Galapagos Islands journey - April, 2004

Galapagos Islands Journey - April, 2004
Cast of characters
Fernie and Gerri
Martin and Chris (both 59) from Norwich, England; both in good physical condition, in spite of the fact that Martin started smoking again after quitting 3 months ago. Martin is retired from a managing director position with Guinness; they lived in several different countries while working for that company. They have two unmarried sons in their late twenties. Chris didn’t work outside the home until he left Guinness when they opened a small hotel and ran it for about 5 years – shades of Basil and Sybil (Fawlty Towers). She had breast cancer last year but caught it early and is in remission. He is a stereotypical country squire in looks and manner. He likes his drink
Andy and Crystal (guess at early 50’s) from Edmonton, Alberta – moving to Victoria within the year. He is a financial planner in his own business and feels that he can commute between Edmonton and Victoria. Crystal has been a fund-raiser, a massage therapist and who knows what else. They have children but are planning on spending every last cent before they die. Crystal is extremely outgoing and happy – life of the party type. Andy is more serious.
Gary (early 50’s?) from Bath, England. He is a headmaster of a very posh coed private boarding school with about 1000 students. He is on a 3 month sabbatical. His wife, also a teacher, can’t take as long off so will join him in Africa for the end of the travels. The day before he left on holiday, she was told that she had a breast lump but she insisted on him continuing with his trip. He got happy news about 6 days in, that no cancer is present. They have one daughter 21 who has just finished college and a springer spaniel.
Jan (middle 50’s) from Goa, India – but English. She is a hippie type; into massage, yoga, meditation, vegetarianism. Divorced twice, she had two children and has a couple of grandchildren in England. Sold off everything she owned, moved to Goa and is planning on starting a little B&B type hotel which offers yoga, massage, etc. She has a jeep, a servant and rents a house for almost nothing and hasn’t really worked for 10-15 years. She has a really good figure but her face is etched deeply from the sun. Not from the right side of the tracks, but she is intelligent, worldly, kind and fun.
Susan and Jen (33 and 31) from Toronto, Ontario. Susan married 3 years to Jamie; he stayed home. Jen unmarried. Both are Human Resource people – Sue with The Bay and Jen with Sun Life.
Michelle (25ish) from Adelaide, Australia. Traveling the world for a year on her own. Took a leave of absence from her job at a museum in Adelaide. She seems very sweet and took to me but she’s sharing a cabin with Jan and apparently is not so sweet.
Hung Chao and Sally (early/middle twenties) from NYC, NY. Live in a self-owned condo in a high-rise in Manhattan. Hung Chao is a software engineer; Sally is a stockbroker. No children yet but they are very young. They are extremely sweet and a lot of fun.
Jim and Shirley (60ish) Twin Cities, Minnesota – pretty dull but well traveled. They are very friendly and love adventure travel. She’s getting arthritic in the knees, but was still able to get around the islands and up the volcano. He is a hunter, which I took exception to…rather rude of me I suppose. Michelle and I ganged up on him and Charlton Heston about gun control.


Michelle, Hung Chao and Sally got off half way through and were replaced with Kay, Tonya and Fernando.

Kay (31) from London, England - originally from the Liverpool area. However, she has a very upper class cultured accent. She is a young woman I would choose for a daughter-in-law. She traveled the world for a couple of years when she was younger. She’s well educated and holds a position as a journalist for an investment firm in London. She owns her own flat on the outskirts of London and owns a car that she only uses on weekends to go out of town. She’s knowledgeable about the arts, loves reality TV, has a wonderful sense of humour, a great figure, is very pretty, has a sparkling personality and is wondering if she’ll find the right man to settle down with and have children.
Tonya (about 30) – from Switzerland. Germanic in personality and a real outdoorswoman, she’s very introverted but friendly and pleasant to speak to. Her English is good but she doesn’t make friends easily. Unmarried and unencumbered, she’s on her annual vacation from a good job in Zurich.
Fernando (middle 30’s) from Mexico/Spain/US – I took an instant dislike to him; he’s insolent in manner but luckily keeps to himself. He’s an architect going to Boston to work. Heavily accented and swarthy.

