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Hi:  Here is our story of the Galapagos.  I'll post more pictures separately.  Please email me at laughingboomer.com if you want contact names. etc.

Mahara

Memories of our Galapagos trip include snorkelling with sea lions in clear turquoise waters, watching blue-footed boobies dance and call out their mating rituals, and having little Galapagos mockingbirds and lava lizards so close I could touch them. The Galapagos Island was high on our wish list and it’s a treasured place.  An archipelago of islands about 600 miles off the Ecuadorean coast, the Galapagos Islands contains unique species not found elsewhere in the world. Blue and red footed boobies, and the Galapagos hawks, gulls, doves, and mockingbirds are some variations of the species found nowhere else on earth.  We saw a sea lion with her pup still attached by the umbilical cord, marvelled also at the mating rituals of magnificent frigate birds and blue-footed boobies, and learned about sea-lion life.

We arrived in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, the major town in the Galapagos, without a boat cruise or hotel reservations booked. I had imaged the Galapagos to be a desolate place, so imagine my surprise to find a town of about 12,000 people. There are airline offices, plenty of restaurants and even a small department store. The main tourist street, winding along the sea is around a mile long and is lined with souvenir shops selling t-shirts and beads, dive shops and travel agencies selling last-minute cruise deals, as well as many cabinas, which provide internet and telephone booths. Internet service can be called euphemistically “not great”, and the telephone lines aren’t much better.  As well, all shops close down from 12 to 3, so planning is necessary to access the world. At one end of the main street, nearer to Charles Darwin Island, are the more exclusive hotels and restaurants and high-end jewellery and art shops.  Plenty of hostals and less expensive hotels are available as well.

The turquoise blue sea, palm trees and thick heat felt wonderful so we decided to stay for a few days on shore and explore our options.  We awoke in our small seaside hotel to the sea-loins barking out their territory and went to sleep with the sea waves pounding. Every morning we’d stroll down to El Chocolate for espressos, the type not made with instant coffee, as is common in Ecuador. In front of the cafe was a fish cleaning and selling spot: fishermen back with their morning catch of gigantic tuna, smaller, yellow-finned tuna, and other fish with bulging eyes. The fishermen worked on their daily haul: cutting off heads, hosing the blood out the gutted fish, and selling to the various restaurant owners, housewives, and tour-boat operators, who took the fish away in large black plastic bags. Surrounding the fishermen cleaning their catch were about 30 huge pelicans, a couple of seals, and some miscellaneous seabirds, all busily watching the men and fighting over any scraps. It was quite a scene. During our stay we enjoyed wahoo and fresh tuna several times at local restaurants.

The Charles Darwin Research Centre is very close to town. Many countries such as Sweden, Britain and Japan have sponsored research and have buildings on site. As well, the Sea Shepherd Society and Western Wilderness Foundation have offices in town.  In a large park by the ocean, the Research Centre, houses iguanas and turtles. This includes the famous turtle Lonesome George, without a mate for seventy years. The focus of the Research Center is conservation, research and training, with somewhere between 300 and 400 guides who focus on the Galapagos. These highly trained guides are extremely knowledgeable and passionately interested in new developments and conservation efforts in the Galapagos.

On the Islands, animals have a different sense of living with others – they seemed to have no fear of humans and we were often within feet of birds and wild animals that would normally flee. Don’t get the impression that we could go anywhere.  The Ecuadorian Government has extremely strict rules to preserve this natural wonder. People can only visit parts of the islands with guides and in small groups of 16 people. The Islands are 97% protected, so most areas are restricted and tourists must stay within the marked pathways. Strangely enough, the animals didn’t observe the rules so, for example when a sea lion gave birth on the footpath that day, the guides improvise.

We booked a five day cruise on a first-class vessel, the “Eden”. As with the Amazon trip, we had an interesting group of fourteen adventurous people from all over the world: England, Switzerland, Germany, American and Canada. We had great discussions on all matter of things, heard about people’s current journeys and just enjoyed being with each other. Our evening debriefs from our guide Jorge were about an hour long and covered our next day’s activities and also what birds and animals we would encounter and some detail about their behaviour. The food was excellent and plentiful, even for a vegetarian.  We traveled at night sometimes for four or six hours to start the day at another island.  It was wonderful to just sit on the lounge chairs, socializing, moving through the water enjoying the experience. Our boat traveled the southern route, visiting Espanola, Floreana, North Seymour and Santa Cruz.

