The Humpback Whales: Loving Giants

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This love story begins in the freezing waters of the Antarctic region. The Humpback whales, Giants of the Sea, begin an exodus to the north in search of the right place to reproduce and give birth to their offspring. It’s gladly in the Ecuadorian coastal region –specifically in the provinces of Guayas, Santa Elena, Manabí, Esmeraldas and El Oro– where nearly 4000 humpback whales find the perfect landscape to live the greatest love story ever, thus ensuring the species’ survival.

Thanks to these visitors, the beaches of Ecuador receive thousands of tourists from all over the world looking to watch from close up the world’s largest animals. The Humpback whale is the most active of all the baleen whales, so it is often seen breaching, spyhopping, slapping its pectoral fin, lobbing its tail and jumping out of the water. To watch the show, there are lots of vessels available, constantly taking people to see them perform their marvelous sea dances.

These giant mammals are the heaviest and strongest of all whales. The size of an adult female is about 19m (62ft), while the males measure up to 15m (49ft). Considering their size and their average weight of about 30-40 tons, the Humpback whales have certainly a place among the world’s largest animals. Nonetheless, it remains an endangered species because their condition of slow swimmers –compared to other whales– made them an easy target for the 18th-Century whalers.

Humpback whales got their particular name out of the exaggerated hump that forms around their dorsal fin when they arch to dive back into the water. They are gregarious animals that live in groups of eight or ten individuals when living in cold climates. However, during the reproductive season, they migrate all together to the warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean, staying there from June to September.

Humpback whale watching season begins next June in Ecuador, and no one should miss it. Enjoy the show and feel moved by this wonderful experience watching one of the biggest and most magnificent animals of the planet emerge from the depths, as if they were weightless.

Photo: Fritz Geller-Grimm

Inti Raymi: June is here… It’s the Sun Party!

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It happens every year in June, when the winter solstice takes place in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a time when all the Andean families and lots of visitors get together to celebrate the Incan’s main festivity: the Inti Raymi –meaning “the Sun’s solemn resurrection” in quichua– is a gratitude ceremony to thank the gods for the collected crops. It is a moment where History is renewed and passed on to the new generations. During three days, people are shown how the greatest festivity of South America’s largest kingdom was like. If we ask the residents about it, they would tell us a story that would go like this:

Five hundred years ago, the Incas that inhabited the Andes believed the winter solstice was not only a moment to thank the gods for the wealthy crops, but also a moment to remember their origins. The party was rigorously prepared: it started when the political leaders or curacas arrived to the place where the celebration would take place, dressed up with their best outfits and taking with them the most modern inventions as an offering to the Sun god. During the three days of celebration, the whole village had to follow three simple rules: to eat only the strictly necessary; to keep from starting up any kind of fire; and to keep from having sexual relations.

Once the day had come, the highest-ranked chief and his family would wait early in the morning for the sun to rise, which indicated the beginning of the main praising ritual. Everyone would get on their knees, presenting their offerings and drinking a toast with the Inca’s traditional drink: the chicha. After that, the celebration started: the attendants would have a taste of the meat of a sacrificed animal, cooked by the fire created  with solar rays that where concentrated through the chief’s golden bracelet; and they would drink great amounts of chicha during the three party days. The legend says that if a child with noble Incan descendants was to be born during those days, he would become the Empire’s new leader.

Nowadays in Ecuador, the celebration of Inti Raymi starts every 21th of June. It is a real cultural celebration that brings back to life the country’s ancient history. The town of Ingapirca gets filled with life: there are children playing and bathing in the river; men dressed up in colorful traditional garments and wearing masks, dancing to the rhythm of Andean music; women in shiny, embroidered dresses; handcrafts on sale; and fresh, delicious traditional dishes. Here, the visitor will be always welcomed by the warmth of the Ecuadorian people.


Photo: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador

Vilcabamba: They Live To Be 120 Years Old without Quitting Smoking, Drinking or Dancing

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“When I was younger, at 70 years old, I used to smoke much more...” — How about drinking? Do you like drinking? — “Not anymore. I stopped drinking when I was 106. Only once in a while, when I feel like drinking again, I take a sip…”

A few days ago, the international press announced the passing of the World’s oldest man according to the Guinness records, who lived in Japan. This event made a lot of Ecuadorians think of something right away: Was he only 113 years old? The people from the Guinness Book must not have known about Vilcabamba!

