Type of trip: Nature
Length: 10 days
Date of the trip: January 2016
Date of the trip: January 2016
Home base: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Flight itinerary: Rio de Janeiro - Bogota - Quito - Baltra - Guayaquil - Lima - Rio de Janeiro
Highlights
Our main destination was Galápagos Islands but we stopped for one day in Quito to make sure we didn't have issues with the flights and didn't miss our cruise.
Quito
In Quito we only wanted to visit the latitude 0 and walk around the historical centre. So this is all we did.
Obviously there are plenty of places with latitude 0 as any place on the Equator is at latitude 0. I believe the claim to fame of this place outside Quito is the fact that this is the highest place on the Equator. I would say that this is not a must see place but it is worth a visit if you have half a day free. The place is not too far from Quito but with traffic it is a good hour away. There are two places to visit. One the big site with a big monument, planetarium, etc. This is the place where the French (who came as part of the 18th century expedition intended to help determine whether the Earth's circumference was greater at the Equator or around the poles) believed the Equator was. Recently, however, it was determined by GPS that in fact latitude 0 is about 400 meters away. There is Intinan museum located there and it is worth a visit. Both places show different experiments and provide some explanations about history of Ecuador and other interesting facts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Mitad_del_Mundo
http://www.mitaddelmundo.com/en/
http://en.museointinan.com.ec/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Mitad_del_Mundo
http://www.mitaddelmundo.com/en/
http://en.museointinan.com.ec/
The centre of Quito is pretty old and there are a few beautiful churches there to visit. The one to mention is Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus, which we found pretty impressive. A walk around the Quito centre is pretty nice. The rest of the city appears to be pretty basic. I tried to find a filter for my camera and failed having visited a few places. So trying to find something specific you might be missing could be tricky.
Next day we took a morning flight from Quito to Galápagos Islands with a short stopover in Guayaquil.
Galápagos Islands
Day 1. Arrived at Baltra airport. Short transfer to Santa Cruz Island. We then drove to see tortoises in a farm. They are not kept in captivity, the tortoises just wonder into the farm and the farm allows tourists to come and see them. Also on the farm there is a lava tunnel which was pretty interesting. After that we went to our boat. Please note that there are a few basic shops in the village where you board including a photo shop which was quite pricey but had more things than I was able to find in Quito. So if you are desperate (as I was as got my underwater camera stolen in Quito) you can get things there.
Day 2. Isabella Island. Dry landing, snorkelling, tortoise breeding centre. This was the first full day in the Galapagos and we got overwhelmed by all the different animals you can see. On that day we saw sea iguanas, penguins, sea lions, crabs, flamingoes, blow fish, sting ray.
Day 3. Isabella Island. Dry landing, snorkelling, ride in a dingy. First we went to walk on Isabella Island walking on lava fields. Near the shore we saw crabs, marine iguanas and sea lions. After that we only saw a few animals but the landscape and flora were pretty amazing. During snorkelling we saw many species of beautiful fish and a wonderful blue star fish. Flightless carmorants were diving around us trying to catch fish and some seemed very interested in human beings they come close to us defending their territory. In the afternoon we went on a dingy ride to some small rocks sticking out of the sea where we saw blue footed boobies, flightless cormorants, penguins, sea lions and marine iguanas. In the mangroves we saw sea lions resting on the branches of the trees and saw a lot of turtles swimming around us.
Day 4. Fernandina Island and then Isabella Island. First outing of the day was in a dingy to the rocks and mangroves of Fernandina Island. We saw a Galápagos halk, sea iguanas, sea lions, turtles and manta rays. We then went snorkelling along the shores of Fernandina island and it was fun to swim with sea iguanas diving for food, turtles and penguins. After lunch we sailed off through Bolivar Channel back to Urvina Bay Isabella Island. We first went snorkelling off the beach and it was pretty amazing. Swimming with turtles was nice and we saw a huge lobster and an octopus. There were a few penguins swimming with us too. After that we went for about an hour walk and saw tortoises and land iguanas. There were also plenty of birds, notably mocking birds and Galápagos doves.
Day 5. Fernandina Island (Punta Espinosa), Isabela Island (Punta Vicente Roca). Dry landing, snorkelling, dingy ride. On Fernandina Island we saw a lot of marine iguanas, sea lions and crabs. Also there were some flightless cormorants and a few penguins. The landscapes of lava and vegetation with huge waves breaking on the background were beautiful. Snorkelling in Punta Vicente Roca was pretty special. We swam with the sea lions, turtles, flightless cormorants and penguins diving for fish. The fish was beautiful too and someone in our group had a close encounter with a decent size shark.
Day 6. Santiago Island. Wet landing, snorkelling, kayaking, dingy ride. This island has amazing rock formations and the views are stunning. During the morning walk we saw a lot of crabs, oyster catcher and some fur seals. During snorkelling the main highlight was seeing sharks as well as sea lions and rays. There doesn't seem to be as many animals on this island as on the ones we visited before. In addition to the animals listed above we saw blue footed boobies and swallow tail doves.
