The Galapagos Islands

I will start by saying this is the most incredible place I have ever been to in my life. It was everything I was hoping it would be and then some. Our round trip flight, $100 park entry fee, visit to four islands, food and all other misc expenses ended up costing a little under $1000. It is not cheap to get there but we did a pretty good job financially due to the fact that we did not even have a hotel or any tours booked when we showed up on the islands. I highly recommend to anybody that comes down to South America (specifically Ecuador) to go to the Galapagos. Plan the Galapagos when you are planning your budget. It is worth every penny. And unless you go during the months of April, May, or June, don´t listen to anybody who tells you you have to plan your cruise, or daytrips, or whatever ahead of time. This is completely false during non-peak season and we received 30-50% off of every trip we took by booking on the island. And you do not need to take a cruise either. People told us we were crazy not to set up a cruise, but in reality we stayed at a nice hotel for $12.50 per night and did not have to stay in a tiny stateroom with a shared bathroom and rocking ship all night. Now we were able to spend maybe $500-$700 on a cruise which is going to give you the bare minimum. If you can afford $1300 or more there are some very nice last minute cruises to take but Unger and I are poor travelers and decided just to stay on the island and do day trips.

9-13-08

We woke up early in Guayaquil to catch our 9:45am flight to Baltra Island in the Galapagos. The flight took about 1:45 minutes. The very first thing we had to do when we got off the plane was pay our $100 park entry fee, that stung a little but we knew it was coming. We couldn´t really figure out where the $100 went because because we had to pay other little fees for everything else as well. We got our luggage and jumped on the first bus (the only free bus) which took us about 15 minutes to the end of Baltra Island. We then got on a ferry that took us across a channel which took about 10 minutes and cost about $0.80, so not a lot of money, but once again where did our $100 go, because the research centers on the islands (where we would have expected the money to go) are all privately funded. We got off the boat and then took another bus about 45 minutes ($1.80) into Puerto Ayora which is the town where we would be spending the next four nights. As stated before we had no reservation and went to sit on a bench to figure out what we were going to do. Take a cruise or don´t take a cruise? was the main question we were asking ourselves. This guy on a bicycle showed up and asked us if we had any plans yet. We said no and proceed to follow him to his office which was a travel agency. He tried to sell us a 5 night cruise that was leaving 30 minutes later. Unger was ready to go if the guy would give us the right price. Luckily he would not go any lower than $600 and we didn´t think it was worth it for what he was offering (We found out later that the boat we would take called the Friendship is one of the worst boats in the Galapagos and the guide speaks very little English and Galapagos Spanish which is very much different than mainland Spanish. Also the captain is usually drunk and the engine breaks down all the time and they just fix enough so when the next group gets on the boat they don´t know any better. So once again I am glad the guy would not go any lower on the price. We went in search of an internet cafe to see if Gal, our Israeli friend, had arrived yet since he was supposed to be on the same flight and definitely was not. As we were walking out we ran into Gal and Sara (our English friend who we met in Quito and travelled to Cotopaxi with. Sara is traveling for 2 years and is the nicest and most genuine person we have met on our trip). They happened to have a hotel that had four beds so we tagged along and arrived at a lovely little hotel called Hotel Espana. They had hammocks and couches set up in the main common area and the room was clean with a private bathroom. Shortly after arrival a taxi picked us up and we went on a land tour of Santa Cruz Island. We went to Los Gemelos which are two gigantic sink wholes caused by volcanic disturbances. We then went to a farm where giant turtles live naturally. It was incredible to see the lazy, 100+ year old turtles just lounging around in the wild. The farm also had a ping pong table. Unger and I played to 2 and I think I won. He might say differently but I´m pretty sure I won. We got back in the taxi and were then taken to the lava tubes, which were formed when Los Gemelos collapsed (for the record most of this information was told to us in Spanish and Unger did only a little bit of translating so I´m happy with my progress of this language). The lava tubes are these huge caves that we walked through for about 20 minutes. At one point we had to crawl through the mud on our hands and knees (it had rained). We were then taken back to the hotel where we showered and then went up the street to the hostel owner´s uncle´s restaurant, which was basically an outdoor BBQ. I had fish, beans, and rice for $5. We went to bed early after a long day of travel and touring.

