Lonely Planet Traveller (December 2015)

Great Escape
E C U A D O R
Explore the colonial capital Quito, before delving deep into cloud forest, where
hummingbirds flit and pumas stalk; next, head high into the Andes and meet the
indigenous craftspeople of Otavalo, set out from Ibarra on a scenic train ride,
and end your adventure among the unique wildlife of the Galápagos
@peter_grunert l PHOTOGRAPHS PHILIP LEE HARVEY
@PhilipLeeHarvey
G R E AT E S C A P E
WORDS PETER GRUNERT
Well-camouflaged
marine iguanas bask
on lava rocks (and one
another) on the
Galápagos Islands
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
45
ECUADOR
Plan your trip
2
Take a walk
deep into
cloud forest,
one of the most
biodiverse
environments
on Earth (p52).
3
The Andean
market town of
Otavalo is the
home to weavers,
flute makers and the
best roast pig in
Ecuador (p54).
4
Pass (straight)
through
volcanoes and over
canyons on the Tren
de la Libertad,
departing from
Ibarra (p56).
Look out for
5
Head across
the Pacific to
the Galápagos
to meet marine
iguanas, giant
tortoises and
sea lions (p58).
HOW TO GET THERE
There are no direct flights from the UK.
Flights with Iberia (via Madrid) or KLM
(via Amsterdam) take around 15 hours
and start from £540 (iberia.com, klm.
com). British nationals can visit Ecuador
for up to 90 days without a visa.
on the island of Santa Cruz in the
Galápagos. For £300 and upwards,
options include exceptionally
comfortable haciendas, jungle lodges
and small cruise ships. For travellers
aged over 12, a flat $100 (£65) entrance
tax applies on arrival in the Galápagos.
HOW TO GET AROUND
WHEN TO GO
Buses are the staple form of transport,
linking most towns and varying from
plush and air-conditioned on routes
between major cities, to basic. Budget
no more than £1 per hour of travel.
Trains are used for sightseeing trips
rather than as general transport. Car
hire outlets are mostly limited to Quito,
Guayaquil or Cuenca. As rural roads are
often cobbled or even unpaved, better
to hire a car with a driver. Expect to pay
from £80 per day, plus an allowance for
meals and accommodation for your
driver. Lan Ecuador operates daily
flights from Quito to Baltra in the
Galápagos, taking just over two hours
(from £140; lan.com).
MAP ILLUSTRATION: ALEX VERHILLE. PHOTOGRAPHS: MSHIELD PHOTOS/ALAMY
STOCK PHOTO, CHRIS MATTISON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
HOW LONG TO SPEND
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Lonely Planet Traveller January 2016
Ecuador encompasses great diversity
within a compact landmass – travelling
the 400 miles from its western to
eastern edges will carry you from the
Pacific coast to the Andean highlands
and deep into rainforest, passing grand
colonial cities along the way. Given the
long journey from the UK, allow a
minimum of eleven days/nine nights to
get a rounded taste of the country, plus
up to a week extra if you hope to add a
cruise around the Galápagos Islands or
along a tributary of the Amazon.
Include a couple of days to acclimatise
gently to the 2,850m altitude in Quito.
WHAT TO BUDGET
Travel around mainland Ecuador is
extremely affordable if you stay in
guesthouses and use the bus network.
On a budget of around £30 a day you’ll
have enough left over to eat in a good
restaurant each day. For £100-150 a
day, mid-range hotels in Quito come
within reach, as do locally arranged
tours based around jungle lodges or
January to May is low season in the
Andean highlands, with cooler, rainier
days. That time also happens to be high
season in the Galápagos, when seas are
calmer and warmer, and plant growth is
at its most profuse. The sunniest,
clearest days in the Andes are from June
to September, also when rainfall
reduces over tropical areas of Ecuador
towards the Amazon. For a wideranging tour to include the Galápagos,
travelling during the months of April
and May strikes a good compromise.
Ecuador has several active volcanoes,
with Wolf on Isabela island in the
Galápagos and Cotopaxi, 30 miles
south of Quito, both erupting in
summer 2015. Volcanic activity can
disrupt flights and affect air quality over
a large area, so check the Ecuador page
on fco.gov.uk for headlines and links to
more detailed local websites.
