It was a rough night of sleep last night. 2 things kept waking us up: the noise of the airco, which was necessary, and the tininess of the sheet that covered us. We weren’t cold, but neither of us sleep well with no covering. Every time one of us moved, even slightly, the other would lose the sheet, and be woken up. I asked for another sheet at breakfast, which Judy agreed would be possible, but it hasn’t arrived, and I’m writing this from a bar at 22:00.

Actually, on that note, we probably shouldn’t be out. We have an early morning tomorrow, starting with 07:00 breakfast and taxi to the bus station to catch the 07:30 bus. More on that tomorrow. Back to today!

We woke up at 08:00, and made our way to breakfast shortly after, when we also notified Judy that we’d like to stay tonight as well. Then we put on our swimming suits, sunscreen, and hats, and headed out to rent snorkeling equipment for the day.

Our first snorkeling destination was Las Grietas, part of a volcanic crevice that actually extends quite a way underground. Las Grietas itself was a deep chasm between the rocks, mixed fresh and salt water. It was so cold getting in! There were some fish there, and lots of mossy algae-like stuff all over the rocks, but mostly it was a little reminiscent of the crevice in Iceland, where you can see very far below in a narrow gap. This was nowhere near so deep, but it was very clear until a certain point where it became obscured by silty darkness.

I remember in Iceland, our guide told us that people who are afraid of heights have a difficult time snorkeling or diving in the crevice, because the depth is so extreme and clear to see. I was more freaked out today by those obscured depths, and by the confines of the tall walls surrounding the water. I swam the length out and back, and while Matt did it a bit longer, I climbed out and sat on the rocks to watch. I couldn’t get to open water soon enough.

A local man arrived, swam a few laps of the crevice, then climbed up the walls in the middle to jump into the deepest area. I’d have happily jumped the same if I hadn’t already imagined myself into a state about those depths. I didn’t want anywhere near them.

When I was a little girl, I learned about hammerhead sharks, among others. In my imaginative dreams, or nightmares, they inhabited the lake in the park where we frequently went to swim and picnic, Millersylvania State Park. I was terrified, in my waking life, of swimming there for a long time. I remember clinging to the ropes marking the swimming area, hoping that they would obscure my presence somehow.

Here I am in the Galapagos Islands, hoping to see sharks, even hammerheads, while snorkeling in the ocean, where its indeed possible, but afraid of an inland crevice in which my imagination takes free reins.

After Las Grietas, we took the path back to the Angermeyer Point area, to return to town via water taxi. It’s an interesting walk, past an almost private beach by the Finch Bay Eco-Resort and salt marsh. On the beach, a rope marked an area forbidden to humans in favor of its current use as a marine iguana nesting grounds. We watched some very busy digging, as an iguana dug its nest in the sand, which few behind it.

Once leaving the water taxi, we hopped into a taxi-pickup and went to the beach by the Darwin Station. It’s a very small beach, with only a tiny patch of sand that actually accesses the water, surrounded by rocky outcroppings. We planted our things on a makeshift bench under the bushes at the back of the beach, added some sunscreen, and made for the water.

It was beautiful. We didn’t see anything phenomenal, but there were lots of interesting fish doing their thing along the rocks. It was clear enough within a few meters, nothing so clear as it had been during our first snorkel excursion on the Santa Cruz. I loved the surf, which nearly dashed us, as well as our fishy swim partners, into the rocks a few times. We stayed out for longer than we probably should have, since I can clearly feel fresh sunburns on the backs of my thighs. Again.

Eventually, we got up from our shady place and re-entered the humid heat. We walked back into town, where we had a quick unremarkable lunch, then went back to our hotel for a siesta. We didn’t leave again until 16:30 or 17:00, when we also climbed to the top terrace to see the view. Gorgeous. To the left we could see the Darwin Station and beach, to the right the port.

We’d seen a really cool-looking new bar-cafe, Buganvilla, at the bottom of our hill. It was decorated entirely with recycled and repurposed materials, and they were opening today, so we went there and had coffee drinks with cana liqueur. Yum. Check out the glasses… they are made from beer bottles, very cleverly done.

With a light buzz on, we went souvenir shopping, which is really the best way to enjoy souvenir shopping. We were successful, and also returned the snorkeling gear. After, we debated dinner. I had seen the Angermeyer Point Restaurant when we took the water taxi, and thought it’d be nice to enjoy its waterfront tables on our last night in the Galapagos. Matt took a little convincing, but agreed once we were there that the ambience and breeze on the water were worth it. Beer may have helped.

