The Passionate Traveler

The boat Coral 1 - A great way to experience the Galapagos My trip to the Galapagos was organised through Rosa Mena of the Galapagos Travel Centre www.galapagosislands.com . She did a really great job helping me get my trip sorted out. From the arrival at Quito airport to the final flight out of the Galapagos, everything was arranged perfectly. The package with all my information for the trip was waiting for me at my hotel in Quito before the trip. Representatives met me at the airport, assisted in getting my luggage screened at the quarantine inspection desk (they need to make sure that no one is bringing any form of plant or animal material into the Galapagos which could threaten the isolated nature of the Islands.), getting my boarding pass and sending me on my merry way to get my flight. My flight was to San Cristobal. It was interesting sitting at the airport and working out who on the flight would also be on the boat. The bar on the boat On arrival at San Critobal air...

Volcanic cones on Espanola Island The Galapagos islands are part of Ecuador and are about 1000 km off the coast of South America. There are 13 major islands and 7 smaller  islands. The islands were all formed by a volcanic hot spot in the Pacific Ocean. The Islands are on the northern edge of the NAZCA tectonic plate and this plate is moving at the rate of about 2 cm a year. Over time the islands have moved off the hot spot as the plate moves. Isabelle island is currently on the hot spot and there is substantial volcanic activity on that island. This is the youngest island and is still being formed. The islands are influenced by three major oceanic currents. The very cold Humbert current comes from the South and is responsible for bringing penguins and fur seals from Antarctica to the Galápagos. Yes - there are penguins on the equator! The very plentiful  Galápagos sea lions where brought in with the warm current which comes south from California. The final current is a ...

Well, as I have mentioned previously, returning to Mindo to retake my hummingbird photos, which were stolen, was high on my wish list. Now everything has been resorted and I have retaken my humming bird photos! The first day of this trip was put aside to go to Mindo and redo my hummingbird photos. Mindo is a small town in the cloud forest about 98 km from Quito. It is widely regarded as one of the best bird watching spots (the feathered type) in South America. There are a staggering 400 plus different species in the area. It is called the "cloud forest" as it is quite high up on the western slops of the Andes Mountain range and pretty much catches all of the clouds coming up from the Pacific. There is always mist in the cloud forest and it is pretty wet. This makes for a very beautify and green forest. Mindo Mindo is a small, quaint town with lots of foreigners living there. It is an adventurer's "hot spot". A person can do white water rafting, zip-l...

Frozen lake with Manhattan Well, I have arrived safely in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. My journey started off in a freezing New York. Weather prediction was for more snow in New York. Looks like the airport just opened up for my stopover! You could get some idea of just how cold it must have been. There was a guy on the apron of the runway at JFK trying to remove the last bit of snow. It was not the nice fluffy stuff that we think about. It has obviously frozen rock solid and he was having a hell of job getting it loose. The water around JFK had also frozen solid. In my last post I was waxing lyrically about the great App (TripCase) which had notified me that my flight had been delayed. Well, the airline knew nothing of that! Now I see that the App has changed its story and now says the flight was 2 mins late. Great after the flight had left! Technology is great, but trust your gut when you travel. My gut told me not to change my plans and head out to the airport as if my f...

Fillet steak and prawns in Joburg The main reason that I started this blog was to record my travel experiences. Well, here I am on another trip! I have stopped over briefly in New York and I continue on to my the final destination of the first leg of my trip, Ecuador. There are two reasons that I have ended up in New York when flying from South Africa to South America. It is a bit "around the houses", but here I am. The first reason is my loyalty to Emirates Airlines.  I always try to fly with Emirates and keep my Skywards rewards miles high. In a previous post I discussed the advantages of sticking to one airline as much as possible, and Emirates has a great network. You can get just about anywhere in the world from Dubai! The other reason that I am sleeping over in the Big Apple is that there was a 4 hour stop-over at JFK airport between a connecting flight to Quito in Ecuador. I have travelled to the USA a few times and on some occasions, the lines to get through board...

Tigers at play in the pond In a previous post, I discussed the first trip to the Tiger Temple in Thailand with the family. In this second trip, I was alone. Again I must stress my extreme disappointment when I heard that there had been some serious irregularities with the Tiger Temple and that all of the tigers had been confiscated. This was really a very special place. Anyway, on the second trip, I did the much more expensive option which was called "Breakfast with the monks". After a very early start from Bangkok, the very small group of tourists (I think they only took a maximum of 10 tourists) arrived at the Tiger Temple in time for the monks to come and collect their breakfast. While they were eating their breakfast, we could spend time with the tiger cubs and feed them their milk. Really great. Cute tiger cub Amazing animals. The size of the paws of the cubs. They were not quite sure how their very sharp claws worked yet, so there were quite a few accidental sc...

Hand craft at the market at Otovalo In the first part of this long sad story, I told you how my bag and passport was stolen and how I was now stuck in Ecuador without a passport, no plane ticket home and no money. I just had enough cash on me to make it back to the hotel I had been staying in. Once back at the hotel, everyone was very helpful and I could extend my stay in the hotel. Now to try and get things sorted out. The first point is there is a substantial time difference between Ecuador and  South Africa. So I had to very quickly change my sleeping habits. Most of the communication with South Africa had to happen quite late at night. So I let my wife know what had happened. I also contacted Jessica, my trusty travel agent (see my very popular post on "Travel agent or no Travel agent" ). I let the people at work know that I was stuck in Ecuador and I also let the company who had sent me to Ecuador know. OK, so now everybody knows I am in the poof. Now I need to sta...

Old city in Quito In a few days time, I will be on my way back to Ecuador. The last time I was there I had my camera bag and, more importantly, my passport stolen. What a crisis! It was my last night in Ecuador after a really wonderful trip. I had taken some great photos. Mt Cotopaxi is a large active volcano which can be seen from Quito (the capital city of Ecuador, which is also built on the slopes of active volcanos!)  On my first trip to Ecuador, I saw Mt Cotopaxi as I climbed off the plane, but did not take a photo, as I would be there for quite a few days. I did not see Mt Cotopaxi again (due to cloud cover). On my second trip I did get to see Mt Cotopaxi, but not great - also clouds. On the fateful trip when my bag was stolen, Mt Cotopaxi was visible in all her splendour. Beautiful blue sky, with the snow capped volcano - stunning photos. I also went to Mindo (which is a small town in the cloud forest high in the Andies mountains) which is very well known as a great bird...