Ecuador

Day 122 - Tuesday 8th November 2005 continued - arriving in Quito

Another uneventful flight saw us landing in Quito in the rain - some things never seem to change on this trip! Despite the LP?s warnings about walking around Quito at night, we caught a bus from outside the terminal to the Mariscal area of the New Town. We had a bit of difficuly finding Hostal Déj[a] Vu and confusion reigned after we checked out the available double room and agreed to a price of $8 per night, because a few minutes later, the boss returned and we discovered the price should have been $8 each per night. But as it was late, we settled on $14 total including breakfast.

We went out almost straight away for dinner to the nearby El Arabe for some really good falafels and kebabs and other Middle Eastern fayre.

Day 123 - Wednesday 9th November 2005 - "We want to visit the Galápagos!"

Our main objective in Quito was to find ourselves a Galápagos trip. So after breakfast (the boiled eggs made a change from all those Central American scrambled eggs!), we started a tour of Quito?s travel agents (and there are a lot of them!).

By lunch we had visited about half a dozen and realised that a last minute bargain may be difficult to find - we were yet to be offered any 8-day trips for less than about $1,200. Nikki fancied a baked potato lunch for a change, so we tried Super Papa (a bit disappointing and expensive) before popping into a couple more travel agents.

Day 124 - Thursday 10th November 2005 - Quito Old Town

After breakfast, we had some logistical difficulties in getting enough dollars (Ecuador uses US dollars as its currency) to pay for all the trips we had reserved the day before (of course our agency didn?t accept credit cards!) After visiting about 10 banks / cashpoints, we still didn?t have quite enough cash, but had had enough and paid what we could to our agent and dropped our backpacks there for the rest of the day.

We decided to see what Quito Old Town had to offer and took the trolley bus there. We stopped for a short while in the picturesque Plaza de la Independencia before joining the locals for a simple $2 set lunch at Café Quiteño Libre before embarking on a walking tour of the historic centre.

We received an impromptu guided tour of Iglesia La Merced from a guy who accosted us on the street nearby. A little later it bagan to rain and we sheltered in an internet cafe for a bit. The trolley bus took us back to the New town a few hours before our jungle trip departed.

We grabbed a coffee and hot chocolate in the cosy Café Sutra, from where we saw across the street a sign advertising 50% meals at Mongo?s Mongolian Barbecue (and $0.99 cocktails), which seemed to good an offer to pass by.

Day 126 - Saturday 12th November 2005 - Cuyabeno River Adventure - visiting the Shaman

After a leisurely breakfast, we loaded all the stuff onto a motorised canoe. Onboard were Romulo (our guide), Domingo (our cook, driver and general machete wielder) and Luca (an Italian traveller, who was staying in on the jungle after his trip to help with various tours) and us 4 tourists.

After a quick stop to pick up supplies of water and diesel, it was a picturesque ride along the Rio Cuyabeno through the jungle to a lagoon. Apart from seeing and hearing the odd monkey and bird, the main distraction was fallen trees blocking the route, which Domingo dealt with quickly with his machete.

We had a dip in the middle of the lagoon (rather inelegant donning of swimwear was required!) before stopping for lunch at a riverside lodge / campsite. Later, we made our way further downriver for a couple of hours, where we saw our first toucans flying high overhead, before arriving at the house of a local shaman, where we put up our tents on the deck. A little later we popped back along the river a little and "showered" canoe-side in the river.

Thilo and Denise had decided to try the Shaman?s "medicine" and so skipped dinner, but shortly afterwards we watched as the Shaman performed the ceremony and they took the drink (poured from a Coca Cola bottle!). We played cards with the crew and after a while were also entertained by Thilo and Denise?s anticts. First of all, as expected, Thilo was sick. Then he went to lie down on the grass, babbling in German (apparently!) Denise, however, was much more frantic - especially when it came to needing to drink water - the cry of "mas agua!" was heard countless times as she somehow consumed about 3 or 4 gallons of water!

Some time later we went to bed, wishing we had not been advised to leave our comfortable camping mats and sleeping bags in Quito. Nikki really struggled to sleep due to all the noise - apparently one of the Shaman?s grandsons was not well and so some sort of healing ceremony was being performed. It seemed to last most of the night.

Day 127 - Sunday 13th November 2005 - Cuyabeno River Adventure - Fishing for Piranahas

We had breakfast and then packed up the tents and loaded the canoe (watched closely by the children). We headed down river again for 2-3 hours, occasionally spotting toucans high overhead and stopped at a bend in the river, which had clearly been used as a camp site before. The crew set about preparing the ground for camp and by the time they had finished, we had 2 areas for our tents, a kitchen, a sitting area, changing area with screen, washing line and even a toilet complete with doors and toilet roll holder with palm leaves protecting the paper from the elements! (This would have been demonstrated by Denise, but we don?t have the photo anymore). Ian was a little concerned how much vegetation the crew were cutting down, but hopefully it will grow back quickly.

