Traditional Ecuadorians in costume.

Quito Ecuador

The flight was successful. We flew from Phoenix to Miami and further to Quito on Saturday. It was an uneventful flight – and with 2 preschoolers – that is a successful flight. Upon our arrival we were met by our tour guide with one of those signs “Strickler” so we didn’t have to jockey for a taxi ride, fight over where the hotel was or worry if we were being taken advantage of. To top it off, the tour guide introduced himself as “Diego”. Sam and Perrin’s eyes lit up and they were ready for their adventura grande. The altitude at Quito is about 12,000 which is pretty stinkin' high, though none of us felt any immediate effects.

Ecuador is a major exporter of high quality roses. They are about $2/dozen here.

A shoe store sells it's wares.

It was late when we got to Quito so we checked into our hotel and ordered room service. Peter, Jack & Alex popped up to say Buenos Noches. Soon Sue was up and enjoyed a glass of red wine as we enjoyed our beautiful hotel. It was kind of funny as we were booked for 2 rooms as there were 4 of us. In the US if you have 2 rooms they are often connected to one another, but here the rooms were down the hall from each other. Though I would have loved to keep the kids down the hall, we decided against it. Instead they slept on the couch that was in our room. Perrin only fell off once during the night.

The hotel is called the Hotel Parc and is in the newest part of Quito. Quito is divided into 3 sections; the old, newer and newest. We took a tour on Sunday through Quito, going into the old part of town. There was a beautiful neo gothic cathedral that was built in the 1800’s, All of us climbed through the spires and towers to get a marvelous view of the city. We were all a little nervous with Sophie, Sam and Perrin running around but they all survived.

The Cathedral

Climbing to the top of the Cathedral. I had to stop as I was getting sick from the heights.

Sue helping Sam get a better view atop of the cathedral.

After the cathedral we headed to the main plaza where there was a fountain and hundreds of people gathered for their Sunday afternoon. There were a few dogs around so Sophie and Sue made their way to pet them. As Jack was sitting by two ladies came up to him and started patting his head. He smiled and said “Yeah, we ask to pet their dogs and they ask can they pet your kid.” He’s so funny and good natured. We got many smiles that day as the two blonds and one Chinese girl ran around the square.

We continued our day by getting on the bus and driving to the “center of the earth”. We traveled to a tourist attraction that was a cultural interpretation center of the indigenous peoples and the GPS setting of 0.00. It was pretty cool that on one side of the equator the water swirled one way down the drain, on the other side of the equator it swirled the other way and on the equator it went straight down. Granted this was the synopsis of the experiments everyone did as I was busy chasing Sam, Perrin and Sophie as they had absolutely no interest in the exhibits other than plastic renditions of local marine life. The boys on the other hand practiced their aim with the blow gun; they looked like real warriors.

Sophie and Sam straddle the equator.

Jack is so funny - pretending to get eaten by a tortoise.

As in any good latin country, dinner didn’t start until the kids bed time so we went back to the hotel to take a siesta. We slept for a couple of hours and then headed out again for a dinner and dance show. The typical food for Ecuador – or at least what our guide said was typical - consists of potato soup, a salad of some sort and a meat, either Ecuadorean beef or chicken. The dinner was excellent and everyone ate their fill. The entertainment began with local band, much like the bands you might see on the streets playing in downtown Seattle. Perrin started groovin’ in her seat and before we knew it she was up and dancing in the aisles. Sophie was quick to join her and the two of them brought many smiles to the other tourists.

The next set was a group of dancers were folk dancers who twirled and sang. At one point they asked for volunteers from the audience and both Peter and Jack went up for different dances. They were so cute and we couldn’t stop laughing at poor Peter as he followed the dancers around. He's such a trooper and has a great sense of humor. Jack was seduced onto the stage by a beautiful woman as she asked him to dance. He boogied as only Jack can.

The next day we boarded a plane at the butt crack of dawn and headed for the Galapagos. The islands are about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. They are relatively new islands as they are mostly rock. I guess there is even an active volcano on one of the islands. The hotel we stayed at was gorgeous. It had only a small number of villas and a small house which were wonderful. We drew the lucky card and got to stay in the nicest of villas since we had the most children. Peter, Jack and Peter got their own villa and I think enjoyed having a bit of independence. There was a pool, hot tubs and gorgeous gardens. Unfortunately there was also a constant drizzle which made it too cold to be outside. We met every morning for our breakfast in the dining room where there was a round table big enough to hold all 12 of us - granted we had to talk rather loudly to be heard. Our waiters knew Sophie's name the first day as she wasn't shy at all. As Jorge went around introducing himself he paused as Perrin said her name. "Penguin?" he said. We all laughed and unfortunately for Perrin the name stuck.

After getting a bit of rest, we headed to the Charles Darwin Conservatory. It was established to help species to reestablish themselves on the islands. Many species of various animals have gone extinct and many are on endangered due to the introduction to donkeys, goats, dogs, cats etc. The national park is diligently working on eradication of non-native animals as they are the main issue with species depletion. On the way to the conservatory we almost walked into the swimming lizards. They were black and we almost, well Sam almost, walked on top of one. They then spied the red crabs that were everywhere. I think the crab made Sam's trip as that's all he wanted to see. At the conservatory we saw land tortoises & land iguanas, including Lonesome George.

