Boobies and Nazca Lines (Peru/Galapagos trip)
Nov 10, 2005, 3:05 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
Boobies and Nazca Lines (Peru/Galapagos trip)
No, this isn't a Spring Break trip report 
though I'm a little late in reporting, as our trip was last January!
My wife and I visited Peru and Ecuador on a three week trip over the Xmas/NYE holidays last year. I had been to Peru in 1998, but my wife had never been, and she wanted to go see Machu Picchu. We also wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands, but weren't sure which boat to use. Celebrity had just launched the Xpedition in the Galapagos, it seemed like a great idea as my wife had never been on a cruise before. The plan was to spend about two weeks in Peru and 10 days in Ecuador, including 6 nights onboard the Xpedition. Starting in Lima, then heading to Ica, Nazca, Arequipa, Puno and Cuzco. From Cuzco we would fly to Quito for a few days before flying onto the Galapagos. We usually roll our own trips, and don't rely too heavily on package tours, though we will use local tours quite often to save time.
Our pictures are available at: http://homepage.mac.com/musick/Peru/PhotoAlbum34.html.
We were able to book the following 60k AAdvantage biz award:
We also booked the following paid tickets:
December 23, 2004
Austin to Dallas, American 1938 (MD80) First 5A
Dallas to Miami, American 1201 (777) First 2D
Miami to Lima, LanPeru 511 (763) Business 7J
Our SuperShuttle to the airport showed up a half hour early; luckily I had already arrived home from work and we were ready to go. Several months of planning and waiting, we were finally off! After arriving at the airport in Austin, we headed to the Admiral's club, where we snagged a couple of drink coupons. I always use them to get bottled water. While we were in the lounge, a man noticed that we were reading the Lonely Planet Peru book. He said he was from Peru, and gave us some hints on some good places to visit while in Lima. He even offered the number of his driver! The flight to Dallas was uneventful as always. We were booked on the 777 to Miami in the Flagship Suites! I had flown First in the coffins previously, but this would be my first time flying in the Suites. The flight left on time for Miami, and soon we were giddily playing around with the seats.
We had seats 2D/G in the center. Dinner was served shortly thereafter, some chicken dish. I slept the rest of the way to Miami, as the connecting flight to Lima was short and we probably would not get much sleep. When we arrived in Miami, we headed over to Terminal A. We had a few hours to kill before the LanPeru flight departed at 1 AM, so we decided to go to the lounge. The British Airways lounge was already closed that late at night, but the VIP lounge was still open. The lounge is a good size, with computers and hors d'oeurves available. The LanPeru flight was on the 763, only sold as two class although when we boarded, there were people sitting in the First class section. The flight was completely full in Biz class. Service and dinner onboard LanPeru was outstanding as always. I had the fish with caper sauce, with Chilean white wine. We fell asleep right after dinner; the flight was scheduled to arrive in Lima at 6:30 AM! When we arrived at the airport, we were bussed to the new immigration building, this had not been here when I visited previously in 1998. Immigration lines were horrendously long as all the flights from the US arrive at the same time; and once finally through we had to wait yet another 40 minutes for the baggage to come through! I had booked a hotel at the Lima Melia including transfer; after over an hour delay I hoped that our driver was still waiting! Luckily he was, and we set off through morning traffic to our hotel in Miraflores.
December 24, 2004
Hotel: Sol Melia (Lima, Peru) $59
(http://www.melialima.solmelia.com/so...digoHotel=5904)
We had arrived at the hotel by 8:30 AM, we went and had breakfast while they checked us in. The breakfast buffet was quite impressive, with the usual American offerings, along with tamales and lots of tropical fruit. We slept again for a few hours before heading out for lunch. It was Christmas Eve, so many of the museums and other sights were closed, although many of the shops and restaurants were still open. The hotel recommended Jose Antonio restaurant (http://www.joseantonio.com.pe), a short walk from the hotel. The food was outstanding Peruvian creole, and reasonably priced. After lunch, I headed to the bus station to buy our tickets to Ica for the following day, Ormeno's Royal Class service. That evening, the hotel was having a Christmas dinner+show, we decided to just stay in the hotel and call it an early night as our bus left at 7 AM the next day.
December 25, 2004
Hotel: Mossone Hotel (Huacachina, Peru) $60
An early start today at 5:30 as we needed to be at the bus station. The Ormeno bus was one of the medium range buses with regular seats; not the reclining leather sleeper seats like the long-distance buses. The AC was cranked up to max and the movies were blaring loudly as we headed through the endless suburbs of Lima before the scenery gave way to barren landscape. The road was in excellent shape, and the trip to Ica only took 3 hours. On arrival in Ica, we decided to go over to Huacachina, a resort town about 5 miles away that consists of a few buildings and a murky pool of water completely surrounded by towering sand dunes, some are hundreds of feet high! Ica is overrun with tuk-tuk taxis, here they are called taxi chico. We caught one over to Huacachina (paying twice as much as we should have!). Checked into the Hotel Mossone, a decent hotel with a lovely courtyard. There were several Peruvian families in Huacachina enjoying the holiday. One of the favorite activities in Huacachina is sand boarding, using a snowboard. We attempted a few times, but it definitely takes practice! After lunch by the lake, we went back to Ica for a few hours. There's not much to the town itself, but the people were wonderful, several people were really hamming it up for my wife's camera! We arranged a tour to the Nazca lines for the following day, and bought onward bus tickets to Arequipa for tomorrow night.
December 26, 2004
Overnight bus Ica to Arequipa
Another early start for the 2+ hr drive to Nazca. We would be returning to Ica that afternoon, then passing through Nazca again on the overnight bus.. so a bit of backtracking was involved. Ica is the heart of an agricultural region, but once the irrigation is gone, the landscape is totally barren, the road runs dead straight for miles. It hasn't rained in centuries in this part of Peru, one of the reasons the Nazca lines haven't been worn away by erosion. We stopped at the Marie Reiche museum in Nazca, she was one of the first archaeologists to study the lines. There are several companies based at the Nazca airport that offer 45 minute overflights for about $45-$50 each, the morning is the best time to fly as the air is still and the sunlight is at an angle. The flights are really the only way to see the lines, there is an observation tower by the highway, but only two figures are visible from there. We ended up arriving rather late in the morning, so our flight was a little choppy! The view is incredible, it's amazing just how many geometric designs are visible, not just the commonly known Monkey, Hummingbird, Dog, etc, there are literally hundreds of lines, trapezoids, squiggles, etc. The Nazca lines have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. After the drive back to Ica, we headed to the Ica museum, where they have a large collection of mummies, several with bizzarely misshapen coneheads! Soon it was time to head to the bus station for the overnight bus; where we found out that the bus would be at least two hours late arriving. Sitting in a bus station in Ica late at night isn't the best way to spend ones time!
The bus finally arrived, this was one of the luxury double decker buses with sleeper seats. I slept horribly, if at all during the 12-hour trip to Arequipa! In retrospect, it would have been better going back to Lima, then flying.
Nazca Hummingbird
December 27, 2004
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca (Arequipa, Peru) $41
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
The bus finally arrived into Arequipa around noon. Arequipa is known as the White City due to the use of a local volcanic rock, called sillar, in many of the buildings. It was a gorgeous day when we arrived, but El Misti, the local volcano, lived up to its name. The Sonesta Posada del Inca Hotel occupied a great location right on the Plaza del Armas. We had a room overlooking the plaza, which turned out to be very quiet. The hotel recommended the Tradición Arequipeńa restaurant for lunch, about a 10 minute taxi ride away. The restaurant is set among beautiful gardens, but it was deserted when we arrived. It soon started filling up as there was live music set to begin at 2 PM. I was tempted to get the cuy (roast guinea pig splayed on a platter), but my wife woudln't let me.
The effects of changing altitude were apparent here, Arequipa lies about 6000 feet above sea level, and we would get out of breath after taking the flight of stairs (or maybe we're just out of shape!). It makes a good stopping point for those headed higher up to Cuzco or the Colca Canyon, our next planned destination.
though I'm a little late in reporting, as our trip was last January!My wife and I visited Peru and Ecuador on a three week trip over the Xmas/NYE holidays last year. I had been to Peru in 1998, but my wife had never been, and she wanted to go see Machu Picchu. We also wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands, but weren't sure which boat to use. Celebrity had just launched the Xpedition in the Galapagos, it seemed like a great idea as my wife had never been on a cruise before. The plan was to spend about two weeks in Peru and 10 days in Ecuador, including 6 nights onboard the Xpedition. Starting in Lima, then heading to Ica, Nazca, Arequipa, Puno and Cuzco. From Cuzco we would fly to Quito for a few days before flying onto the Galapagos. We usually roll our own trips, and don't rely too heavily on package tours, though we will use local tours quite often to save time.
Our pictures are available at: http://homepage.mac.com/musick/Peru/PhotoAlbum34.html.
We were able to book the following 60k AAdvantage biz award:
Code:
DEC23 AUS-DFW AA DEC23 DFW-MIA AA (777 Flagship, yeah!) DEC24 MIA-LIM LP JAN07 CUZ-LIM TA JAN07 LIM-UIO TA JAN17 UIO-LIM TA JAN18 LIM-DFW AA JAN18 DFW-AUS AA
Code:
DEC30 AQP-JUL LA $49 (O/W) JAN09 UIO-GPS EQ $389 (R/T) JAN16 GPS-UIO EQ
Austin to Dallas, American 1938 (MD80) First 5A
Dallas to Miami, American 1201 (777) First 2D
Miami to Lima, LanPeru 511 (763) Business 7J
Our SuperShuttle to the airport showed up a half hour early; luckily I had already arrived home from work and we were ready to go. Several months of planning and waiting, we were finally off! After arriving at the airport in Austin, we headed to the Admiral's club, where we snagged a couple of drink coupons. I always use them to get bottled water. While we were in the lounge, a man noticed that we were reading the Lonely Planet Peru book. He said he was from Peru, and gave us some hints on some good places to visit while in Lima. He even offered the number of his driver! The flight to Dallas was uneventful as always. We were booked on the 777 to Miami in the Flagship Suites! I had flown First in the coffins previously, but this would be my first time flying in the Suites. The flight left on time for Miami, and soon we were giddily playing around with the seats.
