Quito and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador December 17, 2010
Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.3 comments
a parade group - beautiful costumes
how cute is this little guy!?!
close look at fancy-traditional
boogie-ing to the beat of the brass band!
enjoying the show
in front of the Basilica
a closer view
intruiging gargoyles
From the Basilica we made our way to the Plaza de la Independencia, or Plaza Grande. “The Plaza was first laid out with a string and ruler in 1534 and still preserves its original dimensions. Surrounded by the city’s most important civic and religious buildings – the cathedral, Government Palace, Archbishop’s Palace and City Hall – the plaza has always been the city’s focus. In the centre is the Monument in Honour to the Heroes of August 10, 1809 – the beginning of independence against Spanish rule.
the top of the monument
bottom of the monument
There was even a demonstration in the square, while we were there…
labour demonstration in the square
628 laid-off workers
We moved on to the La Compania Church, “built by Jesuits between 1605 and 1765 and completed just two years before Spain expelled the order from the continent. Boasting an extraordinary Baroque facade of carved volcanic stone, the church is piled high with twisted columns, sacred hearts, cherubs, angels and saints. Inside, any thoughts of restraint vanish amid the wild extravagance of gold leaf -there’s a reputed seven tonnes of the stuff covering the altars, galleries, Moorish tracery and pulpit. Beautifully restored after a fire in 1996, the only testament to the damage is the smoke-blackened face of an angel, deliberately left uncleaned.” This church is considered the most beautiful church in baroque style in the American continent, and it’s included in the list of the 100 best constructions in the world. Some would say you haven’t seen Quito if you haven’t seen this church. Of course you can’t take pictures inside, but here’s the outside….
La Compania Church
many of the streets are very steep!
We finished our tour of the old town by driving to the southern edge and up the hill known as El Panecillo (“the little bread loaf”), crowned by a magnificent, thirty-metre-high statue of the Virgen de Quito. The angel stands on an orb with a serpent curled around her feet, gazing serenely down to the city.
view of El Panecillo Hill and Virgen from Old Town
Virgen de Quito
on the equator, in front of the monument
We wandered around the monument and took a look at some of the museums in the various pavilions of the countries that took part in that early expedition to mark the equator. But, more fun was the “Museo Inti Nan,” an interactive solar museum, “which houses an idiosyncratic collection of equator-related experiments and curios and exhibits on indigenous cultures and their beliefs. ” The tour guide insisted this was the “real” equator, as current GPS can measure, though not far very from the monument and measurement that was proven in the 1700s. Here we were given demonstrations of water flowing on either side of the equator, turning in opposite directions as it drains, and flowing straight down when on the actual equator. We tried to walk with our eyes closed along the equator line (easier or harder to do because the gravitational pull was working at us from both sides? I forget….)
walking the equator line
and discovered the gravitational pull causes kissing!
All in all, a fun stop. Back through the city, to our hotel, for a quick wardrobe change, and then Marcelo drove us to Jeff and Fernanda’s home, where we had been invited for dinner. Jeff is the head of GM Ecuador and Don had met and worked with him on the three previous working trips he’d made to Quito. We had a lovely dinner, with a few local specialities (corn is a HUGE staple – different kinds of corn, and cooked in more ways than I thought possible), and very good company. Back to the hotel to bed.
The next day we were up early again, and picked up at 8 a.m., as we were heading out of town, to Otavalo, about 2 hours from Quito. The drive was a winding one through the mountains, and afforded a few lovely viewpoints along the way.
gorgeous views
We stopped at a road-side fruit stand to buy and sample these ‘chirimoya’ fruits – like nothing we’ve ever had before: not too sweet and quite juicy despite looking like mush…
fruit stand - chirimoyas on the left - big, sort of round
and the inside - pull out the white pulpy stuff, eat with fingers, spit out seeds
Marcelo and Vicky
Our next stop was a “pit stop” where we could get coffee and local snacks, and use the toilet, which was ‘guarded’ by an ornery sheep…
ornery sheep
beautiful little corner, backside of the coffee shop - it could be anywhere in the world!
