Running out of continent

Early in the morning we arrived in Quito and took a taxi to our hostel, luckily they were up already but we couldn't get in our room so we waited around the hostel. In the afternoon we went to the northern part of Quito, the modern area with loads of glass and steel buildings, banks and big companies. It's supposed to be the tourist hotspot and we were looking for book exchange shops as we had several books we didn't feel like carrying around anymore, inclusive our bible, Lonely Planet's South America on a Shoestring (which is pretty average by the way, we wouldn't buy it anymore). We found 2 book exchange shops, one owned by a southern state American, the other by a really friendly and helpful englishman (they didn't seem to like each other...). A bit disappointed by the low value of our old books but with new literature we walked back to the historic centre where our hostel was located.

The next day we strolled around this historic centre which is partly closed for traffic on sundays, looking for a tourist information office to ask about buses and the crossing of the Ecuadorian-Colombian border as this seemed to be more complicated than usual according to Lonely Planet and internet comments. We wanted a bus that goes straight from Quito to Medellín or at least Pasto or Popayán so we wouldn't have to cross the border by foot and taxis. In South America, when looking for something, we learned that it's the easiest to walk up to the first uniformed person and ask for advice. That's what we did, just to be sent to other uniformed people the so called tourist police. After not finding them we asked a police lady who escorted us to the tourist security office. Great. There they told us we were wrong and escorted us to the tourist office. Finally! There they told us to go to north Quito and ask in the different bus company offices... Next day, that's what we did but there were only 3 companies that actually go straight over the border and those were far away from each other or closed. After this whole day and the next half we found out that the next suitable bus for us left in 3 days, that was a bit too late for us and because Anni was feeling really sick by now and we just wanted to leave we decided to do it the "hard" way and booked a bus to Tulcan in Ecuador, around 2 kms away from the border.

From there we took a cab to the Ecuadorian immigration, got our stamps and walked over a bridge to the Colombian immigration, got more stamps, bought tickets from a company around there. They gave us a lift to Ipiales, the first town in Colombia and from there on another bus for around 2 hrs to Pasto where we spent the night. Everything went so smooth and easy, we couldn't figure out why so many people were complaining about that part, after all it was one of the easier border crossings we've ever done in South America.

Pasto was just an overnight stop for us and at noon the next day we already sat in another bus, this time straight to Medellín, an 18 hrs ride past Popayan and Calí, we just wanted to hit the Caribbean coast as soon as possible! Medellín was probably the nicest big city we've ever visited in this continent. The centre is not particularly pretty or beautiful, it's modern with loads of high rise buildings but there is so much green everywhere! Almost every street is lined by trees, every patch not covered by concrete has flowers and bushes, birds everywhere, it was such a contrast to the last cities we've been like Lima or Quito. As we only had one full day in Medellín we didn't see much of it, but what we saw we liked.

The next stretch to Cartagena we did by plane, it's almost as expensive as by bus (we were really surprised how expensive Colombia is compared to its neighbours!). Around 2 hrs before the departure we stopped a taxi and asked the driver to take us to the airport, which we saw lying next to the bus terminal, we didn't know that there's a second one for international flights and that's exactly where our flight was leaving from, who could've known that? The problem with "our" airport was that it's a 1 hour drive to Rio Negro, all uphill in one of these tiny Daewoo taxis with tiny engines that exist everywhere in Colombia and the driver did everything possible to climb as fast as possible. We made it in time, the only bad thing was Anni's ice cream that had to be thrown away, the security lady wouldn't let her go through the security control...