9-14-08

Sara and Gal woke up early to go diving. Now even though the owners of the hotel thought Unger and I would be able to go (with absolutely no experience, and you are supposed to be licensed even in Ecuador) Unger and I chose life over drowning and went to the Darwin Research Center to visit primarily Lonesome George (if you don´t know Lonesome George is 150 year old giant turtle who happens to be the last of his species. Scientist have been trying to get him to impregnate a similar species of turtle for some time, but at Lonesome George´s age I would be picky too. Now rumor has it that they gave him some turtle Viagra and he has impregnated I believe 3 females, so Congratulations Lonesome George. You are going to be a daddy!) We saw the Iguanas, other turtles, read about some of the history of the islands, and of course saw Lonesome George. There were a lot of tourists there so Unger and I got out of there quickly. We next walked to the opposite side of town and began our trek towards Tortuga Bay. Tortuga Bay is a beach that is only accessed by walking down a 2km (1.2mile for the only country in the world that doesn´t use the metric system) and then additional 1km on a white sand beach. We arrived at this isolated beach which had very little surf because of the rocks protecting it from the ocean. It was incredible. The weather was nice and there were not a lot of people there. I put sunscreen on and asked unger to help me out with my back. He said he would but in a little while and I wanted to go swimming so I said screw it (see photos for outcome of my decision not to wait). We tried snorkelling but the water was not clear at Tortuga bay so we couldn´t see much. We laid in the sun, ate some snacks, had some beverages and left later in the afternoon. On the way out we saw rays, sharks, finches, a bunch of iguanas and about 7 sea turtles about 20 feet from the shore. It was awesome. We met Gal and Sara and and decided to go (well Unger decided to go, I just followed with everybody else) to Las Grietas which I believe translates to "the cliffs" because that is what they were. Anyway, along with the same theme, I value my life so decided I did not want to jump the thirty feet into a very narrow strip of water. Gal and Unger did it. I'm starting to think maybe I have a fear of heights, or maybe more a fear of just jumping off those heights. I have had several dreams where i am falling off a cliff to my death so maybe my fear is warranted. Afterwards we went back to Esther´s (hostel owner) uncles restaurant. Why change a good thing?

9-15-08

So we decided to take a day trip to Floreana (an island). We had to be at the docks at about 7am and Esther and Roberta (other hotel employee) made us empenadas. They ended making us empenadas every day we were there. For some reason they liked us. I don't know why. So we went down to the dock and got in this little boat. It was a miserable ride. The boat was not very comfortable and pretty small so every wave it hit we could feel. We arrived in Floreana to see sea turtles and marine iguanas right next to the dock. We were taken up the mountain there and then hiked through a giant turtle reserve and then around some ruins. The views were amazing. We then went back to the boat and ate a pretty good lunch. I think it was fried rice. After we stopped at our first snorkelling site called devil's crown. It is a very small island off the coast of Floreana and the wild life is amazing. From blue footed boobies to white frigate birds, black frigate birds, masked boobies, pelicans, etc. We say rays, fish, sea turtles, sea lions, etc. It was amazing. We then went to Champion Island (another small island that drops off into very deep water. We saw a lot of the same wildlife there but there was an incredible amount of fish and I saw a yellow tail tuna which I tried to catch to make sushi, but it was too fast. We got home around 5pm, went back to Esther's uncles restaurant and went to the hotel for bed. Very early wakeup the next morning.

