In The Market For A New Backpack

I bought this Swiss Gear back pack in 2006. This bag has been to Kenya, Seattle, San Diego, Connecticut, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Ecuador, Michigan, Montana, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Poland, Texas, Tasmania, New Mexico, North Dakota, Finland, Florida, Alabama, Amsterdam, Australia and Alaska. I didn't take it to Isle Royale. I bought a special backpack for Isle Royale and a strap on that new backpack broke on the second day of the trip.

But my back pack is wearing out.  You can see the fabric is starting to tear. That round hole at the top was the new thing in 2006 because you could thread your ear buds and listen to music playing inside your bag. I never did thread my ear buds through there but I could have.

I kept my cell phone in that tiny pocket on the strap! That was a cellphone where you had to press the 7 key four times to get the letter s.

The strap on the left partially melted when I rode my motorcycle to work. I must have hit the muffler with it before I got saddle bags. Sometimes that strap would whip my thighs in the wind and boy, howdy, that hurt. I am in the market for a  new backpack now. I hope the new one lasts 15 years like this one did. So long Swiss Gear back pack. Thanks for carrying all my stuff. You were real comfy.

 

Memory From Five Years Ago

Five years ago I was snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands.  Now that was fun.  I put on my gear.  Putting on a wet suit is no easy task.  I jumped into the ocean off the side of a boat and explored underwater.  We snorkeled out by Kicker Rock - a giant rock protruding out of the ocean off the shore that was split into two halves.  The rock sides were almost straight up and down.  We swam around the rock and could feel the temperature differences as we rounded the corners and encountered currents from the south (coldest!) and the north (warmer).  All colors of coral lined the rock including pink and black and turquoise and white and yellow and blue and green.  Later we snorkeled another part of the islands closer to shore.  Blue footed boobies were fishing around us.  These birds looks like ducks flying and when they see a fish in the sea they dive bomb into the water to catch the fish.  As I was snorkeling I was disturbed by a splash a few feet ahead of me and I actually saw the turquoise feet of a blue footed booby swim by.  Later I swam in a deeper area and about ten feet below me I saw the dark body of a shark.  The shark was as long as I was.  A shark!  I couldn't help it.  I screamed into my snorkel.  The shark was ten feet below me and totally ignored my presence but I didn't know it was a harmless Galapagos reef shark.  I was so alive at that moment.  I didn't stop swimming or go back to the boat so I guess I wasn't too worried about the shark but I did ask about it when our snorkeling session was over.  Later we saw sea stars, sea cucumbers, iguanas, penguins, sea lions, hammerhead sharks, and schools of fish.  Our guide took us to another area where the sea floor was sandy.  There was no plants and no fish and really nothing to see.  I wondered why we came here.  We swam on and came upon two dozen green sea turtles.  Everybody stayed calm and split up.  We seemed to have one turtle apiece.  I followed my turtle.  When my turtle left the sea floor to come up and have a sip of air, I had to arch my body upwards so that we didn't touch each other.  I put my head up at the same time the turtle put it's head up out of the water.  I tried to smile at "my" turtle but with a snorkel pipe in my mouth I couldn't really pull it off. The experience was magical.  Later our guide complimented us on staying calm and creating a joyous experience that lasted a long time.  The last time I went snorkeling I followed a ray.  Where the ray went, I went.  I was so relaxed and peaceful following that ray.  The ray and I swam into a school of 8 inch long white fish.  We split the school of white fish in half.  I looked behind and saw the school combine together again.  After each snorkeling session we had to climb back aboard our boat.  We handed our fins to the guide and the round ladder rungs hurt my feet.  Once aboard we all talked about what we saw while our guide gave us a snacks like nachos or fruit.  Everything tastes good after swimming. We looked through the guide books to identify the fish we saw.  All this happened five years ago?  It feels longer than that.  Snorkeling is one of my all time favorite activities.  I should plan another snorkeling adventure.

More Pictures From Ecuador - Isabella Island

Tortoise taking a bath.

Flamingos in the salt pond on Isabella Island.  I love seeing their reflections.

This is me on the rooftop garden in Isabella.

My friend on the rooftop in Isabella.

My friend took a wide angle shot from the rooftop of our hotel in Isabella (our favorite island).  The ocean is at the top of the photo.  The salt ponds is on the right and that is where the flamingos hung out.

More Pictures From Ecuador (underwater)

I had dinner last night with my friend. She shared her pictures from the Galapagos Islands.  She is an awesome photographer and she had a very nice camera.  Enjoy!

Sea turtle photo taken underwater.  Yes, we were that close.

This is an alien from outer space.  No, wait, that could be me.

This is the south end of a marine iguana swimming north.  I can see it's tail and right hind leg.

This is a ray.  They hide under the sand sometimes and are hard to see.

This is my friend. She has extremely large and wide feet.  Our guide swam deep enough to get this photo. I tried to do it but it is really hard to swim down in salt water.

Prettily colored coral on Kicker Rock.  My friend has a nice underwater camera. The colors were breathtaking.



Here are a school of fish we saw while snorkeling in shallower waters.

The Baroness of Floreana Island

We heard a dramatic story when we visited Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands.  The story involved a Baroness, a toothless vegetarian, love and murder.  In the 1930's, a man from Germany moved to the island of Floreana. His name was Dr. Friedrich Ritter.  Knowing he would be without dental care, he had all his teeth pulled out prior to leaving.  He brought his mistress, Dore Strauch.  He claimed to be a vegetarian.  Later the Wittmer family moved to the same island.  The Wittmer family thrived on the island and some of them still live there.  I met the great granddaughter of the original Wittmers.  Two other women from our group are from Germany and they said her German is very good.  For a person who has lived that many generations outside of Germany, it is unusual to speak such clear German.  After these two families settled came the Baroness.  The Baroness preferred to be called the Baroness.  She was from Austria.  All kinds of trouble started when she arrived.  She came with three lovers - Robert, Rudolph, and Felipe.  My first reaction to hearing this part of the story was, "You go girl!"  But she brought strife with her.  On Floreana Island is a mailbox.  Letters are put on a board.  Travelers can take letters and deliver them if they happen to live nearby. Travelers can also leave letters to be delivered for them.  I didn't get to see this post office myself but I had heard about it.  It's like a honor box for candy in a small office or corn on the cob on a truck outside a corn field.  The Baroness took her neighbor's mail but never gave it to them. She just kept it.  She said outrageous things about her neighbors.  She gossiped and self-promoted.  Her neighbors would hear terrible things about themselves from other travelers - things the Baroness had told them.  She was a scoundrel.  Felipe, one of her men,  escaped from her.  The Baroness and Robert said they were leaving the islands a different Pacific island but they never got on the boat to leave.  They were never seen again.  They disappeared without a trace. The body of Rudolph was found on Marchena (a northern Galapagos Island).  A photo of his shriveled corpse was on display.  Later that year, Ritter, the toothless vegetarian, was found dead.  Cause of his death?  He died of food poisoning from chicken.  One member of the Wittmer family wrote a book about their side of this dramatic story.  If I can find a copy, I'd like to read it.

