This is the blue-footed boobie. Boobie jokes and puns were frequent on this trip, and they never got old, I must say.

I´m off to Lima, Peru tomorrow, Wednesday, the 29th.

Highland land turtle. I don´t know the specific species name. This is a free range turtle. No cages. Our bus had to dodge a few that were in the middle of the road.

Here is a photo of Lonesome George (estimated to be over 120 years old. The last turtle of his species) at the Darwin station. They have a breeding program here to help the turtle populations recover. The population was decimated by humans and introduced animals such as rats, dogs, and goats. There is also a program underway to rid the islands of these introduced animals.

Here is a map of the ship´s path. My tour followed the red line from the airport on the island of Baltra, to Bartolomé, to Urbina Bay, etc, etc. Crossed the Equator 4 times. You hardly feel the bump, though.

Me.

I´m trying my best to get the island names accurate, but I´m probably gettting them all wrong.

Not all baby sea lions make it to adulthood. Such is nature. The Galápagos hawk is at the top of the Galápagos food chain.

This pic is from Egas Point on the Island of Santiago. The Galápagos Legend is the ship I was traveling on, and can be seen in the background.

These are some pics from Espinoza Point on the island of Fernandina.

I was about 15-20 feet away from this Galápagos Hawk.

Holy crabs, Batman!

Sea lions playing.

Here are some sunset pics from my second night in the Galápagos. Taken from the deck of the ship.

Here is the Galápagos Penguin. Did you know there were Penguins at the equator? Didn´t think so. This are also endemic to the island. To its left are two Galápagos crabs. Also added is a closeup of crab that is much like crabs in the penguin pic.

Marine iguana. Chillin´.

Also in Urbina Bay there were many sea lions. I especially like the top picture. We were watching a female sea lion and her baby on shore when a sea turtle came up on the shore. A male sea lion came out behind it and barked at it, and it swam back into the sea.

At Urbina Bay we met the Marine Iguana. Again, only found in the Galápagos, brother to the Land Iguana. Pretty much laying all over, and so tame you could walk up to one and pet it, but be careful, it might spit on you. It has a desalinization gland, and spits a lot to get rid of the sea salt in its body. Also you had to be very careful not to accidentally step on one, because they blended in so well with the lava rock. In the top picture there are about 30-35 marine iguanas on the rocks in the background. Double click the pic.

Here is the Galápagos Land Iguana, unique to the Galápagos. It´s an endangered species, but is making a comeback due to conservation efforts. It used to be hunted by the islanders for its delicious, tender meat.

The next day we went to Espinoza Point. Here is a sea turtle nest on the beach.

These photos are from Bartolome Island. It was the first island we visited when we arrived in the Galápagos. The cruise had around 75 people on board, but they divided us into groups of 12-16 people and took us to the islands separately and each group had its own guide.

Hello all. I´m back from the Galápagos. Had a great time, of course. Saw tons of wildlife and volcanic islands, and learned a bunch about the evolution of the islands and animals. During the cruise I met people from all over the states and Europe. Good times. Pics to follow.

Just wanted everyone to know that I will be in the Galápagos starting Thursday morning, so I´ll probably be incommunicado for the following 5-7 days. I doubt the ship with have email access. If there is any access on the islands, I will try to make at least one posting. I spent a little extra on the trip to assure a first class time with no real worries. I should have some amazing pics to share when I get back.

I wish the weather were colder in MN, so I could rub in the fact that it gets up in the high 80´s everyday here. By the sound of it, you´re not really that far behind. No need to worry about global warming, though, the politicians and corporations will take care of us.

For those of you that can´t get enough of shrunken heads. Here´s more.

Here´s a picture from my bus during the ride from Cuenca to Guayaquil. I started out in Cuenca wearing a fleece with an undershirt underneath. As you come down the mountains the climate turns tropical. I wished I had worn just shorts and a t-shirt. Lots of banana, cacao, and sugarcane being grown in this area.

Here is a pic of the cathedral in Guayaquil. In front is a statue of Simon Bolívar, the liberator of Latin America. You can read about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Bolivar. He´s one of the most important figures in Latin American history and there are monuments, streets, parks, and buildings dedicated to him everywhere you go.

Hey everyone. I´m now in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I went walking around today and visited a couple museums. The first museum, Casa de la Cultura, wouldn´t let me bring my camera in, so no pics for you. The pics seen here are the collection of genuine shrunken heads that are stored in the Museo Municipal. Enjoy.

Today, in Cuenca, I woke up quite hungry, so I went to the market to find something to eat. I was really tempted by the pig´s head and pig tripe pictured here, but I would have had to brought them back to the hotel, and would have had to find my own silverware. It would have been just too much of a hassle. Maybe if I get a hostal with a kitchen.

Here are some more views from the busride to Cuenca. There was a neat little town nestled between the hills. In the middle, on the little green hill is a statute of the patron saint of the town.

The trip to Cuenca was a 7 hour bus ride full of spectacular views. Check out this photo of the sunset. Clouds above and clouds below. I took about 10 photos of this sunset, and I dig this one the best.

No pics to upload today. The strike ended last night and I´m now out of Baños and in a bus station in Ambato, Ecuador, and on my way to Cuenca, an old colonial city that fellow travelers have recommended. My bus leaves at 1.30pm. It doesn´t look like I will get into Cuenca until 8-8.30pm. The buses are generally pretty comfortable down here. They´re not like the old school buses you see in the movies. No chickens sitting in people´s laps or anything. Busing is a very popular medium of travel down here, and the system works pretty efficiently (when there are no strikes). It seems like any bus station you go to you can quickly find a bus that is going to your destination. And it´s pretty cheap. I´m paying $8.00 american for a 7 hour trip.

