Happy New Year!!!

Hello visitors!
Thanks a lot for visiting our website so frequently! :-)
Martin and me gonna be in Baños for New Years Eve and then start another session of acclimatization in the mountains before climbing the Chimborazo on January 3rd.
So again we won`t be online for a while.

To everybody a happy New Years Eve and a wonderful year 2007!

Take care wherever you are!

Cheers!

Cuenca

Cuenca´s one of Ecuadors colonial towns. Quite big though it´s got still a charming atmosphere. Our hostel, the El Cafecito had a vibrant nightlife with surrounding rooms. We just strolled around the citycentre and spent a chilly evening at the Cafecitos.
Cuenca is by the way also the centre for Panama hats!

Cathedral de Inmaculada Conceptión

Colonial style center

Panama hat factory

Guayaquil

We flew from Galapaos straight to Guayaquil on the mainland and took a room at the Suites Madrid Hotel quite central. Guayaquil's got some really nice places like the colorful houses of the Las Peñas area or the quite new Malcon 2000, a huge project for the waterfront with thousands of visitors every day.
But after two days we had enough of that big city and started our way to the ecuadorian part of the Andes to Cuenca.

Strolling along the Malcon 2000

The waterfront area from the lighthouse of Santa Anna Hill

Kids playing between the colourful houses of Las Peñas

Christmas

This year we spent christmas a bit different. At first we went diving which was - as told before - one of the best dives we had so far. Then we had dinner with the other travellers we met on Santa Cruz and went to Lukas' place for some time afterwards. Also a very nice christmas in the warmth of the Galapagos Islands

Celebrating Christmas 2006 at Lukas' place

Christmas dinner at the Kiosks of Puerto Ayola, Santa Cruz Island

Joanna and Martin carrying the empty box of beer!

Diving Galapagos

Based on Santa Cruz Island we did some diving at first with Silberstein to Gordon Rocks and North Seymour. Gordon is quite advanced to dive due to a lot of current but the chance of seeing hammerhead sharks there is highest. And we did! Despite bad visibility a great place to dive!
North Seymour wasn´t that great. But also nice to dive at.
The very very best diving we had the 3rd day with Scuba Iguana close to Floreana Island where we watched schools of eagle rays, white tip sharks, diamond rays and a giant school of fish. Unbelievable!!!!!
Truely a Christmas-Dive on the 24th Dec! :-)

Snorkelling with a sea lion

Single Scalloped Hammerhead Shark at North Seymour

Giant school of black-striped solema

Christmas Diving ;-)

Galapagos

After a 2 hour plane ride we arrived at San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, where we started our 8-day-trip. We got a really cool first class boat and were also quite lucky with the other passengers and the crew.
We visited several islands including our favourites Española, Plaza and Bartolome Islands where we always got unbelievable close contact to wildlife and untouched nature. Best of all was snorkelling with the sealions and watching the blue-footed boobies walking around :)

Giant Turtle at the Darwin Reservation Center on Santa Cruz Island

Marine Iguana on Espñola Island

Playing with a blue-footed Boobie

Sharing the beach with sealions

Haasi arrived!

Dienstag, 12.12.06: zweiaufreisen ist wieder komplett!! Martin kam puenktlich um 21:05 Uhr in Quito am Flughafen an. Haben heute mal Quito vom Vulkan Pinchincha aus betrachtet und uns bei Mitad del Mundo breitbeinig ueber die Aequatoriallinie gestellt. Morgen gehts los nach Galapagos, wo wir auch Weihnachten verbringen werden. Haben damit auch bis dahin keinen Internetzugang.
Allen eine schoene, besinnliche Weihnachtszeit!!
Bis denne, Andi & Martin

Tuesday 12/12/06: zweiaufreisen's complete again! Martin arrived in time at 9:05 pm at Quitos airport. After catching a view of Quito from the Pinchincha volcano we went to see the Monument of Mitad del Mundo where the equatorial line runs through. Tomorrow we gonna head on to the Galapagos Islands where we gonna spend christmas, too. That means also no internet for the next 10 days.
We're hoping that you're enjoying the lovely christmas atmosphere and wish you a merry Christmas!
Yours Andi & Martin

Quito 2

Today was the first clear day since I arrived last week wednesday. So perfect to do some sightseeing in the old part of Quito. And honestly admitted: Quito's beautiful. So many parks, places, ornamented buildings and life in the streets....no comparison to Lima or La Paz.

La Plaza Grande

Locals waiting in front of the Iglesia de San Francisco

Calle Guyaquil with the Basilica in the back

Lifely sunday afternoon in Quito

Otavalo

Saturday is the market day in the little town Otavalo north of Quito. So probably most of Quitos tourists went there to shop some indigenious stuff like Alpaca scarfs and sweaters, colourful cloth and handicrafts.
Honestly I did the same but stopped by the Banco de los Andes that got insolvent yesterday and watched the people complaining.
After shopping I went to the Parque de Condor where you could see different kinds of raptors, owls and of course two kinds of huge Andean Condors.

Police guarding the bankrupt Banco de los Andes

Main square of Otavalo

Locals selling at the foodmarket

Getting hungry? ;-)

Quito

Finally landed in Quito today. Slowly it became exhausting with those 1-day-stops in the cities. So I was glad as immigration was over and I could enter the country.
Next surprise: Sadira from couchsurfing picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the Plaza de Torros where bullfighting was on.
What a great welcome to Ecuador! :-)

Ticket for the Bullfight

Animal lovers don't watch...

Sold out Plaza de Torros

Sadira and Marita

Ft. Lauderdale

After landing in Miami it was fairly easy to get to Ft. Lauderdale by TriRail. Seeing Lindsey again was great. Last time we've seen each other was on Bali 2005.
We catched up a bit and went out for some drinks to the Big City Tavern with friends of her. Unfortunately did I have to leave at 4:30 am to catch my plane to Quito. Greetings to Lindsey, Susi, Carolin, Lizzy and Mike!

Having a drink in the Big City Tavern

Susi and Lindsey

Lindsey and me

Chicago

When arriving in Chicago I was surprisingly picked up at the airport. Ainhoa, who I got to know through www.couchsurfing.com took me by car to her place and after a refreshing shower through the city. Awesome skyline but too freezy at the moment to do a lot of sightseeing. So we went visiting a friend, Fatima, before going home.

With Nancy at O'Hare Airport.

Illuminated skyscraper in downtown Chicago

The Sears Tower at sunshine

With Ainhoa and Fatima

London

First stop: London
After just a couple of hours I landed in Heathrow and made my way straight to the Big Chill Bar in Shoreditch. Unfortunately I missed Robert somehow but was lucky to find Vicky in the crowd.
After catching up with a few beers she went home and I grabbed a few hours of sleep before strolling through central London in the morning. At noon I had to return to Heathrow. After a quick hop over the Atlantic I got into Chicago....

With Vicky in the Big Chill Bar at Shoreditch

The London Eye

London-style picture of Big Ben

The Tower-Bridge at dawn

Let's get started!!!

Dear all!

Now it's the day....3rd December 4:15 pm Munich Airport!
I'm looking forward to meet up with friends in London first before flying over to freezy Chicago.
For sure this gonna be an awesome time with lot's of new experiences and plenty of new, interesting people.
As we've some serious problems with the host of our homepage www.zweiaufreisen.de we're going to use this blogger until we find some solution.

Take care whereever you are and have a nice and cozy wintertime!!

Yours Andi