Hola Amigos y Familia:

 

The genesis of this adventure began, innocuously enough, last October as we were crafting an itinerary for Papua New Guinea for October 2018, the Goroka festival being the centerpiece. The realization that we would be going through travel withdrawals for the next 12 months was too much to handle. Hence, the plan for an interim sojourn germinated and we decided it was time to do the Galapagos. We had not had a strong desire to do this before, as we tend to go to the places less traveled, e.g., Borneo, Sulawesi, North Vietnam. But the allure of the uniqueness of what lies in those islands was too much to resist. So here we are, writing about our 3 weeks in the Galapagos Islands and Eastern Ecuador Amazonia.

 

Our first stop was the capital of Ecuador, Quito, at an altitude of 9,400 feet, staying in the “Old Town” section (historic district). Our B&B was strategically located, the large wooden entrance door 3 feet from the cobblestoned Calle Esmeraldas, where an olio of flesh peddlers plied their trade. Stepping from this street into our entryway felt like an oasis. The owners, Mario & Blanca, were extraordinarily kind and attentive and served amazing breakfasts. As Maggie has sleep issues and the entire 1st night was rife with traffic noises, she pleaded with Mario for an interior room, sequestered away from the madding crowd (it had been a Friday night, unfortunately). She got her wish for a more claustrophobic but quiet room and we went off for our first full day in Quito.

 

Armed with our paper map (much more trustworthy than GPS we have found), we made our way along the major street perpendicular to Esmeraldas, Guayaquil, noting the many passersby slurping on 5 inch high swirled ice cream plopped into cones, as we performed our regular style of stumbling around, deambulando (Spanish for wandering). We chose to test our skills by locating our next residence, Mansion del Angel, part of the CNH Finch Active Galapagos Tour, with whom we would be motoring aboard the SAMBA, a 78 foot vessel with 7 cabins, through the NW itinerary of the Galapagos. On the way, we were caught in a downpour and dove into a small food shop, purchasing a bowl of cooked, large kernel corn for $1 USD (the currency of Ecuador is the U.S. dollar) to justify using them as an umbrella. It gave us time to review the map, leading to successfully finding our target and surveying the venue.

 

At this point we were outside the Historic District, stumbling upon a giant bust of Ghandi’s head and being confronted by an older local waving a tube of medicine saying he needed $12 to replace it at a local hospital’s pharmacy. We politely declined and moved on, ending up dining al fresco at Café del Teatro, situated in a small and busy square near our B&B, watching demonstrators and artily attired locals. Leaving, we walked uphill toward our abode, coming across a small scale in the middle of the sidewalk, a gentleman nearby owning it. We realized what a fun opportunity this would be, so I got on the scale. It didn’t matter what the poundage would read. It was a great photo op of him closely scrutinizing the scale and reporting the results. His price, 15 cents, receiving a whopping 35 cents from us for allowing us to snap a photo of him. The rest of the afternoon was spent resting, reflecting on the proximity of the speeding multi-sectional buses, carrying 100 passengers, whizzing within 2 feet of us walking on the 4’ wide sidewalks; the breathlessness of walking at over 9,000 feet altitude; the omnipresence of the National Police, including directing traffic at key intersections.

 

We closed out our first full day dining at Purisima, a restaurant featuring “Lifted Little Finger Ecuadorian Cuisine” which was within walking distance, and where we would watch the next door theater-goers, dressed to the nines spilling out after a performance, while we sipped Paico Sours, awaiting our fare of Sea Bass Ceviche and Smoked Oven-Roasted Ribs. We were corrected, as usual, in ordering “un vaso de vino”…”vaso” is used when ordering water, “copa” when ordering vino. The walk back along Guayaquil included seeing apparently homeless folks, some of whom were openly urinating, the outpouring running down the curb.