Friday, April 16, 2004
Twenty years of dreaming about the Galapagos Islands finally culminated in reality. It was a drawn-out journey to get there. We flew American Airlines from Vancouver to Miami, leaving at 7:00am and changing planes in Dallas. An overnight in Miami was necessary as the flight from Miami to Quito leaves daily at 5:15pm and we didn’t arrive in Miami until 7:30pm. We booked the Sleep Inn Miami Airport using Hotel Kingdom as it had the best price and had free airport shuttle and breakfast. It was basic but decent and suited our needs.

Saturday, April 17, 2004
Our flight to Quito was a comfortable 3 ½ hours and we arrived at 8:30pm. Quito Internacional Mariscal Sucre Aeropuerto handled us expeditiously and we were in a taxi by 9:00 after disembarking, dealing with immigration and retrieving our luggage. A taxi was made easy to obtain by a young English-speaking woman hawking the yellow cabs. It was only $5 US from the airport to the Rio Amazonas Hotel in the new town Mariscal Sucre area. Seemed like a bargain to me. Check in at the hotel was a breeze. GAP (Great Adventure People) had it all in order. Nice hotel; the room pleasantly appointed.

Sunday, April 18, 2004
We were up at 6:00am for our flight to the Galapagos. The Rio Amazonas Hotel had a really good breakfast in a very nice dining room. The GAP representative met us in the lobby and we also met most of the others in our group – 15 in total. We were bused to the airport for our flight – to Baltra via Guayaquil (45 minute flight; stopped for 45 minutes and then 1 ½ hours to Baltra). The plane was much larger than expected and new. In my mind, we would be in an old prop plane carrying about 20 people. The temperature was substantially warmer than Quito – I think it was about 33 degrees C. The airport is an open on all sides building and there was just enough of a breeze to keep us cool as we lined up for immigration and payment of our Galapagos National Park fee $100 US each. Peter, our naturalist met us and organized a bus to pick us and our luggage up and we drove about 10 minutes to a small pier where 2 zodiacs were waiting to carry first our luggage and then us out to the GAP Adventurer 1 (aka the Pelikanos). We embarked about 1:15pm, room #7 on the lower deck, bunk beds, small bathroom with shower and we were able to leave the door and the window open all night. Lunch was quickly served in the tiny dining room; chicken, vegetables, rice and fruit. It was surprisingly very good. We sailed while having lunch and disembarked on Santa Cruz Island; a wet landing at Las Bachas sandy beach. They are very strict about everyone wearing lifejackets in the zodiacs, which suited me just fine as I’m a non-swimmer.

On our first nature walk, we encountered Sally Lightfoot crabs, a single pink flamingo in a lagoon just off the beach, Darwin’s finches, a couple of lava lizards and a horde of magnificent frigate birds and pelicans. The frigate birds were circling and diving at a spot in the sand – turtle eggs apparently. Most of our group went snorkeling but they all agreed that it was too murky. Not me….my face does not go under water!

Back on board, it was suggested that we all leave our sandals/shoes at the stern of the boat, firstly washing them well in the ocean to remove all traces of sand, dirt or feces. Not only to keep the boat clean but to not introduce vestiges from one island to another. So we all went barefoot while on the boat. We had a briefing by Peter and info about our next day itinerary then cocktails. The little bar on board is fairly well stocked and the prices reasonable. Soft drinks $1; beer $2; cocktails $3; wine about $16 a bottle. We tried a Margarita (pretty good) and a beer. Dinner was served – mahi mahi, vegetables, potatoes and plantain for dessert – Yummy! We figured we might as well go to bed at 9:00pm and the ship lifted anchor shortly after. It was quite a bumpy ride as we voyaged for about five hours to Bartoleme Island. Fernie had to leave his top bunk and join me in the bottom one (it was about a ¾ size bed) to alleviate the motion. Having the door open was wonderful and we didn’t get cold and we slept with only a sheet covering us.

Monday, April 19, 2004
We woke up at 5:00am and as dawn broke we viewed the often-photographed Pinnacle Rock off the starboard side. At 6:00am, the zodiacs ferried us to Bartoleme Island and a dry landing onto steps carved into the black volcanic rocks. A lone Galapagos penguin greeted us just off Pinnacle Rock. We hiked up to the top of the 114m volcano on a well-constructed wooden boardwalk and stairs and thanked God that it was so cool in the early morning. Finches and lava lizards prevailed in the moonscape. We found ourselves surprisingly out of breath on the climb and were relieved we had not chosen to do the Inca Trail later on in our trip as we were obviously out of shape.

