Fiesta time in Cuenca
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2007
1
52
72
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Cuenca,
Ecuador
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Well we are back on the mainland, having spent 8 days or so on our little boat. As I said we went in with low expectations having read some pretty bad reviews on the internet, but the Friendship was all good! Small cabins with our ones smelling a little of diesel fumes, and very noisy when the engine was running, but as you spend very little time in there it didnīt matter. The food was good, 3 course meals for lunch, 2 courses for dinner and a cooked breakfast everyday!!
We visited about 10 different islands, all with different bird and animal life, we saw big land iguanas, giant tortoises roaming the farmland on Santa Cruz, lots of blue footed boobies and much much more. We went snorkelling at least once a day and the marine life is absolutely awesome. Unfortunately the water is cold and I always left the water with very little feeling left in my hands
Blue footed boobies
! We snorkelled with marine turtles, sting and eagle rays, a penguin a few sharks but not as many as on Isabella. Hamish took some awesome under water videos )that water proof camera is paid off now!= which we will bore you all with when we get back!All in all an awesome trip and well worth the expense to get out there and see the islands. They are doing a lot to make up for the mistakes of the past but they have a long way to go! many simple measures that would protect the islands donīt seem to be being undertaken such as sterilising the domestic animals of the locals, and limiting the building areas in town.
We are now in Cuenca, which had a big party last night to celebrate its independence, yesterday they had a big military parade and airshow which obviously the boys enjoyed!
last night we just partied on the street where they had 2 big stages set up with locals bands, we bought a bottle of local spirits for $2 and partied with them. We had our usual hard conversations with the locals, with lots of spanglish thrown in!
Today we are just sorting our lives out for getting to Peru, and maybe heading out to some hot pools just out of town, if we can figure out how to get there!!
Hope you are all well.
Katie and Hamish
