Feb 2011   The wonderous Galapagos Island Adventure and surprising Guayaquil:                                 From Guayaquil,  we landed on the little rocky, barren Baltra island, where the main airport for the islands is located.   We started with a 5 minute bus ride across the desert like terrain to the ferry dock, where we boarded a ferry for the short trip across the narrow channel to another bus on the far side.  There we had  the bus ride across San Cruz island and into Puerto Ayora.  After lunch at a dockside cafe, everyone crowded into the less than 30 ft long shuttle boat for a really rough 2 hour ride across the wide channel to the largest island of  Isabela.   Puerto Villamil is about the only town on Isabela island.  It has a harbor, a scattering of small hotels, restaurants, and homes. That lst day after checking into the little hotel, we toured the flamingo lagoon and saw some of the birds.  Day 2 on Isabela  and everyone was up early , off to breakfast down the street and then onto a van for our 13 mile ride into the heart of the island and up to about the 1000 meter elevation on the shoulder of Sierra Negro.   It is the worlds 2nd largest volcanic caldera with a diameter of almost 6 miles, and was  recently active.  We hiked in a mostly rainy day up another 1000 feet in elevation and then along the crater rim for several miles out onto a recent and still steaming lava flow.  There we had a brief lunch and then the long hike back.   Upon returning, we got to snorkel in the Concha Perla  lagoon along the mangroves where I saw a nice variety of  tropical fish.   Day 3 on Isabela and we were off  to  have a tour of the big tortoise breeding center back in the interior and a visit to the "Wall of Tears" old penal site. Then in the afternoon we had a short boat ride out of the harbor to Islote Tintoreras.  There we saw lots of the Galapagos penguins, countless iguanas, blue footed boobies as well as many other sea birds.  The harbor area was crawling with many sea lions of all sizes and colors, many drawn up on boats anchored in the harbor.  I got to snorkel again and saw some of the sea lions up close along with some white tipped sharks resting on the bottom.  Then Day 4 and everyone was off again on the long rough boat ride across the strait back to Puerto Ayora and our hotel  there.  We then  took a ride up into the highlands on the big volcano in the center of the island to the giant tortoise ranch. During a walk into the woods and grass lands, we came upon many of the giant tortoises in their natural habitat , walking or feeding in the wild. Everyone had lunch there before going back to Puerto Ayora and a tour of the Charles Darwin Research Center.   We saw Lonesome George , the last of one species of  the 7 varieties or species originally on the Islands.  George died not long ago in 2012.   A last overnight and then we were up the next morning for the trip back to Baltra , the airport and  the flight into Guayaquil in Ecuador. We got to stop enroute on Santa Cruz and take a tour through some of the many big lava tube caves, as well as view a couple of the big collapsed former lava dome craters.

Spectacular red orange blooming tree on Isabela Island by hotel

Hotel where we had meals

Puerto Ayora  and the harbor  monument greeting visitors 

Harbor at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island 

Friendly brown pelican at  harbor edge in Puerto Ayora

Puerto Ayora harbor edge

Welcoming committee of seals in Puerto Villamil harbor on Isabela Island

just  a few of the closer flamingos in lagoon on Isabela island

Russian couple from Vladivostok , Sergey from Moscow, me and rest of party headed to Tintoreras Islands not far from Puerto Villamil

 a blue footed booby, one of many on little islets 

colorful  rock crab of which we saw hundreds 

one of the countless iguanas that were everywhere

a Seal family at waters edge up close

the famous Galapagos Penguins 

a penguin swimming close by to us

The map showing 13 mile van route to starting point for volcano hike

Sign for the 2nd largest volcano crater in world, nearly 6 miles across caldera

Sergey and the two Russian friends peering down into the vast, foggy immense crater. 

Me warming hands over a steam vent in lava flow

Sergey, Olga and Samval with the huge caldera of the volcano now  visible

Sign at the big tortoise breeding complex on Isabela Island 

some of the many  tortoise of all sizes in one of the many  the breeding areas

Olga posing, wearing one of the huge tortoise shells for a fun photo

sign of the former feared penal colony, the "Wall of Tears"

view of the "Wall of Tears"

Art watching a huge tortoise in the wild , high on Santa Cruz island

close up of one of the giant tortoise living in the wild on Santa Cruz

Sign at entrance to one of the many lava tube tunnels , this one we transited.