Ecuador - Day Ten

Red flower outside a playground near our hotel.

Beautiful mosaic sculpture and pool near our hotel.

My friend, my guide and myself.

Today was the last day of our trip and we knew it would be a long one because our plane left at midnight:thirty.  We had breakfast at the same place.  The same Siamese cat was there.  Our friend from Germany, Jutta, picked up the cat and stroked it.  The cat's eyes were wild.  I told her the cat looked frightened.  She said, "It just needs to know it can trust me."  Then she told us that on  her hike in Peru (just prior to coming to Ecuador) people ate cats.  I told her that kind of talk was not going to get the cat to trust her.   For breakfast we had fruit chunks (papaya, banana, watermelon and apple) covered with granola and yougurt, guava and tree tomato juice, eggs (scrambled or fried), and toast with guava marmalade and butter.  We said goodby to two people on our trip who were staying on for 3 extra days of scuba diving.  They left to scuba dive at Kicker Rock again. We were jealous.  We had the morning to ourselves.  Many people hiked to a beach nearby and did some body surfing before hiking back to shower before we had to meet at 11:30.  I would have liked that but I was having a severe reaction to the sun.  Much as I love the beach and being in the water, I knew I had to stay in the shade.  We went back to the hotel and sat in the hammocks in the shade for a time.  We did a little shopping.  We watch the sea lions at the beach.  One sea lion got into a fight with another one.  The sea lion  closest to us pushed the other one backwards into the ocean.  He pushed the sea lion back about 5 feet. They barked and swung at each other with their necks.  They fight like I saw giraffes fight - by swinging their necks and striking with their heads.  After being shoved back 5 feet, the sea lion closest to the sea had enough.  He bit the pushy sea lion.  I could hear flesh tearing.  The pushy sea lion didn't like being bit and he quickly propelled himself sideways down the beach and into the sea, giving his opponent a wide berth.  I watched a more peaceful scene of a sea lion nursing her pup.  My friend wanted one more of those chocolate ice cream bars she enjoyed and I thought, after my good experience yesterday, that I would have another coke light.  We went through every market and every store we could find.  We could find coke and juice and beer but no coke light.  Funny how you think you might like a coke light but once you start looking, you REALLY want a coke light.  We never found one.  We met at the pier for a group picture.  We were taken to the airport.  Each one of us hugged Pablo goodbye.  He told me, "Continue to be a good example."  Our flight landed in Guayquil.  I bought a coke light at the airport.  It was good but nearly as good as the one I had yesterday.  I guess you have to go a week without one for them to be really good like that.  Then we took the half hour flight to Quito.  The weather here was much different.  Rain fell and the temperature was in the 60's.  A big van took our group to the Sierre Madre hotel.  We had just enough time to change into our Minnesota clothes before going out to dinner as a group. We were walked to a Asian fusion restaurant run by people from New Zealand.  The name of the place was Dr. Ho's.  They sold t-shirts that said I (heart) Ho's.  We had a delicious dinner.  For appetizers we had calamari, breaded meat, egg rolls, and vegetarian spring rolls.  For my entree I ordered from the column called "Traditional Ecuadorian Food."  I had tofu in a sauce with onions, garlic, tomato and coconut.  It was served with rice.  I could eat only half of it.  They encouraged us to order dessert.  I wasn't hungry but wanted to take full advantage of my last meal in Ecuador.  I had chocolate cake and it was good but not nearly as flamboyant as what other people had.  They had breaded, deep fried banana with nutella filling and a waffle coating and doused with amaretto and set aflame.  My friend and I took a taxi to the airport.  When leaving Ecuador, you pay a fee of $40.80.  This must be paid in American cash.  We waited in line.  I saw my friend chatting up a couple handsome young men.  I thought, "Already she has made a friend, isn't she something."  Turns out they weren't friends.  When I got up to them, they turned to me and said they were cops.  I thought he was kidding.  They both wore jeans and t-shirts and had ball caps on.  They certainly didn't look like cops to me.  And what kind of cop says, "I'm a cop?"  Don't they identify themselves as police?  They were both wearing identification tags around their necks so I gave them some credibility.  They said they were looking for drugs.  I answered, "Oh."  One look at me and he must have decided I wasn't a danger and they left.  At customs, I came across my first less than pleasant person in Ecuador.  She spoke to me in one word phrases like, "Completo" (translation - fill out your paperwork) and "Finito" (move on, I'm done with you now).   We got to the gate area.  When they went to inspect my suitcase, a very muddy pair of formerly white socks rolled out onto the floor. These were the socks I wore hiking the volcano and they were nasty.  The inspector didn't dig much further into the suitcase.  I think he had seen enough. He took my steel water canister and shook it.  I told him I had water in it.  He pointed at a big potted palm.  I said, "You want me to dump the water on the plant?"  He indicated yes so I watered the palm tree and came back.  I didn't know the rules at this airport.  Then we had 90 minutes to wait at this gate without water and without a restroom. I was pretty tired by this point. As soon as the plane took off I used the restroom. I was so happy to have an entire row to myself.  I stretched out on the three seats and rested my head on three pillows. The airline staff woke me up to offer beverages and breakfast (at 2 a.m.) but I declined.  I had to be awake enough to drive home from the airport in the morning.  Our trip was over.  It was an AMAZING trip.  Would I go there again?  I am not sure.  Things could never be as exciting as they were on this first trip.  I didn't get to see a red footed booby or a flightless cormorant.  I would love to snorkel those reefs and rocks again.  I loved Ecuador.  I was impressed right when I got off the plane 10 days earlier to see recycling containers for plastic, cans and paper.  Even the Minneapolis airport doesn't have those.  Pablo said the Galapagos Islands were lucky that a small country took ownership of them.  When I questioned him on that, he said smaller countries take more care of the ecology.  He told me about the ecological disasters on the Hawiian Islands.  He said there are no native birds on Guam.  I wondered if that were true but I looked it up and he is right.  So I like Ecuador because as a nation, they appreciate and want to preserve nature.  I think if I were to go back, I would focus on the other end of Ecuador - the beginning of the Amazon basin.

