Well well well.... That is gonna be, probably, the last note catching up about the end of the trip....
Since I write it 2 weeks after come back home, it might not be very detailed but anyways.
Last story was about Quito....
And let's continue about that. The first day after come back to Quito from Cuyabeno we basically did nothing. I called Esteban but he was sick and staying home thus we did not go party but scheduled the meeting for the next evening. Next day...we just walked around, went to Compania del Jesus church - extremely extremely beautiful, full of gold and amazing sculptures. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take pictures in most of the sights in South America. Which I must admit is quite annoying. I do agree that with flash it is forbidden... but without? Why not?
Anyways, next evening, we went to visit Esteban. Me and Zosia did our best to dress up at least a bit. And according to Stefan's opinion we quite managed :) Although once we arrived to the place - I realized how differently we look comparing to all people present in the restaurant... Well, the waiter - who recognized us immediately - told us that Esteban stayed at home b/c is sick yet. But luckily there was Francisco!!!!!! Woho!!!! He was already quite in a good mood let's say... He welcomed us loudly, warmly and immediately took to the table. He introduced us to all his friends, brother and as we could expect all were quite well off, top positions at work or own businesses, average around 45 yo... We talked and danced until 4am.... sooooooooooo much fun!!!!!! After the party they took us for some food, drove us home, me and Zosia has got roses from one of them...
The very next day (or actually same day, just few hours later) we got on the bus and left for the coast and Machalilla National Park. We didn't manage to get there within one day thus had to sleep over in Manta. Early morning we got on the bus to Puerto Lopez thinking that we will start the bike trip right after arriving. But once we got there and found this awesome hostel. The owner gave us all important information, organized the trip to Isla de la Plata (Silver Island, called as "Galapagos for poor" ;) for next day thus we could simply chill out, walk around, we've got tickets to national park, slept in the hammocks.
Trip to Isla de la Plata.... you get on the boat with about 10 other tourists + 4 of staff and go for about 1-1,5h to reach the island. There you have a guide and 2 options for walking path to be chosen. Stefan had proposed that we go up to middle of first path to see the places where albatross and sea lions are supposed to show up and then come back and hit for the other path and see all other types of birds. Our guide was totally passionate about wild life and it was already visible from the very first moments of the trip. Actually, me and Zosia have kind of bounded with him already on the boat. He was trying to speak people up, make a connection but everybody was really quiet and not talkative at all. Some of them felt sea sick, as did Stefan, thus they did not wanna talk at all. But me and Zosia kept talking all the way to the island - talking, joking, making fun of people and laughing so much.... Later on Galo - the guide- told us that such tourist as we were he has once in a few month. For me quite shocking because that all those people are so numb and lifeless...
Never mind, coming back to the point: we walked all that distance very fast, have seen 3 kind of boobies (to make it clear - birds): blue foot booby, red foot booby and nazca booby, have seen young albatross, tropical bird, frigates and some other birds which names I don't remember any more... unfortunately... The walk was quite tiring for us but some of people from our group almost died.... or at least looked like...
After that quick lunch on the boat and we headed for the place for snorkeling and amazing coral reef. it was first time for me and I'm still amazed how clear the water was, how easily you can dive and get the star fish or other things... We have seen turtles as well.
During entire trip Galo kept chatting with me, after some time not only about wild life but generally about life. Heh, funny times. After we arrived back - he asked where we are staying. After all. it happened that owner of our hostel is his mother, which means we were staying, basically, in his house.... funny funny.... We made friends quite quickly and as a result of that we had some quite amazing activities in that place. He took us for turtle patrol to Los Frailes beach - that's one of the cleanest beaches on the Pacific coast thus turtles come there for nesting. In Puerto Lopez is foundation which takes care of those turtles, monitors is while they hatch out and so on. He organized for us trip to the jungle nearby, with his friend who occurred to be son on the shaman, lived in that area for 35 years with his family, is 55yo, has 16 or 18 grandchildren... and is quite crazy. It was amazing to listen how he actually talk with all possible kinds of birds as well as monkeys, to see that he was able to smell monkeys from about 1km distance, to listen all information about birds and plants - how used to be used, how are used now. At the beginning we walked along the path but later on the path has got narrower and narrower and finally disappeared. I mean - we were not able to see any sign of a track. But Ernesto knew where to go, although in those places, for last time, he was there 1 year ago with some other tourists.... He had to clear the path for us using stick and Zosia's knife (he forgot to take his machete) because it was totally taken over by jungle. Suddenly, somewhere in the middle of nowhere he petted one tree and started talking to it. Later on he told us that he planted that tree when he was 20yo....
