The End

Well, we are now back home (actually, I have already moved to Boston and am ready to start classes, and Mitch is busy in Guelph with frosh-week stuff...and the last few posts were written from Boston, not the Galapagos) but I wanted to round out our trip and describe the last 5 days, after our cruise ended.

The cruise ended on a Sunday morning. The rest of the group headed back to the airport, but Mitch and I headed into Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island to our hotel. Although it didn't have TV, it was air-conditioned and had very hot water and two beds, so we were very happy. We stayed in Puerto Ayora Sunday to Wednesday, doing such things as napping, relaxing on the beach, eating a great meal in an expensive hotel (near the beach), sitting in restaurants watching soccer games on TV, hiking to a brine pool between two big rocks and swimming, renting mountain bikes to bike to a nearby beach but realizing that it was all uphill and much further than we though so hailing a cab to take us there....and then sitting in a cab for about 15 mintues and thanking God that we weren't still biking....We saw our first and last flamingo, and then navigated our way back to Baltra Island for our flight back to Guayaquil on Wednesday morning.

Mitch on our beach day:

Mitch at the entrance to the brine pool:

Mitch swimming in the brine pool (I joined him after taking this picture):

Mitch at the place we tried to bike to but then took the cab to:

Mitch and me in paradise:

Me with the flamingo:

When we arrived in Guayaquil we were met by Charlie, who is from Montanita and his parents own the bed and breakfast we were staying at. He took us around for the afternoon showing Mitch the highlights of Guayaquil since he hadn't seen them yet. Mitch wasn't feeling great though, and went to bed early. Jose Luis came from Montanita to meet us for a couple days, and he and I watched part of a big Ecuador soccer game at a bar and then went to a movie - GI Joe (it was terrible!).

The next day I decided to do some "normal people" things since I had already seen all of Guayaquil, so went with Jose Luis to see his family. Had a nice lunch with his mom and uncle, some good home cooking, and then went to the Zoo on the boardwalk of Guayaquil. Mitch went to a nearby beach, Playas, with Charlie. Thursday night was the last night of our trip, so we went to downtown Guayaquil and hiked up all those steps again....this was the third time for me but the first time for Mitch. We then went to a bar down at the bottom for a few drinks.

Jose Luis at the Guayaquil Zoo:

Mitch with Charlie and Jose Luis up at the top of the hill in Guayaquil on our last night:

Friday we wandered around the city, didn't do much of anything, packed up, ate dinner at TGIFs because Mitch was still feeling sick and wanted some American food, and headed to the airport to catch our 11pm flight.

What a trip!!!!!!

Galapagos Part VII

Saturday - Santa Cruz

In the morning we took a bus to Los Gemalos (The Twins). These are 2 big lava tube craters very close to each other. We hiked around and saw some birds. The Darwin woodpecker was popular with the ladies, but Mitch liked the Galapagos Dove the best. It has bright blue eyes.

Galapagos Dove:

We then mountain biked (mostly downhill thank goodness) to the main national park area where we could see land iguanas being bred. This is also the home of Lonely George, the last Giant Tortoise of his species. So far he has been unable to mate, which is very sad. Here we also learnt a lot about the islands formation, movement (they move 6-8 inches each year!!), and currents (there are 4 or 5, making each island a different temperature and home to different animals).

Me with yet another Giant Tortoise:

Mountain Biking (I could never work my gears properly, the expression on my face remained there the whole ride):

Mitch posing as a Giant Tortoise...better hope no real ones come looking for a mate...:

We then had some time to walk around the city. A very small fish market was a highlight, because there were so many different birds and sea lions all around trying to get some fish, and we could see them really close up.

Blue Footed Boobie up close and personal:

A hungry sea lion:

This was our last day on the cruise, and we spent one more night on the boat before the trip was over.

Galapagos Part VI

Friday - Isabela

After spending the night in a hotel we had nice breakfast (at the hotel) and returned to the boat to pick up our snorkel equipment. We took a bit of a tour around the shores of Isabela on the boat, and saw some penguins! At first we saw just two, and one was molting and one wasn't (the molting one was really ugly, see picture), and on the same rock were some blue footed boobies and sea lions...quite picturesque! Just a little while later we saw a whole bunch - maybe 15 - swimming. They look just like loons when they are swimming...Galapagos penguins are pretty small.

Penguins on shore:

Penguins swimming:

We then stopped for a hike at a dock where there is a trail that leads to the home of many, many marine iguanas. They were EVERYWHERE. We also saw a white tipped shark and many sea lions here.

Marine iguanas everywhere:

We next headed to the snorkel location where I fond a massive sting ray hiding under a ledge and a big lobster above it. Dario tried forever to catch the lobster but couldn't with his bare hands. There was very little coral here but a lot of pretty volcanic rock. We saw a sea turtle swimming in the water as we headed back on the snorkel boat to the catamaran.

We had a great cerviche on board for lunch, and then set sail for the afternoon back to Santa Cruz. We saw some Albatrosses from the boat while we were sailing - they spend their whole lives at sea and live only on Espanoal island. It was a real treat to see them! Also, a big manta ray jumped out of the water, and we spotted a whale, just once!

