So Marisa and I are now in Cuenca. This is a beautiful colonial town in the middle of the Andes at 2450m, with really nice architecture and a bit of culture. There´s a lot of restaurants and bars and people go out which is a nice change from some other towns we´ve been to.
Today we walked about the town and took a lot of pictures. It was a nice day (32C) but much less humid than the Galapagos so it felt very comfortable. The hostal we are staying in is one of the best ones I have ever seen, it´s in an old colonial house, which has about 12 or 16 rooms, hardwood floors throughout, completely re-done bathrooms, and our room has a little nook on a 2nd floor overlooking the rest of the room! All for $24 US, including a breakfast in the courtyard. We get a free half hour of internet access and here I am. Oh yeah, it also has cable tv, so yesterday watched CNN. There was a protest march here today which Marisa and I avoided just because I believe it´s generally not safe to be near protests. There were no problems but I prefer to be safe.
Before Cuenca we went to a small town near Riobamba called Quisapincha which I doubt gets many tourists. It´s known for its leather crafts. Marisa shopped while I watched this lady make the biggest pot of soup/stew ever. The pot was about 1m in diameter, and sat on an open fire just outside the restaurant on the sidewalk. She started with meat, water, and a bag of salt, and then later I watched her add green onions, the bunch was bigger than I could put my hands around! There was other stuff added as well. She stirred it with this big ladle that could have been a paddle. Unfortunately we left before it was ready to eat.
Tomorrow we head back up north, first stopping at the best Inca ruins in Ecuador, called Ingapirca. It´s not as spectacular as say Macchu Pichu but it still looks pretty good from the pictures I have seen.
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Quito, Ecuador
So we made it through the Galapagos in one piece and are now back on the mainland, a couple days later.
The Galapagos trip was amazing. About half way through the 8 days, we finally got over whatever ailments we had and were able to enjoy the sights fully. Every day had a similar schedule but the sights were always different and I was amazed that it could be. I figured after the first few days, why would I want to get up early at 5:30 and leave an air conditioned room to go for a 2 hour walk before breakfast to see something I've already seen? But it was always worth it to get up, always something new. (Although one day it was to see the great frigate bird (as opposed to magnificent frigate bird which we saw quite frequently), but after a few days in Galapagos this somehow becomes important)
A typical day was a landing on an island from 6 - 8, back on board for a big breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs or french toast or banana pancakes, freshly squeezed juice, tea), then another landing at another location from 9:30 - 11:30, some snorkeling, back on board for lunch and a siesta, then another landing from 3 - 5 and some more snorkeling. Back on board for dinner, and usually we were so tired no-one could stay up past 8:30.
The species all had cool-sounding names, like the blue-footed booby, Galapagos land tortoise, great blue heron, magnificent frigate bird, and others. There was one island where I took a picture of 7 species of birds in one shot! I became quite the ornithologist (thank you very much), able to distinguish between several species of Darwin's finches, and identify the song of the yellow warbler. Maybe it will come in useful in a game of trivia some day... My favourite was the giant land tortoise which we saw in the wild (there are a whole bunch in the Charles Darwin Research Centre), some of them weighing 250 kg!
It was amazing how much was packed into the 8 days. The weather was also perfect, it only rained once (at night for an hour) and other than that it was sunny and hot (34C).
So now we are back on the mainland in much cooler temperatures (18C). We flew back to Quito and then left south for Riobamba where we are now. Tomorrow we are headed for Cuenca, which is a nice old colonial city. The odd part about being back on land is that both Marisa and I still feel like we're on a boat, and especially when we are tired we get dizzy like the land is swaying (and no we haven't been drinking).
Well I hope everthing is going well back home. We are so out of touch with the news, I don't even know what's going on with the Leafs (or Iraq for that matter).
The Galapagos trip was amazing. About half way through the 8 days, we finally got over whatever ailments we had and were able to enjoy the sights fully. Every day had a similar schedule but the sights were always different and I was amazed that it could be. I figured after the first few days, why would I want to get up early at 5:30 and leave an air conditioned room to go for a 2 hour walk before breakfast to see something I've already seen? But it was always worth it to get up, always something new. (Although one day it was to see the great frigate bird (as opposed to magnificent frigate bird which we saw quite frequently), but after a few days in Galapagos this somehow becomes important)
A typical day was a landing on an island from 6 - 8, back on board for a big breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs or french toast or banana pancakes, freshly squeezed juice, tea), then another landing at another location from 9:30 - 11:30, some snorkeling, back on board for lunch and a siesta, then another landing from 3 - 5 and some more snorkeling. Back on board for dinner, and usually we were so tired no-one could stay up past 8:30.
The species all had cool-sounding names, like the blue-footed booby, Galapagos land tortoise, great blue heron, magnificent frigate bird, and others. There was one island where I took a picture of 7 species of birds in one shot! I became quite the ornithologist (thank you very much), able to distinguish between several species of Darwin's finches, and identify the song of the yellow warbler. Maybe it will come in useful in a game of trivia some day... My favourite was the giant land tortoise which we saw in the wild (there are a whole bunch in the Charles Darwin Research Centre), some of them weighing 250 kg!
It was amazing how much was packed into the 8 days. The weather was also perfect, it only rained once (at night for an hour) and other than that it was sunny and hot (34C).
So now we are back on the mainland in much cooler temperatures (18C). We flew back to Quito and then left south for Riobamba where we are now. Tomorrow we are headed for Cuenca, which is a nice old colonial city. The odd part about being back on land is that both Marisa and I still feel like we're on a boat, and especially when we are tired we get dizzy like the land is swaying (and no we haven't been drinking).
