travels.of.tara

April 9, 2023

7:43am. I got in the Lyft from home at 7am to LaGuardia, and made it easily through security and got coffee, leaving me with an hour to kill before my flight boards. I didn’t sleep well at all, not great given the long travel day ahead and the adventures to come, but not unexpected given the enormity of what I’m about to do, and everything going on at home that kept my mind spinning. Two good friends with serious health issues, a poorly-timed cold that knocked me out this week but mostly is gone, and a months-long period of severe work intensity that finally started calming down and got me thinking about my future, perhaps in the vein of a mid-life crisis but probably not yet. And the anticipation that for the next two weeks, I’m going to tune all that out. Time to solo travel to Ecuador.

Today is Sunday, and I’ll be gone for two weeks, returning on a Saturday. I’ll fly into Quito today, spend a few days exploring the high-altitude capital city, then meet my tour group and fly out to the biodiversity heaven of the Galapagos Islands for a week. I’ll also have a few more days in Quito on the tail end. While I’m used to solo traveling at this point and I’m not scared about the things that might rattle a novice, something about this trip feels a little bigger. It’s a new continent for me, and the Galapagos has always felt so dreamy yet out of reach. And this trip in particular has got me feeling so confident in my life choices, and so grateful and proud of myself to be able to do this. I love that many of my friends have babies now, but wow, I can’t imagine having to stop this, even for a few years. What a joy to live in a time when women can make non-traditional choices. And what an immense joy to finally feel like I am paid fairly so I can both save for the future and travel often, and afford big expensive trips like this from time to time.

Moving on, from the emotional to the trip logistics. So why Galapagos? I mean, who wouldn’t want to go there?! I don’t remember when I first learned about the islands, I think it has always been something I’ve been interested in. More recently, I remember talking to another traveler in Mexico City who mentioned wanting to go and even told me the tour company she wanted to use. And I’d be lying if I said the Schitt’s Creek plotline didn’t play a role.

I felt highly motivated over Thanksgiving weekend to find a Black Friday travel deal, and after toying with a trip to Morocco but realizing it was Ramadan, I found myself scoping out Galapagos trips. While everything I read says you need a tour group to go there, I still think I could have figured it out on my own… I just don’t know if that would have been legal! Still, an organized tour had appeal for this one, since there are so many islands and I knew it would be a busy couple of months to plan a big trip. So I landed on a land-based tour with the company Intrepid, after a lot of research and also remembering seeing one of their tours meeting up in the Santorini port and thinking it looked like a fun small group. Land-based tours, where you travel by ferries and stay in hotels, are cheaper than cruises. They say you sacrifice some overnight travel time, but make up for it by spending nights with the locals. We’ll see what I think; I’ve had amazing and terrible experiences sleeping on boats so at least I don’t have to worry about that!

Quito was sort of a tag-on, but I’m also excited to see my first South American city. A college friend was from Quito and I remember him talking fondly about how it was a big city high in the mountains, which at the time was a new concept to me. At elevations of about 9,000 feet, it’ll be an experience! I’m staying a few nights in a hostel, and then in a hotel with the tour for a night on either end of the Galapagos flight. I believe I’ll be sharing a room most nights on the trip, with the exception of the last night when I booked a private hostel room.

Prices seem to be pretty cheap in Quito, but very high in the Galapagos. I paid $12 for a hostel dorm bed and $25 for a private room, it’s 25 cents for a bus fare, and I paid $65 for a full day private tour driver for an activity. They use the US Dollar as their main currency. Spanish is the language, and though I recently took an online class and I keep up my Duolingo I’m still not feeling 100% confident in my language skills, but it should be enough to help me get around. Tours were easy to find in English. In terms of food, I think there are a lot of meat specialties, so I’ll have to navigate that a bit; though I generally really like South American foods. I bought an e-sim for data and plan to get around mostly with Ubers. The tap water is not safe to drink, outlets look the same as the US two-pronged ones, and like my trip to Greece toilet paper goes in the bin, not the toilet (ew).

And that’s my research! I can’t wait to learn what I haven’t already learned, and to see so many new things and get out of my comfort zone. Now, time to force myself to eat some breakfast and make my way to the gate, where I’ll fly to my layover in Atlanta. Buen viaje!

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And after a long travel day, it’s 10pm local time (11pm my time) and I am successfully settled into my hostel in Quito! My flights were smooth and fine, though the 4ish hour layover felt long. My 40 minute Uber from the airport was $22. I spent a good part of the trip actually having a conversation with my driver in Spanish, and it wasn’t terrible! I even pushed myself to initiate sentences, like “my friend from college is from Quito and said it is pretty” (thanks for the tips, Marcelo!). It was basic but confidence-boosting. I lied when he asked if I was married and said no but I have a boyfriend in New York; that’s one of the solo travel safety things I’ve adopted, though I truly did not feel unsafe in that situation. Someone told me the Spanish here is very clear and easy to understand; I hope it’s true.

The drive in the dark was uneventful, and despite all the cars being manual it felt like a modern place. The highway soon showed a downhill view of a lovely, mountainous city of lights, and my driver pointed out a famous statue of an angel on a hill (think the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil but a shorter hill). Soon we got off the highway and the scenery changed, and all of a sudden I felt like I was in South America. Colorful, dense, and almost adobe-style buildings and cobblestones lined the city streets, which seemed mostly deserted except a stray group of children and a man walking in the street with an unleashed dog. Perhaps the city is not safe at night, or perhaps it is just Easter Sunday night. Either way, I’ll plan to maximize my daylight exploring while I’m here!

Community Hostel will make that easy, and it seems like a really fun place that has breakfast and dinners, lots of English-speaking people hanging out in various common areas, but also quiet hours after 11pm and not too rowdy. The hostel was a recommendation from my cousin Kat who stayed here and liked all the activities they offer – I pre-booked a few day trips through them. Check in was on the roof bar and it was a gorgeous view of the city. The receptionist complained that it was cold but I felt perfect in a sweatshirt. Of course, I had just lugged my suitcase up 2 flights of stairs and quickly realized the altitude was a factor. I will be chugging water (non-tap) in hopes of avoiding altitude sickness. I’ve experienced the head-pounding attitude sickness twice before in Colorado, where the elevation was lower than here, but I’ve also been there and other mountainous areas and been just fine.

I experienced my first bathroom with paper going in the bins, and I’m glad I knew about that in advance or I would have been freaked out. Still gross. And while we’re on gross subjects, I just learned about HAFE, or High Altitude Flatus Expulsion. And yup, quickly arriving in high altitudes makes you gassy. Maybe it only lasts 8 to 11 hours… we’ll see. The internet said it can also make you feel full, which I feel – I haven’t been hungry since eating a big fruit and cheese plate on the plane around 6 hours ago. I forced myself to eat a mini Cliff bar just now. And with that, I’ll wrap up and make my way back to my 4-bed dorm room, which had some dozing people in it but lots of space. I am thankful for a bottom bunk.

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And hey, it’s nice to write my travel experiences again! I skipped some of the last few trips because I never felt like it; perhaps one day I’ll share more stories from Greece, summer hiking adventures in upstate New York, a work trip/rainforest adventure in Puerto Rico, a winter family escape to surprisingly chilly retiree Florida, and a solo winter escape and work remote trip to San Diego and Joshua Tree, where I loved the places but was bogged down by stress and lots of things going wrong.

And with that, I think it is time to crash. I hope to sleep well after last night and can’t wait to start exploring tomorrow!