The Week That Should Not Have Been

SO we returned from the Galapagos to Quito during the middle of Halloween celebrations. Our intention was to stay the night, leave for the Quilatoa loop the next day and then head to Southern Ecuador and on to Peru. However, as everyone knows, when travelling one must be flexible...
We did end up going to Quilatoa which is a tiny Andean town famous for the Quilatoa crater, a lake set in the middle of an extinct volcano. It was a bit of an adventure to get there as it involved being dropped off the bus on the side of the road with no idea where we were, finding the bus station in a rain storm and then trying to figure out where Quilatoa actually was. We arrived being the last people on the bus just as dark was setting in. At that altitude (somewhere above 4000m) it gets really cold!
We spent the night in the hostel, woke up to a fantastic breakfast and set off to hike down into the crater to see the lake. It was pretty fantastic although the hike back up was very steep and the sandy soil made it difficult to climb up. We almost caved and paid for the easy way up...by mule. After our hike while having coffee we made the decision to head south quickly and try to get to Peru by the weekend. We left to go back to Latacunga with a bunch of others from the hostel riding in the back of a truck. It was beautiful to experience traveling through the Andes looking at all the tiny villages and all the Alpacas. They are everywhere!
It was in Latacunga that things went wrong...
We had caught the bus to Ambato and were just pulling out of the bus station. We were laughing and chatting and did not really realize that the guy sitting behind us had got up and walked off the back with my backpack! I immediately had a bit of a panic as I was positive that my passport was in the stolen bag. We got off the bus to try and find the guy who took it but no luck.
Luckily there are better people in this world than the guy who stole our backpack. Some of the girls that we had just met were living in Quito and invited us back to their place until we figured out the whole passport thing. Very nice of them and ended up being very convenient as the Canadian embassy is only a few blocks from where they live.
To make a long story a bit shorter...I (Natalie) am an airhead. The passport was actually in my CAMERA bag the whole time! Unfortunately we had already reported it stolen by the time we relaized this so the saga continues with getting a new one.
While waiting for the passport we decided to continue on to Mindo and are now on the coast of Ecuador. Midno is a bird watchers paradise with tons of hummingbirds, tucans and butterflies. We finally got to go zip-trekking which was fun to zoom across wires looking down as the cloud forest canopy. Bryan was even brave enough to go upside down!
The costal town that we are currently in is a beautiful somewhat sleepy surf town. Yesterday was super busy being the weekend and the beach was packed with familes enjoying a day on the beach. It is not very sunny here but it is nice and warm.
Enough for now...time to go for 1$ Caprinias!
Next post...Hopefully from across the border in Peru!

Galapagos Islands - Be jealous...very jealous

On the 22nd of October we caught a plane at the crack of dawn from Quito to Baltra Island, Galapagos. Upon coming in for landing just before touch down our plane got caught in a cross wind and our pilot made the executive decision to pull up and make another pass. A little nerve racking considering the runway ends by going off a cliff into the Pacific.
Anyways, we arrived in the Galapgos and quickly met our group for the boat cruise. As soon as we arrived in the bay in Baltra we knew we had spotted the "Nuevo Flamingo". As other have said "if this was the New Flamingo I hate to think what happened to the old one!" All joking aside our boat was something similar to the Gilligans Island boat...maximum sailing speed of 8 knots and barely room for all. 10 passengers aboard including Bryan and I, an American girl, two German boys, two German and one Dutch girl and the Irishman thrown in for comic relief.
We set sail almost immediately for an island full of Boobies (yes, the blue footed kind), Frigate birds and Iguanas.
From the beginning of our boat cruise till the end we truly had a blast. We saw amazing animals including suntanning with sea lions, snorkeling with rays and turtles to being shit on by Frigate birds being that close to everything and them not fearing people at all was an amazing experience. We had a great group of people on the boat. The German boys drank all the beer, Bryan (and almost everyone else) got seasick and having our own personal Irish Mr. Bean it was great fun to spend five days with such a wonderful group of people.
I think that we both agree that diving in the Galapagos has been and will continue to be a highlight of our trip. The first day we saw reef sharks, Galapagos shark, sea lions and loads of fish. We also got stuck in a washing machine current which spat us very quickly 1000m away from our intented end point. The second day of diving was Gordons Rocks. A site well known for the probability of seeing Hammerhead sharks which we did...lots. It was a truly spectacular day. The third day of diving we must have seen at least 20 Manta rays which are absolutely huge! They are so spectacualr to watch swim under the water. Bryan and I were doing a compression stop about 5m from the surface when one came within 10feet of us. So cool!
The Galapgos is truly a place of wonder and highly recommended as a place to visit!