Day 4

 

Oh the sound of the anchor at the wee hours of the morning like 5 am , i felt like i gave birth to the anchor every morning it seemed like it was right under my bed and shortly after that the voice of our guide Paulina bright and early ( 6:30) over the sound system of the boat....good morning everyone we have arrived at Isabella Island at Puerto Villamil, breakfast will be at 7 and we will be departing for our hike at 8 , oh hell what did i sign up for???? What was i thinking i HATE mornings!!!!! But believe it or not i got up and out of bed every morning like i was some joe pro hiker and adventurer ready for the day! I was so excited to see what we would find , see do i was full of adrenaline.

At 8 am we departed the Catamaran to begin our hike up Sierra Negra Volcano  is a large shield volcano at the South eastern end of Isabela Island in the Galapagos that rises to an altitude of 3,687 ft. It coalesces with the volcanoes Cerro Azul to the west and Alcedo to the north. It is one of the most active of the Galapagos volcanoes with the most recent historic eruption in October 2005. We hiked to the top and it was a beautiful and peaceful view. On the way up we saw quite a few species of finches and incense plants, you could smell them when they were around. After taking in the view we hiked back down and head back to the boat for lunch and then returned to land for our trip to the Wall of Tears or in Spanish El Muro De Las Lagrimas which is a wall that was built by 300 prisoners that we placed on this island and used to test out how the living would be , the idea of the wall was to keep the prisoners busy and in. The boulders were left behind by the US Army. I could have skipped on this landmark and just gone to the beach but just went with the flow and really there is no skipping on anything unless you want to stay on the boat, The Galapagos are a very controlled area and environment you can not just roam freely unless you are in an inhabited area or Island. There are 5 of the 17  islands are inhabited: Baltra, Floreana, Isabela, San Cristobal and Santa Cruz.

Once we made our way through the Wall of  Tears we then headed towards the rearing center which is run by the Galapagos National park and there one of our group friends Christophe just happened to notice a very tiny baby tortoise in and area that it needed to be removed because of the rats that would  be able to get  it and have it for dinner...so our group did a good deed and saved a baby tortoise. There are lots of increasing impact from tourism, encroaching invasive species, increasing immigration from the mainland, and so forth but we did our deed for the day.From the rearing center we took a brisk walk to the beach and saw many marine iguanas , flamingos and many different types of other birds, everywhere you turn everywhere you look is just fascinating. Some of us took a sea dip and others like me just lounged around taking in the view. We then started a walk down the beach back to a little pier in town for our pickup back to the boat but on our way there stumbled upon a really cool little beach bar called Betos , Beto in fact was there working on Sunday and was nice enough to sell us Alcohol on Sunday which is usually a no no on the Islands. But out he came with fresh coconuts( coco loco's)  filled with Betos own moonshine!Yee Haw the party was on! Another great day.

 

 

The Galapagos

To all who had been waiting for this blog I would like to say that I had full intentions on blogging information on a regular basis  from the Galapagos but we in fact we did not have any cell service or Internet for approximately 7 days. At times I thought about writing but made the decision to just sit back and take it all in. Now that we are home I have had the time to reflect back on all that we did and I would love to share this amazing experience with you.

For starters the Galapagos Islands over exceeded my expectations, it was animal encounter heaven! If you love animals it is a complete must to move this trip right up to the top of your bucket or travel list.It is not the most beautiful place I  have ever seen or the clearest water I have snorkeled in but it had its own beauty that just jumped into my heart and swept me away very quickly. The beauty for me was the fact that the animals are so calm and not afraid of humans, you are not allowed to touch or approach the animals and should be at least 6 ft away from them, they are just amazingly used to humans and have not been hunted or harassed , maybe one of the last places on earth like this. There is also an abundance of animals, you don't see just a few there are allot!!!! I can sit here all day and try to explain what we had the honor to see with our eyes but words are nothing like being there. Ok well here it goes................

Day 1
Began  from Miami to Quito, Ecuador which is a very easy and quick flight of just 4 hours and 20 min. We arrived and our transportation was there and ready to pick us up and take us to our hotel the JW Marriott which was very nice and fairly new.We all checked in to our spacious rooms and then headed down for a cocktail and snack at the bar, we had an early evening since we traveled all day and had to rise and shine early for our biking trip through the Andes Mountain's.

Day 2 .... Go to Biking with the Dutchman Blog post here or on Facebook.

Day 3
A short flight from Quito to Guayaquil for a pick up of more passengers traveling to the Galapagos and then 1 hour and 20 min  to Baltra which is a is a small island of the Galapagos. Also known as South Seymour. Baltra is a small flat island located near the center of the Galápagos'. The island is very arid and vegetation.From here we were taken by bus from the airport  to the ferry dock and transported to Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz.After quickly boarding our Catamaran with welcome cocktails and snacks we check out our lovely rooms and started our adventure immediately jumping on our dinghy's and off we went to our first location in the Highlands to see the Giant Tortoise in the wild.
The Galápagos' tortoise  is the largest living species of tortoise and 10th-heaviest living reptile, reaching weights of over 880 lb and lengths of over 5.9 ft. With life spans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates. The tortoise is native to seven of the Galapagos Islands,Spanish explorers who discovered the islands in the 16th century named them after the Spanish  Galapagos , meaning tortoise.
Shell size and shape vary between populations. On islands with humid highlands, the tortoises are larger, with domed shells and short necks. On islands with dry lowlands, the tortoises are smaller, with saddle back shells and long necks. These differences from one island to the next helped Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution.

