TravelStream™ news feed for member froglin81 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/froglin81 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:54:36 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192279980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192279980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192279980/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:54:36 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Santa Fe, Ecuador

Santa Fé
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192208400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192208400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192208400/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:53:27 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Before I started my Galapagos trip, I crammed in a horse trek on my last day in Quito.  Problem was when I woke up it was torrential rain and you could barely see more than a few metres in front of you.  Not great for spending the day sat on a horse.  I phoned up to cancel but was assured the weather wasn´t usually as bad in the volcanic crater we were heading to an hour or so outside of Quito, and anyway, they had already prepared everything.  So I put on practically all my clothes, and my cowboy boots came in very handy at this stage to avoid me getting drenched feet from the many puddles on Quito´s pavements.  (I had the urge to write ´sidewalk´just then...what´s happening to me?!)The American couple who were also coming along weren´t convinced about the weather either  but it did seem to be clearing up and when else was I going to ride a horse through a volcanic crater?  Dominic and Margot seemed lovely at first, until Dominic´s constant business talk and necessity to always be right started to get on my nerves.  In the end I just sat there and nodded along, knowing that arguing was not the best idea.  He reckoned he was going to sue Continental Airlines for making a scheduled change on a flight.  I know Americans sue anyone for anything but come on.They´d also said they were advanced horseriders, whereas I´d explained I used to ride a lot when I was younger but it´d been a while.  After one canter when Margot ended up at right angles to the horse, they decided to take it easy and just trot along, whilst the guide, Astrid, and I cantered along, and also mistakenly galloped at which point I nearly wet myself as I haven´t done that since I was about 9 (either galloped or wet myself).Despite the rain, it was a great day out and I got to go back to my luxurious hotel in Quito, courtesy of the first day of my GAP trip, which slightly intimidated me but I did appreciate the bathtub and TV, even though the hairdryer was rubbish and singed my fringe.I shared a room with Tammy, from Clapham, who was doing a series of GAP trips round Central and South America (nice commission for that travel agent).  I haven´t really done a our before so didn´t know what to expect but it was really well organised.  Not entirely my cup of tea as you´re a little shielded from reality, but it is a lot easier, especially when your Spanish is as bad as mine.  If I´d been left to my own devices who knows whether I´d have made it to the airport. They stuffed us with food on the flight, even thought it was only about 45mins to Guayquil and another hour or so to Baltra, in the Galapagos.  This possibly explained why I never saw a skinny Ecuadorian.We arrived in Baltra to be greeted by Randy, a name which I always find funny.  4 of us (myself, Tammy and an American couple) were then transferred by bus, ferry and taxi, to the rest of the group who had already been on our boat for the past 4 days.  Out of the 15 of us on the boat, only 5 of us were under retirement age so a lot of early nights were ahead.  I wasn´t particularly keen on drinking anyway, in case it made me sick, and especially since I was on as many sea sickness tablets as I could possibly take.They were a nice bunch anyway, even if I did only ever learn half their names.Our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station, where our guide Gino (the mention of whose name always made me want to burst into the theme for Gino Ginelli ice cream...why do they not make that anymore?), explained the plight of the Giant Galapagos Tortoise and tried to introduce us to Lonesome George, the famous Tortoise who is the only one of his species left and won´t mate with any other tortoises no matter how much they try to entice him with various books and videos.We sailed to Rabida island, where a red sand beach covered in sealions awaited us.  Being my first sealion encounter I was quite excited, but by the reactions of the others it was a common sight which they were now bored of.  The island was covered in palo santo trees (sandalwood) which apparently ward off mosquitos.  Not that there were any mosquitosreally as it was too cold.  