December 7th – 8th – Quito and Home

The final day of our trip dawned and our last piece of tourism proved to be somewhat of an anti-climax, as it was a trip up the TeleferiQo, a cable car running up the lower slopes of the nearest volcano to about 4000m. Unfortunately, the weather was against us, with cloud obscuring views up and down for most of the time. We also noticed the altitude, having spent the last week at sea level and although neither of us got a headache, we found the thinness of the air and the lack of oxygen a bit of a struggle. From the top of the cable car, it is possible to hike to the top of the volcano (<5500m) in about 4 hours but, even if the weather had not ruled that out, our failure to re-acclimatise to the altitude would have done anyway. A pity as, from what we could see, it would be a spectacular climb in good visibility.

Quite a lot had obviously been spent on the infrastructure, which included various shops and attractions, but apparently the initial interest from the locals had worn off and the whole place now had an unfortunate aura of neglect and decay (reminiscent of some English seaside resorts) , even though it was all only 5 years old at the most.

The cable car itself was also working at reduced speed, owing to the electricity cuts that were a common feature of life in Ecuador during our stay. This was due to the lateness of the rains in the Andes and the consequent effect on the hydro-electric stations which make up a large part of the country’s power generation. Although understandable, it still seemed odd in a country which produces large quantities of oil to have regular power cuts for several hours a day in major cities (today’s was for 4 hours, and we also experienced cuts in Cuenca and Guayaquil). The politicians seem to prefer to export oil, and subsidise the price of petrol, rather than to use it for power generation. Not surprisingly, standalone diesel powered generators had become the biggest selling product this year.
We then had a final lunch of prawn ceviche, at a restaurant recommended by William, where the self-service set-up was more than compensated by the quality of the food, and the number of locals there was further evidence of its reputation.

After packing and final souvenir shopping we had a walk round the main square before dinner in the hope of seeing the Virgin Mary on El Panecillo illuminated by the Christmas lights we had seen being prepared on our visit three weeks before. Alas, the power cuts had also taken their toll on the VM who was visible but with no special lights. So it seems the god of electricity makes no special favours for anyone, however blessed.

We bade a fond farewell to William at the airport – despite some slightly irritating idiosyncracies, he has become a good friend as well as an enormous source of information about all aspects of life in Ecuador. We are planning to send him a surprise present when we get back – a Spurs shirt for his young son!

So now on our way back home after a truly memorable trip. The original itinerary, planned many months ago has stood up pretty well to the test of real experience and we both feel that there is not much we would, even with the benefit of hindsight, have changed. We have relished experiencing a small part of South America at first hand and are happy to leave other parts, particularly Argentina, for another visit. We both return with our eyes opened (at least to the extent that tourism will allow) to a part of the world and a culture and language that we have only recently come to know. We have seen wildlife of a kind we have never seen before and in an environment which is unique in the truest sense of that word. For us, this trip has been a one-off opportunity and we do not feel we have missed many (if any) tricks. But nearly eight weeks away is a long time and we are looking forward immensely to being reunited with family and friends (not to mention pets), sharing our experiences with them and hopefully not boring them too much with our huge collection of photos. This has been an experience that will live with us for the rest of our lives and we bring back with us many fond memories as well as a taste for some more travel to exotic places in the not too distant future.

Ricardo & Susanita
8 December 2009

November 30th – December 6th – Galapagos

The grand finale was now here. We picked up the flight from Quito at Guayaquil’s impressively modern airport. An hour and a half later we were circling San Cristobal, the most easterly of the Galapagos islands. On getting off the bus after a 5 minute ride, we immediately saw sea lions lying around, not only on the beach, but also in the street, under a shelter. As the adjacent sign stated, SC is the “capital of paradise”, and it had made a good start in justifying that claim.

