Epic Detour

Well, here I am, almost at the end of the first leg of this Epic Detour. I'm into my fourth day in Buenos Aires, and it's been a very enjoyable start to the trip. B.A. is a huge, very metropolitan city. I was expecting something a lot more third world and impoverished, but here you have pretty much every convenience you need. The cliche that it's more like a European city (many say Paris) rings true for me, although the street layout reminds me a lot of New York.

I spent the first couple of nights in a hotel to try to get over some mild jet lag, and get a good night's sleep after the 18 hour flight (we got an extra 2 hours, as they heard a "loud banging" coming from the freight compartment in London before take off, and had to wait for them to check it out. Turned out it was some loose freight, so it was probably a good thing they found it). The hotel was nice enough, although I had to move rooms after the first night, as my original room flooded. Luckily, nothing important (e.g. laptop) got wet.

Yesterday, I moved into a very social hostel down the road. Made plenty of friends here, and we went to the pub last night to watch Argentina play Brazil in a World Cup qualifier. The home team lost, but the locals here seemed to take it pretty well, even though it means they might not qualify for the WC. Pretty different to the response New Zealanders have to the ABs losing.

I guess they have good taste in music in BA

I spent today wandering through the Sunday markets, which are massive (actually, I think I've seen enough market stalls for the rest of the trip). But there were plenty of street performers (the guy doing a tango with a dummy was a highlight) and had a huge steak for lunch.

Tomorrow I have another long flight to Quito, Ecuador (slightly strange route, I know, but that's down to some somewhat poor planning), before heading off to the Galapagos for a boat cruise.

Photos to come soonish.

written by

Sam_C on September 6 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina

from the travel blog: Epic Detour

Send a Compliment

1 comment...

Quito, Ecuador

Park in Quito

I arrived in Quito late at night after a long flight from Buenos Aires. The flight actually went by fairly quickly, and I had a bit of a chat with an Ecuadorian guy sitting next to me (some of it was even in Spanish!).

View from the hostel

I got up early the next day to have a look around the city. But first, I had breakfast at the hostel, which has an outdoor terrace with an amazing view of the city (see the photos). Quito is about 2800 metres high, and is surrounded by even higher peaks, so there are plenty of views to be had. The old town has plenty of architecture, and a chilled out feel. A lot more South American than B.A. And despite it's reputation, I feel completely safe walking around the streets, and there's a surprisingly small amount of hassle.

View from TeleferiQo

I was a bit worried that I'd run out of things to do here, as I'm in Quito for 6 nights (I usually find most cities get boring after 3 or 4 days, if you're lucky), but that hasn't been a problem. Other than just chilling out in one of the parks, there's heaps of stuff to do, like the TeleferiQo, which is a 2.5km cable car, going to a peak about 4100m high. Needless to say, the views are stunning.

The hostel I'm in is another good one, very social, and they serve dinner, which is pretty convenient (and probably a bit healthier than most other cheap options). The only worry is everything (including beer) goes on a tab, so it might be pretty expensive when I cash up. Still, I'm starting to think my daily budget is a lot more than most other people's, (and probably more than I need).

The town is safe, but the guy with shotguns probably help that

Today has been the best day so far weather wise, sunny and around 20 degrees. I'd heard there was a festival in a park near the hostel, so I walked up the couple of hundred steps (not easy at altitude!) to have a look. I was expecting some sort of folk or traditional music, but instead discovered it was a heavy metal festival! The setup was good – it could have been a festival in any western country, except that it was free to get in, and no alcohol served. All the bands were locals, and everyone was wearing Metallica and Iron Maiden t-shirts. Who knew there was a metaller scene in Ecuador? I didn't stay too long, but did watch a bit of the moshing action, which ended up in one guy getting stretchered off by an ambulance crew. Not the sort of thing I was expecting to find in Quito, but definitely interesting.

I've now got one more day in Quito before another flight, leaving at stupid o'clock. But since this one is to the Galapagos, I think I can handle it. I've got an 8 day boat cruise, and then another couple of days on the islands before flying back to mainland Ecuador. You're unlikely to hear much from me until then. Everyone I've met who's been has said it was their highlight of South America. Expectations now unreasonably high.

written by

Sam_C on September 11 from Quito, Ecuador

from the travel blog: Epic Detour

Send a Compliment

comment on this...

Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

A blue footed boobie posing for the papparizzi

In my last post, I said my expectations were unreasonably high for visiting the Galapagos. But there was nothing to worry about, there was no way I could have been let down. It's pretty hard to put an experience like that into words, but if I was going to sum it up, I'd say it was a real life wildlife documentary. No exaggeration.