9-16-08

Woke up at 4:30am. Roberta had empenadas waiting. I promise we insisted the night before she not wake up to make them but she did anyway. We couldn't let them go to waste so of course we ate them. Boarded the boat which to our pleasant surprise was quite a bit bigger than the Floreana boat. Oh by the way we were heading to Bartolome (highlight of the trip). The boat had two floors and on the upper deck had pads set up. I definitely went right back to bed because i believe the boat ride was about 3 hours. I'm not sure the exact time but that sounds about right. I woke up about an hour into the ride and enjoyed the views of rays jumping out of the water and birds flying along side the boat. It was quite a sight. We arrived at Bartolome and I was immediately blown away. Every island is unique. I'm not going to try to explain it but my photos illustrate my point. Please view. Anyway we got off the boat and walked up the trail. It was about 30 minutes to the top. We enjoyed amazing views of multiple islands (I don't remember how many but I think it was 3 or maybe 5). We stayed up there for about 20 or 30 minutes and then headed down to the boat to eat lunch. It was fish, good. We then were taken in a dingy to our snorkelling spot. We left from a beach so different than Floreana but just as amazing. We saw thousands of fish and the highlight of the day was definitely watching about 15 blue footed boobies dive into the water at extreme speeds and then swim around to catch fish. They look so goofy on the ground but are very graceful in the air and even in the water. After snorkelling we got back in the boat and returned to Santa Cruz. We discussed going back the Esther's uncle's but found out it was closed. Esther's aunt was at the hotel and was going to make us lobster but the store she was going to buy the lobster from was closed (once again we insisted that she did not do this but once again for some reason they liked us). We decided instead to go with a big group to eat Pizza. Went to bed.

9-17-08

We woke up at a reasonable hour and went back to Tortuga Bay since Gal and Sara had not been there yet. The weather was not as good as the first time we were there but there was a blue footed boobie that we were able to get extremely close to and get some great photos. We then returned to the hotel to pick up our luggage since we were headed to Isabella for a 2 day tour. Unger and I are dumb and almost missed the boat. At times I wish we had because this boat was by far the worst boat ride I have ever been on. The boat was tiny, packed with about 18 people, had two different size engines (I swear, the smaller one did nothing), and every time we hit a wave we went flying in the air. I'm going to have permanent damage to my back and my internal organs have all shift from the impact. But when we arrived, and saw how beautiful Isabella is, we forgot about the boat ride (ok that is a lie, but at least Isabella is beautiful). We went to the hotel which was pretty nice (had TV and AC, two things we take for granted in US hotels). We were only at the hotel for a few minutes as we had a tour of the turtle reserve (yes, we saw a lot of turtles, but they are pretty cool), followed by a walk through the lagoons to try to see flamingos. We saw 3 flamingos in one lagoon but they were really far away. We then got to the last lagoon and saw one flamingo really close up. It had a broken wing and our guide told us it just hangs around at this one lagoon and is always there. This sounds really bad but we think they maybe broke the wing on purpose so that the flamingo can never fly away the tourists will keep coming back. We ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed.

9-18-08

We woke up early and took a van to Sierra Negra Volcano. The beginning was completely foggy and muddy but the top was incredible with unbelievable views. We hike to Chico Volcano which is smaller. We learned that there are 5 volcanos that formed Isabella which is the biggest of the Galapagos Islands. We ate lunch at Chico and then returned. In total we hike 10 miles which was good excercise and good warmup for Machu Picchu. At sea level I did fine. We will see what happens in Peru. We went back to the hotel, changed and hike Las Tintas which had hundreds of iguana, some sea lions, crabs, of course, and a pool where white tipped reef sharks could be seen. We then went snorkelling for the 5th time which was still great and we saw quite a bit.

