Updates on the “Chrysalis” Adventure

January and February as usual have been busy. We had four friends visit us, a trip to Vilcabamba and a trip to the Galapagos. We always enjoy sharing our adventures with others and the last two months we have been able to host our four friends: Jacob our pastor on the run, Thomas our digital vagabond roommate from Medellin, Casey our motorcycle traveling friend we met in Medellin and Ellen our good friend from Washington State. After returning from our trip to Vilcabamba (see last blog) we had Thomas show up and we showed him the town. We toured Inca ruins, took him to the jazz club, Leiann and him drank Cuba Libras at home, told stories of past adventures and had a great time with him. We hope he continues to enjoy life as he travels the world doing his digital vagabond life. Then our friend Casey showed up. We met Casey in Medellin watching the Sea Hawks as he was also from the Seattle area. He had rode his motorcycle from Washington State to Florida, shipped it to Colombia and now is riding to southern South America. We again drug Casey all over town and to our favorite hangout the jazz club. We wish him well on his journey. No sooner did Casey leave and Ellen showed up. We also drug her all over town, to the jazz club, then left the next day for our trip to the Galapagos Islands. We began our trip taking a bus over the Andes Mountains through Cajas National Park, where we saw wild lamas running around and the scenery was breath taking. We took a taxi from the bus station to our hotel/hostel. The taxi had a tough time finding the place winding through the back streets of Guayaquil. The neighborhood was not looking so nice and we were getting a little worried. We gave Ellen a little hard time as she had booked the place. We finally found the place in what looked like a back alley. We entered the tiny office which looked a little dubious and now wondered even more about our accommodations. Ellen was a bit unsure of this part of our trip but hey we wanted her to really experience the “real culture”. We finally got to our room which was fine, sparse but clean, safe (inside anyways) and it had A/C which we really needed after staying in the mountains for the last four months, Guayaquil was hot!
The next day we took a bus to the Malecon area and on our walk from the train to the tourist area of the Malecon a guy ripped Leiann's cross off her necklace. She yelled at him and started to chase him, then I now being alerted took off after him but he was quicker. Leiann was a little shook up so we took her to a bar and filled her with alcohol. Afterward we had a nice walk on the Malecon had dinner and took a taxi back to our room. Suffice it to say Leiann does not have fond memories of Guayaquil, but like any city of two million there's gonna be crime. The next day we flew out to the Galapagos, a two hour flight. We then took a short bus ride to the ferry that takes you to the main tourist island of Santa Cruz. Our accommodations were again basic but did the job, four nights for the three of us for only $260! The bad part was our room was on the fifth floor with no elevator, good exercise! The next day we went to visit the giant tortoise farm. The tortoise run wild here so you can walk right up to them. You are forbidden to touch them or get closer then six feet from them. We walked the farm with our taxi driver Wilson who was nearly bi-lingual and knew the farm well, as he takes tourists here daily. We saw a dozen tortoises and walked through three amazing lava tunnels. We had lunch and drinks at the farm and enjoyed the trip. The tortoises are amazing to stand next to, the males are three feet across and older then we are, many live over a hundred years. We got back to town and walked out to the Darwin Research Center where they breed tortoises. It was a lot further then we thought it was going to be and hotter then hell. We jumped from shade to shade as much as possible and we were glad they had a bar when we got there. We were a little disappointed at the center as the baby turtles raising area was under new construction so we could not see them. The adult tortoises were in pens and did not look too happy. The tortoises on the Galapagos are endangered but are making a come back after many years of sailing ships stopping by to load up on them as they provided meat and lasted a long time in the hold of a ship without food our water, sad. The next day we took a boat trip over to Isabela Galapagos as we had heard that it was a cool place to visit. The boat ride was two hours of pounding, but it was beautiful. We walked the little town and beach. We found three pink flamingos in a swamp very near town. The beaches were beautiful and had marine iguanas running wild all over the place, as well as sea lions. We wished we had not booked our hotel for four nights as it would have been cool to stay longer on Isabella. At one point I went to go for a swim and wanted to put my things on a bench, which was surrounded by lunging sea lions. I got a little too close to a mother with her pup and she came after me! I retreated quickly and tried to come around the other side to the bench, nope she was not having it, I quickly backed up again. I snuck my stuff over the top of the bench as she looked back over her head at me. Don't mess with momma. After Ellen and I had a nice swim we loaded back up on the boat for another two hour pound back. The highlight of the boat ride was seeing an eight foot shark on the surface eating something. When we got back to our hotel we were wiped out. The next day we headed out for a canyon filled with crystal clear water that you can swim in that we had heard about. We were told to take a water taxi, then it would be a five minute walk to the canyon. Again it was very hot and we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, as Leiann and Ellen were already sun burned. It ended up being more like 30-45 minute walk and I was really ready to jump in when we finally got there. The canyon is a crevice in the lava that makes up the island. It is about 40 foot deep and 30 wide. The water is a little on the cold side but after the hot walk felt great. The canyon was about 100 yards long in three sections. The sections were divided by algae covered rocks. It was a little dicey climbing over them but was rewarding as no one else did and I had the other side all to myself. It was cool swimming on my back looking up at huge rocks that looked like they would fall at any minute. Ellen jumped in after some coaxing from Leiann, but Leiann did not want to take the plunge as getting out required one to climb the slimy rocks and she could not see the bottom which is not her favorite swimming situation. By the time we got back to the hotel Leiann was nearly dead from the heat and hike, with me and Ellen not fare behind, the five floors back up to the room about killed us all. We had heard about a beach that was a don't miss (Tortuga beach). Leiann was definitely not going to leave our air conditioned room. I told Ellen if she wanted to go see the beach I would go with her. She decided to go after some deliberation as she was tried. I told her “they” said it was only a fifteen minute walk and that there were supposed to be sharks that you could wade with there. After fifteen minutes we arrived at the gate into the park. The guard did not want to let us in as the park closed at 6pm and it was 4:30. He said it was a 30 minute walk to the beach each way. I told him we would be muy rapido. He let us in so we jogged for as long as we could, five minutes, walked, jogged, walked and got to the beach at about 10 to 5. The beach was very beautiful and very long, at least a mile long. Ellen wanted to walk the beach and take pictures. I wanted to see the sharks which happened to be at the far end of the beach. I jogged and walked as fast as I could only to find out that the tide was too low so no sharks! I walked and jogged back up to Ellen it was now 5:30. There were slower people behind us so we were able to walk at a leisurely pace back. By the time we got back to the room again Ellen's ankles were badly swollen and her calves were all splotchy. We made her lay down and put pillows under her feet. After some rest I went to get us some take out pizza so Ellen would not have to do the stairs again. My last time up the stairs was slow going and about killed me again. We defiantly got our exercise on this trip! The next day we were up early to catch the bus to the ferry and onto to our plane. It was a fast and furious few days we were glad to get back to our place to chill a little. The next day we took Ellen shopping and some last minute sight seeing. We put her on her plane at 9pm and wished her a good flight. We feel a little odd now that no one is here with us but we really enjoyed sharing our adventures. Now we are planning the next phase of our trip. We will take a bus to Peru on the 29th of Feb. Then stay at a few beach towns on the north coast of Peru. We plan to ride the bus all the way to Lima and then fly to Cusco from there. We plan to be in Cusco around the 10th of March and plan to stay form a couple months maybe more. Besides Machu Picchu there is much to see in Cusco which was the Inca capital of 400 years. Stay tuned for more adventures and don't forget to check our pictures in the picture gallery.