Galapagos: Beauty and Doom

Hola Chicos!

I just got back from the Galapagos and am now sitting in Guayaquil at Samantha’s place. This is a local where we stay with ‘couch surfing’. And this was as far as I typed at Samanta’s place, while she took my computer and afterwards the battery went dead and we watched a movie. :P So 2nd try in Lima, were I am now in the Condor Hostel in Miraflores (just opened and really nice!).

In the next story our holiday of doom on the Galapagos. And a bit of Lima, but we are already going on to Ica/Huarachina to go sand boarding.

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1) A Galapagos, Enchanted Islands or Saddles?

Galapago is a word the Spanish pirates used for turtles they found on the Islands they called Enchanted Islands. They called the turtles Galapagos (meaning saddles) because that is what they looked like. Later on that name was used for the islands as well for they also looked like saddles. But I like the name that the pirates and conquistadors used better: the Enchanted Islands (because they appeared and disappeared with the waves). Why? Because this is one of the few times I had an ‘Wooow!!’-effect. And I haven’t had them a lot during this trip, some things are bad, others are nice, but the Galapagos were magnificent! More details in the end, but first how the trip almost got ruined.
Friday the 13th is supposed to be my lucky day, but I never had such a bad Friday the 13th as my last one. :( This is because a lot of things went wrong. As you might remember, I wrote in my last post that we spent about 4 days in Quito where we spent a lot of time arranging everything in advance. However, when we arrived at the airport we discovered that the agency (Ecuador View Express) had giving us the wrong flight times and that our flight was almost 2 hours earlier then we thought. Luckily we arrived very early.. So, we were in the Galapagos in time and had a wonderful (half a) day on Island Santa Cruz. In our boot were 14 people, 5 Germans that were a little bit older and then our ‘group’: 3 Dutchies, an Irish couple, 2 English people, 1 Australian guy and an Israeli. We did some hiking (partly in a lava tunnel) and visited the giant land Tortugas (turtles). And I and Karin (Dutch) crawled into two turtle shells and raced in them, followed by Neal (Australian) and Linda. :P
The second thing that went wrong however, was that when we got back on the boot, we went on land for dinner and afterwards also to sleep in a hotel. This because the motor broke down (which didn’t come as a surprise for apparently we had one of the worst boots on the Galapagos: the Gaby). So the whole evening was wasted with waiting. But the next day the boot would work, for they had a whole day to repair it. Next morning we were all in time, but the ‘crew’ not so after an hour waiting we finally went on our daytrip to island Floreana. Was a really nice day: we snorkeled with loads of sea lions (like 50 or so), saw some turtles and white tip sharks, we were accompanied by dolphins on the way back and Lin even saw a whale. But on the way back I was really tired for I was trying not to eat for 2 days because I had a parasite in me that I needed to kill. And to make that worse, when we got back on the Gaby, there was no one. After some time a local travel agent (Betty) came by to say there was a problem with the paperwork and the Gaby wouldn’t sail out. So back to the hotel and we spent the next 4 hours looking through our options with Betty. In the end 12 of us had a new boot, but only the Irish and one of the English still went for the 8 day cruise. The rest of us had to settle with 5. :( And we weren’t all together. :(
Next morning (after another 4 hours waiting) Lin and me went on the Floreana, with the other Dutchie Karin. Here we arrived about lunchtime and because I was starving (only drunk water for the last 38 hours), I immediately attacked. The Floreana was a really nice boot, this one only went to the north Islands were there is more fauna and less animals. But the crew was really nice and the guide very experienced. In our 5 days we saw and snorkeled with loads of turtles, sharks, sea lions, penguins, birds, sea and land iguanas and more. And my brain was blown away by the beauty of the landscapes… Imagine white sand beaches with sea lions, surrounded by mangroves and black volcano rocks with hundreds of iguanas, a blue/green sea in front of it and the shapes of a volcano on the horizon! Beautiful!! Or seeing the sun sink in the ocean, sleeping on the deck surrounded by complete darkness except 1000ends of stars from the ‘south’ glittering in the air and then waking up and seeing an amazing sunrise over the mountains!!! Still think the Galapagos aren’t enchanted?!?!
However, even though mine and Lins moral were up again, it crashed again on the evening after the cruise ended. This because we arranged everything with the diving school we reserved, but in the evening we got a message from the agency just when we wanted to go and eat (last dinner with the other passengers on the Floreana). We had to go to another dive school to fit the suits etc. Apparently the agency had switched from dive school without noticing us and already paid this one and couldn’t pay the one we picked. But this was a really crappy one, while we made a reservation for a sail boat and lunch, gear and snacks included (one of the better ones on the Galapagos). So we were sick of everything and didn’t want to change again. Unfortunately it took us some hours again to arrange everything at the last minute, but we went with Nauti Diving (the one we wanted). And what we (luckily) found out as well: our Agency had changed our return flight 2 days to the 24rd! Of course we didn’t agree.
Next day we didn’t go to the place we wanted (Gordon Rocks, to see hammerhead sharks). :@ This because we were the first to reserve and therefore could choose the diving spot, but because of all the trouble, the other passengers could choose. :@ With the first dive we only saw one sea lion and some sleeping fish. The second dive made it up, we saw sharks, turtles, fish, garden eels, murenos and even orka’s!
The last day (23rd) on Galapagos we went to the beach to chill and snorkel, but the waves were too big and current too strong. And in the evening another surprise: we wanted to buy Betty a drink for helping solving our problems, but she told us the hotel owner wanted to see us: he hadn’t been paid and Ecuador View Express didn’t even make a reservation with him. So we had to call again and lost another evening. But afterwards we didn’t care anymore and opened a bottle of wine and played cards with David and Sarah (people from the Floreana).
Fortunately the flight plans on the 24th had changed back and we had our flight. :D Even though we nearly missed it because of delay with the busses and ferry: we were at the airport about 30 minutes prior to the flight. :S

