A Year In Motion

There’s no doubt about it, we saved money by booking our Galápagos Cruise last minute, yet despite that, it still remained an expensive venture – it better be good! We flew out from Quito airport (without anything getting robbed this time) with TAME and landed in Baltra airport in the Galápagos. We were joking together when we landed that we better not run over an iguana on the runway, and then as we were taxiing to the airport building, there was a huge iguana sunning himself on the runway! Good start!

We were picked up at the airport by some of our boat crew who were collecting everyone. We could see some people with their badges and bagtags for our boat, and we were busy casing everyone out and making first impressions. We were definitely on the younger end of the age profile, so we were reserving judgement on how it would work out on our 5 day, 4 night Galapagos cruise. We were transferred from the airport to the pier to get our boat. On the jetty, there was a sealion sunning himself, and he was way too busy relaxing to be bothered by all the people around. Within a few minutes of arriving, we had one of the classic Galapagos photos centimetres away from a sealion. Great start!

Once on the boat, we settled in, and then had a briefing from our guide Peter. It was his first tour of the year, and I hope his safety briefing becomes more brief during the year – a few people fell asleep! Then he got on to the good stuff, our first landing and what we were going to see. The routine on the ship generally proceeds as follows. Each evening before dinner, there is a briefing for the next day – landing sites, background, environment, wildlife, etc. It was very professionally done. Our first landing was on Bachas Beach which is on a small island just off Baltra Island. We took a walk and spotted hundreds of the brightly coloured Sally Lightfoot crabs. We had to be careful where we stepped on the beach as all the sand at the back of the beach were covered in turtle nesting sites. We could even see the flipper marks where they had crawled up to lay their eggs. Further on, we saw some nice seabirds, and our first sight of marine iguanas. They were ugly! They´re black, scaly and they have a habit of purging salty seawater through their nostrils anytime you get too close, which makes you jump the first time. Mostly they just lie around, but one of them went for a swim for us, using its long tail to propel itself through the water. We ended up with a bit of snorkelling, but because it was a cloudy day, and because the water was very choppy, we couldn’t see the mask on our faces.

Day 1 ended with dinner on board the boat and making second impressions of our group. On a tour like this, there are two highly important enjoyment factors – you’re stuck on a boat for three days – are the people okay, because they can’t be changed, and what’s the food like, because I don’t want to starve. We were lucky, or maybe we just got what we paid for. As Ninfa said on our last night, we don’t normally like so many people, but this time we had liked everyone on the boat. And that was true. Through the course of our trip, we got to realise that they were all nice people, all well-travelled, and there wasn’t one person you couldn’t sit down and have a chat with. Mind you, we did end up spending most of our leisure time with two people in particular – Mary from Minnesota, and Myron from Utah. They were both around 60, but by far the youngest people on the boat, and we spent most evenings slipping rum from our flasks into our glasses under the dinner table and enjoying a good laugh.

Day 2 started early with a 7am transfer to Bartolome Island off which we had docked during the night. More sealions greeted us at the jetty with one male swimming around barking his head off protecting his territory. We didn’t intrude on his territory and instead started hiking along the wooden pathway to the pointy peak of Bartolome. On the way, we spotted loads of little lava lizards scurrying around the sandy red soil, before stopping to pick up some of the lava rocks on the side of the path, some of which were dense and heavy, and others which were light as a feather, betraying their size. On the top, we enjoyed some great views stretching out to the point of Bartolome Island, and across the black Santiago Island where lava had years ago engulfed two smaller independent islands, and way off into the distance past more islands where we saw the day-tripper boats coming into view. It was only 9am but it was getting hot and we could see the heatwaves reflecting off the ground, so we descended and made a quick trip back to the boat to get our snorkels. The beach on Bartolome was of soft golden sand and a family of sealions were playing on one side, so we snorkelled over and played with them which was great. We spent over an hour in the water spotting loads of different types of starfish (the chocolate chip one made me hungry), a penguin sunning himself on a rock, loads of sea cucumbers, numerous colourful fish and right in the middle of the bay, huge fish eating seaweed and then vomiting it out, where other smaller fish would rush in and eat it – curious behaviour but fascinating to watch.

