Quito, Ecuador: Part Dos

We were happy to be back at our nice hotel, even if it was just for one more night. That evening we had Thai food, which we´d both been craving for a while. That night we made it a mellow night and just watched TV in our room; who knows the next time we´ll be able to watch TV in a nice hotel!

The following day we didn´t have to check out of the hotel until 2pm! Yeah, 2pm! Have you ever heard of such a thing?! We had brunch at Kallari´s, which had amazing organic food. They also had amazing chocolate! After check out we took a cab back to our former hostel. Later that afternoon we walked into the Old Town. First we visited La Compania de Jesus, which was so beautiful! Seven tons of gold were used to gild the walls, ceilings and altars. We weren´t supposed to take pictures, but we snuck a few anyways. Sh, don´t tell! Afterwards we walked to Plaza San Francisco and visited the Monastery of San Francisco. It is the largest colonial structure in Quito, as well as it´s largest church. Katie thought it was cool, but Leif had a bad vibe about it.

The next day we got up early and visited Volcan Pichincha. We took the TeleferiQo, a sky tram that goes up the mountain. We had some great views on the way up, but at the top it was super cloudy, not to mention freezing cold! We waited for a couple hours to see if it would clear up; when it didn’t we headed back down. Later that night we decided to go out! Our first stop was Papillion, which played mostly Latin music. After hearing the few songs we actually knew, we got bored and left. We took a taxi to Matpioshka, the place we had been to before with the unlimited drinks. We started talking to a Canadian, who had just returned from seven weeks in Banos where he was studying yoga and Spanish. While at the bar Katie was handed a business card by a guy in a hat, which read `you are so damned beautiful. I am gay, but I just had to say hi.` He was hot, so we started talking to him and his friends. We all danced until closing, and then shared some cabs to an after hours place. We continued drinking and dancing with our new friends. The cute guy in the hat was trying to convince us to stay in Quito longer. We would have loved to, but we had to catch a plane to La Paz the following evening. Why do we always meet awesome people right before we have to leave a place?! One by one they each left, until we were the last ones standing! We left around 6am; we couldn’t find a registered taxi so we ended up taking a pirate taxi…which you should never do. Oops!

The next day we checked out at 12pm, but didn´t leave the hostel until 5pm. We got to the airport about four hours before our flight, during which we ran into a mother and daughter who were on our Galapagos tour. At the airport Katie started to not feel well. She was weak and light headed, and then began to shake uncontrollably. A medic came over to see her, and gave her an aspirin and told her to rest a lot. Basically what happened was her body reacted negatively to the drastic climate change. We had gone from 50 degrees in Quito to sunny, 80 degree weather in the Galapagos, and then back to chilly Quito. So apparently, this is not good! She finally started to feel better by the layover in Santiago. After Santiago we flew to La Paz, and arrived there around noon.

The Galapagos Islands

We flew from Quito to Baltra Islands in the Galapagos Islands, which is one hour behind Quito, which makes us that much closer to Seattle time! We were greeted at the airport by our guide, Maurice. We took a bus to the dock, where we took a dingy to our yacht, the Galapagos I. While waiting at the dock we had already seen two sea lions and a marine iguana. We arrived on our boat and settled into our cabin. Our cabin consisted of a bunk bed, small night stand and bathroom. Surprisingly, in comparison to our Amazon riverboat cabin it was less spacious and there was no TV! We had lunch in our dining room, where the 16 in our group ate our meals everyday. The meals were three courses, and pretty tasty. That afternoon we had a wet landing onto Santa Rosa Island, where we took a two hour nature walk. Dry landings mean there is a dock to step onto, while wet landings have no dock and we have to step into the surf. We saw tons of wildlife; birds galore, sea lions, iguanas. We were able to get really close to the animals, as they do not feel threatened by humans. This is the closest we’ve ever been to animals in their natural habitat. After the walk we had time to swim and snorkel on the beach, although didn’t see much. We returned to our boat, and later that night we had a cocktail hour where we were introduced to our crew consisting of eight people. After dinner we went to bed early; we had an early wake up call the next morning, so we needed our beauty sleep!

