Today, saturday, July 17th, we are at Hakahau Bay on Ua Pou getting ready to end our beautiful time at the Marquesas and sail to the Tuamotus. We arrived here on July 13th after a difficult sailing trip from Nuku Hiva, with lots of squals, wind, sun and rain but we learned a lot.
Still sailing in the sun but you see from afar what is coming towards you. Winds pick up to 7 beaufort and lots of water are dumped on the boat but it only lasts 5-10 minutes.We had several of those and thus it was a day of active sailing!Sailing to Ua Pou with Hatiheu in the background.Sanuk at Hakahau Bay on Ua Pou.
We arrived just in time for the 14th of july celebrations and enjoyed the free bar from 10 AM till 12 (lunch) with the marquesians. Stefan and I enjoyed people watching while they were singing, playing the ukulele, dancing and enjoying being with their friends and family.
Almost all the women had flowers in their hair.Always smiling…
Children who were at camp joined in the singing.The local band having fun playing the ukulele and singing.Not only flowers are everywhere but also tatoos…All the little cafes were beautifully decorated…
Before leaving Nuku Hiva we enjoyed two more bays on Nuku Hiva, Hakatea and Anaho Bay. We saw more traditional dancing at Taiohae Bay and had lunch at the home of Monette and Mathias. We hiked to Vaipo waterfall from Hakatea.We had lunch at restaurant Chez Yvonne in Hatiheu Bay after a hike from Anaho Bay and met with world travellers Jacques and Michelle.
Hakatea Bay on Nuku Hiva.Sanuk in Hakatea Bay.Manta ray (Manta Birostris)in Hakatea bay. We saw 6 of them around the boat. They are huge, friendly creatures. At Bora Bora we will be able to swim with them…They can reach up to 7m in width.Local in an outrigger canoe in Hakatea bay.Hiking to Vaipo waterfall.Little chapel on our way to Vaipo waterfall.Nicolas and Jean-Pierre hiked a part of the way with us to the waterfall.Vaipo waterfall, free fall cascade of over 300meter. Apparently the third highest waterfall in the world.Vaipo waterfall hiding behind the rockformations. Actually we were off limits terrain as there were warnings for falling rocks. For Stefan this was a good reason to continue…At Vaipo waterfall.Finally made it to Vaipo waterfall.We had a wonderful lunch at Monette and Matthias house in Hakatea bay.Getting Flipper back after lunch at low tide.More traditional dancing at Taiohae bay.
Anaho bay on Nuku Hiva.Beach on Anaho bay.Childrens camp, weaving clothes for a traditional dance performance for their parents.Hiking to Hatiheu with a view on Anaho Bay.Lots of mud but also beautiful scenery on our walk to Hatiheu.We arrived at Hatiheu just before a downpour !With Jacques and Michelle at famous restaurant Chez Yvonne in Hatiheu.
Today, wednesday,July 6th, we are in Taiohae Bay on Nuku Hiva since saturday. We continue to be charmed by the Marquesas and its people. Nuku Hiva is the second largest island of French Polynesia after Tahiti. It is the administrative capital of the Marquesas islands. Today about 10.000 people live in the Marquesas. In the 18th century population was at 78.000 but western diseases such as measles and smallpox reduced the population to 4000 at the beginning of the 20th century.
The bulk of the Marquesas Islands are of volcanic origin, created by the Marquesas hotspot that underlies the Pacific Plate. The Marquesas islands group is one of the most remote in the world. We arrived after our passage in Hiva Oa, then sailed to Tahuata, from there to Fatu Hiva and then back to Hiva Oa. From Hiva Oa we did a night sail to Nuku Hiva, where we are now.We will visit a couple more bays here and then sail to Ua Pou.
We arrived on Nuku Hiva at 9 AM after a night sail from Hiva Oa. It was another beautiful view ! When we took Flipper to the dock it was immediately clear that this was a more commercial island. There were a couple of restaurants, 2 stores and the supermarkets carry a lot of “gourmet food” such as lots of frozen vegetables (a nice change from canned food), Belgian chocolate, frozen lamb, Rocquefort cheese , “President” real butter and “Bonne Maman” jelly! During our discovery walk of the town we were invited for a festive dinner (at 6.30 PM) and traditional dance in preparation for the festivities of July 14th (Bastille Day). We met with Ann and Yvan from Kruibeke (Belgium) from the yacht Vaguebond. We were lucky to have just met them since the next day they were already off to the Tuamotus Islands. So far we have met only one other Belgian boat…We had a great evening ! The drums were fantastic and the dancers even better! I had steak and french fries for dinner with a glass of red wine!! It tasted soooo goood :-)). Yesterday Stefan figured out what the problem was with our batteries AND FIXED it !!! I continue to be amazed in how good he is in fixing all our problems…I love it ! We also had a nice 2 hour hike in the late afternoon and picked up part 1 of our laundry. Today we had lunch at Keikahahuni restaurant, I had “poisson cru” (raw fish) and Stefan had fettucine in a creamy sauce with fish, we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the restaurant, only accompanied by 3 kittens waiting for leftovers (which there were not). Tomorrow we will pick up part 2 of the laundry, get diesel and leave for supposedly one of the most beautiful bays, Hakatea, just next door.
Traditional dance for the 14th of July festivities.The drums were fantastic !
Taiohae bay on Nuku Hiva.Sanuk captain, with Taiohae bay in the background.Notre Dame Cathedral on Taiohae, opened in 1977.Inside the cathedral.At the Temehea tohua site (ancient ceremonial meeting site) along the seafront with sculptures carved by artists from the island.View down in the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva.The Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva.Walk to the Vai ‘e’enui falls. The scenery is just gorgeous!Refreshing shower and swim at the Vai’e’enui falls.Sunset at Puamau bay.Main street, Puamau.On our way to the Me’ae Te i’i pona site, a well restored ceremonial site of the Na’iki tribe.This is the statue of the priestess Tau’a pepe who died giving birth to a male child. The statue is carved by her husband.