Well, I´ll be trying to get out of town tomorrow and head towards Cuenca. There has been a townwide strike for the last 4 days and no buses are coming into or leaving Baños. Rumor has it that the strike will be over tonight. The problem is that the government has raised certain taxes and the town has not had much Ecuatorian tourism of late due to the activity of the volcano. The Ecuatorians stay away, but the international tourists have still been coming. Being that 90% of the town works in the tourism industry, they have been hit hard. They are asking that the government suspend the tax for the next 5 months. I could have this story all wrong, but this is what I have heard through the grapevine.

The picture is of people congregating to repel the national police force that is rumored to be arriving soon. The national police almost never use real bullets. Instead, they use rubber bullets and tear gas. They tried to break through the strikers in the nearby town of Puyo, but were unsuccessful.

Rainclouds started getting darker and darker, so I left the scene. It started raining shortly after I left, and one of my friends says that the whole crowd dispersed. I don´t know if the National Police ever arrived or not.

Anyways, I´m in no danger. Had no plans of staying when the police arrived. The townspeople have always treated me very kindly, and they want tourists here. This battle is between the national government and the people of Baños.

Here are a couple pics from inside the Basilica of Baños. In the first pic a fire starts in the city of Guayaquil, and everybody goes crazy, and many die. The owner of the building here puts a picture up of the Virgin Mary, and his building is miraculously saved. In the second pic, a guy is crossing the river and the bridge breaks. He shouts for Mary to help him, and he lands below in a deep river wave and survives.

Here is a picture of the Basilica in the middle of town. The cool thing about is that the artwork inside is all pretty contemporary. It is not about the stations of the cross. Most of the paintings depict scenes in which the Virgin Mary of Baños has cured disease, or how people have prayed to her and have been saved from catastrophe. I´ll try to get a pic of one or two of them on here later.

I went for a solo walk a couple of days ago, and I came across this drunk guy playing guitar. We talked a bit and exchanged guitar tunes back and forth with each other. It had been a few weeks since I had played, so I was a little rusty. He played some cuban style boleros, and I played some Beatles and Zeppelin. Good times.

Here is a photo of our second stop. From left to right are Chavi (from Catalunia, Spain), Miguel (from Valencia, Spain), and David (from Holland). We suspected that Chavi was a member of the Catalunian Taliban. The beard kind of gives it away.

Had a great day yesterday. I made some friends at a restaurant the day before and we decided to go hiking the next day. So we hiked up the hills behind my hotel, all the way up to some lookout points. Hitched a ride in the back of a pickup to the outskirts of the town of Rintun, and got close to the volcano Tungurahua, but the view was obscured by clouds. Here is view from our third stop. Kind of felt like the Sound of Music up here. On the other side of us, horses and cattle were grazing.

Ok, now I am in Baños and am loving it. It's a big contrast from Latacunga. Beautiful views, clean streets, the sun is out and it is warm. It feels like Red Wing, Minnesota, but the bluffs are mountains. Gonna go take a dip in the hot springs around 6:00pm. Had a great garlic pasta at a little restaurant called "Casa Hood". The owner is a hippy dude from the UP.

The yellow building is my hotel. Pretty classy place that I splurged $20 a night for. Ya gotta live a little.

I spent last night in the dismal town of Latacunga. I only took two photos, cos I don´t want to remember this stinkhole. As soon as I got off the bus, I was lost, then it started raining, then I found my hotel, and was given the worst room in the whole dive. The street noise assaulted me the entire night: car alarms were going off, people were trying to start their cars, slamming doors, babies crying. I planned to get up and go to Lake Quilotoa up in the mountains. Well, I got up, and rushed to eat, and when I got back, the tour guide offered to let me ride in the trunk area of his Blazer (for a two hour trip each way). No thanks. The first pic captures the drab, sulky feel of the town on the day I arrived. The second pic is a beautiful pic of the view from the hotel´s terrace. Enjoy.

Had to sneak a pic of these indian ladies from my taxi. If they catch you taking a pic they chase after you until you pay them something. Or if they see you focusing your camera they cover their faces and stick out their hands and say "pagame". It´s all about the benjamins with these ladies. Gotta love good ole capitalism. I´d pay them something if they weren´t so uppity about it. You have to make decisions about who you give to down here, because so many people beg. It´s certainly not as bad as other countries I´ve visited. Anyways, I choose to take pics of the Indian ladies with the fedoras, and I don´t pay them. Sue me. I like the challenge. I´m trying to keep this blog light-hearted. I´ll start another blog about neoliberalism and world economics if you really want to go there. Didn´t think so. Enjoy the pic.

I´m gonna be heading south to Latacunga tomorrow, and then on Monday I will go to the the town of Baños, known for its curative volcanic hot springs. I need a day or two of relaxation from my harsh schedule. Anyways, I might be incommunicado for the next couple/few days, depending on what internet services these two towns have.

Okay, one more belltower pic. It was a fun day. I really enjoyed the belltower. What can I say? In American, someone would fall off the tower, or get scared, and sue for emotional distress, and it would be closed to the public forever. If someone fell off here, they'd scrape him/her off the sidewalk, and life would go on.

The view is into the garden in the center of the monastery. No cutie nuns walking about though. (sigh).

Here is a view of the Virgin from the top of the Monastery of Santa Catalina de la Siena. The tour guide let me climb up the tower with him. He was jumping all around the rooftop like it was no big deal. I was clinging to anything I could get my hands on.