In the afternoon, we took a small trek on the black ropey lava of Santiago island. Ninfa and I had already seen plenty of lava in Hawai’i so we were pleased when we went back to the boat to get the snorkels again. There wasn’t a whole lot of fishlife around the shore of Santiago as the lava rock does not support a lot of marine vegetation for the fish, but as we were nearing the end of our time, we spotted something neither of us had seen before – a shark! It was about 6 feet long and swimming a long way below us, but we followed it for a few minutes and got a great look. It was a white-tipped reef shark which is not interested in humans. By this time, we had spent too long in the water, and the zodiac (dinghy) from the boat had come to pick us up. We told the driver about the shark, and he told us that the sharks with a white tip on its dorsal fin are harmless, but get out of the water if we saw one without a white tip. Back on the boat, we were drying off when we saw a big stingray swimming past the boat. I was still wet so I jumped back in to get a look, but by the time I swam around it was gone. My eyes were still adjusting to the light underwater when I saw a big fish swimming around way below me. I strained my eyes to see what it was – a big shark about 8 feet long. It was circling around and rising in the water, and then I realised it didn’t have a white tip on its fin. Cue panic! I started swimming as fast as I could to the boat and jumped on board in a flash. Ninfa had been watching from the boat when a lady on board said “he saw something he doesn’t like”, and then watched as the shark rose and cut its dorsal fin through the surface of the water and off out to sea in a perfect Jaws Junior audition.

That was all the fun for day two and overnight we sailed a very rocky journey, during which I fell in the bathroom and broke the toilet seat, to Isabella, the largest island in the Galapagos. Another early start as went off hiking into the highlands and to the Sierra Negra caldera, the second largest caldera in the world after Ngorongoro in Africa. It was a misty morning but the clouds broke for a great view over the caldera. On the way down we stopped at a lagoon to watch a few flamingos feeding before strolling around the village a while. On the beach there was a huge iguana sunning itself, and as we got closer, we saw that the black rocks were literally crawling with iguanas. Around the jetty, there were sealions everywhere. They were hilarious – lying on the paths, and even lying sunning themselves on tables on boats in the harbour.

In the zodiac on the way back to the boat, there were turtles everywhere and we were dying to go snorkelling. We didn’t waste anytime and were dropped off along a rocky shore. We played with a sealion for a bit at the start who was jumping out of the water and playing for the camera. Ninfa spotted a few stingrays hiding in the sand, and then a little further on, another sealion came to join us. There were four of us, Ninfa, me, Myron and Rudy, and the sealion was very playful. After a while we were petting it, but it kept swimming away when we did. After a while the sealion became more comfortable, and very soon became very fond of me in particular. She (it was a girl) was rubbing against me as I was swimming and kept swimming up and looking into my face. Then she started trying to pull my mask off with her flippers. We were all laughing and amazed to be honest, and we were all buzzing after such an interactive experience with a wild sea mammal. And then, just to top it off, we spotted a huge eagle ray, big, flat and round with a body wider than the span of my arms – truly huge. We were all on a high when we got back to the boat, and our last snorkel of the trip had turned out to be the best, and no sharks!

That evening we did head off to the banks of Shark Alley to spot some sharks resting but to our disappointment, there were none. But what an amount of marine iguanas – thousands! And in such a small space. They were swimming, purging, and even fighting, ramming their heads against each other in territorial fights. And on the beach there were loads of sealions and even a baby that was playing with a leaf in the water, and then trying to bite all the marine iguana’s tails- gorgeous!

The next day was our last full day in the Galapagos, and after another rocky night, we docked off the shore of Santa Cruz, home of the Galapagos’ largest resident, the giant tortoises! We took a bus up to the highlands of Santa Cruz where we took a short nature walk around the Twins, two volcanic craters on either side of the road, but the craters were here first. We saw some nice birds including some of the famous Darwin finches which are highly adapted to their respective ways of life, as well as some pretty lava gulls. After our walk, we descended again and took a side road towards the tortoise centre. The tortoise centre is a protected space where the tortoises roam wild, and there was a big one lying on the side of the road as we drove down. Galapagos tortoises actually redefine the word big, because compared to the rest of their species, they are huge! We were able to walk around them as they lay around in the shade, or in the dirty water of the ponds, although one in particular was feeling a lot friskier than the rest and raced (for a tortoise) across to get friendly with one of the females – no shame!

