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South America Magazine
Following on from previous magazines of our travels, I have created a South America Travel Magazine out of this blog. I hope that you like it.
Santiago and Valparaíso
En route from Ecuador to New Zealand we stopped in Santiago for four nights. We stayed at a funky hostel in the Barrio Brasil area called Don Santiago. It felt just like staying at someones home and we had a fantastic bbq with the other guests on Halloween.
Day 1
We walked into town and climbed Cerro Santa Lucia for fantastic views of the city. From there we wondered around the Artesan market and finally bought ourselves two maté cups and bombillas (silver straws). We walked down to the River and across to Recoleta. Being a Saturday it was full of interesting clothing stalls. We walked onto Bellavista which is full of bars and restaurants. There was some cool grafitti en route.
Day 2
We visited the Museo de Arte de Pre-Columbia, which is free on Sundays. The museum houses the best ceramic display we have seen in South America, encompassing Central America and the west coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile. We spent the day shopping and wondered down from Plaza de Armas to the Central Market.
Day 3
We decided to go on a day trip to Valparaíso on our third day. It is an easy and cheap bus ride from Alameda. Valparíso is a port town and has enough to amuse you for a day. We caught one of the dozen funiculars still working up Cerro Conception (originally there were 33). The hills are full of colourful buildings, some of which house shops and cafes. There is also great views around the city. We caught another funicular, Asendor El Peral back down the hill after exploring a bit and had a set menu at one of the fish restaurants. We slowly wondered back to the bus station via the shops and headed back to Santiago in the late afternoon.
Day 4
For our final day in South America we made sure we relaxed, sleeping in and eating the tasty breakfast at the hostel before going shopping.
In the afternoon we caught the metro out to Viña Concha y Toro, the 10th largest winery in the World. We wanted to visit this winery as they produce the Casillero del Diablo range that we used to drink in London.
The winery was very fancy, with an English garden, large summer residence and vineyards. The tour also included walking into the Casillero del Diablo (Devil’s Cellar). The original owner of the vineyard placed his best bottles in this cellar to mature. After a while he noticed that the wine was going missing. He suspected the local workers were stealing it, and knowing how superstitious they were he spread a rumour that the devil lived in the cellar. The ruse worked and noone stole any bottles any further.
Quito
Mariscal / New Town
We based ourselves in the Mariscal district of Quito, also known as Gringolandia. We stayed in four different hotels during our time here as we bounced around to Mindo and Galapogos and back. The best budget accommodation was the Backpackers Inn, best treat yourself option was Casa Sol.
There is not too much in the way of sites in the new town, but people base themselves their because it is safer, and has plenty of accommodation and eating options.
We wandered down to the artesean market, which was largely full of lame tat and overly expensive. There were a few good finds though.
Across the park from the market is the Museo de Banco Centro in the Casa de Cultura. The museum houses an impressive room of pre-Columbian ceramics from around Ecuador. Unfortunately the gold room was closed, but their prize piece, a large headband was still on display.
Bellavista
Bellavista is further out in the new town up on a hill (hence the name). We caught the bus out and trudged up the hill to the Museo Guayasamin, Ecuador´s premier modern artist. Guayasamin was born in 1919 and despite his parent´s dreams of him becoming a doctor he chose to paint.
The museum is housed in his former home, a lovely spralling Spanish villa. The collection includes pre-Columbian ceramics and funerary pieces as well as his artwork. His paintings were influenced by his travels, struggles of indeginous people, early death of his mother and world politics. He travelled far and had influencial friends around the world including Fidel Castro and Chairman Mao.
Further up the hill is the Capilla del Hombre (Temple of Man) which realised Guayasim´s dream of a new spirituality focusing on people. The temple is full of Guaysamin´s paintings and sculpture. Guayasamin is buried under and tree overlooking the temple and Quito.
Guayasamin´s artwork is very emotive, focusing of skeletal figures with large eyes and hands. The pieces are very large and powerful.
Old Town
Quito has the largest old town in South America, and it looks very much like a European old town. There are plenty of stories about the old town being unsafe. It felt fine to us during the day but there were a few over protective locals telling us to watch our bags and where it was unsafe to walk while we were there.
One of the highlights of the old town is the basilica, which is on a hill overlooking the old town. The basilica is neo-gothic in style with galapogos animals instead of gargoyles. The interior is bright with new stained glass windows but is unremarkable otherwise. You can climb to the top of the belfry for $2 for good views.
