Galapagos

Monday 15th through Sunday 21st I visited the Galapagos. These Ecuadorian islands are known for its beauty and amazing wildlife , the latter being of interest for Charles Darwin when he visited the islands 1830-something. However visiting has its cost - literally; the islands are expensive! Putting your feet on land and you have to pay 100 US, in addition to everything being twice the cost compared to Quito.

After a relaxing first day on the island the second day I joined a diving trip. Cold water and a long and windy boat trip back was what I needed to catch a cold which faithfully accompanied me the rest of the week. Thursday I joined a 4 day cruise as people had been saying that going on a boat trip is a must when in the Galapagos. Did some great snorkling with sealions and turtles, went on some good tours, met some interesting people and except that there were a few too many latin lover wannabes among the crew it was a perfecto!

Some pictures of the creatures of Galapagos where at the top left a sealion is nursing her baby, then me and a giant tortoise at Charles Darwin's research station in Santa Cruz, the top left you have a pelikan getting a snack, before the two below show an marine iguana and a blue footed booby.

Illiniza Norte, 5100-and-something above sea level

This weekend me and Rachel hiked/climbed Illiniza Norte, a mountain about 2 hours north from Quito. The first day we had a nice little warm up to prepare our final hike. Beautiful day where Ecuador displayed some scenic beauty. Some animals from that trip; a horse to the right (!) and an alpaca in the middle (why have a sheep when you can have an alpaca?) and some cows to the left

Sunday we got up at about 4.30 and started our hike. Illiniza Norte is not very difficult to hike/climb but the altitude has its effects and above 4000 meters I felt like an 80 year old with KOLS. However we made it in the end and had the pleasure to have a snack 5100 meters above sea level. The weather was not as it was the day before and we pretty much did not see anything, but it was beautiful anyway and the snow in the air made it hard to believe that we were not that many kilometers from the equator line. (By the way, did you know that Ecuadorian mountains are further from the earth center than mountains in the Himalayas due to the ecuator buldge?). This last picture is Rachel, Marco and me on the top

My week

This has happened since my last blog entry:

--- I had dinner at "my parents" son and daughter-in-law and managed to marinate the table cloth with wine and in general was the strange foreigner that did not know the difference between ano and año.
--- Luckily I learned the difference between ano and año before I could brag about my number of anuses to too many. I also turned 26 años last week and since I did not have my party planer Maria to organize it I ended up having a beer with two chickas before going to bed early.
--- My "mom" and "dad" here in Quito have become grandparents, a nice excuse to go shopping. Hopefully my friends in Norway can make some babies soon so I can do more shopping at stores similar to Bebe Mundo!!
--- I went to Otavalo this weekend with Amy and Rachel. We went early in the morning on Saturday did some shopping at the gigantic market, before our "extreme" hike to the waterfall. We did not exactly go the quickest and easiest way, a situation most likely to happen when I am the one with the most sense of direction. In the evening after "freshening up" these party animals had an ice cream and went to bed at 10 pm. Sunday we had an awesome hike around a laguna, beautiful view and nice weather and I am of course sunburned since I frequently forget that my skin color is some shade of blue. The picture to the left shows the crossing of the grande river. I stripped down to my underwear and did the crossing in approximately 10 seconds and afterwards I could enjoy Amy's and Rachel's entertaining journey. The two next ones are from our hike around the laguna.

I wanted to upload some more pics but the internet is not working with me... so for now; enjoy