Aug 31 Fernandina island and Tagus cove

Today has been the best day yet! I have seen so much wildlife here. Our first stop this morning was on Fernandina island. It was marine iguana central! Over 100 000 iguanas live there and you could definitely smell them once we landed on shore. They all sun bath on the rocks to get warm after they are finished feeding on the green algae on the bottom of the sea.

All the iguanas pile on top of each other to stay warm while they spit the dried salt from inside their noses. It was really amazing to see them go from the beach into the water with the sea lions and swim along there shoreline.

We saw a family of sea lions training their one month old cub in a small pond on the beach. The baby was so small and clearly still blind. Their eyes don’t work until they are six months old. The poor little thing was so clumsy it was easy to see that he was still trying to figure out how all his limbs worked.

Abb'is ankle is quite bruised today but she managed to get out of bed and come with us on the tour of Fernandina island. I think she was still struggling quite a bit but i'm glad she came. I don’t want her to miss anything else.

We also came across the skeleton of a whale that had washed ashore 12 years ago. It was still it its exact form, spine ribs and all.

Our first snorkeling trip today was good but the water was freezing. I still managed with out a wetsuit while most of the other had one on. It was a bit shallow in some party and i didn’t really like when the coral and algae rubbed along my stomach but eventually we went deeper and that where we swam with a few sea lions. It still amazes me that they are not scared of us at all. The want to play with us or maybe they are making fun of how awkward we look in the water compared to them! Once the sea lions were gone we saw a couple of massive sea turtles. I didn’t last too much longer in the water after that cause my arms and legs were going numb. I sat in the panga while the rest of the team bobbed about in the water.

After lunch and a cruise on the boat we arrived at Tagus cove. The cove is located on the back of Isabella island. It was extremely hot this afternoon and our hike was all uphill. As we took the first steps we found a sea lions way up the hill hiding in some caves on the cliff getting some shade. The male barked quite loudly at us as we made our way around him and up the steep steps to the trail.

About half way up the trail we came across Darwin lake. The lake was formed from a volcano crater. There is so life in the water due to the high levels of magnesium. We could see the minerals along the shores on the lake, they were dark yellow and looked quite out of place beside the crisp clear turquoise water in the lake.

We walked up for quite a ways but it was too hot for me to make it to the top so i turned around and headed back down. The highlands of the island were lifeless except for a few birds and lava lizards. I can see why no animals lived way up there it must have been 40 degrees.

We were all so hot and sweaty by the time we made it down to the bottom we were eager to get back on the water for or next snorkel trip.

We took the pangas about 15 minutes away from the boat and jumped into the water. It was so fresh and felt great on my hot skin. Right away we saw turtles. There were so many of them, i reached out and let my fingers slide down the shell of one right in front of me and he didn’t seem to mind at all.

As i followed 2 other turtles around 3 little penguins came flying out of the shallow water! Finally! This is what i have been waiting for all week! I swam as fast as i could to keep up with them as they did loops around the little sardines they were chasing. They were very fast and i only got to hang out with them for 5 minute or so but it made my whole day :)

the water was pretty nice on this trip so i stayed in the water for quite a while. We kept seeing turtle after turtle and i got to dive down beside one of them and get my picture taken. I look a bit ridiculous in all my snorkel gear but it was worth it for the picture. I'll have to get one of the Slovenian girls to email it to me.



By this time it was getting late and our guide was calling us back to the boat. We have to head to sea quite early tonight because its gonna take 14 hours to get to our next stop. We have to go up and around the equator again. This makes me nervous because the last time we did this the ocean was incredibly rough and none of us got any sleep and we all felt quite sick in the morning. You'd think we'd be used to it by now....

we just finished watching the sunset and dinner is going to be served in 10 minutes. i hope it tastes better than lunch today! I think our food supplies are getting low and the cook is getting rid of whatever he has left!

Wish us luck!

