Steffi & Chris

I’m back in business! I have been off the blog for some time now. It’s not because of that this blog entry more looks like a novel :) It’s because it’s Galapagos!

I had seen it on Animal Planet. I had read about it in National Geographic. It’s nothing like TV. It’s so unbelievably much better.

We thought we would have to plan the trip to Galapagos in every detail so we wouldn’t leave it broke. But somehow everything just sorted itself out for us and we got lucky, real lucky.

We arrived in Baltra, Galapagos, at noon on the 2nd of January. We started by checking out different hostels and found out that the oldest hostel was the cheapest. I have taught Chris well who haggled the price down to 15 dollars for a double room w/ bathroom per night. Very cheap considering it’s Galapagos.
That day we just wandered around the island, watching sea lions steal fish from the fishermen and checking out some dive shops for diving on the next day.

On the way to the dive spot the following day I was scared of getting sea sick. Unlike Chris I’m not used to the ocean.
We dove two times and got to see hammerhead sharks, white tip sharks, a turtle and lots of big schools of fish.
Before the first dive when the first group of divers was going in, the sea got extremely rough (which my stomach couldn’t handle) so I got a sea sickness tablet. It helped a lot although they also work as a sleeping pill so I slept like a baby the 1 hour ride back.

The following day it was time for our cruise. We met up with the group and went on a tour around the island of Santa Cruz having a sort of tortoise theme.

We saw several giant tortoises in the wild. There is now a healthy population of about 3000-4000 giant tortoises on Santa Cruz but it hasn’t always been like that. Before when the pirates and the whalers were the only ones using the islands they used to take the tortoises for food since they can go up to one year without food or water. One whaler could take up to 500 tortoises on board which they would put upside down to keep as food stock. A very slow and cruel death.

Diego

After that we went to the Charles Darwin Station where they keep old pets that they confiscated when the National Park was started. One of these pets is Lonesome George, the last remaining of his species.
One of the other tortoises at the Station was Diego, a tortoise which is the father of almost 2000 turtles. It was obvious he was tired of all the love making.

After the visit to the Station we went on board on our floating home for the next 5 days. Everything was polished, the staff was wearing suits and it was just top notch.
We were shown to our cabin and found two pieces of chocolate on our pillow. That if anything is luxury! Let me remind you that thanks to our last-minute-deal we paid less than a third of the price of what the other people paid on the boat.

We met the other people on the boat and to our surprise we found two other young adults. We were expecting nothing but retired Americans so it was definitely a happy surprise.
We were joined on the cruise by Amanda from Alaska (who by the way owns a really cool trailer called Shazam) and Andy from Switzerland who were the ones we hung out with the most.
We also had Betty, a cool lady from Canada, who was traveling alone and loved telling stories. There were a typical British couple, a German couple and one American couple and a very rich and conservative ex US-congressman with his wife.
After a while it was time for dinner and champagne. I started feeling a bit sick but unfortunately it wasn’t because of too much champagne. I went down to the cabin to get a seasickness pill and then spent the rest of the night with Chris, Amanda and Andy playing cards.

Getting a tan

The next day in the morning we woke up at Plazas to the sound of barking sea lions (It sounds like they’re about to throw up). Plazas are two beautiful islands with colors of red, green, blue and black only inhabited by animals. We saw iguanas, marine iguanas and loads of sea lions. One of the first things we noticed was the smell of the sea lions and how totally handicapped but cute they look on land. All the rocks were dotted by hundreds of red Sally Lightfoot crabs. The marine iguanas are endemic to Galapagos and are the species that has changed the most through evolution of all the animals that once came to the islands.

We got back to the boat to eat some snacks and moved to our next stop, Santa Fe, where we did our first snorkeling at the Galapagos. We saw white-tip reef sharks, eagle rays and golden cow rays. Suddenly the water got really cold because of a current coming from the open sea.
I had no problem at all with that since there were about ten sea lions playing there. A young sea lion was playing with a feather and dropped it in front of me. I took it and two seconds later a huge sea lion swims past me staring me deeply into my eyes. I had met the Alpha male.
Totally amazed by the encounter, it was time to get back on the boat to go ashore on Santa Fe, an island which is close to Plazas but completely different. The colors were now brown, white, green and blue. As we were walking on the island a hawk was soaring by and we hoped it would get a better look. The hawk must have read our mind because the next second he landed right next to us.

When we came back to the boat we spotted a big school of eagle rays so Chris and I decided to join them. Three minutes later we’re swimming with 40 of them! We could even swim down having them all around us and they didn’t mind at all. The feeling was indescribable. They really look like creatures from a fable and somewhat like birds, therefore the name eagle rays.

