Oldies On Tour

Tuesday 30^th April 2013

I have had another bad night, I have been on the looe more times than I can remember, so when the alarm went off at 5 am, I was a bit slow to say the least, I wanted to pack last night, but went to bed instead, so this morning after the packing was done, Geoff had a quick cuppa, I didn’t want to drink until we got to the airport.

Our transport over the river with luggage on roof

Today it is Galapagos, this is what it has all been about, our flight was on time, and we landed at Guayaquil, before continuing onto the Galapagos, when we arrived, we were on a very desolate Island, we were met by our guide, and went by coach, barge, coach, zodiac dinghy to the Beagle. On route we

The Beagle

had a briefing on the Islands, and what we would be doing.

After lunch we went on the Dinghy to the Charles Darwin

Darwin Centre

Research Station on Santa Cruz, It was brilliant, we have seen more animals and birds this afternoon then we did in four days in the Jungle!

Apparently the tortoises were heading for extinction, but with a

Galapagos tortoises doing what comes natural

careful planning, they are managing to bring the numbers up, each Island have a different sort, and they hatch the eggs, bring the tortoises on for five years, and then return them to the native Island that they come from, it was all very interesting.

On the way back to the Town we stopped at a fish market, where the sea lions, and the pelicans were hovering for tit bits, an

FishMarket

amazing place, and that is just the first day.

Back to the boat for showers, dinner, and into bed quite early, we seem to have a good group of people.

^{Monday 29th} April

Well we had a reprieve this morning, we were originally told we would be woken at 0530hrs but they changed it to 0600hrs as we made better progress up river than anticipated following the loss of one of our props.

The river is like the M1 transporting lorries etc up and down

We were packed, and completed our breakfast and into the canoe by 0710hrs and then we were on our way.  Again the driver had to pick his way around the sand bars but a little under two hours we arrived back in Coca.  We jumped into a couple of Taxis and arrived at this wonderful airport, well, probably the smallest airport I have ever been to in the world.  Our guide was telling us that before the new airport in Quito was built, 50% of all flights were late arrivals in Coca; now there is a brand new modern, sophisticated airport, 80% of all flights were late and that included both our flights; so we had to wait, fortunately they have a VIP lounge there so we were OK, however I would add their VIP lounge was probably equivalent to the normal seats around gates at most airports!!!!

Another good, comfortable flight with the airline “Tame”, straight up and virtually straight down arriving in Quito airport 25 minutes after we left.  With only hand luggage we were

One of the many churches in Quito

straight out and there waiting for us was Danny, our driver, together with our two main suitcases.  We then started the drive into Quito, and after about one hour, we arrived back at our “favourite” hotel, ha ha!!!!!!!!!  This time though they gave us a bigger room, great but unfortunately there was very limited hot water, so Christine, who had been planning and looking forward to this shower all morning had to have a cold one, very disappointing, still that’s a bed and breakfast for you, Boutique Hotel, my foot!

A typical street in the Old Town

At 1500hrs our city tour guide arrived in reception.  Our local tour operator, to make amends for the shambles on our last visit, had organised a private city tour for us, we didn’t have the heart to refuse and say we had already had a private tour,

San.Francisco Convent

so hey we went and he took us to places we hadn’t visited before including the magnificent San Francis Convent, with its Spanish designed quadrangle and beautiful

Gardens at San Francisco Convent

golden chapel. As it was also raining we didn’t want to do too much walking, so he drove us up and down every street in the old town, wonderful.

Beautiful chapel at the convent

The guide duly delivered us back to the hotel but by that time Christine was feeling under the weather again with a dickey tummy. We went down to dinner but Christine had to depart before she had even finished her soup, oh dear, but I finished hers as well as mine, had a main course then back to the room for an early night as we were being collected at 0600hrs, just for a change!!!!!

Sunday 28^th April 2013

Geoff had asked that we were left this morning, so we slept in until 7.30 am far more civilized! We watched the boat leave with another jungle experience, but we had already decided that we were all jungled out!!

We went on top deck and had our morning tea, I still feel a bit weird, so

Enjoying the trip down the river on our own.

didn’t want breakfast at this point, we slowly came around and at 9am had our breakfast, I had boiled eggs, and Geoff had omelette, very nice it was.

We stayed on deck for a while then went back to have another sleep, I think we are both totally exhausted, too much sun, and too much chasing.

