Montanita, Ecuador - Party Central

Ever since we arrived in Ecuador, everyone has been telling us you need to visit Montanita - the big party place in Ecuador. I promised Trevor we would visit before leaving Ecuador, so the plan coming back from Colombia was to head down the coast to hit the beaches and Montanita.

Waiting for them to fix the bus

There are no direct buses to Motanita from northern Ecuador so  we spent 13 hours on a bus to get to the coastal town of Manta. We ended up staying in Manta for the night before taking another 3.5 hour bus ride to Montanita. By this point we have taken a ton of buses and were impressed that none of them had broken down on us yet. Well the time finally came and about an hour after leaving Manta we just saw a pile of smoke coming from the front of the bus. The bus pull over and we all piled out while we waited to see if they could fix the problem. Apparently they couldn't but it wasn't a big deal because within half an hour another bus come along and we just piled into that one. That is one think I like about long buses here - they run so regularly that you don't need to worry about arriving at the bus station for a specific time.

Montanita

Our arrival

The drive along the coast was absolutely beautiful and we were really happy we decided on this route instead of going down to Guayaquil then Montanita. As soon as we hit Montanita you could tell it was the place we were suppose to get off at. The town itself is really tiny with three main streets that are about 5 blocks long but surrending  by hundred of hostels. 

We didn't have any reservation and thankfully had arrived on a Monday, the quitest day in Montanita (everyone usually leaves after the weekend). Our plan was to stay for a week and this worked to our advantage. The prices usually skyrockets on weekend (plus it was Carnival) but because we were arriving early and staying longer we got a better rate for the upcoming weekend and Carnival.

 A stand along cocktail alley

For those that don't know what Montanita it - it's pretty much a party beach town. At night everyone usually starts drinking along cocktail alley which are all these little stands that make anything drink you can think of and use real fruit to make them. The one thing about drinking in Ecuador is they are NOT stingy with the alcohol at all. I don't think I have ever been served a mixed drink in this country that wasn't at least half booze and cocktail alley is no exception. You pay $2.50 for a large freshly made daiquiri loaded with alcohol but if you decide you want more alcohol, you just lift up your cup and they add another shot in for FREE and you can do this as many times as you want, until your drink is done.

Beach party

After people have had there fill at cocktail alley they usually head over to the beach where groups of people sit around with friends (drinking more or smoking weed) or head into one of the clubs. The bars in Montanita don't close until around 5am and people are pretty much out all night long. Often heading back to their hostel around 5/6am and continuing to party a bit more at the hostel before heading to bed around 7am. Most people seem to sleep the morning away, then wake up to spend the afternoon at the beach before starting it all over again at night.

Marjuana is everywhere here too. It's technically illegal in Ecuador but in Montanita it appears to be openly allowed. You  would get constantly asked if you want some and saw people smoking it everyone.  "Special" brownies were also sold all over the place, at night.

Pepto Bismol & Beer

When we first arrived in Montanita after finding a place to stay, we grabbed some food. And of course we hit the tourist trap featuring North American food. Trevor went for a hamburger and fries while I had pasta. Only problem was a couple hours later Trevor was throwing up (and no he hadn't drank any acholal). Turns out he had gotten food poisoining and spend the entire night throwing up. By the morning his stomach was empty and he had finally stopped vomitting. I hit the pharmacy to buy him some drugs and water. And after a Google search, told him to rest, drink fluids, no solids and no dairy. I then left him to get some sleep while I hit the beach for a bit. When I came back from the beach I found him in a hammack at the hostel and that he had eaten a huge back of Ruffles chips and  ice cream...needless to say a couple hours later he was throwing up again :S.

Thankfully the next morning he was starting to feeling better and we were able to hit the beach, we rented a boogie board which was a ton of fun. The waves are huge in Montanita and great for surfing (not so much for beginners though).

Just as Trevor was starting to feel better, I started to get sick and ended up spending the night throwing up. So my next day was then spent hanging out in the hostel while Trevor hit the beach. So our first couple of nights in Montanita were very tame, to say the least. Trevor however was eager to experience a night out so while I rested he headed out for a night on the town with the Chilean girls from our hostel. One of our friends from Quito ran into him with all the girls and said he looked like a pimp, surrounded by all the girls.

