For the second part of our honeymoon, we decided to forego the frigid cold mountains on the Inca Trail, and the non-stop mosquitos of the Amazon. We finally got smart and headed to the warmth of the Equator (and crossed it 12 times!)
Date(s): December 18-30, 2003. Album by Michael Bang. Photos by Michael Bang. 1 - 24 of 41 Total. 4059 Visits.
So nice to see all the beautiful pictures you made and reliving he marvelous time we had together in Galapagos. Thank you for sharing your pictures and say hi to Elena. - Linda Hogenboom, Thu, 2 Jun 2005 4:29AM
1 Quito, Ecuador We arrived in Quito, a sprawling city of 2-3 million nestled in a volcano range.
2 Calderon We explored some local towns and took in some local culture around Quito.
3 Shopping Even by the Equator, Elana can't stay away from shopping. But we're mostly picking up gifts for our nieces and nephews.
4 Imbabura Volcano Lots and lots of volcanoes in Ecuador. Quito is located between two chains.
5 City in the Middle of the World A touristy spot on the Equator. Scientists from Europe came here to do research a long time ago. Here's Elana straddling the northern and southern hemispheres.
6 Boarding The Plane And we're off to the Galapagos Islands!
7 The Galapagos Explorer II There's our ship in the background. And a marine iguana in the foreground.
8 Boarding the Zodiac At least twice a day, we crawled out of our comfy cabins on the cruise ship to ride the Zodiac to a nearby island.
9 Dry Landing Here's a "dry" landing on a rocky cliff.
10 Shoreline Elana admiring the shoreline.
11 Espanola Island Here's a marine iguana hanging out next to a Nasca Boobie.
12 Espanola Island A blowhole on Espanola.
13 Baby Sea Lion Awww, how cute!
14 Sally Lightfoot Crab There were a ton of these all over the shore rocks.
15 Nasca Boobies The animals in the Galapagos were either stupid or fearless. We could get within 2-3 feet of them to take a picture!
16 Nasca Boobies A mom feeding her young.
17 Charles Darwin Research Center To make sure tortoises survive in the Galapagos (man/pirate accidentally introduced goats, pigs, dogs, cats centuries ago which now eat their food, eggs) some are being brought up in captivity for their protection.
18 Lonesome George This is the last of a species of tortoises from Pinta Island. 4-5 feet long, 400 pounds, and 70 years old. Pirates used to eat them. They found that they would live a year in the hull...upside down, stacked, and with no food.
19 Finch Research The rock off to the left is where a family (can't remember the name) has done alot of research on the evolution of the finch. There's a famous book about it (Can remember the title either!)
20 Galapagos Hawk A Galapagos Hawk (top of the food chain here) posing for us on the walkway up to the top of Bartolome. And our ship in the background.
21 Bartolome Island On the top. Yep, we had to climb all 375 stairs!
22 The View from Bartolome There's our ship (boy it sure gets around) and Pinnacle Rock below, where we snorkeled with Sea Lions and penguins.
23 Spotted Eagle Ray Yes, I took this picture snorkeling! I had to dive down and chase it.
24 Elana Snorkeling Another sea lion swam along with us.