We had seats 2D/G in the center. Dinner was served shortly thereafter, some chicken dish. I slept the rest of the way to Miami, as the connecting flight to Lima was short and we probably would not get much sleep. When we arrived in Miami, we headed over to Terminal A. We had a few hours to kill before the LanPeru flight departed at 1 AM, so we decided to go to the lounge. The British Airways lounge was already closed that late at night, but the VIP lounge was still open. The lounge is a good size, with computers and hors d'oeurves available. The LanPeru flight was on the 763, only sold as two class although when we boarded, there were people sitting in the First class section. The flight was completely full in Biz class. Service and dinner onboard LanPeru was outstanding as always. I had the fish with caper sauce, with Chilean white wine. We fell asleep right after dinner; the flight was scheduled to arrive in Lima at 6:30 AM! When we arrived at the airport, we were bussed to the new immigration building, this had not been here when I visited previously in 1998. Immigration lines were horrendously long as all the flights from the US arrive at the same time; and once finally through we had to wait yet another 40 minutes for the baggage to come through! I had booked a hotel at the Lima Melia including transfer; after over an hour delay I hoped that our driver was still waiting! Luckily he was, and we set off through morning traffic to our hotel in Miraflores.December 24, 2004
Hotel: Sol Melia (Lima, Peru) $59
(http://www.melialima.solmelia.com/so...digoHotel=5904)
We had arrived at the hotel by 8:30 AM, we went and had breakfast while they checked us in. The breakfast buffet was quite impressive, with the usual American offerings, along with tamales and lots of tropical fruit. We slept again for a few hours before heading out for lunch. It was Christmas Eve, so many of the museums and other sights were closed, although many of the shops and restaurants were still open. The hotel recommended Jose Antonio restaurant (http://www.joseantonio.com.pe), a short walk from the hotel. The food was outstanding Peruvian creole, and reasonably priced. After lunch, I headed to the bus station to buy our tickets to Ica for the following day, Ormeno's Royal Class service. That evening, the hotel was having a Christmas dinner+show, we decided to just stay in the hotel and call it an early night as our bus left at 7 AM the next day.
December 25, 2004
Hotel: Mossone Hotel (Huacachina, Peru) $60
An early start today at 5:30 as we needed to be at the bus station. The Ormeno bus was one of the medium range buses with regular seats; not the reclining leather sleeper seats like the long-distance buses. The AC was cranked up to max and the movies were blaring loudly as we headed through the endless suburbs of Lima before the scenery gave way to barren landscape. The road was in excellent shape, and the trip to Ica only took 3 hours. On arrival in Ica, we decided to go over to Huacachina, a resort town about 5 miles away that consists of a few buildings and a murky pool of water completely surrounded by towering sand dunes, some are hundreds of feet high! Ica is overrun with tuk-tuk taxis, here they are called taxi chico. We caught one over to Huacachina (paying twice as much as we should have!). Checked into the Hotel Mossone, a decent hotel with a lovely courtyard. There were several Peruvian families in Huacachina enjoying the holiday. One of the favorite activities in Huacachina is sand boarding, using a snowboard. We attempted a few times, but it definitely takes practice! After lunch by the lake, we went back to Ica for a few hours. There's not much to the town itself, but the people were wonderful, several people were really hamming it up for my wife's camera! We arranged a tour to the Nazca lines for the following day, and bought onward bus tickets to Arequipa for tomorrow night.
December 26, 2004
Overnight bus Ica to Arequipa
Another early start for the 2+ hr drive to Nazca. We would be returning to Ica that afternoon, then passing through Nazca again on the overnight bus.. so a bit of backtracking was involved. Ica is the heart of an agricultural region, but once the irrigation is gone, the landscape is totally barren, the road runs dead straight for miles. It hasn't rained in centuries in this part of Peru, one of the reasons the Nazca lines haven't been worn away by erosion. We stopped at the Marie Reiche museum in Nazca, she was one of the first archaeologists to study the lines. There are several companies based at the Nazca airport that offer 45 minute overflights for about $45-$50 each, the morning is the best time to fly as the air is still and the sunlight is at an angle. The flights are really the only way to see the lines, there is an observation tower by the highway, but only two figures are visible from there. We ended up arriving rather late in the morning, so our flight was a little choppy! The view is incredible, it's amazing just how many geometric designs are visible, not just the commonly known Monkey, Hummingbird, Dog, etc, there are literally hundreds of lines, trapezoids, squiggles, etc. The Nazca lines have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. After the drive back to Ica, we headed to the Ica museum, where they have a large collection of mummies, several with bizzarely misshapen coneheads! Soon it was time to head to the bus station for the overnight bus; where we found out that the bus would be at least two hours late arriving. Sitting in a bus station in Ica late at night isn't the best way to spend ones time!
The bus finally arrived, this was one of the luxury double decker buses with sleeper seats. I slept horribly, if at all during the 12-hour trip to Arequipa! In retrospect, it would have been better going back to Lima, then flying. Nazca HummingbirdDecember 27, 2004
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca (Arequipa, Peru) $41
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
The bus finally arrived into Arequipa around noon. Arequipa is known as the White City due to the use of a local volcanic rock, called sillar, in many of the buildings. It was a gorgeous day when we arrived, but El Misti, the local volcano, lived up to its name. The Sonesta Posada del Inca Hotel occupied a great location right on the Plaza del Armas. We had a room overlooking the plaza, which turned out to be very quiet. The hotel recommended the Tradición Arequipeńa restaurant for lunch, about a 10 minute taxi ride away. The restaurant is set among beautiful gardens, but it was deserted when we arrived. It soon started filling up as there was live music set to begin at 2 PM. I was tempted to get the cuy (roast guinea pig splayed on a platter), but my wife woudln't let me.
The effects of changing altitude were apparent here, Arequipa lies about 6000 feet above sea level, and we would get out of breath after taking the flight of stairs (or maybe we're just out of shape!). It makes a good stopping point for those headed higher up to Cuzco or the Colca Canyon, our next planned destination.
Last edited by hauteboy; Nov 10, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Nov 10, 2005, 10:34 am
#2
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,741
What a timely report. We're headed to Peru in one month, and I'm currently working on the Nasca Lines portion of our trip. I just booked our Colca Canyon tour yesterday; I look forward to your comments on it.
So you liked the Sonesta in Arequipa? I've currently got La Casa de Melgar Hostal booked, which looks appealing on their website - but who knows.
Any problem with altitude? We're flying to Arequipa on our LAN award ticket, then going to Colca Canyon our 2nd day. We've got no flexibility on that schedule, although I know it's pushing it to go to that altitude.
So you liked the Sonesta in Arequipa? I've currently got La Casa de Melgar Hostal booked, which looks appealing on their website - but who knows.
Any problem with altitude? We're flying to Arequipa on our LAN award ticket, then going to Colca Canyon our 2nd day. We've got no flexibility on that schedule, although I know it's pushing it to go to that altitude.
Nov 10, 2005, 11:03 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
What a timely report. We're headed to Peru in one month, and I'm currently working on the Nasca Lines portion of our trip. I just booked our Colca Canyon tour yesterday; I look forward to your comments on it.
So you liked the Sonesta in Arequipa? I've currently got La Casa de Melgar Hostal booked, which looks appealing on their website - but who knows.
Any problem with altitude? We're flying to Arequipa on our LAN award ticket, then going to Colca Canyon our 2nd day. We've got no flexibility on that schedule, although I know it's pushing it to go to that altitude.
So you liked the Sonesta in Arequipa? I've currently got La Casa de Melgar Hostal booked, which looks appealing on their website - but who knows.
Any problem with altitude? We're flying to Arequipa on our LAN award ticket, then going to Colca Canyon our 2nd day. We've got no flexibility on that schedule, although I know it's pushing it to go to that altitude.
Nov 10, 2005, 2:18 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Fort Worth TX
Programs: Earned status with AA, DL, SPG, HH, Hyatt, Marriott, Seabourn, NCL, National, Hertz...I miss my bed!
Posts: 10,927
Looking forward to reading the contination of this as we'll be in Cuszo for New Years this year.
(Isn't that the awesome thing about FT? Wherever and whenever your are going anywhere, there is almost someone who has done it and you can learn from their adventures!)
(Isn't that the awesome thing about FT? Wherever and whenever your are going anywhere, there is almost someone who has done it and you can learn from their adventures!)
Nov 10, 2005, 3:31 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
December 28, 2004
Bus: Arequipa to Chivay
Hotel: Pozo del Cielo, Colca Canyon (Chivay, Peru)
(http://www.pozodelcielo.com.pe/index2eng.htm)
The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; over 3000m from the peaks to the valley floor below. Until recently it was thought to be the deepest, but that title now belongs to another nearby canyon. The main town of Chivay was a 5+ hr bus ride from Arequipa over a 14,000 ft pass, only partially paved. We stopped at a store on the edge of Arequipa to buy coca leaves; the locals chew these with lye to help stave off the effects of altitude sickness. We definitely started feeling the effects of altitude here, I ended up with a splitting headache. The coca leaves didn't help at all; in fact I've never tasted anything quite so nasty in my life! Though maybe that's the point; the nastiness distracts you from your other ailments. The coca tea is much better, especially once you add sugar. Just make sure you don't have to take a drug test anytime soon! Aspirin also worked for me for the headache, but really all you can do is take it easy for a few days. The drive over the pass was stunning, with wide vistas of the treeless altiplano, salt pans, and grazing herds of alpaca and llama. We arrived at Chivay in time for lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch we heard the sound of a brass band coming from down the street, and wandered down to investigate. It turned out to be a wedding! All the locals were out in their colorful finest, and much pisco and chicha (the local corn beer) was being consumed. We were invited to join in the dancing and drinking, but unfortunately we had to get back to the bus. We were dropped off at the hotel, the Pozo del Cielo, overlooking the town of Chivay. The hotel had a great view, but wasn't very convenient for the rest of town. It is possible to walk to the center of town, but the way back is all uphill. We had about 20 minutes to get ready before heading to the local hot springs. My wife was feeling pretty bad because of the altitude, she popped an aspirin and decided to stay at the hotel while I went off to the hot springs. The springs were very nicely done, with a large thermal swimming pool. That evening, we attended a local dinner/dance show. The dancers invited diners out onto the dance floor for the very energetic dances, I gave it a go for a few minutes until I felt dizzy and out of breath. The band was traditional Peruvian music, with several panflutes of varying size (I was already sick of Flight of the Condor, mind you).
December 29, 2004
Bus: Chivay to Arequipa
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Arequipa (Arequipa, Peru) $41
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
An early rise this morning at 5 am for the 2 hr drive to the Cruz del Condor overlook. The scenery was just incredible that morning, the light was perfect on the villages and terraced slopes that we passed by. Along the way, our guide described many of the local plants the Incas used for food and medicine. Traditionally there were two tribes that lived in the Colca area; in pre-colonial times they used to bind their skulls differently so they could be easily identified. One tribe would bind their skulls into a cone shape, the others would shape theirs with a flat top like Frankenstein. The Spanish put a stop to this, so now the tribes have taken to wearing white or black hats! We arrived at the Condor overlook on the lip of the Colca Canyon itself, and walked a mile or so keeping our eyes peeled for condors. We did spot one, but it was so high up as to only be a speck in the sky. We returned to Chivay in time for lunch. There was some kind of political rally going on at the time, there was a huge crowd gathered in the plaza, with a stage and loudspeakers setup. Apparently, it was one of the political parties that noone liked! Then back on the bus for the long ride back to Arequipa. We had met a trio of Swedish girls on our tour bus, they were heading onto Cuzco that very night, a 15 hr bus ride after being on a bus all day. Two nights really would have been better in the canyon, it's a fascinating place, and deserves more time spent there.