We were quickly on board the “Letty” with our 15 companions for the week (6 British, 2 German and 7 Americans), 2 guides plus about 11 crew and found our cabin on the upper deck and with an ensuite bathroom – not something which we had become accustomed to on our previous seafaring experiences. After lunch and briefing, we motored round the corner to a bay where we disembarked into inflatable dinghies for the beach. There were found more sea lions basking in the sunshine and totally unconcerned about the presence of humans. We were also given the opportunity to snorkel, although this proved to be quite challenging due to strong under currents from the beach (one of which knocked S right over) as well as equipment which needed quite a bit of adjustment to fit and work properly. But the sea lions more than made up for the snorkelling.

Our 2 guides were Orlando, an old hand who first came to the islands in 1974, and respectfully called “El Comandante” by the other guides we met, and Maria Gabriella (Maria or Gabi) younger but still very knowledgeable. They made a good combination, alternating presentations each evening before dinner on aspects of the islands and their wildlife, as well as a briefing on the next day’s activities.

We also met the Captain, a dashing man in his late 30s who entertained a different group of passengers at his table each evening. We were invited on the first evening and he arrived dressed in white, looking like someone who had just stepped off the set of “An Officer and a Gentleman”. He was suitably charming and all round we felt in safe hands for our voyage in paradise.

Dinner also revealed the presence of another English lawyer on board, a young solicitor with Allen & Overy who was on honeymoon. More interestingly, he turned out to be a Spurs supporter, while his new wife favoured the red side of North London – we explained that we now had similar splits of loyalty within our own (growing) family.

Also at dinner was another English couple who had experienced a nightmare with LAN Airways, who had managed to get them from Cusco to Guayaquil the night before the flight to SC, but without their luggage. They had to go emergency shopping in SC before boarding the boat, but would not be expecting to be reunited with their luggage until Day 5. LAN seemed to have behaved particularly badly, given that it was their cancellation of a flight and the delay of another which had caused the separation of the baggage from its owners.

One interesting aspect of life on board was that the Letty kept mainland Ecuador time. We realised that this was probably to ease the pain of being woken up at 6.00am each morning for breakfast at 6.30 and disembarkation at 7.15 for the first morning activity. Somehow 7.00/7.30 and 8.15 seemed so much more civilised.

The itinerary was designed so that most of the sailing between the islands was done overnight, so we woke up on Day 2 more than 70 miles to the north of SC, having crossed the equatorial line. We were at Genovesa, a tiny and uninhabited island, which only the smaller boats are allowed to visit. We landed in the inflatables and set off in 2 groups for a walk from the beach in the bay to the outer edge of the island and back. At virtually every step we were able to see birds at very close quarters, none of whom thought it necessary to move a muscle because of our presence. We saw numerous frigates, boobies (red as well as blue footed), mockingbirds, and storm petrels. It was an extraordinary experience not to have birds flying away at the first sign of human beings. Lunch on board was followed by a siesta (a welcome part of the daily routine) and then a choice of either snorkelling or a hike – S was concerned that the snorkelling was going to prove challenging again but this time it was off the boat instead of from the beach and the prospect of sea lions was too tempting – a decision she did not regret as, as soon as she got into the water and immersed herself, she was confronted by two sea lions playing underneath her and blowing bubbles in her face – a wonderful experience. The wonders of the undersea world were many, fish of many colours, sea stars (looking like chocolate chip cookies) so much to see that it quite took your breath away.

The remaining days contained so many highlights it is impossible to list them all, most days would involve both snorkelling either off the boat or from the beach and a hike on land (either wet or dry landing) – by far the “best” day snorkelling was on the Wednesday when snorkelling near the island called interestingly “Chinese Hat” owing to its resemblance to the same, we saw within the space of five minutes penguins, two enormous rays, numerous coloured fish and a sea lion chasing and nibbling the back fin of a white tipped shark (the latter seen only by S, but R was rewarded the following day by several close encounters with another WTS). The snorkelling throughout was outstanding and with so many fish visible so close to the water surface, scuba diving seemed unnecessary. The sea lions were completely different in the water, ungainly out of it, but full of grace and athleticism in it, and it was a real privilege to share their environment, even only for a short time.

