TravelStream™ news feed for member gordym on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/gordym en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:30:52 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214493540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214493540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214493540/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:30:52 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Floreana, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

We were trying to be first on the island today and hopefully get to see some straggling turtle hatchlings running for the sea.

Rather than keep you in suspense, we didn't manage to see any - but we did see the tracks they made the night before - close but no cigar!

Wandering inland, came across a lake and saw some flamingoes wading in the shallows.

Climbed over a bit of a hill (well more of a bump after what I am now used to) and we had arrived at Sting Ray Bay. After reassurances from the guide that Steve Irwin was just really unlucky, and that Sting Rays weren't really dangerous, just misunderstood ;¬), we went for a paddle to see if we could find any.

Loads of Wasp Jellyfish floating round in this bay - they look like individual bits of bubble wrap, and apparently they are a bit of a pest here, so they will ahve to report that they saw them when they finish the trip.

Shuffling through the sand, trying desperately not to lift your feet off the bottom looking for stingrays is quite nervewracking!

But then even though the sea was ridiculously rough, we did manage to startle a few and get them to move out of the way and let us see them.

Headed back to the boat after this to get some breakfast since we had started out a lot earlier than usual.

After breakfast the RIB's took us across to Devils Crown to go snorkelling to see if we could see some Hammer Head sharks. Unfortunately this morning was full of disappointments. No Hammerheads either!

Did see Turtles, Tuna, Barracuda, Eagle rays and bucket loads of other fish / starfish / urchins / cucumbers, but no sharks :¬(

Headed back on board the main boat and headed for Post Office Bay for the afternoon.

How sad am I - I posted myself a card to see how long it would take to arrive home again!

Now based on the fact that there was only one other card in the whole barrel for the whole of Ireland, I'm not holding my breath that it will arrive any time soon.

Back to the shore and more snorkelling.

Managed to see my one and only Galapagos Penguin today! Sadly it can swim a lot faster than me so it managed to get away without be getting a photo of it.

Then played with a Sea Lion for a while, before chasing after some more eagle rays. Took loads of pics with the underwater camera, so hopefully some of them will actually come out when I get it developed.

This was the best snorkelling of the trip - probably in the water for an hour and a half - saw loads. There was a report that a Black Tip shark was spotted, but no one was able to confirm the report, and the spotters credentials were dubious - he had managed to see everything else in his book and only needed the shark for a full set - and lo and behold he managed to see it when he was all on his own and no one else near him. Maybe he did ...

Back on the boat and started the cruise to Santa Cruz again.

Heading to Darwin research centre tomorrow to see the Giant Tortoises!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214405280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214405280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214405280/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:17:51 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Espanola, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Not a perfect nights sleep by any means. My cabin is right over the engine room, so it did vibrate throughout the night, but it definintely could have been worse too.

Lovely cooked breakfast, along with loads of fruit and cooked meat and cheese! This could undo a lot of the good work all that walking in the mountains did for me!

Went ashore in Espanola at 9. Loads of Sea Lions sunbathing on the beach where we were landing, but they just take humans in their stride. Barely even noticed we were there!

Walking to where we were going to dump our kit, and there were a few mocking birds following us up the beach.

Set down my bag with my fins, mask and snorkel, and watched as a mocking bird decided to come over for a closer look. I'd put a bit of Duct tape on the bag so I would know which was mine, but the mocking bird decided to remove this and run off up the beach with it.

Have to admit, didn't want to be responsible for a mini ecological disaster so chased after it and caught the bit of tape, and put it in my bag for safe keeping.

Had another wander round the island, then got back to the beach for some snorkelling! Paddled into the sea, wondering why people were wincing at the temperature - it was lovely! It never gets this warm at Ballyholme or Portrush!

Loads and loads of different fish swimming away below, saw a few turtles too - brilliant!

headed back to the boat briefly, then on to Gardiner Island for some deep snorkelling - well deeper water - most people still stayed at the surface.

Tried duck diving to get a few better shots of the rays and other fish, so hopefully some of those pics will turn out OK.

Great swim for about an hour then back on board for lunch and the cruise to Punta Suarez for the afternoon wander. Apparently there are loads fo Albatros here so the twitchers in the group were getting excited!