After our (now regular) tuna pasta lunch, we set off in the canoe to test our piranha fishing attributes. We stopped a short way downriver with the canoe nestled in the bank / mangroves. Luca caught a small piranha, but Nikki obviously didn?t know the rules, as she caught a different (unidentified) fish entirely. It was much bigger - and as it turned out - much tastier!. We tried a couple of other fishing spots. At one, we both almost simultaneously caught decent sized piranha. (We also had some great fishing photos!). Despite efforts to kill them (including a complete severing of the spine), Ian?s didn?t want to die and flapped around in the bottom boat for the next hour or so.

Back at camp, we jumped in the river for a "shower", Ian even managed to shave whilst hanging onto the canoe with one hand! We (Ian again) did some jungle laundry too. We enjoyed a 3-course dinner by the campfire before going to bed very early - tired after all that fishing!

Day 128 - Monday 14th November 2005 - Cuyabeno River Adventure - Macaws and River Dolphins

After breakfast, where we spotted some toucans in the trees above us, we walked a jungle trail, where Romulo showed us lots of plants and trees and their various uses as well as spiders and a baby tarantula, which Nikki let run on her hand. She though she had put it down, but a little later Ian spotted it on her shoulder!

We packed up camp and headed back upriver. We saw a few scarlet macaws and some blue and yellow macaws flying overhead and then resting high in a tree on the river bank before we stopped for lunch at a small riverside clearing. Nikki was not feeling well, so when we reached a local indigenous community, we didn?t stay long (just long enough for her to use the extremely basic toilet!) but rather continued on to camp. Today camp was back where we had eaten lunch a couple of days before, which had a covered sleeping area where several comfortable mattresses with cuboid mosquito nets were available to us :-)

Nikki needed to rest so climbed into bed, while everyone else went back to the lagoon to look for river dolphins. Shortly before dusk, we saw a lot of activity as fish tried to avoid being caught by piranhas, then we also saw a couple of dolphins playing / feeding. Thety occasionally popped their heads out of the water, keeping us interested in watching them for quite some while. A little later, after a bit of a swim we headed back to camp.

Nikki was still not feeling well so Romulo made her some medicinal tea by boiling some jungle leaves which were supposed to help upset stomachs. It seemed to work as an hour or two later she felt much better and was able to eat some dinner. After dinner, we had more food! - the fish we had caught the previous day - and then played cards for a while.

Day 129 - Tuesday 15th November 2005 - End of our Cuyabeno River Adventure

Nikki was now feeling fine and able to enjoy the pancakes for breakfast. We packed up and set off in the canoe one last time. Back at the laguna we had another swim and headed back upstream. It was really noticeable that the further upstream we went the narrower the river and the closer the jungle. This made it much more difficult to see any wildlife. However, when we stopped riverside for lunch, the crew pointed out a trail that seemed to lead in the direction of some noisy macaws. Ian walked it for a few minutes and spent a while taking photos of 3 blue and yellow macaws high above. After lunch, we even saw a couple of tamarind monkeys right by the river (they were really small!)

Back at the lodge, we settled back into our cabin. After dinner we (together with some other guests, mostly Dutch) re-boarded the canoe and headed out "caiman-watching". We didn?t see any (the river was too high - well over the banks) but we did find ourselves back at "the bridge" where, after Domingo had crashed the canoe into the dock, we sunk a few beers in a nearby bar (which had been the real objective of the evening for some people anyway!)

Day 130 - Wednesday 16th November 2005 - Cuyabeno River Lodge and back towards Quito

After breakfast, Romulo led us and Denise along a jungle trail. We had been warned that due to high rainfall up river, parts of the trail would be under water. After seeing a couple of squirrel monkeys, we came to our first submerged section. Ian decided to take his wellies and socks off and try and keep them dry, but everyone else just waded in and soon got wet as the water went up to our middles! (Nikki actually got one wet foot pretty much immediately as her welly had a hole in!). We were wading for about 10 minutes before we reached dry land again and everyone was wet but enjoying it!

We walked on and Romulo pointed out some lemon flavoured ants - they were really lemony! - and a liana where Ian swang Tarzan-style. We walked through a couple more flooded sections of the trail and Ian ate a plant related to sugar cane - it tasted of Granny Smith apples! - before one final wet section. We were soaked almost up to our necks now - it would have been worse if we didn?t find a submerged log to walk on! Back at the lodge, we certainly felt we had been on a real jungle trek!

After a late lunch, Thilo and Denise left to catch an early bus to Lago Agrio (they were heading to Colombia and had to catch a connecting bus) and we relaxed in hammocks. A littl later, we had time for a snack of cheese and ham toasties before we caught our final canoe ride back to "the bridge" to wait for the bus. It was dark already and shortly after we started waiting the local electricity supply failed (this was fine, as we had been getting used to no electiricty at all!).

A number of the guides were heading to Lago Agrio (perhaps to party? - in any case they didn?t have any cash and we ended up lending them $30, which we had returned to us at the tour office in Quito - it was a family operation after all!) and so we had no difficulty catching the correct bus. However, the seats didn?t recline very far and so Ian went and lay across all 5 seats on the back row! Even though it was not even 8pm we managed to get some sleep, but it seemed the bus driver didn?t want anyone to be comfortable as we bounced along the unpaved road at high speed!