... it is now morning on Sept 1 and its our last full day on the boat.! It seems like the last bit of the trip has gone so fast.

I just wanted to write a post about last night.

After dinner we were cruising the sea and it was a very clear night. The water was the calmest its been on the whole trip. Abbi, Julie, and i spent 2 hours star gazing on the back sun deck listening to radiohead. It was one of the highlights of the the trip for me. The sky was so clear we could see the stars for miles and miles. It was almost as though we could see the shape of the earth because we could see where the stars met the water. We saw a dozen shooting stars and a whole new set of constellations.

We finally got cold and damp enough that it was time to head in and afterwards, i had the best sleep of the trip yet.

Aug 30 Isabella island

I woke up right away and went straight to abs to see how her ankle was. It still looked pretty bad but she said that the pain had come down and bit. We talked about going to the hospital and decided that since we figured it wasn’t broken she was not go to the hospital but she would just stay on the boat and keep off her foot for the day.

It was too bad that she couldn’t come with us today because we saw the turtle breeding centre on our first excursion. First, we were picked up by a bus when we landed on Isabella. We took a long weaving sand road along the coast ans saw a few turtles and iguanas along the side of the road. We made a few stops along the way to see some high view points and walk inside the mangrove trees that lined the coastline.

We also stopped at a small natural lagoon where there were about 10 flamingos wading in the water. The were very funny to watch as they dance around in circles while they clear mud out of the way so they can find their food in the water.

Next it was on to the tourtoise breeding centre. They keep adults on the site permanently for breeding purposes. Their ages range from 80 to 125 years old. The eldest ones were huge! They also had many incubators for all the babies of different ages. They had a few different species there feeding on banana plant leaves. We got to see all different stages of life beginning in the embrio state, its amazing to see how small they could start life and how large they are as they age. Once they have reared the turtles to maturity they release them in the wild yo sustain the population on the island.

We also got an hour of free time to cruise the town on Isabella. Everything was very expensive so my new friend Julie ( from Germany ) bought a couple of beers and hung out in the park while the rest of the team explored. The town was very sleepy and incredibly hot. Then it was back to the boat for snacks and showers.

Out next excursion was snorkeling. This time we were actually searching for hammer head sharks but did no have any luck. We did swim with a few sea lions and 3 large sea turtles. The sea lions swam and played with us, blowing bubbles in our faces and chewing on our flippers. It was amazing!

The last activity of the day was a walk on on of the smaller islands connected with Isabella. We headed over to a large crack in the lava formations and found 15-20 white tipped reef sharks. We watched them swim for quite a while and we finally saw the elusive Galapagos penguins! They were very tiny and swam around in the bay catching sardines. On the island there were also hundreds of marine iguanas and we had to be careful because there were so many babies. They camouflaged perfectly on the black lava and were everywhere! We watched the gorgeous sunset from this island, the colours of the sky were all pink and orange and looked like sorbet in the sky.

Everyone on the boat is finally getting a bit more comfortable with each other. There are people from all over the world on our boat; England, Holland, Spain, Slovenia, France and Germany. Its quite an eclectic group and we don’t always understand each others sense of humour but they are all very nice and we have all shared some laughs with each other. Abbi and i have taken a real liking to Adrian and Jemma from england, and Arnold and Marlaina from Holland are kind of like our parents on board.

After dinner we watched a BBC movie about the Galapagos but unfortunately we started our 9 hour cruise to Fernandina island and the water was quite rough again. I only managed to see about 10 minutes of the film before i got the cold sweats and nausea set in. I went down to our cabin, took my sea sickness pills and slept until we arrived at Fernandina in the early morning.

Aug 28 Chinese Hat and Dragon Hill

You'll have to excuse the lacking details of this post as i did not get a chance to write it right away. There was a birthday celebration/salsa party that was followed by some unfortunate events at the end of the night. I'll get into that later

Our first excursion was to Chinese hat island. They call it Chinese hat because i guess it looks like a Chinese hat. I don’t even know what a Chinese hat is!

