A stroll through the countryside

For the second half of my spring break during Semana Santa a group of girls – Hannah, Corinne, Sally and Dana – and I went to three beautiful Sierra towns: Alausí, Ingapirca, and Cuenca. We spent a lot of time in buses but we saw plenty of amazing things and it was well worth it.

Alausí: this town does not particularly have much to offer but it was tucked away in the Andes Mountains and had some breathtaking countryside. The attraction of this town is the train that takes you to La Nariz del Diablo (the Devil’s Nose). The town is heavily populated with indigenous people and I liked getting to see a bit of their traditional lifestyle with their food and clothes, but once we got to the train station we were surrounded by tourists!

The train ride was one and a half hours with an hour lunch break. It is considered the most difficult trains in the world because it has a zig-zag track down through the mountains so it has to move in reverse quite often, and it is slightly old. The countryside was simply stunning! The mountains are magnificent and had a river cutting through them. Everything was so green too! Once we reached the bottom we were supposed to be able to see the Devil’s Nose cut into a mountain side, but even the tour guide admitted that you have to use your imagination. It was really fun seeing a more remote part of Ecuador and sticking our heads out the windows to fully enjoy the view!

Ingapirca: this is the sight of Ecuador’s best kept Incan ruins. Now this place is no Machu Picchu but the ruins were still really neat to see. The ruins were all pretty worn down so it was hard to distinguish between certain “rooms” or “buildings” but there were a few bigger structures that stood out. We were allowed to walk amongst the ruins and climb on them. All of us girls had fun seeing them and playing around through the maze of ruins; it more or less turned into a crazy photo shoot of all us!

One of the neat things about the ruins is that the Incans were master builders because they sculpted and placed the rocks so perfectly that you cannot fit a piece of paper between them and they did not need any extra structural support. There were also llamas just casually grazing all over the ruins and they had no problem getting close to us.

Cuenca: this is a beautiful historic colonial town in Ecuador. The cobblestone streets were lined with gorgeous churches everywhere! I think they are 365 churches in the city, one for each day of the year.

We went into a few of the churches to see the beautiful stained-glass windows, alters, paintings and listen to music. We took a bus tour to see the city lit up at night, but unfortunately it rained on us. However, Dana, Corrine and I were determined to see everything so we sat up at the top level and got soaked in the rain, but we had a great view of everything! We spent our days just walking around the city and snapping photos of all the beautiful buildings, and exploring the local markets. Cuenca is known artisanally for its jewelry especially gold and silver. So of course all of us girls being together would have a blast shopping! And last but not least, the food was spectacular in Cuenca. We were constantly stuffing our faces with delicious food from all kinds of restaurants.

And we tried one of Ecuador’s most traditional dishes: cuy! For the uneducated that is your typical house pet, the guinea pig. However Ecuadorians do not keep them as house pets instead they eat them as a delicacy. We had the joy of watching our guinea pig roast slowly over coals and then it was served to us all chopped up into pieces. Don’t worry the cooks had the courtesy of leaving the head on the plate for us. We were those customers that played with their food before eating it and we all posed with the guinea pig before digging it! Surprisingly it was not that bad! It had a texture like chicken but tasted closest to pork. There wasn’t much meat on it so the hardest part was picking off all the meat, but it was indeed nasty!

We were huge tourists during our Semana Santa week, but we all had so much fun. Our cameras were out and ready for any moment, but that just means more memories for us! That was our last trip in Ecuador all together and we will surely miss it. Now after seeing all those places and eating cuy, I feel like I have had the full Ecuador experience!

I have found paradise

Over Semana Santa (Holy Week) we did not have any classes and where else would be better to take a vacation than the Galapagos Islands! My IES program had a four day/five night trip planned for everyone to the beautiful islands just off the coast of Ecuador. It was quite possibly the most magnificent trip I have ever been on and I will do my best to explain all of the greatness that we saw!

Day 1: We left Quito at 10am and flew through Guayaquil to get to our first stop on the island tour: San Cristobal Island. The ocean was absolutely gorgeous as we flew over it and into the airport! Everyone was practically squealing with excitement about the adventures that were awaiting us. We found our hotel and ate a delicious lunch (again, this girl ate and delighted in the sea food!). Then we walked to an Interpretation Center that was basically a museum that displayed the history of the Galapagos and learned a little bit about them. We hiked to cove where we jumped in the water for our first snorkel of the trip! The cove was absolutely beautiful (as was pretty much everywhere we went in the Galapagos and you will see) and we got to swim with turtles and sea lions!

This was some people’s first time snorkeling ever, can you imagine how awesome of a first time that was? It was unbelievably cool to have sea lions swimming and playing all around us! We also hiked to the top of the hill to the look-out and we were all surrounded by sheer beauty. We just kept talking about how we couldn’t believe where we were! And it was only the first day…

Day 2: Every morning we had to be up and ready for breakfast by 6am so our nights were always uneventful, unless you call showering and turning the lights out by 9pm an event. That morning it was raining as we got on the boat to cruise over to Floreana Island. The rain is key: we had been divided into two groups since there were so many students, and our bags were supposed to travel with us in our appropriate boats. However, because it was raining they were rushed when getting the suitcases on the boats and a lot of luggage got mixed up. Another important thing to remember for later: the night before our guides told us what to pack in our backpacks that we would need during the day, and bathing suits were not on the list. I even asked twice because I wanted to be sure we would not need them and I was told again that no, we would not our swimsuits (I bet you can see where this is going…).