We also visited Bartolome – generally regarded as the most beautiful land and seascape in the islands and the site of some of the filming of “Master & Commander”, which apparently did not involve any relaxation of the regulations of the national park. We were rewarded with fine weather and stunning views for our visit and snorkelling there, including another sighting of a shark as well as a huge ray (some debate on precise species, but either a manta or a stingray).

On land we enjoyed really close proximity to marine and land iguanas, blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, doves, gulls, Darwin’s finches and of course had endless opportunity to interact with sea lions. We also visited the island of Santa Cruz where we journeyed into the highlands to see giant tortoise in the wild, a species which is in danger of extinction as are several other species in the Galapagos and were taken to the Darwin Centre to see more tortoises and where they have a breeding programme to help prevent the loss of some of the sub-species of tortoise that exist on the islands. This is also where the tortoise “lonesome George” is found, the search for a female mate for him continues as he is the last of his sub-species – unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen as he was hiding in the undergrowth when we visited.

Our last day was spent on the island of Espanola – firstly on a beautiful white beach where in addition to the obligatory sea lions we observed oyster catchers and also the hooked mocking-bird who were very friendly – too friendly in fact as they tried to get to our water bottles having been encouraged to do so by tourists in the past.

After lunch and our final snorkel in underwater paradise we did a two hour hike on the island, again seeing many “tame” birds and also many young ones, S was very proud to show the rest of the group a Nazca booby sitting not on an egg as she had supposed but on a chick that was only a couple of days old. We also found the endangered albatross there, youngsters of about 6 months who stay on the island until they can fly and then launch themselves off the cliff when they have found their wings. There was also a spectacular “blow hole” off the beach which we could witness from above but could not get closer owing to a tragic accident in which two tourists died a few years ago. The hole was in fact the narrow opening in the rock above a large cavern into which waves crashed and the pressure of the water created a spout which sometimes went 10m or so into the air. The accident apparently resulted from a visitor standing over the hole and then being knocked into it by a spout with he and another couple of tourists who sought to rescue him being trapped in the cavern beneath the hole.

Then it was back on board for our final supper, cocktail with the Captain, guides and the rest of the crew before going on deck to witness our arrival back in San Cristobal around 10pm and our last night on board.

We have also been fortunate with our group of companions for the week. All the other 15 were pleasant company over dinner or to share a hike or snorkelling expedition. There was a female majority – 12 to 5 – with most of the females being older than us and having parted company in some way (either choice or nature) with their male partners. Although we thought our alcohol consumption during the week was fairly modest, for the first few days we had the only open tab at the bar and even though the rest of the party did eventually start to indulge to some extent, we ended up with the largest bar bill by some margin. Some of this was shared with others, but curiously the concept of reciprocation seemed to get lost in translation with some.

Erika, a recently retired scientific researcher from MIT and originally from Germany, was initially interested in offering her services as a volunteer to the Darwin Research Centre, but received a rather cool reception from the people she spoke to there, probably because they favoured younger and Ecuadorian candidates. But it seemed a wasted opportunity for the centre to pick up some high powered help for nothing. Erika also had the capacity to surprise the rest of us, most notably when she went fully clothed into the sea to join the others who had gone swimming off a beach. R and Thomas (the German) had left their kit on the boat as had Erika, but she was not deterred from joining in – very impressive.

The experience on the Galapagos has been truly breath-taking, even though we (S particularly) always thought it would be the highlight of the trip for us, nothing could have quite prepared us for the proximity of the wildlife and their trust in us and we are returning enriched by the adventure and armed with our wonderful memories and countless photographs to edit on our return to the UK - the enchanted islands were exactly as they sound – simply enchanting.

Our return to Quito took all day and we were met by William and reunited with our belongings that we had left with him and the hotel.

