Mindo, Galapgos and back on the mainland of ecuador...

---

Hello all

Believe it or not the last few days of this epic south american oddessey are coming to an end. I arrived back to Quito today to grey rain - after 2 weeks of mainly double digit temperatures and bracing ocean winds aboard The Beagle http://www.thebeagle.com.ec/

I hear the Uk is suffering global warming (??) in the extreme - snow and plenty of it so I suppose i best be thankful for the opportunity to acclimatise before i clamber on my Iberia cattle flight and head home in 2 days. Yep, Im back on 22 Dec and dont fly to Kenya unitil mid January so hoping to catch up with many of you over the festive period. I have to say I can never get used to Xmas in hot climes.... its just wrong. Santa would have suffered meltdown here if he was dressed as everyone perceives him. I see him more in bathers with a piece of holly in his snorkel.

Anyway, I realise i have been unusually quiet of late and thats because i have just spent 2 weeks on the magical Galapagos Islands...A slice of scientific, ornothological and marine heaven which if you ever get the opportunity to visit before they sink beneath the ocean again, I cannot urge enough.

I have managed to upload some more Ecuadorian pics here.....http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4738695&l=eb8d46e629&id=691995235

including our time in the opulent though veganly earnest surroundings of El Monte - an eco sustainable lodge in the cloud forest near Mindo. http://www.ecuadorcloudforest.com

As well as daily hikes on the various islands visited throughout our voyage across the Pacific and daily snorkelling off the boat, Bali & I managed a couple of dives where we swam with sharks, rays, turtles, penguins, and sealions. Its a wildlife utopia and even being on land gave me the same sense of awe that diving always does. That humbling feeling that you are visitor to a very special place which humans have not decimated...yet. Its been a privilege and i hope my photos capture some of the magic of the archipelago.

Im afraid youll have to wait for the Galapagos shots as the computer connection here is unfeasibly slow and although its only 10pm, Bali is suffering altitude sickness having gone from 0m to nearly 300m above sea level today - and wants to go to sleep. As i kept her up most of last night with my dramatic seafood poisoning - had the squirts from every possible orifice, I kid ye not, I darent keep her up again....otherwise I will incur her wrath!

So buenos noches and see you soon!

Hannah x

---