Day 131 - Thursday 17th November 2005 - Papallacta Thermal Baths and back in Quito

As requested, the bus conductor woke us as we arrived in Papallacta. However, we hadn?t planned on getting there by 4:15am! We intended to visit the thermal baths, but clearly they weren?t open at that time, so we put on all our clothes and waterproofs (unfortunately our fleeces were still in Quito!) and strolled down into the village (and around the village three time), very slowly to keep warm. It was a bit of an adventure really, waiting for the sun to rise! Eventually we found somehwere to serve us breakfast, which gave us enough energy to walk up to the baths themselves.

By about 8am we were in the first warm pool, enjoying the cloudless views of the surrounding mountains from 3,300m! We spent a couple of hours warming ourselves in several of the 20 or so pools and started to forget about our second overnight bus journey in a week!

Back in the village, we caught a bus to Quito, which apart for stopping for a while to be cleaned of all the dust from the unpaved roads, was an uneventful journey. We found a great place for lunch at the bus station (we each got a really tasty meal of a quarter of roast chicken, beans, rice and a drink for $1.50!) and caught a trolley bus back to the New Town where we checked into Hotel 9th October. We collected our stuff from the tour office and were surprised to bump into Thilo and Denise. It turned out that they had decided at the last minute to fly to Colombia and avoid a potentially dangerous border crossing. We were in desperate need of some clean clothes and handed almost all we have to the laundry before heading back to Mongo?s for dinner.

We had arranged to meet up with Thilo and Denise one more time and enjoyed several mojitos with them and Anthony (an English guy they had met climbing Cotopaxi, before the jungle trip). unfortunately Ian started to feel unwell, so we went home earlier than planned.

Day 132 - Friday 18th November 2005 - The Equator - Mitad del Mundo

After breakfast we had a few chores before catching a bus to Mitad del Mundo - the monument / faux village on the equator where we enjoyed more ham and cheese toasted sandwiches for lunch. We then did some obligatory jumping between the northern and southern hemispheres! and took photos for a while.

Of course, we were actually in the wrong place, as 150m further north Museo Solar Inti Ñan showed off the true equator, including experiments showing water draining from a sink on the equator (straight down), a few feet north (anti-clockwise) and a few feet south (clockwise). We had a little tour around the rest of the museum, including traditional houses and contents, solar clocks and Nikki even managed to balance an egg on a the head of a nail (apparently this is only possible at the equator - but is still difficult - sorry no photographic evidence!) Back in Quito, Ian was feeling worse and so had a snooze before dinner at Le Arcate. Nikki enjoyed her pizza, but Ian struggled through his calzone.

Day 133 - Saturday 19th November 2005 - off to the Galápagos

An early start saw us catching an 8am bus from right ouside our hotel to the airport. On arrival, we saw our flight number with a "final call" message on one of the boards and so pushed straight to the front of the check-in queue, only to be told to have our bags scanned elsewhere. Ian rushed over, but got stuck behind a German tour group with about 30 bags. Anyway we managed to check-in and were given boarding passes with a different flight number (but our expected depature time). However, in the departure lounge the confusion continued - our flight was not shown on the departure board. We could only assume that AeroGal was too cheap to pay to have all its flights advertised!

Eventually we boarded the short flight to Guayaquil, where we had to disembark for a few minutes, before continuing to the Galápagos.

We were met by David, one of our guides, and there were about 10 other tourists already waiting - it seemed we had been lucky to be on one of the late flights! Thankfully all of our group had backpacks - you never know what your fellow passengers? expectations might be - but we thought this was a good sign!

A bus - boat - minibus transfer saw us delivered to a "farm" restaurant on Isla Santa Cruz (the main island) for lunch and were somewhat disappointed that the first "wildlife" we saw on the Galápagos were a few pigs and cows wandering around!

After lunch, our first entertainment was a short walk through one of the large lava tubes (formed when slow moving lava cooled from the outside and the lava in thr centre continued to flow).

Then it was on to part of the national park so try and see some Santa Cruz giant tortoises. From the minibus, we walked a short trail and soon saw a Galápagos mockingbird, a very brightly coloured Vermillion Flycatcher and Yellow Warblers. David also spotted a tortoise shading itself in nearby bushes. A few minutes later we reached a dry lagoon, where we saw lots of tortoises ranging from 3 very large ones, who were apparently at least 100 years old, to much smaller ones "racing" around! They all seemed pretty fearless (something we were to get used to!) and many were happy to pose for photos - others simply tucked their heads away in their shells.

We continued on to Puerto Ayora and had free time. We checked out a few dive shops and spent $220 booking a day?s diving for the following week with Albatros Divers (we followed Jenn and Colleen?s advice - they had dived with these guys the previous day). Then we had to hire some snorkel equipment and wetsuits - more cash!

