Second and Third Thoughts
The Mountains of Petra
We’ve just come back from a tour of Jordan that, unsurprisingly, included a visit to Petra. This panorama (11316 × 3239 px) shows some of the structures within Petra. Aaron’s Tomb can just be seen as a small white dome on top of the highest peak.
We’re visiting Hong Kong. The other day CJ took us out for some dan-dan-mien (noodles), which seems to be a comfort food for her and Gia. After lunch, CJ suggested that we visit Chi Lin Nunnery. The nunnery is not terrible old—founded in 1934—but was rebuilt in the 1990’s using traditional methods. It has beautiful gardens that are open to the public with no charge.
I shot this video one evening from the balcony outside our stateroom. Monica, the senior naturalist on board the Celebrity Xpedition, said that this was squid.
The sound track is a Paganini Variation VIII played by Wen-Sing Yang.
This video was also my first attempt at using iMovie.
When we booked our cruise around the Galápagos Islands, we added the option to visit Machu Picchu (Wikipedia). This meant travelling to Lima from Quito (after our return from Baltra), an overnight in Lima at the very nice Country Club Hotel and then another flight to Cuzco where we spent three nights in the Monasterio Hotel. We checked into the hotel for a late lunch, and then visited the local cathedral—no photos worth displaying. The following day, the rest of the group took a trip to a local market and the Sacred Valley; unfortunately, I was laid low by tummy trouble, which may have been a symptom of altitude sickness. I stayed in the hotel to give myself the best chance of recovering for Machu Picchu the following day.
Although it was only a day trip to Machu Picchu, we went in luxury on the Hiram Bingham Orient Express. My tummy was much better at breakfast and completely recovered after a couple of welcome glasses of champagne—the first of which included a dash of Pisco and a small piece of lime. It wasn’t the most successful cocktail; the Pisco really did overpower the champagne (I think it was really South American bubbly).
The train ride was 3+ hours each way; so we ate brunch (really lunch) and dinner on the train. The food was excellent , and the Pisco Sours on the return journey made sure I had no recurrence of my trouble. There was a decent 3-piece band providing entertainment both ways. They were particularly good fun on the return journey with a mixture and Spanish songs and pop/rock that the crowd could sing along to. It was already dark, so no point in looking out the window.
It’s about 25 minutes on a coach long a seriously winding road to reach the entrance to Machu Picchu from the station. Entrance is by personal ticket, so you need a passport to get in. Once inside, keep the passport open because you can get a commemorative stamp.
Although the actual site is quite large, some areas—Temple of the Sun, Guard House—were pretty crowded. There is supposed to be a daily limit of 2,500 visitors, but our guide said that no-one pays it much attention.
Pictures of Machu Picchu are so common that I found no real “wow factor” when seeing it myself: “Oh yeah, it really does look like that”. And I couldn’t help thinking about Tintin. The weather was a mostly overcast with occasional bursts of sunshine, but we didn’t get rained on. I did get seriously bitten, though I didn’t notice at the time, which was unfortunate because we did have insect repellent wipes that remained unused. Still I did take plenty of photos.
Our last full day in the Galápagos was spent at Santa Cruz. In the morning excursion, we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora. Among many activities the Centre runs breeding programmes for giant tortoises and land iguanas. It was the final home of Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island tortoise, until he died in June 2012.
On the way back to the quay, we spotted the local fish market, which was very popular with the local pelicans and one sea lion. The local Galápagos lobster was available. This was served on board along with other local produce. I confess that I became rather bored with the lobster by the end of the week.
Afternoon saw us taking a coach trip to the Highlands to see tortoises in the wild. The venue was actually a private ranch, but we were assured that the tortoises were free range. The habitat of the ranch suited their needs and they roamed freely. Some of the tortoises were a little disturbed by our presence and would make a kind of guttural hissing, if anyone got too close.
Other photos from the day are here.
Our voyage on Celebrity Xpedition ended as it had begun with a Zodiac ride. This time in the wrong direction back to the quay, followed by a coach ride to Baltra Airport and a flight to Quito where our cruise group split up: most were going home, but a handful like us were going on to Machu Picchu, and so we transferred to a flight to Lima in Peru.
It was a fantastic week, which I cannot recommend too highly. The food and service on board was first class. And, of course, the visits to the different islands were just magical.
