12th September

Jumped on to the bus to Quito today, crossed the equator twice, then found a hotel. Wandering aimlessly through Quito we ate lunch and went to the park. After a while we got Granny. Granny will be staying with us for 6 weeks - as she will soon find out when she reads this blog entry.

13th September

We all woke up at 3:30 this morning, to get the plane to the Galápagos!! Yes it was a very early morning but it was worth all the hassle. The first journey was only half an hour, but then we stayed on the plane for another 30 minutes until it set off again to the islands. This took slightly longer - but oh well. When we arrived we went to a man with a white board saying: Grist x5. He put us on a bus to a boat to a car to Hotel España in Puerto Ayora the main town of the island of Santa Cruz in the Galápagos. We settled in then went to have lunch. Whilst eating we saw some Galápagos Finches a.k.a Darwin's Finches. When we finished we went to the Charles Darwin Research Centre. And guess what was there.......... Giant Galápagos Tortoises! They are massive. They are so humongas it's hard to describe how huge they really are, unless you've seen the real thing! After the Tortoises we saw some Galápagos Land Iguanas. They weren't as big as the tortoises but they are pretty large for iguanas. When we had finished admiring the animals we went to a beach and spotted a group of 4 Sting Rays closing in on us........ not really! They just swam around a lot then went. Shortly afterwards Jack found some perywinkles, he named them all then raced them, one just stayed where it was - I've got a feeling it might of been dead. Later on we went back to the hotel.

14th-September

Before I write about today I am going say this one thing. To all those who are worring about our bladders overflowing on the 18 hour bus: THERE IS A TOILET ON THE BUS!!! OK?

Woke up, had breakfast then got on the boat to Floreana - another island. When we got there the guide took us on a truck to see more giant tortoises. But this time we were allowed to get super, super close! Unluckily we weren't allowed to get rides from them or touch them. :-( Then we went to a maze like thing that pirates lived in. My Mum and I had worn flip-flops so when it came to walking up a muddy hill Mum managed to get half way up but her foot slipped and she came sliding down the slope leaving the flip-flop half way up! Finally, when we were all up the guide took us to a view on the side of the maze. Near there he show us some house like caves, next to a big carved head. After that we got back on the truck, had lunch, and went to beach. However it is not warm as you would of thought, in fact it is quite the opposite! It's positively freezing! Although we did have wet suites it was still as cold as cold can be. Despite the fact we were turning into live ice cubes we did see a Galápagos Green Turtle! And a baby Sea lion came to play with us! He swam around us on his back, whenever we came near him he would turn over twizzle around under water swim away a little, then go on his back again! He was awesome! As it was so cold we got out soon though, much to the Sea Lions disappointment I'm sure. We then went back to the boat and back to the other island, back to the hotel, and later on of course back to sleep.

15th-September

Had a lazy morning, then went for a walk to Tortuga Bay. At Tortuga bay we had a play in the sand, while Dad and Granny went for a walk. Whilst were just washing off the sand we spotted a shark! It must ahve been at least 2m long, it swam right up to the beach just next to us!!!! Luckily it caught the waves back in to deeper water and we were now safely back on dry land, without having been eaten.

After that excitement we headed back for a really speedy lunch, which was a shame as it was the first lunch with proper pudding since Alaska! We raced off to catch the boat to Isabella, the biggest island in the Galapagos.

The boat was very bumpy and it made your tummy feel funny every time you went over a wave. I felt a bit sick, along with everyone else I am sure. I fell asleep though, I was awoken by the sound of a man falling out of the toilet and breaking the door as we went through a rough bit!

When we arrived on Isabela a man put us in his van along with some other people and we went to our hotel. We just had a few minutes to find our rooms then we went to see some flamingos, went to the beach and then got lost on the way back to the hotel. Granny said to a lady in spanish: "Yo perdido, ¿donde estoy?" ( i am lost, where am i?) and the lady replied " ¡usted esta en isla de Isabela !" (you are on Isabela Island! ). That was not very helpful, we already knew that.

We found our way back however, joined by everyone else from the hotel as they had followed us assuming we knew where to go!

16th September

Got up, had breakfast and went to the ' sandwich factory' to make- guess what?- sandwiches for our packed lunch. Today we are going for a walk up a volcano, the Sierra Negra , the second largest volcanic crater in the world. We are going with a bunch of people from the hotel.