That afternoon we took a zodiac to the Darwin Research Station which is home to a lot of protected endemic animals of the Galapagos. As we sailed in, we finally saw one of the elusive blue-footed boobies – a sea-bird with big blue webbed feet, a little in the style of a circus entertainer. As we unboarded, a group of lazy marine iguanas greeted us with some habitual purging. The research station is home to a breeding station for giant tortoises who would otherwise be vulnerable to the introduced species of predators during their infancy. In addition, we saw a few golden land iguanas, lying around like leftovers from the dinosaur age. And speaking of extinct creatures, myself, Ninfa and Rudy were patient enough to wait and see Lonesome George emerge from his shady hiding place in his abundant pen. Lonesome George is the last surviving member of a Galapagos Tortoise sub-species. When he dies, it’s over, and lamentably this situation has largely been brought about by the murderous habits of hungry seamen in the past. The station is attempting to mate Lonesome George with two females of a closely-related sub-species, but so far without success, and whatever happens, this will be a hybrid species. It was a strange and poignant sensation seeing the last surviving member of a species, and really brought home the fact that a lot of our rich biodiversity is at risk, and sad to think that things can get to such a sorry state.

Our last night on board was enjoyed with lots of bootlegged rum from Myron and Mary, and we bid them farewell as they decided to stay on in the laid back town of Santa Cruz for a few days more, and we all gave them a good send off. Everybody was very pleased with how the trip had gone and the atmosphere on board. Our last endeavour then was a dawn rising the following morning to admire Kicker Rock, a rocky outcrop off the shore of San Cristobal island and home to many boobies, frigates and other sea-birds. As we sailed around the rock shone in the morning light as the waves pounded against its feet, and Galapagos sharks circled around below the boat – did I recognise one of those? And then it was off to San Cristobal where we landed and spent an hour or so hanging out with the sealions on the shorefront.

And that was that. The Galapagos were definitely worth the trip and the money. You will never experience the same interaction with animals anywhere in the world, ever! Their evolution in a remote island archipelago far from the threat of natural predators leave them fearless, and in the case of the tortoises innocent of the dangers of humans. It’s like a Garden of Eden of wildlife, a survivor from before the Ice Age, and the living source of one of the greatest theories in the history of humanity, there for everyone to see with their own eyes. And there’s so much more to see that we didn’t see – whales, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, multicoloured iguanas, inflatable-throated frigate birds … all part of an amazing, amazing place. Loads of photos are here.

Travel Tips

TAME and Aerogal seem to operate a monopoly of two on the routes from mainland Ecuador to the Galápagos. Try as we did, we couldn´t get cheaper. Students under 26 however will get around $40 off each way. Non-student return is about $400.

We booked our tour in Quito with the Zenith travel agency. We recommend them. While other agencies were trying to cream some extra profit from us, Zenith immediately gave us the best price, and the price that we ended up taking. Only one couple on the tour paid less than us – $20 per person less, so practically nothing. All agencies are based around Avenida Amazonas in downtown Quito.

We travelled on the Galapagos Odyssey which is a good boat with good guide, good food, etc. We would probably recommend it, except for the fact that we forgot 4 t-shirts and a pair of shorts in our cabin wardrobe. Mysteriously, these items were never found, and we have no doubt of dishonesty on the part of some crew members, especially as the owners told us the ship went for repairs straight after we left – the guide was at the airport picking up new passengers for the boat when we were leaving! Small loss, but dishonest nonetheless. Ecuador was not good for our possessions.

Desperate to get out of Cuba and so anxious to set foot in South America, we prayed as the pilot announced that Havana airport was closed due to fog. Our prayers were answered and soon enough we were flying over Quito. Wow! What a first great impression of Quito from above! A city very high up in the clouds surrounded by beautiful high peaked, bright green snow-capped volcanoes and mountains. We were also impressed by the modern and efficient Quito airport, for a short time that is. I am a Latin-American and proud of it, but I am conscious that Latin America has the worst security in the world. The stereotype is that the Middle East is the most insecure, but we have been there and proved it’s not true, it’s the safest place we’ve been. That false cliche is mainly powered by propaganda fueled by the USA and UK. Out of the two of us, I am the untrusting one, the cynic, the one that always thinks that if local people approach us during our travels it’s because they have some commercial or economic intention in mind. Tony is the opposite, he is outright friendly and very trusting. Sad but true, I have been right most of the time. While we were in Honduras, Tony was warned plenty by my family and friends about the dangers of Latin America. I kept reminding him of it, to the point that we had a fight about it. He refused to believe in the bad in people. And Cuba proved me totally wrong, as it’s probably the safest place in the Western Hemisphere, due to their dependence on tourism. After 10 months of travel we had finally landed in South America, a region we were so anxious to discover, a great finale we thought. Just after a few minutes of stepping on South American soil in Quito, the inevitable happened: we were robbed of all our valuables!

