ECUADOR

This one's a doozy.

Day 1: We arrived Sunday night, very late, and after a few hiccups in the customs process, we found our driver, Roberto, who took us to the HOJO!!! That's right, we stayed in a Howard Johnson in Quito.

Day 2: Monday, we woke up for a city tour. We were able to see the "centro historico" commonly known as Old Town. Cathedrals, big plazas, the presidential palace... reminded me of Lima and sometimes even like Cuzco. It was about 60 degrees, so I had a sweater on, but remember, we were at the equator so the sun was brutal. I bought a scarf just to cover up my neck (and then ended up wearing it for the entire trip, but hey). The cathedrals were, of course, gorgeous. I always get that feeling when I walk into one like, if I had grown up here, I would have been more religious. Ecuador is 98% Catholic. Yeah. Our tour guide, Carla, was very sweet, and very impressed that I was able to speak Spanish, as have been all our guides. At one point in time we went into a little shopping center and there was this old man, with a beret on, who would sketch us as we were listening to our guide. Then, of course, charged us $1 if we wanted to keep them. They were pretty funny drawings, so I'll see if I can scan it in or something.

My favorite part though was going to El Panecillo (The Little Piece of Bread) which was up on a hill/mountain and had a giant statue of the Virgen. There were some metal outlines of a donkey and Christmas trees that all lit up, and the view of Quito was breath-taking. It is such a dense city, especially compared to San Jose. Everywhere you looked there were houses, buildings, churches. It was really amazing.

Then we headed North out of Quito to La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World) which of course is the equator. Now, when I think of the equator, I think of desert, hot, arid, not a whole lot of anything. But in Ecuador, it was cold, windy, mountainous, lots of trees, basically the exact opposite of what your intuition tells you. We were led to the equator and learned of the "forces," or lack there of, that are characteristic of the equator. For example, if you step off of the equator, even just a meter or so, and try to pry apart someones fingers it is almost impossible. Step on to the equator, try it again, and their fingers spring apart as if they had no strength. Try the same experiment only this time try to push their hands down from above their head. Doesn't work, unless you step onto the equator. It was crazy. I felt so weak!! And of course, on one side water flushes down in one direction, on the other side the other direction, and right on the line, it goes down straight. Whoa is right.

Sam bought an Indiana Jones hat at a little market, and fell in love with it, which basically killed our chances of fitting in because anyone wearing a hat like that (along with Crocs) basically is screaming, "I'M A TOURIST!!" Oh well. At least he didn't get too sunburned.

We got back to the hotel around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and I got ready to see THERESA!!! I was so excited to meet her family and see where they lived. I left the hotel at around quarter to six because dinner was at six and I figured that the eight or ten blocks that separated us wouldn't take much longer than 15 minutes. Wrong. An hour later, I arrived at her condominium complex and was enthusiastically greeted by the guard who announced that the extranjera had arrived. T and her host mom came down and I received my second enthusiastic greeting. YAY! We had the most amazing dinner, complete with jugo de mora, and I just sat back and took in the subtle differences between Costa Rican and Ecuadorian Spanish. I also saw just how much that family was in love with Theresa, and it made me a little jealous that I hadn't been just the second student that my family had hosted, instead of #67 or something like that. But I could see that Theresa was in love with them too and that's all that mattered. We decided to go back to the hotel and either go out to bar or just chill there. Well, a huge similarity between CR and Ecuador is that when it rains, there are no taxis available. So we waited for about an hour and then decided to go into the rain and find our own. Of course, we found one within 2 minutes, made it to the hotel and had a drink with my parents. And then it was time to say goodbye to T. And we never took a picture together!! Too bad. (Te Amo, T!!)

Day 3: Tuesday was the beginning of our Galapagos adventure. Our plane actually made a stop in Guayaquil before landing on the island of Baltra. So a little precursor: My mom had pestered Allie and I to read up on the Galapagos before getting there so we understood its uniqueness. But of course, Allie and I were being stubborn and refused to look at or read anything. So when we landed the plane in the middle of the desert, we both looked at each other a little bit confused. Weren't these islands supposed to be tropical? There was no vegetation whatsoever except some dead-looking grass and cacti. Rocks EVERYWHERE, and no fauna to speak off. We took a bus from the airport (after being filmed by some Japanese film crew in the customs area... awkward) to the ferry dock and crossed the channel to the island of Santa Cruz, which we would call home. As we drove from the north tip to the south tip with our very friendly and incredibly polite guide, Daniel, we noticed an extreme change in environment: We started off in the desert, like I said not much to see. Then all of a sudden, we saw mountains and once we crossed over them it was a tropical paradise, with low-hanging clouds and a lot more vegetation. We learned that the only "native" mammal on the island is a little mouse, and that most of the vegetation came to the islands via seeds carried on birds or just by the wind or sea. Because if you think about it, nothing is native.

When we arrived in Puerto Ayora, we seemed to have finally hit civilization. With the exception of two little towns, Santa Anna and Bellavista, there was no one on the island. Only about 3% all the islands is inhabited by humans. Anyways, our hotel, El Gran Hotel Lobo del Mar (lobo del mar literally means Wolf of the Sea, but to us English-speakers, it's a sea lion) was beautiful and right on the ocean. You could see the little port from our balcony and most of the town was concentrated on the same street as our hotel, Avenida Charles Darwin.

