Galapagos with Mamacita

MamaDeCou and I did up the Galapagos and it was great. We were lucky in almost every way...my fears of a boat of old people for 8 days were not realized. There were 6 of us 26 year olds. There was even another American mother daughter pair of almost our identical ages. Mamacita also had her fair share of 'wiser' folks to hang with. Altogether a fun and interesting group of English, Dutch, Italian, American and Danish. Other than the day we almost lost a Danish girl during a snorkeling outing (no joke), the trip was just fun and easygoing. The crew on the boat were lots of fun and the food was even good. I experienced a couple bouts of seasickness but was able to recover pretty quickly.

We saw lots of pre-historic looking animals that look like direct descendants of dinosaurs. There were sea lions EVERYWHERE...even playing with us as we swam and snorkeled in the crystal clear refreshing water. We had lots of sun and a little bit of rain to cool us off, but I had plenty of sun to work on my tan.

On to the pics...better from the bottom up

The volcano on the way back to Banos


Apparently they developed ETs face from these large land turtles


Mamacita enjoying the Panga ride


Flamingos too...but the marsh was kinda smelly


Our kind of Titanic moment


See I wasn't lying about the gorgeous water...


Sea lions enjoying the view


Yup those are bright blue feet...blue footed booby (no I did not make that name up)


Sea turtles..my favorites!


Happy couple picture


Sea lions showing off


This guy was one of the cooler looking iguanas..there were many to pick from


Frigget bird looking for a ladyfriend


The not very well camoflaged crabs on the islands


La Floreana...the lovely boat we stayed on

Is it really Feb??

January flew by after a crazy New Years, a few weeks in Colombia and a great 10 days with Sara. Ok - maybe the beach wasn´t so successful but I could have predicted that! Lots of mosquitos and sunburn for Sara...and a scary fish museum!

Below are some pics of New Years, my adventurous trip to Colombia and some more recent pics. Right now South America is in the midst of Carnavale..party party party. In Banos there are lots of people, parades, water balloons, sticky spray. Overall a dangerous time to walk the streets :)

So here are the pics...

Dancing and parading in the streets of Banos during Carnavale


Some sticky spray victims :)


Daytime entertainment during Carnavale in Banos


Beautiful and relaxing thermal springs outside Quito with Sara


Solar clock at a visit to the equator with Sara


Heading back from an amazing day of repelling down waterfall in Banos


Sara and I in our taxi at the beach in Ecuador after an allnight busride


Some of the beautiful landscape on the way back from the Lost City in Colombia


Lovely lodgings :) during the Lost City trek


Trekking across rocks and rivers


The freezing fountain of youth in the Lost City


These steps were all over the Lost City..beautiful but treacherous


Indigenous families we met in the mountains in Colombia


Cooling off in the river


Learning the truly gross ingredients such as gasoline that go into cocaine


First place we stayed overnight during the trek...home of the guide


Midway through Day 1 of the Lost City trek


Driving down into the beach town of Togonga, Colombia...a haven


The walls and canyons of Cartagena, Colombia still protecting the city


Beautiful view of Cotopaxi on the busride from Banos to Quito


Jackie, fellow American, sitting with a couple dolls to be burned at midnight on New Years


New Years in my vampire costume with friends at the bar...yup that´s Elvis