Lunch was very strange looking - all you could see sticking out of the sauce were octopus tentacles, and shrimp heads. Closer investigation revealed squid rings and lumps of fish too - really nice though. Glad I had tried octopus before I came - albeit the day before I came ;¬)

Punta Suarez was outstanding again.

We managed to find the Albatross nesting site and took bucket loads of photos - did try and get some action photos of them taking off and flying - managed with a couple, but it's really tricky!

Think we wandered for about 2.5 hours maybe 3 then back to the boat again to chill before dinner.

After dinner we set off to get to Florianea to try and be first there in the morning - ridiculously rough night again, but slept better - probabyl due to being shattered!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214315880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214315880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214315880/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:42:16 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Quito, Guayaquil, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, Ecuador

Funnily enough the early starts haven't gotten boring yet. I think they are bearable because you know what is coming when you get to the destination.

Back to Quito airport, but this time we were flying to Guayaquil . This place looks like the Miami of Ecuador - very plush - loads of swimming pools. Private villas built round lakes - would be nice to stay there for a while to explore, but we are just passing through on our way to Galapagos :¬D

After re-fuelling and getting some new passengers, we set off again for another couple of hours to get to Santa Cruz Island.

Decent views out the windows on the way there, but then finally - I got to see Galapagos, and I realised I had a ridiculous grin spreading across my face - although I did manage to refrain from actually laughing on the plane as I thought they might quarantine me if I started.

Stunning view as the islands came into sight.

Managed to get past the tills after passport control, $110 dollars lighter - but at this stage the excitement is building so it's good to get past this and set foot out of the airport and on the islands proper for the first time.

The Gap bus was waiting for us outside to take us to the dock to get on the boat and start our tour properly.

Arrived at the dock to be greeted by a huge bull sea lion sitting on the bench at the dock, one of his harem next to him feeding a young sea lion, and a marine iguana posing for all the photos as the new batch of tourists arrived.

From these initial encounters it doesn't seem like the wild life is goin to be that hard to spot!

Got aboard and shown to my cabin - very nice indeed. Apparently I'd been upgraded since I was on my own and they had spare cabins so I got to have a double bed all to myself right at the back of the boat.

All given a lovely lunch (local fish - ridiculously fresh) and then we set off for the very short cruise to get to North Seymour island.

After lunch, got onto the RIB's and headed for North Seymour landing.

I have finally stepped onto one of the Galapagos Islands! All those years of hearing about them in school, and in uni, and seeing David Attenborough with all the animals, I've finally made it here!

Pretty crap actually - better on telly.

Only joking!

WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stepping off the rib there is a beach full of Sea Lions sunbathing - on the rocks to the left 15 Marine Iguana's sitting in the sun, loads of ridiculously bright coloured crabs crawling over the rocks (never caught any of these at the Donaghadee Marina).

Walked onto part of the first nature trail through the island and there were boobies every where! No we were not on a topless or nude beach - they're birds - feathered ones too!

Dandering along the trail and a bush to the right rustles. Next thing out walks a Land Iguana, cool as you like just wanders into the middle of the path and stops - turns it's head as if to say - OK OK, I'm here - take your photos.

Absolutely mad!

Then we walk a bit further on and there in the tree ahead is a Frigate bird, with it's bright red neck pouch fully inflated to try and attract a female.

Think we walked round for about 3 hours and I took about 80 photos. So glad I brought the extra batteries and the memory cards too!

All too soon we were back aboard the boat, and having dinner. Then we got ready for the overnight sail to Espanola.

The open sea is really really rough, but quite nice to get rocked to sleep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214228640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214228640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214228640/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:57:17 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Quito, Ecuador

Early enough start again today. I'm about to say a final farewell to Peru - for this trip anyway.

Heading to the airport in pretty much rush hour traffic this morning, so I allowed about 1hr 30min for the trip. Unfortunately what I didn;t allow for was the fact that Lima is probably the most polluted city I've ever been in, and for some reason the taxi driver decided to leave his window down the whole journey to the airport.

Sorry for the graphic description, but I had black bogies by the time I made it to the airport.

Had managed to score another window seat for the flight to Ecuador, and the views on the way out of Lima were brilliant once again.

Not a lot going on on the flight - unfortunately the landing was one to definintely wake me up again.

