Nov 19 Saturday is market day in Otavalo so off I go. Traffic was brutal getting out of the city, thanks to construct and an overturned truck. It was interesting to see lots of people walking along the highway. Many catholics do this pilgrimage every year. The main road will close this evening as most people walk along through the night. The highways have improved immensely in the past 20 years. They have big wide shoulders and there were several groups of c...

Nov 18 It was very hard to say good bye to the Galapagos Islands today. We had a great group of people on the boat and it was also hard to say good bye to them. We all would have rather stay on the boat longer... even some marine life dropped by to bid us farewell. We had a big shark swimming around the boat as we were getting ready to disembark. Cool to see, bu let's just say that I didn't really want to swim with him! At least I had a week in Quito with m...

Finally starting to post some of the pictures from my camera... Top down views of Quito first. I took the cable car ride up a mountain for some great views of the city and surrounding mountains.

Nov 17 We are starting the day with a hike and snorkel at Saint James (Santiago) Island. Most Islands have several names, thanks to all the different explorers who arrived way back when. The visibility was a bit better today and we saw tons of big turtles, rays and some fish. Twice, a sea lion swam right underneath me and flipped over to check me out, but she didn't stick around to play. Sea lions seem are my new favourite animals! We also saw tons of sea lio...

Nov 16 We went for a long hike at Punta Espinosa. It was quite beautiful and creepy all at once. We got off the ponga onto some slippery lava rocks and then had to really watch each step as there were so many iguanas and lizards lying around. It was cool but also just a little disconcerting to see so many iguanas that really are not bothered by you. Their camouflage is pretty effective so my biggest fear was actually accidentally stepping on one. Yuk. We eventua...