TRAVELING BY BUS

Traveling by bus is not only cheaper but more fascinating than flying. Looking out the window while going through small fishing or mountain villages or on narrow mountain roads can be quite interesting. The buses themselves are more comfortable than planes as well. That's good thing since 20 hours on the bus with only one stop is a long time.

On our way from Bogota to Santa Marta on the coast we were driving through the mountains for the first few hours. There was a lot of traffic on the mountain road. Lots of buses and trucks in both directions. Our bus was still overtaking other buses and trucks. Never mind the oncoming traffic After it got dark the buses turned on huge flashlights on the roofs to signal that they were overtaking trucks. A little scary but it worked.
All towns we passed had little stores along the road and people were sitting in front of them. Just hanging around waiting for someone to buy anything from them. Or just hanging around. The scenery was much different in the morning when we got closer to the coast. Cows on green fields and palm trees. There were still little stores along the road and people in front of them. There were also many people biking or walking, horse carriages and occasionally someone washing clothes in the river.

The scenery was much different along the coast on our way from Santa Marta to Cartagena. Just a few meters to the side of the road the Caribbean Sea started and on the over side of the road were small fishing villages. Some completely under water.





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BOGOTA, COLOMBIA

05. October - 08. October 2010

After more than three weeks in Ecuador it was time to fly to Bogota and meet Micha there to travel together for the next months.

Bogota is a huge, chaotic south-american city. There seemed to be a lot of construction going on and traffic was crazing. Traffic jams and buses everywhere. The bus system is pretty good though. There is no subway but certain buses have their own street lanes and are fairly fast. And always packed with people. It took me a few trips to places where I didn't wanted to go before I figured out how the system works. But taking the bus is always interesting and good for people viewing. Occasionally we were taking a taxi somewhere. There are a lot of taxis in Bogota but when we needed one they all seemed to be taken or the driver refused to drive to the place we wanted to go.

We stayed in a hostel in the old town, La Candelaria. The area has nice old and colorful buildings and lots of hostels, some bars and restaurants. We spent two days in Bogota and most of the time we were just walking around or taking the bus somewhere.
After a week on a boat on the Galapagos I had to do laundry. That ended up being more challenging than expected. It took over an hour and I had to ask several people to find a laundry. There the woman at the counter took ever piece of cloth out of my bag and counted how many shirts and bras there were to wash. When I went back to pick up my clothes a few hours later they weren't ready. While I was waiting there for quite a while the woman collected my clothes from all over the store. All my clothes had little blue bands sewn into them as a sign that it was my stuff.

We also went to Zipaquira, a small town north of Bogota. The town had a nice little plaza and houses, but the reason we went there was to visit the Salt Cathedral. The cathedral is underground and is build in a salt mine. Very impressive. Everything down in the mine is salt - walls, columns,... it looks like rock but it is salt.

On our last morning in Bogota we took the funicular up to Cerro de Monserrate – a small mountain with a church. The view from here over Bogota was great and we could see how big the city is. We happened to be there on “National Evacuation Day” an emergency test where all people had to go to a meeting area and wait there for a few minutes. Now we know where to go in case we happen to be there again and there will be an earthquake.

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GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 26. September - 03. October 2010

After I originally didn't want to go to the Galapagos, I fortunately changed my mind and booked a cruise.

The Galapagos islands belong to those places that are impossible to describe. Words like great and amazing just aren't good enough. And although the pictures might look great, they will not be able to show how amazing these islands are. Especially the animals. It is an unbelievable experience to see newborn sea lions, snorkel with sea turtles, eagle rays and penguins, see blue footed boobies and albatrosses, swim with sea lions and see marine iguanas. So, I will try my best to describe the beauty of the Galapagos.

The trip didn't start easily. The flight to the Galapagos was at 7am and I had to get up at 4am to get to the airport in time. Unfortunately I did not hear the alarm on my watch and only woke up when Carlos (the father of the house) knocked on my door to tell me that the taxi is waiting for me outside. Luckily I had packed everything the night before and was able to get downstairs in five minutes.

Lessons learned 2: The alarm on my watch is not sufficient.

I got to the airport in time and from the runway – and later from the plane - I had a great view of Cotopaxi.

After we arrived on the Galapagos and took a bus to the pier we got on board of the ENCANTADA. The boat is a nice old red sailing yacht. and had room for 12 passengers and the 6 person crew. Since I was traveling alone, I had to share a room with another passenger. Luckily I shared the cabin with a nice German guy, who also saved me with pills against motion sickness (Danke Dirk!).

The days on board were quite similar. Breakfast around 7am. One trip to one of the islands. Lunch back on board. Relaxing until 2 pm, snorkeling and/or another trip on land. After dinner I usually sat outside talking to Edin, one of the crew members. Life can be so good....

The food on boat was much better than expected. The meals always had a lot of fruits and veggies and were very fresh and delicious. I'm still amazed how they manage to prepare those meals in the tiny little kitchen. The cook definitely was doing a great job. Unfortunately our guide was quite useless and didn't know much.

The rest of the crew was very nice. Since I was the only woman traveling alone at the beginning, I got special attention from the crew members. ;-) It was interesting to talk to the crew members about there life on and off the boat. Working for three months and then having one month off for sure is no easy life.

The first day we stopped at Black Turtle Bay on Santa Cruz Island. With the dinghy we drove through the mangrove forest. The landscape was quite interesting – trees with long roots everywhere in the water. The first bird we saw was a blue footed booby. Very funny looking bird with blue beak and blue feet. We also saw a lot of brown pelicans and other birds. But the highlight of this tour were some big sea turtles swimming close to the little boat. Amazing.