November 26th – 29th – Cuenca & Guayaquil

Up early for a long drive (c400km) to Cuenca, via Ingapirca, the best of the few Inca remains left in Ecuador. This was a remarkable site, as the restoration process has been limited to cleaning the stones, but without any other reconstruction. So what is left has a feeling of authenticity about it which was really impressive, more so in some respects than the buildings in Machu Picchu, where we were told that about 60% of what you can see now has been restored and is not original. The cleaning of the stones on the main temple is so impressive that, from a distance, they look new and only close up is it possible to see that is not the case. The weather was also memorable as we arrived with very black clouds above and expecting a downpour at any moment. But in fact the sky cleared quickly and we did the tour in bright and hot sunshine, even at the end when the rain came down quite heavily. A day when William’s recommendation for any day in Ecuador (be prepared for 4 seasons in 1 day), certainly came true.

We arrived at our hotel (an impressive colonial mansion with a beautiful garden inhabited by humming birds) around 5.00. After dinner we found on TV the second half of “Master & Commander” which we had also caught in Spanish at La Cienega and whetted our appetites for our now impending visit to the Galapagos.

The next day we set off on foot with William for a tour of the old city of Cuenca. It has many impressive colonial buildings and we were also taken round a couple of local markets, giving us an opportunity to see daily life for the inhabitants. The cathedral was particularly impressive, not only for the statue of Pope JP 2, who made the first Papal visit in many years to South America, but also for the relative lack of opulence in the interior decoration. A lot of marble, some local and some imported from Italy, but only a small amount of gold leaf, and all used around the altar. A welcome contrast to the Jesuits’ church in Quito.

We came across a young local wearing an England football shirt. R was fascinated by this and why an Ecuadorian would choose to wear the shirt of the England national team (even an English club team would make more sense). When he said to William that he would love to ask why, William insisted that they went back down the street to ask. They duly did so and when R asked the young man why he was wearing the shirt, he was so surprised to be asked that all he could say (in Spanish) was “because I like it”! So aesthetics obviously play some part in football fans’ loyalties. R told him that his support would be rewarded by an England win in South Africa next year. NB Ecuador did not qualify so he was presumably looking for a team to support!

Over lunch, we managed to find a bank prepared to cash a travellers’ cheque, something strangely rare in Ecuador, even when the TC offered is American Express and in the local currency, ie the Dollar. Then off for the customary trip to the factory where they produce Panama hats, which are native to Ecuador. The name derives from the fact that they were first exported in large quantities for workers building the Panama canal. R managed to find one, thankfully at a more modest price than the $1,000 item that William showed us and then proceeded to drop on the floor. R was also plagued by clumsiness, dropping a belt on the floor which promptly fell apart and then knocked a hat stand onto the floor while inspecting the hat on which it stood.

We opted for dinner in the hotel and before that a cocktail in the bar. There were no other guests in the bar and the barman was keen to have some company so we had a good chat (en Espanol) both before and after dinner, when he offer us a free liqueur when we went to say goodbye. A really nice man who insisted on referring to R as “Doctor”, once he had discovered R’s profession and who also was kind enough to speak slowly and clearly enough that we were able to understand just about everything he said.
November 29th – Guayaquil

Off early for the final stage of our driving around mainland Ecuador, for the 200km from the Andes to the coast. Although it did not take that long (we arrived around 3.00pm) we were able to see the huge contrast in geography and climate between the mountains and the tropical coast. We stopped en route in the Cajas national park for a hike up to a lagoon in beautiful surroundings which were very reminiscent of Scotland, take away the odd llama, particularly so given the mist and cloud that was hugging the sides of the mountain and the boggy path which we had to walk. William, who had never been to Europe, found this concept rather difficult to comprehend, but was kind enough to laugh at R’s extension of his bad joke repertoire to the Spanish language: “What do you say to a llama, when you meet it – como se llama!” (PS He told us on our return to Quito that he had told it to some of his friends and they also thought it funny – but surely this ought to be one of the oldest jokes in any Andean country?)

Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city – bigger than Quito – and was hot and sticky. We ventured out and looked at the impressively refurbished waterfront and also looked for a copy of “El Comercio”, in whose Saturday travel supplement we were expecting to appear today. Finding anywhere selling newpapers proved to be a much more difficult exercise than we expected and took nearly half an hour of increasingly frustrated wandering and questioning, but finally we found a street vendor who was able to produce a copy from near the bottom of a pile. When we went back to the hotel, we of course found another paper stall just across the street! But we found the article and were able to see the picture of us and William sitting in the hotel lounge and to read some comments from and about R in much more fluent Spanish than he could have managed himself. Our 15 minutes of Warholian fame in Ecuador history!

November 21st - 25th Avenue of Volcanoes

Having left the cloud forest we started our journey towards the avenue of the volcanoes but firstly we visited the market at Otavalo which is said to be the largest market in the whole of South America. The way to Otavalo involved journeying back towards Quito and then to the north-east and we reached this pleasant town around midday with William “letting us off the leash” for a couple of hours to enjoy the many stalls and do some essential (in S’s case) souvenir shopping. After lunch here we continued to visit the village of Peguche home of the traditional weaving where we were given a demonstration of the different looms still used and where R modelled a poncho and woollen mask which of course resulted in some very amusing photos. Tempted by a wall hanging we then watched the final touches being put to our purchase involving sewing on tassles to the bottom and we are looking forward to seeing it in place in Saffron Walden in a couple of weeks’ time.

Our overnight stop was in a beautiful hacienda (Cusin) which is owned by an Englishman and his American wife, it is surrounded by beautiful gardens and was at one time a monastery which explained the numerous religious paintings and artefacts, we had dinner watched by a painting of Salome holding the head of John the Baptist! Before dinner, we sampled, at William’s suggestion a local drink (Canelaso) which was very nice but a strange pre-dinner drink, as it was hot and served in tea cups. The concoction of a tea made with herbs and fortified with sugar cane spirit was very welcome to enjoy before a roaring log fire as the cold of the mountain night drew in.

Sadly we only had one night at Cusin and we left early the next day after enjoying breakfast in the same splendidly feudal surroundings as we dined. Our route took us back to Quito (where we had an unexpected meeting with William’s wife and 2 young children in a supermarket where we bought the ingredients for our picnic lunch) and then into the national park of Antisana, one of many volcanoes in the region of Quito, but dormant. We drove up through a beautiful valley to a lake from where we did a short walk up to a place where we ate our lunch in sight of Antisana, whose summit was becoming clearer by the minute. Further progress upwards was ruled out on the grounds of altitude (S was starting to feel some of the symptoms she had left behind weeks ago in Puno and R was also conscious of the lack of oxygen). When we left we were able to enjoy a virtually clear view of the summit.

On the way down, R received a text from Mark with the news that Spurs had thrashed Wigan by 9 – 1, a near record score for the Premiership and Jermain Defoe was toasted at dinner for his 5 goals. How events 6,000 miles away in North London can assume such importance, but that is the enduring appeal and addiction of football.
Our destination was another hacienda, La Cienega, another feudal pile, with large rooms and log fires downstairs but curiously spartan rooms upstairs.

The next day also was a visit to a volcano, this time Cotopaxi, the tallest active volcano in the world (5897m). But unfortunately the weather was against us on this occasion and we were only able to glimpse the lower parts of the glacier when the cloud lifted briefly. We had a very pleasant walk around a lake at just over 3800m and were able to see a lot of birds but not much volcanic landscape. We returned for lunch and then spent a pleasant afternoon and evening lazing in front of a blazing log fire.

Monday saw better weather for the continuation of our journey south along the avenue of volcanoes and our detour to Lake Quilotoa, a lake in the crater of an active volcano. The road leads to the top of the crater at 4,000m and a panoramic view of the lake 350m below and apparently 500m deep. The path around the rim takes about 5 hrs to walk, but we opted for the walk down to the lake which took about 30 mins. There we were able to edge along and down a very steep rock face to view at close quarters hot sulphurous gases bubbling up from the rocks and into the lake. We then opted out of the hike back up to the top by hiring a horse (for S) and a mule (for R). This was not as easy as it sounds (although we both had no regrets, given the steepness of the path and the altitude) as there was no saddle and only a rope bridle to hold onto. The animals needed some persuasion to keep going to the top but seemed to respond quite well to a shout of “Vamos!” or “Pasa!” but still needed plenty of stops. We were both quite saddle sore by the time we reached the top and any idea of taking up horse riding as a hobby when we got back to England had totally disappeared from our minds.