On our return we met Sevrin who was going to cut coconuts for copra. He would show us how this was done. Again the scenery was just beautiful.On the left dried coconut meat which is gathered for the coconut oil industry in Tahiti. Monoi oil is made from coconut oil.Sevrin is showing us how he cuts the meat out of the coconut.Sevrin slashing the coconut open. He invited us to his home to give us grapefruits, lemons and “pommes cythere”, a kind of sweet apple. We took the family for a visit on our boat, which they loved !Sanuk in Puamau Bay on Hiva Oa.
In the bay of Hanavave (population 311), we found usable internet on the boat! Hence, by popular request here are some impressions of our visit to the Marquesas so far. We had to severely downres the pictures in order to be able to upload with the bandwidth challenged connection.
A perfect sailing day during our crossing. Blue skies and some wind so we can use the Code Zero sail. This is one of the last pictures of a complete sail, soon after we had two halves…Stefan preparing beef stew in the middel of the pacific with 28 degrees celsius ! No french fries and no belgian beer though.Finally after 22 days of sailing Hiva Oa on the horizon ! Great to see. The GPS did it again.The last resting place of Jacques Brel on Hiva Oa. Brel died in 1978 from cancer. He was loved by the Marquesan people.Resting place of Paul Gauguin who died here in 1903 from syfillis. Though he loved the young girls (13-14 years), he was not so loved by the Marquesan people.Superb view from the cemetary.Walking the streets in Atuona, Hiva Oa.Taahuku bay on Hiva Oa. This is the check-in place and usually very crowed (Stern anchor hell)Walking in the town of Vaitahu on the island of Tahuata. In 1774, Captain James Cook landed here, and it was here that Admiral Dupetit-Thouars signed the treaty of annexation of the Marquesas to France, in 1842.Ilse in an outrigger canoe. This is a type of canoe featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They are an important part of the polynesian heritage. This particular one features a pretty tourist. (dixit Stefan)One of our hikes out of Vaitahu.Very sweet, juicy and big grapefruits everywhere in the Marquesas. The peel is thumb-thick, but if you leave it alone, it becomes yellow and thin like we know it in Belgium.The beautiful catholic church in Vaitahu made of ships discarded ballast stones. There are no windows in the church except for the stained glass.
Stefan after trading fuel for fruits. We ate a lot of bananas the next 10 days !Getting the breadfruit and pig out of the ground oven during the festivities at the inauguration of the new sportshall.The pig is unwrapped from the banana leaves and put in wooden serving trays. All the women are wearing flowers.Hiking on Tahuata.Lots of coconut trees. Tourism and copra (dried coconut meat), are the most important economies of French Polynesia.Hiking path on Tahuata.Drying coconut meat seen everywhere on the islands.Walking the queens path in the town of Hapatoni on Tahuata island.Hapatoni on Tahuata Island.Snorkeling in Hana Tefau bay on Tahuata.Outrigger canoe on the beach of Hapatoni Bay.Omoa’s sea front on Fatu Hiva.Main street in Omoa.Buying tapa cloth in Omoa. Tapa is a barkcloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In the Marquesas only a couple villages still have tapa . In former times the cloth was primarily used for clothing, but now cotton and other textiles have replaced it.School dance in Omoa for first grade. They learn to swing those hips at an early age.Election of young miss Omoa (population 300). All dresses were made from plants and flowers (by the mothers and aunts).
Today, Thursday June 16th, we have been little over one week in the Marquesas after a passage of 22 days from the Galapagos. It was 6.30 PM when we dropped our anchor in Taahuku bay on Hiva Oa. We anchored temporarily outside the bay because there were too many boats and it was already dark.We immediately smelled
the scent of many flowers, the scenery of steep green mountains dropping in the sea was just gorgeous. We were happy we could finally sleep together again! Although the passage went fine I would not like to do it again!
We only stayed 2 nights in the bay because there was just not enough room for all the boats. We were anchored in between 2 yachts with a stern anchor and thus had to do the same. As the wind was coming from all directions it pulled hard on the rope of the stern anchor and at 7 AM we heard it snap! Stefan fixed it , but at 9 PM we noticed the stern anchor was loose and we were drifting closer to our neighbour. Again Stefan had to go out with Flipper and fix it! We did not sleep well 2 nights in a row. Luckily during the two days we were able to check in at immigration. The check in was only one piece of paper and free. What a nice difference from South America! We visited the town of Atuona and the cemetary with the graves from Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel. They are burried amidst beautifull and peacefull scenery. We were able to buy fresh butter, cream, french bread, frozen lamb and frozen vegetables in a small grocery store, all expensive but at least some change from the c
hiken, fish and rice we had been eating!