But at least that was one less thing for me to deal with.  Just as well since my insect repellent had leaked all over my bag anyway, leaving everything with a vague smell of citronella.Along with sealions we saw many marine iguanas, land iguanas and an octopus which Gino plucked out of the water to give us a closer look.  It was also my first sighting of the Blue Footed Boobies (kind of like out gannets) who, as the name would suggest, have bright blue feet (although not as bright as I thought so I might digitally alter my photos) and look a little bit dumb when they do their little mating dance, swaying from foot to foot.We took a cruise round the coast in the dingy and spotted Galapagos fur seals (90% of the animals here are called Galapagos something or others..I suppose because they´re endemic, at least it makes it easy to remember).Back on the boat we sailed towards a volcanic crater, where we spotted flamingos in the lagoon and the captain very nearly sank our ship by crashing it into the rock.Sulivan Bay, on Santiago, was a haven for crabs.  Funnily enought these are one of the only creatures no prefixed with Galapagos, and instead are called Sally Lightfoot crabs which I think it crap and they should be called Galapagos crabs.  They´re mostly bright red, with some yellow and blue in them, and although I thought they were pretty cool, Tammy wasn´t a fan of crabs as her boyfriend constantly picks them up and puts them in her face whenever they´re on holiday.  The landscape here was an old volcano so its covered in black lava of a variety of shapes.  It sort of reminded me of the mud pools at Rotorua in New Zealand, but the lava was sufficiently old and cool enough to walk on, and it didn´t have the sulphur stench of the New Zealand town.  After a spot of snorkelling, where a sealion swam right past me and nearly made me drown with shock, we sailed over to Bartolomé island and took a cruise around the coast in dingys to try and spot the Galapagos Penguin.  They were huddles in pairs on various rocks looking majestic as usual, as slightly scared when our dingys came a little too close and threatened to knock them off.  We had another chance to go snorkelling later on and so got up close and personal with them although I got into a little trouble when I got stuck between some rocks.  But it was worth it to swim with the little birds.Gino told us we were going to climb up to the summit of Bartolomé to get the classic guidebook view of the area with the famous Pinnacle Rock.  But it was 375 steps.  Ouch.It actually wasn´t that bad and I could still partially blame my cold on the fact I had to stop a few times.  On the way down I only counted 364 steps, but I did get interrupted by the rare appearance of a Galapagos snake which slithered past me and hid before anyone could take a decent photo.Santa Fé provided us with some slightly different land iguanas, which have evolved to have more spikes on their neck in order to prevent predators attacking them.  Visiting all the different island, you can really understand how this place represents the theory of evolution.  Gino has been a guide for 18 years and had exceptional knowledge about everything and a great sense of humour to match.  Yet more sealions greeted us and there was a sectioned off batchelors club for males who were outcast from the rest of the colony and came here to recover from the wounds of their fights.  There was also one very dead sealion whos body has been there for 5 years and has become mummified - they flesh is all gone but most of the skin is still intact, with the odd bones protruding here and there.  The sad thing is, someone has smashed it face in order to extract it´s canine teeth, which Gino reckons must have been a guide as no one else can walk alone on the islands.Santa Fé is home to some massive Prickly Pear Cacti and the remains of what was the largest, standing at almost 11 metres high and 4m in circumferance, still remains.  Nearby, Gino spotted Deano the land iguana, who he fed a small piece of cactus.  Deano rolled it over and over in an attempt to remove some of the spikes, which was pretty much in vain, before he devoured it.Some of the sailing was a little rough but my tablets did the job and I didn´t puke once.  However, when I asked for the least seasick-making room possible, i.e. the cabins in the bottom of the boat rather than on deck, I neglected to mention that I also wanted some sleep, and being on the bottom meant being right next to the anchor and even with the assistance of earplugs its pretty hard to sleep when you can physically feel the anchor being raised and lowered.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192726920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192726920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192726920/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:54:15 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Seymour Norte, Ecuador

