Finally Home

We got back from Florida and had a couple weeks that included a trip to Austin with Lorrie and John and Thanksgiving at both Val's family get-together and at Lorrie's.  Hard to watch the diet during the holidays, particularly with duplicated dinners and especially deserts.

On the Equator

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we took off for Quito, Ecuador via Miami.  We spent a day and two nights in Quito (altitude ~9300 feet) seeing the historic city, visiting the equator so we could stand in both hemispheres at one time and sampling the local food. We traveled with my brother Ken and Mo.

Val and Mo

Val with a Giant Tortoise

Val with a Nazca (masked) booby

Blue Footed Booby

             Tuesday we flew to Baltra Island in the Galapagos and boarded our home for the next week, the Galaven.  The group was 20 people, mostly from one town in Maryland.  Over the next week we visited about one island a day.  Each island is different with different flora and fauna. Everything that you have read about the Galapagos is true.  We were constantly amazed and stunned by the diversity of the wildlife. Animal and birds have no fear of man and so you can get up close and personal.  And there really are Blue Footed Boobies as well as Red Footed and Masked boobies.  

Red Footed Booby

 We never found out the advantage of the different colors of feet, but they were amazing to us.

Galapagos Penquine

There were sea lions and seals everywhere.  And Galapagos even has a species of penguin that swam with us when we were snorkeling.  Imagine a penguin on the equator!!  There were also hundreds of iguanas, both marine and land type and the giant tortoise that is several hundred pounds and lives to 150 years or so.  We even saw turtles mating as well as the tortoises mating.  This was exciting to those of us about the same age as the creatures.

I decided not to shave for a week so on our way back I took a selfie. (I had never heard that term until a couple of weeks ago and now it seems to be everywhere.)

Unfortunately, the trip was not entirely smooth.  On the next to last night on the boat we were cruising to another island and the seas were a little rough.  While in the bathroom, a big roll occurred and I fell into the shower skinning my arm and breaking a rib.  The trip the the hospital on San Cristobal was pretty interesting, though.  We went to the emergency room that was just a room with a chair.  The doctor spoke no English and my spanish is nil.  While she was examining me, a dog walked in to see what was happening--no one seemed to notice.  Apparently the rib had punctured the lung and there was air that had escaped into the subcutaneous tissue.  If you pressed on the skin, it was a little like popping bubble wrap.  Because of that we had an x-ray in another small room.  The film was not great quality, but it appeared that the lung had not collapsed and there was not a pneumothorax.  So after the arm was dressed and I got some pain pills, I went back to the boat.  I missed the next morning's hike where the group saw the Galapagos albatross doing their "goodbye dance".  They mate in the spring and say goodbye at this time of year.  For each they have a special dance that lasts about 20 minutes.  Oh well, maybe on my next trip to the Galapagos.

At home now about a week after the injury.  Ribs take about 6 weeks to heal and it still hurts a lot.  Just don't make me laugh.