The last few days has been a lot of traveling. For starters we flew from Cuenca back to Quito, (it is beginning to feel like home!), on Friday and had the rest of the day off…no tours. Actually there was a lot to do but we just hung around the hotel, rested and went for a few short walks. That evening Diego took us out to the local hot spot for supper and it was a very nice evening, a fitting end to a relaxing day.

The next morning, however,  it was back at it; up at 6:00 am for a 8:00 departure to the “cloud forest” , Mindo.  Here we go for a nice walk and have the opportunity to see approximately 53 different varieties of hummingbirds. Of course we didn’t see them all but the ones we did were quite beautiful and some much bigger than what we see at home.

The terrain was quite different than Quito as we are on the west side of the Andes and of course it was much more “rain forest” like. The vegetation was lush and felt like the jungle or, quite frankly, like a walk in our own back yard but much different species of vegetation. We were in the Northern Hemisphere on this excursion, just for the record. Quito straddles the equator so we were going back and forth quite often as I mentioned before but in this case it was well into the Northern Hemisphere by about two full hours. No big deal.

And then it was time to say good-bye to a great guide, Diego and 10 other who were on their way back home. The remaining 8 of us were off to Peru the next morning, at 4:00 am.

On the way the the historical site we stopped to try a little bit of pork rind. This is how they do it here. First you kill a pig , then you put it on a rack, using a propane blow torch you cook just the skin. After the skin starts to crackle you cut it off and serve it with salt. Then, after all the skin is “cooked off” in this manner the remainder of the pig is cooked. Now if you have ever tasted “pork rinds” in a package in Canada way back when…this tastes exactly the same!!

This is a beautiful city, (our guide lives here) and has a lot to offer. Some tend to thing of this Ecuador as a 3rd world country but let me assure you that when you are in the major cities like Cuenca it is hard to believe. We spent the last two days touring the city and the country side. The Panama Hat; it doesn’t come from Panama it comes from Ecuador. You probably ask why then is it called the Panama Hat? Well there are many stories but the most common one is that when the Panama Canal was being built the workers used these hats to protect themselves from the scorching sun during the day. People who visited the work site began to associate the hats with Panama but the truth is the hats are made in Ecuador. We visited a hat factory and Berniece is now a proud owner of a Panama Hat, made of course in Ecuador!

Along the way to visit a Historical site we stopped to see a women, 87 years old, who still weaves the Panama Hats for a living. It takes her two days for a hat that sells for about $30.00,(she gets a very small part of that), hard to make a living doing that but she stills enjoys doing it. So to explain the process; the hats are weaved by the locals ands then sent to the factory to be bleached and shaped. The process is longer than what I am explaining here but the real hard work is still done by people in the country-side who spend hours weaving these hats. The tighter the weave the more expensive the hat. The tighter the weave the longer it takes.

This is just a short interruption in the journey record to show you that some things never change no matter what country you are in!

After leaving the farm we stopped along the way to buy some fruit before the long climb up to the park. The road was very windy and, as you can well imagine, very steep. At the top, 14000 ASL =/- , there is a small cafe and an interpretation center. We had a bowl of potato soup and then took a 2 hour hike along the top, moving slowly downward to catch up to the bus which had moved several KLM down the road.

At first the altitude was very noticeable, ( at this point we were around 13,000 ASL), but as the hike progressed both us felt much better and quite frankly felt that it actually helped us to adjust.

We have seen other mountain tops before, (understatement), but the Andes still have their own enchantment and it was a very enjoyable sightseeing adventure.

After a night in Guayaquil we left early the next morning  for the 3 hour drive to Cuenca. This is an interesting trip because we start at sea level in Guayaquil and go through the Cajas National Park, highest point 14,100 ASL and arrive in Cuenca which is around 8370 ASL.  Along the way we stopped at a cocoa farm that was ran by a local, who had around 1 1/2 hectares, very difficult to make a living so our little visit was very helpful. (the guide pays her about $1. per visitor). The process of getting the cocoa beans to market was very interesting.