Sergey, Olga, Samval  and another about to enter  big lava tube tunnel

Art at exit of the big lava tube tunnel

Sign at the entrance to the National Park and Charles Darwin Research Center  at edge of Puerto Ayora

Sign for last 1 of one of  the original 7 giant tortoise species.  

Lonesome George, who just finally died at an estimated 75 yrs of age in  2012

Art in the middle of 3 feeding  giant tortoise in the Charles Darwin breeding center

Sergey getting "checked out" by one of the many giant tortoise up close

Sign describing the way the old lava domes collapse and leave these vast  sink craters

we circled one of the huge lava dome craters

Surprising Guayaquil,
We stayed at the Hilton near the airport and had a nice tour of the city and its handsome downtown with the   wonderful new  waterfront development.   The next day we had a very interesting and fun guided tour.  We had a  driver and car to take us lst into the greater city area and then on  a drive out  into the highlands an hour away for a half day in a cocoa  and mango plantation.  The original owner was German and had about 100 hectares of plantation and a huge, lovely , European style mansion home.  We were able to eat fresh mangos and drink some of the chilled nectar drink made from the juice inside the cocoa pods.  Both were absolutely wonderful !   I bought a delicious, huge one kilo in size bar of Ecuador's finest chocolate to take home.  Finally, after a 2nd night in Guayaquil, we flew to Lima for an overnight in a central hotel  and our final day in Peru.   We had a  half  day walking tour of the city center and market place of Lima, a sprawling city with nearly 8 million in the area.   Half the population of Peru now lives there.  Lima was not nearly as nice or pretty as Quito.   All in all it was an unforgettable 18 day adventure that came to an end as we headed to our homes scattered around the globe.

Guayaquil from a popular knoll viewing area

downtown building with unique area design 

gracious Guayaquil boulevard

largest cathedral in downtown

Cathedral interior

wonderful park and landscaping along waterfront and main boulevards

a central downtown park and some of the countless iguanas 

same park with some of the iguanas seeking handouts  

more  of river front or waters edge park 

our wonderful Peruvian guide enjoying the waterfront with us

The chocolate/mango plantation owners home

our gracious greeting snack and unique drink from the cocoa bean  interiors

our guide and Oscar, the plantation guide about to lead us out  into the fields

into the mango tree portion of the plantation

Oscar skillfully slicing a ripe, just picked mango with his big , very sharp machete

a  tree with the nearly ripe cocoa pods hanging down

a pile of the red cocoa pods that have been harvested and headed to processing

our guides slicing a cocoa pod to show beans and  the inside that our drink was made from

