Burning Desire For FIRE

This is where we’re staying for 2 nights. Blogless Sandy will find this amusing, because she knows how lazy I am. There are no lifts. I’m on the top floor…

We hopped in the bus early in the morning on our way to the pier. We drove through such clean streets. The main boulevard is called Charles Darwin Boulevard which I think is really cool.

Ecuador is the only country in the world that gives animals and even the water right so basically all the animals here are protected. Liam was saying it’s like a paradise in this island. There are no homeless and everything’s clean. Weather is really good. It’s lovely.

These are Red Sally crabs.

Me being a tourist.

Sea lions exercising their legal rights.

Awwwwww.

From what I learned in the Antarctic, they’re not just having a nap. They’re digesting their food.

Frigate. They have 2 species here but it’s hard to tell the difference.

When they’re in the air, they look like pterodactyls.

Argh! So annoying.

This is a Blue Footed Boobie, chilling. In my book, it doesn’t count unless you can actually see their blue feet. Three minutes before this shot, I SAW A BLUE FOOTED BOOBIE STANDING UP. I saw the blue feet.

I frantically started prodding my phone to get a shot. Instead, I cleverly switched the lens so I was taking selfies.
omg.
By the time I realised, the boat had sailed past where it was.

I’d better get another chance at seeing a Blue-Footed Boobie, or I’ll be LIVID. What a stupid thing to do.

We landed on another part of the island for a short nature hike.

I never thought of cacti being a Galapagos thing, but here we are.

They’re all over the place. This one is a candelabra.

The cacti grow taller on the islands that have giant tortoises. The tortoises love eating the flowers, so over millennia, the cacti have adapted by growing taller.

Prickly pear… the inside is like honeycomb with water. It’s very popular with tortoises and rats.

Yes, the islands have black rats, thought to be introduced by the pirates back in the day. They’re a huge problem here.

The Galapagos animals evolved without any major predators. Now that they’re here, the indigenous species have no defences.

Cactus with a huge bite taken from it.

Our end point – the beach. Take notice of the colour of the rocks. The marine iguanas blend in beautifully.

A congregation of iguanas. They stood so still and we were very close to them.

The marine iguanas were all over the place. So captivating.

Look at the spines of the one on the right. He’s the Dad.

Blue Heron. There’s a reason the baby marine iguanas were scuttling from hiding place to hiding place. They’re a blue heron was hungry.

I took a stupidly high number of photos of marine iguanas. In my defence, it was impossible not to.

Liam has the map of the Galápagos Islands tattooed on his arm. He uses it as a reference whenever someone has a geographical question.

Red Lava Lizard. Much smaller than than the marine iguanas.

We went snorkelling after that. No pictures, because there’s no way I’m risking my phone by putting it underwater. But unlike Borneo, there was actually fish everywhere!

I was the last one back in the boat. I wasn’t keeping everyone waiting… I was right behind the second last guy, but for someone who doesn’t swim, it shows how engaging it was.

Then we moved to another island, where we went for another hike, and ended up at this flooded ravine.

We swam here for around half an hour. I wasn’t expecting to swim again, so I didn’t have a towel with me, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me!

The sea water when we were snorkelling was 25C.
This water was cooler, but it was so damned refreshing. It must have been very salty, as Lynn (I think) said that it was impossible to duck dive to the bottom.

It was beautiful. Liam jumped from the cliff, just as he did as a kid. He suddenly appeared with a huge splash behind me. I wish I had been facing the other way to have seen him suddenly appear.

When we got back into town, here’s what we found.

Look at me. Have I peed myself? Or do I just have my bathers on under my clothes?

After lunch, most of us jumped onto a mini bus to go to the beach. To be honest, I almost went back to the hotel. My back was really sunburned from the snorkelling and Liam said that there was no shade on the beach.

I was torn. But I followed my rule of always stick close to the guide, and I’m so glad I did.

Where else in the world are you going to have a giant tortoise block your way?

He’s big.

A bit further down the road, we found this bad boy. We were rushing to take photos, when Liam said, “Take your time. The tortoise won’t move!”
He’s young… more than 50.