We docked with about five other boats in a specific area by each Island and loaded onto small dinghies every day for either wet or dry landings. Each island has animals endemic to it so it is necessary to visit different areas. Once on land, we walked with our guide who explained the behaviour and habits of the sea lions, blue-footed boobies, magnificent frigate birds, etc. We went snorkelling once or twice daily, either from the shore or from the dinghies. The snorkelling off Floreana was the best I’ve ever done – an absolutely amazing variety of dozens of types of fish, hammerhead sharks, and baby sea lions swimming about and playing with us by grabbing our fins or swimming between our legs.

Our guide, Jorge, said about 180,000 people visit the Galapagos each year. I found that an amazing number, as there were not that many people when we were there, but we were at the low season. A number of boats were in or going into dry-dock within the next few weeks.  A great number of these people arrive at the airport, are transported directly to their boat, cruise the islands and then leave.

Four levels of cruises exist:  Luxury, First Class, Tourist Superior and Tourist class. We were pitched for a number of cruises and a variety of prices; all had “last 2” spaces, but also met people whose cruises were cancelled because of empty boats. I’m just not clear about the “low supply-high demand” equation. Galapagos cruises are quite expensive: a first-class cruise costs around $200 to $400 per person per day. Add to that the per person  flight costs of around $400 and nature park fees of $110 plus a long taxi cab ride and the money disappears. Besides that, the airline didn’t accept credit cards, and the cruise must be paid in cash or else a credit card fee of 6 to 10% is added on – a lot for a several thousand dollar purchase.  We hit our debit cards for several days for maximum withdrawals to pay for all this.  I did check on line afterwards and prices were also high, with one out of Seattle for $6,000 per person for the week, including flight.  As well, Celebrity Cruises stops there.

You could get cheaper “tourist” class, but we were warned against them.  Guides are ranked by the government, and tourist class cruises have less knowledgeable guides that primarily speak Spanish. The young backpackers mostly went “tourist class”, with five days or a week being around $800 or $1,000. One person described the tourist boat as having cramped quarters, no hot water, no deckchairs, not-good food and a funny Spanish-speaking-only guide who didn’t know much. However, they could rightly argue, they see the same animals we see, and what’s five days of roughing it? Another option is to simply stay on Santa Cruz Island and take day trips to some of the other islands; these day trips don’t visit the outer islands however.  Many people went out on daily dives, where the boats don’t go to any islands at all but simply focus on dive spots.

We met a group of 20 Washington University students– taking a five-credit course and having the time of their lives. As usual, we met all sorts of other young adults – many just finished their degree, and many Israelis who had just finished their mandatory two or three year military training and were off for several months before they went to university.  We are absolutely amazed at the number of people traveling for five to eight to ten months at the end of university or military service. We traveled both to and from the Islands and had dinner with a young Israeli woman and it was fascinating to hear her world perspective as twenty-two year old ex-officer.

In the end, for us, it came down to the animals, the people and the scenery. We saw albatrosses, land and marine iguanas, lava lizards, blue-footed boobies, nascar boobies, red crabs, sea lions, giant sea turtles, penguins, magnificent frigate birds, tropicbirds, and many other bird species. Our guide was very thorough, indeed anthropomorphic in his descriptions of mating behaviour, but we appreciated everything more because we had detailed understanding of their behaviour and living habits.  We went to the legendary Post Office, where people leave post cards that must be delivered by other people that live in their area.  I found a postcard addressed to North Vancouver but since I probably won’t be coming back for a year I thought I’d let someone else deliver it. We met a few ex-pats who lived and worked on Santa Cruz – from Russia, Tasmania and Nebraska.

Everything ended quite quickly – off the boat, a taxi to the airport, where, strangely enough, we saw the largest land iguana during our whole trip, sunning on the runway. And so, we experienced the Galapagos.