At 20:00 we landed in Cartagena and the hot and humid air almost took our breath away when we left the plane! 28 degrees at this time! Great! In front of the airport we got stopped by taxi drivers and we asked where the buses leave for the city. One of the drivers, with a police guy next to him answered that there are no buses. So I asked the policeman and he didn't know what to say, of course there's a bus but he didn't want to offend his friend so he said that there are buses but not at this time anymore... That much about Colombian police. The taxis were around 10'000 pesos but we got one for 8'000, the one with the driver we asked for busses. After circling around Cartagena for a while, the driver asking several people for directions, we arrived at our hostel. There I paid him the 8'000 pesos but he refused and said it's 8 dollars. I was pretty confused and told him that we agreed on pesos but he denied and accused me of saying 8, and this meant dollars... Us and him got angrier, we all knew what he was up to so I asked the receptionist of the hostel and he said it's maximum 12'000 pesos. This wasn't enough for the greedy prick, he wanted 15'000 which I gave him finally to avoid further troubles, we didn't want to run into him again, somewhere in the dark maybe him with his friends....

First we thought we didn't plan enough time in Cartagena, it's absolutely beautiful! The next day we found out that one day was enough for us, the heat and the humidity are just way too high! We still spent all day walking around the old town with its colonial houses, everyone with balconies, nice colours and flowers everywhere, we also walked over to the Castillo, the biggest fortress ever built by spaniards in one of their colonies. The whole thing is full of tunnels that connect different parts with each other and we spent quite a lot of time exploring those and wondering about the smart way they're built.

After Cartagena we planned to travel a bit more eastwards towards the Tayrona national park. There's a city called Santa Marta but we wanted to leave south america with good last impressions so we just drove through and stayed in Taganga, a small fishing village which got famous for backpackers. It's not as quiet as it probably once was, there are bars along the beach where fishermen and dive companies have their boats and those bars blast music in the evenings, throughout the day we thought it's still a nice little place. Sadly we couldn't fully enjoy our stay there, first we both had a bad cough that kept us away from diving and later i caught a food poisoning from a hotdog the dive company served on one of our snorkelling trips. I was on the toilet a whole night and pretty flat the whole next day so we had to cancel our already booked trip for snorkelling in the Tayrona NP with staying overnight in a little house in hammocks which should've been our last nice adventure on this continent. Feeling better the day after, we still went snorkelling there just without staying overnight, i was still very weak and the "easy 20 minute walk" to another beach turned out to be a real bitch and we barely made it back in time to catch the boat to Taganga. It still was a nice finish to our South America trip which we started exactly 5 months ago! Now we have to start packing, tomorrow leaves our plane to Bogota and then a killer-over-30-hrs-flight to Hong Kong! New adventures!

 

Island life

Absolutely relaxed we boarded the bus towards Ecuador and we chose a day bus as we wanted to enjoy the scenery, the road runs along the shore for a long time. Our next destination was Guayaquil, some 10hrs away, that's why we didn't really care about the quality of the bus, just cheap with some comfy chairs was our goal. Bad decision as we'll see later.

The bus was supposed to arrive at 12:30 from Lima, so we were ready at 12:00. At 13:30 we weren't getting worried, still waiting, we knew better. It's south america after all... At around 14:00 the bus showed up. We jumped in and left Máncora soon behind, but turned back after a few minutes, the driver wanted more passengers. No one took the offer so we left again, this time for real. The next stop was at some car inspection point, not because the officers thought the bus wasn't proper, we didn't even make it that far. A hundred meters before the checkpoint the bus broke down and couln't get started again. After half an hour and some spare parts from passing truck drivers we made it to the checkpoint! There the engine died once more and wouldn't start again. Finally, after one and a half hours we set off again. We were wondering for how long. Now we started to get slightly worried, our bus was scheduled to arrive in Guayaquil at 21:00, an ok time but with now 3 hours of delay we were afraid to arrive at midnight in some dodgy terminal in a dodgy neighbourhood.