We walked the island over the lava formations and saw millions of sally light foot crabs and craters that were filled with iguanas. There were huge cliffs along the coast lines where we watched the massive waves crash into the rocks.

Across the bay where we were anchored we snorkeled along the back side of Santiago island and we saw many different colourful fish. Then out of the corner of my eye i saw a large dark shadow emerge from the deeper water. It was a shark! My heart was beating so fast and i looked around to see if anyone was close to it. Only 2 other people got to see it. It was about a meter and a half long with white tips on it's fins. It was a white tipped reef shark and I’d learned earlier that they are not aggressive so i followed him for a while. I was so impressed with myself for not having a heart attack right there in the water and he didn’t seem to mind that i was near to him. I followed him for a few minutes before he disappeared again into the darkness.

The water was quite cold today and since i had decided that was not going to wear a wetsuit this trip i had to get out of the water after about 45 minutes.

We had a nice sunny cruise for an hour and a half over to dragon hill which is on Santiago island. We all sat on the back sundeck and listened to music. Since most of the time when we are moving it is night time it was nice to be awake and see where we were going. Two large frigate birds hung around the top of the boat for the entire cruise. They seemed to be riding the wind the boat was leaving behind they were very relaxing to watch.

They call it dragon hill because of the numbers of huge iguanas that live there.

We took a very long walk up to the top of the dry desert like hill and saw around 7 large land iguanas that were as big as dogs. It was incredibly hot once we got away from the cool breeze of the shore lines so we had to keep taking small rests in the trees along the path.

While we waited for the pangas to come pick us up from the beach we watched the sun slowly set on the horizon while we waited in the water to cool off.

It was one of the Slovenian girls birthday today and the crew decorated the dining cabin with balloons and ribbons for her. She was so surprised when she came down for dinner. Once we had finished eating the party began. There was salsa music, maracas and dancing. It was really fun. The captain asked me to dance twice and was a pretty good dancer. It was nice to see the crew get out of their work mindset and blow off some steam. We all danced together like we had been friends for years.

Unfortunately the night did not end too well for abbi. Somehow she managed to slip and fall down the stairs. I found her in our cabin crying her eyes out. She showed me her ankle and i thought oh shit. It was bad. It had become immediately swollen and she was in a lot of pain. I quickly went upstairs and got the captain and our guide.

They took good care of her. They gave here some lineament cream to numb the pain and wrapped the ankle in bandages. After half an our the pain hadn’t stopped so we gave her and injection (yes with a needle) of pain medication. Abbas didn’t like the though of getting a needle but i knew that it had to be done so she could sleep until we could get her to a doctor. Thankfully our next island had a hospital. We planned on taking her there via speed boat first thing in the morning because we were too far away at that point to take her right away.

I waited till she was asleep before i went to bed. I layed awake for quite awhile thinking about how this was going to affect the rest of the trip until the boat slowly rocked me to sleep.

Aug 28 Isla Santiago and Bartolome

This morning i woke up at 5am to the boat rocking back and forth violently. We were still at sea! We were supposed to have made it to Santiago by then. I layed in the bunk for a few minutes to see if i was gonna feel sea sick again. I felt like if i concentrated hard enough, i could will it away.
The next thing i heard was the engine stop. I thought to myself, this cant be good. Then we just bobbed up and down in the waves, not moving anywhere. I decided to go up to the dining cabin to see what they heck was going on. As i walked up the stairs i could hear the captain trying to restart the engine without success. When i got to the top of the stairs, i saw just what i never wanted to see. The panel in the floor that goes down to the engine was open and all the crew members were crowded around looking in. There was a small amount of smoke filling the cabin and the floor was soaking wet with broken glass scattered around the floor. I thought oh my god, what the hell is going on???

