How To Live Like a Rockstar When You are Not One...
The Postcard Barrel 18 September An amazingly cool thing happened today. Well, it all goes back a couple of months. Today ties to a day in late June when I was on Isla Floreana in the Galapagos. I wrote this from that time…. “The post office ‘barrel’ has existed since the 1800’s and it is where ships used to leave mail they wanted delivered. If you stopped at the beach where Bahia Post Office was located on your way...
Cotacachi to Popayán: Changing Countries and Talking to Idiots. July 2. Changing countries is always hell somehow. Even as a wily veteran traveller, it is always a little bit terrifying heading into the complete unknown. By now I should be used to that slight feeling of un-comfort, yet I still feel it every time when I am changing countries. There is a new currency to learn the value of when changing countries, a new list of cities to geographically memorize...
Cotacachi: Inti Raymi Party of the Sun. June 30. Part 1: I met a random person in the Otavalo post office today who told me through my broken Spanish that there was a huge fiesta taking place in Cotacachi, a village 15 minutes away. Never interested in missing a party, I headed for the town on a $0.25 bus. Cotacachi is an almost entirely indigenous Ecuadorian community and it took me hours to find out what the peculiar festival taking place...
Otavalo: A Fantastic, Sleepy, Little Town. June 29. I like you Ecuador. I like your people. I like your scenery. I like how cheap things are. Your women are beautiful. Spending $2.50 on a daily set menu with soup, a plate of food and a drink is awesome. You possess the Galapagos. You have this wonderful little town called Otavalo that makes me happy. The only knock I have on you is your terrible watery beer. I hope that will...
Quito to Otavalo: San Antonio Rock Festival. June 28. A man spends his whole life hoping that the most beautiful woman at the scene will stare a hole through him with her eyes. Then on those rare occasions when it actually happens, it scares the hell out of him. My confidence was not prepared. And I like to think that I am a pretty brave and self-assured person. Some days, a man just does not have it… My Mexican friend Maya,...
Mitad del Mundo and Intiñan Museum June 27 It took two buses and 90 minutes to get to the Equator line (Mitad del Mundo) from Quito, but both buses were only $0.25. New Mexican friend Maya from the hostel came with me for a hang out day and we took a lot of fun pictures right on the equator line; hand-stands, reverse crab, each in a hemisphere, the usual… When we bored of that we decided to try some science...
Galapagos to Quito: Cold Weather is Toxic to My Skin. June 26. On the bus ride to the airport for my Galapagos to Quito flight, there were no seats left. The bus was actually leaving about 15 minutes early because it was already full and the only place to sit was on the bus step next to the chubby mid-50’s Ecuadorian bus-ticket lady who was the wife of the driver. As the bus pulled away to get to the airport...
Isla Santa Cruz: Casually Goodbying Gorgeous Galapagos. June 25. I met a young guy without a face today on Isla Santa Cruz. He was German, about 22 years old, and the entire right side of his face was bandaged. I asked him if he had a good story for me. He told me that he was riding a mountain bike close to Volcan Sierra Negra on Isla Isabela and when he fell on his face and the gravel was crushed...
Isla Floreana to Isla Santa Cruz: The Vomiting. June 24. Time to get back to a center, so I went down to the docks at 10am to find a boat driver that was heading from Isla Floreana to Isla Santa Cruz later in the day and found a captain who would take me for $30. There are no tour operators and there is no one to sell you a ticket to get from Isla Floreana to Isla Santa Cruz if you did...
Galapagos: Isla Floreana Bahia Post Office Barrel. June 23. I found out at 6am this morning that the boat that the fantasy girls and their guide had organized would not be taking us to the Bahia Post Office, which is another beach very difficult to get to by foot on Isla Floreana. The Isla Floreana Bahia Post Office Barrel has existed since the 1800’s and it is where ships used to leave mail they wanted delivered in a barrel. If you...
June 22 I climbed a volcanic mountain in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the day drinking beer with a couple of older ladies, one of whom was Sheelagh from England, aged 63. Entertaining Older Gals. When the store that we wanted to buy beer from was on a siesta that seemed to be taking too long, Sheelagh went to the back door of the hotel and found herself in the kitchen. Against the wall on the right...
Isla Santa Cruz to Isla Floreana – Fantasyland? June 21. My nickname, Beaver, is ‘Castor’ in Spanish, French and Portuguese. It is the only name I use here in South America. I never use a last name and treat my first name like I am Elvis or Madonna. In South America you have to write your name often on tickets, and with no surname usually the man calling names from a group list smirks when he calls out only ‘Castor.’ ...
Galapagos: Isla San Cristóbal to Isla Santa Cruz: A Man Needs a Rest. June 20. Yesterday I changed hostels because I was having internet trouble. I asked the new hostel before I moved in if they had ‘Agua Caliente,’ hot water. I asked two different people at two different times. Both times I was told, “Si!” So, I took my bag of life to the room they directed me up the stairs towards. And then I did not have hot...