Maurice woke us up at 6:30am the following morning. Breakfast was supposed to be at 7am, but it was delayed so that we could go out and see some penguins and blue footed boobies that were nearby on shore. We went out on a dingy and were able to get fairly close to them. We returned and finally had breakfast around 8am. After breakfast we got back in the dingy and went to Chinese Hat Island, which surprisingly enough looks like a Chinese hat. We walked around the island for a few hours and learned more about the islands and their formation. We went back to the boat for lunch and sun bathing on the roof. After lunch our guide took us out to go snorkeling. This time was MUCH better! We saw tons of colorful fish, penguins, sea lions, huge star fish, and even sharks! But don’t worry, they were all harmless. The best thing we saw was above the water on the rocks where penguins, marine iguanas and blue footed boobies were all mingling harmoniously. We were the only ones in our group with an underwater camera, so everyone was jealous! Back at the boat we changed and got ready for our afternoon landing. About 40 minutes before leaving it started to rain; and this was supposed to be our “dry landing.” We got our raincoats on and headed out anyways to St. Bartolome. We hiked up a lot of stairs and were able to see some amazing views of the surrounding islands. After a couple hours we headed back into the water for more snorkeling. Although this time wasn’t as good as the last, we still saw some beautiful marine life. By the end of the day we were all pretty tired and looking forward to dinner. However, about an hour before dinner the boat got really rocky. Pretty much everyone (except the crew) was nauseous. We managed to get a little bit of food down and then went straight to bed.

The third day our wake up call was at 5:30am! We headed to James Island, which had a black beach. There were tons of marine iguanas here. They all stand so still, you can barely notice them sometimes. We saw a double fur seal, which is really just a sea lion. The difference is in their fur and the shape of their head. We also saw the Galapagos Hawk, which apparently is rare to see. On the walk back we found a scorpion. It was a lot smaller and less scary then you’d think. When we returned to the boat we went whale and dolphin sighting. We saw a few in the distance, but nothing extremely close up. After lunch we went to Jervis Island, which has a red beach. Who knew sand came in so many colors! We saw more sea lions and even some baby ones that were playing together. So adorable! We saw several different kinds of finches, and learned about how the different species evolved on the islands. We also saw lots of pelicans, which are really freaky looking birds! We went out for one last snorkel, but unfortunately the water was kinda murky. Before dinner we had a farewell cocktail, which tasted like bananas. Around this time the boat started getting rocky again, and some people skipped out on dinner. We made it to the dining hall, but didn’t eat a whole lot. Nicole, from Boston took a few bites and then had to be excused. About 3 seconds later we heard her heaving off the side of the boat. The whole room grew silent for a moment, and then we all burst into laughter. She returned briefly and apologized, which just made us laugh harder. Poor girl! After dinner the boat finally docked, so we were feeling a lot better! We had docked in Puerto Ayora for the night, and a bunch of us decided to go into town. About twelve of us went to a bar and had a few drinks. A couple people started dancing, including our guide who was grinding up on one of the girls. It was hilarious! Us, two British girls, two of the crew members and our guide all went to a disco nearby, La Panga. Apparently, our guide is also an architect because he designed the bar. We drank and danced till around 2am when the place closed. We took a $1 water taxi back to our boat.

The last morning we had to wake up early yet again. We had our last meal on our home away from home, and then headed to the Darwin Research Center. Here we saw giant tortoises. We were able to get really close to them too. We learned that the only real way to know a tortoise’s age is to pour acid on their shell and count the rings, which of course you can’t do while they’re still living. After the center we said our goodbyes and left for the airport. We got back into Quito that evening and checked back into our wonderful hotel. The Galapagos Islands were definitely a big highlight of the trip. The weather was amazing; blue skies and clear blue ocean. It is amazing how much diverse wildlife you are able to see, and how close you can get to it. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime!

Quito, Ecuador: Part Uno

We arrived in Quito on the 26th of February. We checked in at our hostel, L’Auberge Inn. The hostel was pretty nice and had hot water! Halleluiah! The one down side was that our room was freezing cold, as was everything else in the city. Quito is a really beautiful city, although it was about 50-60 degrees the whole time we were there, and usually rainy in the afternoons. Quite a change from the 80’s we’ve been accustomed to. In Ecuador they use the US dollar, which was odd but a nice remembrance of home. Plus, we didn’t have to worry about the conversion rate.