We settled in our very cute rooms, and then headed to eat a quick lunch. It wasn't quite quick enough, but we managed to make our way to the docks at about 2:00 for the Bay Tour that we were scheduled for. Our guide Marcelo would be beautiful, as Allie and I decided, if he were 6 more, and 6 less.... 6 inches more and 6 years less. Our boat captain, or might I say dingy captain (the boat was tiny) was very nice and in addition to our family, a friendly Spaniard went with us. We saw boobies and crabs and pelicans and friggots and iguanas and all kinds of animals. We made our way to a little island and there we were able to snorkel and... swim with the sea lions!! They were so cute and they were around us in the water. The Spaniard told us that they are usually more playful than they were with us, but I had a couple swim right under me, so I was pleased.

On our way back towards land, I got sick. Seasickness is something I have never experienced before, not even on that boat we took to the Great Barrier Reef. I've never felt the sensation of wanting to rip out your stomach so badly just to feel better again. We landed in a cove and set out on a hike to see sharks in a grotto and iguanas on the other side of our island. The landscape was amazing, with cacti trees and not much else inland and lots of black lava rocks on the coast. The land iguanas were all piled on top of each other in order to share heat (remember, they're cold-blooded) but Allie and I thought they looked like they were on acid and just got done with an orgy or something.

We saw some mating sea turtles in another little bay area, and then made our way back to the port before the sun set. After showers at the hotel, we went out and tried our luck at the Hernan cafe which we had learned was one of the only places to buy pizza for young Sam. It was pretty good, although the service was slow as always is the case in Latin America, and Aaron was highly disappointed with the banana split he ordered, especially considering it took 50 minutes to make.

Day 4: Wednesday we were able to set sail in a bigger boat = less seasickness for Ellen. Our boat ride was upon the Santa Fe, with guides Carla and Yasmini or something like that (it was a guy). We headed toward North Seymour island which was to the East of Baltra. There we were able to hike through the mating grounds of boobies and friggot birds. Friggots are the birds where the males are able to puff up their red turkey-gobbler thing in order to attract the females who circle overhead. Every so often you would see a burst of red through the bushes, so it made for a good scene. There were sea lions, of course, coming out of the ocean to rest and dry off on the rocks. These animals are so tame that they come up right next to you, bark, and then move on because they know that all we do is snap their photo. Sam and I had a good time exploring that day and we were even able to go into the ocean for an unexpected snorkel trip. I opted out of snorkel gear and flippers and decided to see if I could swim in the ocean by myself. Let me tell you it was hard but very invigorating. I almost made it the entire way to the boat, but they pulled us into the panga so that we wouldn't hurt ourselves trying to get by the engine.

Next, we headed to a beach on Santa Cruz to hunt for flamingos. We never saw any, but the water was really nice to wade in, and we watched as Sam and Aaron had yet another snorkeling excursion.

Made our way back, showered, and tried an Italian restaurant which is where I'm pretty sure I got sick. Their idea of gnocchi is not what it should be, let's just leave it at that.

Day 5: Thursday was the early day. We had to be at the port at 5:30 am! We would be setting sail for four hours in order to get to Isla Bartolome. On the way there, the water wasn't too choppy and we were able to sit out on the front of the boat and goof off. They had breakfast for us, and the crew took a special liking towards me because of my Spanish abilities and my helpfulness with clearing dishes.

After a very long ride, we arrived at the island. Bartolome is an inactive volcano and is made completely of lava rock. The only living thing on the island was... cactus. There were some penguins swimming around the coast line and sea lions up on the rocks, but the island was not where they lived. The hike was on wooden stairs, but still a hike because of the incline. It was very VERY windy (Aaron lost his hat), but at the top we were rewarded with a great view of the interesting land mass that was the island.

Again there was a snorkeling option. I opted out... I didn't want to see any fish [shiver shiver]. On the ride back, the water was unfortunately very rough, and only after we were all soaked from water splashing on the boat did we move inside. I, again, was seasick and spent the remainder of the ride laying down on the floor of the boat in the fetal position attempting to sleep it off. Luckily I was able to sleep, and the ride seemed a lot shorter after that.

Showers again, followed by dinner at The Rock. And then we realized it was Thanksgiving! We had a can of cranberry sauce with us, but ended up not even eating it. How sad.

Day 6: Time to go back to Quito. BUT FIRST! We woke up a little early to go to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz island so that we could see land turtles and of course, Lonely George. Here is the tale of Lonely George. Lonely Gorge, or Solitario Jorge in Spanish, is the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise species. He has been labelled the rarest creature in the world, and is a potent symbol for conservation efforts in the Galápagos and internationally. His island was decimated by the invasion of goats, goofy, I know, and so his relatives slowly died. He is approximately 60-90 years old and in good health. Just recently some eggs were fertilized by one of his female partners however, on November 11 2008, the Charles Darwin Research Center reported that 80% of the eggs showed weight loss characteristic of being infertile. However if the other 20% do hatch, they would not be purebred Pinta Island tortoises. So the search continues.

Back in Quito, the parties had started honoring the founding of Quito. It was a pretty crazy night, but we somehow got to a local mall, found Sam some McDonald's and then settled down in a Mexican restaurant where I attempted to drink a coctail named Sexo, Pudor, y Lagrimas (Sex, Modesty, and Tears) which was named after a movie/song that Marco introduced me to. It was gross as it consisted of gin, vodka, tequila, methol, and lime among other ingredients. I didn't have more than a couple sips before I just put it to the side.

Day 7: Boo, time to go home. Leaving Quito was so different. Their security is much tighter than I have ever experienced at any airport, let alone one in South America. After the 5 hour plane ride, we landed in Atlanta where we rushed to get our bags so that Allie could make her connecting flight. Everything worked out fine, and I was the last to leave ATL due to weather problems both there and in Raleigh. I landed, was driven home by a very interesting Morrocan taxi driver, and went to sleep.

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I feel like I'm missing a lot.... Be sure to look at my photos, because I think that will fill in a lot of blanks.

Peace.