I guess most of you know at least a bit about the Galapagos (if not, watch a documentary, now!). Yes, the animals have no fear of humans, especially away from the larger settlements. Yes, the whole place is crawling with life, you have to be careful not to step on any. Yes, you can get within a metre of the animals, sometimes a lot closer (altho you can't touch them). Yes, the impact of even the small amount of humans living there is obvious. Yes, there are too many people visiting the islands. Yes, I was lucky to go when I did, as the entrance fee is doubling, and the numbers are being restricted next year. Yes, Charles Darwin visited on the Beagle, and ate turtles. And tied marine iguanas to rocks to see how long they could hold their breath underwater (about an hour, for the record).

The Amigo, where I spent 8 days crusing around the islands

I spent most of my time on the islands on the "Amigo", a smaller boat with a capcity of 16 passengers. For the first few days it was full. I forked out for the full 8 day tour (which is really 6 + 2 half days), which was not cheap. The other passengers were a fairly deverse lot, but all interesting people. Each night, we'd motor to a new destination (which was usually rough enough to require sea sickness pills), and in the morning, have breakfast and jump in the dingy (or "panga") to do an excursion to one of the islands. Our guide "Pepe" was a local (quite rare, a lot of the people working there are acutally from the mainland), and explained a lot to us about the wildlife. Most of the excusions were packed with animals, and we'd spend a lot of time just observing their behavour.

A couple of blue footed boobies doing a mating dance.

The blue footed boobies were one of the most interesting to watch - they do a mating dance where they move their feet up and down, slowly and rhytmically, and then raise their wings in the air in unison (see photo). They also spend a long time preparing their nest, collecting the right sticks, etc - another important ritual for them. Besides their striking blue feet, they also hunt in a spectacular way, by dive-bombing into the water - straight down - from a good 10 meters high. They often do this in groups - it's awesome to watch. I never thought I could be so interested in an odd-looking bird!

A turtle comes up for air...

After the land excusions we'd often do some snorkelling. I was a little nervous the first time, as I hadn't done a lot of snorkelling, and our first go was a deep water one (directly from the panga) and with a strong current. But I jumped in, and it was amazing! Plenty of fish, good visibility, a bit cold but well worth it. As I left, a Sea Lion swam right up to me, and circled around me, looking right into my face as if it was expecting me to play with him.

Marine Iguana swiming in the surf... humans are not allowed to swim here, but Iguanas are very good swimmers

Another of my favourites are the marine iguanas - they're evolved from land iguanas, which arrived on the islands millions of years ago, but adapted to find food underwater (mainly algae). But they still look more or less like land creatures, and it's odd to see them swimming and diving, sometimes in strong surf.

It's especially cool when you get to see them while snorkelling. Not to mention the variety of fish, turtles, penguins, eagle rays and sharks. Well, I didn't get to see a shark personally while snorkelling (other people did), but at one point the ship's cook threw some food over the side, and a white tipped shark (a metre and a half in length) surfaced to snatch it. (By the way, the food on board was excellent).

A juvenile frigate bird gives us a show when trying to fly into a headwind, going no where. We took photos as he hovered above us.

A few other brief highlights: seeing frigate birds court (the males puffing up their red chest), seeing turtles mating in the middle of the sea (it takes several hours, and the female has to swim for both of them), being harrassed by mockingbirds for water on the beach, seeing the boat swarmed by frigate birds, pelicans and fish on a daily basis as they picked up our food scraps (not sure if that's a breach of park rules or not), and seeing day old baby sea lions.

A Galapagos penguin... they would swim with us when we were snorkelling

We also saw the world's second largest albatross. Apparently, New Zealand has the largest, the wandering albatross. Something I didn't know, much to the disgust of our guide. I was also ignorant of the fact that New Zealand has the smallest penguin (the Galapagos is the second smallest): the blue penguin. Remember these facts, and if you ever go, you can be sure to impress your guide.

Marine Iguanas hanging out

Actually, visiting the Galapagos made me realise how a lot of people must feel when they visit New Zealand - a once in a life time opportunity. The natural history of the two is fairly similar - humans only arrived in NZ 1000 years ago, so the wildlife must have been similar in a lot of ways, and some of the remnants of that are still around today. I guess it's true way they say about travel making it easier to appreciate where you come from.

About half way through the cruise, all the other passengers got off, as they were only doing 5 days, or finishing up their 8 day stint. The new arrivals were a Swiss family who were spending a year volunteering in Ecuador, a young Canadian couple, and a girl from Malaysia - Premala. Although the first group were really cool, I really clicked with the smaller group, and had a lot of fun.

At the end of the trip, the Canadians, Premala and me all got off in Puerto Ayora (the largest town in the Galapagos, about 12,000 population) rather than going straight to the airport, as was usual. I had a couple more days to fill in before flying back, and it was cool to hang out with them - a few days on a boat had turned us into best mates.

Tortises

The next day, the Candians flew to the mainland, Premala went diving (she got to see hammerheads!), and I took a trip up to the lava caves, a 1 km long tunnel. I had a somewhat confusing conversation with the guy in charge there, where I think he was asking if I wanted the electric lights turned off. I didn't know there even were any, and even if I did, why I would want them turned off - the whole thing was a bit beyond my Spanish. In the end, the lights stayed on - probably a good thing, as there were parts of the cave where the rocks had fallen off the roof and you had to clamber over them. Still, it was very cool.