Our trip this day was all about the local and indigenous artisan culture. The town of Otavalo is famous for its world-renowned market, found in the Plaza de Ponchos. “For hundreds of years, ‘indigenous’ from at least seventy surrounding villages brought their crafts and produce down from the hills for a day of frenzied barter and sale. Nowadays, it draws producers from across Ecuador and Colombia, as well. The ‘indigenas’ dressed in all their finery offer a staggering choice of clothes, textiles, hammocks and weavings, as well as jewelery, ceramics, dolls and other craftworks.” The market was delightful and colourful….
hammocks
masks
colourful bolts of fabric
hats! Don bought his; I didn't but should have as I really could have used it in the Galapagos
woven blankets
beautifully dressed 'indigenas' with her wares
I bought jewelry made from these sponvylus shells
demonstrating the back strapped loom
first making the instrument
and then playing it for us
plus a quick demonstration on a variety of traditional instruments
a family eating lunch in the beautiful sunshine
roasting corn
Hacienda Pinsaqui
view from the grounds
and fountain in the front
Cuicocha Lake
and the two volcanic cone islands
main street of Cotacachi
an indigenous in traditional clothing
onto the ferry to Santa Cruz
volcanic sink hole
finch in a very mossed-covered tree
you'd think he was there to greet all the tourists!
Out of the truck, onto the water taxi, across the little harbour, where we saw a few sea lions..
sea lion gets comfy on the back of a boat
and the most brightly-coloured crabs we’ve ever seen…
Sally lightfoot crab
and we were greeted by hotel staff who loaded our luggage onto a wheelbarrow and off we walked, for about 5 minutes, to the hotel. Checked in, unpacked, and straight to the pool-side bar for a couple of cold beers…
pool, bar, restaurant and office area of the Finch Bay
dining area
beautiful pool area
land iguana
and we found a small family of small-sized marine iguanas…
marine iguanas
on the boat
hiking the board walk
the island is like the moon
lava sand, not much vegetation
except this interesting cactus, endemic to the island
the view from the top
Pinnacle Rock
at the top
We hiked back down, and back onto the boat and around that pinnacle rock to a bay on the other side. Several of the group went snorkeling, Don included, and a few of us stayed on the beach and waited for the snorkelers. Don loved the water and all it had to offer. (I’m not so keen on swimming with the fishes.) When everyone was back, we got back in the little raft boat to take us back to the boat, and that’s when we saw a pair of Galapagos penguins sunning themselves on the rocks…
Galapagos Penguins
so cute!
Back on board, lunch was spectacular!
a work of art
And then we hunkered down for the two hour trip back to the hotel – this time, a very rough ride.
Sunday was an interesting day in Ecuador, as they were conducting their first census since sometime in the 1980’s. All Ecuadorians had to stay in their homes until 5 p.m. when the counting would be complete. Don had booked to go scuba diving on Sunday, and the scuba shop was allowed to carry on with the trip as long as the boat with divers had left land by 7 a.m. and didn’t return until 5 p.m. With only two dives scheduled, it was a long day for Don and the other divers. Inbetween dives they went to a good snorkeling bay, and spent the last few hours before coming home, just “hanging out” at a beach. Don took my camera and snapped a few marine iguanas…
marine iguana looks just like the rock
and a few crabs…
the most green on the rocks we ever saw
While Don was diving, I spent the day by the pool, reading a book, chatting with a few people at the hotel, etc. Very relaxing, soaking up the vitamin D in preparation for a long, cold Michigan winter.
Monday we were off to another island, this time North Seymour. It was a fantastic day as there’s a blue-footed booby colony on this island, as well as frigate birds, marine iguanas and sea lions. But it was the birds we were most thrilled to see.
swallow-tailed gull
mama and baby blue-footed boobies
baby blue-footed booby
baby
adult blue-footed booby
looking for food from mama
male frigate trying to attract a mate to his nest
female frigate
baby sea lions
taking a look around
male land iguana
up close and personal
back on the panga to the boat
a great day
When we were back on Santa Cruz, we stopped off at a giant tortoise protected area. We were lucky enough to arrive as two tortoises were mating…
doesn't look easy
is she in there?!
does everyone have to watch?