After emerging ourselves into the the adventure that is about to unwind we arrived back to the boat for our wonderful first dinner aboard.

More to come..........

Biking with the Dutchman

Had to rise and shine at an early 5:30 am to get ready for an all day mountain bike ride through Papallacta. We were met at the hotel for a pick up and had a 20 minute ride to the Dutchman's house. We were greeted like family  and got to play with their German Shepperd Max, that was so cool because i was really missing my dog Sammy. So we all piled up into a transportation  vehicle with all of our bikes on the roof top of the truck and off we went! As we drove up to Papallacta we saw a terrible bus accident that had happened earlier in the day , the bus was over turned and there was quite a few people  walking away,it was a sad site to see , our guide told us that if there are any fatalities they painted blue hearts on the road similar to  how we put the flowers in an area where there has been a fatal  accident . After seeing the bus accident i was a little hesitant on having to bike on the road, there was so much fog and switch turns. We proceeded up the mountain to over 10,000 ft and I was starting to feel the elevation pressure in my body. While i was still at home i had started taking elevation medication , it did not me me feel normal at all , it gave me the jitters ,could not taste food and carbonated drinks tasted weird, just made me feel like i was on speed! So on the day we were flying out of Miami my time came up for my dose and i contemplated on do i take it or not ? Can the altitude be that bad? Will i even feel it , naahh it s only for 2 days so i decided not to take it,my  husband said he thought i looked all weirded out when he came home from work on Wednesday .What a mistake but i will get to that in a minute.

So we pull off to the side of the road at the top at Paso De la Virgin 13, 300 ft on to a dirt road and the Dutchman throws all of our helmets on the ground in the mud and rocks, i was like hmm this is going to be interesting, well that was the last time for a few hours i would be clean. We all got our gear on and started our decent to Cayuja the gateway to the Amazon, off we went down a rocky, muddy, and cold and let me mention misty rain!

 

This bike ride  is an excellent way to see a cross section of Ecuador’s ecosystems in just one day. As we travel, we are dwarfed by the striking Andes Mountains that surround us. We were not  lucky  enough to  have a clear day and we were not able to see  all the snow capped volcanoes of the Eastern Cordillera (Cayambe, Cotopaxi, Antisana, Chimborazo). We pedaled across the paramo – the Ecuadorian equivalent of the arctic tundra and down through stunning cloud forest, and traversing thorough steep Andean slopes as we descend down into the Amazon basin.The terrain for this leg of the journey is a combination of dirt and paved roads of scenic rolling hills.

Oh what i have i done to my poor group .We could hardly see anything or anyone in front of us , we road this trail for about 3 miles then we all met on the road side , yes road side , i was not looking forward to being on the road . The Dutchman told some of us , oh just continue down the road i will catch up but make sure to stay to the side so that you don’t get hit by a car. I gathered myself and off we went , we flew down that road as most of our biking was down hill. Saw some road kill and a dingo dog having his lunch from a carcase .

Now  we were soaked head to toe, good thing we all had some type of rain gear. The Dutchman caught up with all of us making sure no one was left behind, we then crossed the road and what looked like someone house was another dirt path that lead to a lake and down we went going very fast. As we were descending down the path we came across a cute little pig and a heard of cows. Good thing they were big enough to spot in the mist , to the right was a very large lake that unfortunately we couldn’t see very well due to the fog. Once we made it to the end we all took a look at each other and we were covered from head to toe with mud, but of course not me i did not see those few cow poop piles along the path and I went over a few and had cow poop all over my face and rain gear. Needless to say i was ready for the thermal hot springs!

 We arrived to Papallacta thermal hot springs,Papallacta has crystal clear water at ten different temperatures . I was happy to finally get there since this was a place to warm up, we all took out door hot showers and into the pool we went. After our warm baths in the thermal pools the Dutchman and crew had a great homemade lunch ready for us. We finished the day with the best part of the bike ride to me, the Ave Maria Pass (4200m), we then bike back towards Quito along the Chiche river basin. This is one of the longest downhill rides in the world, about 45 km. The last 18 kilometers will be on the famous railroad line going through five tunnels, one of which is 322 meters of paramo and cloud forest.We were chilled by occasional fog.We started head back towards Quito, it was in a beautiful trail that was a narrow rim with 4 tunnels and some beautiful scenery like waterfalls and beautiful river and fauna. It was now the end of the day and we all piled up in our transportation vehicle and back to the Dutchman’s house we went. When we arrived he had beverages waiting for us. It was a great day with a total of approximately 25miles of riding.

I could not wait to see my bottle of Excedrin but what a great time.

 

 

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