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Quito/Galapagos

By : Wanetta Stiers
Trip Begins October 17, 2008
Trip Ends October 25, 2008

An absolutely amazing trip. The reason for the trip was to visit our daughter who was studing in Quito for a semester. We can't wait to go back to the Galapagos Islands. Adventure Life, great job booking everything, no problems anywhere. Beautiful place
See my photos : Ecuador/Galapagos Islands

Want to go? Guantanamera: 10 Day Tour, Guantanamera: 7 Day Tour

I went to: Galapagos, Ecuador, South Plaza Island, Espanola, Floreana, Bachas Beach, Charles Darwin Center, Quito
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October 17, 2008
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We are on our way!

Quito, Ecuador

Day 1 – 10-17-08 (Friday)
Chickie, we are on our way!!! We left home @ 5:00 a.m. Nathan was with friends and got home @ 4:30 a.m. – he is such a nut. I was dead asleep until I heard the door close. We just had him drop us off, so he wouldn’t have to stay in the airport, since he can’t go past security anyway. From Indianapolis to Chicago the flight was a little bumpy, but not to bad. We were in another one of those prop planes, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Dad and I got to sit together, but we traded with this nice young woman. We landed about 20 minutes early in Chicago and had to sit on the tarmac for a little while. We had just over an hour in Chicago. We bought Dad a Mountain Dew and me a diet tea and spent over $6.00… airport prices.

We are on a much larger plane to Miami, three seats in the middle and two seats on each side. Dad and I are all the way to the back of the plane. We are just three rows from the end. We have TV monitors and they are playing nice relaxing music with pretty scenic pictures on them. We have three hours on this plane – time enough to read another book. Yep, I have one finished already, only four more to go.

We are on the plane for Quito; so far we are on time, good weather. Miami looks wonderful…beaches anyone? This plane is smaller, with only three seats on each side. Dad and I are across from each other, each with an aisle seat, good for his knee. We just had a burger and fries for lunch in the Miami airport. Dad about had a fit cause we had to pay $9.50 each per burger and fries. I told him that we are “on vacation”, and don’t worry about it. Next stop Quito and you.    There is a nice gentleman sitting next to me who is from Ecuador, he lives in the states and is coming to visit family. He is telling me everywhere that we need to see while we are here and what not to miss. He is also telling us how much to tip persons, and that Dad needs to keep his wallet in his front pocket and not in the back, because of pickpocket’s. He is very interesting and I am sure his advice will be helpful.

We got into Quito around 8:00 p.m. our time 7:00 p.m. Quito time, (I guess a good thing, we found out later from Kathryn that the Quito airport had been closed for about three hours earlier in the afternoon, because of bad storms and hail in the area. She said that it looked like it had snowed after the hail storm went through). Customs went fine, we found our representative from “Adventure Life” (our tour company) who was to take us to our hotel. Kathryn was there about five minutes later,    and we headed to our hotel. Hostel de la Rabida, a very nice hotel, we have a garden room with a king size bed. Kathryn is staying with us so that we are ready to hit Quito in the morning. We had them get a table for us, Kathryn hadn’t eaten, (Greg and I weren’t that hungry, they had fed us on the plane from Miami to Quito, after the $10 burgers) I just wanted desert and Greg had a sandwich. We also tried the “house” cocktails while we were waiting for our table/food to be ready.

Highlight of the Day: Getting to see my chicklet   

October 18, 2008
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Day in Quito

Quito, Ecuador

Day 2 – 10-18-08 (Saturday)