But seriously, look what I ate. Freshly caught fish with a sauce made up of other seafood. It melted in my mouth. Yum yum yum!!

After dinner we sorted a couple of necessities then hung out in an ice cream bar with ice cream cocktails until we were ready for bed. A fine last night!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Av. Charles Darwin,Puerto Ayora,Galapagos,Ecuador

I got involved in my book last night, and in my itch. I’d been noticing a growing rash on my left thigh and on my chest, and these were really bugging me last night. Around 02:00, at the end of my book, I realized what it was. My body had been in the same sheets for several days, and I had rashes on the areas that came in contact with the bottom sheet. I was probably allergic to whatever detergent they used. So I slept on my other side and on my back, and the itch was a little less. Then I slept.

However, waking up at 07:00 again was torture.

It felt like a last morning. Everyone was subdued and the idea of leaving the comforts of the Santa Cruz seemed an insurmountable difficulty. We’d have to locate our own food and transportation! No one would be caring that my black coffee was already waiting for me when I returned from the breakfast buffet to my table! I will miss Ramiro, my usual waiter, who chased other waiters away when they tried to hand me the normal meals. He’d come running with my special pimiento-free meals. Always a smile and always my coffee before I could ask. Really nice.

So we had that last breakfast, vacated our rooms, and gathered in the salon bar for a slide show of photos and videos of ourselves this week. After the show, some of us went up to the top of the ship to enjoy the last views from the ship. By the way, here’s the route our ship has taken these 5 days.

And then it was time to climb into the pangas for shore on Baltras Island, where the airport is. We sped to a dry dock, clambered onto a bus which took us to the airport, then grabbed our luggage, climbed back onto the bus, and left our fellow travelers and guides behind.

The bus took us to the canal crossing for Santa Cruz Island, which was short and easy, then we were approached by many taxi drivers. However, since the bus would cost us a dollar, and a taxi $18, we preferred to wait for the bus. This irritated the taxi drivers, who tried to explain to us how much better they were. In the end, a police captain on his way back to town offered us a lift for free. His name was Alex Ramirez, and he’s from Esmeraldas province, near the beginning of his one year term of working in Galapagos. He was very nice and explained many things to us along the way.

Since he’s new to the island, himself, he had no idea where to find our hotel. Streets may have names, but they don’t have signs, so that didn’t help. Eventually, even Alex got frustrated. At that time, however, the next person he asked pointed to a building just behind us. We had arrived!

Prices at Casa de Judy were more than double what we expected from the guidebook. When we looked aghast, she gave us a small discount, but even so it was pricey. We accepted for one night and thought we’d find something else. In the end we didn’t, so will stay there both nights. Our room is 102a, just behind the staircase beside the pool.

We went into our room and, exhausted, fell fully clothed onto the bed. It was only about 11:00. We slept until about 14:30.

Eventually we woke, sweaty and still tired. We hadn’t turned on the airco before we slept. We showered, applied sunscreen, and headed off to see the breeding grounds for giant tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Center, just downhill from our hotel. Matt will be submitting this monument as a potential Ingress portal.

It was hot. Really hot. We were dripping sweat in seconds. But even so, the information at the center was really interesting. There were displays about the Galapagos ecosystem, and there were the breeding grounds themselves.

We saw baby tortoises of varying ages, in pens with signs noting what island they came from and when they were born.

In another larger pen, they were learning skills like climbing. There seemed to be several ages mixed in this one.

Apparently, the adult tortoises weren’t bothered by the heat. This fellow was pretty persistent, while his girlfriend occasionally wandered off snacking. He’d just clamber back on.

And here’s the actual research station, although we didn’t go inside. I’d read in the guidebook that tourists are requested to not go in and bother the scientists. A peek inside revealed offices, no visitor information.

There were also a few pens with land iguanas, but we’ve seen more of them in the wild, where they’re far more interesting.

We were almost the only people there, and the heat was intense. We walked out to the road and hailed a taxi, a 4-wheel drive extended cab truck, to take us the very short way back to the pier in town, just to be out of the heat for a few minutes.

We ended up backtracking most of that anyway, looking for souvenirs and then lunch, but we still felt better. We watched boats from a little pier where the fish market is, and a few small rays then a giant manta ray went by. This guy was over a meter across! And he swam right below me!

Since we had lunch at 17:00 or so, it was also kind of dinner. After eating, we did more of the same, had cocktails at a bar, then picked up our clean laundry and returned to the hotel. And a swim! Then we showered and slept. Again! Did I mention we are exhausted?