WHO CAN HELP
Cox & Kings offers a broad range of
group and private tours of Ecuador,
including the Galápagos. A nine-night
tailor-made trip staying at the mix of
modern boutique hotels, haciendas and
a colonial mansion mentioned in this
feature, with all international and
internal flights, airport transfers and
breakfasts included, costs from £4,395
(coxandkings.co.uk).
HOW TO
PLAN
Pick up Lonely
Planet’s Ecuador
& the Galápagos
Islands (£16.99;
lonelyplanet.
com). The tourist
website is
ecuador.travel.
Traces of Ecuador’s pre-Columbian
history, stretching back to 12,000
BC. These include mounds covering
ancient temples in the countryside
and ceramic sculptures of sun
gods, volcano spirits, jaguars and
shamans in Quito’s museums.
Say
‘Napaykullayki!’
That’s hello in Ecuadorian Kichwa,
the first language of many
indigenous people in the Andes.
Eat
Guinea pig, or cuy, is
a treat in the Andes.
The rodent is roasted
or deep fried, has brittle,
crispy skin, and tastes
somewhere between
chicken and suckling pig.
Read
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of
Species, for his theory of evolution.
After five weeks on the Galápagos in
1835, he wrote: ‘The natural history of
this archipelago is very remarkable: it
seems to be a little world within itself.’
G R E AT E S C A P E
1
Meet local
shopkeepers
among the colonial
era buildings of
Quito, the highest
capital city in
the world (p50).
ON THE ROAD
Keep it there
Be aware that there’s a ban on taking
home any natural objects you might
be tempted to pick up in the
Galápagos National Park – even
a humble beachcombed shell.
Bring it
back
Much of the world’s finest
cocoa is grown in the
low-lying provinces of
Ecuador. The Arriba
Nacional variety is used to
make deliciously smooth,
floral tasting chocolate.
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
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G R E AT E S C A P E
History unfolds
in the Andes…
The Plaza San Francisco in
Quito. To the left are the
church of San Francisco and its
monastery, the largest colonial
buildings in Ecuador’s capital
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Lonely Planet Traveller January 2016
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
49
ECUADOR
The church of San
Francisco’s gilded
interior. The sculpture
below to the left is of the
Virgin of the Apocalypse,
a symbol of Quito
G R E AT E S C A P E
Guide Paola Carrera
holds ingredients for
the tonic agua de vida.
Above Hat maker
César Anchala
Essentials
1. Quito
Start your journey by exploring grand colonial monuments and tiny local shops
T
HE PIERCING BLUE LIGHT
of a high altitude dawn breaks
over the old town of Quito,
as dogs chase pick-up trucks
carrying produce to market.
The trucks clatter over rambling streets
cobbled with stones taken from the slopes
of the Pichincha volcano looming above.
Shopkeepers lift shutters, waving to one
another as their wares are set out: sackfuls
of cumin and cinnamon; aluminium pans;
teetering piles of cows’ hooves; piñatas in
the shapes of unicorns, Minnie Mouse and
SpongeBob SquarePants.
Layers of commerce take place on these
steep, narrow backstreets. In front of the
shops, ladies in felt trilbies and woollen
ponchos roll mats across pavements. From
these they offer corn on the cobs, potatoes
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Lonely Planet Traveller January 2016
and avocados grown in the villages they
commute in from each day.
‘All around us you can hear chismes,’
says Paola Carrera, a guide to the San Roque
neighbourhood. ‘This is our word for the
secrets – the news and the gossip – shared
by these vendors, brought to our capital
from across Ecuador.’ Paola’s mother runs a
shop here selling agua de vida, the water of
life. This intensely sweet tonic is made from
25 plants, including the amaranth flowers
that give its bright pink colour, and herbs
from as far away as the Amazon.
‘I’ve always enjoyed living here, above the
shop,’ says Paola. ‘The buildings in the
neighbourhood are so traditional, they have
such character. The people who belong to
San Roque have strong ties to it, and it has
always drawn visitors.’
