How do you explain a place that simply cannot be put into words? how do you paint a virtual picture of a world so colourful, with black letters on a white background? Of a world that has a million shades of green, water that is better described as opel, jade and turquoise than blue, and dried lava flows that range from satanic black, to  purples, greens, and orages Josephs dreamcoat would be jealous of. This is the Galapagos Islands, and i havnt even mentioned the birds yet…

This week truly was a dream come true. Since i was a child i have heard the enchanted tales of the majestic beauty, the unspoiled purity of the Galapagos Islands some hundred miles of the coast of Equador. Somewhere hidden in this acrepelligo of volcanic hotspots lies the secrets of creation, and the missing links between species. I have heard of tortoises the size of VW Bugs and penguins the size of a football (ok maybe not as big a 1968 family funcar, but pretty friggin close) and like i said before, words do not do this place justice. untill you crouch beside a giant tortoise for yourself, or untill you go swimming around lava reefs with a penguin you could fit in your pocket, you cant really every grasp the concept of how precious and unique life is in this remote Garden of Eden.

The planning of this leg of the trip began about a month ago during a call between Connor and his father. Mr Connors Dad informed Connor that his mother Francis and brother Zane would be flying down to Galapagos on the 2nd of April and then would be coming to visit us out at Cotopaxi the following week. However, Charles had a little trick up his sleve, so he in cahoots with my mother (Francis” very good friend) arranged for Connor and i to fly out to Galapagos and suprise Connors mother and brother by spending the week with then on the crusie ship. So it was all hush hush, classified, your-on-a-need-to-know-basis-and-you-dont-need-to-know type of stuff for about three weeks, but finally the day came. Connor an hopped a 12 hour overnight bus from Otavalo Market to Guyaquill, then took a flight from Quyaquill to Baltra, Galapagos. Then we staked out the airport, set up camp with an empanada and a couple of beers and waited… two flights (and about six beers) later Francis and Zane walked thru the “gates” at the airport and Connor and i ducked for cover, we hung our heads as they walked not four feet infront of us. We waited till they passed, crept up behind them and unholstered our hugs, attacking from behind! We cought them completly off guard, screaming insued and i may or may not have seen some tears but it was all in all a sucessfull mission, they had no idea.

So we hopped onto a boat called the Isabella II and set sail for the next five days of sun, sand, and snorkeling. I could bore you with the details of how many millions of Frigate birds, flightless Cormerands, Finches, Gulls, Pelicans,  Red Footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, Blue Footed Boobies (i never thought i would hear myself utter the words “if i see another boobie today im gonna jump off this cliff” but believe it or not, that came out of my mouth)we saw, or the thousands of lava Lizards, land and marine Iguanas we walked past basking in the mid-day sun. But ive included a few photos that should just about cover the bases…

However! what does require special note and further detail is some of our smazing snorkeling adventures and the marine life we incountered. Doing barrel rolls underwater with seals and selions, skimming the ocean floor only feet from stingrays, gracefully grazing the coral next to giant sea turtles, and playing games with with penguins that look like stuffed toys. These underwater interactions were an adrenaline rush like none  i have never experienced from years of extream sports and always pushing my limits. Or maybe it was something different? Very different, but a feeling very much the same. It was definetly pleasure, being this close to amimals you only see on tv, a very raw pleasure bordering on extasy. Being in a world that is so foreign to us but such a vital part of our planet, of our lives. These are the bays, the oceans and the seas these amazing animals call home, and we are but visitors here. They geneously allow us to enter, and even spend some time entertaining their guests with bubble rings and backflips instead of tea and crumpits.

Tomorrow Connor and i are both scheduled for dives with two different boats in two different locations, wishing and hoping the infomous Hammerheads will welcome us into their home. These gentle giants of the deep are notoriously shy and hard to find, it will be a pure stroke of luck and good karma if we manage to catch even the slightest glimpse of thess mysterious beasts

i wish i could saty here for another two months, the promise of dives tomorrow and sweet surf on thursday is making it hard for me to confirm a flight back to the mainland. Alas part of the majesty of this unusual place is how breif our time here is (mostly due to the exorbinant living  costs and outrageous beer prices) and we must move on and make room for others to absorb and appreciate the flora nad fauna, and i truly hope one day you, dear reader, may be able to experience this place first hand.

