After sleeping almost the whole flight home from the islands and so happy that I was feeling better we arrived back at the Quito airport. We arranged to "couch surf" the next 2 nights in Quito. For those who aren't familiar with this, it is an online social networking site, similar to facebook... (which I still do not have, but am really tempted to start after meeting so many amazing people from all over the world on this trip) where you can get to know travelers all over the world and stay at their homes when in their country. It's free for us and it's a great cultural exchange for the person lending their "couch." We chose to stay with a guy named Vinny here in Quito, who had great reviews and has done a ton of traveling. He actually is from Nigeria but has lived here for quite awhile, along with other countries in SA. We called him once arriving at the airport and took a cab to his place. We were greeted by him and a large group of his friends. Right away they were very welcoming! We made ourselves at home and later went out down town to get some hot drinks. Later that night the guys made us some typical soup, and taught us some dance moves before watching Borat and going to sleep.
Monday June 28th
This was probably my first good nights sleep that I have had on my trip thus far! Despite the fact that I had horrifying nightmares, which I am blaming on my Malaria pills, I slept great! We woke up in the morning to Nigerian and Ecuadorian music blaring through the house, had some breakfast and started our day sightseeing in Quito. Vinny and his friend were so kind to accompany us everywhere we wanted to go. We first went up the teleferico, which was nothing like the one we rode in Bogota, totally different type of cable car and a much different view once at the top. It was freezing, but beautiful! The city looked like it went on forever! We spent some time taking in the view before heading back down.
We then jumped in a cab and went to our next stop on our list of things to see in Quito. This attraction is "La Mitad del Mundo" or the center of the world. It is literally on the equator, allowing us to stand with one foot on each side! Of course I had to take pictures and be a total tourist.... luckily the boys had good attitudes about it and even though they have seen this plenty of times, they allowed us to have our fun! While at La Mitad del Mundo, Laura insisted on trying a typical Ecuadorian food, Cuy, which translates to guinea pig! I actually did try this a few years ago when I was in Peru and wasn't a huge fan, but told her I would share the 'experience' with her. We ordered our Cuy and shortly after, we had the full body of a rather large guinea pig laying on a plate on our table, head and all. We starred at it for awhile, not knowing how to go about eating it and then just dug right in. It was surprisingly fatty but tasted alright. I was happy that Laura could go home that night feeling fulfilled at her mission of eating Cuy in Ecuador.
We took a long bus ride back home to Vinny's place and made some travel plans before meeting some friends for dinner. My friend Julia who also teaches Spanish at Seven Hills where I teach is spending the whole summer here in Ecuador with her boyfriend Mike. She is volunteering/teaching, while Mike is taking Spanish classes. We met up with them in 'El Centro Historico' or the old, historical part of town. It is a beautiful area with cobblestone streets, historic buildings, plazas, cathedrals and the presidential palace. We had wonderful food/drinks and caught up on each others adventures! I was so happy to see Julia and spend time with her before leaving Quito, as her and I were each others major support systems this last school year!
After dinner we went back to Vinny's place, hung out with the guys and got another good night of sleep. This puts me at today, Tuesday June 29th. We're still in Quito and are planning to head to the bus station soon where we will either be taking a 2 hour bus ride to the town of Banos or a 12 hour bus ride across Ecuador's countryside, to the historic city of Cuenca. We have not decided which route we will be taking but that puts part of the fun in traveling! We'll play it by ear and see what happens once we show up at the terminal! That's all for now; adios from Quito! :)
martes, 29 de junio de 2010
Sickness and Sharks
Saturday June 26th GENOVESA ISLAND
I woke up this morning feeling SUPER sick, not so much sea sick but stomach sick, most likely from something I had eaten or possibly the lack of sleep I had the last few nights. I barely ate breakfast and then reluctantly hopped in the dingy which took us to an enormous cliff on Genovesa Island, known for it's birds. We climbed up the stairs, which were somewhat blocked by a large fur seal, and once at the top, were surrounded by Boobies!! There were red-footed and masked-boobies everywhere, as well as mockingbirds, finches and the magnificent frigate bird, many of which had babies! The scene was like out of a movie, almost scary to some extent, as the birds way out numbered the 16 of us. We learned about the different species and took in the scenery, as I often took breaks, feeling weak and stomach sick. We climbed back down the stairs, hopped in the dingy and again observed the wildlife living amongst the cliffs, before getting back on the boat to change into our lovely wetsuits for another snorkeling adventure. I had decided I was going to sit this round out due to how sick/weak I felt, but after being informed that this area was known for hammerhead sharks I quickly had a change of heart! I decided to go along and bring my snorkeling gear, being ready to jump in only if a shark was spotted. We headed to the area, everyone in full wetsuit/gear and me in my sundress, with gear in hand. Within 5 minutes of being in the water, Miguel, one of the crew members, yelled "Shark!" Here I went! I quickly jumped into my wetsuit, put on my flippers and snorkel and dove off the side of the dingy. As I was swimming rapidly to Miguel all the weakness and sickness disappeared as I had such an adrenaline rush! But.... of course I was too slow and the shark had vanished by the time I got to the spot. I was a little disappointed, kind of relieved (because deep down I was super terrified of the whole idea of seeing a shark below me) and yet hopeful that there would be more in the area. Sure enough a couple minutes later another guy from our group yelled "Shark" and again I swam as fast as I could to the area! As a group we ended up seeing 5 hammerhead sharks, along with a couple Galapagos sharks. Terrifying, yet amazing!!! After the shark encounters we moved to another part of Genovesa Island where we snorkeled with more giant sting rays and sea lions; the sting rays were beautiful, yet scary and the sea lions actually played and swam with us! I can't even describe how awesome it was!