a cocoa bean drying area and one of each of the red and yellow  ripe cocoa pods

inside chocolate plant  and a roaster of the dried cocoa beans

returning to the hacienda after our couple hours out in the fields

We then retuned by car to our last night in Guayaquil 

January 2011 Quito and Amazon jungle .
  Photos will folow the trip narrative.   Having flown into the 10,000 foot high single runway airport in the heart of Quito, we were met and taken by  car to a modern Swiss hotel in downtown Quito.   The next day was really fun, with an English speaking guide, car and driver.  We toured the Historic Center of old Quito on foot, seeing the Government Presidential palace, Quito Cathedral, Gothic Basilica, landmark 17th century San Francisco Church, and the old main tourist areas. The interiors and ceilings of the cathedral and Basillica were amazing. Then we were taken up to the El Panicillo view point and monument overlooking the city.  The big Pichincha volcano was towering up 4783 meters high(15,000 ft ) over the city.  Further to the south and in the distance looms the spectacular, nearly 6000 meter volcano, Cotopaxi, Ecuador's highest. We then had an hours car ride out to the Equator and another wonderful guide with several fun experiments  for us to try right astride the equator.  I have pictures with one foot  of mine in each hemisphere.   The day concluded  with us being dropped off near the base station of Quitos long cable car lift, which we then took high onto the shoulder of Pichincha to 13,300 ft.  There we looked down to the entire city far below.  We hiked a ridge trail that overlooked the city with many great views.  Then it was back to our hotel and dinner after an extremely full and interesting day.
The next day we were up at 4:30 am for a 5 am pick up and ride to the airport.  We then took a plane ride up over the Andes and out to the upper Amazon jungle basin to the little oil rush boom town of Coca.    A taxi ride through the bustling streets to the river bank brought us to our boat and a fast ride down the big Napo river.  The  river was wide, fast, muddy, and it wound through unbroken jungle and flat terrain on both sides as far as the eye could see.  Only an occasional giant Cebo tree would stand far above the surrounding jungle. After about a 3 hour boat ride down the river , we pulled into a small side stream and  landing. There we were transferred into big canoe like craft that were then paddled up the brackish back water stream through the dense jungle for 2 hours to the lake and our  Napo Wilderness Lodge.  Enroute we stopped and went ashore to spot a big herd of the Javelinas or wild pigs, who stampeded away when we got close.  Overhead we saw spider monkeys in the trees in two places.
The next 4 days were unforgettable!   We had both day and night hikes in the jungle, a morning hike with a  half day stay up near the top of a giant Cebo tree on a platform nearly 200 feet above the jungle floor.  We bird watched and saw  Macaws, Toucans, and many other birds of the jungle. There were  both day and night guided canoe rides around the lake and its side channels, and we saw many caymans and water birds.   One highlight was a long hike back to the Napo River, a boat ride downstream, and then side hikes to view dozens of  big green parrots at a famous salt lick.  A second salt lick area was where small parrots and parakeets usually flocked each day.  The  thatched bungalows  and main open air dining room and bar looked like something out of a movie set.  It was hard to believe that I was actually on the edge of the lake in the remote Amazon jungle.   We then had another long canoe ride down the back water stream to the Napo river and the boat ride back up to Coca .  There the plane flew us back to an over night in Quito. The next morning we had another early morning flight over to Guayaquil and then far out into the Pacific to the Galapagos and the next leg of this unforgettable South American adventure.

Huge Gothic Basilica in old central Quito

Central Quito- Plaza to Independence  in Old city

Plaza in front of Gothic Basilica

Plaza to Independence with Government Palace to right and  historic Quito Cathedral in back

front facade of Government Presidential Palace

Historic Quito Cathedral with incredible interior 

group of school children anxiously awaiting entrance to Presidential  Palace

Famous San Francisco church

El Panicillo  and statue to Virgin of Quito and viewpoint at south  edge of city 

view of city of Quito from El Panicillo view point on south edge of   city

ART straddling the exact true Equator 

Fun Equador guide challenging us to balance egg  on exact Equator

ART balancing egg !

The old  French incorrectly located Equator and the  park and monument

Quito from top of cable car up Pichincha Volcano .  We hiked from  the lift top at 13,300 up to about  14,000 ft.

another view of Quito from our hike to 14,000 of the 15,000 ft volcano

Our VIP airlines turbo prop from Quito over the  Andes to Coca and the Amazon basin 

Boat landing at Coca & start of boat trip down Napo river , an Amazon main tributary

scene from river boat on big dirty Amazon river tributary 

arriving at rivers edge and jumping off point for long canoe ride up  jungle back water stream to Napo jungle lodge

Jungle guides paddling us up brackish stream into heart of Amazon jungle

arriving across lake to Napo wilderness jungle lodge

Map of cabins and main buildings in Napo Lodge complex

Art relaxing in one of the cabins

View from highest tower over lodge and cabins towards lake

another view from highest tower to lst canoe headed out for jungle exploration.

a medium sized Cayman  at the edge of the lake

Guide and travel companion Sergey in lead behind guide on hike to treetop bird watching tower

The 200 ft high metal stairs tower to viewing platform in top of giant Cebo tree 

our guide and two of our party in tree top above jungle

our 2 guides at base of   huge , 200 ft high Cebo tree.

our guide showing off a slender vine snake 

The salt lick where hundreds of small parrots usually gather

enjoying a  lunch break at the Napo edge camp after a hike from lodge and  parrot viewing. 

Sergey enjoying the short after lunch break 

Dinner at the Napo  lodge open air dining room

Sergey following guide at start of spooky  night hike into jungle  near end of trip