I paid a lot of money to see boobies and I still can't touch them! - North Seymour Island, Galapagos

Stats:

Destination: Galapagos Islands - North Seymour Island - Ecuador

Where we stayed: M/Y Beluga - $2000 for 8 nights per person (plus $110 for the park fee, $140 for tips & $415 for airfare, all per person - the Galapagos Islands are not a cheap place to be but definitely worth every penny)

Days there: 8 days / 7 nights

Best of: The boobie dance! This island was Jason's favorite of all of them...mainly for the boobies!

Worst of: With the island sitting on the equator, the heat gets to you quickly.

*With the islands being so diverse, we decided to post each one separately. The Galapagos Islands will be an 8 part series. Here is Part 1.

Day 1: Baltra (airport) / North Seymour Island

We arrived safely at the airport in Baltra and we transfered to M/Y (motoring yacht) Beluga. Having booked the Beluga the day before sailing on a great last minute special we were treated to the first class style yacht at about half the price. While there were other cheaper cruises around the islands we chose this one for a couple of reasons. One, the more expensive the boat, the faster it goes in general so the itinerary is more diverse on the first class boats and reaches the islands farther out. Two, with the first class and luxury cruises, you are guaranteed a level 3 guide meaning that they have been a guide on the islands for over 7 years and have taken several courses and tests. Third, the price difference was only about $300, certainly worth the difference in a place like this. And lastly, the accommodations and food are better, at least it wasn't in bunk beds!

The Beluga has a max capacity of 16 people, making the landings far easier than some of the bigger ships that hold up to 100 people. It also included a sun deck for resting and relaxing between snorkeling and hiking. It has its own water filtration system, that we all thought worked really well, so there was plenty of water. We had heard stories of some boats not having enough water and actually running out during the cruise! It also had A/C which we thought was a little too much at times, but hey, better to have it that not. The first class boats also have a couple of more staff members, so that they can switch off steering duties when traveling at night. Off the first island we visited, a tourist class ship had ran aground the week before when the captain fell asleep at the wheel. We actually saw the ship, still stuck in the rocks, just off the coast of our first island we visited, North Seymour.

Add map of the Galapagos

Our first stop in the Galapagos was North Seymour which is situated next to Baltra (the former US base during WW II and now serves as the main airport for the islands) and is one of the most visited islands in the archipelago. It's a dry landing on black basaltic lava with a short walking trail taking approximately 2 hours (though you could easily do it faster you must take time to linger and enjoy as there is so much to see)! The island has but one trail, and like almost all the islands in the Galapagos, visits are limited to guided tours of specific marked routes. The island, also like many in the Galapagos, is home to abundant wildlife including sea-lions, frigate birds, marine iguanas, land iguanas and our favorite, the blue-footed boobies.

The blue-footed boobie is on everyone's "must-see" list while in the Galapagos. While not rare, they are very entertaining to watch. It was nesting time for the boobies and we were able to view them courting one another with their "boobie two-step" which is quite comical. Once the male successfully attracts a female with his foot stomping dance highlighting his lovely blue feet the two begin dancing together. If everything goes well the dance culminates in a sky-point where everything (wings, tail and bill) is pointed towards the sky and the two whistle and honk. Although they aren't nest builders they begin collecting a few twigs and stones as presents before mating begins. The eggs aren't actually laid in a nest, instead they are laid on the ground with a ring of twigs around them and incubate for 41 days. They lay two to three eggs each time and that's when it get's interesting. As one hatches, it instinctively begins to attack and kill off the other eggs/chicks. With natural resources being limited, this is the boobies way of ensuring survival of the fittest. The parents of the chicks stay out of the way and then care for the remaining survivor.

*Here is the boobie two foot link!

The island is also host to a spectacular frigate bird colony. Frigates are found in several places around the world, but here you can visit them while they are trying to attract a mate. The red billowed out neck you see below are the males. They grow the red sack and it lasts for about 3 months, eventually withering and falling off. They "blow" them up and spread their wings to get the females attention.

We also encountered a few sea lions, land iguanas and Darwin's infamous finches on our walk. They were also a lot of fun, but we will discuss these guys in later posts for the other islands. Below are a few pictures as a teaser!

After returning to the Beluga from North Seymour, we finished settling in and set sail for Espanola!

