Crossing the Equator – Ecuador & Galapagos

Ecuador is one of the most prosperous countries we visited so far. Modern cities and wonderful nature. Their slogan is ‘Ecuador ama la vida’ – Ecuador loves life – for sure they do!

GUAYAQUIL
Guayaquil is our first stop in Ecuador, it’s the beating commercial heart of Ecuador. Just like in Lima the fastest way to travel to different parts in the city is via the well-organized bus system (Metro Via). Plaza Bolivar is the most famous plaza here where we saw land iguanas – quite a bizarre sight to see these prehistoric looking animals walking around in downtown Guayaquil. The weather here is already more hot and humid, running along the Malecon was pretty ambitious…
El Malecon is the river boulevard, this is where lots of activity is going on, there are kids’ playgrounds, restaurants, shops and a movie theatre. It’s the result of a massive waterfront-renewal project. At the end we walked up Cerro Santa Ana – a hillside with a little lighthouse on top for spectacular views of the city. This hill made us think for a moment of Valparaiso in Chile because of its brightly painted little houses.
What we really liked about Guayaquil is that you can easily leave the vibrant city life and escape in the green space on the other side of the river at Isla Santay. We walked over the bike/foot bridge to reach this protected nature reserve, where we spotted caimans in muddy waters. An eco-village was built only a couple of years ago, around 55 families live here as a small fishing community to protect the environment. On the flipside, when we turned back to the city by boat we passed a couple of big factories and by the smell of the river it seemed to us that they dump their industrial waste in the river, which made us wonder to what extend the environment is really protected here…

GALAPAGOS
After Guayaquil we visited Ecuador’s biggest treasure, the Galapagos Islands – a group of 16 islands (with lots of smaller ones) around the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, 900km west of Ecuador.
In Guayaquil we booked a last minute flight and cruise – 4 days on a boat and 4 days more on Isla Santa Cruz. The wildlife here was the absolute highlight, the fact that some animals can be found nowhere else in the world (and that they don’t see people as an enemy) make this place so special. The islands in itself are not like typical tropical paradises. They are all volcanic and therefore some look more like the moon.
The most fascinating animal we saw were the Galapagos tortoises. Currently there are 10 sorts of tortoises on the Galapagos, where it used to be 15. In the past many were killed by local seamen and pirates to eat their meat. Then other animals, such as goats, were brought onto the islands to diversify the diet of the locals. Due to the venue of these animals the habitat of the tortoises was disturbed and because of all this many died. The breeding centres are working hard to grow tortoises’ population again. We visited 3 different breeding centres ‘El Gualapaguero’ on Isla San Cristobal the Charles Darwin breeding centre on Santa Cruz and one in Isla Isabela. We saw big and small ones, young and old, very old (150+ years), males fighting (the one with the longest neck wins), and even tortoise porno 😉

A special bird type that is exclusive to Galapagos are the boobies. There are 3 sorts: blue footed, red footed and Nasca boobies with greyish feet. The blue ones are very photogenic, they’re nesting on rocks next to the paths and not shy at all. As human beings have never been a threat to them, you can come very close, even to their nests. Boobies are excellent divers, and the colour of their feet is telling us how well-fed the bird is. So the more blue, the healthier the bird is. This time of year they are especially busy to catch fish for their cute furry little ones.
Landscapes of every island are different; we walked through the ‘Galapagos Gran Canyon’ – Monte Pitt. Here the ashes/remains of volcanic eruptions in the past are clearly visible. The contrast between black volcanic stones, bright blue sea and the white sand along shorelines couldn’t be bigger.
We went snorkelling in a couple of places, saw sea lions, big schools of fish, lots of sea stars, the Galapagos seal (has more fur then sea lions) manta rays, eagle rays, sting rays, sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, white and black tipped reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, the Galapagos penguin and albino penguin. It’s amazing how close the sea lions and sea turtles came, especially the young sea lions are really playful. After being spoiled by all this, we were less impressed by what we saw while diving later on in the week at Isla Seymour.
Another interesting animal here is the black marine iguana, family of the land iguanas with the same ancient look. Their numbers have decreased a lot over recent years due to el Niño – temperature increase of the seawater – when there isn’t enough of algae to eat, but they expect that this will increase again soon.
That was Galapagos in a nutshell. Our expectations were high, we were afraid they might even be too high, and so were the costs of this trip 😉 but we’re so glad we didn’t skip this unique place on earth. This was like a mini holiday for us in our long travel, we pampered ourselves big time but it was definitely more than worth it!