Ecuador-Day Nine

The fish market

Pablo had told us that our hotel was next to the "policia" station.  So in the dark morning of my ninth day of my trip, when I heard running footsteps and people chanting, "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quattro," I assumed I was listening to the police force doing their physical training and singing a running cadence.  The police in the Galapagos Islands are uniformed and always travel in white pick up trucks with extended cabs and ride four at a time.  This seems expensive to me because I am used to seeing only one or two police in a vehicle.  I went back to sleep because the police were running about 5 in the morning.  Breakfast consisted of fruit topped with granola and yogurt, eggs and toast. cheese slices, pineapple, grapes and melons. The food here is very good.  We walked to the Charles Darwin Research Center which has partnered with the National Park Service.  We discussed the problems with invasive cotton scale killing the mangrove trees.  This little bug forms a white, cotton like film on the trees.  The government tried to solve the problem by bringing in spotted lady bugs.  So far, this solution seems to have worked. The spotted lady bugs have taken care of the cotton scale and haven't started eating anything else  yet.  We had a good discussion on the role of the government in running the park service versus the needs of the businesses or the families who live there versus the role of conservation.  We got a good look at our first saddleback tortoises.  These tortoises have shells with an opening so the turtle can reach it's head up to eat.  Saddleback tortoises lived on those islands without plentiful food on the ground.  We saw "Lonesome George."  Lonesome George was the very last tortoise to be found on Pinta Island. No one knows how long George lived alone. We're not sure how old he is but they guess he's between 70 and 100 years old.  Pirates and buccanneers took all the other tortoises.  Because they can go a year without eating, the tortoises could eaily be store on the ship and eaten later.  George isn't lonesome anymore. He was removed from Pinta Island and brought here. He shares his enclosure with two other females.  He probably wouldn't get as much good publicity if they called him Lucky George. As of last month, he has two new female friends who have a closer DNA match to his own.  Researchers hope George will successfully mate with these females.  Otherwise George is the end of the line for the Pinta Island saddleback tortoises.  They could clone him but they'd only get another male.  It is possible to extract sperm from a tortoise.  The method of doing this is different than extracting sperm from mammals and involves electrical stimulation.  People don't want Lonesome George to have to go through that.  So if George wants any offspring, he'd better get to it the old fashioned way.  After our tour of the Charles Darwin center, I stopped at the gift shop to get a coke light.  There is no diet coke here, only coke light.  It's the same thing. The air was hot and muggy.  I slugged that coke light down and proceeded walking back to town.  Oh, my, God.  When that caffeine hit my system I FELT GREAT!  I felt like I could skip back to town.  I had energy.  I had good feelings.  Even though I had a burning rash on my neck and face, I felt great.  I was bursting with strength.  It's amazing how good a little caffeine can do you when you've been without for about a week.  I decided then and there to have a coke light every day.  On the way back to our hotel we stopped by the fish market (see photo).  A man and woman were cleaning tuna. They had about 5 huge tuna to clean.  The tuna looked to be about 20 pounds each.  They cut up the fish and wrapped the meat in plastic wrap.  A dozen brown pelicans surrounded the cleaning area, begging for scraps.  They got a few scraps but a lot of the fish heads and backbone were kept; maybe for stock.  Some of the pelicans actually stood on the cleaning table but away from the actual cleaning.  One of my fellow travelers thought this was unsanitary.  She wasn't feeling well.  Since I don't eat fish I wasn't worried about it but I shared my immodium with her.  At the back of the photo you can see some people at tables.  They were making signs.  They had big posterboard and were writing words on them.  We tried to read the signs but all we could make out was familia (family).  The people and the signs moved up the street.  Later we moved aside as two police trucks, each with four police, went up the street with lights flashing and siren blazing.  We wondered if the people with signs were protesting fishing rights and the police were going to break up the demonstration.  We'll never know for sure.  We stopped for lunch and to change clothes and we were back in the boat again.  I love being in the boat.  The boat cuts through the swells.  When the boat is on top of the swell, everything looks lower. When we're at the bottom of a swell, the waves tower above us. Sometimes the boat lurches on a wave so hard your stomach feels like you are on a rollercoaster.  Your body leaves the seat and you land either farther back on the seat or closer to the edge.  Petrels fly by the side of boat floating along just above the water.  Ocean waves don't make white caps as easily as lake waves. We are off for our fifth and final snorkel at Santa Fe Island. For the first time I get the wetsuit on all by myself.  Nobody has to zip me up this time.  I jumped in the water and swam close to the shore.  I heard sea lions barking.  I thought it was one of my fellow passengers who sometimes like to bark like a seal but this time it was a big daddy sea lion guarding his pups and warning us to back off.  Some people were too close.  Sea lions touched their masks. I saw a parrot fish and a sting ray.  I wanted to follow the ray but I had to stay with the group.  We saw schools of big angel fish. We came upon a huge school of white fish.  These white fish were about a foot long and had big black eyes.  I'll bet there were a thousand of them. Mixed in with the white fish were some blue and orange fish.  The fish turned as a group, first swimming one way and then turning in unison and swimming the other way-sort of like a flock of birds in the fall.  It was amazing to swim in a huge school of fish.  I tried swimming right down the middle of a group.  Half went to the right and half went to the left.  When I got through the two halves joined again.  We watched sea turtles flying through the water. And then it was time to get out of the water.  I didn't want to leave.  The wet suit and the salty water make me so buoyant I can hardly get below the surface.  I  have to snorkel again.  I think I'll plan my next trip around snorkeling.  We took the boat back to San Cristobel and checked into the Hotel Casa de Laura again.  We got the same room with lime green and lemon yellow walls.  We met at 7:20 for dinner.  This was a new restaurant to us and we ate on the second floor overlooking the bay.  The salad bar had 8 kinds of salad.  I had vegetarian spaghetti.  We talked about our highlights of the trip.  For some people it was the group camaraderie.  For others it was the swimming with turtles.  I liked the education I got.  Some people loved the hike to the volcano.  For those few that hiked right onto the lava fields they had a moment of silence to appreciate the stillness. There was no life on the lava fields. No plants, no animals, no birds, and no sound at all.  I wasn't there but I heard it was a very moving moment.  Some people liked the beaches the best.  Pablo was the last one to speak. He said one person on the trip was the best part for him; a person with determination and courage, fortitude and enthusiasm.  He went on and on about this person.  And then he said it was me!  He said the trip wasn't easy for me but I kept at it, kept trying, had a good attitude and enthusiasm.  He said I was an inspiration to him.  (Can you believe it?)  Then he mentioned my reaction when I saw the albatross.  He said when he makes a connection like that, when he sees us smile or start taking pictures with our camera, that is what makes his life worth living.  He thanked me.  "De nada!" I replied blinking back tears.  He likes it when people get impressed with nature. And he wants us to take this forward.  When we see something in nature or even in our yard, show the people we love how amazing it is so they can know it too.  I left that dinner feeling on top of the world. 

How much do I love snorkeling?

View from our hotel balcony

Don't Trust Any Friends Named Judas-Fighting Invasive Species on the Galapagos Islands

As Pablo took us around the Galapagos Islands, he told us about invasive species.  After spending hours this fall removing buckthorn from my yard, I sympathize with trying to fight invasive species from taking over the native plants. We asked him if anything could be done to fight the raspberry, feral pig, feral goat, rats and other invaders.  He told us a story about one of the smaller Galapagos Islands.  They tried to rid the island of the feral goats.  On an island the size of Isabella, this would be an impossible task. But this was a small island.  First they brought in sharp shooters.  (Here Pablo would imitate the sound of guns firing).  The goats would freak out, run around, and many would get shot.  Only the goats smart enough to stand still in the brush during the chaos lived.  So then the scientists brought in dogs.  Again, only the smartest goats survived the dogs and guns.  So the feral goats remaining were smaller in number but higher in intelligence.  So the next step was to take a goat, castrate him, inject him full of hormones, insert a GPS device into his body and set him free.  After a week the scientists would locate him, bring in the sharpshooters, and kill all the goats except for the one with the GPS.  The one with the GPS was named Judas.  After that goat massacre, Judas would be sent off on the island again to make new friends only to have them shot the next week.  Every week Judas would make new friends until there were no friends on the island left to make.  The result was successful eradication of feral goats on that island.

Ecuador-Day Eight

This morning we had our last breakfast on Isabella Island.  While we ate breakfast, four pink flamingos flew past the third story windows.  We had eggs, french toast, croissant, bananas, mangoes, pineapple and juice.  We took our boat to Santa Cruz.  We had a little less than a 3 hour boat ride.  We had time to check into the Grand Hotel.  Our room had a balcony overlooking the bay and a green marble bathroom.  We were given 15 minutes to get ready.  They keep us so busy on this trip.  We have no time to relax or get bored.  We took a bus to a location higher in the hills.  We toured a lava tube. The tube was about a mile long and I would guess it was 8 to 10 feet below the surface of the earth. See the photo of the lava tube?  Pablo made amazing noises imitating what it sounded like when the lava rushed through the tube and formed the rest of the island.  The tube was located on a private farm next to the National Park.  Galapagos tortoises liked to wander on this farm because the national park is overrun with small trees and they can get stuck between trees.  It's much easier for them to move around in the pasture. We saw tortoises walking through the pasture and bathing in the ponds.  They are gigantic creatures.  We counted 30 tortoises in the pasture in about 5 miles of road.  Cattle egrets stood on top of some tortoises.  At the farm they had coffee for sale and some craft items.  In one shaded section, they had an empty tortoise shell that people could crawl into.  The youngest and skinniest one on our tour got into the shell for a photo.  I thought that looked like fun.  I laid down on the stone floor and wiggled myself into that shell feet first, belly down.  People turned around and were amazed that I did that.  That was fun.  The shell is actually very comfortable and smooth inside.  My ankles and feet were out the back and only my head and arms were out the front.  We took the bus back to town.  This island is very different from Isabella.  It has more people, paved streets, more stores, and is more touristy.  We had lunch near the windmill in town which was about 8 blocks from the Grand Hotel.  The vegetarian lasagna was very good.  We were given 15 minutes to walk back to the hotel and change into swimwear.  We were going to Tortuga Bay.  Tortuga is Spanish for turtle.  I took a taxi to the park entrance.  From there Genevieve and I walked 2 kilometers to the beach on a cobble stone path that went on forever.  We didn't think we were ever going to get there.  The path was crowded with mangrove trees.  I saw Galapagos flycatchers in the woods.  Eventually we got to the beach.  We were headed for the second beach.  The first beach had high waves, treacherous currents and was about a mile along.  We both enjoyed walking in the water barefoot.  I was watching the sandpipers,  ruddy turnstones and lava gulls.  Genevieve saw a naked man in the surf.  I guess the difference in our ages is apparent in the wildlife we observe.  Eventually we got to the second beach.  We had to step carefully around the marine iguanas to get there.  We kayaked in the protected cove.  It felt good to use my arms.  We saw lava herons, great blue heron and a brown pelican very close as they perched in the mangrove branches.  The sun was very hot and beating down on us.  I kept reapplying sunscreen but I felt burned, red, hot, and itchy.  We walked back down the beach.  I fell behind the group on the 2 kilometer cobblestone path.  My left knee, still sore from the volcano, was very painful.  I tried leading off with my left foot on  stairs and that helped but it was hard to remember to do it. My knee did not hurt on level surfaces or going up hill, only going down hill.  By the time I got to the park entrance, I was in a lot of pain.  I got a taxi ride back to the hotel, swallowed more 12 hour pain reliever, and had just enough time to shower and change for dinner.  I had basil pesto spaghetti for dinner with ginger cake. I went to bed exhausted.

Ecuador Day Seven

Today turned out to be one of my favorite days of the whole vacation.  Although my left knee and back were sore from all the walking yesterday, I kept going.  For breakfast we had pancakes, toast, guava jam, quiche and fruit.  Most people walked to the pier to get on a smaller boat but Pablo got a taxi for me and another traveler.  We got on the boats to look around the bay.  We say American Oyster catchers, Galapagos penguins and lava herons.  It was so strange to see lava rocks, penguins, sea lions, and cactus all in the same view.  Galapagos has some amazing landscapes.  We walked around a rocky peninsula.  A white lichen grew on one side of the lava rocks.  As of 2005, this lichen was determined to be a new species.  We saw lots of lava lizards and marine iguanas.  At one point, we looked down into a protected bay off the reef to see a Galapagos shark move toward us, turn, and move away just like a model on a runway.  Maybe you can see it in the photo above.  We got back into the boats and into our wetsuits.  Once in the water we swam with the fishes.  Schools of angel fish swam by me.  It's hard to judge the size but I would guess they were almost a foot long.  I saw parrot fish, Mexican hawk fish, pink octopus, sea cucumbers and sea urchins of green, black and blue. Snorkeling is so relaxing.  We were in very shallow water and we had to be careful not to touch the coral.  The blue eyed damsel fish acted especially aggressive.  Sea lions and penguins swam by us.  I wished I lived here so I could snorkel in my free time.  I forgot my underwater camera for this snorkel but that was okay because I could focus on the experience instead of monkeying with the camera.  We saw more of those chocolate chip sea stars.  Pablo told us to swim over here.  Where he took us was deeper and there was no coral and no fish.  The bottom was sandy and uninteresting.  We kept swimming. The water was very clear.  Up ahead we saw a sea turtle resting on the bottom.  We kept swimming.  Soon we saw six sea turtles.  Then we saw a dozen sea turtles.  We floated quietly in the water watching. The sea turtle would raise it's head, give me eye contact, and then slowly raise up, fly to the surface, take a sip of air and go back to the sandy bottom.  It was amazing.  Some turtles had fish rubbing them and massaging them with their mouths.  I don't know if they were eating something off the turtle but it looked affectionate.  I adopted one turtle.  When the turtle swam, it's fins looked like wings.  When my turtle flapped it's wings, I flapped my arms.  I imitated everything the turtle did for about five minutes.  This was an incredible experience; truly amazing.  We swam with the turtles for at least half an hour.  I will never forget it.  One turtle rose to the surface right in front of me.  I put my head up and we were almost nose to nose.  Then it swam down and I had to arch my body away so I didn't touch it.  We got back into the boats and headed to the pier . We walked to our hotel and had time for a quick shower before lunch. For lunch we had a pureed vegetable soup, coleslaw, potato, broccoli, carrots, rice and a fried egg.  The carnivores had fish or chicken.  After lunch we headed to a Galapagos tortoise protection center.  Here they had rescued tortoises from a lava flow.  These tortoises are producing enough young to put 300 back into the wild each year.  The tortoises fly in nets below helicopters.  I can only imagine that to be more scary for the tortoise than the zip line was for me.  These tortoises have a life span of 150 years. They mature sexually at age 25.   We saw tortoise eggs and week old tortoises.  After visiting the center, we took a ride up this amazing road. The road was sometimes on the beach and sometimes in the woods.  The trees covered the top of the road. Sometimes we were surrounded by mangrove trees and other parts of the road were in a cactus forest.  The prickly pear cactus grow 30 feet tall here.  At the end of the road we came to the "Wall of Tears."  (See fourth picture).  This huge lava stone wall was built by prisoners of Ecuador from 1946 until the prison was closed in 1960.  I cannot imagine moving these heavy rocks in this harsh climate with no sunscreen.  Some men died in the process are their bodies are still lying inside the rock wall.  This was a very sad place for me.  To cheer us up, Pablo brought us to the beach of love.  We watches the waves crash to shore and the birds flying overhead.  For dinner that night we met at the Endemic Bar.  My friend and I took the path along the shore to get there rather than the street.  It was dark and eventually the street lights didn't light the way anymore.  We saw red lights in the distance and figured that was our destination. It was.  The bar has hanging lights.  Red bulbs illuminate a cactus bark shade.  I had vegetarian spaghetti.  The others had fish or chicken.  As we walked back to our hotel, I appreciated the small town feel here.  The streets are made of sand. The sidewalks are of lava rock and are a good 2 feet above the street level.  A heron walked along the sidewalk hoping to find insects below the street lights.  Today was a good day.

Ecuador-Day Six

Breakfast at our hotel consisted of Ecuadorian coffee, tea, tree tomato juice, bananas, mango and pineapple, scrambled eggs, bread that looked like a hot dog bun but tasted like a croissant, butter,  and guava marmalade.  After breakfast a table was set out where we could make our own picnic lunch.  We had delicious homemade bread, tuna, and a whole host of other ingredients.  I made a peanut butter and guava jam sandwich with an apple, a box of juice, and a chocolate bar.  We drove quite a few miles to the base of the volcano and proceeded to hike on up.  The hiking was difficult.  I had my cane and 4 people brought hiking sticks to help them keep their balance.  The landscape changed as we walked up the hill and into the cloud forest.  We saw vermilion flycatcher, Darwin tree finches Darwin ground finches, warbler finches, smooth-billed ani birds, Galapagos mockingbird, and Chatham mockingbirds.  After 45 minutes we reached the rim of the caldera.  The clouds covered the bottom of the caldera.  My original intent was to hike this far and let the group go on ahead.  Pablo brought his younger brother, David, along to escort me back.  I didn't think I needed an escort but he wanted me to have one.  I knew the hike was a 7 hour hike and was too much for me.  But I was doing well and thought I'd go a little further.  As we walked along, I saw portions of the trail were dug up.  Later we saw feral pig tracks in the freshly dug ground (top photo).  Feral pigs dug up the trail rooting for fresh roots.  I asked if feral pigs would attack a human.  Pablo said  male pig might attack if it felt cornered.  Suddenly I was fine with having David walk me back. If we saw a pig, I could throw David to the pig and run away.  Pablo told us what it was like to live on the island during the 2005 eruption.  He came up here to see the hot lava flow.  He uses his arms and face a lot when he describes things.  And he makes noises to help us understand how the lava sounded.  He has the most amazing sound effects. The sun was hot but the clouds covered it occasionally and a light mist fell keeping us at just the right temperature.  I was walking good so I kept going for a couple hours.  About noon I told Pablo I was done walking.  He asked me to keep going for 25 more minutes because then we would be at the lunch spot and there would be a tree there for shade.  I agreed.  Another person mentioned when they were little their parents would promise a McDonalds at the end of the trail to keep them going.  I said a McDonalds wouldn't do it for me since I don't eat meat.  But then I wondered why I was walking 25 more minutes (50 round trip) for a freaking tree.  We eventually got to the tree and the picnic tables spread beneath it. The tables and benches were full of college students; mostly girls.  They got up to make room for us.  Turns out they were students from Gustavus in Minnesota.  We sat down to have lunch.  My pb&j sandwich was delicious.  I think this was one of the best meals of the trip.  I was so hungry and the setting was so pleasant.  Darwin finches and yellow warblers hopped around our feet.  The birds and animals are so tame here.  In Minnesota, if I get a glimpse of a yellow warbler, it's only long enough to make a good identification.  They won't sit still at all.  Here they hop around at our feet.  One yellow warbler even jumped on my backpack at my side.  The rest of the group hiked on while David and I hiked back.  David was in his early 20's.  He graduated with a degree in economics and was taking time off to relax before looking for a job.  He lead the way.  He had very skinny legs and long black hair.  From the back he looked exactly like a nephew of mine.  Hiking back was fun as long as we were around the caldera.  The trail went up and down a little but was easy to walk.  Heading down the volcano was more difficult because of the steep steps down.  Rain was falling steadily now and the mud was slippery.  David was very gracious. For all difficult steps, he offered his hand to help me down.  It was really nice to have a personal escort down the big hill.  My joints were aching before we were done.  My left knee was especially painful because I kept stepping down the difficult steps leading with my left knee.  I tried to alternate but habits are hard to break.  When we got to the bottom the Gustavus students were also coming down.  David wanted me to take the bus with the Gustavus students back to town.  I said I would wait for my group to return.  David got on the bus with the coeds - smart boy.  I waited at a table for a little over an hour before my group arrived.  They looked tired.  We took the bus back down the hill. As we drove past one farm I saw a big stack of meat in the bed of a pickup truck.  I later learned that that farmer had successfully hunted a feral pig.  We were on our own for dinner tonight.  As a group we all decided to go to the same place for dinner.  This was a BBQ named Three Brothers; Tres Hermanos.  The choices were chicken or fish.  I ordered the sides - rice with beans and tortilla. Tortilla is not what you would expect.  In Ecuador a tortilla is a fried patty made of mashed potatoes with a cheese filling.  All the carnivores got their food.  We arrived at this restaurant about 7.  By now it's 8 o'clock.  My peanut butter sandwich on the volcano was a LONG TIME AGO.  I was so hungry I could have cried.  Eventually my food came.  Another person on the hike said I had hiked most of the way.  They didn't go much further than I did.  She figured that I had hiked 8 miles.  No wonder I was so hungry.  Today I really pushed myself.  I hoped I wouldn't have to pay the price by being in pain tomorrow.   

Ecuador-Day Five

The fifth day of the trip was an exciting bird day for me.  I saw a phalanthrope, some brown noddy, a whimbrel and pink flamingoes.  The most exciting bird was the albatross. Earlier I had asked Pablo if we would see an albatross and he said, "Maybe."  We got up early, packed all our belongings into the boat, and headed out to sea.  We boated around Elsmere Island to see the nesting frigate birds, pelicans, and others.  We snorkeled at Elsmere and at Devil's Crown.  The sandy bottom made the water turqoise.  We spotted a chocolate chip sea star, 2 manta rays, sea turtles (see photo), a blue star fish and a yellow starfish.  Back at sea, the boat motors suddenly stopped.  Pablo said, "Susan, luke, luke."  I love the way he says my name.  He accents the second syllable and now I want everyone to say my name that way, thank you very much.  He pointed to a large bird gliding just above the waves.  He said it was an albatross.  I got very excited. I've heard about these birds.  I went to a lecture on the mechanics of bird flight.  More than any other bird, the albatross has a hard time getting airborne because of their huge wingspan and heavy body.  Once airborne, they can lock their limbs and glide for days at a time.  And one of my former bird teachers talked about seeing albatross when he was a pilot in WWII.  So I was excited to see an albatross.  I turned to him and said, "Thanks, Pablo" and went to give him a little side hug of appreciation.  The boat lurched and he got a much more enthusiastic hug than I intended on giving.  What can I say?  I got excited.  You think about seeing a bird for years and then you see it - it's exciting.  An hour later he spotted another one.  This albatross was sitting on the water and as the boat approached it took flight.  I really enjoyed watching it take flight.  And then we saw two orca whales playing in the water.  The boat followed them for quite a time and once we saw both of them breach the water at the same moment.  Pictures don't do the moment justice.  We stopped at Floreanna Island, population 70. There is a very interesting story about the early settlers at Floreanna that is worth another post later on.  We met a granddaughter of one of the originial inhabitants.  We had a picnic lunch on the veranda of the visitor center. This center was in front of a inorganic black sand beach.  After lunch I walked the beach for a while.  The black sand was coarse and reminded me of coffee grounds. Soon we were back in the boat and headed to Isabella, the largest of the Galapagos Islands.  This island is only a quarter of a million years old where the other islands are two million years old.  This is the island where Pablo lives.  In contrast to the other islands we saw, Isabella was green and lush.  The town was small and did not have cobblestone pavement.  Here the roads are sand and the town felt more like a small town than a city.  We went to our hotel, La Laguna.  We had time for a quick shower before we got a walking tour of the town.  Across the street from the hotel was a brackish pond.  Pink flamingoes hang out here with their heads upside down eating in the water.  Ruddy turnstones walked on the shore.  We walked around the town and along the shore.  We ended up having a drink at the Endemic Bar and watching the sun set over the sea.  I had a coke light (it's the same thing as a diet coke). Four flamingoes flew by.  Marine iguanas crawled over the rocks at the side of the bar.  The Endemic bar has unusual decorations on a tree in the sand on the beach, just beyond the hammocks (see photo).   The last photo shows a view from the rooftop deck area of our hotel.  I feel a little dangerous up here.  After spending so much time in the boat, I still don't have my land legs.  You can see the flamingoes in the foreground.  In the background is a volcano.  This is Sierra Negra volcano and we'll be hiking up there tomorrow.

Ecuador Day Four; Part Two

Here are some shots I took of some scenery on my walk back to town from the Interpretive Center.  The first shot shows a hilly road with attractive gates and colorful homes.  When I saw it I thought it looked like a scene from a fairy tale.  The next three shots are of a home under construction.  The owner must be a beer drinker.  This is the first beer bottle fence and beer bottle art I've ever seen.

Ecuador Day Four

Today we went snorkeling.  Our boat was named "Pacific."  We had two captains.  They helped us aboard.  The boat had 3 200 HP motors and could really tear up the waves.  We ended up spending about 12-15 hours in the boat moving from island to island during our entire tour.  Although the ride was bouncy at times, I really enjoyed the time in the boat.  Sometimes we were so far out we could not see any land at all.  We plowed through the waves and bounced in our seats.  I don't get sea sick. As we motored along, I was reminded of driving down a county road with fields of corn and soybeans on both sides.  Instead of the straight rows of vegetables, I had rows of waves and all the bounty was below us instead of on top.  We donned our wetsuits in the rocking boat and that was no easy task.  We had to help each other zip the suits up the back.  To get into the water we had to sit on the side of the boat with our legs over the edge, hold onto our masks, and slide in.  We had 3 or 4 feet of air before we hit the water.  As I sat on the edge of the boat with my hand on my mask, I was fearful of sliding in.  I didn't know what was down there.  I didn't know how deep I would go and how long it would take me to get back to the surface, clear my snorkel of water, and take a breath. And then I thought, "This has GOT to be easier than ziplining," and plop, in I went. I kicked up to the surface in no time.  It wasn't that bad.  I put my face into the water and WOW, everything was so beautiful. We were in a protected channel next to the island. Waves weren't bothering us here.  The bottom was sandy so the water looked turquoise blue.  I could see all kinds of fish.  I saw blue fish, black fish, white fish, green fish but my favorite was the black fish with yellow lips and yellow tails.  I was totally relaxed watching the fish. I looked up once in a while to make sure I was near the group and near my snorkeling buddy.  I freaked out once when the long cord on my zipper touched my arm.  I thought a fish was touching me at first.  Pablo, our guide, found a yellow starfish and he held it so we could see it close up. I used my $10 disposable underwater camera to take some pictures.  As I floated on the water that was maybe 15 feet deep, I saw a large fish come under me from behind. It was maybe 5 or more feet below me.  As it got right below me I realized it was a shark.  I screamed into my snorkel.  My scream was 25% fear and 75% joy.  The shark swam on by.  Golly, that was exciting.  My heart was pounding.  Later I learned it was a Galapagos shark and not dangerous to people.  Sea lions swam in the water with us.  After about an hour, we got back into the boat.  I was reluctant.  I wanted to swim longer.  They lowered a ladder.  The bottom rung of the ladder came just below the surface of the water.  We had to take our fins off in the water and hand them to a person on board.  The rungs were round and hurt my feet.  It took some maneuvering to get my foot on the lowest rung.  And it took some arm strength to pull myself up.  I must have looked like I was struggling because people were pulling and pushing me.  I made it though, it wasn't that hard.  Back in the boat we went by some bird nesting areas.  We saw Magnificent Frigate birds nesting.  The male frigate birds indicate their willingness to mate by inflating their red double chins so it looks like they have a big red balloon on their chests.  We saw blue footed boobies.  Their feet are not visible when they're flying but when they're standing around, we could see that their feet and bills were as blue as the sky.  They fly around over the water and suddenly dive into the sea at high speeds for fish.  We saw brown pelicans, Elliot's storm petrels, great blue heron, shearwater, Nazca boobies and swallow tailed gulls.  My favorite was a tropicbird.  It is a white bird with a tail 6 times longer than you think a bird that size would have. I don't know how it was able to turn around with that big tail. We saw Pacific sea turtles mating in the water.  Pablo, our guide is very enthusiastic.  "Luke!  Luke!  Luke!" he would say and then add, "It is amazing."  He said things were amazing about 10 times a day.  He is passionate about nature and once he explained it, we would agree that yes, it WAS amazing.   As a biologist and environmental educator, he knew the nature in this area very well.  I told him I liked birds so he made a special effort to make sure I saw them.  Then we snorkeled at Kicker Rock, also known as Las Lobos (sleeping lion) rock.  See the top photo?  We snorkeled through that passage on the right.  The rock extends 500 feet up from the water and several hundred feet straight down.  When we got into the water at this spot, we were surprised how cold the water was.  My hands got numb.  I was cold for the first 5 minutes and then I must have gotten used to it.  The sides of the rock were covered with beautiful coral of red, orange, deep blue, purple, white and black.  The swells were bringing us up and down in the water and the current pushed us through the passage. Once we got to the other side, the water temperature warmed up about 15 degrees.  Again, I wasn't ready to get out.  We got back into the boat and motored to a bay.  We had lunch on the boat.  We waded to shore to look around. We saw 4 white cheeked pintail ducks and a yellow crowned night heron near the shore.  Ghost crabs lined the shore and disappeared as soon as they heard us coming.  We found a pelican skull.  We headed back to town.  We were given a few minutes to shower and change clothes before we headed out to an interpretive center.  After learning more about the Galapagos Islands, the group hiked up to a frigate bird nesting area.  Because it was getting dark and I'm a slow walker, I opted to hike back to town.  I will add another entry on the sights I saw on my hike back to town.  We were on our own for dinner.  Three of us decided to eat together. We got recommendations for places to eat but ended up not being able to find any of them. We wandered around town looking for a good place to eat.  Two of us were vegetarians.  As we strolled by one place I saw corn on the cob on an outdoor grill.  We decided to eat there.  I had corn, rice and beans.  The owner was Juanita.  She didn't speak very much English and we didn't speak very much Spanish but we had fun trying.  I knew enough to say, "No carne."  She was born on the Galapagos Islands.  My bill for dinner came to $1.50.  I gave her a big tip. As we left, we noticed there was a black hair dryer on the grill; the cold side of the grill.  Why the hair dryer?  We could see it was splattered with grease.  Was it used as a bellows to stoke the coals?  What other reason could there be for a hair dryer on a grill?  We left there confused.  As soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep. 

