Super-Chevere

This is officially my last posting from Ecuador -- I just bought my bus ticket to Piura, Peru ($8 for a 6 hour bus ride...I still haven´t gotten over how crazy cheap everything is).

After riding the train at Nariz del Diablo, I headed to Cuenca, which was wonderful. Not exactly the life of the party, but it's a great place to spend a few days relaxing and wandering the streets. I found an English-language bookstore and talked dragon books with the American owner for awhile. My favorite Cuenca moment: when I turned the corner and found a man explaining the male reproductive system and selling live snails to a crowd of captivated Ecuadorians.

From Cuenca, I traveled south to Loja, where I spent the night before going on to Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba is a tiny town nestled in the "Valley of Eternal Youth," an area with a very high number of centenarians (sp?). I didn´t get a chance to interview any residents about their ages, but regardless, Vilcabamba was one of my favorite spots so far. My hosteria had a pool, hammocks galore, and very tasty included breakfast all for $9 a night. (Also, other Seattleites!) Yesterday I went horseback riding into Podocarpus National Park. It was hard to tear myself away, but Peru beckons.

Saludos de Cuenca!

Today is my second day in Cuenca. Since leaving Quito, I've spent 2 night in Baños (white-water rafting! tasty pancakes!) and 1 night in Riobamba before taking the train through Nariz del Diablo.

More later...the internet cafe is about to close...but check out the pics on facebook

Tomorrow, I´m tearing myself away from Quito. As much as I love this city (and Pablo and Carolina and Laura and Dani and Javier), I looked at a calendar yesterday and realized that I need to start making some southerly progress.

Caleigh´s in town (!), and we´re busing south to Saquisilí first thing to catch the Thursday morning market, which is supposed to be incredible. From there, Caleigh will return to Quito while I keep heading south to Baños. (Then to Riobamba, Cuenca, Loja, and finally, Peru).


Pics on Facebook! Here and here.

Some random thoughts from Ecuador:

-Staying with friends is nice. Staying with friends who have maids and free WiFi is heaven on earth. Thank you, Pablo! ☺

-For a city that´s practically on the equator, the weather in Quito leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of clouds. Lots of rain.

- Mango is not a very good street food, unless you have a gallon of Purel handy. In Ecuador, though, you can buy “mangos de chupar,” which you don´t have to cut open. You just cut a tiny whole in the top and suck out all the mango-ey goodness. Same taste, with a fraction of the mess.

-One month in South America without a hint of intestinal distress! Take that, Montezuma (or Atahualpa or whoever is in charge of gringo revenge in this part of the world.) The sheer volume of Imodium that I´m carrying must be working as a deterent.

-There is such a thing as too many hummingbirds.

-If anyone needs help with an upcoming application to graduate school for landscape architecture, I´m your girl. Among my more random experiences in Quito, I spent three very frantic days helping Carolina get her applications out the door before the deadline. Seriously, I´m an expert now.

-Do you know what we need more of in the States? Crepes y Waffles (pronounced "waff-lees")

Operation Zapato

The highlight of the Galápagos? Seeing a hammerhead shark while snorkeling.
The non-animal-related highlight of the Galápagos? Operation Zapato.

Midway through our week aboard the Tip Top III, we decided to play a prank on Tip Top II, another yacht in our fleet. (Our one-sided feud began after the passengers of Tip Top II saw a killer whale and two hammerhead sharks and we did not). And so, at 2AM on Christmas morning, an elite strike team of “ninja-pirates” woke up, dressed in black, and assembled on deck. With the help of two of the crew, we rowed a dinghy across to our target (Codename: Booby). I´m proud to say I was the first to board the Tip Top II. Cam, Tom, and I hurriedly stuffed their shoes into garbage bags, and we rowed silently back to the mothership.


Although we executed the theft flawlessly, our prank didn´t go off entirely as planned. The next morning, the passengers and crew of the Tip Top II did not grasp immediately that they had been punkd. Instead, they concluded that their shoes had been stolen by fisherman. (You would have thought that they would have been tipped off by the sight of us watching them through our binoculars, but evidently not).

Confusion aboard the Tip Top II

By the time everything had been resolved, the captain of the Tip Top II had threatened to report us to the Port Authority, a 13-year-old was in tears because she thought her new Converse were lost forever, and our very-German naturalist was nearly thrown in the water by the crew of the Tip Top II. Eventually, the passengers of the Tip Top II landed on the beach, where they found their shoes along with our message in the sand.

The Galápagos, belatedly

Better late than never, eh?


On Day 2 in the Galápagos, Rory and I arrived at the conclusion that the islands were an elaborate set, a sort of GalapaDisney, in which all the animals are tame and are fed secretely at night by an army of zookeepers who live inside the (hollow) volcanos. Our theory was further supported by the hydraulic noises that the tortoises made whenever they moved. Robots, clearly.

Eventually, I got over the feeling that I was being had and let the sheer magnificence of the Galápagos wash over me. Normally, wild animals are wary of humans, but in the Galápagos the opposite is true. I was nuzzled by sea lion pups and pecked by mockingbirds. I snorkeled with four species of shark. The poor zoom my camera felt neglected from lack of use. All in all, an amazing week.

More pictures are up on facebook.