Sailing back, Emily in the captain's chair and Mitch hanging off the front of the boat:

Galapagos Part V

Thursday - Isabela

We spent 2 days on Isabela. Passengers are not allowed to sleep on the boats in the harbour (only crew is allowed to stay on the boat overnight) so the first thing we did in the morning was take our overnight bags to the hotel we were staying at. Although this was a surprise to us (our itinerary didn't say anything about a hotel) we were quite happy with the arrangement. Our hotel was very nice, and on the beachfront. More importantly, it had a huge bathroom with hot water, and Mitch and I each got our own beds. (Well, at first we had a matrimonial room, and the two parents had separate beds, but we traded.)

We then took a bus 30 minutes to the highlands to get to the biggest volcano around - Sierra Negra. Here, horses were waiting for us to take us further up. I was very excited about the horse ride. No cars are allowed up the volcano, so the options were horse or hiking, and since it is so high up it is quite wet and I was glad we weren't hiking. This quickly changed, however, as the horses walked SUPER slowly, so what we were told was a 30 min ride was well over an hour. It was also very slippery and muddy, with tons of ruts, so the horses kept stumbling and trying to walk up the edges of the path, which, although was smart on their part, meant that they were rubbing our legs into trees and shrubs and barbed wire. The horses also weren't very good listeners. The horse owner rode with us and kept making them go faster, but they would just run into a bunch so that your knee was up some other horse's ass. It was not enjoyable. Oh, and then Mitch's horse was kicking other horse's and our feet as well, and also biting other horses. It was really not enjoyable and totally terrifying. Mitch wants me to add here that his horse actually fell on the way up (and again on the way down) but that he managed to hold on, and that he actually enjoyed the ride because I swore the entire way up and he was laughing at me.

Here is a picture before we left on the horses:

At the top we had a beautiful view of the calderra which is the area around the opening of the volcano. The last activity of this volcano was 5 years ago, so you could see all the new black lava. We had a boxed lunch at the top and the top and then went for a hike in the volcano (the ladies stayed behind, requesting that we only take 30 minutes....we took much closer to 2 hours...) We were hiking in a part of the volcano known as Volcan Chico, and it was VERY hot. We were glad we were not there in the real summer months for Ecuador as it would have been unbearable. There were sulphur and iron deposits everywhere, causing it to be beautiful colours. There were no animals here at all.

Here is the view of the calderra:

Here are two pictures from the hike:

Here is what Mitch learnt about Isabela from Dario while the rest of us struggled to keep up and kept stopping for pictures: Isabela used to be 5 or 6 smaller islands, but because of the lava flow all of the islands joined together. It is now the biggest island. It is active about every 5 years, so next year they are expecting it to erupt again. The land is different colours, some green, some brown, and some black. Each colour corresponds to a different eruption. On top of one part of the volcano is the location of the highest point in the Galapagos - a 6 hour hike up.

We then had a long and miserable horse ride back down the volcano to the bus.

We went back to the hotel, had a walk on the beach, and walked around the town. There really wasn't a lot there. The best thing about the town was the street lamps that were made out of pieces of wood. We had dinner in town (I had a lovely cerviche and Mitch had shrimp) and then bumped into our crew and went to a nice beach bar at a hostal.

Galapagos IV (by Mitch)

Wednesday - Floreana

I have been instructed to start this blog post with the story of how grandma tilley got her name. It started with the first day of the trip, and both ladys came out of their rooms wearing these hats that looked a bit ridiculous considering it was very cloudy out. The had tight straps on that fastened to their chin the entire time. A conversation came up about their hats and the one lady got into the story of why she bought the hat. One of her friends was wearing the hat and was walking down a beach in an unknown place - i forget the name...Anyways her friend got robbed of everything he had that was in his pockets...but this tilley hat had a special pocket on the inside in which her friend was carrying $3000 in it, no one knows why he had that amount of money on him but we now know why the hat is so important...I wondered the entire trip whether or not grandma tilley kept her life savings in the top of her hat. Anyways both ladys wore the hat for the entire trip no matter where they went. Graham also had a hat exactly like theirs but refused to wear it because he thought that he would look like a 70 year old lady.

This morning was the captains birthday and the way to get everyone to know this is that he jumps off the boat into the water right after breakfast...soon the crew found out that emilys birthday was only a few days before so they made her jump in too. It was a nice start to the day i guess...

Anyways we got to Floreana and saw 8 levels of vegetation in just 400 meters. We started off by going to a Giant Tortise place where they look after tortises that used to be ex-pets. Babys use to ride the tortises for fun, people owned tortises like people own dogs back in the day. In the same area is where the main soure of water for the island is. The bucaneers came in the 1800s and carved water ways into the rock so it would all drip down into one location. I climbed to the top of where it dripped down, it tasted very good...also filled up my water bottle for the walk back. There was also a very cool section where people carved holes and slots in the rocks which they turned into homes...very large rocks and they had spots for doors, a kitchen area, bedrooms etc...There was also a large face carved into the rocks with plants growing out of the top like hair. Awesome from the other side of the rocks. We then came back to the boat for a light lunch of a variety of fruits and cheese balls and fried fish. Two trips then went out, one to la loberia where the tide was strong, and another one to playa negra...the ladys obviously went to playa negra to stare at birds and reptiles. We walked to la loberia which was about 1 km and jumped off rocks into the water to start snorkeling. About 2 minutes into the snorkeling there were massive sea turtles swimming an arms length away...There must have been over 20 throughout the afternoon, the guide said he had never seen this many before so we were very lucky.