 

A miracle! We arrived with only one hour delay! The terminal was brand new and huge, nothing to worry about and a taxi brought us to our hostel, leaving us with the comment that this area was semi peligroso, half dangerous... It wasn't as we found out the next day. We spent it wandering along the Malecón 2000, Guayaquils nice promenade along the river all in perfect peace as the center is closed for traffic on sundays. The next morning we had to leave early for the airport. Galapagos was now just a couple of hours away! We were really excited, had to get more money to pay all the taxes for the islands. In the airport in Guayaquil we had to pay 10 US$ each for some tax and get our bags inspected, not to bring any plants, animals or diseases to Galapagos. After that we were free to go. The sky was overcast, we didn't see much of the islands until the last moment when we approached the airport. That one is on Baltra island on top, or north, of the main island Santa Cruz. That's where we wanted to spend the first 4 days. In this airport everyone has to pay 100 US$ for some national park fee. A free airport bus drove us to the ferry pier from where we crossed the channel separating the two islands. On the other side a bus was waiting which brought us across the island to Puerto Ayora, the main town in the south of Santa Cruz.

 

Puerto Ayora is, not as we expected, not a tourist hell. It's a lovely town with loads of restaurants for tourists and locals alike, souvenir shops, hostels and a port with two piers from where we encountered our first species of the animals calling Galapagos their home. We were happy! Just after we checked in to our hostel we walked to the port and saw beautiful red and yellow crabs (with the funny name sally lightfoot crabs), marine iguanas, sea turtles, pelicans, blue footed boobies and sea lions! All in an hour and all just in the harbour! What more would wait for us all across these islands?

 

Day 2 didn't start good for Anni, she started to feel a bit sick, throat pain. Because of that and the not so good weather we visited the Charles Darwin research center just outside the town. It's home to giant tortoises which are bred there before they are led to freedom, a try to rehabitate the island with those animals as they were hunted by whalers and the first cititzens of the islands. In fact they were hunted so badly that some subspecies (there are around 10 subspecies under the specie of Galapagos giant tortoise) disappeared and of some there are only a few alive nowadays. The last subspecies of one of them died in June 2012, it was called Lonesome George. Scientists mated it with several females of other subspecies but it didn't work. This showed us the cruelty of humankind once more... They also have land iguanas, a specie we never saw anywhere else, they live on other islands. A reason to come back another day?

In the afternoon we took a taxi to a town called Bellavista. Nearby are the famous lava tunnels, over 1km in lenght. They were formed when the outside of flowing lava cooled down and the liquid magma inside left downhill leaving only the hull back. It's pretty impressive to walk through one of this tunnels and imagine how they were formed! Our driver was supposed to pick us up at the exit but he was nowhere near. On the way back to the start point we almost got lost, the driver, after he showed finally up, said he couldn't drive further up the road because of roadworks. Why could all the other cars...?

The third day we planned to spend in Tortuga bay. On the way there we were stopped by police saying that the beaches were closed because of an earthquake in Costa Rica (he said Chile though), Tsunami warning all along the west coast from Mexico to Chile. Back in Puerto Ayora we ate our sandwiches on the pier and spotted animals. Our try to sneak past the guard on the way to the research centre and head to another beach failed. At 2 o'clock the warning got repealed and we took a water taxi to another pier across the bay. There we walked to an amazing beach in front of a hotel. The weather wasn't promising but we got our snorkelling gear ready and went into the (quite chilly) water. That was something else! In 15 minutes we saw an eagle ray, a stingray, a spotted snake eel and huge schools of fishes! But by now it was too cold, we couldn't warm up again so we decided to head back and take a hot shower (that's all you want if you can't feel your fingertips anymore).

Day Nr. 4 started cold and rainy. Still we followed our plan and headed to Tortuga bay, the one that was closed yesterday. On the way there the sky cleared up and by the time we reached the beach it was pure sunshine. The main beach is dangerous because of currents and undertows, so we walked along this massive strech of sand and came along another beach in front of a lagoon. There we had lunch and went snorkelling. Poor visibility and almost no sealife made us look for other options. On the walk to the rocky edge of the bay we had to jump over a pile of massive marine iguanas. They don't move a centimeter. In the rocks we discovered a pool protected from the waves through rocks, a perfect snorkelling spot we thought. And it was! All the fishes were trapped during lowtide and the water cristal clear. Anni saw her first octopus and when i saw my first marine iguana swimming past me i first thought "crocodile!" This day was absolutely amazing but we didn't bring sunscreen (it was raining in the morning, remember?). Ouch. We were badly burned. This night wasn't going to be a good one...