December 30, 2004
Flight: Arequipa to Juliaca, LanPeru 131 (320) Economy 22L
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
We had all mornining free before our afternoon flight to Puno. We decided to visit the Santa Catalina convent in Arequipa; this was totally closed off to outsiders until the late 1970's! It's a truly magical place, very photogenic with red, white, and blue colored walls, and flowers and citrus trees everywhere. Different parts of the convent are designed to look like regions in Spain. Take lots and lots of film or memory cards with you! Afterwards, we decided to visit the Juanita mummy that was discovered on the top of a nearby mountain a few years ago. She is only on display for parts of the year, and today was the last day that she would be on display. We had a hard time finding the museum, it had moved from the site in our guidebook. The museum was fascinating, describing the Inca funeral arrangements, how the children were sacrificed to the mountain gods. The focal point was the mummy of Juanita herself, which is kept in a climate controlled display. After the museum, we walked back to the Sonesta, grabbed our bags, and headed for the airport. The flight to Juliaca was a quick 45 minutes, but saved another 6 hours on a bus. The airport is about an hour drive from Puno. We were staying at the Sonesta in Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca a few kilometers outside of town. The hotel is nice enough, with a pretty good restaurant, but it is isolated with nothing nearby.
December 31, 2004
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
Today was pretty much a down day for us; we had been hitting the sights pretty hard for the past week and needed a day to relax. The altitude was a convenient excuse for not getting up to too much today! We did go into town for a few hours and wandered around the markets, buying a few blankets and other souvenirs. It was NYE and the locals were selling bags of confetti, charcoal, and other festive items. Most Peruvians celebrate NYE with their families, rather than out in the streets. It was a pretty uneventful NYE, we were still feeling a bit under the weather. There was a good fireworks show out over the lake as the clock struck midnight.
January 1, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
We felt much better this morning, and decided to go for a day trip to Taquile island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. I had been to Puno and Taquile previously in 1998. We had wanted to actually spend the night out on one of the islands, as it is very peaceful once the daytrippers have left, but because of our rest day we only went for the day ourselves. Most of the boats leave the Puno harbor around 7-8:30 AM and return late in the evening. You don't need to book a tour, just show up at the boat dock and someone will find you! The boats will stop at the Uros floating islands along the way. Take plenty of sunscreen and water, the boat trip is 2.5+ hours each way to Taquile! The Uros islands seem to be much more touristy than they were even just 7 years ago, there are several permanent structures now. Most islanders still live in the reed huts on the floating islands, although some now even had satellite TV hookup, this seemed a bit out of place! You can take a ride in a reed boat around the islands for about a dollar. Our next stop was Taquile Island, a high rocky island in the middle of the lake. Luckily the boats came in on the sloped side of the island, which is an easy walk to the top. The other side of the island is a cliff with 500 steps, much easier going down than up! There were signs of the previous nights festivities everywhere, with confetti all over the ground and boats. Most of the natives keep traditional dress, and electricity was only introduced here within the last 10 years. Many of the islanders now earn money from tourism, either operating the boats, or selling locally made clothing. We had a delicious lunch of local fish in one of the restaurants. Back on the boat for the ride back to Puno, on arrival we went to the bus station to book our tickets to Cuzco the next morning. We also found an internet place that could download our memory cards onto CD; my wife was photo happy in Peru and had already filled up our cards!
January 2, 2005
Bus: Puno to Cuzco (http://www.perucuzco.com/imexsotours/transport.htm)
Hotel: Libertador Hotel (Cuzco, Peru) $162
(http://www.libertador.com.pe/hotel/hotel/eng/cusco.htm)
We left the hotel at 7 AM for the 6 hr bus ride to Cuzco. The train had been the preferred transportation on this route before the paved road was completed a few years ago. There are several buses that run the route, we took the non-tourist bus that goes straight through without stopping. The VCR broke halfway through Troy. When we arrived in Cuzco, the Sonesta hotel was not available, so we decided to splurge for one night at the Libertador hotel. The location is right across from the Qoricancha, the former Incan temple of the Sun, a few blocks away from the Plaza del Armas. Very nice hotel inside, the beds were very comfortable, and they had the heat cranked up in the rooms. We partook of the sauna to soothe our bodies after the long ride. For dinner, we ate at the Tunupa restaurant on the Plaza del Armas, they had an impressive buffet dinner spread. Some of the best food we'd had since Lima! It started pouring during dinner, I thought it was just a tropical downpour that would be over in a minute. It was still raining the next morning.
January 3, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $95
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
We moved over to the Sonesta hotel this morning, it was right off the square, and right across the street from the hotel where I had stayed in 1998. We were upgraded to the suite, which had a great view out over the rooftops and into the Plaza! We had several errands today, laundry and arranging our tours to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. We visited several of the museums on the Cuzco visitors ticket today. I had missed Qoricancha on my previous trip, what a mistake! It was fabulous inside with the old Inca stone walls. We did a city tour that afternoon, going out to Sacsaywaman (Sexy Woman), Puca Pucara, and other Incan sites.
January 4, 2005
Train: Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (http://www.perurail.com)
Hotel: Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu, Peru)
A very early start at 5:45AM as we had to get to the train station for Machu Picchu. The train is the only way to get to the ruins now, unless you hike in on the Inca trail. We had the hotel pack us a couple of lunchboxes for the trip. We planned on spending the night in Machu Picchu village, to spend more time in the ruins after all the tourists had left. The train station was complete chaos, with hundreds of tourists milling about, we managed to lose our tour guide who hadn't yet told us which hotel we were staying at! The Vistadome tourist trains are brand new, with panoramic windows on the roof, as most of the trip is spent in the canyon, you can look out above to see the mountain peaks. The ticket price had just gone up to $100 just a few days ago! There is also a cheaper 'backpacker' train, about $60. The trip lasts about 3 hours each way, arriving into Machu Picchu at 10 AM and departing at 3 PM; most of the tourists only come for the day. The weather was gorgeous all the way until we got to MP Village, where it started raining! The train literally stops in the center of town. All the tourists filed out and got onto buses that drove up to the ruins, which are actually several miles away from the village, and up a 800 ft climb. We looked around for our guide but didn't find them... which left us in a pickle, not knowing where we were supposed to stay. We luckily did find another guide who was able to show us where our hotel was located; a very basic place (musty, and with stains on the wall that looked like dried blood), but there's not much choice in the village. The hotel was very close to the hot springs. We waited around a few hours, but the rain kept coming. Finally about 2PM we decided to go up to the ruins anyway, as most of the day trippers would now be leaving. On the way up we passed busload after busload of tourists headed down the mountain. It is getting expensive to visit the ruins, with the $100 train, $20 entrance fee, and $12 bus ride! We had already paid for the bus ticket and entrance fee as part of the tour, but they were only good for one day (tomorrow), so we had to pony up $64 for just a few hours in the ruins! We sloshed about the ruins in the mud until finally the clouds started lifting about 4:30.. the famous vista lay below us! The ruins are quite magical, especially in the afternoon light, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves at that point. We caught one of the last buses down to the village then went up to the hot springs to relax. They have upgraded the springs considerably since I was there in 1998; there are now several different pools of varying temperature.
January 5, 2005
Train: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_cuzco/)
We woke up very early this morning to catch the first bus up to the ruins. It was looking like it was going to be a gorgeous day, with a clear blue sky. When we arrived in the ruins, the first Inca trail hikers were just starting to arrive. We ran into the Swedish girls again that we had met on the Colca trip, one of them was in pretty bad shape from the hike. I had done the hike on my previous trip; it's by far the most strenuous undertaking I've ever done.. the main problem was the altitude. We had breakfast in the Machu Picchu Sanctuary hotel, which is run by the Orient Express group. It's the hotel that's actually located at the ruins, but you pay a high price to stay there, easily over $400 a night. Our guided tour of the ruins started at 11AM, though we had already seen most of the ruins by that point. We left for the train around 2 PM and were back in Cuzco late that evening.
January 6, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru)
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
We had booked the tour to the Sacred Valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo for the day. We had missed the main Pisac market on Saturday, but they still have smaller markets on other days of the week. The Sacred Valley is a very fertile valley along the Urubamba river that was the homeland of the Inca. Over 1000 varieties of maize were at one time grown in the valley. We visited the Pisac ruins, then stopped for a buffet lunch. When we arrived at Ollantaytambo, there was an Epiphany festival going on, with people dressed up as cariactures of the conquistadores. I had already seen the Olla ruins previously, and both my wife and I were feeling ruined out at that point, so we decided to stay in town and observe the fiesta. The dances were great! Several of the masked characters danced drunkenly about while holding a large bottle and sloshing the contents on each other and on the watchers! Sadly we soon had to leave to rejoin the tour (damn tours, they're always on a schedule), when we headed off to Chinchero, another Inca site. We arrived back into Cusco after dark that evening, after another full day. Tomorrow morning we would be flying to Ecuador.
January 7, 2005
Flight: Cuzco to Lima, TACA 8 (320) Business 2A
Flight: Lima to Quito, TACA 29 (319) Business 2E
Hotel: JW Marriott (Quito, Ecuador) $89
(http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/UIODT)
Awoke at 6 AM to catch our early flight to Lima. We had to pay the domestic departure tax in Cuzco, then the $28 international departure tax in Lima. We were flying on TACA in Business class. The planes seemed quite new, and the breakfast ham and cheese croissant was delicious. We ran into the Swedish girls again on our flight, and M. was still not looking well at all. The pilot called ahead and had an ambulance waiting for her on our arrival in Lima! (Luckily everything turned out OK, she received antibiotics and was better in a few days). We barely made our connecting flight to Quito due to the delay; although the planes were physically next to each other, you have to be bussed to the national terminal, walk to the international terminal, pay the departure tax, go through immigration, then bussed out to the departure plane.. that's pushing it in an hour connection unfortunately. The flight to Quito was uneventful, with stunning views of the Andes from the right side of the plane. Service on TACA was very good, and the food was decent on the 2 hr flight. We liked the look of Quito on arrival, the city seemed very clean and modern, at least the parts near the airport. We were booked into the JW Marriott hotel, the same hotel that Celebrity used for the pre/post cruise hotel. We had booked the 7-night cruise portion only, instead of going for their 10 or 11 night hotel+flight option. We had previously booked our flights to the Galapagos through a local travel agent in Quito, our tickets were waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel. The JW Marriott was a very nice hotel a few miles south of the airport. The money situation in Ecuador is interesting; they use the US$ as their currency, but have their own coins. The Sacagawea dollar coin is popular here.
