Quito, Ecuador

So we made it through the Galapagos in one piece and are now back on the mainland, a couple days later.

The Galapagos trip was amazing. About half way through the 8 days, we finally got over whatever ailments we had and were able to enjoy the sights fully. Every day had a similar schedule but the sights were always different and I was amazed that it could be. I figured after the first few days, why would I want to get up early at 5:30 and leave an air conditioned room to go for a 2 hour walk before breakfast to see something I've already seen? But it was always worth it to get up, always something new. (Although one day it was to see the great frigate bird (as opposed to magnificent frigate bird which we saw quite frequently), but after a few days in Galapagos this somehow becomes important)

A typical day was a landing on an island from 6 - 8, back on board for a big breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs or french toast or banana pancakes, freshly squeezed juice, tea), then another landing at another location from 9:30 - 11:30, some snorkeling, back on board for lunch and a siesta, then another landing from 3 - 5 and some more snorkeling. Back on board for dinner, and usually we were so tired no-one could stay up past 8:30.

The species all had cool-sounding names, like the blue-footed booby, Galapagos land tortoise, great blue heron, magnificent frigate bird, and others. There was one island where I took a picture of 7 species of birds in one shot! I became quite the ornithologist (thank you very much), able to distinguish between several species of Darwin's finches, and identify the song of the yellow warbler. Maybe it will come in useful in a game of trivia some day... My favourite was the giant land tortoise which we saw in the wild (there are a whole bunch in the Charles Darwin Research Centre), some of them weighing 250 kg!

It was amazing how much was packed into the 8 days. The weather was also perfect, it only rained once (at night for an hour) and other than that it was sunny and hot (34C).

So now we are back on the mainland in much cooler temperatures (18C). We flew back to Quito and then left south for Riobamba where we are now. Tomorrow we are headed for Cuenca, which is a nice old colonial city. The odd part about being back on land is that both Marisa and I still feel like we're on a boat, and especially when we are tired we get dizzy like the land is swaying (and no we haven't been drinking).

Well I hope everthing is going well back home. We are so out of touch with the news, I don't even know what's going on with the Leafs (or Iraq for that matter).