Clubbing sea lions to death

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that 53 sea lions in the Galapagos Islands had been clubbed to death.  The deaths were reported as having to have been caused by humans.  Having recently visited the Islands, I can certainly attest that these animals are not afraid of the world’s most dangerous predator and were easy targets, but why and who?  The Ecuadorians are investigating the killings; however, I am not optimistic that we will learn who committed the crimes, unless someone reports that they know who killed these sea lions.  The islands are open and accessible by boat with some islands inhabited by people. 

Why such a senseless and cruel act?  Was this an insane effort to hurt the tourism business which is criticized for changing the ecology of the area?  Just some random lunatic?  How do you protect the Islands without changing them?

Truly a horrible story.

A couple of Quito surprises

During my visit to Quito and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, I learned several things, despite the research that I did prior to making the trip.

Quito is a large sprawling city of about 3 million people and from a distance the city looks wonderfully bright and colorful, but upon closer inspection …  At more than 3 million, Quito sometimes seems to be about to burst.  Once in the city, you see how stressed Quito’s developing infrastructure is.  For example, trash collection seems to be a problem, the roads need repair, and there is immense poverty, particularly among indigenous people like the Andeans.  Despite the poverty and disrepair of many buildings, I was amazed at how beautiful and ornate the churches and cathedrals are.

If you are traveling from a pedestrian friendly country like Canada or a continent like Europe, please be careful and forget that your drivers take great precaution not to kill you.  Bad taxi driving seem universal, but not only do taxi driver not respect the right of pedestrians, no one does.

My biggest surprise was that roses [the flowers] are a major export for the country.  The United States and Europe are major importers.  As we were riding around the country, our tour guides kept pointing out greenhouses.  Roses are incredible inexpensive in Quito … about 25 for US $1.

I was also surprised at how nascent tourism seemed to be.  A true measure of the strength of tourism for me is how many souvenir shops there are … there are few in Quito.  There are a lot of trinket and gift shops in Quito, but nothing tacky that we Americans would buy.

Perhaps, the greatest surprise of all was how much the dollar buys.

Lodging in Quito, a tale of two hotels

During our recent visit to Ecuador to visit the Galapagos Islands, we got a chance to spend several days in Quito before our cruise and a couple of days in Quito after the cruise.  We decided to stay at two different hotels in different parts of the city … we were expanding our experience of Quito, a large sprawling city.  There’s the new city where you will find the business and tourists districts and then there is the old colonial city that shows the Spanish influence.  My other reason for staying in two different hotels is that sometimes you may make a bad choice and end up with a terrible hotel; I like to minimize my risk of doing this.

At the start of our trip we stayed in the business district at the Dann Carlton Hotel.  The hotel is nice, the staff understands service, most of the staff members speak very good English … my Spanish is nascent and one directional that is I can say things in Spanish, but my understanding is terrible.  A little more about the hotel … The room was clean and spacious.  The buffet breakfast, which was included in the rate, was excellent.  Grayline Tours also picks up from this hotel which is very convenient.

There were a couple of problems … the water pressure in the sink was low, but the shower was great.  There was one thing that the staff did that made us a little crazy … each day they would open the windows, leaving the room quite cold.  My other complaint probably is about timing.  Two of the nights we were at the hotel, there was a party in the ballroom one floor below.  The music was very loud, very bad, and very late.  Needless to say, we got two terrible nights sleep.  I eventually asked to be moved to another room, which the hotel accommodated.  I would stay at this hotel again … with the caveat that there is no party or convention.

Now, when we returned to Quito from the Galapagos, we stayed in the old colonial city at the Hotel Patio Andaluz.  I can use one word to describe this hotel … wonderful.  The hotel is a few blocks from the Presidential square, one of the main squares of the city.  The staff understands the concept of service.  When we arrived at the hotel, we asked the receptionist about tours, which she helped to arrange for us.  Our room was very spacious and nicely decorated.  The bathroom was incredible.  The accommodations were absolutely luxurious and included a reading room where coffee and tea were available all day.  This hotel is a bonus for eco-types, because they promote conservation … the toilet, recycled paper, a cloth laundry bag instead of plastic, low wattage light bulbs.

Because I am a contrarian, there were a couple of things I did not like [I am really just being picky]:  the water pressure in the shower was low; the buffet breakfast, which was not included in the room rate, was not stellar.  We also did not have windows to look outside, we did have a nice window looking over the courtyard.

Not only would I stay at the Hotel Patio Andaluz again, I want to stay here again.

