Travel in South America – Page 2 – How Not to Have a Midlife Crisis

Greetings Galápagos!

October 25, 2021 4 Comments 4 Mins Read

My journey from Ecuador to the Galápagos Islands was far from straightforward. Firstly, I had to catch a plane to the tiny island of Baltra, which is only the length of the runway and the airport terminal. So if a pilot gets it wrong his plane ends up in the Pacific. I was on a big plane so, needless to say, it was a heavy landing following by a deafening screech of brakes and screams from nervous passengers. Once through the tiny terminal, I caught a bus to the edge of the island where a small boat ferried passengers 200m across the sea to the island of Santa Cruz. This should have been a pleasant little crossing, but the majority of the passengers were short, plump Ecuadorian ladies with massive suitcases and even bigger behinds. I had a suffocating 5 minutes squashed between such two senoras and 4 suitcases, on…

Trouble in the Mountains

October 23, 2021 4 Comments 4 Mins Read

After my unplanned, but most enjoyable week, in the city of Cuenca I started the three day journey to the Galápagos Islands. My first worry was finding a driver I could actually trust to take me on the 125 mile journey to the airport in Guayaquil, my second was how to avoid being robbed en route and my third was the notorious mountain pass I had to cross in the El Cajas National Park. The hotel recommended a ‘safe’ driver who turned up at the correct time, which was promising, and I told him I was going to the Holiday Inn at Guayaquil Airport. He looked at my blankly then said with a with a huge smile ‘Si! Si! Holida Yin!’ Relieved he knew where we were going, I settled down for the trip, momentarily. I have actually no idea how the hotel could describe old Carlos as a ‘safe’…

The Flood

October 18, 2021 8 Comments 4 Mins Read

After I made the tough decision to leave the turtle project in Las Tunas the next problem was where to go for a week before I flew to the Galápagos Islands. Ecuador is a dangerous country to travel around, even by car, as drug cartels are known to set up road blocks to stop and randomly rob motorists. There were even five muggings on the Interstate bus that week, which left me with a real dilemma. In the end I hired a taxi company I found on TripAdvisor and made a very stressful 7 hour journey across country to the beautiful historic city of Cuenca.

Turtle Time

October 14, 2021 8 Comments 4 Mins Read

Once I had recovered from the shock of my roadside encounter with a Tarantula, I arrived safely in Las Tunas, a tiny fishing village on the North coast of Ecuador, to work on a turtle conservation project. Ten years ago the small community became very concerned that so few turtles were laying eggs on the beach there and turtles numbers were dwindling. They realized that this was due to two things; firstly, the amount of plastic rubbish on the beach and secondly, the use of massive fishing nets which caught tuna, the main food of the turtles, and which also killed many turtles who got caught up in the them. Admirably they pulled together to address this issue by launching a campaign under the slogan ‘No nature, no life.’ As a community they cleaned up the beach, sectioned off areas solely as breeding areas and banned the use of nets locally.…

Turbulence, Tantrums and Tarantulas

September 29, 2021 9 Comments 4 Mins Read

Ecuador volunteering Well here I am in Ecuador, in a remote fishing village called Las Tunas, 6 hours drive from the cosmopolitan city of Guayaquil. However my 2 day trip to get here certainly had its moments…

I arrived at Cusco airport in Peru 4 hours prior to my internal flight to Lima as instructed, although I thought this was excessive. It wasn’t. In the entrance hall I watched as some poor travellers had their hand luggage raided by security guards and the contents strewn across the floor. ‘How awful’ I thought to myself. Sadly I was next.

All Creatures Great and Small

September 25, 2021 3 Comments 4 Mins Read

Peru volunteering

My time in Peru is coming to an end as I leave for Ecuador tomorrow. My time here has been filled with highs and lows; from the elation of trekking up to Machu Picchu to the lows of witnessing the misery of so many street dogs.

Maccu Picchu is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the ‘Lost City of the Incas.’ It was abandoned in the 15th century and not discovered again until 1911. The architecture is an absolute masterpiece. How the Incas managed to build a beautiful city out of blocks of rock 2400m up a mountain is unfathomable. They were way ahead of their time.

Making a dog’s dinner of a dog’s dinner

September 17, 2021 1 Comment 3 Mins Read

Well I have settled into a routine in Cusco. I spend the mornings working in a dog rescue shelter and I have Spanish lessons in the afternoons.

I use the word ‘shelter’ loosely. This is more of a dog rescue ‘shed’ high up in the Andes, about 40 minutes from the city. An amazing old Peruvian lady, Maria, set up this shelter 4 years ago to try and tackle the street dog issue here. To be honest about a 1000 shelters would be needed to make any headway with this tragic problem.