1) B Guayaquil, living with a loko!

We landed on time in Guayaquil and Samanta (our Couch Surf host) was already waiting for us. Samanta was 18, still lived with her parents and studied tourism and German (so she wanted to practice). The evening we just relaxed and the next day she showed us the city. Nice, but you shouldn’t stay in Guayaquil longer then a day. The second evening we watched a scary movie and on the 24th Samanta dropped us at the terminal where we went on a 27 hours bus ride to Lima.

1) C Lima, Paragliding is it

So, I’m now in Lima. We finally reached the hotel at about 4 PM (bus left at 11.30 yesterday morning), so we were hungry and tired. We wanted to go paragliding, but tonight there was no wind, so we try again tomorrow.

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2) The Route

This was my trip:
- 22/01/09 I flew to Aruba to visit and pick up Linda;
- 03/02/09 We went to Washington DC and visited Mariska;
- 06/02/09 We took take the bus to New York and slept in our first hostel;
- 10/02/09 We had a flight to Orlando and did 2 days Disney World
- 13/02/09 Drove to Miami were we did Miami city and the Keys;
- 17/02/09 Flew to Bogota (Colombia);
- 23/02/09 Cartagena
- 24/02/09 Santa Marta and la Ciudad Perdida (6 day hike in the jungle);
- 02/03/09 Taganga (rest!)
- 04/03/09 Medillin
- 05/03/09 Salento (Zona Cafetera, between Perreira and Armenia);
- 08/03/09 We took the bus to Ipiales (border) and left Colombia behind us
- 09/03/09 Quito
- 13/03/09 Galapagos (8 day cruise and 2 days on Santa Cruz for diving)
- 22/03/09 Guayaquil
- 25/03/09 Lima
- 26/03/09 Huarachina (Sandboarding)