Day 134 - Sunday 20th November 2005 - Day 2 on the Galápagos - Rabida & Sombrero Chino

The Free Enterprise set sail for Isla Rabida after midnight, the engine noise and rough"ish" sea kept us awake for a while - especially as the ladder knocked against the hull near our room. But we got enough sleep and were excited to see the first of our visitor sites.

And we were not disappointed. Rabida is known for its deep red beaches, formed by the erosion of the red sandstone rocks here. We had a "wet landing" - basically jumping from our dinghy into the shallow sea - and were immediately greeted with the sight of several sea lions sunning themselves on the beach near us. A few others were swimming (especially the dominant males, patrolling their patch and "protecting" their hareem from other males), but also some small cubs. None of the resting sea lions seemed to mind posing for photos at close range and as we walked along the beach we all got to take really close-up pictures of cute cubs. We then went for a short walk behind the beach. Most of the landscape was barren as the trees were waiting for the rains to come. However there were lots of prickly pear cactus too. We spotted a number of Lava Lizards and Sally Lightfoot Crabs before returning to the beach to snorkel.

We were certainly glad of the wetsuits as the water was pretty cold and we immediately got a feeling for how much sea life there is in the Galápagos. Although there were so many fish (and also a few Blue Footed Boobies on the shore), we spent most of our time watching a couple of sea lions playing. They swam in and out of a small underwater cave and every now an then blew out some air and then swooped up to catch the bubbles. They were so close - no more than a couple of metres!

Back on board the Free Enterprise, 2 more passengers arrived (Uma and Amanda, from the UK - Amanda had been severely delayed getting from London to Quito...). Thanks to Uma for the following Galapagos photos.

After lunch we sailed the short distance to Sombrero Chino, where we walked a short distance along the rocky shore. Again we were surrounded by sea lions, but also saw a large number of marine iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. We had another opportunity to snorkel. The visibility was less good than earlier and a large male was patrolling very close to us, so we had to be careful to avoid him. Nevertheless, whilst standing in the surf, one sea lion swam right up to Ian, brushing his leg before whizzing away. Nikki was not feeling too well, so rested on the shore and after a bit we headed back to the boat - but not before seeing a few Galápagos penguins sunning themselves on nearby rocks. After resting for a while in our cabin, dinner was followed by cake and and early night.

Day 135 - Monday 21st November 2005 - Ian?s Birthday! Day 3 on the Galápagos - Sullivan Bay & Isla Bartholomé

Ian had a present (a guide to the wildlife of the Galápagos, what a surprise!) and a card to open before breakfast, which was followed by a visit to Sullivan Bay on Santiago Island. Despite its name, Sullivan Bay is no longer a bay, having been filled with lava long ago. The newest lava (approximately 200 years old) is one of the youngest bits of rock in the world. This type of lava is known as "pahoehoe", derived from a Hawaiian word meaning "ropey". It certainly did have a strange smooth but rippled texture and also happened to be the largest pahoehoe lava flow in the world (apparently). Unsurprisingly, there was little wildlife - just a few lava cacti and grasshoppers.

We quickly relocated across a small channel to Isla Bartholomé and walked up a (366 step) wooden stairway to a viewpoint. From there we could see down to the twin beaches below, where we went next. We walked across to the second beach (no swimming allowed) and while everyone else was following a turtle along the shore, Ian saw some seahorses. But he did catch up and saw his fair share of turtles in the shallows too. Also in evidence were Sally Lightfoot crabs and several sealions (Nikki felt she had a good little heart to heart with one youngster lounging in the sun!)

Back at the first beach, there was another opportunity to snorkel, where we saw a large turtle resting on the sandy bottom of the bay. Nikki managed to swim down for a good photo, and as it swam off, swam with it for a while.

The Free Enterprise moved on that evening and the seas were a bit choppy, so, along with most people, we rested. Dinner was followed by a large vividly coloured aquamarine birthday cake for Ian (shared all around! and more...), before we tucked into a bottle of fizz to end the day.

Day 136 - Tuesday 22nd November 2005 - Day 4 on the Galápagos - North Seymour, Baltra & Bachas Beach

We had an early start today. Even before breakfast, we were on the our way to the visitors? site on North Seymour. Again we were virtually surrounded by sealions and sea birds. Only a few yards into our walk, we saw a baby sealion who had been born that night (the placenta was still clearly visible nearby). We also saw plenty of marine iguanas and a few blue footed boobies sunning themselves. We passed near to a frigate bird colony and saw a few males inflating their red chests, trying to attract a mate.

Back on the boat for breakfast, we moved on to Baltra, where it was the end of several people?s tour. 6 people left for the airport (including the two disgruntled Swiss, who we expected to return). Whilst the boat refuelled, the rest of us were all left on a nearby beach for a few hours.

Sean had a frisbee and threw it around for a while with Ian and Kev, whilst the girls lay in the sun / shade not a couple of feet from a few sealions. Later, Ian spent a while photographing pelicans diving for fish in the shallows. Meanwhile, Jen and Colleen were out snorkelling again, and saw a couple of turtles mating!

