Galápagos an Archipelago of Enchantment: PART I – My Favorite Sights on Dry Land

At the risk of sounding cliché, the Galápagos Islands are a truly magical place.  There are Sea Lions sun tanning on the sidewalks, Lava Lizards and Iguanas lazily sauntering about, and Pelicans covering almost every surface.  A series of volcanic islands, the landscape is stark and barren, a far cry from the typical ‘paradise’ depiction, however it possesses a certain nirvana uniquely its own.  Both under the sea and on dry land the encounters we experienced were incredible.     

Giant Tortoises

In the 1960’s the population of these grand creatures synonymous with the Galápagos dropped to near extinction, but today many subspecies are back up into the thousands because of breeding programs around the islands.  At one of the breeding centers we actually saw eggs hatching in a baby tortoise incubator.  Next the little guys are moved into one of many large enclosures where they will live and learn the skills needed to survive in the wild.  When the tortoises are ready they are re-released to the island of their subspecies origin and will carry on the life cycle naturally.  The islands have 11 subspecies, including Lonesome Gorge, who is the last surviving member of his subspecies from Isla Pinta.  He has been living at the Charles Darwin Research Center since 1972 - reproduction with another similar subspecies is the hope, but so far to no avail.

 

Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas are also unique to the Galápagos.  They survive completely off of algae and seaweed in the water and are surprisingly admirable swimmers, with long sharp claws for clinging to rocks underwater in heavy currents.  Although their abilities in the water are distinctive, it was on land that I loved these guys.

After a swim they saunter up on to the beach and collapse, usually in huge piles climbing all over each other.
Their dark skin absorbs sunlight to warm them up after their forays into the cold waters.  As if their smashed-in faces, spiky scales, molting skin, and salt-encrusted heads weren’t enough to love, they projectile snot excess salt from their noses! 

In fact they even have special glands that clean their blood of extra salt, which they ingest while feeding. 

Blue Footed Boobies

Watching huge flocks of Blue Footed Boobies fish is like watching diving in the Olympics.  Their grace is undeniable; nonchalantly cruising 20 feet overhead, in a split second they turn their bodies into projectile missiles barreling downward and explosively hit the water.  Their wings are arched until the very last millisecond when they tuck them back for the perfect entry with no splash and a flawless ripple.  They surface, and fly off a bit less gracefully, shaking out their wet blue feet.

We also saw a lot of other birds: Darwin’s Finches, Pink Flamingos on Isabella Island, Frigate Birds with their red chest pouch, and Herons at Tortuga Bay.

The Fish Station

Fishermen bring their daily catches to the fish station to fillet and sell to the public, for the lazier Pelicans and Sea Lions this is the place to be.  It’s quite comical, and a little scary, with dozens of Pelicans perched in all of the surrounding trees, on cutting tables, and storming the boats.  Every so often one will make off with a scrap, we saw one grab the freshly snipped tail fin and try to choke it down.  Every so often Sea Lions will also scramble up the rocks to await their piece of the pie, sliding on their bellies following the fishermen’s every move.  I’m sure if it wasn’t for the camera happy tourists all around the little guys would get a pretty swift kick.

Surfs Up In Montañita

As the North Shore is to Hawaii and Sayulita is to Mexico, Montañita is the surf mecca of Ecuador.  A small town of a thousand residents, it is situated on the Pacific Ocean in Southern Ecuador.  Waves pound heavily into the bay, with overhead breaks hitting the point on the North end of the beach. 

Days are glorious enjoying the warm, soft sand.  Dusk hits and exquisite sunsets take shape as surfers wrap up their sessions.  Night falls, and then soon beach fires and live music at Caña Grill get rolling.  

The village has perfected a chilled out vibe, the entire place an ethos of transient dominance.  Dreaded muskrat hippies line the dirt roads peddling jewelry, and creepily creative street performers abound juggling, break dancing, unicycling, and fire dancing.  It’s the perfect spot to slow down for a while, burn one down to forget your worries (or create some new ones), and fantasize about running away to join the circus…

Baños – Half Bullshit & Half Blissful

Los Baños is a small Ecuadorian town perched on the side of Volcano Tungurahua.  The volcano erupted in 2006 having a very devastating effect on the town; it spit fire again in 2008, but since has remained calm.  It was nice to get out of the city and slow down for a couple of days - take in numerous waterfalls and a 40 degree Celsius natural thermal bath.  The thermal baths were neat as they had a sign telling you the percentage of natural minerals in the water, supposedly a high concentration of healthy chlorates, sulfates, and magnesium.

