Travel update #33 – Ecuador!

So, here we are again. On the plane, on my way back to Panama. From there I flew the opposite route to Ecuador about 2.5 weeks ago to meet Younes. Those 2.5 weeks flew by, as always when you’re having fun. And so I had to say goodbye to Younes yesterday. But under the motto “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” I’m more than happy to look back and write an update about what we’ve done. Because we certainly haven’t been sitting still!

We started our trip in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Or even better, at 2,850m the highest capital of South America. And we felt that altitude in the beginning. Climbing the stairs a bit too enthusiastically already resulted in panting, or are we just starting to get old? Who knows. I landed a few hours before Younes, so I still had some time to fill. What could I do now? I knew that already: the 2 biggest football clubs in the country (LDU Quito & SC Barcelona, ​​yes you read that right, I will tell you more about this club later) were playing against each other that evening. In a packed stadium with a great atmosphere, the home team won: 3-1!

Then on to the airport because after midnight my big friend would finally arrive, and when someone makes such a long journey you have to wait for him at the airport. Once arrived, the first of many jokes were made at high speed, and so it was quickly back to normal. Quickly to bed because I am certainly not a night person and Younes’ biological clock was already at 10:00 in the morning. Or was it?

Because for those who do not know Younes, perhaps a small introduction. The best way to describe him is as follows: he is the only friend with whom it does not matter where in the world I am, it always seems like we are in the same time zone. Even when I was in New Zealand. Maybe that says more about his sleep pattern than about him, but oh well. Of course, you can’t travel non-stop for 2.5 weeks with everyone you know, but this wasn’t our first trip together. We made our first trip about 8 years ago when we roadtripped to my family in Italy, then drove on to Younes’ family in Northern Spain and even all the way to Younes’ family in Morocco. It was a shame that I didn’t write any travel updates back then, because that would have been a nice one. To highlight Moroccan hospitality; the only sentence in Berber that I still know is: “I’ve eaten enough, I don’t need any more, thank you”. Since then we’ve been together to La Palma, Madeira, New York, Mexico, Washington DC, Bali & Lombok, so we’re used to traveling together. And now Ecuador can be added to that list!

So, Quito. We kicked off by doing a walking tour with our hostel. We soon noticed that Ecuador is not exactly a place for travelers and so we suddenly had a private walking tour. Together with our guide Daniël we explored Quito and learned & tasted all sorts of things, that was a good start. For example, we learned that Ecuador owes its name to the Equator, Ecuador literally means Equator in Spanish. And it happens to run through Quito, we obviously had to go there. We took a taxi and suddenly found ourselves on the Equator, nice! The latitude was 0, but our attitudes were definitely 100.

Daniël, our tour guide, had invited us to come and play football with his friends and so we took the metro to the football field in the evening. That had been a while. And that was also noticeable in my stamina, or was it the altitude? Great to have played football again and of course we both represented our city Utrecht by showing up in jerseys of the local FC.

The next stop was the Cotopaxi National Park, where the Cotopaxi volcano is located with a height of 5,900m. The hike to the Refuge (mountain hut) is at 4,800m and can be done in a day, because you start quite high (not due to drugs). We did this as a day trip and that was really cool. This is the highest we had ever been and it was therefore literally the highlight, hopefully we didn’t peak too early 😉. On the way back we came across a group of foxes, that was nice because you don’t see them every day.

And then it was time to immerse ourselves in the jungle like real Tarzans. We had a 4-day tour planned in the Amazon (not the one from Jeff Bezos). We took a night bus (my first this trip!) and arrived in the morning after a bit of a broken sleep. What days we had here, it was really cool. We raced through the jungle in a boat, watched the sunset every evening at a lake while we swam (yes, there were also crocodiles and snakes here), and had several walks through the jungle where we sometimes walked up to our knees in swamps. Our guide Jorge spotted all the animals with the ease as if he was wearing heat detection glasses and even let us walk with our eyes closed on an evening walk, we walked in a kind of polonaise (Dutch dance, really worth a Google search) hoping that we would not be attacked. In the end we saw crocodiles, snakes, spiders, pink river dolphins, a capybara and all kinds of monkeys & birds. I thought I saw a black sheep, but it turned out to be Younes. It was also great to not have internet for 4 days, that inspired me to use my phone less in the future (let’s see if I really can do it).

