Greetings all! We have just spent our last day in Ecuador in the busy, bustling capital city of Quito. We did our last minute shopping in the open market, went to the National Museum and spent some time in one of Quito's huge public parks. The kids all had a great time. We've spent alot of time with Anietta, Maya and DJ Tice (Anietta swims, Maya is close to Hannah's age and DJ is a couple years younger) and the kids have just had a blast.
I know we've got alot of pictures to post and title...so please check back soon!
We will be home on July 3 - land in SFO about 12:30am home probably by 3am? So we'll emerge sometime late morning!
Can't wait to share our stories in person and see everyone too...
lisa
AHHH The Galapagos Islands!!!
Hola mi familia y amigos y amigas!
It is almost the end of our time in this magical place. It´s been very difficult to post pictures because the internet is so slow and because we´ve been so busy every day touring the islands. Today however Hailey and I stayed back in Puerto Ayora to have a down day and get our sea legs.
First the ocean swim! I swam a 2km swim in the ocean from a place out beyond the harbor here in Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz. Honestly, as we were traveling out in the boat in nothing but goggles and swim suits we were a little nervous. Once we went past the boats in the harbor the swells were pretty big and all of us were even more nervous. I think I was the boat cheerleader though because if I didn´t hoot and holler I would focus on my own anxiety about jumping off the back of a small boat into 3-4 foot swells to swim 2km!!! It was actually a wonderful swim and we all had a nice strong current in our favor so we were much faster than we thought we´d be. I swam with Hannah Davis, the daughter of Will and Diane who I swim with in Davis at 7am back home! We both had a blast once over our initial nervousness!
With the swim behind us we had a great lunch/ceremony with awards - funny! The past three days we´ve been on boat tours around all of the bigger islands Isabela, Seymour and Floreana. At each one we had special experiences. Here are some of my highlights: seeing land tortoises (galapagos), walking on aa lava and seeing the thousands of marine iguanas everywhere, swimming with sea lions, spotting a huge manta ray, watching blue footed booby´s feed just several feet in front of us, seeing flying fish. We swam with sea turtles and watched marine iguanas feeding underwater. And then the absolutely so amazing we saw penguins - the ones that swim up from the south witht he Humboldt current this time of year. They were so cute I couldn´t believe it!
I can´t wait to post and share so many pictures with everyone but you´ll have to wait until we get somewhere where we can really spend time downloading.
The food has been great too. Everyday we´ve had wahoo, a local fish, for lunch prepared either grilled or very lightly breaded and pan fried. It has been excellent everywhere. It has always been accompanied with a big scoop of white rice an a half of a peeled boiled potato that most people here slather with mayonase (YUCK!). There has been some salad matter and where ever we can we´ve been ordering vegetables. On the boat tours the guides have been great, knowledgeable and fun. On Floreana our guide got in the water withus and he was so much fun. The boat rides out to Isabela and Floreana were long and I can´t imagine one person in my family (mom, dad, aunties or cousins) who would have paid a penny to go on the trip. The ocean was rough and the boats were pretty small! The trip to isabela was especially traumatic - at least for hailey poor thing hung over the side the entire time.
Gotta go now. We´re all having a blast
adios
Lisa June 27, 2008
It is almost the end of our time in this magical place. It´s been very difficult to post pictures because the internet is so slow and because we´ve been so busy every day touring the islands. Today however Hailey and I stayed back in Puerto Ayora to have a down day and get our sea legs.
First the ocean swim! I swam a 2km swim in the ocean from a place out beyond the harbor here in Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz. Honestly, as we were traveling out in the boat in nothing but goggles and swim suits we were a little nervous. Once we went past the boats in the harbor the swells were pretty big and all of us were even more nervous. I think I was the boat cheerleader though because if I didn´t hoot and holler I would focus on my own anxiety about jumping off the back of a small boat into 3-4 foot swells to swim 2km!!! It was actually a wonderful swim and we all had a nice strong current in our favor so we were much faster than we thought we´d be. I swam with Hannah Davis, the daughter of Will and Diane who I swim with in Davis at 7am back home! We both had a blast once over our initial nervousness!
With the swim behind us we had a great lunch/ceremony with awards - funny! The past three days we´ve been on boat tours around all of the bigger islands Isabela, Seymour and Floreana. At each one we had special experiences. Here are some of my highlights: seeing land tortoises (galapagos), walking on aa lava and seeing the thousands of marine iguanas everywhere, swimming with sea lions, spotting a huge manta ray, watching blue footed booby´s feed just several feet in front of us, seeing flying fish. We swam with sea turtles and watched marine iguanas feeding underwater. And then the absolutely so amazing we saw penguins - the ones that swim up from the south witht he Humboldt current this time of year. They were so cute I couldn´t believe it!
