Galapagos - Part 1

For weeks, the Galapagos dangled in front of our noses, just beyond reach like carrot bait enticing a tortoise. Although we agreed it would be most excellent to see the islands, we weren't sure it would be financially feasible after 11 weeks of unilatetal dinero flow, or whether we could handle confinement to a cruise boat after so much independent travel.

We spoke with some people we met along the way and did some research on our own, and it turns out that it is possible, and often even preferable, to visit the islands independently. This intel jived with our budget and our style, so we bit the bullet, bought some plane tickets, and that carrot is ours! The final week of our big trip is set against azul seas, sunny skies, and discordant desert-jungle landscapes.

...like this weird cactus tree.

...and this one!

Our flight from Guayaquil landed at Baltra Airport, a converted WWII US Air Force base on a small island off the north end of Isla Santa Cruz. Getting to Puerto Ayora, the town where we would spend the next 3 nights, required a 15 minute shuttle to a 10 minute ferry followed by a 45 minute bus across the length of the island to the south shore.

Baltra Airport

On the ferry from Baltra to Santa Cruz

As has become the norm for travel days such as this one, we threw down our packs and left the room promptly in search of nourishment. Some delicious ceviche and shrimp rice later, we wandered the port's central area, taking in the brilliant colored buildings, boats, and buoys, and pricing out some tours for the next two days.

After booking a bay tour for the following day, and a longer full-day excursion to Bartolomé island the next, we decided to check out the Charles Darwin Research Center just outside of town.

The research center is just a short walk out of town, nestled among a thick forest of mangroves. We saw baby tortoises that had been hatched from eggs recovered from the wild, much larger and older souls who stretched their necks out on the lava in an attempt to cool off, and several land iguanas, which was especially cool since we were not likely to see these guys in the wild.

Giant tortoise

Kate as a giant tortoise

Land iguana

Jeff as a land iguana

 We wrapped up our first night in the Galapagos with some delicious pizza and a walk down the cleverly lit pier, where we could see sea lions and fish, meters below the surface, swimming their nightly routines through glowing green waters.

Sea lion swimming off Puerto Ayora

The bay tour the next day departed straight from the pier at Puerto Ayora. Right after our small boat left the dock, Jeff spotted an iguana swimming through the harbor, his (her?) head raised above the water as he (she?) cruised along.

For our first stop, we motored out to a sea lion hangout called Los Loberia.

We snorkeled there for a bit, saw some fishes, and then we cut back across the bay and pulled up alongside the steep rocky cliffs on the western point of the bay to see the blue footed boobies.

Blue-footed boobies

Blue-footed boobie

 Our next stop was Las Grietas. A volcanic rift filled with brackish water that made for a most excellent swimming hole! We swam and scrambled as far back into the rift as we could go, but soon had to head back to join the group once again.

Las Grietas (volcanic rift swimming hole)

Post-adventure-swim at Las Grietas

Finally, we hoofed it to Playa de los Perros, a beautiful beach, ridden with marine iguanas and bright orange light-footed crabs.

Marine iguana up close

Marine iguana amid light footed crabs

One last snorkeling spot at the end of the Bay Tour

The bay tour dropped us back at the pier at 2pm, and knew we had to rally to squeeze in a visit to the lava tubes in the highlands that afternoon. After some circling of blocks in town, the taxi driver whose truck we had hopped into at the pier pulled over and asked a young person to help translate where we wanted to go. "Las Tuneles" was correct for the lava tubes, but we were misinformed in thinking "...estan circa de Los Gemelos", the twin craters. Confusion waned, communication was mostly accomplished, and we arrived at the entrance to the mas grande 800m stretch of lava tube that we had heard was the best. The woman at the entrance handed us large red flashlights and explained that they were for use in emergencies only because the whole tunnel was lit. Well, probably half of the lightbulbs were out (an obvious emergency) and I ended up using my light for ten of the fifteen minutes we were down there.

Kate did not find it very amorous

Jeff near one of the functioning lights

Heeding the advice of our Baños savior and San Cristobal resident, Daniela (she gave is a ride down 600m from the treehouse where Jeff injured his knee), we booked a more expensive, full day tour to Isla Bartolomé for our second day.  It was a great way to see more of the impressive sculpted landscapes and wildlife of the northern Galapagos. 

A pick-up truck picked us and another couple up at the pier at 6am and drive us back to the north end of the island where we took a water taxi and boarded the Española, a much larger sea-faring vessel. We spent an hour watching a Galapagos shark circle our boat while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive and then motored two hours north of Isla Santa Cruz to Isla Santiago.

Galapagos shark (~1.5-2m!)