We went back to the Eden, where instantly I felt sick again. I skipped lunch and unfortunately stayed back on the boat when everyone else went to the beach. As much as I wanted to go, Laura and I put it into perspective that we were only 8 days into our trip and had about 60 to go so I should not over due it now. Instead I slept and took more pills. After a couple hours everyone came back and it was time for the farewell party, as it was our last night on the Eden. Again, I skipped this, and rested in my room. I joined just at the end to watch a little salsa dancing and make a toast to the staff on board. We had our last dinner together and exchanged emails. I then went to bed as we had to be up at 5:30 the next morning.
Sunday June 27th, SANTA CRUZ & a Sad Farewell
We woke at 5:30 and took a panga ride to the mangroves of Santa Cruz. It seemed way too early to be out and about but it was our last day and I was feeling better so I had to suck it up! I was just hoping I didn't fall out of the boat because I may have drowned, as I was still half asleep. It was way worth it though as we saw tons of our favorite blue-footed boobies, as well as pelicans, sea lions, mating turtles, which we actually ran into with our dingy, sharks and schools of sting rays!! There actually was a large Galapagos shark swimming along side our boat where if I had stuck my hand in the water I would've been touching him! So cool!
We returned to the Eden, had our last breakfast together, packed up our bags and headed back to land where we took a bus to the airport. We sadly took a last group photo, gave hugs and kisses and said farewell to our friends we had grown so close with the last few days. We had become somewhat of a family consisting of: an Italian couple with 2 children, 3 crazy Brazilians, one of which was always 20 steps behind the group, super friendly honeymooners from Holland, Julia and Debra from Pennsylvania, a quiet woman from Sweden, an adventurous Israeli fellow and David, our handsome Ecuadorian guide! It was sad to say goodbye but all good things must come to an end and this is only the start of my summer adventures! Laura and I did some shopping at the market outside the airport before climbing up the stairs of the plane and waving our final goodbye to the Galapagos Islands! Back to Quito we were headed!
I woke up this morning feeling SUPER sick, not so much sea sick but stomach sick, most likely from something I had eaten or possibly the lack of sleep I had the last few nights. I barely ate breakfast and then reluctantly hopped in the dingy which took us to an enormous cliff on Genovesa Island, known for it's birds. We climbed up the stairs, which were somewhat blocked by a large fur seal, and once at the top, were surrounded by Boobies!! There were red-footed and masked-boobies everywhere, as well as mockingbirds, finches and the magnificent frigate bird, many of which had babies! The scene was like out of a movie, almost scary to some extent, as the birds way out numbered the 16 of us. We learned about the different species and took in the scenery, as I often took breaks, feeling weak and stomach sick. We climbed back down the stairs, hopped in the dingy and again observed the wildlife living amongst the cliffs, before getting back on the boat to change into our lovely wetsuits for another snorkeling adventure. I had decided I was going to sit this round out due to how sick/weak I felt, but after being informed that this area was known for hammerhead sharks I quickly had a change of heart! I decided to go along and bring my snorkeling gear, being ready to jump in only if a shark was spotted. We headed to the area, everyone in full wetsuit/gear and me in my sundress, with gear in hand. Within 5 minutes of being in the water, Miguel, one of the crew members, yelled "Shark!" Here I went! I quickly jumped into my wetsuit, put on my flippers and snorkel and dove off the side of the dingy. As I was swimming rapidly to Miguel all the weakness and sickness disappeared as I had such an adrenaline rush! But.... of course I was too slow and the shark had vanished by the time I got to the spot. I was a little disappointed, kind of relieved (because deep down I was super terrified of the whole idea of seeing a shark below me) and yet hopeful that there would be more in the area. Sure enough a couple minutes later another guy from our group yelled "Shark" and again I swam as fast as I could to the area! As a group we ended up seeing 5 hammerhead sharks, along with a couple Galapagos sharks. Terrifying, yet amazing!!! After the shark encounters we moved to another part of Genovesa Island where we snorkeled with more giant sting rays and sea lions; the sting rays were beautiful, yet scary and the sea lions actually played and swam with us! I can't even describe how awesome it was!
We went back to the Eden, where instantly I felt sick again. I skipped lunch and unfortunately stayed back on the boat when everyone else went to the beach. As much as I wanted to go, Laura and I put it into perspective that we were only 8 days into our trip and had about 60 to go so I should not over due it now. Instead I slept and took more pills. After a couple hours everyone came back and it was time for the farewell party, as it was our last night on the Eden. Again, I skipped this, and rested in my room. I joined just at the end to watch a little salsa dancing and make a toast to the staff on board. We had our last dinner together and exchanged emails. I then went to bed as we had to be up at 5:30 the next morning.
Sunday June 27th, SANTA CRUZ & a Sad Farewell
We woke at 5:30 and took a panga ride to the mangroves of Santa Cruz. It seemed way too early to be out and about but it was our last day and I was feeling better so I had to suck it up! I was just hoping I didn't fall out of the boat because I may have drowned, as I was still half asleep. It was way worth it though as we saw tons of our favorite blue-footed boobies, as well as pelicans, sea lions, mating turtles, which we actually ran into with our dingy, sharks and schools of sting rays!! There actually was a large Galapagos shark swimming along side our boat where if I had stuck my hand in the water I would've been touching him! So cool!
We returned to the Eden, had our last breakfast together, packed up our bags and headed back to land where we took a bus to the airport. We sadly took a last group photo, gave hugs and kisses and said farewell to our friends we had grown so close with the last few days. We had become somewhat of a family consisting of: an Italian couple with 2 children, 3 crazy Brazilians, one of which was always 20 steps behind the group, super friendly honeymooners from Holland, Julia and Debra from Pennsylvania, a quiet woman from Sweden, an adventurous Israeli fellow and David, our handsome Ecuadorian guide! It was sad to say goodbye but all good things must come to an end and this is only the start of my summer adventures! Laura and I did some shopping at the market outside the airport before climbing up the stairs of the plane and waving our final goodbye to the Galapagos Islands! Back to Quito we were headed!