The downside of this picturesque mountain town is that tourism is ruining it.  Basically every business here is a hotel, an outdoor adventure company offering the exact same tours, an ‘Italian’ pizzeria (strange, I guess somehow the word spread foreigners only like Italian food?), a spa, or a laundry service.  Each place is a virtual carbon copy of its neighbor, and despite the obvious competition, we found the service pretty much everywhere atrocious. 

One night dinner took nearly 2 hours to arrive, and when it did it was a tortilla with beans and un-melted cheese (we tried to deviate from the rumor tourists only like Italian and were sorely disappointed).  Even the beer took about 30 min to make it to our table, and the place was nearly empty… with no apology I may add.

Another near horrific moment occurred when I thought the laundry service had lost all of my clothes.  I had to return multiple times as I was told my clothes were still drying.  After the third trip back I wasn’t convinced so I asked to see it…why did they bring me a basket of men’s clothes?  Long story short, after about quadruple the 2 hour service time advertised I finally had my clothes, after they searched high and low for them. 

 

All of this said…we did have an enjoyable time with a couple highlights. Highlight number one was horseback riding up the side of the volcano to a natural spring where we could see the particles dancing as water was magically pumped from the earth.  The spring water tasted much like seltzer water, due to the minerals.  Riding along a route of past lava escape, we could see the large channels created and much volcanic rock strewn about. 

My horse Champion was a real gentleman, when we were riding through the city streets he would move to the grass to complete his business.  This is more than I can say for Heidi’s horse, Freckles, which always had to be in the lead and continually cut us off.  We walked, trotted, and loped…and in my opinion galloped, as I was hanging on for dear life.  About 10 minutes from home the horses obviously knew they were close as they started running, rounding all the corners on rails, until they were happily grassing in their pasture!

Highlight number two was the Prana Spa, where for $25 we were pampered with an hour and half full body massage, complete with hot stones and reflexology, as well as a thirty minute aromatic facial.  Pure bliss! 

I also tried an Ionic Detox for $7 as this is something that I have wanted to do for some time.  The theory goes something like this – you immerse your feet in an Ion Detox foot bath and the Ion generator produces millions of positive and negative ions. These Ions flow through your body and then are supposed to attach themselves to oppositely charged toxins and draw them out of your body through the soles of your feet (kind of like a magnet). 

Hmmm, not sure how I feel about it all?  My feet did feel a little weird and twitchy and my water did turn to a yellowish brown color.  Different colors of the water indicate different toxins and areas of issue within the body.  Apparently mine meant that overall I was fairly toxin free, just a small amount of toxins produced from stress and fatigue.  I guess I was hoping for a more dramatic effect, a bubbling black and green lagoon so I’d know it worked…if I’m toxin free shouldn’t I get a refund for the unneeded service?!

   

To Quito or Not To Quito?

Well to be honest I wasn’t looking forward to Quito, I figured just another big city.  Seen the colonial section in a few other cities, seen them all right?  Seen enough beautiful churches and plazas, they all start to look the same right?  Well for the most part yes, but I was pleasantly surprised by our afternoon in Quito’s old town.  It is a very utilitarian area with a real day to day feel; whereas in many cities the historic division has warped into having a kind of oddly vacant feel, except for tourism.  

Wandering around the cobblestone streets and plazas, viewing the many prominent churches, my favorite was the Gothic Basilica del Vote Nacional.  The towers are spectacular rising 80 meters into the sky.  A little nerve racking, we were actually able to climb up into these towers via a series of very steep ladders and rickety wooden planks.  Also unique, instead of featuring the more typical design choice of gargoyles, iguanas, turtles, armadillos, and an array of different birds protrude from the elaborate ornamentation. 

