Having spent so much time ensuring I can blog from my mobile while in Ecuador and the Galapagos, I thought I ought to check that Virgin Media cover South America - and guess what ..... The don't!! I was on phone for 20 minutes last night, talking to a "techie" but he was little help and it took him 10 mins to ask if Ecuador was a country. He did say I should be able to send emails via wi-fi, so I should be able to blog - but only time will tell. I might still be restricted to internet cafes with the teenagers!!!
6 days and counting.....
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Test
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Itinerary Update
Our cruise route around teh islands is tentatively confirmed as follows:
8 Feb - Balta/Santa Cruz - Highlands and Charles Darwin Station.
9 Feb - Santa Fe/Plazas.
10 Feb - San Cristobal: Cerro Brujo & El Junco.
11 Feb - Espanola: Gardner Bay & Punta Suarez.
12 Feb - Floreana: Punta Cormorant & Post Office Bay.
13 Feb - Santa Cruz - Dragon Hill/Santiago: Sullivan Bay.
14 Feb - Genovesa (Tower Island) Darwin Bay/Prince Philip's Steps.
15 Feb - Santa Cruz - Turtle Cove/erro Mesa & Garrapatero.
16 Feb - Sombrero Chino/Rabida.
17 Feb - Isabela: Puerto Villamil & Sierra Negra.
18 Feb - Isabla: Punta Moreno & Elizabeth Bay.
19 Feb - Isabela: Urbina Bay & Tagus Cove.
20 Feb - Fernandina: Punta Espinosal/Isabela: Punta Vicente Roca.
21 Feb - Santiago: Puerto Egas/Bartolome.
22 Feb - North Seymour/Baltra/Quito.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Time Difference
When I am able to update the blog during my holiday, you may see strange time-stamps on the posts - this is because Ecuadorian time is GMT -5 hours and in the Glapagos it is GMT -6 hours. This means that I may be posting to the Blog at 10pm local time but it would appear as 3a.m. GMT
Monday, 23 January 2012
Map for Sacha Lodge
This map shows the location of Sacha Lodge in relation to the Andes, Quito (the capital) and the coast of Ecuador.
Photos courtesy of Sacha Lodge
Just a few photos from the Brochure sent by Sacha Lodge - amazing!
Anita
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Sacha Lodge in the Amazon Rainforest
To see where I will be staying in the Amazon jungle, go to http://www.sachalodge.com and select an appropriate language, you will then be able to see the amazing canopy walkways, dining room, lodge rooms etc.
Only 2 weeks and counting!!!
Only 2 weeks and counting!!!
Friday, 20 January 2012
Comments
I have now changed my settings so that anyone can comment on the blog (it was set for only Registered users to comment, sorry!). I hope this fixes the problem and I will be able to read your comments as well as allowing you to see what I am getting up to!!
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Comments on the Blog
Sorry folks, if you have tried, unsuccessfully, to leave comments on the blog - you may have to create a Google account before it will allow you to do so.
Monday, 16 January 2012
Tickets
Our tickets arrived on Saturday, together with a booklet about Sacha Lodge, our home in the rain forest. The photographs look absolutely amazing - especially the observation tower and canopy walkways! The tower is constructed around an ancient Kapok tree and is 135 foot high. The canopy bird walk is a rigid self-standing suspended walkway. Two of the three towers have observation decks every 40 feet. The walkway is 900 feet long, suspended 120 feet above the forest floor!!! Photos when I get there! I knew climbing the mast on Stavros would stand me in good stead for something!
Monday, 9 January 2012
Comments
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Detailed Itinerary
Monday 6th February
Fly to Quito via Miami. Arrive around midnight local time and go straight to our hotel.
Tuesday 7th February
Day for exploring Quito, the capital of Ecuador, which is said to the the most attractive of all the colonial capitals of South America. On a clear day Andean peaks tower around and the sun is bright and strong. The name Quito means "Eternal Spring" or "Place of the Hummingbirds" in the ancient language of Quechua. At 9,000 feet, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world, so nothing too strenuous today!