We slept in a tent, he slept in king of left overs of his family house. Before he went to sleep he started knocking and digging in all wholes and walls to make sure there is no dangerous animals and insects... and one tarantula showed up... and we saw it. Sweet.
We've seen 2 other types of coral snakes as well... But this time we already knew that it is dangerous and venomous.
What had been organized for us more was one more snorkeling trip with a friend of Galo who has been a ship captain for 50years. We didn't have to pay for anything except for the gas. Because again - here works the rule that friend of a friend is my friend...
Last day we went to the private garden of Dierdre - French who lives there for about 15-20 years already with her family (husband and 3 kids) and she is crazy about ecology and tries to educate people there since environment is not considered in their mentality as something to be preserved yet... her husband is one of the best archaeologist in Ecuador.
And then we left for last 3 days of chill in Montanitas, came back to Vito's house and welcomed us crazily, lent us his tent (Stefan already has left for Lima and took the tent) We met there some Colombians, Argentinians, had bonfires with them, last day they cooked for us, for last 1,5 days we had sun :) Just awesome but a bit too short.
On Tuesday 15th afternoon we left by bus for Guayaquil, there we had flight to Madrid. In Madrid it was already freezing - us in sandals thus we had to save our lives by putting on socks. Madrid airport - 6h waiting for flight to Berlin. To Berlin arrived at midnight, from Schonefeld we headed to Hauptbahnhof where was supposed to be train at 4.20am. The train was late first for about 1,5h so we had to wait in MacDonald since at the main station of one of the biggest cities in Europe there is no warm waiting room, there is no even night ticket office... Finally we left 7.30am after waiting another hour for the train which was supposed to leave at 6.30am.... Until then the train from 4.20am did not arrived... yes.... we love Germany...
Once we arrived to Warsaw, it was -15 deg or -20, 20cm of snow.... About 50 up to 60 degrees temperature difference was quite a shock for us.... Furthermore - all white instead of all green, everybody was speaking Polish around us and we did not have to speak Spanish any more. Strange. Everybody are white skin, so many blond, same height as we are not shorter.... So many different things....unbelievable :)
Ok, I would say that's it as for now. Thanks for traveling with me, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I did my best.
If I will have some time and some more cogitations, possibly I will post them once.
Since I write it 2 weeks after come back home, it might not be very detailed but anyways.
Last story was about Quito....
And let's continue about that. The first day after come back to Quito from Cuyabeno we basically did nothing. I called Esteban but he was sick and staying home thus we did not go party but scheduled the meeting for the next evening. Next day...we just walked around, went to Compania del Jesus church - extremely extremely beautiful, full of gold and amazing sculptures. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take pictures in most of the sights in South America. Which I must admit is quite annoying. I do agree that with flash it is forbidden... but without? Why not?
Anyways, next evening, we went to visit Esteban. Me and Zosia did our best to dress up at least a bit. And according to Stefan's opinion we quite managed :) Although once we arrived to the place - I realized how differently we look comparing to all people present in the restaurant... Well, the waiter - who recognized us immediately - told us that Esteban stayed at home b/c is sick yet. But luckily there was Francisco!!!!!! Woho!!!! He was already quite in a good mood let's say... He welcomed us loudly, warmly and immediately took to the table. He introduced us to all his friends, brother and as we could expect all were quite well off, top positions at work or own businesses, average around 45 yo... We talked and danced until 4am.... sooooooooooo much fun!!!!!! After the party they took us for some food, drove us home, me and Zosia has got roses from one of them...
The very next day (or actually same day, just few hours later) we got on the bus and left for the coast and Machalilla National Park. We didn't manage to get there within one day thus had to sleep over in Manta. Early morning we got on the bus to Puerto Lopez thinking that we will start the bike trip right after arriving. But once we got there and found this awesome hostel. The owner gave us all important information, organized the trip to Isla de la Plata (Silver Island, called as "Galapagos for poor" ;) for next day thus we could simply chill out, walk around, we've got tickets to national park, slept in the hammocks.
Trip to Isla de la Plata.... you get on the boat with about 10 other tourists + 4 of staff and go for about 1-1,5h to reach the island. There you have a guide and 2 options for walking path to be chosen. Stefan had proposed that we go up to middle of first path to see the places where albatross and sea lions are supposed to show up and then come back and hit for the other path and see all other types of birds. Our guide was totally passionate about wild life and it was already visible from the very first moments of the trip. Actually, me and Zosia have kind of bounded with him already on the boat. He was trying to speak people up, make a connection but everybody was really quiet and not talkative at all. Some of them felt sea sick, as did Stefan, thus they did not wanna talk at all. But me and Zosia kept talking all the way to the island - talking, joking, making fun of people and laughing so much.... Later on Galo - the guide- told us that such tourist as we were he has once in a few month. For me quite shocking because that all those people are so numb and lifeless...
