Galapagos - more photos - hope you´re not getting bored

Galapagos - Paradise!

Just returned from 8-day boat tour around the Galapagos and it was absolutely fantastic!! We were 10 passengers on the boat, mostly young travellers, so a really nice group. and we had a very good cook, Victor, who provided us with 3 full meals a day - so despite the walking and snorkelling every day I think I put on some weight! So much to losing weight while your travelling!

I have taken about 460 photos, but understandably I cannot post them all here - LOL!
I saw a variety of flora and fauna, some of them unique to Galapagos: We could get really close to the animals, they were not bothered by us at all!! From what I can recall there were plenty of
Sea lions, Sea turtles, giant turtles, blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, penguins, albatrosses, sharks, stingrays, mantarays, sally lightfoot crabs, tropical fish, land iguanas, marine iguanas, lizards, lots of birds I canot recall the name of etc etc. - the list is endless!
But photos say more than words, so here they are! More to follow another day! Enjoy!

In Quito now

Thursday we visited some pueblos around Otavalo, which gave us an insight into how the Indios really live. Incredibly poor! we got a tour of how they manufacture their handicrafts and sell them on for very little money, i.e. baskets, traditional hats and woolen jumpers. Then these things are sold on to tourists for a lot more money thru middle men!

Today, we left our 2weeks base camp in Ibarra and unfortunately had to leave Sra Teresa, who took such good care of us! Muchas Gracias Teresita!

Just arrived in Quito this afternoon. Pretty depressing place! Its raining non-stop, completely grey sky (reminds me of London) and everthing is shut. On Sunday they have the elections here and that means "ley seca", i.e. no alcohol is served anywhere 3 days before the elections!! That also means also a lot of restaurants/bars are shutting. Unbelievable, cant even get drunk! ;-)Cant wait to leave this place again. Here til Tuesday morning, then off to Galapagos!
hasta pronto!

Sunday, 15th Oct
Found this Mexican restaurant with free internet access and which sells wine to take away! success!
We went to "Mitad del Mundo" today, the Equator line. You can jump between the northern and southern hemispere! FUN. It is about 20km north of Quito and it was nice to get out of the big stinking city.

Was quite a hassle to get there though... we seem to spend a lot of time on buses over here. A nice lady on the bus advised us to get the "autobus amarillo" back to Quito, which would be much faster. Well, as far as my Spanish knowledge goes, amarillo means yellow. So John and me are desperately looking out for that "amarillo" bus, and they come in all colours here, white, red, green, blue but just not yellow. Well we ask the driver of the "autobus azul" when the yellow bus would be passing. He just said "This is the yellow bus". With disbelief and thinking "have we gone colour-blind" we ask again - and he explained: The sign with the destination on it is yellow, so we finally clogged what they meant! I think we would still be in Mitad del mundo now if we hadn´t asked. LOL
More next week!

photos of Ecuador

Laguna Mojanda and Cotacachi

Here we are in Ecuador!

Hi everyone,

this is the first time I have some time to update my blog. Busy life over here! ;-)

After a very long day which didn´t seem to end we finally arrived in Quito Saturday night.
30th Sept: Stayed one night in Quito then moved on to Ibarra where we met Christhian´s mum, Sra Teresa. The altitude affected us a little, Ibarra lies about 2.800 m high, but we got more or less used to it now. Everything is very different here as you can imagine, the air to start with, is very dry and it is usually a pleasent 24 degrees and sunny with clouds.
1st October: 45 mins bus ride to Otavalo from Ibarra every morning with the locals.
First day in Otavalo! Very nice little indigenous town. Language school is ok, although 4 hours lesson from 8.30 -12.30 am is a little tiring. I think we are still recovering from Jetlag and altitude. We were supposed to have group classes, but since there are hardly any students, we now have 1to1 tuition. Very intense indeed, but I´m sure we´ll learn more that way. John is picking up words here and there and is very keen to learn - walks around with his Spanish-Engl dictionary all the time and asks loads of questions!!

We met a couple of fellow studens, one girl from Poland and one from Denmark, who we sort of hang out with. Unfortunately they have to leave end of the week.

This week we did a couple of excursions: one to Cotacachi/Cuicocha, a Volcano with a beautiful lake in the middle, did a little bit of walking and went on a boat on the lake.

5th October: Laguna Mojanda
Today we finished class early and us and the 2 girls from language school drove in an open truck to Laguna Mojanda, which is ca. 50 mins from Otavalo. Santiao, Christhian´s niece´s husband accompanied us which made it more enjoyable and of course - cheaper!
Laguna Mojanda is a beautiful lake surrounded by high mountains, about 4.200 m high. I really noticed the altitude walking up that hill, my lungs were struggling a little. We walked (or rather climbed) up a steep mountain called "Fui Fui". The boys, John and Santiago were pretty fast up that hill, I was still struggling with the thin air, but eventually made it. It was pretty cold and windy up there, but beautiful views from the top. Will try to post some photos....
It´s so nice to be in fresh air, one with nature and no sound to be heard but the wind - no people around, just vacas (cows).

John is doing surprisingly well with the hiking, also carrying a heavy rucksack for "practise" for Peru. Funny thing was, he packed his new water pouch into his rucksack and desperately tried to suck from the hosepipe, but to his surprise, nothing came out. After a quick look I just realised: It would really help if he had put the pouch up the right way round!! DOH! What would he do without me? LOL

6th October: Today, we are going out with the girls, as it is Violas last night (Polish girl) and she wants to celebrate. I think today we´re gonna try a local speciality: fried ginea pig! ("el cuy"). Looking forward to that!

Tomorrow morning well hit the famous indigenous market in Otavalo, for which we are staying 1 night over here-again Santiago has organised cheap accomodation for us. He and his wife are also joining us for the party tonight. it really is helpful to have a local with you - everything is cheaper than if we "gringos" attempt to buy it. Oh well, that´s the way it is....

In general we feel very safe here and the people are extremely friendly and helpful. Never had any problems and the local public transport (bus) is working fine and is dead cheap!! No need for a timetable or bus stops, you just hold out your hand and shout out where you want to go to.

hope everyone is well at your end!

That´s it for now - more another day! Hasta luego chicos!

P.S. Have problems uploading my photos, but will try again!