Before leaving the jungle we had time for one more activity. Fausto led us on a short walk from the lodge and we met the boat on the other side of the island. Along the way we saw some spider monkeys in the trees, they didn’t seem very happy to see us with angry expressions […]
Day 64 : The Amazon Jungle
The morning boat trip took us to a local village. We waited on the shore while Fausto cleared our arrival and then walked through the plantations and gardens to reach some of the village buildings. We walked past a house and school to a field where locals were working clearing weeds from the crops of […]
Day 63 : The Amazon Jungle
The mornings activity saw us head upriver past the point where we had left the truck and onward to a curve in the river where we disembarked to start a nature walk in the jungle. Our guide was Fausto, a knowledgeable and friendly local man. For a few hours we slowly walked and every now […]
Day 62 : Otavalo to the Jungle
Our journey today was a reasonably long driving day out to the Amazon basin and the eastern edge of the Amazon jungle. It was a beautiful day and we drove past some amazing scenery as we drove over the Ecuadorian Andes and a high pass at 4200ft. Taking in the view One of the alpine […]
Day 61 : Quito to Otavalo
The group met at the hotel reception just before 8am and we were taken a short way down the road to where our truck, Tranquilo, was parked. Vanessa showed up around the vehicle and our bags were loaded into the lockers and then we were inside and heading for the equator park. Vanessa was talking […]
Day 60 : Quito
We had another hotel to move to today but we decided to have a sleep in before we moved the few blocks to the next place, the Alston Inn Hotel. When we got to the hotel the room wasn’t yet available so we left our bags behind reception and then sat down to decide what […]
Part VI : Day 59 : Quito
We took today as a rest day. Our only real task was to move to a new hotel and meet the Kumuka tour crowd in the evening. We did go out for a walk and exchanged some traveller’s cheques and also collected our washing from the hotel. In the afternoon we got a taxi (only […]
Day 58 : Gal?pagos to Quito (Isla Seymour Norte)
Around 5am the anchor was raised and we sailed for an hour or so to get to Isla Seymour Norte. This activity of course woke us up so I was soon out of bed and wandering around the boat. It was raining outside, bands of cloud coming across and precipitating lightly on the boats moored […]
Day 57 : Gal?pagos (Islas Plaza, Isla Santa F?)
In the early hours the boat set sail south, taking us back to the east side of Isla Santa Cruz towards the small offshore Islas Plaza. We woke and got up to find ourselves in the narrow straight between the North Plaza and South Plaza islands. Here the main attractions were the colourful shrubs, swallow […]
Day 56 : Gal?pagos (Isla Santiago, Isla Bartolom?)
Again breakfast was at 7am and we headed out in the dinghies around 8am. The first island visit would take us to the volcanic lava flows of Isla Santiago but before this we skirted around Isla Bartolom? looking for signs of the Gal?pagos penguin. We were lucky and saw a few individuals, one still moulting […]
Day 55 : Gal?pagos (Cerro Drag?n on Isla Santa Cruz, Isla R?bida)
The view to Isla Santa Cruz Exploring the boat: the sun loungers Breakfast was at 7am and I was up before this having a good look around the boat and checking out the view. The nights travel had bought us around Isla Santa Cruz so we were now moored off the north western coast of […]
Day 54 : Quito to the Gal?pagos (Isla Baltra, Isla Santa Cruz)
Breakfast was eaten very early as we were leaving for the airport at 6:30am. We all assembled in the hotel reception along with another GAP group also heading out to the Galápagos. In our two vans we drove off and went through the process of having our bags checked, check in and then security. There […]