipul beach on Espinola where we saw a colony of sea lions, marine iguanas, lava lizards and Espinola Mocking Birds. It’s all getting rather common place – NOT! Just to see so many of these animals and be able to walk among them freely is amazing.

Jonathan’s “Another day at the office!”

After the walk we went for a swim and were lucky enough to have a group of Eagle Rays swim around us. We have some video taken by Tijs of us in the water with them. I’ll maybe get that loaded here when we get home. 

Pilot whale skeleton                            

 

Eagle Rays in the water - later we got in the water closer to them                          

A very cheeky mocking bird - about a foot away

Back to the boat so that we could move to another area and then a snorkel off the Zodiac. This was a much longer snorkel where we swam rounds cliffs and into a cave, fantastic clear visibility and wonderful sea life including some sea lions which swam around us in the water.  Lunch back on the boat and some chill time before heading to Punta Suarez for a 2 hour hike across the island. That sounds like a long time but it flew by, there was so much to see. We saw sea lions at the beach, marine iguanas, bigger species of lava lizards, Wave Albatrosses on the ground and in the air, Galagapos Doves, Nasca Boobies, Swallowtail gulls, Red billed Tropic birds, Galapagos Hawks, one nesting. The cliff scenery on the other side of the island was also fantastic. Very like the west side of Orkney I must say, although a touch warmer, with a spectacular blow hole as well. Truly an amazing day.

                 

 

                   

A Wave Albatross cooling off - note 3 wing joints

 

Very like west coast Orkney

     

A Nasca Booby and its fluffy offspring

 

Snacks and a beer back at the boat. Juan is such a legend – every time we come back to the boat he has snacks and juices out. And the chefs! How they produce such great food from a tiny kitchen. Anyway a chill then briefing at 6.45pm, dinner at 7pm and another early night

 

Galapagos - Day 2

The anchor was pulled at 4am to move the boat. Since our cabin is close to the bow it was jolly loud! Permission is given each day by the authorities for when we can move. This time we moved from our overnight anchorage to a position much closer to Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido or Sleeping Lion).

Breakfast at 7am and then an 8am departure on Zodiacs for a closeup inspection of the cliffs and a chance to go though a hole in a headland.  

                               

                             

 

Going through was fine but a swell came up before we returned and Aurelio, our boatman, had to judge the sea well to get us through. Then a wet landing (shoes off and off the boat at the stern into shallow water) at a fantastic white sandy beach which we walked along in bare feet. Sea lions and a couple of marine iguanas. We snorkelled in the bay at which we had landed but the visibility wasn't good. I also got the soap from the mask in my eyes which stung really badly. I also didn't like the swell so close to the rocks so we didn't snorkel for long.

Frigate birds over the boat as we moved location

Then back to the boat for a shower, chill and lunch whilst it moved back to Puerta Baquerizo Moreno harbour where we disembarked and took a bus over the top of San Cristobal Island to the Giant Tortoise breeding centre. The change in the weather was interesting - we left sunny weather at the town, drove through low cloud and spots of rain at 600m and then found a cloudy day at the far side if the island. The tortoise breeding programme is an attempt to reinforce the San Cristobal Giant Tortoise population which is an endemic species i.e. only found on this island. We saw both adult and young tortoises.

A mere 60-80 years old, and that isn’t Derry’s age!                 

The young fellas waiiting to get bigger

 We were with Jonathan again and had lots more information about plants and animals as we went round the paths. We saw mocking birds, warblers, Darwin's finch nests, species of sunflower which grows as a tree, incense trees and lots more. 

We got the bus back to town and we had a chance to wander. We only made it as far as a cafe with Tijs, our Netherlander fellow guest, a beer, a view and internet which I used to connect with the girls.

         

The beach in town covered in sea lions

 

We went to the boat by Zodiac for drinks and snacks then a quick chill before our briefing for tomorrow and dinner. The food is very good and everyone mixes at the 4 tables we have. A glass of wine with dinner, a quick look on the sun deck whilst we were still in harbour and then bed.     

Galápagos - Day 1

We were up at 5am, checked our cases with the concierge and then had a quick breakfast in Cafe Colon at the hotel. By 7am we were down in the lobby with our one hold bag and our back packs. 16 of us transferred to the airport then we all had considerable palaver getting Galapagos transit cards ($20 each) and having all our bags scanned for ecological risks before we could check in and get through security. Stephanie from G Adventures smoothed things along. We found a lounge and chilled there until flight time.  The flight dropped down at Guayaquil to refuel with us staying on the plane so the whole journey took a couple of hours. We needed enough fuel from there to get to the Galapagos and back.  We arrived on San Cristabel island at 12.15pm, local time 11.15am. We went through immigration and paid out $100 Galapagos fee each. We were picked up by Oswaldo and Jonathan our two CEOS'S for the trip, actually our guides but G Adventures calls them Chief Experience Officers.

A desperate band!

We drove through Puerto Baquerizo Moreno to the harbour, boarded Zodiacs and were taken to our boat, the Montserrat.

Sea Lions everywhere

 

 

Putting away the stores - heaps of food. 18 passengers, 10 crew, 2 guides

 Our cabin is on the lower deck of the ship towards the bow. It’s quite spacious but only small high up portholes. The cabins on the upper deck, although only twin bedded have much more natural light and a door to the deck (a tip for anyone else that does this trip). After settling in we had a briefing from Oswaldo on the day's activities, had lunch (which was good) and then headed off to Isla Lobo to snorkel off the Zodiacs in crystal clear water. There were a few sea lions swimming with us and we saw turtles and a grouper as well as lots of lovely fish. (We never found an underwater camera so sadly no pictures, just memories!)

Our plan for the afternoon

Then back to the boat for a quick change to walk on Isla Losbos (Sea Lion Island). It was a dry landing so we could keep our shoes on. We saw lots of sea lions, frigate birds, including males with their red chest inflated, blue footed boobies, lava lizards, pelicans, yellow warblers, marine iguanas and some Darwin's finches. Isla Losbos (sea lion island) marine iguana, blue footed boobies, lava lizards, frigate birds, including male with red chest inflated, pelicans, a lava heron, Darwin finches, yellow warbler, turnstones, and sally go lightly crabs, everywhere. We were really impressed with Jonathan's knowledge and passion.

 

The blue footed booby

      

Marine iguana  

Male frigate bird       

Female frigate bird      

Back to the boat for drinks and snacks, a shower,  sundowner beers (at a very reasonable $4) on the upper deck, a briefing about the next day's activities (including meeting the captain crew) and then dinner which was again good food.

We chilled on the upper deck under the stars and then headed to an early bed.