5th day was for transfer. We took a speedboat to another island, San Cristobal in the far east. These boats are the inter island way of transportation, ours carried around 12 people and had 650 horsepower! Every single one of them pushed us through and over waves, i left my seat every time we jumped over a big one and they are big! Open sea for thousands of kilometres. Well shaked we arrived in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal. This is the capital of the Galapagos islands but smaller than Puerto Ayora. The first thing we saw were all those sea lions sleeping on the benches of the promenade, a good start. The way to our accommodation was painful (remember the sunscreen free day yesterday). But as soon as we saw our little home we forgot all the pain, we booked the cabañas don jorge, a collection of little houses outside the town on a beach called Playa Mann. We had ourselves an own house! That was important so we could cook, Galapagos is very expensive so we stocked up on food.

Day 6 was beach day, for us not for the weather. We wanted to snorkel on a beach near Punta Carola but it was too cold and the beach and water full of sea lions, we didn't know how they would react so we were careful. Back we went and after lunch and siesta we were ready for snorkelling, this time on Playa Mann outside our front door. Again we were stunned by the underwater life! Massive schools of big fishes, small fishes everywhere between the rocks. And when the first sea lion swam past me really fast my heart jumped! When something big and black appears under you and heads towards you, mixed with bad visibility, those can be scary moments! After that Anni went for snorkelling too and one of those animals swam straight towards her on the surface and just before bumping in to her it dove down and passed her just centimeters away from touching. She also didn't know what would happen in this moment. Not because we're afraid of sharks or whatsoever but because we still didn't know how to behave and how those sea lions would behave.

The 7th day was beach day again, this time next to the frigate bird hill. It's a 30 minutes walk and along the trail are some nice viewpoints with even nicer views. This cove has no beach, just black lava rocks. We found a place a bit away from the pier and started snorkelling in the crystal clear water. Beautiful again! Lots of fish, turtles and a sea lion once in a while. Because the water temperature is not the highest (thanks to the Humboldt current) our snorkelling trips weren't the longest but they were filled with life. Arriving and yelling local crowds made us leave, they scared away all the sea lions from the rocks so they could swim in peace. Every tourist gets told how to respect the wildlife but i guess there are different rules for inhabitants...

Day 8 wasn't beach day. We made an agreement with a taxi driver the day before so he would take us around the southern part of the island for 45 US$. We left at 08:00 and the road soon started to climb, up into the so called highlands. First stop was at Galapaguera, a breeding station for giant tortoises which life in a semi natural area before they get released and brought to other islands. After that we drove to the east coast to Puerto Chino, a beautiful empty and natural beach full of sea lions. A nice place to tent, if you happen to have one, it's allowed there. Then back into the hills to the foot of an old volcano called El Junco lagoon, a freshwater lake in an old crater on 700 m where birds wash their feathers and get rid of the saltwater. It's the freshwater source for the whole island and not easy accesible. It's actually easy with good weather but when we got there the trail was just mud. A steep hill up and then down in mud. I had good shoes, Anni not. Let's stop here. We didn't see shit anyway, just plants and mist and fog. Afterwards to La Soledad, a small town with a good viewpoint and then back home. After lunch snorkelling at Playa Mann. The beach and the sea was full of sea lions, quite a lot of people too but no one was swimming so i was a bit skeptical, when the locals don't swim now then I should better leave it I thought. There were also quite a lot of baby sea lions around and I thought this might cause troubles if I'd go snorkelling now. I went anyway. Visibility was almost zero and as I looked back to the beach from further out I saw many sea lions swimming between me and the beach. This made me nervous somehow. I had to go back now, so I approached the beach and suddenly a head of a sea lion came up right in front of me. It dove down and swam past me, looking at me and then suddenly turned back and came for my feet with an open mouth! Those teeth are huge I thought and started to panick, swimming faster then another came from the front, mouth open and scaring me to death, as soon as I had sand under my feet I ran up the beach into safety. After this encounter we saw many people going for a swim and scared away by a huge male sea lion, even chasing them up the beach! If I'd seen this earlier...