It took a long time to get to the top and was very, very hot. Whilst we were up there all we could think about was going snorkling in the afternoon to cool down. At the top we walked on old lava flows and lava tubes, if we stomped on them they sounded hollow. When we stopped for a rest at the very top the man from the boat who fell out of the toilet, who we had made friends with and now know is called Ming asked his girlfriend to marry him, and he gave her a beautiful diamond ring!

On the way back Jack found half the bottom jaw of a horse skull, he got a man called Adrian to pull out the teeth for him so that he could take it back and put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy ( it didn't work).

That afternoon we went on a little boat to Tintoreas, on the way we saw a Galapagos penguin ! On the little pier there were 3 sealions playing we watched them for a while, then walked around the island where there were millions and millions of smelly marine iguanas, not forgetting the very, very dead one. We walked along to a small lagoon with lots of turtles sticking there heads out of the water, in another part of the lagoon we saw

4 white tipped reef sharks sleeping. White tipped reef sharks are one of the few types of shark that can stay still with out suffocating.

After this we got back on the boat to a small bay where we went snorkling. It was freeeezing, we now wished we were back on the Sierra Negra! We saw some eagle spotted rays and Dad and Jack saw some turtles.

17th Sept

Mum woke us up at 4 am to give us a seasick pill, then we went back to sleep again. Woke up again at 5, to get the truck to the dock. At the dock the driver forgot to put his handbrake on and his truck started rolling towards the sea with my mum and some other passengers still in side. One man had to jump over the seat to pull on the brake and mum had jumped out. Then we catch the boat and taxi and boat and bus and plane. In the airport there were loads of Darwin's finches flying about and one pooed on my head.

Finally got back to Quito at about 6 pm. The Galapagos trip was awesome.

Galapagos facts from Jack

The galapagos has 18 major islands, 3 small islands and 107 rocks and islets.

Its a volcanic archipeligo.

It is 575 miles from Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.

18th Sept

We went to Mitad del Mundo today. This is the the monument to mark the equator line, the equator should be running straight through it but it doesnt, they got it wrong. After this we went to a museum which claimed to be on the correct equator line, but that was wrong too!! At the Museum we learnt about some of the indiginous tribes from the Amazon, one of which shunk human heads. We also learnt about a fish that swims up your urethra if you wee in the Amazon river and lives inside you. Yuk. On the bus back to Quito I bought some Chocolate bars for Jacks birthday present.

19th Sept

¡Feliz Compleaños Jack, ocho hoy!

For Jack's Birthday we went up on the cable car up Volcan Pichincha to about 4200meters high. Going that high makes it hard to breathe because of the altitude. Jack got a headache and pins and needles in his feet and I felt sick. It was also very cold.

We saw lots of police training at the top, we were unimpressed to see that they had taken the cable car too, instead of running or even walking.

That afternoon we caught a couple of very full buses to Jamanco. We got off the bus in the middle of nowhere high up in the Andes ( where are the Andes?? On the end of your armes!). It was was chucking it down and starting to get dark, I wondered what Dad was thinking - camping in this weather? He's mad.We walked down a muddy slope and into a muddy wet field. Whilst Mum and Dad were pitching tje tents in the dard and the rain Jack Granny and I went down to go to......... The hot springs were we bathed, soaked lay around and warmed up thorughly in the boiling hot water from tje mountain! The bad bit about going into the pool was tjhe getting out part - it was rather cold. Ate tea (rolls and chocolate cake) then put all our clothes on, rapped up in our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

20th-September

Went in the hot springs again this morning. This time we could go in a big pool with a water slide! Afterwards we hitch hiked a lift aaaaall the way down to Tena. As it was a new car that the man was delivering, there were plastic covers on the seats and every time we went round a corner (which happened a lot because it was a windy mountain road) we slid into each other! When we got to Tena we found a hotel, ate some lunch and hung around.

21st -September

Guess what? We are going white water rafting today!!! On grade 3 rapids!