I spoke with our guide christian and learned the following things; we didn’t leave our anchor spot from the night before until 3am. The navy had called our captain on the radio and told him not to cross the ocean to Santiago island. The waves were too big, about 4 meters high. We had only been at sea for 2 hours by the time i had woken up. We were still four hours away from our destination and ocean was angry! I could feel the sea sickness slowly creeping up on me. I also learned that the engine filter needed to be changed and that was why we had stopped there in the middle of no where. I headed back down to our cabin and told abbi what was going on. She told me that she was up and 3am already been throwing up. It looked like we were gonna be in for a long rough morning so i took 2 more graval, put on my rain coat and sat outside to get some fresh air.

It was way too stuffy in the dining cabin and i couldn’t keep my eyes on the horizon so i sat on the second deck where i could avoid the huge spray from the waves and try and focus on not getting sick.

Abbi soon came up to join me and quickly proceeded to the bow of the boat threw up all over the panga. I kept a close eye on the massive 4 meter waves hitting the side of the boat and i was terrified.

Abbi told me to look on the opposite side of the boat so i wouldn’t get so scared. I tried to keep my eyes off the big waves but i just couldn’t do it. I wanted to know when the huge wave was coming to capsize the boat so i could warn the rest of the team. ( of course thing never happened but in my mind at the time it was a total possibility.)

the captain came down to see how we were doing and gave us each another sea sickness pill. I sat up there for almost an hour waiting for the feeling to pass. I finally got so cold that i couldn’t feel my hands and feet anymore so i went back down to the dining cabin to warm up. The engine was back up and running at this point and we were on our way but still at least 3 hours from Santiago. I sat with some of our team members for a bit while the boat rocked back and forth, up and down. I looked around and saw that some people were really struggling. One girl from Austria was totally green and had her head resting on the table, the Spanish guy had his eyes closed while trying to eat some bread and being held like a baby from his wife and the lady from Holland had her eyes focused on the water and she looked like she was praying. I tired to look at a picture book of Galapagos island for a while until the third anti-nausea pill kicked in and i couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I went back down to the cabin where abbi had already gone and passed out and layed back down in bed. What a horrible way to start the day.

I woke up 4 hours later. We had arrived at island Santiago and i could here the tables being set upstairs.

I had a quick shower and made my way to the sun deck where the rest of the team members were gathering. We heard the lunch bell ring shortly afterwards and we went down to eat. Christian briefed us while we ate. As soon as we were finished lunch, we were to pack our bags and getting ready for a dry landing on the island. Finally! We had arrived and were going to get to see the island. Things were looking better.

We took the pangas over and landed on island Santiago. The whole island is made of hardened lava formations. There were no animals except a few lizards. There was no vegetation and no way any other animal could live there. We climbed over many different kinds of lava formations and learned that the last time this volcano erupted was 100 years ago. We wandered around and took some pictures and headed back to boat. We had a few minutes to get our bathing suits on for out next excursion.

By 3:00 we were snorkeling around the coast line of Bartalome island. The 2 islands are very close together and is is believed that they once were one volcano that has been eroded by the ocean over time to form 2 separate islands. The water is much colder here than it was on Genovesa. Its amazing already how different the islands are from each other. Its like they are each their own little world, divided only by 60 miles of water at most.

We got a chance to sit and enjoy the golden beach of Bartolome after the snorkeling. While i sat there i saw a baby silky shark swim by! There was also a family of sea lions laying in the shade. By 5pm the pangas were back to pick us up and take us back to the boat for our next activity. One thing is for sure here; we always have something to do and our guide makes sure we are never bored.

We headed back to climb top the summit of Bartolome and watch the sunset. It was a long and windy hike to the top but totally worth it for the views. We could see both Santiago and Bartoleme fully from the top as well as pinnacle rock. What a view it was! And to make it just in time for the sunset was perfect.

We had a wonderful dinner tonight of potatoes and wahoo fish with olive tapenade. Not too shabby for boat food! And now we are watching movies. Again, the day started off rocky and ended up with perfection. Unfortunalty we didnt see any penguins today but im not giving up hope just yet, there are quite a few more islands to see... and tonight the captain is gonna stay in this nice calm bay so we all can have a good night's sleep. Thank god for that.

