Create your Trip Journal [click here]Five of us met in the Atlanta airport. Elaine flew in from Palm Beach airport and today we are on schedule. We leave on time for a very comfortable flight with Delta. It goes by quickly since we can each watch as many movies as we like.
We are in a lovely hotel with breakfast ready at 7am for our early flight to the Islands. But luckily for us there is a delay - so we immediately head out to see Quito. We find the handcraft market in the City Park. It is full of vendors from the villages and they are only in once a week! This is lucky for us. The vendors are able to bless themselves as we make their first sale of the day. We did our best to fill up a duffle bag with fabrics, hand carved statues and jewelry. We had only just started our trip, I don't know who encouraged the shopping but everyone joined in.
At the airport we meet the rest of our group and our wonderful guide, Alfredo. Alfredo makes the maneuvering through the airport a breeze. We continue to chat while he runs around with bags and passports.
This is our first day with nursing seals at the door step of our hotel. The action starts after breakfast and we continue at a great pace of activity until we return to Quito. Today it is hiking with tortoises. They are all ages and free roaming. It turns out they are not very restful. One large tortoise was aggressively charging and nipping at an equally large tortoise.
There are no doubts by now. The food is fresh and plentiful three times a day. We have soup with fresh fish often. Meals are one of my favorite times of day and I am never disappointed.
Just when you think the day might be over- we head out in kayaks, view birds and a beautiful sunset. But we are also advised to jump in the ocean and view the wildlife close up. This is beyond my imagination - we are swimming with sea lions! They are playful and seem to be laughing at us. They are very close.
We are going by boat to a snorkeling location, Kicker Rock. We can see it in the distance from shore. I am well prepared with my waterproof camera and short wetsuit. I want as much time as possible in the water with sharks, fish and starfish. It is a drift snorkel so you don't need to use any energy. I am just trying to click every second in order to catch photos of the colorful fish and us. Then I see them the sharks- the Galapagos shark was just below us and there were many reef sharks below on the sand. (Later I find out that I lost all the photos with an equipment malfunction- I am so disappointed.)
Again after I overeat with a delightful lunch on the boat; I am surprised at the next stop. It is a sea lion harem with young sealions and a few very recently born babies. Another great group of photos.
It takes two planes to get us to the next island. They are very very small planes but it sure beat several hours on a small boat for several hours.
This is a very peaceful small island. We continue to feel like we are the only travelers at the Galapagos Islands. We have never seen any of the big or small cruise ships. The restaurants are open air and there are a few sidewalks- they just don't go very far.
We have a lovely bike ride on a sandy road along the beach. We stop many times to look for birds and other animals. We see one lone Flamingo at one stop. There are many hiking trails into mangrove areas.
It is an overcast day but we are continue on our schedule to get to the top of the volcano. As we climb higher on the mountain, it is apparent that it has been very wet on the mountain for a few days. The very thick mud holds on to our truck when we get to the parking area. All of us try pushing and laughing, with the hope that the truck would be ready to drive us out later in the day. We walk higher and meet our horses. The rim of the volcano is one of the largest in the world. We can see miles of lava flow inside the crater. We also see new bird species due to the elevation change.
As usual, we use many different kinds of transportation daily. Today it is an early 2 hour boat ride to Santa Cruz. The reputation of Lonely George is well known around the world. This will be our day to meet him. He is the last of his species (one of the several species of Galapagos tortoises). He is thought to be over 100 years old. After introducing many female tortoises for many years, he finally in 2008 decided he liked more than one tortoise. Luckily for us, he has now sired many new tortoises. He will not be the last of his species.
We spend the day flying and busing in order to get back to our hotel from the first day. We have enough time to put on clean clothes and head out to a very nice Ecuadorian traditional cuisine restaurant. It is beautifully decorated and the plates of food are very plentiful. I order more food than I need and even if it is difficult I manage to eat every dish.
We fly high over the Andes. It is breathtaking to see snow tops at the Equator. We arrive in a sleepy river town and are welcomed immediately with our new guide for the next few days. We have over 2 hours on the river- it obviously is the major highway of the area. There are barges full of trucks going in both directions. The lodge is beautiful and a group is leaving the next day. Luckily for us, just as in the Galapagos Islands we again have the place to ourselves. We are well taken care of. There are many small buildings with thatched roofs. We are very interested in the high numbers of animal diversity in the Amazon. We are not disappointed. We spend hours 170 feet in the area, scanning the jungle for birds. We see over 90 different species. The brightly colored toucans, parrots, macaws, trogons, honeycreepers, and tanagers keep us well entertained. It is beyond my imagination (as we live in New England) that you can see so many colorful birds in a short period of time. Of course the jungles also include sloths, kinkajoos, Red howler monkeys, Squirrel monkeys, Titi monkeys and leaf cutter ants. I had never heard of the Pygmy Marmoset- it is a 5" long monkey with a very distinct face. Every day we went to their favorite trees to get that rare chance to see such a small and endearing monkey. The trees were immediately adjacent to the lodges, they were not afraid of us. The guides included a local native guide who gladly explained local plant and animal lore. We spent 4 days at this lodge and we were never bored. The food was very good and plentiful. We were out at 6am until 1pm. Enjoyed a large lunch then took a two hour break (our hammock time). We went out again at 4pm returned by 6pm for dinner and proceeded out again at 8pm for a night walk several times. I definitely would like to return to the Amazon- there are too many plants and animals to see in one trip.