We flew back to Quito and stayed there for another couple of weeks. We finalized our round-the world tickets. Our trip itinerary is Quito-Rio-Buenos Aires-Melbourne-Hong Kong- New Delhi-Istanbul –Madrid and back to Quito. We have several months in some places so we will visit other countries, for example Greece and Morocco while in the area.

We socialized with some new friends, Ruth and Ron, from Victoria, on the road for six years, with a French woman and just generally hung-out. Since we almost missed our plane twice, we also took about twenty hours of Spanish lessons.  We truly love Quito and would base ourselves there for a few months, but for one thing –there is no seashore at 3,000 metres above sea level. It’s an absolutely gorgeous mountain city, and if you can, go visit. Ecuador is definitely a gem. We left with wonderful memories, friends and a commitment to arrive back there next August.

My old friend Jenica Renay from Austin, Texas sent me this.  I thought it was pretty funny.  Unfortunately, there was no signature, so if anyone knows who wrote this, please let me know. 

Cheers,

 Mahara

60's are revising their hits with new lyrics to accommodate aging baby boomers.   They include: Herman's Hermits --- Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Walker.  Ringo Starr --- I Get By With a Little Help From Depends.  The Bee Gees --- How Can You Mend a Broken Hip. Bobby Darin --- Splish, Splash, I Was Havin' a Flash. Roberta Flack--- The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face. Johnny Nash --- I Can't See Clearly Now.  Paul Simon--- Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver The Commodores --- Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom.   Marvin Gaye --- Heard It Through the Grape Nuts.  Procol Harem--- A Whiter Shade of Hair.  Leo Sayer --- Yo u Make Me Feel Like Napping.  The Temptations --- Papa's Got a Kidney Stone.  Abba--- Denture Queen.   Tony Orlando --- Knock 3 Times On The Ceiling If You Hear Me Fall.  Helen Reddy --- I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore. Leslie Gore--- It's My Procedure, and I'll Cry If I Want To.  And my favorite: Willie Nelson --- On the Commode Again

Rio de Janieros – from the Amazon Jungle to the Urban Jungle

From quiet peaceful Ecuador to busy Brazil.

We’ve just spent the last four days in Rio.  It’s an amazingly busy city.  After a false start, we found a hotel in Copacabana Beach – Atlantico, which is a great hotel with excellent breakfasts.  On Saturday we walked Copacabana and Ipanema beaches for about six hours.  The famous beaches are dramatic – a long curve of sand, heavy surf and the aqua-green Atlantic Ocean.  The main beaches have wide walkways and are lined with literally hundreds of high rise apartments and hotels, where many of the 13 millions Rio citizens live.

On the beach, young guys were playing football, and lots of people just milling about, having fun. Vendors are everywhere, selling sarongs, beads and fresh corn, and anything else you might need. The beach was crowded – at Copacabana with families and at Ipanema with gorgeous young men and women letting it all hang out. Unfortunately, everyone else lets it all hang out too, including some of the not so tall and lean and tan and lovely, so we saw plenty of pot bellies and rolls. Still, the beach scene was hot – amazingly busy, and I’m sure great for anyone around twenty or so.

We enjoyed great coffee at last after the instant stuff in Ecuador, and the food is generally excellent.  Rio prices are high – 7 reals for a packaged ice cream bar on the beach for example, so we haven’t enjoyed the same seafood as in Ecuador.   There are lots of restaurants around that charge by the kilo – which has been unique to Rio. The Brazilian wine industry is in its infancy here; let’s just say that it’s better to stick to foreign wines.;

On the rainy Sunday the beaches were packed with electioneers with load speakers, music and an entourage of motorcycles on the main Avenue. Because of the rain we visited the Museum of Modern Art and Belles Artes Museum, which featured Brazilian artists of the last century. These are located in the old Centro district which has some of the few old buildings left, as most were razed over the past forty years. We took several buses and just rode around looking at the various areas.  Rio is huge and busy.  No single family homes, just massive high rises, built mostly in the sixties and seventies.

I enjoyed Rio, but less than Ken did – I find it just too busy and hectic.  After the Amazon jungle, this is indeed an urban jungle.  I looked for smiling faces but saw mostly people intently going on with their lives, and suffering through the bruising crowds. Because of the predicted rain we decided to take off up north to Salvador, and so we are off to the sun in this smaller Colonial city of around two million people.