One thing that both hotels had in common was the lack of climate control … no heat or air conditioning control.  My final word on both hotels is that either would be good choices; Hotel Patio Andaluz is definitely superior … and more expensive.

My favorite Galapagos Island

Trying to determine which of the Galapagos Islands was my favorite is really difficult.  While there is a lot of similarity between the islands, they are also unique too. 

So, on our trip, we visited 6 islands:  Bartholomew, James Island, Fernandina, Isabella, North Seymour, and Santa Cruz.  We would visit one island in the morning and one island in the afternoon.  Our last day, we visited the islet, Mosquera.

Bartholomew, the first island that we visited, was probably the best view that we had where we climbed to the top of the island.  We saw few animals like lava lizards, iguanas, crabs, sea lions, and supposedly there was a dolphin sighting.  So, during our hike, our naturalist pointed out native plants and talked about the island formation.

Later that afternoon we visited James Island where we saw abandoned structures and the remnants of salt mining.  The island has much more vegetation than Bartholomew and we saw much more wildlife … sea lions, iguanas, crabs, a hawk, and several birds.

The next day we visited Fernandina Island.  This is the island of iguanas.  At our landing we had to carefully navigate through a multitude of iguanas, sunning on the rocks.  We actually got to see a dispute over territory (an iguana fight).  We also got a close view of flightless cormorants.  Sea lions and crabs are ubiquitous.  We also learn about lava flows, which are identical to the ones found in the Hawaiian island chain.  We also unexpectedly see a sea turtle.  The wildlife is active and varied here.

Isabella was our afternoon island where we took a dingy tour and did not actually land on the island.  I was a little concerned about the dingy tour and what we would see, but this tour was really interesting.  We even visited a cave.  We saw a multitude of blue-footed boobies perched on the cliff walls.  There were several sea turtles and stingray sightings and other birds.  Of course, there were sea lions, crabs, and iguanas.  It is amazing that sea lions are as adept at climbing as they are.

Our last full day in the Galapagos, we started the day by visiting North Seymour Island … one word incredible.  The main wildlife was birds:  blue- and teal/green-footed boobies and frigates who were mating and nesting.  There were active sea lions too.  The island also have quite colourful vegetation.

No visit to the Galapagos would be complete without a visit to Santa Cruz to visit the giant tortoises and the lava tunnel.  Pictures do not do these animals justice.  Depending on your perspective, we visited at the right time.  The tortoises were mating.  They are a little skittish, but you can get quite close like centimeters.

Our last day, we take a dingy tour to the islet Mosquera.  The highlight was a mating frigate and the geology of the islet.  Along the ride, we saw sea lions and crabs.

I suppose I would have to say North Seymour is my favorite because the birds were so active and plentiful and didn’t fly away when they saw us.

Cruise ship or yacht for the Galapagos …

One of the major decisions that we had to make regarding our visit to the Galapagos Islands was how do we want to visit the islands … by land or sea.  The land based option would mean that we would need to stay on one of the islands with a hotel, which subsequently would mean that we would be geographically limited in what we could see.  The choice between land and sea was easy for us, because we wanted to see as much of the Galapagos as we could.

  Now, the decision for us was whether we would visit the islands via cruise ship or yacht.  Until I started researching our options, I did not know there were so many options from 16 passenger yachts to 100 passenger cruise ships.  Given all these options, I tried to read as many comments and blogs from other travelers as possible. 

There are strong feeling on both sides.  Some of the compelling arguments that the cruise ship side make is that “you get to travel comfortably” without really compromising the experience of visiting the Islands and seeing the wildlife.

  The yachts make many compelling arguments too.  They refer to their accommodations as cozy or intimate.  They say that your experience and contact with the naturalist is more flexible with you being able to make requests.  Yachts are also less expensive and are allowed closer to the islands, and in some instances the only vessels allowed to some islands … supposedly.  The National Park Service actually determines where each vessel goes.  Perhaps, most compelling is that yachts have less of an impact on the environment than cruise ships. 

Given the two, we decided to take the cruise ship option.  Our ship, the Explorer II was excellent.  We had great service like clean towels and room service daily, there was a physician aboard, there were social and educational activities, we had access to the naturalists, the group sizes on our ship were no larger than the groups on the 16 passenger yachts, we could even change groups if we wanted, conservation seemed important [the Explorer II talked about the 3 R's - reuse, reduce, and recycle], passengers could snorkel and scuba dive, the ship’s size minimize swaying and motion sickness, the food was good [the buffet breakfast was okay, the buffet lunch was good, the menu dinner was excellent], most importantly, we could avoid passengers that we did not like … hard to do on a small ship or yacht.  Believe me there were many passengers that would have made me abandon ship had we been on a 16 passenger yacht. 