And then what we planned (hopefully we’ll make it :P)
- 28/03/09 Nazca (Ancient ruins, maybe we’ll see them from a plane)
- 01/04/09 Cusco (we’ll do the Inca trail by our selves, go to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, visit the Secret Valley and more)
- 10/04/09 Arequipa and Canyon Country (Vulcanos, Canyon del Colca and crossing to Bolivia at Lake Titicaca)
- 13/04/09 A short visit to Bolivia will bring us to La Paz and some salt desert;
- 20/04/09 We will continue to go south, but only go to Arica in Chile and in Argentinia we only go to the waterfalls at border of Urugay/Brazil and Buenos Aires;
- 05/05/09 Brasil (Rio, Brasilia, Pantagan or Amazone Jungle);
- 26/05/09 I hope to fly to the states again (:S) to visit Joanna in Saint Louis and then Chicago at the same time. However, depends on my money.
- 04/06/09 B-day of Ta ;)
As you can see, tight schedule. So everyone that wants to go to South America: 4 months isn’t enough!!!

Roughly my trip after North and South America will look like this:
- 07/09 (or 06/09) Australia (working and traveling 1 year, maybe with Katie);
- 05/10 (or 06/10) Asia (Indonesia, Philipijnen, Maleisia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Korea and Japan, maybe with Isabel for a while);
- 11/10 Trans-siberian Railway Peking Express through among others Peking (China), Mongolia, Jarkoetsk (Rusland), Onsk (Rusland), Moskou (Rusland) for 18 days (maybe with Robbert);
- 12/10 Home sweet home, Wingman back in the Netherlands.

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3) My to do list

In one of the first messages I wrote, I said that you could let me do certain things in exchange for money. Here is the status quo:

- Get (naked) on national tele in the USA: Waiting if were on, being taped for Comedy Central and MTV’s the Fashion Show ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
*** (nearly) ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Find a famous place/square and be a street artist: I forgot my jiggling balls every time I went into Paris or other cities, but I had some audience in Zipaquire. ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
- Enjoy your trip: I will! ~ REWARD: € 25,- by Hans (Thank you Hans!!)
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Shave your head bold: since my mum shaved me twice I'm almost hairless now. :S ~ REWARD: € 3,50 by Sarah H;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Come to the Luna-Tik Switch: since I'm in Maastricht now (and bored) and waiting till 10h, I think I'll manage. ~ REWARD: free entrance as per Erik;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Carry Mickey around the world and take pictures in famous places: I WILL! ~ REWARD: A cool photo collection, as per me!;
- Get married in Las Vegas in an Elvis Suite and stay married for at least 6 months: Linda s not interested ~ REWARD: € 450,- as per Erik;
*** FAILED ***
- Carry the hand cups around that I ‘won’ with the Saint Nicolas Surprise: they are still on my back, but people looked weird when I took them into the jungle ~ REWARD: ??? told by Jule;

Did I forget one, do you want to add one?? Let me know!!
Do you want to add some?? Let me know!!

NOTE!! I’m running out of quests, please give me some more!!!

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4) Games

A little game for all:

Each person that posts, must repeat the sentence 'I will go on holiday and take with me:', repeat the items of previous persons and add one item of his own.

This is where we left of and since nobody played last post, we’ll stop with this one:

*I'll go on holiday and take with me: my backpack (Inge, afblijven!), my hand cups, Inge's prom dress, Mickey Mouse, a snorkel, juggling balls, 1 under pens, a passport, mama's toothbrush, Linda!, a winter jacket, snow boats, my MP3 player, mama’s bracelet, some dollars to buy breakfast, everybody’s notes with the best wishes on them (there actually at my parents Erik) and my lonely planet. :D

Here’s a new one:

Each post must say a number (in sequence from one till 50). The one who is number 50, will receive a little reward. :) And there will be a secret number reward as well!

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Well, it was a long story this time, but I wasn’t online for nearly 2 weeks, so I hope you’ll forgive me for that. Going to bed now (after uploading some pics, they are soon all on facebook).

Kisses, great love and more from the one and only Wingman aka Ralf and a hug from Mickey!!!!