From Puerto Ayora, Galapagos

Dylan

Its been close to two weeks since we checked into Secret garden Cotopaxi as volunteers and has been nothing short of amazing. Secret Garden Cotopaxi is a smaller version of its sister hostel Secret Garden Quito.  We checked out and began our  two hour journey via a small pickup truck with the hostel’s perosnal driver Arturo. Despite having ridiculous hangovers from our going away party in Quito the night before we laughed, shared music, and practised our spanish with this incredibly kind man. We arrived after an hour of highway, an hour of a cobblestone road and a seemingly impassible three kilometer driveway. After stepping out of Arturo’s camioneta we both took a minute or two to take in the scenery. Secret Garden Cotopaxi lies 3500 hundred meters above sea level in a strange but lush landscape made up of volcanic mountains and craters. The hostel  directly faces the almost perfectly cylindrical and world’s highest active volcano, Cotopaxi which stands at 5897 meters and is capped by a massive glacier.

Cotopaxi is not the only masssive mountain in the area created by Volcanic activity. Plenty of others dot the landscape including Rumiñahui, Sincholagua, Antisana, Pasachoa, and many others. Needless to say it gets us everytime we walk out of our rooms in the morning, which is usually when the weather is the best.

We then proceeded to meet the owners of both Secret Garden Hostels. There is Tarquin, a tall lanky and incredibly entertaining Australian and his Ecuadorian Wife Katherine who does a fabulous job as the hostel’s gourmet chef. They live in a house attached to the lounge of the hostel with their two rambunctious boys Tomas(6) and Martin(3) who seem to have a thing for cameras. We picked them up on our way in and they somehow managed to take 49 pictures of interesting things like their knees, backpacks, and much more on a 5 minute ride. They are both completely bilingual and very cute kids. The Cotopaxi hostel has been open for three years and Tarquin and Katherine decided to move their after four years of opening their hostel in Quito to raise their boys in a location slightly more slow paced than Quito. The hostel itself is quite small and consists of a dormitory which sleeps eight, two tent cabañas as well as three private suites.

While we are working for our room and board & food and booze, we are certainly not being strained too much. Our work requirements at Cotopaxi are actually quite entertaining. They consist of:

• Six hour horsebacks treks to the summit of the Rumiñahui, which you can see in the second picture.
• Two hour daily treks up a stream to a series of beautiful waterfalls.
• Starting the fireplace which proves to be a difficult feat at 3500 meters due to the lack of oxygen.
• Serving gourmet meals and local specialties to the guests. A lot of the food we eat is either grown or raised right on the 5 acres owned by Tarquin and his wife.
• Various little projects including building a Jacuzzi which overlooks seven impressive volcanic peaks. This is no ordinary Jacuzzi either. Eventually it is going to be completely heated by the fireplace in the lounge on the theory that hot water rises and cold water sinks. The hot tub lies about thirty meters away and about 5 meters higher in elevation. I’m still somewhat skeptical if it is going to work but the bossman seems to think it will and I suppose that’s the important part.

It has been amazing to watch Dylan’s progress in Spanish. At the beginning of the trip he knew little more than a few words and he is now fully conversing with the Ecuadorian employees and with good pronunciation I might add. He had an interesting little experience while horse riding the other day. The care of horses seems to be somewhat different than in North America and his horse that had no shoes extremely disliked walking on the cobblestone roads. He took a spill in full gallop and apart from having a tender shoulder is doing great.

As for myself, Cotopaxi has not been eventless either. We were doing a 6 hour trek up a mountain behind the hostel called Pasachoa and we had an American girl from New York with us who failed to mention that she had asthma. A half hour from the summit she was unable to breath due to altitude sickness. We tried waiting for her to aclimitize but it quickly became evident that she needed to go back down. The were a bunch of other guests who wanted to reach the top so I offered to take her down. Unfortunately in Ecuador the jungle can be thick and the trailheads difficult to spot. We ended up hopelessly lost the jungle hacking our way up and down hills thick with brush, but thanks to my expert navigational skills managed to find our way home after a few hours.