Half way through the snorkel i looked over at em and a sea lion was following her..She pointed it out to me and i continued to swim over...then she continued to swim and the sea lion followed her. The sea lion started to blow bubbles under her and she could feel them...then all of a sudden it got behind her and bit down on her flipper..i was watching this entire thing happen, but wasnt sure if the sea lion was playing or was hungry...Anyways once it latched onto emilys flipper she looked back and she said all she saw were these teeth and two eyes looking at her...again she panicked, started screaming, and kicked her way free...she swam all the way over to the guide who looked at her again like she was a retarded snorkeler. Anyways the sea lion swam away peacefully, i think that it just wanted to play but emily had a freak attack...very funny to see from a distance. We then finished the snorkeling and headed to playa negra to join the ladys for an hour or two. It was a very nice black sandy beach but was too tired to continue to swim so just lay there and had a siesta. Emily really didnt want to go to the beach and was trying desperatly to get back to the boat (for internal reasons) but everyone had to leave together so she had to pucker up and sit on the beach (i think the fruit worked her). We then headed back to the boat to shower and played quarante (an ecuadorian card game) with the crew; although they were trying to explain to us how to play in spainish it was very hard to understand...Still dont know if i won or lost. After everyone was ready we went back to land for an amazing BBQ of fish, chicken, and carne. I must of ate about 4 piece of chicken, 2 carne, and 3 fish...with rice and salads..also had birthday cake to celebrate emily and the captains birthday, very good...Emily salsaed with some of the crew members and this was also where we found out that grandma tilley could dance very well...someone asked how she was so good and it was because she was a BELLY DANCER back in her prime time day. You can now picture grandma tilley shaking her ass in shorts while dancing with the crew members..it was a site to see. Pictures and video were taken. We then headed back to the boat and I passed out from all the food and cervezaaaa...very good day.



The turtles chomping away on almuerzo (lunch)
Mitch drinking the fresh water from the rock crevices.

Emily posing with a giant tortise, see later posting for her posing as a tortise.

Mitch holding on to the first class bus we took up the mountain, we then rode on top of it on the way home, causing sore backs, and bruised ass cheeks.

Galapagos Part III

Tuesday - San Cristobal

Yesterday was a water day, so today was a land day. After another good breakfast we took a 30 min bus ride to El Junco Park. It was very misty and muddy there, something that will become a theme for all our highlands activities. We hiked about half a kilometer uphill (at least Dario said it was 500m, who knows how far it was). The Grandmas had a really hard time making it up the hill...they were way behind the group and finally appeared covered in mud from head to toe, including their glasses, from slipping and sliding and falling...it was pretty funny, they were really good sports about it! (A few other people fell too, and all our shoes were disgusting by the end of it.)

At the top there was a small weather station, (really small) and that was about all we could see for all the fog. There was a lake / lagoon up there, which is the only source of fresh water for the whole island, as well as several of the other islands. We walked around it. Only one grandma (Grandma Tilly) came with us. She made it almost all the way around, then turned around to go back the way we came, thinking that she was less than half way....Graham had to go running after her to get her to come the right way.

We then took a bus to La Galapaguera, a Giant Tortise Breeding Area. Many many tortises were killed in the Galapagos many years ago, and they are still trying to restore the population. Here they breed Middle Sadle Giant Tortises, which are those native to San Cristobal (each island has its own kind). This kind is the 4th largest in the world. They are really big - up to 200 kg!! We got to see two tortises fight, here, which was very lucky! We spent quite a bit of time observing these tortises.

We also saw the area where they keep the babies until they are big enough to survive on their own. In the 5 years the center has been open, they have only gotten 20 babies. They keep the babies until they are 5 to 10 years old then release them back to their natural habitat. They might keep a couple to continue the breeding program.

We got back on the bus to go to a nice lookout point for our boxed lunch. Then we headed to the beach. There were two sealions waiting for us in the middle of the beach...one was nursing. Mitch swam a bit, and we relaxed in the sun. While relaxing Darwin Finches decided to nip at Mitch´s toes!

We went back to the main city, Puerto Baquerizo Morero for a short stroll, but there wasn´t much there. We took the dingy back to the boat, as always, and the Grandmas sat across from eachother and held hands so they wouldn´t fall off. We were only going 5 km an hour! I couldn´t look at Mitch because every time I saw his face I started to laugh hysterically.

Back on the boat Mitch decided to take a shower....and halfway through the crew decided to change the batteries that power the water...so he was covered in soap. He must have spent 20 min in teh shower (no hot water) for about 2 min of water...as he always says he gets the short end of the stick. He says he froze his balls off.