9-19-08

We woke up at 5am, took the 6am boat back to Santa Cruz. Although it was the same boat there were half the people and since it was morning the sea was more calm. We were also prepared for a very long day so this was just the beginning. We went to the hotel, collected our luggage, said goodbye to Esther and Roberta, and took the 45 minute bus (which Hanne and Norman happened to be on) to the 10 minute boat which connected to the 15 minute bus ride to the airport. You can see where I'm going with this. We flew to Guayaquil which took 1 hour 45 minutes and as soon as we got off the plane collected our luggage and checked in to our next flight which was too Lima and was another hour and 45 minutes. it was the nicest plane I have ever been on and Unger and I were wishing the flight was longer since we got free snacks (doesn't happen in the states anymore) and free movies, tv shows, games, etc (also doesn't happen in the states anymore). Once we arrived we cleared customs, since it was an international flight. Unger and I are dumb and we both lost or could not locate, you choose, our entry tickets into Ecuador. The customs agent was not happy with us but let us fill out new tickets. We then got into a taxi which took us 45 minutes to Miraflores district (gringolandia II) where our hostel was. We went to bed after a very long day of travel. I already miss the Galapagos Islands.

Skip Guayaquil

9/13/08

The bus ride was terrifying as usual. But instead of the normal terror of hitting a pedestrian or car, this time it was the drive through the Andes. At times the road was barely wide enough for two cars and right next to the toad was a 1000 foot cliff. And of course if a car or truck was going too slow the driver passed him. But we did get to watch Fast and the Furious 1,2,&3 and also the beginning of Torque; four award quality movies. I think these might be the movies the Ecuadorian bus drivers watch when they learn to drive. Guayaquil was an ugly bustling city that smells bad. I'm glad we didn't spend any time there. On the plane right now waiting to leave for the Galapagos Islands. I am extremely excited as I believe this will be the highlight of our trip.

We didn't even go to the hot springs

9-10-08

So we arrived in Banos which is famous for its hot springs. We spent three days there and didn't even make it to the hot springs. Oh well. The town was still a lot of fun. We woke up early and I began this blog. I got about two days worth complete and then we left to wander around town. Banos is this little town surrounded by huge green mountains on all sides. Everybody here is very nice as it is kind of a tourist town. We had some empenadas for breakfast and then rented some bikes. We began riding out of Banos and down toward the next town. Now it was enjoyable but we rode right on the road, yes the same road that the crazy bus drivers use. (We arrived when it was dark so I had no idea what the road was like. I'm glad it was dark because I would have panicked knowing the bus driver was driving as fast as he was with a gigantic cliff right next to us. Hey I'm assuming they train their bus drivers to avoid driving off cliffs, so we were probably safe) At one point we had to go through a tunnel that was pitch black. It was kind of terrifying. Next to the road was also about a 1000 foot cliff that led to a river. The highlight of the ride was the 6 or 7 waterfalls across the river. We stopped in a small town and hiked down to the river where there was a bridge across and a great view of a waterfall. We ate lunch and then negotiated with a truck driver who drove us back into Banos so I could make my 2pm Spanish lesson. The lesson was good. I got to talk with the teacher for two hours just in Spanish which was good practice. There are mostly English speaking people at the hostels so it is heard to practice Spanish. After the lesson we went to a bar to watch the Ecuador-Uraguay soccer game. They tied 0-0 (kind of boring). Not as good as being there. We went to dinner and then came back tot he hostel and played card games. A good day.

9/11/08

Today we woke up and went to this sort of farmer's market. We had fried egg, rice, chorizo, avocado, lettuce, potato cakes and beets with a cup of coffee for $2. I also purchased 3 $0.10 empenadas for later. What can I say? I like to eat. We hiked up a trail to this statue and hung out for a while. We then hiked down and stopped at the market again. Our fried Diego, from Guadalajara had never had South American empenadas before. He at 11. Unger and I each had 4. Unger and I went back to the hostel for a nap while the girls and Diego went to do a form of bungie jumping. You jump off a bridge and when the rope catches you swing back and forth. It only costs $15 and DIego was able to go twice for $20. What a smoking deal. Even with that great price I still just didn't feel the urge to go. If I'm going to plummet to my death I want to have paid more than $10 to do so. Unger and I decided to cook dinner at the hostel. We made pasta with meat sauce and melted chees. It tasted pretty good. We then went to a bar to meet my two teachers and another student (girl from Colorado). We sang Karoake (not me, but Unger sang Back Street Boys) and went back to the hostel and went to bed.