Doing four to five treks a week and eating three square meals a day has been getting both Dylan and myself into shape and has been just the rest and recuperation we both needed. This is not to say we have not been having a good time and enjoying a few cocktails by the fire every night. We’ve met a load of great people including one of our co-workers Remi who is an Australian Dutch forty year old who has been gallivanting around the world since he was 18. Our first day off in two weeks has been relaxing and we are back in Quito where it is pissing rain but still fairly warm. We have somewhat of an interesting plan for the next little while which we will report on shortly. Until then we wish everyone back home all the best and hope you have been enjoying our blog.

Hasta Luego,

Connor or as the call me in Spanish Cornellio

After an amazing few weeks in Colombia we headed down to Equador, as Connor explained in the last post, to chek out a new scene and give our livers a break. Since last week we have been staying at The Secret Garden hostel in Old Town Quito. Its a massive six floor maze of a place with lots of dorms and privet rooms, and a beautiful roof top terrace overlooking Old Town wich provides breathtaking views of the city, especially at night.

This hostel, (at first much to our disatisfaction) shuts down at eleven oclock. the bar closes, all the lights go out and there is no real common area to hang out in, but alas this foreign concept has been saving us from ourselves. its amazing how much you can accomplish in a day when your in bed by eleven thirty and up at seven thirty or eight the next morning. almost everybody here takes spanish lessons during the day up on the terrace from one of the many teachers that comes right to the hostel to teach in a very relaxed, have-a-coffee-or-a-beer-while-we-conjugate-thousands-of-verbs type of atmosphere, and its making a world of a difference in my spanish.

this hostel also has a second location about two hours from Quito out in the boondocks, right next to the world highest active volcano, and on wednesday Connor and i are heading out there to voulenteer for a month. working at the hostel in return for free room, food and drinks, we will be giving guided horseback riding tours of the andean foothills, running mountainbiking excersions and treks to nearby lakes and waterfalls. This is going to be a great oppertunity for us to enhance our language skills, extend our cash for the trip and above all else, just do some cool shit! check out their website for an idea of the experience, beacuse once we get out there, there may not be a new post for a while, no electricity means no internet… in this day and age, i wonder if we will be able to survive…

www.secretgardencotopaxi.com

Dylan

After many frustrating attempts to book flights from Santa Marta to Cali via internet and telephone, Dylan and I soon discovered that this was impossibility. Due to the vast amount of credit card fraud in Colombia they will not accept Canadian credit cards. We decided our best bet was to look up a flight and just show up at the airport with our backs packed. We waved goodbye to the beautiful beach and dry mountainous landscape of Taganga and headed to the airport where we were pleasantly surprised to find this was no problem at all. Flights in Colombia only cost slightly more than busses however they depart late ninety percent of the time. We caught our connecting flight to Bogotá more than a half hour late and barely made our connection to Cali. We would have liked to spend some in Cali but we were determined to make it to Quito. Cali was hot and we immediately crammed into an overcrowded run down old van and took the 45 minute trek to the airport. We arrived at the bus terminal exhausted from our going away party the night before. In Colombia they advise you don’t take night busses due to guerilla activity and thieves overtaking the buses in random stretches of road through the mountains. Especially with the current elections going on FARC has been constantly making threats to blow stuff up. Despite the warnings we were tired and had no interest in finding a hostel and spending a night in Cali. So we took our chances and bought some tickets for a 10 hour bus ride to the Colombian border town Ipiales. We were on a very comfortable bus 10 minutes later with reclining chairs. All we wanted to do was sleep but much to our dismay there were two Colombian girls sitting in front of us who had obviously been nipping at the sauce and were very interested in having a chat and curious if we had girlfriends. We entertained them for a few minutes until we could no longer keep our eyes open.  