We had a good dinner of cauliflower pie and meat, with pudding for dessert. We were both very tired by 7 30 but Mitch stayed up until 9 to watch us pull away from the port...We were expecting another very bumpy night...

To be continued!

Here is Mitch on the beach in the afternoon:


Here is Mitch with the nursing sea lions on the beach in the afternoon:



Here are two Giant Tortises fighting, in the morning:

Here is Mitch and I overlooking the lagoon in El Junco, in the morning:

Here is Mitch at the entrance to El Junco:

Galapagos Part II (by Mitch)

Emily´s Note: I am trying to upload pictures to go with Mitch´s posting, but for some reason I can´t move them around right now....so all the pictures are up here, and you will have to keep reading to figure out what they are of! ]Also, I can´t figure out how to turn them around...sorry!

Here is Kicker Rock, where we went snorkling:

Here is Mitch and the ladies before snorkling, on the catamaran:

Here is a shot of our boat:

Here is a picture of a marine iguana. I think it might be fuzzy but I can´t tell on this computer. It was actually from Sunday:

Monday - San Cristobal Island

After getting only a couple hours of sleep because of the massive waves that rocked our boat, and the tight sleeping area it was time for breakfast. We had a great start with chocolate cereal, papaya and a good cup of coffee, probably the best i have had in ecuador..followed by an omelet, toast, cheese, and juice. Today we were going snorkeling so everyone got a wetsuit because the water is a bit cold this time of year. The first one they gave me barely fit and my balls were in my stomach again as i put it on so i told the crew member that this wasnt going to work and i would bare the cold, but luckily he found a bigger one somewhere. I am glad he did because the water was cold without one...

We then took the dingy into land, and then from land took a faster boat that had 300 horsepower to isla loba for snorkeling..Before our snorkeling adventure the two older ladys we were with were very excited to come snorkeling, on the boat when the guide said to get ready they took about 30 minutes in their room..finally they both walk out, decked out to the max in the newest snorkeling equipment possible, their flippers were made in Italy and they even had fog liquid for their mask...Other items were a TWO wet suits, feet warmers, hand warmers, A floatation device that had a plastic clearing in it because one of the ladys could not put her head in a mask and underwater, this floatation device also had a whistle on it - god knows why anyone would need to blow a whistle while using this...Please see picture attatched with me and the ladys, i had to get one..They also wore hats and layered on a ton of sun tan lotion, even though it was not sunny...and also had neck coverings. All the passengers hoped in the water and started swimming away from the boat...I looked back and saw the ladys get into the water a very slow pace..i think they thought it was too cold...I continued on my snorkeling and looked back 5 minutes later and both the ladies were back on the boat..I checked with them after why they got back on so fast and they said that they had seen enough...haha why the hell they bought all the gear for 5 minutes of snorkeling is beyond me, the best part was that one of the ladies put her hot tub to 72 degrees before the trip to try on all her equipment to make sure she was warm enough...anyways we have been laughing about it ever since...

The boat arrived at isla lobas which had sea turtles, a ton of fish, coral, crystal clear water, and of course sea lions...This was our first encounter with sea lions in the water...Our guide said to us before the snorkeling that if a male sea lion ( a lot bigger then females and had a big head) approaches you it is because they want to bite you and are protecting their children and wife. So we get in the water and everything is going well...We approach two female sea lions that are just out of the water looking at us and there is a male that is in the water infront of the females...Everyone is looking at the male from a distance but doze ball emily has her head above water asking the guide where the male is..At this time the male starts swimming directly at emily, and everyone is watching this as this happen except for emily...Emily finally puts her mask back under water only to be face to face with the male sea lion...she immediately gets into a panick and starts screaming and tries to grab the guide for help who is next to her...the guide thinks she is a psycho and tells her it is not a big problem...anyways it was damn funny to see her freak out..the snorkeling then continued as i swam around with a female sea lion and one of the babys which was very fun..hopefully the underwater pictures turn out.

We then got back onthe boat and went to Kicker Rock which is probably one of the biggest and most beautiful rock I have seen. Very cool shape. Here there was beautiful coral, manta rays, star fish (blue, red, yellow), lots of fish, jelly fish, turtles, baby sea lions that swam right up to your mask. Very cool. After snorkeling we got back on the boat for snacks and headed to a private beach for lunch and to relax..very good lunch of shrimp and brown rice. Walked around the beach for a bit and had a little siesta...The ladys did their bird hunting and reptile hunting which you will hear more about later on..Got back on boat to tour around some of the smaller islands which had red footed bobbys, maksed boobys, blue footed boobys, friggate birds mating, and many other cool things.

The power boat then took us back to the port where we got on the dingy to go back to our main boat..I had the honour of rideing in the dingy with one of the ladys and not only did she wear one, but TWO life jackets on the way to our boat...I asked her if she thought that the dingy might flip (even though it was going 5 mph) and then she claimed she forgot she had two life jackets on...how you can forget that is beyond me...anyways it was another good laugh...

