Galapagos...Snorkeling...

...all snorkeling pictures were taken by P or myself on water-proof disposable cameras during our stay in Gal...

...P and I holding hands as we see see amazing marine life... pix by Eric...
...MARINE IGUANA swims by at BARTLOME ISLAND...pix by Dipak...

...BLACK MARINE TURTLE...at SANTA FE ISLAND...pix by Pritti...
...SEA LIONS swimming with Dipak at FLOREANA ISLAND...pix by PRITTI...
...thousands of ANGLE FISH at GENOVESA ISLAND...pix by Dipak...
...EAGLE RAYS at SANTA FE...pix by PRITTI...
...fully grown 6 footer WHITE TIP SHARK at DEVILS CROWN...pix by Pritti...

Galapagos...10th Feb ...last day!

...10th Feb -last day on EDEN...up 5.30am -EDEN anchored near SANTA CRUZ-early morning dingy ride to BLACK TURTLE COVE...

...early morning ride in to mangrove forest to watch wildlife...

...we spot many baby BLACK TIP SHARKS...
...many marine turtles and some even mating...
...SPOTTED EAGLE RAY...

...back on EDEN BY 7.30am -after breakfast we are taken to BALTRA ISLAND to catch a 1pm flight to QUITO...
...we meet Raphael,Chaco,Eric,Jeanine,Emily and Felix at the airport as they were flying to CUENCA on another flight-and it was nice to see them again-I picked up Felix and sat him on my knee and said to him .hey Felix did you miss me?-he just blanked me and said -NO!-thats kids for you...
...we said goodbye to them and all other friends we made in 8 days of amazing travels in GALAPAGOS ISLANDS...

...WE ALL HAD TIMES OF OUR LIVES- AND -IT INSPIRED US ALL TO THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT THE WORLD THAT WE LIVE IN...

...one also have to admire and congratulate the people of ECUADOR and GALAPAGOS in the way they are taking care of this so unique GALAPAGOS ISLANDS and preserving them for the future generations...

Plan Ahead...

...we arrived in Quito-capital of Ecuador-from Cuenca(10 hours local bus-was good fun) on Friday 1st Feb 08...
...today is 2nd Feb and time is 8;45pm at our Hostel...in Quito...
...tomorrow 3rd Feb we are flying to Galapagos Islands(1400km from Quito-2 hour flight over Pacific)-this is every travelers dream-this place is also every kid all over the world learns about in schools-a place where Darwin´s theory of survival of fittest was born with it came the theory of evolution-we are spending 8 days there-8 days we are on a yacht cruising around islands with 6 others and staying on-board- -hoping to do some diving and snorkeling too...we are back to Quito on 11th Feb -trekking for 3 to 4 days looking at smoking volcanoes- then we are gonna cross the border from Ecuador in to COLOMBIA by bus -the land passage from Colombia to Panama is not safe -so we are hoping to find a boat that will take us from Colombia in to Panama-5 days of sailing- if we fail to find a boat then we will fly from Bogota-capital of Colombia -to Panama City -capital of Panama
...Colombia and Panama should be done in 3 weeks then enter Costa Ricca by 1st March...
...we have to be in Mexico City on 17th April to catch a flight to Hawaii via Dallas... BUT we want to reach Mexico City from Ecuador without having to take a flight-it´s a tough call but I think we can do it...so tighten your seat-belt folks and here we go again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cuenca City...Ecuador...

...Ecuador was the original BANANA REPUBLIC-as they export the most bananas and had the most Presidents in 20 years than any other nation...it´s a pleasent enough country and has the most wild-life than many countries put together...

...we were here at the right time to enjoy one of the many Carnivals that are held in Ecuador...this horse carriage with Miss Cuenca 2008...
...enjoyable 3 hours we spent here...but you do get rather tired of all the Spanish Colonial buildings and it´s the same all over this continent...

Adios Perruuuu & Hola ! Eccuuuddaaooorrrrrrr!!!!

