Places I Remember with Lea Lane
Places I Remember with Lea Lane
Ecuador: Quito And The Galapagos Islands
We cover Ecuador's capital city and famed wildlife islands, with experts Katie McDonough, and Stephanie Bonham-Carter.
We'll explore the historic streets of Quito, where Spanish colonial architecture meets a burgeoning food scene complete with Michelin star restaurants. Katie and Stephanie share tips on navigating the city's high altitude and uncover hidden gems in its well-preserved historical center. Experience the vibrancy of Ecuadorian festivals, including the Festival of Lights, and Carnival; and savor traditional foods that bring the country's diverse history to life.
In the Galapagos Islands, discover the wildlife and the best times to visit, and learn about crucial conservation efforts, Hear firsthand accounts of playful sea lions, the mesmerizing dance of blue-footed boobies, and a heart-pounding orca sighting.
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Katie McDonough is Executive Director of Custom Travel at Explore Inc. Stephanie Bonham-Carter is co-founder of the Galapagos Safari Camp.
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and 'one of the top 100 Indie books of the year'). She has contributed to many guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has dropped over 100 travel episodes! New podcast episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen.
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Ecuador, on South America's west coast, encompasses Amazon jungle, Andean mountain highlands, Spanish colonial cities and wildlife-rich islands - - a thrilling combination for travelers. On this episode, we'll be focusing on Ecuador's capital, Quito, and the wondrous Galapagos islands. Our guests are Katie McDonough, executive Director of Custom Travel at Explore Inc, and Stephanie Bonham-Carter, co-founder of the Galapagos Safari Camp. Welcome Katie and Stephanie to Places I Remember.
Katie McDonough:Thank you very much indeed. It's lovely to be talking to you.
Lea Lane:Katie, can you give us a brief history of Ecuador, a little bit of background.
Katie McDonough:Ecuador was a Spanish colony. It's a country that sits on the western coast of South America, as you said, and the ancient cultures of the High Andes, the Incas, had a presence in Ecuador, and all the way down to the coast you get a diversity of the Amazon basin. The tribal people of the Amazon also make up a part of the Ecuadorian culture today?
Lea Lane:Well, the country takes its name from the equator, where it lies. How does the country make that line? Is there a way to see the equator line?
Katie McDonough:There's a very elaborate monument to the equator that's not too far from Quito. I believe it's called Mita del Mundo, the middle of the world. Exactly, I was told that it's actually about 100 meters off of the equator line.
Lea Lane:Well, that's one reason to visit Quito. Another is that it's perhaps the most beautiful Spanish colonial city in South America and Ecuador's capital. Tell us a little bit about Quito and why we should visit.
Katie McDonough:It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a Spanish colonial city. It is a vibrant food scene. There is an up-and-coming Michelin star restaurant scene in Quito as well. The history of the Spanish church in South America is very vibrant. There's a lot of different museums, art, beautiful monuments. It's a mountainous city. One thing I think people need to be aware of before they arrive in Quito is that the elevation is very high.
Katie McDonough:I believe it's about 11,000 feet above sea level, so in meters that's maybe 3,300 meters. I know that travelers can struggle with that a little bit in terms of the elevation and the altitude.
Lea Lane:But you can prepare and get there a little ahead or start at a little bit lower elevation. I've done that a few times, where it takes a couple of days and if you take your time you can get up to that without a problem. But you don't want to rush in and walk around. I've done that. It's not good.
Katie McDonough:Exactly. You don't want to land in Quito and start running. You want to give yourself a little bit of a rest and some time to relax as you settle in, before you really try and see everything there is to see there.
Lea Lane:Well, I know, despite the 1917 earthquake, Quito has the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America. As I mentioned, there's a lot of 16th and 17th century churches and the structures blend European, Moorish and indigenous styles. It's very, very beautiful. I like the Monastery of San Francisco and Santo Domingo and the Jesuit College of La Campana. They have beautiful interiors. Now travelers should seek out festivals wherever they travel. We've mentioned that many times, and Ecuador has lots of them. Tell us about some of your favorite festivals for people who want to maybe time themselves to go when there is something. What are a few of them?
Katie McDonough:The Festival of Lights in August is a popular festival. There's also the Quito Music Festival.
Lea Lane:What's the Festival of Lights? What happens there?
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:Well, the Festival of Light is fairly recent. It's basically brought in from the famous lights of Lyon, you know, and they portray lights onto the churches. It's actually very beautiful. It's really quite modern. It's only been happening for the last few years, but it is absolutely stunning to look at.
