Ecuador, the best and the rest.

Our last week in Ecuador has flown by! We got back from the jungle and after some laundry and showering, we made the most of our remaining time in Ecuador. We spent one last night in Banos before getting on the bus to head to Mindo, a small city north of Quito. It turned out to be a long travel day,7 hours to Mindo. We also learned our lesson about the bus, even after many warnings about how dangerous it is, we still managed to get robbed. On the bus right outside of Quito, a couple of guys reached under Torianns seat and took her Zune and sunglasses! Irritating to say the least! But we managed to make it to Mindo, even if in terrible spirits. We checked into a ´recommended´ hostel, which was basically some guy named Juan's house, haha. It definitely had a special aroma, but we were too tired to look around town for something different. After checking in, we headed off to explore and as soon as we turned the corner, we were greeted by 3 of our friends from the Galapagos, Nick, Charlotte and Brad plus a friend of Brads that had just arrived from Texas. It was the best feeling, to come to a city and be greeted by friendly faces! It was what we needed to cheer us up! We vented to them about the frustrations of our day, and funny enough, Nick had had his Ipod stolen in Quito as well! That made 3 of us that had lost our Ipods in 3 days. Crazy. But life goes on, and so must we... Charlotte, an avid frog lover, convinced us to go to an evening ´Frog Concert¨. We were a little weary of what a frog concert would entail, but it included a glass of wine, so we decided to go. It turned out to be pretty cool. It was basically a man, who loved frogs, that had created a beautiful garden with a huge pond that had attracted 18 different species of frogs and toads. While we drank our wine, he played the noises that the frogs made and the frogs would sing back. We then, armed with our flashlights, wondered around the grounds to look for frogs. We did not see a ton of frogs but it was pretty cool when we did. Needless to say, if you are ever in Mindo, we would recommend the frog concert.
Afterwards, we headed to an organic restaurant near their hostel that had just opened. We met Zac, a peacecore from Texas (so many Texans in Ecuador!), that was friendly and extremely helpful in planning our next day in Mindo. Zac had originally come down to Ecuador to work with coffee, but the Peacecore had transferred him to Mindo to help kids learn how to sell chickens door to door, apparently a new project for them. Somehow, I don't remember the details, he is now managing a restaurant. After brownies and ice cream, we headed back to Juans house to get some sleep.
The next morning, we met up with the gang and caught a taxi truck to the waterfall Nambilla. My family, when they had come to Ecuador, visited this waterfall, which also has a water slide, and they highly recommended it. Quote from my mom, ¨don't worry, you may think you are going to die, but you wont!¨ The water slide, which actually did not look so bad, for Latin American standards, almost killed Brad. He thought he should lie down in order to go faster, but the slide was pretty fast itself. He flipped over the side before getting all the way to the bottom and almost landed on a boulder in the river. After that, everyone was pretty nervous to go down but we all did it! None of us did get up the courage to jump off the waterfall though...but, you have to leave somethings for next time, right :) After the waterfall, water park adventure, we decided since we were already freezing and wet to go tubing. Tubing turned out to almost be more intense than rafting, going down rapids on 6 tubes tied together with guides pushing us through.
Toriann and I had originally planned on leaving back to Quito that afternoon, but for a couple of reasons and to extend our time with friends, we decided to stay one more night. We hung out at the hostel and cooked a delicious steak dinner.
In the morning we took an early bus, well, semi early, since we decided to have the pancakes again at the organic restaurant (and i don't even like pancakes!), and rode to Minda del Mundo, the equator. We somehow got into the main compound with paying, but after taking a quick picture, we wondered over to the alternative´ museum that is apparently on the real equator. The story is that the Incas had found the real equator, but the French came and said that was wrong and moved it. GPS now shows that the Incas were correct and the museum on the actual equator is really cool, although some skeptics don't believe the tricks they show you, such as balancing an egg or water falling straight the drain.
After the museum, we got back on a bus and found our way to the Quito airport. It was really bittersweet leaving Ecuador. We both felt our time was too short here and really enjoyed everywhere we went. However, we are on our way to Peru to volunteer and hike the Inca trail, so we cannot be sad for too long!

Life in the Galapagos!