The following day we had arrived at a new island called Espanola, an island that is basically uninhabitable for humans because there is no fresh water source.
We first walked along a beautiful long white beach where sea lions were busy sunbathing, talking and taking their silly morning walk. A completely sand covered sea lion ran up to me from nowhere and surprised me and even though you tried to keep the 2 meter distance to the animals which are the National Parks rules the animals kept breaking them. Not that we minded too much =)

Chris sat down on the beach to relax and shortly a little Espanola Mocking Bird appeared. The same species Charles Darwin had as a base when he created his theory of evolution. This bird has learned that tourists carry bottles and these bottles contain fresh water so as Chris was sitting down the bird had noticed his water bottle in his pocket. A moment later the mocking bird stood next to it trying to pry the lid open with its beak.
We also saw beautiful marine iguanas with red patterns and a bird with a really, I mean really, long red beak.
After that it was time to snorkel again. We spotted a hieroglyphic hawk fish which is endemic to the Galapagos, big schools of fish and also a sea lion which Chris and I played with for what felt like an eternity.
We went back ashore on Espanola but this time on the other side of the island. There we saw the famous blue-footed booby. The name “booby” comes from the Spanish term bobo, which means stupid/clown, since it’s very clumsy on land.
We also saw marine iguanas, nasca boobys, lizards and some more sea lions. This time another rule breaking sea lion pup tried to get into my lap.

We were lucky enough to see the albatrosses which come here to mate and nest.
The male always comes first to the island and although they only have one partner their whole life, the male always tries to find another female before his “precious” comes back. Therefore the males always get into fights with other males. This means that almost 25% of the offspring are bastards.
The albatross is a huge bird with a wingspan of about 2.3m and usually they need a long runway to takeoff either water or a clear field but because of Espanolas high vertical cliffs and the strong wind that come from the south east they are able to take off by just jumping of the cliff.

Next day we went ashore on Floreana which is best known for its mystical history. In the 1930's a German dentist and his mistress, a young family (the Wittmer family who still live on the island) and a self-styled BDSM inspired baroness with her three men came to settle in the island. Shortly after the baroness and her lovers arrived chaos began.
The baroness and her entourage terrorized the other inhabitants while planning to build a luxury hotel.
Eventually the baroness, two of her lovers and the dentist all turned up missing or dead. There has been much investigation searching for what really happened on Floreana, but there have never been any hard answers.
Floreana is also famous for its Post Office Barrel which British whalers established in 1793 to send letters to and from England. This tradition has continued over the years, and visitors may drop off and pick up letters, without stamps, to be carried to far destinations. We picked four postcards all addressed to Stockholm and left two. We’ll see if they arrive!

Next we went ashore on the olive green beach where we got to see flamingos up close. The flamingos get their pink color from the shrimps which they in turn get from the alges. On the beach there were also turtles and small sting rays.
After that we went to snorkel at Devil’s Crown which is a collapsed volcanic crater. It was a lot of current which would normally attract a lot of sharks but we only saw one. I got to see my first turtle under water which was really cool.
We got back to the boat and it was time to prepare for a hasta la vista dinner since it was the last day. There were speeches and we thanked the crew. Then we had a really nice dinner together with wine.
We hanged out with everybody on the deck before going to sleep. Early the next day we went ashore on Bachas where we saw some more flamingos, turtles, crabs and marine iguanas.
On the way to our last destination we saw a huge and very polished ship cruising over the water with a black helicopter on it.
Then it was time to say good bye to everybody but Betty, who would also stay on the island for some more days.

We got back to our hostel and met up with Betty later for dinner. The following day it was time to dive again. We first dove at Gordon Rocks (hoping to see some more hammerheads) and then at North Seymore. I didn’t see any hammerhead this time (Chris did) but instead a beautiful enormous Manta ray with a wingspan of almost 4 meters which made my day and the dive worth every penny. He came really close and just cruised by.
We also saw turtles, spotted eagle rays, white-tip and black-tip reef sharks. The next dive we saw a huge hammerhead, a massive garden of garden eels and white-tips.
We met up with Betty again in the evening and went on a mega touristy bug train around town.

