Virtual Galápagos

Tuesday, 31 July

Our 2013 non-Phaeton adventures are just 19 days away.  Where will we go?  The unveiling of our plans will be posted soon.

In the meantime, the prospect of tons of new video footage to process was all the incentive Mui needed to finish the editing work on last year’s wonderful trip to the Galápagos.

If you’d like to take a virtual trip to the Galápagos and walk in our footsteps, click here to go to the online album we created on Vimeo.  You will get to visit Santiago, Rábida, Isabela, Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, San Cristóbal, and Kicker Rock; not to mention explore Quito and its environs with us.  You will get to enjoy close encounters with fearless wildlife on land and sea, and in the air; and get to do some snorkeling, too.

If you’re interested in the story of our trip, click here to go to the first of many posts from our Itinerary B Xpedition trip with Celebrity.  All of the posts are in the July 2012 archive in the sidebar.

Back in the USA

Tuesday, 17 July

We’re home.  The bags are unpacked and I’ve sorted the laundry into piles; the washing machine is humming along with the first of many loads to come.  It’s a good thing the trekking clothes that made up the bulk of our wardrobe don’t require ironing; that’s one task that I don’t much care for ;-)

Now … let’s go back to Quito to wrap up the trip with one last post.

A 20-pax shuttle bus picked us up from the JW Marriott at 8:30p.  With little traffic en route, the ride to the airport was just about 15 minutes.  During the short ride, the Celebrity rep who accompanied us provided a few tips for negotiating the airport.

Almost everyone on the bus was flying out on the Delta red-eye, so we descended on the counter en masse.  But the airline was ready for us; almost every station was manned.  Mui and I had checked in online and had boarding passes in hand, but we had bags to check.  First in that line, we were taken aback by a question about whether we had any wood carvings in our carry-ons.  No, we didn’t; but we knew that at least one couple from our group had quite a few of them.  Once we were done, we alerted those behind us as to the restriction and they all ended up having to repack the carvings in their checked bags.

None of my pre-trip research mentioned the ban on wood carvings in carry-ons.  I don’t
know if it was a one-time thing, but it caused consternation for some of our cruisemates.

The first security checkpoint was a piece of cake.  Even bottled water was allowed to go through.  As seems to be the norm (since 9/11) for US-bound flights, we were scheduled to leave from the very last gate where a second security checkpoint was set up.  We were all set to go through it when we realized there were no facilities of any sort once we were in the restricted area.  With 90-minutes to go before departure, we decided to go back to the food court and sit there for a while.

The downside to our decision was that, in our absence, the line to go through the checkpoint grew quite long.  To make matters worse, only one person was hand-checking bags.  And I mean CHECKING.  He was emptying carry-ons entirely, making people throw away EMPTY water containers, whether they were disposable or not.  Of course he was blaming it all on the security requirements established by the US.  We’ve traveled extensively and have never heard of a ban on EMPTY water containers; in fact, we always have a disposable bottle or two at the ready to fill up once past the final security check.  Personal opinion — the guy was inexperienced and thus overly cautious.

Standing patiently in line, waiting our turn, we heard Mui’s name called by the gate agent at the door to the jetway.  When Mui identified himself, he was told to join a group of passengers being led away by a Delta rep.  That was it; no explanation — nothing.  We figured this group had been selected for one of those random secondary checks.  Well, sort of.  It turns out that some of the checked bags had been pulled aside for a random inspection — on the tarmac no less!  Anyway, long story short … I made it through the second checkpoint without mishap, and thanks to a female agent who came to the gate to speed up the hand-checks, I didn’t have to unpack all of my camera equipment.  Mui, too, lucked out with the same agent when he finally made it back to the gate.

Boarding for the scheduled 11:30p departure commenced at 10:55p.  Our Economy Comfort seats, which we had upgraded to before leaving the US, came with priority boarding, so it wasn’t long before we were aboard the Boeing 757-200 aircraft and settled into our seats — 20B/C.  Within 30 minutes, the doors were closed and cross-checked, and five minutes later we were pushing back from the gate.  By 11:45p, DL 680 was in the air, winging its way to Atlanta.