Back on the boat 5 Israelis (including a family of 4) had joined us, but they generally kept themselves to themselves.

After lunch and a short journey to the north of Isla Santa Cruz, we arrived a Bachas beach. We were horrified to see that we didn?t have this spot all to ourselves! - we had been spoiled! However, there was a large white sand beach to share with them. First, we walked along the shore a little way to a small lagoon behind a second beach. Here we saw a couple of lonely flamingoes. On returning to the main beach, we went snorkelling again, but the visibility was terrible. We just about managed to see a fish or two before giving up and resting on the beach for a while and then heading back to the boat.

Inexplicably, the boat?s bar had run out of beer and so after dinner, we opened up our (surprisingly drinkable) box of Chilean wine. Colleen and Jenn were drinking "special coffee" (wine in coffee cups) and Kev, Uma and Amanda had (quite a lot of) their "special water" (a cheap local clear spirit). After a while chatting, we got our Archos and speakers out and all sat around listening to cheesy tunes (mostly requested hits of the 80s!). Unfortunately there was also some singing along, which a few people recorded for prosterity! Also, we were all puzzled how Kev knew so many 80s songs as he was only 22! Eventually we called it a night - Kev, Uma and Amanda didn?t... and suffered sore heads the next day!

Day 137 - Wednesday 23rd November 2005 - Day 5 on the Galápagos - South Plaza & Santa Fé

The previous evening we had sailed south to South Plaza and after breakfast had a dry landing there. Again, once on land we were surrounded by lots of sealions. But as we started walking the trail, we saw our first land iguana (easily differentiated from the marine iguanas by their yellow colourings). The landscape here was very barren, with only cacti and some low growing red plants growing, Nevertheless there was plenty of wildlife, including many more iguanas (both land and marine), Nazca boobies, sealions on top of the cliffs (this was a bachelor colony - so not the best terrain, but apparently they were able to climb up the steep cliff sides to sun themselves) and pretty tropic birds.

Just before returning to the launch, we even saw a fight between a marine iguana and a land iguana. It went on for quite some while, before the marine iguana won and the land igauna slinked off!

After a relocation and lunch, we landed at Santa Fé. This time we were in David?s group and he explained that we might not get to see any of the unique land iguanas here, before virtually stepping on one, sunning itself on the trail! We saw our second fight of the day too. This time between two Santa Fé land iguanas, which didn?t end before we left them to it!

After a short walk, we were back on the boat and getting ready for more snorkelling. This time, we couldn?t snorkel off the beach (as the rocks were too dangerous) so the launch dropped us off in the middle of the bay. To begin with we swam around near one of the rocky shores and watched as loads of brightly coloured fish and a few sealions swam around us. Then we headed further across the bay, towards where David was standing in the launch and waving to us. Once there, we saw the first of about 12-15 turtles, who entertained us all, just resting or swiming with us for ages. It was very cold (even with our wet suits!) and we eventually got back in the launch. However, we just got colder as we waited for everyone else to finish in the water. Everyone was pretty tired after the previous night, and the Free Enterprise had a long journey ahead of it, so an early night was called for.

Day 138 - Thursday 24th November 2005 - Day 6 on the Galápagos - Española

Nikki had not had a good night (sea sickness and a bug that seemed to have been with her since our jungle trip), so she missed breakfast and stayed on board for our first visit to Española (otherwise known as Hood).

After a wet landing, Ian walked very slowly along the beach at Gardner Bay, taking photos of sealions (again) and Hook mockingbirds, amongst others. Then he went out snorkelling to join the others swimming around Gardner Island itself. It was pretty rough and other than a couple of sealions that whizzed close by and something (presumably jellyfish) that stung several people, he only saw one small ray.

After lunch, Nikki was feeling better and joined eveyone else walking the trail at Punta Suarez. We immediately saw a Galápagos hawk and then lots of Nazca boobies on the rocky shore. A little further along the trail, we saw a bit of a Blue Footed booby mating dance, and more Nazca boobies (some with babies).

We hoped to see some Waved Albatross, and were not disappointed as we first saw a few a little distance away (and a couple inelegantly taking off!). And then, after watching a "blow hole" (where the waves force a large spray of water high into the air) for a while we moved on and were able to sit only a few feet from a number of Albatross, including a juvenile. Meanwhile, Ian had been taking lots of photos of Albatrosses swooping down to witin a few feet of us.

Back on board, the Americans had persuaded the chef to cook up a Thanksgiving dinner (albeit, chicken), and this was followed by an apple and custard pie yumm...

Day 139 - Friday 25th November 2005 - Day 7 on the Galápagos - Floreana

We started the day watching pelicans on the bow of our and nearby boats, while we waited to transfer to Post Office Bay. Here sailors traditionally left mail in a barrel to be collected by other passing ships that would deliver them to the countries where they were heading. Tourists now keep up the tradition - who knows how long Ian?s Mum and Dad and Nikki sister may have to wait for their cards though?