January 8, 2005
Hotel: JW Marriott (Quito, Ecuador) $89
(http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/UIODT)
We had a free day in Quito today and decided to head up to the weekend market in Otovalo, a few hours north of Quito. Inquiring at the hotel, they wanted $40-$60 apiece for the trip to Otovalo and back. We said no way and decided to take the bus. (The bus costs $2). The bus station in Quito is a few miles south of the center of town, about a 20 minute taxi ride. The bus station looks a bit dodgy, I definitely wouldn't want to be around there at night. There was a bus leaving for Otovalo in the next few minutes, when it departed the bus station there were only three people on it! As soon as we had left the station, however, the bus stopped and a long line of people proceeded to get on. This is the locals way of avoiding paying the $0.20 departure tax at the station! We were stopped by a bad traffic snarl at the tunnels, and we continued picking up passengers along the way. We finally passed the Marriott on the way north, over an hour and half wasted had we known we could just flag down a bus on the roadside! Finally with the bus fully packed we made better time to Otovalo, arriving about 11:30 AM. The market was quite impressive, lots of alpaca goods, blankets, watercolors, and other souvenirs. The styles were similar to those we saw in Peru. The locals dress is different however; the women wear their hair in braids, with white tops, blue skirts and lots of yellow plastic bead necklaces, not quite as colorful as Peruvian traditional clothing. We bought a gorgeous watercolor, then wandered around town a bit more before having lunch and catching the bus back to Quito. We were smart this time and got off the bus level to the hotel, then caught a taxi back the rest of the way. We arrived back just in time to get our laundry before the place closed, that would have been quite a problem if we hadn't made it as we were leaving for the Galapagos in the early morning!
Bus: Arequipa to Chivay
Hotel: Pozo del Cielo, Colca Canyon (Chivay, Peru)
(http://www.pozodelcielo.com.pe/index2eng.htm)
The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; over 3000m from the peaks to the valley floor below. Until recently it was thought to be the deepest, but that title now belongs to another nearby canyon. The main town of Chivay was a 5+ hr bus ride from Arequipa over a 14,000 ft pass, only partially paved. We stopped at a store on the edge of Arequipa to buy coca leaves; the locals chew these with lye to help stave off the effects of altitude sickness. We definitely started feeling the effects of altitude here, I ended up with a splitting headache. The coca leaves didn't help at all; in fact I've never tasted anything quite so nasty in my life! Though maybe that's the point; the nastiness distracts you from your other ailments.
The coca tea is much better, especially once you add sugar. Just make sure you don't have to take a drug test anytime soon! Aspirin also worked for me for the headache, but really all you can do is take it easy for a few days. The drive over the pass was stunning, with wide vistas of the treeless altiplano, salt pans, and grazing herds of alpaca and llama. We arrived at Chivay in time for lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch we heard the sound of a brass band coming from down the street, and wandered down to investigate. It turned out to be a wedding! All the locals were out in their colorful finest, and much pisco and chicha (the local corn beer) was being consumed. We were invited to join in the dancing and drinking, but unfortunately we had to get back to the bus. We were dropped off at the hotel, the Pozo del Cielo, overlooking the town of Chivay. The hotel had a great view, but wasn't very convenient for the rest of town. It is possible to walk to the center of town, but the way back is all uphill. We had about 20 minutes to get ready before heading to the local hot springs. My wife was feeling pretty bad because of the altitude, she popped an aspirin and decided to stay at the hotel while I went off to the hot springs. The springs were very nicely done, with a large thermal swimming pool. That evening, we attended a local dinner/dance show. The dancers invited diners out onto the dance floor for the very energetic dances, I gave it a go for a few minutes until I felt dizzy and out of breath. The band was traditional Peruvian music, with several panflutes of varying size (I was already sick of Flight of the Condor, mind you).December 29, 2004
Bus: Chivay to Arequipa
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Arequipa (Arequipa, Peru) $41
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
An early rise this morning at 5 am for the 2 hr drive to the Cruz del Condor overlook. The scenery was just incredible that morning, the light was perfect on the villages and terraced slopes that we passed by. Along the way, our guide described many of the local plants the Incas used for food and medicine. Traditionally there were two tribes that lived in the Colca area; in pre-colonial times they used to bind their skulls differently so they could be easily identified. One tribe would bind their skulls into a cone shape, the others would shape theirs with a flat top like Frankenstein. The Spanish put a stop to this, so now the tribes have taken to wearing white or black hats! We arrived at the Condor overlook on the lip of the Colca Canyon itself, and walked a mile or so keeping our eyes peeled for condors. We did spot one, but it was so high up as to only be a speck in the sky. We returned to Chivay in time for lunch. There was some kind of political rally going on at the time, there was a huge crowd gathered in the plaza, with a stage and loudspeakers setup. Apparently, it was one of the political parties that noone liked! Then back on the bus for the long ride back to Arequipa. We had met a trio of Swedish girls on our tour bus, they were heading onto Cuzco that very night, a 15 hr bus ride after being on a bus all day. Two nights really would have been better in the canyon, it's a fascinating place, and deserves more time spent there.
December 30, 2004
Flight: Arequipa to Juliaca, LanPeru 131 (320) Economy 22L
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
We had all mornining free before our afternoon flight to Puno. We decided to visit the Santa Catalina convent in Arequipa; this was totally closed off to outsiders until the late 1970's! It's a truly magical place, very photogenic with red, white, and blue colored walls, and flowers and citrus trees everywhere. Different parts of the convent are designed to look like regions in Spain. Take lots and lots of film or memory cards with you! Afterwards, we decided to visit the Juanita mummy that was discovered on the top of a nearby mountain a few years ago. She is only on display for parts of the year, and today was the last day that she would be on display. We had a hard time finding the museum, it had moved from the site in our guidebook. The museum was fascinating, describing the Inca funeral arrangements, how the children were sacrificed to the mountain gods. The focal point was the mummy of Juanita herself, which is kept in a climate controlled display. After the museum, we walked back to the Sonesta, grabbed our bags, and headed for the airport. The flight to Juliaca was a quick 45 minutes, but saved another 6 hours on a bus. The airport is about an hour drive from Puno. We were staying at the Sonesta in Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca a few kilometers outside of town. The hotel is nice enough, with a pretty good restaurant, but it is isolated with nothing nearby.
December 31, 2004
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
Today was pretty much a down day for us; we had been hitting the sights pretty hard for the past week and needed a day to relax. The altitude was a convenient excuse for not getting up to too much today! We did go into town for a few hours and wandered around the markets, buying a few blankets and other souvenirs. It was NYE and the locals were selling bags of confetti, charcoal, and other festive items. Most Peruvians celebrate NYE with their families, rather than out in the streets. It was a pretty uneventful NYE, we were still feeling a bit under the weather. There was a good fireworks show out over the lake as the clock struck midnight.
January 1, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
We felt much better this morning, and decided to go for a day trip to Taquile island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. I had been to Puno and Taquile previously in 1998. We had wanted to actually spend the night out on one of the islands, as it is very peaceful once the daytrippers have left, but because of our rest day we only went for the day ourselves. Most of the boats leave the Puno harbor around 7-8:30 AM and return late in the evening. You don't need to book a tour, just show up at the boat dock and someone will find you! The boats will stop at the Uros floating islands along the way. Take plenty of sunscreen and water, the boat trip is 2.5+ hours each way to Taquile! The Uros islands seem to be much more touristy than they were even just 7 years ago, there are several permanent structures now. Most islanders still live in the reed huts on the floating islands, although some now even had satellite TV hookup, this seemed a bit out of place! You can take a ride in a reed boat around the islands for about a dollar. Our next stop was Taquile Island, a high rocky island in the middle of the lake. Luckily the boats came in on the sloped side of the island, which is an easy walk to the top. The other side of the island is a cliff with 500 steps, much easier going down than up! There were signs of the previous nights festivities everywhere, with confetti all over the ground and boats. Most of the natives keep traditional dress, and electricity was only introduced here within the last 10 years. Many of the islanders now earn money from tourism, either operating the boats, or selling locally made clothing. We had a delicious lunch of local fish in one of the restaurants. Back on the boat for the ride back to Puno, on arrival we went to the bus station to book our tickets to Cuzco the next morning. We also found an internet place that could download our memory cards onto CD; my wife was photo happy in Peru and had already filled up our cards!
January 2, 2005
Bus: Puno to Cuzco (http://www.perucuzco.com/imexsotours/transport.htm)
Hotel: Libertador Hotel (Cuzco, Peru) $162
(http://www.libertador.com.pe/hotel/hotel/eng/cusco.htm)
We left the hotel at 7 AM for the 6 hr bus ride to Cuzco. The train had been the preferred transportation on this route before the paved road was completed a few years ago. There are several buses that run the route, we took the non-tourist bus that goes straight through without stopping. The VCR broke halfway through Troy. When we arrived in Cuzco, the Sonesta hotel was not available, so we decided to splurge for one night at the Libertador hotel. The location is right across from the Qoricancha, the former Incan temple of the Sun, a few blocks away from the Plaza del Armas. Very nice hotel inside, the beds were very comfortable, and they had the heat cranked up in the rooms. We partook of the sauna to soothe our bodies after the long ride. For dinner, we ate at the Tunupa restaurant on the Plaza del Armas, they had an impressive buffet dinner spread. Some of the best food we'd had since Lima! It started pouring during dinner, I thought it was just a tropical downpour that would be over in a minute. It was still raining the next morning.
January 3, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $95
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
We moved over to the Sonesta hotel this morning, it was right off the square, and right across the street from the hotel where I had stayed in 1998. We were upgraded to the suite, which had a great view out over the rooftops and into the Plaza! We had several errands today, laundry and arranging our tours to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. We visited several of the museums on the Cuzco visitors ticket today. I had missed Qoricancha on my previous trip, what a mistake! It was fabulous inside with the old Inca stone walls. We did a city tour that afternoon, going out to Sacsaywaman (Sexy Woman), Puca Pucara, and other Incan sites.