Seymour Norte
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191774000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191774000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191774000/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:15:25 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Otavalo, Ecuador

Louise, Kentucky Ben and I had planned to go to Otavalo market early Saturday morning and naively invited Stuart, an English guy who had arrived the night before but who we´d only met at breakfast.  It became increasingly clear he was getting on people´s nerves a bit, especially when Louise started being very abrupt and Ben told him to take his ego down a peg or two when Stuart suggested the matching trousers he and Ben had just bought would look much better on himself.Anyway we wandered around the market trying on various ponchos and trying to haggle down the prices as much as possible.  I successfully bought a llama patterned poncho and hat so I was sorted.  I also got the nicest corn on the cob, dipped in mayonnaise and then covered in cheese.  It sounds bizarre but it´s really nice.  They´re big cheese fans in Ecuador, although there does seem to be only 2 varieties which are both a bit mild but hey at least they have cheese here.Ben got some interesting fried stuff which appeared to consist of potatoes and a variety of meat, which mostly looked like kidneys and intestines so I declined to try it although he reckoned it was delicious.  And I got some pineapple on a stick which is one of my favourite things ever.I foolishly went into an art shop on the way out and fell in love with a huge painting of 2 toucans.  I probably didn´t haggle for it enough but I feel bad haggling for art when I know how much time and effort goes into creating it.  I ended up with it for $75 which is a fraction of the 3000 pound painting I fell in love with in Clapham but couldn´t justify buying.It started to piss down so we took that as a signal to leave and hopped on the next bus back to Quito, with Stuart constantly asking "Are we there yet?" and the rest of us pretending to be asleep.  A local girl who was sat behind the boys handed over a chocolate bar and note with her phone number as she disembarked, and although Stuart claims she gave it to him, Ben reckoned she put it in his lap and Stuart stole it.I headed off to Bellavista Cloudforest Reserve the following day, and actually made in there on the first attempt cos I had arranged a transfer rather than try and negotiate a local bus again.  The 4 English oldies that we picked up barely said 2 words to me and when we arrived it appeared almost everyone except me was well past retirement age and major bird fanatics.  don´t get me wrong, I like birds, and it was good to see hummingbirds up close but after a day I was more excited to see a squirrel than another bird.  The bird snobs all kept to themselves at dinner and the only people who talked to me were an Aussie guy and his Dad.  We debated the love hate relationship between Sydney and Melbourne (they were from Sydney and I´m more of a Melbourne fan) and who Andrew could try and get to wear his famous "Viral Waistcoat" that he was taking round the world for people to sign and have their photo taken wearing.  I´m not sure how the idea originally cropped up but the waistcoat even has it´s own facebook page.At least at the reserve we got fed well, with 3 course meals for both lunch and dinner.  It was usually relatively normal food until one dinner consisted of various vegetables in a purple sort of sweet and sour sauce, accompanied by potatoes and cheese.  Considering I like all of the above I wasn´t complaining and although it was a weird combination I quite liked it, which is more than could be said for the bird snobs who barely touched it.I did a couple of walks through the cloudforest, including a bird watch that started at 6am and where we didn´t really see anything.  But although it was a beautiful place, I don´t think I´ll ever be a bird fanatic.  Bring on more squirrels.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191513600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191513600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191513600/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:13:32 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Quito, Ecuador