After 10 months of a great run, through the Middle East, Africa, Asia, North America, the Caribbean, the first and only black cloud covered us. We were not physically hurt, we did not lose our passports, and all the material things will be replaced, but our morale was very low for a good time. Apparently it’s a gang that operates in the Quito Airport, and the robbery to tourists is very frequent, so I’ll share our experience to prevent others from being caught out. We had just exited Baggage Reclaim and we went into the the Official Tourism Office to get maps and info. Before exiting into the street I went to the bathroom while Tony kept our 4 bags. A man dressed in a suit approached him in a friendly way to show him a map and offer tourist services. After a short chat with him, Tony declined and the non-persistent man left. As we would see later in the CCTV cameras, 10 seconds later Tony realized one of our bags was gone. He debated between leaving the remaining three bags and chasing him or securing the rest of our bags, until he went after them with all the bags. He tried to get help from a policeman who just ignored him and walked away, and when finally the numerous airport security staff showed up it was too late. The most important things we lost were a laptop, 2 ipods, new pro camera, cellphone, and some of our bank cards and ID’s. It was not a violent crime so we were fortunate in that.

We then went to the Police Station in front of the airport to file a report, but they told us we had to go to the Judicial Police as the amount of our items was too high. We wanted to see with our own eyes the succession of events so we went to Airport Security. They are the most bureaucratic and unhelpful bunch. It was really hard to get through to their boss and when we finally did, they requested a police order to see the video. The police were more efficient, they gave us the order and asked us to bring back a printout of the faces of the criminals as they told us it would be very helpful as it happens daily to tourists. Even with the police order, we had to beg and then threaten to get the video, and even then they refused to give us a printout of the faces involved, which were clearly visible. From the conversation of the staff during the video, I got the impression that they recognized the characters, and even gave me the bad feeling they were protecting them. It got to the point that the boss even asked us to go buy a CD if we wanted the copy. In the video we saw how we were targeted by three men dressed in suits once we exited Baggage, how the thieves went in the Tourism Office pretending to look at brochures, and how they were close to us the whole time we were inside the airport and neither us nor the abundant security staff noticed anything. Not only did we need a Police Report for our claim but we wanted justice. We knew it would be nearly impossible to recover our stuff, but at least we could help future tourists. Well, the Security Office of the airport proved to want the opposite.

Airport Security included, we spent two days going from one Police Office to the other as they could not make up their minds which could help us, were too busy having a three hour lunch or were taking too long attending the 100 people queue. We went to the Airport Police who sent us to the Judicial Police, who sent us to the Prosecutor’s Office, who was too uninterested in helping us. So by our own initiative we found the Tourist Police (whom all the others ignored their existence), who finally filed our report in a couple of minutes, and where we saw the many claims of robberies from tourists. We were also busy filing our Insurance Claim, which was a lot of work, in particular given the number of clauses which protect them from giving us anywhere near the value of what we lost, despite the fact that we pay for the most expensive Global Insurance available in Ireland. Go figure! We also spent much time visiting all the malls and camera shops to find a new good pro camera, but it was unsuccessful as Ecuador is a bit behind in technology. We even had the courage to look for our stuff at the black market, Montufar, where stolen electronic items are on sale. We were unsuccessful as tourists don’t go there often and every time Tony asked something, they replied “Were you robbed?”, their guard was on all the time.

Another day and a half was spent on finding a last minute special First Class Tour to the Galapagos. This was not wasted time as we succeeded in getting on the cruise we wanted months ago for a third of the price most of the other passengers paid. Avenida Amazonas is full of travel operators who all sell the same cruises, so it pays to shop around. You have to know how to play the game though. First thing we did was saying we were interested in a cruise for 4 people, that would let us know if there was only one cabin left or more than one. If there is more than one, you can haggle with all the agencies, act uninterested, and wait for the next day to come back and negotiate even further with the lowest bidder. We even found out who owned the boat and negotiated with them. In the end they gave us the lowest price, but we went with an agency who had been really decent as they agreed to cut the credit card charge to equal the direct offer, as in Ecuador they charge up to 10% in Credit Card commission.

All these events left us very little time to sightsee in Quito, but we managed fine. After the shock, we did end up enjoying Quito as it is a beautiful interesting place with lots of character and ambience. We stayed in Mariscal Area, where all the bars, restaurants, commerce and agencies are located, but the sightseeing is in the Old Colonial town. We drove up to El Panecillo, a hill with a gigantic statue of the Virgin overlooking all Quito, which is quite big. Then we headed down to the Colonial Area which is really beautiful and well preserved. Calle la Ronda has been restored to its old glory, with beautiful balconies; and characters acting out legends from the past. There are many old Colonial churches to visit, but the most beautiful and worth the fee is the one belonging to the Jesuits, la Compañia de Jesus; the inside is all beautifully adorned in gold leaf. The main plaza contains the Cathedral, City Hall, and the Presidential Palace. Socialist President Correa has opened the Palace to all, so daily free tours are held daily in which you can see most of the inside of it. Not many presidents do this, so we took advantage of the offer, and even got a photo of us taken in the Palace, courtesy of President Correa. The sun came out during the day, but at night it was quite chilly. It was easy to see how we were walking in the clouds at night.