Well I hope everthing is going well back home. We are so out of touch with the news, I don't even know what's going on with the Leafs (or Iraq for that matter).
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
So Marisa and I are half way through the Galapagos trip and it's turned more into a survival trip than anything else. Between the heat and the sun and the boat motion and the cold I started with and passed to Marisa we have spent a lot of time just trying to keep ourselves in one piece!
Despite that we are having a great time. We are both feeling pretty good today. We have seen some of the islands in the south east and now looped back to the main island, some passengers got off and we get new ones today for the 2nd half of the trip. So we have an hour on the main island to kill and are spending it at a computer (!)
The weather has been fantastic. Sunny, hot, about 30C is my guess, and the water temperature is about 24C. A typical day is getting up at 5:30, having the first trek to an island around 7 - 9, then we go somewhere else, have lunch, snorkel a bit later on, then in the evening we have another landing on an island to see more wildlife. They plan it like that so we're not out trekking under the midday sun. The amount of wildlife is incredible. You have to be careful not to step on iguanas and the sea lions (or seals, I forget) are all over the beaches. The Lonely Planet has a nice little checklist and so I've been keeping track. So far we have seen about 40 species out of the 100 or so listed. My favourite so far is the blue-footed booby, a type of bird. (they sell tshirts here with 'I love boobies' on the front). Unfortunately the albatross are not here right now, and I hope to see a hammerhead shark during the snorkeling. Many many pictures.
The food has also been amazing. The crew on our boat (16 passengers, 7 crew + guide) are quite good. The cook is quite funny and has taken a liking to Marisa and he was quite disappointed that Marisa was sick earlier and not finishing all of his wonderful cooking! But yesterday she was better and now the cook is happy again. Yesterday he even baked and iced a cake!
It was very odd to come back to civilization last night. As well, we finally have sea legs so now we are getting dizzy on land!
Anyways I will write more later on but I have to catch a boat :)
Despite that we are having a great time. We are both feeling pretty good today. We have seen some of the islands in the south east and now looped back to the main island, some passengers got off and we get new ones today for the 2nd half of the trip. So we have an hour on the main island to kill and are spending it at a computer (!)
The weather has been fantastic. Sunny, hot, about 30C is my guess, and the water temperature is about 24C. A typical day is getting up at 5:30, having the first trek to an island around 7 - 9, then we go somewhere else, have lunch, snorkel a bit later on, then in the evening we have another landing on an island to see more wildlife. They plan it like that so we're not out trekking under the midday sun. The amount of wildlife is incredible. You have to be careful not to step on iguanas and the sea lions (or seals, I forget) are all over the beaches. The Lonely Planet has a nice little checklist and so I've been keeping track. So far we have seen about 40 species out of the 100 or so listed. My favourite so far is the blue-footed booby, a type of bird. (they sell tshirts here with 'I love boobies' on the front). Unfortunately the albatross are not here right now, and I hope to see a hammerhead shark during the snorkeling. Many many pictures.
The food has also been amazing. The crew on our boat (16 passengers, 7 crew + guide) are quite good. The cook is quite funny and has taken a liking to Marisa and he was quite disappointed that Marisa was sick earlier and not finishing all of his wonderful cooking! But yesterday she was better and now the cook is happy again. Yesterday he even baked and iced a cake!
It was very odd to come back to civilization last night. As well, we finally have sea legs so now we are getting dizzy on land!
Anyways I will write more later on but I have to catch a boat :)
Saturday, March 08, 2003
Quito, Ecuador
Well Marisa and I made it no problems to Ecuador yesterday on the start of our trip to see the Galapagos Islands. Despite all the media announcements about 3 hour waits at the airport that made me worried about missing our flight out of Toronto (being the start of March break and the busiest travel day of the year) it took us about 20 minutes to get through everything.
The flights were okay and we got to Quito about 11:00 pm last night. I had called ahead to reserve a hostel and they also arranged for a taxi. So when we got out of the airport there was a nice lady holding a sign for 'Erick Dsousa' and we were whisked off to a nice old colonlial house in the centro. The weather is really nice, it's supposed to be the rainy season but it was clear and about 13C. Marisa and I were both pretty tired so we just went to bed.
This morning we got up to another nice day (sunny and about 18C), had breakfast on this cool little terrace inside the hotel. Today we just have some paper work to do to pay for the Galapagos trip, and then tomorrow morning we're off pretty early to fly there to begin a 8 day 7 night boat trip around the islands. Although I have been surprised at where internet cafes can now be found I doubt that they will have access on the boat. So the next time I email will be after the Galapagos trip.
ps to prevent my hotmail from filling up with spam I have turned on the maximum filter so I only get email from people in my Address Book. So on the off chance that you do reply from a different email address than what I've sent I won't get it.
The flights were okay and we got to Quito about 11:00 pm last night. I had called ahead to reserve a hostel and they also arranged for a taxi. So when we got out of the airport there was a nice lady holding a sign for 'Erick Dsousa' and we were whisked off to a nice old colonlial house in the centro. The weather is really nice, it's supposed to be the rainy season but it was clear and about 13C. Marisa and I were both pretty tired so we just went to bed.
This morning we got up to another nice day (sunny and about 18C), had breakfast on this cool little terrace inside the hotel. Today we just have some paper work to do to pay for the Galapagos trip, and then tomorrow morning we're off pretty early to fly there to begin a 8 day 7 night boat trip around the islands. Although I have been surprised at where internet cafes can now be found I doubt that they will have access on the boat. So the next time I email will be after the Galapagos trip.
ps to prevent my hotmail from filling up with spam I have turned on the maximum filter so I only get email from people in my Address Book. So on the off chance that you do reply from a different email address than what I've sent I won't get it.
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