Beautiful Beach, sheltered by mangroves

So, after 10 days in the Galapagos, I had to fly back to the mainland, where I'm attempting to adjust to "normal" travelling. It was a pretty amazing experience, one of the best places I've ever been. I'd love to go back one day - I only hope the conservation efforts are enough to preserve it. It's one of the last places in the world that can still be saved.

So I'm now in Guayaquil (which I'll blog about another day). I'm itching for some beach time, so planning to head into Peru shortly to find some.

Check out all the photos here: http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoBrowse.aspx?UserID=8478

written by

Sam_C on September 21 from Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

from the travel blog: Epic Detour

Send a Compliment

1 comment...

Chiclayo, Peru

Malecon (Waterfront) at Guayaqil

I arrived in Guayaquil late afternoon after a delayed flight from the Galapagos. It was a bit of a shock to be back in a big city (Guayaquil is 2 million people). The fact that the hostel was pretty empty, and a bit out of the way probably didn't help. I wasn't too interested in staying there, other than to do laundry (which I didn't get done in the end, because of the laundries wanting to take forever to get it back to me), and to chill out.

That said, I figured I'd take the $0.25 bus ride into town and have a look around. The hostel's not far from the centre, and I'd just jumped on the bus, when we came across a gang of about ten police in camo gear who pulled the bus over. One of them got on board and announced something to the passengers which I couldn't understand. I soon figured it out when all the men started leaving the bus. We were lined up, our bags checked and given a light pat down. I think they were really just making their presence felt, rather than doing anything actually useful. I could imagine the civil rights outcry if the police attempted anything like this in a western country.

I left Guayaquil, wanting to head into Peru, aiming to get to Mancora, a beach-side town, and mandatory Gringo stop. Unfortunately, that meant traversing what's supposed to be the worst border in South America, with a gap of a couple of kms between countries which is a lawless no-mans land. But after doing a bit of research and talking to a guy in the hostel (a professional poker player from the US who'd been living in Peru for a year), I decided it was fine if I got a bus all the way, rather than just to the border - having to get across the border myself - which is what most of the cheaper companies offered.

Mancora Beach

I got to the station at around 11am, but couldn't find anything to Mancora till late in the afternoon. Instead I booked a bus to Tumbes, just the other side of the border and en route to Mancora. I figured I could either stay the night there, or find another bus to complete the journey. We crossed the border safely enough, only having to get off to get stamps from the Ecuadorian and Peruvian authorities. I was glad to pass through no-mans land in the safety of the bus. Actually it was only myself and another woman who crossed – the bus had been full (including the entire aisle) for parts of the trip, but we were the only two who hadn't got off in Ecuador.

Sunset at Los Organos

As we arrived at Tumbes, we were greeted by several guys trying to get us to into their taxis, stay at their hotels, or take their buses to the next town. I attempted to ignore them by walking off, but as we hadn't arrived anywhere near the centre of town, I walked in completely the wrong direction. It was dark by this stage, and as I walked back towards the bus office (where the men were still waiting for me), the other woman who'd been on board called me over. She'd obviously taken pity on me, and had found a safe taxi driver (vetted by the bus office – something I probably should've done in hindsight). Her name was Jenny, a Peruvian with decent English, who was on her yearly holiday. She was also heading to Mancora, so we found a bus and spent the next two hours practising our respective second languages (although admittedly there was a lot more English than Spanish spoken).

I hung out with Jenny for a day in Mancora, and the next beach along Los Organas, where she had some friends. We ended up at their house, watching (inexplicably) home videos of their son's christening from 10 years ago (actually, I think they were wanting to show me some of Arequipa). Later, they drove us to watch the sun set, where they insisted on taking several photos of me posing with the sun in my hand, behind my head, etc. etc. Jenny had to leave that night, so we exchanged details (I think I've got a free tour guide when I get to Arequipa), and said our goodbyes.

Jenny and me at Los Organos

Beach at Pimentel, near Chiclayo

I stayed another day in Mancora in another good hostel, trying not to get sun burnt. A lot of people stay there for more than a week, but I needed to push on (I've got a date with the Inca Trail), so I got a bus down to Chiclayo. There's not too much to see there (other than a day trip to a beach, which was nice although a bit windy), but it was a reasonable stopping point before heading to Chachapoyas, where there's at least one ruined city I wanted to check out. Plus I still hadn't managed to get any laundry done, and this situation was beginning to get desperate.

a travel blog by Sam_C

London, United Kingdom

Off the mark

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina

High on Quito

Quito, Ecuador

Galapagos

Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

Guayaquil, Ecuador

Mancora, Peru

Guayaquil, and on to Peru

Chiclayo, Peru

Trujillo, Peru

Huaraz, Peru

Lima, Peru