Ciao for now.

Aug 27 Genovesa Island

Today did not start well. We were up all night due to the rough seas. The swells were massive .i was woken up every hour at least to boat's deep pitching and rolling. i finally gave up at around 6am and and jumped out of my top bunk. Abbi had been up first to have a hot shower while we were still motoring to our anchor point. She was pale as a ghost. I guess even 2 gravals was not enough anti-nausea medication. Tonight we need more.
Anyways, i showered after abbi was finished throwing up in the bathroom. I was then able to see why she felt so sick afterwards. The shower was crammed and i had to use all of my concentration not to fall on my ass. I shampooed and conditioned while being thrown around in the the tiny shower stall. Huge waves were crashing up and swirling around the port hole. I kept searching for the horizon out the window to try and get my bearings with no luck.

I left the shower clean and grateful for the first hot shower of the trip but needed to put on the motion sickness bands, go up stairs and get some fresh air. It was 715 am by this point and we haven’t reached our destination yet. We were supposed to arrive at 6am. The seas have really slowed us down.

I looked up to the top level of our boat and realized that we were not the only ones up so early. It turned out the everyone on board shared the same awful experience that we had.

We finally had breakfast at 745 am and had to quickly get ready for our first activity of the day. We all got our day packs ready and headed for the “pangas”. As i climbed for our boat into the dinghy’s i managed to slam my toe into one of the handles. Ouch, that;'s gonna leave a mark. I had to keep my cool so i didn’t say anything and i didn’t scream out loud.

We made our wet landing on shore and i immediately saw 3 sea lions sun bathing on the warm white sands of the beach. I hobbled over to them and took a few pics. Its amazing how close we could get! They didn’t even flinch as we approached them. They were beautiful. There were also many birds resting on the hard lava rocks of the beach. This was to be what we saw on the rest of this island. I tied up my shoe laces and off we went.

The island's second name is Darwin bay. The bay that we are anchored in is a huge volcanic crater. The island is the most northern of all the islands here and it is totally uninhabited. Except for thousands of birds. There are a few different species of boobies (not just on us girls),red footed and masked are the 2 that i can remember, frigates, lava gulls, herons pelicans, swallow tailed gulls and probably more but to be honest there are too many! There are birds everywhere and they too are not scared of humans at all. We are not allowed to touch them but we could get as close and we want. We walked along the cliffs of the island and looked out into the bay, it was absolutely stunning the water was teal green and you could see the coral reefs reaching out farther than your eyes could see.

Side note; my foot is hurting pretty bad at this point, and abbi and i both are growing tired of bird watching. There really is only so many birds one can handle. We did manage to find another sea lion with her baby in a training pool, so cute.

After the 2 hour hike around the island, it was time to head back to the boat. I took off my shoes and realized then that i had hurt my foot pretty bad. My toe was all swollen and black and blue. This is really gonna slow me down :( oh well, it only makes sense as every single time i go on vacation i hurt my foot is some way.

Okay enough about my foot. It still hurts a lot by the way and it is huge, I’ve been icing it when i get the chance...

We drove the pangas back to the boat, had a snack and met on the top deck to get our snorkeling briefing. We all tried on our stuff and off we went, back to the pangas. Our guide took us right up to the cliff that we are anchored near as the ocean seemed a bit more calm there.