Wednesday 8th February
Fly to the Galapagos islands via Guayaquil and join the "Cachalote" either on Baltra or San Cristobal Island.
During the next 14 days we will visit:-
ESPANOLA - the oldest island in the archipelago. We are promised colonies of sealions lining the beach and large numbers of Marine Iguana. We will walk along a cliff-top through colonies of Blue-footed Boobies and see lots of local birds including hawks, Darwin's Finch, Galapagos Dove, Yellow Warbler and the fearless Hood Mockingbird (these last have been known to perch on walkers' tripods!!)
FLOREANA - legend says this was a favourite haunt of pirates!! This island is the only one to have a freshwater spring, but few people live here. We hope to see Greater Flamingoes, Brown Pelicans and lots of others. At the far end of our walk is a fine white sand beach where rays, turtles and sharks are often seen. We might visit Devil's Crown to snorkel in the shallow flooded crater which has some of the best snorkelling in the islands.
ISABELA - the largest of the islands and, some say, the most fascinating. We will spend 3 days there, sailing around the back (west) of the island where few tourists ever go. Beautiful deserted coves and occasional pods of whales will be our reward! There is a sheltered anchorage at Tagus Cove in the NW of Isabela with views of boobies (winged variety!). Brown Noddies (I hope Big Ears knows) Galapagos Penguins and Sally Lightfoot crabs. A short but steep walk up the head of the cove will give us views of Darwin's Crater Lake, where we might see phalaropes and Volcano Wolf - 5,600 feet is the highest point on the islands. Urbina Bay offers the largest Marine Iguanas in the islands and Elizabeth Bay is a mangrove lagoon where we will have a peaceful boat ride amongst the eerie creeks and may see green turtles, white-tiped sharks and rays in the shalow water.
FERNANDINA - the most-recently-formed of the islands, is a shield volcano (so-named because it is shallow and looks like a warrior's shield, the other types of volcano being the stratovolcano and the cinder cone volcano) with a mangrove-fringed coastline and magnificent lava formations. There are shallow langoons where Marine Iguanas and turtles swim - offshore we might see Killer Whales!
Sailing round the headland of Cape Berkeley we get our best chance of seeing whales and dolphins - and we sail over the equator (I must look up the Royal Navy tradition when sailing over the equator....)
JAMES ISLAND - Buccaneer Cove is famed for its association with British pirates. We might visit Puerto Egas and the fur seal "grottos"
Time permitting we will have a quick look at RABIDA island which has some good snorkelling in the clear water.
BARTOLOME - we will climb a steep slope (stairway!) to the sumit with magnificent views over Pinnacle Rock (used in many films and books). Great geological interest here with cinder and spatter cones, lava tubes and lava flows in this almost lunar landscape. We hope to swim from the sandy beach (where turtles lay their eggs) and snorkel around the Pinnacle Rock itself - with penguins!!
We cross back over the equator to GENOVESA accompanied by flying fish and dolphins and head south to NORTH SEYMOUR ISLAND and then to Academy Bay and land on SANTA CRUZ ISLAND at Puerto Ayora, the main town of the Galapagos with about 6,000 inhabitants. Here we visit the Charles Darwin Research Station with its Giant Tortoise breeding project.
SOUTH PLAZA where we may have to chase some Galapagos sealions off the jetty as they like to bask there in the sun.
SANTA FE - for a very brief stop but we might get chance to swim with the sealions. The rocky reef here is a good place to look for the white-tipped Reef Shark!! Time permitting we will go looking for the Santa Fe Land Iguana or the endemic Galapagos Snake.
Wednesday 22nd February
Fly back to Quito.
Thursday 23rd February
Leave Quito early in the morning to drive along the "Avenue of Volcanoes" and up to the high slopes of Antisana. This volcano is snow-covered all year round and is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world at just under 20,000 feet. Just hope I do not get altitude sickness!!