Isla San Cristóbal, Galapagos – Swimming with Sharks. June 19. On never enough sleep because I like to party as much as I like to tour, I dragged my ass out of bed at 7am to get to the boat on time. It was $80 for a day adventure to Kicker Rock/León Dormido to snorkel with sharks, rays and turtles. All companies are about the same calibre when buying the trip, but the price varies from place to place and...
Galapagos: Isla San Cristóbal Nude. June 18. Up at the crack of too early to meet my friends for an Isla San Cristóbal mountain bike ride though some mounds of earth that were far too tall for any kind of pleasure, including a volcano which is certain to explain that we were shy of level roads. It was $10 after some haggling in a center street store in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, but we got six moderately good bikes. It has been...
Isla San Cristóbal: How Galapagos were Created. June 17. How Galapagos were created is that beneath the Galapagos Islands is a hot spot/volcano that releases magma into molten lava that rides to the surface. How Galapagos were created is the hot spot never moves but the Galapagos are on a tectonic plate called Nazca and this plate moves 3 centimeters each year towards the continent of South America. How Galapagos were created is that the eastern islands of the Galapagos...
Isla Santa Cruz to Isla San Cristóbal: Consistent Animal Entertainment. June 16. At 8am, I went to get on my boat to Isla Floreana and I was told that it was cancelled because there were not enough people on it to make the trip. That was after the morning boat to San Cristóbal had already left. So, I hung out at the fish market for about an hour to watch the fiasco taking place with the sea lions, pelicans and humans. ...
Isla Isabella to Isla Santa Cruz: Not Cruz-ing with Pleasure. June 15. I was up at 4:30am to catch my 5:20am check in for my boat from Isla Isabella to Isla Santa Cruz. A solid four hours of sleep. I know the world thinks that I live this glorious life of just travelling and sleeping in late and hanging out at the beach and partying at night. It is a good gig that I have, but it is not the...
Isla Isabela, Galapagos Swimming with Sea Lions. June 14 It was an easy start. I had sleep last night. It was a treat. I checked out of my hostel and headed to the square of the Puerto Villamil for breakfast and seen that a stage was being built with huge band speakers. A party! So, I asked someone who could speak English and they told me that there was a grand fiesta tonight in honor of Father’s Day, and the...
Isla Isabela, Galapagos Los Tunels Tour. June 13. Up for a Galapagos Los Tunels tour at 7am after finally getting to sleep around 1:30am. This is burning the candle at both ends. I am afraid to look back to see how many days of insanity that have passed in a row this has been for. 8:20am in Ecuador means 8:40. Eventually a boat hauled about 12 of us through very rough waters for 50 minutes to an area for snorkelling...
Galapagos: Isla Isabella Snorkelling, and Boobies, Crabs, Penguins and Iguanas. June 12. A 6am alarm is a disturbing sound when you have only had a few hours of sleep. This is absurd. I need to rest somewhere. Too much is going on and too much awesome is happening. Once I washed the black rings around my eyes and I said goodbye to Stephanie, I headed to the pier to catch a $30 boat ride to Isla Isabela, the largest island...
Puerto Ayora, Galapagos: The Lion Thief. June 11. Muay Consodo. I do not seem to be sleeping anymore, and that is a shame because I am really good at it when I get to try it. In the afternoon I headed to the fish market of Puerto Ayora because I heard there is a lot of action there. The market was finished for the day but there were a lot of pelicans around the place. Abruptly, a sea lion showed...
Guayaquil to Galapagos Islands – Really, I am in the Galapagos? Awesome! 10 June Getting up at 6am after going to bed at 2am is not a pleasant experience for me. At those times I am really glad no one else is around to have to deal with my mental demeanour. I like a solid 8 of sleep, just to restock the cerebral cabinet. A taxi to the airport. Today is Guayaquil to Galapagos Islands. I was told that I...
Guayaquil: A Change Will Do You Good. June 9. I slept so hard on the bus that the driver had to wake me up in my seat at Peruvian/Ecuador immigration. The man next to me and I were the only two people left on the bus. I need some real rest. Exit stamp. Hasta Luego Peru. I will not miss you. I will not miss having 18 year olds in bars trying to sell my cocaine and I will not...
Máncora to Guayaqiul: Good Riddance Peru… June 8. It is funny how English speaker perceive my name when I tell them it is ‘Castor.’ They often look at me in awe and say, “Wow, that is a very exotic name,” or “You are a Canadian, how did you get a name like that.” I do not usually tell them that it just means Beaver in Spanish, Portuguese and French. When I introduce myself to Spanish speakers here in Latin America,...
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