Packed Beach

The next day we did the same beach bum thing but one thing we noticed was the closer it got to the weekend the more packed it would get. The number of people almost doubled each day leading up to the weekend. We heard that on the weekends everyone in Ecuador just heads down to the coast so there can easily be 40K people in Montanita on a weekend. Which is a lot for such a tiny town but does explain why they have so many hostels.

Everyone we met in Montanita however  was a tourist from another countries. Our hostel (which was fully booked by the weekend) was filled with Chileans and Colombians. It was actually really great because we  made friends with them all and gained the most exposure to their culture through a week of hanging out with them. I have been so impressed by how friendly all the different people we have met from Latin America are. In the jungle we met a bunch of Argentian families who all gave us their email addresses and asked us to contact them when we come, to show us around or even stay with them. The Chilean and Colombians were exactly the same way. The Chileans actually gave Trevor a hard time because he wasn't going to be visiting their country and with me - they asked me to stay with them so they would know I was safe, since they were concerned about me travelling Chile alone.

The guy that ran the hostal was also really great at bringing everyone together with things like group meals and getting everyone to go out together at night. We would often play drinking games and pre-drink at the hostel before going out together.  This was when we learned it was impolite to turn down a drink offered to you. Trevor and I would have our own drinks and they would offer us a sip of theirs and we would said "no thanks". They then started saying "is our rum not good enough for you". They also wouldn't buy my excuse of food poisoning. Turns out what they do is have one drink which just keeps getting passed around the circle from person to person and refilled once necessary. This actually worked out quite well during drinking games and once we realized this, we just contributed with our own bottle of alchol to help re-fill the bottomless cup.

Montanita was definitely an interesting experience. By the time the weekend came the place was absolutely packed including the beach. I must say while I loved chilling on the beach at night I was really saddended to watch it turn into a toilet with a line of guys peeing into the ocean at all times and beer bottles/cups all over. People also set up tents and would camp out on the beach at night. One of the clubs actually faced the beach, so the beach itself became the dance floor which was pretty cool and the Colombians helped both Trevor and I work on our Sala dancing (still can't dance Sala).

Montanita was fun but I was kind of happy to leave. The crowds were insane by the time we left and I can only take so much partying. I also wasn't a big fan of how aggressive the guys could be. Walking down cocktail alley you would have guys grab your arm to try and pull you over. I also had my ass grabbed a couple of times to which the Chilean girls told me "if a guy grabs your ass you punch him!" Good luck figuring out which of the guys it was. Oh Montanita!

Colombia vs Ecuador

We were actually surprised by how different Colombia was from Ecuador and thought it might be interesting to contrast some of differences we noticed.

Development - I was actually surprised to see how much more developed Colombia was then Ecuador. I had expected them to be similar but you definitely noticed a difference. In Ecuador they still sell the big old box TVs while Colombia only has LSD TVs  at prices comparable to back home.  In Ecuador the prices for new technology are insane (we found the same computer I bought for this trip for $600 in Ecuador while I only paid $180 for it back home) .

Cost of living - The cost of products pretty much doubled as soon as we got to Colombia. We  now had to pay $1 for a bottle of water versus  $0.25 in Ecuador. Meals cost twice as much and even the cost of buses double from $1 an hour to $2-3 per hour.

Tourism - You can tell tourism isn't as big in Colombia. Blue-eyed blondes are of huge interest to people here. I've never been stared at so much (including Asia ). People would actually point us out to there friends to have the whole group stop and stare at us. Even eating at a restaurant,  families would turn around in their seats to watch us. Trevor  loved the attention, saying it made him feel like a celebrity,  me on the other hand felt very uncomfortable.

Safety - One of our biggest surprises was that we actually felt safer in Colombia then in Ecuador. Obviously safety is still a big issue in Colombia but as a tourists we felt safer and weren't as concerned about muggings versus Ecuador, where its quite common and you're warned over and over to watch your stuff. We could also walk  around at night  in Colombia which was nice. Although we did find out that there was a bombing 20km from Popayan, the day after we had left the city.