The Galapagos Islands!
So here begins our amazing four day adventure to the some of the most beautiful islands in the world!
Thursday June 24th BALTRA/ SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
We woke at 5:30 to our alarm, after getting about an hour of sleep, quickly had some breakfast and were back to the airport. We hopped on our Tame flight and instantly passed out. I was super excited to be flying to the Galapagos, but also totally exhausted! After a stop in Guayaquil to pick up more passengers, we soon landed on Baltra Island, the first we would see in the Galapagos. We walked off the plane on the little runway that existed, waited in line for customs, found our luggage in a large pile of bags, got a passport stamp, chatted with security guards and finally were met by our gorgeous tour guide, David. Right away Laura and I knew this was going to be a great trip! :) It was a huge process getting to our destination, consisting of waiting at the tiny outdoor airport for passengers from another flight, taking a 45 minute bus up and down the rocky roads to Itabaca Canal, taking a ferry to our next island, Santa Cruz, and then finally taking another bus from the north end to the south end of the island, where we would finally start out cruise! We were greeted by a small dingy (panga) that was ready to take us to our Yacht, the Eden! We were on board our yacht with 13 other tourists, our guide David and an amazing yacht crew. Everyone was very friendly and we instantly felt at home. Laura and I quickly became friends with Julia, an ESL teacher from Pennsylvania who we had so much in common with! She was traveling around Ecuador with her Mom, Debra.
After a quick lunch and some time getting to know each other, it was back on the dingy to explore Santa Cruz. Here we hiked around green, mountainous forest and were brought to Los Gemelos, meaning 'the twins'. These were two giant sink holes, or craters at the very top of the island that were formed from volcanoes. They were beautiful, especially when we were able to see beautiful short-eared owls flying overhead! After los gemelos, we got the chance to walk/crawl through a lava tunnel! David left us alone at a rather steep set of stairs and warned us that it could be a dark and dirty adventure! The tunnel was like something I have never seen before, it varied in size, allowing us to walk normally at times and having to army crawl under lava formations the next couple feet. After the lava tunnel, we set off in search of giant turtles on a ranch. We were told we may have to walk awhile before finding one, but fortunately for us we were lucky enough to find one instantly! It was huge! We all took tons of pictures in case this was the only one we found, but soon realized we had many other picture opportunities, as we saw two or three others up ahead. It was awesome watching these huge, ancient creatures move around in their natural environment.
After the turtle ranch, it was back to the boat for dinner, which was delicious! Our chef on board was so creative and talented; every meal was great! The boat had not even began moving yet, as it was still docked in the harbor of Santa Cruz, but Laura was already getting seasick. She took several nausea pills, courtesy of Debra, and I gave her some Dramamine. It was at this point that I contemplated taking some as well, but realized I've never got sea sick in the past, so I should be fine, which later backfired! After dinner we were able to get off the boat and explore some of the shops and cafes of the island. There are only 2 islands in the Galapagos that people live on and this was 1 of them. It was our last chance to buy anything we needed as the next islands we were visiting have nothing but wildlife. After walking around awhile, we were back on the boat. We had a small briefing about what we'd be doing the next day and then off to bed, anticipating our big day tomorrow. Laura still was not feeling well so she went up to sleep in a lawn chair on the deck of the boat, where I quickly found myself as well.... I went to our room and began getting things ready for the next day. All of a sudden I got SUPER sick. The boat was rocking like crazy and I instantly felt nauseous, making a mad dash to the bathroom where everything I had eaten thus far on my trip seemed to come up. It sucked. I decided to take some of the motion sickness pills Laura had taken and joined her up on the deck. We were both freezing and sick, and as beautiful as the setting was around us, some of the beauty was lost after realizing we were going to have another night without sleep.
Friday June 25th SANTIAGO/ BARTALOME ISLANDS
At 6:00 a.m. we were at Santiago Island, where the sand is black and eroded cliffs surround you. We had no problem finding wildlife here as land iguanas, sea lions, giant crabs and sea turtles were all around us, none of which seemed to mind a bit that we were around. We began with a hike around the island, exploring the two different types of lava that covered the entire east side, and finding more wildlife; my favorite was the mother sea lion and her baby! After the hike we returned to the beach to snorkel! We all squeezed into our attractive wet suits and laughed at how uncomfortable we felt. To add to the picture we grabbed our goggles, flippers, and snorkel and into the freezing pacific we went! I was super nervous at first, and freezing but t was sooooo worth it! We saw schools of beautiful fish, giant sea turtles, manta sting rays, and sea lions. Coming face to face with a sea lion underwater was by far my favorite moment of this first snorkeling experience!
After our snorkeling adventure we returned to the Eden for lunch and relaxation time. Us girls relaxed on the front deck of the yacht basking in the sunshine, drinking iced tea and enjoying the beautiful scenery that surrounded us as the Eden carried us to the next island. We saw dolphins and giant sting rays jumping out of the water and beautiful birds surrounding our boat. There were multiple times where Laura, Julia and I looked at each other and said "this is the life!"
After a few hours of napping and sunbathing on the deck, we landed on Bartalome Island where we saw penguins and blue footed boobies before having more time to snorkel. (Boobies are a famous bird that populate much of the Galapagos Islands. There are 3 types, the red-footed, the blue-footed and the masked or nazca booby!) We snorkeled and again saw amazing sea life. This time we were accompanied by beautiful star fish of all sizes and colors. After snorkeling we explored the beach, found giant holes in the sand which happened to be sea turtle nests, and then began a somewhat challenging hike to the very top of the island. We reached the top of the hill and the lighthouse just as the sun was setting, providing us with a view so spectacular, it took our breath away. We climbed back down the island, hopped in the dingy and returned to the Yacht. We had dinner on the yacht and I went to sleep as I was feeling exhausted. I planned to stay up until midnight to cross the equator, and watch the latitude hit 0.00 from the captains chair but I couldn't do it. I took some Dramamine and went to sleep. Next stop: Genovesa Island!