We left Hiva Oe on saturday morning and sailed with sun and wind to Tahuata, Hana Moe Noa Bay. Moe Noa means “long sleep” exactly what I needed now. The scenery all along the trip was really superb. Huge steep, green covered clffs that rise out of deep blue water! After barely 2 hours of sailing we arrived in the bay, there were 4 other boats, it was stunning. A white sandy beach with palm trees at the end and on both sides of the bay mountains with green grass, shrubs and palm trees. This was like paradise. We went snorkeling and walked on the beach, enjoyed the beautifull sunset and had a great dinner with lamb on the barbecue. This was perfect! We stayed two days and then visited two more bays on the island. So close to each other but completely different scenery. Resolution Bay (also called Baie de Putain by the french, you can surely find the story behind this on internet as it is too long to tell here) with the town of Vaitahu and Hapatoni Bay with the towns of Tefau and Hapatoni. We hiked in both bays and the views are really breathtaking. The nature is so pure. Very few cars and not so many people. The people are friendly, they all speak french with an accent, but they are reserved. We traded 15 liters gasoline for a bag of grapefruits, two huge stalks of bananas, papaya, pineapple, oranges and coconut. We are eating lots of bananas these days and banana cake! After the snorkeling this morning we left Tahuata to go back to Hiva Oa because we have to get to a bank to get dollars changed in French Polynesian francs. There are only two banks in the Marquesas, on Hiva Oa and on Nuku Hiva which we will visit later. So tonight we are again anchored right outside the bay of Taahuku. We are not alone as the huge cargo-passenger ship Aranui 5 is docked inside the harbour. It comes once every three weeks with tourists and supplies. Hopefully we can leave by noon tomorrow for another bay and more beautifull scenery!
Before we leave just a quick picture blog about our adventures in Ecuador. It already seems so long ago….
The black marker line indicates how we traveled clockwise through Ecuador. From Bahia on the far left (circle) to Quito then on to Banos. In Banos we took the bus to Lago Agrio to do our trip in the Amazone. From their back to Banos, then Alausi, Cuenca (where we felt the earthquake), then to Guayaquil, Manta en by taxi back to Bahia.
After leaving Quito (without Stefan’s IPhone) we went to Banos.
The market in Otavalo, just outside Quito. She only agreed to have her picture taken because I bought a scarve. This is a typical Ecuadorian outfit, white blouse with embroiderie, gold necklaces, colored bracelet, long wool skirt and scarve draped around the shoulders.Eating 2$ lunch in the mercado at Ottavalo.We did a mountainbike ride in Banos, the easy way. It was all downhill and we came back in the back of a truck with our bicycles 🙂Lots of waterfalls around Banos.Coming back from school….On our way to the hot water baths we passed this huge cemetary, in a beautiful location, surrounded by mountains. (Stefan says: some crypts have electric lighting inside, see wire)Going for the calories before our camping trip to the Amazone…
The boat in which we traveled in the Amazone. We traveled through the Cuyabeno wildlife reserve.Camping was very basic and good it did not rain the whole time ! I was happy this was only for 3 nights !Stefan together with Barry (Australia) and Raoul (Honduras), our companions on the trip.One of the many monkey species in the Amazone. It is one of the animals you definitely see the most.The Toucan ! You do not see them very often up close but you can hear them a lot. This was the best picture I could take.Lots of turtles that are now being bred in captivity to increase their population.There are many macaws in the Amazone but you can never come very close. This was one living with local indians.
The Capybara, the largest rodent in the world. This is a baby.A sad monkey captivated by an indigenous family. They keep it as a pet.Nobody home, they were probably gone fishing. This is a hut on the side of the river.Typical hut along the Cuyabeno river.Another type of monkey.More bird wildlife but I could not figure out what kind it was…Small village along the Cuyabeno river.Upon our return, we spent half a day in the warm water baths in Banos. It felt great after our camping days in the Amazone !!!Train ride in the Andes, El nariz del diablo.In front of El nariz del diablo…The train ride only lasted one hour each way but the views were beautiful. We did have a lot of fog going but on our return the clouds had lifted somewhat.Finally some blue skies in Cuenca. The Catedral Metropolitana de la Inmaculada Concepción was only finished in 1885.Typical street in Cuenca. Cuenca is a UNESCO world heritage site and lies at an altitude of 2500M.The blue and white domes from the New Cathedral are a landmark for Cuenca. At its inauguration in 1885, the newly constructed Cathedral could accommodate 9,000 out of Cuenca’s 10,000 inhabitants at that time. Today there are about 500.000 people living in Cuenca.Lots of beautiful churches in Cuenca to visit…Church of Santo Domingo.Belgian cafe in Cuenca…In the corner of the square I had a localy brewed beer made by a Belgian from Ghent 🙂Ingapirca, just outside Cuenca. These are the largest known Inca ruins in Ecuador.
We found some good restaurants in Cuenca and even tasted a roasted cavia (Cuy in Spanish), it was yummi. After the earthquake we wanted to go as quickly as possible back to our boat since we had no news and Bahia was close to the epicentre of the earthquake. We took the bus to Guyaquil, stayed their for one night and then took a bus to Manta from where we had to take a taxi since there were no buses due to the earthquake. The devastation in Bahia was enormous but we were lucky there had not been a tsunami and thus nothing happened to the boat.
We decided to leave asap to the Galapagos as there was nothing for us left to do in Bahia without internet.
Red footed boobie, welcoming us to the Galapagos. He stayed the night on the boat.
Friday, May 13th, on Santa Cruz Island, we have checked in at our last island of the Galapagos. The paperwork to travel with your boat in the Galapagos is significant, as is the cost to go to between harbours (45$)! Everything on the islands is expensive: foodstores, restaurants and tours with the mandatory park guide. But this is definitely one of the highlights of our tour in Ecuador. It is incredible how the animals let you come close and are not afraid of humans. We visited 3 islands: San Cristobal where we picked up Meliena at the airport, then on to Isabela where we put Meliena back on the airplane and lastly Santa Cruz mainly for provisioning to do the “puddlejump”.
I will give an overview of what we have done in the Galapagos through my pictures.
We arrived in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno where we had to fend off the sea lions from our boat. Then we sailed to Puerto Villamil and now we are in Puerto Ayora getting ready to leave for the Marquesas.
