Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands: The perfect equation for a South American break

Water fights belong to my schooldays - or so I thought. Because there were my guide and I sheltering under the ornate balconies of one of South America's most beautiful colonial cities, Cuenca, as a gang of giggling children did their best to drench us with their arsenal of waterbombs.
Independence Day: The Plaza de la Independencia sits at the heart of Quito, Ecuador's charming capital
We had left our flank unguarded, and I felt a damp 'splat', followed by a whoop of triumph. another pair of damp trousers.
Fortunately, Ecuador's children do not normally run riot, and nor are they waging a vendetta against English tourists. I'd walked into a countrywide ambush, also known as Carnival, the four-day pre-Lent holiday during which children here have carte blanche to douse grown-ups.
Leo, my guide and a fahttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1210470/More-Machu-Picchu-Condorther himself, had warned me to wind up my window whenever we drove past a ten-year-old, but he couldn't protect me from the odd soaking.
More...Feature: Condors and canyons in unseen Peru
Feature: Ecuador, where the wildlife rivals the Galapagos
More on Ecuador in our South America section

It proved an unforgettably intimate introduction to this Latin American country. Though the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth has focused attention on the Galapagos Islands whose unique wildlife inspired his revolutionary ideas. But as extraordinary a destination as they undoubtedly are, tiny Ecuador, which owns the archipelago, is far more than just a stop on the way.
It is also truly a journey to the centre of the earth - for Ecuador means 'equator' in Spanish. Finding the actual spot where north becomes south is not as easy as you might think.
My search started off well enough - an imposing 100ft stone monument topped with a five-ton globe proclaimed I had reached the equator, the centre of an entertainingly kitsch theme park called Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World). this was where an 18th-century French expedition first pinpointed the spot - the parallel ranks of Andean peaks were supposedly vital for calibrating their instruments.
Here, demonstrations suggest water does indeed swirl down a plughole in opposite directions depending which side of the equator you're on. And you can have your picture taken with a foot in either hemisphere. But then a bombshell - satellite technology has demonstrated that the French team got it wrong by about 800ft. So, with impressively entrepreneurial spirit, rival spots have sprung up.
Brooding: Ecuador is a country dotted with volcanoes, notably the huge - and active - Tungurahua
For a more intriguing - not to mention calmer - place to contemplate the earth, we headed for Quitsato, 40 miles north of Quito. Ringed by imposing volcanoes, a giant sundial has been constructed with a 30ft orange cylinder as its pointer, on a spot confirmed by GPS to be exactly 0 degrees latitude. There is next to no development here, only a guide who explained how archaeological finds suggest the Incas worked out where the equator ran several centuries before we managed to.
The enthusiasm of Ecuadorians to share their unique place in the world is infectious. Street vendors selling beautiful scarves and blankets congregate wherever there are tourists. But for a true Ecuadorian shopping experience, I headed to Otavalo market, a short drive beyond Quitsato. An entire square of the pretty town was thronged with all manner of stalls selling bright textiles, leather-work, Andean musical instruments and ornaments.
Just as fascinating was the food market, boasting such exotic fruits as tree tomatoes, red bananas, melting custard apples and flowers.
My trip had begun in the capital, Quito, overshadowed by another immense volcano and renowned for having South America's largest colonial-era centre. With its network of narrow streets and beautiful churches, in particular the all-gold interior of the Jesuits' Compania, it was quite dazzling.
Stalls roasting entire pigs poke out from the pavements, while candyfloss-style taffy is squirted directly out of taps. all Ecuadorian life is focused on Quito's Plaza Grande. While we were there, the tall, blonde finalists for this year's Miss Ecuador paraded through the square, just as disgruntled gas workers were politely demonstrating outside the President's palace.
No prizes for guessing who got more attention.
I was travelling with Saga tours, rightly renowned for its friendly, well-informed local guides and selection of high-quality hotels and restaurants.
Lion's roar: The Galapagos Islands are a wildlife wonderland where residents include sea lions
In Quito, the culinary highlight was rincon La ronda, the perfect opportunity to hear the haunting music of panpipes.
Food is one of the unexpected joys of Ecuador - every meal or snack seemed to feature bananas or corn, while fried pork, grilled fish, and, if you're feeling brave, guinea pig cooked on a spit, are all popular delicacies.
From Quito we headed south along the evocatively-named Avenue of the Volcanoes, where snow covers the peaks of those which tower over the 5,000m (16,400ft) mark.
While the area hasn't witnessed a major eruption in living memory, many of these gigantic cones are by no means extinct. One, a mouthful named Tungurahua, put on a show, belching out enormous clouds of ash as I watched from a safe distance. The delightful subtropical spa town of Banos, on the edge of the Amazon basin, is en-route. Also unmissable is Ingapirca, a miniature Machu Picchu built by the Incas as a staging post and now run by the Canari, a people who predate even them.
But Cuenca was the highlight, its restored colonial houses overlooking a tumbling, tree-lined river. Fortunately, Carnival only comes once a year, and otherwise Ecuador is pretty safe - although the roads aren't for the faint-hearted.
Cuenca also has a permanent claim to fame - it is considered to be home to the Panama hat despite its name. The inaccurate title was popularised because the hats first spread to Europe after being worn by workers digging the Panama Canal. After a tour of the factory of Hermanos Ortega, where they bleach, mould and finish the hand-woven hats in traditional fashion, I duly bought my own.
After avoiding the odd watery ambush, it was onwards to the Galapagos - and seldom can there have been a place so guaranteed to exceed your expectations. After an hour-and-a-half flight from the wealthy port city of Guayaquil, I was transferred to my luxury yacht, the 90ft M/C Anahi.
I marvelled at the huge sealions basking in the hot sunshine on the decks of unoccupied neighbouring boats, then it was back onto the island of Santa Cruz, in search of the world-famous giant tortoises. There they were - mountainous, creatures, munching through the lush grass or wallowing in refreshing mud pools.
After an overnight sail, it was on to the lava island of Chinese Hat. The moment we stepped ashore from our dinghy, baby sealions came shuffling up to us, mewing curiously. It was during moments like these that I realised why the islands inspired Darwin so much.
Shell suit: The famous tortoises of the Galapagos were among the animals that enthralled Charles Darwin
Well-managed tourism - my funny, engaging, locally-born guide, Johanna, ensured none of our party got too close - means once-in-a-lifetime experiences can happen almost hourly. Just when we thought we couldn't top snorkelling with Galapagos penguins - tiny, black-and-white torpedoes zipping through shoals of tropical fish - we were astounded again. After getting up at six on our last morning, we were lucky enough to see a female green turtle waddling back to the waves after laying her precious eggs on a magnificent white sand beach. Even as we reluctantly made our way back to the airport, we were treated to the surreal sight of a bus stop where every bench was occupied by a slumbering sealion.
There's no need to leave South America to the backpackers. Ecuador gives you the chance to experience this magical continent in miniature, with one of the world's ultimate destinations as a bonus.
Travel Facts