Sorry we haven't written for so long! We have been so busy, we have not had a chance to write... We flew to Ecuador after writing the last entry, left the next day for the Galapagos for a week, flew back to Quito (after getting delayed for 6 hours) and after dinner in Quito, the power went out in our neighborhood, and we have been on the road and in the jungle ever since!! Sorry it is so long, but we have a lot to tell...read on...love, Heather and Toriann
Galapagos
We had not even considered the possibility of going to the Galapagos Islands while in Ecuador, but we were slowly persuaded by some friends we met in Central America, Nick and Charlotte. They flew down to Quito a day earlier, and searched the city for the best deal. We flew down last Friday and as soon as we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we headed to their hostel to find them. Before we even arrived, we saw Nick running down the street, saying ¨we found the best deal, you have 10 minutes to decide!¨ After a few panicky moments of how much this was going to blow our budget, we decided to go for it!
Words cannot explain the Galapagos. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the vast desert that we landed in. We signed up for a 5 day, 4 night boat trip, so we were met at the airport by Freddy, our driver. Freddy led us down from the airport, which is at the north end of Santa Cruz island down to Porta Ayora at the southern tip. We had lunch with Nick, Charlotte and an American couple that were also joining us on the boat. Our first stop after lunch was the Charles Darwin Center, where we learned a bit about the history of the islands and saw our first batch of GIANT tortoises. We got to see the famous Lonely George, the last tortoise of his subspecies. He is like, 150 years old and for a long time he wouldn't mate...but, good news, he has 2 eggs! (He was bred with the closest genetic subspecies). We couldn't find the albino tortoise that supposedly lives somewhere in the center, apparently no one had heard of him but us :). These tortoises are amazing, they seem almost dinosaur like. Apparently Steven Spielberg came here and based the movie ET off these amazing creatures!
After cruising through the CD center, we boarded the boat we would spend the next 4 days on. In a marina filled with huge yachts, we pulled right up to a pirate ship! The ship was small, there were only 12 of us on board plus the crew, and it was built in 1901. Although it was cramped and at times I thought we were going to tip over or I was going to fall out of my bunk, it proved to be a great ship. And our group was really nice as well, our guide told us this was the first group he had had in a while that was under 60!
Over the next 4 days we visited Floreana, Isabella, and Santa Cruz Island. We snorkeled just about everyday, and it was so different than any other snorkeling I have done! It was cold and we would go out in place with fairly strong currents, so you really had to work to one, stay warm, and two, try and stay with the group. But, when you saw something, it was breathtaking, amazing, surreal! We saw huge sea turtles, sting rays, manta rays, parrot fish and tons of other amazingly colorful fish!! My favorite thing was that all over all the islands, there were sea lions! And you could get so close to them, you just wanted to pet them! A couple of times while snorkeling, the sea lions would swim by right next to you! It was so great, if I could take home any animal, it would definitely be a baby sea lion :) orr, orr!
Besides snorkeling, we saw a lot of the islands, and the climates alone were unique. We did a horse back riding trip up Volcano Sierra Negro, and when we started, it was lush and green, cold and cloudy. As we rode, it suddenly changed to dessert where it just proceeded to get hotter and hotter. We saw the huge crater, where it the volcano had last erupted in 2005, eh! We then hiked further to Volcano Chico, where the land was desolate, covered in volcanic rock and cactus's. We also hiked across another beach where in a small cove, we saw about 15 white tip sharks resting. On that particular beach, you could hardly step without seeing a huge mound of marine iguanas. They were everywhere, and definitely not as cute as the sea lions. They spit constantly to get rid of the salt they swallow while feeding in the ocean. They are the only breed of iguanas to feed underwater. Unfortunately, we never got to see any of them underwater but we saw more than plenty on the beaches!
Apparently tortoises (and their conservation) are really important to the Galapagos. Other than the Charles Darwin center, we visited a tortoise farm, a tortoise breeding center, and a national park filled with tortoises in their natural environment. Needless to say, I have a lot of pictures of tortoises!! The best sighting was while we were driving into the national park and there was a huge tortoise in the road. It was up to our guide to try and move him, which he did unsuccessfully for a bit, but we eventually just drove around him.
Our boat trip ended on Wednesday and we got off and headed back to Puerto Ayora. We got off the boat, and set off to find a place to stay and sign up to dive the next day! The lodging was fairly expensive, 10 dollars with no hot water, boo!, but we found a great dive shop! We signed up to dive the next day and asked the lady if she knew of any cheaper places to stay. She said, uh, my house...she apparently rents out a room, but her sister in law was also out of town, so we stayed in her house for very cheap! It was really cool because we were out of the touristy part of town and back in the neighborhoods. We found amazing street food and got to see how Galapageans live.
The next day we went diving...I (Heather), was SOO nervous. The diving in the Galapagos is supposed to be amazing, some of the best in the world, but also fairly intense! But, with Toriann at my side (and a dive master!), we went down in our full wet suits, hood and all, and it was amazing! By the time we finished our second dive, I did not want it to be over and can not wait for the next opportunity we get to go! We did two dives, the first one we saw sea lions, a sea turtle, more amazing fish, eel gardens, and the shadow of a black tip shark! The second dive we saw all of the same but also got about 10 ft from a sleeping white tip shark and passed by 2 hammerhead sharks (we missed seeing them by about 15 seconds!!)
Overall, the Galapagos was super cool and once in a lifetime! One of the girls on our ship had been there 15 years earlier and she said it is not the same place as it was then. They are doing a lot of conservation and protection for the plants and animals, but some of the damage done is irreversible. Invasive species, both plants and animals, continue to endanger the endemic species that make the Galapagos so special. Hopefully, the work that is being done will continue to be successful and the Galapagos will an amazing place for decades to come!
Here is the link to some of our pictures...too many to put in a slide show!

heather