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Puerta Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador

I can’t believe it’s almost over, this Galapagos tour. We have decided that, although we would love to stay aboard another 4 days and see the northern islands, we would also like to visit northern Ecuador. It was a difficult decision. On the other hand, we are looking forward to having our own schedule again, maybe not waking up quite so early.

Today we visited Espanola island, which is a great flat island, covered with large rocks, coarse cool white sandy beaches, shrubs, and lots of wildlife. The only thing we thought we might see but didn’t was a constrictor. A Galapagos constrictor, naturally.

Packed tight into the pangas, we arrived at a dry landing for our hike around the island.

However, once we landed, we saw that our way was blocked by sea lions sunning themselves, so we carefully picked our way around the rocks off the path, avoiding stepping on sea lions, crabs, marine iguanas, and lava lizards.

Both the iguanas and lizards were different here than on other islands. The iguanas were red and green-blue. Pretty cute.

The female lizards had red heads. Matt renamed them “tourist lizards,” explaining that they hadn’t used enough sunscreen and had gotten a burn. The male lava lizards were much larger than the females, and had coarser scales with red highlights.

Sea lions were everywhere. Each colony had a beach master who patrolled the beach, guarding the little ones from sharks and other predators while the mothers were out hunting fish. Unfortunately, this little one had been attacked by a shark anyway. We watched him scurry up the shore, calling out and flapping his flippers at the wound. Lorenzo, our guide, said that since his wounds were pretty superficial, he would no doubt survive just fine.

Boobies were everywhere. Go boobies! There are 3 types of boobies, the blue-footed, the red-footed, and the Nasca (sp?) boobies.

The Nasca boobies used to be called the masked boobies, but now they’re named after this landmass… I need to double-check my facts here.

We even saw a pair of hawks.

And, floating in the water past the blowhole, an albatross. Even with my big zoom, that’s the best I could do with it. At least they’re huge, so you can see it at all.

I think iguanas look like they have a great sense of humor. Kind of wise and amused.

And so certain that they are beautiful. Even if sometimes they remind me just a little of Gremlins, after they’ve been fed after midnight. No more friendly mogwai!

Here is a finch. This one is a warbler finch, and is one of many finch varieties on the islands, each adapted specifically for its ecological niche.

Enough nature and education! After lunch it was time to jump overboard! Matt and I each did it twice.

Finally, we went to another beach. This time we communed with the sea lions instead of keeping our distance.

I decided this one had the right idea. Some people were doing quite attractive poses with them, but I thought it was more fun to try out her position.

Sadly, snorkeling was a disappointment today. We took the panga out to the rocks across from the swimming beach, but the water was very active, we couldn’t see anything, and Roger needed to be rescued. He was drinking a lot of the sea! Fortunately, Suzanne saw his struggle and the panga went to get him.

We looked for a better place, but eventually gave up and just went playing in the surf. The sea lions thought we looked like good playmates, and 2 or 3 of them kept swimming through us.

I let the surf wash me to shore, then tumble me around over and over. It was really really fun, but then I had sand in everything. I hope I don’t get stopped at the airport for trying to export sand in my hair!

Everyone was really ready for our last dinner tonight, and we all drank a little too much, hanging around on deck until one by one, we sought our beds.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Galapagos, Ecuador

As always, these days start early. We were dropped off on Santa Cruz at about 08:30, where we hopped in a bus for a drive into the highlands. There, we would have a chance to see giant tortoises in the wild.

It was muddy up there, very different from other islands we’d been on, so we were issued rubber boots to walk in. Now I understood why they’d recommended that we bring socks, which I hadn’t!

We took a short walk through the forest with our guide, who explained about these tortoises and the ones in the breeding center, as well as pointing out the various birds along our route.

Giant tortoises look, if they’re not moving, a lot like boulders. We almost ran right into this lady while she was snacking. It’s hard for me to tell the difference between the males and females. Males are larger and have concave lower shelves, for mating with the females.

We also had a chance to try on a male shell while learning interesting things about tortoises. Lifting them is more awkward than anything else, since our joints don’t bend at the correct places.

We watched this guy swim across a pond. In the first 2 pictures I took, his head was submerged, which made him look very much like the turtle island/ wise one from the Neverending Story.

The black shininess of the shell is due to a covering like our fingernails, which falls off when they die. That is why the shell we tried on was white. It was only bone.