We were up by 7:30 a.m. and had breakfast at our hotel. Kathryn then took us to the “Tele Furico”,
a cable car 10,000 feet up above Quito, a total of 14,000 feet above sea level. (the taxi to get to “Tele Furico” was $2.50). All of Quito was laid out below us, the view is absolutely AMAZING. Quito is set in a valley between the Andes Mountains; it is just mind boggling how close we are to the Mountains. We go one block from our hotel, we are at a street corner, Kathryn says,”Hey mom and dad look over here.” We turn and look and it is like we can reach out and touch the Mts. You can hear about the Mts., but you can’t comprehend it until you see it. We climbed all over the top of the Mt. Great photo opportunities and tons of walking, we had to stop and take breaks because of the high altitude and the thin air. We came back down and took another taxi ($2.50) back to pretty much where we started, we then took a bus to the mall where we could eat lunch at the food court, so Greg and I hopefully won’t get sick. The bus ride was .25 each. They do use the American dollar here, which is very good for us.  (There is no tipping, tax and tip is included in the price of meals and items). We walked around the mall for a while and saw one of their grocery stores. It was neat to look at their types of food. It was Saturday, so the store was packed, just like Saturday at home at the grocery. The most amazing thing is that grapes are imported to Ecuador from the U.S. and they are very expensive, $5.00 a pound for green/red grapes. WOW. We then ate at an Italian restaurant in the mall, the food was good and lots of it. We then hit a bookstore to look for books for friends back home. We were able to find a Galapagos book for Dr. Kim.

We then walked FOREVER (Greg thinks about 2-3 miles) to catch another bus to go to “Cuidad Mitad Del Mundo”, the center of the earth (equator). The bus ride was an experience in and of itself. (.25 each) It was so packed that we were standing up the entire time. The bus stops all of the time to pick up passengers (it is like a taxi here at home, if you wave your arm the bus stops and you get on) We were on this bus approx. twenty minutes and got off one stop to early, and had to get back on the next bus. This one was even worse than the one before, the bus was so full that the doors “pushed” Greg on the bus into me. We felt like sardines in a can. We are like “is it ever full, and does anyone ever get off”. At the next stop we get yet another bus to head to the Equator. (.15 each for a one hour ride) After we finally get to the Equator – we took several pictures and looked around at all of the monuments. There were a lot of little shops all around. It was giving me all sorts of ideas for Christmas presents. Kathryn is taking us to the “market” on Friday so we can get things cheaper and barter for them. After we are done at the “Ciudad Mitad Del Mundo” we get back on another bus to head back to Quito for the evening. This bus takes us back to far so we find a taxi and go back to our hotel. We aren’t really hungry but we went out and found a “Texas” burger place with Ecuadorian flair. Greg had a burger while Kathryn and I had dessert and drinks. We walked around the Mariscal for a while. This is the party area of Quito where all of the “gringos” go and hang out. It is like Broad Ripple at home tons of clubs, and karaoke places to party. We head back to our hotel and sat in the living room in front of the fire and just talk for a while. We then went and rearranged our suitcases. Kathryn is taking the stuff we don’t need on the boat back to her house for the week. Our ride is coming for us at 7:30 a.m.; we are planning to be at breakfast by 7:00 a.m.

Highlight of the day: Greg – The Tele Furico, seeing all of the neat scenery from the Mts.
Wanetta – Very glad to be able to climb the Mts. and not feel like my heart was
going to come out of my chest. It was very high up we could have reached out
and waved to the airplane passengers, and they would have seen us.

October 19, 2008
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Going to the Galapagos

Bachas Beach, Galapagos

Day 3 10-19-08 (Sunday)

We were up by 6:30 a.m. for breakfast and to be ready for our ride to the airport to head to the Galapagos Islands. Our guide is on time and we head to the airport, our flight was a little later than we thought, so we got to sleep in a little. Kathryn came with us to the airport, but couldn’t go past the security points, just like at home. Our guide had all of our Galapagos paperwork, (tickets, customs forms and passes to get into the Charles Darwin Institute). Thank God for our guide. We would have had no clue as to where we were going or which line we needed to be in had it not been for him.