The night to the 9th day wasn't a good one. Attacked by mosquitoes and Annis cough getting really bad now, we didn't sleep much. We were told to show up in a dive shop where we asked for dive trips the day before. The dude in the shop could still not tell when and where they would leave but he assured us that we will go for sure, me diving and Anni snorkelling. So we took a cab to La Loberia, a beach east of town called after the sea lion colonies living there. It's a famous surf spot and we soon saw why. Massive waves broke further out, the weather chilly and rainy but the water along the beach is protected by rocks where the waves brake. Because of the weather and the unfriendly encounter with sea lions yesterday we weren't keen in going into the water even when we saw other people snorkelling in peace with them. Before sunset we left and walked back to town. This time in the dive shop we were told that there won't be diving tomorrow. South american promises i thought. We weren't that disappointed first because of the reports of really poor visibility and second because of the saved 200 US$.

On the 10th day we rented snorkelling equipment for Anni in the dive shop and followed an advise of a guy in the shop and walked 1.5 hrs past the frigate bird hill to a beach called Playa Baquerizo. Thanks for that tip! Empty beach apart from the usual creatures and water in all colours from blue to green. Just by watching from the beach we saw 5 sea turtles! As fast as possible we got ourselves ready and snorkelled off the beach. It was hard to concentrate on one turtle because there was always at least another one near! And masses of fishes again! That describes the whole day, and the last on San Cristobal as well. I just regreted not to have my underwater camera, i left it at home, my backpack was close to burst... As we left and looked back there was a rainbow over the beach. What a finish!

Time to head back. Day 11 began early for us and in the rain we made our way to the pier. Several boats left for different islands and ours was bigger than on the way here and more comfortable. In under 2 hours we arrived in Puerto Ayora and got a room in the same hostel again. Then we took the water taxi again to the beach in front of the Finch Bay hotel. Last snorkelling on Galapagos, amazing again! Stingrays and the biggest school of fish i've ever seen in my life. For dinner we went out, Isla Grill was our choice. Great food, great atmosphere, great finish for Galapagos!

Day 12. Early bus back north. On the way we saw Los Gemelos, two craters next to each other. Why do a tour here? At the airport we had to wait several hours because our bus left so early. Lunch in the only restaurant was disappointing, everything crowded, everyone heading back to the mainland. After arriving in Guayaquil we checked different companies for last minute tickets to Colombia. Big fail, prices don't drop here. So we took a taxi to the bus terminal and booked a bus for the same night to Quito. We spent the hours hanging around the terminal, using internet and eating chunk food. Our bus left at 22:20 and we soon fell asleep, still in Galapagos with our minds.

If someone wonders if this way of exploring Galapagos is any cheaper than a cruise, here's what we spent in 12 days, including the flights from and to Guayaquil:

 

400 US$ each for flights

110 US$ each for fees and taxes

90 US$ each for hostel on Santa Cruz

150 US$ each for cabaña on San Cristobal

50 US$ each for shopping food

50 US$ each for the speedboat Santa Cruz - San Cristobal - Santa Cruz

25 US$ each for taxi tour around south Cristobal

250 US$ each for eating out, taxis, watertaxis, renting snorkelling gear, etc.

1125 US$ TOTAL PER PERSON FOR 12 DAYS