Lea Lane:Where they put the facade of the church covered in the lights different colored lights and also different pictures and so forth. Yes, around the world you see more and more of that. It's a beautiful thing to see when you have beautiful cathedrals, especially.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:Exactly With the backdrop of the colonial architecture. It really is quite a spectacle.
Lea Lane:Yes, I know, carnival in Ecuador is a big deal. It's not quite like Rio, a little bit different to Rio.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:There is a celebration that we have for Easter. Obviously, as Katie was mentioning, we have an enormous amount of Spanish influence. It has been adopted from that Catholic tradition with a twist. So there is a delicious dish called the fanesca. , which is a blend of all sorts of grains. I remember as a child everyone looks forward to that dish.
Lea Lane:I think the food is one of the things. we mentioned it already, but from local food and street food to Michelin food, it's one of the reasons people travel, so that's good to know about. What about during the Day of the Dead or the Feast of the Dead? Is there a special food for that? I know in Mexico there is. Is there one in Ecuador? Is there a bread? I think there's a special bread.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:Yeah, it's called a guagua de pan. Guagua in Quechua means child, a loaf of bread which is like a brioche and it's shaped in the form of a child with sugar decorations and color. So you have that with a drink which is called colada morada and it is berry-based, blackberry-based and very sort of spicy. It's quite delicious and when I was a child this is something that's being lost at the moment, but a lot of the locals would go to visit their loved ones and take them food and leave them there in the cemeteries.
Lea Lane:That's beautiful. I love the sense of family that comes out with so many of the holidays in South America and Latin America. Let's talk about lodging. Is there any specific type of lodging that's featured in Quito, or you have a whole wide variety?
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:Quito has an extraordinary array of boutique hotels, from more affordable to the five-star level. These are typically old Spanish mansions that have been converted, casa Gangotena being one of the famous ones on one of the main plazas. I love one called Casa de la Ronda, and it just is vibrantly painted, lots of different colors. It has sort of a central courtyard inside. I think that's a typical architecture for all of these boutique hotels. Are these the Spanish colonial style with the interior courtyard? They can be a variety of different price points, but they're all locally owned.
Lea Lane:Well, Quito is a city not to miss, Very, very beautiful. The other great tourist attraction and a province of Ecuador is the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about a thousand kilometers off the coast. It's considered one of the world's foremost destinations for wildlife viewing. How do you get to the Galapagos from the mainland, Stephanie?
Katie McDonough:So really the only way for travelers is to take a commercial flight both from Quito or from Guayaquil. A direct flight from Quito, to give you an idea, takes about two hours. It's very comfortable. You can fly into Baltra or San Cristobal. So those are the two points of entry. There are several flights a day. They all leave in the morning, so it's really quite accessible. Usually you will need that additional night in mainland Ecuador.
Lea Lane:And as far as taking a boat to reach the islands, that's not possible. As far as taking a boat to reach the islands, that's not possible, well, it is 1,000 kilometers away. It's a long, long sailing. That's all a sailor might do Sailing among the islands. You don't need to sail to the islands who are sailors, who might say it's quite a trip, but it's worth it just the idea of getting there.
Katie McDonough:I know that there are sports events and you can go from Guayaquil to the Galapagos, but I think it does take quite a long time.
Lea Lane:So most people will fly At least three days if you go steadily. Yes, at least. Well, the Galapagos isolated terrain shelters a diversity of plant and animal species. Many are found nowhere else. Charles Darwin visited in 1835, and his observation of the species later inspired his theory of evolution. You want to talk a little bit about that.
Katie McDonough:Yes, Well, one of the things that one learns about Charles Darwin is the survival of the fittest. However, when you go to the Galapagos, you understand that that's not exactly what he was saying. He really was talking about the survival of the most adaptable. The way he reached this conclusion is with the samples that he collected with the different species. The question was why would a tortoise be different from one island to another? Or why would a mockingbird be different from one island to another? And of course, that led him to understand that these species had adapted to different conditions in different environments, although they were within the same archipelago. So that was a groundbreaking understanding at that time. And if you think about it, this fetus mean is really how we adapt to what life and the environment throws at us. That's why this theory is so important in scientific thought.
Lea Lane:Very interesting. How many islands can you visit?
Katie McDonough:There are four islands that are inhabited, so they have infrastructure and you can go from port to port and Katie, help me how many actually you can visit if you're going on a cruise.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:There's tons of little rocky sub islets, 12 or 13 of them landing and walking If you're going to go on a longer cruise. Some of them are very far away so they're only accessible by cruise ship, and some of them you don't do landings on. You would get out of your cruise ship and get on a panga and circle the island, snorkel in the water, explore the marine wildlife, but not necessarily set foot on the island. So they're all very different. Explore the marine wildlife around it. 12 or 13 different islands, yeah.
