Banos, Ecuador

Shortly after returning from our bike ride on Tuesday it started to rain. It rained all night and it was still raining on Wednesday when we woke up. We changed our plans to have an inside day.  Good thing as it rained all day. There were several mudslides and new waterfalls on the mountains around us. Some other people in our hotel tried to take a bus out of town and the bus had to turn around due to mud slides on the road.

Mud and water on the street outside our hotel

Bike Ride in Banos

When we first were looking at places to go in Ecuador, we read lots of recommendations for Banos, a small town known for adventure activities. The one that sounded most fun to me is a bike ride from Banos down the mountain to see various waterfalls. We almost decided not to do it since the ride is on the same small highway as the cars, buses and trucks. But I'm glad we went ahead and did the bikes. We rented bikes at a local shop for $5 each.

Ready to start our bike ride

I got thrown off a bridge [JENNA]

In Ecuador we have been doing some pretty cool things. I got thrown off a bridge but I'll get more on that later.

Getting to Banos, Ecuador

Sometimes getting from one place to another is easy and sometimes it's not. We knew we had a long travel day starting in the Galapagos and ending in Banos, a town in the mountains. The flight was easy and even landed a bit early. Next was a taxi ride from the airport to the bus station. Pretty straightforward, until we walked into the bus station that really is a large busy mall attached to the bus station.

San Cristobal

Our last Galapagos Ferry brought us to San Cristobal Island. The ferry ride was in between the other two as far as pain and suffering. We all got off the ferry rejoicing that it was our last one! At this point it was 9 in the morning, we were hungry and needed to find a hotel for our stay. We left Seth to watch our bags while the rest of us ventured out. We bought some yogurt and granola to eat while sitting on a bench feeling a bit homeless.

Breakfast after the ferry

Baracuda

We have a habit when traveling of finding a restaurant that we like and eating there often. This trip is no exception. A local recommended that we try the “Baracuda Restaurant”. We decided to try it and we liked it.

Rich's Galapagos Highlights

My favorite parts of the Galapagos were swimming with sea turtles and playing soccer at the little town center on San Cristóbal.

There was something surreal about swimming with a giant sea turtle. I wasn’t just watching the sea turtle swim from the surface or from a distance. I was 8 feet under water swimming alongside it 3-4 feet away. It was pretty dang cool to me. I expected to see them but didn’t expect to be able to swim alongside them.

Galapagos, Santa Cruz Island

Once back on Santa Cruz we found a hotel for the next few days. The early ferry may have been smoother, but it did leave us all very tired. After a short nap we were ready to head out. That day we went to the Charles Darwin research center which is basically another turtle breeding center. Once again we saw turtles in various sizes. There were also some displays on conservation and the Galapagos.

Giant Tortoise at the research center

Galapagos, Isabela Island

We arrived on Isabella island after a horrible ferry ride. At first we thought we would walk  to the town, Puerto Villamil, and find our hotel because it felt good to be walking and off the boat. But after going a short distance we decided that was a bad idea and got a taxi.

Thinking about walking to the hotel on dirt roads.

Galapagos, an introduction and the first ferry

We arrived in the Galapagos Islands on a Monday morning. Now before coming to the Galapagos I really didn't know a lot about them but we decided to make our stay land based instead of cruise based. Mostly because of the cost associated with the cruises, but also we weren't sure we wanted to spend that much time on a boat. We decided to spit our time between the three main islands. In the Galapagos, there are about 24 islands with 4 of them inhabited. Most of the islands are visited by groups on day trips where you have to have a guide. The three main islands are Santa Cruz, Isabela, and San Cristobal and we spent 4 nights on each with horrible ferry rides between them.

Just of the plane in Baltra

Sea Horses and Sharks and Rays. OH MY!

Just a little foreword here. This tour was actually about a week ago and so if some parts seem a little hazy, that is probably why.

Papa Francisco 5k

After we landed in Guayaquil Friday we learned that Pope Francisco (Papa Francisco) was landing in Guayaquil Monday morning. In South America the Pope is a Big Deal. They were projecting 1.2 million people in Guayaquil trying to see the Pope. That’s kinda cool except when it affects your travel plans. We were scheduled to leave Guayaquil for the Galapagos Islands on Monday morning.

