Quito and the Galapagos Islands!

I am currently typing this on the Vistadome Train from Cusco to Machu Picchu. What a beautiful ride (and my dad is asleep in the seat next to me)!! A LOT has been going on, so I haven't had time to update my blog, but that means I'm also WAY behind. Gahh!

So, Sunday (10/7) I went back to Quito. I made it to my hostel pretty easily. I was on the 3rd floor, and I had a fantastic view of the virgin on El Panecillo, and a view of The Basilica out the kitchen and lounge windows. Amazing! I unpacked everything onto my bed in the hopes of repacking and getting more organized, but instead I got tired and pushed everything onto my floor. Oh well.

Monday I woke up pretty early (8ish?) but kept napping and sitting in bed, unable to convince myself to get up. I finally rolled out around noon expecting to just walk over to The Basilica, but I ended up going to a lot of Old Town. First of all, The Basilica is huge, it has a ton of stained glass art, and there is so much detail in just about every aspect of it. I paid a couple dollars to climb to the top of the north tower, and I think I came very close to dying on the stairs. Sure, I had been hiking 1.5 hours at altitude about 4 days a week for 5 weeks, but stairs are a completely different thing. After a few flights I stripped off my jacket and was just standing in the stairwell trying to catch my breath and hoping my heart didn't jump out of my chest. Crazy. After that I wandered into Old Town and grabbed lunch at some little restaurant. The only table that was free up front had seats for 5, and a few minutes after sitting down, a middle-aged man and his father-in-law came in, and the father-in-law insisted on sitting with me because I looked like I needed company. Turns out they have family living in California, but they didn't speak English. It was a lovely lunch, and I got to practice my Spanish. They also told me how to be safe in Old Town. The rest of the afternoon I wandered around Old Town, and then I headed back to my hostel just as it started sprinkling.

Tuesday was an extremely lazy day for me -- I packed up my things, walked a block and a half to get to my next hostel, then sat there the whole rest of the day reading and checking email. I did go out to meet Sarah, the condor project coordinator, for dinner in New Town. That was the scariest taxi ride ever - the driver got a call involving his grandmother and money, and he spent the rest of the ride holding the phone in one hand, gesturing with the other, and yelling. And most taxis don't have seatbelts. Also, my dad was flying in from the US that day, and he got to the hostel just after midnight.

My illegal picture of La Compania.

Wednesday we wanted to take it easy (to help my dad adjust to the altitude), so I kind of had a repeat of my day in Old Town. We started at The Basilica and climbed to the top of the north tower, and while we were there we noticed some people in one of the clock towers! We wandered around trying to find how they got up there and discovered a little cafe on the floor just above the gift shop (where they sold hand-embroidered clothing from Zuleta!!). We got tamales and juice (while looking across Quito to the virgin on the hill), and then climbed the clock tower. After that we went to La Compania, which is a church made with something like 7 tons of gold. Apparently you're not supposed to take pictures in there, because after taking one a woman ran over and told me no pictures. Well, let me just say there was a LOT of gold in there! It was really incredible to see in person. After that we crossed the street to Museo del Banco Central, where they trace the changes in Ecuadorian currency from before European contact. After that we grabbed an early dinner which was super delicious. While we were there it started pouring, and it was funny to see how quickly the street vendors covered their stands and hit the streets selling umbrellas. After that we waded home.

Thursday we had planned to go to Quito Zoo (their condor egg hatched earlier in the week -- new baby girl condor!!) and Mitad del Mundo (the equator). We took a few buses and ended up at Mitad del Mundo, which is where French explorers determined the equator to be in the 1700s. That place has a big monument, lots of shops, restaurants, and crowds. However, the real equator is actually located something like 250 meters away, so we went to that one as well (located at the Intinan Museum). We were really glad we went to that second location because we got a private guide to teach us about the ancient tribes and the different tools/mechanisms they used for keeping time, and to show us some (hokey) demonstrations, such as water going down the drain in different directions on each side of the equator, and balancing an egg on the head of a nail. We had a lot of fun there. After that we decided to skip the zoo and just make our way back home.

