Ecuador (Equator) and Galapagos Islands Aug 28-Sep10,2024

We went to Ecuador for a week-long tour together with my Beloved and I.  We knew the weather would be different from Georgia. The high altitude would affect people with lung or blood pressure issues and had a challenge with longstanding ambulatory travels. So we both loaded up with allergy and asthma medicines and inhalers. We reviewed the Gate 1 travel documents and places to visit and vaccinations as a prevention.

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador. There are over 250 volcanoes in Ecuador than there are 45 that are active. The city of Quito fools you as we are in a basin surrounded by mountains and apartments and homes built in layers and stretches out beyond what a city would look like in the United States of America.  We visited the downtown center of Quito where a special church was located with hidden tunnels that were rumored where orphans birthed by nuns or priests were abandoned and now converted into tourist shopping spots and restaurants attached to this ancient church.We had our beverages and met a woman who came alone in our tour. There were people from Chinese heritage on the tour that spoke to each other and joked around with us and back and forth. A few were from different states as well. She was a nice and fun loving individual. Another couple was from another state that were without children and birdwatchers with another single woman onboard that used to work with the husband as a police officer.  We went into another church and it was so ornate and gothic and had many saints, angels, and Mother Mary and God and was gold leaf covered. The ceiling was almost like Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel. It was so beautiful. Great Chinese food. Welcomed by iguanas and seals laying peacefully.

Since the people are more resource conscious and animal lovers; they have the patron saint called Saint Francis of Assisi…the patron saint of animals at small chapels here and there. There are places where mini shrines burn candles or give flowers to statues of Mother Mary.  We had a wonderful lunch but my curious and playful husband wandered off into the beautiful courtyard with florals and tables surrounded by shoppes and he bought a cacao milky liquor. It was strong and delicious. Lunch was made of potatoes and there were over 200 varieties. When they have crema de potato or tomato soups that cream is pureed potatoes instead and maybe some milk. I found with gluten and dairy allergies that the potato cream was excellent. They have their soups first and then a main entree and heaviest meal at lunchtime or almorzar. They have fresh juices /jugos or smoothies. Their coffees are excellent and if they have the right kind of cappuccino or espresso machines; can be unbelievable with the savvy barista or coffee connoisseur. They eat a lot of steamed veggies or a dish called bolon where it is a ball of green plantain or yucca boiled down and savory with cut up vegetables, cheeses or chicken or beef shredded and stuffed with then fried and you can have different sauces outside. The delicious one we had in the Galapagos was the seafood bolon with seafood cream sauce and their seafood soups with potatoes, onions and carrots and broth from potatoes or chicken or beef broth infused in there. It was so delicious. Mora or blackberry are the plants said to be grown not of the country and take over the land and they make juices/jugos with it.

Their trout farms on the travels through the mountains towards the Amazon jungle on the Napul river/rio side of Ecuador to the thermal springs in Ecuador and their thermal springs. The trout is fresh and prepared simply with little garlic and peppered filet open and grilled and fresh. They do have beef and chicken as well and pork or lechon is a pig cooked on a spit. It is so delicious and familiar to Filipinos. I had met a Filipino couple older than us. Since I am a mestiza I feel the automatic questions in their head why am I not Filipino enough by language and practicing culture or know of any thing familiar to their own world. Judgmental looks came from their eyes and comments that did warrant criticisms were not appreciated. You can explain why you are not functioning and existing with criteria that I was required to do and not do by the parents and ancestors raised by me in America. I am a mestiza (mixed race woman) and most of my life judged by my different cultures and parts of me from a pure blood thinking that doesn’t resonate acceptance of my own existence. People who do that forget that the Portuguese conquered the Philippines and then the Spaniards and being an island have ports where the Chinese and the Japanese American war occurred so the Filipinos look mixed of different races and there are the Moors who are dark haired and have kinky hair (Muslims) have forgotten how their own country developed and so say you are not pure is to reject the population that already exists in their homeland…so get used to it and wake up.  It makes me uncomfortable to be with people who think I need to fit into a box of familiarity instead of being a multicultural human being existing in a world they are not so familiar with. Anyway, later after the tour we met 3 young men from England and one is Tamil and dates an English girl and posted in Tik Tok their relationship got a lot of hate from both sides of the spectrum or judgment instead of acceptance and love. Yes, I have read old literatures of Western and Native medicine healers and their experiences weaving both and some books were the mix of the women Natives that were mixed were automatically thought were promiscuous from their ancestors being raped or working as prostitutes to survive in the old times and spawned from that indecent so you are assumed that you are promiscuous even though your ancestors weren’t any but intermarried to soldiers or soldiers who had affairs during war time promising to return and leaving them without support or return. War is a nasty thing that messes up your brain and to cope with atrocities our soldiers of pain and destruction are human underneath and need comfort and intimacy is the way or having pure sex with women who found to survive to sell their bodies would guarantee some prospective future or protection for the time being with their new lover. It is something to understand and admit happens during war time. Who suffers in the end; the children and their own culture rejecting and judging them because of the adult choices or forced rapes to expel the no choice feeling of a soldier not in control and following orders and inflicting an innocent person with conquering and making choices in the animalistic way and not having any consequences to report to their high ranking officer that goes unspoken and ‘forgotten’ about.