Thursday June 24th BALTRA/ SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
We woke at 5:30 to our alarm, after getting about an hour of sleep, quickly had some breakfast and were back to the airport. We hopped on our Tame flight and instantly passed out. I was super excited to be flying to the Galapagos, but also totally exhausted! After a stop in Guayaquil to pick up more passengers, we soon landed on Baltra Island, the first we would see in the Galapagos. We walked off the plane on the little runway that existed, waited in line for customs, found our luggage in a large pile of bags, got a passport stamp, chatted with security guards and finally were met by our gorgeous tour guide, David. Right away Laura and I knew this was going to be a great trip! :) It was a huge process getting to our destination, consisting of waiting at the tiny outdoor airport for passengers from another flight, taking a 45 minute bus up and down the rocky roads to Itabaca Canal, taking a ferry to our next island, Santa Cruz, and then finally taking another bus from the north end to the south end of the island, where we would finally start out cruise! We were greeted by a small dingy (panga) that was ready to take us to our Yacht, the Eden! We were on board our yacht with 13 other tourists, our guide David and an amazing yacht crew. Everyone was very friendly and we instantly felt at home. Laura and I quickly became friends with Julia, an ESL teacher from Pennsylvania who we had so much in common with! She was traveling around Ecuador with her Mom, Debra.
After a quick lunch and some time getting to know each other, it was back on the dingy to explore Santa Cruz. Here we hiked around green, mountainous forest and were brought to Los Gemelos, meaning 'the twins'. These were two giant sink holes, or craters at the very top of the island that were formed from volcanoes. They were beautiful, especially when we were able to see beautiful short-eared owls flying overhead! After los gemelos, we got the chance to walk/crawl through a lava tunnel! David left us alone at a rather steep set of stairs and warned us that it could be a dark and dirty adventure! The tunnel was like something I have never seen before, it varied in size, allowing us to walk normally at times and having to army crawl under lava formations the next couple feet. After the lava tunnel, we set off in search of giant turtles on a ranch. We were told we may have to walk awhile before finding one, but fortunately for us we were lucky enough to find one instantly! It was huge! We all took tons of pictures in case this was the only one we found, but soon realized we had many other picture opportunities, as we saw two or three others up ahead. It was awesome watching these huge, ancient creatures move around in their natural environment.
After the turtle ranch, it was back to the boat for dinner, which was delicious! Our chef on board was so creative and talented; every meal was great! The boat had not even began moving yet, as it was still docked in the harbor of Santa Cruz, but Laura was already getting seasick. She took several nausea pills, courtesy of Debra, and I gave her some Dramamine. It was at this point that I contemplated taking some as well, but realized I've never got sea sick in the past, so I should be fine, which later backfired! After dinner we were able to get off the boat and explore some of the shops and cafes of the island. There are only 2 islands in the Galapagos that people live on and this was 1 of them. It was our last chance to buy anything we needed as the next islands we were visiting have nothing but wildlife. After walking around awhile, we were back on the boat. We had a small briefing about what we'd be doing the next day and then off to bed, anticipating our big day tomorrow. Laura still was not feeling well so she went up to sleep in a lawn chair on the deck of the boat, where I quickly found myself as well.... I went to our room and began getting things ready for the next day. All of a sudden I got SUPER sick. The boat was rocking like crazy and I instantly felt nauseous, making a mad dash to the bathroom where everything I had eaten thus far on my trip seemed to come up. It sucked. I decided to take some of the motion sickness pills Laura had taken and joined her up on the deck. We were both freezing and sick, and as beautiful as the setting was around us, some of the beauty was lost after realizing we were going to have another night without sleep.
Friday June 25th SANTIAGO/ BARTALOME ISLANDS
At 6:00 a.m. we were at Santiago Island, where the sand is black and eroded cliffs surround you. We had no problem finding wildlife here as land iguanas, sea lions, giant crabs and sea turtles were all around us, none of which seemed to mind a bit that we were around. We began with a hike around the island, exploring the two different types of lava that covered the entire east side, and finding more wildlife; my favorite was the mother sea lion and her baby! After the hike we returned to the beach to snorkel! We all squeezed into our attractive wet suits and laughed at how uncomfortable we felt. To add to the picture we grabbed our goggles, flippers, and snorkel and into the freezing pacific we went! I was super nervous at first, and freezing but t was sooooo worth it! We saw schools of beautiful fish, giant sea turtles, manta sting rays, and sea lions. Coming face to face with a sea lion underwater was by far my favorite moment of this first snorkeling experience!
After our snorkeling adventure we returned to the Eden for lunch and relaxation time. Us girls relaxed on the front deck of the yacht basking in the sunshine, drinking iced tea and enjoying the beautiful scenery that surrounded us as the Eden carried us to the next island. We saw dolphins and giant sting rays jumping out of the water and beautiful birds surrounding our boat. There were multiple times where Laura, Julia and I looked at each other and said "this is the life!"