Friday 24th February
Today we go to Sacha Lodge for our 4 days in the rain forest. We fly from Mariscal Sucre airport to Oriente (45-minute flight) going over the Andes. Apparently the humid jungle air hits you as you disembark from the plane. We go to the docks and take a covered motorized canoe for the 2.5 hour, 50-mile, trip downstream to Sacha Lodge. The river Napo is Ecuador's principal Amazon tributary and is about 1/3 of a mile wide.
Sacha is a 3,200 acre reserve and we will walk along a raised boardwalk through dense flooded palm forests where several species of monkey can be seen. arriving at the oxbow lake of Pilchicocha, we get into traditional dugout canoes to travel across to the far side of the lake to the lodge, which is set in swampland!!!
Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February will be spent exploring the rain forest and climbing to the 43-metre canopy towers, linked by walkways - too many birds and animals to list here!! the guides will instruct us on the medicinal uses for the plants, local beliefs and customs as well as the ecology and fragility of the rainforest ecosystem.
Sacha also has Ecuador's largest butterly farm which exports pupae all around the world - and we will spend an afternoon in the flying area (I hate things flying round my head - I'm getting goose-bumps already!!!!). We will also have a night walk in the forest and take to the waters of Pilchicocha to search for the Spectacled Caiman (presumably by torch-light).
Monday 27th February
Return to Quito via the dug-out canoe across the lake, walk along the boardwalk, the motorised canoe up stream for 2.5 hours and flight over the Andes.... WOW!! Arriving back in the early afternoon - relax, last-minute shop or birdwatching in the park.
Tuesday 28th February
Depart Quito in the morning to fly back to London
Wednesday 29th February (Leap Year Day!)
Arrive back in London.
Fly to Quito via Miami. Arrive around midnight local time and go straight to our hotel.
Tuesday 7th February
Day for exploring Quito, the capital of Ecuador, which is said to the the most attractive of all the colonial capitals of South America. On a clear day Andean peaks tower around and the sun is bright and strong. The name Quito means "Eternal Spring" or "Place of the Hummingbirds" in the ancient language of Quechua. At 9,000 feet, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world, so nothing too strenuous today!
Wednesday 8th February
Fly to the Galapagos islands via Guayaquil and join the "Cachalote" either on Baltra or San Cristobal Island.
During the next 14 days we will visit:-
ESPANOLA - the oldest island in the archipelago. We are promised colonies of sealions lining the beach and large numbers of Marine Iguana. We will walk along a cliff-top through colonies of Blue-footed Boobies and see lots of local birds including hawks, Darwin's Finch, Galapagos Dove, Yellow Warbler and the fearless Hood Mockingbird (these last have been known to perch on walkers' tripods!!)
FLOREANA - legend says this was a favourite haunt of pirates!! This island is the only one to have a freshwater spring, but few people live here. We hope to see Greater Flamingoes, Brown Pelicans and lots of others. At the far end of our walk is a fine white sand beach where rays, turtles and sharks are often seen. We might visit Devil's Crown to snorkel in the shallow flooded crater which has some of the best snorkelling in the islands.
ISABELA - the largest of the islands and, some say, the most fascinating. We will spend 3 days there, sailing around the back (west) of the island where few tourists ever go. Beautiful deserted coves and occasional pods of whales will be our reward! There is a sheltered anchorage at Tagus Cove in the NW of Isabela with views of boobies (winged variety!). Brown Noddies (I hope Big Ears knows) Galapagos Penguins and Sally Lightfoot crabs. A short but steep walk up the head of the cove will give us views of Darwin's Crater Lake, where we might see phalaropes and Volcano Wolf - 5,600 feet is the highest point on the islands. Urbina Bay offers the largest Marine Iguanas in the islands and Elizabeth Bay is a mangrove lagoon where we will have a peaceful boat ride amongst the eerie creeks and may see green turtles, white-tiped sharks and rays in the shalow water.
