More origami at the orfanato!

Yesterday Adam and I went to the orphanage as usual, and this time we brought along Liz and Stacia! Stacia has come with us a few times already and last week she was helping one of the girls with English. Rosa is really really interested in learning English and is one of the few kids at the orphanage who hasn't learned any in school. So this week Stacia worked with a few of the girls on English vocabulary and Liz and I did origami (of course!) with the younger kids. We made houses, pianos, dolphins and paper cranes- and Adrianna went crazy with hers...I think she made 3 or each!

Aww, special request to get a photo with Adam =D

Liz explaining about how she eats "bichos" (aka parasites. The kids didn't get it)

Fuzzy picture but you get the point...

Adrianna with one of her many pianos!

Cake balls and a quick update!

Well I clearly gave up on the photo a day thing- plus somebody (ahem, Gamble...) said that there were others who were getting turned away by the overwhelming number of posts. Just kidding. Really it has just been "busy-not busy" (I feel like that is a good Peace Corps volunteer term...the idea of being busy takes on a whole new meaning down here).

So now I'll just post random photos when I get around to it. That sounds good to me!

Today's photo is...surprise surprise...more food! A few weeks ago I made some cake balls for Stacia's birthday since I had been meaning to try out the recipe that I had seen on Bakerella's blog- http://www.bakerella.com/ They turned out pretty good aside from how messy dipping cold cake balls into chocolate are. But Stacia said she enjoyed them, so that was enough for me!

Next weekend I am going to be going up to Quito/Cayambe area for the new trainees' picnic. Adam and I had signed up to have "hermanitos" (little siblings) from the training group, where we answered questions they had (mostly packing for the PC). I think I'll make a batch of these for our hermanitos. We'll see how they turn out!! Hopefully cleaner and easier than the first attempt!!

In other news, I am going to 2 different cities this week to do workshops on origami with teachers, and then this Friday 2 volunteers are coming into town to help conduct a workshop for my office on social work. I'll be leading a session on stress and relaxation techniques. Adam helped prepare and translate some documents for the city because the mayor of Loja was going to the Shanghai World Expo. He is also working on translating the Loja tourist map into English. Also this weekend we are going to be celebrating 4th of July by going hiking and horseback riding in Vilcabamba! Fun! I will definitely have photos!!

Renee's Visit to Ecuador (Part 3: Galapagos Day 4 & 5!)

On our fourth day in the Galapagos, we headed to the highlands of Santa Cruz Island where we saw twin volcanic craters, crawled through a muddy lava tunnel, and saw where the Giant Galapagos Tortoises roam freely. We were able to see the tortoises munching on maracuya (passion fruit) and barreling through the brush (it's pretty impressive). There were also a lot of shops to buy souvenirs, but since we aren't really souvenir people, I just took photos!

One of the twin craters- doesn't look as impressive in photo!

The tunnel was created through flowing lava

One of the many giant tortoises- this one was probably half the size of me, and probably quite old

Close up shot- ET anyone?

And the strangest looking tortoise of them all! =D

Blue footed boobie souvenirs!

Hungry pelican!

For lunch we got to relax at an oceanside hotel (the Finch Bay Eco Hotel in Puerto Ayora). It was nice to have a lunch outside with the ocean waves in front of us. The meal was really nice and we had a yummy dessert of maracuya cream puffs! For some shocking reason, I have no photos of our meal!

After that, we headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station where they have a rearing in captivity program. It was amazing to see how tiny the baby tortoises are (even the ones that are 4 or 5 years old!) after seeing the larger tortoises that are closer to 100 years. They then release them into the islands to repopulate.

One of the things I was really looking forward to was seeing Lonesome George. He is the only one of his kind (Pinta Island Tortoise) and is known as the rarest animal on the planet. Unfortunately, we were able to see where he lives and the two female tortoises that live in his pen with him (they are trying to breed). He was probably in hiding somewhere because we couldn't spot him, but it was quite disappointing. =( Hence why I didn't come home with a Lonesome George shirt.

Have you seen this tortoise?

However they had plenty of other tortoises at the Charles Darwin Center, as well as land iguanas at the research station.

Male tortoise unsuccessfully trying to mate with another male tortoise

Land iguana

This tortoise's neck was quite impressive- I was hoping we would see him lifting his head to grab a bite to eat!

After our time at the Charles Darwin Research Station we had a chance to walk into town to do a little bit of souvenir shopping. Adam picked up some coffee and a shirt for his parents, and Renee found some great purchases too. She is regretful that she didn't pick up the ceramic Sally Lightfoot Crab piggy bank though!

