My Central & South American Dream

3/10/2017 After breakfast today we went back into the historic district to the Palaza Grande to do a tour of the Presidential Palace. The tour was much more exceptional than I was expecting. Our guide spoke perfect English and translated for us after doing each section of the tour in Spanish. We saw a mosaic that was made depicting an important battle that Ecuador had with the Spanish when they discovered the amazon river. Then various rooms around the palace. What surprised me was the collection that the president, Rafael Herraro has open to the public. He has received 12,000 gifts since taking office in 2007 which are all on display as part of a museum in the palace. All of the other presidents have taken these gifts to their homes. In addition, all of his medals that he has received and academic diplomas are also on display. My dad said this is something that U.S. presidents have done, but that's not something that I knew of. After the tour, we stopped at a local artisan choco...

3/8/2017 Today was the day we left the Galapagos to head back to Quito on the mainland. Our five days in the Galapagos absolutely flew by. It felt like I blinked. We saw so many amazing animals, beautiful scenery, and met amazing people. We spent a leisurely morning at the hotel which was a nice change from early mornings always getting ready for a tour. But eating breakfast at 7:45 and seeing everyone leave for their tour today definitely made me envious. Going into this trip I though it would be "my galapagos trip." But now, I see it as just an introduction. I want to come back maybe twice. Once again in the hot and rainy season to do an eight day boat tour. This seems to be the way to go because you see more islands than when you're based on one. Also, having more days would be nice. I definitely want to see a penguin, a boobie dance, and climb the volcano. A chance to see the Galapagos in then cool and dry season would be nice too. Some say more animals are out beca...

3/7/ 2017 Today was another snorkel tour and hike on the Sea Lion (the hotel's yacht.) We started out after breakfast with the typical bus ride up to the canal on the north end of the island where we met the boat. Then we went to X island for another snorkel tour. Today we swam for much longer and thankfully I didn't have any more mask problems! We were probably out for about two hours. The water was more murky today than yesterday and there weren't any sea lions to swim with. But overall it was still great! I saw parrot fish, bright blue fish, purple fish, a shark, these small cow looking fish that swam right at the surface, and a large looking fish that was maybe a trout? After the snorkel we went back on the boat to get ready for the hike. We took the boat over to X island for the hike. On that tour I saw yellow Iguanas, more sea lions (and lots of cute baby pups!), gulls, and a Naka boobie. I also learned that the sea lions in galapagos are much smaller because it...

3/3/2017 I lost a day somewhere on my blog so I'm making up for it here. At least the dates are correct. Today was our earliest morning yet with a flight at 530am from Cusco to Lima, then lima to Quito, Ecuador. We woke up at 230am to get to the airport on time. Thankfully the flight went smoothly without any problems. Quito is a beautiful city that reminds me both of Guatemala and Peru. Each has large mountains and volcanoes surrounding the city with farming along the hillsides. After we checked into our hotel, which is about a 5min drive or 15min walk from the airport, we wanted to go into the city to explore and find something to eat. We thought we are just in the outskirts of the city (Quito), however it turns out that we are totally out in the middle of no where. The old airport was in the city. A taxi cab would have costed $25 each way just to get there! Instead, we walked back to the airport and ventured around the "airport mall." It was such a beautiful day for...

2/28/2017 Today was an early morning starting out at 4am in our hotel in Urubamba. We were picked up and brought to the train station in Ollyantambo where we caught the Vista dome train. The train ride was fantastic. It followed the Urubamba river all the way to Aguas Caliente, and thankfully the rain held off so the views were amazing. They fed us, had comfortable seats, and nice music that made for a great ride. As we descended along the river, we could see the obvious change in ecosystems from Low Highlands to cloud forest. The treeline went from bare mountain rock to dense forest to tall jungle. As we continued down in elevation, the jungle continued to grow in size. The trees were larger and the forest was more dense. It wasn't quite the same as what I saw in Belize, but I think this is because of the altitude change (and obviously I am in a very different part of the world too.) There were orchids, palm trees, and birds. After the train ride we met our guide in Aguas Calien...

Today was our full day tour to Pisaq (a town with a well known market) and Ollyantambo (an ancient inca town.) The Pisaq market is a large beautiful market with vendors selling their handicrafts that they (supposedly) make them self. It's said that they sell to the souvenir shops in Lima and Cusco, so here they have the best prices. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but of course, that never happens. The only thing I really wanted were some alpaca socks. Going through the market we mostly looked at Alpaca products such as scarfs, socks, shawls etc. and jewelry because Peru is known for its gold and silver. After the market we went to a restaurant for lunch, then headed to Ollyantambo. On our way, we saw terracing and cuy - which is roasted guinea pig on a stick (no thank you.) The ruins at Ollyantambo were a great introduction to the Inca lifestyle. The materials, architecture, and engineering used for building. Plus the layout of the area with terraces for gardening, ope...

3/2/2017 Today was the day for rest. After arriving in Cusco late last night and going to Machu Picchu for two days in a row, we desperately needed a day to relax. We slept in until 9am - because breakfast ended at 10. Then had a leisurely morning around the hotel. This afternoon we took a taxi up to Sascyhuaman, only to find that the entrance ticket included three other historical sites as well and was s/70 per person (about  $23.) To me, I had seen enough old rocks and it wasn't worth the cost, especially when we would have spent only about an hour there and it was raining. From there we took a taxi back down into Cusco to the Machu Picchu museum. We probably spent about two hours there. It was great to see all the artifacts from the site and original photos from Hiram Bingham after having been to Machu Picchu. By late afternoon we were hungry and grabbed a sandwhich to spit at a local cafe. We then spent the rest of the day relaxing more at the hotel and getting ready for our e...