The Galapagos were discovered in 1535 by Tomas de Berlanga. Until the 19th century the islands were used as hideout for pirates who robbed the spanish galleons carrying gold and silver from South America, back to Spain. The islands became famous around the world after the survey ship HMS Beagle, arrived in the Galapagos in 1835. On board was a young naturalist named Charles Darwin.The islands became Ecuador’s first national park in 1959, and these now aggressively-protected islands and the surrounding marine reserve were both declared World Heritage sites. We will have stayed almost 3 weeks here and must say a minimum is 7-10days if you can do a cruise between the islands.
Yellow Warbler.Daily visitors on the boat. We had to put up a construction to keep them off the boat because they do not smell so great and leave dirty stains …The male Darwin Finch. There are 13 species of finch on the Galapagos, collectively known as “Darwin Finches”.The Sally Lightfoot crab, Grapsus Grapsus (Latin name). The name comes from their ability to walk on water when they go fron one rock to another. (San Cristobal Island)Darwin statue on San Cristobal island, it is the island where Darwin first went ashore in 1835.We went with our bicycles to El Junco lake, a crater lake of fresh water on San Cristobal. The ride was not as easy as expected, all uphill ! Going back was easy though :-).Stefan and Meliena on San Cristobal island.Sea Lions rule on San Cristobal. They are everywhere, it is the local stray “dog”.The blue footed boobie. The name comes from the Spanish word ‘bobo’ meaning fool or clown. In the Galapagos live three kinds of boobies : the blue footed, the red footed and the nazca boobie. (Punta Pitt, San Cristobal Island)Courtship from the blue footed boobie. They always lay 2 eggs but in 90% of the cases only the first chick to hatch survives. The second one most of the time starves. Survival of the fittest ! (Punta Pitt, San Cristobal Island)Red Footed boobies at Punta Pitt on San Cristobal Island.Scenery of our walk at Punta Pitt. (San Cristobal island)Kicker Rock seen through a cave near San Cristobal island. Spanish name is Leon dormido, it is a remainder of a lava cone, split in two.The newly (2015) paved road from the harbour into town.Isabela Island, Los Tunneles where we snorkeled with the Galapagos penguins, sea lions, and even sharks. Taken with our underwater camera.Meliena with the penguins and a blue footed boobie. These penguins only live on the Galapagos and stay here all year long.(Isabela Island)Meliena on the boat, on our way to Punta Pitt. (San Cristobal island)Dolphins jumping out of the water when we returned from our trip to Punta Pitt. (San Cristobal island)Flamingos getting ready for the evening on Isabela Island.A 100 year old tortoise after a long day… Don’t worry, he is still alive! The Galápagos giant tortoise is the largest living species of tortoise. Galápagos tortoises can weigh up to 417 kg. Today, giant tortoises exist only on the Galápagos and on Aldabra in the Indian Ocean, 700 km east of Tanzania. Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 3,000 in the 1970s. Conservation efforts beginning in the 20th century, have resulted in thousands of juveniles being released onto their ancestral home islands, and the total number of the species is estimated to have exceeded 19,000 at the start of the 21st century.Tortoise on our bicycle trip to the Wall of Tears on Isabela island.Meliena and myself in front of the Wall of Tears. El Muro de las Lágrimas was constructed between 1945 and 1959 by Ecuadorian prisoners shipped to the island. The wall is about 25 m tall and has apparently been the cause of thousands of deaths during its construction.(Isabela Island)View on top of the hill at Isabela Island. The harbour is in the background.Tortoise slowly crossing the road to the Wall of Tears on Isabela Island.The marine iguana is an iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to forage in the sea, making it a marine reptile. The iguana can dive over 9 m deep. They can be found on the rocks to warm up from the cold water.The Striated Heron. He is focussing to catch a fish, but he missed.On the Sierra Negra volcano that rises to an altitude of 1124m. In the back the huge crater. (Isabela Island)In front of the crater of the Sierra Negra volcano. It is one of the most active of the Galapagos volcanoes with the most recent historic eruption in October 2005The volcano has the largest caldera of all of the Galapagos volcanoes, with dimensions of 7.2 x 9.3 km. The caldera is also the shallowest of the Isabela volcanoes at only 100m.Meliena in front of the large caldera of the Sierra Negra volcano. It was a beautiful hike from 8 AM to 1 PM. (Isabela Island)Los Tuneles on Isabela Island. A series of lava flows have created hundreds of arches and tunnels, both above and below the water.Los Tuneles on Isabela island.The airport waiting hall on Isabela Island. We were the only ones waiting for the plane that day. One week was too short but we were happy we got at least that! 🙂 We will see each other again in November in Boston!
Today, May 15th, all the laundry is done, we have the tanks filled with diesel. We still have some food shopping to do and then we can leave for the Marquesas on May 17th. We think it will take about 25-30 days of sailing….
Voor onze blog lezers: dit is een speciale blog die dienst doet als klachtenbrief
April 2016
Quick Summary:
My wife and myself had a bad experience that I wish to share so other people can avoid this. So:
Avoid Marco Polo Tours (marcopolotour.com) in Lago Agrio with owner Ivan LLori
Avoid Murillo Quiroz Freddy Rogelio (Freddy) of Extremos San Limites Aventur / Rutas Doradas Expeditiones in Banos
Freddy will sell you what you want to hear, at a commision and then be unavailable for backing up what he sold.
Ivan is not true to his word, overcharged us, and is not a pleasant person to have with you on a trip.
Wildlife along the rivermyself, Barry and Raoul. Ilse is taking the picture. We just finished dinner around the fire.Our camp, underneath the large plasic tarp are four tents for two persons.Our canou at the deserted hotel. Ivan is in the canou.