Back to the Pelikanos at 8:00am for breakfast and off again at 8:45 to a wet landing, still on Bartoleme Is. It was the narrow spit of land that we viewed from the volcano peak. We had the beach to ourselves and went in for a dip. Took a walk across to the other side of the spit (about a 200m walk) to another sandy beach where we found a nesting pelican in a low tree, tons of lizards and lots of Sally Lightfoot crabs.

Back on board, we motored over to Cousin Rock where two of our group (Crystal and Jen) went for a dive. While anchored there, we saw a huge turtle swimming, sea lions and seals. One of the divers (Crystal) couldn’t equalize and returned early. When we sailed, dozens of dolphins swam alongside and under the prow of our boat. As the ocean is only about one metre below the deck, they were so close as they jumped and frolicked with us. At 3pm, we had a wet landing at James Bay, Santiago Island. What a wonderful visit; we walked along the beach to witness sea lions, marine iguanas, a myriad of endemic bird species and all totally unperturbed by our intrusion. On occasion, an iguana would spit but it wasn’t threatening – just their way of clearing the salt water from their systems. The lava rocks formed wonderful swimming holes for the sea lions; one of these pools was nicknamed ‘Darwin’s Toilet’ because it would appear to flush as the tide rose and receded. The young sea lions cavorted and slid down the rocks with the tide as if they were children on a slide…it was very amusing to watch them wait for every wave.

Back to the Pelikanos at 5:30pm exhausted from our day’s exciting explorations, for a shower, briefing by Peter and dinner at 7pm. After dinner, Peter, Fernando and Jimmy got out bongos and maracas and put on some salsa music. Fernando and Peter asked the young women to dance while Jimmy played the bongos and some of the group shook the maracas. After a while, when I noticed they were edging closer to asking the older women to dance, I snuck off before I got approached. We were anchored by 9:00pm at Rabida Island so we had a wonderful night’s sleep, just a gentle rocking motion.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Up at 5:30am for breakfast at 6. We took the zodiacs over to Rabida Island for a wet landing on a red sand beach (large grains – harder on the feet). We took a walk around and up the peninsula and along the lagoon just off the beach. A single flamingo flew in as we watched. There were dozens of sea lions along the beach; some of the young were nursing noisily – one was as big as the mother. Again, they were totally unruffled as we strolled within inches of them. At the end of the cove near the rocks and caves, we went into the ocean while the others snorkeled. Some fairly large (18” to 24”) green (with yellow stripe) fish swam around our legs, gently lashing our ankles with their wispy tails and sometimes tenderly nibbling on our toes. A fairly young sea lion, all on its own, approached us so closely, sniffing our toes. We noticed a huge deep gash in its side, either a result of a fight with another sea lion or from a shark. It appeared to be orphaned and it seemed as if he was looking to us to look after him. Further along, just at the entrance to a lava cave was a very young sea lion curled up sleeping all alone. Two adolescents frolicked with us in the shallows and caught a starfish, which they tossed in the air daring us to catch it; they circled us and swept between our legs so swiftly.

As we sat on deck after, en route to Santa Cruz Island (catching up our journals), a huge manta ray jumped high out of the ocean, displaying its shimmering silvery underside and then did it again – this is how they feed, apparently. At 11:00am, we boarded the zodiacs (aka pangas) for a 1 1/2 hour boat ride around Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz Island. Through narrow channels into peaceful lagoons, hundreds of blue-footed boobies stood sentinel, the young with iridescent blue feet. To catch fish, they would dive-bomb the lagoons from fairly high up. In the crystal-clear water, we saw hammer-head sharks and Galapagos sharks, a couple of good-sized sea turtles, numerous pelicans, frigate birds, blue herons and our first sighting of a bright yellow land iguana. Back to our boat for lunch and we headed for Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, the only town of size in the Galapagos. After a briefing at 4:00pm, we set anchor in the harbour amidst dozens of other tourist boats of all sizes and panga’d ashore for a couple of hours. After strolling the streets, phoning home or accessing the internet, most of our group ended up at an outdoor bar for beer and pisco sours while we waited for our zodiac to take us back onboard. After dinner, the younger passengers along with Martin and Chris ventured ashore again to explore the nightlife. Fernie and I played Spite and Malice; Gary, watched with interest so I allowed him to play in my place. Jan read in the corner. We shared a bottle of wine and had some good laughs.

Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Michelle, Sally and Hung Chao disembarked in the early hours right after breakfast and we expected three replacements later in the day. We went to the Charles Darwin Research Station by zodiac. It is just on the outskirts of Puerto Ayora. Dry landing at 7:45am. We wandered the facility and viewed many endemic plant species such as parkensonia, so-named for its shaking branches. They are doing a lot or work with the different species of Galapagos tortoise. They breed them and then gradually introduce them to the wilds, finally at about 2 years old. Lonesome George is the last of his species – a Pinta Island tortoise. He’s huge and very old. In the seafaring days, the sailors would take live tortoises on board and kill them as needed for food. The naturalists are attempting to breed him with some other closely related species but he won’t cooperate. Cloning will be a last resort. They plan to cryogenically store his remains after his demise. It was only a 10 minute walk back to town after and we bought the famous Galapagos t-shirts with pictures of boobies, tortoises, iguanas, etc. for our grandchildren and ourselves. We met the gang at the bar by the dock and shared a ‘grande’ beer while we waited for the zodiac to take us back for lunch. The 3 new replacements arrived just after lunch, Kay, Tonya and Fernando.

We panga’d back ashore and took a bus trip to the highlands of Santa Cruz to a vast crater (caldera) where huge tortoises resided. The vegetation wash lush and fruit grew profusely – papayas, passion fruit, mangoes, and grapefruit. We stumbled upon an absolutely immense tortoise that hissed at us and withdrew into his shell (not all Galapagos wildlife is welcoming), but others we encountered paid us no mind. One was lying in a large muddy pool up to his chin.

Thursday, April 22, 2004
At 6:00am, we made a stop at Enderby Islet for scuba diving. There’s supposedly a large colony of frigate birds there but the sea mist made it impossible to view much of it. After breakfast, we had a wet landing at Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island - one side of the narrow ismuth was brown sand and the other white powder. We landed on the brown sand beach to be greeted by lots of overly friendly sea lions. They approached so closely that one actually snuffled at my toes. They were delightful. We walked across the ismuth and looked down at a lagoon teeming with bright pink flamingoes. On the other side on the white sand beach, we waded in to the ocean and saw sting rays come in on the waves – they ranged from about 18” to 3’ in diameter and came within feet of us. Sea turtles nest on this beach and we saw a couple swimming near the shore. An ominous fin also surfaced quite close in, a Galapagos shark. After a couple of hours, we went back to the Pelikanos and moved along to Champion Islet for snorkeling, scuba diving swimming and/or a panga ride. We of course chose the panga ride around the islet and entered a little hidden cove that widened to a circular bay. Dozens of sea lions nibbled at our toes as we hung them over the side. The aqua water was crystal clear and the sea lions jumped and played delighted that we’d come to visit. We threw the rope off the front of the zodiac and they grabbed it, playing tug-of-war with us, jumping, rolling and stealing it from each other. It was delightful! Blue footed boobies, plovers and some sort of gannet nested in the cliffs in profusion. We entered another bay but a large male sea lion warned us off. Back to the boat for lunch and we moved along to Post Office Bay.

We had a wet landing at Post Office Bay, still on Floreana Island. We walked about 50m off the beach and encountered a strange lot of hand-lettered signs and boxes intertwined into an unruly array. Originally, a barrel was there and whalers would leave mail – other seamen would check the barrel and if they were going where the mail was addressed they would take it and deliver it. Today, visitors will leave their postcards and pickup others to deliver. We put our 3 postcards and Michelle’s into the box and picked up 6 to deliver at home. I wonder if they’ll ever arrive. Back to the boat,

Still at Floreana Island (aka Santa Maria), we moved on to Puerto Velasco Ibarro for a dry landing at a dock. There are about 80 inhabitants, a hotel, restaurant, store, school and an armed forces area. There was a penal colony here in the 1800’s and the town has a colourful past with mysterious stories about the early residents. One of the original settlers, Margaret Wittmer died only 4 years ago at the age of 95 leaving her progeny to run the hotel and restaurant. There is nothing to do in Puerto Velasco Ibarro and it was a waste of time visiting it. We walked about 2km in blazing heat looking for a sea lion colony and all we found was a single sea lion swimming offshore. Went back to the boat for a briefing and dinner and lifted anchor about 8:00pm heading for Espanola/Hood Island. We played cards until about 10:00pm and went to bed. Lying in bed listening to our boat racing through the water, pitching and rolling quite violently, I was lulled into a calm and peaceful state filled with the wonder of it all. A moist breeze whispered through the cabin and I could see the sky filled with stars and a new moon through our ever-open door. Can life get any better than this?

