Galapagos, Ecuador - A Final Word

It's the Critters
I hate to say it, but it's a mixed bag, the Galapagos. They don't tell you the whole truth before you get there but you figure it out quickly.  It's not the most beautiful - places like the Azores and the Maldives shine by comparison.  The town of Puerto Ayora is a complete dump - as ugly as any I've seen in the third world and I've seen many.  It's grown uncontrollably from 1,000 people to 20,000.  Why would anyone want to move here from the mainland?  Simple - to fleece the tourists.  The prices are 4-10 times higher than the mainland and depend on who's buying.  For some people a Pepsi is 50 cents, for others it's 2 dollars.  You're lighter by 125 bucks before you even get out of the airport - a pretty steep landing fee when Ecuadorians only pay 20.  Now, if I thought any of the money was making the place better for the critters then ok.  I'm just not sure that it is. 

Galapagos, Ecuador - Darwin

Truth vs Myth
He was only 29 when he arrived in the Galapagos islands.  He was on a two year journey around the world that stretched to an unfathomable five years.  When he got back to England he never got on another boat for the rest of his life.  Contrary to what we were taught in school, there was no eureka moment while he was in the Galapagos.  Matter of fact, he only spent 35 days there in total and only 19 of them on land.  It was only after a discussion with ornithologist John Gould decades later that he put the puzzle pieces together.

Galapagos, Ecuador - Deep Water Snorkeling

Isla Pinzon
We were looking to take a trip to Bartolome Island to hike the volcano there but that trip was all booked up.  We settled on a snorkeling trip at Isla Pinzon, a small uninhabited island to the west of Santa Cruz.  We were promised excellent snorkeling along the coast where we'd be sure to see sharks, turtles, sea wolves and many fish.  That little yellow dot is me.

Galapagos, Ecuador - Birding

North Seymour Island
The best place to see the iconic Galapagos birds is North Seymour island.  I'm referring to the magnificent frigate and the blue footed booby.  Darwin's finches may have been important for the theory of evolution, but they're not that interesting to look at.  We had fortuitous timing as this is the breeding season.

Galapagos, Ecuador - Cycling for Turtles

Santa Cruz Highlands
The Santa Cruz highlands are another ecosystem entirely.  They're 2,000 feet above sea level and under perpetual clouds, it seems.  It is where all the farms are - including the turtle farms.  We rented some bikes and grabbed a pick-up taxi to take us to the top.

Galapagos, Ecuador - Snorkeling the Cracks

Las Grietas
Las grietas means "the cracks" and describes a large fissure in the rocks that runs inland from the ocean on Santa Cruz island.  We traveled there to go snorkeling - it's one of the few things you can do on Santa Cruz.

Galapagos, Ecuador - Searching for Sea Creatures

The Way it Works Here
Ok, so this is how it works - there are three or four islands inhabited by humans, the rest are taken by the critters.  Just which critters depends on the island.  If, for example, you want to see land iguanas you have to pick a specific island.  You choose a tour company, pay money and they take you by boat to that island, give you lunch, supply you with a knowledgeable guide and take you to the iguanas.  If you want to see penguins the next day, you pick another tour company, take a boat ride, etc and so forth, rinse and repeat.  We chose to see sea wolves first.  We geared up in town getting ourselves wet suits and the newest fangled snorkel masks.

Galapagos, Ecuador - First Impressions

Cool and Dry
It took us an hour and a half to fly the 750 miles over the Pacific into Isla Baltra, one of the smaller of the dozen islands that comprise the Galapagos.  I was expecting a flush of tropical green but this was like landing on Mars.  The Galapagos, at least near the airport, is a moonscape with a thin coating of prickly grey frosting.  A desert speckled with cacti, surrounded by ocean.

Guayaquil, Ecuador - Las Peñas

Another Hill to Climb

Being somewhat groggy from our recent food poisoning, we left this climb to the end of the afternoon.  Four hundred and forty four steps to the top of hill that was the epicenter of the city when the Spanish finally managed to subdue the natives.  For most of the next 300 years it was home to a mix of fishermen and artisans but then the big money moved in with the cocoa boom of the 1920's.  It's now a heritage site and contains many shops, art galleries and bars.

Guayaquil, Ecuador - Seminario Park

You're Being Watched
Yes, just another park in yet another city in front of yet another church.  We didn't go for the architecture or the history.  This park is known for something completely different.

Guayaquil, Ecuador - Funny Feeling

Like Deja-Vu, All Over Again
Ecuador is so varied - the Amazon jungle, the Andes and now this.  The largest city in Ecuador is nothing like the rest of the country.  Hot, sticky, languid - it's perched on a slow-moving grey river that oozes into the Pacific.  We came out of the mountains, down 6,000 feet and entered a completely new world.  It feels like a sauna.  But, hang on, I've been here before, I think.  What about it is so familiar?

Baños, Ecuador - Adios

Goodbye To...
The fruit lady...