The food in Quito was excellent as well. We had never seen such a variety of fruits and fresh juices as in Ecuador. We really liked their special dish called “Locro de Queso”, a mouthwatering potato soup with avocado and fresh cheese. I delighted myself eating plenty of Ceviche, raw lemon marinated seafood. As most Latins, they are big corn lovers, the curiosity is that they serve everything with popcorn, even breakfast! We had come from sea level to Quito, a city over 2800 meters, so plenty of coca tea was in our diet to fight the effects of the high altitude. Prices in Ecuador are not particularly cheap, as their official currency is the US Dollar, but it’s easily a country we could come back to explore its natural diversity and beauty.

Arriving at Havana airport is exactly what you would expect of communist Cuba, an antiquated airport and a ridiculously slow bureaucratic immigration process. I’ve never been to prison, but that’s what I imagine checking in to prison would be like. Huge slow queues and rude shouting officers are part of the deal. We finally got our entry stamps in one of the 20 little booths and once on the other side had to queue for an x-ray check of our hand baggage. Only problem was that for 20 immigration booths, there was only one x-ray machine, so you can imagine the chaos that forms. After more than an hour we went through and got to the luggage carrousel, and still our baggage had not arrived. In total it took us about two hours to get out and that’s because we got lucky and they let us go without our baggage getting sniffed by cute police doggies or hand inspected by customs officers. The taxi ride from the airport kept proving the Cuba stereotypes, as we saw broken down 50′s models on the side of the road, the typical Cuban postcard.

I had been in Cuba 10 years ago and I can say it has changed a lot. For starters, Havana is much more beautiful, Old Havana and parts of central Havana have been completely restored to its old glory. More than 50 years have passed since the Revolution, during which most of the world turned their backs on Cuba, and hardly any progress was achieved. Cuba claims that 100% of their people are literate and educated and have access to the best health system in the world. A few years ago, the process of liberalizing the economy slowly began allowing people the freedom to earn extra money for their own personal benefit. In my own personal opinion it’s just like giving candy to children, preparing for the unavoidable – Fidel’s death – a key date to the future of these people, and it’s better to have the people happy, more in tune with the rights of the rest of the world. The average person still earns an average salary of US $18 a month, one reason why Havana hasn’t prospered much since the 50′s. My point is that if today Havana is so beautiful and elegant with its wide avenues, many parks, and magnificent European influenced architecture, imagine its glory in the 50′s. Thanks to its strategic location at the mouth of the Caribbean, one coast Atlantic, one coast Caribbean, a lot of trade went through it, one of the reasons for its former richness. But the trade not only brought richness, it gave the Cuban people its identity. As we saw in the Dominican Republic, the population is of many colours.

We spent our time in Havana strolling at leisure through the crumbling beauty of Old Havana, but we ended up enjoying Havana Central more, without the abundance of touts selling tours, women and cigars. Some of the places we liked most in Old Havana (Habana Vieja) were the Plaza de San Cristobal with its beautiful church and square, the nice renovated Plaza de Armas, and other random streets which evoked the essence of Cuba with old cars, children playing baseball or marbles, and crumbling colonial mansions hanging over cobblestoned streets, interrupted by a mojito of daiquiri when the mood took us. Overall, however, Havana Central provided respite from unwanted attention and tourist prices. The Paseo El Prado which forms a border between the two districts is an avenue which wouldn´t look out of place in Paris (after the war), and what about the Malecon! When we were in Havana the weather was not so hot and the sea was mighty and angry, and there was so much water crashing over the wall onto the road that the Malecon was closed to traffic. We had fun walking along and feeling the breeze on our faces, and every now and then running to escape the walls of water reaching after us. That we managed, but it was so slippy that I fell down, to Tony’s amusement, and got soaked all through!

