Post Galapagos: Quick stop in Quito before heading to BA

We came back from the Galapagos Islands amazed by what we'd seen and experienced, and struggled to come to terms with being on land again with our sealegs ensuring we swayed back and forth for the first 24 hours.

We had hoped to have spent a couple of days in the Amazon, but had been unable to finalise the trip before we left for the Galapagos, so in the end we used our time in Quito to apply for jobs, see more of the town, and cycle down the Cotopaxi volcano. Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and forms part of the Pacific Ring of Fire that surrounds the capital. We went with a tour company called the Biking Dutchman, appropriate, and made our way up the volcano to the parking lot at 4,500 metres where we strapped on our helmets and gloves and hopped on our bikes.

It was close to freezing at that altitude, and with an ice cold wind coming down the top of the volcano whilst we were making our way round the hairpin bends, it wasn't the most pleasant of bike rides. Further down it didn't improve much, and the third person that was doing the bike ride with us fell down hard in one of the bend. Even when we got down the steep mountain paths, the trails remained very slippery and filled with rocks. We stopped halfway down for a lovely home-made lunch, the highlight of the trip, and continued cycling until we reached the end point from where we jumped in the pick-up for the drive back to Quito.

That evening we met up with Nancy and Brad, our new American friends from the Galapagos trip, for dinner at Astrid y Gaston, a restaurant that provided us with a mighty fine dining experience (including some fried guinnea pig).

The next day we had a couple of hours to kill before our flight, so we made a brief trip to the Equator where we attempted to balance an egg on a nail, tried to walk straight along the Equator Line (failing miserably), and were shown the way water flowed down a drain on either side and directly on the line. All very impressive.

Shortly afterwards, we caught our flight back to Buenos Aires, from where we headed to the Iguazu Falls.

The unique and magical Galapagos islands

The most uniquely magical place we have been to on our trip, and perhaps our favourite! We had such an amazing time on our 4 day boat trip through the Galapagos. We had another early start leaving our hotel in Quito at 5:30am to get to the airport where we flew to Balta on Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos via a stopover in Guayaquil. We were met by the crew from our boat, taken for lunch at a restaurant on the island before visiting the Charles Darwin visitors centre in the afternoon. At the Charles Darwin centre we were given the low-down of how Charles Darwin came up with his theory of evolution, based on the creatures he had discovered in the Galapagos islands and witnessed the way they had evolved to adapt to their surroundings. We saw the tortoise conservation project and met Lonesome George, the only tortoise left of his kind that scientists have been trying to get to reproduce with similar species, but to no avail. I queried whether the scientists considered the fact that George might be gay, which would explain his resistance to reproduce with the female tortoises, but no one was sure whether they had tested this theory or not.

After the Charles Darwin centre, it was time to board the boat that was to be our home for 3 nights. We were on a boat with 32 other people and meals were served in a dining room with shared tables, so you got to know everyone on the boat quite quickly. We were very lucky to have met a bunch of lovely people on our boat, and some slightly quirky ones, who helped make our trip so special.

We made two excursions a day visiting a total of 4 of the southernmost islands. Our first excursion consisted of snorkelling with sea turtles, stingrays, reef sharks and even hammerhead sharks about 4 meters long! The sea was warm and various gorgeous colours of blue and turquoise. What a thrill and fantastic experience. On the second excursion of the day we went to a tortoise breeding ground on Floreana island but didn't see any tortoises as they come out at night. However, when going for a swim in the sea afterwards, Joost was quickly joined by a playful sea lion.

We thought that was special until our excursion the next morning where we went to visit a beach known for its sea lion colony. There were sea lions spread along the beach, happy for us to wander around and they even playfully swam with us in the sea. We made sure we kept our distance as we were not allowed to come into contact with any animals, but they didn't make it easy when they curiously wandered up to us, often from behind. We went on another snorkelling trip and managed to see more varieties of sting rays (the spotted and the diamond sting ray) and sea turtles in addition to all the fish and coral of course.

That afternoon we went on a 3 hour hike around the Isabella island and got to see the famed blue-footed booby (a bird) and many other birds, the multi-coloured iguanas, a rock pool that the sea lions had turned into a baby sea lion paddling pool to teach them how to swim, and the beautiful island scenery. Upon returning to the boat, the teenage kids on the boat, as well as a few of the adults were allowed to jump off the top of the boat into the water, and of course Joost gave it a good go!

On our final evening, the crew on the boat hosted a BBQ party for us on the rooftop where we spent the evening drinking chatting to our new friends and enjoying the beautiful sunset.

The days passed far too quickly, the only downside was the seasickness I suffered on day two of the trip. Some friends on the boat gave me some of their prescription seasickness medicine, which helped me enjoy the rest of the trip without any further trouble.

It was a memorable experience, definitely a place we would recommend visiting at least once in a lifetime!