Destinations You Didn't Know You Could Reach By Cruise

If you think cruises are all about fun in the sun in the Caribbean, think again. These days your ship could take you to a desert location like the pyramids in Egypt, or Peru's mountainside destination of Machu Picchu. It's not about where you dock, it's about what inland sights are accessible from there. And as cruise companies add to their itineraries to tempt you on board, excursions are going ever further, according to Terry Dale, President and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). "With the globalization of cruise destinations and itineraries that often include extended, even multi-day, shore excursions, a cruise vacation today can be the easiest way to explore some of the world's most remote, exotic and culturally significant places." Even better, you can book your whole trip, including those far-flung tours, through your cruise line.

The View from Peru

I really meant to stick to the formula of at least two postings a month. But right after my first I took a long trip around South America, starting in Lima, Peru. From what I'd heard, Lima was a sprawling, grungy city, your typical third-world hell-hole, infested with thieves and beggars.

Sprawling it surely is; no-one could say whether it had eight million or nine million inhabitants. But you can drive several miles, from the upscale district of Miraflores almost to the pompously-edificed center, and see little but broad tree-lined boulevards and bourgeois homes with leafy gardens.

Peru's middle class is growing. This was borne forcefully in on us our first evening, when Yvonne and I walked down from our hotel to the five-hundred foot cliff--not rock but clay and pebbles, detritus borne down from the Andes--that separates the city from the sea. There we found an enormous food-court, on several levels, linked by escalators, seething with smartly-dressed young people. The economy is booming, the mineral wealth that drew Pizarro supplemented by recent oil and natural-gas finds and managed with an efficiency that defies Latin stereotypes (Peru recovered from the recession well ahead of the U.S.). We dined in a large glass-enclosed restaurant while a full moon sank towards the Pacific. There wasn't an empty table in sight.