We had lunch at the top in a small restaurant in the company of a group of Russians. We had met various nationalities on our travels, particularly Americans, British, Australians, Dutch, Germans and French, but this was our first encounter with anyone from Eastern Europe. Also the Spanish have been conspicuous by their absence, particularly given their link of language and culture, but perhaps embarrassed by their forebears’ lamentable behaviour in this part of the world.

We then proceeded on our journey to the Hacienda Leito near the village of Patate and arrived here enjoying the most spectacular views of the still active volcano Tungurahua from which you can see plumes of smoke emerging from the crater quite clearly – a sight which almost takes your breath away. The volcano last erupted in 1999 and after a period of 4 months the people were allowed to move back into their homes. No one is allowed to climb the volcano now for obvious reasons and the whole area is at risk although we were assured our hacienda was “in the safe zone”! It was a beautiful place to stay complete (much to S’s delight) with two dogs (bull terriers) one of whom was a real treasure and we were given the biggest hotel room so far which contained 3 beds! We were the only ones in the hotel that night but were served a delicious meal in front of a roaring fire.

The following day we were to visit the town of Banos and were about to leave he hacienda when we were asked if we would give an interview (!) to a reporter from the main national newspaper (El Comercio) who happened to be there to talk to the owner about the hotel which made for an interesting few minutes and a challenge to our Spanish. Her photographer took what seemed to be numerous photos of us in various places to accompany the article which was to appear in the travel supplement. The second time on this trip we have felt like celebrities!

Having left the hacienda which was without mobile phone coverage R found that he received a text from Mark asking if we could talk as soon as possible (at the time a bit worrying) and not long afterwards S also received a similar message so R having asked Mark to call then had to ask William (our guide and driver) to pull over so that we could take the call. But far from being bad news, we were thrilled to be told that Mark and his girlfriend Rach had become engaged the previous evening – we will always remember where we were when we were told this happy news – and the rest of the day was spent with the sound of wedding bells ringing in S’s ears.

We then proceeded to visit a couple of beautiful waterfalls just outside the town, one which we took a cable car across the river to see and the other we walked down to and then scrambled through a cave to get even closer to – this one was much higher and the spray from the pool into which the water fell rose high into the air. It was called “The Devil’s Cauldron” because of the face you could see in the rocks next to it, we also got rather wet in the process of viewing it. Lunch was taken in Banos after a quick dip in the hot springs (and a brief dip in the cold pool/shower) and then a relaxing afternoon in the hacienda which boasted a wonderful swimming pool and gym. Finally, another very good meal served by the women dressed in traditional dress before bed in the massive room warmed by a log fire lit whilst we were having dinner.

November 20th - 21st The Cloud Forest

The journey to Mindo from Napo took most of the day, so we did not have much chance to take stock of our new surroundings until the following day. This started at the crack of dawn (4.30) in order to make our way to witness one of the famous local institutions – the mating ritual of the “cock of the rock”, which takes place at dawn every morning and involves the male of the species strutting, dancing and squawking loudly to attract the attention of the female. So at about 5.30, we found ourselves being introduced to Rolando, the local farmer on whose land this ceremony was acted out and the master of ceremonies, and then walking through dark fields and woods to the venue.