We had the best of both worlds, an ecologically friendly way to see the Islands without giving up too many comforts.  Admittedly, cruise ships are more expensive.  For instance, we could have taken a 7 day, 6 night adventure on a yacht that would still have cost less than our 5 day, 4 night cruise.  In fact, the yacht option I looked at would have been at most 60% of the cost of our cruise.

The true choice between cruise ship and yacht is not really which is better, but a matter of taste.  Service and comfort are important to us.  The thought of being trapped for days with a small group of people that I do not like scares me.  The yachts and smaller ships may get closer to the islands, but a few minutes longer on a dingy is okay with me.   

For some, a yacht or small ship would be the best option, but I am glad that I did my research first … for us, cruising was the best option. 

Confessing my ignorance … Galapagos Islands

As I was planning our trip to the Galapagos Islands, I learned a lot about the country of Ecuador and the Islands themselves.  The Galapagos Islands are world famous, but it is one of those places that you know about without knowing a lot about.

I knew the Galapagos Islands are a series of islands.  The Islands were important to Darwin and his theory of evolution and survival of the fittest.  The Islands were separated from the mainland and the animals adapted differently.  The Islands are protected and an ecological venture.

What I didn’t know …

• The Galapagos belong to Ecuador … by default since no one else wanted them.
• The Islands are about 600 miles west of mainland Ecuador.
• There are over several large islands and around 40 islets.
• There are two airports in the Galapagos that accommodate commerical sized jets … I think Airbus.
• There are over 20,000 natives of Galapagos and several hotels including the five star Palms.
• There are two ways to see the Islands … cruise ship/yacht or hotel.  [My preference is cruise ship.]
• The Islands are on a geological hot spot like the Hawaiian Islands which are way further west.  There are still volcanic eruptions.
• There were multiple attempts to colonize the Islands.
• The natural beauty of some of the islands rivals the uniqueness of the animal populations.

I am sure that there is even more that I do not know, but that’s all I am willing to confess. 

Flying the friendly skies

I’ve flown through many different airports on many different airlines and have to say that for the most part they are all bad!  Bad in different ways, but bad all the same.

We recently returned from a visit to Quito and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.  The Galapagos Islands were spectacular and Quito was filled with colonial history, not to mention to history of the indigenous people.  Before I digress too much … this post is about air travel.

Quito’s airport is probably one of the most confusing airports we have ever flown.  Johannesburg wins the prize for the most confusing and worst airport.  We arrive at the airport at 7:15am for our 9:40am domestic (National) flight from Quito to the Galapagos Islands … so far so good.  We used a guide to help us navigate luggage screening, which you have to do when you are traveling to the Galapagos.  This was a little confusing, because you do this before you check-in and then you get your bags back and wait in line to check-in … so you can stuff all your illegal plants and seeds back into your bags … joking.  But, I suppose you really could.

So, we are waiting at the TAME counter, one of Ecuador’s airlines.  I would say TAME lines, but they were more like loosely formed lines.  Then, we are told to wait a few minutes because we are early and there are other departing flights.  We are eventually after only a few minutes allowed to approach the counter and get our tickets.  So, this time we get to leave our bags with the gate agent.

Then, it dawns upon us … where are the gates.    They were behind us and not well labeled.  We make it through security and look for Gate 0.  There is no Gate 0.  This is apparently a generic Gate.  So, using my poor nascent Spanish, I ask and the gate agent tell me that they will call the correct Gate number when we are ready to board.  So, we sit and wait and wait in a very small gate area for all domestic flights within Ecuador.  The gate area had to be at capacity.

Because my Spanish is unidirectional (which is my problem and not Ecuador’s), I watch the monitors for Gate information only to learn that the monitors are more often incorrect.  So then, I start to listen for airline, flight number, and gate number.  That’s a lot to listen for when the gate agent is speaking fast, probably normally, and I am listening slowly.  Sometimes there would be English information and other times there would not be, but hey we were in Ecuador.  After about two hours of wondering, I finally hear flight number 195 and Gate 1!

We finally get to board.  So, as we are sitting in the general gate area, I am thinking that this airport must be really small … no.  We had a very long walk to the actual airplane, and there seemed to be several jet-ways!

Despite the confusion, most of the staff seemed to be friendly.