After seeing some tortoises, we took a very short walk into a lava tube. Lava tubes are pretty similar everywhere, and we’ve been in lava tubes near Mt. St. Helen and on Iceland. We were only able to walk about 100-200 meters into this one due to a pond. It was much taller than other tubes I’ve been in.

And then it was lunch. After lunch, we rested in hammocks and chatted or napped. Some people played soccer. Obviously, we were not among the lunatics!

Eventually it was time for a short downhill bike ride to the beach, which was fun but almost uneventful. One of the little girls crashed and burned on one of the steeper slopes.

Leaving the bikes at the entrance to the beach, we continued on foot.

It was a lovely beach, and nice cooling off in the water. We swam and kayaked. Matt and I were almost the last people back from kayaking, except for Wayne and the Peruvian guy, who had been chasing sharks in solo kayaks out towards open water last we’d seen them.

Just before leaving, we saw a pink flamingo. Flamingoes, it turns out, do not start out pink. Their diet means they consume a lot of carotene, which colors them pink over time! I didn’t know!

Wayne joined us just in time for the bus back to the panga back to the boat. I had a good look at the pier there, at Puerta Ayora, since that’s where we’ll be for the 2 days after our cruise finishes.

Before dinner we had a next-day briefing with our guides. At dinner, our dining companions from the Frigates group (we are Boobies) told us that they’d heard that we could extend our cruise 4 more days. The extension would take us to the northern islands and therefore we’d see penguins! Because they are trying to fill their occupancy, it would only cost $600 more (which is very much worth it). Very tempting! However, if we did that, we wouldn’t be able to see the market in Otavalo, which was where we were hoping to pick up any souvenirs. Still, it’s just a market. We’re going to have some serious thinking about it overnight.

Dinner was followed by a band playing Ecuadorian music for us to dance to, but a group of us went up top to star-gaze and chat.

Matt hadn’t joined, so after a while I went looking for him. He was helping Roger, a very interesting older guy from Colorado, pick out his next tablet. Roger bought me a glass of wine, but I pooped out without finishing it, and went to bed.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Galapagos, Ecuador

Wake up call is at 07:00, which sounded really early in our exhaustion last night, but I was up much earlier, annoying Matt by opening the window shade to look outside. We had an amazing breakfast buffet then at 08:15 the group that had chosen the “long difficult” hike were called to disembark.

It was another wet landing, so here we are getting our shoes on at the beach where we began our hike.

The very first thing we saw was one small cove over, where a colony of sea lions were sporting around on the sand.

Then we hiked up a very steep and crumbly trail. At the top there were many large land iguanas and prickly pear cacti. My massive zoom lens came in really handy, but since most of the photos look much the same, I’ll just treat you to this guy.

The total hike was around 2 hours, but it was a scorcher of a morning, and we were all sweating buckets. Here we are heading back down from the top.

We walked back across the sea lion beach, but these guys weren’t sporting around anymore. It was way too hot for that!

After we returned to the Santa Cruz, we had about 15 minutes to reapply sunscreen and put on bathing suits and, if desired, wetsuits, before going out to snorkel for an hour.

I don’t have any pictures of snorkeling because I don’t have an underwater camera, but it was brilliant. When I flipped backward off the boat I pretty much fell straight in to a small group of big flat colorful fish. We saw a lot of them during our time underwater. They were looking at me like, “Excuse me, but we were having a nice chat here. That was quite rude!”

We saw lots of fish. We saw two rays. I can’t remember the type they were. There was a blue fish that had bright blue spots along its crest that looked like LED lights. A massive sea lion startled me by swimming right underneath me while I was looking at another fish. I chased a sea turtle for a while, at a slight distance.

Near the end, I was lagging behind our group a bit when I looked ahead and saw a river of those same big flat colorful fish swimming right at me. They were so many and densely packed that I couldn’t see anything but them. They swerved at the last moment to avoid me, then I rejoined the group just as another smaller but similar school of fish did the same thing again.

Altogether, it was brilliant. I got a sun burn on the upper back of my thighs, but I’d carefully covered that area with sunscreen, so I think it was just time in the water.

And then it was lunchtime, which was SO delicious, even better then yesterday. We stuffed ourselves, again, and wished we had space for more.

After lunch, thank goodness, there was a break of about 2 hours. I’m pretty sure everyone napped. When the announcement came that we had 15 minutes to be ready to disembark for our next hike, I was pretty groggy, but it was an easy walk and slightly cooler.

This afternoon walk was on South Plaza Island. It was an animal-viewing walk, and these little (and big) guys really love to pose. Here’s another land iguana.

And another one, blending in with the local succulents.

These guys aren’t local, but they’re getting more acclimatized.

We watched a group of 5 eagle rays off shore.

Another land iguana, looking majestic. He was huge.

And here’s a smaller aquatic iguana, and his little sunning buddy the lava lizard, under a prickly pear.

I have about a million pictures of this and one other blue-footed booby, but I like the one because it turned to check me out too.

This land iguana is decked out for a dance night, flowers in her scales.

Aquatic iguana: “What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”

Another imported species, sunning himself and trying to attract his mate with his not-so-colorful plumage.

His local counterpart. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s a female. Those white rocks were very shiny from the fatty oils the skin of sea lions secretes, as they travel back and forth across them.

The youngest sea lion we saw was about a week old, although we saw quite a few in the 3 week range. We also saw one of about 3 years nursing, which was cute.

And then we went back to the ship, where we showered then had happy hour cocktails up on the deck before a scrumptious dinner.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Galapagos, Ecuador

Another early morning. Are you sure this is vacation?!?

We woke up at 05:00 to get to the airport for our flight to the Galapagos islands. The airport experience was a little confusing. We were supposed to have our luggage checked for quarantine, then pay for the luggage check ($10), then meet our guide who had the boarding passes, then check our luggage, then security check. But no one was manning step 1, so we felt a little uncertain standing there with one other group, until more people showed up. The line became very long before the desk was opened, but everything proceeded smoothly from there.

The landing on San Cristobal was interesting. We descended, then suddenly swung upwards, circled the island rather wobbly, then came in for another descent and finally landing. This odd arrival has been a recurring conversation among the 57 of us experiencing the Galapagos aboard the Santa Cruz this week.

Immediately upon leaving the airport, we were put onto a minibus for a short drive through town to our boarding site. There was an aquatic iguana right there, as well as many sea lions and many varieties of birds.

We boarded our ship via small rafts called pangas, which are quite pleasant. We wear life vests and the kind staff takes care of getting us on and off safely.

On board, we were greeted with warm towels and fresh juice, then escorted individually to our cabins. Our luggage was brought shortly later. We have a room with twin beds because the double beds were booked.

We learned the rules of our experience in the lounge, where we sat with our new friend Tanja, who we’d met in the airport.

Lunch was quite a spread, but everything had bell peppers in it, so my plan to not tell anyone about my allergy didn’t work out. There was no eating around them, unless I wanted a perpetually unhappy tummy.

This is our ship as we left for our first excursion, on the other side of San Cristobal, to Punta Pitt. We were given a choice between snorkeling/swimming then a quick hike then a panga trip, or a normal-paced hike and panga trip, or just a panga trip. Matt and I are still nursing sunburns, so we skipped the snorkeling today and opted instead for the hike and panga.

We went first to an offshore rock where we watched various animals, including these baby sea lions, doing what they do.

This is a male frigate, puffing out his red throat in order to attract a mate. Frigates are huge, and steal food from other birds in the air.

Matt was particularly charmed by these red crabs that were all over the rock, just above the water.

We made a wet landing on the beach of San Cristobal, hopping over the sides of he panga into knee-deep water and heading ashore to put hiking shoes on.

It’s a little tricky to see here, but that’s a pretty good cliff edge just past the STOP sign.

Here’s Matt followed by Roger and Tanja. Roger and his friends, including 84-year-old Frank, recently returned from a trip to Antarctica. We’ve been enjoying chatting with them very much.

In the distance you can see people standing where we will soon stand, and returning along a trail we will soon follow.

When we got back to the beach, the sea lions were flopping around contentedly.

After we got back, we showered and enjoyed happy hour with our fellow travelers. Then announcements, welcome cocktails, and finally dinner. Dinner was delicious, and was made without bell peppers just for me. Hurray! After dinner, we’re back in our rooms. It’s now 22:15, but wake up is at 07:00 and I’m exhausted.

This has been a wonderful day.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Galapagos, Ecuador

The craziest thing woke us early this morning. At first it was low, and I thought maybe it was more of the students’ party. But bit by bit it got louder until it was blasting in our room like a disco. I’m not exaggerating. I put in my earplugs and Matt got up to see what was going on. It was 04:00. There was a truck out there with a lone guy playing beach DJ for himself. At this point Matt saw people from two directions approach the truck, and the music abruptly ended. We went back to sleep until 09:00.

The two red roofs, by the way, are our hostal. The first night, we were in the shorter one, and last night we were in the taller one, with a private balcony and hammock.

