As a child I had a fascination for tortoises, this became a passion as I got older, and eventually became an obsession when I saw a tv programme about the giant tortoises around the world, in particular the giant Galapagos Tortoises.
I had seen several documentaries over the years, about the Galapagos Islands and read and researched the conservation work being carried out to preserve the unique and varied wildlife living there. The Galapagos Islands were calling me. I had no idea of the adventure I was about embark upon. I was also acutely aware of the impact tourism may be having on the islands but it’s just too irresistible, I had to go and see the Tortoises for myself. Now I have been there I can only echo the words of Charles Darwin who said “A trip to the Galapagos is an unforgettable experience”
What can I say about the Galapagos islands that has not already been said? In truth probably not very much. People visit these islands for so many different reasons, and the islands never disappoint, whatever the reason. For me this trip is a once in a life time pilgrimage to see the giant Tortoises, roaming freely and living in their natural habitat. I do of course appreciate there is so much more to these islands and I am hoping for a fantastic journey of unique wildlife, both on land and in the sea, strange food, secluded villages tucked away awaiting to be explored and of course to follow in famous explorer Darwins footsteps.
I am travelling with my boyfriend, and our holiday begins in Ecuador, in the city of Quito to be precise as this is one of the few gateways to the Galapagos islands. I have to confess I am somewhat concerned about travelling to Ecuador, due to the fact that a state of emergency had been declared earlier in the year. Furthermore, there were reports of civil unrest, reports of tourist kidnappings and a nationwide curfew was in place. I have kept a close eye on the Government travel advice websites leading up to our departure and thankfully by July, it is stated that while caution should be exercised, the state of emergency and the curfew have been lifted, and Quito itself was now deemed a safe city for tourists. I have booked the trip through Exotica travel agent and we will have local guides and will be travelling with a group, I am hoping for safety in numbers. I don’t think I would be quite so keen to be a solo traveller in Ecuador at this time, and it is probably not advisable to travel alone. For me Ecuador is a means to an end, to get to the Galapagos islands and the Giant Tortoises, but I appreciate it would be shortsighted not to make the most of the stay in Ecuador.
Our flights are from London Heathrow and we transit through Miami to Quito airport. We fly on the British Airways A830 aircraft, the first time I have flown on this aircraft. Sadly we do not sit up stairs but I can still appreciate the enormity of the craft, it is huge. It's a comfortable easy flight with good entertainment and good hostess services. We are met at Quito airport by an Exotica Rep, who takes us to our Hotel, the Dan Carlton an impressive high end Hotel which exceeds my expectations. We have a short overnight stay at our here before we transfer to Tena, Ecuadors rain forest and jungle. We are welcomed at the hotel by another Exotica Rep, Marcelo, he explains our itinerary in detail, Exotica have left nothing to chance the have made the trip fool proof for sure. There are 14 of us altogether in the meeting and we will be together as a group throughout the holiday. We are a mixed bunch aged from 7 years old to 70 years old. Marcelo then takes us on a guided tour of Quito city.
Whilst we are being guided around the city armed guards and police are still very present and they make themselves very visible. They are based at hotels, shops and even in public spaces. Our hotel in particular is heavily is guarded by the Police and the Army, we found later found out this is due to the fact the the President is currently residing at our hotel, he is not a popular man, and my sense of unease returns. However, I am pleasantly surprised by the city, Quito city itself is very clean, the people are friendly, they are clearly glad to see tourists coming back. Tourism is a big industry here. It is reasonably priced for food, drinks and shopping in general. There is a mix of old ramshackle buildings, colourful colonial style buildings, newly constructed modern architectural buildings, as well as lots of historical churches. Marcelo has excellent English which makes it easy for him to convey his passion and knowledge of his city.
Our tour includes a visit to the spectacular Basilica del Voto National church,
along with a chocolate tasting experience, at Patio Andaluz Boutique Hotel which is a picture perfect hotel.
Here we have a chance to taste Ecuadors finest chocolate which is simply exquisite, and currently costs $6 per bar. All in all I liked Quito city and although I had some trepidation about visiting here I am glad our tour started here and we will be back to this hotel after our jungle stay.
OFF TO THE JUNGLE…..
The next morning starts with an early alarm call and a packed up breakfast we depart the hotel and are taken by coach to the jungle. It’s quite a long journey and give me too much time to dwell and contemplate how I am going to cope with the spiders, insects and creepy crawlies. The coach is comfortable and we stop for lunch at a family run restaurant called Hostal de Gina, in Quijos. The food is good, traditional and reasonably priced and the family are welcoming.