The long story:
My wife Ilse and myself, Stefan, wanted to see the Amazon and the indigenous people in a personal way, instead of being part of a
big group. While Ilse speaks relatively good spanish, I am an absolute beginner that has to use my French knowledge to try to understand the language.
So to us it was important to have an individual tour, and an english speaking guide. Further we wished to have a pleasant 4 day / 3 nights
travel experience in the amazon jungle, camping in tents along the way while visiting remote sites. We were willing to pay a correct premium price for this custom made trip.
We sat down with Freddy Rogelio of Extremos San Limites Aventur in Banos for a couple of hours, while he took us through the available options and confered with his organizer (Ivan LLori) in Lagro Agrio. Together, they proposed a 4 day tour that would take us to the Yasuni NP, where we would meet the indigenous people, at a cost of 1000 USD for the two of us.
Of this, we payed 300USD to Freddy up front.
This was to be an individual tour, with an english speaking licenced guide, and a crew of four other support people. The price was steep, but this was because of the expense involved in a private tour, where all the support material had to be carried along (tents, cooking material, food) in the boat.
We left the next evening on a night bus Banos-Lago Agrio, included in the trip. When we got to Lago Agrio at 5:30, we waited in the
bus station to be picked up, which happened after half an hour, since the bus was a bit early. We were taken by a woman,
(who turned out to be Ivan’s wife) and a cab driver to the office of Marco Polo Tours where we had to wait till 7:00 to get breakfast in a nearby hotel.
Strangely enough, the breakfast price was not included in the tour package. We found this odd, given the price we payed, and told the woman so. She said that was the way it was.
We stated very clearly to her (in spanish) that we were paying for a personal tour, with a licenced english speaking guide, and the woman confirmed this explitly (Si, no problemo). This turned out to be a complete and deliberate lie. Feeling a bit at unease by the initial experience, we asked if we could pay 500USD of the remaining sum of 700 USD before the start of the trip, and 200 USD at the end, but after calling back and forth between Ivan and his wife, this was not possible, since he had bought all the supplies already. Reluctantly, we payed the whole sum.
We had trouble with getting money from the ATM, but they were very helpful to let us call our US bank credit card helpline, and drove us to several ATMs in the city. In the end we were able to retrieve money from the ATM, and payed.
We squeezed in the back of the taxi truck with our backpacks, and two other persons, for what we thought was a short ride. In the front was the cab driver and Ivan’s daughter with a 20 week old baby (She turned out to be just hitching a ride, since we never saw her on the rest of the trip). In the back were Ilse, myself, our daypacks, Ivan’s wife and another person (!) Needless to say it was very cramped. The ride lasted an hour, with a stop at a gas station to fill two large diesel containers, and two short stops in town for something. It was sweltering hot in the truck, and we were very happy to get there, since we were cramped with our backpack on our knees.
When we arrived at the departure point we met our team. Well this is to say we saw a long canoe, with two persons on board. Everybody ignored us, which we found rude. A person in the canou was shouting orders to the other helpers as they were loading the canou with the stuff from the taxi truck.
Finally, as everything was loaded, the person in the canou said in Spanish: I am here to make sure that the others do everything correct, I cannot walk because of my leg injuries, but you will have no trouble from me. Since they failed to introduce themselves, we did so, and asked for everybody’s name. There was the handicapped man, Ivan, the canou driver Martin, the cook Maria, some silent person and the spanish speaking guide Javier, who assured us that his english speaking friend would come on board soon.
We left around 1 pm and left for a lodge where we would have lunch. Along the way, we enjoyed the beautiful nature and made frequent stops to identify and point out the wildlife. Just before our stop, the silent guy left the boat: it turned out we were giving him a ride to a lodge.
When we informed about what would happen that day, Ivan explained that it was impossible to go to the Yasuni NP with just 4 days, and that we would visit the Cuyabeno NP instead. When we explained that Freddy in Banos had promised us a circle tour, (I.e. not going out on a river and coming back the same way) Ivan did not agree and explained that the return leg would then be on the ‘petrol exploration’ river, where there was no wildlife to be seen. He proposed instead a special tour to Cuyabeno indiginous people with a visit to a shaman (village chief) and a drink of the indigenous special brew. He said that he would of course take us to wherever we wanted to go, since we were the paying guests (as if we had knowledge of where to go).
The lunch was simple but good, and after an hour we got back into the boat. Suddenly two more men with backpacks climbed in the canou, and I politedly inquired who they might be. They turned out to be two extra tourists, going along for the ride. After assuring the two men that this was not personal, I objected to Ivan, who said that it is impossible to do this tour with only two guests. I asked the new guys, Barry (from Australia) and Raoul (a biologist from Hunduras) how much they payed, and it was about half of the price we payed (But admittedly they did not have to pay an intermediate sales person). So here we were, in the middle of the jungle, the trip payed up, and an organiser who said (in spanish) “it is what it is”. Ilse and I decided to go along, and complain afterwards asking for a partial refund.
Luckily, Barry and Raoul turned out to be two friendly and interesting guys, who added to our enjoyement of the tour.
That evening, about an hour before nightfall, Ivan started looking for a place to camp. We found one, but after Javier had cleared the area with a machette, Ivan found it too small. So we searched for another site, and by the time they were ready to put up the tents, it was getting dark. The tents turned out to be a mix a four relatively new (10 years?) 2-person tents, and an old 4 person tent. None of the tents had a outside rainshield cover, one had a torn mosquito net, there were no pickets, and the fiberglass rods for the small tents had seen better days, as some were split from too much tension. To their credit, Martin and Javier did a good job of setting up the tents (it seemed to be their first time too), and put all the tents underneath a giant plastic sheet that they supported by sticks cut in the jungle. All of this happened under the ‘guidance’ from Ivan, who stayed in the canou while he helped Maria, the cook. I might add they finished in the pitch black.