On the way back to the Free Enterprise, we took a short dinghy cruise around some small islands near Floreana, where we saw a few turtles and pelicans. Then we landed at Punta Cormarant (a beach with a green tint) and walked to a large lagoon, seeing several flamingos, and then onto another bay. We almost left the Israelis behind as we had an appointment to snorkel, but they showed up just in time!

Snorkelling this time was from the dinghy near Devil?s Crown. The currents were very strong and we had little choice as to where we swam! Almost immediately, Nikki saw a shark, then we all saw a large shoal of rays, but we soon found ourselves swept around the small islands and settled on snorkelling in a small sheltered bay. Nikki was getting very cold and soon headed back to the boat, Ian continued for a while and got some great photos of moorish idols and lots of other fish (the water here was really shallow, so the light was good!). We had crammed all these vists into the morning, so that the Free Enterprise could make the long journey back to Puerto Ayora by evening.

Our last dinner on board was followed by a trip ashore and a few drinks and some dancing at Café Limón.

Day 140 - Saturday 26th November 2005 - Day 8 on the Galápagos - the End of our Cruise

Day 141 - Sunday 27th November 2005 - Day 9 on the Galápagos - diving

We had an early start and grabbed a couple of pastries before heading to Albatros Divers? dive shop. In total there were 6 divers (us, Sara and Trevor (her dad) from New Zealand, Tom from the UK and Andreas from Switzerland, plus Hugo, our divemaster) and by 7am we were on our way to Gordon Rocks. Despite some mid-ocean repairs to one of the outboard motors, we made quick progress, arriving at South Plaza (which we had visited on our cruise). We jumped in and did our buoyancy checks - we could already feel that the water was really cold and were glad of our 7mm wet suits. Ten minutes later we had received our final briefing and received some gloves (to "protect us when we held on to the rocks"). This confused us somewhat, having only dived in the calm Caribbean before where we were not allowed to touch the rocks in case of damaging coral! Immediately upon descending, we saw a large Spotted Eagle Ray and once down on the rocky wall, Ian also saw a Moray Eel. We swam a little, to see if any of the larger marine life was around, but struggled against the very strong currents here. We soon stopped in one place and literally held onto the rocks and watched the marine life pass us by.

We saw several rays and after only a few more minutes, a school of Hammerhead sharks passed by! The closest must have been less than 8-10 meters away! Wow! Some of these sharks kept on passing us every few minutes (one of our photos even showed 14-15 hammerheads in the same shot!) and so, although there was lots of marine life within touching distance, we barely looked at it!

It was really cold down there and so our dive only lasted 35 minutes. Even then, back on the boat, Ian was really shivering and was glad when he could get direct sight of the sun! Another dive boat was at the site with us and we found out that somehow they had not seen any sharks - where had they been?

Our second dive was in virtually the same spot. We did swim a little with the fast flowing current but soon settled on the side of the wall, waiting again. This time, we were much better at preserving our air - although we all got really cold. We managed almost 1 hour and saw loads more Hammerheads, lots and lots of rays, including one enourmous Spotted Eagle Ray that came to within touching distance of us and a couple of turtles that were intrigued by us and swam around us for a while! How great was that?!

We returned for a quick sandwich lunch in the sheltered bay at South Plaza before heading back to port. There was an interesting boat-to-boat transfer mid-ocean for Sara and Trevor as their transfer to San Cristobal had left earlier than expected!

After all that excitement, we needed to rest a while and then hit the internet - the first time in over 2 weeks - we had so many emails!

We returned to Las Delicias de Luzmila for dinner and met up with Kev for a beer as the town closed down for the night.

Day 142 - Monday 28th November 2005 - leaving the Galápagos - our 6 month Wedding Anniversary

We treated ourselves to a (relatively) expensive breakfast at El Chocolate and then met Kev to head over to the airport. We shared a taxi to the dock at the north of Isla Santa Cruz and waited for the ferry to Isla Baltra. We had thought that our wildlife watching was over, but no, it was incredible that just standing on the dock, we saw some sealions playing, some large fish chasing shoals of smaller fish and a group of 7 rays cruising around. This was not to mention the Darwin Finches, Pelicans and Blue Footed Boobies flying around!

After the ferry and the bus to the airport, we looked at a few souvenir stalls to kill time before boarding our return flight. Again we stopped at Guayaquil, but were back in Quito by late afternoon. At the airport, we were even sucessful in changing our Lan Chile flight from Santiago to Easter Island (just as well, otherwise we risked being stuck on Easter Island for 5 weeks!)

We had a celebratory dinner back in the Mariscal at Zocalo and then tried out the Queen Vic (actually the Reina Victoria), which themed itself as a British pub. It was pretty good and even had some decent microbrews. We started playing a bit of darts and ended up playing against a US / Ecuadoran couple for quite a few more drinks! (We won somehow, even with Nikki?s pretty poor throws!)

Day 143 - Tuesday 29th November 2005 - leaving Quito

We fitted in a few hours of shopping, a book exchange and some internet in Quito New Town before catching the trolley bus towards the bus terminal. Unfortunately due to some celebrations, the trolley bus route was shortened and we had to walk quite a way. We lunched at the bus terminal again and then bought our tickets to Baños.