The flight itself was uneventful.  After we reached cruising altitude, we pulled out our backpacks from the overhead bin to fashion foot rests for ourselves and take advantage of the extra legroom our seats afforded us.  Wrapped in a blanket — Delta still provides them on international flights — Mui started snoozing almost immediately.  I tried to follow suit — I really did — but it was to no avail.  So, I spent a good chunk of my time drafting the blog posts for our last day in Quito.  By the time the cabin lights came on, signaling breakfast service — nothing special, by the way — all four posts were done.  At least I was productive.

We were wheels down at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 5:30a; 15 minutes early.  Immigration and customs was a piece of cake and we were soon headed to the Delta customer service counter to see if we could switch to an earlier flight.  For $50/person, the airline agreed to put us on the 7:25a Delta Connection flight, saving us from waiting around the airport until 9:40a.

Grabbing some breakfast goodies from Starbucks, we eventually made our way to the gate where Flight 4870 was in the initial stages of boarding.  Our assigned seats were in the last row, but the friendly flight attendant switched us to 8A/B.  The move didn’t give us more legroom on the cramped CRJ700, but at least the seats reclined and we were reasonably comfortably for the 1½-hour flight.  By 9:00a we were on the ground at Dulles International; by 9:35a — before the flight we’d originally been booked on took off from Atlanta — we were in a cab, heading home.  It was worth paying the extra bucks to switch flights … especially since we were on award tickets and our cash outlay for the flights for this trip was minimal to begin with.

And thus another great adventure has concluded.  We loved the Galápagos Islands, and would go back in a heartbeat.  But there are so many other places in the world we’ve not been to yet; it’s hard to envision us going back anytime soon.  If and when we do, would we do it again on the Xpedition?  I don’t know.  We had a grand time and enjoyed every minute of our time on the ship.  Celebrity has these cruisetours down pat and they took good care of us.  I don’t know that being on a smaller boat would have afforded us smaller groups or a slower pace on land.  The National Park Service requirement is for one naturalist guide per 16 passengers.  I can’t imagine that the smaller boats would spring for additional guides just to break up the size of the landing parties; the cost would certainly eat into their profit margin.  The ideal trip for us would be to charter a boat with a small number of like-minded people and design our own itinerary for perhaps 10 days; 7 days was just a little too short.  Perhaps someday that will be in the cards for us.  In the meantime, we have our memories — in digital images and written words — to remind us of a trip to what is a very special part of the world.

Until we go back again … someday.

Quito: TeleferiQo … Soaring to New Heights

Monday, July 16 (Part IV)

After visiting the Quito cathedral (post here), we grabbed a taxi to the cable car — aka El TeleferiQo (the “Qo” portion is in reference to Quito).  The cab took us directly to the gondola station where we purchased our roundtrip tickets — $8/person for the fast pass, which allowed us to jump the line.  Normally, we wouldn’t have paid extra, but we had to be back at the hotel before 6:00p to check-out of our room and we were fast running out of time.

This Google Maps image shows the TeleferiQo (green marker) in relation to our
hotel (bed marker) and some of the other sites we visited in Quito.

The TeleferiQo went into service in 2005, giving visitors an easy way up the mountain.  A ten-minute ride in 6-passenger gondolas takes visitors from the foothills of the Pinchincha Volcano at 9,527 feet (2,904 m) to the Cruz Loma overlook at 13,451 feet (4,100 m).

Our ride is here!

Through the scratched up glass, we get to watch as the gondola starts its ascent.
Behind the station (white building between the cable car wires) is Parque vulqan,
a popular amusement park.

The further up you go, the more expansive the city views become.

