Galapagos Tour

Blue Footed Boobie

[Photo Album in progress]

We recently completed a week long adventure of a lifetime on the trimaran the M/T Camilla operated by Haugan Cruises arriving Isla San Cristobal by air from Quito and exiting again by air for Quito from Isla Baltra.

In between we cruised many of the islands (you need to be on a two week cruise to see them "all" and even then you can't see them "all" -- many are protected and no one can go there), we snorkelled every day and we explored the islands getting up close to all sorts of animals. We swam with lots of fishies, sharks, turtles, sea lions and even penguins. We chased a whale with its calf in our zodiak. We met the huge land tortoises which populate the green side of Santa Cruz (one of the very few populated islands) and visited the town of Ayora. And we shared the beaches with sea lions and their cubs.

The Camilla is a new boat and very well appointed. We picked it as a small boat with nice balconies. There are only 8 rooms and all are huge with king beds (actually two singles pushed together). There are 12 crew to serve you and at most 16 passengers. For part of our trip there were only 6 of us, for the remainder there were 14. We suspect recent riots in Quito may have dissuaded some tourists from coming. Sometimes the ship would travel at night and there were some rough nights at sea -- no one got sick but gravol helped while trying to sleep. We did have one served dinner on rough seas. But mostly it was cool and windy with calm waters.

We were sometimes up and about on walking tours of the islands before sunset and breakfast. Occassionally we only made it back on board after sunset -- there is a regulation that tourists may only be on the protected islands during daylight hours.

Every day there was 1-2 snorkelling trips (very good wet suits, fins, mask and snorkel are provided) and 1-2 walking tours on the beach or inland on rocky trails (walking sticks are provided) to see nesting birds. Marine Iguanas by the truck load! An occasional land iguana, Blue and Red footed Boobies, Frigate Birds, Albatross, gulls, flamingo, pelicans and more. Sea Lions and their young on sandy beaches. Our days were very full and sometimes quite strenuous -- the land is volcanic and often very rough. We skipped a couple of the strenous hikes. Each night, after dinner, the guide would give us a lecture on what we'd see the next day. After that, exhausted, we trundled off to bed and slept soundly.

Staff on the boat were outstanding as was their service. Breakfast and lunch were a buffet but dinner was always an excellent served three course meal. Chef Ramiro should be commended for doing so well in such confined space. Gabriela, the Cruise Director, was gracious, cheerful and always there to meet or exceed your needs.

The house cleaning staff were attentive and we luxuriated with fresh linens and fresh water showers several times a day (fresh water is a scarce commodity on the islands -- they sometimes trade fresh water for lobster or fish with fishermen). The guide Morris and zodiak drivers Jefferson and Manuel were friendly and always helpful. Sometimes our language was a problem with some of the staff (we have minimal Spanish) but the hostess and guide spoke flawless English.

The bar didn't open until 4:30 but often you were out adventuring with the guide until much later. Drinks were always available at lunch and dinner with barman Angel serving. The strenous workouts exploring the sea and shore meant that there was little time for and little alcohol consumed (although there is a full bar and a very good wine list). This most definitely is not a "Booze Cruise".

This isn't a luxury sea cruise where one rests in the shade by the pool with a cuba libre in one hand, an iPad in the other and a server at your beck and call. You are roughing it. It's an adventure tour for hardy souls willing to explore a unique, varied and demanding environment on sea and shore. There is no WiFi, no phone and most islands are barren landscapes with no human habitation. Nevertheless, it's an adventure well worth going. There's no place like it.

We are very blessed to have been there and done that! You can too.

Date of experience: November 2019

Quito

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Kate and I stayed in Quito Ecuador for a few days on either end of our Galapagos tour in November. We flew from Toronto, to Panama City and then to Quito where we stayed for a few days. From Quito to Guyaquil on the coast and then on to the Galapagos. Likewise on our return.

The tour company, Galapagos Adventures (we can't recommend them enough), had arranged for us to stay one night at the boutique Illa Experience Hotel at both ends of our trip. It's by far the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. It's quite amazing, and ... quite expensive. It's the kind of hotel where you might never leave your room, it's that luxurious. They also have a fine dining restaurant but you need reservations for that. We did enjoy the breakfast they served and the fruit left in ours.