Got back on the boat had pizza and a tripcal drinking waiting for us...Then got in the shower, which are very small and cold, but they get the job done...luckily we didnt get screwed into the room at the back of the boat because their shower was ontop of the toliet...They werent happy when they found out that we had a shower with a curtain and a toliet and sink. Their sink was their shower head...I guess they had no problem pissing in the shower though..unfortunatly their toliet paper got very wet haha. Slept on the boat this night but was still in the port so actually got some sleep...That is all for day 2 on the boat...more to come...I am writing this from the hotel so i am enjoying the hot water showers and my own bed!

Los Galapagos Part I

Hola!

Well, Mitch and I have survived the 7 day Galapagos cruise, and are now halfway through our 3 day stay on the island of Santa Cruz. It is time for a recap of our Galapagos adventure so far, starting 8 days ago, on a Sunday. This will have to be written in installements, because there is just too much to say!

Sunday - Baltra and Santa Cruz Islands

Sunday morning we flew from Guayaquil to Baltra Island. Baltra used to be a US military base during WWII, and today there is pretty much nothing there for tourists to see. It is a small island, and just used as an airport today. When we arrived at the airport, there were guides from all of the boats and hotels meeting the passengers. We couldn´t find ours anywhere. All the other passengers left on buses, and it was just us. Mitch got a calling card and started calling the contact numbers we were given, but couldn´t get through to anyone! Half an hour later he tried again, and this time was successful. Turns out the boat thought we were coming in on a later flight than we did. Our guide was already there but wasn´t expecting us. It all worked out in the end, of course, we just had to wait an hour or so, and then we met the rest of the people on our boat and were off on the bus. We took the bus to the edge of Baltra, then a short ferry ride, then another bus down to Puerto Ayora, the largest city in the Galapagos, and the Port in which our boat was anchored.

The other passengers on our boat are very important for the upcoming stories about our trip. There was a family from the Yukon (what are the chances????) consisting of the father, Grahm, the mother, Lauren, and two kids, Emily (fantastic, just what I wanted, another Emily on a small boat) aged 14, and Jessica, aged 11. There were two older women, sisters, from the US...so many stories about them...their names are not important, the crew referred to them as The Ladies, and Mitch and I called them Grandma Dukes (I don´t know where he came up with that name) and Grandma Tilly. They were about 60 years old. We were supposed to also have 2 other people, their friends, who were even older, but thank goodness they cancelled, and we got a couple in their late 20s from Holland, Heike and Joris.

We took a small dingy out to our boat, the Valkeria, a small but really nice catamaran. Our cabin was very very small, but the bed was really big, which was the most important part. The bathroom was small but functional. We found out days later that 2 of the other cabins didn´t even have showers...the tap in the sink pulled out and you had to shower basically on top of the toilet! Thank goodness we didn´t get that one!

I should also tell you about the crew...our guide was Dario, who was young, only 25, which was good because we saw a lot of older and less energetic guides with other groups. His favourite expressions were ¨Oh My God¨ ¨It is only 200 m¨ (when in fact it was a couple km), ¨Take a picture!¨. There was also the Captian, the First Mate, the Chef (who was AMAZING), the mechanic, and the bartender-waiter. All of them seemed to do everything though, including driving the dingy, driving the boat, and cleaning.

As soon as we got on the boat we had lunch and then it was time for our first activity. Kayaking! We didn´t even know this was on the itenary. We quickly changed into our bathing suits, and hopped into the kayaks. Watching the grandmas get in was pretty entertaining. This was no easy kayak. The port was pretty choppy, and it took pretty much all of Mitch and mine´s strength (we were in the same kayak) to get out there in a relatively straight line. Needless to say, the grandmas turned back pretty quickly. The rest of us kayaked to a really pretty place, a long little cover between 2 tall rock banks. Here we saw:
- Blue Footed Booby (has these amazing blue feet)
- More than 3 kinds of crabs including the Galapagos crab
- Many black marine iguanas
- the Galapagos Sea Lion
- Friggat Birds
- White Tip Sharks
- Pelicanos
- the Noddy Bird
- the Night Heron
- A couple different Darwin Finches (there are 30 or so of them)

We then paddled to another place and got out for a hike. Dario said to wear shoes, but he wasn´t wearing any, and so I asked if we needed them and he pointed to some big rocks and said the path was like that. So I told Mitch we didn´t need any. Well, turns out the path was all small pebbles and sharp rocks. And cactus prickles. And lava lizards. And we needed shoes but didn´t have them and it was the most painful thing either of us had felt. He didn´t say a word to me the whole walk he was so pissed off. It was definately the worst 45 minutes of the entire trip. We survived. Barely.

On the way back, Mitch and I fell out of the kayak. This is about as funny as it sounds. Very. He of course blamed me, and we had to switch positions. It was a nice little dip. But we were freezing. Luckily the crew greeted us on the ship with hot chocolate.

It was soon time for dinner, but I felt super sea sick even though we hadn´t started to move. I was really tired and the harbour was pretty choppy. I ate as much as I could as fast as I could and went to lie down.