I can´t wait to post and share so many pictures with everyone but you´ll have to wait until we get somewhere where we can really spend time downloading.
The food has been great too. Everyday we´ve had wahoo, a local fish, for lunch prepared either grilled or very lightly breaded and pan fried. It has been excellent everywhere. It has always been accompanied with a big scoop of white rice an a half of a peeled boiled potato that most people here slather with mayonase (YUCK!). There has been some salad matter and where ever we can we´ve been ordering vegetables. On the boat tours the guides have been great, knowledgeable and fun. On Floreana our guide got in the water withus and he was so much fun. The boat rides out to Isabela and Floreana were long and I can´t imagine one person in my family (mom, dad, aunties or cousins) who would have paid a penny to go on the trip. The ocean was rough and the boats were pretty small! The trip to isabela was especially traumatic - at least for hailey poor thing hung over the side the entire time.
Gotta go now. We´re all having a blast
adios
Lisa June 27, 2008
We Made it to the Galapagos
Yes, we finally made it here and it is a wonderful and beautiful place. The internet is very slow here and we are getting kicked out of the biblioteca (library) where internet is free.
We are off to Isabella Island tomorrow for hiking and snorkeling and we'll post more later.
We are off to Isabella Island tomorrow for hiking and snorkeling and we'll post more later.
A Day in the City of Guayaquil
Greetings all! It's late tonight as I post this and the kids are tired so it's just going to be me. We'll have to catch up tomorrow with the pictures from today and there were...oh at least 500 of them!
So if you all remember this trip is being made possible by the head coach of my master's swim team in Davis. Rick, our coach, has organized everything to every last detail. We have several Ecuadorians that are "hanging" out with us 24/7 which is awesome. One in particular, Roberta, is seriously superwoman! She does it all...including yelling at vendors who try to charge us too much.
The day started for me at least by saying goodbye to Chris as he went out for a run. I woke up and decided to go to the local Panaderia for breakfast and thought I'd bring some back for everyone. The kids were happy to stay here and sleep in. So I set off and found several of my teammates doing the same thing. It's nice to have a different breakfast for once. At the hotel breakfast is included...did I mention the tiny hot dogs they serve every morning?! I ordered several bakery items to take back to the hotel, some sweet and some savory. They were a hit and I was so proud of myself for ordering in Spanish. My Spanish is muy mal!
The team had a practice this am so I set off with them. Rick has been nice enough to let Hannah work out with the team too - of course she's in lane 2 of 8 so I don't see her once we get into the pool - so she came with us.
I love the pool. It's fast, deep and the water is the perfect temperature, nice and cool. I have to get used to my times being different from yards to meters, it does throw me a bit. One thing I notice when I'm swimming is each time I take a breath I notice a different smell. It's diesel, no, it's fried empanadas, no, it's cumin, no it's slightly sour. Yep, lots of smells each time I take a breath - a reminder that I'm very far away and in a South American city. Tomorrow is our meet against several Ecuadorian teams, I have no idea how many people will be there just know that a bus picks us up at 7:30 and we have a party later!
After we swam we went to an awesome fruit stand where we got huge cups of fruit, I mean 160z cup size jammed with papaya, melons, pineapple, grapes, bananas for oh .60cents. It was so good and refreshing. They also had empanadas, the biggest ones I've seen so far stuffed with cheese or meat. I sampled a bite from Chris, Hannah and Hailey's, yum!
We went back to our hotel and got ready for our day on foot in the city. We walked the entire Malecon 2000 ( the new boardwalk) in search of the artists market place. We found one area at the south end but I really wanted to head to the north end to the hillside of Santa Ana to see the oldest part of Guayaquil. It was so beautiful - 440 steps to the top of the hill and an additional climb up to the top of a lighthouse for an awesome 360 degree view of the city. The houses were so colorful, green, blue, yellow all close together and packed in tightly. Every several houses were restaurants or bars or little stores where you could purchase ice cream or sodas. I've never seen anything like it really. We had a great time on the way down as we took a side route that led us to a playground built into the side of the hill full of children playing futbol and on the park play structures. We sat with these children and spoke in broken Spanish for a bit...they were adorable and loved having us take their pictures. Did I mention that there are security guards everywhere, with guns? Yep all over, guess that's good as it keeps the rif raf away!
We had a loooonnnggg day walking - ended up eating dinner in the outskirts of town in a more upscale area called Urdesa. The restaurant we ate at was recommended by one of our Ecuadorian guardians and the food was great. We got back to the hotel late, I think it's 10:30pm right now and I need to get to sleep. We'll write more tomorrow after the swim meet and party!
Adios - Lisa
So if you all remember this trip is being made possible by the head coach of my master's swim team in Davis. Rick, our coach, has organized everything to every last detail. We have several Ecuadorians that are "hanging" out with us 24/7 which is awesome. One in particular, Roberta, is seriously superwoman! She does it all...including yelling at vendors who try to charge us too much.