To see more photos of North Seymour click here!

A quick stop in Quito, Ecuador

Stats:

Destination: Quito - Ecuador

Times we took the: Boat/Ferry - 0 Bus/Minivan - 0 Train/Subway - 0 taxi/car - 4

Where we stayed: Traveler's Inn (formerly Amazonas) - $25US Nice little place with very friendly and helpful staff. Breakfast is included and was excellent!

Days there: 3

Best of: We didn't get robbed

Worst of: We had some sort of sauce "spilt" on us in an attempt to help clean and snatch at the same time. We also wish we had time to actually see the city

We flew from Buenos Aires to Quito via Lima with the sole intention of booking a tour to the Galapagos and to spend a little time in this old colonial city. Our original plan was to go to Guayaquil and do this, but after hearing that most of the travel agencies are in Quito and that Quito was the nicer of the two to visit, we switched our plans.

After being in Chile and Argentina for the past month and a half, Quito reminded us of where we were, Latin America. Traveling in and around Argentina was easy, safe and comfortable; albeit a bit more expensive. Ecuador is still a poor country and with that comes petty crimes. On one of the days of walking from tour company to tour company, we had a mystery sauce squirted on us followed by a "helpful" man who just happened to be walking by at just the right time with a pack of tissues...sure pal. Pissed off at the situation, but without much recourse, we persevered and continued on our path of choosing a tour. At least it washed out!

Aside from the sauce incident, we also were still battling it out with the hostel in Buenos Aires over our laundry. Several phone calls, emails and lots of wasted time later, they finally told us they had someone going to Quito (still can't figure the connection between Quito and Buenos Aires) the following Monday and would deliver the clothes then. We also negotiated some replacement money since we needed the clothes in the Galapagos.

Choosing the right tour for you is a matter of personal choice and the choices in front of you are overwhelming. There are four classes of boats - Tourist, Tourist superior, First Class and Luxury. The differences are in itinerary, length of time, type of boat (size, number of passengers, A/C, type of bed), quality of food and quality of the guide. Each category gets a little better with the more money you are willing to spend. And that's for the boats. You can also choose to go to the islands and do day trips from the three main inhabited islands. Nothing is "cheap" however as the minimum you will pay just to simply get to the islands is around $600 per person; and that's before you even have a place to stay or have seen your first boobie or sea lion!

After settling on a tour, we ended up spending our last day in Quito in the tour office getting the wire transfer figured out (the tours are cheaper if you pay in cash as all the agencies charge between 7-10% for the credit card) and did not have enough time to even go into the old part of town. Oh well, it was not meant to be this time.

On the bright side, we got a pretty good deal on a First Class boat and also managed to organize a couple of days diving tacked on to the end of our time in the Galapagos!

Sorry, no pictures on Quito, but we have a couple from our flight over the Atacama Desert from Buenos Aires to Lima. Here are the salt flats and the lunar type landscape from 10K up...enjoy!

Wet & Wild - Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Stats:

Destination: Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Number of Days: 2

Times we took the: Boat/Ferry - 1 Bus/Minivan - 6 Train/Subway - 0 taxi/car - 0

Where we stayed: Canaus Punta (I'm not sure if I'm remembering that correctly) - 100 pesos - $27

Favorite Restaurant: We were there for a such a short time we only ate at 1 restaurant - El Quincho del Tio Querido - The steaks were great, the chorizo very average & the wine list overpriced for the quality.

Best of: Rainbows everywhere :-)

Worst of: We missed the bird sanctuary because we didn't have enough time.

First class all the way! We boarded our El Bariloche Bus (Executive Cama - $60 each way) for the 25 hour ride up to Puerto Iguazu. We were welcomed with chocolates, a pillow, a blanket, a meal with wine and a glass of champagne before bed! A nice way to start off such a long bus journey. Well rested the next morning we watched a few flicks and planned our 24 whirlwind tour of Puerto Iguazu, home of Iguazu Falls.

Iguazu Falls are considered the most magnificent in South America. They are so impressive that Eleanor Roosevelt remarked "poor Niagara" when she saw them. They are certainly the most spectacular falls that we have ever seen! We started our visit to the falls with a train to the Garanta del Diablo, the Devils's Throat. Words can't really describe the enormity of this section of the falls. Here's a panoramic view of Devil's throat:

The next day we arrived at the park bright and early in time to hike both the circuito superior (upper level) and circuito inferior (lower level) of the falls and to take a boat ride into the falls (100 pesos for 17 minutes and worth every one). Here are a few of our favorite shots of the two days!

