11th - 15th April - Quito and Galapagos Islands

Angela and Duncan got up at 4am to wave us off - smurf hats included


With very little time before and after the Galapagos Islands for me to explore Quito, I'll have to pick this city up when I next visit Ecuador. As for the Galapagos Islands, well, what an absolutely amazing 5 days. Another real highlight of this trip. With so many years of no humans and strict no-touching rules in place these days for visitors, the animals do not see us as predators and so you are more at risk of treading on them by accident, than not seeing them.

Marine Iguana taking a swim



Crab


Home for 4 nights


More crab


Omar, our guide, talking to a chilled out Captain


The boat facilities and food were very good, the scenery was stunning (white sands and turquoise sea) and with 16 of us on the trip, we had our boat to ourselves. The sea was far more choppy than anticipated and yet somehow I slept.
Clear waters


Lisa and Heather


You can't see me, I'm covered in sand



Albatross


Not our boat


Giant Tortoises


Me amongst the sea lions


I can't remember what this is


Iguana


And again


Blue boobie!


Bird whose name i forget, plus iguana (bottom left)


Watching the pelicans on the back of the boat one night


I have now utterly fallen in love with snorkelling and if I can pilfer some of the underwater shots of one of my fellow overlanders, I'll do another blog post with some shots of turtles and sharks etc. Days were spent wandering trails on the various islands, seeing marine, land or hybrid iguana, albatross, sting rays, eagle rays, boobies (I LOVE the blue boobies with their blue feet!) sea lions, lizards, etc etc etc. Evenings were spent watching the stars, or pelicans feeding by the boat or flying fish racing alongside us as we sailed. Brilliant.


Off to shore









Red iguana





Oh! This is the post box at Post Office Bay. No stamps. Fellow travellers pick up any mail left that's local to them and deliver it for you. So, interesting to see if my sis, bro and pops get their cards!

8th - 10th April - Otavalo and off to Quito

Pitching in the dark, yet again, we woke up to beautiful views. Our campsite was high up on the hill, overlooking the town. Otavalo is famous for its market and I got an alpaca jumper for $15! As soon as I got my wallet out, an old lady appeared from nowhere and started stalking me. In the end, I thought I'd give her a dollar to go away, but I got a photo first. :-)

Well, good morning!



Lisa and Francois enjoy the swing and the view


Never too cold to hit the hammocks - Vanessa, Lisa and moi



Mikkel opens his birthday bag of sweets


Traditional dress


Lots of traditional dress here, with the older generation going barefoot to the younger generation's canvas shoes. Women carrying babies on their backs, held on with a shawl, or carrying boxes full of anything else they might want to carry in.
My one dollar stalker


The food market


Churck in town


Nice view on the way I think


A bit of a long day this one, starting with putting balloons on Mikkel's tent at 3am and ending with a party to celebrate his and two other birthdays plus mark Duncan and Angela's departure. Steve did a slide show for Dunc and
Angela with pics of them over the last few months. Cook group did a BBQ. A few of the gang bought his 'n' hers smurf hats for the departing couple. Pete and I 'suprised' Mikkel with the bangers that I had bought a few days before. This seemed to be the highlight of Mikkel's day. Ha. A few of us did a rendition of gangnam style for Duncan (it being his signature dance) and eventually, we went to bed. A top night.

The birthday boys play with cake



Time for the speeches


Jeanne and I on either side of the Equator, on our way to Quito

7 - 8th April - Ipiares

Our next stop was Ipiares, a border town before our crossing into Ecuador. Angela, Lesley and Duncan had the sweets from the joke stall.....two blue mouths and a chilli sweet. It tickled me. :-) Now at 2900m altitude (9000 ish feet).

Somehow slept on a mattress that felt like wood. I even checked to see there was a mattress there and was amazed to see there was. A few of us went to see a monastery that is quite unique, Santuario de las Lajas, built on a bridge in a gorge, said to have been built in that location due to a sighting of a 40foot virgin Mary on the mountainside. The alter was built against this and you can see where the walls and stained glass touches the mountain. A striking bit of architecture and well worth getting up at 6am for, so we could see it before we all set off for the border. But before we left, we hit the supermarket to use up the last of our Colombian pennies......and with a party planned (3 birthdays and Angela and Duncan's leaving do) we cleared them out of vodka (2 quid for about half a litre) which smells suspiciously like nail varnish remover. I'm sure it'll taste ok after the first couple. ;-)

Wow! Our first view of the Monastery


The alter, built on the bit of mountainside on which Mary appeared


Jeanne checks out the thankyou's for miracles


Building onto a mountainside looks tricky



Painting of the monastery in our hotel



Miracle thank you plaques





The border crossing was fast and straight forward for most of us......except for a couple of our group who had each been to Ecuador before. According to Ecuador's computer records, they never left, despite one of them entering 8 years ago! Hmmmmm. We ended up having to leave them at the border and with Kirsten, they went off to see the Embassy. The only way to get in in the end was to show a scan of the passport stamp showing their exit 8 years before, which involved getting a friend in England getting into their house and following instructions to find that passport. If they hadn't still had that passport, they wouldn't have got into the country! Craziness. Note to self, always keep my passports and if I'm revisiting countries in future, take the relevant previous one with me!

Seriously unimpressed by chicken foot soup

5 - 6 April - Popayan

Took in the churches and colonial white washed buildings, then a big group of us had a salsa lesson in our hostel. Met a lovely British couple who are 18 months into a 3 year camper van trip round South America. Nice way to live.

Believe it or not, this is salsa


ok, after 2 hours, we were a bit tired


Woooopaaaa (Vanessa with instructor)


Ta-daaaaa (Kirsten and Francois)


Went to the local Artisan market and got a few sweets and bangers from the joke stall for use later *does evil laugh*.








Went to a salsa club that evening and, will surprises never cease, even Pete danced! Great fun. We made it look difficult, the locals made it look easy.

Quite a bit of fruit in Angela's Sangria


Last few days with Angela and Duncan before they go back to Sydney :-(


Pete and Kirsten on the dancefloor


Vanessa eyes up the line up of cuba libre