The day started for me at least by saying goodbye to Chris as he went out for a run. I woke up and decided to go to the local Panaderia for breakfast and thought I'd bring some back for everyone. The kids were happy to stay here and sleep in. So I set off and found several of my teammates doing the same thing. It's nice to have a different breakfast for once. At the hotel breakfast is included...did I mention the tiny hot dogs they serve every morning?! I ordered several bakery items to take back to the hotel, some sweet and some savory. They were a hit and I was so proud of myself for ordering in Spanish. My Spanish is muy mal!
The team had a practice this am so I set off with them. Rick has been nice enough to let Hannah work out with the team too - of course she's in lane 2 of 8 so I don't see her once we get into the pool - so she came with us.
I love the pool. It's fast, deep and the water is the perfect temperature, nice and cool. I have to get used to my times being different from yards to meters, it does throw me a bit. One thing I notice when I'm swimming is each time I take a breath I notice a different smell. It's diesel, no, it's fried empanadas, no, it's cumin, no it's slightly sour. Yep, lots of smells each time I take a breath - a reminder that I'm very far away and in a South American city. Tomorrow is our meet against several Ecuadorian teams, I have no idea how many people will be there just know that a bus picks us up at 7:30 and we have a party later!
After we swam we went to an awesome fruit stand where we got huge cups of fruit, I mean 160z cup size jammed with papaya, melons, pineapple, grapes, bananas for oh .60cents. It was so good and refreshing. They also had empanadas, the biggest ones I've seen so far stuffed with cheese or meat. I sampled a bite from Chris, Hannah and Hailey's, yum!
We went back to our hotel and got ready for our day on foot in the city. We walked the entire Malecon 2000 ( the new boardwalk) in search of the artists market place. We found one area at the south end but I really wanted to head to the north end to the hillside of Santa Ana to see the oldest part of Guayaquil. It was so beautiful - 440 steps to the top of the hill and an additional climb up to the top of a lighthouse for an awesome 360 degree view of the city. The houses were so colorful, green, blue, yellow all close together and packed in tightly. Every several houses were restaurants or bars or little stores where you could purchase ice cream or sodas. I've never seen anything like it really. We had a great time on the way down as we took a side route that led us to a playground built into the side of the hill full of children playing futbol and on the park play structures. We sat with these children and spoke in broken Spanish for a bit...they were adorable and loved having us take their pictures. Did I mention that there are security guards everywhere, with guns? Yep all over, guess that's good as it keeps the rif raf away!
We had a loooonnnggg day walking - ended up eating dinner in the outskirts of town in a more upscale area called Urdesa. The restaurant we ate at was recommended by one of our Ecuadorian guardians and the food was great. We got back to the hotel late, I think it's 10:30pm right now and I need to get to sleep. We'll write more tomorrow after the swim meet and party!
Adios - Lisa
Dia Numero Tres
Hola Amigos! We finally got out of the city today and in to the countryside on our way to Salinas beach. We saw more of the rural side of Ecuador including banana plantations and cattle farms. We traveled through some very poor areas where people are living on 6-7' platforms surrounded by that flimsy bamboo fencing stuff. Apparently the houses are platforms because it rains constantly during the rainy season. The entire area that we saw has been deforested in the past and most of the regrowth is invasive vine species with some trees and grasslands. This part of Ecuador is more dry savanna than tropic rain forest. We did stop at the San Vicente hot springs on the way to the beach where they had one hot pool, one lukewarm pool and a cold mud pool. The girls enjoyed the mud pool (surprise, surprise).
The beach was very nice except for the constant approaches from the local "salespeople" selling junk. We all knew this was going to happen so we just said "no gracias" A LOT. The weather was warm and cloudy and the water was coolish. The cool ocean current is definitely making its appearance here. Didn't stop us from swimming and burying each other in the sand. Lots of fun.
We are definitely having to use the few Spanish words we know more and more. Luckily Hannah can speak pretty well and has been getting us through when we order food or need to find a bano.
Hailey here, today was fun and relaxing. The hot-springs were really fun with the mud bath and the pools, and the beach was a BLAST! The water was perfect and the sand was fun to play in. Looking forward to our shopping day in Ecudaor tommarow. Adios!
Buenos noches. As I write this, it's Lisa now, it is about 10:30pm. We had a full day traveling to Salinas a small beach resort town at the end of a peninsula on the coast. Again traveling through some of the poorer parts of Guayaquil and then through some affluent developments on our way to Salinas made it very interesting. The developments looked so much like some of the newer housing developments in Davis even! Pretty funny!!! The vegetation was definately dry - trees and cactus dotted the landscape. The hot springs were very interesting! It was like a compound of domed pools and an open mud bath. You'll have to check out all the pics!