We woke up early on the 27th and took a cab to El Panicello aka The Little Loaf. At the top was a really beautiful statue of the Virgin made of some silvery material. She was holding a dragon with a chain. We also got some really nice views of the city and the surrounding mountains. Afterwards, our cab driver dropped us off in the Old Town. There we wandered around Plaza Grande and got something to eat. After lunch we went to the Monastery of Santa Catalina. A guide showed us around and to our surprise took us to the roof of the building. We had to climb up some teeny tiny stairs, manoeuvre under the church bell and then finally hop up onto the roof, where we had some good views of Old Town. According to our Lonely Planet, the roof of the monastery has the strangest view in Quito. It was strange and scary, because there was no kind of security or fencing on the roof, so we could have easily slipped off. After a shaky walk down we wandered to Santo Domingo, and stayed there for a bit. Next we made our way back to our hostel. Along the way we stopped at the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which is known for having the deadliest view in Quito. The church had three towers, two of which you could climb. We went to the shortest one first, and had to cross a rickety old plank to get to it. We climbed some steep ladders and finally made it to the top, where we had to catch our breath. It was pretty scary, although not as scary as we expected. We went to the other tower thinking it wouldn’t be too bad, but boy were we wrong! This second tower was much higher, so it took longer to get to the top. We kept thinking we had reached the top, but there was still more to go. When we were unable to climb anymore, the floor was just some small support beams and thick chicken wire. We noticed that we were able to go out onto the ledge, which is about a 2 by 2 foot area on the very edge of the church. We carefully made our way onto it, and we were sufficiently freaked out! After taking a few pictures, we hurried back inside and made our way back down to firm ground. That night we decided to go to the local cinema and see a movie, 27 Bodas. A cab to and from the theatre, and two movie tickets only cost us $13. You can barely buy one ticket for that price back home!

On the 28th we got up somewhat early and took a bus into Old Town, where we then caught another bus to Mitad del Mundo, otherwise known as the equator. It’s located about an hour outside of the city of Quito. Other than the equator line and a monument, there was also several stores and restaurants. After taking pictures of us straddling the northern and southern hemispheres, we had lunch and a few beers. That was about all there was to see there, so we took a bus back to the city. That night we went to Quito’s Finn McCool’s! We had found a flyer for it the previous day, so we had to make sure we stopped in and have a few pints. The place was alright, but a few too many gringos for our tastes so we went to a nearby club, Matrioshka. We paid $10 each for cover, which got us unlimited drinks for the whole night! The place was pretty dead, but we met a really nice Ecuadorian, Cesar who we talked to all night. They had no tequila, so we kept taking whiskey shots all night. Oh god, why?! We loved the DJ, because he would play anything we wanted. We danced until closing around 2amish. As the bar was closing us, Cesar and the bartender all ended up going to this after hours place. We hopped in Cesar’s car and drove a few minutes to the club. At this point the night got a little fuzzy. We’re pretty sure we were the life of the party; dancing, drinking and talking to everyone! We are so cool!

We woke up the following morning, confused as to exactly how we got home. We may have taken a cab, or possibly Cesar gave us a ride. After two months of being in South America, this is the most drunk we’ve gotten thus far; which is quite a feat for us. This day we were definitely paying for the night before. We donned our hoodies and sunglasses and ate at the restaurant below our hostel. The rest of the day we pretty much lounged around the hostel, trying to get well enough for that night. We got ready and left the hostel around 11pm. We first went to a place called No Bar, which was described to us as a college bar with beer bonging and dancing on the tables. Well, it was a bar. But all we saw were old people dancing to 80s and 90s music. The music was good, but the people weren’t our cup of tea, so we left. We went to another club that had techno and salsa music and stayed there until close. For after hours we went to some place that had taco in its name. We got there and not too many people had arrived yet, but the music was good so we danced. We stayed for about an hour and then got home around 330am.

