Monday, September 14, 2009
Otavalo
Apples apples apples apples.
A lot of maracas.
Pretty colors.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Slight detour, Carrying on
Today I rode the Teleférico up into the mountains overlooking the city. The air was thin and the sky was blue. Chocolate at 4200 meters tastes delicious.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The End is Near
Here we have a picture of the bay where you can catch a taxi-boat to the Other Side (El Otro Lado). What lies on the Other Side is more iguanas, seals, bars, and cacti.
Kim rides a taxi-boat to the Othe Side. The boats cost 60 cents by day and a dollar by night.
A game of Tonk. The rare and unbeatable hand of Four Kings. Blue footed boobies, bottom right.
A man of many hats. But which to wear?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
On Some Faraway Beach
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Sundry Sights
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
More Flora, More Fauna
Under the Sea
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Greetings from Narnia
You can see a sea lion if you look closely.
Not sure what kind of lizard, but there are lots of them. They were licking out their breakfast from the pores in the rocks along the bay. There were many crabs too, but they were more camera shy.
We have been on the Island of Santa Cruz for a week now. We were initially off to a slow start, due to some food-borne bacterial infection that afflicted Kim. For the first few days, Kim was in bed dealing with a fever, headache, aching joints and intestinal unpleasantries. A visit to the island´s doctor and a prescription of Cipro did the trick. We´re back and better than ever and we´ve now been to the beach at Tortuga bay for a swim and yesterday we went snorkelling at the Charles Darwin research station (I saw a sea turtle). Tomorrow we sheduled a boat tour of the bay, snorkelling included.
We start our mornings with a cafe con leche at a restaurant on the bay. Internet costs more here than on the mainland, $2 per hour as opposed to $1. The ice cream bars are also more expensive here. The animals really are very tame and we´ve already seen iguannas, giant tortoises, sea lions, pelicans, crabs, and lizards aplenty.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands
Thankfully, we did not have to do that. After spending a few hours in the airport (China Wok for dinner), I asked another woman behind the Tame ticket counter if the airport were indeed open all night and if she thought it would be a good idea to sleep in line. She didn´t like the sound of that and said hold on a second... I may be able to help you. In a few minutes, we had two round trip tickets to the Galapagos in hand for the following day´s 11 am flight.
Since we didn´t have to sleep on the floor of an airport, we splurged on a room at the Sheraton (again after being told that there were no rooms and nothing could be done) and enjoyed hot showers, shampoo, two giant beds, air conditioning and Transformers on a wide screen flat panal tv. No mosquitoes!
Crossing from Baltra to Santa Cruz, we were greeted by crystal blue waters and a sea lion sunning on a red buoy.
It was a forty-five minute drive across the island to Puerto Ayora. Our gracious hosts Jill and Javier have really made us feel at home. We inherited their in-town apartment and they moved into a beautiful house in a more secluded area on the island.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Puerto Lopez
We are in a small fishing village called Peurto Lopez. We arrived by taxi from Olon a few days ago. It´s whale watching season and everywhere we go, men on bikes stop and say "Ballena, ballena". The coast is defintely not clear. It was overcast and gray for the first two days, but today the sun is shining for a short while at least. We stayed at a place called Hostel Mandela, at the northernmost part of town. I recommend it highly to anyone passing through. We´ve been eating a lot of fish.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Travel Day - Cuenca to Olena
We left Cuenca yesterday and headed towards the coast. The owner of the hotel we stayed at was heading west to Guayaquil and offered us a ride, which we gladly accepted. Just about a half hour out of Cuenca, we entered Cajas National Park and experienced another beautiful drive through the Andes, complete with a few llama sightings.
We arrived at the Guayaquil bus terminal with an hour to spare before our bus departed for Montanita, so we headed to the food court - we had McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and plenty of Ecuadorian fast food options to choose from.
We boarded the bus and left Guayaquil. After passing through some very poor areas on the outskirts of the city, we entered into a desert area with cacti and low lying vegetation. Before we knew it (three hours and one Spanish-dubbed Bruce Willis action flick later), we were at the ocean.
The bus dropped us off in Montanita, but it seemed more like Daytona Beach at spring break. We treked through the surf looking for a hostel, but didn´t like the vibe. We´d heard of a small town just north called Olena and decided on that. We found a hostel with views of the ocean. At $20 per night, it´ll probably be the cheapest oceanside lodging we´ll ever pay for. We fell asleep to the sound of the surf after a long day of travelling.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Moon Walk
Cuenca is beautiful. It is our favorite city so far- very clean with many churches and markets that we´ve been wandering through. We just ate lunch at a place called Raymipampa, where we both ate "humitas" (sweet corn bread served in a corn husk) for the first time and I ate my first ceviche in Ecuador (delicious, but not as good as the street vendors at the Red Hook ball Fields in Brooklyn). Tomorrow it´s off to the coast via bus to an as of yet undetermined beach town.
We heard that Walter Cronkite died and were both shocked that he had still been alive in the first place. Bootleg Michael Jackson DVDs abound and I saw a kid moon walking in the park yesterday.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Ice Cream
Today we have vowed to step away from the ice cream. Every morning we wake up and say ¨today no ice cream¨... it creeps up on you...all of the sudden we find ourselves on a bench in the center of town with an empty wooden popsicle stick, a chocolate stain on one of our shirts and a strange ¨how did it happen again¨ look on our faces...It is noon, we have 9 more hours to stand strong. we can do it...(i hope, it´s so good)...
For any of you out there making a check list of things to bring to south america, toss a camera on your list. I left mine at home, regret...thought I could rely on the trusty old iphone, she is no longer with us (R.I.P.). Photos are the key to blogspiration (photos are the fruit that make blog juices flow)!!!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Author Photos
The South American Backwards Flushing Toilet
The toilets in the Southern Hemisphere flush in a counter-clockwise direction.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Pictures from a hike a few weeks ago
I don't know the name of this, but it is most definitely Seussian.
Star pod. The constellations here appear right-side up, unlike in the Northern Hemisphere, where they are upside down.
Orange and purple reproductive organs. The moths flying around this were the same color as the flowers.
The popular San Pedro cactus. Hippies use this in their witchcraft rituals.
Flying creature with irredecent wings. What says you, Seerveld?
The wind is blowing through town today. My sister is going to have her first baby any day now and I'm wondering if I will be able to tell exactly when it happens. These are a bunch of photos we took on a hike when we first got into town, but I am just posting them now because it takes a long time to post these things given slow internet connections and slow as slugs USB 1 ports.