While visiting the falls we also came across several species of butterfly, birds, insects and coatis. See, it wasn't only a wet trip, it was wild too!

To see more photos from Iguazu Falls please click here!

The land of excess - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Stats:

Destination: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Times we took the: Boat/Ferry - 0 Bus/Minivan - 1 Train/Subway - 3 taxi/car - 2

Where we stayed: Our own apartment in Recoleta! $50/night

Favorite Restaurant: It's hard to get a bad meal in Buenos Aires...our favorite restaurant was La Cabrera in Palermo. Imagine ordering a chorizo and getting one 3X normal size and then a steak and getting 4 (that's right, 4) filet mignons along with 13 (yes, 13) side dishes along with a bottle of good wine (Las Leonas malbec cab blend - yummy!) for less than $50!!! Our favorite local place in Recoleta was Rodi's for the laid back local atmosphere and great food!

Best of: Argentinean meat will blow your mind!

Worst of: Renting an apartment didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped.

We arrived back in Buenos Aires after a long 27 hour bus ride from Esquel. On a side note, the buses almost always leave on time, but never arrive at the time stated. Always allow at least another hour, sometimes two or three. When we finally arrived we headed over to Recoleta to check into our apartment for the week! Naturally it couldn't go smoothly, we waited for our apartment representative to meet us for over an hour before we finally called him and found out that we had to switch apartments as the Internet wasn't working in our original one. Gee, it would have been nice if he would have met us as agreed and told us that to begin with. But the second apartment was only two blocks away so we grabbed our stuff and headed over to our new apartment. The apartment ended up being a much better value than a hotel. The hostel we stayed at for our first night in BA before the cruise was significantly more, the apartment was $50 and in Recoleta, which is the nicest neighborhood in the city. Not only that, we were very centrally located. In minutes we could walk to Recoleta cemetery as well as dozens of restaurants and coffee shops.

After settling into our apartment we headed over to Plaza San Martin to meet our tour group (www.bafreetours.com). BA Free Tours is a great concept, you don't need a reservation you just show up at the designated location for a walking tour. When it's over you tip the guide what you felt it was worth. We're not tour people but we really felt like the two tours from this company were definitely worth taking! They provided a lot of insight into the history and mindset of Portenos (people that live in BA) and were a great introduction to the city. They also let us in on little known facts like if you live in Buenos Aires and have good health insurance you are automatically eligible for one plastic surgery per year for free! No wonder they are all so good looking! They also told us that many businessmen come to Buenos Aires and stay on the same corner for their whole trip. The most expensive hotel , the Alvear Palace, is there at $700-$800 per night which is next to the most expensive restaurant. These are located across the street from the most expensive strip club. No worries though, Cartier was right on the next corner so they could pick the wife up something nice before heading home!

The first tour covered the neighborhoods of Retiro and Recoleta. It started in Plaza San Martin (one of Argentina's many war heroes) and covered some of the history of the country delving into the Malvinas wars (or Falkland Islands) and then showcasing the many palaces and other architecturally lovely buildings in Recoleta. The bears are a temporary exhibition in Plaza San Martin that are on tour promoting peace, love and respect for all. Nearly all countries are represented with one noticeable exception - Canada. Apparently they don't care about world peace enough to have an artist paint a bear!

The next day we took the other free tour from BA Free Tours, this one included the main historical sights of the city, including the government building, the pink house (or Casa Rosada, their version of the white house) and the Obelisko. The pink house is famous for simply being pink, but it was made infamous with Evita's stirring speeches given from its front balcony to thousands of adoring fans. Today it houses another famous woman in Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, the current President. She, however, is not exactly popular at the moment and her taking the helicopter to and from work TWICE a day instead of driving 15 minutes each way (have to take that siesta break you know!) does not help her status with the average Joe. In front of the Pink house is the heart of the city - Plaza de Mayo. The plaza is the sight of nearly all protests, the most famous of them being the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Mothers who lost their children, either dead or missing, during the dictatorship years of the 70's (or the Dirty War as it is known) march around the square with pictures of their missing children in hopes that one day they will find out what happened to them.

