Primitive Travel in Ecuador

Publish Post

Riding on the top of a train through Ecuador.

We really enjoyed Ecuador! Such a beautiful, friendly country. But its travel network is a bit primitive, we had to ride on the roof of a freight car during one leg of our journey to Peru. It was a beautiful train ride through the Andes and no one fell off. The route includes a famous ridge called "Nariz del Diablo" (Devil's Nose), which included two "V" switchbacks that were carved into the cliff wall. It was wild to be on the roof of the train as it pulled into the switchback, then proceeded to traverse the cliff backwards on the lower track.


Pulling into the first switchback.
About to proceed backward on the lower track.

Galapagos!!

Wow! What an amazing place. We had such a great time in the Galapagos. We saw so many animals and loved that you can walk or snorkel up to them and they don't even flinch. The mamas didn't mind us nearby while nursing or feeding their young. The sea lions and sea turtles were playful with us in the water. Even the sharks seemed less intimidating.

We were there for nine days (hence all the photos), and spent a few days on Santa Cruz island, Isabela island, and then took a three-day cruise around the northern islands. Given that we don't plan or research ahead of time, we were a bit surprised by how arid and cool it was on the equator. The water was also much colder than expected due to the Humboldt current coming up from the antarctic. Which explains why there are flamingos and penguins here.

Due to it's isolation and unique climate there are numerous species that are endemic to the Galapagos (found only here) like giant Galapagos tortoises, marine iguanas, Galapagos fur sea lions, and many more. Even from island to island some of the species have adapted differently. There's an owl that stalks it's prey like a cat on the ground. One of my favorites was the blue footed boobies who dives into the water from 70 meters above like a kamikaze to catch fish. Their bright blue feet were wild.

Here is a little video we recorded of a whitetip reef shark while snorkeling. We'll upload a couple more videos soon.


Whitetip Reef Shark - Galapagos Islands

Panama

Only one more day in Central America. We fly out to Quito, Ecuador on Oct. 10 from Panama City. We're sad to leave Central America, but we are really excited about South America. Also, we bought a return flight home! We fly from Santiago, Chile to San Francisco on Dec. 22. 5 months and 2 days on the road. Hopefully the country will not completely meltdown before we return!

We've been busy since our last update. We've managed to up load a lot of photos, click on the link to check them out (on the right side bar of this page).

Panama has been a lot of fun. We visited Bocas del Toro first. It's a group of beautiful islands on the Caribbean side, very close to the Costa Rican boarder. Mike was there 10 years ago. It has been developed a bit since then, but it still a great place to visit. The islands' beaches are mostly white sand, palmed fringed and the water is crystal clear.

We had three days in Bocas del Toro. Day 1 we took a bus to Bocas del Drago / Star beach on the main island of Colon, where we were amazed by the huge starfish. Day 2 we rented kayaks and snorkeled at Hospital Point on Isla Solarte. We also circled Isla Carenero and finished with a late lunch at a dock side resturant (Cosmic Crab). Day 3 we hired a local boat to Isla Bastiamentos and crossed the island by foot to spend time on the beautiful Playa Wizard. Bocas is a great surf destination during the right time of year (Nov. - Feb.) but we didn't time the visit well.

However, our next stop was 3 days in Playa Santa Catalina, which has a very consistant reef break. Mike was able to get in a lot of surfing until he broke his board on our last day there. Santa Catalina is a small fishing \ surf village on the Pacific coast. It has a couple of nice beaches that are much mellower than the main surf break, so even Melissa was surfing. There's not too much to do there other than surf and hang out, which was nice after a few busy days in Bocas del Toro.

Now we are in Panama City, and we went to see the canal today at Miraflores Locks. We watched a couple large ships go through, lowering 52 feet on their way to the Pacific Ocean. We hope to see more of the city tomorrow, as long as Melssa's cold (fourth one on this trip) doesn't get in the way.

Nicaragua

We decided to venture up to Nicaragua because we heard good things from other travelers. First stop was San Juan del Sur, a fishing village on a beautiful horseshoe shaped bay, and stayed for a week. It's close to several good surf spots, so it's loaded with surfers. Actually, I (Melissa) finally started surfing and I loved it! The small waves at the town beach and Playa Remanso were perfect for me. Beside that, there's not much to do which is great because it was so hot. We met some wonderful people there - Shannon and Steve, from Canada who just opened a smoothie place on the beach, which we went to everyday. Michael, a local who worked there was fun to chat with and practice our Spanish, and Tom and Suzie from Vienna that we surfed with a bit.

One day we woke up so itchy and cranky from all our mosquito and sand fly bites that we decided to take a break from the beach and head to the city of Granada. Granada is considered Nicaragua's finest colonial town, and is on Lake Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America). Lake Nicaragua is the only fresh water lake in the world with sharks (bull sharks). We spent a couple days exploring the town then took the ferry to Isla de Ometepe, a beautful small island formed by two volcanos on Lake Nicaragua. We stayed on the beach at Santo Domingo, and attempted to explore the island by renting bikes one day but got a flat, and renting a motorcycle the next but also got a flat. Lesson learned, don't rent poorly maintained rides in third world countries.

I'll remember Nicaragua for it's scary thunder. One night in particular in Isla de Ometepe, the thunder was so loud I must have jumped two feet out of bed from a sound sleep. It sounded like lightening struck the nighstand! Everyone in the hostel talked about it the next day. I'm glad it wasn't just me that was freaked out.