9/12/08

We woke up this morning, went and ate breakfast at the same place as yesterday and are now on a 7 hour bus ride to Guayaquil. Hopefully it will only take 7 hours (and we will live). Tomorrow we leave for the Galapagos Islands. More to report later.

Hurricane Cotopaxi

9-8-08

So we didn't catch anything. And the road we took the bikes on was horrible. First a dirt road which was not very smooth and then a cobblestone road which was obviously not smooth, and not meant for bikes, or cars for that matter (I don't know what could comfortably travel on cobblestone). It was about 3 miles to the river, 3 painful miles. With the altitude and quality of the road we found the stream just in time because my lungs were ready to collapse. It was Unger, me and a couple that was traveling around the world before relocating from Canada to Australia. We have met many people but as expected not many Americans (We are currently riding the bus to Banos with 2 American girls but Americans are a rarity. I would say it is because of the economy but everything is so cheap here that now is the best time to travel) Anyway back to fishing. We finally found the raging river which was about 3 feet wide and maybe 2 feet deep. You can see right to the bottom and there were no fish anywhere. We walked up and down the stream looking and finally just dropped our lines into a deep pool. We got no bites and and decided to leave. Of course Unger tangled his line so we waited for him to untangle it. We rode back, ate lunch consisting of bread and vegetable soup. I took my first shower in 3 days and first hot shower in South America. I took a five minute nap and then read and talked to the other guests for about 2 hours. Dinner was very good BBQ chicken. Unger and I played scrabble after dinner and I crushed him. We went to bed early because in Cotopaxi everybody goes to bed early.

9-9-08

I awoke at 6:30 ready to take our day trip to Cotopaxi Volcano. 8 of us loaded into a pickup truck (four inside and four of us in the bed). It was a miserable hour and half on the same cobblestone road. It was pretty cold and the wind had picked up, so the four of us (Unger, me and the two girls we are with right now) covered ourselves with a blanket from the bed of the truck. We arrived at the base of the volcano and began our ascent. The incline was about 45 degrees and the wind was really picking up. Also there was so much cloud cover we couldn't really see anything. We couldn't look up anyway after about 50 yards because 50-60 mile per hour winds were blowing sleet into our face. The guide said we could turn around and go visit a lake instead. I thought that was a pretty good idea (understand I have never seen weather come even close to this and the guide later told us this was the worst weather he had ever seen up there) but our Australian friends Norman and Hanne were set on making it to the top. Norman is 71 who looks like he is in his 50s. So we continued on through ice and sleet and wind and finally reached the "Refuge", the building where we would be eating lunch. We ate hot soup and bread and at that point discussed going to the glacier about 300 meters further up the mountain. Now my lungs felt like I suffered from asthma and have been smoking a pack a day for years so I chose to stay. Did I mention I have a problem with altitude? But I figure there are plenty of other glaciers to see in the world. Ok, I'm an idiot and I think the altitude prevented at least half of my brain from functioning. Norman, the 71 year old businessman from Australia made it to the glacier. 46 years my senior and he made it and I didn't. I'm a little embarrassed. The highlight of the trip was the Andean wolf about 15 feet off the trail. We went back down the mountain and rushed back to the hostel to collect our bags and take the hour trip to Machachi which is about 15 miles away. I am now on a bus to Banos as stated before with Unger, Brittany, and Michelle (our new American friends). Back to civilization, sort of. It is sad.

"Si Se Puede"

Sorry it has taken so long for an update. It has been a very busy week.