January 4, 2005
Train: Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (http://www.perurail.com)
Hotel: Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu, Peru)
A very early start at 5:45AM as we had to get to the train station for Machu Picchu. The train is the only way to get to the ruins now, unless you hike in on the Inca trail. We had the hotel pack us a couple of lunchboxes for the trip. We planned on spending the night in Machu Picchu village, to spend more time in the ruins after all the tourists had left. The train station was complete chaos, with hundreds of tourists milling about, we managed to lose our tour guide who hadn't yet told us which hotel we were staying at! The Vistadome tourist trains are brand new, with panoramic windows on the roof, as most of the trip is spent in the canyon, you can look out above to see the mountain peaks. The ticket price had just gone up to $100 just a few days ago! There is also a cheaper 'backpacker' train, about $60. The trip lasts about 3 hours each way, arriving into Machu Picchu at 10 AM and departing at 3 PM; most of the tourists only come for the day. The weather was gorgeous all the way until we got to MP Village, where it started raining! The train literally stops in the center of town. All the tourists filed out and got onto buses that drove up to the ruins, which are actually several miles away from the village, and up a 800 ft climb. We looked around for our guide but didn't find them... which left us in a pickle, not knowing where we were supposed to stay. We luckily did find another guide who was able to show us where our hotel was located; a very basic place (musty, and with stains on the wall that looked like dried blood), but there's not much choice in the village. The hotel was very close to the hot springs. We waited around a few hours, but the rain kept coming. Finally about 2PM we decided to go up to the ruins anyway, as most of the day trippers would now be leaving. On the way up we passed busload after busload of tourists headed down the mountain. It is getting expensive to visit the ruins, with the $100 train, $20 entrance fee, and $12 bus ride! We had already paid for the bus ticket and entrance fee as part of the tour, but they were only good for one day (tomorrow), so we had to pony up $64 for just a few hours in the ruins! We sloshed about the ruins in the mud until finally the clouds started lifting about 4:30.. the famous vista lay below us! The ruins are quite magical, especially in the afternoon light, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves at that point. We caught one of the last buses down to the village then went up to the hot springs to relax. They have upgraded the springs considerably since I was there in 1998; there are now several different pools of varying temperature.
January 5, 2005
Train: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_cuzco/)
We woke up very early this morning to catch the first bus up to the ruins. It was looking like it was going to be a gorgeous day, with a clear blue sky. When we arrived in the ruins, the first Inca trail hikers were just starting to arrive. We ran into the Swedish girls again that we had met on the Colca trip, one of them was in pretty bad shape from the hike. I had done the hike on my previous trip; it's by far the most strenuous undertaking I've ever done.. the main problem was the altitude. We had breakfast in the Machu Picchu Sanctuary hotel, which is run by the Orient Express group. It's the hotel that's actually located at the ruins, but you pay a high price to stay there, easily over $400 a night. Our guided tour of the ruins started at 11AM, though we had already seen most of the ruins by that point. We left for the train around 2 PM and were back in Cuzco late that evening.
January 6, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru)
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
We had booked the tour to the Sacred Valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo for the day. We had missed the main Pisac market on Saturday, but they still have smaller markets on other days of the week. The Sacred Valley is a very fertile valley along the Urubamba river that was the homeland of the Inca. Over 1000 varieties of maize were at one time grown in the valley. We visited the Pisac ruins, then stopped for a buffet lunch. When we arrived at Ollantaytambo, there was an Epiphany festival going on, with people dressed up as cariactures of the conquistadores. I had already seen the Olla ruins previously, and both my wife and I were feeling ruined out at that point
, so we decided to stay in town and observe the fiesta. The dances were great! Several of the masked characters danced drunkenly about while holding a large bottle and sloshing the contents on each other and on the watchers! Sadly we soon had to leave to rejoin the tour (damn tours, they're always on a schedule), when we headed off to Chinchero, another Inca site. We arrived back into Cusco after dark that evening, after another full day. Tomorrow morning we would be flying to Ecuador.January 7, 2005
Flight: Cuzco to Lima, TACA 8 (320) Business 2A
Flight: Lima to Quito, TACA 29 (319) Business 2E
Hotel: JW Marriott (Quito, Ecuador) $89
(http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/UIODT)
Awoke at 6 AM to catch our early flight to Lima. We had to pay the domestic departure tax in Cuzco, then the $28 international departure tax in Lima. We were flying on TACA in Business class. The planes seemed quite new, and the breakfast ham and cheese croissant was delicious. We ran into the Swedish girls again on our flight, and M. was still not looking well at all. The pilot called ahead and had an ambulance waiting for her on our arrival in Lima! (Luckily everything turned out OK, she received antibiotics and was better in a few days). We barely made our connecting flight to Quito due to the delay; although the planes were physically next to each other, you have to be bussed to the national terminal, walk to the international terminal, pay the departure tax, go through immigration, then bussed out to the departure plane.. that's pushing it in an hour connection unfortunately. The flight to Quito was uneventful, with stunning views of the Andes from the right side of the plane. Service on TACA was very good, and the food was decent on the 2 hr flight. We liked the look of Quito on arrival, the city seemed very clean and modern, at least the parts near the airport. We were booked into the JW Marriott hotel, the same hotel that Celebrity used for the pre/post cruise hotel. We had booked the 7-night cruise portion only, instead of going for their 10 or 11 night hotel+flight option. We had previously booked our flights to the Galapagos through a local travel agent in Quito, our tickets were waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel. The JW Marriott was a very nice hotel a few miles south of the airport. The money situation in Ecuador is interesting; they use the US$ as their currency, but have their own coins. The Sacagawea dollar coin is popular here.
January 8, 2005
Hotel: JW Marriott (Quito, Ecuador) $89
(http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/UIODT)
We had a free day in Quito today and decided to head up to the weekend market in Otovalo, a few hours north of Quito. Inquiring at the hotel, they wanted $40-$60 apiece for the trip to Otovalo and back. We said no way and decided to take the bus. (The bus costs $2). The bus station in Quito is a few miles south of the center of town, about a 20 minute taxi ride. The bus station looks a bit dodgy, I definitely wouldn't want to be around there at night. There was a bus leaving for Otovalo in the next few minutes, when it departed the bus station there were only three people on it! As soon as we had left the station, however, the bus stopped and a long line of people proceeded to get on. This is the locals way of avoiding paying the $0.20 departure tax at the station! We were stopped by a bad traffic snarl at the tunnels, and we continued picking up passengers along the way. We finally passed the Marriott on the way north, over an hour and half wasted had we known we could just flag down a bus on the roadside! Finally with the bus fully packed we made better time to Otovalo, arriving about 11:30 AM. The market was quite impressive, lots of alpaca goods, blankets, watercolors, and other souvenirs. The styles were similar to those we saw in Peru. The locals dress is different however; the women wear their hair in braids, with white tops, blue skirts and lots of yellow plastic bead necklaces, not quite as colorful as Peruvian traditional clothing. We bought a gorgeous watercolor, then wandered around town a bit more before having lunch and catching the bus back to Quito. We were smart this time and got off the bus level to the hotel, then caught a taxi back the rest of the way. We arrived back just in time to get our laundry before the place closed, that would have been quite a problem if we hadn't made it as we were leaving for the Galapagos in the early morning!
Last edited by hauteboy; Nov 23, 2005 at 1:00 pm
Nov 11, 2005, 4:18 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
January 9, 2005
Flight: Quito to Baltra, TAME 191 (320) Economy 10D
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Yet another early start this morning as our flight to the Galapagos departed at 7:30. All the cruise passengers were milling about in the lobby of the Marriott; we decided to beat the crowds and grabbed a taxi to the airport. The domestic terminal at Quito was pretty small, only a couple of gates. There was a Celebrity representative waiting at the airport already, after having our bags inspected by the agriculture station to make sure you don't bring in any fruits/vegetables, she took our bags and checked us in; they would take care of the bags on the other end and deliver them to our cabin. The flight was on TAME on a brand new A320, an all-economy configuration. Normally, TAME only runs two flights a day to the Galapagos via Guayaquil; but they had an extra B727 scheduled today that was departing at the same time as ours. TAME and AeroGal are the two airlines that fly to the Galapagos. Our flight was to Baltra island, where most of the Galapagos cruises depart. There are also flights to San Cristobal in the Galapagos, make sure you book flights to the correct island! The service onboard was fine (better than most US Airlines now) with a decent meal served onboard. The flight was about 2.5 hrs from Quito, including a quick stop in Guayaquil. Baltra is a very barren island, it used to be a US Air Force base during WWII. On arrival, you must pay the $100 Galapagos park fee (ours was already paid as part of the cruise). The terminal is pretty basic, open on all sides as it rarely rains. The temperature was great, in the low 80's, and clear blue sky. Celebrity had buses on hand to shuttle us to the boat dock, about 5 minutes from the airport. Once there, donned our life vests and had to wait awhile for the Zodiacs to shuttle everyone onboard. We also saw our first Galapagos wildlife; there were several sea lions lounging on the dock, and didn't seem to mind or ccare that there were dozens of tourists snapping photos mere inches away! The Xpedition is one of the largest ships in the Galapagos, but only holds 98 passengers and so lacks many of the amenities in the newer megaships. However compared to most of the Galapagos boats, which only hold 8-20 people, it's luxurious. Most of the passengers were in the late 30 to 60 age range. As everyone boarded, they were handed a cool towel and fruit juice and led to the lounge. The Xpedition cruise is all-inclusive, all food and (most) beverages are covered. The captain and cruise director welcomed everyone onboard, then we were led to our cabins. We had splurged for the Xpedition Suite (cabin 502). The 230sqft blue room had two double beds, a sofa, desk, TV, bathroom and a verandah. This would be the first cruise for my wife, and my second cruise, the first was transpacific on the QEII in 1999. We explored the boat a bit, there are 6 decks, two restaurants, and two bars. The upper deck has a mini gym and sauna, there is also a hottub but no swimming pool. Lunch was served in the main restaurant, buffet style. After lunch, the cruise briefing was held in the lounge. Jaime described the ship and our planned itinerary for the next week. There are two excursions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. These excursions were further divided into levels of activity, low, medium and high. The low intensity activity involved climbing into the Zodiac and watching the wildlife, the middle/high involved shore landings and walking, though neither were strenuous and by the end of the trip I felt I needed some exercise Each group of 10-14 people per Zodiac had their own naturalist. Shore landings were either wet or dry; there are no docks on any of the islands so you must either disembark onto the rocks, or jump out in the surf. There also was usually a few hours devoted to snorkeling. Snorkeling equipment was provided free for everyone interested, but unlike many other Galapagos boats, the Xpedition does not have scuba equipment onboard. There were signup sheets available for the afternoon activity. After the safety drill, the ship set sail for North Seymour, just north of Baltra island. Seymour is similar to Baltra, flat and dry, formed by uplifting from the sea floor. It is home to colonies of frigate birds, blue footed boobies, marine and land iguanas. Unfortunately I had made a bad mistake and grabbed rolls of already developed film for some of the best photo ops of the trip as I ran out of film two minutes after leaving the boat!!! 
We rode around the coast in the Zodiac and saw blue footed boobies, sea lions, fur seals, and a pelican before disembarking on a dry landing. We walked about a half mile along the marked paths (you must stay on the path!!). The paths can be very rocky, so you need a good pair of hiking/walking shoes. There were still many frigate birds on the island although it was towards the end of mating season when they migrate. Many of the males had inflated their bright red neck sacs. All the animals were amazingly tame, they didn't seem to notice that we were there at all. We saw several land iguanas, which can get up to 3' long. They are different from the more well known marine iguanas. Land iguanas are a yellowish brown color, marine iguanas are usually black, except in mating season (which it was in January), when they turn bright green and red. After reboarding the ship and freshening up, dinner was served in Darwin's Restaurant. Dinners were a full 5-course meal, almost all had freshly caught local fish. Skip the beef, it's all local as they can't import any from the mainland and it ends up being tough! After dinner, there was another briefing to go over the next days activities.