Houses - The houses are so much nicer in Colombia. They actually use red brick or have their homes painted bright colours. They also don't have cement gates surrounding their houses with broken glass or barb wire along the top. In Ecuador a lot of the country homes look like run-down shacks made from grey cement slaps and tin roofs. In Colombia on the other hand you could tell they take pride in the appearance of their homes, with us seeing very few run down homes and most with flower gardens and well maintained.


Police- Obviously the police presence was much higher in Colombia then Ecuador. In Colombia you would see military men with huge guns everywhere. In Ecuador you really only saw the police in tourist areas but they didn't seem to all have big guns. Instead in Ecuador it's the private security that have the big guns and night sticks. Pretty much every major store in Quito has a security guard in their store including fast food places like KFC and McDonald's. 

Hygiene - My brother is a bit of a germaphobe  and has been concerned about the sanitary conditions of the food we've been eating in Ecuador from the beginning. At least once a week we would find a hair in our food while in Ecuador. And as I write this blog posting, I'm actually recuperating from food poisoning from Ecuadorian food. Colombia on the other hand seems to have stronger hygiene regulations then even Canada. All the cooks would wear full head coverings and even masks over their face. At the bakeries they would  always put on a glove before touching any of the food, something we have never seen in Ecuador.

Food- I'll be the first to admit Ecuadorian food has not been my favorite. So when we saw the food options in Colombia we were pleasantly surprised that a lot of  it resembled our food from back home. I LOVE Colombia bakeries. They had one on almost every corner with the most delicious food and craziest cakes. They kind of became my obsession in Colombia.


Machismo - Traveling with my brother  must people make the assumption that we are a couple and in Ecuador whenever I'm with him guys pretty much leave me alone. In Colombia however it didn't seem to matter if he was there or not.  Even just walking down the street with my brother right beside me guys would say things like "muy bonita" (very beautiful) to me.

Buses - The buses in Ecuador resemble our traditional couch buses however the buses in Colombia are about half the size, seating approximately 20 passengers. In Ecuador they cram as many people as possible on the bus, with people standing down the isle. In Colombia however they only allow as many people as there are seats. Another difference was the Colombian drivers actually stop for bathroom breaks while in Ecuador we have learned to go to the bathroom before boarding because you never know if the driver will stop or not.

Driving - The driving in Latin America is crazy in general however I feel that the Colombian drivers are actually worse then Ecuadorians. In Colombia they drive on the right side of the road however  they actually spend more time on the left and will pass a cars while doing a blind turn without any concern.

Language - We didn't think we would notice a difference in Spanish accents but as soon as we crossed over the boarder and started talking to our taxi driving we started wondering if he was even speaking the same language. In Colombia they speak faster and seem to shorten things with their own slang. Even basic words like "da nada" (your welcome) were completely different with them saying "mucho gusto" (my pleasure) instead. We also had to adjust to the numbers being in millions and hundreds. But by the end of our week in Colombia we started to adjust and understand what they were saying better. There is also very little English in Colombia, we only met one Colombian during our whole trip that spoke English, so we were really forced to practice.

People - Colombians are a lot lighter skinned and seem to be a mix of white and Hispanic which is why we were so surprised we got stared at so much because we  looked a lot more like them then Ecuadorian, although none of them are blonde. 

San Agustin, Columbia

The drive from Popayan to San Agustin was only 70 miles but it actually takes 6+ hours to get there. So you can tell the road between is not that great and was definitely  the bumpiest drive yet...we would actually bounce a foot off your seats on the unpaved road. So there was no sleeping on this bus.

Once our bus hit the foot of the mountain leading up to San Agustin, we then got off and the bus company paid a jeep to take us the rest of the way into the center of San Agustin. We took a 6am bus so we arrived just before noon and had a cab take us to our hotel just outside of town. Two people who had recommended the place we stayed out (Finca El Maco) and we were really glad they had. We had a private cabin with a  loft which Trevor of course claimed and the most comfortable beds we have slept in yet. We actually meet two Canadians on our jeep tour who had switch hotels 3 times because of the noise and conditions of some of the places in town.