The boat started moving and  then had to stop suddenly apparently it has lost one of its propellers, so they sent all the crew to look for it, three canoes, with five men, then the big one came along and helped also, although they did not find it.

The Captain decided to go on one engine, which was fine for a while, then we went aground, very exciting, they had to get the large canoe to try and dislodge it which they finally did.

Canoe getting stuck because of the lack of water

The level of the water has gone down 3 metres over three days, so the channel has changed, very difficult to navigate.

When everyone was back on board we had lunch, I did not eat much, just some soup, and a little bit of lettuce, should lose weight this week!  I am not very keen on the food here, it is a bit weird.

In the afternoon the trekkers went off again, and we had a nice afternoon cruising the river, apart from having to avoid all the trees that have gone in the water,  it was very pleasant.

We had a quiet dinner, and an early night.

Saturday 27th April 2013

Yet again we were waiting for the alarm to go off at 6 am this morning, although rather than an alarm, it was a music across the tannoy system followed by a reminder breakfast would be served at 6.30 am.  Being awake before the alarm we had time to enjoy a cup of tea on the sundeck and watch the sun come up, very good.

Following breakfast we all mustered below on A Deck when we embarked into our canoe, this manoeuvre was done as the ship was travelling along the river, with the canoe tied up alongside.

Pushing us of the sandbanks again!

We had a pleasant ride in the motorised canoe, getting stuck on the sand bar only once when the guide and the attendant had to get into the water to push us off.

After landing we started our jungle trek, to the Panayacu (Piranha River) , stopping to photo this bug or that leaf, and on one occasion a foot print in the mud! after about half an hour we

Our guide had just spotted some monkeys

got into another but smaller canoe which had to be paddled, thankfully not by us.

After about an hour and a half at looking at numerous species of birds, distant monkeys high in the trees, butterflies etc., etc., we got out of the canoe and started another trek. Again after photographing everything that moved or didn’t, we arrived at a

The tower we climbed

30 metre tower.  Now we did know about this tower but when we got to the bottom, it looked very high and steep and as one of us had to look after the bags I volunteered of course!!  I wasn’t too bothered as I had been up to the rainforest canopy in Australia and that was via a cable

The group before we climbed to the top of tower

car, anyway they all started the climb. Sometime later Christine was the first to come down then the rest followed at short intervals, and we all went back to our paddle canoe for more wandering through the swamps, photographing,

At the top we saw this owl which looked like the tree trunk at first

birds, trees, plants etc., and then the highlight we came across a Black Cayman, it looks like a small Alligator.  He or she lay very still but kept his/her beady eye on us, waiting to see if we made a false move.  Our canoe drifted slowly towards his/her, and we

Black Cayman hiding

came within touching distance, needless to say no hands went outside the boat.

We were hoping to see the unusual pink river dolphins but alas none were home. oh dear what a disappointment!

Next stop a bar-b-q lunch in a clearing, very nice though poor Christine had been suffering with tummy pains so was happy to find a suitable place to carry out her business.

One of the many strange tree roots in the jungle

After lunch the party went off for another trek in the jungle, and no doubt would be photographing anything and everything, Christine and I had a lay down instead.

The trekking party duly returned after  a little more than an hour, and judging by the comments we did not miss much.  So back to our canoe for the return journey seeing much of what we had seen before. Ninety minutes later we left our canoe to trek overland back to our motorized canoe waiting on the Napo River to take us back to the boat the Manatee, moored up stream on another bank.

Back on board for showers etc, although Christine’s tummy is still poorly.  As things are at present we will stay aboard tomorrow. I actually think this will be nice as we were looking forward to cruising the Amazon and going ashore for different interesting visits, but today lasted from 07.15 – 16.45 , nine and half hours in the hot sun, maybe this has also contributed to Christine feeling bad. Anyway, after much deliberation  Christine went to bed, and I went to dinner, I also arranged to change the early morning call from the ‘Heidi Hi’ over the tannoy system to a tap on the door for those who wanted it.

Today was the perfect day for Botanists, Lepidopterologist, Ornithologists, and Entomologists, but us mere mortals who like watching action activities we were quite bored. Like our friends says unlike ABC (Another bloody church) we had MBJ (more bloody jungle).