On our way we spotted several sea turtles bobbing along while we stretched out and reclined on the bow of the boat. The Española moored just off of a beach on Isla Santiago, and Jeff and I snorkeled from the boat. Almost immediately after getting in the water, we saw another Galapagos shark!

We also saw all of these fishes:

Ok, maybe not ALL of them

After an hour of amazing snorkeling and serious fun swimming among schools of glittering fishes, we headed back to the boat and put on our shoes for a hike up to the top of Bartolmé.

Bartolomé is a barren but beautiful rock of an island, its small rocky inlands habited only by lava lizards and a few plants.

Isla Bartolmé

Lava rock and the trail to the top of Isla Bartolmé

Lava lizard on Isla Bartolmé

Crescent beaches and a pinnacle rock on Isla Bartolmé

In a wild and crazy coincidence, we actually ran into Daniela on Bartolomé toward the end of our tour. It was especially surprising to us because she never said she was a tour guide, and we only knew she lives in San Cristobal, another populated islands we wouldn't have time to visit.

We filled the morning hours of our last day on Santa Cruz with a visit to Tortuga Bay before catching  an afternoon ferry to Island Isabella. After a 45min walk and some frolicking with iguanas, I had some quality reading time on the sunny sand while Jeff played at being a fish in the warm waters.

Ecuador - By Bus

We have done a lot of flying instead of taking the cheaper, but longer bus rides.  To my own ignorance, I knew nothing of the difference, but I was about to learn.  Now, there isn't anything particularly bad about taking the bus, but you have to realize that even though the seats are more roomy than a plane and you don't have to worry about passing security, it is going to be slow, and even on the Cama (bed) bus you are not going to sleep very well.  Oh, and the movies on the bus are of a whole different caliber too. 

Our journey from Peru to Ecuador strung together three buses.  The first leg would take about 7 hours to get from Huaraz to Trujillo, Peru, after that we would endure 18 hours to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we spent a single night before a final 4 hours bus to Riobamba. 

Overall, the bus rides were rather uneventful, but the night bus we wanted to catch from Trujillo to Guayaquil was sold out and we had to spend an unplanned night in Trujillo in ordet to get on the next one.  This gave us the opportunity to take a tour of the Moche and Chan Chan ruins, which were really cool. Kate studied these cultures in undergrad, so she was happy to return to the dig sites ten years later, and even happier to discover that there was a new museum at Huaca de la Luna.

Huaca del Sol and the village as viewed from Huaca de la Luna. Moche

The 'nesting walls' built every 100 yrs. Huaca de la Luna - Moche culture

The tombs and 'fishnet' ventilation at the largest mud city in the world. Chan Chan - Chimu culture

Peruvian semi-hairless dog. His body temp is 40C!

Trujillo Plaza De Armas

We also got to enjoy a 5-in-1 DVD called Hombres Peligroso (Dangerous Men) on the 18h ride to Guayaquil, which started off with Cyborg, (starting Jean Claude Van Dam), and continued with Sylvester Stallone in Cobra.

After almost four days of bus travel, we finally arrived in Riobamba, where we planned to make a summit attempt on the mighty Chimborazo.  Besides being the highest mountain in Ecuador at 6,300 m, it is also the point on the Earth's surface that is farthest from the center.  In hindsight I think we were a bit haughty to try and summit this mountain without proper acclimatization.  We assumed that since we had on average been above 3,000 m for the past month that we would be acclimated, but failed to take onto account that Chimborazo base camp was at 4,800 m and the highest we had been since Aconcagua was 4,750 m.  Needless to say, we both got altitude sick around 5,600 m and decided to turn around.  The good news is that even though we didn't summit we were still farther from the center of the Earth than the summit of Everest; score!

The most we saw of Chimborazo (from basecamp @4800m)

The mountain actually looks a little like Rainier

With our climb cut a bit short we decided to head to Baños de Santa Agua (our next destination) a day early, and so we once again boarded another bus and watched a bootlegged (i.e. filmed in the theater) version of Hangover 4.

Baños is known for being a high adventure town and we were excited to have set aside four full days there, but we were also exhausted from months of constant traveling and were feeling the need for a break.  Fortunately, fate was kind enough to guarantee some rest days for us as I ended up hurting my knee on a swing after a long hike on our first day.  We finally take it easy for a few days; venturing out of our sweet airbnb pad for groceries and little else.

Baños from above

The site of Jeff's undoing

The view from our patio in Baños

We had a nice time being idle. Time flew by quickly and before we knew it, we were back on a bus again.  This time the bus took us back to Guayaquil so we could catch a flight to our final destination, the Galapagos Islands!!!