Friday, April 23, 2004
We were up early as always and out at 6:00am to a dry landing on Punta Suarez on Espanola/Hood Island. We pulled up to a rocky jetty; sea lions were just waking on the rocks, a huge surf, broken by the jetty, roared in the background as the sea lions groaned and grumbled, coughed and barked. As we passed the rocky headland, we came upon a little sandy cove, absolutely teeming with sea lions; some babies suckling while the mother instructed noisily to change teats, some babies as big as the mothers. We walked through them coming within inches and mostly they would just blink, roll and go back to sleep. The sun crested the horizon and this brought more action, yawns and stretches and squabbles and some young ones approached us so closely as if wanting to play with us. One baby, about 18” long, lay curled up all alone, albeit in the center of the colony. I wondered where the mother was. Mixed into this group were iguanas that, as the sun came up, basked on the sandy beach to warm up. We had to be really careful not to step on them. They were so colourful – red and green. The lava lizards were much larger than we’d seen on other islands and they would scurry across our path, then stop on a rock beside to watch us proceed. Many times, they just missed being stepped on as they ran across our paths. We noticed one whose tail was missing and a little new one was regenerating – probably a result of being stepped on. We proceeded across a rocky plateau and encountered blue-footed boobies doing a mating dance while oblivious of us. They blocked our way but we were finally able to carefully pass them and they then looked at us with interest. We then encountered a couple of waved albatross just beside the narrow path, engaged in a ritual mating dance, culminating in a sexual coupling. We were so lucky to witness it. These albatross have a wingspan of over 2 metres and are a spectacularly beautiful bird. As we meandered further, the scrubby bushes opened to a long clearing, teeming with albatross – it was their runway.

Clambering along a rocky trail hopping from boulder to boulder, carefully choosing the flattest stones, we eventually arrived at the top of some stark, high cliffs teeming with red-footed gulls, Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, albatross and Galapagos hawks. The waves crashed violently below and we sat on the flat lava rocks at the edge of the cliff in wonderment, scanning the cliffs with our binoculars, spying a large marine iguana colony clinging to the perpendicular rocks and watching the huge albatross take off in flight. A little further along the cliffs, around the headland is a lava blow hole, which ‘erupted’ with each incoming wave. It was more impressive than ‘Old Faithful’ in Yellowstone. Heading back inland back over to our starting point, we crossed a sparse plateau – a blue-footed boobie colony. Mating rituals were happening all around and our path was lined by blued-footed spectators. They were so interested in us and some would attempt a little dance when we stopped to address them. There were Nazca boobies interspersed with the blue-footed ones. An unbelievable morning – an out-of-body experience.

We were back on board by 9:00am – so hard to believe that we witnessed so much in only 2 ½ hours. We had breakfast and the Pelikanos moved along to Turtle Island where the snorkellers and scuba divers were dropped off for an hour. We moved along a short distance and had a wet landing onto a white sand beach at Gardner Bay. The sand was powder, the water aqua and a gentle breeze kept us cool. Sleeping sea lions lined the mile-long beach with the occasional one taking a dip in the ocean. They reveled in us joining them in the water. I borrowed a life vest and had a delightful time floating in with the waves. After an hour or so, we re-embarked and had lunch, the boat heading for Santa Fe Island about five hours north. This left us a long afternoon for siestas, reading and Fernie taught Crystal and Andy how to play Spite and Malice. A couple of hours out, we came upon a massive pod of dolphins jumping and swimming along with the boat. Hanging over the prow, we were only about 6 feet from the largely- proportioned mammals. One and then two swam just below the prow, only inches from the surface. They continued on for several minutes and would then be replaced by others. When they jumped and cleared the water with their whole bodies, we all let out a drawn out ………Ohhhhhhhhhhh……….. Another miraculous happening in these heavenly islands.

We pulled in to a quiet little bay about 6:00pm and set anchor. The waters were still and clear and we could see rays and many different fish so clearly. The bay was part of a huge crater so it was really more like a lagoon with just a narrow entrance. As the sun set, the new moon and Venus appeared so crisply clear in the sky. After dinner, there was music and dancing and we were to bed by 10:00pm.