9-6-08

I woke up the next day at 9am. Ate breakfast and just relaxed before the game. By noon we were dressed in our yellow Ecuador jerseys and got to cheer for "our" country against Bolivia. We took the bus about 45 minutes to the stadium. The game was incredible. Ecuador won 3-1 and all 40,000 fans were very happy. After the game we went back to the hostel (not before stopping for empenadas) and were ready to take salsa lessons. Unfortunately only about six of us were dancing, but it was still fun. The teacher said I was good, which as a white guy with 2 left feet, that is quite a compliment. After the dancing I went online to see that Arizona beat mighty Toledo and that made me happy. Although I didn't really want to go out, we decided it was our last night in Quito and went to "No Bar" which is a dance club in the new city (aka Gringo Landia). Without going into details it was a good night, followed by an awful 9am wakeup.

9-7-08

We packed up and took a truck the 30 miles to Cotopaxi Volcano. Two and half hours later (roads are not great here) we arrived at the hostel which has the most incredible view of the entire landscape and the volcano itself. The hostel is the owner's home which he bought about 2 years ago. There are a few bungalows with really comfortable bunk beds. I just basically sat in one of the hammocks most of the day and read and just enjoyed the scenery. The property has chickens, a pig, a sheep, rabbits, turkeys and guinea pig (aka cuy) which I have yet to try. All the food is home cooked and the meals have tasted great so far. We met a German family which we debated on the age of the son and daughter, but we think they were both in their early twenties. We discussed how it was interesting that they were doing a trip and staying in hostels like this, since I don't see many Americans doing something like this. They taught us how to play this card game that was fun. I lost but I was functioning on very little sleep. If I were rested I would have won easily. We went to bed early and now I am sitting writing in my journal about to take the bikes down to the river to go fishing. I'll update when I catch 10 trout. So maybe I will never update.

Ecuadorian Bus Drivers

9-5-08

Today was an interesting day. We woke up and ate our $3.50 breakfast which included French Toast today. We then decided to visit "La Mitad del Mundo" (interestingly there are 2 places that consider themselves the center of the world but the actually center is on the top of a hill with nothing around it). We started by going to one bus station which sent us to another bus station which finally sent us to another station. Now all of this was in Spanish and I got bits and pieces but Unger's Spanish is really good and we definitely were told to go to three different stations. "La Mitad del Mundo" is 30km from Quito which takes about an hour by taxi and 2 hours by bus. The bus costs $0.50 total with one transfer. Naturally we took the bus. Now let me tell you something about Ecuadorian bus drivers; their mentality is "I have the biggest vehicle on the road so you better move out of the way or I will a. run over you or b. pass you going 70mph in the U.S. equivalent to a 25mph zone." We would learn later this mentality applies to all bus drivers. It was not an isolated incident. I guess the fact that we were not locals allowed us to wait for the bus to make a full stop before we got on or off. This generosity does not apply to most, as typically if the bus slows down to 5-10mph to allow passengers on or off, these people are lucky. So of course we were happy when we made it without killing anybody or dying. We first went to the most famous site, took about 20 pictures, bought jerseys for the soccer game (Ecuador vs. Bolivia), had a beer and empenada, and left. We also met a girl from Germany named Silvana who we spent the rest of the day with. We then went to the other museum that claims to be the "real" center of the world. We chose to have a Spanish speaking guide and I actually understood most of what he said so I was happy. The tour consisted of a bunch of different experiments and exhibits with water, sundials, etc. I'm not going into details but it was fun. I will mention we saw a real shrunken human head that was 150 years old and we got to try to shoot a blowdart at a cactus. Based on the fact that if you missed the cactus, and everybody does, you could possibly hit a passing tourist, I don't think this activity will be allowed in the states anytime soon. we then took another bus to the only inhabited crater in the world. We showed up and the fog was so thick you couldn't see more than 20 feet down. Luckily the fog cleared and we were able to see a good amount of the crater. We then left and caught the bus back to Quito. Luckily a passenger told us we had to get off or we would start to go around in a circle. Unluckily we had no idea where we were. So we grabbed some food (corn, mini potatoes, and mystery meat, possibly chicken) and walked in the general direction of the hostel. we found our street and got some more food (chicken skewers and mystery ball of something with something inside; it tasted ok). Got to the hostel, played "pub quiz" aka trivia, lost miserably, then went to an Irish Pub called Finns. Went to bed at 4am. The end...for now