Like most locals who pass the imposing
whitewashed church of San Francisco
nearby, Paola crosses herself beneath its
massive wooden doors; some also touch the
sculptures of sun gods at its entrance, an
action said to give energy.
The church’s foundation stone was laid in
1535, soon after Spanish conquistadors
arrived here from Andalucía. In a pragmatic
move to win local support, Franciscan
monks allowed religious symbols familiar to
the indigenous Quitu people to blend with
the Catholicism of the invading forces. The
conquistadors also brought with them a
Moorish architectural style from Islamic
North Africa, and saw their wealth reflected
in the spectacular gilding of the interior; for
the people of Quito, the gold reflected the
ever-lasting power of their sun god.
Walking further into the neighbourhood,
Paola introduces some of the artisans who
inhabit the shops here. Don Gonzalo
Gallardo specialises in restoring religious
effigies: he shows us a plastic baby Jesus
singed in a house fire, and an armless
plaster-of-Paris Virgin Mary accidentally
knocked from a living room shrine. César
Anchala runs Sombrerería Benalcázar, a hat
shop established by his father 65 years ago.
He uses the same molds and irons to form
the varied styles of trilbies on offer, made
with felt from sheep, goats and rabbits. His
is a diverse business, selling masks to be
worn at festivals such as Inti Raymi, with
origins that can be traced back to the Incas
who came here in the 15th century. They
depict mildly terrifying demons, plus a few
Ecuadorian politicians.
In San Roque’s market, a queue has
formed outside Rosa Correa’s stall, despite
the screams coming from within. A young
couple emerges from behind a curtain, eyes
agog. Like many of Rosa’s clients, they pay
£6 a week for a treatment aimed at removing
stresses and influence from the evil eye.
Rosa is a fourth-generation shaman who
practises a technique that involves
cheerfully whipping her clients with a
succession of plants; her shelves are piled
with chillis, marigolds, rose petals, mint
and nettles. The old beliefs continue to run
deep here, and occasionally sting a little.
Leave the traffic of Quito behind on the highway
towards Mindo, wending your way for two hours
through heavily forested hills. You’ll turn off onto an
unpaved road, so hire a 4x4 – ideally with driver.
Enjoy considerable comfort at Casa
Gangotena, set at the edge of Plaza San
Francisco and with views far across the
Centro Histórico from its rooftop terrace.
Spacious rooms have gigantic beds and
bathrooms clad in Italian marble (from £270;
casagangotena.com).
Casa Gangotena has a Live Quito Like a
Local tour for guests (£135, including lunch).
The church and adjacent monastery of San
Francisco are free to enter.
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
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ECUADOR
2. The Cloud Forest
Pull on your wellies for a walk deep into a rainforest, offering a glimpse of mysterious
creatures emerging from elaborate foliage and swirling mists
of waterways, slash-and-burn farming and
illegal logging.
José used to be a subsistence farmer,
growing peanuts, cassava and bananas. He
then joined the logging trade. Fourteen years
ago a private lodge was built on the site of
the local sawmill, so José came to work here
instead. This became an eco-hotel, Mashpi,
sitting in a 1,200 hectare wildlife reserve
where once there was a logging concession.
The reserve is set within a 17,000 hectare
buffer zone for sustainable development,
aimed at offering animals the corridors to
migrate between pockets of rainforest.
José has an intimate knowledge of this
forest that comes from having spent much
of his life wandering through it. He predicts
the clattering rush of a rufous-breasted
wood quail by the slightest rustle of a leaf in
the undergrowth. He reveals a glade beneath
a fast-tumbling waterfall where fireflies like
to gather at night. He points to a fruit loved
by Chocó toucans – one that sends them a
little high – and a fungus known as dead
man’s fingers, that can be snapped open to
release an antibiotic ointment used by local
people as a cure for infected eyes. At a
vantage point looking across a valley, with
mists hanging low, José makes a whooping
call, and from far away comes the response.
‘Howler monkeys’, he says.