We arrived at the top station to distinctly colder temperatures, but staying in the sun as we wandered around kept us warm enough.  The air was thin and it was easy to become breathless if one rushed about.  Keeping our pace slow allowed us to walk around and enjoy the scenery.  There’s supposed to be a medical station at the top where those having problems with the altitude can get oxygen, as well as shops and restaurants; but none of them were open.  We got the sense that this attraction is not nearly as popular as it used to be.  Of course, that it was late afternoon on a Monday may have had something to do with the lack of visitors.  We weren’t alone, but there were a lot fewer people up there than I expected.

The top station; to the far right is a small café, the only eatery open today.

Two to Travel at one of several overlooks on Pinchincha Volcano.

View of Quito from the overlook.

A dirt path would have taken us up another 700 feet (215 m) to the summit, but we simply didn’t have time to do it at a leisurely pace.  Instead, we walked a short ways up the path to Ermita La Dolorosa (Hermitage of the Suffering), constructed on the centenary of the Miracle of 20 April 1906, which some might recognize as the date of the “big one” that struck San Francisco.

This small church was built to honor
“the mother of sorrows on the centenary of the Milagro del 20 de Abril de 1906.”

The altar and one of the stained glass windows of Ermita La Dolorosa.

Instead of backtracking our steps to the gondola station, we climbed a short, but steep dirt path that ran from just outside the church to the summit path to check out the views from there first.

Looking East towards the city, there’s quite a bit of haze from the fires that
have been set to clear fields in the distant valley, But …

… if you look closely, you can see the JW Marriott in the center (circled in red).
We have 60 minutes to get back to the hotel — time to take the gondola down.

We shared the gondola ride down from the mountain with an Ecuadorian family.  They all spoke good English; particularly the 10 year old daughter — it turns out that they live in North Carolina and were here to visit family!  Small world!!!  And to make the world even smaller, the driver of the cab we flagged down had lived in Baltimore, Maryland for a while!

On the way down, we catch a glimpse of La Basilica el Voto Nacional.

Rush hour traffic was heavy, so we made it back to the hotel just in the nick of time.  Not sure if the Marriott would have charged us for the room had we been a few minutes late checking out, but I’m glad we didn’t have to find out ;-)

We debated leaving our bags with the bellman and walking to one of the few restaurants nearby.  In the end, we decided we weren’t hungry yet, so we just chilled in the lobby, chatting with some of our cruisemates who were in the same boat as us — roomless until the Celebrity shuttle came to take us to the airport at 8:30p.

And that takes us back to the plane … which is where I am.  Writing all this didn’t make me drowsy like I hoped it would.  Lucky Mui; he can snooze anywhere, anytime.  But I’ll stop writing now.  It’s the wee hours of Tuesday, the 17th … I’ll write about our flights back to the US when I get home.

Quito: La Catedral

Monday, 16 July (Part III)

After lunch in Quito’s Centro Histórico (post here), we walked across Plaza Grande to La Catedral.  Built and dedicated in the 16th century, much of what is seen today dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries.  Unlike cathedrals in other cities, this one seems to stand in the shadow of the basilica and some of the other colonial-era churches that abound in this part of the city.  In fact, when we asked the locals for help in finding the visitors’ entrance, they invariably directed us to the basilica.

Google Map image showing La Catedral (camera marker) in relation to Mea Culpa, where
we had lunch and some of the other sights of interest we visited earlier in our trip.

There’s no good angle to get a photo of the dazzling white walls and green tile domes
of La Catedral without a wide lens Or a higher vantage point …

… which the photographer of this postcard obviously found.
[scanned from postcard]

The main entrance that opens onto the nave was locked up, as was the door that looks onto Avenida Garcia Moreno.  We were about to give up and go elsewhere when one of the locals told us that the museum entrance on Avenida Venezuela would gain us access to the cathedral.

Paying the $1.50/person entrance fee, we decided to first browse the exhibits located in a series of rooms rimming a courtyard.  The displays included religious paintings and sculptures, as well as vestments and other clothing.  Most were in glass cases, making photography near impossible even if taking pictures had been allowed.  (I took the photographs of the oil painting, entitled “El Descendimiento” (the Descent), and the sculpture, entitled “La Piedad” (Piety), before I noticed the prohibition.  Both are from the 18th century.)