Take off was amazing – as the plane turns around to head down the runway, you look out the window and the Mts. are in front of the plane, it looks like you will run into the Mts. We fly for about forty-five minutes and land in Guayaquil to exchange passengers. Galapagos passengers stay on board, our flight will resume in about thirty-five to forty-five minutes. We took off again and landed about an hour and forty-five minutes later on Baltra Island (only one of the many Islands that make up the Galapagos Islands). Looking out the window at the Island and the runway, you wonder where the plane will land, the island seems to be as long as the runway…we landed and taxied to the hanger. I don’t know what I expected from this part of the world, but this isn’t it. Desolate is the only word that I can think of for the landscape that is out the window. No trees just very open, water in the distance and lots of scrub brush and weeds. I fell as if we have left civilization behind. The airplane terminal has an open front and back with a tin roof and sides. It is something that I would think that I would see in “Africa”. We went through customs, got our passports stamped, cards punched, paid our fee for the Charles Darwin Institute. We met our guide, Carmeilo, and took a bus ride to the pier, (about 5-6 minutes) (this is all that is on this island, just the pier for the boats, a ferry and the airport terminal). We loaded up our luggage into one dingy, and passengers into another and road out to our boat, “Guantamera”. We have twelve passengers, six crew and our park guide, Carmeilo.

We will not be spending a lot of time in our room. It is about 5” 4’ x 6” 3’, with bunk beds a tiny table with two drawers and a minuscule bathroom. I am so glad that we sent all of our “cold” weather clothes with Kathryn; we would never have had room in this tiny space for all of them. We headed to the dining room for lunch, tuna salad sandwiches and a fruit bowl, very good. After lunch it was time to head to the islands.  

We spent the afternoon on Los Barges beach. The beach is called “Los Barges” because of all of the barges from years ago that carried fresh water from Island to Island. When they stopped carrying water from Island to Island, they left the barges anchored out in the sea, and basically forgot about them. They eventually broke up and are scattered along the shores of this beach. This beach is beautiful white sand, it is so soft on your feet, and it feels like you are walking in flour or extra fine ground sugar. The sand is filled with tons of beautiful shells, coral and all sorts of things that have to remain in the sand. Since all of the Galapagos are a national park, there is no picking up of shells and things to take home.

The animals are just amazing and EVERYWHERE. We are looking at “sally light foot crabs” named for a woman “Dr. Sally” who spent her life studying and working with these beautiful crabs on the GI.* Some other animals we saw were, lots of marine and land iguanas, pelicans, frigates birds (they are the scavenger birds) they feed on sea turtle eggs, baby turtles and baby crabs. We got to see a pair of pink flamingos, they live in small lagoons scattered throughout the interior of the GI, we saw a couple of white boobies, a blue heron type of bird that was a lot larger than the ones at home. We spent about 2 ½ hours on the beach, we headed back to the boat via dingy (there will be a lot of dingy riding this week). We all met on the top deck of the boat for a talk on national park rules for the week and how to act around the animals, while in the park.

The crew passed around cocktails, we met the captain and his crew, we went over the itinerary for tomorrow (the only board I forgot to take a picture of), then went to dinner. Dinner was some sort of baked tuna/fish along with rice, mashed potatoes, veggies and dessert. Greg is in heaven with all of the fish and seafood. Our cabin is right next to the galley so he gets to “smell” all of the goodies coming out of the kitchen.

We have had a chance to talk to some of our “boat mates” for the next week. We have an interesting mixture on board, United States (us), Australia, Great Britain, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Ecuador. I am sure that we will get to know everyone by the end of the week.

Highlight of the day – Greg: Nature walk on the beach, seeing all of the animals
Wanetta: The white sand beaches, so soft on your feet

October 20, 2008
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Galapagos

South Plaza Island, Galapagos

Day 4 – 10-20-08 (Monday)

Breakfast was @ 7:00 a.m. Very yummy, this boat is feeding us all of the time (after our time on the beach there were snacks in the dining room when we got back, the entire trip, after a trip to shore there is always snacks waiting on the boat for us). After breakfast we had a dry landing to South Plazas Island, we walked all over the Island, we saw tons of sea lions, a bachelor colony of sea lions, they are the non-dominate males who can’t “get the girls”. We also saw tons of land and marine iguanas, one type of iguana has to live on land and the other has to live near the water. These two types have begun to inbreed on the island, becoming hybrids of sort. But, those ones are asexual and don’t survive.