Arriving in the jungle, we are staying at Tena, in a lodge in the rainforest at the Hakuna Matata resort.
Here we have two jungle walks planned, one at night and one during the day - I would gladly skip them both, I do not like spiders and insects, but peer pressure gets the better of me and I attend both walks. We see a variety of snakes and spiders such as river spiders and a scorpion spider to name but a few.
The noise of the jungle is incredible, just like in the movies, you can literally hear an absolute orchestral symphony being played out by animals and insects all around us, how can I sleep with this noise? I’m glad when the walks are over, and just hope none of the creatures are able to creep into our open aired room during the night. I manage to sleep, despite the noise and my fear in giant river spiders invading the room, and eventually find the noise of the jungle, which continues until break of dawn, strangely and soothing. In the morning light the jungle seems beautiful, and it is enough for me eventually put out of mind the amount of spiders and insects that are literally within feet of me, it’s so peaceful, relaxing and tranquil. You can see every shade of green imaginable, and it’s punctuated with the whole spectrum of colourful flowers. It has a swimming pool and there are lots of pathways you can walk where you will discover local villages, wildlife and the river.
Our food is included here, 3 meals per day, and it is a good standard of food a great variety and has lots of fruit I have never seen or heard of including tree tomatoes and guanoabana all of which we are freely available. The dining area has hummingbird feeders, and you can frequently see the birds feeding here. The dining area is all open air and the staff are friendly and attentive.
After our stay in Tena it’s time to travel back to Quito, to the Dan Carlton Hotel - still heavily guarded - this journey is via a stop at the Middle of the World Monument, which is a sight to see. As we arrived there are flamenco dancers, in the central square. There are shops, cafes and bars everywhere, you can get your passport stamped, and there are unlimited novelty photo opportunities, being able to stand on both sides of the equator. You can also try your hand at balancing an egg on a nail, not easy, but can be done.
There is also quite surprisingly a couple of Alpacas living there, who like to pose for photos.
We make a further stop a a town called Archidona, at one of the restaurants here the local delicacy is insects and many people in our group do eat them, at a cost of $2 each. This time I do not give in to peer pressure, and politely decline.
We now have three days in Quito, and I am counting down to the day I will see the Giant Tortoises, it really cannot come quick enough. But our days are busy and we get to see lots around Quito. There are several optional tours available from our agent but my boyfriend and I are the only one partaking in a trip to the Mindo butterfly garden. As it’s just us two Marcel picks us up in his own car and he takes us to the butterfly garden via a humming bird park`, which he says is one of his favourite places to visit. We were able to feed the humming birds, with the special feeders filled with sugar water. They were simply beautiful and the colours catching in the sunlight were hypnotising sight to see, they seemed so fragile, but they are so friendly and tame.
Our final night at the Dan Carlton, Quito, we dined in their Opera restaurant. The food and the service would easily have been at home in any Mitchelin star restaurant. (I will review hotels, accommodation and food etc in a separate blog.)
We leave Quito, and the Dan Carlton hotel, the next day next we and we take a short flight to San Cristobal, I am getting ever closer to my dream trip to the giant Tortoises. Again we are met at the airport and taken to our hotel, the Galapagos Planet Hotel and we have a two o’clock rendezvous with another rep, who tells us about our day tomorrow. I am so overwhelmed when he tells us we are going to the Tortoise Sanctuary tomorrow morning, my eyes are teary, as I’m so emotionally excited to be visiting the sanctuary and I have a lump in my throat. This is literally what I have been waiting years for and my sole purpose for this trip, I am so overcome I cannot look at anyone else in the room. My boyfriend realises this, and squeezes my hand, no words needed.
We head out to while away the hours, which seem to be going in slow motion now. Unbeknown to us today was San Cristobal’s celebration of Independence. There is a fantastic parade through the main high street. Dancers, bands, marching soldiers, children from all the local schools are all adorned in elaborate costumes, and the streets are filled with locals, tourists and very proud parents, some are joining in the celebrations. It’s a lovely unexpected musical and colourful sight to see and experience.