Mahara and Ken’s Amazon Jungle Adventure

After much anticipation and planning for our jungle adventure, finally we were off. Our five day Amazon River adventure began with a twenty-five minute plane ride and magnificent views of the lush Ecuadorian countryside. We flew from the highlands of Quito to a grungy little oil town called Lago Agrio. After the cooler temperatures of Quito, 3000 metres above sea-level, a wall of heat blasted us as we stepped from the small plane. Also greeting us were guards in fully military gear, sporting machine guns. Because Lago Agrio is close to Colombia and because of the oil exports, this airport is well guarded.

We quickly met our smaller group, who, besides us, included a retired Ecuadorian architect, his son, a journalist with Forbes magazine, and a retired Japanese man traveling through South American for three months.  We hired a small pickup truck to beat the long bus ride and were off.

The road was excellent, at first, newly paved, with construction trucks doing work along the way. After an hour or so, the paved road stopped and we were down to dirt. The ride was very bumpy with frequent slow-downs for washboard potholes. We arrived with our faces and hair thick with dust and we were happy to finally reach our destination – the Cayubeno Nature Reserve.

Cayubeno Nature Reserve is part of the Amazon Jungle and our stay was on the Cayubeno River. The park ranger gave a short talk, in Spanish on the conservation efforts of Ecuador. The journalist, who spoke five languages, translated. We paid our$20.00 US park fee to the Ministerio del Ambiente, and our guide, Diego, a Level II Naturalist, with a biology degree took it from there. Tourists are not allowed in any of the protected areas without a guide.  On our jungle trek we walked through areas where Total Petroleum, from France, and Alberta Corporation, were planning more oil extraction. Diego and the community are not happy this was happening. In fact oil has been coming out of the jungle for some time. The oil pipeline is above ground and ran along the entire length of the highway and road. We learned that oil, not bananas, is Ecuador’s largest export.

We loaded our gear in a long Ecuadorian motorized canoe, our mode of transportation for the entire trip, and in fifteen minutes were in camp. We were greeted by the staff and the resident monkey, pig and dogs. Our accommodations were thatched huts on stilts – basically a small room with a bed covered by a mosquito net. The bathroom had a cold-water shower, when there was water, and a toilet that rocked as it was not bolted to the floor. When we booked the trip we somehow missed the fact there was no electricity. This is quite difficult in the jungle because it is so completely pitch black after 6 pm, and our little flashlights didn’t provide much light. They did show up the cockroaches however.

At camp we met others who would be part of our group for the next few days – a young Oxford biology graduate volunteer and a couple of young Swiss schoolteachers, off as volunteer teachers for the next five months to “the slums of Lima”. Later two lads, recently minted graduates from the University of Dundee, and a Russian woman traveling alone joined our core group. As well, other people came and left during our five day stint.

The first jungle walk at night was uneventful. We followed Diego in single file, and scanned our flashlights up and down trees and looked for small insects or bugs.  The long trek the next morning was more interesting - for one thing, we could see.  Diego led us through the jungle, mostly on a small path, never wider than a person, but just as often it appeared we walked quite randomly over roots and rocks and through the muck. Again, the wildlife was sparse – or rather non-existent, I would say.  We did see some Tapir tracks, but they are nocturnal animals. Diego explained there were seven trail areas used on a weekly rotational basis so damage from small walks was negligible.

We trekked for several hours, and were happy to be wearing the long rubber boots the camp had issued us, as the jungle trail became quite difficult. The mud was just slippery and squishy at first, but then became quite deep. It was difficult to pull my foot out from each step. In some cases the mud came most of the way up my boot and made a sucking sound as I took each step.  Finally, much to the amusement of our fellow sloggers, I lost my balance and fell backwards, right into the mud. After my rescue we continued to slosh through the mud, walked over logs over small streams and up and down some rather rough terrain and finally staggered back to camp five hours later.