Mitch came soon after, also not feeling well. This quickly turned into a hysterical laughing fit, discussing the days activities, and the fact that we were on a boat for 7 days and not feeling well. I am typing this all up from notes I made on the boat, and Mitch added in here that an important quote from me is ¨It hasn´t even been 7 hours and we have 7 days here. What the fuck are we doing here, let´s go home.¨

The boat started up and set sail...It was a very rocky night. Our door was rattling, the camera charger fell out of the wall, glasses fell to the floor in the kitchen. Not too fun. Mitch told me to just pretend it was a gentle rocking...I told him it was a %$%&#$ rollercoaster. The girls in the cabin beside us left their window open, and a massive wave came in a flooded their bed. I had wanted to leave ours open too because it was hotter than anything, but Mitch luckily won that arguement. We arrived dry but a bit tired in San Cristobal, the first island we were visiting.

To be continued...

Mi Cumpleaños + Update

My family had a big party for my birthday on Tuesday. I was relaxing in the hammock in my room, when I got the usual *Emily, dinner is ready* call, but of course in Spanish. I came out of my room, and they put on this music and started singing some birthday song and clapping. There were about 15 people there...all of the usuals, plus some other people who I am not sure live in the mystery rooms or not. There was a big pink cake on the table, with a fat dinner candle stuck in it. (I later found out this is not normal...that they do use normal cake candles here, but I guess they didn´t have any.) I wasn´t sure what I was supposed to do so I just kind of bobbed my head. Sadly Mitch wasn´t there because he was pretty sick that day and couldn´t take the smell of food.

After the strange birthday song they sang Happy Birthday in Spanish, and then again in English. It was really nice. I wasn´t sure if I was supposed to blow out the candle or not, because a) this was all happening before dinner, and b) it was so big, I thought maybe it was normal to just let it burn in the cake while you ate, like the cake was a big candle holder or something. Finally I figured out I was supposed to blow it out. I think they might have had to sing one more time until I managed to grasp that concept.

My mom made a really fancy dinner...Rice with shrimps, and chicken and salad. And we got pop for dinner! Which we never get. The little kids were really happy. And Alejandra was as thrilled as I was with the cake, because it was pink. We all ate together for a change, and it was really fun.

After dinner I went out with Hamilton and some of his friends, and met up with some school friends. It would have been better of course if Mitch were there, but I made a new friend, Jose Luis who is really nice. So that was mi cumpleaños!

In other news, I am getting sad that it is almost time to leave Montañita for the Galapagos. As amazing as I am sure they will be, I really really like it here. We have today and tomorrow, and then it is time to pack up Saturday and take the 5pm bus to Guayaquil. We will stay the night in Guayaquil and catch a morning flight to the Galapagos for our cruise!

Before we go, I am trying to cram lots of things in! Tonight I am supposed to go with Jose Luis to a nearby town, about 30 minutes away, on his motorcycle. Last night he tried to teach me how to drive it on the beach, but I didn´t really pass lesson 1, so I will just be a passenger! It was really hard, because you have to shift gears. Isidro also said maybe we can go snorkling around the reef near the Point tomorrow, because the waves are supposed to be smaller.

Right now Mitch and I are going to walk up to the top of the point to take some pictures of the Church there. Gotta cram that in before class in an hour and a half!

No time to post any birthday pictures now, but will have to have something saved up to show you all when I am back!

Miss everyone...see you soon!

A Note From Miguel

The last few days have been busy with class, travelling and fiestaing...probably the highlight of the last few days was travelling to salinas, le lebertard, and chocolatera. Stephan and I met a lady named Lucia who´s house is above one of the clubs cana grill...she lives in guyaquil during the week and montanita on the weekend, and she also travels all over south america and has a place in miami..anyways she told us shed tour us around a couple citys near montanita so we went with her and two other local guys that are her friends...took the bus from montanita to le lebertard where the two guys lived...went to the habour and had an amazing seafood meal...it was all fresh because we could se e the fish and shrimps being brought in, la lebertard has a lot of buildings and is like a mini toronto, she said a lot of money is made there, she didnt like it because it was too busy, too many people and cars..i agree. then we went to salinas which is basically a long stretch of beach with hotels all along it...also a yacht club near by so thre were some nice boats. The interesting thing about this trip is that i had no clue where we were going because they would speak in spainish so every destination was a surprise for me...then we started walking not sure where but the guy we were with hailed a car over i think it was a cab and it drove us to chocolatear...i had no clue what this was, i thought itwas a chocolate store or something but i was wrong haha...on the way to chocolatera it was a beautiful drive...all along the water, but the police stopped us on the way, was kind of scary..we had 4 people in the back seat so thought we would get in trouble, then the police asked for our identification but stephan nor i had any..after a few minutes of the locals talking to them in spainish they let us go and laughed that we fit 4 big guys in the back seat...i thought we were going to have to go to the station because we had no identification on us but it was all good...anyways we keep driving and enter this military base with soldiers with guns guarding the front...after speaking to them for some time they let us through and we drove through many military men marching, and doing drills...finally we hit chocolatera...it is the most western land point in south america so that is why they are guarding it....it was cool to be on the most western piece of land though...the waves here were huggee, i took a ton of photos and videos but having trouble uploading them..all the tides meet at the point making it impossible to swim as well as the big waves...all the rock we were standing on was from an inactive volcanoe which was cool..we then continued on to a hotel on another point which had an amazing view...it was where lucias had her honeymoon with her ex husband..it only costed 40 a night and it must have been a 5 star hotel...anyways we watched mostof the sunset then droveback to salinas to grab the bus back...the guy driving us around only costed 10$ for 2 hours of driving and waiting, and the bus was only a dollar so for under 15$ say some pretty cool stuff...then we came back and had some drinks at lucias place and went down to the club after...had class on friday, then emily went to guyaquil but i was too tired, going to have some dinner now then probably head out to town....
that is alll for noww

