Just a note: Ecuador uses USD as currency, so all dollar amounts are in American dollars.
Day 18 – Travel day to Quito
Didn’t wake up till 8am today, cut it a bit close with meeting the 9.20am transfer to the airport! Missed breakfast which was annoying. Ended up buying pizza from Papa John’s at the airport (but I admit it was good). Exit tax from Peru was US$31. There’s a bunch of decent shops after passport control. I bought a nice set of salt and pepper shakers (US$13) and a shaman statue (ceramic, US$30). I never found vases I liked, so maybe I’ll have more luck with that in Ecuador. The flight to Quito was ok. Only just over 2 hours. But pissed about the baggage handlers at Quito airport though. They just chucked all our bags on the ground haphazardly. Luck I had nothing breakable in there. But at least I know for when I come back from the Galapagos. The tour rep met me at the airport for the hotel transfer. He was funny. Gave me a quick rundown on the Galapagos boat trip and Quito. Got to the hotel and am sharing a room with one of the girls from the Peru tour! Small world! Went out and bought an underwater disposable camera ($12) for tomorrow and some drinks so I stay hydrated for the rest of the day. It’s CHEAP! I paid less than $1.50 for a bottle of water AND a bottle of Gatorade! Had a meeting with the tour company rep at 5.30. Everyone on our boat is from Australia and it’s all a young bunch. Blah, just hope they aren’t ALL pissheads! Funny though, one guy said “I know you!” and I was confused. Turns out he’s the guy at the travel agent who booked my Beijing trip late last year! It’s a very very small world! Anyway, going for pizza. Early flight, 7.30am transfer to airport.
Day 19 – Galapagos!!!
So we ended up going for authentic Mexican last night instead of pizza (under $8 for a huge main – and it was good!). Woke at about 6.30am to finish packing and got the transfer at 7.30 for our 9.40am flight. The flight was with TAME and was boring as we had a stopover in Guayaquil on the way. So we arrived at around 11.30am (1 hour time difference from the mainland). The boat (MV Darwin) is nice. The cabins are bit small, but that’s to be expected I guess. First thing we did was eat lunch. Very good chef! Then we chugged off to Santa Cruz Island (Las Bachas) for a short island walk. Lucky me, my DSLR decided to crap itself. Brilliant timing. For some reason all the shots have a dark spot right in dead centre. There’s nothing in the lens or the body and it doesn’t show up when I frame the shot. Only after I take the shot and look at it in preview. No idea. Anyway, saw sea lions, flamingos, a stingray (I named him Steve Irwin), lots of crabs (I named them all Dinner). Then went for a snorkel (hired fins/mask/snorkel from the boat – $10 for 4 days). I SAW A TURTLE! Lots of fishies, very colourful. But the turtle capped it off. I had a little disposable underwater camera, so dunno if the pics of it will turn out. Then back to the boat to moor for the night. Didn’t get seasick (yet) so the drugs must be doing their jobs. Dinner was good too. Drinks on board are a bit exxy ($1.50 for a coke), but at least water is free. 7am start tomorrow, so an early night!
For the record – I took my DSLR into the shop when I got back to Australia. There’s a problem with the sensor, so they’re going to fix it. The guy at the shop said I should be able to fix all the photos by using the “clone” tool in Photoshop. Will have a go at it next weekend when I’ve got some time to stuff around.
Day 20 – Galapagos (South Plaza Island and Santa Fe Island)
Up at 6.30 for breakfast at 7. Breakfast on board was simple, but good (cereals, yoghurt, fruit, juice, bread, cheese – basically a standard continental breakfast). 7.30am we went off to have a walk around South Plaza Island (the boat left mooring at 5am to cruise there). It had the most cutest Galapagos Sea Lions! Wanted to smuggle one home in my bag so much! There were also heaps of Galapagos land iguanas and a few of the Galapagos marine iguanas. Wandered around there for a couple of hours. Took heaps of photos. I took a very small sample of basalt with me. Dunno if I’ll get it out of the country or not though. We’ll see. Least it wasn’t a fossil, I left those alone. Then back to the boat for the 3 hour cruise to Santa Fe Island. Didn’t feel 100%, but at least I didn’t puke. Stayed below deck on the inside lounge and slept. Arrived at Santa Fe in time for lunch. Then it was time for snorkelling. There’s this small atoll/island that we went snorkelling around. Sea lions, turtles, rays of various descriptions, sharkies (white tipped reefers) and lots and lots of pretty fish (I found Nemo!). Was absolutely amazing. Then later in the afternoon we went for a walk on Santa Fe Island. So many sea lions!!! The baby ones are adorable. Also saw the Santa Fe land iguanas. Then in the dinghy on the way back to the boat we saw some spotted eagle rays in the water. So pretty! Such an amazing day! The boat sets off at midnight for the 6 hour trip to Espanola Island. Hope I feel ok. Gonna drug myself up before I go to bed.