Anyways, back to our boat ride. We got on the boats and headed out to the Pacific. The captain let everyone take turns throughout the weekend riding on the front of the boat and up top with him. About an hour into our ride we noticed dolphins appearing and swimming alongside our boat and playing in the wake!This was my favorite part of the whole trip. They followed us for a while and we couldn’t believe how close they were to us! Then our captain asked if we wanted to swim with the dolphins…

Did WE want to swim with the dolphins? Is that a serious question? Did he even have to ask or wait for an answer? Of course we did! Now, remember the swimsuit and bag situation? You guessed it! Half of us did not have our swimsuits with us in our backpacks nor could we get them out of our suitcases because they were on the other boat that was a ways behind us. But why would we pass up an opportunity to swim with dolphins in the wild? So half of us stripped down to our underwear and jumped right in! It was spectacular! The captain circled around us in the boat because they liked to follow the boat and they swam right by us! Shrieks could be heard from everyone’s snorkel tubes out of pure excitement! What an unbelievable experience.

After this amazing event we continued on our way to Floreana and Sally and I sat at top with the captain. I really liked sitting up there because he pointed out all the islands and rock formations to us so we really learned a lot. We drove around an aquatic mouth to a volcano called La Corona del Diablo (the Devil’s crown) where pirates used to hide and attack each other. There we saw the famous blue footed boobies and some mating fragatas with their big red bellies. We stopped two more times for more snorkeling with sea lions, turtles and penguins! The wildlife we saw was simply incredible! Then we landed at Floreana Island for lunch and some hiking. We hiked around old pirate hideouts and saw a few giant land tortoises. After this stop we got back on the boat to travel to Isabela Island where we would stay for the night.

On the way there Sally and I got to sit on the front of the boat and just fly over the waves. There I saw a few giant manta rays just resting at the surface of the water! It was really neat to see the ocean and the islands from the front of the boat and we thought the ride was a complete blast! But it got a little interesting once we passed through a small storm… the waves started getting really choppy so the boat would bounce over them which hurts our butts so much! We were sore for a few days afterwards. It also started raining which stung our faces and we noticed some rather terrifyingly large waves behind us. Don’t worry, we made it into the harbor safely, a little exhausted, but safe nonetheless. The boat hands came out to tie up the boat and told us that this particular port is one of the most dangerous in the Pacific to get into, especially during a storm. I am so glad someone told us after we got there and didn’t bother to get us off the front during the ride!

in the Galapagos Islands!

Day 3: Again we woke up bright and early to start our day. On the itinerary for that day was a 10 mile hike up and around a volcano. We had buses drive us up to the start of the trail to Volcán Chico. The hike took overall about 5 hours. We hiked around the crater at the top of the volcano and the lava fields down the hill. From the lava hills we could see the rest of Isabela Island, Darwin Lake, the Pacific Ocean,

and quite a few other islands. The hike was not very difficult, but everyone was tired just from walking for so long! The buffet lunch was entirely perfect and delicious.

For the afternoon we crossed the harbor to a small piece of land that was a marine reserve for some exciting animals.

We saw more penguins and blue footed boobies along the rocks; there were plenty of sea lions lying out in the sand or on boats just soaking up the sun; we saw white tip reef sharks swimming along with more turtles and sea lions; and we saw so many marine iguanas all over the island! We attempted snorkeling again to see if we could swim with any sharks or manta rays, but the water was extremely murky and we could not see a single thing. We ended our rather tiring day swimming in the beautiful sunset and loving our lives!

Day 4 (Easter!):

Today we were scheduled to take another boat ride over to Santa Cruz Island, and we did just that. Sadly this boat was not nearly exciting as the one from the first day because we did not stop to snorkel at all.

However, at one point we looked behind us and saw the most complete, bright and perfect rainbow I have ever seen stretching across the ocean with islands in the background! We were all speechless at that breathtaking image and I think it could not have been more perfect for Easter Sunday! Sally and I rode up top with the captain again and this time we saw lots of turtles swimming in the water and I saw a manta ray jump out of the water and splash back in! Once we got to the island we got on buses and went directly up to volcanic collapse craters. These were just massive holes on the Earth’s surface and little scary when we got close to the edges! We also walked through a lava tunnel which was basically a cave, a very muddy cave at that. Our guide made a point the night before to mention that we would not need sneakers to walk around and he highly recommended wearing sandals, which made the cave quite a spectacle with all of us slipping through it. Then we continued on to a tortoise farm where they protect turtle nests and eggs so that the babies are born safely. I was expecting to see more turtles but the few that we saw were cool!

Our afternoon activity was a hike to Turtle Bay and enjoying the beach. Unfortunately it took about an hour each way to hike to and from the beach so we didn’t get as much time on the beach as everyone would have liked, but the beach was absolutely gorgeous and we loved being there! Again the water was too murky to snorkel but the Bay was too beautiful for anyone to be annoyed. After a long day of hiking/walking again we were all pooped and didn’t stay out too late, but it was our last night on the islands. We did a little souvenir shopping and ice cream eating before we all passed out.

The morning of our departure: We dragged our tired bodies out of bed at 6am just one more time and made our way down to the Charles Darwin research center. There we got to see baby turtles, giant tortoises eating their breakfast, the famous Lonesome George looking so sad and lonely, and giant land iguanas! They were all really neat to see. After this small excursion we had to be on our way to the airport.

A bus took us to the other side of Santa Cruz where we caught a ferry that took us to the small island of Baltra. Sadly we had to say our goodbyes to the glorious Galapagos Islands and make our way back to rainy Quito. Like I said it was one of the most incredible trips and opportunities I have ever had in my life and I will remember every single one of our adventures! I think that everyone should put it on their list of places to go before they die and go experience the stunning beauty and marvelous fun of the Galapagos!