We built a fire, and ate our dinner while sitting around the fire on the boat benches.
We slept ok, and the next morning awakened to sound of waterdrops on the plastic sheet. It turned out to be the remainder of rain and the dew that was dripping from the trees, making it sound worse that it actually was. This is the rain forest, after all.
The next morning, I saw that our guide took a dip in the murky brown river, and was in and out very quickly. I was just about to do the same when he stopped me. He showed me two bleeding skin patches on his torso, caused by hungry piranhia’s. I wisely took a cooking pot and got some water from the river to wash me instead…
That second day, we enjoyed the amazon jungle, and made frequent stops along the way to look at the wildlife (Birds, turtles, monkeys, dolphins. In the late afternoon, we visited a large indigenous community, and found that they had a covered raised platform, which would be ideal for the night. We asked Ivan if we could sleep there, and he made the necessary arrangements with the village chief.
Dinner was served on a nearby river sandbank, where we had the opportunity to swim, relax and learn how to fish like the locals. While Ivan, Maria, Martin stayed to sleep on the river island, we went to the village where Javier had pitched our tents on the platform. It was the end of a nice day.
The following morning, we waited till around 9am before Martin came with the canou to fetch us and the tents. Then it was back to the sandbank, where Maria still had to start the breakfast. There was no schedule to the days of Ivan, so it was always a wait and see thing.
After cleanup of the kitchen, we left for another nice day. The son of the village chief went with us, to guide us on a walk through the jungle. The canou dropped us off at the start of a path, and then went to the endpoint of the walk to pick us back up. The two hour walk was very nice, and showed us another side of the rainforest, from the ground instead of from a waterbound canou. Unfortunatly we did not see any wildlife, only heard the sounds of birds and monkeys.
The walk ended at a lake, where we took the canou to visit a nice but empty jungle hotel, that was all locked up. Sadly, this splendid accomodation, owned by the indigenous people, was too far of the beaten path to attract tourists, and so it was boarded up. After a while, we took the canou and left the lake through an overflow channel, which took us on a beautiful trip through dense vegetation. A tough job for Martin the driver (lifting the motor over many submerged branches) and Javier, guiding the long boat from the front, often by paddling the bow in the right direction. A highlight of the day!
We made one stop in another village, where we enjoyed a visit to the house of the village elder, who had a Capybari couple with a young in captivity, a parrot and a monkey. We bought some souvenirs and returned to Ivan, who as always remained in the canou (Because of his handicap which made it very difficult for him to walk)
The last night we spent on a wet sandbank, where we arrived a half hour before dark. You would think Ivan knows that he needed at least 1,5 hour to set up camp, but alas. It started raining, so Maria had to cook in the rain… Luckily it stopped soon after, and we were able to eat in the open, and not underneath the low ceiling of the plastic sheet. Ivan did not show himself that evening, and maybe that was good, because our patience with him was wearing thin. Lots and lots of promises, but little actual delivery. The visit to the shaman did not materialize, nor the indigenous drink. For example, we had lunch in a wooden house of an indigenous family along the water, but they were off to the jungle. We almost landed twice at a village, but turned away just before mooring because Ivan did not like it.
Ivan had suddenly revealed just before the last camp that there was a way to avoid the 8 hour return trip by canou along the same way, by taking a two hour bus ride (Ivan would still have to make the 8 hour canou ride). We said that was a good idea (why bring it up so late?) and would take that opportunity. The next morning, Ivan said we would have to take the long 8 hour ride anyway, since he was low on gas, and would not have enough to take us to the bus and then make the return trip himself. We rebeled, and told Ivan not to be such a cheap shot and buy some gas along the way, since every house has gas available.
Ivan did also not want to eat with an indigenous family, since they would expect him to share the food with them (and he wanted to avoid the expense of that)
All of this is a bit hard to stomach if you have payed a lot of money for the trip…
So on the last day, after our bus ride we arrived back around noon at the office in Lagro Agrio, where we picked up our luggage. Unfortunately for Barry, his backpack which was laying in the unprotected office had dissappeared. Probably because of a mixup with another group that had their luggage collected by a third person, but it goes to show that there was no adequate control in the office. I hope he got it back, since there we a lot of valuables in it. [Update: he emailed us that some other group had taken his backpack by mistake and was able to chase them down and recover his pack ]
We explained to Ivans wife that we wanted a refund of 200 USD pp, which would bring us in line with the price Barry and Raoul had payed, and she was sympathetic and confered by GSM with Ivan, on his way with the canou. We had to wait till Ivan showed up. Once he did, Ivan’s wife changed character and flatly denied that at the start of the trip she had confirmed that we were going on a private tour with an english speaking guide.
To make a long story short, Ivan blamed Freddy (the Banos seller), and Freddy blamed Ivan. Both said we had to resolve our issue with the other one.
I told Ivan and Freddy that my only recourse was to publish this on the internet, but that elicited no reaction. So that is exactly what I have done here.
Looking back on this adventure, don’t think that we did not have a good time. After all, the nature is splendid, the 3 support people made the best of the given situation and were very friendly, and Barry and Raoul turned out to be very nice people.
Our only quarrel was with Ivan as a person and an organiser, and the price of the trip.
In conclusion,
– Do not trust the sales guy Freddy in Banos, he is totally untrustworthy about knowing and delivering what he sells. Maybe he is ok with air rides, canyoning or waterfall visits, but clearly not multi day trips for which he uses Marco Polo Tours. When we got back to Banos, he was conveniently on a trip, and in order to talk with him, we had to buy the boys in the ‘office’ 2 USD cell minutes…
– Do not use the marco polo tours travel agency in Lago Agrio because Ivan is not a nice person to be around, is not a good organizer and overpromises and under delivers.