There were no clear signs pointing us to the entry into the cathedral.  No one was around to ask either, so we decided to be nosy and headed upstairs to the balcony overlooking the courtyard.  Don’t ask me which door finally led us inside.  At first I thought we might be trespassing, but we saw others exploring the interior of the cathedral, so we pushed on … but not before taking a photo of quirky mural that put a smile on our lips.

El Gallito de la Cathedral (the Cock of the Cathedral) tells the story of Don Ramón,
who would get drunk every night and walk around town, eventually ending up at
the cathedral.  The church's rooster was insulted, because Don Ramón considered
himself "the great rooster."  But one night ...

Photography was not allowed inside the cathedral, so I’m going to rely on postcards I purchased and scanned for this virtual tour.  The guidebook stated there were tours conducted in both English and Spanish, but not on this day; a shame really as we would have gotten a lot more out of our visit with a bit more information about what we were seeing.

The stone marker on the left side translates as “Quito’s Glory; the discovery of
the Amazon River.”   It is a reference to the Francisco de Orellana expedition that
completed the first known navigation of the entire length of the river in 1541.
[scanned from postcard]

Our circuitous route to find the entry into the cathedral led us to this 16th century library.
[scanned from postcard]

Just off the library, we found ourselves in this long room, the walls of which were
filled with paintings of church leaders; couldn’t resist sneaking a photo here.

Looking down the central nave to the main altar.
[scanned from postcard]

The Main Altar; Escuela Quiteña (Quito school of art) —19th century.
[on the left, another photo I took; on the right, scanned from postcard]

Altarpiece in St Peter's Chapel; 17th century.
[scanned from postcard]

Mausoleum of Mariscal Antonio José de Sucre, Venezuelan-born hero of Ecuadorian
and Latin American independence.  He was buried at La Cathedral at his request:
“I want my bones to forever be in Quito.”  (His wife was from Ecuador.)
[scanned from postcard]

It was nearing 3:00p when we left the cathedral.  After a quick detour to the Church of San Francisco to see if I could find postcards of the interior — there were none — we grabbed a taxi to the last stop of the day, which we hoped would take us to soaring heights …

Quito: Mea Culpa … But, Not Really!

Monday, 16 July (Part II)

After visiting a couple of places that don’t see that many tourists (post here), we grabbed a taxi into Quito’s Centro Histórico (historic center).  As we neared Plaza Grande, the traffic became so bad that we asked the driver to drop us off several blocks away and we walked to the plaza under our own steam; it was definitely faster than inching along in the cab.

Google Maps image showing the locations of Quito Turismo (“i” marker) and Mea Culpa
(fork & knife marker).  I also marked some of the places we visited during our
pre-cruise days in Quito.  As you can see, there’s so much to see in a compact area.

We were getting awfully hungry and lunch was a priority.  So, we immediately headed over to the main office of Quito Turismo, the tourist information center, to get directions to the restaurant the concierge at JW Marriott had recommended.

A bit pricey; but there are some great souvenirs to be had at Quito Turismo.

We had a great lunch at Mea Culpa, so I hesitate to say that the concierge steered us wrong; it just wasn’t what we were expecting.  We always ask locals for restaurant recommendations, specifying that we want to eat where they eat.  Overlooking Plaza Grande, and located in the former Palacio Arzobispal (Archbishop’s Palace), Mea Culpa did not strike us as a place the average Quiteño would frequent — not with meal prices similar to what we would pay for lunch or dinner in the DC area.

The concierge had nothing to gain by sending us here; we didn’t use his name to get a table.  I can only guess that he didn’t believe us when we asked for a place where the locals eat; probably not used to such a request from the high-end clientele of the JWM.  Anyway, we had the option of leaving and finding somewhere else, of course, but the menu looked good, so we decided to treat ourselves.

Built in the 16th century, the Palazio Arzobispal (the white building) is now home to
shops and restaurants; Mea Culpa is on the second floor (French doors with awnings).