Baños, Ecuador - Pushing to the Extreme

Canyoning

I looked it up in the dictionary.  "Canyoning" (barranquismo in Spanish) is travelling down canyons using a variety of techniques that may include walking, scrambling, climbing, rappelling and swimming.  We used all those techniques and more.  It wasn't my idea, but preferable to the alternate - jumping off a bridge with a large rubber band attached to my ankles.  Tomas, our half-Ecuadorian, half-Italian guide put us at ease with his sense of humor.

Baños, Ecuador - La Ruta de Las Cascadas

aka "The Waterfall Route"
You can rent a bike for the day and pay either 5, 7 or 10 bucks, helmet and lock included.  I decided on the 5 dollar bike without consultation and started an argument.  Dodo's not very comfortable biking in traffic and she wanted the 10 dollar bike, which she considered safer.  After a bit of discussion, the point was noted for the future.  We then left town, heading downhill towards the Amazon jungle.

Baños, Ecuador - Up

and More Up
We finally got good weather, enough for us to be overly ambitious.  First, a hike to Bella Vista, a lookout point over the town then a bike ride later in the afternoon.  Bella Vista is marked by a large white cross - you can see it if you look very closely in this photo.

Baños, Ecuador - Deeper in the Andes

Named for their Hot Springs
The town of Baños sits in the Pastaza valley like a scar, an ugly contradiction to the gorgeous surrounding landscapes.  Each dirty street, crumbling building and cinder block hostel is a tiny cut that bleeds the place of any charm or potential.  We were led here by a former colleague from Ecuador who said it was secondary in all of Ecuador to the Galapagos islands.  I can only imagine he was joking with me at the time and is still laughing.

Quito, Ecuador - Adios

I Will Miss You, But Not Too Much

We did manage to get outside of the historic district - the rest of Quito looks different.  Uglier, in fact.  It's quite an ugly city, truth be told.  A bit too chilly for my liking as well.

Quito, Ecuador - Night Eats

Floresta Night Market
Floresta is a neighborhood northeast of the historic district.  There have a well organized night market in one of the small parks there.  After our volcano cycling day we were hungrier than usual and stepped outside our house and flagged a cab there.

Quito, Ecuador - Cotopaxi

Biking a Volcano
Cotopaxi is 30 miles south of Quito and stands 19,345 feet tall.  The only mountain in Ecuador that is taller is Chimborazo, another volcano 40 miles further south and 1,000 feet taller.  On a clear day you can see Cotopaxi from Quito.  It's almost perfectly conical and capped by a glacier that starts at 16,500 feet.  We signed ourselves up for a day tour - one in which you drive up to the edge of the glacier in a 4x4, then bicycle down into the valley below.  We were to ride approximately 25 miles.

Quito, Ecuador - The Teleferico

Blocked by a Storm
We took a gondola lift from the eastern edge of the city up the side of Pichincha volcano to 13,000 feet.  We'd hoped for clear views of the city but our timing was a bit off - a storm was beginning to blow in as we took off.

Quito, Ecuador - The Basilica

Lawyers Ruin Everything
The largest neo-gothic basilica in the New World is two blocks from us.  It was commissioned in 1858 and took 50 years to complete.  We walked over this morning for a look.

Quito, Ecuador - First Impressions

Shock to the System
In just one short flight we went from warm Colombia to cold Quito.  I exaggerate - it drops down to the upper 40's at night then quickly jumps up to 70 after a few hours of sun.  First time this whole trip that I am not in shorts and a tee shirt.  Quito is 9.000 feet above sea level - I felt it immediately.  My ears filled up within an hour and I cannot hear a damned thing.  We are in the old town, looking south onto a small hill nicknamed "el panecillo" which means "the bun" as in a bun you eat.

Cali, Colombia - Adios!

Adios a la Jefa, Tambien (Goodbye to the Boss, Too)
We said goodbye to our host and landlord, Yeimi.  She sat reluctantly for a serious photo since I'd been joking with her, calling her boss.

Cali, Colombia - Food

We Tried to Try it All
You can eat like a king in Cali.  This meal for two with drinks, soup and main course was less than five dollars.

Cali, Colombia - Come to Jesus

Ascent of Cristo Rey
He stands 85 feet tall and looks down on Cali from a peak on the western edge of town.  Our landlord recommended a bike ride there and suggested we use Benjamin, a friend of hers who rents out bikes and serves as a guide.  No fixed price, you make a donation and he uses some of the proceeds to buy books for the local school children.

Cali, Colombia - Maintenance

The Best Two Dollar Workout
In our quest to be in tip-top shape for the Macchu Picchu hike, we hit the gym every night at 6pm.  Down the hill from us is a gym that offers classes for two bucks.  I still cannot believe the prices here.  Slightly different workout every day, but damned hard regardless.