With the day still young our plan was to walk over to the Parque Arqueologico which had several archaeologic sites that included statues, tombs and burial mounds. When we got to the first site we were impressed with the statues but as we as we continued to walk around the 78-hectare park we started to get bored of the stone graves and statues (there were hundreds). It also didn't help that all the signs were in Spanish and used a vocab beyond ours, so we didn't fully understand the history behind it all. The statues and tombs were actually fenced off but at one of the sites there was no security or people so we decided to hop the fence for some more interesting pictures. Trevor actually even climbed into a couple graves. We ended up spending about 3 hours in the park before heading back into town to try and book a tour for the following day.

My brother and I debated between doing a jeep tour or horse back riding and ended up deciding on a full day jeep tour. On the tour there were 8 of us (4 Canadians, 3 Argentinians, 1 Dutch) with a couple riding in the jeep cabin and the rest in the back of the jeep. When we first started out I wanted to sit in the back of the jeep however after about 2 hours in the back I made the switch to the cab. The road are all dirt and dusty, so if you sit in the back you end up completely covered in dust.

On the tour we visited two huge waterfalls Salto del Mortiño (180 m) and Salto de Bordones (320 m). We also visited a couple other archaeologic sites (Alto de los Idoles) where we saw more statues, tombs and burial mound and Obando a small sites with some underground tombs and a tiny museum with some of the excavated pottery.  On the way back we also stopped by El Estrecho where the Rio Magdalena is at its narrowest. I think a lot of people must have died jumping across the rocks to the other side because we had at least 4 people tell us not to jump across the rocks before we even visited it. You could also tell from the whirling current that if you fell in, you were getting sucked down.

Popayan, Colombia

Since we still needed to travel back through Ecuador to get to Peru, we couldn't travel that far into Colombia. So we limited our trip to three cities in the southern part of Colombia: Pasto, Popayan and San Augustin.

After spending a couple days in Pasto we took a 6 hour bus to Popayan. The city is 150 miles away and winds around the mountains, which provides some beautiful scenery but also a bumpy and at times terrifying drive, if you're watching the driving.

When we first arrived in Popayan it was about 2pm, so after checking into our hostel we decided to go wandering around. Of course we had no idea where we were walking and ended up in the local shopping area with tons of clothing stores and a giant food market. By this point we were getting really hungry and trying to find this Italian restaurant our friend has recommended (you know how I love my pasta :). Turns out we were on the complete opposite side of town and the restaurant we wanted was located in the historical area. This part of town was really nice, covered in beautiful Spanish-colonial architecture and quite a contrast from the area we had just been walking through.

One of the first things we noticed upon arriving in Colombia was that everything is more expensive then Ecuador. We pretty much had to double the price we were paying for everything from food to transportation. So one of the great tips we received from a friend was to request the "menu del dia", it would never be advertised but costs half the price of anything on the menu and included soup, salad, a beverage, main course and sometimes even desert.

On our second day in Popayan our plan was to visit the hot springs and than mountain bike 30km from the hot springs back to our hostel. A truck drove us to the hot springs along, the same road we would be biking (50 minute drive) and dropped us off at the hot springs. These hot springs were a lot more like I expected to see in Banos. They had six different pools and even a water slide. Trevor's favorite pool was the main one which had little fishes in it, I however was quite intrigued by the mud pool which actually wasn't as gross as it sounds and was suppose to have therapeutic properties.

While we were at the hot springs it started to rain which wasn't a big deal since we were enjoying the water however the road we had to bike back on was a mix of gravel, cement and construction. So needless to say we were in for a muddy ride home.

Along the way we also had to bike through 5 construction sites because they are working on paving the road. And at every single construction site, as soon as I would bike through, I'd get whistles. This was one thing I definitely noticed in Colombia, that being with my brothers didn't deter any of the male attention. In Ecuador I would get some  male attention if I was by myself but when with my brother they would leave me alone. In Colombia on the other hand even when walking beside my brother, I would have guys coming up and saying "muy bonita" (very beautiful), whistling and trying to talk to me. So they are differently more aggressive but still harmless.

The bike ride was suppose to be more downhill then uphill and we got to go down some pretty intense hills but the ride definitely had its fair share of uphill biking. I actually got pretty good at managing the gears which was my biggest obstacle when we first got started. The view biking was absolutely amazing. I never realized how much more you appreciate your surroundings when riding a bike through them versus passing  in a car. We got to see rivers, waterfalls and valleys,  all along the way.