The rest of our short stint in Quito was spent visiting La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World), a site declared in 1736 as the equatorial line.  Touristy, with a large monument and museum, the humorous part is that it is all actually a lie... and one you have to pay $2 to see!  The monument is actually 240 meters off of zero degrees; the real equatorial line is on a hill across the street on a thousand year old indigenous site.  It is pretty interesting as similar sights are being discovered all over Ecuador that coincide with other equinoctial points.  Another thing I thought was cool (and did learn due to my $2 admission) is that you weight 0.5 lbs. less at the equator.

In conclusion, yes to Quito.  Although it IS just another big city and definitely not my favorite, it deserves some time to be discovered… 

Bienvenidos A Ecuador

Excited to be facing our last long bus ride through Colombia we embarked on the 12 hour journey to Ipiales, a Colombian border town.  We spent the night in a dingy little hotel, (which definitely ‘rents by the hour’ and had a poster plastered to the bathroom door advocating for safe sex), before tackling the border crossing into Ecuador.  Although it took a while, we were admitted into the country and quickly on our way to Otavalo…aboard a bus with live, uncut, original Ecuadorian rappers. 

Immediately I missed Colombia, the spectacular mountainous, lush scenery and hospitable people vanished and were replaced with brown hills and hectic people yelling this and that.  I am sure I will get used to it, but definitely a much different feel.

Arriving in Otavalo, it was welcome to see a much more indigenous influence than anywhere we experienced in Colombia.  The indigenous people here seem very proud of their culture and 

many wear traditional clothing.  The women wear white blouses embroidered with flowers, long wool skirts, woven belts, strands of beads, and woven wraps around low pulled ponytails.  Men wear felt hats, blue ponchos, short pants and their hair in a long braid or ponytail.    

Otavalo is famous for its market in the Plaza de los Ponchos, featuring traditional weavings and textiles.  This market has roots going back hundreds of years to when traders from surrounding highland and jungle communities met here to trade goods essential to survival.  The market has evolved through time into more of an artisan focus - today Otavaleños are the most commercially successful indigenous community in Ecuador.

Twirling Through Cali

Cali is the unofficial Salsa capital of Colombia, thus appropriately our time in Cali was filled with dancing.  It happened to be Cali’s 17^th annual folk dancing competition on the weekend of our arrival.  Watching a street dance parade with groups from all over South America in traditional costume really set the mood for our entire experience in this vibrant city.

Wanting to be at least a little at ease in a city that claims the best dancers in the country, we took a Salsa lesson before hitting the town.  It was fabulous; after an hour we were dripping with sweat and motivated to inhale this famous nightlife.

After two nights out in Cali I can officially agree, this city is definitely the dancing capital of Colombia.  People are not only dancing in all of the restaurants, bars and clubs, but there are also streets and parks filled with music and dancing.  It is a pretty cool atmosphere with people of all ages sharing the experience.  Also refreshing was to have the opposite sex only interested in a dance, not a night long creep fest.  We met some nice locals who took us around to different salsa clubs and street parties – so much fun gyrating and pirouetting our way through the city!       

Tejo – A Game of Boom-Boom, Pow-Pow!

Tejo is a very amusing, albeit slightly dangerous, traditional Colombian game.  Kind of a cross between bowling and darts, the anti is upped with the addition of gunpowder!   

Basically there is a square box tilted at 45 degrees at the end of a long, narrow lane (ours was 15 ft., but a real Tejo lane is 80 ft.).  The box is filled with clay, and in the center of the clay is a metal disk 6 inches wide.  Now for the exhilarating part, framing the metal disk are 4 packets of gunpowder, just ready to explode. 

You throw a metal weight down the lane and if it sticks in the middle of the metal disk, missing the ring of fire, you score 6 points.  If you explode a packet of gunpowder you are awarded 3 points, and the full monty comes when you explode gunpowder and succeed in sticking it to the middle, 9 points.  We were pretty much just aiming for the bang, smoke, and ever exciting explosion! 

After a few beers (you don’t pay for the lane as long as you are drinking - which is always a good idea for a game involving gunpowder), a few successful detonations, a box of blackening clay, and being caught in the cross fire of our neighbors lane, we decided our experience was authentic and successfully completed!