Ekuador

On June 16th, I took a taxi from Ipiales to the Ecuadorian border and crossed into Ecuador without any issues. From the border city of Tulcán, I took a bus to the capital city of Quito. I had been to Ecuador for four and a half weeks in 2017, so I was already familiar with some parts of the country. I had one week of free time before my diving safari in the Galápagos Islands, which was the main reason for my stay in Ecuador. Upon arriving in Quito, I stayed at the same hostel on the outskirts of the old town as I did six years ago. In the afternoon, I took a walk through the beautiful historic center. Quito is located at an altitude of over 2800 meters and is the highest capital city in the world. The temperatures during the day range from 15 to 20 degrees Celsius and the nights are cool. On June 17th, I took a two-hour bus ride to Latacunga, near the Cotopaxi National Park. I stayed there overnight and the next morning I went to the town of Sigchos, the starting point of my hike to Quilotoa Lagoon, which I had planned for the next three days. The challenging hike takes you up and down through the beautiful landscape of the Andes to a lake located at an altitude of 3900 meters, the impressive Quilotoa Lagoon. Along the way, there are several accommodations in the villages of Insinlivi and Chugcchilán. The trail is not crowded and you often meet the same people, including at the accommodations. Unfortunately, the route is not always well signposted and the routes found online are often not helpful, so I ended up walking a few extra kilometers because I took the wrong path twice. The weather was fantastic, with three days of sunshine. From the lagoon, I took a bus back to Latacunga, where I stayed overnight again. The next morning, I took a bus to Quito, where I transferred to a trolleybus at the main bus terminal to take me to my hostel in the old town. During the ride, the bus became increasingly crowded and when I tried to get off in the crowd, a pickpocket took advantage of the opportunity and stole my phone! I had previously used my phone on my window seat, which should have been safe because no one could reach me from the aisle, to make sure I didn't miss my stop. Apparently, I was being watched! It was very annoying that something like this happened to me at the end of my trip, after everything had gone well for almost a year. The loss was bearable as the phone was old and the battery was broken. An hour later, I bought a new one. The following day, I spent in the old town, which is one of the most beautiful historic centers in South America, and visited several churches, including the La Compañia de Jesús Church with its completely gilded interior and the very impressive Casa del Alabado Museum with artworks from the time before the discovery of America.

Finally, on June 23rd, the day had come for my trip to the Galápagos Islands. I had been there six years ago, but only to observe the wildlife and snorkel. This time, I had booked a diving safari with 20 dives. From the airport on Baltra Island, I took a boat to Santa Cruz Island and from the dock, I took a bus to Puerto Ayora, the main town on the island, where the meeting point for our diving group was at the harbor. There, I saw the first sea lion, which had made itself comfortable on a bench, and there were small reef sharks in the water. My boat, the Nortada, is one of the smallest dive boats in the Galápagos Islands and can accommodate eight divers in four cabins. I shared a cabin with Daniel from London, and the rest of our group consisted of another Englishman, a Korean, two Frenchmen, and a couple from Switzerland. Everyone was experienced divers. Our dive guide was Jessy, a local, supported by Felipe. The Galápagos Archipelago is roughly the size of the Aegean Sea and our program included a land excursion on Santa Cruz, two dives in the central islands, twelve dives at the remote islands of Darwin and Wolf in the north, and six dives around the islands of Fernandina and Isabela in the west. Although we had some bad luck at times, for example, we didn't see any sunfish and the current was missing during the dives at Darwin Island, so we didn't see much there, the diving there was fantastic. We observed sea lions, eagle rays, manta rays, large schools of hammerhead sharks and other sharks, turtles, dolphins, and Galápagos marine iguanas, which can only be found here. The special highlights for me were the penguins and the whale sharks, the largest fish on earth. The Galápagos Islands are certainly one of the best diving areas in the world. Within our group, we got along great and had a wonderful time. On the last day, we visited the giant tortoises on Santa Cruz Island and visited the fish market in Puerto Ayora before I returned to the mainland.

Back in Quito, I only stayed one night at my old accommodation and on July 1st, I traveled to Mindo, a place about 80 km from Quito on the way to the coast. Mindo, located at just over 1200 meters, has a mild climate, but it rains a lot, like in all the towns in the foothills of the Andes towards the coast. Mindo, surrounded by cloud forest, is known for chocolate, coffee, and bird watching. On July 2nd, I took a short hike in the jungle in the morning that led to a waterfall. In the evening, I booked a guided night hike in a group, where we saw several frogs, a sleeping toucan, and a kinkajou, which belongs to the small bear family. After the tour, we were shown non-venomous baby snakes that are kept there for a while and later released when they are larger and their chances of survival have increased. If desired, you could even let such a snake crawl over your fingers. One day later, on July 3rd, the last day of my trip had finally come! Before taking the bus back to Quito, I went on a bird watching tour in the morning, where I saw toucans up close. There were also hummingbirds to see. Back in Quito, I took one last walk through the old town and visited the magnificent San Francisco Church and the adjoining monastery, as well as the La Merced Basilica.

Ecuador was a wonderful conclusion to my trip, apart from the theft of my phone. The Galápagos Islands are truly unique worldwide, and the mainland has incredibly much to offer. You could say that Ecuador is South America in miniature, as it has almost everything that characterizes this continent: mountains, coast, jungle, and beautiful colonial-era old towns. Now I'm sitting on the rooftop terrace of my hostel in Quito and can't believe that this year is supposed to be over. I will certainly need some time to process all the impressions.