On The Gringo Trail
Episode 7: Igor and Friends
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Sunday February 16,
2003 Banos, EcuadorYes, we met Igor the Iguana and
many of his friends in the Galapagos. We had a great time
exploring the many small volcanic islands and swimming in
the warm ocean waters. I hated to leave those tropical
temperatures and return to the relatively cooler
temperatures of the Ecuadorian Andes. All the same, the
mountains have their own charm to compensate.
To get to the Galapagos, you have to fly from either
Quito or Guayaquil, Ecuador. Guayaquil is closer to the
Peru border so that is where we headed. We found out it
is a lot more expensive to fly over international
borders, so instead of flying directly from Arequipa,
Peru to Ecuador, we flew to northern Peru and took the
bus the rest of the way. That made it a little more
complicated travelling, but it worked. We stayed
overnight in Piura, Peru, then took a 4 hour bus trip to
Tombes, the nearest town to the Ecuador border.
At the Tombes bus station, we were the only gringos
getting off the bus and we were besieged by taxi drivers
vying for our business. There was almost a fight as to
who would win the contract to take us the last 26 Km to
the border where we would board another bus bound for
Guayaquil. We should know better than to take the
cheapest offer, but we could not resist a price of 5
Soles ($2.20 CAD). Ray and I got into the cab with the
driver and his companion and took off. We were
immediately offered an all inclusive price of S/20 each
to take us across the two border crossings and directly
to the bus station in Ecuador. That sounded like bait and
switch to me so we just kept repeating “No, gracias”
and reminding them they had quoted S/5 to take us to the
Peru border point. We figured we could handle it from
there. This did not go over too well, but we kept going.
Just when we could see a large Peruvian flag waving in
the distance, our driver turned off and proceeded through
an area that looked like a slum. We were a little
worried, but our driver insisted it was only a detour to
avoid paying a $2 USD toll on the main highway. He was
telling the truth and we eventually arrived in front of
the border post. Just to be sure, Ray and I went
individually into the post to sign ourselves out of Peru.
Then we compromised. I knew that S/5 was not quite enough
for a 26 Km trip, so I suggested we would pay them S/20
total if they took us across to the Ecuador crossing.
They agreed and off we went a few Km further through the
most crowded market street I have seen so far in South
America. The driver stopped at a bridge crossing to
Ecuador. We refused any further assistance, for more
money, and said goodbye.
We had another 1/2 Km to walk with our packs until we
reached the bus station, but there we found our final bus
of the day waiting for passengers. We loaded our bags
inside and took off for the final 4 hour trip to
Guayaquil. We had our first taste of Ecuadorian security
on that bus. There was an armed guard escort the whole
way and we had to stop for several other police checks.
We were not bothered at all but several of the
Ecuadorians seemed peeved at their perceived hassling. It
may have been because of the purchases that they made at
the crowded border market, for one complaining woman had
what looked like an entire store inventory with her on
the bus.
Anyway, we arrived in Guayaquil in the rain. In fact,
the newspaper said it had rained for 27 hours, hard. We
were glad we had raincoats and umbrellas and that most of
the buildings projected over the sidewalks giving us
extra shelter.
Guayaquil has a reputation for being a dangerous city
but we are glad to report that we had no problems at all.
To us it seemed that the biggest employer in Guayaquil
was the company supplying security guards. Every bank and
every store, no matter how small, had its own armed guard
stationed outside. It seems to be working. On two
different occasions, Ray and I were seated in a
restaurant open to the street when we were approached by
someone asking for money. The security guard immediately
intercepted and shooed the person away.
The next day we visited a travel agency and booked an
8 day/7 night trip to the Galapagos. You have a choice of
booking last minute trips in Guayaquil or Quito or
waiting for an even better deal in the Galapagos
themselves. We decided to play it safe and chose a boat
leaving that Sunday. That meant we had an extra day in
Guayaquil, which turned out nicely.
The day was clear and sunny, hot in fact. We walked
along the newly renovated waterfront that stretches for
several Km s in the downtown area. We detoured to a
crowded market place to look for a T-shirt Ray could wear
when snorkelling. The vendors were having a slow day so
we were fair game. In fact I think we were shown the
merchandise from twenty different vendors before we made
our one small purchase. That is how the markets go. You
have to keep your cool, which is not always easy.
After
the market, we were ready for a break so we headed for
the small Parque Bolivar where we joined several families
all coming to introduce their children to the resident
iguanas. The iguanas are obviously thriving in the park
as they were all over the place and were very tame.
