Day 1: We flew from Cuenca to Quito and had a city tour of Quito. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is rich in culture and history. We saw a lot of historical sites and cathedrals.
In the afternoon, we went to the Equator line at a place called “Mitad del Mundo” (middle of the world). We first went to the “fake one”. A few hundred years ago, some French dudes thought they found the Equator and made a sweet monument there. Problem was, they were about 200m off target, but is a big tourist spot and still considered by most “Mitad del Mundo” even though it isn’t. We had to convince our driver to drive us to the real equator after, because what’s the point of going to the fake one? At the real one we learned about the history of Ecuador and some of the cool physics of the equator; namely the direction water flushes and how an egg balances.
Day 2: We went to Otavalo, the biggest market in all of South America. When you hear “biggest in _________” you generally think gargantuan. I was expecting a market 4 blocks by 4 blocks with tons of variety.
It’s funny how expectations don’t affect the real thing at all.
When we first got there, I realized that it was only about twice the size of the market in Cuenca (it was about one square block on the 2nd biggest day of the week)…and they all had the same classic “Ecuadorian Artesian” stuff. So I perused and found some sweet stuff for gifts and also bought a hammock. I thought the hour they gave us was way too small for the biggest market in South America, until I was done shopping after 20 minutes.
The best part of Otavalo was easily the llama fur tienda that we found towards the end. I almost bought some slippers made from genuine llama fur, but the $17 starting price wasn’t even dickering down.
Then we went to Cotacachi, a town that specializes in leather. I got a nice double sided (black/brown) belt for $10.
Day 3: First Galapagos day did not go as expected. We expected to arrive at Galapagos at 12pm and have the whole rest of the day to enjoy the islands, but a flight delay pushed us back to 4pm ish….and we really didn’t see much, unless you think the Quito airport is much.
We did go to the Charles Darwin Center to see some tortoises.
Day 4: Today we went on a boat to visit a sweet island (I don’t remember which one) where we went on a nature walk and saw iguanas and a vast array of the unique birds of Galapagos (yes including the blue footed booby). Then after the sweet walk, we went snorkelling and I saw a school of Dory fishes (the blue fish from Finding Nemo, no clue what they’re called). Also a friendly sea lion came by us and we hung out for a while. The sea lion would swim 6 inches away from my face and then spin around and swim around like crazy. That was flippin’ sweet.
After that we went to a beach and snorkelled some more, seeing more fish and sharks, and also a lone flamingo. And it was sunny and the perfect temperature. Thanks God!
Day 5: Second day involved going to see some tortoises in the wild in the morning, which was sweet.
In the afternoon, we went to Tortuga Bay and hiked around seeing wildlife and then we kayaked and saw a ton of sea turtles coming up for air, blue footed boobies diving in the water, and a shark.
Although day 5 was cloudy, I think it helped us not turn to lobsters.
Our tour guide Eduardo’s grandmother was the “Ice-Cream lady” for the Galapagos islands.
We ate so many Magnum ice cream bars this day because we finally found places with variety and we had to try all of the flavours that are not in Cuenca. I had 2, and a person remaining unnamed had 4 Magnums in one day. My absolute favourite is the Blanc (white chocolate covering chocolate ice cream) and the cookies and cream flavour.
It was also interesting hearing what life was like in a beautiful place that thrived on tourism from our tour guide. Hearing about introduced species of plants and animals hurting the environment was interesting to hear.
Day 6: Last day our “activity” was seeing a crater. It took 10 minutes and then we left. It was an awesome trip…but 2 days in the one of the most beautiful places on earth? I would have liked another 5 days at least, but I am thankful for the two days we had and am thankful that Taylor paid for those two days.
LINKS TO PICS:
~QUITO~
~GALAPAGOS~
In the afternoon, we went to the Equator line at a place called “Mitad del Mundo” (middle of the world). We first went to the “fake one”. A few hundred years ago, some French dudes thought they found the Equator and made a sweet monument there. Problem was, they were about 200m off target, but is a big tourist spot and still considered by most “Mitad del Mundo” even though it isn’t. We had to convince our driver to drive us to the real equator after, because what’s the point of going to the fake one? At the real one we learned about the history of Ecuador and some of the cool physics of the equator; namely the direction water flushes and how an egg balances.
Day 2: We went to Otavalo, the biggest market in all of South America. When you hear “biggest in _________” you generally think gargantuan. I was expecting a market 4 blocks by 4 blocks with tons of variety.
It’s funny how expectations don’t affect the real thing at all.
When we first got there, I realized that it was only about twice the size of the market in Cuenca (it was about one square block on the 2nd biggest day of the week)…and they all had the same classic “Ecuadorian Artesian” stuff. So I perused and found some sweet stuff for gifts and also bought a hammock. I thought the hour they gave us was way too small for the biggest market in South America, until I was done shopping after 20 minutes.
The best part of Otavalo was easily the llama fur tienda that we found towards the end. I almost bought some slippers made from genuine llama fur, but the $17 starting price wasn’t even dickering down.
Then we went to Cotacachi, a town that specializes in leather. I got a nice double sided (black/brown) belt for $10.
Day 3: First Galapagos day did not go as expected. We expected to arrive at Galapagos at 12pm and have the whole rest of the day to enjoy the islands, but a flight delay pushed us back to 4pm ish….and we really didn’t see much, unless you think the Quito airport is much.
We did go to the Charles Darwin Center to see some tortoises.
Day 4: Today we went on a boat to visit a sweet island (I don’t remember which one) where we went on a nature walk and saw iguanas and a vast array of the unique birds of Galapagos (yes including the blue footed booby). Then after the sweet walk, we went snorkelling and I saw a school of Dory fishes (the blue fish from Finding Nemo, no clue what they’re called). Also a friendly sea lion came by us and we hung out for a while. The sea lion would swim 6 inches away from my face and then spin around and swim around like crazy. That was flippin’ sweet.
After that we went to a beach and snorkelled some more, seeing more fish and sharks, and also a lone flamingo. And it was sunny and the perfect temperature. Thanks God!
Day 5: Second day involved going to see some tortoises in the wild in the morning, which was sweet.
In the afternoon, we went to Tortuga Bay and hiked around seeing wildlife and then we kayaked and saw a ton of sea turtles coming up for air, blue footed boobies diving in the water, and a shark.
Although day 5 was cloudy, I think it helped us not turn to lobsters.
Our tour guide Eduardo’s grandmother was the “Ice-Cream lady” for the Galapagos islands.
We ate so many Magnum ice cream bars this day because we finally found places with variety and we had to try all of the flavours that are not in Cuenca. I had 2, and a person remaining unnamed had 4 Magnums in one day. My absolute favourite is the Blanc (white chocolate covering chocolate ice cream) and the cookies and cream flavour.
It was also interesting hearing what life was like in a beautiful place that thrived on tourism from our tour guide. Hearing about introduced species of plants and animals hurting the environment was interesting to hear.
Day 6: Last day our “activity” was seeing a crater. It took 10 minutes and then we left. It was an awesome trip…but 2 days in the one of the most beautiful places on earth? I would have liked another 5 days at least, but I am thankful for the two days we had and am thankful that Taylor paid for those two days.
LINKS TO PICS:
~QUITO~
~GALAPAGOS~
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