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But, as an English expat we met in a bar told us, "Peru is still fifteen years behind Chile". The wealth hasn't spread much beyond urban Lima--not to the poor in the shanty-towns that circle the city, nor to the high plateaus of the Andes, nor to the slice of Amazon basin that constitutes more than half the country. That was one of the themes in Peru's very first Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Its title was La Teta Asustada--literally "The Startled Nipple", an expression as meaningless to English speakers as a literal translation of its Oscarized version, The Milk of Sorrow ("La Leche de la Tristeza") would be for speakers of Spanish . We watched it on TV right before the Oscars came on. During commercial breaks they showed footage of the crowds already packing Lima's squares, reporters thrusting mikes under their noses so they could say just how thrilled and happy they were. It was a shame--they really believed they had a chance to nail their first Oscar. Half an hour into the movie, we knew they hadn't.

The title derives from the fact that the heroine attributes her physical and psychological problems to having been breast-fed by a mother who was gang-raped and brutalized during vicious warfare between security forces and the Maoist guerrilla movement known incongruously as Sendero Luminoso-- "The Shining Path" (the film carefully refrains from saying which side was responsible, yet was hailed as courageous by some for even mentioning events that many Peruvians are still unwilling to confront).

That internecine strife is one reason why you can't make an honest film about working-class life in Greater Lima without using subtitles (another first for this movie). Refugees from the Andean areas where the worst fighting took place often have Quechua as their primary language. Imagine a contemporary American movie set in Chicago or New York where half the dialog is in Navaho and you'll glimpse one of the differences between there and here. But perhaps because of this, or because it was altogether too dark for an audience that reveled in Life is Beautiful, Peru's first Oscar nomination never had a chance.

Peru's interaction with the U.S. is subtle and complex, perhaps best symbolized by Cholo Potter and Los Cholimpsons--t-shirts and comic postcards showing Harry Potter and the Simpsons kitted out in full Andean-peasant gear ("cholo" in Peru is a pejorative term for highland people of mixed or indigenous descent). Or by Peru's response to the outposts of economic imperialism that cluster round major intersections, the McDonalds, KFCs, Burger Kings: a homegrown fast-food chain called Bembo's. I didn't find this edgy mix of fascination and mockery in Chile or Argentina. Maybe it's history. Chile and Argentina are countries with a shallow past, large parts of them settled only in the last century. Peru has a past as deep as Southern Europe's--the U.S. is but a pup beside it. That, given our current dominance. is bound to produce mixed feelings.

Think Peru, and you think Inca. Yet the Incas only occupied Lima for about seventy years. Romans of the continent, they did little beyond superimposing military might and bureaucratic organization on layers of civilization millennia thick. You get some sense of that in the Larco museum. with its tens of thousands of pieces dating back 4,000 years--jewelry, ceramics, textiles, almost all of an astonishing beauty and sophistication (http://catalogmuseolarco.perucultural. org.pe). The museum's overall impact is stunning, and raises questions about the relationship between utility and beauty that I'd like to explore at a later date.

And had you ever heard of Huaca Pucllana? I hadn't, but there it is, in the heart of Miraflores, a pre-Hispanic temple-cum-city-hall that predates Machu Picchu by almost a millennium. Lima has been almost totally destroyed by earthquakes three times. but the walls of Huaca Pucllana still stand. Imagine a library stack. Take out a book or two from each shelf. Push the books so that they lean a fraction to the left or to the right, alternate shelves in alternate directions. Replace each book with an adobe brick. Instead of fracturing, buildings like this roll smoothly with the tremors, surviving countless shocks. So much for "primitive" architecture.

So, all in all, Peru's very different from its stereotypes. But then, so are most countries, even after waves of globalization have washed over them--different from their stereotypes and also, for all the resemblances globalization brings, different in subtle ways from one another. We all badly need, from time to time, to be reminded of tha

Sting and Spielberg have also been invited to visit Machu Picchu

Peru's minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Martín Pérez, confirmed that Infanta Maria Cristina of Spain; former frontsinger of English rock band The Police, Sting; and US filmmaker Steven Spielberg; were formally invited to visit Peru's top attraction Machu Picchu.
Latin American singer Juan Luis Guerra has also been included on the list of celebrities invited to visit the Inca citadel.

" I can't tell whether they're coming or not or when, but we have sent them invitations-, I hope they can come", Perez said.

The government of Peru has committed itself not to unveil the visit of those celebrities who accept to come.

He said that Oscar award winner Susan Sarandon, “has had an unforgettable experience”, preceding today the reopening ceremony of the Inca citadel.