Ecuador

From Cuzco, we flew to Quito, Ecuador, with a stop in Lima. As we flew in we saw the following out the window:

We did not see much of the city of Quito. In the one full day we had, we visited only a couple of places worthy of posting some pictures. One would be the music school for disabled young people, Sinamune. They gave us a very nice performance with an orchestra, some singing and several dances. Our entire group participated in the dancing!

Another place would be the small park at the equator, where we saw some demostrations and took some pictures.

We flew to the Gallapagos Islands on the third day. We were immediately ferried to a small cruise boat, the Carina, which had only eight passenger cabins on board:

For the next three days and nights, we stayed on this boat, and every day we were ferried by two tender rafts (pangas), as many as four times a day, to the shores of various islands to see the birds, fishes, crawling animals, plants and special geological formations. Our guide was Daniel. He patiently pointed out everything, jumping from one ferry boat to another. He emphasized what we needed to pay attention to. Everyone of us fourteen people benefited from his knowledge. There is no question that out trip was enhanced by his caring manner and his expertise.

We disembarked, wet or dry, on several islands, including Mosquera, Bartolome, Santiago, Chinese Hat, and finally Santa Cruz, where we spent our last day exploring this island. We spent the night there in a hotel in the highlands. We saw literally thousands of birds and crawling animals. I will list some of them below without specifying where we took the pictures.