The tortoise, not Liam.

As they get older, the carapace gets smoother. You can see that this one has lots of texture.

We’re walking through the poison apple forest on the way to the beach, like something out of a Grimm’s fairytale.

Galápagos Mockingbird.

Also known as Darwin‘s muse. This was this bird that made him start to think about the differences in animals and birds from different places.

The Pacific Ocean.
Liam mentioned that there was a brackish water place 2 minutes walk away, and there might be flamingos there. He didn’t seem to have much faith, saying, “Let me know if you see any.”

A few of us wandered up before we had a swim.

Liam came racing back when Linda went to tell him what was here.

First one… then two… then three.

Not nearly so many as I saw in Africa last year, but when I heard that there are only 300 flamingos of this species in the world, I had to lean into this experience. Because look what happened next:

One Percent of the world’s population of Galápagos flamingos were right in front of me!

How wonderful.

Dad joke of the day:

As we were leaving Quito , we saw this sculpture. It’s called “The Man in the Mirror.” We could hardly wait to get to the airport, because today was the day that we fly to the Galápagos Islands.

Speaking of sculpture, this was at Quito airport.

After two flights, we finally landed on the tarmac. We were promised lunch, and it was already 1:30. (2:30 if you go by Quito time.)

There’s quite the palaver to get into the place. There’s all sorts of paperwork, a $200US National Park fee and all sorts of checking luggage etc.

They take their responsibilities seriously.

Galapagos land iguana. If you can have a look on his shoulder, you can see that he’s moulting. Judging by his size, he’s around 30 years old.

Big claws for climbing up the cactuses to get the flowers.

During WWII, the US had a base here to keep an eye on the Panama Canal. While they were there, they used the iguanas as target practice and wiped them out from this island. Recently, some have been collected from other islands and brought here to try and fix that mistake.

Lava lizard. Female, because of the red head.

Lava gulls… considered one of the rarest breeds of gulls in the world. Liam, our guide, was very excited when he saw them.

Then, after a boat ride, a bus ride up into the highlands and a delicious lunch (Finally!), we donned our raincoats and gum boots and went to find some giant tortoises.

There were heaps of them. Sometimes when people turn up, there aren’t any to be found.
The tortoises aren’t caged in. They’re free to roam as they will. The fences dotted around the place are left open at the bottom so they can move freely through them.

The people who run this ranch were originally pig farmers, but they realised that it would be far easier to have a habitat for tortoises and feed tourists than it was to raise pigs.

It was a wise decision. Every day, this place is seething with tourists.

I was thrilled!

Remember when I refused to go on the hike in Croatia because it was raining? It turns out that if you dangle exotic wildlife as an inducement, I’ll do it.

They look as if they’ve had a fight. One is facing one way, while the other is facing another.

I thought it was chasing me. Slowly.

I was looking forward to this day for ages. I saw giant tortoises in Zanzibar last year, but these ones are wild and free.
That makes it so much better.

Dad joke of the day:

The first of 2 travel days saw me back at my nemesis airport… Santiago Chile. Those of you who have been reading for a while might remember that back in 2022, when I was on my way back from Antarctica, I missed a connecting flight at 1AM because of too many people going through security at the one time.

I was a little nervous going through there again…

At the gate for my flight to Lima Peru, my boarding group was asked to check in our carry ons.

I wasn’t happy…

… with good reason.

I got to the baggage carousel in Lima and OF COURSE my suitcase wasn’t there.

I’m catching a flight to Quito Ecuador tomorrow morning. There’s not much time for my bag to follow me.

I raced to the “lost baggage” counter for LATAM. A nervous half an hour later and:

THANK GOD!!!

Mt Cotopaxi. Impressive , isn’t it? Quito, Ecuador, is lucky enough to have an active volcano beside it.

I took this as we were coming in to land at Quito, Ecuador, the next morning.

After the flight, I met 3 lovely New Zealanders called Val and Liz, who are travelling together. Apparently most of the group arrived here yesterday.
When we got to the hotel, I suggested that we split the cost of an Uber and go to stand on the equator.