Lea Lane:I remember I took a cruise it was 11 days the islands that are most desirable in terms of wildlife and I would recommend, if you're going that far, take as long a cruise as you can because it's fascinating. Each one, as you said, is a little bit different. Each island has different species. I was very delighted to have taken a longer cruise. Some people went for a week and they missed quite a bit by doing so. I mean, I know anything is better than nothing, but try hard to do the most you can there. There's so much to see, not just on land but under the sea, as you mentioned. What are some of the interesting and unique wildlife Besides the blue-footed boobies, which are my favorite.
Katie McDonough:I mean, as you say, the marine life. Both land and marine life are spectacular. They really are a treat. Marine life, obviously you think of the different species of sharks, of which there are many. You can see the hammerhead sharks and the different reef sharks and tiger sharks, bull sharks. However, you know, it's also wonderful to see sea lions alongside the sharks, because they are playful. So that contrast is what makes the Galapagos really quite spectacular, that you can have sharks with playful sea lions literally side by side, and then you will have a school of dolphins joining the party. Often, if you go diving, you see the whole spiral of species, from the tuna fish to the sardines, the richness and the variety that makes it special, and they come right up to you. I mean, I snorkeled, I didn't dive, and I remember a sea, they come right up to you.
Lea Lane:I mean, I snorkeled, I didn't dive and I remember a sea lion coming right up to me and looking at me, nose to nose, and I remember his mother or father I'm not sure which circling around a huge, huge creature just circling like don't you do anything. But the little sea lion was just playing with me. I just didn't want to get out of the water and I didn't even think about sharks. Is it safe to do that, to snorkel or dive around sharks in the Galapagos?
Katie McDonough:Well, absolutely Obviously. There are some species that are a little bit more dangerous than others, but generally speaking, it is safe and guides will tell you if there is a bull shark, for example, when you need to get out of the water. Nature, of course, but it doesn't feel threatening, you know.
Lea Lane:No, you don't feel threatened. You feel like you're one with the animals. They're very friendly and it's just the most wonderful feeling that you can come up so close. There is a distance you have to keep. If you go on an island, you feel right away. When you come too close. But you can get pretty close, you have to be careful. But when you go very close to these animals they couldn't be more friendly. They go about their business. You feel like you're just in paradise. If you love animals, I mentioned blue-footed boobies, which are the birds that are so interesting and colorful. Then there's the red crabs, those wonderful sally sally lightfoot.
Katie McDonough:Crab sally lightfoot crab, and then, of course, you have the penguins. Penguins are a highlight because of course, it's the only, let's say, tropical island that has penguins, and they are still a mystery how they got. It's believed that they arrived with, I suppose, with a humbled current. They got there and they evolved, and now you can see them in Bartolomé, you can see them on Isabela Island. They're quite small, they're a treat.
Lea Lane:They are, and I remember meeting Lonesome George. I was there maybe 25 years ago. He was the last of a certain great tortoise species. You still have great tortoises huge, huge old tortoises in the islands as well and, of course, many, many other unique wildlife. I think anyone who's an animal lover, who goes on safaris and so forth, wants to go to the Galapagos. What's the worst time to go and the best time to go if you have a choice?
Katie McDonough:September is the month to avoid. It's the height of the Campbell Current, the water is cold, the seas are rougher and there is this drizzly effect which is called garua. Most of the cruises go on maintenance. We as well at the camp. We close the camp most of September for maintenance. The rest of the year is very nice to visit. There is a colder season and a warmer season, of course, so it depends what you prefer. And the humble current usually starts coming in June and then the temperatures go down increasingly until, let's say, october, and then it starts getting warmer again little by little.
Lea Lane:You wear a wetsuit if it's colder, right.
Katie McDonough:Yes, yeah, Actually, I always wear a wetsuit because I'm always cold in the water. You know it's not. Let's say it's not the Caribbean, it is not the Mediterranean. In the summer.
Lea Lane:Well, there are some challenges because it has become so popular. There's a new fee that's going to be put on travelers a $200 entry fee because I think the government is trying to keep it pristine. Other challenges, of course, are climate change, which has affected much of the islands. But what can we do? As travelers, we can avoid littering, for example.
