Photo of the day, 4/4/2010: zzzzzzzzz...

Santa Cruz Island port

The Galapagos, day one.

Day one was lots of travel - to Quito airport by taxi, to the main island by air, to another island by ferry, to the port by car, to our catamaran by "water taxi" (aka inflatable raft).

first sighting of the islands

"I'm on a boat!" (also pictured L-R: tourmates Emma, Theresa, Freddie and Andre)

All told it took about 6 hours. It is hot and humid, and I can say with 100% confidence that my hair, skin and camera are thoroughly bewildered by all the extreme climate changes!

Frigatebirds were gliding everywhere at the airport and the ferry port. Once we got settled and had lunch at Santa Cruz Island's port on the... I don't know, is this tiny thing considered a boat or a ship? maybe I will just refer to it as "Cat" for catamaran...

we could sit at the front in those wooden seats, or in the nets - anywhere really...

So yes, after lunch we walked a few kilometers for photo ops with marine iguanas and then went to a small cove where we could swim.

(For the first time on this trip, I did not bring my camera. It was pouring when we left Cat and I was worried about the camera getting wet. I should have known better seeing as how it survived Antarctica better than a US mailman would've.)

Along the walk we saw Galapagos finches, mockingbirds and lava lizards (pretty sure everything here has a "Galapagos" species), as well as yellow sulfur butterflies and a million little purple butterflies. And ginormous cactus trees...

otherworldly

The sand at the beach was really different - so fine it held your exact footprint in the damp area at the shoreline; very pure and white. The water was warm but not as clear as I had expected. Lots of funky seaweed tangling around our feet though. From the water we watched a Galapagos pelican dive for food.

And I just kept grinning...

I swam in the Galapagos. Neat.

Galapagos sand

After the walk and swim we stopped for ice cream - taca flavor=yum - and headed back to Cat for dinner and to hang out on the nets at the front. These serve a real purpose, I am sure, but for us they are hammocks.

There are more ships here than I expected.

{sigh}

I also didn't realize that so many people lived here (10,000 on one of the islands!). They are trying to curb population by only hiring locals for tourism. Right now more than 3/4 come from the mainland.

There are nine of us on the tour - two couples, a family of four and me. Cat sleeps 10... I didn't want to get my hopes up but upon arrival it turns out that, yes, I do have my own cabin.

My own cabin. For seven whole nights. It's a backpacker's dream! (Well, I suppose something slightly larger than a hole in the wall where nothing ever dries and everything smells like engine fuel might not be everyone's idea of a "dream"...)

the extent of the sleeping quarters

We saw absurd things like snickers bars and wifi today, so I have decided that while I am here I will try to do one absurd thing each day. Today's was doing a handstand underwater at the beach. In the Galapagos. Random!

Oh, yeah, almost forgot. We saw Leonardo DiCaprio today, he's here for some reason or another. He's staying in a small ship about 100 yards from me as I type.

Twelve years on the west coast and I had to go all the way to the frigging Galapagos islands for my first celebrity sighting. Natch!

Hasta luego, Quito.

To briefly wrap up the Quito experience, I:

- went to la Mitad del Mundo monument and surrounding pavillion, including the planetarium (all in Spanish, about 50% of which I understood, but it was well done nonetheless)

hey, Wikipedia has the same photo!

- hung out at Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve with more hummingbirds than I could count, and sat in a cloud forest for a while just quietly observing (and thanking God, no pun intended, that I was not in Quito for the Good Friday parade... sounds interesting to see, once and from afar - like, "from YouTube when I get back to the US" far)

Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve

a rare action shot - these little guys move FAST

- spent some time in Mindo at a butterfly farm

they also landed on shirts, shoes, arms...

feeding time

mariposa mirror

- visited an orchid farm in Mindo

I believe this is the Miltassia Aztec species...?

... or maybe it's this one?

the elusive genus puppius sleepius

- checked out the ¨real¨ Mitad del Mundo

Intinan Museu mitad del mundo monument

- got up to Otavalo and surrounding Imbabura province beauty (and no, I´m sorry, I did not buy you anything at the market)

near Lake San Pablo, the largest lake in Imbabura province (not pictured: lake)

crater lake at Reserva Ecológica Cotacachi

- saw a leather fashion show taking place on the street

too sexy for this jacket

- watched an amazing thunder/lightning storm tonight

I really, really love what I have seen of Ecuador and I look forward to the next two weeks.

Tomorrow I head for the Galapagos, so I will be incommunicado until sometime after the 11th when I get to Cuenca. Hasta luego, and please pray that my camera battery recharge issue resolves itself in the near future! I think Mikkelson in the peninsula about did the batteries in...

Photo of the day, 4/3/2010: all that you can't leave behind.

Otavalo market

Photo of the day, 4/2/2010: mariposa heaven.

Mindo butterfly sanctuary

Photo of the day, 4/1/2010: Jim Morrison was right...

... the oeste is the best. Taken at Mitad del Mundo #1.

Behold, the power of a zero day.

I had a big Wednesday planned... The rain had other ideas. I was a bit bummed because making Wednesday's plan work on Thursday instead would take some juggling, but see "attitude adjustment" post and in the end it was really good. I don't think I realized how tired I was, and another day trip may have done me in.

Good things to do on zero days:
- upload pictures (I am all caught up! a nice feeling, especially with the upcoming Galapagos trip and subsequent photo uploading marathon that will ensue... I am more worried about losing a memory stick and therefore all the pictures than keeping everyone updated, but it is also nice to be able to share photos while I can still remember where {and why} they were taken)
- check in on people, places and things (Corey Haim died? WTBH?!)
- plan a little, but not too much
- people-watch in the park between rain spells
- drink coffee
- read a trashy novel

Laundry at a real laundromat would have been good but I can do that at the next hostel. Or in two weeks. Whatevs. (Also, behold the power of a bar of Woolite and some hooks to hang your clothes to dry.)

Tomorrow it's back to gogogo again for three days, followed by 8 days in the islands and at least 2 days of gogogo to/in Cuenca. Probaby more. The week between Cuenca and Lima is already a blur and it's still a week and a half away.

Sigh. I need to figure out a happy medium. All things in time...