This was a very rough, rocky trail all over the island. We also walked through a “cacti” forest. The cacti are what the land iguanas eat, but they have to wait until a part of the plant/leaf of the cacti or a cacti tuna (a tuna is the small round bloom of the cacti) falls to the ground for them to eat.

After spending about 2 hours on the island we headed back to the boat, we had a couple of hours before lunch. (Meals are at the same time every day, breakfast, 7:00 a.m., lunch is at noon, and dinner is at 7:00 p.m., they ring a bell throughout the boat when the meals are ready.) Greg took a nap I worked on this trip journal and then also took a nap. We are navigating to Sante Fe Island, about a 2-21/2 hour boat ride. (we don’t sail, we navigate from place to place) The trip was kind of choppy, but not to bad, I brought my seasickness medicine.

After lunch we sat in the sun for a while, the sun is very intense, I would hate to be here in the “hot” season. Then we got ready to snorkel. Greg brought his gear and he is going to rent a wet suit. I am staying in the dinghy and watching. The water is a little chilly, hence the wet suit. Greg had a BLAST. He has an underwater camera and he says that the view and scenery are just amazing. They were able to snorkel (about 7-8 people snorkeled each time) all around Sante Fe Island. After snorkeling we rode the dingy to the island and hiked all over the island. We saw more sea lions, (they stink) iguanas, and the Galapagos mocking birds. The mocking birds are funny; they have no natural place to get water on the island. (they can’t drink salt water) So if you are hiking, and have a water bottle with you, they can either see or smell the water, when you go to take a drink they literally follow your bottle all around on the ground. It is so weird, we just moved our bottle around to see what they would do and they will go in whatever direction the water is going. We are not allowed to give them any water, because they want them to stay in their natural habitat. For liquid, they will coax the birds off of their nests and break the eggs and drink the eggs for liquid.

Back to the boat, then a shower and dinner at 7:00 p.m. currently it is 6:15 p.m. and we are all sitting around on the upper deck visiting with everyone and talking about the day.

Everything is so amazing and beautiful. There has been wind so far all of the time, Donnie would love the “sailing” weather.

We sailed through the night to get to Gardner and Espanola Islands, about a 5-hour navigation. It was a little rough, but really not to bad.

Highlight of the day: Greg – Snorkeling
Wanetta - The cacti forest, island scenery, all of the rocks along the shoreline and the amazing surf

October 21, 2008
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Galapagos

Espanola, Galapagos

Day 5 – 10-21-08 (Tuesday)

Breakfast at 7:00 a.m. then on to the beach at Gardner Island for sun, fun and relaxing at 8:00 a.m. it is very overcast and gloomy; it even started to sprinkle rain before we headed to the beach. We landed on the beach in the middle of a fairly large colony of sea lions. This is a very long white sandy beach to explore. We are here for approx. 2 hours then back onto the boat.

10:30 a.m. was another time to snorkel; about ½ of the group went this time. Greg saw golden rays, starfish, stonefish (they blend in with the rocks/stones and are very hard to see) manta rays and tons of fish that he doesn’t know what they are, very nice. He also got to snorkel in and out of a cave that was very cool. The highlight of the snorkeling was running with a huge school of dolphins. Greg says that there were probably a hundred or so of them all around the dinghy. We could even see them jumping all around from the boat.
After lunch we headed to Espanola Island, just around the corner from Gardner Island, we actually landed in Gardner Bay on Espanola Island. This was just about a 90-minute boat ride. The sun finally came out, I stayed in the sun while Greg went and took a nap.
At 3:00 p.m. we headed out on a 2 ½ - 3 hour hike. This was a very rocky trail the entire hike. We are stepping/jumping from rock to rock every step we take. This is the hardest hike we will take all week long. We got to see blue footed boobies, nazca bobbies, Galapagos hawks, waved albatross and a yellow warbler canary. There are tons of birds on this island, more sea lions and another kind of marine iguana. During the mating season, this iguana is called the “Christmas” iguana because of their red and green colors.
The coastline of all of these islands is just breathtaking and amazing. Greg loves all of the animals and I love the sight and sound of the surf. We got to see a huge blowhole that spouts every time a wave comes crashing into the shoreline. Our group sat and watched this sight for approx. 20 – 30 minutes.
After supper we again sailed through the night to another island for tomorrow. There are several members of the group that want the “magic” pill to make the waves go away. I am doing very well and Greg is having no problems at all.
Highlight of the day: Greg – Snorkeling and the dolphins
Wanetta – The birds and the beautiful surf

