Otavalo

A few quick pics from the market in Otavalo, a couple hours north by bus from Quito.


Apples apples apples apples.


A lot of maracas.



Pretty colors.

Slight detour, Carrying on

Kim and I now find ourselves on two separate continents. We left the Galapagos a bit earlier than expected and I am in Quito and Kim is in Florida. Sadly, Kim´s grandmother, Ginger, passed away and Kim flew back to Florida yesterday morning. We´d like to take this opportunity to strongly warn against flying Copa airlines at any time under any circumstances. They were completely uncooperative in rerouting Kim´s itinerary, despite the obviously dire circumstances and instead insisted on selling her a first class ticket at over 1000 bucks. Stuck at the airport and with little choice otherwise, she ultimately decided on buying a whole new, cheaper, one-way ticket on American (cue fireworks and Sousa band) Airlines. I am here in Quito, staying at the Grinn House and taking it all in. I have my beard and One Hundred Years of Solitude to keep me company and am thoroughly engrossed in the inter- and intra-familial affairs of the Buendias.

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.

The End is Near

Greetings, all. It has been a while since the last fresh blogload, so here's what's shaking in the Galapagos. In short, we continue to enjoy ourselves, but are ready to return to civilization... really, really ready.





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?

On Some Faraway Beach

The path to Tortuga Bay. Tortuga means turtle and Galapagos also means turtle. There are many marine iguanas to be sure, but I´ve never actually seen any turtles at Tortuga Bay.

Michael sits upon a ten dollar boogie board rental. A large wooden sign at the entrance to the beach warns "Danger. Turbulent Waters. No Life Guard." To which we politely reply, Posh! We almost always have the entire beach to ourselves.

Sand-dipped toe tips.

Catch a wave and your sitting on top of the world.

The Sundry Sights

Mangroves at low tide at Finch Bay.


Sun-bathing marine iguanas.


Galapagos Fragata, one of the few we´ve seen on the ground.

Hermit crab (sorry to disturb you).

More Flora, More Fauna

A big yellow cactus flower, apparently the bloom coincides with the full moon. I don´t know what kind of cactus this is (a Google image search for ¨big yellow cactus flower¨ yielded no positive ids).

These are called Sally Lightfoot crabs, as they are nimble and fleet.

Looking down on some slumbering sharks in a sleepy green lagoon.

A pineapple and its pups.

The ever-popular giant tortoise, looking a bit shy. A tortoise in this tucked-in position, when properly situated against some kind of vertical surface (such as the riser of a stairwell) can yeild up to a hundred extra lives when jumped upon succesively.

Under the Sea

A yawning sea lion. A blue heron. The view from our apartment towards Academy Bay. A family of prickly pear cacti.

We went snorkeling with sea lions a few days ago. Avoiding the treacherous rocks which our guide warned us would "cut you like a Gillette" we dove from our tour boat into the open seas. The sea lions at first kept on land, but the soon became curious and dove in for a closer look. There were two of them that took an interest in Kim and me. It was amazing seeing them underwater and be in direct contact with them. You could tell they were just as curious as we were, checking us out as we were checking them. Having given up our apartments in Brooklyn, we are seriously considering a permanent move under the sea.

Meanwhile, back on land, there are sights aplenty. We attended our first dinner party the other night, complete with a midnight moonlit ride back into town in the back of a pick up truck. We found Finch Bay yesterday and did some snorkeling there. There were little black and purple fish with yellow circles around their eyes that would swim towards your finger if you pointed at them. We saw a school of literaly hundreds of silver fish. I have no idea what kind, but they just kept coming and swiming around us. It is amazing how even the smallest fish is aware of your presence and, all projections aside, seems none the less just as curious in you as you are in it.