Last Day in the Galapgos, Cuenca

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Accidentally lost some of my notes for some of the days in the Galapagos, so will post those later.
Day 8 in the Galapagos was an early wakeup call, and a dinghy ride over to a sea lion beach. Several harems of sea lions, probably up to a couple dozen in all up and down the beach, of various ages... Breeding females, alpha males, juveniles, and a few babies. Some were out in the surf catching breakfast, but early as it was, most were still resting on the beach. Saw a few young ones breastfeeding. The mother's didn't seem very keen on it, groaning and rolling over a lot, with the babies squealing and protesting. Bad mommies! Again, it was difficult to keep the proscribed distance, (1.5 m for sea lions)... If a sea lion charges at you, the guide told us to clap our hands, which worked fairly well. Still, I have a picture of me frantically scrambling out of the way of a curious sea lion, clapping as I just about fell over! Also saw some final pelicans and marine iguanas, one I almost stepped on ( they blend VERY well with the lava rocks) and a sea lion skeleton. Then, sadly, it was back on the boat for breakfast, and then back to Baltra to go to the airport. The guide wrote up a list of all the animals we saw-wow, that was a long list! Saw one last shark as our boat pulled into the same dock we had left from at the beginning, then it was a bus back to the airport. At the airport, I bought the requisite silly tourist shirt ('i love boobies' with cartoon blue footy booby feet strategically placed) and then we said goodbye to the Galapagos. Wow, that was amazing. Flew to Guayaquil, a city on the southern coast, then bused to Cuenca, a colonial city in the southern mountains. Went with a young Dutch woman from our cruise, Lucy. It's her last few days in Ecuador but she is very nice so we'll hang out with her in Curnca. Cuenca was very beautiful, just high elevation enough to be pleasantly cool after the heat of the Galapagos. ( still peeling from my sunburn!), with great architecture and a shocking amount of Italian restaurants and good gelato places. Interesting how pockets of other cultures turn up like that. Had some good pizza and coconut gelato for dinner.

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