The Galapagos Islands are a naturalist’s paradise and this is the place that inspired Charles Darwin to write about the evolution-theory. The main reason is that the animals on the Galapagos Islands are the fearless on the planet and are not at all scared when you approach them and 23% of the species that live here cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. This is the case of the Marine Iguana, which looks like an animal from a different planet. The Blue Footed Boobie is also one of the species that can be found only here. We were so fortunate to see Blue Footed Boobies during a mating dance or with little babies. Then there are hundreds of sea lions and what’s really amazing is that they can be seen on the streets of the towns or even lying on benches (look at the pictures).

Basically on every day of the cruise we had a nice planned program with lots of activities like hiking, snorkeling or wildlife watching. On one day we went to a beach with tens or hundreds of sting rays. We saw sting rays before but seeing them in such a big number on a beach was incredible. During snorkeling we saw lots of fishes and even a couple of whitetip reef sharks. I really hoped to see hammer-head sharks on the Galapagos and before our cruise I even went to a diving tour to a diving spot famous for the hammer –head sharks but I was not lucky. On the last day we went to the highlands on the Santa Cruz Island to a place where we saw the giant turtles which are the emblem of Galapagos. We expected them to be big but they are huge. They can live up to 200 years and weigh up to 300 kilos.

Another nice thing is that on the cruise, we met Cornelia, Gerlinde, Roland and Peter from Germany and Roland, even grew up in the village neighboring to the one where we live. In German there’s a nice saying that translates like “The whole world is only a small little village”.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The whole trip and especially the cruise in the Galapagos Islands were amazing but there’s one thing that beats all the others and that’s definitely snorkeling and swimming with the sea lions. It’s something that no matter how much you do it, you cannot get bored of seeing how elegant they are when swimming or how childish they can play around you. It’s one of the pictures that we’ll for sure remember the rest of our life.

Next stop

Lima, Peru

But this is not why we are here. We’re here for the beautiful Old Town that Quito has or for the fact that there had to be a reason why along with Krakow it was the first city declared a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978. The Old Town was almost completely renovated a couple of years ago and is one of the most beautiful old towns we’ve ever seen. If you leave your Rolex at home and stick to the basic rules it’s completely safe during the day as there are hundreds of policemen walking around. Only in the Plaza Grande, which is the main square of Quito where the President’s Palace and the City Hall are, there are more than 30 police men. And every big store or bank has at the entrance an armed guard with a Kevlar vest. The Plaza Grande is the place where probably all the 2 million citizens of Quito meet every Sunday as it is completely closed for the cars on this day. This is definitely the best time to go there as you can also watch a lot of groups performing in the Ecuadorian national costume. We also went to El Panecillo which is a hill in the southern part of Quito where a statue of the virgin stands and from here you have a very nice view over the whole city.

Today we went to Mitad del Mundo. Here is a monument which commemorates a French expedition to discover where the middle of the earth is, long before the existence of GPS. The funny thing is that thanks to GPS we now know that the actual equator line is 300m away from the one of the monument .

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The old town of Quito is definitely one of the nicest ones we’ve seen so far and is the #1 place to visit in Quito.

Next stop

The Galapagos Islands