For The Journey Not just the destination…

Phew, I’m finally done posting the last of the honeymoon photos. After the Galapagos, we went back to Quito, the capitol of Ecuador before heading home.

• Honeymoon – Quito photos

We spent one day at Teleferiqo, spending most of our time just waiting for it to open. It’s an awesome view at 14,000 feet, but to get there, we rode cable cars from the base of the Pichincha Volcano. The air at the top was very thin. About halfway to the bottom, there was an amusement park, though it looked pretty abandoned on the day we were there.

Abandoned Amusement Park

View from the top

The rest of the day was spent walking around the historical district, where we could get a view of the 40ft Virgin Mary statue. We saw a bunch of churches, and did some people watching.

Monk talking to homeless guy

Crowd watching a street performer

I’ve finished posting the rest of the photos I took in the Galapagos. Here’s what the final 4 days in there consisted of.

• All the Galapagos Photos (click on pages 6-9 for the newest photos)

Day 5: Tortuga Bay
On the fifth day, we had a free day without any scheduled tours. Thomas and I walked to Tortuga Bay, a nearby beach. The walk was a couple miles, but most of the trail was pretty and we got to see some wildlife. When we got there, we played in the water for a bit. and then headed back to Puerto Ayuora to wander around.

Marine Iguana on the beach

Thomas floats in the bay

Day 6: North Seymour
On this day, we went to North Seymour island which is a nesting site for frigate birds and blue footed boobies. We were excited to get close up shots of the frigate birds with their red sacks blown up, and of the blue footed boobies doing the mating dance. We also saw a few guarding nests and chicks.

Frigate bird attracting mates

Blue footed booby mating dance

Day 7: Las Greitas
This day was another free day, so we decided to walk to Las Greitas, a nearby natural pool that formed between two split rocks. On the way there, we passed a salt mine – a pink colored shallow pool with salt collecting on top of the water. Las Greitas was really a neat surprise. It was a narrow crystal blue pool that was about 40 feet deep. There were rock walls that went about 40 feet high. Locals were there and jumping from the top into the water.

Salt mine

Locals jump at Las Greitas

Day 8: Darwin Center
We went back to Quito on this day, but on the way out, we got a tour of the Darwin Center. The animals there were in large pins, but we were able to walk in them to get close.

Giant Tortoises are messy eaters

Thomas turned 29 today, and to celebrate, we went up to Helen, GA with a few of our friends – Nancie and Tory, Brian, and Anna and Dave. Helen is a touristy German-themed town in the Georgia mountains (about 1.5 hours north of where we live).

We started Saturday off by driving the VW Bus up to Helen where we met our friends for lunch and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant.

Then we went on a 3-hour tubing trip down the Chattahoochee. The water level was a little low, but we had a good time. Afterward, we want in search of fudge, one of Thomas’ favorite treats, in Helen.

Then we had weinerschnitzel, Thomas’ traditional birthday dish, at one of the German restaurants in town. The sun was setting, so we headed off to find a campsite. Anna and Dave camped with us, and we made s’mores on the campfire. It was a bit cold at night, but the camping was very refreshing. The next morning, we packed up, grabbed breakfast, and headed home.

The rest of the photos from the trip are on my Flickr site:

• Thomas’ 29th Birthday

On the 4th day on our Galapagos leg of the trip, we went to Bartolome Island. This island has no animals, except the occasional lava lizard.Bartolome is known for the odd landscape, which was created by lava erupting from the volcanoes. The last volcano eruption in the Galapagos was 2 years ago. The island is very sandy and very smooth, with barely any plants on it. The nature reserve has built a really long catwalk on it to the highest point where you can get some great views of neighboring islands, including some with more volcanoes.

After visiting the island, we went to a little cove where we saw penguins. Thomas and I took the day off of snorkeling and instead played in the water off the beach where we saw some beautiful fish and a couple more penguins. Oh yeah, we had a few dolphins swim along with our boat in the morning. I was surprised to see how close they got to us.

Here’ some of my favorite photos from that day.

View from the top

Crater under the sea

Lava Lizard

Dolphin near our boat

Galapagos Penguins

You can see more from this day and other days in our Galapagos Flickr group:

• Honeymoon – Galapagos Flickr Group

Thomas has been posting a few of his photos too, from the trip.