Friday 26^th April 2013

Another early start, we are getting accustomed to them now; we beat the alarm again, quick wash, packed the rest of our case, and down for breakfast at 6 am.  We paid the bill to be told we were coming back here, which is a shame, cos not the best of Hotels, but we asked for a bigger room which he said we could!

Our guide was waiting, he loaded our cases, and back to Quito airport, we were checked in by another guide who apologised for the mix up yesterday, and has offered us a free tour on 29/4/2013, which we have accepted.

On Napa River with guide heading for boat

The plane was late arriving, so we did not arrive on the Napo River until 11 am, but wow, we are in the jungle, we are so excited.

We boarded the motorized canoe, and we were off, we were heading for the Yasuni National Park where we would join the Manatee Explorer deep into the Amazon Jungle. We spent one

Stopped to deliver some rice to drivers daughter

and a half hours on the canoe; there are only five of us on the trip, so it looks as though it could be fun, although one of the other guests was reading Biography of Jerusalem, the other lady with her daughter works with the Missionary in Quito! So watch this space.  The river was very shallow in places, and we went aground once, but a bit of rocking we were off again.  It has not rained for three days, so the water levels have really fallen.

Manatee Explorer

We boarded the Manatee and we were given our cabins, ours is called ‘Monkey’, the boat needs a bit updating,   but it is fine, and we have an en-suite, always important at our age.  We have a bottle of champagne on ice with two glasses, to celebrate our honeymoon, and apparently we have another one for tomorrow, our Agent has given us one,

Geoff on top deck

and the ship the other, really chuffed about that.

We had lunch which was a very interesting starter, with palm stalks, chilli, onion, and you can add banana chips and popcorn, it was actually very nice, for main we had pork with nuts, so I passed on that, Geoff said it was lovely, they gave me some beef which was very tough, but editable, banana passion fruit, it

The river is like the M1 transporting lorries etc up and down

looked like a banana outside, but passion fruit inside, very good.

The afternoon was spent just lazing around whilst cruising down the river, the sun is out, and it is very pleasant. We have

Parking for the night, not sure how we get off

now come to a stop on the river, the parking was very interesting, because where the water has receded, the canes have fallen in the water, not sure how we are getting off, but sure they will work it out.

Sunset on River Napo

Later we had a talk on our evenings walk through the jungle, we took the canoe and went up river for about fifteen minutes, we landed on shore, and started walking in the jungle,
Geoff just did not take this seriously, he wanted tigers and monkeys, not beetles and spiders, it was quite funny, we saw a

Can’t remember name!!

baby toucan who was not happy to be woken up, also a tarantula, well I saw its legs at it scurried down its hole, we saw tiny frogs, and lots of funny little

There was a tarantula down there somewhere!

creatures, but suffice to say my camera is not good enough to show you.

It is either full moon or very close, it was a stunning ride back in the canoe, we boarded to be greeted with some funny drink, and prunes wrapped in pastry.

At dinner tonight we had a funny sort of soup, followed by a piece of steak, then a guava fruit, very good, we also opened the champagne and shared it with everyone.

Have to go now as we have to be up early in the morn

Thursday 25th April We woke up after a fairly good night’s sleep but in my case quite sore; I don’t think I have slept in such a hard bed.  Still, we slowly got up, showered, though the water was either very hot or cold, and so to breakfast which was a bit of a shambles, not quite what we have been experiencing ’till now. Coffee un-drinkable, Christine’s tea cold and looked as if it had a second hand tea bag in!!! So after a few words, Christine had hot tea with 2 new tea bags delivered, and I swapped this poor imitation for coffee to Camille

View of Volcano in distance

tea, so all was OK in the end. This is not my sort of hotel I have to say so we won’t be back.

Farming in the middle of a volcano

1000 hrs we were waiting in the lobby when our guide/Driver arrived.  He was a very pleasant chap and immediately we realised he had a sense of humour, and spoke very good English, that was a good start   Firstly he gave us a little background and history to Ecuador which I found interesting but Christine switched off, history is not one of her strong subjects! Quito lies in a valley and was started in the 15 hundreds by the Spanish conquistadors and today is stretches 65 Kms from north to south and approx 8 Kms east to west and It has a population a little under 4 million and lays on and south of the equator.  In fact Quito means centre of world.  Before the Spaniards invaded and colonised Ecuador, as well as most of South America, the dominant civilisation were the Inca’s, as we knew from Peru, however, when excavating a valley several years ago, they discovered some wood and sent it back to the States for carbon dating, it appears there was civilisation here 3,000 years BC. So we were off on our way, firstly to a huge volcanic crater North of the city, just in the northern hemisphere, it has been created into a sort of national park.  We crossed the equator several times during the morning as will be described later.  Ecuador including the Galapagos have a total of 55 volcanoes, most dormant though one of the ones on the outskirts of Quito erupted as recently as 1990, fortunately there is a small valley between that volcano and Quito so the lava was held back though the city was completely covered in ash, sounds like a lucky escape.