I´ve no idea why, but I felt sick and nervous the whole day I was due to leave - nervous at the thought of going somewhere new by myself again (was I brave, or just stupid?) and sick because I´d picked up a nasty cold and I still haven´t learnt that sniffing makes it worse, and blowing is a much more sensible option.  Strangely, I think I was feeling more apprehensive than when I first went travelling 4 years ago.  Was I getting too settled in my rut in London?  Surely not (I planned my escape on a daily basis) but the mere thought of that possibility was even scarier.  I resigned myself to the fact that I was still mentally and physically exhausted from the effects of the weekend and took a nap.Despite my constant travels, I hate flying.  I´m not scared of it, I just get bored after I´ve watched my first movie and start feeling claustrophobic.  So by the time I arrived in Quito, about 18 hours after I´d left home, I was shattered, but glad to be out of the metal box.  Espcially since the last flight had involved 2 guys behind me singing very loudly and out of tune.As soon as I arrived, all my anxities disappeared and were replaced with as much excitement as I could muster after being awake for 26 hours.  That was, until I encountered the wonder of the Ecuadorian taxi driver who pays absolutely no attention whatsoever to either red lights or white lines.  Or pedestrians.According to most people who had visitied Quito, the New Town was the place to be, but despite this I checked into the Secret Garden hostel in the Old Town, as it had reports of being the best hostel not only in Ecuador, but in South America.  Quite a claim.  I can´t verfiy that yet since it´s the only hostel in South America I´ve stayed in, but it´s pretty damn good so far.Due to the altitude, I spent my first day feeling like I was suffering from some degenerative disease, struggling up and down the streets and interspersing a few church visits with some people watching.  It seems small children, well, boys, urinate wherever they feel like it.  In the middle of the central plaza this kid´s mum just took him behing my seat and pulled down his trousers.  The security guards tried to intervene but it seems they don´t have much authority over the matter.The following day I caught an early bus headed for Tena, 5 hrs east of Quito, in an attempt to stay at a jungle lodge in the Amazon.  My lack of ability to speak Spanish was proving to be a bit of a nusiance now, as I had to resort to sign language at the bus station and just hope I was headed in the right direction.  Fortunately, I did understand when someone told me (or signed to me) that I was keep an eye on my bags and keep my wallet in my pocket.  About 10 minutes later, on the outskirts of Quito, a few seconds after 3 men selling newspapers and soft drinks had hopped on and off the bus, some other tourists noticed they were missing a couple of bags.  The man next to me tried to engage me in conversation about the theft - I just nodded and shook my head where it seemed appropriate.Halfway towards Tena we encoutered a very dodgy looking bridge, which was closed.  It stayed closed for about an hour, and by the time we crossed I realised I wasn´t going to make the connecting bus I had to get from Tena to the next place.  I pondered this for a moment and decided it would be pointless staying overnight in Tena so decided to cut my losses and return to Quito.  I tried to string a few words together to let the bus driver know what I wanted to do and he just kept asking: "porque?".  I just resorted to the childish answer of: "because".  So the bus dropped me off at the side of the road and I walked the 1km back to the last bus stop, getting some very strange looks from workmen at the side of the road.  I got to the bus stop, which doubled as a police checkpoint, and was about to attempt to ask them what time the next bus to Quito was, when they started trying to ask me stuff.  I just looked at them blankly and said I didn´t speak Spanish, and a few of them tried rephrasing the request in different ways, and then gave up and waved me past.  Thankfully a bus to Quito pulled up 10 seconds later.However, said bus didn´t depart again for about another 30mins, as the police discovered one of the passengers was carrying not 1, but 3 guns.  This seemed to cause a lot of commotion on the bus, but no one seemed too concerned when he was allowed back on, along with his merchandise.I watched another bad action movie on the bus, dubbed in Spanish, which didn´t really matter as I´ve come to realise action movies don´t have a lot of script, so it doesn´t really matter what language it´s in.I was a bit annoyed at my wasted day, and even more annoyed when it started pissing it down on the way back to Quito, but I was welcomed back at the hostel in time for the themed Ecuadorian night dinner, complete was traditional band, and then about 15 of us ventured out to some clubs in the New Town and had a damn good night.  Distinct lack of chips and cheese on the way home but that´s probably just as well.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192810980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192810980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1192810980/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:35:49 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tandayapa, Ecuador

Bellavista
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191947520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191947520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191947520/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:33:42 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Pululahua, Ecuador

Pululahua
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191573600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191573600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191573600/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:19:52 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Baeza, Ecuador

Baeza
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191896640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191896640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191896640/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:19:10 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tambillo, Ecuador