Cordillera Blanca - The Santa Cruz Trek

The Cordillera Blanca in Peru is touted as the highest mountain range in the world outside of the Himalayas, and with 18 peaks over 6,000 meters it is not too hard to see why.  The most popular trek through these mountains is the Santa Cruz trek, which is a short three night excursion up and over the pass Punta Union; of which we had set our sights.  The gateway to this hike is the town of Huaraz, a mere 8 hour bus ride from Lima.  We caught an overnight Cama bus (where the seats recline to almost become beds!), and after such journey we arrived moderately rested in Huaraz.  Fortunately, we were able to check into our hostel at 8 am and promptly take a nap. 

Properly rested we decided to take on the bustling streets of Huaraz.  The first order of business was to get permits for the Parque Nacional Huascaron and to see if we could get away without hiring a guide.  The trek did not seem to be very difficult with the trail being well marked and traveled and we were confident that we would have no trouble navigating the route.  At the national park office we asked about buying permits and got a short speech about how guides are required, but since it was the off season he was going to let it slide.  Success! We didn't even have to argue! Permits in hand, we found a rough map of the trek, purchased food and fuel, and we were ready. 

Before we could begin our trek we first had to get to the trailhead, which was in the small hamlet of Cashapampa.  Arriving in Cashapampa was a two step affair.  We first had to catch a combi (a van used as public transport) to Caraz and from there catch a colectivo (a smaller, shared taxi) to Cashapampa.  Fifteen minutes of wandering around Huaraz yielded a combi to Caraz and we were on our way.  In Caraz we followed our map to the colectivo pick up location only to find a dirt lot with a few taxis.  We didn't really want to spend three times as much on a taxi, so we milled about trying to figure out what to do.  An old Ford Taurus wagon rolled up and the guy said he was a colectivo and would take us to Cashapampa.  This was a far shot from the cushy van we were hoping for, but we agreed.  The driver ended up recruiting four other people (one with a two year old) and four 50 kg bags of feed to make the journey, too.  The back set was surprisingly comfortable with four adults and one two-year-old and we only bottomed out a couple of times on the windy dirt road up to the trailhead. 

Colectivo Caraz->Cashapampa

Santa Cruz trailhead and valley

The trail started up behind a farm, passed by a covered alter where we had to show our permits and register, and then dove into an enticing narrow canyon Kate had spotted from the car.  The bottom of the canyon rose up quickly and the trail along with it.  As we walked we encountered intermittent rain showers and constant signs that the trail was frequently used by cows, donkeys, and horses, but in four hours we saw only three ranchers and zero trekkers!

The trail was also used by DonkeyCows such as this one

Eventually the path leveled out and the canyon widened slightly.  We got closer to the Santa Cruz river and could see its tumbling water overflowing its banks.

Santa Cruz River a la rainy season

High waters of the Santa Cruz river

Two horses and a young colt were there to welcome us as we arrived at Llamacoral, the pasture that was to be our first campsite.  There were some rudimentary buildings and a stone outhouse that was no longer functional (i.e. full).  We set up the tent in a relatively manure-free zone and took shelter from the rain.  A group of four hikers and three guides arrived a little later with an REI tent!  It looked like either a Kingdome or a Hobitat 4, but we didn't get to ask about it because we were all seeking shelter from the rain.

As soon as the sun set Kate and I went to sleep.  I was awoken what seemed like hours later by Kate hitting me and whispering "I think there is something outside the tent!".  Of all the times I have been woken up to that phrase I think this was the first time it was actually true, and I could hear a noise on the rainfly. (Kate would like that "all the times" Jeff mentions here probably only amount to a handful, and all those in bear country!) We shook the tent and heard the startled but playful departing clomp of hooves, but moments later the licking of the rainfly resumed.  Kate shook the tent harder and yelled, and this time the young horse seemed to get the idea and ran off for good. 

The rain abated during the night and we awoke relatively early the next day with the plan to get most of our hiking finished before it resumed in the afternoon.  We packed up with the assistance of a friendly pack animal and were on our way just after 9 am.

Jeff and Friend

We followed the trail along the flat valley floor, through pastures with various grazing mammals and the constant presence of the cloud ceiling above.  There was one tricky part where we had to navigate a boulder field where the river pushed us up onto the steeper hillside.  Just after 1 pm we reached our intended campsite, in yet another pasture.  As we were scoping out the best poop-free and dry patch of grass to place our tent the guides from the other group arrived.  Through our rough comprehension of Spanish and his rough English we gathered that they were going to go up and over the pass today, perhaps because of some rain.  We decided that even if it did rain all of the next day we weren't in a rush to complete our trek and wanted to enjoy a relaxing afternoon in our chosen pasture.  We were reaffirmed in our decision a couple hours later when some of the lower clouds began to break up and we were finally able to glimpse several of the snow capped peaks we had been seeking.