Tools that were used

Angel, our guide, then took us to a very interesting museum, Christine was a little sceptical about visiting a museum however once we arrived she was happy.  This museum was mainly about some Amazon tribes and the Equator.  I won’t bore you about the tribes, just to say I wouldn’t like to meet any on a dark night in the Jungle.  The museum guide showed us a couple of shrunken heads, quite amazing and several hundred years old but well preserved, even down to some nasal hairs still in place!  Anyway the other part of the

Standing on the Equator, I was in the North and Geoff in the South

tour was all about the equatorial line running straight through this museum.  Naturally we had ‘photos of us straddling the line, Christine in the northern hemisphere with me in the southern, etc etc.  But none of us in the museum tour party realised just how immediate things changed either side of the line.  One simple example was water flowing out of a tub.  We all know that in the north it goes down clockwise and south anti clockwise but on the line it goes straight down but when you move this tub only about 1 meter, the northern or southern pull takes effect.  This neutrality was also demonstrated by the guide firstly with

Balancing an egg on a nail

balancing an un-cooked egg on top of an ordinary nail, none of us managed though it!  Also, walking along the equatorial line, none of us could keep straight as the two opposing forces were causing us to fall off balance though but if you do it away from this line, no problem and there were other examples demonstrated.  I have to say this visit was not only a fun experience, but it was quite an eye opener.   We were also lucky with the weather, the sky was clear and blue so we could also

Burial site

see the only volcano in the world that has the equator going straight through the middle and to make it easier to pick out, it still had snow on top. The original inhabitants had the equator marked where they thought it should be and lived by the Calendar that this position of the “centre of the earth” line produced.  They were

Calender

experts in studying the sun and other astronautical events until a Frenchman arrived with his modern measuring equipment in 1735 and said the actual line was further south.  In 1990, using GPS they calculated the line was actually 189 meters further north from where the French thought it was, not bad you may think, however where GPS said it was, was exactly where the ancient tribes had it in the first place, they knew a thing or two!

Winged Virgin Mary

Next to the top of a hill with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary but with a difference, here she had wings and was holding a chain with a crocodile on the end.  This was very symbolic to the majority of Catholic locals when  built and it did afford us

View of Old Town Quito from top

very good views of just how sprawling Quito is from this vantage point. Now we went down into the old town where we had to park the car in a multi storey car park and travel on foot, fortunately it was fairly flat and though we were on the equator, not too hot.

Plaza

We walked around the original Plaza laid down by the Spaniards; this was surrounded by the Presidents palace, the Archbishops Palace, a Basilica and modernist government offices and a very nice looking hotel where I wish

Plaza

we had been booked into!!!!

We then went into the obligatory

Church

church, we went in because we thought we had to but once in, wow!  This Jesuit Church took 160 years to complete and it was covered inside from the top of the high dome down to the floor in either gold leaf or original paintings, no

Inside church we were not allowed to take photos!

wonder it cost us $3 each to enter and the security was everywhere. We then strolled down through these old and in some areas original cobbled streets to a local restaurant for lunch.  I was hell bent on having guinea pig, like Peru, a delicacy in Ecuador, I even persuaded Christine to have some.  It was nice, a little fatty; it reminded me of a suckling pig we had a couple of years ago in Spain.  We have tried it now so no need to have it again. Back to the multi Storey car park then returned to our hotel after a very interesting and enjoyable day that was not all about visiting Churches.  Angel had done us proud and he was never pushing us to hurry yet this 5 hour tour which took a bit longer seemed to go very quickly, hence we treated him to lunch When we arrived back in our room our laundry was waiting so we started to pack ready for leaving the hotel tomorrow at 0630 hrs, ouch!!!!