Part 5: Ecuador & Colombia

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Countries

389

Sea Lions

100

Face Masks disposed

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Cockroaches wrestled

Trip overview

After 20 very strange months with lockdowns and covid restrictions where we ended up feeling super adventurous when travellling with the metro into the centre of Oslo (which takes 12 minutes), we were really excited when we FINALLY could go travelling again and to a very exciting part of the world….Ecuador & Colombia, including Galapagos Islands and the Amazon Rainforest as the highlights!!

We arrived in Quito on a Wednesday evening and were eager to once again experience all the huzzle and buzzle in a huge capital. We expected it to be less due to Covid of course, but we didn’t expect it to be more or less NO ONE in the streets when we arrived the first day… was there a lockdown we hadn’t catched when searching the big www, or was it because of the state of emergency that was announced one week before we headed off due to the increased drug crime in the region? We feared the worst but luckily the hostel owner reassured us that it was a national holiday so everybody stayed at home and had big family celebrations. Phew…

After 2 days in Quito, where we visited amongst other nice places Mitad del Mundo and literally had one foot in the southern hemisphere and the other in the northern, we jumped on our flight to Galapagos Islands, 1,000 km west of Ecuador and was picked up at the airport and headed to our home on water, the Bonita Yatch for the next 5 days. And what an experience it was to be so close to wildlife and be completely on their territory where it was us who had to adjust to them and not the opposite around. Exactly as it should be! After 5 days watching loads of giant tortoises, sea lions, blue footed boobies, Sally lightfoot-crabs, albatrosses, various iguanas, frigate birds, pelicans and the funny mocking birds (and yes, they are mocking #seevideo), snorkling in cold-but oh-so-clear and beautiful ocean with loads of corals and fishes and sea lion pups wanting to play with us, we had to leave these magical islands packed with memories for life that we are so thankful and humble that we got to experience.

Our flight from Galapagos took us to Guayaquil in the south. Not the most interesting town, so we stayed only one night and headed on a 5 hour busride up the coast to a lazy beach plaze called Ayempe which we had been recommended by our fellow yatchers. As the days were full on on Galapagos, the entire plan of this trip, was to relax on a beach for a few days, before we were heading back to Quito and jump on the bus into the Amazon jungle.

But (and this is what a pandemic does to poor travellers… we forget the basic steps!) …. we had simply forgotten to check the weather forecast, so to make the long story short…. we stayed in this so called Shangri-la of a beach haven in an amazingly moist, cold and smelly bamboo hut and found ourselves on a bus going back to Guayaquil, less than 20 hours later! As we were desperate to relax in the sun, we booked ourselves into a Radisson hotel for the next 2 nights and the only reason: They had a swimmingpool where we could chill. While checking in and sending loooong and looonging looks towards our new shangri-la, the receptionist kindly informed us that the swimmingpool would unfortunately be closed off the next days due to a wedding…

After making the days go by in Guayaquil, once again we jumped on a plane heading back to Quito where we had 6 hours before we boarded a nightbus over the Andes mountains and headed deep into the Amazon. We stayed in a large bamboo hut with our own rooftop in the middle of the jungle (which was actually 250 meter from the equator), and did several canoe excursions on the lakes and rivers nearby. The wildlife in the Amazon is much more shy (as our guide liked to describe it), compared to Galapagos, however we saw a 7-meter long anaconda, numerous boa snakes (which came abit tooooo close once, meaning dangling 1 meter above our head), a Goliath tarantula, pink river dolphins, caymans, various species of monkeys, slots, toucans with their colourful beaks, parrots and endless amount of tropical birds. We also visited a indigeneos village and learned to make yuca bread like a pro!

After surviving 4 days in the Amazon and travelling by day bus over the Andes and back to Quito the trip continued to Colombia, where we only had time to explore the old town of Bogota as we only had 1 night there. The final week was spent on the carribean coast in Taganga, Santa Marta, Minca and Cartagena where it was hot and sunny!

After 4 weeks on the road (and in the air) we headed home, full of memories and as always we wonder why on earth we return to the northern hemisphere where it’s 40 degrees colder.

Map

Planning

Finally… after what feels like half a lifetime we could once again dig into the puzzle we love; planning trips, book flights, arrange visas etc… But as the world had changed since our last time abroad, a new puzzle was added to the planning: Covid-19 restrictions. Normally, we go for overland adventures, but due to various restrictions it was difficult to do our usual stuff, so instead we decided on making a big dream come true and visit Galapagos and the Amazon Rainforest instead. And why not throw Colombia in the pot as well, so we get 2 for 1 when travelling that far in the first place?

Both Ecuador and Colombia have visa on arrival, so we didn’t have to spend a calorie on that. They also allowed tourists into their country at that time (many others still didn’t) and we didn’t have to quarantine as long as we were fully vaccinated (of course we are!!) plus we were allowed to travel between these 2 countries without any problems. When those important details were off the table, we booked our Galapagos and Amazon jungle tour and then started digging into ALL the other Covid-details, which was a tougher nut to crack as it involved a lot of boring info that we had to read, read once more and triple check in case it had changed since last time we read it, or didn’t miss or misunderstood anything such as; will your travel insurance refund your trip if you have to cancel it due to Covid or does it cover hospital/return flights if you get infected. Are there any small letters in regards to what time you booked your trip versus what is your country’s travel restrictions at time of booking. Do you need a PCR test before you board the plane, are in transit or do you need a PCR test on arrival and how close do you have to take it before departure/after arrival. What kind of health forms for each country do you need to download/fill in/print out and at what time etc. etc…

Phew… it was a maze to figure out all these topics and the last 2 weeks before departure, we were of course paranoid of getting infected and everybody around us was potential virus carriers who we stayed faaaar away from. We managed to steer away from it all, but despite that, once again we ended up not knowing if our planned itinerary would actually happen before we literally sat on the plane leaving Norway OR sat our foot in Ecuador OR sat on the plane to Galapagos OR was allowed onboard the boat going into the Amazon Rainforest. Luckily for us, Ecuador who was the only country who required PCR test before/after arrival on mainland and Galapagos, removed their restrictions 4 days before we headed off on our new adventure. Hurray!

Itinerary

Oslo – Quito

Quito – Baltra Island

Galapagos Islands

Baltra Island – Guayaquil

Guayaquil – Ayampe

Ayampe – Guayaquil

Guayaquil – Quito

Quito – Nueva Loja – Cuyabeno

Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Amazon Rainforest)

Cuyabeno – Nueva Loja – Quito

Quito – Bogota

Bogota – Santa Marta

Santa Marta – Cartagena

Cartagena – Oslo

Social media posts

Below are the photos we never had time to post on Facebook during the journey. We have also included exclusive behind the scenes and bonus materials. Enjoy! 😀

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389

100

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Trip overview

Map

Planning

Itinerary

Social media posts

Behind the Scenes

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