Galápagos Part 1 Galápagos Part 2 Galápagos Part 3 Galápagos Part 4
Fernandina (Narborough) Island – The name was given in honor of King Ferdinand II of Aragon, who sponsored the voyage of Columbus. Fernandina has an area of 642 square km (248 sq mi) and a maximum altitude of 1,494 m (4,902 ft). This is the youngest and westernmost island. On 13 May 2005, a new, very eruptive process began on this island, when an ash and water vapor cloud rose to a height of 7 km (23,000 ft) and lava flows descended the slopes of the volcano on the way to the sea. Punta Espinosa is a narrow stretch of land where hundreds of marine iguanas gather, largely on black lava rocks. The famous Flightless Cormorants inhabit this island, as do Galápagos Penguins, pelicans, Galápagos sea lions and Galápagos fur seals. Different types of lava flows can be compared, and the mangrove forests can be observed.
Photos from Ferdinandina (a lot of marine iguanas) and some more shots of the amazing frigate birds are here.
The afternoon excursion was a zodiac rides near the cliffs at Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela. While the ride was fun and interesting, photographically, it was a bust. The sea was quite choppy and we were sailing mostly in the shadow of the cliffs, so I couldn’t get a fast enough shutter speed or a steady enough camera to take anything worth showing. There could have been some lovely shots of a pair of flightless cormorants doing a mating dance in the water, and some nesting terns and blue-footed boobies, but there weren’t.
Day 5 Tuesday: Floreana
Floreana is one of the four islands visited by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the HMS Beagle. This is how Wikipedia summarises Floreana:
Floreana (Charles or Santa María) Island – It was named after Juan José Flores, the first President of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago. It is also called Santa Maria, after one of the caravels of Columbus. It has an area of 173 square km (67 sq mi) and a maximum elevation of 640 m (2,100 ft). It is one of the islands with the most interesting human history, and one of the earliest to be inhabited. Flamingos and green sea turtles nest (December to May) on this island. The patapegada or Galápagos petrel, a sea bird which spends most of its life away from land, is found here. At Post Office Bay, since the 19th century whalers kept a wooden barrel that served as post office so that mail could be picked up and delivered to their destinations, mainly Europe and the United States, by ships on their way home. At the “Devil’s Crown”, and underwater volcanic cone and coral formations are found.
There is a more extensive entry here.
Visitors to the island leave postcards for subsequent travellers to pick up. The idea is to find cards that are addressed to people who live near your own home, so that you can deliver the cards personally.
Floreana was the setting for a true life story that seems like something Agatha Christie might have written. Read the Amazon blurb for My Evil Paradise Floreana:
German Doctor Frederick Ritter and his mistress Dore Strauch are an idealistic couple living on the remote island of Floreana in the Galapagos Archipelago. When an unconventional and seductive Austrian Baroness arrives, accompanied by her three lovers, their dreams of living a life in a paradise of solitude are shattered. Friedrich’s brave new world is violated by the baroness’s unsettling presence and he finds everyone else on the island struggling to resist the lure of her compelling sexual magnetism. While Dore tries to understand the changes taking place, the Baroness cruelly exploits and humiliates their lovers and all the other inhabitants. Then some new settlers appear: The Wittmer Family! Shortly after their onset the Baroness vanishs. What happened in Floreana remains one of the great murder mysteries of the 20th century. Is Margret Wittmer the murderer?
Wildlife seemed less populous than other islands, but there were still plenty of photo ops.
An early start was required to fly from Quito to Baltra. By now we were some 90-strong, and Celebrity had booked a charter flight for us operated by AeroGal—a shiny Airbus 319—which was quite comfortable. The flight lasted just over two hours. Baltra is very small and dry, and there’s not much there apart from cactus. Taxiing in to the terminal, I looked out of the window and there was a lot of scruffiness with rubbish and rubble lying around. The airport claims to be the first ecological airport in the world with a zero carbon footprint. It does leave a footprint in your wallet, however, as you get stiffed $15.50 in additional to the National Park entrance fee for all the environmental friendliness.
After a short coach transfer to the pier, we boarded Zodiacs to take us to our ship, the Celebrity Xpedition.
After a decent buffet lunch (food on board was excellent all week), the ship cruised around the tiny islands of Daphne Major and Minor for some long distance birdwatching. I had my first chance to take some pictures of the frigate birds that often followed the ship.
We have just returned from a fabulous vacation that included a week visiting the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador and a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru. We travelled with Celebrity Cruises. This is the first of a series of posts. Of course, I took lots of pictures, which I’ll post as I process them.
A dreadfully early start was required: a 2am pickup for a flight from LHR at just past 6am for the first leg to Madrid. This was operated by BA and was perfectly fine. It was a different story on the next leg, Madrid-Quito, which was operated by Iberia. Both companies are now part of IAG, but based on our experience this holiday, service levels are poles apart.
The trouble began at the boarding gate in Madrid Airport. Iberia have a group approach to boarding: starting with the usual people with young children or needing special assistance, frequent fliers and people sitting in the posh seats. After that lesser mortals board according to a group number printed on their boarding card. None of this was explained ahead of time, so the gate area was a crush of people who surged forward each time one of the gate staff began to announce something. English reserve is no use in such situations, so with our group 1 status we pushed our way to the gate—when the number was announced, of course.
