From the Coast to the Andes

When we left Galapagos we flew to the costal city of Guayaquil, a city of 2 million people. We stayed in a small hotel across from the waterfront, called the Malecon. Guayaquil has done a lot to beautify the waterfront and ensure that it is a safe place for visitors and Ecuadorians. There is a strong security presence on the Malecon, and we felt quite safe walking there even after dark.

The botanical garden on the Malecon

View of the Malecon from above

During the day it is safe to walk in the area a few blocks in from the Malecon. In the park near one of the large cathedrals a group of land iguanas live. These are a different species from the land iguanas in Galapagos. Someone feeds them lettuce, and there is a large group of them in the park.

Land Iguana

 

Notice the "wattle" under his neck

 

A friendly encounter

We spent only two nights in Guayaquil, then took a bus to Cuenca, in the Andes. Cuenca is a very old city, part of the original Inca empire, though little evidence of that remains. It presently has a population of about 500 thousand. The whole city of Cuenca is a world heritage site, and the architecture shows its colonial roots.

We spent our first two days looking at the markets and learning our way around.

In the flower market. A dozen roses for $4.00

 

The humming bird that lives in the garden of our hotel

 

A market woman with cheese and candy made from nuts and cane sugar

 

On Sunday we took a day trip to Ingapirca, the ruins of the city of the Inca nobility, about 30 km from Cuenca. On our way to Ingapirca we stopped in a couple of towns. In Biblian we saw a church that was built into the mountain rocks. It is the Church of the Virgin of the Morning Dew.

 

The view from the church in Biblian

In Canar we visited the indigenous market. The whole town turns into a market selling everything you can think of and a few things you couldn't imagine. We saw the usual vegetables and fruit, hardware and dry goods, clothing and shoes, meat and fish, live chickens, turkeys, puppies, and guinea pigs.

 

The grain market

 

Vegetables and fruit

 

And dozens of kinds of potatoes

 

Playas: Part 2

Fernandina Island is one of the newest Galapagos islands, and has black volcanic sand beaches. Here Evanna is holding some of the black sand.  Rabida Island is made up of very red volcanic rock and has a red sand beach. Sea Lions lounge on the red beach of Rabidas Island.

 

Playas: Part 1

Galapagos Islands have some lovely beaches. Many of them are made of coral and shell sand, broken up by the wave action on the volcanic rocks and deposited in small bays. Some beaches are black volcanic sand and some are red scoria sand.

Whale Bay beach on Santa Cruz Island is made up of a mixture of green olivine, weathered out of the volcanic rocks, and shells and coral from the ocean.  On Isabella Island we walked on a white coral sand beach.  Many beaches are home to sea lions and marine iguanas.

Playas: Part 3

About 2.5 km from the town of Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz Island, there is a lovely bay - Tortuga Bay - which has a long, beautiful beach and a smaller lagoon beach. There is a paved path to this beach, shown below. We loved this beach so much we went there three times.

Tortuga Bay Playa Brava

Playa Brava from the far end

Another beach near Puerto Ayora is the Finch Bay beach. There was some good snorkeling there as well.

Finch Bay beach with the Finch Bay Hotel in the background

More pictures of Tortuga Bay.

Playa Brava

Playa Mansa, the quiet lagoon, complete with marine iguanas

Playa Brava

 

Volcanic Galapagos

The Galapagos Islands were formed from volcanic activity over a hot spot in the pacific ocean crust. The ocean plate on which the islands sit is in motion to the east. which is causing new islands to be formed on the west side of the archipelago.

All of the islands we visited had exposed lava, ash or scoria, some of it was formed within the last 200 years.

Whale Bay on Santa Cruise Island

Santiago Island had a trail over pahoehoe lava. There was evidence of vegetation being caught up in the most recent lava flow. The formation in the photo below was created by a tree trunk being caught in the lava, and burned up as the lava cooled, leaving a tube.

Evanna in a lava sinkhole

Lava flows on Santiago Island

Santiago Island

Bartholome Island

From the high point on Bartholome Island

Fernandina Island

 

More Galapagos

During our boat cruise we traveled to many island locations and saw most of the birds and animals that can be seen on the Islands. Most of the creatures are unafraid of humans and you can get within 2 metres of them. Sometimes they allow you to get even closer but that can prove risky. Here are some of the highlights of what we saw.

Galapagos Sea Lions

This cattle egret was trying to eat the flies that were landing on the sea lion mom. She didn't really like that very much.

Blue-footed Booby, one of our favourite birds

These guys are just so goofy looking, but they are fantastic at diving from the air into the ocean to catch fish

Land Iguana

Marine Iguana - these homely creatures can swim and their main diet is algae that grows on rocks in the ocean. They swim out to feed at low tide and are able to process and expell the salt water they ingest, which they do by snorting.

A face only a mother could love

We saw marine iguanas everywhere!

We traveled from our ship to the touring sites on the islands on zodiaks like this.

Sally lightfoot crabs

The adult crabs had beautiful color. The babies were black.

This sea lion took offence at Evanna being too close and snapped at her. Luckily she was not hurt.

Galapagos Penguin - we were able to swim with some of these while snorkeling

The Great Frigate Birds often followed our boat as they could get a free ride on the air currents we created

Great Blue Heron

There is a small population of flamingoes in Galapagos

At the Galapagos National Park breeding center on Isabella Island we saw baby land tortoises at many stages of development. They release them back onto the islands their parents came from when they are between 4 and 6 years old and are not vulnerable to predators such as rats.

Galapagos land tortoise, about one month old