January 10, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Kicker Rock - San Cristobal
P. Baquerizo - San Cristobal
Punta Suarez - Espanola
It was an early start to the day for us as we had signed up for the early morning activity, a Zodiac ride around Kicker Rock. We were on the lookout for more blue footed boobies, sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, etc. However it was a bit of a letdown after the amazing introduction yesterday afternoon. Afterwards, we went snorkeling, this turned out to be a blast! There were several sealions in the water with us, they'd come up and blow air, then dart away before coming back and looking at us. It was hilarious! During lunch, we cruised to the next island, Espanola, the southernmost island in the archipelago. Our destination here was Punta Suarez, on the western tip of the island. This was also a dry landing, as we came ashore there were several sea lions basking in the sun. We walked again about a half mile down the trail to the colony of masked boobies. Masked boobies are mostly white, with an orange bill, and black on their wingtips and around the eyes. We also saw lava lizards, a Galapagos hawk and several waved albatross along the way. There was a blowhole nearby the booby colony, which was not very impressive as it was low tide at the time.
January 11, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz
Cerro Dragon - Santa Cruz
This morning the ship headed for Puerto Ayora, the main town in the Galapagos; it lies at the opposite side of Santa Cruz from the airport. Over 20,000 people actually live in the Galapagos, and you can use the Internet here. There were two activities this morning, the first one visiting the Charles Darwin center and viewing the tortoise raising area and Lonesome George, a 180+ year old tortoise, the last of his subspecies. The other activity was going to the highlands of Santa Cruz and seeing the tortoises in their natural habitat. It was supposedly raining today in the highlands, so we opted for the Darwin center. We would be returning to Puerto Ayora on Saturday, so there was a second chance to go to the highlands. The Charles Darwin center is on the edge of town, buses were provided to shuttle us there, then we would walk back to the port. The center had several tortoises of varying age; they try to raise them here until they are a few years old then release them in the wild. This is to protect the eggs from feral pigs which are quite a problem on many islands. That afternoon, we sailed around to Cerro Dragon on the other side of Santa Cruz. The options here were to go on a Zodiac ride and look for golden rays among the mangroves, or walk to the top of Dragon Hill, looking for land iguanas and possibly flamingoes. I did the walk but didn't see much today other than lots of land iguanas and a feral goat, another problem on the islands. The Zodiac ride turned out to be the better deal here, they saw a school of golden rays and a shark.
January 12, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Las Bachas - Santa Cruz
Bartolome - San Salvador
This morning was one of the few opportunities to go scuba diving, I opted to do this instead of swimming on Las Bachas beach. One of the local dive companies came out to meet the boat, there were 5 passengers diving today. It was quite expensive at $120 for a two-tank dive. The water in the Galapagos is also surprisingly cold for it being on the equator, 50 to 60 degrees is normal! They provided full 5mil suits with hood and gloves. We would be diving off of Daphne islet, a wall dive with an opportunity to see hammerheads. I had never used a hood before, and had problems with my mask leaking once underwater, so my first dive was spent mainly clearing my mask! The second dive was much better, saw plenty of parrot fish, sea urchins, starfish, etc. but we never saw any sharks or whales. That afternoon, we sailed the short distance to Bartolome at San Salvador Island; this is where the classic Galapagos photo shot of Pinnacle Rock is taken. This was also the most active part of the trip, there were several hundred wooden steps over the volcanic cinders to the peak. The 360 degree view here is just incredible, but it was late afternoon and a bad sun angle, morning would be much better for photos. After the climb, I went down to the beach where there were several Galapagos penguins (yes, penguins!) sitting on the rocks. They are tiny, no more than 8-10 inches tall. That night at dinner we were invited to sit at the Captains table. He spoke very good English and had been a sailor for over 20 years.
January 13, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Caleta Tagus - Isabela
Punta Espinoza - Fernandina
Last night was the longest part of the cruise as the Xpedition sailed around to the far side of Isabela island, to Caleta Tagus (Tagus Cove). Isabela is the largest island in the Galapagos (this is where the Sierra Negra volcano started erupting a few weeks ago). Not many Galapagos cruises come this far due to the distance. Tagus Cove is where many of the passing whalers left graffiti on the rocks that can still be seen. This was another good climb up to the peak above Darwin Lake, a flooded volcanic crater. Afterwards during a Zodiac ride around the bay we saw more penguins and blue footed boobies and a flightless cormorant, then we saw some dolphins! We snorkeled some more and saw several green sea turtles swimming just offshore. Several of the ships crew were in the water scraping and painting the ship. After lunch, we sailed across the straight to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island. This was a wet landing; we had to wade through the mangrove swamps and over the lava (no wonder the Hawaiians call it ah-ah!) There were several sealions horsing around in a tidal pool. There were hundreds of iguanas here stretched out over the sand and each other. Many were bright red and green. We also saw an American oystercatcher with chick and several penguins.
January 14, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Puerto Egas - San Salvador
Rabida
Last night we sailed back to San Salvador island, to Puerto Egas. This used to be the site of an old salt mine. The beach here was gorgeous, the color of coffee grinds. No, I didn't drink any! This was suppsosed to be the 'super high intensity' activity, a 3 mile return walk to the salt mine, but it was all over level ground. That afternoon we went to Rabida island, which is striking red color due to lots of iron. It made a gorgeous setting, with the deep red color of the soil, the bright green of the mangroves, and the deep blue color of the water. There were a couple of lonely flamingoes wading through the brackish lake next to the beach. There was a baby fur seal on the beach, how cute!
January 15, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Post Office - Floreana
Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz
Our last full day in the Galapagos. The morning excursion had us visiting the island of Floreana at Post Office bay; this is where whalers used to leave messages for home in a barrel. Anyone passing by heading in that direction would pick up the letters and deliver them personally. This tradition continues today. The mailbox itself now is covered with bumper stickers, graffiti, and messages scratched on driftwood, it's quite an amazing sight. We shuffled through the postcards, and actually found one for Austin that had been left just that morning! Since we would be home in two days, it would probably get there earlier had it been sent via the regular mail. Several other passengers picked up postcards and left their own (ours STILL hasn't shown up yet). After Floreana, we headed back to Puerto Ayora. This time I went to visit the highlands to see the tortoises, the weather was much better today than it had been on Tuesday. It was interesting to see the change in ecology as we went higher up the mountain; the coast is very dry with scrub and cactus, but by the time we reached the tortoise reserve, everything was lush and green. We saw at least half a dozen tortoises on our walk, and a vermillion flycatcher, which is pretty rare. On the way back to the boat we stopped at a lava tube; there are many of these in the Galapagos. That night, we had a farewell dinner onboard, and an onboard dance show. Afterwards, they showed a slideshow of photos the naturalists had taken, as a surprise all the guests were presented with copies of the best photos on CD!
January 16, 2005
Flight: Quito to Baltra, TAME 190 (320) Economy 13D
Hotel: Hilton Colon (Quito, Ecuador)
Time to say goodbye to the Galapagos! We'd had a wonderful time here and really enjoyed the Xpedition. The ship had cruised back to the airport overnight, and soon everyone was shuttled back to the airport. There is an air conditioned VIP lounge at the airport that Celebrity reserves for their passengers; alcohol, soft drinks and snacks are available. After arriving back at Quito, we said our goodbyes to everyone and caught a cab to our hotel. We were staying at the Hilton Colon tonight on an award stay, instead of returning to the Marriott with the other passengers. We planned to attend the farewell dinner this evening with our friends at the Theatrum (http://www.theatrum.com.ec/English/) restaurant in downtown Quito. The Hilton was nice, but older than the Marriott. We were upgraded to the Executive floor!
January 17, 2005
Flight: Quito to Lima, TACA 29 (320) Business 3E
Flight: Lima to Dallas, American 948 (757) Business 2E
Flight: Dallas to Austin, American 1075 (M80) First 4A
We had nearly all day today in Quito to see the sights; our flight wasn't departing for Lima until 6 PM. We had crossed the equator before on the way to Otovalo the previous weekend, but hadn't made it to the Mitad del Mundo monument. We actually slept in this morning, then hired a cab to take us to the equator and back. It's tourist kitsch, there's a whole model village there with plenty of souvenir shops, and a planetarium. It was deserted when we arrived. We walked up to the monument where the equator line passes and everyone poses with legs in separate hemispheres. (of course we had to do this!) Unfortunately, they measured wrong and the actual equator is about 100 yards away. There is an interesting cultural museum in the tower that showcases the different ethnic groups in Ecuador. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was really too late to try to go see any more of Quito, but it was too early to go to the airport. We decided to go to the airport anyway for our TACA flight to Lima. We were very early but they wouldn't let us in the VIP lounge, claiming that we were on upgraded tickets. So we had to wait about 2 hrs in the gate area. The flight to Lima was uneventful, but then we had a nearly 7 hr layover before the 2 AM American flight to Dallas. I had thought about getting a nearby hotel, but going through immigration twice seemed too much a hassle. We were able to get into the VIP lounge in Lima, where they have computers, sofas and some food. Seven hours was a LOONG time in the lounge with not much to do. Finally our flight departs for DFW and home!
I have posted some of our airline meal photos to airlinemeals.net, under the TACA and TAME sections.
