Banos, Ecuador - Day 112-120

It was time for Bella to refresh her Spanish speaking skills and for Kris to finally learn some Spanish. We have been traveling for almost 4 months, and heard Ecuador was a cheap and great place to take Spanish classes, so it was now or never.

After taking a much needed rest day, we packed up and headed 2 hours north to the beautiful small mountain town of Banos, which is known as Ecuador's adventure capitol. We decided to take Spanish classes for one week, and since lessons were only 4 hours of the day, we thought Banos would be an ideal place because of all the hiking, biking, and soaking in hot springs that can be done right from town after school was out.

One of the highlights of taking Spanish lessons was we finally stayed in one place for more than 2 or 3 days and the Spanish school rented out a nice apartment to us in the same building for dirt cheap. It was great to have a space bigger than the usual one-room hostels we've been staying in and we were finally able to cook our own food and not compete for kitchen space in a communal kitchen.

Once again the weather was terrible with mainly overcast skies and rain everyday....we're beginning to think the bad weather is following us. Due to the weather we were cooped up inside and didn't get to explore the surrounding outdoors as much as we wanted to. It was a good thing we had a nice apartment to hang out in and do our Spanish homework.

Maybe Colombia will have sunnier weather...?

The beautiful town of Banos.

The main plaza in Banos with a rare moment of sun.

Home sweet home, at least for a week. Bella is cooking in the cocina.

Because of the bad weather we spent a lot of time in here....good thing we had cable TV with some english channels!

Bella studying on the roof terrace. That may look like sunny skies but shortly after the wind picked up and the clouds took over causing us to go back inside.

This was one of the few hikes we went on. The trails were surprisingly lush and green.

This trail may not look steep but it probably should have a staircase through it.

 

Volcan Chimborazo, Ecuador - Day 109-110

Straight from sea level, we came to the city of Riobamba to climb Volcan Chimborazo, which is the highest peak in Ecuador. Due to the equatorial bulge, Chimborazo's summit is known as the farthest point from Earth's center. Since Chimborazo sits at 20,702 ft, we had to acclimatize for a few days before attempting to summit. Riobamba was a good place to acclimatize (since it sits above 9,000 ft) and find a guide, because as of November 2012, guides are now required to climb any mountain that has a glaciated peak. The weather was terrible again. February is known to have bad weather here, and Chimborazo was hit with a lot of heavy snowfall for a few days prior to our summit attempt which was unfortunate for us.


To begin the climb, we drove up to a mountain refuge that sits at 15,748 ft, ate dinner, and then hiked up to a higher refuge at 16,404 ft to take a 3-hr nap. After our nap, we strapped on our boots, headlamps, and harnesses and headed out at 11:20 pm with at least 20 other climbers going for a summit attempt. The climb started out with clear skies (meaning stars and moon). Except for the first hour, crampons and ropes were needed the entire time to climb the steep glacier. A couple hours in, the stars disappeared and the snow started falling...and with each hour, the snowfall became heavier and the wind got stronger. This fresh snow, in addition to the recent snowfall, made climbing extremely difficult. Climbing in knee-deep snow at these altitudes made us only think about going back down. The weather combined with the snow made all but 2 other climbers turn back.

Around 5:00 am, after 6 hours of climbing, we finally made it to the Veintimilla summit, which sits at 20,561 ft. It greeted us with a blizzard still in the pitch-black of night. At this point, even though the Whymper summit was only 187 ft higher, the guides told us they were not going to continue and we were all turning around. With Bella's eyes almost completely frozen shut and Kris' head about to explode, we didn't argue with them!

Our van broke down on the way up to the refuge...bad omen?

A rare glimpse of Chimborazo with some blue sky!

Our route up. It's actually a lot steeper than it looks!

Killing time in the refuge.

Roping up and putting the crampons on. The climb has to be done in the dark due to dangerous rock fall and avalanches when the sun warms up the glaciers.

This is what it actually looked like at the summit! Due to the extreme cold and sideways blowing ice, we spent a total of 3 minutes up there!

Bella looks miserable on the way down, but at least we made it to the summit and we're alive!

Frozen eyelashes, and that's not a scarf, that's frozen hair. Our headlamps were so frozen we couldn't turn them off!

9 hours later, finally back!

 

The Galápagos Islands - Day 99-105

To get the most out of visiting the Galapagos Islands, and without spending all our money, we chose a 5-day cruise on an "economy" budget yacht, (which meant it was the smallest boat option), called the Nuevo Flamingo. We liked that it was small, because that meant there were only 8 other passengers plus the 5 crew members and our guide. The small size made it a very personal experience, which was great! The "economy" yacht was also nice because all the passengers were our age since we typically can't afford the luxury boats! Besides, what was important to us was the outdoor activities off the boat, not the luxuries found on the larger and fancier boats.

Although it is possible to explore the Galápagos Islands on your own doing day-trips to different islands, we decided to go with a cruise since it allows you to explore islands that are not possible to visit on your own, and plus, we had never slept on a boat like this and wanted to give it a try. The cruise also allows more time to hike and snorkel since less time is spent going back and forth between the day-trips and a hotel.