Teams of scientists are now permanently
based in Mashpi’s reserve, researching
its many butterfly species, planning to
reintroduce critically endangered brownheaded spider monkeys, and using camera
traps to film the mammals that stay so well
hidden in the dense forest. Recent footage
shows just how close a guest came to a rare
encounter. First it reveals the man out for a
casual morning stroll, minutes from the
lodge. Unbeknown to him, a predator’s eyes
are watching – soon after, a large, inquisitive
male puma stalks close behind.
Prepare for a dramatic change of scenery and
climate as you drive much higher into the Andes,
passing indigenous farming communities. After
5 hours and 140 miles you’ll approach Otavalo.
Essentials
G R E AT E S C A P E
J
UNGLE MUSIC IS PLAYING,
1,200m up in the Chocó-Andean
cloud forest. Rolling thunder
sets the bassline. Pelting gobs
of rain increase the rhythm,
splashing against creepers, tree ferns and
thick, languid arms of moss. The chirruping
of insects hurtles wildly up and down in
pitch and pace. And then, once the squelch
of boots against red mud comes to a halt, the
air fills with an unfamiliar whirring.
‘White-whiskered hermit,’ whispers
guide José Napa. ‘Violet-tailed sylph’, he
says, more excitedly. ‘Hmmm, brown Inca.
Purple-bibbed whitetip! Empress brilliant!’
José is now surrounded by an emerald,
ruby and sapphire blur of hummingbirds,
together rising boldly from the mists to
approach the feeder he has just topped up
with sugar syrup. A pecking order is quickly
established, literally with a nip to the head
for a bee-sized green thorntail that tries to
push before a larger cousin. ‘They are so
aggressive because they need to feed
constantly,’ says José. ‘They have such a
high metabolism, and the flowers they
prefer to feed from can be surprisingly
scarce in the forest.’ One proves its
eagerness by hovering within a couple of
centimetres of a floral pattern on a T-shirt,
taking a close look on the off-chance.
Alongside the Amazon, the Chocó is
Ecuador’s other form of rainforest, watered
by up to 6m of rainfall each year as clouds
barrel off the Pacific and break against the
lower slopes of the Andes. It is one of the
dampest and most biodiverse environments
on Earth, one threatened by the pollution
A view from Mashpi
Lodge across its cloud
forest reserve. 10 pumas
are believed to live,
well hidden, in here
The contemporary rooms at Mashpi Lodge
have floor-to-ceiling windows that look far
across the jungle canopy. Be sure to climb the
lodge’s observation tower and ride a ‘sky bike’
hung from cables 60m up in the trees (from
£790, incl full board and guide services for two;
mashpilodge.com). Nearby Bellavista Lodge
offers a good range of tours and more rustic,
affordable accommodation options (dorm bed
in research station from £25pp, double private
room from £85; bellavistacloudforest.com).
From left A rustytipped page butterfly;
forest guide José Napa;
purple-bibbed whitetip
hummingbirds perform a
courtship dance
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
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ECUADOR
3. Otavalo
Near an indigenous market town in the midst of farmland on the slopes of the Andes,
meet weavers and flute makers still practising their traditional crafts
all manner of corn and beans. In the market’s
central corridor, lunch is beginning to be
served. Locals tuck into steaming bowls of
clams, chicken soup, black pudding mixed
with popcorn, and hornado – whole roasted
pig. Rosario Tabango proudly displays the
certificate that declares her hornado the best
in all Ecuador, presented by the country’s
president. It is at turns crisp and chewy, and
intense with salt, garlic and smoke from the
wood it has been roasted over – gathered by
Rosario on trips into the mountains.
Although Imbaya dress is mostly worn
by the stallholders in Otavalo’s handicrafts
market next door, it is hard to find for sale
here. Since pre-Columbian times their
forebears will have precisely fed the
demands of their consumers, and right now
that means offering neon polyester ponchos,
Che Guevara T-shirts and Bob Marley
bobble hats to tourists who are briefly
passing through.