An Interesting Start

9/3/08

Well, after months of planning and waiting, we are finally off. I was up at 4:15am to catch my 7:20 flight out of SFO. I slept the first two hours of my flight and then decided to purchase a movie (Delta now charges $6 for movies also they charge for snacks and basically everything else. Anybody who has seen the Southwest commercial knows what I am talking about.) I arrived in Atlanta 20 minutes early but had to wait for the plane in our gate to depart, so I ended up arriving right on time, which for the airlines these days is very good. I met Unger at his gate and we are now currently waiting for the maintenance guys to repair the telephone. Assuming we arrive safely in Quito I will have more to report (hopefully interesting stuff) later. One thing to add; we finally took off. This plane is really old and loud. I hope the plane can make it the 2600 miles.


9/4/08


Well the good news is that I am writing which means the plane managed to survive the flight (who knows how many more flights the old fellow has left in him). Along with the rattling and other noises the plane still had ashtrays in the bathroom so I´m assuming the plane is more than 20 years old. All in all the flight was ok. (fastfowarding a bit; our taxi driver from the airport told us they are building a new airport outside of the city because the runway is too short. We coincidentally ran into our flight attendant and the two pilots while hiking a volcano in Quito and the pilot told us a story about an Iberian Airlines flight that landed, went straight through the end of the runway and came to a stop about 100 feet from a neighborhood. So now I am extremely happy we landed ok). I got ahead of myself but the story was relevant. Anyway, we arrived at the hostel which for $8/night is pretty nice. The building is very old, and the hallways and ceilings in places are narrow and low, respectively. But the view of Old Town Quito from the fifth floor terrace is incredible. Although the room is clean and bunk beds are actually relatively comfortable, I did not sleep much because some late night revelers were yelling at about 3:30am until about 4:30am. I don´t think the same noise rules apply to hostels as they do to hotels. But once again for $8 it is good. We woke up early and went up to the terrace for a relatively expensive breakfast for Ecuador standards. It was $3.50 all you can eat freshly cooked omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, fruit cups, coffee, and juice. When we saw the price we said "screw it" and decided to splurge a little. After breakfast we hiked up a flight of stairs to a park called Ichimbia. Now I realize although I do exercise regularly, I should be in better shape, but man I was winded. The view was nice but I realize now it was peanuts compared to what we would see later in the day. We decided next we would go to the Basilica in Old Town. We paid the $1 entry fee and climbed to the top of the tower. On the way up we met a one-legged American ex-marine (lets call him George because I don´t think we ever got his name). George was a 61 year old fugitive who could not leave Ecuador. He is traveling in South America for two years and apparently he took a military plane into Ecuador and the guy who checked him into the country said he didn´t need his passport stamped. Well when he tried to leave Ecuador they arrested him. He sat in a holding room for a couple of hours until he decided just to walk out. He caught a lift with a couple of Colombian drug dealers driving over the border and when the police pulled the car over they didn´t even notice George and just arrested the Colombians. Now whether or not there is any truth to this story I don´t know but George seemed like an honest one legged ex-military man. After the Basilica we grabbed some coffee and walked to the main plaza. On the way I experienced the highlight of my day; my first empenada. An empenada is basically a fried piece of dough wrapped around chicken, peas and carrots. It was $1 and it was incredible. This country is really cheap by the way. We then took a taxi over to El Teleferico, which is a gondola($4) up to a hiking path that leads to a volcano. We hiked a little way and ran into a barbed wire fence. We asked a policeman working there if we could continue on and he said just climb under the fence (we found out later that people in this country don´t really view barbed wire as a way of saying "stay out"). Of course being with Unger we had to climb to the top, regardless of the storm clouds drifting our way from every direction. We hiked about a mile when we ran into the flight attendant and pilots. While talking, we saw our first flash of lightning and the pilot told of a previous trip here where he got stuck because of an ice storm. Well Unger kept an eye on the clouds and stated that it looked like it was clearing. So we continued on. About another half mile later my lungs began to feel like anvils and I believe my heart was beating at an unsafe level. So I stopped and sat down in the middle of the path. We were at about 15,000 feet so it is acceptable. Unger continued on. I turned back. an hour or so later we met at the gondola and started our descent down. 5 minutes later the sky opened up and it began to pour. I was right; going to the top was a bad idea. We went back to the hostel, attempted to read a Spanish newspaper, walked down the street and split 3 more empenadas (chicken, meat, and cheese). Did I mention they are really good. We then went into a restaurant and ordered the ¨Desayuno Completo" translated as the complete breakfast. It was 2 fried eggs on top of a piece of steak on a bed of rice with french fries, tomatoes, cucumber and avocado. It cost $2.50 and it was good.