Saturday morning we were a little hungover again, but not as bad the night before. We checked out at 12pm and made our way to the hotel where our Galapagos Islands tour was to start. Our hotel was the nicest thing we’d seen in months! We each had our own double sized bed, a fridge, a flat screen TV with cable, a 180 view of the city, and hot showers. We were in heaven! We refused to leave our room, so we ordered room service. Twice. At 6pm we had a quick welcome meeting with our group. Afterwards we went right back to our room for some more quality time with the TV.

We woke up early on Sunday morning, as we had to leave our beloved hotel at 7am to get to the airport to catch our flight to the Galapagos!

Iquitos, Peru

We arrived in Iquitos, Peru in the afternoon. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that can not be reached by road. At the dock we met a guy who offered to take us to a hostel. We got in the back of his taxi, which was just a motorbike with a carriage like thing attached in the back; it kinda resembled a motorized Chinese rickshaw. The hostel we stayed at wasn’t the best, but it had a pool and only cost us $20 for 2 nights! After checking in we headed toward the main square, Plaza de Armas. We found an internet café and food, life’s two main essentials. We ate at Ari’s Burgers, which was an American 50’s style restaurant. There was tons of different kinds of food, even milkshakes! As we were finishing our meal an old man and his son were trying to ask if they could have the rest of our food. They were motioning at us from the street, but we tried to ignore them. Finally the kid came in as we were leaving and asked for the leftovers. We said sure, and he put Katie’s pasta in a plastic bag. After dinner Leif made us get ice cream, and we saw the two eating our food from their plastic bag. We feel really sad about their situation, but we have become somewhat callous to beggars everywhere because we see them so much. We walked around the square and saw a pretty purple fountain, and then returned to our hostel.

The next day was pretty much the same as the first. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in the town. In the afternoon we took advantage of the pool and went swimming for a bit. We went to bed early that night, as we had to wake up at 4:30am to catch our 7am flight to Quito, Ecuador.

Leticia, Colombia

Our river boat docked in Tabatinga, Brazil. From there we took a 5 minute taxi to Leticia, Colombia. Our taxi was a car, but the majority of taxis here are motorbikes, which is funny! We checked in at our hotel, which had a TV..with more than one channel..and in English! We were happy! The first thing we did after dropping our bags off was find an Internet café. We were desperate to check our e-mail after a week long boat trip; we felt reconnected to the world! At the Internet café a guy approached us and asked where we were staying, because he owned a guesthouse. We said we already had a place, but he still offered to help us with anything else we needed. We asked about getting boat tickets from Leticia to Iquitos, Peru. He explained it, and it was more complicated than we had anticipated. So, we set up a time to meet him the next day, so that he could help us buy the boat tickets. That night we ate at a nearby restaurant with a cute waiter, and then we just watched TV the rest of the night.

The next morning we got up early to go meet our friend. When we arrived to his guesthouse we discovered he only had room to take one of us, as we would be traveling on a motor bike. Leif stayed behind and was put in charge in case anyone needed anything, and Katie hopped on the back of his red motor bike. They crossed the border back into Brazil and went to a Peruvian restaurant to buy the boat tickets. They made it safely back and found Leif still in tact. He had talked to an old hippie guy at the guesthouse, who said Tabatinga had six shootings in the last week, but Leticia was much safer. Thankfully we had decided to stay on the Colombian side! After getting our tickets we went to a restaurant and got some banana pancakes and all you can drink juice..yum! After lunch, we still needed to get our Brazilian exit stamp in our passports. Since it was a nice day, we figured we could get some exercise and walk back to the Brazilian side. After about 10 minutes we were sweating like whores in church! We crossed the border into Brazil, where there is absolutely no border control at all! We got to Policia Federal only to find out that they have lunch from 12pm-2pm. We got there at 12:15pm. So we kept on walking and found a place to have a few cervazas and watch some Brazilian soap operas. Two hours later we returned to the place, got our stamp in about 2 minutes and then walked back to Colombia! That night we had planned to go out, but it was absolutely pouring and we were tired, so we decided to stay in.