We slid off the boats and into the water. It was a bit fresh but really pretty nice considering the time of year here. We followed the cliffs along the shoreline and saw a few fish and crabs but nothing too exciting. I stuck my head out of the water to see what everyone else was doing and saw a few peeps hanging back. I thought i should swim over and check it out and what did i find?! A sea lion right there in the water with us! He was hanging out upside down watching the same fish we were. It was so awesome, he swam around in the water with such ease and grace and all while looking like he was having a riot. I've seem many sea lions from above the water but to be right there less than a meter away from him under the water was a whole new experience. This is exactly what i came here for. I am happy :)

The sea lion swam off after letting us watch him for 15 minutes or so and it was time to go back for lunch. After lunch we got some chill out time and most people went to have a nap to catch up on the lost sleep from last night. The sun was still shining so i figured i should take it in. I got my book and by iPod and sat on 2nd deck for and hour or so. I really enjoyed listening to my music and watching the birds circle around the boat and the cliffs while getting gently rocked back and forth with the waves.

Eventually the rest of the team started to come out of their cabins and it was time for snorkeling trip number two. The sea had become quite rough at this point so abbi and a few other peeps stayed back while the rest of us climbed back into the dingy. We went over to the other side of the bay to see if we could find some calm water but didn’t really have any luck, the waves were tossing us around quite a bit and we almost called it quits. We decided that since we were already out there we better give it a go. I plunged in first and starting searching the water below me for wildlife. There was nothing. We were in much deeper and rougher waters this time and I’m not gonna lie; i had bull sharks on my brain the whole time. I looked over my shoulder about a million times and nearly jumped out of my bathing suite when anyone accidentally touched me with their flippers. Hopefully i get over this fear as we only have about 10 more snorkeling trips left!

Then it was back to to the boat for yet another excursion. We got our shoes ready for a dry landing and headed over the the other side of the island for more bird watching. I've seen enough birds to last a life time at this point.

Now we are back on the boat, we've had dinner and are all now writing in our journals, watching movies, chatting and having beers. All in all, after the way today started off, its ended pretty well. I've got some sun, had some laughs and seen a few amazing sights. We are heading to our next island in a couple hours or so. The captain was going to leave tomorrow morning but after how rough the ocean was last night he doesn’t want to risk arriving late tomorrow to Santiago island. Apparently it is more popular with tour groups than the island we visited to day.

We are all hoping that we sleep better tonight and that the ocean isn't too rough while we cruise to Santiago island. Its about a 6-7 hour ride. I’ve shared some of my graval with one of the ladies who experienced sea sickness pretty bad this morning. I hope we all make it through the night!

Tomorrow we are hoping to snorkel with some penguins! Here's to hoping!

AUG 26th - first day of the Galapagos tour.

We woke up really early thins morning so we could make it to the airport in Guayaquil. The alarm went off at 630 am and i was first to shower. Abbi mumbles something to me on my way into the bathroom about sparks in the shower. I assumed she was still half asleep and talking gibberish.

I took off my pj's pulled the curtain and stood out side the shower stall before i turned on the tap, and thank god i did. I pulled the switch on the shower head over to get the hot water. As soon as i got the switch over to the left, a huge electrical current ran through the electrical tape covered wires on the shower head and a few large sparks flew directly at my face! Talk about a wake up call, following the sparks came a huge cloud of smoke and by this time i had screamed loud enough to wake up every one in the apartment. I could hear abbi chuckling in the room through the walls. I turned the switch back to the right side and assumed at this point that I’d be having another cold shower.

Before i got back in the shower i went back into our room where abbi proceeded to tell me that she had done the same thing the night before while i was sleeping. Note to self; from now on i will listen to abbi mumbling to me in the morning.

After that, breakfast was pretty uneventful. Breakfast of toast and marmalade and instant coffee. It seems that i better get used to it, its hard to come by a real cup of coffee around these parts.

Once we had finished breakfast we packed our bags and our host mom drove us to the airport. Everything went off without a hitch there. We got our tourist cards for the islands, our boarding passes and off we went to catch the plane.

Turns out the flight was only an hour and a half and not the 3 hours we had anticipated. That was a pleasant surprise as we landed on Baltra island in no time.

After we paid our 100 US entrance fee, we were met by our tour guide Christian and waited for the 14 others that were to join us on the boat.
We took a bus to a ferry that dropped us off right at our boat for the week, Floreana. We saw a few crabs, pelicans and frigate birds on the way and even 2 small manta rays swimming along the shore.