Flight: Quito to Baltra, TAME 191 (320) Economy 10D
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Yet another early start this morning as our flight to the Galapagos departed at 7:30. All the cruise passengers were milling about in the lobby of the Marriott; we decided to beat the crowds and grabbed a taxi to the airport. The domestic terminal at Quito was pretty small, only a couple of gates. There was a Celebrity representative waiting at the airport already, after having our bags inspected by the agriculture station to make sure you don't bring in any fruits/vegetables, she took our bags and checked us in; they would take care of the bags on the other end and deliver them to our cabin. The flight was on TAME on a brand new A320, an all-economy configuration. Normally, TAME only runs two flights a day to the Galapagos via Guayaquil; but they had an extra B727 scheduled today that was departing at the same time as ours. TAME and AeroGal are the two airlines that fly to the Galapagos. Our flight was to Baltra island, where most of the Galapagos cruises depart. There are also flights to San Cristobal in the Galapagos, make sure you book flights to the correct island! The service onboard was fine (better than most US Airlines now) with a decent meal served onboard. The flight was about 2.5 hrs from Quito, including a quick stop in Guayaquil. Baltra is a very barren island, it used to be a US Air Force base during WWII. On arrival, you must pay the $100 Galapagos park fee (ours was already paid as part of the cruise). The terminal is pretty basic, open on all sides as it rarely rains. The temperature was great, in the low 80's, and clear blue sky. Celebrity had buses on hand to shuttle us to the boat dock, about 5 minutes from the airport. Once there, donned our life vests and had to wait awhile for the Zodiacs to shuttle everyone onboard. We also saw our first Galapagos wildlife; there were several sea lions lounging on the dock, and didn't seem to mind or ccare that there were dozens of tourists snapping photos mere inches away! The Xpedition is one of the largest ships in the Galapagos, but only holds 98 passengers and so lacks many of the amenities in the newer megaships. However compared to most of the Galapagos boats, which only hold 8-20 people, it's luxurious. Most of the passengers were in the late 30 to 60 age range. As everyone boarded, they were handed a cool towel and fruit juice and led to the lounge. The Xpedition cruise is all-inclusive, all food and (most) beverages are covered. The captain and cruise director welcomed everyone onboard, then we were led to our cabins. We had splurged for the Xpedition Suite (cabin 502). The 230sqft blue room had two double beds, a sofa, desk, TV, bathroom and a verandah. This would be the first cruise for my wife, and my second cruise, the first was transpacific on the QEII in 1999. We explored the boat a bit, there are 6 decks, two restaurants, and two bars. The upper deck has a mini gym and sauna, there is also a hottub but no swimming pool. Lunch was served in the main restaurant, buffet style. After lunch, the cruise briefing was held in the lounge. Jaime described the ship and our planned itinerary for the next week. There are two excursions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. These excursions were further divided into levels of activity, low, medium and high. The low intensity activity involved climbing into the Zodiac and watching the wildlife, the middle/high involved shore landings and walking, though neither were strenuous and by the end of the trip I felt I needed some exercise
Each group of 10-14 people per Zodiac had their own naturalist. Shore landings were either wet or dry; there are no docks on any of the islands so you must either disembark onto the rocks, or jump out in the surf. There also was usually a few hours devoted to snorkeling. Snorkeling equipment was provided free for everyone interested, but unlike many other Galapagos boats, the Xpedition does not have scuba equipment onboard. There were signup sheets available for the afternoon activity. After the safety drill, the ship set sail for North Seymour, just north of Baltra island. Seymour is similar to Baltra, flat and dry, formed by uplifting from the sea floor. It is home to colonies of frigate birds, blue footed boobies, marine and land iguanas. Unfortunately I had made a bad mistake and grabbed rolls of already developed film for some of the best photo ops of the trip as I ran out of film two minutes after leaving the boat!!! We rode around the coast in the Zodiac and saw blue footed boobies, sea lions, fur seals, and a pelican before disembarking on a dry landing. We walked about a half mile along the marked paths (you must stay on the path!!). The paths can be very rocky, so you need a good pair of hiking/walking shoes. There were still many frigate birds on the island although it was towards the end of mating season when they migrate. Many of the males had inflated their bright red neck sacs. All the animals were amazingly tame, they didn't seem to notice that we were there at all. We saw several land iguanas, which can get up to 3' long. They are different from the more well known marine iguanas. Land iguanas are a yellowish brown color, marine iguanas are usually black, except in mating season (which it was in January), when they turn bright green and red. After reboarding the ship and freshening up, dinner was served in Darwin's Restaurant. Dinners were a full 5-course meal, almost all had freshly caught local fish. Skip the beef, it's all local as they can't import any from the mainland and it ends up being tough! After dinner, there was another briefing to go over the next days activities.January 10, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Kicker Rock - San Cristobal
P. Baquerizo - San Cristobal
Punta Suarez - Espanola
It was an early start to the day for us as we had signed up for the early morning activity, a Zodiac ride around Kicker Rock. We were on the lookout for more blue footed boobies, sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, etc. However it was a bit of a letdown after the amazing introduction yesterday afternoon. Afterwards, we went snorkeling, this turned out to be a blast! There were several sealions in the water with us, they'd come up and blow air, then dart away before coming back and looking at us. It was hilarious! During lunch, we cruised to the next island, Espanola, the southernmost island in the archipelago. Our destination here was Punta Suarez, on the western tip of the island. This was also a dry landing, as we came ashore there were several sea lions basking in the sun. We walked again about a half mile down the trail to the colony of masked boobies. Masked boobies are mostly white, with an orange bill, and black on their wingtips and around the eyes. We also saw lava lizards, a Galapagos hawk and several waved albatross along the way. There was a blowhole nearby the booby colony, which was not very impressive as it was low tide at the time.
January 11, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz
Cerro Dragon - Santa Cruz
This morning the ship headed for Puerto Ayora, the main town in the Galapagos; it lies at the opposite side of Santa Cruz from the airport. Over 20,000 people actually live in the Galapagos, and you can use the Internet here. There were two activities this morning, the first one visiting the Charles Darwin center and viewing the tortoise raising area and Lonesome George, a 180+ year old tortoise, the last of his subspecies. The other activity was going to the highlands of Santa Cruz and seeing the tortoises in their natural habitat. It was supposedly raining today in the highlands, so we opted for the Darwin center. We would be returning to Puerto Ayora on Saturday, so there was a second chance to go to the highlands. The Charles Darwin center is on the edge of town, buses were provided to shuttle us there, then we would walk back to the port. The center had several tortoises of varying age; they try to raise them here until they are a few years old then release them in the wild. This is to protect the eggs from feral pigs which are quite a problem on many islands. That afternoon, we sailed around to Cerro Dragon on the other side of Santa Cruz. The options here were to go on a Zodiac ride and look for golden rays among the mangroves, or walk to the top of Dragon Hill, looking for land iguanas and possibly flamingoes. I did the walk but didn't see much today other than lots of land iguanas and a feral goat, another problem on the islands. The Zodiac ride turned out to be the better deal here, they saw a school of golden rays and a shark.
January 12, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Las Bachas - Santa Cruz
Bartolome - San Salvador
This morning was one of the few opportunities to go scuba diving, I opted to do this instead of swimming on Las Bachas beach. One of the local dive companies came out to meet the boat, there were 5 passengers diving today. It was quite expensive at $120 for a two-tank dive. The water in the Galapagos is also surprisingly cold for it being on the equator, 50 to 60 degrees is normal! They provided full 5mil suits with hood and gloves. We would be diving off of Daphne islet, a wall dive with an opportunity to see hammerheads. I had never used a hood before, and had problems with my mask leaking once underwater, so my first dive was spent mainly clearing my mask! The second dive was much better, saw plenty of parrot fish, sea urchins, starfish, etc. but we never saw any sharks or whales. That afternoon, we sailed the short distance to Bartolome at San Salvador Island; this is where the classic Galapagos photo shot of Pinnacle Rock is taken. This was also the most active part of the trip, there were several hundred wooden steps over the volcanic cinders to the peak. The 360 degree view here is just incredible, but it was late afternoon and a bad sun angle, morning would be much better for photos. After the climb, I went down to the beach where there were several Galapagos penguins (yes, penguins!) sitting on the rocks. They are tiny, no more than 8-10 inches tall. That night at dinner we were invited to sit at the Captains table. He spoke very good English and had been a sailor for over 20 years.
January 13, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Caleta Tagus - Isabela
Punta Espinoza - Fernandina
Last night was the longest part of the cruise as the Xpedition sailed around to the far side of Isabela island, to Caleta Tagus (Tagus Cove). Isabela is the largest island in the Galapagos (this is where the Sierra Negra volcano started erupting a few weeks ago). Not many Galapagos cruises come this far due to the distance. Tagus Cove is where many of the passing whalers left graffiti on the rocks that can still be seen. This was another good climb up to the peak above Darwin Lake, a flooded volcanic crater. Afterwards during a Zodiac ride around the bay we saw more penguins and blue footed boobies and a flightless cormorant, then we saw some dolphins! We snorkeled some more and saw several green sea turtles swimming just offshore. Several of the ships crew were in the water scraping and painting the ship. After lunch, we sailed across the straight to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island. This was a wet landing; we had to wade through the mangrove swamps and over the lava (no wonder the Hawaiians call it ah-ah!) There were several sealions horsing around in a tidal pool. There were hundreds of iguanas here stretched out over the sand and each other. Many were bright red and green. We also saw an American oystercatcher with chick and several penguins.
January 14, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Puerto Egas - San Salvador
Rabida
Last night we sailed back to San Salvador island, to Puerto Egas. This used to be the site of an old salt mine. The beach here was gorgeous, the color of coffee grinds. No, I didn't drink any! This was suppsosed to be the 'super high intensity' activity, a 3 mile return walk to the salt mine, but it was all over level ground. That afternoon we went to Rabida island, which is striking red color due to lots of iron. It made a gorgeous setting, with the deep red color of the soil, the bright green of the mangroves, and the deep blue color of the water. There were a couple of lonely flamingoes wading through the brackish lake next to the beach. There was a baby fur seal on the beach, how cute!
January 15, 2005
Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502
Post Office - Floreana
Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz
Our last full day in the Galapagos. The morning excursion had us visiting the island of Floreana at Post Office bay; this is where whalers used to leave messages for home in a barrel. Anyone passing by heading in that direction would pick up the letters and deliver them personally. This tradition continues today. The mailbox itself now is covered with bumper stickers, graffiti, and messages scratched on driftwood, it's quite an amazing sight. We shuffled through the postcards, and actually found one for Austin that had been left just that morning! Since we would be home in two days, it would probably get there earlier had it been sent via the regular mail. Several other passengers picked up postcards and left their own (ours STILL hasn't shown up yet). After Floreana, we headed back to Puerto Ayora. This time I went to visit the highlands to see the tortoises, the weather was much better today than it had been on Tuesday. It was interesting to see the change in ecology as we went higher up the mountain; the coast is very dry with scrub and cactus, but by the time we reached the tortoise reserve, everything was lush and green. We saw at least half a dozen tortoises on our walk, and a vermillion flycatcher, which is pretty rare. On the way back to the boat we stopped at a lava tube; there are many of these in the Galapagos. That night, we had a farewell dinner onboard, and an onboard dance show. Afterwards, they showed a slideshow of photos the naturalists had taken, as a surprise all the guests were presented with copies of the best photos on CD!
January 16, 2005
Flight: Quito to Baltra, TAME 190 (320) Economy 13D
Hotel: Hilton Colon (Quito, Ecuador)
Time to say goodbye to the Galapagos! We'd had a wonderful time here and really enjoyed the Xpedition. The ship had cruised back to the airport overnight, and soon everyone was shuttled back to the airport. There is an air conditioned VIP lounge at the airport that Celebrity reserves for their passengers; alcohol, soft drinks and snacks are available. After arriving back at Quito, we said our goodbyes to everyone and caught a cab to our hotel. We were staying at the Hilton Colon tonight on an award stay, instead of returning to the Marriott with the other passengers. We planned to attend the farewell dinner this evening with our friends at the Theatrum (http://www.theatrum.com.ec/English/) restaurant in downtown Quito. The Hilton was nice, but older than the Marriott. We were upgraded to the Executive floor!