Having had some exposure to the semi-professional end of the bird-watching business over the last few days, it was a bit of a come-down to find that there were no facilities at all to assist the observation of the ritual, such as a hide, and with the thick forest cover, the process of seeing anything at all depended on our guides creeping up and down a narrow path and then pointing out the occasional glimpse of some red feathers that were barely visible even with binoculars. The birds made quite a lot of noise but only one allowed us any real sight of the dancing ritual and then only fleetingly. The action, such as it was, was all over in about 15 minutes, a lot shorter than usual, apparently. As anti-climaxes go, it was difficult to beat, but the walk through the cloud forest in the early morning sunshine was far superior and even went some way to justifying the brutally early start.

Then back for breakfast and then more walking along the forest trails in the grounds of the lodge for a few hours before lunch.

The owners of the lodge had given it the ambitious name of Septimo Paraiso or 7th Heaven and it was clear to us from an early stage that it was never going to live up to its name. Although it has a superb position and grounds, the whole place smacked of having seen better days and in need of some TLC. It had a large outdoor swimming pool, which could be really impressive, but the pool was not kept clean (lots of flies on the water surface) and the area around the pool had broken tiles and in need of some weeding.

The building was virtually all timber with gaps in the walls, floor and ceilings so that noise permeated the whole building. Our room was directly above the dining room and we could hear almost every word spoken below. Also, there was no escaping the noise made by the groups when they left the lodge, normally at some incredibly early pre-dawn hour. The lack of any sound-proofing enabled us to find out how many serious anoraks were sharing the lodge with us. There were 2 birding groups, one British and one American but they both participated in the same end of the day ritual in going through the guide book to the birds of Ecuador and identifying (by number not by name) the birds they had seen that day. We found this reduction of a day’s experience in a beautiful foreign country to an exercise reminiscent of bingo pretty appalling and a warning about the risks of getting too closely involved with the birding community. It was all S could do, not to shout out “clickety click 66 !”
We also found ourselves for the first time marginalised by not being part of a group. Dinner was prepared en masse to be ready for the first group at whatever time they requested and then kept for everyone else. This made for some very unappetising and sometimes cold food. One redeeming factor in all this was the area in front of the lodge given devoted to the many species of humming bird to be found here, there were feeders with sugar water attracting these beautiful birds who dart around at great speed and all you can hear is the sound of their very fast beating wings. But all in all this was not a place or an experience we would wish to repeat, although the sights and sounds of the cloud forest were a memory that will remain longer in the memory for the right reasons.

November 16th - 19th - Napo Wildlife Centre

Our trip into the jungle in Ecuador involved a short flight from Quito to a town called Coca in a propeller plane which was bigger than we expected and after an hour’s delay we arrived to temperatures in the 40s and around 80% humidity.. Coca is a very busy town on the Napo River and our lodge was quite a journey from there, 2 ½ hours in a motorised canoe and then another 1 ½ hours being paddled up a beautiful creek where there were many birds and animals to admire on the way including an anaconda asleep in a tree.

We were on the same flight as a large party of American “birders” all staying at our lodge so we felt slightly in awe of these serious ornithologists but our guide Juan Carlos who introduced himself at dinner soon put us at ease, each group is assigned a bilingual guide and a local guide too – in our case Hugo who is a member of the local Anangu community who are now the sole owners of Napo. His eyes out in the jungle were amazing, he spotted night monkeys asleep in the bark of a tree which to all intents and purposes looked like wood carvings amongst many other interesting things.

In spite of the heat and humidity of the jungle we had a wonderful 3 days there, the mornings would start with a wake-up call at 5.30am and after breakfast we would head off in the canoe up the creek always seeing wonderful birds en route to our destination.

One day we were taken to two parrot clay licks – places where hundreds of parrots assemble each day to lick the clay or water which contain essential minerals to help their digestion and neutralise the toxins that they ingest from the seeds that they eat. One clay lick was on a bank on the main river and the other was a short walk inland. The noise from the hundreds of gathering birds was unbelievable. We had to make a return trip to the second clay lick as the parakeets were reluctant to work to our schedule, despite our waiting over an hour for them to appear. The second also involved a long wait (alleviated in R’s case by reading his Spanish copy of the first Harry Potter book) but was much more interesting and we saw hundreds of birds gradually descending down the cliff to approach the cave containing the elixir of parakeet life, but at the last moment they all took flight when a lizard appeared in the cave entrance so we didn’t actually see them licking the clay.