Traditional crafts are far better preserved
in villages northeast of Otavalo. In Agato is
a low stone workshop crammed with simple
looms, baskets of alpaca wool and a hutch
of squeaking guinea pigs. Here, Luz Maria
Andrango is weaving a guagua chumbi –
a ‘baby belt’ used to tighten an Imbaya
woman’s blouse. It is coloured with natural
dyes made from yellow lichen, red
cochineal beetles, indigo and rich brown
walnuts, and will take her 10 days to finish.
In nearby Peguche is the flute workshop of
José Luis Fichamba, established for 46 years.
‘I made my first pipes at the age of 10, and
soon gave them to my friends so we could
form a band,’ he says. The son of a weaver
and grandson of a musician, José Luis still
makes the paya (small panpipes), the
rondador (larger panpipes that play two
notes at once), and the gaita (a long wooden
flute typical of Otavalo, most frequently
played at the Inti Raymi festival).
As he offers a tune on a rondador, he says,
‘When I play these, I feel a very special man
– there are not too many people who play
the rondador in Ecuador now. Once they
were heard all over the Andes.’ José Luis’s
music is exceptionally heart-felt, all the
more softly beautiful for its village setting
with snow-capped volcanoes beyond – and
far removed from the tune most commonly
played on panpipes in bars back in Quito,
Abba’s Dancing Queen.
G R E AT E S C A P E
T
HE ROAD TOWARDS
Otavalo bounces up into the
Andes, past black pigs lolling
in the dust and squat cows
grazing on knee-deep grass.
Fields of broad beans, lupins and corn are
close to harvest, bordered by fiercely-spiked
agave plants with their alien blooms
sprouting skywards. Where the terrain
becomes too steep for agriculture, pumas,
spectacled bears and condors still live.
As in Quito, the markets of Otavalo are
a gathering point for inhabitants of the
surrounding countryside. Mass today in the
main church is being said in Kichwa, the
indigenous language evolved from that
spoken by Incas from Peru – invaders who
then succumbed to the conquistadors.
Outside, local Imbaya people are quietly
searching for custom, the men mostly
wearing tautly sculpted felt trilbies over
a single long, plaited ponytail; the women
with necklaces of glass beads wrapped in
gold leaf, navy blue ponchos and white
blouses exquisitely hand-embroidered
with flowers.
The daily food market is filled with
produce carted down from the fertile
volcanic soils of the Andes – blackberries
and tree tomatoes; plantains and alfalfa;
José Luis Fichamba plays a
rondador, recently made from
bamboo in his workshop
The drive is short but jarring between Otavalo and
Hacienda Piman, in high country northeast of Ibarra
– much of the 1.5 hours and 22 miles is over ancient
cobbled roads.
Essentials
From left Luz Maria Andrango
weaves with a backstrap loom,
a type dating from Inca times;
locally grown vegetables for
sale in Otavalo’s food market
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Lonely Planet Traveller January 2016
Log fires crackle away alongside rustic
antiques and family portraits in Hacienda
Zuleta, a working farm. Explore surrounding
villages on horseback or visit the nearby breeding
centre for endangered condors, before enjoying
a meal prepared with milk, cheese and organic
vegetables from the farm (from £160;
facebook.com/HaciendaZuleta).
Call 00 593 999 57 45 67 to visit to the
Andrango workshop (£3 donation). José Luis
Fichamba’s flute-making workshop is signed
from the road through Peguche (paila pipes, £3).
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
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ECUADOR
4. Ibarra
T
Passengers take in
the view as the train
trundles from a canyon
to a tunnel cut through
an extinct volcano
Local traders and
brakemen await the
Tren de la Libertad’s
departure from Ibarra.
Opposite Milena
Espinoza performs a
bomba dance
HE TREN DE LA LIBERTAD
is in no hurry to leave. A team
of brakemen uniformed in
double denim check the
train’s two jolly red carriages,
preparing for a sharp descent through the
Andes. The morning rush hour has never
quite arrived in Ibarra, the largest city north
of Quito. Wooden stools are set at the edge of
the rails, coffees are shared, and papayas,
newspapers and boiled sweets are hawked
to the passengers who mill about nearby.
This former colonial mountain outpost
has a troubled history. Imbabura volcano is
said to be the sacred protector of the region,
but an earthquake in 1868 devastated Ibarra.
