Daredevil

Anytime I tell people I broke my foot, they naturally ask me what I did. The problem is, there really is no accident story, no specific fateful incident that cracked my poor foot bone. I mean, do you want to know what I was doing the night before I woke up with my foot so swollen I couldn't move it without pain?

I was learning to can peaches with our friends.

I know, I know, I need to be more risk averse. But seriously, stress fractures are kind of a straw that broke the camel's back kind of thing- apparently that part of the bone just weakens and weakens until one day it flops onto its chaise lounge, puts its hand to its head, and says "I give up". And then it cracks.

The good news is, canning peaches was fun and canning is not as scary as it seemed to be. I mean, botulism is pretty damned terrifying, don't get me wrong, but after doing some reading I've learned that fruits are acidic enough to make botulism risk virtually nil as long as they are processed correctly.

Speaking of processed, I thought it only right that the old timey-ness of this endeavor should be captured with a vintage filter.

 The key to not dying of botulism- the water bath.

 Off and on during the process, the boys played video games. Yes, they helped, but once all that was left to do was boil the jars they took to playing a terrifyingly weird Japanese video game.

 Willow, eating up the attention, blissfully unaware of how she is hindering Bobby's progress in rolling a giant sticky ball through an imaginary world.

 A little sugar water, some lemon juice, and local, organic peaches picked up at the farmers' market that morning. Purrrrrr-fect.

 The finished product. I was super excited to can my own peaches after this, but then, you know, I woke up with broken foot extravaganza and I've only cooked one time since then.

Paige and Matt have a huge backdoor garden, so they sent us home with a baggie of cherry tomatoes and some beets. All in all, between the farmers' market that morning, the canning, and the good night gifts of fruits and veggies from their garden, it was a most excellent way to celebrate, unbeknownst to me, my last day of mobility for 8 weeks.

Leaving Ecuador, Galapagos Day 6: Santa Cruz Island, Darwin Research Center

On our last day in the Galapagos we took our last panga ride to a port town on Santa Cruz island. We were going to spend the morning at the Charles Darwin Research Center to see the giant tortoises.

A bus picked us up at the port...

then dropped us off to hike for about 15 minutes up to the research center.

This was a cemetery- I thought the white geometric walls with the flowers were interesting.

Bobby, mimicking a statue.

Once we got inside, we spent some time with the tortoises. It was so hard not to touch them, seriously, I'm 4 years old.

Awww, who's pretty??

I admit that I feel a bit cheated that they get about 200 years of life.

We saw the famous Lonesome George, who is apparently not as old (or as lonesome, wink!) as everyone thinks.

Then we checked out all the different corrals of baby tortoises. They were so tiny it was hard to imagine that they would grow into something so huge.

After the research center we hiked  back to our bus and then drove across the island to catch our flight back to mainland Ecuador.

We left from the same open air airport in Baltra. With a two hour wait, we had more time to hang out this time.

This was the view of the runway from the little cafe. People would watch the planes land and when they saw their land they'd gather their things and start to leave.

The cafe had free, and very slow, internet so we tried to upload some mid-trip pics while we waited. The flight back to Guayaquil was uneventful, although I was (not surprisingly) a bit anxious.

We were served meals on every.single.flight. of this trip- even on flights that were only an hour long- but unfortunately AeroGal gave us meaty-meat for lunch.When we landed in Guayaquil we had about an hour before our flight to Lima, so Bobby and I shared a pile of veggie fried rice. Please note that the soy sauce is labeled "Salsa China".

The flight from Guayaquil to Lima is only and hour and a half, but I wanted to cry the last half because I was totally planed out and the turbulence sucked. I took this picture during the first half of the flight, when it was smooth sailing and I was able to appreciate something like a great sunset. After that things went downhill, and I was so ready to be on solid ground.

Our hotel was right across the street from the airport, and we arrived hungry and tired. I tried to get a shot of the Incan decor, but it basically looks like sticks with random cloth in this picture, so maybe just ignore it. We ate and then fell into bed because we had an early morning flight to catch the next morning that would take us to Cusco to start the second part of our trip- Peru, specifically Machu Picchu.

Galapagos Day 5: Fernandina Island, Punta Espinoza and Isabela Island, Punta Vicente Roca

Our last full day on the ship started off with a three hour long hike around Fernandina Island. This was the first day that it was truly sweltering, and that coupled with the black lava reflecting everything made for an intense hike. But it was certainly worth it to be able to spend so much time on Fernandina.

This pile of marine iguanas greeted us upon our arrival. Here is a video of just how gross these creatures are- they are constantly blowing salt water out of their noses, and defecating in runny yellow rivers all over the rocks and one another. Still, I found their smug faces endearing, despite all the body fluids they were excreting.

See what I mean? When they go balancing lava lizards on their heads and smirking at you, it's all over.

That was a very, very deep crack. I don't know that it was entirely smart for me to hang into it like that.

This is my favorite shot of Fernandina.

Whoops, nearly stepped on a little friend there. They just blended in so well.

Remains of a whale that had been beached many years ago.

After the hike and lunch, we headed out for one last snorkeling trip off of Isabela Island, in Punta Vicente Roca.

This snorkeling excursion was all sea turtles, all the time. When I took this picture there were 3 more floating around me.

The water conditions weren't the best, but it was worth it to get to swim in a group of sea turtles. Although I have to admit, their eyes creeped me out a bit.

This guy got so close to me, I had to back up so I didn't touch him.

Here's another one, right under me.

He's probably pooping in my face here, while I'm having a magical sea turtle moment.

There were a few boobies, although nothing like what we experienced on Rabida.

This picture makes me smile. I imagine a cheesy little tune playing in its head as it shoots through the water.

We only encountered one sea lion, but he was all up on us for a while.

This is right after he put his face up to my goggles and was swirling around me in tight circles.

Done with our last snorkeling trip, with the mask marks to prove it.

 We headed back to the ship to watch the sunset, since it was our last night. It started off pretty good..

and then ended even better. We had a half day left on Santa Cruz island the next day, and we were very sad to see our time on the ship coming to an end. Mostly I wanted someone to continue to make my bed and cook for me :)