Tomorrow I've got a swim workout and then we all spend the day shopping in some outdoor markets and in an older area in Guayaquil that is up a hill. I hear we have to climb over 400 stairs to reach the top - a lighthouse - should be fun in the nice warm, humid climate!! Saturday is our meet and once that's over I'll feel a little more relaxed!
More later...
Adios
Oh yea, we've posted a link to some of our pics on Picassa on the upper right of our blog. So go and take a look when you get a chance.
Day Two
Hailey here again, today was another long day. It was our bus tour day we rode around Ecuador ans went to the Ecuador historic park. We had a tour guide who told us about the animals which we saw and another of tour guide who talked about buildings in Ecuador a hundred years ago. It was fun. I know that we are all looking forward to tomarrow which is our beach day and we are spending the whole day at the beach here in Ecuador. Adios to all.
First Day
We'll we finally made it! What a travel day it was; almost 19 hours of travel. Yes, we were all a bit tired once we arrived, but still had enough energy to walk around Quayaquil. The city is very poor and very loud; people are not shy about using their horn as they drive through the narrow streets. The weather is warm, humid and a bit cloudy, but feels very good. This is going to be a great trip!
Hailey here, this was a very interesting, exciting and eventful day!!! The first flight left at 1:30 this morning morning and we had 4 flights total to get here to Gauyaquil. Unfortunetly on the third flight I wasn't feeling to good and barfed all over myself and mom. That was fun. HAHA! The hotel is acutally fancy for here but in the US it would be like a "Best Western" which is fine. The central park in town is nice. Well it was beatiful for me until I saw the 100's of three foot long Iguanas hagin' in the trees. Ya, it was kind of a surprise. I will take some pics of those tomarrow and post them. I am very excited for our tour of Guayaquil tomarrow and will take pics so you guys can all see!
wow Ecuador is very...different than i expected, i am the only one that thinks that it is a bit like New Your in that they are both huge big cities with busy streets and many honking horns but NY is well, lets just say a little more sophisticated. Anyways the flights were annoyinly long and there is NO starbucks here :[As i sit here woking on my independent stury for health this summer i think to myself how excited i am for the fun upcoming events!
written by: Hannah Levien
Hola everyone, this is Lisa! We decided on a family post tonight as we are all pretty delirious from the long travel. Leaving at 1:30 in the morning was tough and I thought I'd sleep but...not really. I did get a peak of the sun coming up and it was quite beautiful. We arrived as everyone above said after four flights Oakland -> El Salvador -> Costa Rica -> Quito, Ecuador -> finally Guayaquil. Guayaquil is a busy, bustling city. We are in the center of it...we had dinner at the hotel tonight including a drink it was $3.95/person. It was good, lentils, rice, plantains and some meat of some sort. We have an Ecuadorian from Guayaquil named Roberta that is essentially taking care of us! We have a tour of the city tomorrow after we have a morning swim workout at an olympic sized pool in town. I'm very happy to be here and enjoy this country.
Hailey here, this was a very interesting, exciting and eventful day!!! The first flight left at 1:30 this morning morning and we had 4 flights total to get here to Gauyaquil. Unfortunetly on the third flight I wasn't feeling to good and barfed all over myself and mom. That was fun. HAHA! The hotel is acutally fancy for here but in the US it would be like a "Best Western" which is fine. The central park in town is nice. Well it was beatiful for me until I saw the 100's of three foot long Iguanas hagin' in the trees. Ya, it was kind of a surprise. I will take some pics of those tomarrow and post them. I am very excited for our tour of Guayaquil tomarrow and will take pics so you guys can all see!
wow Ecuador is very...different than i expected, i am the only one that thinks that it is a bit like New Your in that they are both huge big cities with busy streets and many honking horns but NY is well, lets just say a little more sophisticated. Anyways the flights were annoyinly long and there is NO starbucks here :[As i sit here woking on my independent stury for health this summer i think to myself how excited i am for the fun upcoming events!
written by: Hannah Levien
Hola everyone, this is Lisa! We decided on a family post tonight as we are all pretty delirious from the long travel. Leaving at 1:30 in the morning was tough and I thought I'd sleep but...not really. I did get a peak of the sun coming up and it was quite beautiful. We arrived as everyone above said after four flights Oakland -> El Salvador -> Costa Rica -> Quito, Ecuador -> finally Guayaquil. Guayaquil is a busy, bustling city. We are in the center of it...we had dinner at the hotel tonight including a drink it was $3.95/person. It was good, lentils, rice, plantains and some meat of some sort. We have an Ecuadorian from Guayaquil named Roberta that is essentially taking care of us! We have a tour of the city tomorrow after we have a morning swim workout at an olympic sized pool in town. I'm very happy to be here and enjoy this country.
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