At the base of the volcano is Yahuarcocha
lake – its name means ‘Lake of Blood’, in
memory of 30,000 indigenous Caranqui
warriors killed here in the 15th century by
forces of Incan emperor Huayna Capac.
Bells clonk and horns blare as a squall
of activity erupts. Children are pulled from
staring into the driver’s cabin, and bags are
loaded. The ceremony of departure gains
drama with the arrival of two motorbike
outriders, dressed like superheroes in boiler
suits and body armour. They ride ahead of
the train for the first half of its route, grandly
shooing livestock off the tracks and forcing
trucks laden with sugarcane to halt at level
crossings. The train slowly clanks through
the suburbs, palms swaying overhead. Its
journey is to be brief but scenic. Over the
couple of hours taken to cover 20 or so
miles, the train enters five tunnels cut by
hand in the early 20th century, and crosses
two bridges spanning deep canyons. As the
altitude drops from 2,200m to 1,600m, the
route passes swamps, arid plains, forests of
cacti and lonesome giant bromeliads, with
the temperature rising from 15°C to 30°C.
The occupants of the train roughly reflect
Ecuador’s population: 3% Afro-Ecuadorian,
25% indigenous and the majority, known as
mestizos, with a mix of Spanish and
indigenous ancestry. The route levels out
and the train passes through horizon-tohorizon fields of sugarcane, here since Jesuit
priests first established sprawling haciendas
in the 16th century, not long after the arrival
of the conquistadors. The Jesuits soon
realised that slaves from Africa could be
forced to gather the cane more efficiently
than the often smaller indigenous workers.
The name of today’s train service recognises
the liberty finally given to those slaves in
the mid-19th century.
Milena Espinoza is a descendant of the
slaves who chose to remain in the quiet
town of Salinas, the furthest point on the
train’s route. Milena and her friends perform
a bomba dance for the disembarking
passengers, one traditional to AfroEcuadorians – it’s party music suited to a
scorching day, with an easy rhythm like the
shimmering of a mirage. ‘I would dance
bomba all the time if I could,’ she says. ‘We
are glad to rescue the old traditions. These
cotton petticoats are like maids once would
have worn, and we dance with bottles on
our heads as our ancestors would have –
they kept them there to prevent the slave
owners from taking their alcohol.’ When
asked what the lyrics to the songs mean,
Milena says: ‘They are always the same.
They say this woman is black and happy.
She makes these movements, then gives
a kiss to her friends.’
An easy 3-hour, 70-mile drive (partly via the
Pan-American Highway) takes you back to Quito.
From there, jump on a 3.5-hour flight bound for
the Galápagos Islands.
Essentials
G R E AT E S C A P E
Hop on a train from a colonial mountain city to an AfroEcuadorian community set among sugarcane fields. Your
route passes near – and sometimes through – volcanoes
Festooned with bougainvillea and
pelargoniums, Hacienda Piman is a former
sugarcane plantation and donkey farm with
origins dating to 1680; its ornate entrance
archway was one of few structures to survive
the earthquake of 1868. Most rooms have
antique beds, monsoon showers, and a terrace
overlooking the garden (from £180;
haciendapiman.com).
Allow six hours for the full Ibarra-Salinas–
Ibarra round trip on the Tren de la Libertad,
including a bomba performance and guided walk
in Salinas (£18; trenecuador.com).
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
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ECUADOR
Remnants of lava flows
spill into the Pacific near
Cerro Dragón
5. The Galápagos
B
ENEATH THE RICH GLOW
of a tropical sunset, a group
of taxi drivers face off in a
game of volleyball. Little
kids shriek with excitement
and popcorn is eaten in immense quantities,
as some unusual visitors join the cheering
crowd. A Galápagos sea lion nudges its way
onto a bench by the harbourside of Puerto
Ayora, draping its flippers over the edge and
pretending to sleep – one eye open in search
of a snack. From a fast-rising tide pours a
horde of Sally Lightfoot crabs, their scarlet
claws probing the rocks for food. They are
joined by marine iguanas, with snouts
wrinkling as they sneeze out the salt
absorbed during dives for seaweed.