After a few hours of napping and sunbathing on the deck, we landed on Bartalome Island where we saw penguins and blue footed boobies before having more time to snorkel. (Boobies are a famous bird that populate much of the Galapagos Islands. There are 3 types, the red-footed, the blue-footed and the masked or nazca booby!) We snorkeled and again saw amazing sea life. This time we were accompanied by beautiful star fish of all sizes and colors. After snorkeling we explored the beach, found giant holes in the sand which happened to be sea turtle nests, and then began a somewhat challenging hike to the very top of the island. We reached the top of the hill and the lighthouse just as the sun was setting, providing us with a view so spectacular, it took our breath away. We climbed back down the island, hopped in the dingy and returned to the Yacht. We had dinner on the yacht and I went to sleep as I was feeling exhausted. I planned to stay up until midnight to cross the equator, and watch the latitude hit 0.00 from the captains chair but I couldn't do it. I took some Dramamine and went to sleep. Next stop: Genovesa Island!
domingo, 27 de junio de 2010
2nd Stop: Quito, Ecuador
We arrived in Quito, Ecuador and went to "El Centro del Mundo" hostel in the heart of the new town of Quito, also known as Gringolandia, due to the large amount of tourists they receive. It is a very popular party/backpacker hostel, which we thought would be awesome but realized later it was not the ideal place for us... We walk in the door and were escorted to our room. It was the first room in the place, right next to the front door, open windows on a somewhat sketchy street, and no locks on the door...hmmmmm... our first thoughts were, "how safe is this place going to be?" We then discovered that there were locks on the closet doors and that is where we were suppose to put our stuff. We did this and then went out to chat with a couple other travelers that were sitting in the common area, watching Castle and the Simpsons. Thomas was our first new encounter! He's from Sweden and has spent the last few months volunteering at a school in Ecuador. He had a lot of advice for us about traveling around the country. Laura and I walked around town a bit, getting information about possible jungle tours in El Oriente of Ecuador, but made sure to make it back to the hostel in time for Rum and Cokes at 7:00. I don`t drink rum nor coke but every night at 7 they have a theme night and that night happened to be 12 free liters of rum and coke for all hostel guests. It was a blast! There were about 30 travelers in one small space drinking and sharing their adventures! How inspiring!
After socializing for a bit me, Laura and a couple new friends went looking for Brian and James that we had met in Colombia, that were now in Quito as well. They both lived in Quito for a couple years teaching so they know the city very well. We walked around to the couple places that they said they would be at, but could not find them. We instead decided to go watch a concert with Thomas and a bunch of girls from the hostel. It was a local Ecuadorian band, named Humanzee, that were friends of Thomas. The show they put on was amazing! It was cool because other then us from the hostel there were no other foreigners there. It was all locals, which I sometimes prefer. It was more of a cultural experience. :) After the concert I had my first Ecuadorian street food experience. We all went and bought taquitos from a little street vendor, hoping that we would not be regretting it in the morning! At this time it was after midnight, as they now stop selling alcohol at midnight on weekdays in Ecuador and don't sell it at all on Sundays, like in Minnesota. Laura and I had to be up early the next morning to head to the Galapagos Islands, so we decided to head home. We arrived back to the hostel to a living room FULL of people, and remember, our room is right by the front door, and living room. It was horrible. We set an alarm for 5:30 am and let's just say that there were voices and people coming and going until about 4:30 am. So, do the math and you can see how many hours of sleep I got.... This goes back to the beginning when I said picking the party hostel may not have been in our best interest! Minus the lack of sleep, we met a lot of cool people and did enjoy our first night in Quito. Now it was time to start our 4 day adventures on board a yacht in the Galapagos Islands!
After socializing for a bit me, Laura and a couple new friends went looking for Brian and James that we had met in Colombia, that were now in Quito as well. They both lived in Quito for a couple years teaching so they know the city very well. We walked around to the couple places that they said they would be at, but could not find them. We instead decided to go watch a concert with Thomas and a bunch of girls from the hostel. It was a local Ecuadorian band, named Humanzee, that were friends of Thomas. The show they put on was amazing! It was cool because other then us from the hostel there were no other foreigners there. It was all locals, which I sometimes prefer. It was more of a cultural experience. :) After the concert I had my first Ecuadorian street food experience. We all went and bought taquitos from a little street vendor, hoping that we would not be regretting it in the morning! At this time it was after midnight, as they now stop selling alcohol at midnight on weekdays in Ecuador and don't sell it at all on Sundays, like in Minnesota. Laura and I had to be up early the next morning to head to the Galapagos Islands, so we decided to head home. We arrived back to the hostel to a living room FULL of people, and remember, our room is right by the front door, and living room. It was horrible. We set an alarm for 5:30 am and let's just say that there were voices and people coming and going until about 4:30 am. So, do the math and you can see how many hours of sleep I got.... This goes back to the beginning when I said picking the party hostel may not have been in our best interest! Minus the lack of sleep, we met a lot of cool people and did enjoy our first night in Quito. Now it was time to start our 4 day adventures on board a yacht in the Galapagos Islands!
Adios Colombia
Tuesday June 22nd was our last night in Bogota, Colombia. After being cold for the last 3 days I was finally informed that I could take a HOT shower across the street at the other hostel! They were totally holding out on me! The shower was amazing and I was out just in time to meet our new neighbors of our "mini apartment, " Jo and Andy, who had just arrived from England. They wanted to go out and get food so Wesley took us all out for pizza in an area he had discovered earlier that day. It was a busy square where the local hippies and Rastafarian people hang out. They were juggling, selling jewelry and just hanging out. We spent a little time there, ate our pizza, I called my Mom and then went to a bar that looked like a really cool place with bean bags and private rooms to just chill and relax. Little did we know that we were in a drug bar and everyone around us was doing coke..... oops! We had a beer there, people watched and then headed home. We decided to watch the movie, "Snakes on the Plane" because it happened to be on T.V. Again, I was freezing so I got my blanket off my bed and then decided I again would resort to doing push-ups and sit-ups to warm myself up. As I was doing this (and watching this crazy movie about snakes) I suddenly saw a rather large black shadow moving on my blanket! I picked it up with my mitten, yes I was wearing mittens because I was that cold, and threw it across the room. I ran to turn on the lights, as we were watching the movie in the pitch dark, and there was a 4 inch slug laying on the ground!! It was so gross! So not only have I been sharing a bed and blanket with Laura the last couple nights, we have also been sharing it with a huge ugly SLUG!!.... We finished watching the movie and of course I was not going to sleep with that blanket the rest of the night because it had slug slime all over it, so Wesley heated up some water, put it in empty water bottles and told me to sleep with them. So.... that night I slept with a sheet and a water bottle under my shirt; it was a brilliant idea and worked very well!
