Create your Trip Journal [click here]smooth flights. Our host hotel was easy to get to from the airport, so we flagged a yellow cab. The fare was $8 instead of the $50 it would have been to hire an escort.
No time to snore in La Rabida Hostal much upon arrival, so we were glad we had come in last evening instead of the midnight flight: The Adventure-Life escort had us up at 5am to take us to a plane to Baltra, Galapagos, via Guayquil. Magic islands. Baltra is barren, but a quick drive took us to ferries across to Santa Cruz, the a drive over the highlands and settle at Red Mangrove right next to the Darwin Institute. Rest, then a wonderful meal. No time to shop, but I did get to use my bad Spanish a bit walking around hunting cash machines and pharmacies. Oh yes! snorkeling, too!
The Santa Cruz exploration was great fun; we went to the highlands, and I had the best espresso I was to have on the whole trip on a farm. There were a few other hightlights! but I am an espresso addict, so I suggest to similar heads to buy the Galapagos coffee - beans only available, but you can take it home or to the mainland later. P.S. Don't think coffee is the ONLY great thing on Santa Cruz highlands, but you can read about the calderas; the farm; the lava tunnel elsewhere.
Yesterday we arrived on my favorite island, did some snorkeling, then had drinks on the patio near our cabinas. Everywhere we arrive there are welcoming trays of juices or hot chocolate. A family fed 15 of us on their porch, family-style, delicious. Then our guide Fernando and our senior senora Lidy played a guitar and we all sang (well, hummed to the Spanish). Lara started the dancing and on and on it went, for a wonderful evening. Back to our cabinas by the ocean to sleep to the waves and wake to the sound of the birds. We toured the highlands, then left for Isabella.
We were actually on this island for TWO WHOLE nights! - a blessing for us because we have only carry-on luggage and need a spell to dry some clean clothes. I went to the turtle nursery, swam and had coconut water in a nice bar while others did a horseback ride and strenuous climb into a crater. The colors, they said, were stunning.
A boat took us to Santa Cruz for our last afternoon on Galapagos, a little time to shop. For me, a time to wander around and get lost, but a cab for $1 found me! We had a little more time to admire some of the endemic species and visit the Darwin Institute.
Back in Quito, but it's Sunday, so no way to get laundry done... and we won't be here long enough to dry any washed by hand. Problems of the rich.
Oriente is the Ecuadorian term for the huge region with Amazon tributaries. Ours was the Napo River, and the entire navigation is by motorized canoe or tug and barge. It was good to go to Sacha, which is a couple hours from Coca, but in an area almost completely virgin forest. I think there was not a car within 300 square miles. Every move was by canoe or hike or climb - and the Sacha guias were more than willing to haul all the junk we carry.
We had days and nights in paradise. Swimming with piranhas yet! And I actually got a bit of one which friends caught. Delicious, but they are awfully small. We also swam with sleeping caimans, but I am used to swimming in aligator locales, so that's OK. The trick is to immerse the whole body, not the fingers or toes. And do NOT trust crocodiles. Anyhow, one of the many adventures at Sacha was fishing for Pirhanas. In the pouring rain, in our case. And in my case, I would call it "feeding the Piranhas" the bait.
At Sacha we stayed in a big cabina with a porch with hammock, bird and other noises all night to our delight. The accommodations are comfortable: hot water, fan, big spaces - but don't expect to dry any clothes! It is a rain forest, after all.
I am skipping a lot. There were guided hikes, canoe rides, wonderful meals, swimming, drinks, a hundred bird species ... I can't believe I climbed 40 metres with serious asthma, but the group was so generous they just let me take me time. The walk above the forest, which we feared, turned out to be all right. I usually get an acrophobia attack in these circumstances, but somehow the engineering of the swinging walkway made me feel secure. And the guides were so good that I did something I swore I would never do: ride a zip line!
Canoe across a lake, hike a mile, canoe up the Napo, fly to Quito, met by Adventure-Life ... The greeter agreed to get us a guide for Quito on Christmas Day, since we knew it would be hard to get around with everything closed. P.S. Still no laundry! Christmas Eve is lively enough, with shoppers everywhere, though the stores closed at 5pm. We walked to Santa Teresita to meditate awhile, though we missed the mass.
Don't miss this! There are two sites, one full of restaurants and one "science" with the actual equator designated by a line. The guide does tricks to show the phenomena we all associate with the middle of the earth. We had a great Christmas dinner at La Rabida Hostal, a lovely little place with the best food in the neighborhood - maybe the best in Quito.
Adventure-Life squeezed the two of us into every trip we dreamed of. The last was a trip to Bella Vista hotel in bosque nublado, the cloud forest. A zillion more birds, of course, and to the Ecuadorians' delight, red squirrels. The paths are very steep but delightful, and it is OK to wander on your own.
More hikes, then back to Quito. Ecuador is a 3rd world country but one on an optimistic climb. Notable from the last time I was here were an emphasis on ecuadorian-grown products (rather than imports) for consumption and for purchase and a great deal of effort put into infastructure. The government wishes to promote ecotourism rather than slash-and-burn farming and does this by training and requiring native guides at every step of the tourist's experience.
I was ready to get home, but sorry to leave the wonderful nation of Ecuador. It's fun reminiscing. So back to the airport, back to the U.S. boarding paranoia, and back to planes stuck in Miami. But American Airlines put us all up in a fine hotel and gave us all meals until we could get home, and it was a nice transition because Miami is almost an espanol country too.
