Saturday 9th November 2013
Originally we had thought we would return to Puerto Ayora and spend a couple of days island hopping, San Cristobal or Floreana perhaps. It turned out that there wasn’t much to see on San Cristobal that we hadn’t seen already anyway and both Islands were 2 hours away by speed boat, the thought of which made me feel sea-sick. Of the options available, the most tempting was to take a boat to North Seymour to see the frigate birds with their inflated pouches, but honestly we weren’t interested. At this point I was much more interested in doing more normal things. Nice food, nice cocktails, wifi and some quiet time and that’s what we did. We enjoyed our spacious room and I had three nights of the most peaceful sleep since leaving home. On the boat, in Quito and in Lisbon my sleep was interrupted every night, filled with strange and disturbing dreams.
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon drinking caipirinhas looking over the port, enjoying the sunny weather, sorting out accommodation, thinking about our plans once we returned to Quito, writing some blog entries and generally reflecting on the trip so far. On the way back to the hotel in the evening, we caught a dance/exercise class going on at the square which got me in the mood for dancing. Later we went to a night out at a club in town where Ismael and I got the opportunity to shake our booties, showing the locals how it’s done 🙂 By the end of it, I was looking forward to doing dance classes with Ismael in Brazil and Argentina!
On the last night we enjoyed a meal at the deli, went for a leisurely walk along Charles Darwin Drive and back. We were ready to leave now but I decided I would miss it in some ways. Our time in Galapagos was relatively extravagant. We would be tightening our budget from here on in. The weather was nice and we felt safe there. I wore my jewellery the whole time and I knew it would have to come off back in Quito. I would miss the cocktails, the deli and the beautiful sea, the slow, quiet and calm of the place.
After a couple of days in Quito, the plan is to head south to Baños which everyone tells us is lovely. We decided we don’t really have time to do the jungle in Ecuador so are researching options for doing it after the Inca Trail, either in Peru or Bolivia. We have a little over two weeks to make it down to Cusco to get acclimatised to the altitude before the Inca Trail. We are looking forward to seeing new places on the way and the challenge of the trail.
Ramblers Rumblings 