October 22, 2008
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Galapagos

Floreana, Galapagos

Day 6 – 10-22-08 (Wednesday)

Breakfast at 7:00 a.m., we landed on Floreana Island by 7:45 a.m. We took a short walk around the island; this island is mainly known for the pink flamingos. There is more soft wonderful sandy beaches to explore. This beach that we are on is a mixture of brown and green flecks. All of the beaches are made up of the different types of volcanic rock/ash that make up the island and shoreline.
In the middle of Floreana Island there is a lagoon just covered with pairs of pink flamingos. You can hear them eating the shrimp; they are eating as fast as you can think. They filter the water and eat the shrimp; they do over 300 pumps per minute.
After exploring a white sandy beach on the other side of the flamingo lagoon we sat on a scenic part of the island and talked to our guide about how the GI got their name and how they first became settled and the first persons that lived on the islands.
We head back to the boat for the last snorkeling time for those who want to snorkel. Greg suited up and headed out with the group. He says that the water is so clear (he can see for over 20, 30 feet deep, the water is that clear) and that the fish and wildlife is just beyond imagining.
After lunch we had a very short navigation, just around the corner, we stopped at “Post office Bay” a traditional place where old time mariners would leave mail/post for the next person who was going to his town and would pick up “the post” and deliver it to his loved ones. We left a post in the same traditional way, but I am not very sure if it will ever get to its destination.
After group photos at the post office we watched the various crew members of the 5-6 boats that are always anchored together at the same islands, play a pick up game of “football” (soccer). Even some of the passengers joined in. Then back to the boat for a 4-5 hour navigation to Santa Cruz Island.
We are now anchored in a bay with tons of other boats (150-200), there is even a National Geographic boat in our harbor. It is huge, and all lit up.
After dinner we are allowed to dis-embark for a couple of hours and “see” the town. I am almost just ready to stay on the boat and see the “critters”. People are a jolt, after the peace and quiet of only 12 persons on board and no talking animals.
We walked around town for a while, and then went back to the boat via a water taxi, to pack and get ready to leave the boat for good in the morning.

October 23, 2008
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Charles Darwin, Old Towne Quito

Charles Darwin Center, Galapagos

Day 7 – 10-23-08 (Thursday)

Breakfast @ 7:00 p.m. then disembark to head to the Charles Darwin Institute. We changed our guide here; our guide for the past four days had to pick up a new group (Mario) is our new guide. After about 20 minutes with Mario, we are so glad that we didn’t have him all week long. Carmeilo – our guide all week long was just amazing. His English was very good and he was very informed and knowledgeable about the GI. He made the islands come alive for us with his stories of the islands and all of the information about the animals and their habits. We want to go back to he GI again at some point, Carmeilo is a large part of that, we learned so much from him that we want to go to the islands that we didn’t see on this trip.

We were very disappointed in the Charles Darwin Institute; it was nothing more than a glorified zoo. The new animals that we got to see were the large sea turtles. We did manage to see “Lonesome George” the oldest sea turtle on the islands, he is 150 years old. The breeding program that they are working on was interesting, but our guide didn’t have much information for us about it. He ran us through there so fast that we couldn’t read any of the material that was posted about the turtle restoration program.
Then on to the bus that will take us to a ferry, and to another bus that will take us to the airport back on Baltra Island so that we can fly back to Quito. We got back to Quito and our hotel around 5:00 p.m. Kathryn was already there waiting for us, she had already found out what room we were in and had our key. She took us all around old town Quito, the historical part of the city. It is very beautiful and the buildings are so interesting with all of the churches and cathedrals. We even got to walk past the President of Ecuador’s residence.
We ate supper at one of Kathryn’s favorite pizza places that she had found since she has been there. It is different from our pizza but very good.