After my failed attempt to travel to the amazon, I decided to visit a rescue centre neary to Quito instead.&nbsp; I met up with Louise whose favourite joke is: <i>"What do you call a Frenchman who wears sandals...Phillippe-flop".&nbsp; One of the hostel managers was called Phillippe - hence the cropping up of said joke. We'd done the usual greetings of where are you from, and narrowed down my usual response of "a tiny village between Oxford and London" to "near High Wycombe" and then found out she worked with someone I went to school with. We hopped on a bus headed for the bus station, but I mistakenly thought (I'm sure someone told me) that all the buses terminated at the bus station.&nbsp; It occurred to us both that it seemed to be taking an awfully long time and that we were quite possibly lost so we got off at the next stop.&nbsp; Or rather Louise did.&nbsp; As I scrambled past the hoards of schoolkids, the bus doors slammed shut in my face and despite the shouts of other passengers for the driver to open the door again, he didn´t.&nbsp; Nice.&nbsp; So as the bus pulled away all I could do was helplessly wave to Louise as we climbed up the hill into some dodgy outskirts of Quito.&nbsp; Other passengers said stuff to be which I didn´t understand until a policeman who spoke marginally more English than the rest (i.e. two words) advised me to get off at the next stop and walk back.&nbsp; I thanked him, even though this had been my plan all along, I was hardly going to stay on the bus with some vague hope it would do a u-turn and take me back where I wanted to go.As soon as we reached the next stop I dived off before the bus could keep me hostage again and walked very quickly back in what I hoped was the right direction.Thankfully it was, and Louise was still where I left her, looking slightly worried.&nbsp; We hailed a cab and arrived at the bus station only to be informed that we weren´t able to catch a bus to Tambillo from here.&nbsp; Precisely why, I couldn´t quite understand and I wasn´t sure whether the woman was deliberately being unhelpful or whether she didn´t understand me, but I certainly didn´t understand her.&nbsp; We were a bit defeated by this point so we gave up and went for coffee instead and try again the next day.Julian, one of the guys who worked at the hostel had arranged to meet some of us the following morning to go to the Basillica church which has amazing views over the old town of Quito.&nbsp; But, after his tracksuit themed night out he was nowhere to be seen the next morning.&nbsp; Jess, Angela, Justin and I went along anyway, and after srtuggling up the ridiculously steep hill and cursing the altitude for making me feel even unfitter than I am (I still partially blame my cold) we stupidly opted for the stairs rather than the lift.&nbsp; Although I did find it a bit strange that the church even possessed a lift...as well as a restaurant, gift shop and toilets inside.I only made it about three auraters of the way up, not cos I´m lazy but after the spiral staircase my legs were like jelly and there was no way I was going to make it up a vertical ladder to the belfry. Well, if I did, I sure wouldn´t make it back down.&nbsp; Even the schoolkids looked a little terrified, which made me feel better as kids are rarely scared of anything, apart from one girl who sat in the corner looking incredibly bored by the whole situation.&nbsp; Obviously not a church fan.Louise and I made a second and successful attempt to go to the rescue centre since I´d been told by another girl at the hostel who had been that we were at the correct bus station and the woman had obviously been talking crap.&nbsp; However, we now had to try and negotiate where to disembark.&nbsp; Stringing together a few words from my Spanish phrasebook I attempted to ask the driver if he could please tell us when we arrived in Tambillo.&nbsp; He gave me a blank look, muttered something incomprehendible to me and then chuckled.&nbsp; I smiled vaeguly and thanked him - wondering whether the laughter meant a) he wondered why we were going to Tambillo, b) we were on the wrong bus, or c) he was amused by my accent/choice of words (by the way this is a European Spanish phrasebook and phrases can have different meanings in Latin American Spanish - i.e. the European phrase for "I want to catch the bus" actually means "I want to bonk the bus" in Latin America).A little while later he sniggered again and waved us over to get off the bus.&nbsp; Unsure whether or not we were being dumped in the middle of nowhere I hastily looked for a sign and there was one.&nbsp; He was obviously just laughing at me then.I´d been practising a little phrase I had written down to try to explain to the taxi driver that we wanted to go to Santa Martha Rescue Centre but it was all in vain as he just took one look at us and guessed where we were going.&nbsp; At least it was more successful than the bus.&nbsp; And no one laughed at me.Unfortunately the manager of the rescue centre wasn´t overjoyed to see and said they normally turn people away if they turn up unannounced (we tried to phone several times but they never answered).&nbsp; Mr Grumpy dragged out one of the volunteers to show us around, who was thankfully a lot more cheery.&nbsp; There were a fair few lions which was a bit bizarre since they´re meant to be in Africa, but a lot of the animals had been rescued from circuses.&nbsp; I did get to see a very cute coati, although she wasn´t able to see me, due to the fact her previous owner used her eyes as an ashtray and she was now blind.There was also a jaguar, puma and ocelot, as well as several Galapagos tortoises, a few monkeys and many macaws and other birds.&nbsp; And 2 animals which I think are called tayras and are like a cross between a tasmanian devil and a weasel.&nbsp; Apparently they´ll rip your hand off given half a chance.&nbsp; Cute.Friday night signalled a great all you can eat and drink BBQ on the terrace followed by a journey to find the Irish pub in town (there´s always one).&nbsp; Our cabbie had never heard of it though so we got dropped off somewhere nearby and then trapsed around asking various people where it was but no one knew and we were about to give up when we realised we were standing about 10 metres from it.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191258960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191258960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/froglin81/ecuador2007/1191258960/tpod.html Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:19:03 -0400 Not an epic journey, just a mini adventure...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

London, United Kingdom

start
]]>