We were also taken on a walk through the forest to the observation tower where we were 100 feet up looking down on the canopy of trees. We saw many birds, caiman, lizards and monkeys during our time in the jungle and S was also treated to the interesting experience of having the bad spirits cast out of her by the local shaman (aka witch doctor) Domingo – a process involving chanting, blowing into her hair and stroking her head with leaves and what sounded like vomiting into her head (deep guttural noises from his throat) so that only good spirits remained! The guiding here was excellent and well worth the long transfer up river, the lodge is beside a lake and there were many trees in the grounds where there were plenty of very noisy birds to observe and a night we were serenaded by thousands of frogs – the only downside were the millions of mosquitoes who still managed to bite through clothing in spite of the repellent we used at every opportunity.

We were also entertained by one of the American group who is a talented amateur harmonica player, who has made recordings and plays in a group. He said he brought 10 harmonicas with him on this trip (which sounds incredible) but we heard him play a couple of pieces for his group while waiting for lunch after the visit to the clay lick and he was most impressive. Shades of the Deep South in the South American Rain Forest.

The American “Birders” were a pleasant group of people, and apart from the harmonicist (?) the most notable was a man who carried everywhere (even on the boat up the river) a tripod and camera with a zoom lens measuring at least 2 feet, the longest that either of us had seen away from a sporting event.

We had an early start again for the 6.30 departure back up river to Coca and the flight back to Quito where William was waiting for us to take us on to our next short visit to the cloud forest in Mindo.

November 15th - Quito

The day began with a beautiful clear blue sky providing ideal conditions for viewing the old colonial city and its white walled buildings, and the banning of traffic from the streets on Sundays gave a welcome break from the hazards of competing with cars and taxis when crossing the streets. Religion clearly retains a significant hold on the Ecuadorian people, judging by the number of people we saw attending church services. There are 29 churches in the old City alone (all catholic, naturally) and those that we saw all had large congregations in attendance. William, although clearly catholic himself, was not as respectful of the services as we might have expected and although we were grateful to see the insides of several churches, we both felt rather uncomfortable about our intrusion into what is an important time in the weekly calendar of the church and its followers.

We then went up to El Panecillo, the hill at the south of the old city with a panoramic view of the city and its setting among the surrounding volcanoes and an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary keeping watch over her flock in the city below.

We then went out of the city to El Mitad del Mundo, on the equatorial line a few miles north of Quito. There we found an older monument, erected to mark the spot, but subsequently found with the aid of GPS to be about 200m away from the real line. We visited a museum which was at the real place and at which they were able to show a few interesting phenomena only capable of being demonstrated at the real line. For example, emptying a basin full of water at the equatorial line (straight down the plughole), 5m into the northern hemisphere (anti-clockwise) and 5m into the southern hemisphere (clockwise), balancing an egg on the head of a nail (impossible anywhere other than the equator due to unequal gravitational forces) and walking along the line with eyes shut and both arms stretched out into each hemisphere (very difficult without staggering off the line and appearing drunk). The other highlight (!) was being shown a shrunken head of a 12 year old boy who apparently died from natural causes, a custom no longer practised by the jungle tribes but it was nevertheless interesting to see the drawings of the process of how this was done – not something to be tried at home!

Once back to Quito we visited the Jesuits’ church, La Compania, baroque style taken to the extreme, with 7 ½ tons of gold leaf. Impressive but an indication of the scant regard had for the welfare of the local inhabitants who no doubt would have benefited enormously from even a small proportion of the expenditure on the church being spent on good causes in the locality.

Then back to the hotel to reorganise our luggage for the rest of the trip. Some to remain at the hotel in Quito until our return from the Galapagos and some to stay with William until our return from the Rainforest. The result was S & R sharing one bag for the first time in their lives and S unsure whether their marriage could stand the strain.