After the tour we headed back to our neighborhood to visit Recoleta Cemetary, resting place of the city's wealthiest and important individuals including Eva Peron, aka Evita. Most of the important generals, businessmen and anybody who was somebody is buried here. It's like a little town with all the crypts ornately designed and decorated as the final homes of the elite. Another quirky thing about Buenos Aires, is all the dogs, and I don't mean strays. The Porteno's love their dogs. Particularly in the Recoleta, Retiro and Palermo areas, i.e. the middle and upper class neighborhoods, there are no shortage of dog walkers. These professionals can have up to a dozen dogs all strapped to their waists strolling the neighborhoods with Ipods in the ear and bags in hand! Sadly, they sometimes fail in the cleaning duty so watching your step is a must when wandering these streets.

The next morning we took the train over to Palermo. Palermo is one of the largest Burroughs and is really broken down into several parts: Old, Soho and Hollywood. It's where the majority of the middle class live and is filled with loads of parks. Aside from the parks, all the streets are lined with trees giving it a quieter and softer feel than the rest of BA. We spent the morning wandering through the botanical gardens. Not sure what to make of the sculpture of the kids nursing on the wolf (pic below)...it's a copy no less, of the real one also in Buenos Aires. We must admit that the Botanical Gardens were lacking a little, but they were free so hey, can't complain on the price. After the park, we went through the Evita museum. Having never seen the movie, we had very little knowledge of this remarkable woman. We were shocked to find out she accomplished so much in so little time. She died of Ovarian Cancer at 33. But before departing, she championed the women's right to vote and started a lot of charitable works campaigns. After lunch we wandered through the Japanese gardens which were very calm and serene, not to mention lovely. Our last stop in Palermo was the flower. Its pedals actually work like a real flower, opening in the daylight and closing at night.

Waiting until the last minute as usual we spent most of the next morning at the LAN offices rearranging our tickets for the remainder of our time in South America. After spending hours at the office we were told to come back the next day...grrr! We had enough time left in the day to head to La Boca, the tango neighborhood! It's the most colorful neighborhood in BA and is home to most of the city's artists. It's also one of the most poor areas so staying within the tourist area is recommended, even during the day. It's very touristy, and we found it a little over the top, but in a fun way.

We were so excited to go to La Cabrera and to the Esquina Carlos Gardel (tango Show) that we giddily took these joking photos with chorizo (chorizo y pan, bread and sausage is a popular snack in Argentina), wine & agua con gas and then promptly walked out the door without our camera! So, sorry, we don't have any tango photos but we did have an excellent time at the show! We would recommend going for the show only and not for dinner (our dinner at La Cabrera was much better looking than what we saw at the show and about the same price even including a nice bottle of wine)! The tickets were pricey at 200 pesos ($60) but the show was excellent and well worth it!

We spent more quality time at LAN getting our flights sorted out and then jumped the metro over to San Telmo the next day. San Telmo is the tango district. There are several places where they teach Tango, and one can witness street performers any day of the week. We were really disappointed to miss the Sunday market which everyone says is fantastic, with lots of performers, but we enjoyed our stroll through the neighborhood any ways. There isn't much to see, it's really more of a place to be with artists and street vendors plying their wares on the main square. We did stop at a hole in the wall type pizza place (can't remember the name but it's a couple of doors down from El Desnivel) to try the faina (chick pea polenta) on top of a slice of pizza with muscat wine; we highly recommend it! If you want to practice the basic 8 steps of tango they have them painted right on the sidewalk and we think they were filming a student type movie in the last photo, but we cannot confirm that statement.

That evening we headed to Iguazu Falls, next posting, and then returned the next day to Buenos Aires. We returned to spend one more day, this time staying in Palermo Soho. We didn't do much, just caught up on our email and weblog and strolled around for a bit. The area is a ghost town during the day with everyone at work and most of the shops closed due to that fact. We enjoyed one final amazing BA meal of steak & wine, once again at La Cabrera and this time within walking distance. Our one glitch is that the place we stayed at lost our laundry and could not retrieve it before we had to leave...

With our tickets sorted out, we headed for Ecuador the next morning, three Kilos shy of a full load.

To see more photos from Buenos Aires please click here!