On my first day in Baños I did a horse ride to the volcano Tungurahua. This volcano is near Baños and it is active since years. All the time every now and then little eruptions. And it is noisy! The horse ride was quite ok and on the way back I saw first time the Casa Amarilla and I decided that I wanted to spend at least one night there to watch the kin kin and the birds during daytime.
Today started with a breakfast at the WunderBar. While eating my fruit salad I observed a hummingbird outside the windows. I did some photos what was kind of difficult since the bird is very fast. After that I decided to see the view archeological sites like the Ruinas de Todos Santos and the ruins of the Inca city called Tomebamba. The archeological park is wonderful. Not that much the ruins but the garden and the various Ecuadorian birds.
Hummingbird
Sights in Cuenca
Birds
Flowers
It is easy to forget about time while walking through the old streets of Cuenca. All over the place you will find the loveliest restored colonial houses and a lot of churches or cathedrals – one more pompous than the other. Therefore the center is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Trust site. This city which its full name Santa Ana de los cuatro ríos de Cuenca is definitely one of the most beautiful colonial cities of the world ad at the same time the third biggest in Ecuador. It is located in the southern highlands at above 2500m (8200ft) above sea level. Named was Cuenca around 1557 but first settlements go back to 8060 BC. Later the indigenous people the Cañari settled which were conquered by the Incas which called it Tomebamba. For the Inca it became as same important like Cusco in Peru and was considered a candidate for the mythical city of gold which the Spanish called El Dorado. In 1557 Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, then Viceroy of Peru had commissioned the founding and ordered the city named after his home town of Cuenca, Spain. Nowadays according to the latest numbers about 467,000 people live here.
The Old Cathedral of Cuenca, or El Sagrario, was constructed 1557, the same year that the town of Cuenca was founded. Its location where to buy viagara in south africa is on ancient Inca ruins.
El Sagrario / Old Cathedral of Cuenca
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The best and cheapest way to visit Ingapirca the best preserved Inca ruins of Ecuador from Cuenca is with the bus. You need to go to the main terminal and take a “Canar” bus. It cost me $5 there and back. But it took ages since the bus stops for everybody who waits for a bus at the streets. In total it took about 3h there then I only had 45min to visit the ruins and the museum and then the same exhausting trip for 3h back. Ingapirca cost $6 entry for foreigners. The ruins are nice but not to compare with Machu Pichu or the Mexican pyramids. Still it was worth seeing! If I would have done that trip with a tour it would have cost me about $40. So $11 is a great deal I think.
Ingapirca ruins
Ingapirca museum
Today my friends had to go to try on clothes for the runway show in the evening. I almost did it as well but since I didn’t have high heals with me and everything was kind of hectic and unorganized I decided to leave the show before it started… It was just crazy so many people there and all trying to touch you. Girls screamed and wanted autographs and photos…And it was very noisy! My friends did a great show and I had a good night sleep…
need cialis shipped in 2 days Impressions of Babahoyo
Can you imagine! Guayaquil in Ecuador is probably the only park in the world where big iguanas live peacefully in the middle of a pulsing city! Of course I had to see them. Yes it was true – park Simon Bolivar is full of people – and iguanas! They walk around, dig wholes in the ground and climb trees or chasing pigeons… Just amazing to watch. Nearby is the cathedral what I visited as well.
Parque Simon Bolivar
Cathedral
Back in Quito I decided I didnt wanted to miss out to do THE photo staying on the equator after I had done the photo on the 180° meridian in Fiji where I stood bewteen today and yesterday. So I took a few buses which cost only in between 15 and 25cents to the middle of the world – El Mital del Mundo 0°00′07″S 78°27′21″W. It is simply one of those sites you just do for have them done and while you already there. Besides I personally found nothing special about it. First of all you pay not just entry for the park – you pay for everything else as well. The park is not that extraordinary. On the point where the equator passes through the country they build between 1979 and 1982 the 30-meter-tall monument. At least that is where they thought it was back then. Meanwhile we have GPS and people found out that the equator is placed about 240 meters north of the marked line. Around that monument are lots of handicrafts stores but they just sell the average stuff. You can try to balance an egg on a nail because people think here it is easier but in reality it’s just some tourist entertainment nothing more.
Mitad del Mundo predinsone no prescription for cats
Close by is the crater of the volcano Pululahua in which people live and have there farms. It is a very simple life. I got a private tour of a tour company since nobody of the people at the Mitad del Mundo was willing to go and I actually enjoyed having my own guide and driving in a private car instead of a bus. I heard that the school teacher for example walks everyday down the long dirt road for about an 1h and after school up back to Quito. She said she doesn’t want to give up her city life for moving into the crater. The crater is one of two inhabited craters in the world and it is still active.
Pululahua
My last day in Galapagos. These three weeks went by like nothing. I still can’t believe that I actually am on Galapagos. My childhood dream fulfilled. I’ve seen and enjoyed the enchanted islands. I dearly hope it will be possible to protect them and save this unique special spot of the world. I hope it will be possible to educate people to respect all living creatures and see them like our brothers. I hope that the guides of Galapagos will be more careful selected so that these arrogant kind of guides stay out. They just spoil the trips of the travelers.
On my last day I went with my Argentinian friends to Tortuga bay. I guess I didn’t mentioned before but if you wonder why there were so many Argentinians on Galapagos – LAN Airlines had a super cheap promotion. Only $300 there and back from Argentina inclusive tax!!! Back to Tortuga bay. Its definitely worth a visit even though you have to walk for about 40min from Puerto Ayora until you reach the beach. It is beautiful but I didn’t go into the water because it was still chilly.
In the evening I went to say Good-Bye to Santiago the tortoise and then I bought the most beautiful art to remind me on my trip of a lifetime to Galapagos. It’s unique and handmade out of potato starch and whatever else.
This morning I was invited of a friend for a snorkel trip to Tintoreras. Before you actually snorkel over there you are walking a small island and there is one part where you can watch sleeping white tip sharks from above. Normally most sharks need to be in constant move to breathe but at this spot they are protected and the current is still strong enough so they can rest without moving. Of course every now and then they swim but in between they sleep. I have never seen something like that before. Then I went snorkeling and I don’t have to say it again but – it is freezing in Galapagos waters. I saw schools of surgeon fish, turtles and finally I swam and played with a curious sea lion for about 20min and took some great videos of it what I will post as soon as I have the possibility to edit…
Tintoreras
On Isabella there is that part of an unfinished building called Muro de las Lagrimas or Wall of Tears. According to the history, the wall was built by prisoners for prisoners. They were supposed to build their own jail. They say hundreds of prisoners built on that wall only watched by a few police men. The prison was never finished and the portion that was built took four years to build. Now it stays there in the wild landscape of Isabela as a silent reminder of the other site of Galapagos history that reminds you that there is more than the beautiful wildlife. The Wall of Tears is an impressive wall made out of hundreds of lava stones.
Muro de las Lagrimas / Wall of tears
Another horse ride again – this time up to the volcano Chino and the Sierra Negra. It is my first real volcano crater I looked into. And it was big – filled with cold lava fields wherever I looked. The horse ride was worth it but it was so dusty that I looked kind of red after the trip and needed a shower desperately. The horses where very used and at times hard to direct. At top we walked a few more minutes into the Sierra Negra. All dry and few cactus. The landscapes so differs from each other here in the Galapagos. But it is beautiful to be here. In the evening I was invited to a lobster BBQ by my Argentinian friends. Was a very funny evening since they know how to party….
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