...In Peru we had some amazing times-after The Amazon visit we flew back to Lima and spent 3 days there just chilling out-then we flew to Piura-border town(Peru side) between Peru and Ecuador-then 16 hours bus from Piura to Ceunca in Ecuador-border crossed at 1am -border crossing was -well- it´s the night we will never forget-the bus stopped at the border and it was raining really heavy,a wild river flowing only few feet away at the gate and as we came off the bus to go to the immigration hut to stamp our passports we started walking on what we thought was road carpeted with thousands of seeds from trees-but as we walked on -the floor started moving -only then we realised that we were walking on thousands upon thousands of cockroach like insects-you can´t imagine the stomach churning feeling at that time-we just closed our eyes and shut our ears from all the crunching noises and walked to the hut-and here we found ourselves standing outside the hut below a bright tube-light which had attracted even bigger insects big as your palm and inside sat the most slowest of all immigration officer we have ever seen in our life and all this while we are surrounded by millions of bugs-I sent P and V back inside the coach as they were really feeling sick with all them bugs around-I was standing behind one guy whose back was covered with all kinds of creepy crawlers and then I thought my back must be the same but I didñ´t want to think about it-it took 20 minutes to stamp 5 passports and it was the longest 20 minutes of my life - I was out of my comfort zone every second of that 20 minutes- to make matters worse some bugs had got in to our coach too-but by that time we really couldn´t careless-we just wanted to get in to the darkness of Ecuador and away from them bugs...I think we arrived Ceunca in the afternoon-spent 2 nights here...

Lima...Peru

...Lima -Capital City by the Pacific Ocean-lots of Spanish Colonial buildings and rather a dull city in many ways-we stayed in Miraflores just 20 minutes from the center-upmarket area and safe too-had a huge shopping and entertainment complex built in to a cliff called Larco Mar-very unusual-watched couple of new films there too-has a great food hall -this pix at sunset over Pacific from Larco Mar...
...main square in Lima-The Presidential Palace-we think King Of Jordan was visiting today...lots of visible police presence all over South America specially near tourist sites and that really makes you feel safe travelling this continent...

Amazon Jungle....

...Southern Amazon Jungles of Peru...

...from Cusco we flew in to remote part of Peru bordering with Bolivia and Brazil -The Amazon Jungle -a place called Puerto Maldonado-30km of boat ride from here we arrived at our Jungle Lodge called Eco-Amazonia right on the river...and here we would be out of our comfort zone daily...

...hammock to sleep in- right on the river...the Jungle noise was just mind-blowing 24 hours a day-we would go trekking in to jungle or safari on the river daily with our guide-we spent 5 days here- and daily you are out of your comfort zone once you walked out of your well protected room...the noise of howler monkies was something special...

...Scarlet Macau -amazing colours- but has the most ugliest bird call of all the birds of Amazonia-Lover Birds has the most haunting bird call in Amazon...by the way- Scarlet Macau will only have one partner all their life-they are the most faithful and devoted creatures on our planet - if one half of the couple dies then the other would remain single all their remaining years...ain´t that sweet!..

...another snake spotted yet again by Pritti-that's total of 3 that she has spotted in the wild on our travel-I have a feeling she belonged to the Slytherine House when at school...this one green tree snake... Roberto said it ain´t deadly -I told him he was lying ...

...Tapir-makes good hunting for big cats in the Amazon- it looks dopey but boy it can out-run any big cat in the jungle-we never saw any big cats but we did see foot-prints of a Jaguar on one of our jungle trek and Roberto said the foot-print was about 5 to 6 hours old-so we knew there was a Jaguar out there not far from us...wild-life is very difficult to spot in the Amazon due to high density of trees and foilage - you can hear them all-just awesome noise 24 hours a day- it's just that you can't see them - THEY are watching you that´s for sure...

...our guide Roberto poking with a long stick of grass at a TARANTULA hole... is he mad or wot?

...and here it comes- MY NIGHTMARE-the further IT came from the hole the further I went away from the hole-this was a baby,imagine seeing a REAL big one and then putting it on your shoulder...well someone did!..

...look at the sweat on that face-and yes that´s the real BIG one Roberto found while we were trekking on another day...HE said Tarantula bites are not DEADLY-the sting is bad enough to give you a real swelling but won´t kill you...but I am not so sure-I´ll happily jump out of perfectley good aeroplanes and run off the mountains holding just a kite in my hand but I will NEVER put THAT THING on any part of my body-thank you very much...this little 7 year old is THE real INDIANA JONES...pretty much nothing scares her...and she enjoyes it too-we think she is MAD!...

...right across the river from our lodge was an isalnd full of monkeis of all kinds - they won´t afraid of any human presence either - they would get very close to you...these are Black Spider Monkies with massive strong tail they use as a fifth limb...real acrobats - they put on a great show for us...

...another kind of monkey...

...this one was real live-wire...