Rewind Six Months

So I was sitting in my cubicle about six months, thinking to myself; I´m 25 years old, what am I doing sitting in a call center for Chase Bank trying to sell home equity loans? Now, unless you have been living in a bubble, six to eight (possibly a little earlier; it doesn´t matter, things were getting bad) months ago was about the time the housing really burst and the economy began to free fall. So now, not only was I doing something I really didn´t want to be doing but also the money I was making from 2007 was no longer going to be going in to my pocket, but instead it would be going into trying to save the bank from completely losing control of its retail finance sector. So I began to discuss with my friend Daniel Unger (who equally hated his job for different reasons) the possibility of just up and leaving Chase and begin to travel. Now ¨"travel" and "no" are two words that do not go together in Unger´s vocabulary so his response of course was ¨"sure, where are we going?" I´m not going to bore you with the details of our discussions but we both wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country and Europe was way too expensive (see above statement about our economy; that especially applies to the value of the dollar), and also a majority of the continent, well all of the continent except on country does not speak Spanish. It just so happened that I had recently found out I was going to have a brother-in-law and he just so happens to be from Chile and so Unger and I began to discuss South America. The more research we did the better idea we got of what we would be able to do. We got a smoking deal on a flight down and flights within the continent and decided one night "screw it, lets buy these tickets and go travel. If we don´t do it now we are going to look back one day and say, "what the hell was I thinking not to take advantage of that opportunity?"" So we looked at each other, clicked submit, yes that is how you book flights in this era, and our fates had been sealed. The six months between six months ago and present went by in a blur, so that is how I´m going to explain them. Gave Chase Bank my notice the day I got back from Puerto Rico (which happened to be an incentive gift from Chase Bank, but we won´t get into that, my mind had been made weeks earlier), packed up the house in Phoenix, Unger (the good friend he is) hopped in a Uhaul truck with my car in tow and the two dogs in the car (it was not inhumane, we left the windows open and stopped frequently), arrived in Monterey, worked for both of my parents for about a month, took an 8 week spanish class, continued working just for my father, went to the gym as much as possible (didn´t help, I´m still out of shape at 14000 feet), celebrated my sister´s wedding (it was a very nice event. Sorry Lisa; I´m not going into more details about it because this is my selfish blog all about me.), and before I knew it I was in a plane from SFO to Atlanta to meet Unger and take our flight down to Quito.

So now you know my story. I will update my blog as often as possible. Disregard grammar because I am basically writing what I´m thinking and I will never have time to make sure my writing abides by MLA (or whatever it is called) standards. I would love to hear from anybody who would like to post a comment, email me at brian.kroopf@gmail.com, or of course there is facebook. There are not a lot of Americans here so any news about anything American or just a hello would be much appreciated.