At the bottom of the old town is a nice artesean streat called Calle de Ronda with cobble stones and restored mansions.
Up the road is the Iglesia Compañia de Jesus, a Jesuit church which our Rough Guide describes as “opulence gone mad”. The small church contains seven tonnes of gold. Every surface is painting or gilded with golden scroll work.
There are several plazas in the old town. We were treated to festivities for Halloween, All Saints, Day of the Dead in Plaza San Francisco.
Mital del Mundo
We caught the bus from Ofelia bus terminal to Mital del Mundo (Middle of the World). There is a epic monument erected at the site that French scientists wrongly proclaimed the equator line. We opted not to go in and took a photo from outside.
Instead we walked another 280m to the Museo Intiñan (Sunpath). Do not be put off by first impressions as you get a guide included in the ticket price. Set among totem poles from around the Americas, your get to perform various cool experiments such as walking on the equator line with your eyes closed – you loose your balance fast. Other experiments are balancing a raw egg on the head of a nail and the classic water going down a drain. Worth a visit. If you do go, take your passport so you can get it stamped.
Galapogos Islands
We booked our Galapogos trip prior to leaving the United Kingdom with Gecko. Our tour included nights in Quito at the beginning and end of the boat trip, which is important to check so that you know how many nights your trip actually is. Our tour included the flight to Galapogos and four nights on a 16 person boat. Other people booked the same trip as we, only the day before the boat set sail for approximately the same value as we had so its up to you whether you book in advance or not.
A large part of the tour was snorkelling. We rented our snorkelling equipment for 10 us dollars for the whole trip. You could also rent wet suits but we found the water was warm enough to snorkel for up to 1.5 hours without.
Day 1 / Santa Cruz
We woke early, had a transfer to the airport and waited round for our flight. We were on the direct flight with Tame Airlines, approximately 2 hours to Baltra airport in Galapogos. At the airport in Quito you pay a $10 Galapogos transfer fee, then at Baltra a $100 entrance fee.
At Baltra, our guide picked us and our 15 person group up. We transfered to our boat and sailed across the channel to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the archepelego.
We stopped at a beach on the north western side of the island, away from the towns, for a snorkel and walk along the beach. The snorkelling as not that great with limited visibility due to the sandy water (better snorkelling was to come). The walk was good though with sea lions, marine iguanas, bright red crabs, frigate birds, grey heron, a Carribean flamingo, pelicans and blue foooted boobies flying overhead.
Day 2 / Santa Fe
We slept overnight on the boat in the Baltra Strait and then sailed after breakfast to the Plazas Islands. There are two islands, the northern is reserved for scientific research but you can explore the southern island.
We saw marine and land iguanas. You can tell the difference between the two species by colour and size. The marine iguanas are smaller and generally black while the land iguanas were yellow and green. The yellow colour comes from their new skin when the old layer has peeled off.
The iguanas live for 75 years and do not mate for life. They leave eggs in burrows for three months and leave the young to fend for themselves. The land iguanas live off cactus and go crazy for the yellow flowers. The marine iguanas eat algae.
There were also loads of sea lions and their gorgeous cubs. The sea lions have quite a distinctive bark and smell… We were lucky to arrive about 1/2 hour after one cub had been born. As part of natures way of dealing with the birth, birds came and cut the umbilical cord to the placenta. It was a bit grim but made sense.
The sea lions live to 40 years of age. There is always a dominant male in each group with a number of females. The male generally prefers younger virgin sea lions. The females have one cub at a time after a nine month pregnancy. Once the baby is born they stay with it for three days before going out to sea to search for food while the cubs play with their mates. After a year of milk they move onto solid foods and start to fend for themselves.
We walked around the island before heading back to the boat where we sailed to Sante Fe. During the sail we saw what may have been whales in the distance and a large manta ray jumping in the air. After lunch we wet snorkelling along the reef line and saw lots of different types of fish including Leather Bass, King Angelfish, Mullet, Parrot Fish and Giant Hawkfish.
The guide heard about sharks in the shallows so we hoped into the dingy and went shark hunting. Anna was confused about where the sharks were and was wondering why everyone was pointing at her…. Turns out the shark was below her and bigger than her…..EEEEEEK. Anna quickly snorkelled away and then did some good internal shrieking.
