Ecuador - Amazon, Andes & Galapagos Islands

I have always had a deep and broad interest in the natural world. As a child I was enthralled by the written accounts of the great natural history expeditions of the Nineteenth Century. After doing a book report in middle school on Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, I dreamed of someday traveling in South America, following in the footsteps of this great naturalist. In July of 1984, this dream came true as I organized and led a group of American science teachers to Ecuador on a two-week in-service study tour of the Galapagos Islands, the Ecuadorian Andes, and the Amazonian rain forest. I repeated this program in 1985, 86, 91, and 94 - each time with a slightly different itinerary in order to see different parts of Ecuador.​

This collection of three galleries presents my favorite images from those life-changing experiences along with excerpts from my journals. These photographs were made on 35mm Kodachrome 50 and Fujichrome 50, 100, and 400 slide films, then scanned and digitally processed with Photoshop or Silver Efex Pro 2.

The Amazon

As a child reading National Geographic magazines while the snow fell outside my New York window, the Amazon held a fascination like no other place on Earth. Giant snakes, birds with rainbow colors, people who lived with barely any clothing, and forests unimaginably thick and expansive made my young mind race with excitement. Could I possibly go there someday?So, when I planned my first visit to Ecuador in 1984, I made sure that we had four days to explore a tiny slice of the Amazon. We flew by jet to Nueva Loja (known at the time as “Lago Agrio”) – the boomtown center of the nation’s burgeoning petroleum industry. I was in the restroom as the plane landed – no advance announcement that “we are approaching the landing; please take your seats” – so my first introduction to the Amazon was being almost bounced off my seat and living with an asymmetrically bruised rump for the next few days. Texaco was the Big Player in the region with what I learned later a long, sordid history of environmental disasters, corruption, and corporate malfeasance.I must admit that I was overwhelmed that entire trip: the vastness of the river vistas; seeing the Andes every sunset far in the distance; the height and size of the trees; the sheer exuberance of Life from the tiniest insects to the tallest trees; the heat and humidity that made Miami seem temperate in comparison. All these things combined to push me close to sensory overload 24/7. To cope with this, I journaled my experiences in the hope that I could sort out what it all meant later. It wasn't until I returned to Miami, reviewed my photos and journals that I began to appreciate the vastness/"bigness" of the magnificent organism that is the Amazon.Having enjoyed my first taste of the Amazon, I was eager to see more, so in 1994, I planned for us to explore the upper reaches of the Napo River. We drove our bus east out of Quito and crossed the Andes at Papallacta Pass (3,300m) heading downhill and south through Baeza, Tena, Archidona, and Puerto Napo until we reached Puerto Misahualli on the Rio Napo. We wandered through the town for a couple of hours while waiting for the canoes that would ferry us for 45 minutes across the river to our 3 days’ lodging at Cabanas Alinahui – a jungle lodge on a bluff over the Napo; its name means “good view” in Quechua and was an apt description. We climbed 50m of hillside stairs to find the spartan but airy cabins that were built up on stilts with shared bathrooms on the ground floor. Hammocks were strung under thatched structures scattered throughout the 2 hectares of tropical gardens that included many remnant trees from the original forest. The cabanas were entirely solar-powered and rainwater was collected for cold showers and was boiled for drinking. The food and beverages were excellent and served buffet style in open-walled dining room. While I was still awed by the Amazon, I was better prepared for the experience and was able to appreciate more details - some of which I hope to have captured in these photos.This gallery includes images from these two trips, excerpts from my journals, and follows a rough daily chronology of our activities.