The next morning we woke up, packed up all our things and watched the U.S soccer game, as well as parts of the England/Slovenia game. We said goodbye to all of our friends we met in Colombia and got in a cab to head to the airport! We were officially off to Ecuador. Adios Bogota!
The next morning we woke up, packed up all our things and watched the U.S soccer game, as well as parts of the England/Slovenia game. We said goodbye to all of our friends we met in Colombia and got in a cab to head to the airport! We were officially off to Ecuador. Adios Bogota!
martes, 22 de junio de 2010
1st Stop: Colombia
So here begins our journey in Colombia!
If I had to describe Bogota in one word I would say "colorful." Quoting Laura, she described it as "feeling like I am living in a giant playhouse with bright houses and murals on every street of El Calendaria", that is the neighborhood our hostel is in. The weather is rather chilly and we have been given a lot of crap for complaining about the cold, being we are from Minnesota. I have had constent chills since I got here, being we got soaked our first day and have not had the chance to warm back up. We have no hot water, and have not seen much sunshine since we´ve been here. Yesterday we used a technique of doing sit-ups and push-ups in our beds to warm up before going to sleep! We got this idea from Theresa, our supervisor for O´Neil Language Academy; she did this when she was in Spain and had the same problem of being constantly chilly. (Back to the freezing cold water... Laura told me her Dad´s advice about the hokey-pokey showers "you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out..." to avoid the icy water). Great idea!
Besides the chilliness of Bogota, and all the fears we had before coming here, we have found this city very pleasant. By day, the street we are staying on is beautiful and harmless (night is a different story, as there have been a couple robberies in the area the last couple nights, they're harmless though.) We felt entirely comfortable walking alone to breakfast our first morning to a great little cafe where we had a typical breakfast of hot chocolate, bread and cheese. Here we planned the rest of our day. We realized that after the delays in our getting here that it no longer made sense to venture on a 20 hour bus ride to Cartagena, a beach town on the north eastern coast, as we would have very little time to explore both cities. We instead decided to visit el parque de los periodistas, where they had a flea market going on, selling anything from blender parts, to naked barbie dolls with missing legs to broken cassette tapes. Laura and I were laughing so hard and sneaking pictures, while trying not to offend anyone. After the market we ventured to a city, named Zipaquira, about an hour away. After a taxi ride to the bus station and a ten minute wait in the rain we got on the bus and would have had no idea we missed our stop if the young hottie a couple seats over hadn´t told the two gringas to get off the bus. After a soaking wet trek uphill for about a half hour and stopping every couple blocks to ask for directions, we were at Colombia´s most famous tourist destination, "el catedral de sal," the Salt Cathedral. The cathedral was born from an old salt mine, dug straight into a mountain. Here, we got a tour from an eight year old and got to taste the walls. The cathedral was absolutely amazing and well worth the trek that left us soaking wet!
The trip back from Zipaquira was a little more eventful than necessary because we ran out of money after stopping to eat some arroz con pollo and ajiaco soup (chicken, potatos, corn and capers). Here we accidentally broke the cardinal rule and let it get dark, while in an unknown area, before making it onto a bus back to Bogotá. We managed not to panic, got down from the hill, got to an ATM and got to a bus. We did however miss our stop in Bogotá and had to take another bus and a dark walk to find a taxi to get home. Our taxi guy had no idea where our hostal was; he drove us around in cirlcles until we eventually had to direct him! Upon our return to the hostel we changed into dry clothes and met some cool British guys who are staying in our same hostel. We had some cervezas with them and decided to go visit another hostel down the street that is known for their "party atmoshpere." Here, we preceeded to drink and play games with our new American, Colombian and British friends until 3:30am, when we finally were escorted home by a security guard who patrols the streets at all hours. At this time there was a very large group of us so we felt safe but he still felt it necessary to walk with us, so we let him. We arrived home safely, watched a little t.v in the common area with our new friend Nick from England, who we are hopefully meeting up with again in Cusco Peru, and went to sleep! What a great first day?!
On day two in Bogotá we got sandwiches at Restaurant Mora Mora, which is recommended in the Lonely Planet, then had another long uphill hike to el Teleferico, a cable car that takes you to the top of a hill in Bogotá, giving you a spectacular view of the city! Wesley (one of our British friends), Laura and I spent a couple hours at the top exploring and taking crazy pictures. We got back on the teleferico to go down, just in time for it to start raining again... making it yet another wet walk back home... We stopped at the 'La Casa de Simon Bolivar' and at a couple local bars to drink a cerveza or two (the main beers here are Aquila and Club Colombiano,) while watching the Spain/Honduras World Cup soccer game with the Colombians.
After the game we decided that since we have the luxury of having a kitchen at our hostel we should do some cooking and save some money on dinner. We went to a local market with Nick and Wesley and picked up ingredients to make a fantastic meal back at our place. Thanks mostly to Wesley, we had an amazing pasta dinner with veggies and mashed potatos, and of course beer for the Brits! (All I really did was heat up the arepas, a food I ate daily when I lived in Venezuela.) I did also set the table and do the dishes, so I contributed a little! After dinner we walked to the main part of town to find a Colombian game we were told about by some local Colombian girls. All we were given was a general area and were told it's a game where you throw things at the wall and paint splatters. We were unsuccessful at finding the place and it turned out to be a wild goose chase, putting us in a borderline-sketchy area. We decided to play it safe and mark it down as a failed attempt. We, instead, decided to grab a cocktail at a friendly looking restaurant in a more safe location!
