• Gold Church

    This church has a bunch of gold on the inside.

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    You aren’t allowed to take pictures of the gold on the inside so we only have boring pictures of the outside.

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    Directly across from the church is a building decorated with this cherub. The story goes that the owner hired aboriginals to build the building, but when the building was finished refused to pay. So they added this final decoration as a than you.

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    The church is full of gold.

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    Nearly every surface is covered with 14 carat gold. Except for the porcelain cherubs that seem to be peering out of every corner and are really creepy.

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  • Quito Flowers

    This garden had lots of pretty flowers.

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    Kerri liked the pink ones.

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    She also liked these red ones with a bit of pink.

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    And these frilly pink ones.

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    This does not look anything like a poppy plant.

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    But the flowers look like poppies.

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    This cactus is very spiky.

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    This cactus was actually flowering.

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    The flowers were kind of pretty.

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    These flowers were very long and weird.

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    These cactuses were less spiky than the other ones. but still spiky.

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  • Ecuador Healer

    As part of a walking tour, Kerri visited the shop of a traditional healer in Ecuador.

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    The walls were covered in items of spiritual significance, including dead animals, shells, pottery and bare T12 fluorescent light bulbs.

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    Hanging money from the dead ram was supposed to bring wealth. I hope it still works when the money isn’t worth anything, because these are old Ecuador Sucres, which were replaced with the American Dollar after the last bout of hyperinflation.

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    This is the skin of a caiman, a small crocodile type thing that lives in the Amazon.

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    For $50 he offered spit alcohol at me to “cleanse my soul”. But only because nothing is actually wrong with me. An actual cure costs $300 and would likely involve a guinea pig. It would not end well for the guinea pig. This is in a country where a meal of chicken soup, 1/4 roast chicken, rice and beans goes for $3.

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    He dressed me up as a “princess of the earth” and sat me on a replica of a traditional Incan throne. The crown is an original artefact made of hammered gold. Except presumably for the staples that hold it together.

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  • Aboard the Nemo II

    This was our home for the week.

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    Sorry, it’s actually completely hidden behind the big blue boat there except for the top of its mast. This is it.

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    It may actually be the smallest ship for week long trips in the Galapagos, carrying only 12 passengers. It is a motorized sail catamaran.

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    On occasion we would actually sail between locations. This was usually when we were doing a short navigation in the afternoon or evening and had both the wind and current in our favour. 

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    The boat was 10 meters wide by 21 meters long.

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    It towed along a small dinghy used for tendering to shore and boat rides along the coast.

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    Our room is about 2.5m x 2.5m x 3m, including the bathroom, and is located here, near the front of the boat.

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    This is the little staircase that goes down to our room. The kitchen is on the right.

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    It has a double bed up top and a single bed on the bottom.

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    You can almost stand up straight on the bottom.

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    The bathroom has a drain on the floor between the sink and the toilet. The sink converts into a hand held shower head.

    imageThere was a nice sundeck up top where we spent a lot of time, especially Kerri. Matt didn’t like it when the boat was rocking too much.

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    This is the indoor sitting area where we had our nightly briefings so we’d know what the plan was for the next day.

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    The food was plentiful and delicious. Everyday we had a full breakfast, a snack between the morning hike and snorkel, then soup followed by lunch, a second afternoon snack between the afternoon snorkel and hike and finally dinner. There was also a dessert following both lunch and dinner. We miss the food already.

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    The eating area is an open air section at the back of the boat. We would usually be anchored while eating so not too much rocking. Although right after dinner we would set off for our next destination and it would rock pretty good when against the current.

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    This is Capitan Henry.

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    This is Pececito, the chef, in the kitchen.

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    This is our guide, Patricia.

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    We had a great time on the boat, even with all the rocking. At night we would lay down and get rocked gently (or less gently) to sleep. On the last night you got a moment of weightlessness on the top of each wave! On the bad nights we both would take gravol (Matt needed that in addition to the scopolomine). It was an amazing time and we were lucky to see so many different things. But as Patricia mentioned to us, anytime you go to the Galapagos you have to go with a blank slate as it changes so quickly that even an hour may pass and you may see something completely different.


  • Daphne

    We didn’t actually get to get off the boat at Daphne, but we sailed in circles around it for about half an hour.

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    At sunrise.

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    It was pretty

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    And had lots of birds.

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    This was our last glimpse of boobies.

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