TravellingWe arrived at the airport after my birthday meal as our flight was at 5.50am. The first flight took us to Amsterdam. We then had a 10 hour flight to Ecuador and finally landed at 2.15 pm their time. 6 hours behind UK time. My bag was scarily one of the last bags to emerge on the carousel so I was getting a little on edge. We then took a taxi to the hotel which had to be one of the cheapest taxi rides ever at just $25 for nearly an hours drive!
Ecuador was nothing like I expected it to be, Its such a contrasting city of modern and old. The first night we spent in and I ordered room service as mum was unfortunately ill. I got to eat the best steak I have ever experienced though so maybe room service was a on the plus side!Ecuador
The altitude seemed to effect me in some very weird ways. I experienced very weird dreams that were so unbelievably vivid . After breakfast we headed to the Old Town. First we visited Plaza de la Independencia where we saw the Cathedral which was relatively small and then Iglesia de la compania de Jesus. The huge amount of gold leaf was ridiculous. Apparently there was about 7 tons worth of gold present that covered all the walls in the building. Afterwards we wandered to two small squares which had hardly anything surrounding them called Plaza San Francisco and Plaza Santo Demingo.
Next we took a taxi to the cable car. The cable car has a 2.5 km ride and climbs from 3050m to 4050m! The views from the top were really good but it was unfortunately cloudy and so they weren't as clear as they can be and it make the top very cold! The cable car was definitely worth the travel though as you have no idea just how far the city spans until you are stood above it and I was in awe of just how huge it really was.To the Islands
Awaking at 4am wasnt the easiest thing to do once your body clock is already as messed up from the travel as mine seemed to be but by 5am we were on a old mini bus that loved to rattle on the way to the airport. After two hours of waiting our plane finally took of at 8.15. First we had to stop at Guayaquil airport and then we went onto the Island of San Christobal which was the capital of the Galapagos due to it being the only island with fresh water (interesting fact for you there). Once we had arrived and our luggage had been checked we were able to enter the park and climb on the small minibus for a 10 minute drive down to the harbour where our boat was waiting for our arrival.As soon as we arrived at the harbour you could see the vast array of wildlife. Sealions were lounging around everywhere. We finally got onto our boat and after a quick breifing and being shown our rooms we were given a lovely lunch and then taken back to the mainland so that we could explore.
Firstly we went to the Interpretation centre where we got to learn about the first people on the island (most were criminals and that's why the collonies never survived as crime was so strife, like murder). We then got to see a giant tortoise called Pepe who is a member of a breeding program and was originally a pet.
Next we went to the beach where there were hundreds of sealions just splayed out on the sand and didnt seem to have a care in the world that you were there. After walking along the pier we got our first look at marine ignuanas which I was most excited about seeing. We then had to come back on board and after food and a briefing we went to bed in our very small cabin.
Its
phenomenal how much wildlife you can see in one day, so far we have seen some
of Darwins finches, chatham mockingbird, frigate birds, striated heron, brown
pelican, elliots storm pectrel, yellow warbler birds and of course the
sealions, a tortoise and marine iguanas!
