Date: 14/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

We got up early and had a look at the sunrise. There was thick cloud cover so it took the sun a while before we could see the first rays.

Then we went into the mangroves by Zodiac

And after a while we spotted some rays,

some turtles,

And a white tip shark.

The reflection in the water made it hard to see the animals, but the picture above really shows a white tip shark. Then we unfortunately had to return to our boat,

had breakfast, packed our stuff and went to the airport.

It’s hard to believe that the eight days are over. For us, this was the highlight of our trip so far. The flight back was without any problems, the service was even better than on the flight to the Islands. In Quito we realized how cold it could get in the mountains at night, it was freezing!

Date: 15/02 – 17/02
City: Quito, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

Not much to report about during the next 3 days. We found a solution for the broken zipper on my motorcycle jacket and contacted the Schuberth dealer in Ecuador. He gave us his GPS coordinates which will make it easy to find the shop. On the last day we had a look at the Basilica Voto National, it is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas. Below are some pictures

And then we discovered that we could also climb the bell towers 😀
Well not directly, first we had to walk over the top of the arches

And then climb another ladder outside,but the view was worth it.

Having said that, when we looked at the other side we realised that the bell tower on the other side was even higher and had even a huge dial,

So off we went, down the ladders, over the arches and up the other side. On the other side we could even see the clock work and the dial from the back, which was great.

We climbed up to the last ladder, I was just there at 3:45, which meant that the bell was just ringing.

Looking at the other tower, you can see that we were really higher up.

On our way down we found a nice cafe with a great view. So we had some hot beverages, well deserved after climbing all these stairs and ladders.

We also found some nice stone masons work with birds that we just saw in Galapagos (a booby and a frigate bird).

After the coffee was finished we continued our excursion and walked to the president palace. On our way we saw one of the smallest footpaths so far, not sure who can walk on it.

Then we arrived at the Plaza Grande where the palace of the president is. There was a huge crowd….Then we realised today was Election Day and the crowd was waiting for the results which would be released in fifteen minutes. There were cameras all over the place; the best was the camera man on the roof on the left hand.

So we waited a bit and saw that the previous president got re-elected. It looked like that the crowd was happy and celebrated it. Sigrid found a couple of more churches to visit, unfortunately in most of them a service had started, so we didn’t go in.

Eventually we jumped into a cab and went back to the hostel. We took a picture of our great host, Klaus, who made it easy to feel welcome and at home in the hostel.

Tomorrow we will leave and head towards Peru.