You can reach me on stefan@decuypere.org if you want more information. Please be advised that I am traveling and may not be able to answer right away.
Sunday, April 3rd, La Mitad del mundo. We arrived on the equator around 10.30 AM and hardly any tourist was there. It was cloudy but no rain. Zero degrees latitude is the line designating the Equator and divides the Earth into two equal hemispheres (north and south) as defined by Wikipedia. Gent latitude is 51.0543° N. I never used to care about latitude and longitude but now that we are sailing we have to record the position of the boat in our log book and so when we left Panama I could follow how we were slowly but surely creeping to the zero degrees latitude. I remember we crossed the equator at 4.19 AM (do not remember the day and I have the logbook not at hand)on my shift, the sea was flat as a lake and it was a little foggy, it was an eerie feeling and we were only crossing an imaginary line.
Low clouds over the surrounding mountains.0 latitude was first measured in 1736 on a geodesic mission to the equator. The mission was lead by the French (together with Spanish) who left in May 1735 and arrived in Ecuador in June 1736! They completed the measurements in 1739. They were real adventurers and incredible scientists.The method used to measure the circumference of the earth at the equator is triangulation. Triangulation is a surveying technique in which a region is divided into a series of triangles based on a line of known length so that accurate measurements of distances and directions may be made with trigonometry. If you ever wondered what cosinus and sinus were used for…
After enjoying the different pavillions we enjoyed the performance of some folk dances in traditional clothing.
Traditional folk dancing.
We had fun watching and listening to the Andean tunes.
Right next to the village are the headquarters of the UNASUR, Unión de Naciones Suramericanas, unifying 12 countries.Former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner was unanimously elected the first Secretary General of UNASUR for a two-year term.Stefan had to try one of these sweets, no ice-cream but a kind of marshmallowy substance.We visited also a small museum next to the village, Museo Solar Inti Nan, which is more exactly situated on the equator. We had fun and it was a perfect way to end our visit.
Although very touristy we really enjoyed our day at La Mitad del mundo !
Friday, April 1, 2016, we took the bus in Bahia de Caraquez at 8 AM in the morning, packed with a minimum of clothes but hopefully sufficient for the 2-3 weeks we will be away in the different climates of Ecuador and Peru. I do not like packing suitcases with this limitation…The bus ride of 9 hours was uneventfull and I slept a good part of the way. When we were getting closer to Quito it started to rain, when we arrived in Quito it was pouring water, cold and dark ! Oh well, hopefully for not too long. We managed to find a bus going in the direction of our hotel (25 cents) and only had to walk a couple blocks. After we asked several times we found it ! Strange, the doors were closed and it was only 7 PM. We knocked loud on the door and sure enough somebody came and opened the door. It was the entrance of a store, restaurant and the Bed and Breakfast was in the back. We were disappointed by the size of the room and two separate beds and the bathroom was down the hall…But, it is only for sleeping (says Stefan) so no complaints 🙂
Saturday, April 2, 2016, we got up early and had a vegatarian breakfast and immediately left for a visti of Quito historic centre. It was cloudy but it did not rain. They told us the mornings were usually dry ! It is the rainy season till May and apparently because of El Nino it rains more than normal. Temperatures are only around 17-18 degrees celsius which is much colder than we are used to ! When we got to Quito there were even some blue patches in the sky. The historic center of Quito is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Basilica del voto NacionalThe garden inside the San Francisco abbey.The church of San Francisco was built in 1550.The garden in San Francisco Abbey. Pope Franciscus visited Quito in July of 2015.Santa Domingo IglesiaEl RondaPlaza San Franciscochurch of San FranciscoView of the cathedral of Quito. Construction started in 1562 and completed in 1806!Flag of Ecuador at the Grand Plaza. The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa is married to a Belgian whom he met at the catholic university of Leuven (UCL) where he studied Economics. He is president since 2006.Strawberry pie on the Grand Plaza. Ecuadorians are small and like lots of sweets.Iglesia de la Compania is a Jesuit church built in 1605 in baroque style and completed in 1765. You are not allowed to take pictures inside.La Compania church in Quito. Picture taken from the internet. The church is heavily decorated with leaf gold and gilded plaster and a perfect example of Spanish baroque.
We ended our visit of Quito in the pouring rain but decided to go to La Capilla de l’Hombre (the chapel of man) from a famous Ecuadorian painter, Oswaldo Guayasamin, in one of the suburbs of Quito, Bellavista. I had never heard of the artist but I really liked his art. Today in El Mitad del Mundo there was a small pavillion dedicated to him with some more artwork, more of this in my blog tomorrow.
Self portrait.El Condor y el Toro is one of the most famous works of Guayasamin. It is a ritual fight in which a condor is tied to a bull’s neck. If the condor wins the fight it means good fortune for the coming year (harvest). This ritual is apparently still done in Peru but not till the condor dies.Guayasamin saw injustice in the world and fought against it through his art. As an indigenous Ecuadorian from a modest family he experienced injustice himself. You can find more pictures of his art on the internet.
It was a perfect ending of the day, unfortunately in the pouring rain. Happy to arrive back in our little hotel room :-).
Today, March 29th, we are safely on a mooring in Bahia de Caraquez in Ecuador. We arrived here after 5 and a half days of sailing from Las Perlas in Panama. More about the sail in my next blog. I still have not mentioned anything about the three islands we visited in Las Perlas.
