There Goes My Baby

I cried this morning. The salty tears came out of nowhere, a response to sheer happiness and pride for my little happy heart of a boy. For the first time, Teague rode his bike without training wheels. Off he went, unafraid, riding as fast and as far as he wanted. By himself.

This 4 year old boy was just a swaddled little Teague burrito whose gummy little baby laugh captured our hearts. He just learned to crawl and walk and torment our poor dog Memphis. He just said his first words and charmed us with his silly songs. He just started preschool.

He's not exactly leaving for college tomorrow, I know, but with each of his special milestones, there's a tiny sadness in my heart and a lump in my throat, because I know he needs me a little less. Kissing his boo boos won't make his entire world better for much longer, and this breaks my heart.

Teague and I had a rough start, with reflux and colic, an overseas move and a change in career all at once. There were plenty of days that I didn't think would ever end. But it got better, and then fun. We enjoyed the good moments so much more after having a difficult time. The blur that was his first year is probably to blame for a lot of my emotional mom moments.

As he continues to ride his bike all over town, I will run behind him, smiling and proud, taking as many mental pictures as I can, because I know that soon enough I will be saying, "he just learned to ride a bike."

Guayaquil

We were sad to leave the Galapagos, but Guayaquil was the perfect ending to our trip. In the past few years, the city has revamped itself, with a clean streets campaign, a gorgeous restored waterfront and an updated city center. It couldn't have been more inviting. Las Penas, the oldest area of the city, and the Malecon 2000, an enormous boardwalk with monuments, parks and cafes, were definitely worth a visit. The views from the lighthouse were also amazing.

An interesting little aside is that, like Americans, Ecuadorians seem to love chicken and turkey. Much to my delight, most restaurants featured poultry, a rarity in beef-centric BA. We noticed several American restaurant chains as well, which are also uncommon where we are, due to extremely high import taxes. Seeing familiar stores, foods, and much lower prices was an unexpected treat!

We left balmy (and overcast) 86 degree weather and stepped back into winter and a 40 degree chill. Although the extreme change in temps was a shock, we are lucky that the winters here are mild and the skies are almost always sunny and blue.

This is the last of our big trips until December, when we'll take the family truckster on a road trip through Northern Argentina.

Can you believe we've been in Argentina for almost a year?





The teen girls in Ecuador were Teague crazy! They would squeal and take pictures when they saw him.


The blonde hair/blue eyes combo isn't common there.


Climbing 400 steps to the lighthouse.


The bottled water ads featured this baby. Weird on so many levels.


They rented these battery powered ride-ons at the parks, $1.00 for 15 minutes. We literally had to pry Teague's hands off of this.


Hanging out in a typical town square--cathedral, pigeons and...more creepy iguanas.



So many things wrong with this picture.

Isla San Cristóbal

The worst boat ride. Ever.

We took what was supposed to be a 2 hour water taxi from Santa Cruz to San Cristóbal and it was miserable. I have seen photos of tiny packed boats full of Cuban refugees trying to make it to Florida, and this was probably the next closest thing. I'll spare you most of the details, but I will say that vomiting into sea spray while simultaneously being drenched with salt water is the exact opposite of pleasant. The lady across from me just kept saying, "Hold on, we'll be there in 30 minutes." Right, because everyone can just turn on and off their nausea.

The best part, for me, anyway, was when the boat 'monitor', the guy who stayed in the cabin with the passengers, actually grabbed the life vest I was wearing during my sickness and removed it, so that it wouldn't be tainted with gringo vomit. So, as the boat, because of it's speed, was pounding the waves to the point that people were bouncing up off of their seats, I had no life vest. I gave myself one chance in three.

Even Sean looked green, and I knew it was bad because 1)he's never ever sick, and 2)he always feels well enough to laugh at me. Luckily, I had enough forethought (it was sheer panic, really) to hand Teague a Children's Bonine about 2.2 minutes into the boat ride, when the local next to me said, "It's going to get a lot worse." He fell fast asleep, thankfully. We made it, though, and when we arrived, I vowed to never ride on a boat again. Sean agreed.

San Cristóbal is just gorgeous and was worth the boat 'situation'. It's smaller and less touristy, which we liked. It is sea lion mecca, and during the afternoon heat, they took over playgrounds and parks to nap. They had no problem resting inside slides and on public benches. As we ate dinner, they padded around near our table, looking for places to flop down and rest again, barking at each other as they moved.



Sleeping inside the kid's water slide. They slid down into the water afterward.

The island had lots of hiking trails and great places to spot wildlife. In between swimming and hiking, we stopped at the Galapagos National Park Visitor Center. It's actually a 5 building campus and is such a worthwhile stop to better understand the history of the islands and of Charles Darwin's involvement.

The next day, we hiked the extinct volcano in the highlands, but the mist made it impossible to see the crater's freshwater lake, El Junco. We hired a driver and checked out all of the island highlights, but the real highlight was our driver, who had never heard of Disney World. He was in his 70s and had an interesting outlook on the US (we never really went to the moon), Mormons (he thought they worshiped animals) and California (he wants to visit LA). This is what happens when you live your entire life on an island off of Ecuador.

The locals call San Cristóbal "the children's island", and, sure enough, it had lots of kid-friendly swimming areas, beaches and playgrounds. The fact that we didn't have to share space with those creepy marine iguanas made it all the better.

Post Script: We later ran into a couple who had taken the water taxi the day before us, and they actually called it the 'horrible boat'. They disliked it so much that they chartered a plane back to Santa Cruz island. 25 of the 30 passengers on their boat were sick. Good times.


Hiking through the cloud forests.


Catch of the day!


Snoozing beside our shoes.


Watching sea turtles and sea lions.