A quick double check of the itinerary later, to make sure we weren’t going to be doing this next week, and we were off.

Mt Cotopaxi again. Its last major eruption was back in 1887, then it decided to lay low, clearly in a metaphorical sense. Until 2015. The guy who drove us to the hotel from the airport said that it was a scary time. For 6 months everyone had to wear masks. Even today, it’s under intense study by volcanologists.

First I saw these cars in China back in 2018, then in Africa last year. South America is the third continent. This isn’t our Uber, by the way…

By the way, Google Translate is wonderful. Our Uber driver didn’t speak a word of English.

Here it is. I have a foot in each hemisphere.

This reminds me when Deana and I went to Greenwich and we stood like this on the Prime Meridian.

On the way back to our Uber, I saw this sign. By the time I finish this tour, I’ll have been to all 4 of the signs.
Ignore the blurry 5th one. That sign doesn’t count. 😂

Quito is an incredibly hilly place, with buildings edging right up to cliff faces that fall into deep ravines. I’ll show you next week.

Tomorrow… the Galápagos Islands awaits!

Dad joke of the day:

We hit the turps last night with some of our fellow travellers, so this post is a day late.

This magnificent hall was built in Budapest in 1896, then a few years later it was pulled apart and transported here. This was the starting point of our walking tour of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, on the last day of our tour.

Nearby is this grand hotel, which was built in 1925 to house the passengers on the Orient Express.

In the late19th century, 7 parks were created in a U shape… “ The Green Horseshoe” around the old city.

Even given the green belt, I didn’t really warm to Zagreb as I have to most of the other cities on this tour. We did the walking tour in the Old Cities, but Zagreb is ringed by lots of Brutalist architecture that is never attractive.

Well, apart from in Pyongyang in North Korea, where they had the sense to paint the concrete with pretty colours.

See? The city of Pyongyang, North Korea. This is all Brutalist architecture from Russia, yet the city looks so lovely. I took this in 2018, from the top of Juche Tower.

oops. Back to Zagreb!

This cathedral is The Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary, Saint Stephen and Saint Ladislav. This area has had bad luck with churches.

Everything in the area here was destroyed by the mongol army in 1242, including the Catholic cathedral that was built here. Genghis Khan’s grandson was the leader of the Mongol army.

Can you imagine? Croatia is a LONG way from Mongolia.

Zagreb was hit by a big earthquake during the Covid lockdowns, and the cathedral was one of many buildings that were destroyed or severely damaged. Our local guide said that the quake happened on a Sunday morning, when the streets would normally have been busy. Due to everyone being inside when the quake struck, there was only one casualty.

Walls 16th century against the Ottomans. Completely encircling the cathedral, so it wouldn’t be destroyed like with the Mongols.

It’s amazing. People who actually learn from history. It worked, by the way.

This is the Bloody Bridge street. Old Zagreb was formed by two villages on either side of a river. There was no love lost between them, and it reached fever pitch one day in the 1500s, when a fight broke out between them that was so fierce that the bridge was covered in blood and even the river below ran red.

This is the only gate remaining of the original wall that encircled one of the villages. There man who devised the wall, after the Mongols had paid a visit, allowed all settlers to be exempt from taxes. All they had to do in return was to help build the wall.

A couple of hundred years ago there was a terrible fire here and most of the buildings were destroyed. One thing survived… a painting of the Virgin Mary and her baby. Clearly this was a miracle.

Since then, the painting has been on display at the gate and has reportedly been quite effective in answering prayers. A little church, with pews and lit candles is here, tucked away within the doorway of the old wall.

See that spiky thing on the roof? That’s to ward off witches.
I’ll bet it still works.

We rounded the corner to see this church. The amazing roof tiles were put on in the late 1800s, and the city keeps them sparkling clean. The left coat of arms is Croatia and the right is Zagreb, the city on a hill.

After this, we had free time for around 3 hours, which frankly, was a lot of time for a city like this. There were a couple of things we wanted to do.

One was to ride the world’s smallest funicular. It runs for a whopping 52 metres and takes 63 seconds. It costs 63 cents.