mitch

Los Animales

Just a short note today to tell you about all of los animales here in Montañita. You have already heard about how los gallos wake me up (and sometimes start their singing before I go to bed, if I am having an especially fun night), and that we went horseback riding, and that the perros rule the streets. Here are a couple stories about them.

The perros are EVERYWHERE. You can´t walk more than 3 feet without seeing a new one. They are sleeping, wandering, mating, sitting everywhere in the streets, sidewalks, and beach. What I couldn´t believe for a long time is that almost every perro has an owner. Every family owns one or more perros, but because they are almost never on leashes it is impossible to know whose is whose. Perros tend to casually follow their owners wherever they go, and so I have gotten to know the perros of my friends here. One of the teachers, Erica, has a perro that comes to class with her, and when she teachers outside lies nearby. The perro isn´t allowed in the school (although he sometimes sneaks in) so waits outside for her when she is in the building. Isidro also has a perro, named Toda (I think is how it is spelled) that sometimes comes out with him at night. Many dogs, such as Toda, here are named after famous surfers. Other popular names are those like Roxy, after the surf brand of clothing. Erica also has a three legged perro. I am not sure what happened to the fourth leg.

Oswaldo has a perro, and last night I asked him how he got it, because I haven´t seen any pet stores around. He said a friend gave it to him to adopt a couple years ago, which is how many people get their perros. Hamilton also has a perro, who is kept inside at the moment because she is in heat. She is a big fluffy dog and one of the few I have ever seen on a leash.

One perro on the street was purple for the first three weeks, but seems to be white again. We think it has something to do with a new purple building in town...

One thing I am very surprised by is that the perros never beg for food. People are eating outside all of the time, and the perros will come walk by, or under the table, but never ask for food. Also, there are no sticks here (wood is rare in this part of Ecuador) so the perros play with rocks or plastic bottles. They do beg to play with rocks on the beach.

On one of my first days here I was walking home and I saw a perro lieing in the road in the middle of the day, just relaxing. A car was approaching, and the perro wouldn´t move. I was getting a bit worried for it, but of course the car saw it (cars can´t go more than 5 km an hour on the sand roads here) and stopped and put on this siren kind of thing it had to make the dog move. As I said, perros rule the streets here. I am not sure why the carro had the siren...maybe just for the perros.

There are also quite a few gatos (cats) here. They are tiny and cute, but not as interesting as the perros.

The caballos (horses) are also really neat. Mitch and I went riding with Isidro one day last week...Mitch really hated it but I thought it was great. No helmets, galloping down the beach, into the next town, stopping at one of Isidro´s friends houses (who owns the sushi restaurant in town, and gave me some sashimi samples he was preparing), and riding back with the sunset and seeing whales in the ocean. You can just take the caballos right onto the beach, with all the people, and on all of the roads through town.

That is about it for los animales, there are some mosquitos and a couple cockroaches, but nothing at all unberable in any way. A bunch of small birds visit the electrical lines every night. I can´t think of any other notable animales here, so I will leave you with a couple pictures!

This is Mitch´s perro, sleeping outside his room this morning:


This is the three legged perro trying to drink out of the pool:


This is the caballo Isidro rode on our ride. The saddle was made of wood. He didn´t like it.


Here is Miguel and his caballo:


Miguel and I on our caballos riding from the Montañita beach to the Olon (next town over) beach:

Mi Familla y Mi Casa

I really believe mi familla (my family) is the best in all of Montañita. I have been waiting to write about them until I had some pictures to share with you. I also really like mi casa (my house) and will tell you about that, although don´t have enough pictures of it yet. Families in Ecuador (or at least in Montañita) live together for a long time, possibly forever. Other family members are always visiting for meals, or just fun. This can be confusing for students living in families, like Mitch and me, because you never really know who lives there and who doesn´t. The houses are also confusing, as they have several stories and meandering rooms. I don´t think I have been in half of the rooms in my house...in fact, I didn´t even know they existed until last week!