Day 21 – Galapagos (Espanola Island)
I survived the overnight trip without too much pain. I didn’t puke, but I really didn’t feel well either (despite having taken my drugs). Oh well. 7am start today. The dinghy took us to Espanola Island. Went for a walk along the beach and saw several species of “Darwin finch” as well as more sea lions (still cute) and some marine iguanas (they were swimming!). Then we went snorkelling for a bit. 2 of us really wanted to see sharks, so we swam out to this rocky atoll a couple of hundred meters offshore. We probably weren’t meant to, but we saw 3 white tipped reef sharks, so it was worth it! They were being lazy and hiding, but they were still pretty. Then back to the boat to venture off to Gardner Islet for more snorkelling. Got to see some sea stars and more fish and swim with the sea lions. Even did a bit of cave diving. Saw a turtle inside one of the caves. Then back to the boat again for lunch and a 1 hour boat ride to Punto Suarez. Had a short siesta till 2.30 and then we went ashore for a wander around the island. Saw more sea lions, blue footed boobies (must buy a boobies shirt for my brother), nazca boobies, lots of iguanas/lizards, waved albatross, a really big blowhole on the rocky coast of the island…Lots of cool stuff! Then back to the boat again.
Day 22 – Galapagos (Floreana Island)
Had another overnight cruise to Floreana Island this time. Felt like crap and didn’t get much sleep. At 7.30 we took the dinghy to Post Office Bay. Went through the mail to see if there was anything there I could hand deliver, but no such luck. Left a postcard there in case someone else passes through near my place in the future. A short walk on and we reached the lava tubes. Went for a walk through one of them. Was dark (what a shocker!). Then went back to the boat for the short trip to the Devil’s Crown. From there we went ashore to the green beach (it has lotf of olivine in the sand – hence the green). I was sifting through the sand to pick out some olivine to take home and got stung on my arm by a bloody wasp. Didn’t even see the fucker! All I had was this “Ow! Fuck! That hurts!” moment. Karma maybe? Anyway, from there we went walking to the flamingo lagoon which was cool, but they were all too far away to get any good photos (even with my tele lens). Wandered around a bit more then went back to the boat to snorkel Devil’s Crown. Our guide said we might see hammerheads here, but no such luck (the fact we didn’t see any on the entire cruise was the only disappointing thing about the entire trip). Saw a bunch of reef sharks though. Spent a couple of hours in the water there before getting back on the boat for the 5 hour trip to Puerto Ayora. I got a bit sick on that trip but it wasn’t too bad. Slept most of it off. We arrived around 6 and got our briefing for tomorrow cos half of us are flying home (sadness). We get to go to the Charles Darwin Research Station in the morning before our flight though. Anyway, after dinner we ventured into town. Got to check my emails (lots of work stuff) for $2.50 an hour. Then ventured down to the markets. Not much open but I bought a polo shirt ($7), stuffed turtle plushie ($5) and a nice wooden turtle carving ($20). Plan to buy more at the research centre in the morning. Ventured back to the boat by water taxi at about 10.30pm ($1 per person) to finish packing. These carvings/statues are a major hassle to pack, so they’re coming with me as hand luggage. Annoying, but such is life. Bedtime now. 6.30am wakeup!