The day we started the cruise, the worst weather of our entire trip began. For 5 days, a constant thick cloud cover and mist/rain fell on the Galápagos. The weather was extremely unusual for this time of year. No sunshine made snorkeling twice a day very cold, but good thing all the wildlife is under the water and the rain doesn't affect them! Regardless of the bad weather, the wildlife more than made up for it.

Our tiny cabin was so narrow that when Kris stood up his shoulders touched the bed and the wall, but we had our own bathroom!

Our dining area; where we spent most of our time since it was too wet to hang out on the deck.

Our boat is on the left. The other yachts make ours look like a toy boat!

Day 1: Santa Cruz Island

 

Sea turtle tracks. It was breeding season for the turtles and their nests were everywhere.

Sea turtle tracks. It was breeding season for the turtles and their nests were everywhere.

Sally Light Foot crabs cover the rocks next to the ocean. Their beautiful colors especially stand out against the black volcanic rock.

Black marine iguanas are the most common animal to be seen in the Galápagos. This iguana is heading out to sea to feed on the green algae that grows on the rocks under water.

Day 2: San Salvador Island and Bartolome Island

 

We explored this newly formed lava bridge that is less than 150 years old. The hardened lava now connects two islands.

We explored this newly formed lava bridge that is less than 150 years old. The hardened lava now connects two islands.

The lava is not very stable. We are sitting in a hole that hunters broke through years ago trying to eradicate the invasive goat species.

Kris searching under the rocks for sea creatures.

School of Yellow Tail Surgeons

Islands sprouting up everywhere. The Galápagos Islands are one of the most tectonically active areas on earth.

Day 3: San Salvador Island

 

A Blue-Footed Booby and a Pelican watch us as we get very close to them in the motor boat.

A Blue-Footed Booby and a Pelican watch us as we get very close to them in the motor boat.

Being cold-blooded must be really hard when the sun doesn't come out for days.

All the animals tolerates each other (and the humans) really well.

The sea lions were not bothered at all by us. Bella decided a bathing suit with her new raincoat was the best outfit choice to avoid everything getting wet.

Relaxing. The sea lions are such effective hunters, that most of their time can be spent napping or playing.

Huge star fish!

Sea turtle! It didn't mind that Kris was taking pictures of it as it was feeding on the algae.

Day 4: Rabida Island and Sombrero Chino Island

 

This baby was 3 days old! It was very curious of us. Sooo Cute!!!

This baby was 3 days old! It was very curious of us. Sooo Cute!!!

Black Tipped shark swam right underneath us. It was at least 6 ft long!

Getting a closer look at the fish. They don't swim away from you; it's pretty amazing.

Sea lions like to play with people under water. They swim so close to you and turn away at the last second. They like playing with the bubbles that you can blow under water.

Galápagos penguins are some of the smallest penguins on earth. They are able to live on the Equator because of cold water currents that are found here most of the year.

It was so cool watching the sea lion and penguins hunt together! This sea lion just caught a fish in his mouth and ate it right in front of us!

Day 5: Santa Cruz Island

 

Just like the finches, each island has a different type of giant tortoise. Unfortunately, tourists sat oh their shells and pretended to ride on them, so now we can only see them in a zoo-type setting. They eat sooo slow. Hundreds of thousands of tortoises were killed by the first inhabitants and visitors of the islands for their tasty meat and for their fat to light lamps. Now, they are making a slow comeback.

Just like the finches, each island has a different type of giant tortoise. Unfortunately, tourists sat oh their shells and pretended to ride on them, so now we can only see them in a zoo-type setting. They eat sooo slow. Hundreds of thousands of tortoises were killed by the first inhabitants and visitors of the islands for their tasty meat and for their fat to light lamps. Now, they are making a slow comeback.

This is the only type of cactus in the world that grows like a tree. There are forests of cactus trees on the islands.

After 5 days, the sun finally came out right after the cruise was over. It made the iguanas and us really happy!

Iguana taking a swim.

Day 6: San Cristobal Island

 

After the cruise, we spent 2 more nights on San Cristobal island. All the islands have different landscapes. This one has more green vegetation than others that we visited since it is one of the oldest.

After the cruise, we spent 2 more nights on San Cristobal island. All the islands have different landscapes. This one has more green vegetation than others that we visited since it is one of the oldest.

Beautiful King Angel fish

 

Cuenca, Ecuador - Day 97-98

After booking our Galápagos cruise and making the final cash payment, we had to wait a few days before our flight to the Islands, so we decided to visit the nearby city of Cuenca. Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city in the southern mountains of Ecuador and is home to countless churches and Museums. Normally visiting museums and churches is not our thing, but due to some bad weather we decided to skip the hiking and visit a few of them this time. Since we just gave a huge chunk our cash to the cruise company, we opted to only visited the free places. It turns out the city had plenty of them and one even show cased the native cultures that practiced shrunken heads.....sorry no pictures allowed in the museum.

These ruins were in the middle of the city

This parade in town was the beginning of the Carnaval celebrations. Local tradition for Carnaval is to spray everyone down with water or flour, or even eggs....no one is spared with tradition but we lucked out this time.