On the way back to the boat we first played with sea lions. We were told that they like to mimic what you do. If you twirl, they respond and they also like to blow bubbles and dive down deep. After this we continued swimming and saw our first TURTLE! At first it was resting by some rocks and then started to gracefully swim. We shadowed him for awhile and were transfixed by his movements. What an experience!
Day 3 / Española
This day was by far the best in terms of wildlife spotting. Española has no predators, with the goat having been eradicated in the 70´s. We sailed overnight from Sante Fe to Española and took sea sick pills to help us sleep. We arrived at Gardner Bay and had a wet landing on the beach.
We wondered past basking sea lions, curious mocking birds (watch out for your water bottle), to watch six turtles feeding in the shallows. After this we went for a snorkel and were treated to a couple of sting rays buried in the sand. We saw reef cornet fish, trigger fish, cardinal fish, hog fish and long fin half beak.
We went back on the boat and out to Gardner Island for more snorkelling. This is where the funniest incident of the trip happened. Japhet, an Australian guy, was playing with a sea lion for a bit. He then took a break and stood on a rock. Sam and I were watching as the sea lion came up from behind him and bit him on his bottom! It was so hilarious we forgot we were under water and laughed so hard we started taking on salt water! The sea lion was really playful with everyone, and bit Sam´s flipper.
After lunch we sailed around to Punta Suarez. We did a dry landing and a three hour walk around the island. Along the walk we saw many marine iguanas which were a molted red, green and black. Due to the way in which they dive they talk on a lot of water and then spit it out back on dry land. Watch out.
Next we came across the Blue Footed Boobies nesting. Sam also spotted the boobies doing their famous mating dance. The dance consists of each boobie taking turns to lift their little blue foot, alternating one foot at a time in a circular motion (think white man two step shuffle). They also have a distinct call, different between the males and females. After this we also saw some eggs and some very white fluffy chicks.
We carried up the island to the albatross airport. There were a number of albatross chicks waiting for their parents to bring back food. We were treated to one chick being fed by his father, who was not much larger than he. The chick was very demanding and clattered his beak on his fathers. The Galapogas Albatross has a wing span of 2.5 metres.
We went to a view point to wait and see if any chicks were going to take their first plunge and hopefully fly. Alas there were none but there were plenty of other birds to entertain us. These included the tropical bird, frigates, and boobies. We could also see a giant blow hole where the surf pounds in and spurts up 30 metres.
From the cliffs we walked through the masked boobie nesting area and back to the blue footed boobies. We saw more mating dances, chicks and eggs. All through the walk there were many mocking birds, Galapogas doves and finches.
Day 4 / Floreana
We landed at post office bay at 7.45am and went to collect and post postcards. As the tradition goes you put your postcard into the box (without a stamp) and leave it there for someone from your country to collect and post when they return home. You also grab any that need delivering. Sadly there were none for us but we had a fantastic snorkel afterwards with three turtles.
Further along the island we visted a beach where a number of sting rays were feeding in the shallows at ankle depth. There were also a number of flamingos in a nearby lagoon.
The highlight of the morning was sail en route to the visit to Devils Crown (Corona del diablo) for snorkelling. We saw a huge pod of dolphins that completely surrounded the boat. The dolphins danced at the bow of the boat jumping up to two metres in the air. There was also a whale further out.
The snorkel was more challenging due to the currents. We were treated with seeing a reef shark, puffer fish, star fish and golden rays. The rays were beautiful to watch until they turned around and started swimming towards us. We high tailed it back to the boat.
That afternoon we sailed back to Santa Cruz and had our last night on the boat. We also went into ´town´ for a few drinks.
Day 5 / Charles Darwin Centre
We woke early and transfered to the land to visit the Charles Darwin Centre. At the centre they had a breeding programme for tortoises and iguanas and provide support for international and student researchers. They also monitor the islands via GIS mapping and work to preserve the ecology on the islands.
We visited a number of different areas with a number of different size tortoises from newly hatched to females in their forties and males in their eighties. They do not know how old they live to but believe it is about 150 years.
We saw lonesome George they last saddle tortoise from Pinta Island. Luckily George is not so lonesome anymore and has two lucky ladies to keep him company. They are hoping that some little Georges hatch in the near future. After this we caught a bus to the airport and flew back to Quito.
Although the Galapogas tour is very expensive, it is well worth extending your budget to make it. It is easily the highlight, and some may say the only reason to visit, Ecuador.
Wandering words 