The next day we slept in and had a late breakfast/early lunch. We got BBQ chicken wings for an appetizer, and then even gave us plastic gloves to eat them with. How considerate! We walked around the town and saw what little sights Leticia had to offer. For dinner we found a buffet like place. We had steak, a plateful of food and unlimited juice for $5 total! Amazing!

We got up at 3am the next day and were picked up by a cab at 3:15. He took us to the dock in Tabatinga, where we caught a water taxi to the Peruvian island of Santa Rosa. From Santa Rosa we caught our fast boat to Iquitos, Peru. The ¨fast¨boat took about 10 hours, but we did get a pretty tasty meal on the trip. Our luggage was stored on top of the boat which made us quite nervous, but thankfully it was still there when we arrived at our destination.

River Boat up the Amazon

Our hotel in Manaus drove us to the dock to catch our riverboat up the Amazon River around noon. At the dock we took a water taxi in order to get to the actual boat. On the lower level of the boat it’s all cargo stuff and on the upper level it’s filled with people in hammocks. There were so many, they were practically on top of one another. Thank god we got a cabin! Our cabin was way nicer than expected; it was pretty roomy, with a double bed, dresser, our own bathroom with shower (even though the sink and shower water was basically brown, river water), AC, and a TV. The TV only had one channel all in Portuguese, but without it we would have gone insane! At least we got a chance to get up to date on all the Brazilian soap operas and talk shows. We were also able to watch one bad American film dubbed in Portuguese a day. There was a dining room where we had our meals, but to get there we had to crawl over, under and between people in hammocks and their luggage. On the top level there was an open area, which had a little store where we could buy some food, drinks and toiletries. Everyone else on the boat was a native, we were the only gringos there. So everyone stared at us, especially the little kids! They were probably wondering what the heck we were doing there, because it definitely was not on the regular tourist circuit.

We were on the boat for 5 nights and 6 days. Our days consisted of breakfast at 6am, lunch at 10am, and dinner at 5pm. We had to make sure to get in line at least 20 minutes early, because all the ¨hammock people¨would get there super early. They would only let twelve people at a time in, so we had to wait until each group finished their meal. The food was mostly cold spaghetti, rice and some sort of meat. Between meals we would sleep a lot, watch TV and try to sunbath (weather permitting). At night we’d have a few drinks of rum. We bought a fifth of rum in Manaus for only $2.50!! It was amazing how cheap it was. Since we had to entertain ourselves, after our cocktail hours we would have makeovers, photo shoots and dance parties. We were pretty bored, but the week actually went by fairly fast. We finally arrived in the Triple Frontier (the triborder of Brazil, Peru and Colombia) where we had to go onto another boat just to get to land. It was definitely an interesting and different experience to have, but probably our last time on an Amazonian river boat for a week.

Manaus, Brazil & The Amazon

We arrived in Manaus , located on the Amazon River , around midday. We got picked up by our hostel, who also ran a tour company. Before going to the hostel we stopped by his hostel to find out about tours to the Amazon. We booked one that would leave the following morning. We finally got to our hostel, which was completely empty. It wasn´t the best place, since it was kind of musty. But it did have 3 cats! The one guy who worked there seemed disinterested and spoke no English. We went to bed early, so that we could get up by 7:30 to start our Amazon journey!

We were picked up in a cab at 8am, which dropped us off at the dock. We took a boat across the river and stopped at ‘The Meeting of the Rivers.’ It´s where these 2 rivers meet, and because of the difference in density there is a clear separation between the two. You can see how one side of the river is dark, and the other is much lighter. We put our hands in the water too, and you can feel the difference in temperature too. It was pretty cool. On the other side of the river bank we were picked up by another car, which took us to catch yet another boat. We finally arrived at Juma Lodge around 11am. The dining area is on logs, and as the tide rises the structure moves up. We dropped our stuff off and then took a swim in the river. Which by the way was the same river we had just seen alligators in. Although the owner promised it was safe. After having lunch we packed a few essentials and were taken out into the jungle with a group of 5 other people. Nicole and Keema (sp?!) were from New York City and Washington DC respectively, there was a couple from Switzerland, and there was Joey, who we had actually met in Montevideo! Small world! Our guide was Mateo and his assistant was Paulo. They were both really cool guys, and natives of the Amazon River basin. After an hour boat ride we arrived at our camp site. We set up our hammocks beneath a little hut made of palm tree leaves. We collected fire wood for dinner. We got into a boat to go collect wood from a tree in the middle of the river. Mateo tore off pieces of wood and put it in the boat. We even discovered a baby bat among the fire wood! We returned to camp and started the fire. For dinner we had chicken, rice and some Brazil nuts found in the forest. After dinner we did a night walk in the jungle. We heard lots of animals and saw a huge ass spider! Later we hung out by the fire until bedtime. The hammocks weren´t too bad, but a bed would have been better!