The approach to Quito airport didn't feel right at all. Felt like we were coming in too fast, and at a ridiculous angle (didn't you all know I was a pilot ;¬) )

FInal approach, pilot dipped the left wing - far too much IMHO. Fromw where I was sitting (pretty much over the wing at the window) the wing tip came a lot closer to the ground than I was comfortable with - pilot then compensated the other direction, and tried to repeat the wing tip dipping incident on the other side (maybe it's an Ecuadorian Dance). Straightened the plane up, then the engines sounded like they had been cut, plane dropped, only for the power to be put back on as they aborted the landing and decided to try and get some height again.

Now there were buildings at the end of the run way, and I was pretty sure we were going to clear them - however, it was the bloody great mountain behind the buildings that was worrying me.

Thankfully, we managed to get enough height to avoid the mountain (as you probably guessed as I am still writing this blog) but then he had to try and land the plane again.

Bing - bong

"Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but we encountered a severe cross wind as we attempted to land. We will be attempting another landing in a few minutes"

Second attempt was much better, and terra firma was a welcome relief!

Found the hotel - not in a great area, but again it was a nice comfortable place. Got to meet some of the people I was going to be sharing a boat with for the next lot of days.

Bed was very welcome that night.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214151240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214151240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214151240/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:18:53 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lima, Peru

Flew back to Lima today - pretty quiet day to be honest.

Got to hotel, had a quick shower and then out for lunch. Watched the Italy Spain game on telly, and generally monged it for a day.

Went to go for a swim in the hotel pool, but there were 2 problems with that.

1. The pool was about twice the length of me, so would have been more of a soak than a swim.
2. The pool had no water in it.

Did contemplate getting into the pond below the stairs with the gold fish, but not quite sure I wanted to spend any time in a Peruvian prison, so I decided to give it a miss.

Bit of a dander round Lima after the match, and then back to get to bed for my early start and the flight to Quito in the morning
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214062020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214062020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1214062020/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:08:02 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Taquile, Peru

A holiday with a start time each day of around 06:00 / 06:30 doesn;t actually get any easier with time.

But we were being picked up in our Limo's at 07:00 so after a hearty breakfast (apple and a cereal bar) it was out to reception to wait on the others and jump in the car to get to the port. All present and correct, and our guide for the day arrived.

Happy days - out to the limo - travel in comfort again - glad I had booked the comfort class trip instead of the basic!

OK so I am building it up a bit much. We stepped outside and there were 3 Rickshaws sitting to take us to port. Not what I had in mind at all!

So, took a seat, quite possibly took our life in our hands and headed off to get the boat across to the reed islands.

To be honest, I actually felt safer on the Rickshaw than I had in the bus - even when they struggled to make it across the level crossings.

Arrived at the boat, and there is a 40 ft motor cruiser - suitable for up to 45 people apparently - for 3 of us, the guide and the 2 crew. Plenty of room to spread out I suppose.

It was about a half hour cruise to get to the reed islands, and not what I expected at all. I'd expected 2 or 3 big islands, but there were about 40, one per family / group.

Apparently GAP have an agreement with one of the Islands so we headed towards that one for a brief history of who the people were, why they decided to build islands to live on, how they built their Islands, followed by yet more tourist money extraction.

Pretty cool how they managed to create the islands, and how long it took to actually make them. Only slightly disconcerting that they had a large moon pool in the middle that was their trout farm, and very happy that they had decided not to light the fire, which could probably have sunk the island and I wasn't dressed for paddling ;¬)

After the brief history, we were then treated to being shown round one of the family houses on the island, and then expected to buy something they had made - shock! Very difficult to find something small, not ridiculously tacky, and cheap so you can at least donate something.

Boarded the reed boat to get transferred to the next island. Charged again for the privelege - should have just got onto the cruiser again since we'd already paid for it (now I'm starting to sound tight).

Nice tranquil trip across the lake to - another market! More of the same for sale, and more of the same not bought by any of us - even though our guide was protesting about how good the quality was of the things we were refusing to buy.

Back onto the cruiser for the 2 hour trip to Taquile.

If I hadn't spent over a week in the mountains, been climbing, and seen signposts telling me how high I was, or if I'd had severe memory loss, I would not have realised I was cruising across a lake in the middle of the mountains. Was more like a sea cruise with the waves bouncing the boat around. 2 hours of bouncing around on there certainly woke us all up before we made it to Taquile.

