We had one final excursion before heading to the airport on our last day, and this was a must-see for me: blue-footed booby nesting grounds! We got to see the goofy little guys guarding their eggs and doing their funny mating dance with those floppy blue feet. They were adorable! Oh, and baby sea lions napped on the beach while waiting for mommy to come back with breakfast. So, cuteness overload. We had hoped to see a frigatebird with his red balloon waddle fully inflated close up, but we walked at such an insanely slow place we didn’t get to the spot where they were nesting, and had to make do with seeing them at a distance. Zach was bummed about that, but they were cool nonetheless and he still got some pics.
Then we popped off to the airport and I pulled an Irish goodbye with the tour group, slipping through to the gates without so much as a backward glance. This became somewhat awkward when they all ended up at the gate next to ours. I smiled and waved sheepishly. Oops.
Now we are back at home with our sweet Melina, who had the time of her life on her choir’s Bermuda cruise (she won an award for “Outstanding Soloist!”) and in Baltimore and NYC with her “fairy godmother,” Thea Georgia. We told her we missed her so so so much and she just laughed and hugged us, later admitting to me that, “I feel kinda bad because I didn’t miss you guys AT ALL!”
Some final thoughts about the trip:
- When we arrived in Ecuador after our Panama stopover, Diane happily announced, “three countries in three days!” Pretty cool.
- Everything and everyone we interacted with in Ecuador was unfailingly prompt! Never was anyone even one minute late for anything.
- The official currency is the US dollar, but other than at the airport, we had to use cash for everything. If a bill was too old or wrinkly, it would not be accepted. Zach had one old, ripped up 20 that we called “the evil 20” because we couldn’t use it anywhere, and we had to bury it in the bottom of his backpack to use back at home.
- We had heard that single-use plastics were banned in the Galapagos and there were signs in the airport saying as much, but there were tons of items available for sale in the Galapagos that were packaged in disposable plastic. Maybe you just aren’t allowed to bring anything in yourself that would then be thrown out there?
- Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos had many great eco friendly attributes, like bike lanes with solar powered streetlights. But I was sad that they didn’t check for reef friendly sunscreens in the airport or on the cruise- lots of our fellow passengers were using the sprays that are so bad for sea life.
- Coffee in Ecuador was delicious- smooth and not at all bitter. We also had some lovely teas, including hierba Luisa (lemongrass) and Manzanilla con miel (camomile with honey) that we plan to add to our rotation at home.
- One of the most common phrases we used was, “que tipos de jugos hay?” to ask what kinds of juices were available. Diane loved them all: tree tomato, naranjilla, and coconut were common and muy delicioso!
- We were in very safe locations, but with all the news of late it was reassuring that we saw no signs of any crime whatsoever on our trip. Apparently the problems are pretty much contained to the coast.
- When we landed we found out from Georgia that had been a widespread blackout on the mainland for almost the entire country of Ecuador (18 million people) while we were in the Galapagos! We heard nothing of this while on our trip. Is that because it was only for 3 hours, or is that because this type of thing is common (similar to the water outages in Panama City)?
- We LOVED Ecuador and would go back in a heartbeat! Places left on our list to see: Quito, Cotopaxi, and the Amazon.
Now to start thinking about where we will go next…
Traveling Together 