View from Frigate Bird Hill. The water is so clear.


"This is the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow..." (from that Michael Bolton/SNL skit. Now it's not really funny, because I had to explain.)

Running Scared

I noticed the first iguana, but failed to see the second one until I had stepped very close to it. This is me, mid-run, dragging my confused son along the rocks. Notice that I'm all the way across the path. I leap like a Harlem Globetrotter when reptiles are present.

Of course the amazing love of my life noticed iguana #2, and instead of warning me, like a normal person might, he hung back to watch the situation unfold. That is love, folks.


Hello Clarice. (The iguana definitely had Anthony Hopkins' voice)

Bartolome Island

Big moment for Teague, driving the boat.

This is the island we most wanted to see, because of the panoramic views from the island's highest point, and because of the sea life surrounding the area.

The barren landscape of orange and brown lava made it feel like we were on another planet.

Because of conservation efforts, we weren't allowed to bring anything with us except cameras; no food, bottles, bags. As we hiked, our guide spotted a piece of garbage off the beaten path and had to radio it in, so that someone could come and remove it without disturbing the terrain.


Lava Lizard.


The brownish-orange lava terrain. Nothing grew there except these cacti.


Checking out the sea life.



Napping sea lion.



Our wind-blown selves at the top of the volcano.


Teague and Bartolome's pinnacle landmark.


This penguin hung around with all of the snorkelers.



These frigate birds followed our boat.

Galapagos Islands-Dr. Dolittle Edition

Blue footed booby bird. I can hear annoying Annie from Disney's Little Einsteins singing about these birds. I should buy some mom jeans now.


They call them lobos marinos (sea wolves), however, cuddly sea couch potato seems to fit better.


Creepy sci-fi Marine iguanas need love too.


Darwin Finch.


The giant tortoises move very slowly and sound like they're wearing stiff leather pants, like Steven Tyler.




Not just lava rocks. Look again.


I realize that pelicans aren't unique to the Galapagos, but Teague is on a pelican kick lately, so I have lots of pictures of them.

Getting There is Half The Fun

As the Captain announced our descent into Baltra, we were giddy with the sight of turquoise water below, so excited for our trip to begin. Broad smiles, giggles, anticipation...and then there was the bug spray. In an attempt to reduce contamination on the islands, flight attendants walked through the aisles, spraying bug spray on everyone and everything. We've actually seen this many times before, but we just thought it was an anti-Argentina thing, since it was always when flying from Argentina into another country. (I secretly hoped it was a ham-related protest).

The guy on the left is not a fan of the spray.


Spraying away like it was Febreeze.

The tiny airport is on a tiny island, and a short boat ride is necessary to get from Baltra to the North end of Santa Cruz island. The boat crew effortlessly tossed our luggage onto the top of the ferry, didn't secure a thing, and we were off. Because one of our bags was half-tipped on top of another bag, I fully expected to have to recover water-logged socks and sunscreen from the bay, but it was a calm and very short transfer across.

About 99% of trips to the Galapagos are package deals which include a cruise or live-aboard situation. Instead of this, we decided on a land-based trip that included several island hopping day trips. This was, by far, the best trip decision we have ever made. Confining a 4 year old to a small boat for a week would have been a nightmare for everyone on board, and really not fair to Mr. Teague. The time we spent on boats during our day trips reconfirmed this. We were glad to have playgrounds, lots of restaurant options and a large air conditioned hotel room to go back to each evening.

Each island is very different than the next, some with brown lava sand beaches, some with black lava rocks, and others with sugar-white sand. The animal and sea life is really why people visit, and is worth every bit of the hype. Swimming with sea lions and pengiuns that aren't part of a aquarium experience is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I know that it is all downhill from here on out!

More on Isla Santa Cruz in my next post.

The ferry and our luggage.


View from our hotel balcony.


Thank you Olmsted Foundation. Our lives will never be the same.

Ecuador's Countryside

Beautiful drive.


Otavalo's town church.




Wheelbarrow fruit stand.



He was selling carpets, towels, car accessories and shirts.



So many spices.


Their Michael Jackson crosswalk signs.


We enjoyed Quito so much that we wanted to see more of Ecuador. We hired a driver and headed 3 hours North, to la Mitad del Mundo and Otavalo. The drive alone was worth it, for the beautiful scenery. Otavalo's Saturday market is one of the largest and most famous in South America, and we certainly couldn't leave Ecuador without seeing the equator line in la Mitad del Mundo.

The enormous market spread out through the entire little town, with stalls full of colorful wares. We saw a lot of things we expected, like carved wooden items and souvenirs, and a lot of things we could have lived without, like animal carcasses on display, 'fresh' meat and homemade drink concoctions which were sure to be lovely parting gifts. (Hello, giardiasis.)

Teague fell in love with painted bobble head tortoises that were sold at virtually every stall. As we were suckered into his purchase, he pleaded for the purchase of all of the tortoises on the small table, because Caitlin, Ryan, Toby, Dodgie, Grumps and Nana need one too. So we left with a bag full of bobbling turtles...and some really ridiculous "Captain Jack Sparrow" pants, because Sean has absolutely no sense of style.

After our driver made a quick stop for bizcocho (Ecuador's famous biscotti-like butter pastries) at "bizcocho row", we drove through the beautiful countryside to la Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) to see the equator line. Yes, it was kitschy and touristy, but, come on, who doesn't want to straddle on the equator with a tasty bizcocho? So we did.

The obligatory equator photo.


Playground next to the equator. More curious Ecuadorians.


Look very closely. Two obvious gringos, clean-shaven, white button-down shirts & ties, bikes parked at an American restaurant. Our first Mormon sighting in Ecuador.