January 17, 2005
Flight: Quito to Lima, TACA 29 (320) Business 3E
Flight: Lima to Dallas, American 948 (757) Business 2E
Flight: Dallas to Austin, American 1075 (M80) First 4A
We had nearly all day today in Quito to see the sights; our flight wasn't departing for Lima until 6 PM. We had crossed the equator before on the way to Otovalo the previous weekend, but hadn't made it to the Mitad del Mundo monument. We actually slept in this morning, then hired a cab to take us to the equator and back. It's tourist kitsch, there's a whole model village there with plenty of souvenir shops, and a planetarium. It was deserted when we arrived. We walked up to the monument where the equator line passes and everyone poses with legs in separate hemispheres. (of course we had to do this!) Unfortunately, they measured wrong and the actual equator is about 100 yards away. There is an interesting cultural museum in the tower that showcases the different ethnic groups in Ecuador. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was really too late to try to go see any more of Quito, but it was too early to go to the airport. We decided to go to the airport anyway for our TACA flight to Lima. We were very early but they wouldn't let us in the VIP lounge, claiming that we were on upgraded tickets. So we had to wait about 2 hrs in the gate area. The flight to Lima was uneventful, but then we had a nearly 7 hr layover before the 2 AM American flight to Dallas. I had thought about getting a nearby hotel, but going through immigration twice seemed too much a hassle. We were able to get into the VIP lounge in Lima, where they have computers, sofas and some food. Seven hours was a LOONG time in the lounge with not much to do. Finally our flight departs for DFW and home!
I have posted some of our airline meal photos to airlinemeals.net, under the TACA and TAME sections.
Last edited by hauteboy; Nov 12, 2005 at 12:10 am
Nov 23, 2005, 11:06 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
Here are some sample menus from the Celebrity Xpedition
Dinner - Wednesday
Appetizers
Assorted fruits with maracuya vinagrette
Selection of fruits laced with a passion fruit sauce
Fried Camembert
Breaded fried Camembert cheese, with a cherry compote
Soups
Chilled Tangerine Cardamom
A blend of tangerines flavored with cardamom
Roasted Tomato bisque
Tomatoes and vegetables roasted and flavored with balsamic vinegar
Salad
Caesar salad
Romaine lettuce tossed with Caesar dressing, topped with Parmesan cheese and croutons
Entrees
Asian Fused Pan fried Salmon
Seared salmon steak served with a pineapple and coconut curry sauce
Beef Brochette a la "Romero"
Beef loin and vegetables grilled on a skewer with rosemary flowered sauce
Mushroom Risotto
Creamy Arborio rice with mushrooms
Grilled Chicken and Waldorf Salad
A Platter of grilled chicken breast served with Waldorf salad
Desserts
Tiramisu
Cream and cream cheese, flavored with Kahlua liquor
Ice Parfait
Delicious combination of eggs, sugar, cream and Pernod, served ice cold with a blackberry sauce
Ice Cream
Chocolate-Almond Ice Cream
Passion Fruit Sherbet
Daily selection of international cheeses
Served with apples, grapes and cheese biscuits
Our Cellar Master's Recommendation
White Wine - Pinot Grigio, Fabiano, Italy
Red Wine - Merlot, Fabiano, Italy
Dinner - Thursday
Appetizers
Salmon Claudine
Smoked salmon mousse wrapped in smoked salmon on pickles cucumber
Chicken Feuillete
Fluffy puff pastry shell filled with sauteed chicken in a cream sauce
Soups
Chilled Vichyssoise
Creamy cold soup made with leeks, potatoes and chicken stock
Oriental Vegetable Consumme
Clear vegetable bouillon garnished with oriental style vegetables
Salad
Spinach Salad with bacon bits, hard boiled eggs and croutons
Dressings of the Day
Crumbled Danish Blue
Herb Vinagrette
Entrees
Brujo
A Galapagos scorpionfish, served with "anis star sauce"
Coq au vin
Slowly braised in a red wine sauce, served with mushrooms, pearl onions and bacon bits
Tagliatelli Marinara
Pasta tossed in a parsley and tomato sauce
Smoked Salmon salad
A Platter of smoked salmon with a selection of fresh lettuce
Desserts
Exotic fruit gratin with tamarind sherbet
A variety of exotic fruits, covered with a sabayon, garnished with a tamarind sherbet
Chocolate Profiteroles
Cream puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a warm chocolate sauce
Ice Cream
Coconut Ice Cream
Mango Sherbet
Daily selection of international cheeses
Served with apples, grapes and cheese biscuits
Our Cellar Master's Recommendation
White Wine - Chardonnay, Fabiano, Italy
Red Wine - Gigi rosso, Barbara, Italy
Dinner - Friday
Appetizers
Bouillabaisse terrine
Seafood and vegetables in aspic
Mexican quiche
Quiche filled with vegetables served on a tomato coulis
Soups
Chilled Watermelon and Lime
A blend of watermelon and lime
Cream caroline
Made of local corn, chicken stock and potatoes
Salad
Seasonal leaves with bacon and radishes
Dressings of the Day
Celebrity
Washington
Entrees
wahoo
A Galapagos wahoo, seared, served with a white wine sauce
Beef medallion
Medallion of beef served with a light pepper sauce
Fusilli pesto sauce
Fusilli pasta tossed with a light basil and garlic sauce
Fresh Shrimp Salad
A Platter of Shrimps fresh fruit and crisp lettuce
Desserts
Marbled Cheesecake
Made of cream cheese, cream and eggs, baked on a graham cracker crus, served with an orange sauce
Two-flavored Vacherin
White meringue topped with vanilla and strawberry ice cream garnished with chantilly
Ice Cream
Strawberry Ice Cream
Orange Sherbet
Daily selection of international cheeses
Served with apples, grapes and cheese biscuits
Our Cellar Master's Recommendation
White Wine - Chardonnay, Castillo de Molina, Chile
Red Wine - Cabernet Sauvignon, Castillo de Molina, Chile
Appetizers
Assorted fruits with maracuya vinagrette
Selection of fruits laced with a passion fruit sauce
Fried Camembert
Breaded fried Camembert cheese, with a cherry compote
Soups
Chilled Tangerine Cardamom
A blend of tangerines flavored with cardamom
Roasted Tomato bisque
Tomatoes and vegetables roasted and flavored with balsamic vinegar
Salad
Caesar salad
Romaine lettuce tossed with Caesar dressing, topped with Parmesan cheese and croutons
Entrees
Asian Fused Pan fried Salmon
Seared salmon steak served with a pineapple and coconut curry sauce
Beef Brochette a la "Romero"
Beef loin and vegetables grilled on a skewer with rosemary flowered sauce
Mushroom Risotto
Creamy Arborio rice with mushrooms
Grilled Chicken and Waldorf Salad
A Platter of grilled chicken breast served with Waldorf salad
Desserts
Tiramisu
Cream and cream cheese, flavored with Kahlua liquor
Ice Parfait
Delicious combination of eggs, sugar, cream and Pernod, served ice cold with a blackberry sauce
Ice Cream
Chocolate-Almond Ice Cream
Passion Fruit Sherbet
Daily selection of international cheeses
Served with apples, grapes and cheese biscuits
Our Cellar Master's Recommendation
White Wine - Pinot Grigio, Fabiano, Italy
Red Wine - Merlot, Fabiano, Italy
Dinner - Thursday
Appetizers
Salmon Claudine
Smoked salmon mousse wrapped in smoked salmon on pickles cucumber
Chicken Feuillete
Fluffy puff pastry shell filled with sauteed chicken in a cream sauce
Soups
Chilled Vichyssoise
Creamy cold soup made with leeks, potatoes and chicken stock
Oriental Vegetable Consumme
Clear vegetable bouillon garnished with oriental style vegetables
Salad
Spinach Salad with bacon bits, hard boiled eggs and croutons
Dressings of the Day
Crumbled Danish Blue
Herb Vinagrette
Entrees
Brujo
A Galapagos scorpionfish, served with "anis star sauce"
Coq au vin
Slowly braised in a red wine sauce, served with mushrooms, pearl onions and bacon bits
Tagliatelli Marinara
Pasta tossed in a parsley and tomato sauce
Smoked Salmon salad
A Platter of smoked salmon with a selection of fresh lettuce
Desserts
Exotic fruit gratin with tamarind sherbet
A variety of exotic fruits, covered with a sabayon, garnished with a tamarind sherbet
Chocolate Profiteroles
Cream puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a warm chocolate sauce
Ice Cream
Coconut Ice Cream
Mango Sherbet
Daily selection of international cheeses
Served with apples, grapes and cheese biscuits
Our Cellar Master's Recommendation
White Wine - Chardonnay, Fabiano, Italy
Red Wine - Gigi rosso, Barbara, Italy
Dinner - Friday
Appetizers
Bouillabaisse terrine
Seafood and vegetables in aspic
Mexican quiche
Quiche filled with vegetables served on a tomato coulis
Soups
Chilled Watermelon and Lime
A blend of watermelon and lime
Cream caroline
Made of local corn, chicken stock and potatoes
Salad
Seasonal leaves with bacon and radishes
Dressings of the Day
Celebrity
Washington
Entrees
wahoo
A Galapagos wahoo, seared, served with a white wine sauce
Beef medallion
Medallion of beef served with a light pepper sauce
Fusilli pesto sauce
Fusilli pasta tossed with a light basil and garlic sauce
Fresh Shrimp Salad
A Platter of Shrimps fresh fruit and crisp lettuce
Desserts
Marbled Cheesecake
Made of cream cheese, cream and eggs, baked on a graham cracker crus, served with an orange sauce
Two-flavored Vacherin
White meringue topped with vanilla and strawberry ice cream garnished with chantilly
Ice Cream
Strawberry Ice Cream
Orange Sherbet
Daily selection of international cheeses
Served with apples, grapes and cheese biscuits
Our Cellar Master's Recommendation
White Wine - Chardonnay, Castillo de Molina, Chile
Red Wine - Cabernet Sauvignon, Castillo de Molina, Chile
Feb 20, 2007, 2:16 am
#11
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: LAX-HNL-TYO
Programs: ANA PLATINUM,HYATT GLOBALIST, AA PLATINUM FOR LIFE, UNITED SILVER, HILTON DIAMOND, MARRIOTT TITANIUM
Posts: 606
This is the best post I've ever read in any thread. I have been to Lima, Cuzco, Machu Pichu, and The Nazca Lines and this just brought back tons of memories from my trip. Thanks for the great report on your trip.
Jul 7, 2007, 3:59 pm
#14
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Tulsa OK USA
Programs: AA PLT
Posts: 620
Loved your report. We did the Peru portion last year--amazingly, almost the same itinerary and same hotels as you. Next year, we are doing the Xpedition. I have booked the 7-day cruise, but Celebrity keeps calling me and trying to pressure me into booking the 10 day instead, telling me that I can't buy airline tickets to Baltra from the US. I know this is not the case--you did it. Did you have any problems with TAME or your transfers in Ecuador or the Galapagos?