Instrument to show which hemisphere the sun is in.

Friday was the real start of our adventures - we got picked up at 5:45am to go to the airport for our flight to the Galapagos Islands!! We flew into Balta Island and landed on their one runway. After customs and whatnot we met Enrique, who was our guide on the yacht. He had to wait for another couple, so the captain took us via bus to his yacht. We met the other passengers (7 others, plus 2 more coming), and dropped stuff off in our cabin (which was the smallest room I've ever seen for two people... a South Dorm single would have been a palace. Seriously, if one of us wanted to pass the other to use the bathroom or leave the room, the other had to sit down on the bottom bunk.). We ate lunch on the boat (which was really good - all of the meals were!), and then set sail for Bartholomew Island where some of us went snorkeling (I cannot belive I didn't even think to bring my contacts or an underwater camera for this)! We saw so many types of fish of all sizes, and there were so many of them! There were also manta rays and the biggest star fish I've ever seen (bigger than my face). Apparently there was also a white-tipped reef shark that swam under me at one point (I didn't see it). After rinsing off on the boat, we all went back to the island to hike to the top and look out at the iconic Pinnacle Rock. Enrique was just FILLED with knowledge! He pointed out wildlife (like the Galapagos penguins), taught us how the islands formed (and showed us the lava flows), went slow enough for the older couples, but was still engagings and active enough for the younger people. He even took really great pictures of people with scenery (some people are incapable of doing that). He has been, without a doubt, the best guide we've had by far. That night I think I was still not used to the boat (and our small cabin), because I got sick, and then went to sleep up on the lounge chairs on deck (where I got sick twice more). Oh well.

Lava tunnel!

Pinnacle Rock is on the right -- we went snorkeling around it!

Saturday morning we explored Genovesa Island, starting with a wet landing (we hopped out of our panga boat into a few feet of water) at Darwin Bay. Enrique gave us (another) excellent tour, and we saw sea lions, pelicans, red-footed boobies, frigates, lava gulls, night herons, crabs, and other crazy creatures. We also went snorkeling here and saw more amazing fish, but I think the site we were at on Friday was better. After rinsing off on the boat, some people went to do more snorkeling, but my dad and I went on a panga boat tour of the island, where one of the crew members took us around and pointed out interested things on shore, like sea lions, bird nests, crabs, etc. We also saw some sea turtles surface briefly a couple times, and on our way back to the yacht we saw two frigate birds attacking another bird. Frigates are lazy jerks and don't like finding their own food, so they look for birds who have eaten recently, grab them, and shake them until they throw up, and then the frigates take their food. The poor bird they attacked a few times managed to fly away eventually (but was probably hurt). It was a crazy sight (and I have a video!). That afternoon we had a dry landing (hopped out of the panga onto land) on another part of the island called El Barranco, where we climbed Prince Philip's Steps to the flat top of the island. There were a ton of masked boobies here, as well as others, and we caught a glimpse of an owl. Enrique also pointed out the different lava formations and features.

Frigate birds pecked a hole in this bird's neck to get the food out. Needless to say it is dead.

Red-footed booby!

Masked booby!

Dinner time!

That night was crazy - we were sailing to another island and there were REALLY rough waters. We started sailing during dinner, and after the night before I didn't feel up to dinner inside, so Enrique brought me toast and cheese on the deck, and another crew member brought me ice cream cake! Then I opted to sleep up there in a little nest that I made - I took the cushion from a lounge chair and propped it up against some oxygen tanks, next to the side of the ship, with my feet by a trash can. That was really nice because I got fresh air, and I could rest my head in my arm, which was on the railing, so I was completely moving with the ship and not being knocked around (I highly recommend this tactic). One of the older passengers came by and said she was "essentially a pharmacist" (drug dealer??) and offered me some anti-nausea medicine that they give to cancer patients during chemo. A younger passenger also gave me some ginger tablets that apparently help settle your stomach. Well, that night it turns out that I was fine! Unfortunately, most other people on the boat were not. The deck turned into some kind of sick bay, with people heading up when they couldn't handle their rooms anymore. A crewmember was handing out barf bags like candy. It wasn't pleasant (especially since they came into my haven and made me listen to them get sick). But I was fine!