Our boat is big, 75 feet, a bit out of date and smells of mildew but abbi and i have our own room with 2 bunk beds and a private bathroom. The style is very similar to mom and dad's boat, just a bit more tired. We had lunch right away, pasta and cucumber salad. Then we had our loooong safety demonstration.

By 2;00 we were on a dingy (or panga) out first island; Santa Cruz. It has the biggest population of all the islands of 20 000. We hopped in a mini van once we got to shore and drove to a national park to find the giant tortoises. We saw about 10! they are massive and prehistoric looking, some of them make loud hissing sounds if you get too close. We learned about the mating process and the protection of the large reptiles  by the locals. It was very foggy and a bit raining which normal for our altitude of about 500 feet above sea level. We all had to wear the rubber boots provided for us as it was very wet and muddy.

We looked for the tortoises for about 2 hours and also walked through a giant cave made by flowing lava from a volcano eruption. We also saw a very large crater that formed after the volcano erupted. It looked like a giant cenote in mexico, about 250 meters across and 100 meters deep.

It was then time to go back to the boat for dinner. We all met in the dining cabin and ate together. We had mashed potato, veggies and chicken, we all must have been starving as it got very quite once the food was served.

After dinner we all introduced ourselves and met the crew members. They are 6 all together and they all have different jobs on board. It was so cute, they all put on crisp white uniforms for the introductions. They we had a few hours of chill out time, we chatted, took some pictures of the pelican that hangs out on out boat and got a bit familiar with everyone on board.

now abbi and i are in our room getting ready for bed. I am on the top bunk and abbi has the bottom. The boat will be cruising for the next six hour to our next island while we are sleeping.

By 6am tomorrow we will be at our next stop; Genovesa. Its the most northern of the islands and we have 2 snorkel trips planed. Its gonna be a great.

one night in Guayaquil

We have now left Playas and are back in Guayaquil. After our 3 hour bus ride back to the city we were met at the bus terminal by Carmen’s friend. This is weird but at this point we still don’t know her name.


She drove us from the terminal back to her house which is located directly on the hill near the malacon 2000. this is a long board walk type structure that runs along the Rio Gguayas. It turns out that we are right down the street from the hostle i stayed at when i fist arrived here.

Abbi and i were quite shocked when we entered her house and saw all her paintings. Mostly they are all nude women. Breasts are everywhere! Beside the nudity theme, her house also follow a nautical theme. We noticed on the the wall that her now deceased husband was the commodore of the Guayaquil yacht club. What are the chances of ending up in a sailor house here in Guayaquil??? i guess they call it fate!

After abbi and i got a tour of the house, we pieced together in broken Spanish, English and french (franglish!) that the home owner is a massage therapist, a pizza delivery driver, a painter, sailor and and guest home host, taxi driver and lesbian! What a combo.

Anyways, she gave us the keys to the house and showed us on the street which way was safe for a walk and where we may find a place for dinner.

We headed towards the river, found the 151 steps and climbed to the top. We stopped for a drink and took some picture at the top before we headed back down to the malacon. We were absolutely starved by the time we found a place to eat at. It was happy hour and the university soccer teams were playing on the TV. It seems the whole place was there to see the game. Every time their favourite team scored, GOOOOOOAAAAAAAL! The whole place lit up with excitement.

I tried some of the local food, arroz et cameron (rice and shrimp) abbi had mac and cheese. Once we had the food in our bellies we were ready for bed and started the walk back to our guest house.

We are now back in our room with 2 single beds, an air conditioner humming and a TV with some Spanish dvds. I think we'll try and watch one anyways as we haven’t seen a TV for a while.

Tomorrow our flight leaves the airport at 1030am for the Galapagos! So excited. We also just read that the water is gonna be freezing when we arrive there. I hope the guide book is wrong.