An elegant restaurant …

… with a view of Palacio Gobierno (left), as well as La Catedral and El Panecillo from our table.

We wanted to have light fare for lunch, so we just ordered a couple of appetizers.  My choice was an entrada caliente (hot appetizer) — Rossini Gnocchis au Gratin (oven-baked spinach and ricotta gnocchis); Mui opted for an entrada fria (cold appetizer) — Ceviche de Langostino (prawn ceviche in typical tomato sauce, served with onions and lemon, and roasted corn kernels and plantain slices).  Both dishes were very tasty.  The portions were sized just right and we had enough room left for dessert — very yummy profiteroles.

We have a very tasty meal …

… and conclude it with a sweet treat!

Now onto more sightseeing …

Quito: Off the Beaten Path

Monday, 16 July (Part I)
Temps in Quito: 73F (23C) / 52F (11C)

We’re in the air, flying smooth and steady at about 36,000 feet (~11,000 m).  I should be dead-tired after our busy day of exploring Quito, but nothing I’ve done to fall asleep on this red-eye flight back to the US has worked so far.  Might as well get started on today’s blog post.

In our pre-cruise room in the center block of the JW Marriott, we had to wait until we were outside the hotel to get a real reading on the weather.  Not today; all we had to do was pull open the curtains to see that we had a gorgeous day in store for our last bit of sightseeing in Quito.  Opening the window told us not only that it was going to be a beautiful day, but that it was also going to be a comfortable day temperature-wise.

We were still on the Celebrity package, which included breakfast, so after getting dressed, we headed down to Bistro Latina for the expansive buffet breakfast.  Tummies sated, we returned to our room to consolidate the stuff in the bag we’d left behind at the hotel into our checked-bags for the flight back home.  With that done, we were ready to head out and see what we could see of Quito in the time we had left to us.

We didn’t have a set plan when we left the hotel, but this map shows how our day unfolded.
In the order we visited: Guayasamin Foundation (blue marker); Iglesia de Guápulo (red marker);
Mea Culpa (where we had lunch; fork & knife marker); La Catedral (yellow marker);
and the Teleferiqo (green marker).

Our first stop didn’t quite turn out as expected.  We wanted to check out the Capilla Del Hombre (Chapel of Man), a secular chapel of art dedicated to the history of mankind.

By our own admission, we’re not “into art,” so this might seem an odd place for us to visit.  However, I was intrigued by a picture I’d seen on the web (left) and thought it would be worth a quick look-see.

La Capilla was the brainchild of Oswaldo Guayasamin, Ecuador’s most famous contemporary artist; he didn’t live to see the project completed.  As luck would have it, we didn’t get to see it either as the place is apparently closed on Mondays — something our guidebook neglected to mention.  (Interestingly, I later found out that Guayasamin died in Baltimore, Maryland, just an hour’s drive from where we live in Virginia.)

Seeing as how we were in the area, we decided to check out the Fundacion Guayasamin instead.  Cabs were few and far between in this residential neighborhood, but luckily we managed to grab the cabbie that had brought us to Bellavista as he was making a u-turn to go back down the hill.  We could have walked the five blocks to the Foundation, of course, but since we weren’t familiar with the neighborhood, paying for a $1 cab ride made sense.  Actually, the cabbie wasn’t going to charge us, but we thought it only fair to pay him.

The guidebook listed the hours as 9:00a to 6:30p, but a sign at the entrance contradicted that with a 10:00a opening.  A short 15-minute wait and we were inside trying to pay the $4/person fee.  When they couldn’t find the keys to the ticket booth, they told us to just go on in and pay on the way out!

The museum, which consists of three separate buildings, is on the grounds of what was once Guayasamin’s home.  Housed here are not only the artist’s own work, but his extensive collection of pre-Colombian artifacts, and Colonial era paintings and sculptures.

The museum is on the grounds of Guayasamin’s former home.