Enormous manta ray

Next day we went diving at Cousin’s Rock and near Bartolome. This time we actually had the navigator of the huge boat (that I mentioned earlier) on our small boat and he told us that the boat was actually owned by ONE guy, a Russian billionaire, which he and his family used for holidays. The 29 year old navigator did almost exactly what Chris wants to study so he happily told us about his job. The children, 13 and 19 years old, didn’t look forward to go to the Galapagos at all since all kinds of water sports are strictly forbidden. They weren’t allowed to use the helicopter they had onboard either which they usually only used to bring the family from the airport to the ship after they had landed in their private jet. Amazing how different lives some people lead… Here’s the link to the boat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_%28yacht%29

The first dive we saw a huge school of eagle rays, golden cow rays, tuna fish, hammerheads, white-tip sharks and sea lions playing in a cloud of fish. We ended up holding onto a ledge and just watching the show going on in front of us. Everybody loved it except a tiny black fish which kept on nibbling on my fingers.
Between the dives we got to snorkel and saw our first couple of penguins which Chris got to see swimming. I found a sea lion which I played with who stole my snorkel for more than a minute before he finally gave it back to me. Sea lions are in fact chubby comedians with whiskers.
The next dive we saw a beautiful little sea horse, sea lions, tuna, turtles, two white-tips that circled around us for 5 minutes, moray, puffer fish and lots more. The diversity of the marine life on Galapagos is as incredible as the life on the islands. I have never seen so many different animals in one single dive.
We went out to eat a goodbye dinner later that day with Betty since she was going to fly home the following day.
The next day was our last day at the Galapagos. It was cloudy and we were tired after an intense week so we decided to spend the last day on the beach doing nothing. A day that turned out to be a day we’ll never forget.

When we came to the beach there were no tourists only National Park personnel and Police men standing in the water with their clothes on. We asked one of them what was happening and he told us three dolphins had stranded.
They had been there since 6 am trying to save them but they just kept coming back. No one knew why they tried to commit suicide like this but probably because they were sick or old.
Now it was around 11 am and they had two dolphins left. We asked if they needed help and got a big YES. Chris and I were shown out to one of the dolphins which was then alone. The dolphin was about 3 m long and we held him until rescue came which was a small rubber boat.
The boat had a long rope made of sheets tied together and with that we tied it around the dolphin and towed it out into the deep water.
Now there were only one left but this one was in very rough water and when the boat came in to put the harness on it almost flipped because of the waves. Instead Chris and another volunteer dragged, pulled and swam with the dolphin to the calmer end of the beach 500 m away. When we got there the sea had gotten rough there as well and the boat was unable to come close enough.
The National Park decided that we would do one last try because sooner or later you just have to realize when to quit and let Nature have its way.
The last attempt was to carry the dolphin to a calm bay 100 m away. It took 15 strong and fully grown men to carry it. Not two as in the movie “Le Grande Bleu”.
On the way, the dolphin was really stressed and when we got to the bay you could feel its heartbeat really fast but it calmed down after a little while. The dolphin swam off and we didn’t see him again.
We thought we were done and started walking back but on the way we saw that one of the dolphins had returned and gotten stranded on some rocks. In one last effort, the National Park personnel decided that we should carry the bleeding dolphin to the calmer bay as well. In the end it swam off as well but it looked really weak and we don’t think he made it.

It was a rare experience both tragic and amazing. I never thought I would come that close to such a magnificent creature like a wild dolphin.

This was the BEST week of our lives!

Steffi

written by

Steffi & Chris on January 11, 2010 from Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

from the travel blog: 212 days

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We came to Otavalo after crossing the border early in the morning, we had heard allot of bad stuff about the border but it went without any problems what so ever. First we went to one hostel that was recommended in the guide book and it seemed nice but it didn’t have any good hangout areas so we weren’t really happy with it, so instead we went walking around town and the first thing Steffi did was buying a hammock for 8 dollars, I ended up buying one a little later and had to pay 50 cents more but after that we went looking for hostels and we found one that was really nice, about 4 dollars more expensive but they had a fire place and the rooms had a really nice and cozy feeling. So the next day we moved there instead.
This day we spent walking around town on our own fixing the Christmas presents to each other since we spend 24hours a day 7 days a week with each other it’s really hard to fix a present. So this day we had decided to just spend the whole day fixing stuff and we did, presents were bought packages were wrapped but even so the next day we were not quite done so also that day was spent on fixing stuff and wrapping the presents.

Merry Christmas

Finally the day had come Christmas Eve and instead of waiting until night we had decided to exchange gifts in the morning, also Steffi had a plan so the night before I had to take 2 mild sedatives so she would be sure of waking up before me and that I was going to sleep although she was fixing things in the room.
I woke up by Steffi pulling the blanket away of me, Christmas music started to play and at almost the same time Steffi shutting the door. So I was alone in the room and the first thing I saw was that in the window she had hung presents 3 of them to be precise and when I checked them one said “do not open until 6pm” and the other said “Open me now.”
So I opened it and my first present was a new string for my necklace, I thought this was it and that she would come back so I waited for a while, but no one came.
I went around looking at the hostel thinking maybe she had prepared breakfast but still nothing and so, as I got back I found that she had written “Merry Christmas” with candy cars (Ahlgrens bilar) on the nightstand and also a small note saying “ turn me around” and on the other side I found a small map leading me to the park and there I found Steffi sitting with another present (a small painting) and then also a clue to lead me back to the room and the final gift.
it was her moleskin (notebook) that she had taped up behind the mirror and in it I found drawings and a text that we would be doing a bungee jump together during the trip. It was the best Christmas present I have ever got and definitely a really unforgettable one. The bungee jumping is going to be a incredible experience!