Katie McDonough:Our responsibility is to be educated. Whether you go to the Galapagos as a traveler or anywhere else in the world, I think it is very important to be aware, educated, manage expectations, know where you're going and prepare yourself for that. Make good choices, where are you going to stay, how responsible a hotel or cruise is. Well, it is really very important to ask those questions, be aware and take a little bit of time to understand the destination, trust your travel advisor and ask the right questions. I don't know if Katie has something to add.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:I completely agree. It's about choosing the right partners and educating yourself on the impact of your visit to these amazing areas. Visiting the Galapagos has a positive impact Wildlife species preservation. You can look at what is happening with those park fees that you're paying to visit the islands. Tourism in general and worldwide is such a strong force for conservation and for preservation of these areas Because without the tourists coming to visit and without the operators paying the fees to protect this wildlife, we would have no national park.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:There would be no protection. The entire archipelago is a protected marine reserve. Without that protection, you would have overfishing development on these islands, Stories that I was told when I was in the Galapagos about pirates or some of the early explorers who would release pigs on the island and release sheep on the island so that they could come back and have a food source, but then those animals caused harm to the island. They caused harm to the native species. So now there are eradication measures that are being supported by tourism to remove those invasive species so that the native species can then thrive. We want travelers to be responsible, be respectful. There are definitely rules in the Galapagos. You're not allowed to go off the trail Understanding your waste disposal. Support local organizations that are working towards native species restoration to eliminate overfishing. Shark nursery and it's a shark corridor to other islands in the Pacific. It's really about educating yourself.
Lea Lane:And then go and enjoy. It is spectacularly beautiful. Well, the name of the podcast is Places. I Remember. So, stephanie, would you please share a memory? First of Ecuador.
Katie McDonough:Yes, well, I actually. As we talked about sharks and you asked me if it was safe, I had a vision of my children snorkeling, since they were born in the Galapagos, playing with the sea lions and exposed to sharks. And there was one occasion when we went with a friend of ours who's one of the local fishermen, so we would often go and get on the boat, catch a tuna, have sashimi on board and have a snorkel. On this one occasion my husband was with the kids. There were these wonderful dolphins. Everyone threw themselves in the water, including me, and then there was a little moment when we knew that there was a shark and this shark was a little bit scary. I mean, it looked scary a little bit.
Katie McDonough:Yeah, you know, you have a feeling when they are minding their own business or when it might be time to eat, and I had two little children in the water. My husband was completely nonplussed, carried on with the children. At that point I thought, my golly, these children are so lucky, they're so privileged because they are in this environment, which is completely pristine and in such proximity with nature as nature should be, you know, in that beautiful order of things where you feel both humbled and privileged at the same time, when you feel close to nature and then you realize how insignificant we really are in the larger scheme of things. So this contrast of emotions when you are aware of the moment that you're having yeah, something that came to mind. I have so many, of course, you can imagine, and we have a lot of children and families coming to the camp. They come from York or London or San Francisco and they're not exposed to this day by day. They are really transformative and life-changing experiences.
Lea Lane:Absolutely. How about you, Katie? What's your memory? Absolutely. How about you, Katie? What's your?
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:memory, the memory that sticks in my mind and my heart, a physical reaction of joy. I was on one of the Apenga excursions. It was just a boat excursion we were not going to land on this island and the guy that I was with slows down the boat and he's looking far off in the distance and I could tell he was thinking about something and he was looking at a bunch of birds that were just flying on the horizon pretty far away. He looks at us and he goes we're going to go check something out. Everybody in the panga said, yeah, sure, let's do that. So he turns around and we're sort of headed out to sea, not towards any land, and just spot on the horizon where all these birds were flying around.
Stephanie Bonham-Carter:And as we get close we see two orcas who are jumping and playing and they were actually hunting and so the birds were flying above them. We slow down and approach them very slowly and we're seeing them and then suddenly they disappear. They go under the water and we're looking around for them. I just happened to look down in the water right on the edge of the boat and I see this flash of brilliant blue. That can only be the blue water on the white of the orca and this orca swam just under our panga, upside down or sideways, as the whales do when they try and look at you, and this orca came up maybe 10 feet from the front of our boat, gave us a really nice view and off they went into the distance, and I've never seen orcas in the wild before. It was an extraordinarily exciting experience to see them at all, but much less so close.
Lea Lane:Yeah, it's wonderful. Just listening to the two of you how important it is to be able to get out there and see nature happy, free, makes you feel humble. I hope everyone gets to go to the Galapagos and to Ecuador. Thank you, Katie McDonough and Stephanie Bonham Carter, for sharing information about your wonderful country. Thank you, Thank you for having me. Thank you very much.
