Quito (Ecuador) and the Galapagos Islands- March 15-25

My interest in coming to Ecuador was to visit the almost mythical Galapagos Islands. But Quito, the capital, turned out to be surprisingly interesting. I was glad I had booked time at either end of the Galapagos trip to see Quito properly.

One of the highlights was definitely the hotel that came with my upgraded GAP Adventures Galapagos trip: a room so "high-style" and sumptuous after my modest backpacker accomodation that I felt momentarily guilty. But that faded fast as I lavished in the 1000 thread-count sheets, the king-size bed, the fresh cala lilies, and the bathroom spa fit for a rock star. I knew that this style accommodation would be short-lived.

Quito is a mountain city and it snakes up and down and around several major mountains at an altitude of almost 3000 metres. I climbed up one of the mountains to get a view of the whole city. Quito is most famous for its beautifully restored Centro Historico - the vast Spanish Colonial Old City that was the very first UNESCO World Heritage site to be designated back in the early 1970s.

I discovered that the old city is a treasure trove of massive monasteries, Churches and civic buildings as well as modest houses and market areas. The beautifully restored historic fabric is impressive. But the great thing is that the indigenous people of Quito continue to live and work in the historic centre of the city, making it vibrant, lively and decidedly untouristy at all times of the day and evening. The centrepiece of the old city is the main square surounded on all sides by gracious Spanish colonial architecture.

The power of the Church in 16th and 17th century Quito was clear as much of the downtown was dominated by huge and richly endowed monasteries and convents. The various religious orders were strong rivals for power, influence and followers and for the most lavish of Churches. And the prize for the most over-the-top would definitely go to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) whose Church was probably the most richly decorated in the new world - the inside literally covered from top to bottom in gold gilt.

While in Quito I also visited the Mitad del Mundo, the theme park dedicated to the Equator which passes just outside the city of Quito. As you might expect, it is TACKY and chocked full of souvenir shops and "tipico" restaurants. But getting a picture taken with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere is just too irresistible for even the most cynical of travellers. And so I did. I later learned, however, that the line is actually about 250 feet off the mark.

I enjoyed my time in Quito despite its reputation for petty crime and the need to be very cautious when moving around after dark. The one incident in my whole South American adventure occurred when I was the proposed victim of the famous "paint on the knapsack" scam. This involved a 40-something year old man pointing out to me that I had paint dripping off my knapsack, apparently from workmen painting overhead. He immediately tried to help me clean up, at which time I became suspicious and ran to the other side of the street. The goal, it appeared, was to obscond with said knapsack. Otherwise I had a pleasant stay in Quito before embarking to Ecuador's shining jewel, the Galapagos Islands.

I expected the Galapagos Islands to be a major highlight of this trip and it did not disappoint. Getting to Galapagos requires a 2 hour flight from Quito via Guayaquil. We arrived at a chaotic scene at the hopelessly overcrowded airport on Baltia Island where the army is entrusted with moving passengers by bus to boats to get to the main town on another island. This chaos followed the most amazing luggage dispensing operation I have ever seen. Mounds of luggage from several different flights were simply dumped in a large pile in the midle of the airport, requiring passengers to climb through it and pull out their bags. It was definitely an inauspicious beginning.
But once we got to Santas Cruz the main port town and boarded Zodiacs to get to our boat things improved immeasurably. The boat for my upgraded GAP Adventures cruise was the brand new 16 passenger Queen Beatriz, a lovely catamaran with spacious cabins and decks and an outdoor jacuzzi. We settled into our cabins and were welcomed by Liz the Cruise Director and Jaime, the naturalist who would guide us through excursions on 5 different islands over the next 5 days. Jaime also turned out to be a not-so shabby guitarist and singer, entertaining us with Latin American folk music almost every evening. The 16 passengers hailed from the UK, Australia, the US and Canada and were an interesting and fun lot. My initial fears of being confined to a boat with 15 strangers were put to rest and we all got on famously.

My appreciation of the Galapagos was aided immeasurably by the book The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner, loaned to me by David and Toni from Berkeley, California. It recounts much about Darwin's time on the Galapagos, instrumental in his development of the theory of natural selection, but focuses primarily on the American couple, Peter and Rosemary Grant. This incredible couple, now in their 70s have been coming to one island in the Galapagos every year since the early 1970s to document changes in the finches of that island. Their detailed work has effectively provided the hard evidence to prove Darwin's theories. The book greatly enriched my time on the islands.

I will not attempt to describe all that we saw and the impression it made on me. Suffice it to say that the Galapagos Islands were as magical as I had hoped for. We saw an enormous range of wildlife, both on land and underwater, all of it with no apparent fear of human beings. Above land on several of the islands we saw large numbers of land and marine iguanas, the brightly coloured sally lightfoot crabs, and sea lions lounging on beaches and even on the platform of our boat. A highlight was seeing Lonesome George at the Dawwin Research Foundation, the last remaining of his species of giant tortoise. Prince Charles and Camilla had been photographed with George just 2 days before our arrival.Underwater, during our various snorkelling trips, we spotted massive schools of fish which provide food for the sea lions, which we also saw swimming underwater. We also glimpsed a couple of types of sharks near the bottom as well as sea turtles, manta rays and stingrays, and birds, including penguins, diving for fish.

The blue-footed boobies, entertained us with their mating dance where the males preen in front of prospective mates by lifiting each foot in turn in a type of mating dance. It was quite comical to watch. We also spotted a rare red-footed booby and several male frigate birds who puff out their brilliant red chest in their effort to entice a female to matrimony.

The story of the Galapagos is also the story of the volcanic islands themselves which are each at different stages of development of their ecosystems. The fragility of it all was readily apparent. For example, our guide Jaime pointed out several penguins on one of the islands but noted that 20 years ago there were many more. The warming of the ocean during the El Nino of the early 1980s meant the loss of food supply for penguins, resulting in the disappearance of most of them. They have yet to recover. The huge number of visitors now coming to the Galapagos also multiplies the risk of harmful diseases or organisms damaging these fragile ecosystems.

After several days on the Queen Beatriz I left Galapagos with some new friends, a bit of a sunburn from the hot Equatorial sun, and a new appreciation of the beauty and wonder of this incredible place and of its importance to the history of science. I also kind of liked cruising the South Pacific on a fancy yacht!