Boobies!

That’s right, the guest star is back for more fun-filled Epic Adventures and this time I have managed to drag M along for the tour – actually all I did was mention the possibility of the Galápagos Islands and she jumped on board. Her reason for going – to deliver new salsa dancing skirts to mis hermanas; unfortunately the skirts did not arrive in time to make it in her suitcase… Haha

After 18 hours of flight and airport time (Ecuador is really far away from Hawaii, at least as the plane flys), M and I arrived in Quito and were NOT greeted by our REI Adventure and Red Mangrove guide (NOTE: I was projecting forward during the original draft of this post). This will be our first time traveling with REI – I love their stores, products and company, just ask anyone who has had to drive me to their store on mainland visits (no stores in Hawaii 😢, but free online shipping which is a big deal in the islands). Most visits to the Galápagos Islands are arranged through travel tours, because to go anywhere outside of the port towns you must have a tour guide (to protect the natural setting) – although my travel book says it is possible to just fly to the islands and hook up with walking tours. With M’s requirement (and my extreme interest) to go to the Galapagos, we decided to take REI up on all those Adventure emails they send. And I have been talking about Boobies, the blue-footed kind, ever since!

But before the islands there was a day in Quito and we managed to fill it with a trip to the Equator, a trip to the actual equator and some old churches. Our first stop was Mitad del Mundo where we looked at a large ball (which was the earth) on top of a giant podium (which was a giant podium). We grabbed the typical photos standing on the equator line then booked it next door to the Museo del Intinan where the actual equator is. Apparently when the French marked the middle of the Earth they were about 300 meters off according to GPS. The Museo was quite good and included not only different experiences to try out while standing on the equator, like draining water in each hemisphere, balancing an egg on a nail and trying to walk in a straight line, as well as shrunken heads and a highlander dance in which we all participated. We end our daylight hours by peeking in the doors of churches (apparently everyone gets married on Saturdays) in Old Town Quito.

We called it a early night due to our early flight the next morning.

Our guide arrived exactly on time in the morning for our transport to the Galapagos (which I am told is quite an event since Ecuadorians are usually late). Our morning consisted breakfast then transit from one end of Ecuador to the other with a 2nd breakfast then onto the islands with an early 11zs via a plane then to another island via a boat then over to the other side of the island via a coach to our Red Mangrove Lodge all before 11:30am. We explored the lodge for the rest of the morning and watched marine iguanas swim in and out to sea, brown pelicans bathing themselves, sea lions sleep under the deck, frigate birds cruise the wind currents, and examined the finches’ bills as they came to our table to display.

After lunch and the arrival of the rest of our group, we headed to the beach with our nature guide to enjoy the beautiful afternoon – then just as H and I swam out into the ocean we noticed an usual bird sitting next to the pelicans – our first blue-footed booby! We immediately swam out to check out his feet which were a lighter blue then we were anticipating, still a beautiful blue though. The rest of the afternoon we watched numerous pelicans and boobies drive bomb the ocean in search of fish – all and all a pretty great start to an exciting 2 weeks.

Tags: Ecuador, Galapagos, Quito, travel blog