The cocoa pods grow all year long so a tree may have flowers and also mature pods all at the same time. The locals know, obviously through experience, when the pods are ripe and just harvest the ones that are ready, the general rule is when the pods are bright red as in the pictures they are ready. The cocoa bean inside the pods are put in a barrel where they ferment for a few days and then they are washed and dried. They use the highway to dry the beans because it is warm and dries them quickly so they can get them to market and earn their income.

So we finished the Galapagos trip today. It was ok, not spectacular just ok. This is not their regular trip as they changed the literary quite a bit. A shame for us because we didn’t get all that we should have out of the trip..still ok but just a 5 out of 10.

We flew to a major city in Ecuador, Guayaquil an are now on our way to Cuenca where we spend the last three days of our Ecuador leg then it is on to Lima, Peru.

Today we landed on Santa Cruz to view the large tortoises in their natural setting. Easy to get pictures as they don’t move very fast if you know what I mean.

We visited the Charles Darwin Research Center, really wasn’t that interesting.

It is up again at 6:45 and back on to the boats for a sea turtle viewing and to participate in the delivery of mail from the post office. This is interesting; years ago some sailors but a barrel on a stand, back far enough from the beach so that the tides and storms would not damage it, and left mail in the barrel. The tradition is that you go through the mail and if you find one addressed close enough to where you live you take that mail and personally hand delivery, just as they did centuries ago.

While you are at it you can leave a postcard addressed to whomever and hopefully someone will visit the barrel and hand deliver it for you.

We actually did neither but one couple found 5 letters they could deliver.

After the talk we went snorkeling, hopefully to see some sea turtles and Galapagos Penguins, (which look a lot like a duck when they are in the water). Everyone, besides Berniece and I, seemed to be having lots of luck and got great pictures. We didn’t see squat! We did see them from the dingy on the way in but snorkeling? Nada.

In the afternoon we took another nature walk on the same island. Finally we see the famous Blue Footed Boobie..ya! I think we got some pretty awesome pictures of it; I am only showing a few here.  Also as we approached the shore there were some turtles doing the reproduction thing. Male gets on top and stays there for a couple of hours. Why did nature give the turtles so much fun? Who knows but he can’t hear so maybe whatever she is saying just isn’t getting through?!

After landing we had the option of snorkeling but neither one of us felt like it so we just enjoyed the afternoon on the beach.

We took a raft over to Espanola Island to walk with the Sea Lions and snorkel. Of course many of us who live on the west coast have seen Sea Lions but I don’t believe as close as you get to these guys. They are not afraid of us humans nor worried about our presence so as you walk among them they just go about their business…which is laying on the beach doing absolutely nothing! There were young ones only several days old right up to old aging males. What an experience!

We also saw many Pacific Sea Turtles and Marine Iguanas and again they are not afraid so you can get very close although the park rules are that you maintain at least 2 meters of separation at all time.

Snorkeling was a bust given the water was so churned up from the waves. Berniece did have a Sea Lion brush right up to her while she was swimming; what an experience! Just for the record the temperature is around 60F or 14C so we had wet suits to swim in. I now know that the only thing worse for me than wearing speedos is clearly a wet suit. In the movies the guys and gals look great in real life they are the most unflattering garment know to man, at least in my opinion!

11:30 back to the boat for yet another meal.

3:00 pm back in the boats and to shore on the opposite end of the Island. This time it was a 3 hour hike, apparently in the “difficult” category” (not really difficult at all), we were to see some “Boobies” and some “Albatross”. We did indeed see some Albatross and Boobies, the Nazca Boobies. The albatross is a very large bird. You will see the pictures but it is difficult to get the sense of size. They are big and their wingspan is huge, if fact they are so big the only way they can get air born is to catch the wind draft off the cliff. The pictures so this but I know it is not the same as actually witnessing the act. The size of the chicks are deceiving as well.

We also had a chance to get some great shots of the marine iguana, interesting lizard like animal. We have see many of these in places like Mexico but never the variety  that actually swims. From what I understand these are unique to this area but I may have misunderstood. These have three eyes, one at the top of their head and two penis’s having three eyes makes no senses but two penis’s must be double the fun, just guessing!