 

With 2 more full days in Quito before we would fly to the Galapagos, we hooked up with some of our fellow SAMBA passengers on a CNH-sponsored tour of Quito with Jean Paul (JP), being driven around in a 10 passenger van to get to key venues, the first was the Basilica del Voto Nacional, the largest neo-Gothic church in the Americas, sporting gargoyles of Andean condors, lizards and turtles. When inside, we witnessed a parishioner on her knees, reading and silently repeating scripture, slowly moving up the aisle of this 1552 structure. In the 1885 addition to the Basilica, JP pointed out the heart-shaped window that, when viewed from the inside at the right angle, nicely encompasses El Panecillo on a hilltop in the distance. Legend has it that when the Basilica is completed, the world will end, hence, work continues on the edifice, where niches and chapels have no names etched, awaiting other donors, thus avoiding the “end of the world”.

 

Because of cloudy & drizzly weather, we were given a choice for the next venue. Despite rain and mist, the 8 of us chose TeleferiQo, the cable car that would take us from 10,200 feet in elevation to the 13,000 foot top at Cruz Loma, where we could see the vastness of Quito over the 28 mile long valley below. On the ride to El Panecillo, which we had viewed from the Basilica, one of our group asked JP about something they had seen during their excursion to the volcano, Cotopaxi, having to do with watching residents cutting greenery in their front yards, baling it and taking it into the backyards. Question: “Was this for feeding cows?” JP responded “No, probably Guinea food”. Question, “Are they pets?” JP, “Yes, at first”. Question, “Do they name them?” JP, “Yes, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner”! We all went into hysterics.

 

Viewing El Panecillo up close, this 30 meters (100 feet) tall structure with the Virgin, chain in hand, a snake at her feet, looking down at us, was pretty impressive, especially knowing the fact that the Virgin was shipped in 7,000 pieces from Spain, based upon a 5 foot high model in a local church. After lunch at an upscale eatery, Casa Gangotena, with the likes of Ceviche de Pescado and Encocado de Camarones, we were educated at Iglesia de La Compania (built for Jesuits in 1605) on Baroque style which is defined by symmetry, sense of movement and luminosity. We shan’t bore you with the details here. On the pop quiz from JP on the number of pipes in the church organ, we didn’t come close: 1,104! We finished this long day with some time at Chez Tiff Chocolateria on Calle Ronda, with education on Theo Broma Cacao (Food of God) and the process of making chocolate.

 

On our 5th morning in Quito, our group of 10 were whisked away to the Mariscal Sucre airport, via the narrow and winding old road built with 6 inch square pavers, spiraling down a steep descent, alongside dilapidated hillside dwellings with narrow steps of stone or merely dug into the terrain. When we connected up with the 4 year old modern freeway, built to support this new airport, we were able to view the snow-capped peak of Cotopaxi, majestically surrounded by soft cloud formations. Our flight stopped in Guayaquil, on the coast, before heading west 600 miles to the Galapagos, where we touched down on the island of Baltra north of the island of Santa Cruz, viewing our vehicle of adventure for the next week at anchor offshore, the SAMBA, and getting to know the newest additions to our tribe, two couples from Montana, making this a full complement of 14 passengers (4 Canadians) in the 7 cabins. After emergency drills, and getting settled in our new quarters (bunk beds, a small bathroom blessed with an enclosed shower, and a whopping 25 square feet of open flooring left over), we took the pangas (rubber dinghys holding 6-8 plus the tillerman) north to the small island of Mosquera (more like a sand spit). There we kicked sand, swam, watched small black sharp-talons iguanas playing among the bleached skeleton of a pilot whale, interacted with crying baby sea lions in their tidal ‘kindergartens’ intertidal pools and on the beach where they were left behind while their mothers were out searching for food.