We had breakfast, then went to the river. The lady in the inflatable canoe was called Abbie, she gave us a fern tatoo from the powder of the plant and a flower one from some inky stuff from inside a plant. We go to the boats when some other people came. There were 8 people in our raft including the guide called Gregory. Gregory showed us what to do while the raft was still tied up then, when we knew what to do, we were off! First we went down a little bumpy bit which I thought were rapids but they weren't really. But soon we met some real rapids! The raft went up and down and we got splashed a lot and we had to hang on tight so we didn't get thrown into the river- it was so cool! There was a rapid then a pool a rapid, pool, rapid, pool and so on until Jack was offered a go in the ducky (inflatable canoe) and went down a rapid in that then I came in too. Because Jack didn't want to I paddled with Abbie eventually we came to a beach full of big flutterbys all landing on the sand. If you cupped them in your hand gently you could pick them up! We stayed here a little then went and I went in the ducky alone with Abbie for a few rapids. When we went over the rapids in the ducky it fills with water on every bounce and you get soaking! It was even better than the raft! Jack joined us for a bit then we stopped to have lunch, burritos, pineapple and ginger cake- yum.

We got back in the rafts and headed towards the rapids again and played a game called cowboy. Jack went first. He had to sit on the front of the raft with his legs dangling over the edge whilst we went head first over the rapids. Then I had my go, when we went over the rapids i got a face full of water, over and over again, in the end I was pushed backwards and was hanging onto the rope for dear life trying not to fall back into the boat, but i got tired and gave up. After this I went back into the duckie and over a few more rapids whilst everyone else had a go at cowboy.

In a pool Abbie said we could get out and swim. Abbie and I jumped in but Jack stayed in and tried to paddle away from us. Luckily Abbie caught up, climbed in and came back to rescue me.

We carried on over a few more rapids in the raft, then we played one last game. Every one had to get to the back of the boat and lean back so that the raft stood on its end and Jack, being the lightest climbed up to the top then we let the raft go flat again. This worked the first time but the second time we all fell out - everyone exept me! It was the best day ever! I want to be a rafting guide when I'm older! That was so cool!

22nd-September

Got up and caught the bus to baños found a hostel whoose other residents are a tortoise and 2 parrots who can say: "Don't tease the parrots!"

We got a taxi to the zoo where we saw a jaguar, mountain lions, spectacled bears and an escaped squirrel monkey along with many other animals.

23rd-September

We went to the thermal baths heated by the volcano Tungurahua which towers over the town and last erupted in 2006. We sat in the baths in the rain. It was lovely. We spent the rest of the day exploring Baños and drinking smoothies from the market.

Mr Bluggey the Snapping Crocodile. By Jack Grist aged 8.

One Morning I got up and guess what we had for breakfast? Chocolate pancakes, toast and Pan au Chocolate, then we went to the river to have a swim. When we were having a nice swim there was something swimming towards me. It was a crocodile! It was swimming closer and closer and suddenly BLUG!!! and it it ate me. Now I live inside Mr Bluggey. Sorry I didn't tell you that I had named him Mr Blugger.

The next day, at least I think it is the next day, more people flew in on rafts. Their names were Gregory and Abbie, and they let me have a go on their rafts, sliding around on Mr Bluggey's food. Suddenly Bung! Bang! Shuv! Wack! and Loco Jimmy wrestled Mr Bluggey. Mr Bluggey spat us out and I went home and I said " I've not had lunch!".

The End.

grandma Love the story Jack. The rafting sounds great but soaking in the thermal springs sounds even better! We are in Greece where allof there is to do is swimming sun bathing and eating but we are managing to do that very well. Lots of love.xxxxxx

Sep 24, 2013

Grandpa. Wow! Giant tortoises, hit on the head by guano, sharks on the top of a volcano, white water rafting on top of a crocodile, playful seals in thermal pools, Ming vases falling out of bumpy toilets! What a fantastic experience for you 2 - and for Mummy and Daddy and Granny O. We are lazing in the sun by the beach and swimming in Greece and Tammy and Graham (last heard of in Bulgaria) are arriving in 2 hours... Surprise! Can't wait till your next blog Grandpa

Sep 24, 2013

Gracie and Otis wow!!! Jacks story was epic andhe rembered the most important thing -he'd not eaten dinner and Happy Birthday Jack by the way. is it weird being woken up by someone falling out of the toilet? Id love to go white water rafting it sounds epic i wish i could see a sea lion and giant turtle the adventure sounds amazing x

Sep 25, 2013

Tammy This is the best blog ever. You're doing so much and seeing sooooooo many animals. We saw bear prints the other day (but no bears) so not quite as exciting. Not sure I'm happy about you all going rafting though; it's very dangerous!! Be careful all of you. Love you lots. xxxx

Oct 3, 2013