Day 23 – Galapagos (Santa Cruz Island – Quito)
I’m an idiot. Seriously. I set the alarm on my phone for 6am so that I could pack. Only I forgot to change the bloody timezone from mainland time to Galapagos time, so it actually went off at 5! Anyway, after that stupidity, I got up, packed, had breakfast, wrote my comments in the boat’s guest book (the captain watches you write it, so you can’t say anything bad) and sorted out a tip. To be honest, I tipped way more than I thought they deserved. The naturalist guide was average in every way (gave him $20 each) and the crew did nothing out of the ordinary (we chucked in $50 each which they will split between them – there’s 6 of them and 14 of us – that’s over $100 each). I reckon they deserved about half that, but that’s how much we were “told” to tip. Rip-off. Anyway, we took the dinghy to Puerto Ayora (our bags were taken to the bus station for us to pick up later) and we got taxis (rofl@ white Hilux taxis) to the Charles Darwin Research Station. A guide took us around there for 90 minutes or so. Saw baby turtles/tortoises, Lonesome George, other giant tortoises and the shop. Lonesome George is interesting. He’s apparently the last of his breed, so it’s technically classified as extinct because he has no female of his own breed to mate with. According to our guide though (she was a cynic if ever I’ve met one!), they really just keep him on display as a money making scheme “see him, he’s the last of his kind. Give us money and maybe we can change that!“. Which is crap, because even if they do get him to mate, any offspring would be cross-breeds. Guess most people don’t think about the actual science stuff like that. So then we went to the shop – expensive! But the proceeds to towards conservation of the islands, so I’ll do my bit. Bought a t-shirt ($10) and a book on the Galapagos ($38!). Then we got taxis to the bus station where we picked up our bags and got the bus to the other side of the island (~1 hour), the 5 minute boat ride to Baltra Island and the 10 minute drive to the airport (in the back of some random guy’s pickup truck!). Check-in was quick and easy. There’s a few market stalls outside, I bought a wood hammer head for $25 (exxy, but I wanted it). Just hope quarantine back in Australia aren’t complete asses about all the wood I bought. Didn’t have an issue with the statues from Bali or Thailand in the past though, so we’ll see. Sitting on the plane to Quito right now (stopover in Guayaquil). Will write more during my layover in Quito airport. Arrive at 4.30 and don’t fly out till 9.20.
The Galapagos was awesome. Much more awesome than I had anticipated. I’d never really given visiting the islands much of a thought. It was sort of “oh well, I’m going to Peru so I may as well go to the Galapagos while I’m there” type thing. But I am so so glad I went. It was amazing. One of the most amazing experiences of my life. And I would absolutely love to return at some point in the future (when I’ve got the money – it IS expensive to get there and travel there). Anybody who has any kind of interest in evolution/biology/nature in general should really go. It’s spectacular. Amazing. Words really can’t describe it. Just go!
Great, I’m in Quito and I feel like crap. Literally. And have the bloody migraine from hell. Joy. Checked in 5 hours early and spent the first 2 hours pretty much stuck with my head over a toilet. Got some food at the cafe ($10 for a sandwich and coke) and bought a pair or silver earrings with turtles on them ($18). Then found a seat to crash on for a while. Around 7.30 I ventured to my gate…I think my odd travel destinations just caught up with me. I was selected for a full body and baggage search by security. FUN! Not. Thankfully not a cavity search, just a full frisk search. Then they basically tore everything out of my nicely packed bag and the asswipe security took a swiss army knife to it! Right in front of me! I couldn’t assess the damage, but if it’s bad I will have a tantrum. It’s an expensive backpack!!! Shock of all horrors, they didn’t find any drugs. I’m a Dr (and my boarding pass says so!), do they think I’m that stupid? Aarrggghhh! What a fucked up afternoon. This just gets better and better. 10 minutes before boarding “the plane has a mechanical problem, flight will be delayed 30 minutes“. 30 minutes later “flight still has a mehcanical problem but we’re going to fly you to Guayaquil anyway and change planes there“. Good to see the exceptional safety standards at work on LAN. Just hope I don’t miss my connecting flight with all these delays!
For the record – the security guy didn’t wreck my bag too badly. He did however end up breaking my ceramic shaman statue I bought in Peru! Even though it was wrapped up in bubble wrap. I hate him.
And thus ends my awesome-tastic South American adventure. I had another stopover on the way home. Had to see family and friends. And go shopping. But I’m sure you don’t need to read about me buying shoes and handbags 