We'd been told the was a little climb to start with, then it undulated. Little climb was about 100m up while going forward about 70 - so pretty steep - thankfully Inca Trail had toughened the legs up though.

Not a great place. Apparently it's all being run in the old way, and using traditional methods.

It was really nice to see the traditional solar panels on the roof's, traditional flat screen telly's and traditional satelite dishes on the chimneys.

I'm not saying that they didn't look poor enough, but it was supposed to be a traditional community, and the tourism element was supposed to be helping them manitain this traditional way of life, but it seems with an easier source of income they're happy enough to forget that - and I can't see Taquile being a big tourist hit for much longer if they keep on like this.

Loads of hands out looking more money for a change.

Nice views, but I would not recommend Taquile for a visit - although if it was part of some other tour - like this was - then go for it.

Nice relaxed cruise back to port, and sat chatting on the roof of the boat. Apparently there is talk of the group visiting and scaling the Twin Peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro next year.

Back to port, and a bus ride back to the hotel - Rickshaw blokes didn't fancy cycling uphill with us on board I suppose ;¬)

Went out for dinner and ended up out for a few drinks too - beer went down a treat, and Pisco Sours are lovely!

Fly back to Lima tomorrow before I head off to Quito and Galapagos.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213957080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213957080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213957080/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:42:17 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Puno, Peru

Picked up bright and early in an even bigger minibus today. It seems the fewer people there are, the bigger the bus they decide to send for us!

Although being able to lie across the bus is quite nice.

Roberto has told us it will take about 7 or 8 hours for us to get from Cusco to Puno as he is going to take a few detours to show us some more Inca ruins on the way.

First stop, "The Gateway to Cuzco". It's the closest I've come to seeing a Pyramid on the trip. Really well preserved, so of course we had to climb to the top of it for a better view of the mountains ;¬) Before we climbed though Roberto decided to take action shots of us pretending to climb it!

Got to the top and the view was pretty cool, although the wind decided it would be funny to try and blow us off the top, so it was time to climb back down again and take some arty photo's from the bottom.

Next stop was at an ancient Inca Temple - built almost entirely out of mud bricks. Quite impressive that it was still standing. And finally, an admission that the Inca's performed human sacrifices! Only problem was allegedly we ran out of time so we weren't able to go for a closer inspection of the altar :¬(

However, when we got out of the ruins (which I might add cost another $10 to get into) we miraculously had time to look round the stalls of the locals who wanted to sell us Inca Calendars, wooden plates, and other nick nacks. My suspicions that the guides are on kick backs are becoming stronger.

Managed to avoid parting with any more of my money, and climbed back onto the bus for the trip to Puno.

Driving along merrily, and all of a sudden, the driver slams the brakes on and skids to a halt!

Thankfully about 5 minutes before we had passed an overturned police bus (no one seriously injured) and I decided it was time to put on my seat belt!

A sheep had decided to cross the road right in front of us, so instead of killing the sheep and saving the 4 passengers, the bus driver thought it would be better to save the sheep and attempt to kill us instead! Maybe sheep are sacred there!

We stopped at the highest point on the pass (4330 m - no good though - didn't walk to it) and lo nad behold there was another market! Roberto told us all about how good the quality of the stuff they were selling was (again suspicions of kick backs / commission) and then he seemed very disappointed when we decided we didn't want to buy anything.

Back on board again for the last leg of the journey.

Quite uneventful until we almost arrived in Puno.

We'd seen Lake Titikaka out the window of the bus - and it seems the driver was enjoying the view too, as for some reason he decided to not watch the road and managed to hit the kerb as we were flying along. The bus bounced off the kerb, managed to cross the road and end up facing on coming traffic, which happened to be a bigger bus than the one we were travelling on!

Reaction times left a lot to be desired, as it seemed to take forever to get onto the right side of the road again and avoid certain death!

Made it to the hotel after this, quick underwear change, and out for dinner ;¬)

Apparently we are getting picked up in a Limo in the morning for the trip to the port before we head onto the lake!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213908060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213908060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213908060/tpod.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:44:37 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Cusco, Peru

Back in Cusco again today.

Nice rest day before I set oiff again.

