Quito and Galápagos, Ecuador 2004

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Quito & Galápagos, Ecuador : Trip Report

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Current weather in Quito, Ecuador:

Visiting the Galapagos (Archipelaga de Colon as it's known in Ecuador) has been my dream for a long time so when our friend Melanie talked us into going with her to dive the Galapagos it didn't take much arm twisting at all. Unfortunately my wife got pregnant as we were planning the trip so she wasn't able to join us.

Words can not adequately describe the experience. The wildlife and plants above water are amazing enough on their own but what is under water is even more awe-inspiring. I've been diving for a few years and been to some very good diving locations but nothing even remotely compares to this. Where else can you see Sea Lions, Marlin, Yellowfin Tuna, Dolphins, schooling Hammerheads, squadrons of Eagle Rays and Whale Sharks in one trip?

Quito New Town
Downtown Quito is separated into two parts, the Old Town and the New Town. New Town is where most of the shopping, hotels and restaurants. It also has some nice museums and most of the nightlife. This is also where my hotel was.
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Quito Old Town
The Old Town has most of the tourist attractions and is considered a historic landmark. Many of the buildings date back to Spanish colonial days. Fortunately the Old Town is only about a 20 minute walk from the New Town.
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The Equator
Being only 22km away and having seen what I wanted to see in Quito already I booked a tour of the Equator area. There I visited an extinct volcano, an Equator museum, the official Equator monument and some ruins.
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Sky Dancer Liveaboard
Finally the main reason for my trip "down under", a 10 day live-a-board on the Peter Hughes Sky Dancer. Any attempt to adequately describe this experience will fall far short of the actual experience. I'll do my best.
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Shore Excursion to Isla Lobos
Our first shore excursion ended up being the "plan B" due to "political unrest" at "plan A". It turned out to be a great place to see Sea Lions and Blue Footed Boobies. Our captain promised he'll try to get us to "plan A" near the end of the trip.
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Shore Excursion to San Cristobal
Another nice shore excursion to see more Sea Lions, Iguanas, Blue Footed Boobies and possibly other Boobies. It was interesting to see how the various islands were quite different from each other.
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Shore Excursion to Isla Floreana
This island is one that's actually inhabited but we visited a part that was not. Here the highlights were seeing some fairly large Hermit Crabs on land and native pink Flamingos.
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Shore Excursion to Bartolome
This was an interesting two-part shore excursion. First we snorkeled with Penguins then climbed to the top of a volcano.
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Shore Excursion to Isla Santa Cruz
The last and longest shore excursion because we ended up staying over night docked here. Here we visited the Charles Darwin Research Center and saw all the wildlife we weren't able to see in the wild, such as Giant Tortoises.
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Reference Library
For your convenience I put information about all the books and web sites we used to plan our travel in one place.
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Comments From People Like You! Quito & Galápagos, Ecuador 2004	add a comment
Gopi 16-Sep-2005 08:34
`Great website! I am visiting the Galapagos in 2006 and your trip report has been a valuable resource. Thanks for taking the time to do this!!`
Gordon McCague 19-Sep-2004 09:47
`Greg! This is one of the best personal web sites I've ever seen! The photos of your various excursions are excellent!`

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