It took us back up to this tower, where at 12 midday every day, a cannon is fired to mark the time.

I had to use Lyndall’s video here, as I started filming a second too late.

Then, it was a short walk to get to this museum. Jake had mentioned this place a couple of days ago, and it sounded interesting.

Basically, a long-term artistic couple broke up and decided to put some of their belongings on exhibit, with printed explanations of their significance. Soon, other people started bringing in their own stuff, and the museum was born.

There are a few other spin offs around the world, but this is the original one.

Thankfully, each exhibit has an English explanation.

The exhibits are changed fairly regularly.

Some are funny, some are sad and some are just plain weird. There’s something for everyone.

This is Slovenia/the Balkans breaking up with Melania Trump.

Afterwards, Blogless Sandy and I took our bread roll lunches from the breakfast bar along to a bench under some trees. We passed by these workmen restoring this beautiful building. There was lots of restoration work going on in the city.

Some of you may remember when Megan and I were travelling in Canada, and we had a disagreement about whether this was called a pavilion or a rotunda. It turns out that in Canada, it’s called a gazebo.
I took this photo and sent it to her, saying, “ I’m going to go sit in this pavilion. Sandy’s carrying on walking because she’s looking for a rotunda.”

The next morning, Megan comes back with, “Did you look for a bandstand or a gazebo?”

Nice. I replied, “Unfortunately, we didn’t have a thesaurus within easy reach.”

😂😂

We have over 30 hours of travel time looming ahead of us. By Saturday, we should be back home.

Dad joke of the day:

This was taken from the bus this morning, on our way to Lake Bled. I didn’t think we’d be seeing snow-capped mountains in May!

I’d vaguely heard that Lake Bled was pretty, but staying true to my default pattern of liking to be surprised on my holidays, I hadn’t looked up any pictures.

So yes. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the colour of the water. This was my first view of the lake. It was in the gardens leading down from the castle.

Bled Castle is a fairytale castle rising up over the lake. It looks extraordinary.
It was an optional tour, but I elected not to go in.
It seems that Bled Castle is even MORE sanitised and Disney-fied than the castle in Ljubljana. I knew I’d be infuriated if I went in, so I walked the grounds, chatted with people and heard about some beef that was going on in the other TripaDeal group.
I love a bit of goss.

Look. At. That. Castle.
Look at the colour of the lake.
Stunning.

We were rowed across the lake to a little island.

Here’s Jake and me.

A cuckoo clock house.

This was Tito’s villa. He had villas all over Yugoslavia, back in the day.

The most notable thing about the island was these stairs. When people get married on the island, the tradition says that the groom has to carry his bride up these stairs to prove his virility. I’m telling you, any groom doing this would need months of training.

Picture perfect.

Taken from the café where we ordered the famous Bled Cream Cake.

Blogless Sandy liked it, but I found it a bit bland. It was like a whipped vanilla slice with a ton of whipped cream on top. But this is why we travel – to try new things.

It’s impossible to come here and not take hundreds of pictures of the castle. Look at these colours. It’s incredible.

omg! How lucky am I? Blogless Sandy went for a walk along the lake, while I went in and had a look.

I don’t know a huge deal about Banksy; just pretty much what everyone knows.

I think everyone remembers this…

This was my favourite.

Now this was something I’d never heard about before.

Of course a lake this beautiful has swans.

It was a lovely day. No one could get over the beauty of this place.

We left Bled mid afternoon and arrived in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, for dinner.

Only one more day on the tour before we start the long trek home.

Dad joke of the day:

This cathedral, built in 1860, is a very handy landmark, due to its central location and distinctive colour. Next door is a Franciscan monastery that’s still operating.

It’s austere inside, because of the next door neighbours. Apparently, Franciscans aren’t very flashy people.

1895- earthquake. It pretty much levelled the town. This is where the more Art Nouveau buildings were put in.

Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise.

Prometheus. I bet he regrets giving fire to humanity. This looks painful.

This has been banned on the bridges in Paris, but it still goes on here.