Went out for dinner with the others from the trail last night - originally to an Irish Bar!

Today has been chilling and getting laundry sorted before we move on from here to Puno and Lake Titikaka.

Legs not as sore as I thought they would be, but suppose it could be the day after the day after when they get worse.

Tomorrow will be all day in a bus heading to Puno, apparentrly with a couple of stops along the way at various places Roberto knows about.

TTFN!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213772400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213772400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213772400/tpod.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:37:45 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, Peru

3 a.m. came around very very quickly this morning. Up and packed and in the breakfast tent for 3.30 a.m. Lots more Jam jokes before we set off on the path past a lot of startled campers wh thought they would be first up.

Arrived at the checkpoint at about 4 a.m. and settled down for the wait for the gate to open at 5.30 a.m.

A group of annoying American women turned up about 30 mins after us and started whinging that we were there already - slap it into you all for lying in!

The time didn't go to slowly, and we could see more and more groups arriving behind us to get in line for the start of the last day of all of out treks.

5.30 a.m. and the bloke with the key arrived! We set off through the gate with the prospect of a 1hr 15 min hike to the Cloud / Sun Gate (depending on the weather) with about 150 other people on our heels all tryiong t be the first there for the best views of Machu Picchu from that side of the trail.

A pretty much unspoken rule in the group was "None Shall Pass!".

Aly started us off at a fair pace in the dark, which we managed to keep going all the way to the Sun Gate. There were a few attempts by other groups to get through and ahead of us, but these people were blocked on every attempt.

45 minutes and a mad climb later we rounded a bend in the path and there was the Sun Gate! Through the walls of this and there for the first time not in a photo, I got to see Machu Picchu!

Crap - more bloody stones and grass ;-) Only joking - it was totally amazing. Overlooking the whole city. Couldn't believe we had actually made it. All that was in our way now was a 50 minute hike down to the entrance to the city itself!

We sat and took photo's from our perfect vantage point, all the time being very careful not to gloat about how good our seats were, or how glad we were that we got there first and got up sooooo early that morning too.

If one or two comments slipped out hopefuloly no one was annoyed by them!

Machu Picchu - what can I say? Totally amazing doesn't cover it. Took something like 100 photo's yesterday alone, but all I can really say is the place is magical. In the middle of the mountains, hundreds of years ago, soe of the things they did would be hard to replicate today and as accurately too!

All the aches and pains and early starts have been worth it. I actually made it!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213732800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213732800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gordym/1/1213732800/tpod.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:12:43 -0400 Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru

You might have noticed that the last 3 map pins have all been Ollataytambo, but we have actually been moving - just this thing doesn't have all the campsites we staye in on it.

So 30km walked, 15 to go. 9km today and 6km tomorrow before we make it to Machu Picchu.

Day starts with all the porters being introduced to us, and us doing the same in return. I'll guarantee it is all ploy to get a bigger tip from, us on the last night, but I suppose thay are carrying most of the weight each day, so they maybe do deserve it.

Several really steep passes to get through today, but not as far to go so it is all bear5able today, and we all know that we are closer to Machu Picchu so it makes it easier too!

Only real highlight today was the final split between Team Europe and Team Canada and USA. Aly sent the Eurpoeans on ahead so he could go gee up the back markers. Tom took point so we all spent the next 45 minutes annoying him with stupid questions and seeing how long it would take to get to the end from where we were.

We got to the rest poiunt and Michelle managed to win the sweep on hoiw long it would take the others to catch up with us (30 minutes was the winning time!). I toook this opportunity to lighten my pack by offering out all the snack packs I hadn't bothered eating when we were walking! No one could believe I hadn't eaten them, but then again they weren't complaining as they all got something to eat! And I could definitely notice the weight difference on my shoulders!

Walked on to camp - stopped at what was apparently a farm for Machu Picchu on the way for a look round to the camp, then got into camp and hit the bar! Beer never tasted so good. Also managed to get a mobile signal very briefly, so thankyou Dave for the HC group - wasn't able to get a message back out to you, but it did arrive.

Tomorrow is giong to be a bit of a night mare.

Up at 3 a.m. to make sure we are first to the checkpoint. we should arrive there by 4, and it opens at 5.30 a.m.

Early to bed again - just for a change!

But Machu Picchu tomorrow!!
]]>