We arrive a couple of days early and stayed two nights at a nearby affordable Hotel Casa Alquima (oddly Google maps shows two by that name). We booked this ourselves, it was not part of the tour. Our hotel is near the old city by the Santo Domingo church/square at the foot of the Panecillo. Our Galapagos trip includes a shuttle service from the airport that takes us back and forth to our hotels. The airport is a considerable distance from the city; the city is huge and sprawling. But everything runs smoothly and drivers are efficient and friendly. I would not want to drive in this city, I would not want to navigate public transit. Taxis are abundant and nothing is very expensive.

The Alquima is a very old building built around an internal courtyard with rooms on the second floor. Two sides of the building are on the street, the other two sides are internal. We had a large internal room with no windows (a bit claustrophobic). I think we might have preferred the street side but it would have been noisy. We were served a nice breakfast in their enclosed roof top breakfast nook. I don't think they served any other meals. The host who ran the hotel was very nice to us. On arrival she was keen to let us know about all things we might want to see in the city. We were keen to go to bed. It's a nice hotel, a bit rustic but quite serviceable.

Quito is one of the cities that's very high and surrounded by mountains. It's near the top of the Andes at 2,850m (9,350ft) and is the highest capitol city in the world. Our host at the Alquima recommended we see the Panecillo (but not walk through the side streets to get there) and the gondola to the Cruz Loma lookout. The Panecillo (that's Spanish and means a little piece of bread) is a nearby peak at 3,016m -- we took a taxi up one day but the city was enshrouded in fog. We never made it to the gondola and the Cruz Loma lookout. The a gondola runs from the edge of the city centre, a short taxi ride away, up the east side of Pichincha Volcano to lookout Cruz Loma. It is one of the highest aerial lifts in the world, rising to 3,945m! I like hight views like that, but we never made it. Next time.

We spent much of our first day tromping around in the old city. It has a European/Colonial feel with lots of churches (it's a Catholic country), busy narrow streets, some plazas and lots to see. We visited some of the churches, especially the Basílica del Voto Nacional for the views from the roof and towers. My Spanish is pretty bad, I thought Basílica del Voto Nacional had something to do with honoring national voting. "Voto" actually means "vow", that makes more sense. The Basilica is modelled after Notre Dame in Paris ... lots of churches around the world make that claim.

Independence Plaza (sometimes I see it named the "Grand Plaza") is in the center of the old town. There's a monument to the "heros of 1809" when Ecuador fought for indepedence from Spain. They've been independent for a very long time, since 1822, but seem to still look towards Spain in the same way that Canadians and Australians favor Great Britain. Of the people you see on the street many if not most are clearly native south americans. See the young woman in the picture above.

Around the Indepedence square there's the presidential palace (Carondelet Palace) and government offices -- it was closed for tours because of the recent riots. On the one side there's another grand church, the Catedral Metropolitan. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe under the Catedral. The square is a lovely green space that people enjoy.

San Francisco Plaza is another large square dominated the San Francisco church. We had dinner on the square one evening and shopped for gifts in a very interesting store under the church next to the restaurant. We got a Panama Hat for Kate's brother Gord -- they're misnamed as they actually come from Ecuador. There's a lot of clay masks and figures in the gift shop representing different stages in the Andean cultures pre-Spanish invasion. I found the pained faces on figures fornicating rather odd. Did they not enjoy sex back then?

There had recently been poverty riots in the city brought about by the IMF putting the screws to the poor over the debt the country has accumulated. The riots are over now, but guards and barbed wire baracades remain around the presidential palace at Indepdence Square. Things got so bad during the riots that the government relocated to Guayaquil on the coast! There had been a Canadian travel advisory against going to Quito but that had been lifted by the time we got there. The riots have had an effect on tourism -- many have cancelled. This is one reason why our Galapagos tour has only the 6 of us (two Quebecois, two Bulgarians and us) but those adventures are in another blog entry.

On our last night, when we were returning from the Galapagos, we wandered the nearby streets to a restaurant we had read about -- La Purisima which serves fine dining Ecuadorian dishes. When we arrive we find our colleagues Anna and Marin, our Bulgarian friends from our Galapagos adventures, are there for dinner as well! We join them and enjoy our time together (although Marin, as a banker, has some right leaning ideas). The "Good Thursday Black Tart" recipe in the menu has us intrigued -- it has a long list of ingredients starting with holy water. Who would use holy water to flavor a dish? We share the dessert and are impressed. It's sort of like a sticky pudding.

Anna and Marin tell us their hotel is on the same street as ours. We walk home together to discover we're next door to one another! The entrances to the two hotels are right up against one another. We couldn't have been closer if we had tried.

We like Quito and would have liked to see more. Perhaps we'll visit again another time.

Ps. Ecuador does not have it's own currency. They use the American dollar.