Dragon bridge 

Built for Sisi’s husband, for the 40th year of his rule. He ended up ruling for 68 years.

The little figures under the lamps are gryphons.

There are markets all over the place here!

800 years ago the first church was built here. This current cathedral is only 300 years old. Unlike the pink church, this one is very baroque, so we were told.

In 1990 the first Slavic pope John Paul visited, and they installed these fancy doors for him.

Roman tombstones 1800 years old are included around the walls.

100 years ago, the river was regulated. It used to be shallower and wider.  It used to flood. No one swims here, because the temperature of the water is the same as in the caves. 10C.

New Square… only a few hundred years old.

This wall used to shield a German monastery, built in the 13 th century.

After WW2, they had to leave. Nowadays, it’s a secondary school for design students.

After the walking tour, we had a couple of hours to spend before we headed off to the countryside to the caves.

We had to look at the baroque church.

Yes, it was very… decorative. There was barely a square inch that didn’t have something painted, gilded or sculpted on it.

He looks bored.

On the way to lunch we spotted these two guys from the seminary.

This toddler was DONE.

So was this bear. Too many pancakes, I suppose.

Before we knew it, we were sitting in a railway car, about to head into the Postojna Caves. ( My face is red because I had 4 layers of wool. The caves are only 10C.)

There was a bit of excitement before the tour, because Mary ( in the photo with us) caught a team of pickpockets in action. She was walking behind a woman wearing a backpack, and noticed that the zips on the backpack were gently being unzipped by a young “couple” walking close behind her. The minute she called out, the couple peeled off and disappeared into the crowd.

Wow. We all hear about it, but of course, we all get complacent when nothing happens. We all took notice when we heard about it, that’s for sure!

43 million people have come through here since the caves were opened for tourism back in the late 1800’s.

These caves are worth visiting. There’s a 10 minute train ride to get down to where all the fun is, then there’s a 2km walk through the caves.

This one looks like a lion.

People for scale.

Russian war bridge. It was built by Russian POWs in WW1.

What a dark, cold and miserable job it must have been.

Stalagmites and stalactites grow at the rate of 1 cm every 100 years. The one on the right is 50,000 years old.

They don’t know how old the one on the left is. They’re not sure how deep it goes, and they’d have to cut a hole in the centre to measure it. No one is prepared to do that. Safe to say, it’s VERY old.

Someone asked what happens to the caves when there are earthquakes. The short answer is: nothing.

The shape of the caves means that nothing disturbs them. People were in the cave the last time there was a huge earthquake here, and they felt nothing.

On the train on the way back out, I saw this. A nice touch of whimsy!

Blogless Sandy caught this view of the Slovenian alps on the bus ride back.

Jake said that there hasn’t been snowfalls on the alps in May for years.

Just fortunate, I guess…

Dad joke of the day:

Today we woke up to a bright and sunny day, much to Jake’s chagrin.
Today we were taken to a pretty little village built on top of waterfalls.

I wonder how long you would have to live here before you stopped noticing the sound?

I sent this video to Morgan. Remember how he designed our Icelandic itinerary so we would see as many waterfalls as possible?

He replied, “Where is this place? I want to move there!”

This is taken from the bridge above the town.

It was pretty, but I couldn’t help wondering how often the village gets flooded.

Then we were on our way to Slovenia.

Slovenia is the most economically advanced country in the Balkans. They were the first to join the EU.
The war in the 90’s only lasted 10 days here, as opposed to 5 years in Croatia and Bosnia, so they had a bit of a head start.

We have 2 nights in Ljubljana.

The first thing we saw when we got to the central square was an emu. Or ostrich. Either way, it was strange.

Later, we saw a kangaroo…

Tomorrow we have a walking tour in the morning, and then in the afternoon we’re going on an optional tour to see the caves.
Ljubljana has a castle. The only time we’ll be able to see it is today. You all know how much I love an authentic castle. This one was perched on a hill overlooking the town, and we decided to take the funicular up to have a look around.

It was supposed to cost around 25 euros for the castle admission and the funicular ride, but when we got there, we found that the castle was FREE!