Dylan and I both drifted in and out of sleep while the driver ripped through Andes at ridiculous speeds. But sure enough 10 hours later we arrived in the chilly border town of Ipiales. We received our exit stamps and after being relentlessly harassed by countless money changers we walked across a bridge over a beautiful river valley which separates Ecuador and Colombia. After the simplest border crossing I’ve ever been through we had our entry visas into Ecuador within five minutes and probably with less than a twenty word exchange. Having crossed the bridge we could both easily notice the more indigenous look of the Ecuadorian people. We were then pestered by the Ecuadorian money changers on the other side of the bridge. For those of you who don’t know the national currency of Ecuador is the US dollar. Exhausted we caught a bus to finish the final leg of our journey, a 6 hour bus ride to the capital Quito. We crashed immediately and woke up in the beautiful colonial part of Quito. Surrounded by beautiful cathedrals, architecture, and mountains we were finally here after a 24 hour plus journey. Forward Progress!!!

More on Quito to come.

Ciao for now,

Connor

Despite planning on spending only 3 or 4 days in Taganga we ended up staying for more than a week. We found this quaint little town to be quite entertaining and both Dylan and I could have easily spent more time here. After a few days I ditched my silver chain and we picked sarongs in an attempt to blend in a little more with local hippie population. There were a few reasons we ended up staying longer than we had anticipated, one being the comfort of our hostel Casa de Felipe. It was a beautiful and clean little hostel on the outskirts of town surrounded by lush vegetation and littered with comfortable hammocks. There was also an amazing restaurant run by a Belgian chef that served a filet mignon which would rival the finest cut of meat in Alberta but cost only 17000 pesos or 8 dollars.

However the main reason we ended spending so much time in Taganga was most definitely the plethora of interesting characters we met. One of our sidekicks was a quiet German fellow named Beno who failed to correct us even though we called him Meno for close to a week. There was Lucas, a 36 year old Australian guy who only seemed to have two passions in life – smoking copious amounts of weed and devouring 2-3 of the local banana splits per day.  There was a very nice travelling duo which consisted of Argentinean named Luciana and an American named Erica. There was a deaf mute who would sit around our table while we were eating at the beach and as soon as we stood up he would proceed to have a seat and finish our meals. We met an American guy who was living in Bogotá with a group of socialists and his friend who came down to visit from Florida and one day while lazing around in a hammock declared he hated international travel and that this was going to be his last trip outside the states. We met Susan, a 29 year old American girl who had been backpacking around the world for 10 years straight. There was a retired couple from Alaska who were the pair of golden oldies which each and ever hostel seems to host. A trio of Swedes, one who ended up giving me a rather impressive haircut at 2 in the morning despite having consumed a significant amount of our good ol favorite Colombian rum ‘Viejo de Caldas’. The list goes on but needless to say there was a constant flow of very unique people which made Taganga a very interesting place.

Dylan and I both agreed that we could have easily spent more time in Taganga and we would both love to return someday. However after checking our bank account statements and realizing we were coming up on a month in Colombia we decided that if we were to even make it close to our final destination in Buenos Aires it was time to hit the road. The Caribbean coast of Colombia is about as far from Argentina as you can get in South America so we packed our backpacks and opted to travel nonstop to Quito, Ecuador and make some progress south…

Connor

What do you do when your in a sleepy little fishing town, teaming with backpackers, and bright blue ocean and its +40 degrees? hit the beach and go diving!

We arrived in Taganga on monday after a semi-sketchy night in Santa Marta on sunday. This tiny town ten minutes outside of  Santa Marta, nestled in a small cove surrounded by barren mountains,  is a well known backpackers haven and among the cheapest places in the world to go diving.  We spent the better part of yesterday on the beach soaking up some rays and drinking our favourite colombian rum, and had an amazing lunch on the beach.