For Steffi I had bought several gifts and then I had bought a bunch of Christmas tree balls and also table tennis balls that I painted and hung up in a bouquet of bougainvillea and so I made a small Christmas tree full of Christmas presents. It is quite hard to explain but it looked better than it sounds.

During the day Christmas Eve day that is we went bike riding together

having a moment with a tree

with a woman from Hawaii but born in France named Sunni. With her we went to a beautiful waterfall that the Indians use for some of their rituals. It is located in a nice spot with some protected forest around it and then we also rode down to the San Pablo lake, the biggest lake in Ecuador and it is also really nicely located between some huge mountains and small villages crawling down the mountain sides to the edge of the lake.
We went down to the shoreline were we met some children, and like so many other children the first thing they asked for was a gift for Christmas, meaning money usually. But none of us likes to give money to beggars and especially not kids so instead we took them on our bikes and gave them a ride on the beach and after that we had a nice connection and we got to talking to their parents. They had a beautiful home right on the shore and the man was working as a farmer but he told us that he was planning to open a hostel in their home, and with that location I don’t think it could be much more than a success story.

Un regalo por navidad

We went on riding our bikes and saw some angry looking kids blocking the road with a rope made of grass begging for a “Christmas gift” or they wouldn’t let us pass. They let us go anyways. Since we already had stayed longer than the time we had rented the bikes for we took a different road back that wasn’t quite as steep but on the other hand a bit longer, we went around the “mountain” instead of over it but as I and Steffi had stopped to take some pictures of a piglet and some ducks Sunni had found a pick-up willing to give us a lift back into town so we got there a lot quicker.
After we got back we met up with Stefanie and Berndt, some other people at the hostel and together we went out and had a Christmas dinner together.
After dinner we went back to the hostel and at this time Sunni had already left since she had decided to start doing some volunteering in the morning at a school close to the village. But the rest of us went on and we built a fire in the fireplace at the hostel and there we shared a bottle of rum, some coke and nachos. It was almost a perfect Christmas day.
On Christmas day we didn’t do much, we had planned to do a lot, like shopping at the market but we all felt the day before and didn’t do much at all instead.
Until night when we once again built a fire and this time we had a little barbecue with some sausages shared 5 bottles of wine and had a great evening once again.

The next day was a Saturday and every Saturday in Otavalo there is a animal market in the morning that both me and Steffi, Berndt and Stefanie wanted to check out so we went but I think we came there a little too late (7 in the morning) because all the bigger animals were sold and they only had the chickens and guinea pigs left. So we tired quite quickly and instead we went to the huge arts and crafts market that spread all over Otavalo center on Saturdays, I bought a hat and some gloves made of alpaca and I think that’s all we bought.
That night Stefanie and Berndt had found out about a cock fight in Otavalo and since it is a big part of the culture in Ecuador we went to see it. And it actually is as horrible as you can think, the fights last for a long time and it is just like one long bloody beating and both the cocks walk away with bleeding heads and almost hacked to death.

Cock fight

On the Sunday all 4 of us went horse riding for 3 hours in the mountains and it was absolutely amazing. Fantastic scenery with huge mountains and big canyons little rives flowing past and everything else is green, really really deep green. We thought that the ride would take us to some crater lakes that are quite close by but apparently we had misunderstood the information. But as compensation the guide took us to some medicinal springs where we got to bathe and cool down for a bit before we went back to the ranch so all in all we were very happy with our excursion even though it didn’t really end as we had thought.

After the horses we just went to the bus station and caught the first bus to Quito.

Bye bye

Chris

written by

Steffi & Chris on December 24, 2009 from Otavalo, Ecuador

from the travel blog: 212 days

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Trips:

Shorthand link:

The worlds most dangerous road

La Paz, Bolivia

The Amazon

Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

Isla del Sol

Isla del Sol, Bolivia

Lake Titicaca

Puno, Peru

Machu Picchu, NOT!

Cusco, Peru

Minimalistic in Lima

Lima, Peru

Mountains

Huaraz, Peru

Galapagos!

Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

New Year

Quito, Ecuador

Christmas

Otavalo, Ecuador

Heading South?