My favourite price!

There was some sort of celebration at the castle, which was all good news to me.

It was even better news once we’d ridden up the funicular and started walking through the castle.

It was all very sanitised. Barely anything authentic had been spared at the castle, so it was more a Disney version of what a castle should be. I was so glad we’d got in for free. If I’d paid money for this “castle “ I wouldn’t have been happy.

As it was, we climbed the tower, saw the snow- capped mountains, watched the entertainment and escaped before the crowds.

One of the entertainments was a bird show. Behind the scenes, here is a bird of prey with a hood on, just as they did in the olden days.

A view from the tower of the courtyard below, while the hunting birds show was on.

Another view from the tower, this time looking out over the town. There are some very pretty buildings here.

After we left the castle, Blogless Sandy and I walked around the central part of town for a while.

Church bells were ringing for ages. I wondered if they were marking the anniversary of a battle or something, considering that they were celebrating something at the castle.

We ended up having dinner beside the river, under a big willow tree.

It’s a pretty place; I’m looking forward to our city tour tomorrow.

Dad joke of the day:

Today, the long-threatened bad weather finally arrived. We counted ourselves VERY lucky that the torrential rain wasn’t falling when we were walking on the limestone streets of Kotor, and Dubrovnik. We would have been slipping and sliding all over the place.

As it was, today was a city called Zadar, and then a 7 km walk through the National Park of Plitvice, where Jake spends lots of time when he isn’t working.

Poor Jake! He was looking forward to showing us his happy place in all its glory, but the rain was almost biblical.

Zadar is known for its Sea Organ. We jumped off the bus, layered up for the 9C weather, and we scurried after him like soggy ducklings as he led us to it.

As we drew closer, we could hear it over the rain.

I took a video so you could hear it too, but unfortunately when I played it back later, the only audible sound was the rain hitting my umbrella.

I tried embedding a vid from YouTube, but the hotel’s internet isn’t letting me do it. So, go ahead and google Zadar Sea Organ. It’s a lovely sound.

“The Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia, is a massive, wave-powered musical instrument. Architect Nikola Bašić built a series of hollow marble steps along the coastline. Beneath the steps are 35 organ pipes of varying lengths, sizes, and tilts that use the kinetic energy of ocean waves and wind to generate continuous, harmonized chimes.”

After that, we had an hour to view the town. To be honest, it wasn’t very enticing. If the weather was good, a walk along the harbour would be nice, but the wind whipping in from the sea put paid to that idea. 

I walked into the town square to view the Roman ruins.

Fun fact: nobody knew that Zadar was built on the remains of a Roman town. It wasn’t discovered until the city was bombed by the Allies in WW2. 

When they were clearing up, people started finding limestone and artifacts that didn’t belong. 

The more they dug, the more they found.

I liked this story, so I headed towards the square. One moments inattention, and I stepped into a very deep puddle.

Wet feet.

The ruins were nowhere near as good as in Sofia, so I kept wandering.

This statue looks as disgusted with the weather as I was.

Finally, after buying lunch to eat on the bus, I conceded defeat and found a coffee place with a welcoming open fire.

We drove through the countryside for 2 hours until we reached Plitvice National Park.

I was sitting up near the front of the bus. I looked out through the windscreen. Rain was still bucketing down… if anything, it was even heavier than before.

If I’ve learned anything about myself in the last 62 years, it’s that I HATE getting rained on. I love a good storm if I’m sitting in a warm room looking out, or if I’m under the tin roof on my verandah.

But when I’m walking in it? No.

I would have been miserable every step of the way.

I was one of the 5 sensible people who went back to the hotel with the bus. One couple got all layered up, hopped off the bus into the pouring rain, locked eyes with each other and without words, jumped back in the bus again.

I was able to use the hairdryer to dry my shoes, socks and jeans while Blogless Sandy was out battling the elements.

She’ll have open slather when she gets back.

I’m going to wander out and find a bar in the hotel, where no doubt I’ll find the others who came back with the bus.

A warming glass of red wine sounds like just the thing. 

Dad joke of the day: