Ecuador, part 2: Galapagos

Okay, this post is going to be enormous, but when you go somewhere as cool as the Galapagos Islands, you take nine billion pictures and want to share them, right? The sad thing is, that since we were snorkeling every day and taking most of our pictures underwater, most of our nine billion pictures did not turn out great. One of my big projects coming up is to go through all our Ecuador pictures (really, all our pics from this whole year) and delete the bad ones, and this will be a doozy. BUT we did get some great ones too. I really and truly had never, ever imagined that I would ever visit the Galapagos Islands in my life--it was completely not on my radar. It seemed like it only existed in Bio 100 where you learn about Darwin and his theory of evolution. I actually thought it was somewhere in the Carribbean up until a few years ago. But once we bought our tickets to go to Quito, and realized how close it was and how cheap it was to fly to the Galapagos from Quito, we decided to make it happen. And we planned on bringing our kids with us, but my parents were super amazing and offered to keep them in Quito with them, making this not only a super exotic location to visit, but also a trip without kids--making this quite possibly the BEST VACATION EVER. 

We said that the Galapagos seemed like a tropical version of Iceland--there's volcanic rock everywhere, but it's really green and beautiful in other parts too. But there's way more wildlife in the Galapagos too. In case you didn't know (which I didn't before I started reading about it before we went), the Galapagos have never been attached to any greater landmass, so all the wildlife there has had millennia to evolve into their own specific species and even within each individual island there are evolutionary differences between species (aka why Darwin came up with his theory of evolution while studying his samples he found here). So basically, if you go to the Galapagos, you don't just go to hang out on the beach--you're going to explore and see lots of cool wildlife and go scuba diving or snorkeling or volcano hiking, etc. It's heaven for outdoorsy people, and everyone there was super well-traveled (we were pretty boring compared to most people we met there). The coolest thing about it was how friendly and unafraid the animals there were. The sea lions would walk right up to you and the turtles swim within inches of you, and sharks would swim directly below you, and it's your job to get out of the way and not touch them. I don't know if our pictures really capture how close we got to them, but it was soooooo cool.

First thing we did when we got there was go visit a reserve with the giant tortoises that the Galapagos is named for.

We sat and watched these tortoises in this pool for like 20 minutes, they were so interesting.

There were also some lava tunnels to climb through from when the island was being formed from a volcanic eruption.

The second day we traveled to a different island and stayed in this cutesy hotel right on the beach.

These marine iguanas were everywhere where there was volcanic rock. They sit on the rock to warm up during the day, then hop in the ocean to catch their food.

 On our first snorkeling excursion we saw about four sea turtles, some stingrays, and starfish.

This doesn't look like it because I had a lens on my camera that distorted the distance, but I was about four feet away from this turtle!

 We then walked around this little outcropping where there was a colony of sea lions, and they were all just playing and swimming right next to us. There were a bunch of babies just wandering around looking for their moms, and we watched this one play call and response with his mom while he tried to find her. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

 That was our Thanksgiving day! We had fish and rice for dinner--sooooo good! All the fish there was delicious!--and Magnum bars for dessert.

We watched the sunset that night as well.

Snorkeling day 2 at a tour called "Los Tuneles" because you're basically swimming around and sometimes in these lava tunnels. This was probably my favorite day. (But sadly my camera wasn't working underwater this day.) We woke up and saw the sunrise.

Swimming under a lava tunnel.

Sharks, just swimming five feet away from us. No big deal.

A turtle friend saying hi to our boat.

We got to go on a little hike around the tunnels afterwards and got to see some blue footed boobies in their nests. There's a tiny baby underneath this dad, if you can see it. So amazing.

Sea lion photobomber!

We got to walk and see some flamingoes in their natural habitat, which was also really cool, because I'd never seen them outside of a zoo before.

 Our last full day there, we woke up and ran to the beach to try and see it before our tour that day. There's only really one beach you can go swimming at on the main island, and it was a pretty far walk!

We went to an uninhabited tiny island to snorkel around it and got to see some really cool animals.

More sharks, more turtles, more sea lions!

Someone pulled up this ENORMOUS tuna on our boat.

After we got back from our snorkeling, we went over to the Charles Darwin Center to see the baby tortoises (they keep them at the center until they are old enough to defend themselves against predators). They were so cute and tiny!

Lonesome George, the most famous Galapagos tortoise, died a few years ago--but don't worry, they have him stuffed and you can go visit him, haha. (He is called that because he was the last surviving tortoise left on one of the islands after humans introduced other animals and they killed off all the other tortoises. And he refused to mate with any other tortoise who wasn't from his same island.)

Tommy and his pal Charles.

We thought Dane would be impressed by this enormous lobster we saw at the fish market.

Our hotel there had some beautiful flowers all over. It was so cute.

We somehow got upgraded to first class on our flight back! Not too shabby!

This was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I still can't believe we were able to do this--all thanks to my parents for watching our kids for us!!! I told Tommy that it would have been nice to go ANYWHERE for four and a half days with no kids, but it was absolutely amazing to go somewhere this great with no kids. We felt so lucky and came back refreshed and ready to hit the pavement in Quito.

Ecuador, part 1

I haven't posted any pictures from our trip yet, because we've been on another trip since then. BUT I guess I'll get started. I feel super behind on everything right now, but luckily, none of it is urgent--including posting things on this blog.

We went to Ecuador for three weeks over Thanksgiving to visit my parents. It was really a great trip. I am convinced that the only way to travel (especially with kids) is to go somewhere you know somebody so you have someone to stay with and to be your tour guide and chauffeur. It worked out great for us! (Thanks, Mom and Dad :)

We got a direct flight from Dallas to Quito (yay!) but it left at 5 pm and landed around midnight (boo!). Dane and Lucy fell asleep eventually but Graham held on and stayed up the entire flight. He was transfixed by the in-seat TV screens. 

We were happy to see Grandma and Papa there when we came out of customs! My dad got this cute shot of Dane coming out and seeing him. 

Lucy didn't know what she thought about these people.

We were happy to see Cole the next day after he got home from school.

We also visited their grocery store and got to see all the awesome fruits they sold there. Graham, our resident fruit fanatic, was impressed!

We really liked the guanabana juice we got there!

Lucy's brand of flour.

My parents had several awesome parks within walking distance of their house, which of course ended up being the main thing we did while we were there.

Lucy was scooting everywhere and ended up under their couches several times.

So cute! They all loved the barstools in their kitchen.

One of the mountains (really, a volcano) behind my parents' house has a tram ride you can take up to the top and get a great view of Quito. It was absolutely stunning from the top. Apparently there are usually horses up there which you can take for a ride, but we didn't see any, sadly. Oh well.

Making cookies with Grandma, just like in Irvine. But this time they were for the missionaries.

Waiting for Cole to come home after school outside their apartment building.

Lucy warmed up to Papa and Grandma after a few days.

Cole played a piano piece at a recital at his school, so we got to go see his school and hear him play. It was awesome, and really cool to see his school, which we've heard so much about.