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So we made it down to Equador....after three short flights from Honduras (via El Salvador and Costa Rica) we finally landed in Quito, the Ecuadorian capital city. c3000m above sea level it's a certainly a bit nippy so the long sleeved tops came out (matching, of course!) At least there's none of those hungry little sand flies here!!!
We spent the first night at a hostel in the traveller area known as The Mariscal. The hostel was pretty basic - our room was a shed on top of a roof!! We had blankets and quilts on the beds which made a change from Central America where we had experienced some pretty hot and humid nights! Despite the basic room the hostel was pretty cool and for $1 each you could help yourself to a bucket full of rum and coke.....needless to say we participated, just to be sociable of course!!
The following day we moved to the hotel included in our Galapogas Islands Tour which we had booked before leaving the UK, sheer luxury.....hot water, a bath and free breakfast!!
We then left for the GI's.....an early start with a flight to Baltra in the GI via Guyaquill in Ecuador. Then a bus transfer and a couple of boat rides before we reached Estrelle Del Mar.....our Tourist Superior Luxury Cruiser for the next few days. It was ace.....we had our own cabin up top with air con private bathroom and there was a huge seating area with cream leather sofas, very Hugh Hefner!!
We joined an existing tour as our tour company changed our itinery.....the other passengers were great, the boat was great, our naturalist (not naturist!) Juan Carlos was great but it wasn't that great hearing about all the wonderful places the group had already visited that were no longer part of our itinery!! :-(
The first afternoon we visited to a Giant Galapogas Tortoise Farm where the biggest and laziest Tortoises roamed around free wallowing in the mud and the undergrowth!! As we were docked in Santa Cruz that evening, after a hearty dinner on the boat, we took a little boat into shore and as well as buying sea sickness tablets had a few beers with the rest of the group. Lots of Brits on the boat who proved to be a good laugh!
The next day after a pretty good nights sleep, irrespective of the fact that it was quite rocky, we disembarked and were greeted with a bizzare world of Galapogan wildlife!! Loads of birds....Magnificent Frigate Birds and Blue Footed Boobies rearing their chicks and flying literally just above our heads!! Plenty of sealions just lazing around on the beach and marine iguanas - endemic to The Galapogas Islands....amazing! Later that afternoon we snorkelled with a wide variety of fish and what we thought were reef sharks until later that night we discovered that they were just big silver fish!! Cool anyway!!
The next day we docked to explore a bizarre volcanic landscape where there were many more birds and sealions not remotely phased by our arrival - do we sound jaded? The place is just teeming with wildlife which carries on as if we weren't there!!
We snorkelled with mantarays, penguins (yes Galapogas Penguins!!) and sealions! The sealions were so cool, they really enjoyed swimming up to our snorkell masks and darting around in the water. V got a shock when after turning round in the water came face to face with a Bull - a pretty big daddy sealion!!
We saw sharks from the boat and after some encouragment got in with them but the visibility was so poor we could see more from the boat...probably a good thing! We snorkelled with two huge turtles - so graceful!!
The trip was out of this world - it was a shame that the itinery was changed and we would have loved to have stayed longer but it wasn't to be and we headed back to Quito on a seven seater plane initially and then switched to a proper plane!
We're back in Quito today and explored the Old Town....tonight we leave on a 12 hour bus journey to the Ecuador/Peru border and hope to be soaking up the sun on a beach in Northern Peru tomorrow.
Peru here we come!!
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