Campspot at Taulliraju

The summit of Taulliraju (5830m) makes an appearance

Something outside the tent

As darkness fell so did the rain.  Cozy in our sleeping bags, we fell asleep to the rhythmic pattering on our tent.  It rained all throughout the night, and I was wondering if this was what the guide was talking about; would the rain continue all day for our hike up and over the pass?  As the sky lightened at 6 am, the rain decided its work was done.  Thankful for the timely dryness, we emerged from our shelter and packed up for the days journey.  The clouds were still hovering above the valley and we took our time climbing up the wet trail to Punta Union at a lofty 4,750 m (15,438 ft.), the icy slopes of Taulliraju in our sight for much of the way.

On the way up to Punta Union pass

Pucajirca (6050m) looms behind the west ridge of Taulliraju

Kate's lucky star was smiling on us though, and as we reached the pass the clouds began to give way and the sun shined down.  We lounged at the pass for an hour and a half soaking in the sun instead of the rain.

Notchyo ordinary pass

Jeff at Punta Union

 Lago Taullicocha (?)

Eventually, we decided it was time to get moving and we began our descent just in time for it to start sprinkling again.  The 1,000 m we had to go down seemed to drag on after such a great time at the pass, and we were hurried along for the last 200 m by an impressive thunderstorm above us.

The start of the descent from Punta Union

Our route down the other side

Once again we found ourselves setting up camp in a pasture in the rain, but it was worth it for the spectacular day we had.

For our final day we still had to hike out 8 km (5 mi.) to the town of Vaqueria where we would wait to catch a combi (another public transit van) to the town of Yungay, and then another back to Huaraz.  Wanting to get back to civilization quickly we awoke early and skipped a hot breakfast in order to be on the trail by 7:15.  The first hour of our hike took us down through more wet pastures until we reached the edge of the  national park.

Day 4 trail out in the Hauripampa valley

We checked out at the park office and were soon among the high Andean villages.  Some of these villages were originally settled by people hundreds of years ago, and most of them still speak the Quechua language.  The first villages we came to were not accessible by car and we marveled at the people who lived up there.

Huaripampa village

After a couple wrong turns and some helpful locals we arrived in Vaqueria.  All I had heard about Vaqueria was that the Santa Cruz trek started or ended there and, so I had expected it to be a small village with a commercial zone from which to catch a ride.  In actuality, Vaqueria consists of around ten to fifteen houses built up the mountainside along the switchbacks of the dirt road from Yanama to Yungay.  At the top of the town there was an outside waiting area with wooden benches and a small snack and beverage hut.  The convenience stand was run by a mother of two small girls who was kept busy watching them, the stand, and doing laundry in the near by sink.  We asked about transit to Yungay and were told that the next combi would arrive at noon, and so we got comfortable for our upcoming hour and a half wait. 

Not long after we arrived the the other guided group of trekkers appeared also waiting for a combi.  Sometime after noon the first combi heading to Yungay rolled by, but was full.  This got one of the guides on the phone with what I assume were some drivers in Yanama telling them that there were nine people waiting and willing to pay for rides to Yungay.  We kept hearing that transit would arrive shortly, but each combi that passed was full and elicited another phone call. 

Our waiting spot in Vaqueria

At 1 pm the mother who was watching the convenience stand emerged from her house with three bowls of potatoes and a hard boiled egg for the three guides.  I must have been staring wide eyed because she offered me one for a mere three soles ($1) and I quickly took her up on it.  Kate and I shared the bowl and its necessary effects to stave off our growing hunger. 

Finally, at 2 pm a combi arrived that could squeeze in our large group.  Kate and I ended up squished with two other people in the back row (one of them didn't even have a seat) with our large backpacks on our laps.  The whole van was crammed with people and no one was comfortable for the three hour ride on the bumpy dirt road to Yungay.  I was thankful that even in the absence of seat belts the van was equipped with burly looking roll bars that were thoughtfully zip tied with foam padding, which prevented numerous possible concussions.

To say we were grateful to arrive in Yungay would be an understatement, and we were certainly not excited by the thought of having go cram into another combi to get to Huaraz, but we did so anyway.  At least this time we only had to endure one hour, and we were on paved roads with our backpacks not on our laps.  In order to celebrate our successful return we enjoyed not-cold showers at our hostel and went out for some pizza and delicious Sierra Andina beer.