On March 16th, Wednesday, we left Isla Taboga at 9 AM to sail to the first island in Las Perlas being Isla Contadora. We got there just in time before the sunset at 6 PM. It was a great day sailing. We did not have a lot of wind all the time and so motor sailed for about one hour when the wind dropped to less than 3 KTS. At times it felt like we were sailing on a lake ! The sea was so calm. Contadora was the island where the Spanish counted the pearls that were harvested from the other islands in the archipelago. The islands produced pearls of many colors and sizes, and during the many years when pearls were harvested from the waters around the islands, the natives would converge to Contadora to count their pearls and sell them to the Spaniards. Early last century there was an underwater epidemic which killed most of the pearl oysters. I was hoping to be able to buy some pearls but no shops to be found on the island. We did make a tour after a rough landing with flipper through the surf and I was thrown out into the water (luckily no harm done only wet shorts and t-shirt and a bruise on my behind). There are lots of beautiful vacation homes from rich panamians spending their WE and holidays on the island. While we were there, there was not a lot of action. The hotel right on the beach had good internet and so we decided to have a drink there to get the password. A small pineapple juice cost us 4.5 USD but at least we could use their internet from the boat :-). The only problem now was getting back to the boat with Flipper through the surf… we managed fairly well, waiting until the waves were not too high…patience is very important when travelling with a boat :-).
We bought a fish (corvina)from the fishermen who came by our boat. We paid 10USD which is a lot but at least he also cleaned the fish ! We had fish for 2 days.A new toy for when you get bored with the jet ski, It is called Flyboarding….The landing strip on the island was right next to a house ! Several flights fly in daily from Panama city.View of the villas and motor yachts on isla Contadora.The hotel were we had our drink and from where we could enjoy the internet. The beach was called Cacique beach.
March 19th, Saturday, we decided to leave before all the vacationing Panamanians would arrive. At noon we decided to sail to Isla Pedro Gonzalez. We had heard that we would be able to “beach” the boat there since there was a nice stretch of sand without rocks. Since we are in the Pacific the tide difference is not the 30 cm we were used to but now it is about 2-3 meters ! So it is very important you know if you are anchoring at high tide or low tide ! We arrived at 5.30 PM but noticed that on the place where we should have been able to beach the boat they had now build a new marina ! The docks were empty except for one large motor yacht but were almost ready to be used. On the other side they were constructing a dock for fueling (we later found out) and so we turned and anchored on the other side of the village. Clearly lots of development is going on in the islands.
The village of Pedro Gonzalez.Roosters on the right side of the street all tied to a stone. They must have regular cockfights.A beautiful example, no feathers on the legs.Stefan in one of the streets of San Pedro Gonzalez.Sanuk in the background.Another beautiful rooster, ready for a fight.
The roosters made me think of the book I read from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, No one writes to the colonel,
It is the story of a poor, veteran colonel and his wife living in Colombia during the years of La Violencia (1948-1958) . The colonel desperately tries to sell the rooster, their inheritance from their only son who is now dead. He is caught between either feeding the rooster and traning for a cockfight or selling the rooster to have money to eat for themselves. I really enjoyed reading the book.
We walked through the town wanting to go to the other side of the island but were stopped at a construction site. The men did not want to let us walk any furhter as this was now private property. The development was called “Pearl Island”, the construction workers had t-shirts and caps with the logo and name, and they were serious we were not to pass. I looked it up on the internet and sure enough a huge luxurious development with a Ritz Carlton is being built in the future. Times are changing…
We left Isla Pedro Gonzalez on March 20th, sunday at noon not sure where we would get before sunset. We just made it to Punta Coco Beach, the southern tip of Isla Del Rey. I was happy we could just anchor with the last bit of light. We noticed a boat from the police or naval authorities but did not think much of it. But 10 minutes later they were at our boat asking us to leave immediately as there was a prison and obviously they did not want us anchored there. In the mean time it had turned dark! We pleaded with them if we could not stay just one night and then leave early in the morning but they were firm, we had to go to the next village and anchor there. So back to the anchor routine, I was getting bitten by no-see-ums and thus was kind of happy we left. Only now we had to find an anchor spot in the dark…20 minutes later we anchored at Rio Cacique in 6 meters and sand bottom. Another yacht was anchored further in the bay. It was 7.30 PM by the time we could start preparing dinner…Rio Cacique was a nice little bay. We went with Flipper up the river an hour before high tide and turned off the motor letting the tide do its work.
Stefan on the river with low tide.
I could identify this bird. Dad any idea what this is ?Spotting birds on Rio Cacique at low tide.
With Flipper through the mangroves on Rio Cacique.Clearly low tide, an hour later this was a river.A white egret.
On March 22nd, we decided to “beach” Sanuk with the early high tide at 4.40 AM so we would be able to clean the bottom and Stefan could change the zinks.
At 6 AM Sanuk was sitting on the beach !A strange sight to have the boat on the sand.View from the boat of the retreating sea. We have time till about 1 PM to have all the work done.
We were done with all the work by noon and now had to wait till the water did its work and got the boat back out of the sand. This was not such an easy process as we first thought it would be. The tide wanted to push the boat higher on the beach while we tried to keep the boat away from the beach. On top of that the current was not working with us either. Afther some running back and forth with a second anchor and trying to keep the boat afloat away from the beach we finally made it back into the water but it was definitely not an easy exercise. We were both very happy to be back at anchor by about 3 PM. We prepared the two mackerels and put them in the freezer ready to be eaten while sailing to Ecuador.
Two mackerels we bought for 2 USD and 2 colas.
We left Rio Cacique at 10.30 AM on Wednesday, March 23rd for about 636 NM to Bahia de Caraquez in Ecuador.
Sanuk 2014-2018 travel stories 