Week 24: Solo But Never Alone: Six Months On and I’m Finally Home (Maybe)
Favourite spots this week:
Happy Monday! It’s week two in Cuenca and I don’t want to leave! Another normal day on the cards today, headed to work early and powered through my second project, I built the majority of a website in about six hours flat 😂 It was only a reskin which is why it was so quick but I’ll show it to the client tomorrow and then I’ll need to go through it properly to check for bugs etc but a very productive morning!
After work, I finished at about 2pm and headed home and then randomly in the middle of the street I bumped into a friend from Colombia. According to ChatGPT (of course I asked), it’s a 1 in 5 million chance.
Later in the day we met up for dinner and went to this amazing rooftop restaurant called Negroni (naturally). Honestly, with every day that passes and the more I see of this city, the more I love it, it’s incredible.
Mid-week and nowt much to report today: Spanish lesson, boujee breakfast, scoped out another co-working spot (wasn’t a huge fan) and knuckled down on some work. In the evening I started packing as I leave on Friday 😢
I had a couple of spontaneous Spanish conversations today and honestly it puts the fear of God into me (the people here are so friendly). My Spanish is at a level that I have to put the sentence together in my head first, but I can finally see it coming to me naturally and it’s such an awesome feeling.
Thursday and it’s my final full day here in Cuenca, I am so gutted to be leaving, but, between me and you, this is the city I’m picking. Short of anything going wrong (fingers crossed) or me miraculously finding yet another awesome city, this is the place I’m going to apply for a visa for in a couple of month’s time.
Today I’m going to get a few bits done on my main project as I’m taking a few days off whilst I transition to the Galapagos this weekend (can’t believe I’m writing that) and I’m going to go for a long walk around the city this afternoon as I want to check out some other neighbourhoods that could be nice to live in. My heart is pretty set on the old town but from my limited research, available properties are few and far between, so I need to expand my horizons.
Friday and I’m headed to Guayaquil on the coast as my flight to The Galápagos Islands is from here. I decided to hire a driver for the day to make the 4h drive a bit more interesting. He picked me up at 9:30 and we headed to Cajas National Park for a short 90-min hike at 3,900masl 🫠 For my fellow nerds, if you’ve ever played the game Death Stranding, this scenery is identical (minus the flying dead monster things), a true sight to behold. Keep an eye on my Postcards section for photos soon.
Afterwards we drove all the way up to 4,200 before beginning the descent down to Guayaquil and we stopped in the rainforest at a local road-side cafe for some “Seco de Pollo”
Seco de Pollo is a traditional Ecuadorian chicken stew, beloved across the country for its rich, tangy-savoury flavour. Despite the name “seco” meaning “dry,” the dish is a juicy, slow-cooked stew made with chicken, naranjilla (a tart citrus fruit), beer, onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, coriander and spices. The old story goes that when gringos were working in the country to build the railway, the locals prepared this dish and said “esto es el segundo” which means, this is the second course, but was misheard for “seco” which means dry, and it’s stuck ever since.
After the tour I arrived to Guayaquil, which is reputedly one of Latin America’s most dangerous cities (in parts) – I was quite worn out anyway, so I stayed in the comfort of my hotel preparing for my trip to the Galapagos tomorrow.
Up bright and early Saturday morning for my trip to the Galapagos and I gathered my things and headed to the airport. It’s a bit of a faff to get to the Galapagos and to say it’s one of the most important touristic destinations on the planet, they haven’t got a clue what’s going on:
Whilst I still had done initial research, it was still a mystery! Queued up for my flight to check my bags in… “do you have your transit card?” So I had to leave the airline queue, queue elsewhere for my transit card and then queue again for my bags. I return to the airline desk “have you had your bag scanned”. Yep, had to leave that queue and go elsewhere again and then return to the airline desk. Finally I was through and I headed through to departures.
A short flight of under two hours and we landed in Baltra Island and the fun continued. We are given a migratory form to fill out before landing. As the plane soared over the islands I began to realise how massive they are, 8,000km2 of land mass across 127 islands.
Once we landed, I got off the plane and walked towards the main terminal building and I got my first glimpse of wildlife, an iguana just sunbathing outside of the terminal doors.
Upon entry you’re ushered into a long queue (around 30 mins of waiting). The first guy checks and stamps your passport, the second guy takes the $200 entry fee (cash only!) and the third guy checks your migratory form and then you have your hand-luggage scanned. After this you head into the baggage hall and you have to wait to see if your bag is flagged for a sniff inspection from the dogs, luckily I was OK.
Oh we’re not finished yet.
You then exit the airport and take a 30-minute bus ($5) to the end of Baltra Island before hopping on a 2-minute boat ($1) to take you across the canal to join the main island of Santa Cruz. From here you can take another bus ($5) or take a taxi ($25) which is around 45-minutes to get to the main town of Puerto Ayora.
I finally arrived to my Airbnb, unpacked, had my second but certainly not my last shower of the day and then went for a walk around the town.
It’s far more developed than I thought it would be, loads of high-end shops, bars and restaurants, surrounded by sunbathing sealions and marine iguanas. Whilst it’s painstakingly hot (30C and 92% humidity) I have certainly missed being near the ocean after 3 months without seeing a large body of water.
Sunday and I have an action-packed day today, I’m visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station, an extensive facility of plant life but most importantly… BABY TORTOISES. They breed them here with the eventual plan to relocate them to the highlands once they can fend for themselves.
Afterwards, I hired a bike and cycled up to El Chato Giant Tortoise Reserve to see them in all their glory… they are MASSIVE and live up to 200 years old. Walked through some lava tunnels, another first, and then cycled back to my Airbnb. A big ol’ day and I clocked up 26KM on the bike.
See you next week 👋