Saturday, April 24, 2004
Santa Fe Island. Scuba diving at 6:00am; breakfast at 7:00am and a wet landing at a sea lion colony on a beach within the crater. This time, we needed running shoes to traverse the rocky paths fouled by the sea lions. The air was filled with the pungent scent. As I tried to put my shoes on without getting sand in them, four young sea lions swam over; one tried to steal my shoe off the rock and another snuffled my feet and gazed lovingly at me as I sat on the rock. We walked a short distance up the path and encountered a single Santa Fe land iguana resting beneath one of the huge cacti and about 30 metres further found one more. We walked inland through an apparently dead forest – in actuality, it was only dormant and waiting for the rains to come and revive it. It was a prehistoric scene and the frigate birds soaring overhead were reminiscent of pterodactyls. One ancient cactus had a trunk about 18” in diameter and was over 100 years old. Every so often there’d be a sandalwood tree with lichens hanging like Xmas tree ornaments looking dead but just dormant. We came out at another little cove, another sea lion colony, where we doubled back past 3 pelicans sitting on their eggs, their nests perched atop flat low-slung trees. In one of the nests, we were able to see her 3 eggs as she turned them around. We then went back to the cove and back to the boat.

We traveled along for about an hour to Plazas Island - snorkeling and scuba diving and lunch. We had a dry landing to Plazas Island where there were lots of land iguanas, well-camouflaged for the barren landscape. We really had to watch where we stepped as their tails seemed to almost always be across our path. We walked along the peninsula and there were swallow-tailed gulls nesting along the cliffs, red billed tropic birds gliding and swooping, boobies and the always present sea lions. We wondered how the sea lions got to the top of the cliffs and were lucky to witness one large bull hoist himself from level to level with extreme upper body strength. He would rest at each ledge for a few minutes and then carry on. Scurrying lava lizards would stop and watch the parade of humans with great interest. I couldn’t help feeling that we had visited Jurassic Park.

Back on board, Jimmy the steward mixed up some Ecuadorian cocktails – ‘Caipirinas’. Limes crushed with sugar mixed with cane sugar liquor and ice and topped with a little tonic – Yummy! Peter gave his final briefing and the crew came up for the last farewell. Jimmy mixed up some flamingo cocktails for a toast.

Sunday, April 25, 2004
Breakfast and a dry landing at North Seymour Island. First to greet us were a pair of swallow-tailed gulls, the female on her nest in a crevice beside the steps where we disembarked. We walked through a blue-footed boobie colony, mothers on their nests and we would often spy their egg(s) as they shifted. If she has more than one chick, the stronger/older chick will be the only one to survive. In one nest, the mother sat upon two chicks but we would see their little heads pop out. They were very small, probably only recently hatched. Further along was a colony on magnificent frigate birds and many of the males’ red neck sacs were fully engorged as part of their mating ritual. We finally encountered a Galapagos snake asleep in between the rocks of the pathway. It was quite small – maybe ½” diameter and was less than a metre long. It didn’t slither away or make any movement in spite of our proximity. Of course there were more sea lions and a few black marine iguanas. Well, that was it….our final foray into the Galapagos wilderness. It was back to the boat to do final packing and we left for the airport, where we spent our last hours shopping and sitting with Christine and Martin and Jan in the bar.

The flight to Quito including the stop at Guayaquil was about three hours. Quito was in a black cloud when we flew in and lightning flashed as we were landing – never a comfortable feeling. Jan was staying in a different hotel and was carrying on with her 3 month journey, so we said goodbye to her. We were checked into the Rio Amazonas Hotel by 5:30pm. Nine of us (Chris, Martin, Gary, Crystal, Andy, Shirley, Jim & us) went out for dinner together to the Argentine Steakhouse. Prices are really cheap – I had a fancy bacon wrapped filet for $6.95 and Fernie a huge T-bone for the same price. Not usually a red meat eater, I was flabbergasted with how delicious it was….probably the best I ever had. The bill totaled $160 for all nine of us; that included three lovely bottles of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, many beer and appetizers for all. Shirley and Jim disappeared after but the rest of us found a lovely little bar where I had a most delicious caipirina and Fernie a rum hot chocolate that he relished. Fernie had been suffering from altitude sickness but the meal and drinks made him feel a lot better.


Our Peru journey to be continued…….