The ¨father¨in my house owns a store which makes custom board shorts for surfing. This store is on the street level. Behind the store are the sewing machines, where 2 or 3 women work. I am not sure if they are family or good friends, or if they stay in our house (in those mystery rooms) or not. Behind these machines I believe is the room where my mom and dad (Jolanda and Alejandro, which I have likely spelled wrong) sleep. There is also an area for hand washing of clothes (my mom is always washing my clothes) and line drying.

It is difficult to get from this main floor to the ¨first floor¨of the house...there is a ladder, but people usually go around outside and up the normal stairs. These stairs are steep and narrow. It is kind of cool. They take you to what I will call the first floor of the house. There is a living room, with a balcony overlooking the street. The grandkids have tons of toys here, a tv, and a playstation 2. Coming off this room are the mystery rooms. I looked in the first one and it had bunkbeds. Don´t know if it is still used, or what lies beyond!

Off the living room, going up a few steps is the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen is very similar to our kitchens, but they do not have microwaves. Jolanda has a very nice stove. The one and only bathroom is off the kitchen, between two bedrooms. One of these rooms is mine. It has some open windows high up onto the street, and one big window that overlooks the living room and down to the shop. This can make getting dressed a challenge. But I have mastered it after years of changing on a soccer field! The other room is for another student, but right now I am the only one, so they use this as a room to watch TV, or for the little kids to have naps. They don´t nap very often at all though. Up a very steep circular staircase is an openair room where the oldest son in the family, Hamilton, sleeps. Hamilton is 27 and a professional surfer. He is sponsored by a salt company, and has shown me the ads he does for them, etc, in surfing magazines. Kind of cool. Hamilton also has a dog, but I can´t remember her name. She is in heat right now so she has to stay upstairs in his room for 2 weeks. This is because no dogs are fixed here and they all get very friendly on the beach.

There is another in the family, Saul, who is maybe 21. He goes to university for graphics design. I think he must sleep in one of the mystery rooms, but I´m not sure. He plays soccer a lot as well. Although they wear cleats, I don´t think there is grass here. I saw a couple soccer fields and they seemed to just be dust. There is also a daughter in the family, Grace. She is the oldest and married to the mayor of the town, Joni. They have 3 kids. Their youngest, Alejandra (likely spelled wrong) is 3, and my best friend here. We play together a lot. She is super patient and repeats things for me all time and sometimes teaches me new words. I think it might be a problem for her when I leave. Her brother Belfour is 4 or 5, and is totally loco (crazy). He is one of those kids who does crazy things because he knows it will make people shake their heads and laugh. The oldest son is Frekson (spelled wrong for SURE) who is maybe 8 or 9. He is a bit too old to want to play with me, but sometimes we play cards.

Last weekend I took the three kids to the piscina (pool) at the hotel owned by my school. They don´t have a pool in town, and they are too small for the ocean, so this is a big treat. Then on Sunday the family (Grace, Joni, and the kids) took me to Guayaquil, the big city 3 hours away. We went to a fair with a bunch of rides, which was the first time any of them had been on a rollercoaster, so that was nice for them. Not too thrilling for me! The next day we walked around a restored part of the city, near the river. (Guayaquil is the main port in Ecuador). There were a ton of playgrounds there, which the kids loved. Although there is a very small playground in Montañita it is old and not very nice. Joni and I also climbed 444 steps (all numbered) up a recently restored hill to see the view. The path up the hill is lined with restored homes and restaurants, which were really cute to see. Each building has a picture on it so you can see what it looked like before.

My family has really made my stay here fantastic. Every morning Jolanda makes me breakfast (I know I will have to write to you about the food soon, but today it was a big bowl of papaya and peaches with yogurt and granola, toast, and a cup of milky coffee type stuff), and every night she makes me dinner. She will also feed me lunch if I happen to be around when they are eating ... I had a great lobster soup on the weekend! She is super patient talking to me in Spanish (she speaks no English) and really really cares about her students. She would worry to death if I didn´t come home one night. I don´t see the father a lot because he is busy at work, but he also is happy to try to talk when we are at the table together.

Hamilton is a good friend of Mitch´s and sometimes I hang out with him too. Last night we watched a movie, in English, with Spanish subtitles. I knew almost all of the Spanish words, and learned a few new ones and ways to use old ones. For example, tranquillo can be used about a thousand different ways, as can claro, which means right, or light, or got it, or yes. Grace´s family live in a different house, which I visited last weekend. However, she is a teacher at the kids school, and he works too, so the kids are almost always at our house when they are not in school. They also often come for dinner. We don´t eat dinner together, but are served one at a time, as we come to the table.

Okay I think that is enough rambling for now. Today the sun is out for the first time in a long time. I need to go have a nap on the beach! Here are a few pictures first though!

Here is my whole family, as well as the other student who lived in our house for 2 weeks (she has gone home now). Starting with the red and white striped shirt and going around, there is Grace, Me, Tony (the other student), Jolanda, Alejandro, Frecson, Saul, and the kids Belfour and Alejandra. Hamilton and Joni are missing.


Here are Alejandra and Belfour in Guayaquil. You can see why I love her so much!



Here are Hamilton and Alejandra en la playa (on the beach). One day I took her to make sandcastles and watch the surfers (like Hamilton)