It wasn't till we were getting close to home that we had an issue. It was actually kind of ironic because I had just asked my brother  minutes earlier to stop cutting me off. But of course my brother saw a great photo opportunity and immediately started braking while cutting in front of me for the photo. The worse part was I could see the accident happening right before it happened and had one of two choices 1) try maneuvering to the left of him beside the unguarded cliff or 2) go to the left of him where I know I would end up hitting his back tire. I thought the second option might be safer. I don't know exactly how I fell but my brother said I went over the handlebars, landing on the left side of my body. I hit my head pretty bad and ended up smashing the helmet  in three pieces.  I must say I'm now a strong believer in the value of a helmets because I probably would have ended up in the hospital otherwise. I'm also glad it happened to me instead of Trevor because he probably would have gotten his fourth concussion  which I'm trying to avoid on this trip. Thankfully I wasn't hurt too badly, just a little bruised, winded and scrapped up.

 Our original plan had been to visit a local cafe to have chocolate santafereno on our way back. So with me still foggy and seeing stars from the fall, we went to one of the roadside restaurants to have chocolate santafereno which is hot chocolate with a piece of traditional bread and and cheese that you put into the hot chocolate, and was actually quite good. While at this restaurant we ended up making friends will the bored Military guards that were suppose to be guarding the road or something. Apparently they had been talking about us being a couple and we both started laughing when the guarded started yelling to his two companions outside that we are "herrmanos" (siblings) not "novios" (bf/gf). Whenever people first see us they usually think we are a couple although a lot of people keep asking if we are twins as well. 

Biking back through the city was actually the most terrify part for me. They don't actually have traffic lights and stop sign at busy corners, so the most aggressive driver usually wins. Which isn't comforting when on a bike with a busted helmet.All and all - with the accident, mud and rain - it was a pretty amazing ride and I'd  recommend it to anyone visiting.

ps- Trevor felt so guilty about causing my fall, that he was the nicest I've ever seen him be, for the next 2 days :)

Journey to Colombia

Similar to most of our trip, Colombia was not originally part of our plan. since it was completely out of our way. However everyone we met who had gone, said it was the best part of their trip and being only 5 hours away from the Colombia border we decided to try and fit a bit of Colombia in.

This was our first time taking the buses alone and involved multiple buses and taxis so I was a bit nervous about our Spanish communication. Turned out I had nothing to worry about and I'm  completely comfortable getting around on the buses now.

We started out from Quito and know we needed to get to the Ecuador boarder town of Tulcan. The first task was figuring out how to get a bus to Tulcan.  We discovered our LP bus information for Quito was incorrect  after visited a random bus station in Quito and asking where we could get a bus to Tulcan. The information they provided didn't match the book so we did our own research online to find out Quito had recently opened two bus station and closed the previous main station. One bus station serviced all areas north of Quito - this was the bus station we needed. And the other larger bus station served all the buses heading to locations south of Quito.

To get to the bus terminal we could have taken the public tran for $0.25 each, however everyone seemed to recommended against taking  all your bags on the public tran, since it's very crowded and pickpocketing is common. So instead we took a 45 minute cab ride to the station which only ended up costing us $6.

At the bus station you have your pick of companies, with them all yelling at you to go with them. The price doesn't really vary by company, so our strategy was to pick the company that was leaving first. So we ended up boarding a bus that left 10 minutes after we boarded, for our 5 hour bus ride to Tulcan.

Just as an fyi, one thing we have discovered about the long distance bus is they actually act as local buses for the small towns along the way. Most people don't necessarily take the bus to the final destination but rather get off at the small towns along the way. So while the bus resemble our long distant coach back home, it's not uncommon to see the isles filled with passengers and kids who just pay $0.25 to take the bus between towns. So they can actually end up quite packed.

Crossing over into Colombia

Upon arriving in Tulcan we knew we needed to take a taxi 16km to the Ecuadorian/Colombian boarder, this cost $3. We then had to wait in line at the Ecuadorian boarder for approximately 15 minutes before getting our exit stamps then heading over the bridge to visit the Colombian immigration. There was a shorter line at the Colombia boarder and the protocol was pretty straight forward. We just showed our passports on both sides and they just stamped away. We were now officially in Colombia!