When we woke up, we went down and had breakfast with the other guests. This time, we had a lengthier chat with an Irish woman named Claire. She and her friend Katy (pardon spellings) have been traveling South America for a while now and had some wonderful stories and suggestions. Eventually, though, Matt and I went on yet another quest for water and aloe vera. When we got back, we packed up then made an effort to get our Galapagos vouchers printed. Soup story. Then we went to lunch, eating ceviche again at the same place as 2 nights ago. Delicious.

After lunch, it was time to go to the bus to leave for Guayaquil. It was so hot that we called a taxi for the 10-minute walk. We bade farewell to our host, who was really nice if disorganized and Claire and Katy, and hopped into the cab.

Unfortunately, we were informed at the bus station that all buses for Guayaquil were sold out today! We have a flight to Galapagos in the morning, though, so I asked how we could get there. The ticket seller recommend we go to Montanita, take a bus to Santa Elena, then get another bus from there. We took off in the taxi for Montanita, and barely caught the bus, with the taxi blocking its way.

It was 50km to Santa Elena, stopping everywhere, so it took a long time. Then we bought tickets for Guayaquil and made an easy transfer.

In Guayaquil we spent a little time at the bus terminal, first printing the vouchers for tomorrow then calling the hostal we’d selected from the lonely planet. This place is great, silent and empty, with friendly hosts who suggested a dinner venue for us (that we ignored, although the same place is also recommended in Lonely Planet, in favor of middle eastern food) and have already arranged our morning taxi to the airport.

Next posts: Galapagos!!!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rumichaca,Guayaquil,Ecuador

I am starting this right before noon, sitting in a hammock outside our hostel room. We have an elephant living above us, so we woke when she woke, but it wasn’t too early, so that was fine. Besides, we’d already been on the edge of consciousness for a time due to extremely heavy rains. My first thought was, “oh no! They’re following us!”

We went down and had breakfast with the hosts and an older American couple from Philadelphia who were very chatty. Apparently, the woman has been coming here for decades and owns some land in neighboring Montanita. She is trying to convince her husband of Ecuador’s fabulousness, which isn’t very difficult to do.

After breakfast, the woman, Davita, walked us over to the local laundress, which I’m glad of, because we’d never have found it. Then we went for a walk along the gorgeous beach, the longest in Ecuador.

The fishermen were cleaning up the last of their catch, selling the small leftovers to locals while birds wheeled overhead.

We saw a huge sand dollar, missing a chunk almost half its size, but it was alive! Periwinkle-like things were being dragged along with the surf, digging into the sand and wiggling their soft bits up in the water.

After a bit of a wander, we headed back to the hostal. We hoped to move our things over to the new room, but they weren’t ready for us. Instead, we hung out reading on the hammocks for a while before going back to the beach to find a parasol to sit under.

This beach is so peaceful. There aren’t too many people here, although it’s also certainly not empty. There are cafe cabanas along the beach, as well as a few cocktail stands and vendors selling all kinds of treats and souvenirs. Matt had a shaved ice with 3 different flavors and condensed milk sprinkled over the top. We shared 2 fresh coconuts, drinking their water from straws. Later we had ice cream. My coconut ice cream was the coco-nuttiest I’ve ever tasted. Yum! No pictures through the afternoon because we were going swimming too, so left the tech in our bags at the hostal.

The water at Olon is great for body-surfing, although very full of sand so very uncomfortable when you get it up your nose or down your throat, which we did. It’s also very warm, kind of like swimming though a very large area where someone peed. Every once in a while we’d get a cooler bit, but mostly it was warm.

After a few hours under the parasol, I started thinking my toes felt a little tight. We went and picked up our laundry and a big bottle of water, then went back to see about our room. Reminiscent of yesterday’s soup, it still wasn’t ready, so we sat and waited. Our constant presence this time seemed to move things into higher gear, and we got into our room within the hour.

By now it was about time to be thinking about dinner, and we needed cash. We also needed more aloe vera to help deal with the sunburns we were sporting. Matt s particularly lobster-esque. My burns are bad, too, but I was under the parasol the entire time, whereas he’d decided to get a tan and spent some time lying out directly under the bright equatorial sun. Oops.

Anyway, we decided to go into Montanita, and inquired about the bus. This led to an attempt by our host to be helpful, which led to an hour sitting around, ending in our walking to the bus stop. It was a pleasant hour, though, spent being manhandled by a troupe of girls, ages 9-17 if I’m guessing. A 12-year-old and a 9-year-old were particularly interested in my dreadlocks and my piercing. They were sweet.