FERNANDINA - the most-recently-formed of the islands, is a shield volcano (so-named because it is shallow and looks like a warrior's shield, the other types of volcano being the stratovolcano and the cinder cone volcano) with a mangrove-fringed coastline and magnificent lava formations. There are shallow langoons where Marine Iguanas and turtles swim - offshore we might see Killer Whales!
Sailing round the headland of Cape Berkeley we get our best chance of seeing whales and dolphins - and we sail over the equator (I must look up the Royal Navy tradition when sailing over the equator....)
JAMES ISLAND - Buccaneer Cove is famed for its association with British pirates. We might visit Puerto Egas and the fur seal "grottos"
Time permitting we will have a quick look at RABIDA island which has some good snorkelling in the clear water.
BARTOLOME - we will climb a steep slope (stairway!) to the sumit with magnificent views over Pinnacle Rock (used in many films and books). Great geological interest here with cinder and spatter cones, lava tubes and lava flows in this almost lunar landscape. We hope to swim from the sandy beach (where turtles lay their eggs) and snorkel around the Pinnacle Rock itself - with penguins!!
We cross back over the equator to GENOVESA accompanied by flying fish and dolphins and head south to NORTH SEYMOUR ISLAND and then to Academy Bay and land on SANTA CRUZ ISLAND at Puerto Ayora, the main town of the Galapagos with about 6,000 inhabitants. Here we visit the Charles Darwin Research Station with its Giant Tortoise breeding project.
SOUTH PLAZA where we may have to chase some Galapagos sealions off the jetty as they like to bask there in the sun.
SANTA FE - for a very brief stop but we might get chance to swim with the sealions. The rocky reef here is a good place to look for the white-tipped Reef Shark!! Time permitting we will go looking for the Santa Fe Land Iguana or the endemic Galapagos Snake.
Wednesday 22nd February
Fly back to Quito.
Thursday 23rd February
Leave Quito early in the morning to drive along the "Avenue of Volcanoes" and up to the high slopes of Antisana. This volcano is snow-covered all year round and is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world at just under 20,000 feet. Just hope I do not get altitude sickness!!
Friday 24th February
Today we go to Sacha Lodge for our 4 days in the rain forest. We fly from Mariscal Sucre airport to Oriente (45-minute flight) going over the Andes. Apparently the humid jungle air hits you as you disembark from the plane. We go to the docks and take a covered motorized canoe for the 2.5 hour, 50-mile, trip downstream to Sacha Lodge. The river Napo is Ecuador's principal Amazon tributary and is about 1/3 of a mile wide.
Sacha is a 3,200 acre reserve and we will walk along a raised boardwalk through dense flooded palm forests where several species of monkey can be seen. arriving at the oxbow lake of Pilchicocha, we get into traditional dugout canoes to travel across to the far side of the lake to the lodge, which is set in swampland!!!
Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February will be spent exploring the rain forest and climbing to the 43-metre canopy towers, linked by walkways - too many birds and animals to list here!! the guides will instruct us on the medicinal uses for the plants, local beliefs and customs as well as the ecology and fragility of the rainforest ecosystem.
Sacha also has Ecuador's largest butterly farm which exports pupae all around the world - and we will spend an afternoon in the flying area (I hate things flying round my head - I'm getting goose-bumps already!!!!). We will also have a night walk in the forest and take to the waters of Pilchicocha to search for the Spectacled Caiman (presumably by torch-light).
Monday 27th February
Return to Quito via the dug-out canoe across the lake, walk along the boardwalk, the motorised canoe up stream for 2.5 hours and flight over the Andes.... WOW!! Arriving back in the early afternoon - relax, last-minute shop or birdwatching in the park.
Tuesday 28th February
Depart Quito in the morning to fly back to London
Wednesday 29th February (Leap Year Day!)
Arrive back in London.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Blog Posts while I am away
Last year I got a new Sony Ericsson Xperia mobile phone. My old Sony Ericsson phone allowed me to send emails. This one has the facility (an icon on the desktop) for sending emails but will not let me do so. I have explored the problem with Sony and with Virgin but have been unable to resolve it, so I am left with having to log onto the internet and Blogger direct from my phone and submit posts from my tiny 3" screen! That is bad enough, but it will not allow me to add photos from my phone so, unless I bite the bullet and buy myself a laptop, I will only be able to update photos to the blog if I can find an internet cafe while I am away and update from my camera, so you might have to be content with narrative until such time as I get to an internet cafe - or return home and put the photos all on at once!! Sorry!