We checked with the ticket seller and the bus driver that we were on the right "Espreso Baños" bus, and settled back for the 3-4 hour journey. Ian fell asleep for a couple of hours and after waking we discovered we were near Papallacta again, which didn't seem right. And, of course, despite all we had done to check we were on the right bus (the bus conductor had even looked at our tickets), it turned out we were not! This bus went to Tena some 5 hours from Quito (and 5 more to Baños!).

It even rained on the way to Tena, which was the first time in 9 days that we had seen rain, not a good detour!

We arrived in Tena after 8pm and so decided not to continue to Baños today. Instead, we checked the time of the first bus to Baños with a very friendly policeman (it turned out to be 1am, so opted for a later one!) walked straight out of the bus terminal across the road and into Hostal Rio Tena and grabbed a quick dinner about 100 yards away in El Safari Restaurant.

Day 144 - Wednesday 30th November 2005 - on to Baños

We caught the 6am bus to Baños. (What a lot of Tena we had seen!) and arrived at about 11am. We were tired and pleased to be shown to the cheap and seemingly pleasant Hostal Dynastia.

We explored the small town briefly, before snacking on a coconut cookie in the plaza. We had hoped for a tasty set menu (as we had got used to in Quito), and even though we did get the ty?cal soup, chicken and rice and juice, we were disappointed with what $1.50 bought you here!

We decided to do some hiking and he headed up the steep trail to Bella Vista, the site of a small building and cross high on the top of the hillside right above Baños to the south. Nikki found the trail very hard going and we realised that it had been almost a month since we had done any serious hiking!

After a little less than an hour we reached Bella Vista and decided to walk a little further. Almost immediately we met a local, who gave us much more details of the trails in the area than we had in our guidebook. He suggested walking up to Volcán Mirador, from where (weather permitting) we could see Volcán Tungurahua (we chatted for a while and it turned out that this guy was responsible for cleaning the solar panels that powered the seismograph up there - we mostly listned - but our Spanish was definitely getting better!)

We decided to try and find the mirador and soon realised that the signing around here was virtually non existent! In fact, what signs there were were highly misleading (cruely giving Nikki false hope of being closer to the mirador than we actually were!). Eventually we reached the mirador, and the clouds cleared for us to get good view of the (active) Volcán Tungurahua.

Rather than retracing our steps, we decided to take a diferent route down. This soon turned out to be a bad decision, as the trail headed very steeply (and virtually straight) down the mountainside. The trail was also very dusty, with little to offer grip. Nikki struggled and after a few near things, fell and twisted her knee. :-( Eventually we reached Mirador Maria, dominated by a weathered statue of Mary & Child, which overlooked Baños from the north.

Back in Baños we shopped at the supermarket and headed back to the hotel where we cooked a pasta dinner which went down well with some Chilean red wine.

Day 145 - Thursday 1st December 2005 - Cycling near Baños

After a breakfast of cornflakes and toast (what a nice change!) we went and hired some mountain bikes for the ride down from Baños (altitude 1,826m) towards Puyo (about 950m). We managed to get a bikes for only $4 each (Ian's was brand new!)

The route was mostly down (no surprise!) and a cycle track went around most of the tunnels that the main road used, so we got some gentle off-road cycling and peace and quite to enjoy the scenery.

The valley here is famous for the large number of waterfalls dotting the route and we stopped at most of them. The most impressive was the Rio Verde waterfall, which we reached after about 90 minutes. From the road it was a steep walk down to the falls themselves.

There was some drizzle in the air, but we decided to continue cycling and see how far towards Puyo we made it (the whole route was 63km!) After a while, including some uphill sections (how rude!) and passing through several little villages, we were starting to feel tired and decided to stop at the next village for lunch. We cycled on, still mostly down, but with several significant uphill sections too, and then we cycled a bit further! and still there was no other village (or at least not one large enough to have an open restaurant!

Eventually we stopped at a spectacular viewpoint: the "Gateway to the Amazon" and we could really see how the high Andean scenery had given way to the wide open river valley leading to the jungle. All we could buy here though were drinks. Ian had a freshly squeezed Jugo de Caña (sugar cane), which was really tasty! We had to go a little further to find some food, eventually reaching Mera, where we ate a couple of pastries each.

We caught the bus back to Baños (our bikes were slung on top), which was an exciting (if slightly scary) journey as it took only about half the time the same section had taken the previous day on our trip from Tena!

Back in Baños we went to Café Hood, where we saw Pontus and Camilla from our Galápagos trip.

Day 146 - Friday 2nd December 2005 - Black Friday!

We had been awoken a couple of times in the night as someone had tried to get into our room. We put it down to someone arriving back to the hotel drunk and tried not to think about it any more!

We popped downstairs again for a quick breakfast. Back in our room, we didn`t notice anything amiss straight away, but Nikki soon noticed her camera was not where she had left it, then we noticed other things missing too! We rushed down to reception, where the "guard" told us no-one had been in or out of the hotel while we had been out of our room. But someone had clearly been in our room (and used a key!).