This small restaurant with its patio litterally on the beach, was a little pricy, but were were starving so we decided to stay, and i´m so glad we did. the lunch we had was amazing! What they reffered to as a “seafood casserole”, this was a simmering bowl chocked full of calamari, shrimp, conch, mussles, crab and lobster in a light tomato/saffron/cream sauce which we then scooped out onto our personal plates of sweet coconut rice. With a side dish of batter and fried fish bites, a few spicy sauces and a fresh round of cerveza it was by far one of the best meals we have had in South America outside of Felipe´s house.

today got off to a bit of a late start (everything here runs on island time, even thos its on the mainland) but after scarfing down a quick lunch we were suited up and on a boat headed for the reefs. Our dive master for the day was none other than one Marcello, a colombian guy that lived in NY for 6 years, 4 of which he spent in prison for racketeering, delivering sums of money (somtimes in the millions of dollars) from New York to Miami. He was quite the character, but none the less a great diver and a really cool guy. we did two dives this afternoon, saw a moray eel, lots of beautiful fish and marcello even managed to get ahlod of a few puffer fish and make them puff up, much to connor and i´s enjoyment.

Were probably going to stay here for a few days, check out Tyrona Park whick is a trpoical beach and jungle national park right next to the city, and hopefully do another dive or two.  Hopefully in the next few days we´ll have some more pictures up aswell, so stay tuned.

Dylan

Its been a week now that we´ve been staying at Casa Felipe and there is an old saying “company is like fish, after a few days it starts to stink” and Connor and i were well aware of the fact that although Felipe is my boy, we didnt want to overstay our welcome. That having been said we made our plans to leave early wednesday morning, but come tuesday night Dr Dueñas (Felipe´s dad) was hellbent on us staying another day to check out their famillies small coffee farm, and then his freind Carlos´ massive coffee farm… and we were more than happy to oblige.

It was an early start to the day by our standards, on the road at 7:30 with the whole crew in tow. Myself, Connor, Dr Dueñas, Felipe, Daniella, Miguel and Carlos Escobar, our hilarious and energetic lookingglass into the crazy world of coffee, plantain and yucca farming. We made tracks to the Dueñas farm about an hour and a half outside manizales. Its a modest, but beautiful property on a monutain crest overlooking steep hills packed with big coffee bushes (that have a red hue to them when the wind picks up exposing the beautiful coffee “cheries” hiding under the foliage) and even bigger trees slightly bent over under the payload of massive green platains. This farm is used solely for growing and harvensting the cherries where they are sent off to be washed, peeled, dried and processed for sale all over the world.

Then we headed off to Carlos´ farm where they take the coffee from plant, to dried beans shipped out for toasting and grinding to even farther corners of the earth. Another two housr down the road and lots of terrible roads later we arrive at the foot of the mountain on which the farm apprears to cascade down. switching the small SUVs into four wheel drive we make the asscent over roads made of dirt and loose rock. You even need to cross the stream that runs down the mountain at three different points, none of which have a bridge.. which makes things really interesting. but when you finally get to the top and look out from the house perched cleverly overlooking the beautiful landscape, the only thing you can think of is “lets go fishing and catch some lunch”.

Sure enough we hit the pond with bamboo rods hoping to snare a few mojarra rojo for gloria (our cook for the day) to fry up for lunch. With ten people, and ten fish cought, we dropped the load off to gloria to prepare while we  mounted up for a tour of the farm on horseback crusing past coffeee fields, thru plataine forests and even having a race or two. we saw how to harvest plantaines, how to pick, wash, peel, remove, dry, and process coffee beans and even chatted with a bunch of the workers who were all hilarious and had an awesome outlook on life on the farm.

After a few hours on the horses out bellies were grumbling something fierce so we hightailed it up to the house in hopes if a tasty meal, and what a spread it was. Whole friend Mojarra, patacones (mashed and friend green plantaines) yucca root, limonada de panella and an amazing salad. Have you ever heard of the 100 mile diet? lunch that day was the one mile diet, and it was UNREAL.

