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| Bahia Caráquez .... March ~ April 2002 | ||||||
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 Main Anchorage looking down river |
 Captain & Pup off to the market |
 Downtown Bahia ... long view |
 The dinghy dock |
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 San Vincente across the river |
 Old Municipal pier, all tide landing |
 Port Captain's landing at high tide |
 One of two Naval ferry boats to cross river |
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| Puerto Lucia Yacht Club, Libertad .... April ~ July 2002 | ||||||
 The marina |
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 Good haulout facilities |
 Captain & duty paint pup |
 Lots of boats, high season waiting line |
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 Sunset looking to the west and Salinas |
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| Guayaquil .... May ~ June 2002 | ||||||
 La Bahia .... "Black Market" |
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 Iguanas in a park. Eat fruit bits sold by vendors |
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| Road
Trip to Interior ..... July 2002 |
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 20 kilometers away |
Alto Plano Mount Chimbrazo (inactive volcano) in South America stands at a height above sea level of 6,310 meters which makes it much shorter than Mount Everest (8,850 meters). However, it is at a latitude of 1.5 degrees south of the equator. Due to the bulging of the earth near the equator, the crest of Mount Chimbrazo is 6,384,458 meters above the center of mass of the earth (i.e. "earth center") while the crest of Mount Everest is only 6,382,266 meters above earth center. Looking at it this way, Mount Chimbrazo is 1.36 miles higher than Mount Everest! We climbed to the upper base camp, at about 5000 meters, located just below the permanent snow line. |
 6310 meters up |
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 The climbing face, traverse from the right to left, the up the glacier |
 Just a little further, the tin roof is the high base camp |
 You make a "Z" traverse from lower left to right, the back to the left and finally up the ridge |
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 The approaches
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 High base camp |
 A cool drink of "fresh" glacier water, after breaking off the ice |
 Lower camp and monument to a group of 9 (if I remember correctly) died on top when a freak lightening bolt struck |
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 Ground makeup from volcanic action |
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 Alpaca or Lama? |
 Reintroduced guanacos grazing in the alto plano under Chimbrazo altitude about 4500 meters |
 Vegetation |
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| Cajas Park Lake | ||||||
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Highest
Vehicle Pass in Ecuador runs through the park. Many small lakes are
scattered across this park at the top of the world. Trout fishing is allowed and we saw several fishermen working the lake with fly rods. |
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| Quenca ... colonial town and market place | ||||||
 Road up from Quayaquil to Quenca ... over the top |
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 Gran Hotel courtyard and restaurant |
 The Gran Hotel, center of town, great digs, cheap price, and they let our dog stay. Parking is in a private parking lot ... you pay, but cheap |
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 Quenca Police |
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 Tourist taking in the views |
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 Missionary singing gospel, learning the language, and having a great time |
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| Quenca Markets ... tourist market and fresh produce market | ||||||
 No smile here.. camera shy |
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| Some Road Views ... | ||||||
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Road from Quenca to Mendez in the Oriente. We did not complete the travel down this road to Mendez we were turned around by nature. 15 minutes ahead of us 1.5km of road slid down the side of the mountain. 40 persons were killed. Land travel in Ecuador is an adventure. |  |
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Along the road from Quenca to Rio Bomba. Great driving and scenery. The Captain and the Tootsie Pup pause for a "sniff" |  |
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| Rio Bomba - Quenca Tourist Train .... Starting on the up grade | ||||||
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It
thought it could ... and it did! |
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| The
Galapagos, Villamil Island .... July/Aug 2002 We visited in the off season, which is a good time to sail from Salinas to Galapagos, after the weather change. Typically cold and misty, with occasional rain |
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| Horse backing to the Black Volcano ..... almost 7 km across the crater. | ||||||
 1st time on a horse, MsPilot shows she can pilot anything |
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 This is the crater ... wow! This is a panoramic |
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 Galloping on the edge |
 Looking up island to 2 more big craters |
 Getting ready to descend into an active crater |
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 Sulphur bleeds |
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 The crater |
The island has an indigenous flamingo population that lives in shallow tidal estuaries in the lowlands of Villamil |  |
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| Villamil has a large population of marine iguanas and other lizards |  |
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Birds and other strange things |  |
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| The famous Galapagos tortoise ... and the Villamil hatchery. The round thing without the glasses is an egg |  |
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 Signing the guest log. Christian the Villamil Port Captain on the left |
 Getting a little:) |
 The Captain and the biologist |
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| Villamil, the anchorage and other scenes |  |
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 Inter-island tour boat |
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 Inter-island tour boat |
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 Island supply boat |
 Lightering fuel to the island |
Walking trail just outside of the village. Takes a couple of hours and is some distance, finally ends up by the "Wall of Tears" built by prisoners when Villamil was a penal colony | ||
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 Trail passes village cemetery |
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 Many lava flow tunnels |
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 South end of Villamil |
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 Wall of Tears |
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| Flags courtesy of ITA's Flags of All Countries used with permission. | ||||||