Vilcabamba is a little town in the South of Ecuador, in the most remote province of the Andean region called Loja, at 1500m (4921ft) above the sea level. It is a place that has temperatures ranging from 13° to 25°C (55-77°F) and a population of around 5000 inhabitants, who are known for a peculiar and unexplainable characteristic that very few people in this world would be able to enjoy: They all live more than 120 years.

These people don’t even need doctors. For them, it is easy to get older than 100 years by working actively, gathering at the parks to interact with other people of the same age, having every now and then a drink and a cigarette, going to parties and not measuring the calories they consume. Their hair and their teeth won’t fall off either, and they remain in excellent health until the day they pass away, when their bodies simply decide to “turn of the engines”.

When visit Ecuador, it is worth going to Vilcabamba. At the town’s entrance, you will find a gate with a sign that reads “Welcome to the Valley of Longevity”. Vilcabamba is a town that that aged along with its people. Visiting this place is like taking a trip to the past, which you can see reflected in the little houses with flowers and bright-green bushes in every corner; or in a short conversation taking place in the middle of a park or a plaza between two of its inhabitants, who will always be glad to tell their old stories and talk about their simple way of life.

Photo: Carlos Adampol

Find Out About The Legend Behind The Eruptions of The Quilotoa Volcano

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The Quilotoa Lake is a great lake whose waters amaze the world with their hypnotizing green color that changes its shades along the year. It was born from a crater, and its mysticism gave place to legends of gods. One of them is the story of the great battle between two gods, whose disastrous outcome gave its current shape to the Quilotoa volcano and its lake:

A long time ago, there was a lake that lied inside a volcano’s crater. On its surface lived a violent and feared god called Quilotoa, who was known to be the god of volcanoes. At the same time, a pacific god called Toachi lived at the bottom of the lake. Quilotoa didn’t like having Toachi living on his lake, so he decided to make him leave by throwing a ray of light from the sky into the water. Toachi got angry and threw fire balls to Quilotoa, who fired back. This way, a long battle between the two gods began. The result of such constant flowing of rocks and fire was devastating.

Finally, it is not known whether the gods agreed to a truce or Toachi gave in to the pressures of Quilotoa, but it is believed that the volcano’s crater got the shape it has now a as a result of the battle. Nowadays, the sky wonderfully reflected in its crystalline waters creates a peaceful and beautiful landscape in a place that once was the scene of chaos and destruction.

Photo: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Ecuador

Caleta Tagus: Follow the Pirates’ Steps through Volcanoes and Lava Pathways

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In the Isabela Island, going southwest from the Darwin volcano, you will find a 1 800m (1 mi) pathway that is known to be one of the island’s most interesting places to visit. It can only be accessed by going through a large sea corridor called “Caleta Tagus”. Already from the beginning, as the ship gets closer to steady land, a crowd of penguins, iguanas and cormorants welcome visitors as an anticipation of what will come next.

The pathway, mainly made of gravel, leads to the inside of the island, going around the Darwin Lake. It can be divided into three sections:

1.    The Steps: This is the historical part of the tour, in which you go up about 200m (650 feet) of wooden steps, climbing the hillside of what once was a volcano. In the way, you will find a cave in whose walls the writings left by whalers and buccaneers from the 20th Century can still be seen.

2.    The Darwin Lake: This part of the road goes around the Darwin Lake through a volcanic territory of impressive landscapes. During the hike, a great variety of terrestrial bird species can be seen, and the typical vegetation of this arid area can be appreciated at the Palo Santo Forest.

3.    The Lava Fields: This is the final section of the tour. It is large field of petrified lava providing a great volcanic view that can only be seen in the Galapagos. Here, you will find the famous “petrified raindrops”, which are little round rocks made from the rain mixed with volcanic ashes that have hardened through time.

The name of Caleta Tagus was given to this place in honor of an English warship that passed by the islands in 1814 looking for Galapagos turtles to eat. Nowadays, it is a place full of history, evolution and contrasting landscapes. Caleta Tagus has been one of the tourists’ favorite destinations; and it undoubtedly remains a must-see for people visiting the Galapagos Islands.

Photo: Balabiot