Adventures in Ecuador
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2006
1
28
Trip End
Jan 31, 2007
Quito,
Ecuador
Sunday, June 11, 2006
The final stop after Brazil was Ecuador. As we have been here before 6 years ago, we did not stay for too long. We met Graeme and celebrated being in Quito by sampling some of the local nightlife. It was a great night but meant the next day was a bit of a right-off, although we did drag ourselves to the equator. Here we saw how water drains in opposite directions depending on which side of the equator you are. Graeme however was not convinced about this, and went about testing in a furious and frantic way.
We then headed to the Amazon to a 3 day trip
albatros
. We were welcomed in the local village by a whole group of little kids who wanted to be picked up and played with non-stop. We became human jungle gyms for an afternoon. Most of our group welcomed them but I realised why I have not had kids yet.....what a pain. We spent the next few days walking around the amazon, sampling their fruits and veges, painting our faces with natural paint, crossing rivers, sleeping in caves and talking a lot of rubbish with the rest of the group. It was a great couple of days and ended with a visit to an animal refuge which was really cool!It rained about as much as it did during Hurricane Ivan while there which meant a very interesting bus ride back to Quito involving a landslide which our bus driver "bravely" (can be replaced by stupidly) decided to drive across!
We met Kieran in the hostel and the next day flew to Galapagos. When we got to the dock we saw a whole lot of the boats waiting for their passengers and chuckled about the poor bastards who getting on the one.....oops that would be us. Our boat was full of "character" - and characters.
Galapagos is amazing....the scenery, wildlife, diving and chilling on a boat were all enjoyed. One dive we saw Galapagos shards, white tipped reef sharks, hammerhead sharks, turtles, eagle-spotted sting rays, golden rays, sea lions and other unnamed fish
All in a row
. It was really amazing to get so close to hammerheads, with their alien eyes and shark attitudes. The sea lions are like fat labradors with no legs (Ok, so not that much like Labradors then...). They are intrigued by scuba divers, and swam around us, spinning, darting and looping at high speeds leaving trails of bubbles behind them. To finish the Ecuador experience, we decided to go out in Quito on the night Ecuador beat Poland. What a shambles!! We were dining in mid town, where all the parties were, when next thing there we a few gun shots and everyone scattered into restaurants, behind cars and down alleyways. The police arrived, dragged a few looters around the streets and then the festivities resumed. The next day we saw a report on TV saying that 3 people had been killed in the post win festivities. I hate to think how many will die when Ecuador looses!
Now to the US of A, then London...
Over and out!