From the Amazon we took the bus to Baños, this was another long journey and slowly but surely we noticed that we had started this trip at a high pace. So it was not surprising that we slowed down a bit in Baños. Baños indeed, this means toilet in Spanish, but strangely enough you are not allowed to pee everywhere here. Unfortunately we found out the hard way #freeyounes (just kidding 😜). Baños is located in a beautiful mountainous area and it is therefore a bit cooler here. We rented mountain bikes and went cycling the route of the waterfalls. This sounds like the opposite of slowing down, but this route is downhill, which makes it relatively easy. Relatively indeed. If you reach the end point, you can then take a bus back. Although, Younes was crazy enough to cycle back. Just to give an example that we know each other quite well: we walked to the last waterfall and then Younes said: “I think I want to cycle back” and I immediately said “I already knew”, and he “Yes I already knew that you knew this”. I know that Younes sometimes looks for a physical challenge (to put it mildly), but I have learned from my mistakes in the past and took the bus back. On that first trip to Morocco, Younes had the brilliant idea to go running to a market, in the middle of the day, in the middle of summer in Morocco. When we were halfway there, I couldn’t take it anymore and I walked back to the village, and I had to ask a few goats for directions on the way. Anyway, as I said: it could have been a nice travel update. Maybe I’ll write it retroactively someday.

After Baños it was time for Guayaquil and we took another long bus (so the bus itself wasn’t particularly long, but the journey was). Guayaquil is a nice city if you want to spend less time on your phone, because there is a big chance that they will steal it for you. At least, that is how Guayaquil was explained to us. We had to go there to catch a plane to the Galapagos and if you have to go there anyway, you might as well catch a game! SC Barcelona was supposed to play on the day we arrived. As mentioned before, SC Barcelona has almost the same name as FC Barcelona from Spain, and also almost the same logo. The club was founded by a Spanish immigrant and he simply copy/pasted it. Furthermore, the clubs unfortunately have no connection with each other. So we did not watch Lamine Yamal & Frenkie de Jong, but it was still a nice game: 3-3! And as an FC Barcelona supporter, it was of course easy to choose which club I wanted a shirt of in Ecuador 😉

I already mentioned it, but we ended Ecuador with a figurative highlight: the Galapagos Islands! For many people, this destination is high on the bucket list and we were able to cross it off. The fact that the destination is popular was evident, because upon arrival you have to pay $200 per person in cash: national park fee. But as everyone will say: it is more than worth it. Because this is such a special destination. 40% of the plant and animal species that you find here, cannot be found anywhere else in the world. So almost 1 in 2 things that you see, can only be seen there!

We were able to visit 3 islands in total: Santa Cruz, Isabella & San Cristobal. You can also book a cruise, but then you have to sell a kidney first. The most special thing about the Galapagos is how accessible the nature/animals are. Sea lions are just lying on the street, then there is a flamingo in a puddle and then you see a pelican flying above your head. You don’t even have to try hard to see these kinds of animals. A popular attraction is a bird with light blue legs called Booby. So you can imagine what is written on many souvenirs: I love boobies.

The Galapagos Islands are also known because Charles Darwin developed his famous Theory of Evolution from here. A quick recap of biology lessons: he kept feeding a dog while he was rang a buzzer. Oh no, that was someone else. Charles Darwin noticed that the same kind of birds had developed different beaks depending on the islands they lived on. Each island had different types of trees and therefore required different types of beaks to get food. We visited his research center and of course checked his work again, it seemed to be correct and we could continue.

The underwater world of the Galapagos should also be very beautiful and so I had to explore it further. Younes is not really into snorkeling so he skipped this one. I was really looking forward to seeing a hammerhead shark, you don’t see them very often but there should be a chance here. But that was certainly not self-evident. First we saw a seahorse, the largest turtles in the world, various blacktip sharks, rays, sea lions but then the nail was almost literally hit on the head: a hammerhead shark! That was a really cool ending to the Galapagos.

And then it was over again, you can do a lot in 2.5 weeks, right? On this solo trip it was of course very nice for me to be able to travel with a friend. I do and see a lot of cool things and then the thought “if only my parents or friends could see this now” often comes to mind. And now I could just look to the side. But even at times when I didn’t experience cool moments I noticed how nice it was to have a friend with you. And especially a friend with whom you have the same humor. It was very familiar again for 2.5 weeks, and that was nice. Of course I have to continue on my own now, but I’m looking forward to that too. And who knows, this might not be the last friend to visit, everyone is welcome of course!

So I’m going back to Panama, but not for long. More about that in the next travel update. I hope you’re all doing well, for now a very warm hug and until the next time! 😊