Photos from Ecuador - Part Two

Yesterday, I posted photos from the Ecuador half of my husband's and my trip to Peru and Ecuador. Today I'm posting the last of the Ecuador photos, mostly of wildlife in the Galapagos Islands. Enjoy!

First comes a sea lion montage. The second photo, or course, is not of sea lions, but is of two workers from the Discovery Channel recording underwater sea lion vocalizations.

This mother sea lion is nursing her pup, and the second photo shows a rare albino sea lion pup.

On to reptiles! The first photo is a land iguana in the process of shedding its skin, second is a lava lizard, and the third photo shows a mocking bird sitting on top of a marine iguana.

Now, the abundant bird life. The first photo is of a blue-footed booby, the iconic bird of the Galapagos Islands. Second is of a swallow-tailed gull pair and their chick. Third is of an albatross with its egg.

The bird hovering above me in the photo below is a frigate bird that stayed above our boat for awhile, tracking our progress. The next photo shows a pelican taking flight, and the third shows a Galapagos penguin.

Next up are some photos of sea life. First are some bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs, followed by two of the many types of fish we saw while snorkeling.

We also saw sea turtles, Eagle rays (not pictured) and stingrays (pictured), and even a shark (while we were on the beach--NOT in the water snorkeling).

Below is a photo of our guide snorkeling with a juvenile sea lion. This was a very special snorkeling session, because a whole group of curious sea lion youngsters cavorted all around us and stared into our masks to see what were were all about, as shown in the second photo.

On the island of Floreana, we stopped at Post Office Bay to see the impromptu Post Office (the barrel) where folks stuff post cards addressed to friends and family. The tradition is that you look through the plastic bags of post cards in there, and if you find one addressed to someone who lives near you, you should take it and hand deliver it.

Here's our group on the "flight school" cliff on the island of Espanola where sea birds learn to fly. The second photo shows a nearby blowhole. The third shows a view of Gardner Bay on San Cristobal island from an overlook. This island was our last stop, and the island from which our plane trip back to Quito began.

Back in Quito for one night before heading home, we visited the Ethnohistoric Museum of Handicrafts of Ecuador, where we were encouraged to touch the textiles, play the musical instruments, and so on. We ate our final dinner together as a group inside the museum, as shown in the last photo.

This was an amazing trip, and I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Photos from Ecuador - Part One

Last week, I shared some photos from the Peru half of my May top-of-the-bucket-list trip to Peru and Ecuador with Overseas Adventure Travel. Today and tomorrow, I'm posting photos from the Ecuador half of the trip. Enjoy!

Our first day in Ecuador was spent touring Quito. We stopped first for a music and dance performance by the Sinamune Disabled Children's Orchestra, ending with the students dancing with us.

Then we visited the French government's monument to the equator (La Mitad Del Mundo - the middle of the world), followed by a visit to the Inti Nan Museum of native cultures and their version of where the equator was (we are posed behind the marker in the second photo below). Neil's GPS said both locations were off, and the equator actually crossed the street near the museum. The shrunken head in the third photo was from the museum.

We visited Quito's central historic district next, and I caught Neil in the midst of a pigeon takeoff there.The third photo is of the front of La Compañia de Jesus, a Jesuit church built in the 1650s, with its twisted solomonic columns. We weren't allowed to take photos of its ornate interior, gilded with over seven tons of gold leaf.

These two guards are in front of the Presidential Palace. The second photo below is of a street scene in the historic district, and the third photo below is of half of our group with our local host family, who served us dinner the first night. The husband was a banker and we had an interesting discussion with him about Ecuador's adoption of the US dollar as its official currency and the economic impacts of that change.

The next day we flew to Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos Islands. We saw giant tortoises at the Primicia Ranch and the Charles Darwin Research Station there (next two photos). Then we strolled through the town of Puerto Ayora (see the third photo of me in the seaside park) before taking a launch to our ship, the Carina (fourth photo below).

The first photo shows most of our tour group in the lounge of the boat, and the second photo is of the dining area across from the lounge. The third photo shows our crew and the fourth is of the glorious sunset that evening.

I'll continue tomorrow with photos of more animals, birds, and sea creatures that we saw in the Galapagos Islands.

Photos from Peru - Part One

In May, my husband and I went on my top-of-the-bucket-list trip, a two-week trip to Peru and Ecuador with Overseas Adventure Travel. We had a wonderful time, and the guides and logistics were excellent. I highly recommend the travel company, and if you would like a referral that would give you $100 off on any trip you book, let me know.

It took awhile to go through our thousands of photos to pick just a few to share on my blog. I'll share some from the week in Peru today and tomorrow, and next week, I'll share some from Ecuador. Enjoy!

The two photos of ancient pottery and gold work above are from the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru in Lima, Peru. The two photos below are from our walking tour of Lima, a cathedral and the central square.

The evening of our first day, we went to the El Circuito Mágico del Agua, the largest fountain complex in the world, in a public park. The three photos below are from that magical display, the last one being from the laser show projected on the largest fountain.

The next day, most of the group went on the optional tour of the pre-Inca archaeological site of Pachacamac, pictured below, and my husband Neil lent a hand with the restoration work. ;-)

After that, we visited a typical squatter camp outside of Lima and toured their community kitchen, shown below. Then, in a huge contrast, we returned to the high income area of Larcomar near our hotel with it's ocean cliff-side shopping mall and high-rise apartments and the El Parque del Amor  with the "El Beso" sculpture of a couple engaged in a passionate kiss.

The next day we flew to Cuzco, then took a bus ride into the Sacred Valley. The first picture below shows me with a native woman and her llama mama and baby (notice the height difference!), and the second shows a view of the Sacred Valley.

We explored the Inca ruins above the town of Pisac in the Sacred Valley, shown in the next two photos. then our guide Rene showed us how local babies were swaddled (third photo below), and a couple of the women who were selling their wares at the site hitched a ride on our bus back into town (as shown in the fourth photo). The last photo shows me shopping in the market at Pisac.

The next day was our chance to explore a "Day in the Life Of" the local community. We started at the local farmer's market, where folks sold all kinds of foods, including guinea pig (cuy), coca leaves, a variety of potatoes and other produce, and other livestock such as chicken and pigs (isn't the little girl cute?).

 After the market, we visited a local school and interacted with the children, who showed us their workbooks and tried to teach us a few words of Spanish. Below is a photo of my tutor with me. Below that are two photos of the Ollantaytambo fortress built by the Inca, one of the few places where the Spanish lost a battle during their conquest of Peru.

Our next stop was at the home of a local woman who gave us a corn fritter cooking lesson (see below), then served us a delicious lunch, including the local delicacy of cuy (guinea pig).

Then we moved on to drinking! We stopped off at a watering hole that serves the local beverage chicha made from fermented maize, which has a low alcohol content. When a batch of chicha is ready, the bar owner puts out a red plastic bag on a stick to let the locals know. Rene, our guide, poured us small samples, but he drank a full glass! Back at the hotel, we got a lesson in how to make Pisco Sours, with Neil volunteering to be the bartender-in-training.

That's all the photos for today. Next up--Machu Picchu!