Tripping the Life Fantastic

Anyone who tells you that a visit to the Galapagos Islands is a one-of-a-kind experience is definitely being truthful. However, those who tell you it will be the most amazing place you ever visit are exaggerating just a little. One obstacle is the price tag. The islands are quite an expensive undertaking so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone on a strict budget. That being said, I don't really regret forking out the moolah for it truly is unique when it comes to the wildlife and the proximity with which one can rub elbows with sea lions, iguanas, and boobies. No, I don't mean Ecuadorean bosoms -these are actually a kind of bird found in abundance on the islands. Why they are called "boobies" has to do with foreigners mispronouncing the locals' Spanish term for the bird ("bobo"). If I were to dissect the place into bits and then compare it to other places I've been fortunate enough to visit, the Galapagos Islands don't necessarily always come

October 17-18, Quito and Cuyabeno Reserve The morning of Monday the 17th I took care of business. Namely - I bought tickets for the night bus to Lago Agrio ($8) and broke down and booked a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Everyone I have met who's been there has been strongly encouraging me to go, saying I'd be kicking myself in the ass for essentially the rest of my life if I didn't go. Hmm...hope they're right! For the price tag, it had better surpass my expectations! I met my jungle traveling buddy, Clare, at 8 pm and we went out for dinner at the Magic Bean Cafe. She raved on and on during the meal about her Galapagos trip and showed me a few of her pics. Looks promising, oh yes indeed! Clare and I caught the Esmeraldas night bus at 11 pm and agreed to sleep in shifts so we could keep an eye on our belongings. I stayed awake until almost 3 am passing the time by watching Glee and Beatles videos on my iPod and iPad respectively. We reached Lago Agrio at just after

Saturday-Sunday, October 15-16, Bellevista Lodge, near Mindo. I ain't no birdwatcher!! I mean, I gave it my best shot but came up lacking. How I came to realize this was by visiting the Bellevista Lodge which is in a reserve of a cloud forest near Mindo, Ecuador. I booked a two-day/one night excursion there complete with transport, all meals and an English-speaking guide. In my group there were two quintessential elderly English ladies, Lynda and Margaret, and one other American, Ronnie, a doctor from San Francisco. The lodge was rustic and cozy with no heat but plenty of wool blankets to pile on. I stayed in the dorm for a reduced price (luckily no one else was there that night so it was all "MINE, MINE, MINE" -TM the seagulls of "Finding Nemo") and to reach it one had to ascend a ladder similar to something out of a fire station yet lacking the stripper pole to slide down, pity. The place was crawling, or rather fluttering, with hummingbirds! It was

Friday, October 14, Otavelo. Today was memorable for I went on a day trip with Elena's husband, Paco. We traveled to Otavelo which was roughly a 2-hour drive. It was significantly foggy throughout the drive obscuring our views of the mountains along the Norte Pan American Highway (but it was clear when we returned in the afternoon so...no biggie). Otavelo is well-known for its Saturday artisan market, but as we were there on the day before, we missed the touristic masses but I still felt that I got a decent sampling of the crafts/wares for sale. I resisted the urge to buy, buy, buy (due to backpack limitations) but did purchase a pair of earrings made out of some sort of green bead for just a buck. But better than the market for me was visiting the waterfall on the outskirts of town. It was beyond picturesque, replete with a rainbow and grotto in which Paco urged me to explore (as he knew that its dark tunnel led to an open cavern). It took me two attempts to traverse the

I neglected to write in my journal for a few days so I'm going to focus on just imparting the highlights of the next 3 days. Tuesday (Oct 11) -I spent a splendiferous morning literally in the clouds! I took a ride up Quito's funicular which is apparently the 2nd highest one in the world (Where in the Waldo World is numero uno I wonder...) at 4050 meters. The view of the city was pretty much obscured at first but later on it cleared up considerably which made this photographer muy contenta, i.e. borderline orgasmic. On a whim, I decided to go for a 30-minute horse ride at the top for $5. You know what? Scratch that. I was hardly feeling whimsical about getting on a horse again as it had been 17 years since I last parked my derriere on a horse (this being in the Tatra Mountains of the Czech Republic). My last horsey encounter did NOT go well for, even though I'd been repeatedly reassured that my Czech horse was lazy and thus slow, this had NOT been the case. It had

The word "WOW" seems hardly sufficient. But I mean how else can I begin to describe how it feels to have finally commenced my year-long backpacking trip around the globe? Let's start again. Yikes! Yes, that's also how it feels and there were moments in the first 24 hours when I wanted to dance jubilantly, ooh outloud appreciatively and sob pathetically. But let's go back to the beginning. I flew out of LAX on time and with nary a hiccup (unless you count the fact that my sister Jenny informed me via Facebook that I had inadvertently dropped a pair of my underwear - clean ones mind you - on her living room floor which meant I was 1 day short of undies, DRAT). However, the landing at George Bush International Airport in Houston was hairy scary! It was raining something fierce with some serious wind sheer and so the plane suddenly aborted its landing and began ascending again. It circled around the airport a few times before it could land safely. The who