they are so large and so prehistoric looking
up close and personal
We made a final stop to see a “lava tube” tunnel: “Huge underground lava tubes perforate Santa Cruz, and in places extend for several kilometres, enclosed by high jagged walls that disappear into gloom. The tubes were formed when cooler outer parts of lava flows hardened into thick rock walls, providing insulation to keep a flow going inside; eventually the flow subsided, leaving long empty tunnels easily big enough to walk down.”
lava tube - surreal, felt man-made
Our last day trip was to South Plaza Island. Here we found a different kind of vegetation and lots of sea lions – in fact this island has a sea lion bachelor community – males who have lost their harem, or been kicked out. They apparently gather here to live out their lives quietly. The island is also home to a lot of land iguanas and cliff-dwelling sea birds.
on our way to the island
a sea lion lazily guards the landing
sea lion and iguana together
dry season colours; in the wet season this plant is green
thousands of birds on the cliff-side of the island
sleepy bachelors
red-billed tropicbird
Nazca (masked) booby
this is our new desk-top pictures - love these two sea lions!
prickly pear trees, have adapted to thwart the iguanas who eat the 'leaves'
back to our boat
Back at the resort…
our last sunset
lava gull gets ready for bed
Lava gulls are “possibly” the planet’s rarest gulls, with only about 400 pairs in the world.
and our last sunrise - taken from our balcony
On our last morning, on the way to the airport, we stopped at the Charles Darwin Research Station. “Here vital work is done to boost the threatened populations of the unique Galapagos species. In 1978 the Galapagos archipelago was one of the first places to be made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which declared it a World Biosphere Reserve six years later. Its position was furthered strengthened in 1986 with the creation of the Reserva Marina de Galapagos, protecting 133,000 square kilometres of ocean within a 40-nautical-mile radius around the islands, one of the largest marine reserves in the world. The animals that have carved out an existence on teh dramatic volcanic landscape conjure up visions of life completely devoid of human presence, and their legendary fearlessness only intensifies the other-worldliness of these extraordinary islands.”
Our tour guide showed us where the tortoises are still found and where they’ve become extinct.
Galapagos map
We then walked through the centre to the tortoise-rearing pens, “where predator-proof enclosures hold batches of miniature giant tortoises divided by age. Since 1965, a programme of tortoise repopulation has been ongoing, with eggs being carefully extracted from the wild and incubated here. After two or three years the hatchlings graduate to larger enclosures with the kind of terrain they might find in the wild; after four to six years they are deemed to have grown to an uneatable size (as far as predators – mostly rats – are concerned) and repatriated to their home islands.” The numbers painted on their shells tell which island they’ll be returned to.
they are unbelievably small and cute!
The most famous resident at the centre is “Lonesome George”, the last surviving tortoise of the Pinta island subspecies, considered by many to be the rarest animal in the world. From 1906 until 1971 (when George was found) it was thought the Pinta tortoises were extinct; since then the search has been on to find George a Pinta partner, so far to no avail… thus the “Lonesome” sobriquet.
Lonesome George - sorry not a very clear picture
the centre also houses 'rescued' tortoises
We were transferred to the airport, and flew back to Quito. We had booked a ‘day room’ at the hotel as we weren’t leaving until midnight. Marcelo picked us at the airport, took us to the hotel to check in, and then to the Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador “which houses an incomparable collection of pre-Columbian ceramics and gold artefacts, as well as colonial, republican and contemporary art.” We viewed a good deal of the collection before the museum closed for the day, and then headed to a book store I’d found online (because you know I’d do that!) called Confederate Books, with the “best selection of books in English in South America.” I found an intriguing book called “The Curse of the Giant Tortoise” about true-life tragedies and mysteries in the Galapagos over history. As there’s no fresh water on any of the islands, you can imagine landing there would have been quite a tragedy for many in the past. Then we were back to the hotel to shower and pack up, and off to meet Jeff and Fernanda at a Peruvian restaurant for our last dinner in Quito – a perfect end to a trip of a lifetime.
Back to reality – freezing cold and snow in Michigan. “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.” Brrr. Stay warm everyone, and all the best for a very happy Christmas. I’ll be back in touch next year!
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