The second day in the Galapagos we headed out to the island Bartholomew, a 2.5 hour boat ride. Peter and Tim took dramamine, which proved to be a good idea on the way home. Our first stop was solely for geology as we looked at some interesting rocks. It kind of all looked the same to me and it was hot. Really hot. That's the thing about being near the equator, once the sun comes out it's incredibly hot. Sam & Sophie ran, ran and ran some more. They walked all the way to the top of the mountain without any help, though we heard, "Sohpie, can you touch me?" an awful lot. Sue was a little unnerved with Sophie and her adventuresome spirit. The Galapagos are a national park and they are very strict on contaminating or disturbing the natural environment. So much so that the airplane was "decontaminated" before we landed. Not sure what they used but we're still alive. We were not allowed to touch anything, go off the paths or take any food/drink (except water) onto the islands. From what the guide said, they have been able to maintain 95% of their endemic species of plants and animals. She compared it to Hawaii that has only been able to maintain under 20%.

Sam, Sophie and Jack on the long walk up to the rock mountain.

Needless to say it was a bit of a challenge to keep track of the toddlers. Perrin was probably the easiest to keep occupied, as long as Peter was holding her hand. About day two Perrin decided that she loved Peter a lot (in contrast to her mother who she loves only a little) and wanted to be with him every minute of the day. "Where's Peter" was her cry along with "BLANKIE!" She made it up many mountains holding Peter's hand and as long as he was there she never cried. Poor Peter, I promised him a new PSP game when we got home for all his sacrifice and kindness.

Perrin and Balin taking a snooze on the way home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon of day 2 on the islands at the beach. It was a little cove with rocks, iguanas and good snorkeling. The kids loved playing on the beach and some of the adults and older kids enjoyed snorkeling. It was nice to have a bit of a break from the boat and from walking in the hot sun on the beach. The boat ride home was a bit rough seas and Peter and Tim looked a little green. The children all fell asleep and napped for the 2.5 hr. boat ride.
So, as you can imagine the toddlers had a rough go of it. The tired out pretty easily, wanted to be carried or needed to be entertained. It was a lot of work, but for the most part they were pretty good. We came prepared with coloring books, stickers, cars, treats etc. As you can see though it didn't always work. Lucky for us, the kids didn't whine all at the same time, they took turns.
The 3rd day was a little more laid back as we started out at 8am instead of the grueling hour of 5:30am. We started off with a 45 minute walk to a secluded beach right outside the main town on the island Santa Cruz. The kids all walked the whole way, Perrin holding onto Peter's hand, Sophie and Sam running as fast as they could. Alex, Jack and the rest of us took our time as it was hot and muggy. We saw the Darwin finches on the way, local fauna and lots of small lizards. Sue encouraged the kids along the way by giving them "energy" with M&M's - they sure became trained for energy bursts. When we got to the beach, Sam, Perrin and Sam went straight for the ocean and started digging. Balin and I stuck around as the rest of the party went looking for wild life. Dan, my brother, got some amazing pictures of the swimming lizards but he definitely had to put himself in the face of the gruesome lizard. Catherine, Dan's wife, brought along an amazing lens for her camera and hence she took some amazing pictures. Tim, my brother-in-law, also took some amazing pictures along the way with his Nikon. With so many cameras constantly capturing every moment and much better photographers than Balin or I, we decided to leave cameras at home. We did end up bringing the video camera so hopefully I'll be making a movie for my parents so they can get a live experience of our trip. Needless to say, none of the pictures taken are mine - I borrowed them all.

The long walk back from the beach

The fourth and final day in the Galapagos, we traveled to another island that had a lot of wild life on it. We saw frigate birds in all stages, including ones who were left on the nest to die. We saw lots and lots of blue footed boobies and lots of sea lions and their calves. The first sensation on the island was the overwhelming smell. Upon looking around we saw the source, dead sea lion calves. Yuck. We took a walk which seemed to last forever but was probably only 45 minutes. All children were melting in the hot sun and the parents were getting tired of carrying them. The animals were cool, but we were glad when we went back to the boat, had lunch and headed for the beach. Balin and I swam from the boat to the beach and we all had a nice time relaxing in the water.

Dan made extraordinary sacrifices for the ultimate picture.

The following day we said our goodbyes to our hospitable guide and restaurant staff and headed to the airport. Upon arrival in Quito, Sue promptly hired a driver and car and went shopping. She got amazing sweaters, scarves and other local wares. She met us and we headed out to probably the best food we've had in Ecuador at Waffles and Crepes. It was in a big shopping mall and it was delicious. After dinner we headed back to our hotel, said our goodbyes and went to bed. The Weatbrooks had to leave the hotel at 5am and the Lewis' at 8am. We decided to take a rest day after attempting to go to the festival in the city park across the street from our hotel. We walked for about 5 minutes and the children started whining and crying to be picked up, claiming they were tired. So after going up a couple of blocks we headed back to the hotel to watch some movies and relax. After lunch the kids took 2 hour naps and I went to the spa. I have to say that it was probably one of the best spa experiences I've had to date. For $120 I got a 3 hour massage, body wrap, bath and european facial with 2 people working on me the entire time.. It was absolutely delicious. Balin had wanted to go home yesterday, and he's kind of grumpy today. I told him had we gone home I would have missed my blissful 3 hour spa experience. So as I write this the children are playing nicely together, Balin is laying on the bed looking at me and we're ready to go home. Until our next adventure - live big.