I've gone back to Quito where it's freezing... speaking in terms of Galapagos. I adapted to not having AC or fan in my house in San Cristobal so I became like an iguana, able to withstand a lot of heat. Now that I'm in Quito, I need a heater! The hostel I'm living in is pretty sweet, tucked away at the base of a mountain with avocado trees, lime trees, mora plants, other fruit trees/bushes I don't know the names of, some chickens, 3 dogs, and a llama. Leaving Galapagos was hard, and had a few tears running down my cheeks saying goodbye to my host mom. My last night in Galapagos I went hard breaking my record of tequila shots (yup hey dad), getting one hour of sleep, surprisingly not chuchaki the next day, managed to do the whole airport jig with an over-sized suitcase and surf board and dive bag and snorkel and only pay $20 extra, get bombarded by altitude sickness, and go out in Quito the following night. In addition to the lack of sleep from that whole week of going out for most of the nights. One night I met a famous Ecuadorian film director at the bar who invited me and my friend to go snorkeling in Leon Dormido with him and his team as they were shooting. Stoked about doing this, we got up at 5 am after only 2 hours of sleep to meet the director at the fisherman's pier only to find out that some unanticipated people had shown up first and there wasn't enough space on the boat, so we couldn't go. Instead we decided to make some use of our early morning and head out to Loberia for a dawn snorkel where I swam with a male and female lobo who were nose butting my camera (video to come when I'm back in the USA where there's actual Internet). So for the beginning of this week in Quito I've been feeling tipsy despite being sober from the lack of oxygen and might have passed for one of those daytime drunks. The week has gone by fast and soon I'll be on my flight back home just in time for Father's Day with a surfboard, suitcase, duffel, and backpack. Weird with so many city people all dressed up along with the more typical Ecuadorians everywhere. I'm living in one of the richer suburbs of Quito with people who are clickety clicking in their high heels, dolled up faces, perfected hair, and fancy clothes (since this is my ungraded blog where I make up the rules, grammar has been thrown out the window this whole time). While my greatest wish was to travel to the Amazon this week, research reports and presentations did not permit a few days of escape to make the truck out there. Since this was one thing on my bucket list that didn't get accomplished I guess that means by the rules of bucketlisting that I have to go back. So now I'll go back to the states, return to my wickedly awesome research position at the Coastal Studies Institute, and succeed in being a beach rat.
Now that all the other students in the hostel have left, the dogs think they're entitled to jumping on my bed with the chewed up fruits they've chomped off the trees...
Also, call out there for if anyone wants to practice their spanish with me because it's gonna suck to lose it all when I get back to the states.
The 3 year old puppy half golden retriever half German Shepard is Panzone (pan spanish for bread & panzone meaning big belly because this dog is huge with a head bigger than a cement block! and yes that's the bottom of a flower pot he ripped off under him), the 1 year old bull dog whatever mix is T-Bone, and the small 2.5 year old mutt is Chomparizo. These are also the water bottle thieves always snaking behind my back to steal my plastic bottles to play with.