The island is a vast mix of run down old dilapidated old houses, which at first glance you think are uninhabitable, but as you pass by you catch a glimpse of a line of washing, or someone on their mobile phone or even a fairly new looking car tucked to the side of the building. Some of these buildings are literally built out of wooden pallets. There are also many development projects going on, building houses, hotels, bars and restaurants. In fact a new bar and restaurant opened on the day we left the island. There are high end boutique shops and shabby corner shops, street vendors, selling everything from street food to baby wipes. To bottle of water, and bags of fruit. It is slightly more expensive on the island compared to Ecuador, but that is to be expected, due to shipping and importing costs.
The day has finally arrived, we begin with a snorkelling adventure, I cannot take part in this part of the trip. I am just not able, in my mind, to jump off the side of the boat, it terrifies me, reluctantly and miserably I miss out. I have to be content with my binoculars and spotting land animals and bird - of which there are many. Sea lions are literally the owners of the beaches and they are basking everywhere, along with Blue Footed Boobies, Pelicans and Frigate birds, all with no regard or care for the humans also sharing the powdery white beaches. When the group return to the boat they are ecstatic at what they have seen. They share and compare stories of seeing schools of dazzling fish and talk animatedly about how they were swimming eye to eye with the magnificent, genteel and serene sea turtles. They do their utmost and best to console me and remind me that we will soon see the tortoises!
We leave the beach and head for the sanctuary. As soon as we enter the park there is a giant female tortoise feeding. She is magnificent, and of course huge. We are all absolutely in awe of her, and we all stand watching her for what seems like several minutes, before our guide politely reminds us “there are more tortoises to see”, and we collectively move on, staying on the pathway and spotting the Tortoises around the park. There are many wandering around and occasionally we have to wait on the pathway to allow a tortoise to cross. They are all in very good condition and are well looked after. The guide shares his knowledge of the tortoises and plants in the gardens. I also keep tortoises myself, a different species of course, so I am fascinated to learn the differences and similarities of the tortoise husbandry, habitats, lifestyle, diets and conditions. We are able to get fairly close to the tortoises and of course I take many photos. At the end of the trail there are about 100 baby tortoises varying from hatchlings to three years old, all being kept in suitable tortoise tables. The walking trail lasts about two hours, it is a relaxing and easy walk, but for me this is no where near enough time. It is however a dream come true and I feel honoured and privileged to have seen the tortoises roaming freely around the park and to have seen the nursery of babies too. All in all this is a fantastic park to visit and to learn about tortoises and their habitat. I know I am bias as this was the ultimate highlight for me, but I would recommend this park visit to anyone with an interest in nature and seeing animals in their natural habitat.
As much as I would gladly spend all my time on San Cristobal, with the tortoises, we have other trips planned during our stay and today we have a tour of San Cristobal island to partake in. We visit the picturesque Puerto Chino, to discover more wildlife and we are not disappointed. Here we saw more Blue Footed Boobies, this time with her two day old hatchlings.
Pelicans, Frigate Birds, and more snorkelling opportunities. Our day ends with a stop at La Loberia, which is home to a colony of sea lions, who do not bat an eyelid when yet another coach load of tourists turn up to temporarily invade their space and take their photos for a while.
LEAVING GALAPAGOS
I am so sad to be leaving San Cristobal, I have not had enough time here and feel like the three days have gone by so quickly. It has been amazing and I make a vow to myself to come back again - very soon. Our adventure now takes us back to Ecuador, to Guayaquil this time and we are staying at the River Garden Hotel. The biggest city in Ecuador, and manically busy with people and traffic everywhere. This time our tour guide takes us to the Malecon 2000 , which is a stretch along the river of just over 2km. Its; an amazing place to visit. There are street entertainers, such artists drawing caricature’s, musicians busking, cafes, a ferris wheel, a cable car , and a huge shopping mall, to name but a few attractions. At night it is very busy here with locals as well as tourists. It is still not really recommended to visit here and we don’t feel quite as safe here as we did in Quito but we have our wits about us and want to explore. We head to Las 444 Escapers. The 444 steps, that lead up to a chapel and a light house. There are plenty of places to stop for a break, to get something to eat and drink, and even a karaoke bar and a night club along the way and the view at the top is worth while.
Another place worth a visit is the Paque Iguanas. Yes a park where iguanas live and roam freely, so freely that if you are in their way they will just climb over you. They are very tame and you can fed them. There is also large pond here with turtles living there.
We took the open top city bus tour. Its a good tour and you do get to see a lot, but if you are on the top deck you have to be able to duck very quickly as you will encounter lots of low hanging trees, cables and wires, and some of the flyovers come down very low! Health and safety is not paramount here.