Sunday I woke up to the beautiful island of South Plazas (I really liked waking up outside and seeing the things around me. Seriously - next Carnival Cruise you take, sleep on the deck (haha, good luck with that)). This was probably one of my favorite islands (in part because after the night before we all just wanted to be on land, but mostly because of how beautiful the scenery and wildlife were). The island was covered in some kind of flowering plant that was almost like a succulent, but it changes colors during the year. We saw that it was mostly red, but there were still some patches of green here and there (and on the underside). There were also colonies of sea lions (bachelor colonies of unlucky males), and baby sea lions, too! We even saw a couple climb up the side of a cliff from the ocean -- incredible watching them maneuver with flippers. The island was also home to Opuntia cacti and a bunch of land iguanas. The male iguanas are yellowish-orange, and the females are dark and blend in well with the rocks (I almost stepped on them a couple of times). At the top of the cliff we looked over the other side and were able to see manta rays in the ocean, and the wind up there was ridiculous. It started sprinkling a little bit, but not for long. We slowly made our way back, enjoying the sea lions and the views as we went.

How many iguanas do you spot?

Then we sailed to Santa Fe Island where we saw the biggest Opunia cacti I've ever seen -- they had trunks! We also saw some hawks and a lot of iguanas. At one point we saw a male eating yellow flowers that had fallen from a tree, and then he ran and chased another nearby male away (dang those things can move fast!). Enrique said he was just trying to protect his flowers, which I thought sounded absolutely hilarious. Later on the walk we also saw two lizards in some kind of battle - they were keeping their distance but maintaining eye contact, and then periodically lunging at the other. Enrique said that when food is scarce, they find other lizards to fight, because when something grabs their tail they lose it, so the lizards try to eat other lizard tails. On this island our trail started on one beach and ended on another, and both beaches were absolutely covered in sea lions. They were everywhere! At one point there was a male in the water who didn't like the way a guy on land was looking at him or something, because he made his way over and ended up chasing the other guy around the beach. It was really cool to watch. Then went back to the boat and got our snorkel gear on for our last (and probably best) snorkeling adventure. We jumped out of the panga a ways away from the beach near where the reefs were. There were a bunch of fish there that we followed for a while, and then all of a sudden two sea lions came out of nowhere!! They were really friendly and curious, so they swam right up to us and were swimming around for quite a while (WHY DIDN'T I HAVE A WATERPROOF CAMERA?!?). They were scared off by when the panga motor started, but they came by a bit later. We also saw 4 or so giant sea tortoises! They were... giant!! And they seemed to exert no effort but were able to move quite far. We swam with them for a while before finally going back to the boat. What a great last snorkeling day! That evening we sailed to Santa Cruz Island, and some of us spent an hour in town shopping and just enjoying land. I spent that night on the deck again because I had grown to like it up there (and couldn't stand our small room).

This guy loves his flowers.

Monday we were all up bright and early to leave the ship and get some last-minute land tours in. I really wanted to go to the Charles Darwin Research Center, so my dad's travel agent arranged a private tour for us while everyone else went with Enrique to the highlands. We said goodbye to everyone that morning, and then went to the Center. Unfortunately our tour guide was complete crap - he was texting most of the time and even made some phone calls, and the extent of his guiding was to read the signs that were in front of us. Not great. But I saw lots of tortoises! I'm glad that I went, because I would've regretted it if I hadn't, but it's too bad that we missed out on one last tour by Enrique, who we knew was an amazing guide. Oh well. After that we crossed Santa Cruz Island and took a ferry across to Baltra Island so we could catch our plane to Lima, and that was about it for the day.

I think I'll stop here for now. The next update should cover our Incan stops - Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu! Spoiler alert: Machu Picchu is AMAZING.