Never mind, coming back to the point: we walked all that distance very fast, have seen 3 kind of boobies (to make it clear - birds): blue foot booby, red foot booby and nazca booby, have seen young albatross, tropical bird, frigates and some other birds which names I don't remember any more... unfortunately... The walk was quite tiring for us but some of people from our group almost died.... or at least looked like...
After that quick lunch on the boat and we headed for the place for snorkeling and amazing coral reef. it was first time for me and I'm still amazed how clear the water was, how easily you can dive and get the star fish or other things... We have seen turtles as well.
During entire trip Galo kept chatting with me, after some time not only about wild life but generally about life. Heh, funny times. After we arrived back - he asked where we are staying. After all. it happened that owner of our hostel is his mother, which means we were staying, basically, in his house.... funny funny.... We made friends quite quickly and as a result of that we had some quite amazing activities in that place. He took us for turtle patrol to Los Frailes beach - that's one of the cleanest beaches on the Pacific coast thus turtles come there for nesting. In Puerto Lopez is foundation which takes care of those turtles, monitors is while they hatch out and so on. He organized for us trip to the jungle nearby, with his friend who occurred to be son on the shaman, lived in that area for 35 years with his family, is 55yo, has 16 or 18 grandchildren... and is quite crazy. It was amazing to listen how he actually talk with all possible kinds of birds as well as monkeys, to see that he was able to smell monkeys from about 1km distance, to listen all information about birds and plants - how used to be used, how are used now. At the beginning we walked along the path but later on the path has got narrower and narrower and finally disappeared. I mean - we were not able to see any sign of a track. But Ernesto knew where to go, although in those places, for last time, he was there 1 year ago with some other tourists.... He had to clear the path for us using stick and Zosia's knife (he forgot to take his machete) because it was totally taken over by jungle. Suddenly, somewhere in the middle of nowhere he petted one tree and started talking to it. Later on he told us that he planted that tree when he was 20yo....
We slept in a tent, he slept in king of left overs of his family house. Before he went to sleep he started knocking and digging in all wholes and walls to make sure there is no dangerous animals and insects... and one tarantula showed up... and we saw it. Sweet.
We've seen 2 other types of coral snakes as well... But this time we already knew that it is dangerous and venomous.
What had been organized for us more was one more snorkeling trip with a friend of Galo who has been a ship captain for 50years. We didn't have to pay for anything except for the gas. Because again - here works the rule that friend of a friend is my friend...
Last day we went to the private garden of Dierdre - French who lives there for about 15-20 years already with her family (husband and 3 kids) and she is crazy about ecology and tries to educate people there since environment is not considered in their mentality as something to be preserved yet... her husband is one of the best archaeologist in Ecuador.
And then we left for last 3 days of chill in Montanitas, came back to Vito's house and welcomed us crazily, lent us his tent (Stefan already has left for Lima and took the tent) We met there some Colombians, Argentinians, had bonfires with them, last day they cooked for us, for last 1,5 days we had sun :) Just awesome but a bit too short.
On Tuesday 15th afternoon we left by bus for Guayaquil, there we had flight to Madrid. In Madrid it was already freezing - us in sandals thus we had to save our lives by putting on socks. Madrid airport - 6h waiting for flight to Berlin. To Berlin arrived at midnight, from Schonefeld we headed to Hauptbahnhof where was supposed to be train at 4.20am. The train was late first for about 1,5h so we had to wait in MacDonald since at the main station of one of the biggest cities in Europe there is no warm waiting room, there is no even night ticket office... Finally we left 7.30am after waiting another hour for the train which was supposed to leave at 6.30am.... Until then the train from 4.20am did not arrived... yes.... we love Germany...
Once we arrived to Warsaw, it was -15 deg or -20, 20cm of snow.... About 50 up to 60 degrees temperature difference was quite a shock for us.... Furthermore - all white instead of all green, everybody was speaking Polish around us and we did not have to speak Spanish any more. Strange. Everybody are white skin, so many blond, same height as we are not shorter.... So many different things....unbelievable :)
Ok, I would say that's it as for now. Thanks for traveling with me, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I did my best.
If I will have some time and some more cogitations, possibly I will post them once.
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