Other highlights in Havana were the tedious Revolution Museum in the former Presidential Palace which still bears the bullet marks of the fateful night when revolutionaries overran the palace. The museum did enlighten us a bit on the Revolutionaries version of history, but presentation is poor and our concentration soon deserted us. For sheer revolutionary zeal, the Plaza de la Revolucion is way better – small on content, grand on scale, with a huge Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos mural facing a statue of independence martyr, Jose Marti, and below him, Fidel Castro´s mount from which he used to address the nation for hours on end. Perhaps most enjoyable was attending a game of the Cuban’s biggest passion: baseball, at the LatinoAmericana stadium and watching Industriales, the local team, give Metros a good lesson in home runs.

On the downside, we were a bit disappointed to discover that the music scene was not what we expected. We expected a bit more of ambience, musicians, dancers and singers on the streets improvising. Most of the touristy places in Habana Vieja do have mediocre bands, but that’s not what we wanted. We went to the famed Casa de la Musica to listen to a band and dance a bit but it was a fiercely loud Cuban boy band, so we ended up leaving early. Our vote goes to Dominican Republic in the music and dance scene.

We also tried our best to find the best Cuban cuisine, but we failed. Cuban food is best forgotten, although, we’ll have yucca with mojo (garlic sauce sometimes called mojito – do not drink!) anytime. In Hemingway’s style we could not leave without paying a visit to both the home of the daiquiri, El Floridita; and the mojito, La Bodeguita del Medio. Both were delicious, but outside of these places, they were all awful and pricey. We found out that there´s a lemon shortage in Cuba and they use artificial lemon juice almost everywhere in Cuba, even in the landmark and sumptuous Hotel Nacional! Please free the lemon embargo on Cuba! Whatever your principle, let us have good mojitos in Cuba!

Another big change in Cuba is the increment in tourist prices. Cuba is not a cheap tourist destination. Until a few years ago the exchange rate was 1 Cuban peso to 1 US Dollar, now their new currency for the tourists (the convertible Peso) is worth more than the Dollar and almost the same as the Euro. And they still have their Cuban Peso which the locals use, 25 of these equal one convertible Peso. So it’s a big mess, there are tourist prices and there are local prices, and it’s hard to know which peso you’re talking about. The tourist prices are excessive, comparable to the most expensive European countries, but without nearly providing the same quality. How Cuba figures this exchange rate is way beyond comprehension and logic. Their small economy depends greatly on tourism, and on the other hand, despite the inequality in wealth, we felt very safe there at all times, they even say it’s the safest place in the Western Hemisphere.

A big thing in Havana are the big 1950′s cars. They fit in perfectly in Old Havana, and you can rent one with a driver for about $30 an hour. The other way to ride them is to take a colectivo. Colectivo are the taxis that pick up as many people as possible on their route for a small fee (10 Cuban pesos, or $.50), whereas a private taxi will charge a tourist about $10 for the ride. Colectivos are not supposed to pick up tourists but we worked our way around it and rode in loads of beautiful old cars. It seems that I have an international face, in many of the places we’ve been I am mistaken for a local. Cuba was no exception, as long as I didn’t speak and reveal my accent, I would get local prices. So we figured how to flag down colectivos, mumble the stop we wanted, and just pay the local fare after getting off, getting chauffeur driven around Havana in a classic car. This was only after our first try, when Tony had asked a driver how much to Old Havana and the driver said 10. Tony was convinced the driver was trying to extort him as a tourist, so replied 5! The driver immediately agreed. I realized too late that the driver was speaking local Pesos and Tony tourist Pesos, so we ended up paying 5 Tourist Pesos (CUCs) instead of 20 Cuban Pesos, more than 500% of the price the driver asked for. Lesson learned.

On our last few days in Cuba, we visited the famed Viñales, about 4 hours west of Havana in the Pinar del Rio province. When we got there we thought it was just a small town with no appeal. But very fast it grew on us and we had a great time in provincial Cuba. People are more down to earth, and unlike Havana they will talk to you with no interest in mind. It is a lovely colonial style town, set in the middle of a long valley spotted with beautiful karst free-standing mountains, and it’s also the province where the best tobacco is grown. We took one of the guided walks through the valley along with a Dutchman, Gerard, past cowboys on horseback, yucca plantations and most of all, the tobacco plantations. We stopped with one farmer who explained the whole process, seing which leaves went into Cohibas, and seeing the process right through from start to finish, as the farmers went about their daily work. That day was probably the nicest in Cuba. When we got back to town, there was a lot going on and more of what we expected of Cuba: lots of happy people playing good music in the streets. Tony, a non-smoker smoked a whole cigar which he had bought from Leo the tobacco farmer, and we enjoyed a few too many mojitos, so many that the tuxedo wearing waiter had to chase us down in a bike as we had forgotten to pay the bill (by accident!). We ate every night in the casa particular (B&B) in Viñales, and had the best food in Cuba of overcooked lobster and rice and beans.

