Mona's pictures of Galapagos

Heid  speaks  with sea lion 

Tortoise love

Flamingo ballet

Marine Iguanas

The Tintoreras

Sleeping  flamingos

Mona and Heidi with sea lion

The Tunnels

Unbelievable day today. There aren't enough adjectives to describe how incredible it was. We took a motorboat out of town to a place called Los tuneles. It is a place where the lava from the volcano hit the sea and created strange contortions of the rocks---bridges, tunnels, pillars. The landscape looked like something out of science fiction. I expected Captain Kirk at any turn. The landscape would be enough to make this a great place, but add exotic bird and marine life and WOW! We saw blue-footed boobies nesting. A sea turtle swam under one of the bridges. Schools of colorful fish swim by. Iguanas crawled everywhere.

Getting into los tunelos was not easy. Massive waves break around the entrance. The captain had to wait for the right moment;then gun the engines and ride the waves into the entrance. It was a little more exciting than I would have liked. Getting out was equally exciting. The boar had to dive head on into the waves.

Then we snorkeled. Gigantic sea turtles were everywhere. They swam under us and around us. I touched several of them. Then we snorkeled into some caves to see the sleeping white tipped sharks. They were cool but some were as long as I am and I was anxious to get out of the caves. Of course we saw too many kinds of fish to remember: Parrot fish, Clown fish, Damsel fish, Angel fish, Sargent Major fish. As we left, we passed a group of manta rays—some over 6 feet across. Such an amazing day!

Nazca Boobies (At first I thought the guide said Nascar Boobies

Island with birds and sea lions

Natural bridge in Los Tuneles

Los Tuneles

Los Tuneles

Los Tuneles

The famous blue-footed boobie

The famous blue-footed boobie

The famous blue-footed boobie

The famous blue-footed boobies

Sea turtle swimming under bridge in Los Tuneles

Galapagos penguin

The Wild Life

 Santa Cruz Island, where the airport is, has many beautiful places to visit like the Darwin Research Center, but the town is full of expensive art gallaries and Italian restaurants. See the picures of the tortoises at the research center. I liked how the pelicans and sea lions hang out downtown to get handouts from the fishermen. We took the boat from Santa Cruz Island to Isabela Island. It was a rough crossing. There were 20 of us stuffed into a motor boat wearing life jackets as the boat slammed against the waves for two hours. Thank God for Dramamine.

Isabela ismuch more my style than Santa Cruz.Isabela caters to the backpack travellers like us. Sea lions lounge on benches overlooking the sea and travellers have campfires on the beach at night. Two volcanos loom over the town.

Mona on the beach at Darwin Center

Crab

Begging Pelicans in Santa Cruz

Salt making pond

One of the famous Darwin Finch

Boat to Islabela Island

Sea lion settled in for the night

Quick Peek at Galapagos

Boat from airport

Puerta Ayora

Top of the World

 View from the Teleferico above Quito

Sunday dinner with  Daniela's family

Middle of the World

Back in the 1700's the Europeans "discovered" the exact location of the equator. This monument marks the spot. Of course the indigenous people had already figured it out and had built temples about on the same line hundreds of years earlier.  With modern GPS they discovered that everyone was a little off and the real line was 200 meters north. Nevertheless everyone comes here to see the middle of the world.

The real equator goes through a little museum outside the official complex. In the Inti Nan museum they show you experiments on how the equator affects things. For example, water swirls down a drain clockwise on one side of the equator and counterclockwise on the other. Exactly on the equator, it doesn't swirl at all. Gravity is also affected and you weigh a kilo less on the equator than in the USA. I think I will do my weekly Weight watchers weigh in here.

I am including a photo of a traditional dish in Ecuador--cuy. It tastes like chicken but it is guinea pig. Yum.

Standing on the official equator (not the real one) 

View from the Middle of the world.
The snow capped mountain is Cotopaxi

Inti Nan museum

Daniela walking on the real equator at the Inti Nan museum

How about a  little cuy for dinner?
Guinea pigs are not pets here.

Art and flowers

I had my Spanish lesson in the Park today. The botanical garden showcased the native plants of Ecuador. I recognized a few like the Canna lilies and the Easter lilies. I was especially interested in a beautiful tree of trumpet flowers. After three years of tender care my trumpet plant finally had one flower and then died. Ecuador has deserts, mountains, swamps, and seashores so the variety was tremendous.

Plants from the mountains

Botanical garden--Desert

Daniela gave me a ride to the Chapel of Man which was the conception of one of Ecuador's most famous artist Oswaldo Guayasamin. It's built in a beautiful spot overlooking Quito and contains giant contemporary paintings depicting the suffering of the indigeneous people. It reminded me of Picasso's Guernica. The contemporary building and paintings were very powerful.

Painting by Guayasamin

Guayasamin sculpture

Chapel of Man (Capilla de Hombre)

View near chapel

View from chapel