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Leaving behind Perus coastal desert we entered an overcast tropical landscape of sugar cane and bananas. Four later we
reached Ecuador's largest city Guayaquil. The huge city was quite a shock with its homeless street people contrasting against
very smart city streets, restaurants and beautiful modern squares.
| Galapagos landscape |
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We took a one and a half hour flight from Guayaquil to Baltra in the Galapagos Islands for an 8 day cruise on board a
luxury catamaran. Our first impressions were of a red soil with sparse low salt bush and Opuntia cacti.
| blue footed boobys in flight |
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Our first wildlife experience began immediately, while crossing to Santa Cruise Island from Baltra airport, watching
blue footed boobies torpedo dive from 30 feet into the clear water, dropping between the moored boats with pinpoint accuracy,
while pelicans plunge dived and the beautiful streamlined frigate birds glided overhead effortlessly seeking an opportunity
to steal a morsel. These images were soon to become an every day scene.
| Giant Tortoise |
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Each day we would see endemic species that have evolved on these isolated volcanic islands. It was fascinating to think
that, over the last 3 to 6 million years, until mans intervention, all the plants, reptiles and birds arrived by sea or air
to colonise the islands. A breeding pair must have landed on one of the 13 main islands that are spread over 8,000 square
kilometres and are 960 k from the mainland. Then, as Charles Darwin observed, the original species developed over time to
fill in the different ecological niches.
| Greater Frigate bird displaying |
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| Wave Albatross courtship |
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We snorkel through the rich marine life each day, spotting reef sharks, octopus, angel fish, parrot fish and sea snakes.
Often playful sea lions would join us and fearless turtles would surface along side. On land we walked through the sea lion
colonies which continued their courtship, feeding, playing and sleeping regardless of their visitors.
| Salt encrusted Marine Iguana |
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Some of our highlights were watching giant tortoises mate on Santa Cruz; seeing the beautiful painted Sally Lightfoot
crabs skitter between piles of salt splattered marine iguanas; encountering a huge land iguana below the giant prickly pear
cactus; walking through a Greater Frigate bird colony inflating their bright red throat pouches in the hope of attracting
a female as she cruised by; watching the elaborate mating dance of the waved albatross with its plaintive cries and its high
speed beak clashes; the image of an exquisite white red billed tropic bird cruising to and fro against a deep blue sky.
We completed our Galapagos experience by adding a few days for diving in extremely strong currents, whilst clinging to the
rocks we saw schools of hammer head sharks and white tipped reef sharks up close and very personal.
| Puya in Cajas NP |
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We returned to Guayaquil and the mainland to head south east moving up on to the spine of the Andes to Cuenca, a beautiful
colonial town of tiny cobbled streets, tree filled plazas and domed churches surrounded by mountains. We walked in the nearby
Cajas NP that is studded with cobalt blue lakes and river fed canyons. The extraordinary moor land (4000m) is punctuated with
Puya hamata, a rare giant land bromeliad growing through low flowering bushes with humming birds flitting to and fro.
| Riobamba Train |
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Another wonderful Andean drive passing snow capped volcanoes along a narrow twisting road brought us to Riobamba, from
here we rode on the rooftop of the Trans Andean Railway. Sandwiched like a tourist bun for 6 hours, we were the major attraction
for the local children. In 1899 the railway was classed as the most difficult railroad in the world to construct. At Alausi,
the train zig zags down a canyon using an impressive switchback system to navigate a large perpendicular wall of rock, called
the Devils nose.
| Tungurhua volcano plumes of smok |
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We continued by bus through volcano alley to Banos where, two weeks previously, the Tungurahua volcano that sits behind
the town had erupted. Here we spent a few days hiking in the mountains experiencing the thrill of an angry volcano growling
and catching glimpses of its smoke plumes between low clouds. It erupted again two weeks later.
| Gentian |
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| Quilatoa volcano crater lake |
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We took a bus around the Quilotoa loop, accompanied by the locals wearing their green or brown trilby hats, slim skirts,
white laced blouses with cerise or green shawls wrapped elegantly around their shoulders. We stayed at the remote village
of Chugchilan, where tiny farms work co-cooperatively on impossibly steep slopes, wearing traditional dress and tethering
their animals to graze. We hiked around the Quilotoa volcano crater passing carpets of wild blue Gentians, red heaths and
yellow buttercups flowering at over 4000 metres.
| Landslide |
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Then we returned to the village via a steep canyon and had to negotiate a recent landslide where the path was gone. Small
rocks were continually falling and it took 8 heart stopping strides to cross.
| Old Quito, a World Heritage site. |
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We continued on to the capital Quito which is surrounded by the snow capped Andes. The elegant old town has narrow streets
with painted houses in pastel shades. Its amazing baroque churches have interiors of carved wood covered in gold leaf, intricately
designed alters of gold and sumptuous paintings on the walls.
| Church interior Quito |
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| Otovalo wildflowers (4,000m) |
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We moved on to our final town of Otavalo, where the Indigenous market dominates the main square. We enjoyed strolling
around the local streets mingling with the locals. We had a beautiful hike around the Lagunas de Mojandas, set high Paramo
(moorland) of sweeping treeless plains covered with grasses and wild meadow flowers, reflective crater lakes and panoramic
views from the summit of Fuya Fuya volcano (4263m).
After checking on the local safety we decided to continue along the Andes by road and slipped over the boarder into Colombia
at Tulcan, hoping to reach the Caribbean Sea to complete our Andean journey
| Cotopaxi Volcano |
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