I try to make my head look bigger so I can blend in with La Familia,
but I don’t think it’s going to work :-)

Hanging mobile sculpture

There was only one other person on the tour, which worked in our favor.  It turned out that he was a real aficionado and the guide spent most of her time with him, leaving us to wander at our own pace — which was pretty fast.  Photography wasn’t allowed inside the buildings, so I purchased a few postcards of Guayasamin’s paintings to scan for the blog.

From Guayasamin’s pre-Colombian bowl collection.
[I took this before I realized all photography was prohibited, not just flash photos.]

Manos de la Protesta (Hands of Protest) — from the "Age of Anger" Collection.
[scanned from postcard]

 Quito Rojo (red Quito) — a version of this sold for over $300,000 at an auction in NYC.
[scanned from postcard]

Madre con Niño (Mother with Child) — from the “Age of Tenderness” Collection,
a series of 100+ works in tribute of love to his mother … to all mothers.
[scanned from postcard]

I couldn’t resist photographing the painting on the left from outside the building where
Guayasamin’s collection of Colonial Art is displayed; it reminded me of a similar painting
I photographed in 2009 (right) at the Seminary and Church of San Antonio Abad in Cusco, Perú.
Both paintings are from the escuela Cusqueña (Cusco school of art).

I guess the question is: was spending time here worth it for a couple of non-artsy types?  I think so.  Granted, I’d be hard pressed to say that we’d want Guayasamin’s work hanging in our home, but there was an edginess to it that drew us in.

I’d read in the Fodor’s guidebook that the nearby village of Guápulo was a “preserved pocket of colonial architecture” and that its off-the-beaten-path church, which dates back to the 17th century, was worth a visit.  Since we were in the vicinity anyway, we decided a quick look-see was in order.  So, after finally managing to pay the entrance fee at the Fundacion Guayasamin, we asked the museum guard to help us flag down a taxi to the Iglesia de Guápulo.

Aerial view of the Santuario y Iglesia de Guápulo.
today, The building adjacent to the church houses an international university.
[scanned from postcard]

A site of pilgrimage for centuries, the sanctuary is believed to be the oldest in Quito and is said to be located next to the road the Pizarro/Orellana expedition took.  (That expedition led to the discovery of the Amazon in 1541.)  Although the current building dates back to 1649, the original church on the site was built in 1596 to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe.  The name of Guápulo was derived from Guadalupe, which the indigenous people had trouble pronouncing correctly back in the day.  After being ravaged by a fire, the sanctuary fell to ruin and it wasn’t until 1930 that repairs were made.

20th Century historic photo of Iglesia de Guápulo.
[scanned from postcard]

As it was nearing lunchtime, the doors leading into the church were already locked.  So, I took what photos I could of the exterior and the entryway.  Unfortunately, the square in front of the church was blocked off for construction, so my options for photographing the façade were severely limited.

Exterior and entryway of the Iglesia de Guápulo.

The altar of the small chapel in the entryway (center) and the murals on the walls.

When we approached the caretaker to buy a couple of postcards of the interior, Mui asked if it was at all possible to see inside the church.  Before we knew it, the doors were unlocked for us to take a peek at the altar and the 18th century pulpit.  The latter is deserving of its description of being one of the most intricate in South America.  No photography was allowed, so I’ve scanned the postcards to post here.

The Retablo Principal (main altarpiece) dates back to the 20th century.

This sculpture of the Virgin of Guápulo is in the center of the main altar.

The pulpit (left) and the Retablo de La Virgen de la Nube (Altar of the Virgin of the Cloud).

Thanking the caretaker, we exited from a side door that took us through the university campus next door.  Since we were in a busy neighborhood, we figured a taxi would show up sooner rather than later, so we walked over to the stand across the street.  Quite a few cabs came by during the ten minutes we were there, but they already had passengers.  A helpful guard suggested that we walk the short distance down a nearby cobbled street to the taxi stand on the main thoroughfare.  That worked; five minutes later, we were headed towards the Colonial City.  We weren’t sure what we’d be doing once we got there, but getting a bite to eat was quickly becoming a priority …