Needless to say we were extremely angry (unfortunately our Spanish vocabulary didn't stretch to being robbed!). Anyway, Ian insisted on seeing inside all of the other hotel rooms, all to no avail!

In all we had lost both of our cameras, all our memory cards, our Archos - mini computer - with all our photo backups on, some cash and some cards. Whoever took them knew his way around a backpacker?s belongings - each item had been carefully removed from its bag / case etc and other items replaced! At least as far as the photos were concerned, we had been sending back-up CDs home periodically, so had not lost them all, but we had lost all of our Ecuador photos, including the jungle and most disappointingly the Galápagos! :-( :-(

We went through all the necessary formalities: cancelling credit cards, getting a police report etc. and felt thoroughly miserable.

We tried to achieve something useful, so went to the post office (postage in Ecuador is really expensive! we spent $94 on a couple of small parcels and a load of Christmas cards!). Then Ian had a haircut and we had another uninspiring set lunch.

With seemingly nothing left for us to do in Baños we packed up and headed to the bus terminal.

About 90 minutes later we were in Riobamba. The scenery for the journey had been exciting to say the least! The route the bus took had only recently been re-opened after some of Volcán Tungurahua's eruptions a few years ago - and we could see why! All around the road were steaming vents and some bubbling mud pools, in many places you could see where the old (paved) road used to be (now a deep valley) and where the new (dirt) road detoured from it!

In Riobamba, we had some difficulty in finding a cheap and pleasant hotel that seemed secure (not that Hostal Dynastia seemed insecure!). We ended up in Hostal Conquistador and spent the rest of the afternoon on the internet before a disappointing pizza dinner.

Not a good day!

Day 147 - Saturday 3rd December 2005 - Riobamba

We bought some pastries for breakfast and ate them in the Parque Sucre. As it was Saturday, we wandered to Riobamba's market for a look around. It was a busy affair, full of locals buying and selling fruit and veg and all sorts of other things. Ian managed to buy a Casio watch (circa 1982 vintage) for $8 - his watch was one of the other things stolen!

We continued our tour of Riobamba for a while, walking through a few other plazas and stopping for a while at the Parque 21 de Abril, where we got a glimpse of some of the surrounding snow-capped mountains through the clouds.

We fancied something a bit different for lunch and were pleased to find a sandwich shop. The sandwiches were pretty good - we even had milkshakes :-)

We spend quite a while both before and after lunch on the internet, mostly updating this diary! By 6pm or so, the railway ticket office had finally opened - and we bought our tickets for the following morning.

The choice of restaurants in Riobamba seemed pretty poor, and so we decided to risk another Chinese meal - the place seemed to be always be full, which we took as a good sign - our meal was certainly OK.

Day 148 - Sunday 4th December 2005 - The Devil's Nose Train

Day 149 - Monday 5th December 2005 - Cuenca

We had decided to try and buy a replacement camera, so after breakfast at the hostal headed into town. First we stopped to use the internet, to research likely prices etc and spent the rest of the morning wandering around most of Cuenca's surprisingly large number of camera shops. We returned to the hostal and managed to persuade the owner to phone the police in Baños and verified that they had not recovered any of our stuff.

We even bumped into Kev again in the Parque Calderón. Then we ate lunch in a little café. (Once the waitress found out we were from England our table was decorated with a little Union Jack!)

We took the bus to an out of town shopping mall to see if there was any more choice of cameras / better prices, but sadly not. We even had to take a taxi back to town as by then it was raining so heavily! Just before the shops were shutting, we went back to buy our chosen camera (similar to our stolen Sony, but less good and more expensive! - but at least it would still fit our underwater housing :-) ) We haggled a bit and saved $10!

Day 150 - Tuesday 6th December 2005 - on to Perú

After a hostal breakfast, we walked out to the bus terminal and almost straight onto a bus to Huaquillas, at the Peruvian border. It was a pretty uneventful 5 hour journey, but near the end, Ian got summoned to sit upfront with the driver. He was very friendly, warning about likely scams at the border - but mostly he wanted to practise his English, as he was heading to the UK in 2006 to work.

The bus stopped for us at Ecuadorian immigration (about 3km before the border itself (of course!), it took an Autralian couple quite a while (they needed entry stamps) and the locals on the bus got quite restless!

At the border itself was one long street market. We bought their remaining Peruvian Soles from the Aussie couple and had a good, cheap ($1.25 each) and filling lunch not 20 yards from the border itself.

There had been a notice at the Ecuadorian immigration office warning against changing money at the border, due to counterfeit notes. So, when Ian agreed to change some, he both insisted on being given the old and tatty low denomination notes, rather than the crisp and new higher denominations. The money changers were clearly not happy (we learnt later that the rate we got was probably 10% higher than the true rate!), but as Ian had hold of both our dollars and the Soles we were buying, they had little choice but to finish the transaction.

We then walked across what must be one of the least attractive border crossings in the world and into Perú...