We had no Colombia pesos so we ended up changing $40US  with one of the licensed changers at the boarder and hoped that was enough to cover our taxi and bus to Pasto. Our plan was to get Colombian pesos from  a bank machine in Pasto, which actually worked out well.

Walking around Pasto

The taxi to the nearest boarder town bus terminal cost $7,000 peso (roughly $3.50) and from there we boarded a two hour bus from Ipiales to Pasto which cost us another $7,000 pesos each. We originally had no intention of spending much time in Pasto but had read that night bus travel is not safe between Pasto and Popayan, since the buses are sometimes robbed by bandits at night. And since it was already 3pm and Popayan was another 6 hours away we decided not to risk it and stay in a hostel for the night. In our hostel at Popayan we ran into a guy that took the night bus and he said that a police guard actually sat in the front of the bus with the bus driver because apparently when they do rob the buses they usually shoot the driver. Although we read that even the buses with  police guards were still targeted by bandits at night. We were also really happy we did the drive during the day because the scenery was beautiful. We thought we had seen lots of nice mountain drives in Ecuador but the mountain landscape was actually different and somehow nicer in Colombia.

Our bus scenery in Colombia

Amazon Jungle

Our original plan was to go to school in Quito for four weeks but after a couple weeks in Quito we wanted a change of scenery and decide to do a week of school in the Amazon jungle instead.

In order to get to the jungle we needed to take a 10 hour bus ride to Coca. The plan was to meet our new teacher at the bus station at 9pm, to take an overnight bus to Coca. I should mention that Quito is NOT safe at night and you need to take a taxi if you go anywhere. We actually saw a guy get mugged outside our hostel the night before and 2 of our schoolmates had been victims of attempted muggings, so we were both on edge waiting at the bus station (where theft is common). So upon arrival at the station this guy with long hair, an eyebrow ring and tongue piercing came up to Trevor  and said something to him. Following what we have been told Trevor immediately told him "no gracious" without even listening to what he said. When I asked what the guy had said, knowing our teacher was suppose to meet us at the station, Trevor said he didn't know and realized that he might have been our teacher. After waiting 15 minutes we finally asked the guy what he had said and found out he was our teacher and had asked Trevor  if we were "Allison and Trevor" but after Trevor's insistent "no" he figured we must not be the right people.

I don't sleep well on buses and surprisingly Trevor wasn't able to sleep either so when we arrived in Coca, at 5:30am, we were both pretty tired and irritable. The worst part was the one hour boat ride into the jungle won't  be ready to leave until 10:30am. So we ended up making makeshift beds out of our surrounding till the boat was ready. I actually ended up sleeping better all curled up on a little bench then I did in the bus. And I felt like a true backpacker.

We didn't really know what to expect from the place we where staying but when we arrived we were thrilled to see it was a little jungle paradise. It actually reminded us of overnight camp and it was actually a resort for tourist.  We got to stay in cute little bamboo huts with hammocks on the porch. They also had parrots and a monkey we got to play with.



I thought the jungle would be relaxing and would give me time to study, read and blog but this wasn't the case at all. Our day would start at 6:30 with breakfast, we would then go on an excursions such as a jungle hike, bird watching, fishing for Piranha, visiting  jungle communities, and learning how to use a blow gun. The activities would last from 7:30-11:00. We would then have lunch at 12:00pm and Spanish classes from 1:30-5:00 with dinner at 7:00. Then after dinner we would go on a night tour with flashlights, canoeing in the lagoons to see Alligators, or hiking in the jungle where we saw the biggest insects including real tarantulas.There is also no electricity at the resort, so they just have a generator which is active from 10am-12pm and 6pm-10pm. So after 10pm you have no choice but to sleep because you can't see anything.

The jungle trip was probably the best thing for our Spanish. Our teacher Ivan was really good but what help us the most was the fact that almost everyone at the Jungle resort only spoke Spanish, so in order to speak with everyone we were force to speak Spanish. It was also really helpful having our teacher there to help make sure we understand everything correctly and to provide any words we didn't know. One day Trevor decided he would only speak Spanish all day and I thought he was upset with me because I had never seen Trevor so quiet before.