 

Our Guia Naturalista for the next week, Morris, provided us with some knowledge about sea lions, e.g., sea lions have “ears” while seals do not (even though, later on, we learned that fur seals have “ears”…always has to be an exception) and short whiskers are a result of deep diving for food (broken off in rocky areas and coral) which are normally females; longer whiskers are the sign of medium depth diving. After our 1st meal (there were to be 3 squares a day), we spent some time on the ship’s bow under the starry skies, reclining in canvas deck chairs, letting the wonderful dinner settle. During the night, we motored north for 6 hours, moving from south of the Equator to north of it, anchoring off of Genovesa Island, where we would start our day in Darwin Bay. We all piled into two pangas, hugging the lava shoreline cliffs which housed Nazca Boobies with their grey webbed feet and black/white wings, Red-Footed Boobies (brown feathered, blue beaks, and of course, red webbed feet) and baby Frigate Birds (white headed, brown/black body with long slim light blue curved beaks) in tree nests with their droppings sliding down like waterfalls on the lava rock faces. Morris regaled us about the Nocturnal Swallow-tailed gulls, the value of a rare component of sperm whale poop (Ambergris, sometimes used in the making of perfume, and thought of as an aphrodisiac and sold for as much as $50,000 per kilo!), and Giant Squids (diameters of 30 feet) found at depths of 6,000 feet.

 

After our wet landing, we moved along the sands and intertidal pools, which sported the beautiful and multi-colored Sally Lightfoot crabs, lolling and preening sea lion moms (while children were in ‘kindergarten’), a barking male sea lion ‘bothering’ a female, then a family of sea lions, the pup playing with a leaf in its mouth, thrashing its head side-to side. Sloshing through a stream alongside Red Mangrove trees filled with noisy Boobies including baby Nazcas with their fluffy black and white feathers, and Morris pointing out a very small black Vampire Finch (only found on Genovesa) with its very sharp & pointed beak used for sucking blood from Nazca and Blue-Footed Boobies for nourishment when its normal diet is not available.

 

A Great Frigate was spotted with its green/purple feathers and puffed up bright red ‘throat’, a tool for sexual attraction, which, when Morris saw others with smaller throats, commented, “With that size, he’ll have to live in his mother’s basement forever”, which drew a bevy of laughs, since the inference was that no female would be accepting his courting. As we left to go back to the SAMBA, rare gray Lava Gulls were pointed out, with only 250 pairs left in the world. After lunch, we took the pangas and snorkeled at two feeding stations located offshore, seeing schools of Angel Fish, several other varieties of brightly colored fish, climaxing with a school of Hammerhead Sharks, with Morris grabbing Maggie’s underwater camera, diving down 30 feet or so to video them up close and personal. On the return to the ship, a golden-haired sea lion was caught sunning itself on cliff rocks, rubbing his back against them, as well as Mobula Rays who were mating, their fins seen penetrating the water surface and later, alongside us and several feet below the ocean surface.

​

This day was topped off with a panga trip to Prince Philip’s Steps leading 100 feet to a flat moonscape of lava surrounded by Palo Santo (incense) Trees, some with small blooms, most with desiccated leaves. We were walking within several feet of Nazca Boobies, some sitting on their newly hatched chicks, within their 2-3 foot diameter circle defining their ‘nest’, facing east with the chicks in front, protecting them from the hot sun in the west, others sitting on the two eggs they always lay (60% of eggs hatch; if both hatch only one survives, usually the 1st born). Eventually we ended up at the edge of a huge lava field leading to the cliff’s edge where we saw a rarely seen brown & yellow Short-Eared Owl, later, seeing several more blending in to barely discernible crevices, while another was in the open, stoically watching us, its head swiveling back and forth, reviewing the bunch of us. We were so wrapped up with this owl, we failed to notice a rapidly approaching storm, replete with rainbows in the background and menacingly black clouds.

 

Unfortunately, it hit us quicker than we expected, drenching us (Maggie and I had no rain gear) and our camera, which had to be coddled in rice overnight to get rid of the moisture that had temporarily impacted its functionality. The sleety rain was so bad, and we were so far away from getting to the SAMBA, that we started laughing, embracing this unique experience. However, our dinner of shrimp in cream sauce, green beans, roasted potatoes, tomato green salad and flan (baked apple for Maggie and her newfound allergy to cow dairy) was ample compensation for this experience.

 

Next dispatch takes us further west to islands beyond Genovesa.

 

Salud, Stan & Maggie