October 24, 2008
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USFQ, The Market, Quito

Quito, Ecuador

Day 8 – 10-24-08 (Friday)

We got up and had breakfast at our hotel then we took a bus ride to Kathryn’s school USFQ (University of San Francisco at Quito). It is a very beautiful campus. The buildings are all old with marble halls, walkways and floors. It is very well maintained and the grounds are amazing. I thought that AU’s campus was beautiful; USFQ has us beat hands down.

After our campus visit we had lunch with Kathryn’s Quito “parents” Ruth and Gonzolo. They are wonderful people. They reminded us of Grandpa Rouse and how Grandpa and Grandma Stocksdale interacted with each other. We had a wonderful meal and conversation. They love Kathryn and she is happy with them, an answer to our prayers I think.
After lunch, we headed to the marketplace to do some Christmas shopping via Ecuador. The items are so cheap here, you can get T-shirts for $3:00 each, scarves 3 for $5:00, there are so many different things to choose from, it is nothing like Shipshewana. We shopped until we dropped and had no more hands to carry any more bags. We took a taxi back to our hotel, dropped off all of our goodies and went out in search of supper. We found a Mexican place a “short” walk away, all of the walks are “short” but seem to take 15-20 minutes to get there.
After supper we were all just dead tired. Our taxi will be here at 4:00 a.m. to take us to the airport. So we need to get repacked, add our marketplace goodies and head to bed. I went down and wrote in the hotel’s book about our stay. By the time I got back to the room upstairs, Greg had our bags all re-packed with all of our goodies and we didn’t even need the extra duffle that I had packed.  
We then went to bed to try and get a little sleep; morning and 3:30 a.m. will be here soon.

October 25, 2008
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On the way home

Day 9 – 10-25-08 (Saturday)
Up at 3:30 a.m. to head to the airport. We dropped Kathryn off at her house on the way to the airport, she has a day trip with BCA to cloud city. We had a couple of tears and she will be home soon. She loves Quito, but hates school…it is so much harder than anyone in their group had expected.

So now we are waiting to board our flight for Miami, it is 5:45 a.m. and we still have an hour to wait until take off. No liquids are allowed back here past security, nothing in the airport was open when we got to the airport. We both want some caffeine in the worst way. We each got our caffeine as soon as we got on the plane. It took about 3-4 hours to fly to Miami. At customs we ran into the same nice man from Quito that we had seen at the beginning of our trip, he wanted to know if we liked Quito and the GI. and what all did we see while we were there. It takes a little while to get through customs and pick up our luggage and check it back in again. We have about 3 hours before we head to Chicago and then Indy. We find something to eat, and then call different family and let them know that we are at least back in the States even if we aren’t home yet.
We are on the plane headed for Chicago; we are worried about our connecting flight in Chicago. We sat on the tarmac for 1-½ hours to work on the plane in Miami. They were working on some strut thing, we want the plane to be safe, but this is nuts. We are supposed to take off from Chicago at 5:30 p.m.; we didn’t leave Miami until after 4 p.m. it is not looking good.
We land in Chicago 10 minutes after our connecting flight had taken off, we have to try and fly standby on the next flight to Indy. We have already called Nathan and told him not to leave the house until he hears from us, making sure we are on a plane, headed for Indy. Luckily we get on the next flight leaving Chicago at 7:20 p.m. and we let Nathan know that he can leave to come and get us now. We are just dead tired, hungry and have headaches and just want our bed at home ASAP. Our flight to Indy is only 28 minutes, we have our luggage,   that, I wasn’t so sure of, with all of the messed up flights. Nathan was there almost as soon as we landed; we got our bags and headed home. Nathan has black hair…something about a Halloween party and a Goth costume. I am really too tired to take it all in just now.
11:00 p.m. one of the most amazing trips we have ever taken is over, we can hardly wait to go back. As much as I miss Kathryn every day, I am glad that she went to Ecuador, she gave us the perfect reason, to travel somewhere that we probably never would had ever thought about visiting. Right now I am just so glad to be in my bed and get some decent sleep.

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