The next morning our first stop was on Rabida Island. The island has a beautiful red beach and sea lions enjoyed the morning sun all over the beach. There were many sea lions and they didn't mind people around them.

In the afternoon, we stopped at Isla Bartholomew for a short hike up to the top of the island were we had a good view.. We also went snorkeling from the beach. There weren't that many fish to see but a little sea lion was swimming with us. That was fun and an amazing experience. He was very curious and and  stayed very close to us. 

After a very rough night almost everyone was tired in the next morning and I wasn't the only one who got seasick at night. Fortunately my cabin mate gave me some pills against motion sickness and after a while I felt better and could sleep.

We spent the day on Genovesa Island. There were a lot of birds to see - Pelicans, Red footed boobies, Galapagos Owls,...
 

Over night we were driving for about 10 hours to South Plaza Island over quite rough water but I felt much better then the night before and slept well. Before breakfast we visited the island. The landscape was very interesting with huge cactus trees and red bushes. Later in the morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz where we could see huge land turtles. The tortoise were interesting to see but the Research Station was don't that nice with concrete boxes and fenced in animals. We also got to see Lonesome George, an 100-year old tortoise. 

Later on we walked to Tortuga Bay, a nice white sand beach, were we relaxed for a while. We spent some time in Puerto Ayora, the biggest city on the Galapagos with around 20,000 people and some hotels and restaurants. Part of the passengers left the boat and new passengers arrived. Although the boat is quite small and basic, after almost all day off the boat I was really looking forward to returning to the Encantada in the afternoon. After dinner the whole crew left the boat while we were still in the harbour and spent a few hours with families or friends in the city.

The next morning we went to the Post Office Bay. There is a mailbox, where people leave postcards and other people take them with them if they live close to the addressee. The cards will than be hand delivered. Since We also went into a dark lava tunnel. Nothing too spectacular, just a cave. Back at the beach we went snorkeling. There were two sea turtles in the water and it was awesome to swim very close to them. There were also two little penguins in the water and I was swimming next to them. They looked quite funny, swimming under water with their little wings. In the afternoon we went snorkeling at Devil's crown, an volcanic crater. Because of the strong current it wasn't that easy to swim. But there were so many fishes, it was unbelievable. It was so great, that I snorkeled the loop around the crater twice.

At our last stop in the afternoon we visited Pt. Cormorant which had an interesting landscape and a beautiful white beach. Of course there were some sea lions as well. Watching the sunset from the beach before returning to the boat was quite nice.

The next day we stopped at Espanola Island and the wild life was unbelievable. First our trail was blocked be a sea lion and her baby, only a few hours old and very tiny. A few meters later tons of iguanas were on the trail. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the many sea lion babies. Sooo cute. The landscape was interesting too. With black lava rocks and good waves smashing against the island. Black and greenish marine iguanas were everywhere. So where blue footed boobies. We could also see the last Albatross babies that were on the island before going south. Pretty big, but fluffy and cute. For me this island was the best island in the Galapagos because of all the wild life. After lunch we made a trip to the beach with more sea lions and beautiful white sand. We also went snorkeling and I swam with a sea turtle and saw a big ray in the water.

The last day we went to Santa Fe Island. The island had many cactus trees and of course a lot of sea lions. We also went snorkeling were we saw a group of eight huge eagle rays. 

Sunday morning after a short walk on North Seymore Island (more sea lions, boobies and frigate birds) before breakfast, it was time to leave the Encantada and say good bye to the crew. Together with Paul and Fiona from the UK, I went to Puerto Ayora. In the afternoon we went to the highlands in the center of the island to see some tortoise in the wild. The tortoise were huge and moved very slow. There was not much to do in Puerto Ayora on a Sunday afternoon, I walked around the town and relaxed on my last day on the Galapagos.

Best of Galapagos pictures (30 photos)

More Galapagos pictures (150 photos)

La casa ecuatoriana

While attending language class in Quito I was staying with a family. Well, didn't really feel like staying with a family. But that is quite ok. For the second week there were seven students staying in the house. It definitely is more like a private hostel than a guest family. And I'm sure that the main reason for having foreigners staying in the house is earning extra money.

Although I haven't been to any other private houses, I think this is a upper middle class family. Carlos (the father) works at the university, Blanqui (mother) doesn't work, the son is in the military and the daughter lives in Germany and there is a woman helping with the household.

Carlos and Blanqui live on the first floor and I shared the second floor with a German. So, we kind of had our own apartment and only went downstairs when breakfast or dinner was served. We also had a huge terrace with a great view over parts of Quito and the mountains. As typical in South America there was no heating in the house and of course the windows are not insulated. Nights are quite cold at around 10 deg Celsius and I'm happy I brought my sleeping bag and wool socks. I did not expect it to be warm in Quito but I didn't think it would be that cold.

La Mitad del Mundo – Center of the World 09/19/2010

Since I was close to the equator I made a trip to the Mitad del Mundo, only a few kilometers north of Quito. The bus trip there was almost more interesting than the monument. Although (or maybe because) it was around noon on a Sunday the bus was quite busy. And 'personal space' does not have the same meaning here as it has in Europe or New York. If you think people are close to you on the 6 train on the way to work, well, here there is even less space. As always, it was interesting to look out of the bus and watch people on the streets.

The monument itself wasn't that great. Just a monument. Although some people told me about the more interesting museum near the monument, I somehow missed to go there. Around the monument were little stores selling handcrafts and souvenirs and a plaza were traditional Ecuadorian dances were shown. Since it was a weekend a lot of Ecuadorians were there enjoying the nice day and watching the dancers.

The  Monument                                                                                At the Equator

Traditional Dances

FIRST GALAPAGOS PICTURES

Check out some of the pictures from the Galapagos on Picasa
Galapagos Pics