Luggage
As our luggage limit is only 20kg I will have to be a little creative! After all we will be on the boat for 2 weeks, have a few days in Picou, a day up a snow-covered volcano and 4 days in the Amazon raina forest, so the range of clothes required is quite wide! Shorts and t-shirts for the boat, plus swim suit (dare I wear a bikini?), snorkelling gear, wet-suit as I'm advised the Pacific is cold even on the equator (mind you that will help keep the spare tyre in place!); cold-weather gear for the volcano (boots, fleece, wind-proof jacket, trekking pole) and long trousers and long-sleeved shirts plus thick socks (for in the wellies!) for the rain forest, not to mention the light-weight rain coat and trousers! Add to that the camera(s), mobile phone + chargers, binoculars, suns cream, mosquito repellant (Avon Skin-so-soft is best, I'm told)..... the list is endless. Any advice folks?
Flight details
06 Feb - From Heathrow to Miami on Virgin Atlantic (VS5) Dep.11:00 Arr.15:55
06Feb - From Miami to Quito on American Airlines (AA967) Dep.19:10 Arr.23:15
28 Feb - From Quito to Miami on American Airlines (AA966) Dep.11:05 Arr.15:10
28 Feb - From Miami to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic(VS6) Dep. 20:00 Arr.09:45 29 Feb
I do not yet have details of the flight from Quito out to the Galapagos. Tickets are due to arrive mid-January!!
06Feb - From Miami to Quito on American Airlines (AA967) Dep.19:10 Arr.23:15
28 Feb - From Quito to Miami on American Airlines (AA966) Dep.11:05 Arr.15:10
28 Feb - From Miami to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic(VS6) Dep. 20:00 Arr.09:45 29 Feb
I do not yet have details of the flight from Quito out to the Galapagos. Tickets are due to arrive mid-January!!
Link to Tour Operator
The photographs and blurb are courtesy of our Tour Operator Naturetrek - please visit their web site to see more images and get a full update on our trip. www.naturetrek.co.uk
Cabin on board
Hopefully we will have a twin cabin - probably bunk beds, but they look great, if a bit on the small side - but then we are used to that as volunteer cabins on the Stavros are tiny, at least on the Cachalote they are ensuite!
The Cachalote
This is the Cachalote - a 2-masted topsail schooner. Unfortunately, the winds on the equator are variable and at this time of year there is little likelihood of much time under sail !! A bit like sailing on the Stavros S Niarchos really!!!
A bit about the sailing
The Galapagos Islands form a volcanic archipelago straddling the equator some 960 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador. They consist of volcanic peaks, strange lava fields, beautiful sandy bays, and clear seas. Their natural history is outstanding, and much of it is endemic. There are Giant Tortoises, prehistoric-looking Land and Marine Iguanas, and countless breeding seabirds; most appealing of all is the ‘tame’ and obliging nature of the islands’ extraordinary wildlife. This 2-week cruise avoids the routineluxury motor vessels - on this chartered comfortable 2-masted Topsail Schooner (accommodates 16 passengers), they say we will have the freedom to visit all of the major islands, and many of the smaller ones, not able to be visited by the majority of cruises visiting the islands. We will be able to swim and snorkel with penguins (and sharks!!) and sun bathe on deck while cruising among the islands, then land from the rib and trek across the islands with our personal wildlife guide.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Trip details
I depart by coach for Heathrow on Sunday 5th February. I will be staying in the Premier Inn, Heathrow that night and I will meet my travelling companion Jan there. We fly out at 11.00 on Monday morning for Picou, Ecuador, via Miami (only flight transfer unfortunately!). I will post the full itinerary in a later post.
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