The Andes 

Images in this gallery are from the highlands around Otavalo in the north to Riobamba in the south and from my excursions to Tinalandia Lodge on the Pacific slope of the Andes. We always began our workshop with a city tour of Quito - a combination of bus ride and walking. The next day, we drove north, visiting the Equatorial Monument and towns such as Calderon, Cotacachi, and Peguche. We stayed at the Hacienda Cusin so that we could get an early Saturday morning start at the famous Otavalo market. In the afternoon we returned to Quito by way of the extinct Imbabura volcano and Lago San Pablo. The following day usually featured an all-day excursion to Cotopaxi National Park, where if conditions were favorable, we could drive the bus up to 4,876m elevation at the edge of the snowline for some high-altitude strolling.After our time in the highlands, we drove from Quito over the Pacific side of the Andes to Tinalandia Lodge near Santo Domingo de las Tsachilas for a rainforest experience. This Lodge was built in 1950 by Ernestine (Tina) Platanoff, a Russian emigrant, and her husband Vladamir as a birding destination. Interestingly, it also featured a nine-hole golf course that became popular with Ecuadorian military officers. In 2020, it was offered for sale at $2.6M/US and does not seem to be open as of April 2021.After three nights at Tinalandia, we returned to Quito and flew out the next day to Galapagos via Guayaquil. In 1986, I decided that we would replace our Quito-Guayaquil flight with a drive 300km south on the Pan American Highway route known as the Avenue of the Volcanoes. This stunningly scenic drive offers closeup views of seven volcanoes over 5,000m. We broke up the drive with a day visit to Cotopaxi National Park and overnight at the four hundred year old Hacienda Cienega where the Ecuadorian Revolution was planned in 1809. We spent the coldest night of my life at the Hotel Galpon in Riobamba. Strangely, the hotel featured a deliciously heated swimming pool with views of Chimborazo and Tunghuragua volcanoes. The next day we steadily dropped almost 3,000m elevation as we motored into Guayaquil. The solid red lines on the map show the ground routes covered in our charter bus; the dotted lines are our flights (green into the Amazon; blue to/from the Galapagos).

The Galapagos Archipelago: "Las Encantadas" 

My four visits were part of natural history workshops for teachers that I organized and led.

"The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width. The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size of the islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appearance of new beings on this earth." - Charles Darwin; The Voyage of the Beagle; journal entry of Oct 8, 1835​

To get to the Galapagos, we flew from Quito to Guayaquil and then took a one hour flight to Seymour Airport on the island of Baltra. After we cleared Immigration and Customs, we loaded into a fleet of open trucks for the short ride to the docks. There, we boarded our motor yacht for the week-long cruise in the islands that covered on average ~1,000 km (563 nautical miles).​We used the motor yacht Isabela in 1984-86 and the Reina Silvia (built in Florida and named with permission for H.M. Silvia, Queen of Sweden) in 1991. Both ships were very comfortable and designed for no more than 16 passengers with the required naturalist/guide and crew. Open bow areas, sundecks and covered observation areas, and dive platforms made them perfect for our group. Each carried 1-2 small open boats "pangas" that enabled us to land on shore or take wherever we anchored.Because we always visited in July or August, we experienced usually overcast skies, cool air and water temperatures, and the fine mist known locally as "garua". We were amazed how cool it could be despite being on the Equator. The near-constant garua provided a moody, atmospheric setting for many of the settings.​

As I reread my journal entries, I relived some memorable moments including:

- Swimming the underwater lava caves from the inside to the outside of Isla Floreana Devil’s Crown - the remainders of the rim of an extinct mini volcanic cone. I don't know how I was able to dive 5m down then through the 10m caves to the other side on one deep breath of air. But I did.​

- Snorkeling most of the time without a wetsuit with sea lions, fur seals, marine iguanas, and penguins in 25m visibility / 68F water that was way colder than Miami's ocean waters in January. And loving it.

- Seeing a pod of Orcas breaching just offshore from the fur seal grottos we'd been snorkeling in just a few minutes earlier at Isla Santiago. And being glad to be out of the water.

- Eating a lunch of fresh fish in the tiny Restaurante Narwhal at 500m elevation in the highlands of Isla Santa Cruz while listening to Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" on their CD player. A cold beer at hand; a 180 degree view downhill to the coastline on my left, and "Antonio" a 160-year old, wild Galapagos tortoise munching vegetable scraps from the restaurant on my right side. I noted in my journal "Can't get much better than this, huh?" And every time I hear that song, I'm instantly transported back in time to that moment.

Photos are presented here in the order of the counterclockwise path that we sailed.