Several people brought along banana peels to feed the
iguanas. One even took a peel right from my hand. Just
when we were leaving the park, we heard band music across
the street in front of a large Cathedral. A service was
just ending and a large brass police band had assembled
to entertain the public. We hurried over and were treated
to a half hour concert of lively Spanish tunes. They were
very good and well appreciated.
Sunday found us on the 9:15 AM flight to the Galapagos.
We gained an hour flying nearly 1000 Km into the Pacific,
so we were on Baltra Island at 9:45 AM. Baltra is a tiny
island just north of Santa Cruz, one of the main islands.
Baltra does not have much besides the airport on it, but
it does have a boat harbour where the cruise boats wait
to pick up their passengers. It was a short bus shuttle
from the airport to a small dock where our boat was
anchored. Dingys were dispatched from the various boats
and soon we were on the Yolita and unpacking in our cabin.
Just as we have been choosing
inexpensive backpacker accommodations during our trip, we
opted for a small simple boat for our trip. The Yolita
can take up to 12 passengers housed in 6 small cabins. We
had our own bathroom with shower, but it was not luxury
accommodations. There was a nice dining and seating area
inside and a canopied deck on top to watch the islands go
by. We were comfortable but we were glad to have earplugs
to block out the sound of the motor during several
overnight sailings. That was the downside of a small boat.
We had a well informed, friendly guide, Marcella, who
is from the Galapagos. She spoke quite good English and
French as well as Spanish, so language was not a problem.
She was always enthusiastic and well informed so we
learned a lot about the flora and fauna during our trip.
Our five member crew took good care of us and Jose, the
cook, provided lots of tasty meals from his tiny kitchen.
This was a dive boat as well, so the dive master,
William, was also on board for those who chose this
option. Ray and I stuck to snorkelling.
Marcella
Boat companions
Our boat, like many others,
gives people a choice of a 4, 5 or 8 day trip. For the
first 5 days we toured the southern islands of the
Galapagos with two Aussie girls and four other Canadians
for companions. We all got on very well and were charmed
by the islands. Ray and I and two of the Canadians taught
some of the crew to play cribbage. They took to it so
well that the other Canadian couple left them their
cribbage board. The crew played every night after that!
Iguana on Isla Espanola
Giant land turtle
We usually visited two different islands each day, one
in the morning and another in the afternoon. We would all
troop on to the island with Marcella, who would point out
the geological and vegetative differences of each island.
They are of volcanic origin and most are deserts with
cactus or small bushes the only vegetation.
Seals abound.
They are not intimidated by tourists walking by, ooh-ing
and ahh-ing about how cute they are, and snapping
pictures. In fact, you often have to shoo them away in
order to step onto the island. All the wildlife was
extremely tame. We had no trouble getting close up shots
of all the animals and birds.
We saw both marine and the more colourful land Iguanas.
There were lots of tiny lava lizards scooting about and
beautiful red crabs on the rocks. We saw
turtle nests and large green turtles trying to swim
ashore. Birds were everywhere and were not like the ones
we see at home. Even the gulls and pigeons are unique to
the Galapagos. We were especially pleased to see the blue
footed boobies, some penguins and an Albatross chick.
Tracks to Turtle Nest
Blue Footed Booby
My
favourite activity was swimming and snorkelling, which we
got to do twice each day. I never tired of watching all
the colourful fish swim by. We even saw Manta and Eagle
Rays and several white tip sharks, that thankfully were
not interested in us. The seals are curious animals and
love to swim and cavort right next to you in the water.
If you are lucky, you can even swim next to penguins and
turtles. All that activity gave us big appetites for Jose´s
good food.
Ray and I were the only passengers to stay 8 days on
the boat so we got to meet a whole new crowd to tour with
us around the northern islands. We had two Swiss, two
Austrians, a Frenchman, an American and a Chilean family
of four. Fernando, with his two sons and daughter had
come for four days of diving. In addition to snorkelling,
they usually managed two dives a day and always came back
raving about what they had seen.
The last day we motored back to Baltra Island again.
We were sorry to leave. We saw lots of interesting
animals and fish and visited many islands, but we didn’t
see them all. We both were glad we had opted for the 8
day trip. Our fellow passengers who had elected to stay
only 4 or 5 days would have loved to stay longer. I know
I could have kept going for a while longer.
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