We’d been told about Montanita several times since arriving in Ecuador. It sounds like a party hippy town, and it is. The beach is known for surfing, but it’s small and crowded.

The streets were filled with people and vendors, bars and discos, and crappy-looking restaurants. All the prices were as high as European prices, the first we’d seen this in Ecuador.

I am so glad we stayed in neighboring Olon instead.

We found everything we need, including a nice little clothing shop with clothes similar in style to the things my friend Brenn makes. I tried on a little sundress that fit but could have fit better, and the young woman running the shop said she could make me a better one, same price, within an hour. She even gave me a choice of fabrics, although I chose the same one. So we went to dinner, which was disappointing, then picked up the dress and took a taxi back to Olon.

The teenagers (including Aussie Elephant) were having a birthday party directly under our new room, so after reapplying aloe vera, we thought we’d take a walk on the dark beach to look at the stars some more before bed.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Ecuador

The alarm went off at 08:00 this morning, but we were already stirring. We wanted to get a few errands run before leaving for the coast, and I was hoping to catch the bus by 11:00, in an effort to get to Olon before dark.

First order of business was yet another technical difficulty regarding Matt’s phone. I’m now awesome at solving telephone difficulties in Spanish. I will be expecting my repayment for services rendered for unnecessary problems, namely getting Matt a data connection so that he can play Ingress. Sigh.

Today the shops were all open, and the streets were busy. The sun was shining, and we were wondering if we made the right decision, leaving Cuenca. Cuenca was shining, so busy. Our next stop was to get the stamps we’d bought yesterday and the postcards we’d bought in Banos sealed. This was confusing to us. We had asked the lovely receptionist at our hostal, and she had confirmed: we needed to get them sealed at the same place we’d bought the stamps. So we put the gigantic stamps on the postcards, rewrote the addresses which no longer fit, and showed up at the shop. The proprietess put her seal on our stamps, and we put them in the postbox outside. Family, expect postcards, but I have NO idea when they’ll arrive. They were placed in the box on 13 February.

Last errand for town: Matt really wanted a hat. Did you know that the hats referred to as “panama hats” came originally from Ecuador, specifically Cuenca? Well, we’ve been seeing all these hats and they look great, so Matt is now the proud owner of one. Actually, I bought another sun hat at the same shop, made the same way, but in a classic sun hat shape, since my usual one badly needs a wash.

And finally, at noon, we were at the bus station, catching the bus to Guayaquil. I’ve waxed lyrical about buses enough, but this one had no food vendors, a big disappointment.

On the plus side, the journey from Cuenca to Guayaquil took us right through Parque Nacional Cajas, beautiful high Andean plains.

Sadly, our seats were the last 2 in the bus, and the windy and bouncy roads gave me a mild case of motion sickness. It rained much of the time, but I kept my window open and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery.

When we finally left the mountains, the change was amazing. Suddenly we were seeing bananas and coconuts being sold roadside, and it was hot.

A total of 4 hours from departure, we had a crazy rushed transfer in Guayaquil, and were on the bus to Olon. This bus was completely different from any we had been on previously. It was filled with tanned hippies and surfers, a large number of Ecuadorian party boys, and maybe a handful of non-holiday travelers. The driver blasted a dubbed version of “Taken.” The film ended just around the same time we reached the coast.

The sun was descending steadily towards the horizon as we made out way north. At 18:39 I saw the clock at the front, looked outside again, watched the sun disappear beneath the waves, and glanced back at the clock. It still read 18:39. 20 minutes later and it was full, pitch-dark.

All but the two of us, a young woman, and a drunken middle-aged man got out at the main Montanita stop. The woman was let out just a few minutes later, still in Montanita.

I was finally getting a little worried as we continued north. We hadn’t arranged accommodations, but we hadn’t expected the trip to take 7+ hours. The road was dark, and we couldn’t see any road signs or likely hostels. And then we were in Olon.

We got off the bus and decided our best course of action was to head towards the beach. Through town, almost everything was dark, and even the couple of hostals looked closed up and uninviting. It wasn’t very late, but with everything closed, we were worrying we’d have to head back to Montanita and find something there.

However, our instinct to head for the beach paid off. There was a large well-lit hostal at the south end of town, right on the beach. There was a taxi dropping someone off right inside the gate and lots of people hanging around. We walked in.

