Greetings Friends!
Wow, where do I start? Like I pointed out in my last post, this has been a wild last few weeks. What with our Galapagos trip, entertaining our visitors last week, and not to mention the stress and ruckus caused by the episode I described earlier, I was feeling pretty drained by the time Friday rolled around. I had a wonderful week with my mom, who left Cuenca Friday evening, and I will elaborate on last week eventually. However, I was a quite relieved to just rest this weekend. I feel very refreshed having gotten an adequate amount of sleep and to be back in my Ecuadorian home with my host family, all of which I had missed.
But for logic’s sake, let’s keep it all in chronological order. So, ya’ll wanna hear about my Galapagos adventures?!? Adventures they were. Ok. Before we actually went to the Galapagos, we spent two days in Ecuador’s capital, Quito.
We arrived in Quito on Friday morning, after a quite lovely 30 minute flight from Cuenca. Upon leaving the airport, we were greeted by very chipper woman who would be our tour guide for the next few days. Jenny was Ecuadorian, but spoke very clear English with a British accent. We eventually asked her to speak Spanish though, because its cooler and we want to learn. Anyways, our first tourist stop was none other than THE ECUADOR! We went to the big National Ecuador Park first. After walking around, and taking about a bagillion pictures, Jenny then informed us that the park had been built on that spot out of convenience because of mountains and rivers in the area. Apparently the actual Ecuador (Latitude 0’ 0” 0’”) was calculated to be elsewhere. There is now a smaller museum on that line, so we of course had to make a stop there as well. While on our tour there, the guide did various demonstrations which supposedly can only be done on THE Ecuador. Being in a group of 6 truth-seeking, semi-scientific brains, we were all quite skeptical. The first of the demonstrations involved balancing an egg on the head of a nail. I’ve heard eggs can be balanced in other places too, so I’m pretty sure that one was bogus. Nevertheless, we did all have to give it a try so we could say that we had balanced an egg on the Ecuador. There was another wacky demonstration where the guide asked John to put out his arms while he pressed down on them. Then they did it again while standing on the Ecuador. It was evidently supposed to be harder to keep your arms up while on the Ecuador, but that even sounds lame. The next thing he had us do was close our eyes and try to walk in a straight line alone the Ecuador. It was supposed to be hard to balance or something because of the force of both the magnetic poles pulling on you, but we didn’t buy it. The last demonstration was actually intriguing and seemed somewhat credible. The guide had a basin with a drain in the bottom which he filled with water. He then unplugged the drain and told us to watch as the water drained out. The first time he did this, the basin was on the Ecuador line, and the water emptied straight down. He then did it on either side of the Ecuador, and each those times the water emptied by spiraling downward in opposite directions. If anyone has further knowledge of this phenomenon please email me, Lindsay_bohl@taylor.edu, because we were all very intrigued.
Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering: contrary to many maps’ misrepresentations, the actual Ecuador has a RED line across it.
Alright, let’s speed this up. After our investigations of the middle of the world, we proceeded to have lunch and tour around the old part of Quito walking around the central square and such. The rest of that day was pretty relaxing; we eventually made it to our hotel which was very charming and quaint. For dinner we found a nice little restaurant that served some very typical Northern Ecuador dishes. I tried this chicken thing mixed with vegetables and wrapped in some sort of banana leaf. I wish I could remember the name but it is a Quichwe word, and therefore too complicated. It was delicious anyways.
The next day was quite adventurous. We took a little day trip to a village called Otivalo, about 2 hours away. On the way, we stopped at lovely bakery to try some biscotti-like bread which was definitely worth it. Once in Otivalo, we had some time to shop a bit at a very large market filled with handicrafts and such. Believe it or not, it was the first time I had bought any souvenirs for myself or anyone else since being here! I may or may not have over done it, but it was fun either way. On the way back we stopped at a few other touristy things. It was actually strange to feel so much like a tourist. I think we had all been priding ourselves in feeling like we actually BELONG in Ecuador (regardless of how much we stand out to the actual citizens). Hahaha. That evening, we ended up meeting with a couple who Luke had known when they lived in Upland and are now missionaries in Quito. What a small world.
The next morning, we were up and ready to go at about 5:30. The day we had been waiting for! Vamos a Galapagos! Checking in for our flights was only slightly stressful. All was going well, until Luke handed the woman behind the counter, his ticket and passport. She glanced at each, pressed a few buttons on her keyboard, and then took out a giant stamp slamming it down on his ticket which now said, in red letters, “CANCLED” with a giant X through it. She handed him back his things and then disappeared. All of us confused as to what had happened continued to stand there with sinking feelings in our stomachs. As we nervously joked about Luke not being able to come with us, he noticed that his flight ticket read LUKE HOLLINS, instead of Luke Collins. Assuming that this was the problem, we called over another worker to point out the error. The worker nodded in agreement and waved us all on. Sigh… All was well, and we were on our way to the islands!
We landed on the first island around 11 or so, and then continued our journey on land and water to the island where we’d be staying. Crossing the canal to the island Santa Cruz was our first real glimpse of the beauty held by the islands. The water, we joked, looked suspiciously like a mixture of lime and blue raspberry jello. It shone and sparkled with brilliance I doubt can be seen many other places. The land of Santa Cruz exuded with life and greenery, but at the same time the terrain made it very evident that these islands were in fact created by volcanoes. All of it was much unlike anything I had seen before. For awhile after lunch, we walked to a nearby harbor and just sat by the edge of the water admiring the beauty. That afternoon we went Charles Darwin Park, home of the giant tortoises, several distinctive species of iguanas, and very passionate tour guides. Our tour guide shared his knowledge about the islands and animal life fervently and with a twinkle in his eye as we listened with curiosity. He was probably our favorite tour guide of the trip. That night, after dinner, we ventured out to the hotel’s pool of which we were asked to leave shortly thereafter (apparently 8pm is too late for swimming).
Ok, keep your pants on everyone, that’s only the first day of Galapagos (which was the least awesome FYI). But I have to write a quick paper in spanish so I will continue to recount my adventures, hopefully tomorrow. I hope you all MAKE a great day.
Siempre,
Linds
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