Most of our group head home the next day, however we are stying a further two days, and we are going on a river boat trip tomorrow in the hope of seeing Howler monkeys and to explore the mangroves. We trek through the mangroves to get down to the river and our waiting boat, I use the term boat very loosely here, it is a very narrow long, few wooden planks, and not what I am expecting. I’m not sure we are going to make it back without getting very wet, on goes my life jacket. There are what seems like all of the mosquitos in the world following us and I get bitten to pieces, despite being covered in a whole bottle of repellent. We first hear the Howler monkeys, they live permanently up in the trees, then we spot them albeit very briefly as they sprint along tall tress. We are just able to catch glimpses of a mother and baby before they are out of sight. Our guide does his best to track them and other animals for us to see, but he is not successful. We see lots of pink spoon billed birds - who knew there was such a thing, but they are eye catching and beautiful, the colour is vivid and they are quite big. They seem too big to be able to sit on a tree branch for too long, before the branch snaps under their weight, but they seem comfortable. I am quite happy spotting White Herons and Turkey Vultures, until our guide spots a crocodile on the bank. The guide switches off the engine of the boat, much to my panic, surely he should be heading as fast as possible in the other direction. But no he assures us we are safe, in our tiny wooden craft. I do not share his confidence, especially as the crocodile now makes his way into the river beside us. Luckily he goes underwater and the guide decides there is no point hanging around as the crocodile may be under water for quite some time, thankfully he starts the engine and we move on, or as I call it run for our lives. Our guide says he will try to spot more crocodiles, I say I have seen enough crocodiles. Our guide is the lucky one and he spots two more crocodiles, in the water this time. Thinking that my life jacket will not be enough to save me, as he switches off the engine again, I start to look for the closest shore line and wonder if in my panic I will be able to out swim a hungry crocodile. I think the guide can sense my fear and says we can move on. At this point I realise I had been holding my breath, for what seems like ten minutes, and I breath. Thankfully we are heading back to land - safe land.
As always on our travels we try to locate a local football stadium, and this trip was no exception. We saw two on this occasion. One we found in Quito by chance, out walking one evening. It is 35000 capacity stadium and is in the heart of the city, almost next door to the shopping mall. The second stadium we made a journey to was in Guayaquil. It was a fairly long walk from where we were staying, and the walk took us through some undesirable streets, to the point I almost wanted to turn around a go back. But we made it to the Banco Pichincha Monumental stadium. The team Barcelona S.C had played there the night before, but there were no signs that 12,000 spectators had been present. There was a guard in a sentry guard box, by guard I mean a very young man on sentry duty. He saw us trying to take pictures from outside the stadium and welcomed us in to get better shots, and even took a couple of pictures of us. He then advised us to go straight back to our resort as we were in an unsafe part of the city. We didn’t need to be told twice and we seemed to get back much quicker than we got there.
Leaving Guayaquil we are due to fly to Miami, Madrid then on to Heathrow. However, our flight leaving Guayaquil flight is delayed, and we miss our connection to Madrid and we are stuck in Miami for the night. We are given a hotel and food vouchers for the night - no idea where our luggage is, as it has been in transit since leaving Guayaquil. Our flight is now tomorrow evening. So we are in Holiday Inn Miami, with time to kill, with no belongings, a few food vouchers and now I am feeling homesick for sure. However, the next evening we are able to fly out of Miami, direct to London Heathrow and homeward bound. Its been an incredible, hopefully not once in a lifetime trip, we made same amazing friends, saw spectacular wildlife, been on some fantastic and terrifying tours and trips but all in all we had an astoundingly spectacular adventure.
I will review hotels and give tips in another blog (to follow).
The Galapagos Islands are a UNESCO world heritage site, therefore they are governed by a preservation law which endeavours to manage the sustainability of the islands whilst allowing visitors. Most visitors will arrive from Ecuador to one of the islands two main airports, on either San Cristobal or on Baltra. Three airlines currently fly daily TAME, LAN-Ecuadore and Avianca. Prices range from $380-$500 return. On arrival at the airport you have to purchase a $20 tourist transit card and you have to pay a $200 entrance fee to the Galapagos National Park. You could also choose to cruise to the islands. The cruises are categorised as economy, tourist, first class and luxury. The ships vary in size and may carry 12 - 110 passengers. The cruises generally last either 4 days/3nights or 12 days/11 nights and are often cheaper than flying and hotel accommodation.
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