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Hello Folks,
Here we are again - it has been a while, but today is the day for both uploading pictures and writing about our current experiences. Let's start from where we ended last time.
Mancora, Peru
There really isnt't much to say about this place. We stayed a couple of days to relax and enjoy the sun. The beach was ok, but nothing fancy. The pool at our hostel was nice and the people working there were great! There was one danish guy there, Jacob, who made our stay at the pool very pleassant. Drinks arriving at our sunbeds from time to time - life is great! Our new friends, Christian, Kasper and Lisbeth, met up with us in Mancora, so the company was great! We didn't really have a problem leaving this small town - now we were ready to go to Galapagos - definetly one of the main highlights of our trip. But who said it was going to be easy???? The bus we were supposed to go to Quito with broke down even before we got on the bus. There was a slight anxiety in both of us because the flight to Galapagos was in two days from that (never, ever make your schedule so tight!!!!). Fortunatly Kasper speaks spanish fluently and found a good solutions for us. Taxi all the way to the Equadorian boarder and a guy to helps us crossing the boarder, hmmmm. Well, there wasn't really anything we could do but go for it. And it actually went great. We have no idea how we would be able to cross that boarder by our selves - it was a true mess! First in Peru, different offices, then off to Equador, getting bus tickets to Quito, then the boarder control in the middle of nowhere. So it was great getting on the bus to Quito (night bus - sitting almost straight up for 15 hours).
Quito, Equador
Arriving in Quito was nice, sun was shining and it seemed like a nice city. Our hostel, El Cafecito, was the cutest little place with a fireplace, jazz music with an appropiate volume, redwine coloured walls and beautiful paintings and pictures to suit the walls. And the staff was so helpfull! We had the full day to wander around the city so we decided to go into the Old Town (we stayed in the so called New Town). Pretty buildings, good atmosphere - but we were a bit tired after spending a night in a bus.
The thing about Quito... It really is a nice city and the New Town has a really bobbly nightlife with loads of cafes, disco and people hanging out in the streets. But... You can't go outside after the sun has set without taking a taxi - not even for going a block. This was what we were told before getting to Quito and all the local people we met there said the same. It felt very unsafe and to be honest, quite uncomfortable. But of course, we did take the taxi and nothing happened to us. We were just thrilled about our next adventure to the Galapagos Islands.
Galapagos, Equador
We were so excited when the day finally came where we were going to Galapagos!!! The flight was a bit longer that expected - had to stop in Guayaquil - and then off to Galapagos. All of a sudden you could see small islands appearing in the clear blue water - strange little islands, a lot of rocks, mostly looks like a lot of lava put in small piles. Landing at the smallest airport ever, it seemed mostly like a dessert - a harsh sun shining with no mercy on the dry sands. But beautiful! Getting to a small (read: petite!!!! Very petite!!!) harbor and seeing the sun glimmering in the sea - the first sealions dazing in the sun and a pelican greeting us "hallo". Still excited!!!
Crossing the island of Santa Cruz was different from what we expected from Galapagos. The highlands of Santa Cruz are green and very humid. Getting down to Puerto Aeora by the sea was more breazy. Our small hostel was quite nice (although everything in Galapagos is overprized) and the small town was great with little shops and nice restaurants. We had dinner at "the Red Mangrove" by the sea that night - sushi, we loved it! Actually, when crown prince Frederik visited Galapagos, this was where he stayed - so it was quite good!!
Spending a few hours at the highlands of Santa Cruz horseback riding the next day. It felt like we were the only people in the world when riding the highlands... Suddenly a tortoise (fact: tortoise when on land, turtle when by sea) pops up -it was giagantic! And this was only the first of many tortoises to be seen that day. They were laying everywhere, smaller ones, bigger ones, shy ones and curious ones. All where adorable!!!! We got so close to them that we could see every wrinkle in the tortoises skin. Their feet were bigger than elephants feet and they made the funniest sound when they hid underneath their shelves. It was really interesting to see the Galapagos in this way - green, humid, caves, tortoises popping up everywhere. Our tortoise adventure didn't end there. After riding our mountain bikes back to town (40 minutes downhill) we went to the Charles Darwin Research Center. Here they take care of the tortoises of Galapagos, making sure that when the tortoises lay eggs, they are well taken care off. After they tortoises are grown up (around 4-5 years) they are put on their islands around the Galapagos. So we saw baby tortoises - even though they are 3-4 years old they are not more than around 10 cm long. Imagine how old our giant tortoises are then! It really is amazing!
Ready for our cruise!!! Finally!!! Our small boat, Rumba, was waiting for us and our new travel mates. We had been wondering about what kind of people we were going to spend our adventure with - of course you can get a bit concerned... But we were so lucky! We had Becky & Chris, Dirk and Annalis, Malin & Anna, all people in our age and really nice. First stop at our cruise was a beach at Santa Cruz, so we brought our snorkling gear and towels to have a relaxing afternoon at this paradise beach. Our guide, Franklin, took us for a walk around the beach and we had our first encouter with the Sally Lightfoot Crabs - they just have the most amazing colour (to be found in our small gallery) and they show it perfectly by always staying at black rocks. We watched the sea turtles from the beach being playful in the cool water - the water was really not that warm! And of course, pelicans were flying above our heads most of the time. One flamingo was also to be seen that day. The snorkling was "so so", we didn't really see much. But the water was nice and refreshing. Our guide had been away for a while and when he came back he told us that Rumba was broke... It mostly felt like a really bad joke - but it wasn't. "You have to split up, go to other boats"... Hmmmm, we got a bit concerned to say the least. We really had a great group. On board the boat we were pulled back to Puerto Aeoro, it was horrible! Rumba was tipping to one side and almost everybody got sea sick! Luckly, we had to spend the night at a hotel in town (we had not survived a night on Rumba !). Still a bit concerned about our trip...
