Travel report from Ecuador

Travel report from Ecuador

Hi everybody,

Well, in the mean time I´ve been in South America for quite some time, so a very good if not late moment to write another travel report. It all started with some very long flights. First 2 hours from Sydney to Auckland, a 1 hour wait, then 13 hours to Santiago, 4 hours of waiting and finally 5 hours to Quito. And the great thing is that I left on the 19th of May at 10:30h and arrived on the same day at 21:00h! I was welcomed on the airport by my two friends Sharon and Charmaine who mercifully had arranged for a greatly appreciated soft bed.

The next day was a bit of a blur. We walked around in Quito´s smog for a while and went out for cocktails in the evening, which might have been a mistake. The next day was a bit of a blur.

We did succeed however in planning our next few weeks. We decide to leave on sunday for a week of trekking. In sequence we climbed Pasachoa (4500m or thereabouts), Corazon (4800m) and Iliniza (5000m), all vulcanoes. Or rather, made attempts to climb them. The first had a washed away path, the second a very technical end (and I had an altitude headache). The walk up to the refuge on the ilinizas is heavy: 2 hours in wind and hail without so much as a look at the top due to mist (after having walked an hour in rain and lightning the previous day). The hut is at 4800 meters altitude and we have company from 5 people from the El Salvador Alpine Federation. Nice lot. Apparantly for each walk they do at home they are escorted by 2 armed police officers. Sure it must make everybody feel really safe ;-) This time ice and mist stop us from climbing the Iliniza Norte...

Off to the chique refuge called Tambopaxi next (previous guests include Reinhold Messner). The entire week of climbing was intended to get acclimatised to ascend Cotopaxi, and vulcanic cone of 5900 meters. We make one more walk to Rumanahui (4900 m, mist again, no summit, ... again) and then feel ready for the big boy. We have two guides to lead us to the top, and on the first day we drive and walk up to the refuge at 4800m. There we learn that noone has gotten to the top in 2 weeks because of avalanche danger and bad weather. We do some training with ice axe and crampons on the nearby glacier anyway, and get woken up at 12 o´clock with the news that it´s snowing. None of the teams in the refuge gets going. We get up at 6 and walk up to the glacier at 5000 meters and then head to Quito, proudly bearing the new name of "Team Sub-Summit".

Two days later we leave for the Galapagos for some well-earned rest at sea-level. We´ve booked a 5 day cruise on the Encantada. 12 people on the boat, a good mix of people. A good guide too, called Juan, who takes us to see the giant turtles on the first day. Animals on the Galapagos are incredible. The sea lions play with you under water, swim straight at you just to turn away at the last moment. There´s sharks, sea turtles, rays, frigat birds, pelikans, flamingos, boobies (decided against buying the "I love boobies" T-shirt in the end) and giant iguanas... most of them are amazingly tolerant to humans, so you get a really close look at them. The landscapes on the vulcanic islands are equally surprising, sometimes green, sometimes just covered with cacti and black lava-rock.

On the third day we´re out of luck. A strike from local fishermen prevents us from going on land on Espanola, one of the islands. Our guide improvises and manages to organise a fun day anyway. We even get lucky when a number of whales sims close to our boat for a while. One of them crosses our bough at just a few meters distance!!! Impressive! After 5 days we leave the boat and manage to get a fibra or speedboat to the Isla Isabella the next day. It´s an island that is normally only visited by the big luxury boats on a cruise and just a few other tourists a day. It´s a beautiful island, tranquil with a large amount of empty hammocks ;-)

We go for walks and do a horse ride to the top of Sierra Negra. This vulcano has the second largest crater in the world, and it is just as impressive as that sounds, as clouds from the valley spill into the crater like a waterfall. The last eruption was in 79 and you can clearly see the difference in the colors of the lava, like a dark river running through the lighter slopes. On the last day we go kayaking and see white tipped reef sharks within arm`s length (literally) during snorkeling. We also see pinguins on the rocks around the little harbour.

Getting back to Quito proves to be a challenge. Our speedboat-captain decided overnight to get his boat painted (yes, we see it towed onto the beach), and we`re forced to charter a local fishing boat together with an ecuadorian in order to catch our flight (and get off the island before the fishermen started to strike again). Full speed across the waves, water spraying in from time to time, 50 kmph, some rain, and all that in a fiberglass boat of under 10 meters that is completely airborne at moments. Fun!

We end up missing our flight, but manage to get onto a later flight without any problems. Left at 5 am, got back to quito at 5 pm after a long day.

After this, we continued south, towards peru. Hope to send you that report very soon. Hope that everyone is having an equal amount of fun,

groeten,

nico