On our return trip back we tried to leave earlier so we won't arrive back at 5am but we ended up taking a 6pm bus which meant another overnight bus. Trevor managed to sleep this time but  was disturbed around 12:00 when a guy dressed in a camouflage army gear, carrying a big machine gun came onto the bus and started yelling something. We had no idea what was going on and just saw everyone on the bus grab their bags and lining up outside the bus. We were told to get our passports out and upon exiting the bus, we (the obvious none Ecuadorians) were directed to a separate line where they wrote down our passport number, where we were going and why. The Ecuadorians on the bus all lined up in another line were they had to show their ID and all their bags were searched. Our bags however didn't get searched at this point. We found out this was a drug check. All the drugs are grown in the Amazon (we saw coca plants during our jungle hike) and to stop people from bringing them into the cities they do drug checks of buses coming from the Amazon. So after this little adventure we thought we were all good but two hours later we were stopped again for another drug check. This time they didn't have a separate line for tourists and we had our bags checked with the rest of the Ecuadorians. When they do the drug checks they search the inside of the bus, the luggage compartment and  bags but I found it really interesting that they didn't use dogs. When I asked about this I was told they sometime do but they weren't used for either of our searches.


The jungle was actually really cool. We saw a lot of interesting animals and insects and learned a lot. Our teacher was also really awesome and we had a ton of fun hanging out wit himh. The only bad things was we got eaten alive by bugs even though we would cover ourselves in bug spray and finished 1.5 bottle of bug spray.

Galapagos Islands

My brother and I had debated for some time whether we were going to visit the Galapagos Islands because of how expensive it is. However felt that we couldn't spend a month in Ecuador and not visit. Originally we were going to book through the school's travel agency but that ended up falling through so we visited every travel agency we could find in "Gringolandia" and ended up finding another package through Zenith Travel, who were great.

When going to the Galapagos you can do a cruise, which is the most common and expensive option. With this option you stay on a yacht or cruise ship and travel to all the islands during the night. The other option is island hoping where you stay in hotels at nigh and take boats to the various islands during the day. We did the island hoping option since its was significantly cheaper. This meant we saw less islands but we did more activities and spent more time on each island. In the end I think we were happy with our choice and liked being able to walk around at night (which you can't do in Quito).

They are super strict about you bringing any sort of fruits or animals into the Galapagos and we actually had to pay for our bags to get checked and special tags put on, to show our bag content was safe. Then on the airplane, while we were in the air, they spray the cabin with a "natural" and "safe" pesticide. To make sure we are not bringing anything in with us.

Lonesome George

Our trip started out with our flight getting delayed because of rain in Quito. This caused us to missing our boat to Isla Isabela where we were suppose to spend out first night. Thankfully our tour agency and guide where really great and rearranged our schedule so we could still visit the things we wanted to. So our first day was spend in Isla Santa Cruz with a visit to the Darwin Centre which is a breeding centre for one of the turtle species. The Galapagos island had 13 species of turtles with  2 of them now extinct. At the breeding centre we got to see "lonesome George" which is the last of his specie, so once he dies there will only be 10 species of turtles left on the islands. We also found out why the breeding centre is so important. Apparently the pirates and natives introduced a number of animals (rats, cats, dogs, goats, etc) to the islands which kill the baby turtles, leading to a zero survival rate is they are left to survive on their own. So they raise the turtles till they are 7 and have a strong enough shell to survive on their own, then re-introduce them into the wild, on the island they came from. We also learned that they can change the sex of the turtle eggs by changing the temperature the eggs are kept at,  regulating the temperature so they end up with more females then males.

Our second day in the Galapagos was spend on Isla Santa  Mariaor or Floreaana. One of the cool things about the two hour ride over to the island was the dolphins. I think they are attracted to the boats because at one point our boat was completely surrounded by  50+ dolphins. They could be seen everywhere, jumping up out of the water beside us. We experienced this again on our boat ride to Isla Bartolome. 