The next day we went on a one day trip with other tourists to Plaza South. Going there by boat took a couple of hours. But without the tipping of the boat - no problems with sea sickness and we could enjoy the sun and the frigate birds and pelicans being playful around the boat. They were so close to us that you could just reach out and touch them. Plaza South was our first meeting with one of the small Galapagos Island. Strikingly beautiful! Sealions were all over the place! Both in the water swimming and on the rocks, sleeping and enjoying the sun. The guide had to make loud clapping sounds to make the sealions to away from where we was to enter the island. Strange sounds came from the sealions, not to say the smell... Majka had a problem with that smell and was glad that we didn't have a night out prior to that horrible smell! But how cute they were!!! Could just stay there for hours and watch these creatures with no sense of shyness, they just look at you and say oughhh winking thier huge brown eyes. Adorable!!!
The landscape of this island was quite amazing as well. Starting with the rocks, then some sand with the iguanas watching standing still as sculptures or eating cactus, then some kind of vegetation, green plant things (and cactuses) and then some strange red plants (Majka is not the best at knowing plant names!). All together they make up a spectacular scenary, especially with the blue sky and sea in the background. We got back on Rumba later that night - finally! And no splitting us up - fortunatly!!!! With some sea sickness tablets, it was not that bad to be on the boat.
The next day we went to Española. Again we were met by sealions - will never get enough of them! This day we also saw marine iguanas, they are the dark ones while the yellow ones are land iguanas. Other wildlife consisted of blue footed boobies (take a wild guess - what colour are their feet??? the boobie part we don't know about), Nazca boobies (the ones with the red circles around the eyes), albatroses and their baby (quite rare to see these birds actually, so we felt very lucky), Sally lightfoot crabs, Galapagos hawks, Galapagos mocking birds (extremely curious birds!), Galapagos seagulls and swallow-tailed gulls (we are better with the animal names compared to the plant names - or mayby we were just clever enough to write them down!). In the afternoon we went snorkeling outside the coast of this island - so cold!!!! But this time we saw more marine life: Mantarays, bumphead parrot fish, flutemouth fish, yellowtail surgeon fish, king angel gish and panama sergeant major (yep, we wrote them down while on the boat). A bit too cold to stay there for long...
Third day was spent on Floreana island starting at the post office bay. This is quite a peculiar thing... You can leave postcards to friends, family etc and hope that some one from around that place will pick it up and bring it to the particular country and send the card. Or you can leave a postcard for some one you know, who will also pass by this island. Camilla and Sebastianhad left a postcard for us there - so we looked through all the postcards - without luck though! But we hope that some one haspicked it up and will send it to Mette back in DK. Later we went snorkling outside Floreana at the devils crown,which is the best spot for snorkling and diving. And we saw a lot of fishes like the day before - it was beautiful! But too cold... Later that day we went to another spot on the island. After walking a bit thruogh the dry lanin the baking sun, we were met with the beautiful sight of a lonely beach. The water was crystal clear and we could see the sea turtles and stingrays swimming close to us. It was not allowed to swim there in order to protect the marine life, which is very understandable. But we enjoyed it very much anyways - amazing beach with the clearest colours ever! That night we went to Santa Cruz. Our group had some beers, some went home to the boat and some stayed (us, of course and the swedish girls Malin and Anna). One of the guys (staff on the boat) met us at Santa Cruz and took us out. We had the best drinks ever and watched some of the locals swing their hips to the sounds of crazy salsa (and other latin american rhytms). After a few drinks we were ready to move our white hips to their music - and it fun even though we were not as gracefull as the locals (as if we'll ever be!!). Laughter and drinks stole the time from us and soon it was 3 in the morning and time to board our boat in order to sleep for 4 hours.
Last day was spent in the highlands of Santa Cruz (not the same place we went horseback riding) and the lovely tortoises - even though we had seen these creatures before, we could not help but being amazed by them. The last adventure wto go down in a lava cave - here we was some owls sleeping (very cute!). Amazing landscape underground!
Time to say goodbye... It had been a great experience and the people we met were all great! Fortunatly Malin and Anna lives in Goteborg, so we hopefully see them again.
It is hard to describe what it is that is so special with Galapagos. Sure, all the animals are cute and amazing and the landscape is spectacular! Some of the magic comes from being so close to the animals - the wander frearound you. They might even approach you because they are so curious. This is something that cannot be found anywhere else in the world and is by us considered to be part of the magic of the Galapagos Islands. But there is also something else... We have tried to find what that is, but there is no answer. You just have to got there and find out your self. Galapagos is an experience of a lifetime and we feel very fortunate to have been visitors at this place.
Coming back to Quito... Nothing new about this city, just had to get the days overwith so we could get to Mexico. And so we came to Mexico... That's another and a new story not to be told this time around. For your information, we are fine and enjoy life in Tulum - what's next we don't know yet. We'll just take it easy and enjoy each others company before Mette has to go back to Denmark.
Dear all, thanks for your mails and messages! We still enjoy hearing from you and we look forward to see you soon again!
Take care and enjoy the sweet time of christmas!
Masser af knus fra Mette og Majka
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