We got up at the crack of dawn to eat our last meal aboard the boat. We had to get going if we were going to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station before it was time to go to the airport. Sadly the research station - supposedly one of the Galapagos highlights - wasn't very impressive. They ar…
Blog posts : "2014 Peru & Galapagos"
Bird fight
This morning we took a walk on Isla Rabida. These Galapagos Mockingbirds were having a turf fight on the beach.
Then in the afternoon we visited Isla Sombrero Chino. On the left you can see a newer black lava flow, and then a somewhat older lava island covered in cactus.
Since today was ou…
Galapagos Wildlife
Today we took a walk on Playa Espumilla on James Island. Our guide tried to convince us that it was cool that this was the one place we would be allowed to wander the beach alone. Given that on the 4 night cruise we estimate that we got a total of 8 to 10 hours of his time, and other than that he …
How could they be so close and yet so different?
Today we went for a walk on Sullivan Bay on James Island and Bartolome Island. We’ve noticed that despite being right next to each other, the formation of the islands appears to be totally different. Yesterday at Playa Las Bachas the beach had all these lava rocks scattered across the beach as if …
Crack Job of Logistical Planning
This morning we headed to the airport where we were to meet the guide for our cruise boat – the New Flamingo.
We were well aware this was the “economy” option. However, the lack of planning was bad even for a third world country. Here are the various stupid things that occurred just today:…
Hanging in Town
Mike and Holly went diving this morning. We had planned to go to Isabella and repeat yesterday's tour now that Dave feels better, but since it was such a lame tour, we decided we would just hang out in town and watch life go by here in Port Ayora.
Tomorrow we board a boat for a 5 day tour of …
Lamest Tour Ever
Last night Dave got quite ill. He though he might have a kidney stone that had gotten infected. He was in a lot of pain and was running a very high fever. Fortunately we had antibiotics with us. By this morning he was still sick but the fever wasn't nearly as high. None the less, he was in no s…
Hammerhead Sharks!
This morning we got up early and headed for the dive shop for our Galapagos dive adventure. The first dive we saw nearly zilch. And it was COLD water. Holly and Melissa both came up frozen. We warmed up a bit between dives, but we both debated whether getting so cold a second time was worth it i…
Giant Turtle Reserve
This morning Melissa got up early and headed into town. She's been frustrated at not being able to blog - held up by the fact that we took a ton of video footage in the Amazon, and the You Tube videos are taking forever to load - even at the fastest internet cafe in town. The hotel internet is so …
Down Day
Everyone was pretty wore out from the Amazon trip and from traveling for two days. So we decided today we needed a "down day" to sleep in, do laundry, catch up on email and blogging, etc. So we didn't do much of anything interesting unless you consider dropping off the laundry three doors down fro…
Learning to Elbow the Locals
We awoke early this morning and headed to the airport for the trip from Lima to the Galapagos. Upon reaching Guayaquil in Ecuador, we discovered why all the guidebooks say you have to plan extra time there to make your connection to the Galapagos. After clearing immigration and customs, you take y…
Dramatic Rescue on the Amazon River
his morning it was time to say goodbye to the Amazon Lodge. We made friends, saw what wildlife there was to see, and relaxed listening to the jungle symphony of sounds. The group gathered for one last picture on the lawn before we headed up river back to civilization.
Along the way, Juan Carl…
Wilder Town
When we awoke Dave headed off to help the guys fix the water pump. It wasn’t primed, so Dave showed one of the workers how to do that. The joints were leaking and they had tried to fix it with tape and plastic. But with 20 lbs of pressure it was spraying water everywhere. So Juan Carlos showed u…
Camping in the Amazon
There was much thunder and lightning in the storm that passed by last night. When we awoke we were told that overnight a giant anaconda – probably 25 to 30 feet had come down the small stream and cut giant holes in the fishing nets. Wilder saw the monster’s tail as it swam away at 3am. Knowing Wi…
Swimming in the Amazon
First thing this morning Wilder told us that overnight an electric eel had been caught in the net they stretched across the stream. We all came to see it.
Wilder tried to free it from the net with a wet stick. That was a mistake.
Photo courtesy Mike Sanderson
The eel was pretty weird look…
Caiman Capture
In the morning the gang went for canoe rides up the river to go bird watching.
But Melissa was happy with some quiet time to herself after all the traveling we have been doing. So she had her cup of tea on the porch of our cabin which overlooks the river. It is so beautiful here.
But wha…
What the middle of nowhere looks like
So you think you’ve been in the middle of nowhere? Not unless you’ve been where we ended up today – the most distant human outpost up the Amazon River in Peru. There are no humans that live further into the jungle than where we are staying tonight. But we get ahead of ourselves… Our story starts …
On the way to Iquitos
Today we are flying to Iquitos where tomorrow we will begin our trip up the Amazon River. We hired a driver to take us from Ollantaytambo to the Cusco airport with stops along the way at the Moray and Chinchero ruins.
No one seems to know what the Moray ruins were used for. Speculation is that t…
Ollantaytambo
We awoke this morning very sore from yesterday’s hike up Mount Machu Picchu. Every step is ouch, ouch, ouch. And stairs are near to impossible.
After breakfast we took the train back to Ollantaytambo and checked into our hotel Sumac Chaska. Melissa was too sore to go for more hiking. So Hol…
Machu Picchu
NOTE: We published a blog post on how to get to Machu Picchu for those wanting to do the trip.
We awoke the next morning at 4:30am. Or maybe more accurately, we got out of bed at 4:30, not having slept due to the pounding music from the political rally last night. Our guide showed up and he wasn’…
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