Followed quickly by a rum and coke and a siesta in the hammock, i layed there drifting in and out of conciousness thinking to myself  “am i ever glad we decided to stay another day”

Dylan

From Peruvian dessert to Colombian mountain range… the landscapes in South America are as rich as the culture…

Felipe, for anyone who doesnt know, is a very good friend of mine i met while working at ONE restaurant in Toronto a few years ago. This is a man who was born and raised in the very house i sit in as i write this, where he resides a few months of the year with his wife Daniella, son Miguel, parents and younger brother (when is brother is not in New York or learning kung fu in China). However Felipe lives and works in Toronto, as a wicked cook and an unbelivable pastry chef. He is as genuine as they come, a true family man, a trusted friend, and my favourite wingman. I have always been torn between the ideas of destiny and freedom of choice, most of the time leaning towards the latter, however i truly believe it was in the cards for Felipe and i to meet. He always told me while we worked together “you have to come to Colombia, its beautiful!” but never in a million years did i really think i would one day be sitting on his veranda, drinking Colombian rum and staring off into the misty mountains that litterally make up his front, back and side yards.

This city is truly spectacular, the views breathtaking, and the food fit for a Colombian drug lord. Our lunch yesterday consisted of grilled steak cutletts, fried pork belly (Chicheron) rice, baked plantain, fresh tomato salad, more baked beans than any human should consume in a single sitting, fresh guava juiceand for dessert, “grenadilla”. A member of the passionfruit famaily, it has a hard orange shell you crack open to get to the  sweet, amazingly flavorfull cluster of juicy seeds in the middle. A cornicopia of flavours, textures and smells, each one better than the last. feeding 4 people, full to the brim (so much so we all took a siesta afterwords) with leftovers for breakfast, costs 27,000 colombian pesos… thats approx $13 Canadian.

If i dont make it to heaven when i die, this place will do just fine.

Dylan

After spending an exhilerating and eye opening week in Peru we arrived in Bogata Colombia. Often considered to North Americans as a good place to avoid I have nothing but good things to say about this beautiful country. We arrived in Bogata late at night and saw a rather nasty side to the city -  homeless tearing apart garbage cans and drunks stumbling in front of our taxi. That ride had me pondering both the safety and splendor of this country. The next day we headed out for a brief walk about and saw that our hostel was located in a beautiful area called Candalaria nestled in the mountains. We ate an amazing lunch at a local restaurant which cost us a grand total of $5 US. The only problem with this city is that it was freezing. A brisk 10 degrees celsius. After two days in Bogata we were ready for something else so hopped on a cheap 45 min local flight on a twin prop plane to the town of Manizales to meet one of Dylan´s cooking amigos from Toronto named Felipe.

We arrived in the Manizales airport to be greeted by Felipe who was wearing an iron maiden T-shirt and had a big grin on his face. Having not read anything about Manizales Dylan and I were both absolutely mesmorized by the stunning scenery. Located in some of the northern and smaller Andes the town lies spread among rolling lush green mountains. The moisture is thick here and low clowds cling to the peaks for the better part of the day. After a short taxi ride from the airport we arrived at Felipes house where his wife and child live to be even more amazed. From his beautiful house (pictures to come)  you can see snow on top of one of the peaks.  It is only our second day here but I am in love with this town. More posts to come but we´re being beckoned to go start our day.

Hasta Luego,

Cornellio

After a few awesome days in Lima, we hopped a bus on saturday and headed five hours south to a little town called Ica, just outside Pisco, famous for its fortified wine thats also called Pisco. Just outside Ica in the middle of the dessert is a tiny oasis town called Huacachina. situated around a tiny lagoon Hacachina has become a popular haven for backpackers and adventure tourists alike and it is actually surrounded mby massive sand dunes on all sides. and where there is ginormous sand dunes, there is dune buggying and sand boarding!

We spent the better part of sunday afternoon cruising around the dessert in a roll cage on wheels with a 400hp engine strapped to the front of it going over dunes the size of mountians and boarding down slopes that put Mt Tremblant to shame.  Chillin with three crazy guys from Quebec, a rad dude from New Zealand, we smoked a big joint (sorry mom) and boarded all afternoon then watched the hot Peruvian sun set, glowing red gving way to the dessert night sky. a near perfect valentines day.

Now were all packed up again, hoppin a bus back to Lima soon. Tomorrow we catch a flight to Colombia to go see my friend Filepe. stay tuned for pictures from the trip so far!

Dylan