Guayaquil highlights

Our first stop in Ecuador was the city of Guayaquil. The guidebooks don't have much good to say about this city so we arrived with low expectations.  When we first walked out of the airport the heat and humidity welcomed us as we found a taxi to take us to our hotel, which actually ended up being an apartment. The taxi ride took awhile because of so much traffic.  My first impressions of the city reminded me of Manila, Philippines, a big, sprawling, crowded, polluted city with a mix of old and new. 

Some things never change

A couple years ago I wrote a blog post about me being our family's disposal. When there is leftover food someone always asks, "Do you want this?" Some things never change, except this time I didn't know I was being the disposal.

After an outing we came back to our apartment to find water on the kitchen floor. It wasn't much but it was growing and obviously coming from the water dispenser. We contacted the landlord who said, "A boy I work with is coming to fix it or replace it. He will be there in less than an hour. Will you be there?" My first thought was, "This is not my problem. I'm going to dinner with my family." But in the end I agreed to wait for him.

Elaine and the kids, however, didn't want to wait and so I asked them to bring me back something. I specifically remember saying, "Just don't bring me back your leftovers."

The "boy" came, replaced the water dispenser, and cleaned up the water. Very shortly thereafter, Elaine and the kids came back with my food. It was great: a big plate of fried rice with chicken and shrimp, boiled new potatoes, and fried banana slices. It was all so yummy. I should have realized something was up when I found a shrimp tail in my fried rice. After eating it all and wishing for more, Elaine told me that the entire plate was made up of leftovers from the 3 meals they had bought for the 4 of them. In the end we all ate plenty from 3 plates of food and apparently I'm still the disposal even if I didn't know it.

Another funny part of the story is that during my conversation with the landlord I struggled mightily to communicate using what high school Spanish I could remember. Near the very end of this difficult (for me) conversation and after the important bits had been communicated the landlord started speaking in much better English than my Spanish. I wonder if she actually enjoyed hearing me struggle so badly with her language.

Iguana Park [BY JENNA]

While we were in Guayaquil, Ecuador my mom read about an Iguana park. We realized that it was free and just  a couple blocks away from where we were staying.  There is a gate that is always open but it doesn't matter because iguana's sleep up in the trees and when they come down people are there are they don't go out. In the park there is grassy areas with little 6in. fences the Iguanas can crawl through and there is a bunch of little paths. Here's a good tip DON'T walk under the trees while Iguanas are up there.:)Because they like to drop bombs.(poop and pee) We did not get hit but we would not want to. There is a giant statue in the middle of the park where some iguana s like to be lazy. 

Why Ecuador?

Three years ago we moved out of our house and left on our adventure around the world. I would love to repeat that experience, but it's not looking like it will happen in the near future. So instead I will take what travel I can get and for now that means 6 weeks in Ecuador. Many people have asked "why Ecuador". At first we were planning a road trip to Mexico but for some reason as I began planning I just didn't feel good about it. So we started looking at other options. I have heard good things about Ecuador from friends in a travel group and we found a good price on flights from LAX. Summer is a hard time to find many travel deals. Traveling for several weeks, we needed a place we could afford and we just felt good about it as we researched. So Ecuador is our destination. Not sure what we will do for sure, but we will get it figured out along the way.

Ecuador FAQs

So this post is basically a collection of question that people have asked us about Ecuador.

Why Ecuador?
Basically there were cheap flights. Plus there we had heard a lot of good things about it.

What is there to see in Ecuador?
Well there are the Galapagos islands which are some islands with awesome wildlife and beaches and stuff. There is also the Amazon rain forest and some cool cities.

Where will you stay?
We don't know yet. Seriously. We just have a rough idea of what we are doing, but we don't have any real reservations yet, just the flights in and out.

How long are you staying there?
About 5 weeks.

I've heard that it isn't safe there.
Not a question, but we will be fine... probably...

Bryce Canyon in the Winter?

Over the President's day long week-end our family took a trip to Bryce Canyon National Park.  I made the reservations right after a snowy Christmas break and assumed that in February there would be lots of snow in Bryce Canyon. As the this winter has progressed, it often felt more like spring with warm temperatures and no snow. My hopes for snowshoeing in Bryce Canyon plummeted.

February 2015