QUITO
Back on the mainland we landed in Quito. Ecuador’s capital – la mitad del mundo – high in the Andes (2800m), with a kind and relaxed atmosphere. Just like most travellers we headed to the Mariscal area, which is also known as ‘gringolandia’ as the place is full of guesthouses, travel agencies, bars and restaurants.
Never a dull moment in South America…on our first night in Quito, we were woken by an earthquake…we truly hope that this was a once in a lifetime experience as well… Ecuador is on the ring of fire, just like the rest of the South America’s west coast, so the risk of an earthquake is pretty much always there. The epicentre was 10km outside of Quito, it was a light earthquake – only 4.6 on the scale – so nothing in comparison to what happened here earlier this year back in April, or now recently in Italy. Apart from some power cuts in the city, no one was harmed but still it was quite a shock…When it happened everyone in our hotel had to go outside, so there we stood barefoot for an hour or so around midnight. Locals were scared that a more severe shock would follow…just like it was the case back in April…but luckily nothing happened and eventually we all went back to bed, but as you might imagine we’ve had better nights of sleep…
The next day, we strolled around the cobblestone streets in the historical centre. Many nice plazas, churches, and colonial style buildings here. We took the Teleferico – cable car – up to the foot of Pichincha volcano. Here we had beautiful view of the entire city, which is really long, surrounded by mountain peaks on both sides.
When in Quito we would definitely recommend to go to the Guayasamin museum in el Capilla del Hombre. Guayasamin is one of South-Americans most important modern artists. He blended pre-Columbian motifs with influences of Van Gogh and Picasso…a style we really liked.
For Rene’s birthday we went to Papallacta Termas just outside Quito where we had the best room ever with our own fireplace including a Jacuzzi filled with hot water straight from nature, so relaxing, what a treat!
Since 2 weeks we’re in Colombia. Colombia is very different from the countries we’ve seen before, on the Carribean coast it’s way too hot and humid, but very green on the other side, people are very friendly. Now we’re in the middle of nowhere helping out on an eco farm as volunteers in the Cauca valley.
Soon more about colourful Colombia…

 

Guayaquil – Land iguanas in Bolivar park

Running along the boulevard El Malecon in Guayaquil

View from Cerro Santa Ana

View from Cerro Santa Ana

Walked into the jungle on Isla Santay from Guayaquil

Saddleback tortoise on Isla San Cristobal

Sealion and her baby

Our cruiseboat

Family of blue footed boobies

Red footed boobies

Beautiful beach at Isla San Cristobal – Kicker Rock in the back

Eagle ray during first snorkel

Sunset on kicker rock

Ready for snorkelling at Kicker Rock

Hammerhead shark at Kicker Rock

Up for an early morning walk on the beach

Crab friend

Black rough lava shoreline on Isla Santiago

Marine iguanas chilling in the sun

Sunset birds

Enjoying the good life

White and Black tipped reef sharks – diving at Seymour

Beautiful fishes

Galapagos shark

Diving blue footed boobies in Baltra

Sealions and pelicans waiting for a snack on the fish market in Puerto Ayora

Sea turtles

Viv swimming with sea turtle

Sealion rocks this boat

White tipped reef sharks resting in shallow water – Isla Isabela

Galapagos penguin

Sealions rule the world on Galapagos

Marine iguana in disguise

Flamenco

More tortoises in breeding centre on Isla Isabela

Snorkeling in Las Grietas – Isla Santa Cruz

Tortuga beach on Isla Santa Cruz

Tortuga beach

Quito streetart

Ecuador loves life

One of the many street stalls selling fresh fruits

Icecream anyone..

View from old town on el Panecillo

Quito old town

View on Quito from the foot of Pichincha volcano

Guayasamin art museum

Rene’s birthday spa day in Papallacta