Day 7. Genovesa Island. Dry landing, snorkelling. Another beautiful island with many red footed boobies and frigate birds. We saw frigate bird males with their pouches inflated trying to attract females. During snorkelling we saw large schools of beautiful fish and sharks (Galápagos and Hammerheaded).
Day 8. North Seymour Isalnd. This was our last stop on Galápagos. We had a very early start and it was nice to see animals and birds waking up. There were plenty of sea lions, blue footed boobies and many many frigate birds nesting, little chicks and males trying to attract females. After that we had breakfast and went to the airport to catch our flight.
The Baltra airport is small but has plenty of souvenir shops and some basic food places.
Please note that some of the pictures above do not necessarily correspond the places they have been taken.
Please note that some of the pictures above do not necessarily correspond the places they have been taken.
Logistics
There are no direct flights from Rio to either Quito (or Guayaquil from where you can connect to Galápagos Islands), so the flights were somewhat complicated.
Most people choose to explore Galápagos using the cruise. You can do it from land but the issue with this way of doing it the fact that islands are located quite a distance apart from each other and travelling from the couple of islands where you can stay to other islands and back adds up and wastes a lot of time. Cruises sail either during the night or during lunch hours which means that you don't waste time travelling from one place to another.
The authorities I thought are doing a good job limiting the number of boats (both the cruises and those doing day trips) and there is not a huge number of options. But still plenty to choose from. None are cheap though... I used this blog written by a lady who has been to Galápagos a couple of times to narrow down my choices.
Based on the information provided on this blog, I have broadly chosen the islands that I wanted to visit and then looked which of the cruises of the level of luxury acceptable and affordable to me go there during 8 days/7 night sailing. I thought that 4 days is too short and anything more than 8 days would be too long.
At the end I was happy both with the length of the cruise as well as the boat I have chosen. If anything, the last day (even though it was probably one of the best) was the day when I thought I have seen enough of lovely animals.
The ship we used was called Cormorant run by Haugan Cruises and we went on Itinerary B.
This boat is pretty nice. It accommodates 16 people which was great. If you are on a bigger boat, you have many more people with whom you land and do the activities. Being on a small boat was ideal. The boat is super clean and the staff was outstanding. Really friendly and hard working. The food was also surprisingly decent. You don't get a gourmet meals but the food was varied, good quality and tasty.
The only thing I didn't like about this boat is the fact that they use desalinated water. Well, I liked the idea but not the taste. It really didn't taste well at all (opinion shared by everyone on the boat), so you end up not drinking enough.
This boat is pretty nice. It accommodates 16 people which was great. If you are on a bigger boat, you have many more people with whom you land and do the activities. Being on a small boat was ideal. The boat is super clean and the staff was outstanding. Really friendly and hard working. The food was also surprisingly decent. You don't get a gourmet meals but the food was varied, good quality and tasty.
The only thing I didn't like about this boat is the fact that they use desalinated water. Well, I liked the idea but not the taste. It really didn't taste well at all (opinion shared by everyone on the boat), so you end up not drinking enough.
I believe you can book directly with them but I used the following site to both check the options, narrow down the choice and booking. The agent was friendly and helpful and they coordinated everything, so I would recommend using them.
Accommodation
Quito - Hotel Casa de Hacienda La Jimenita. The hotel is located outside Quito about 15 minutes away from Quito airport. I have chosen as we were arriving late in the afternoon on one day, were planning to spend one day exploring Quito and departing early in the morning the day after. Since it is half way between the airport and Quito centre, I thought it made more sense to stay closer to the airport and venture into Quito just for one day. It worked well for us.
The hotel is wonderful. The room we had was very nice, large and comfortable. It was warm but not hot and all in all was pretty good. The shower required a bit of playing with first time I used it but was not a problem.
The hotel is located on large beautiful grounds and there are some archaeological tunnels on site. We unfortunately didn't explore them as ran out of time.
The service is excellent, friendly and efficient. The food was very good, maybe not hugely sophisticated but hearty. Breakfast was simple but nice (fresh fruits, fresh juice, eggs and bread). All in all I would definitely recommend this hotel. And it is really good value for money.
One thing to note though, the hotel is located directly under the flight path. It was pretty cool to see the planes through the sky line in our room and the sound didn't bother us even though I am a light sleeper.
Food
ZAO - We went to this restaurant as one of the kids desperately wanted sweet and sour chicken and this dish indeed didn't disappoint. In fact this was the best dish we had.
We also had Phad Thai noodles which were tasty but not very authentic and salmon which was good but not amazing.
All in all I thought the food was tasty even though not always resembling the original. The service was excellent, super friendly staff and efficient and the settings were nice too.
So I would recommend this restaurant as long as you don't expect to have a dish like you had it in Thailand or China... Which I suppose is not surprising from a multi-cuisine Asian place in South America.
