Little Lolly's Small Adventures: touring

Someone's wake-up call! Or does the sea lion want somewhere more
comfortable to sleep?

We had an early morning wake-up call so that we could see the Charles Darwin Research Station before we started making tracks to Baltra Airport. The research station was about a 10 to 15 minute walk but it was raining - not so nice but everyone tried to keep their spirits up.

At the research station we had a nice walk around the site to see land tortoises & learn about the breeding programme. We even saw young tortoises of 3 months old to 3 years old. We also saw preserved body of Lone George who was the last giant tortoise of his kind.

When we returned to the hotel we had a few minutes to dry off and freshen up. Our luggage went, once again, through one of the back windows of the minibus and we piled into the bus.

On the way to the airport we stopped by Twin Craters which is really a collapsed lava tunnel, causing 2 huge deep holes in the earth.

Then onward to the airport, catching a ferry on almost the last leg of our journey. Our luggage was piled onto the ferry roof and offloaded onto public busses on the other side. Then the finally we arrived at the airport. Juan accompanied us all the way until we went through security. It was a very sad farewell for us. We had grown very fond of our guide who, by now, had become a good friend. Santiago (a guide who had flown across with us to the Galapagos islands) met us at the airport and went with us all the way through security - he was flying home until his next guiding assignment.

While we waited for our flight at Baltra Airport most of us sat in the food hall eating packed lunches, compliments from the hotel. We were kept entertained by sparrows flying inside, looking for crumbs. They got up very close to humans, sitting on the back of a chair, on the table & even on someone's hat rim.

When we landed at Guayaquil airport, Ecuador, Santiago stood at the door of the aeroplane and said goodbye to us as we left. The flight was continuing to his home town so he wouldn't be coming any further with us. I had the guests meet in a group so we could go out to the arrivals hall together. It worked a treat. We were met by tour group representatives who gave us our tickets and took us through check-in. They left us at the security gates as we made our way for our next flight to Lima, Peru.

After an uneventful flight we were met at Lima hotel by our new guide, Manning, who kindly had porters to pick up our luggage and take it to the Wyndham Costa del Sol Hotel airport, across the road from the airport. It was a short walk to the airport and there Manning gave us a briefing of what would happen in the morning and over the next few days, and handed out our hotel room keys.

After that - it was time for me to have a much needed bath and contact Paul.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Graveyard wall

Charles Darwin Research Station

Lone George

Young land tortoises - they are very small but wait until they grow up!

Last look at our hotel

Collapsed lava tunnels site

Ferry and the airport

A sparrow in the airport dining hall, hoping for some crumbs

Paul and I were up at a reasonable hour and after checking out of the hotel we put our luggage back in the car but make sure that it couldn't be seen and then took the ferry across the canal to get into central Amsterdam.

We walked along the streets, ending up at the red light district - the first time for me. Paul pointed out glass doors behind which ladies of the night sold "their wares". In fact there were a couple of women sitting at the doors waiting for customers, or maybe it was just part and parcel of the touristy look. Either way I stand to be corrected.

We eventually found the Erotica Museum. It was quite small although it was consisted of 5 floors. We weren't terribly impressed by it, possibly a bit disappointed to say the least with pictures and drawings and little else.

After that we took a long walk through the streets of Amsterdam to the Rijksmuseum where we spent a good couple of hours or wandering through the different galleries looking at various forms of art, modern to classical, paintings to statues and more. Some of the paintings were nice, some of them not so. (It depends on people's personal taste so I have to take that into consideration - what we might not like someone else will love.) We saw a few famous paintings including the Night Watch and a couple of other Rembrandt paintings. There were pottery, pieces silverware and artifacts from different eras including furniture, clothing, weaponry and more.

After walking for so long in the museum we felt a little bit "painted out" and also quite footsore. It was time to head home. Just outside the museum there was beautiful music being played, sounding as if it came from a church organ. Instead it was a quintet group consisting of a tuba player, violinist and 2 piano accordionists. The archway made for fantastic acoustics, transforming the sounds of the instruments into what sounded like a church organ. It was quite amazing what the group could achieve with their instruments combined with the acoustic value of the archway they were playing in. Unfortunately my phone's video player couldn't capture the true sound of the music but here is an excerpt of what they were playing:

Our car seemed to be many miles away and our feet were not happy. It was just tempting to catch either a bus or a tram back to Central Station (which is next to where the ferry crossing was, to our car) but we saw a bicycle taxi outside archway. The chap was reading and obviously had nothing to do so we asked him to take us to Central Station. The ride in the taxi bicycle taxi was pure heaven for our poor feet but we were in for a very bumpy ride as our taxi cyclist negotiated bumpy cobblestones.

At Central Station we bought a sandwich then caught a ferry across to the other side of the canal and hit the road home to Paul's mum's place.

PHOTOGRAPHS