Oct 23rd... Day 5

Sarah and I decided to have a chill day. Most of the group decided to go to "The Poor Mans Galapagos" to do some snorkeling and hiking. It would have been neat to see the blue footed boobies and such, but we decided a regroup day was a little more important.

So we rolled out of bed at noon for some breakfast, put a little aloe on the shoulders (and our burns were probably the least in the group haha), and I finally checked me email (thanks to Chris... as some of you may have realized my email got hacked the day I left.. so hotmail locked me out. I needed a cell phone number in order to regain access to my account... and since I'm in South America, I seem to be lacking a cell phone number... so my apologies to all those that received some span from my account).

That night we went for a group dinner to celebrate one of our group members 70th birthday!! I guess on that note it's probably a good time to introduce the group. So, you already know Sarah and myself are on this tour. Then we have a couple from BC, Oscar and Joy. There is a lady from just outside Calgary, Janice. We have a few more young ladies, Kim from New York and Sarah from the UK. We have a charming young man from Switzerland. We have another Canadian girl joining us a little later in the tour names Erin. And lastly, our lovely leader Giovanny!

Anyway, for Oscar's 70th birthday we followed the Ecuadorian traditions... he basically had to smoosh his face in to his birthday cake... and then that was followed with a belt beating for every year. He was a pretty good sport about it.

Oct 22nd... Day 4

The bus was long. My sleep... was not so good. But we did watch a Van Damme flick.... which does not particularly make you want to sleep.. a little too much fighting to be considered a bed time story.

Anyway, we arrived safely in Puerto Lopez bright and early in the morning and hopped on a tuk-tuk to take us to our hostel. There we all opted for a little nap before breakfast.. as I don't think many people slept all that much.

After our nap.. and breakfast.. we all decided a beach day was in order.... most of the group decided to work on their tans, and a few of us decided to go for a hike. Gorgeous. The beach was in Machililla National Park. I'll get a picture up here as soon as I can. It's pretty desert like, but the sand an the ocean.. so pretty.

Oct 21st... Day 3

Today was another day in Quito (the capital of Ecuador)... and we decided we wanted to go to the equator (Mitad del Mundo). So neat! I figured we would just go and stand on the a nice little painted line and take a picture.. but it was oh so much better than that! There's a "museum" there.. and there's all these nifty things you can do while standing right on the equator. We had a guide that showed us all these things they've discovered... you can balance an egg on a nail, because the yolk settles inside the egg to make it balance... water doesn't funnel (either does air.. but water was easier to see), so when you pour water our it just drops straight out without turning clockwise or counter clockwise, but if you stand a meter of the equator it funnels in the appropriate direction...... also you're crazy week when you straddle the equator...

Anyway, that took up most of our day............ on to the night bus to the coast! Here we come Puerto Lopez.

Oct 20th... Day 2

Today was the first day of our tour, but it was a day to ourselves because people were arriving at all different times. So, Sarah and I decided to take the day to explore Quito. We started with a nice late lunch at Coffee Tree (despite the English name.. there was no English spoken there... as there is no English spoken anywhere in Quito we quickly realized).

After breakfast we caught a taxi to the Old Town and just had a look around, and then headed to the market a couple blocks from our hostel.

That evening we met most of our group. We have quite the eclectic bunch. Should be fun!

Oct 19th... Day 1

So most know I'm a little bit of a procrastinator... well, there were no exceptions when it came to my packing.

My flight left at 8:30am... and I was packing until 4:30am.... oops.

It worked out just fine though (minus the fact that I think my backpack is a little too full... but when you finish packing at 4:30am you have no time to repack). Anyway, Sarah Penner and I boarded our flight bright and early and didn't arrive until 11:00pm. It could have been a long day, however since I only slept an hour the night before I pretty much slept the WHOLE way down. It was lovely.

Anyway, first impression of Quito..... no one seems to be on the streets at 11:00pm...

Alright... let's do this.

So.. I'm back in Quito... and I'm going to see if I can get some blogging in today. I'm going to attempt to do a day-by-day... so I guess I better catch up.