Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Islas Galápagos

Today we arrived to Puerto Ayora in Santa Cruz after a very interesting journey. We thought we had missed the flight from Guayaquil, but it was delayed.
When we got off the plane there where no ATM´s... So we went on the ferry from "the airport island" (Baltra) to Santa Cruz with a few dollars praying it would be enough, and it was.
Well here we checked into a hotel with well needed airconditioning, and then we where off for a stroll round the town.

After that is was time to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station just outside of town.
Here they breed endangered spicies of giant tortoises only found in the galapagos. Along them are Lonesome George, an approx. 90 year old male who is the only one left of his spicies. They are trying to make him mate with females from another spicies but apperantly it´s not so succesful. Not such a good pic but here he is:

Some other pics of the animals aorund the station:

It is time for us to send some postcards, but we dont have everyones adress. If you could please comment and write your adress apostcard will be arriving shortly.
/H&J

Montañita

The last few days where spent at the beach in Montañita. We had our very first surfing lesson yesterday during the sunset. Hanna was a natural but John ended up with an (almost?) broken big toe :(.
Just a short update today, but here are some pics.

Next update will be from The Galàpagos Islands...

The last few days

We have had a busy couple of days here in Ecuador. At the moment we are in Cuenca, but first some pics from our last day in Baños. We went paragliding, and yes, it was awesome!

From Baños we went on to Riobamba. We arrived quite late and the atmosphere was kind of scary. We found a gross hostel but it was just for one night. I wouldn´t do it again...
Pic from Riobamba:

We left Riobamba as soon as possible the next morning after have had breakfast in a cafe with the worst service ever. The next six hours were spent on a very bumpy busride to Cuenca. The views were nice though:

Cuenca is one of UNESCOs World Heritages and there is a church in every corner.

Today we went on a day trip to Ingapirca which is an Inca ruin about two hours from Cuneca.

When we arrived to the ruins the sun was shining. We went for some lunch and then when we got out of the restaurant we where in the middle of a big cloud that refused to go away, so the pics are not as great as they could be with the mountains in the background. 

That´s all for now, new update in montañita next time.

/H&J

John´s 20th

Yesterday was John´s 20th birthday. Unfortunately he had a fever and an upset stomach, but we made the best of it.
He didn´t get breakfast in bed, but this is what was waiting for him when he got out to the kitchen:

John spent most of the day reading in the hammock while us others where working (feeding and cleaning for the animals, carrying rocks and sacks of gravel) until we finished work and it was time to get ready for the celebrations. It was a lovely evening in the amazon.

We went to a restaurant called El Jardín (the garden). An argentinian restaurant that was located by Río Puyo, and had a very nice garden. All the Yana Cocha crew came along for the meal.

After the meal we went to the pub Volcano. Apparently Puyo´s best. They had made som special decorations for John.

This is a not so flattering pic of our new friend Diana, but we wanted to show you what kind of cocktails we where drinking, although John mostly had water except for a flaming shot he got as a birthday present from the bartender.

 

At the moment we have left Yana Cocha and Puyo for another night in Baños. Tomorrow we have booked paragliding over some volcanos, should be awesome. And then a 4 hour busride will take us to Alausí.

And oh yes, 

WE HAVE TICKETS TO THE GALAPAGOS!

Lots of pics

Yesterday we went river rafting in the Rio Paztasa between the town of Baños and Puyo. So much fun and we swallowed so much water. Almost everyone from the center came and we went for a bbq in the middle of the jungle aferwords. Good with a waterproof camera!

This is the famous dangerous swing that has become our new hobby.

This is Bitcha, one of the three ocelots, there is also Rex and Princesa.

 This is one of two pygmea titis, the smallest monkeys in the world. They love to jump on your shoulder whilst you clean their cadge.
They also love to eat grasshoppers wich we have to catch every day.

This is two of four chorongos (wooly monkeys). To these we just throw the food, we never go in to them since they are dangerous.

One of three caimans. These we don´t feed since they get fed live chickens. This is the middle-sized one.

One of four guatusas, I think this is the blind one.

This is the room mate of the guatusas. The capibara.

 This is Mono, one of three coatis (nose bears). He likes to bite and scratch.

This is a cabeza de mate (face of the murderer). He looks cute but he really lives up to his reputation.

This is either Thing 1 or Thing 2. one of four squirrel monkeys that likes to visit us during our feeding rounds. They are wild and not a part of the center.

This is the puppy Muñeco, one of four dogs at the centre.



The following pics are especially for Vilgot:

Things are also looking up for the galapagos tickets. Fingers crossed we have them by monday.
To be continued
/H&J