Cali, Colombia - Street Scenes

Many Ups and Downs
The city started at the foot of the mountains and slowly spilled into the valley.  The first thing you notice is the people; Cali is more a mix of African, mulatto and mestizo than northern Colombia, a vestige of the slave trade on the southern coast where the sugar cane fields were.

Cali, Colombia - World Cup Fever

They're In
The last game of the world cup qualifiers was held on Tuesday night.  The whole city ground to a halt, the game was on everywhere.  Colombia was taking on Peru in Lima and they needed a win or a tie with Chile losing.  We watched the second half at an outdoor ice cream shop.  Every employee was there with us, running into the shop to serve the odd customer and then running back out as quickly as possible.

Cali, Colombia - Top of Town

Our Home Base
We're staying in the historic district of Cali, in the foothills on the northwest side of town.  Our house is at the top of a steep hill, across the street from a shaggy park that crowns the neighborhood.  The facade is an optical illusion - it's larger inside than expected.

Cali, Colombia - Here We Come

South and Down
We took a four hour bus ride out of Armenia into the valley between the Central and Western Cordilleras to Cali, short for "Santiago de Cali."  It was a smooth ride other than the young girl who vomited into a garbage bag two or three times.  Cali is 2,000 feet lower, at 3,300 feet above elevation.  It is definitely warmer, I was sweating in the cab from the bus station to our Cali apartment.  It's not a small city - about 2.5 million people.  It is bordered on two sides by mountains - some of which we plan to scale, either by foot or bicycle.

Armenia, Colombia - El Valle de Corcora

Hiking the Corcora Valley
The Corcora Valley is part of Los Nevados National Park and sits next to the central ridge of the Andes, which soar to 15,000 feet.  Corcora was the name of a Andean princess and means "star of water."  The park was created to protect certain species, one being the Quindia Wax Palm, a tree that can grow as high as 200 feet.

Armenia, Colombia - Seismic Activity

Bathing in the Hot Springs
The Andean central range rises close to 15,000 feet and was pushed there by plate tectonics and volcanic activity.  Once every 20 years a huge earthquake flattens the area - the last big one was in 1999.  In the intervening years it has its advantages - specifically outdoor hot springs that one can luxuriate in.  Our host offers door to door hotsprings transportation but since we're cheap (ok, I'm the cheap one) we went local.

Armenia, Colombia - Country Jog

Escaping the Farm on Foot
The nearest village, El Caimo, is 5km away.  After breakfast it rained for a while but once it began to clear we got ambitious.  We planned to run to town, drink some coffee, hang out a bit and then run back.  There was a single cafe in town - part of a rest stop.

Armenia, Colombia - Country Digs

Deep in the Country
Technically, we're not in Armenia.  We're thirty minutes south, in a farming collective that is 3 miles from the nearest village, called El Caimo.  You have to pass a checkpoint to get into the collective, which is composed of 40 small farms.  Most grow coffee and plantains, our farm happens to specialize in aloe vera.

Armenia, Colombia - Cross Hairs of the Coffee Trade

Goodbye Medellin
We bussed our way out, hoping to get there on time but quickly gave up hope as traffic and road works slowed us to a crawl.

Medellin, Colombia - Food

You Will Never Go Hungry Here
Medellin checks all the food boxes for me.  Cheap, plentiful, various and cooked from scratch.  This is the national dish, bandeja paisa, which can be roughly translated as "country platter."  Rice, beans, fried egg, slice of avocado, fried plaintain, chain link of deep-fried fatty pork, blood sausage and a chorizo.  Dodo and I combined could not finish this.

Medellin, Colombia - The Hood

Visiting La Moravia
We booked a walking tour called "Barrio Transformation" and toured one of the Medellin's most notorious neighborhoods - La Moravia.  It's built on and around the city's garbage dump and was once known as Pablo Escobar's "assasin's cradle."  This is a photo of how it used to look.

Medellin, Colombia - Transport

Top Class
Medellin, built in a valley surrounded by mountains, was once relatively small.  In the 80s and 90s, hundreds of thousands of rural migrants, displaced by the civil war, fled the countryside and built whole makeshift neighborhoods on the hillsides surrounding the city.   The public transport system adapted ingeniously.  In the valley, there is an elevated subway line.

Medellin, Colombia - Smaller Towns

Marinilla and Guatape
As part of our rock climb trip, we got to tour two small towns.  Marinilla on the way to the rock and the colorful town of Guatape after our climb.

Medellin, Colombia - Climbing the Rock

AKA "El Penol de Guatape"
We booked a day trip to a giant rock two hours west of Medellin in the town of Guatape.  The idea, as crazy as it sounds, was to climb 77 stories to the top for what is billed as "incredible views" of the surrounding lakes.  The rock is a chunk of granite pushed up into the air from plate tectonics.  Two-thirds of it is beneath the ground.

Medellin, Colombia - Botero

Museo Antipoquia
This is not the Botero museum per se, but his work dominates.  He is the most famous artist from Medellin and has donated many of his paintings, drawings and sculptures so they can be viewed together.