Ecuador Day Three

Today we met for breakfast before heading to the airport.  We took a 45 minute flight to Guayaquil and another 2 hour flight to San Cristobal.  This island is the home of the provincial capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.  When we got off the plane, the sun was like an assault.  It was hot and sunny.  I could feel the moisture returning to my Minnesota winter withered skin.  We took a bus to a restaurant. Everything here was so different.  The restaurant, like all the shops here, have no windows or doors.  We had a roof but were really outside.  As soon as I sat down I saw a woman get on a motorized scooter at the curb.  A man got on the back of the scooter and she gave him a ride down the street.  You never see a man on the back of a woman's bike in the USA.  Five minutes later she returned her scooter to the same spot without him.  On this island, scooters and motorcycles outnumber cars 50 to 1.  I was very jealous of these two wheeled drivers.  Frigate birds, large black birds with long forked tails, circled the harbor like some beasts out of Jurassic Park.  This island has more sea lions than any other.  They lounged on and under park benches.  After lunch we had a few minutes to go to our hotel rooms and change clothes.  We were going to ride bicycles downhill from the town of La Soledad through the lush highland cloud forest.  We went to the top and looked at a chapel (see picture).  We looked over the coast and saw Kicker Rock which is also known as Las Lobos. It is a huge rock protuding from the ocean and we'll be snorkeling there tomorrow.  Then we rode the bikes downhill.  We stopped several times to look at plants or to hear a story about the place.  We biked about 8 miles to La Loberia beach where the sea lions colonize and raise their young.  We saw yellow warblers, Darwin finches, ruddy turnstones and marine iguanas.  This is mating season for the iguanas so the males are very colorful.  The air at the beach was very refreshing. We were hot after biking all that way.  We stayed at the beach enjoying the scene.  Some sea lions were nursing.  Others were fighting. In the distance, behind the sea lions, we could see surfers riding the waves.  We biked two miles back to town to drop off the bicycles.  Now we had to go to the Galakiwi office to try on wet suits and flippers.  First they get us all hot and sweaty and then they want us to try on rubber suits. My flippers were pink.  On our five snorkeling sessions, I'm sure I got the right flippers.  I never knew if I had the right wet suit or snorkel set but I always got the only pink flippers.  After than we had an hour to walk back to our hotel, change, and meet for dinner.  We met at 7:30 at the Deep Blue restaurant.  On this trip, we usually met at 7:30 and started eating around 8 p.m.  I am used to eating around 6.  And I get hungry around 6.  I never got used to going to bed so soon after eating. This is only the second day and I already feel challenged with all the biking and the walking.  I hope I can keep up with this very active group.

Ecuador Trip Day Two

My friend and I got up and checked with the front desk about canopy tours (zip lining).  The staff at the hotel was not that helpful but a tour guide named Luis was.  He overheard our question and said he would make some calls for us.  He told us to have breakfast and he would be right back with some news.  He came to our table and said that his tour was cancelled so he was free to take us on the canopy tour.  He had another tour guide in Mindo to work with.  He offered us 10 zip lines, lunch, a butterfly garden tour, and an orchid garden tour for $100 each.  He said the place was a hour and a half north of Quito.  He seemed very nice.  He reminded me very much of my twin nephews and was about the same age.  We decided to take his offer.  We hopped into his rented car and headed out of town. Rush hour in Quito is terrible.  Luis said on Mondays, cars with licence plates that end in 0 or 1 are not allowed on the street during rush hour.  On Tuesdays cars with license plates that end in 2 or 3 are not allowed during rush hour, etc.  He also told us that in Ecuador, companies must hire people with disabilities.  4% or more of the employees must have disabilities.  I thought this was an interesting concept.  Luis said the Vice President recently made this a rule.  I can only imagine how that would go over in the USA.  After driving 90 minutes, he said our destination was an hour and a half away.  I think he didn't tell us the real time it took to get there because we wouldn't go.  Aside from that, he was a good guide and did not lead us wrong. We finally arrived in Mindo and met Patricia, the Mindo tour guide.  She took us zip lining.  Luis had never been ziplining before even though he has a degree in tourism.  They hooked us into these harnesses that went around our legs, shoulders and arms.  We had helmets and leather gloves with thick leather sewn across the palm.  Then we had to walk to the first zip line.  I felt strange walking with all this equipment - sorta like wearing a huge diaper.  My friend went first.  I wasn't going first.  I wasn't sure I was going at all.  I told the helpers I was scared.  But I wanted to go before Luis because if he went across and I was the only one left, I probably wouldn't go.  So they hooked me up to the cable and told me to lean back.  I asked about a brake. There are no brakes.  I was really hoping for a brake.  They asked if I was ready.  I said no.  I knew waiting was counterproductive.  So I told them I was ready but I wanted to go slow.  They gave me a slight shove. I SCREAMED the whole way across until I ran out of air.  I was so scared. I was zipping 60 feet above the ground, way above the tree tops.  I came closer and closer to the end platform.  I could see my friend and the other helpers waiting there.  It was coming up fast and I had no brake.  I was going to slam into a tree.  I didn't know they had a side cable attached to the main cable and were prepared to bring me to a gentle stop.  Once my feet were on solid ground I could breathe again.  It was hard but I faced my fear and did it. For the rest of the trip, whenever something scary came up I would think to myself, "It's got to be easier than ziplining."  Anything easier than ziplining can't be hard.  We hiked up to a higher platform in between each zip line.  Hiking up the hill was hard.  My chest was heaving and my heart was pounding. I was really struggling to hike up this hill.  What about all those hours on the elliptical I spent getting ready for this trip?  Why weren't they helping me?  My problem was more about the altitude and the lack of oxygen than physical fitness but I didn't know that until later.  I saw vultures flying across the valley.  I joked about the vultures feasting on a zip line failure but they didn't think I was funny.  Each zipline got easier.  By the tenth one, I was enjoying it.  We had lunch in the town in Mindo after that at the Cafe Chef.  I had a salad of fresh tomatoes, cheese, and fresh oregano.  It was delicious.  After lunch we went to a butterfly garden.  I saw four species of hummingbirds drinking from a feeder.  Inside we saw many species of butterflies.  The photo shows an "Owl Eyed Butterfly" eating mashed banana from my finger.  Can you see the snake face in the right corner of the wing?  We also toured an orchid collection of over 500 species. Some orchids were so small we had to view them with magnifying lenses.  We dropped Patricia off and headed back to town.  We needed to be back by 6 to meet the rest of the tour group going to the Galapagos.  The drive back was shorter than the drive up but we ran into a landslide.  Only one lane could get through the landslide area so we ended up being a half hour late.  Being late was fine because we weren't the last ones to arrive.  We had a lecture on what to expect in the Galapagos.  Because the ecosystems are fragile and the resources are scarce, we needed to be "green" while there.  We were told to use electricity only when necessary.  For example, don't turn on the air conditioning and then go out to eat.  Wait until you are in the room and then turn on the air.  Also all toilet tissue must be placed in a basket beside the toilet, not flushed.  Use bottled water to brush your teeth and for drinking. Leave any warm clothes at the hotel in Quito because there would be no need for warm clothes. Our tour would be working with Galakiwi because in the Galapagos, all tour agencies have to have an island component. After orientation, the group walked to a restaurant 5 minutes away.  I had baked eggplant with mushroom, cheese, tomatoes, onion and squash, cheese empanadas, salad and chocolate cake.  It was delicious.  We walked back to our hotel to pack and rest.  Tomorrow we will be in the islands.