Later last night we worked on making a plan for our trip/border crossing into Ecuador, debating the cost of a flight vs the time and potential complications of the bus... We debated this forever and finally took the advice of the British men to flip a coin and stick with the result. We did and the result is.... we are flying. As much as the cost sucks, the cost of missing our Galapagos Islands cruise on Thursday would be worse, and being that we have heard far too many horror stories of the bus ride taking anywhere from 28 to 53 hours, and other wierd things happening, it seemed wise, not to mention how 'not fun' it sounds to sit on a South American bus for that long... Also, I think my parents would be happy to hear I'm not crossing the Colombian border via bus in the middle of the night. :)
This puts us at today, Tuesday June 22nd. We have spent a lot of our day doing logistic stuff on the computer, writing emails, finding people to stay with in our upcoming countries and booking connecting flights. We will stay here in Bogota one more night and then should be arriving in Quito Ecuador tomrrow afternoon!....... All in all I would put Colombia in the success category of backpacking! We made a few silly mistakes and put ourselves in a few sketchy situations but we got ourselves out of them and have learned from them! Now off to Ecuador!!!
If I had to describe Bogota in one word I would say "colorful." Quoting Laura, she described it as "feeling like I am living in a giant playhouse with bright houses and murals on every street of El Calendaria", that is the neighborhood our hostel is in. The weather is rather chilly and we have been given a lot of crap for complaining about the cold, being we are from Minnesota. I have had constent chills since I got here, being we got soaked our first day and have not had the chance to warm back up. We have no hot water, and have not seen much sunshine since we´ve been here. Yesterday we used a technique of doing sit-ups and push-ups in our beds to warm up before going to sleep! We got this idea from Theresa, our supervisor for O´Neil Language Academy; she did this when she was in Spain and had the same problem of being constantly chilly. (Back to the freezing cold water... Laura told me her Dad´s advice about the hokey-pokey showers "you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out..." to avoid the icy water). Great idea!
Besides the chilliness of Bogota, and all the fears we had before coming here, we have found this city very pleasant. By day, the street we are staying on is beautiful and harmless (night is a different story, as there have been a couple robberies in the area the last couple nights, they're harmless though.) We felt entirely comfortable walking alone to breakfast our first morning to a great little cafe where we had a typical breakfast of hot chocolate, bread and cheese. Here we planned the rest of our day. We realized that after the delays in our getting here that it no longer made sense to venture on a 20 hour bus ride to Cartagena, a beach town on the north eastern coast, as we would have very little time to explore both cities. We instead decided to visit el parque de los periodistas, where they had a flea market going on, selling anything from blender parts, to naked barbie dolls with missing legs to broken cassette tapes. Laura and I were laughing so hard and sneaking pictures, while trying not to offend anyone. After the market we ventured to a city, named Zipaquira, about an hour away. After a taxi ride to the bus station and a ten minute wait in the rain we got on the bus and would have had no idea we missed our stop if the young hottie a couple seats over hadn´t told the two gringas to get off the bus. After a soaking wet trek uphill for about a half hour and stopping every couple blocks to ask for directions, we were at Colombia´s most famous tourist destination, "el catedral de sal," the Salt Cathedral. The cathedral was born from an old salt mine, dug straight into a mountain. Here, we got a tour from an eight year old and got to taste the walls. The cathedral was absolutely amazing and well worth the trek that left us soaking wet!
The trip back from Zipaquira was a little more eventful than necessary because we ran out of money after stopping to eat some arroz con pollo and ajiaco soup (chicken, potatos, corn and capers). Here we accidentally broke the cardinal rule and let it get dark, while in an unknown area, before making it onto a bus back to Bogotá. We managed not to panic, got down from the hill, got to an ATM and got to a bus. We did however miss our stop in Bogotá and had to take another bus and a dark walk to find a taxi to get home. Our taxi guy had no idea where our hostal was; he drove us around in cirlcles until we eventually had to direct him! Upon our return to the hostel we changed into dry clothes and met some cool British guys who are staying in our same hostel. We had some cervezas with them and decided to go visit another hostel down the street that is known for their "party atmoshpere." Here, we preceeded to drink and play games with our new American, Colombian and British friends until 3:30am, when we finally were escorted home by a security guard who patrols the streets at all hours. At this time there was a very large group of us so we felt safe but he still felt it necessary to walk with us, so we let him. We arrived home safely, watched a little t.v in the common area with our new friend Nick from England, who we are hopefully meeting up with again in Cusco Peru, and went to sleep! What a great first day?!
On day two in Bogotá we got sandwiches at Restaurant Mora Mora, which is recommended in the Lonely Planet, then had another long uphill hike to el Teleferico, a cable car that takes you to the top of a hill in Bogotá, giving you a spectacular view of the city! Wesley (one of our British friends), Laura and I spent a couple hours at the top exploring and taking crazy pictures. We got back on the teleferico to go down, just in time for it to start raining again... making it yet another wet walk back home... We stopped at the 'La Casa de Simon Bolivar' and at a couple local bars to drink a cerveza or two (the main beers here are Aquila and Club Colombiano,) while watching the Spain/Honduras World Cup soccer game with the Colombians.
