Hurrah I think this is actually the most up to date that I have been so far - I am still in Ecuador and actually writing about Ecuador! We get picked up from the airport by a driver organised by the hotel - just what one needs after a flight! We are staying at the Hostel Santa Barbara and it is a gorgeous b&b style place in absolutely pristine condition. Wooden floors and a real fire on the go it is a wonderful contrast to the dive we stayed at in Lima! D and I head out for a walk unfortunately lots of places are closed and we are a bit sad to have to go to another hotel for dinner as hotels are rather over-priced and not so local. We have a gorgeous thick soup containing potatoes and cheese with avocado apparently this is an ecuadorian speciality. We are so full the main course is rather un-necessary but it would be rude not to! Then back to the hotel to prepare for our trip to the Galapagos next day.
We arrive at the airport very early and there isn´t really much to do before our flight to San Cristobal Island and the flight is delayed by an hour. There are lots of Gringos about a big contrast from Peru but finally we board and are very pleased to be in business class with the extra leg room that this entails! The requested ´special´ (veggie) meal on the plane is carrotts, sweetcorn, and peas which we find hilarious it is definitely a contender for joker veggie option of the year! We land and meet our guide who is called Sara, a bubbly attractive lady with a very distinctive voice. We also meet Kim, a South African, a Dutch couple, and a loud mouthed yank called Kevin, who I just know we are going to get along with. Also in our group are six older people, 3 couples, two Austrians and 4 Germans. Another yank called Michael (looks like Robert de Niro!), a French Canadian lady called Odette and another couple - a guy called Karsten and his gorgeous young girlfriend Marie who is way out of his league. He must be rich ha ha. The next few days are spent snorkelling and swimming and visiting the islands. It is a fantastic exerience - we swim with sea lions, turtles, sharks, and tons of beautiful bright coloured fish. On land we see marine iguanas, pelicans, flamingoes, albatross, blue footed boobies and giant tortoises. The sea lions are definitely the highlight - the females just lie about looking gorgeous (they really smell though!) whilst the bulls swim around their harems barking their status.
On day 5, 11 of the group are finishing their tour and we find out that Michael is writing for none other than Lonely Planet - how cool is that! The rest of us discover that we are going to get 11 new tour mates. We are a bit disappointed as we were hoping that there would be more food to go around as the food so far has been somewhat lacking in quantity and quality. Ah well who needs food when there´s a bottle of $6 rum on board! A few of the group have unfortunately been rather ill from both dodgy food and sea sickness - not me though I have found my sea legs and am wise enough to avoid any meals that seem a bit suspect - must be my EH training I knew it would come in handy someday!
We say goodbye to the anti-social (you know who you are!) types and meet the newbies after lunch. It is a much younger crowd and it ends up being much more fun on the boat with this lot. The final night is brilliant as we have an 11 hour sail back to San Cristobal Island and the sea is quite rough. A bunch of us go on deck and we are thrown about all over the place with the boat bunny hopping the waves and the spray hitting us in the face. It is highly hazardous and the best night on the boat by far.
On the final day we visit the Darwin Interpretation Centre which gives a history (turbulent) of the Galapagos. It is very interesting although would have been more useful to visit on day 1 perhaps! Overall our experience on the Archipell II has been fabulous - the crew were great and our guide was a real character with great knowledge. The only major downfall was the food and so we were looking forward to going back to Quito and eating out in a highly rated restaurant called Zazu. Kevin very generously paid for the meal and it was a really good nosh up after the mediocrity on the boat. Service, decor and food were top notch and I highly recommend this place if visiting Quito. The next day D and I take a ride on the Teleforica, or cable car, which goes up Mount Pinchincha and had great views of Quito. Or it would if it was not cloudy! We also walk around the old town, which is very different to the more touristy affuent Mariscal area. There is clearly a lot more to do in Ecuador than our short lived visit allows us. The mountains surrounding the capital look spectacular however unfortunately we do not have time to explore further as our flight to Chile is the next day. We would definitely return to Ecuador for a longer visit but that will have to be another holiday!