Once on board we discovered that there was no in-seat entertainment system (for a flight of around 11 hours). There were communal screens. Of the two we could see, one was too far away and the other was off to the left, and would have almost certainly resulted in a stiff neck. Since the main feature was The Smurfs movie, the screens didn’t matter much in the end.
Airline food is usually not the best cuisine: Iberia exceeded expectations… but not in a good way. The food was awful. The service we received was OK, but not very friendly. Subsequently, we spoke to other passengers—about 30-odd from the UK were also on the cruise—who reported rudeness and surly behaviour from the crew.
One final story about the flight: we were surprised to see a cute Boxer puppy waiting at the gate in Madrid—not in a kennel, but on a leash. We were even more surprised to see the same puppy waiting at baggage reclaim in Quito. Apparently, the puppy was seen walking around the plane. This also explained the little puddle that we’d seen walking from the plane to baggage reclaim.
Discomfort ended when we were deposited at the JW Marriott in Quito for the first of two nights. We ate at the sushi bar in the hotel, or rather half-ate their Sushi Kamikaze, which even with one between two was too big to finish. I ignored the advice about going easy on alcohol at altitude and drank beer followed by saké.
Yes, they did! The Celestial Peak (the commonly-used translation for Tian du Feng) is one of the tallest peaks in Huangshan — the Yellow Mountain in China — reaching 1,810 metres above sea-level. We were there because we’d accepted an invitation to join a group organised by Patrick, who is one of the two brothers of my brother-in-law. I couldn’t find a convincing explanation of how that relationship should be described: brother-in-law-in-law? Brother-in-law once removed?
The 6-night stay (in three different hotels) in Huangshan was to be the highlight of the trip. We’d stopped the night before in a very nice hotel (the Xiangming) in Huangshan City. We were obliged to leave suitcases behind and pack sufficient for the next week in rucksacks, which we would be expected to carry, plus one holdall that would be transported by porter — more on the porters another time. After lunch our coach dropped us off at the cable car, which took us part way up the mountain. The remaining half a km or so was on foot up some pretty steep steps. That should have been a clue about what was to come!
The following day came the trek to Tian Du Feng.
To be honest, I had no idea of what to expect before coming on the trip. I’d been too busy to do much investigation of my own and I figured “how hard could it could be?”. I knew that most of the others in the group (25 in all) would be older than me, some by a considerable margin; so I reckoned that actual rock-climbing would not be on the itinerary and the purchase of proper hiking boots an expensive over-kill. Flip-flops are light, don’t require socks and are easy to dry. I knew from past experience that they’re good at keeping my feet warm in the rain: once feet are wet it only takes few seconds for the water between the foot and the rubber to warm up. I’ve found this to be true even in heavy rain, whereas normal shoes or trainers can become soaked and result in very, very cold feet.
The weather at the start of the journey to Tian Du Feng was not promising, but not actually raining. The first part of the journey was mainly downhill from the top of Yuping Peak (where our hotel was) to a sort of half-way area: a combination viewing platform with a small kiosk and paths further down the mountain as well as being the start of the ascent to Tian Du Feng. We’d seen this as we were coming down the opposite peak:
By the time we reached the kiosk, which you can see in in the bottom-left corner of the picture, it was raining, but not very hard. Gia and I both had jackets (supposed to be waterproof) and we had plastic ponchos that we pinched from the Xiangming in our packs; so we decided to go on. Before too much longer the rain became harder and I decided to leave the camera (I’d taken the Olympus EP-1) in my rucksack so it didn’t get wet, hence, no pictures from the top. You can see a few more shots here — choose Gallery Two>China and you’ll find Climbing Tian Du Feng in the list of albums.
The walk turned into something out of Lord Of The Rings: the “straight stair” followed by the “winding stair”. What you can see in the picture is no more than half the route as the path winds to the left and out of view.
There were a few people coming down the peak; they kept encouraging us that it wasn’t much further. They lied!
I have no idea how long it took, but we eventually reached the top and ritually stood on the bit of rock that proclaimed itself to be 1810m high. The rain was coming down in sheets. But this was not sufficient to dampen the spirit of Chinese enterprise: two men were up there selling drinks (which we didn’t need) and commemorative medallions, which were engraved on the spot:
We were cheap and bought one medallion between two.
Rain continued to pour as we made our way down. Water streamed down the steps and we were as wet as drowned rats by the time we reached the halfway house, where I insisted on a beer to celebrate before commencing the climb back up Yuping Peak to our hotel.
oddrops 