Galapagos: Santa Cruz

Tuesday, December 1st- Thursday, December 3rd
Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands

 
After arriving at the airport, you need to take a short bus ride to the ferry where you cross a small channel and then hop on another bus for a 30 minute transport to the town of Puerta Ayora. 


Some sights walking around town the first day.

Our first real sighting.  We quickly learned this is a common thing!

Hanging out on the benches along the boardwalk.

Anchored boats also seem to be a great resting place!

A campaign to stop the throwing of cigarette butts on the beaches.  These duds are made from those cigarette butts collected around the beaches and docks.

The Charles Darwin Research Center.  There was very little information for the public here which I was surprised about.  There seems to be future plans for this.  We did get to see a few endangered iguanas and turtles.

Brad and Charles Darwin

This iguana was near extinction after WWII when the island was used as a military base.  They have since worked to breed and work to get them off the endangered animal list.

Iguanas along the road...



Today I swam with sea turtles and lots of different fish! In the morning, we rented snorkels and flippers for all of us for the day. We first went to the Darwin Research Center and looked around there for a little bit.  Then we went to a little beach and went snorkeling for a couple of hours. In that spot we only saw fish but we saw a bunch of different kinds and they were all very cool. The biggest one we saw there was probably 1.5 feet. It was orange with blue around the edges. There were lots of little black fish with yellow lips and blue eyes. They we're hiding all in the rocks.

At about 4:45, we left to go to another place to snorkel. To get there, we had to take a water taxi/boat across the bay where we had to walk 5 minutes to get to a beach. The beach is called Las Grietas and it is good for snorkeling, so that is what we did. We snorkeled for only about 40 min, but we went out really far. This is where we saw a few sea turtles. When we saw one, I would go and swim really fast behind it and then go under water and up to it's back to where I would give it a back massage. I think that the turtles liked my back massages because I don't think anyone had massaged their shells for a long time. Today was my first day snorkeling and it was fun! I hope I see stingrays next time!

By Asa

Marine iguanas you see swimming in the water.

 Morning coffee at the apartment.

 

Cuenca and Guayaquil

November 24th- 27th
Cuenca

We made our way south to Cuenca after a great day of climbing in Cojitambo.  Cuenca is a city in the south with a rich history, beautiful architecture and lots of expats, therefore plenty of opportunities for a true American burger! We checked into the hostel and immediately went out to find some "American" food.  Juan Gabriel had recommended some good places to find hamburgers, pizza, waffles and salads. We ended up at the Inca Lounge for chicken fingers, burgers, chicken parmesan and a ceaser salad.  We paid American prices, but were definitely satisfied! The next morning we were on the hunt for waffles and the cultural museum. We found them both, but the waffle place was closed so we ended up at Sports Planet.  Eli got his craving of a pulled pork sandwich satisfied. The museum was very interesting from what we could take from it- it was all in Spanish.  Unfortunately, Asa ended up getting  sick that afternoon so the next 48 hours we stayed low around the hostal.  The hostel we stayed at had a funky, happening restaurant on the first floor so Brad and I hung our for happy hour while the boys hung out in their room.

Eli finally getting some "American" food.

Churches are in abundance around Cuenca. The colonial architecture was beautiful.

Sights of buildings around town.

What kind of potato? Lots to choose from...

 Fresh fruit!  It's hard not to go crazy buying the fruit, but when you are moving every few days, you have to contain yourself!

It's a bit dark, but this is the restaurant below the hostal we stayed at.  This center room went up two floors and the rooms were on the second floor around the perimeter.

November 28th-December 1st
Guayaquil

Our friend's from New Mexico, Christine and Vince and their two children Marissa and Gabe, are living in Guayaquil for the year teaching at ESPOL, a college in the city.  We spent the weekend with them visiting and seeing some of the sites in the city. Guayaquil is on the water and much lower then we have been so we are back to warm weather and shorts! Christine, originally from Massachusetts, is also a Patriots fan so we paid for a subscription on NFL so we could watch the Patriots game.


From Cuenca to Guayaquil we drove through Cajas National Park.  Unfortunately we did not have time to hike around.  It was a beautiful place!

Lots of banana trees along the way into Guayaquil!

 At the soccer game.  Notice the police in the background.  They were ALL over.  It almost made you feel unsafe because there were so many!

Two professional Ecuadorian teams.

 

A visitor at our door one morning.

We rode from the city, across the bridge to Santay Island. It had a 4.3 km boardwalk along the north west side of it trhough swamp and mangroves!

Watching the Patriots game.

Cojitambo

Sunday, November 22- Tuesday, November 24

Climbing in Cojitambo 
By Eli

The other day  we arrived in Cojitambo to go rock climbing with a man named Juan Gabriel. We arrived at his house on Sunday night and got settled in our room. It was a pretty big room with 4 bunk beds and one double. The room is so big because he usually has climbers from other cities come and stay at his house to climb. The next morning we got up and it was raining so we decided to wait and go climbing the next day. There are Inca ruins on the back side of the rock so we went on a walk (not a hike because Asa quit hiking again) to the ruins. At the top, we walked around in the ruins. The ruins were cool except there was trash and broken bottles all over the place, also people had written their names all over the rocks. After exploring the ruins, we walked back into town and decided we would go to the big city that was only 15 minutes away to try and get food other than chicken rice and french fries. When we got to the city Asa wanted to go to the first pizza place we found so we got him a pizza and then went out to look for a place to eat. After walking around for 30 minutes and only seeing pizzerias and burger places we finally went to a place to eat. I ended up having chicken and fries...

The next day we woke up and it was hot and sunny. We decided that Asa and I would climb a two pitch 5.8 with Juan Gabriel, and mom and dad would climb a long one pitch 5.8 with one 5.10 move. On the approach Juan Gabriel warned us to always wear our helmet when around the rock because the locals threw rocks and glass bottles off the edge above. After Asa and I had started the climb I was two moves in on the hardest part and I heard a crack and dad yell. Sure enough I saw a broken bottle flying down and the small pieces rained down on all of us while climbing. That was the scariest part of the climb. The rest of the way up was fun. The rock had really good friction and was covered in finger pockets making it pretty easy. After we got to the top, we hiked over to a single pitch zone called VIP. I started out on a 5.10 C and made it to the last move which was the hardest part and had to come down. Asa went up that route after me and at the same move I was at he cheated and grabbed a bolt with a quick draw and used that as a hold and made it up. Although he made it up, it does not count because he used the bolt as a hold. So we are even. Then I climbed a really fun 5.10 A that was pretty easy with a really fun over hang move at the top. Asa also climbed that route. We heard thunder and when I was at the top of one of the climbs I could see a wall of rain and lightning headed towards us, so we decided to abandon the climbing and head back to the house. Right when we got back to the house it started down pouring. I thought that the climbing was really fun. However the climbs were a lot easier than at Yosemite and Moab. For example, we climbed a 5.7 in Zion that was twice as hard as the 5.10 A that we climbed here.

A view of the rock from Juan Gabriel's house.

Day 1 at the Inca Ruins- the enter, backside of the mountain

Looking down on the town of Cojitambo

Day 2- Climbing

A good day of climbing!