Unfortunately we only have a few pictures of Havana and none of Viñales, as our camera was robbed in our next destination. Gerard, if you are reading this, you are our only hope for Viñales pictures! Cuba is beautiful, but we don’t agree with its system, as people are evidently poor beyond comprehension, but never threatening our safety at any time. There are a lot of unofficial taxis in Cuba, people moonlighting for an extra buck, and on our way to the airport we had arranged one of these taxis, a real beat-up car, mainly because we wanted to give the guy some money as the day before he had told us we could pay him in old clothes. We did not, but we did give him an old pair of Tony´s shorts. We took a car driven by two men in the dark at 5:30am and as expected the car almost broke down in the road, and then ran out of gasoline, which was then poured from a 2 litre bottle which was inside the car with us. These are the charms of Cuba.

What will happen to Cuba? Sooner than later the West will open to it, so it’s better to visit now, in its “special” difference. From 10 years ago, there has been a difference, it’s more beautiful as it has been restored by UNESCO, but the people are not as authentic and neither are the prices, so the sooner you go, the better! Next stop for us, Quito, Ecuador.

Having spent three weeks in Honduras celebrating Christmas and relaxing, we finally decided our itinerary for 2011. As it stands, the trip has to end by mid-April as I have finalised my back to work date. Between now and then, we will visit as much as we enjoyably can of Latin America. Where to start was the big question. The contenders for next stop after Honduras were Cuba, or Mexico. Mexico had never been in our plans, but after a few weeks of listening to Mariachis in Honduras, a trip to the famous Plaza Garibaldi and its hundreds of Mariachis for rent was making a late claim for a place on our tour. Yet more late considerations had to be made for Costa Rica, Colombia, and another newcomer in the Galapagos Islands. And never mind that none of these places had been on our original list for South America. How to fit it all in? As it was, after much procrastinating, everything seemed to be decided in a few hours on our last full day in Tegucigalpa. And so the itinerary is (drum roll please):

1. Cuba (Havana & somewhere else in Western Cuba – to be determined)
2. Ecuador (Quito, maybe some day trips, and book a last minute tour to the Galapagos Islands)
3. Peru (Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Amazon Rainforest)
4. Bolivia (Cross by land from Peru, La Paz, Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats)
5. Chile (San Pedro Atacama desert, then on to Santiago?)
6. Argentina (Mendoza (maybe in time for wine festival), Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Iguazu Falls)
7. Uruguay (Colonia del Sacramento (from Buenos Aires), maybe Montevideo)
8. Brazil (Iguazu Falls, Rio de Janeiro)
9. Antarctica (hopefully a last-minute cruise)

Countries 6 to 9 are yet to be put in their final order, and that will probably depend quite a bit on how lucky we get with our cruise to Antarctica which will be by far the greatest cost we will incur on the trip, and hopefully worth every penny. Sadly, we will not have time for Costa Rica, which is unfortunate as Ninfa had lots of friends there who promised to show us a great time, but we hope that offer still stands for the time when (rather than if) we get to go there. Colombia was just too big to squeeze in also, and being serenaded by cohorts of Mexico City Mariachis remains a dream for another day.

Having finally taken a great weight off our shoulders, it’s time to get packing again and hitting the road. After over four weeks of staying with family, we’re thinking it may be a little hard to readjust. So, in order to find our rhythm again, Ninfa’s parents proposed that we take a few days before we leave to visit the South coast of Honduras. Honduras has a long Caribbean coast that stretches long from the North right round to the East of the country. To the South is the Golfo de Fonseca in the Pacific Ocean, which is a small gulf shared to the North by El Salvador, to the South by Nicaragua, and on a small stretch in the middle, Honduras. The gulf itself is rich in seafood, and is dotted with volcanic islands. The gulf lies two hours drive away from Tegucigalpa, and we set off early on a Friday morning for a three day break.