Our host turned out to be from Chile, and maybe Chileans operate on an even more relaxed time-frame than Ecuadorians. He had us sit down while he checked “something,” but “for sure I have a room for you!” We sat quite a long time. Finally he took us up to a room, but he couldn’t find the key and it didn’t shut without it. So we propped it closed with a shoe in order to shower and clean up before heading back down to check in.

Again, a wait. He took out his laptop, checked his emails, his reservations, a few other things. We mentioned that we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, if he could suggest a cafe in town. He said that if we waited another 10 minutes they’d have soup and we could join them. We waited another half hour. I couldn’t smell any soup. We asked if it would be ok if we took a walk while we waited. “Of course! Only 10 minutes!” We walked for another half hour, saw a beach shack cafe, checked that they were open, walked back to the hostal, where there was still no soup, and explained that we would not be joining them for dinner, thank you all the same.

The food at the beach restaurant was fantastic. I had a calamari ceviche and Matt had a fried filet of fish with salad, rice, and plantains. Everything had been freshly made. We shared a beer.

Afterwards, we walked up and down the beach. The stars were brighter than I remember ever seeing them, and slightly different. We walked in the water, which felt warm like someone had been peeing in it. There were colder patches as well, but they weren’t cold by any means.

When we arrived back at the hostal, our host said it was good that we hadn’t stayed for soup, as extra unexpected tenants had also shown up, and there hadn’t been enough. We laughed, asked for towels, and went up to our room.

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Location:Ecuador

Silence greeted us as we began to rouse from sleep this morning. Blessed silence. We lay in bed, just relaxing and enjoying. And then the phone rang. The kitchen staff wanted to know if we’d be coming in for breakfast, which was ending at 10:00. it was already 09:45. We got our butts out of bed.

In the dining room were 2 Canadian women in their 60’s that Matt had been chatting with last night while I sorted our accommodations. At first we sat at another table, but ended up getting so talkative with them that we joined their table. They’d been in Cuenca a couple of days already, so had a lot of good advice for us.

We decided to take their advice and walk along the river to the ruins. It was a beautiful walk, and many families were out enjoying the morning of their last vacation day. As was the case last night, all shops were closed. The churches were busy and that’s about it.

Here is what the empty streets looked like, all of them:

However, there was so much beauty in the building design here. We passed an elementary school that looked like this!

Yes, that’s really a school. Not that they all looked like this, but Cuenca was indeed a lovely city, even if everything was closed.

The walk along the river was lovely and peaceful, and not long after we passed the Puenta Rota, a broken bridge beside the river, we came to a point where some ruins sat above us. These ruins were very small, and had signs describing the pieces in them, but were overall not spectacular. Here is the bridge.

It seems I didn’t take any pictures of those first ruins, Los Ruinos de Todos Santos, but after looking at those, we continued up the hill and found an interesting museum, El Museo del Banco Central ‘Pumopungo,’ which had a fascinating exhibit about the different cultures and traditions around Ecuador.

Behind the museum were some far more interesting ruins, believed to be part of the old Incan city of Tomebamba. Here the ruins were basically stone walls, and a tunnel under the cliff, but beneath them lies a garden with various agricultural examples, descriptions of Incan farming techniques, medicinal herbs, and a large bird house with descriptions of how animals play a role in man’s relationship with nature. I found these gardens very beautiful and a nice peaceful place to relax.

As we left the gardens and returned back up the river, heavy clouds began to appear. Luckily, we were also ready for lunch. We were tired of eating the same Ecuadorian food, so we went into the only other open place, an ice cream and snack bar, where Matt had a surprisingly excellent pizza and I had a delicious fresh sandwich.

After lunch, we decided to run back to our hotel, drop off stuff, sort out postcards, stuff like that. We ran into Udo, an Austrian man from Berlin (yes, I know… He’s lived there 16 years… I know the difference between Germany and Austria on a map), and invited him to join us for drinks at an expat bar, Cafe Inca, one of again the few places open. He sold his business recently and is on a 6 month world trip.

Afternoon became evening, and we had dinner there. I had a delicious burger along with my 3 caipirinhas. Then we walked back to the hostel. Udo took this picture of us in front of the church nearest our hostel.

It had been raining and raining, all afternoon and evening, so Matt did a little research to see if he really really wanted to go to Ingapirca, the main Incan ruins in Ecuador. Factoring in all the bus time for no more than 2 hours of looking, and the rain, we decided we’d had enough of the Andes and are heading to the coast tomorrow.

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Location:Tarqui,Cuenca Canton,Ecuador