That night we went caiman hunting in the canoe. Caimans are similar to alligators but reach up to eight metres in length. Our guide finds the caimans by shining flashlights in the water, which illuminates their red eyes. They become transfixed by the light and can be caught. Diego grabbed a small one, and took it back to camp where some people took photographs of themselves holding it – not me or Ken though - uggh. I didn’t think this was a particularly great activity from the caiman’s point of view. Afterward Diego released it into the river. People swam the river all the time.

Going down the river the next day was quite magical. It’s dark brown from the decomposing vegetation, and in some places is even black, called rio negro. As the river is not wide in that area, we searched the trees and vegetation for monkeys and birds. It was very atmospheric and peaceful gliding down the river and I loved being right in the jungle on the boat.We saw about 60 species of birds. It was very difficult to get pictures, mainly because of the dense vegetation and because we were in a moving canoe.  The Scottish lads found the river a bit boring after the excitement of the Galapagos – but fair enough.  In the jungle you must be patient and scan the trees for birds or monkeys, while in the Galapagos, the animals are out in the open.  Ken really enjoyed taking pictures and just the opportunity to see so many beautiful birds.

Part of the trip was an overnight camping trip about three hours up the river. I enjoyed the ride but the camp was awful. It was quite dirty: we slept on mattresses on the floor, but no sheets. I slept in my clothes – I didn’t even venture into the shower because of the cockroaches or other bugs I might find.  Our swimming plans were scuttled by an Amazonian Jungle deluge where the river rose a few inches in a few minutes. I didn’t go out caiman hunting that night, but one was found.

We were up at five to see the sunrise and to spot, hopefully, some manatees and pink dolphins which live in that particular part of the river. We just saw snippets of them as they surfaced and disappeared so quickly, but going through what seemed like Mangrove swamps we saw many more birds. Our stay in mid- August was at the beginning of the dry season. Diego said the river had dropped about one metre within the past week and in another two weeks the area would be almost dry. Just for fun, one member of our group tried to call his girlfriend from the middle of the jungle by climbing a tree, but, surprise, it didn’t work.

In the small community we visited in the area we watched as the indigenous woman macheted a tree, dug up the roots, grated them, wrung out the juice and made round tortilla-type bread. We sampled the bread along with fresh soft white cocoa beans. That particular community is part of the fair-trade movement and produces a small amount of cocoa.

On our final night, we had a party, spontaneously engineered by Ken.  Luis, our guide from the North Andes, showed up with five English medical students and a few other new recruits. Another French couple with their two kids and the two other German fellows were there and a grand time was had by all. Some went to bed at 2 am – some at 5am. The huge pet tarantula sidled off to the corner. The monkey walked around the eating area as usual, grabbing things and swinging from the railings. The pig stayed under the eating compound the dogs were just there.

Piranha fishing in small canoes was our last activity before we trudged about a mile through the jungle to the small town where our driver and his pick-up waited.  We figured out later that all taxis in rural Ecuador are white pick-up trucks.

Two points stand out in my mind – the atmosphere of the jungle, especially on the peaceful river as we slowly traversed its impenetrable depths, and the wonderful camaraderie that developed with the most interesting people in our group. Everyone just clicked. It was stimulating to learn about different cultures and life experiences.  We were surprised with the very high education level of most of the people and the sense of adventure that prevailed. Most were on to visit other countries. We struggled with our Spanish and a little French but many people spoke at least three languages.  We left with invitations to visit Osaka, Japan and the classrooms of Peru.

I also learned that it’s impossible to stay clean in the jungle and that I don’t like cockroaches running through my suitcases or in the sink. By the end of the trip absolutely everything stank, even clothes we didn’t wear.  I had no idea how much I like being clean.

All in all though we flew back to Quito with wonderful memories and friendships – and are happy we are Amazon Jungle Survivors.  In spite of the rough circumstances, this experience was fabulous, worth every moment, and not to be missed.  Do it if you can.

  The Cayubeno River The Huts

Hoatzin

Sunrise on the AmazonAfter the Trek

If you want any information on where we stayed, or some great guides in Ecuador, please email me at mahara@laughingboomer.com.

 This week we are taking Spanish lessons.  I'll write about the Galapagos soon.

Mahara

This square is busy all the time and is truly the heart of the city.