Mother-Daughter trip to Galapagos and Ecuador

After flying all day – we have finally arrived into Quito! Betty was waiting with a smile for us at the airport exit and her husband Marcelo drove us to the Eugenia, our home for many of our nights in Quito. The hotel is beautiful, the staff so nice and friendly, and our room is so cute. We scrambled to repack for the Galapagos and packed a bag to leave in the hotel. What a long day! Pickup is at 9 tomorrow morning, so at least we can get a good night sleep.

This morning we woke and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. We walked around our hotel, just a few blocks – enough to stretch our legs after a long day of flying. We met Nancy and Scott on the steps of our hotel, and Betty picked us all up to take us to the airport for our flight to the Galapagos. Fabricio, our guide, met us at the airport, took care of our bags and check in, and waited for our flights. When we arrived to the Galapagos we met the other three in our group, Rod and Barbara from New York, and their son Russel from California. A five minute drive had us at our hotel overlooking the bay with all the yachts floating in front of us. We went for a walk this afternoon to the Frigate Hill. We walked a little through town for a few minutes and then headed along the trail. We went to the highest point, where we got a great view of the little inlet below us (where we are kayaking to tomorrow) and all the way to Isla Lobo, or Kicker Rock, where we will be snorkeling later this week. We saw some blue-footed boobies, BIRDS, and sea lions playing in the water below us. The walk back was a little bit tricky, walking on uneven lava rocks in the near dark! Dinner was delicious, and afterwards, Fabricio took us all out to the beach in town so we could see the sea lion babies hanging out, waiting for their moms to return from hunting. Then we all went to a local bar where we had Caiparinas, a popular local drink made out of extremely sweet sugar cane liquor. Some headed back, but Fabricio, Russell and I took on some locals in pool – and managed to lose more than once.

This morning we set off on a boat for a full day of snorkeling. What a fun day! I was glad that we had the day before to get used to snorkeling, because we had a lot of snorkeling to do today. Our first stop, we snorkeled off the back of the boat, and stayed pretty near the line of lava rocks. We saw so many different fish right away! A few minutes into the water, my mom and I ended up away from the group, and had two sea lions start playing in the water with each other right in front of us. We watched them for several minutes, dancing in the water. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen! We felt the need to move on from them – and am I glad that we did. We had a great time snorkeling with Fabricio. He pointed out so many fish to us, (none of which I can remember now) and then we eventually ended up on the edge of this little pool full of baby sea lions. We sat with them for nearly half an hour, watching them play and check us out. One even was nibbling on my mom’s flipper while she sat on the edge of a rock! Occasionally one of the moms would come by and yell at the babies, who would run away from us for a few minutes. But a few minutes later, and their curiosity got the best of them and they were back playing with us. Then, to make things that much more exciting, the alpha male came right up behind us, and barked at us! I turned around (I was on the edge of the circle) and he was just feet behind me! Luckily all he did was back, and then swam back to his perch 50 yards away from us. For as slow and awkward as they look on shore, they are graceful and fast in the water! I did not want to be on that guy’s bad side! The boat picked us up a few minutes later and we were off to our next destination – Kicker Rock, where we would be snorkeling with sharks, if we were lucky. We were. We saw several sharks quite a way below us. It was really fascinating how quickly I felt it was ok to snorkel with sharks, to the point of swimming towards them when I saw them! Instinct would tell you to swim away, but I was very trusting of our guide. We also swam over a school of spotted eagle manta rays. They are enormous, about the size of a car. I never in a million years thought I would be snorkeling with eagle manta rays or sharks, let alone both at the same time! Our third destination would be after lunch and a hike. We were now at the other end of San Cristobal Island, and hiked over the hills to the very end of the island. It looked like we were hiking on Mars. Crazy red rocks, real dry, desert-like, but beautiful. We snorkeled near a small collection of volcanic rocks pretty much out in the open. The water current was a little stronger here, so I was more nervous. I quickly relaxed when I started playing a small sea lion. She had the most beautiful, cartoon-like eyes. She would swim slowly below me and stare up into my eyes. I could get enough of playing with her. We swam circles around each other. She would swim full speed at my face, and dive below me. I wasn’t comfortable diving down with her, but Fabricio dove down to play with her. After 15 minutes of this, we were summoned back to the boat to start our long journey back to town and our hotel. I just can’t get over the look in that sea lion’s eyes. She was so sweet. My mom thought her eyes made her look like a Disney character. They did look big and fake!

We woke early this morning to catch our little 12-seater flight to Isabela. After we landed we headed to our hotel and then off to get our bikes for our next adventure. Unfortunately, this was the most we have seen the sun, and it was a pretty hot bike ride. But the ride was beautiful! We saw lots of marine iguanas along the way. We rode next to the beach for quite a while, and then started climbing until we reached the trail to the wall of tears. The wall was built by prisoners who once occupied the islands. After our bike ride and a hearty lunch, we met and walked to the dock to catch a boat to our last snorkel spot. The water was a little murky, but we still saw tons of fish, a manta ray, and some sea lions to play with! Exhausted after another busy day, we all went to bed pretty early today.

Today we had to say goodbye to Quito, Ecuador and Betty, our most wonderful host. I just hope that I will be able to return someday to see all the parts of the country I had missed!