Quito, Quiet, Quaint

This is a church we went to in Quito. It was pretty cool and we got to climb to all the really high towers! My mom has a cousin, Desi who is living in Quito with her family so it was really great to hang out with her and her friend Alex for the day!



View from the top







The stairs we climbed to the top.. if you look close you can see some heads peeking down

The bridge we had to cross to get to the tower
This was a gold plated church. it was stunning. You weren't allowed to take pictures but somehow my lens cap fell off and my shutter button was accidentally pushed. Oops..

Quito is surrounded by mountains-beautiful!
Me in the middle of the world in the southern northern hemisphere. Notice how swollen my ankles are thanks to the bugs in Machupicchu. Normally they're about half that size.

Coming up next: Tortoises, Iguanas, Sharks, Sting Rays, Boobies, Birds and more in Galapagos Islands!!

Wow, Wonderful, Whales, Water

Hola from Quito again! I just got back from a week in the Galapagos Islands and it was amazing! I miss it already as a matter of fact! Where to begin... we arrived in Galapagos and boarded our sailboat and were greeted by a huge shark in the water (just to encourage swimming for later). That day we stopped at an island for a two hour walk. It was cool,b ecause we were the only people on the island besides all the huge iguanas and all the hoardes of sea lions. Pretty cool. Then we went swimming off the boat which was so super fantastic.

The next days usually included one or two walks a day around different islands, looking at blue footed boobies (it´s a bird), iguanas, albatross, lizards, flamingoes, volcanoes (saw one blowing up one night which was pretty spectacular). Um.. i think we saw a bunch of other animals too but at the moment my mind isn´t remembering them. Every day we also went snorkelling and got to swim with giant turtles.. some of them were as big as me. And we swam with sea lions which was a bit scary and a couple sharks.

The first day I got there I threw up a bunch, but then felt better afterwards. After that things with the stomach seem to have gotten better. Right now i´m still pretty dizzy and such,b ut hopefully that´s just because i´m back on land after being on water for a week! The second day i asked if i could swim from the beach back to the boat instead of taking the little dinghies. It was so great to swim long distances again, except for the jellyfish that decided to land across my head, face and my neck, giving me a nasty sting. I kept swimming mind you because the salt water felt good on it. After dousing it in vinegar, it felt a little bit better but still hurt like nothing else. Now i have some nice marks on my neck to show for it! haha..

Stargazing at night was absolutely incredible. Being on a boat in the dark int he middle of the ocean with nothing around allows you to see quite a lot. It was so fun getting to know everyone on the boat as well. There were 15 women and one man. haha..w hat a ratio. It was great though and the crew was a lot of fun as well. I even got to drive the boat one night! Yay for not crashing!

I probably could go on,b ut I figure it will all go better with pictures. I think I have over 2000 from the last six weeks, so i will probably post them more gradually over time just to not overwhelm!! hehe.. I arrive home tomorrow a bit past 11pm and then i have friday and saturday to write three papers for my class i took in Guatemala. Then I´m off to a retreat course with my uni. And will be gone for a week. crazy times!! Anyway, glad to be back (kind of) and hope you are all well! Stay tuned for some great pics (at least i think they´re great!) BYE!

Middle, Mundo, ´membering (re), memories

Hola from Quito! Last night, my mom and I went to her cousin Desi´s for dinner. I had never met her so it was fun to meet her, one of her sons and her friend Alex. We had a great time chatting together and just enjoying each other´s company. This morning Desi and Alex picked us up and we headed to the basilica to tour it and also went to a cathedral that is pretty much all made with 24kt gold.. everything is plated in gold and it´s beautiful. Then we went to the middle of the world!! Fun! I got to stand in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere at the same time!

Still not feeling good but bought a bunch of different drugs today that are supposed to get rid of amoebas and parasites.. you can buy any drug you want here over the counter with no prescriptions, so that´s kind of nice and hopefully it will indeed help!

Today marks seven years since the day Leon died. It´s kind of crazy to think that seven years has already passed by. It was interesting being in Belize a couple weeks ago (can´t remember if I mentioned it in my blog or not.. so sorry if this is repeat), because the last family holiday we all took together was to Belize and i had let myself push aside the memories and when i saw some of the same places we had stayed at the last time, it brought back a flood of memories and it was so good. But ya, I miss him lots, especially today, just thinking back to the last time I saw him as he rode off on his bike and all the different emotions that accompany that. I´m a little homesick right now too so it´s hard not being home right now with everything combined. But to remember is good and that´s what I´ve done a bit of today so that has been good.

Tomorrow morning we get picked up at 5:50am for our flight to Galapagos Islands where we will board our sailboat for the next eight days. Hopefully I´ll be feeling better because currently the room feels like it´s spinning and I feel like I might fall over. Probably not good to have such feelings while swimming! haha.. Don´t think i´ll have internet access for the next week, but who knows, but wanted to write one last post before I went sailing away. Bye all! Miss you!