Our last night on the ship, they brought on some entertainment and we also had a great final meal! Then the following morning (May 28th), we departed to San Cristobal where we visited the museum and then headed into town for more souvenir shopping. It was quite a cute little town and we had a good time just strolling about.

Lazy sea lions making their homes on boats in the dock

San Cristobal Island

We flew out around noon and were happy campers (as seen in the photo below of Adam and Renee getting onto the plane), oblivious to the adventure we would soon have. I made the mistake of saying to Renee while we were taking off, "Wow, everything went so smoothly in the Galapagos! There were no issues at all! Usually when traveling, some snafoo comes up." And no sooner had I said this, an announcement is made on the plane that Volcan Tungurahua had erupted and an ash cloud was in Guayaquil, causing the airport to be closed down. As a  result, our plane would be diverted to Manta.

Well, this was quite unfortunate for us, because our plan was to arrive in Guayaquil around 2pm and hop on a plane to Loja at 4pm. So we debated what to do and decided that we would take a bus from Manta to Guayaquil (which took about 4 hours) and then stay overnight in Guayaquil and make our way to Loja the following day. On the bright side, Renee got to see some of the towns along the coast and the houses made of caña, and experienced the Ecuadorian bus rides (bad action movie included!).

At the airport in Manta with all the other confused passengers. Many were heading back home to England or the US so they were concerned about if they would make it out!

Renee biting into our free snack on the bus (thankfully Metropolitan Touring arranged a bus to take us from Manta to Guayaquil so we didn't have to pay for it).

So all in all, everything in the Galapagos went so smoothly and I would highly recommend the MV Santa Cruz to anyone who wants to visit the islands but be on a larger ship for seasickness issues. If only the rest of Ecuador had their tourism down the way they have it down in the Galapagos! That would just make having visitors so much easier! 

A continuation of Renee's Adventure in Ecuador will continue in another post!

Renee's Visit to Ecuador (Part 2: Galapagos Day 3!)

Day 3 was quite a busy day! It started out bright and early with our normal wakeup call & breakfast before we headed out to Rabida Island where we got to take a stroll along a gorgeous red colored beach. There were a lot of sea lions, and while Adam and Renee went out on a deep sea snorkeling trip, I got to see a hawk up close & personal as well as a baby sea lion that rolled around in the dirt (we jokingly called it a sea lion apanado- breaded sea lion!). I also went out on the glass bottom boat and we saw sharks, stingrays, schools of so many different kinds of fish (including angel fish, damselfish, pufferfish, and surgeonfish), and chocolate chip starfish. Renee and Adam saw some fish out on their deep sea snorkeling trip but they didn't get to see the hammerhead shark.

(Click on pictures for a closer view)

Our welcoming party on Rabida Island

The water was so clear and blue!

The hawk- he posed for all the photographers in the group!

My footsteps on the beach...because I was frantically looking for Renee's glasses that I somehow dropped in the sand (she entrusted me with them while she was snorkeling...yikes!). Luckily I found them!

The teeny tiny baby sea lion straight out of the water

He was not shy at all!

After he rolled around in the dirt and breaded himself! So cute!

After another lovely lunch and relaxing out on the ship deck, we headed to North Seymour Island, which was one of my favorites because...

That's right! North Seymour was where we saw tons of blue footed boobies and frigate birds. It was kind of overwhelming. At every corner there were pairs of blue footed boobies, some watching over eggs and others mating. You could hear their whistling call before you spotted them. We also saw the frigate birds and it was neat to see the male frigates puff out their red chests, spread out their wings, and do a mating dance to try to attract the females.

One of our first blue footed boobie sightings!

You could tell the difference between males and females based on the pupil sizes- the females had larger pupils and also their feet are more blue in color.

Blue footed boobies nest on the ground. This is a pair of boobies watching over their egg that is beneath the male boobie...can you see it?

The male boobie doing a mating dance around the female (we later saw this pair mate)

This is a male frigate with his red pouch inflated

Blue footed boobies and frigates all together

Can you see the inflated red pouch in the background? Another male searching for a mate

This is a baby frigate bird. They are fed by their mothers until they are almost a year old (much longer than other birds)

Another male in the background trying to attract mates

Swallowtail gull- check out the red ring around the eye

And of course, as on every island, lots of sea lion pups awaiting their mothers' return

Here is a sea lion pup feeding while its mother tries to rest

After this evening we headed back to the boat, and on this particular night it was super rocky. Suffice it to say that Adam didn't eat a whole lot during dinner and spent much of the evening up on the deck! It wasn't as bad as the previous night where one woman ran out during dinner from seasickness and we were kept up all night by the squeaking of our closet, but it was enough to make you feel a little dizzy!

Part 3- Galapagos Days 4 & 5 coming soon!