The next day we woke up, and had hard boiled eggs and bread for breakfast. We packed up our stuff and headed out on the river. After an hour or so we arrived at a native’s house, which consisted of three open rooms. After putting our stuff down we went on a jungle walk. It poured rain almost the whole time! It was pretty muddy and slippery; Katie fell twice! There wasn’t much of a trail, and our guides had to take a machete to the plants. We saw lots of plants and ate sugar cane. The walk was about 2 hours long and by the time we finally got back to the house, we were all soaking wet form head to toe! We changed and tried to dry off. The lady of the house made us lunch, and we ate with a bunch of her grand children. After lunch we went back into the river to put out some nets to catch fish for dinner. A couple hours later we retrieved them and found nothing! Thankfully, there were some other nets from earlier which had a few fish in them. That night for dinner we just ate crackers, since neither of us wanted the fish! Later on in the night, we all were dancing with the kids to some American pop music. Also a bit later, our guide offered us some shots of rum! So we were all taking shots with the natives and drinking Caipirinhas made with fresh lemons – and ants! We went to bed around midnight and tried to get comfy in our hammocks!

We were woken up at 5:30am the next day so that we could return to the lodge by 7am for breakfast. After breakfast we went piranha fishing. Leif caught one fish, but unfortunately it wasn’t a piranha so he had to throw it back. Later for lunch there was piranha soup; we both passed though, because it was literally the piranha as whole. And we did not want to eat something with a face! After lunch we said goodbye to Nicole and Keema, and then we went on another jungle trek. Leif really wanted to see some monkeys, so our guide looked extra hard for them. We ended up seeing quite a few, and two different species of them. We also saw an anteater that was climbing trees, tons of birds, lots of ants, spiders and plants. At one point we had to cross a river by walking over a wet, dead tree that was about 30 feet long. We thought it was a joke at first, but he was serious. It was probably the scariest thing we’ve done so far! But thankfully we all made it across alive. When we got back to the lodge we saw a sloth laying on the dock. We thought it was dead, but they told us he was just resting. When it got dark we went into the boat and we went caiman spotting. Mateo caught a three foot female and we all got to hold it in the boat. He also gave us a mini lesson all about caimans. After getting back to the lodge for dinner we were exhausted so we went to bed early.

The last morning we went to an 84 year old man´s house, who showed us about the rubber making process. He makes wallets, shoes and condoms! The condoms do not look comfortable; they are thick and sturdy. He showed us the different sizes of the wood molds, and Mateo commented on the little one saying it was for Japanese people! First he puts a cut in the rubber tree to collect a milky substance that was the rubber. He makes a fire and pours the liquid over the mold, then roasts the mold over the fire. But it was hilarious to see an old man making a rubber condom over a fire. After the rubber demonstration we went and saw a humongous tree, and then returned home. At 2pm we were picked up by boat and made our journey back to the city of Manaus.

We were originally supposed to leave on Friday afternoon, giving us one more night in Manaus. But apparently the boats don´t always leave on time if they aren´t full, so now we are leaving on Saturday afternoon. This was actually a good thing, because we were able to see the city and also got some errands done. We even got to do laundry for the first time! We also got in some shopping, which was great because things are pretty cheap here. We each got something we had been wanting for a while; Leif got a Speedo and Katie got shorts and a tube top. In a few hours we´ll be heading to the dock and hopping on a boat for about a week to go upstream on the Amazon River!