Our morning in Floreana was spent hiking, we got to see more turtles but this time up close and visit pirate caves. The afternoon we then went snorkeling and we actually got to snorkel with sea lions, sea turtles and penguins. It's actually quite cool how close you can get to the animals, they aren't afraid of you at all. It's actually kind of funny because it's more like we're getting in their way and an annoying paparazzi to them.  Trevor actually had one of the penguin's poo in his face while snorkeling. On the boat ride back I made friends with the driver (with my limited Spanish) and he actually let me drive the boat for 45 minutes, which was pretty cool.


After this day we were blown away by all the cool animals we saw because we had seen almost all the typical Galapagos animal on that trip alone. We soon learned the Galapagos island doesn't actually have that many animals, it's a lot of the same type of animals just different species of them on the different Islands. So for the rest of the trip we saw similar animals just in different landscapes. We would see sea lions, birds and prehistoric land iguanas everywhere.

Our third day was spend doing a bay tour where we hiked around Isla Santa Fe and went snorkeling again. This time while snorkeling we saw our first shark. We also visited a very cool cavern where we went swimming in some of the clearest water I've ever seen.   In the afternoon we took a half an hour hike in the scorching heat to visit the nicest beach in the Galapagos - Bahia Tortuga. 

Bahia Tortuga Beach

Swimming Cavern

View from Bartolome Isla

On fourth day we went to Bartolome Island, this was the island I was most looking forward to. It's the most photographed island in the Galapagos and it definitely had the nicest scenery. It took about 3 hours by boat but we sunbathed and watched the dolphins on the way there. Once we arrived we took a hike up to the top. The island itself looks like your on Mars but it's the view from the top that's spectacular. In the afternoon we went snorkeling again and this time we swam with a ton of sharks including Galapagos Sharks and White Tip Sharks. On our ride home we discovered that we had actually eaten shark for lunch.

Our fifth day was spend on Isla Isabela, which was a 2 hour boat ride but the sad thing was that we killed a sea turtle on our journey over. There was a big bag and the motor on the boat stopped working. Of course all the discussion was in Spanish so we didn't understand what had happened until the guy beside me asked if I know what happened and then proceeded to tell me we had killed a sea turtle that was sleeping in the water. Poor turtle.

Baby Turtle

On Isabela Island we went to a bay where we saw Flamingos and them  for a tour of another breeding centre for a different species of turtles and then snorkeling again. Our last day was then spent travelling back to the airport on Isla Balta..

The weather in the Galapagos was great but you definitely needed to load up on the sunscreen, we went through three bottles of sunscreen in six days. Trevor who use to work as a lifeguard  though that if he got a tan he would just keep tanning and didn't need to worry about burning. This is not the case in the Galapagos and after a couple burns he finally started listening and plastering on the sunscreen. The sun is definitely intense there but the humidity actually isn't too bad but it does help that they tend to take you hiking in the morning and then swimming in the afternoon, so you can cool off.

Otavalo

A couple weeks ago (like 3weeks...sorry I haven't had much time to update my blog) we took a trip to Otavalo. It's a town famous for it's Saturday market which is suppose to be the largest crafts market in South America. Our school was planning a trip to the market for $30 but Lonely Planet said we could get there for $2 each way, so about 10 of us from the school decided to try and get there ourselves, taking local transportation. It took 2 buses and 2 hours but we managed to make it. The bus dropped us off at the side of the highway in Otavalo and we then make our way down into town and to the market.

When we first arrived at the market I was a bit surprised because it had a ton of stands selling knock-off clothing (in Ecuador that means American Eagle, Aeropostale, Hollister, Nike, Addidas, etc.). As we walked further into the market we discovered the real crafts and merchandise we wanted. The market was huge and a giant maze, with us pretty much losing everyone we started out with.

One of the cool things was seeing all the merchants in their traditional clothing. The men have long ponytails and wear calf-length white pants, rope sandals, ponchos and dark felt hats while the women wear white embroidered blouses, long black skirts, a shawl and gold beads around their neck.

One of the other interesting experiences was trying coca leaves, which are legal to grow in Ecuador. At first we tried a candy made with coca which numbed our mouth and made our tongue tingle. Then we tried the actually leaves. People chew the leaves but I'm not sure why because it tasted  pretty disgusting - pretty much like eating a leaf. In the Amazon we tried coca tea, make with freshly picked coca leaves and that was actually pretty good.