The Galápagos were known as Las Islas
Encantadas – The Enchanted Islands – by
the first explorers to come here in the 16th
century, and certain myths about them
endure. Not everyone realises that this
archipelago of 19 islands is part of Ecuador,
the country’s mainland lying 600 miles
across the Pacific. And although the often
unique and strangely bold wildlife captures
all attention, a human population of 30,000
lives alongside – half in the town of Puerto
Ayora, on the central island of Santa Cruz.
Many of the Galápagos’s classic wildlife
encounters can be had on Santa Cruz rather
than by swiftly embarking on a cruise, as
most visitors do. ‘Everybody is happy now,
there is so much food’, says Ramiro Jácome
Baño, a naturalist guide officially sanctioned
by the Galápagos National Park – this is the
hot and wet season, a time of plenty. He
points to the thickets of herbs that have
sprouted around Cerro Dragón, a fang-like
volcanic peak that rises from ancient lava
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Lonely Planet Traveller January 2016
flows on the northwestern tip of Santa Cruz.
‘Stop!’ Ramiro warns dramatically as a male
land iguana swaggers on to the path ahead,
with skin a resplendent yellow. The
endemic land iguanas and marine iguanas
of the Galápagos are believed to have shared
ancestors that came here on a great sea
journey. ‘They have evolved from the green
iguanas you will find on the Ecuadorian
mainland,’ says Ramiro. ‘These will either
have swum all the way across, or more
likely drifted over on vegetation.’
At the Charles Darwin Research Station,
a conservation success story is playing out.
Over 3,000 giant tortoises have been raised
from hatchlings to a size where they can
resist attack from invasive species like
cats, pigs or dogs introduced by passing
mariners. The adolescent tortoises are
released into the wild, and can live to an age
of 200. Today, in the noon heat, they lounge
like majestic boulders in the El Chato
Tortoise Reserve’s mud pools. Creatures
with faster-paced lives bustle about them:
Darwin’s finches, displaying to one another,
as short-eared owls keep watch from above.
The diverse birdlife of Santa Cruz can also
be observed at the Finch Bay Eco Hotel, a
brief taxi boat ride from Puerto Ayora.
Guests share the open-air bar with
Galápagos mockingbirds hunting tiny
geckos, and the pool with a family of
white-cheeked pintail ducks. Puerto Ayora’s
beach lies just beyond, where locals cool
down by splashing on lilos, or attach
snorkels to search for creatures every bit as
remarkable as the land-based wildlife.
Within a short paddle, a Pacific green sea
turtle can be seen grazing on algae, a trio of
eagle rays glide in perfect formation, and
bullseye puffer fish nibble at the toes of
anyone stood still long enough to let them.
The sealife of the Galápagos still
surprises Ramiro Jácome Baño, 20 years
into his time as a guide here. ‘Recently
I was approached by a manta ray,’ he says.
‘She had some fishing net caught around
her horns. She allowed me to lift it off,
before disappearing into the deep.’
Essentials
G R E AT E S C A P E
Make the volcanic island of Santa Cruz your base for up-close encounters with sea lions,
land iguanas, giant tortoises and many more charismatic creatures
Clockwise from above
A Galápagos sea lion in Puerto
Ayora; a Sally Lightfoot crab
clambers over a marine iguana;
a land iguana; a brown pelican
Finch Bay Eco Hotel has views across
Puerto Ayora’s beach and an excellent
restaurant serving Ecuadorian dishes. Staff can
arrange guided excursions on Santa Cruz, scuba
diving and cruises to the surrounding islands
(from £260; finchbayhotel.com).
The Charles Darwin Research Station
is near Puerto Ayora (darwinfoundation.org).
Take a taxi to El Chato Tortoise Reserve in the
highlands (entrance £2; galapagospark.org).
Peter Grunert, the editor of Lonely
Planet Traveller, hasn’t quite kept up
playing the panpipes he bought on this trip.
NEXT MONTH
Great Escape: FRENCH ATLANTIC
January 2016 Lonely Planet Traveller
59