After the game we decided that since we have the luxury of having a kitchen at our hostel we should do some cooking and save some money on dinner. We went to a local market with Nick and Wesley and picked up ingredients to make a fantastic meal back at our place. Thanks mostly to Wesley, we had an amazing pasta dinner with veggies and mashed potatos, and of course beer for the Brits! (All I really did was heat up the arepas, a food I ate daily when I lived in Venezuela.) I did also set the table and do the dishes, so I contributed a little! After dinner we walked to the main part of town to find a Colombian game we were told about by some local Colombian girls. All we were given was a general area and were told it's a game where you throw things at the wall and paint splatters. We were unsuccessful at finding the place and it turned out to be a wild goose chase, putting us in a borderline-sketchy area. We decided to play it safe and mark it down as a failed attempt. We, instead, decided to grab a cocktail at a friendly looking restaurant in a more safe location!
Later last night we worked on making a plan for our trip/border crossing into Ecuador, debating the cost of a flight vs the time and potential complications of the bus... We debated this forever and finally took the advice of the British men to flip a coin and stick with the result. We did and the result is.... we are flying. As much as the cost sucks, the cost of missing our Galapagos Islands cruise on Thursday would be worse, and being that we have heard far too many horror stories of the bus ride taking anywhere from 28 to 53 hours, and other wierd things happening, it seemed wise, not to mention how 'not fun' it sounds to sit on a South American bus for that long... Also, I think my parents would be happy to hear I'm not crossing the Colombian border via bus in the middle of the night. :)
This puts us at today, Tuesday June 22nd. We have spent a lot of our day doing logistic stuff on the computer, writing emails, finding people to stay with in our upcoming countries and booking connecting flights. We will stay here in Bogota one more night and then should be arriving in Quito Ecuador tomrrow afternoon!....... All in all I would put Colombia in the success category of backpacking! We made a few silly mistakes and put ourselves in a few sketchy situations but we got ourselves out of them and have learned from them! Now off to Ecuador!!!
On Our Way!
We are currently in Bogota Colombia! Our trip started later then planned due to late arrival of our visas and bad luck with flying standby.We arrived super late Saturday night after not getting on a flight Friday night, causing us to spend a night in Houston and try again on Saturday at 3:45pm. On Saturday, the whole plane loaded and we were told there were 3 open seats, but due to weight restrictions we couldnt get on. We were super bummed and after 20 minutes of just waiting by the gate they let us on!!! Yay! Colombia here we come!
We arrived at the airport, a little nervous because we were arriving at 11:00 pm, exactly how we did not want to enter Colombia, but oh well. We went through customs, exchanged money and jumped in a taxi. Within a couple minutes of being in the taxi Laura, who I am traveling with, was car sick and I was wishing that all of you back home who think I am a horrible driver could see this guy.... he makes me look like a SUPER safe driver! We quickly realized that red, yellow AND green lights mean go, stop signs are disregarded, you honk at everyone for everything and there are no speed limits! For anyone who has traveled in foreign countries you may understand some of this!
We made it through the cab ride and finally arrived at our hostel; we are staying in a hostel in Bogota called the ¨Platypus,¨ a common place for young backpackers, in an area called El Candelaria. Here is where we made our first BIG mistake! We paid the cab driver, said gracias and approached our hostel door. The door was locked and we couldnt see any doorbell, but did see some creepy men hanging at the end of the street. A feeling of panic quickly came over us, as we tried to flag the cab back, hoping he could wait for us to get in, but instantly after us paying him he vanished! Luckily we spotted a doorbell, rang it and got in our hostel! We got into our room and pulled out our money. It was then that we realized we had been ripped off, either by the airport or by the cab.... We were missing $60 dollars. We couldnt figure out how we had been so stupid, only to find out later that in Colombia their bills are 1000, 2000, 5000, 100000, 20000 and 50. So...... when we thought we were paying 50 Pesos we were paying 50000. What a great way for Colombians to rip off tourists. I am sure that we are not the only ones to make this stupid mistake!! Now it all made sense why our cab driver drove away so quickly! He probably was thinking ¨Score! More stupid tourists!¨ A couple days later we are still upset with ourselves for making this mistake, but now we will be more aware and you better believe, this is NOT happening to us again!
We went to sleep, and couldnt wait to start exploring Colombia the next morning!!
We arrived at the airport, a little nervous because we were arriving at 11:00 pm, exactly how we did not want to enter Colombia, but oh well. We went through customs, exchanged money and jumped in a taxi. Within a couple minutes of being in the taxi Laura, who I am traveling with, was car sick and I was wishing that all of you back home who think I am a horrible driver could see this guy.... he makes me look like a SUPER safe driver! We quickly realized that red, yellow AND green lights mean go, stop signs are disregarded, you honk at everyone for everything and there are no speed limits! For anyone who has traveled in foreign countries you may understand some of this!
We made it through the cab ride and finally arrived at our hostel; we are staying in a hostel in Bogota called the ¨Platypus,¨ a common place for young backpackers, in an area called El Candelaria. Here is where we made our first BIG mistake! We paid the cab driver, said gracias and approached our hostel door. The door was locked and we couldnt see any doorbell, but did see some creepy men hanging at the end of the street. A feeling of panic quickly came over us, as we tried to flag the cab back, hoping he could wait for us to get in, but instantly after us paying him he vanished! Luckily we spotted a doorbell, rang it and got in our hostel! We got into our room and pulled out our money. It was then that we realized we had been ripped off, either by the airport or by the cab.... We were missing $60 dollars. We couldnt figure out how we had been so stupid, only to find out later that in Colombia their bills are 1000, 2000, 5000, 100000, 20000 and 50. So...... when we thought we were paying 50 Pesos we were paying 50000. What a great way for Colombians to rip off tourists. I am sure that we are not the only ones to make this stupid mistake!! Now it all made sense why our cab driver drove away so quickly! He probably was thinking ¨Score! More stupid tourists!¨ A couple days later we are still upset with ourselves for making this mistake, but now we will be more aware and you better believe, this is NOT happening to us again!
We went to sleep, and couldnt wait to start exploring Colombia the next morning!!
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)