Our first stop en route was the sleepy colonial town of Pespire. Pespire is famous for its “quesillo”, a milky fresh cheese popular in Central America, and Ninfa’s favorite. We rolled into town and drove slowly along some of the old cobblestone streets past beautiful, brightly-coloured houses before parking opposite the church in the main square. The Pespire church is one of very few in all of Latin America to have three domes. Further down the street, locals heaved heavy loads on their heads, while others cantered by on horseback, and groups of lazy onlookers took shelter from the hot sun under the shade of the trees in the park. The main square is situated on a plateau and we drove down one of the side streets and stopped at a snack shop and ordered some hot tortillas with quesillo. It was a messy and all too delicious snack. On our way out of town, we stopped at another shop and bought a generous supply of quesillo to take back with us to Tegucigalpa at the end of the trip, yet proceeded to eat it all on the roadside outside the shop and then had to go in to buy some more. Although there is probably not a whole lot to do in Pespire, it’s well worth a visit due to its quesillo, its beautifully preserved colonial buildings and town plan, and the friendly, laid-back pace of life that is typical of rural Honduras.

We continued on to our destination, the Gulf of Fonseca, and the village of Amapala, on the island of El Tiigre. We parked the car at the port of Coyolito and boarded a small boat (lancha) to take us across the bay to the volcano island of Amapala. We had booked a night on the far side of the island at Playa Negra courtesy of an entertaining local tout, Cleto, who was hanging around the port. We were then picked up at the port in Amapala and driven around to the other side of the island on the back of a pick-up truck (paila).

The weather in El Tigre in January is hot! And we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the black sand beach of Playa Negra which was full of local children playing and swimming in the muddy gulf waters. Later on, we took a tour around the island in one of the numerous tuk-tuks which are the main form of local transport on the island, before watching the impressive sunset on Playa Negra. The island is very laid back and very peaceful with lots of beautiful birdlife and beautiful scenery of the other volcanic islands in the gulf and the volcano on Amapala itself. The hotel we stayed at, also called Playa Negra, was not exactly what we expected though. We had an all-inclusive deal with meals. When we went for dinner, we were told there was no shellfish, which was surprising as the Gulf of Fonseca is famous for them, and we could have was “plato tipico” – beans, rice and eggs. Ninfa and Ada just happened to be passing by the office a few minutes later and saw the staff eating big plates of shellfish! We ended up getting a few pieces of fish and eating lots of the quesillo we had bought in Pespire, and decided to move out the next morning. Playa Negra Beach – recommended; Playa Negra hotel – no thanks.

The next day, we took a boat tour around the Honduran islands in the Gulf. Our first stop was a small island, Isla Comandante, almost completely uninhabited except for one shack on the beachfront where a young woman was playing with her child. We hung around in the sun for a bit and the Chacon’s took a swim while I soaked up the rays on the beach. We passed near the water border with El Salvador before continuing on to our second island, Almeja (I think). It’s a tiny island, more like a sand bar, with lots of different rock pools and a few vultures hanging around. Just 100m away was La Isla de Los Muertos, the final resting place of the locals of El Tigre, with it’s weather-beaten wooden crosses dotted across it’s surface. Our next and final stop was on El Tigre again, and the Playa Grande, where we stopped to have a tasty lunch of prawns and plantain chips (plenty of shellfish on Playa Grande!) and watch the locals playing football on the beach, and swimming in the sea fully-clothed, as is the Honduran way.

That night we stayed close to Amapala village in the Hotel de Las Gargolas which was significantly better than our previous night. Ninfa and I borrowed some bikes at the hotel and went down to the village for a look around. Personal security is a consideration anywhere in Latin America, but that seemed to fade away in Pespire, and then completely disappeared in Amapala. People were very laid back, and were quick to engage in conversation and more than happy for us to take some photos. Amapala was a snapshot of real, traditional village (pueblo) life in Honduras. As the sun began to set and the air to cool, the people moved out onto the street setting up tables and playing cards, or eating their dinner. We stopped on one street corner where a lady was selling baleadas and had a few of those with lots of the locals. The buildings of Amapala village are almost entirely wooden, and the old weather-beaten wood, painted in numerous different colours makes for a wonderful place to relax and enjoy a slower pace of life. In all Honduras, this has to be my favourite place of all so far. That night we had an early night – the sun had taken its toll and we had an early start back to Tegucigalpa the next day. The El Tigre island will soon be joined to the mainland by a new landfill bridge, so is a place best visited sooner rather than later while it still retains its pure island charm.

On our way back, we made another stop at Pespire (we had eaten all our quesillo in Playa Negra) and then back to Tegucigalpa. In Tegus, we had one and a half hectic days of packing and last minute organization before a sad farewell at Toncontin airport. And so, we take with us some great memories of Tegucigalpa, a new favourite place in Amapala, and a renewed sense of adventure which takes us next to Cuba!

Check out our photos of Pespire, Amapala Village, Playa Negra, Coyolito, and the Golfo Fonseca.