Well, let's continue on journey and we went to Otavalo where we journeyed through villages seeing the native different women in the modest dress proud of their traditions, their alpaca wool hats and long dresses and scarves and appreciated the bright colors and designs along the way and the white hats on men and pants and blue….they love the dark blues and white tops and hats with sandals. They were men wearing jackets or wool ponchos as well as some women. Their beautiful long hair and long wrapped ponytails and they only use plant based products to wash their hair and body and to do laundry as well. So the earth centered on Mother Earth/Pancha Mama/Pachamama. We went to the S of the Equator and center of the world and there was an amusement park and dancers and restaurants, rides and shoppes and cabins and it was where we had a local juice and ate the delicacy called “cuy” (guinea pig) which is filet and fried with different types of corn hominy and vegetables. Jim liked it tasted like duck and I didn’t but I could say…I tried.” You could see them traveling between certain towns on spinning ferris wheel type roaster from street vendors as later we visited a mercado and had lechon…so good. We pulled into Puerto Lago as lago means lake and the Imbabura Volcano (male) and it had some clouds at the top and it was a sunny day. Our cabins were quaint and it had a swing set and pier. I took out my didgeridoo and played to honor the volcano, seeing the nature spirits on the ways on the mountains and  greeted the land and water where cormorants were playfully spending time there and greeted them as my husband played to the heart of the earth, water and air and the sun. There was a couple from NJ that were Indian that enjoyed it and two single young Chinese women who appreciated the calming and freedom we exuded. I was just being me and that was what both my husband and I were so committed to just being free and giving our gratitude to nature and being with nature and sending loving healing channeled through us into all the Creations hearts of diversity of shapes and forms of nature. We swung on the swing that faced the water.

The next day we departed for Termas de Pallacta East of Quito which are thermal waters in the Jungle. Termas means thermal and the hotel was called “Termas Hotel.” They had excellent cuisine and desserts. Their desserts aren’t heavy like flan and light cakes. Their wines, according to my husband, were excellent. We met a couple who after 20 plus years mourning their son who went to a friend’s college birthday party ended in death by protecting his friend and they had repeatedly beat him even after being down and sent a last guy into where he was resting and did the final blow and stomped him. The autopsy was not thorough and 6 months later they found the guy only spent a few months in jail like a slap on his wrist and one of the guys started it; hoped the mother wouldn’t blame him but she did tell him by making a fuss over beer being spilled on your foot …really? It was a very sad thing to hear. It reminded me of when a drunk attacked my son just sitting after a party with friends with him in a booth with him faced away from him and punched him 5 times in the back of the head and passed out. He was not to serve consequences because this red head was not punished enough and we had to accept and move on as he was not terribly injured and alive for our son. Justice isn’t justice when the race card is pulled into action or the race card is pulled for justification of any harm against a person who they forget is a human being like them. So many diverse people from all types of experiences but they loved traveling and doing daring things. It was refreshing to see older people than us more daring and adventurous but at some point travel can be healing and lead to some clearing to a path of my prayers of healing oneself and moving forward as I reminded them that love exists beyond life and death…it cannot be destroyed is the true link because we grieve we love we feel pain and they were meaningful to us and we can be grateful that the good memories are what we can keep in us to remind us how resilient we can be and the departed want us to be happy and thriving…not just surviving. Joy in living comes when someone is taken from us but we cannot be separated by the body’s nonexistence because we are loving light energies and that is assuring taking it a day at a time.

Our next departure was 2 days in the Amazon Jungle in the Punta Ahuano region near the Napul River where the Amazon River flows through and yes there are river taxis we take to get to the Indian Village and near the Amazon parks where the long trail we were taught of the local ants that taste like lemons, the rubber trees sap, the monkeys playing and running through the trees and the leaf the guide used to create bird whistles and the swinging zipline type chair we crossed to get to the other side and the trails to see the different flowers and berries used as dyes for fabric or paint. We were situated by the river overlooking the water. The piranhas were in the waters of the river and were like Georgia red clay colors and flowing and alive and saw a huge beautiful blue butterfly and lots of yellow ones, exotic plants and frogs and the large snails.  Then the use of sweet potato used for the sacred drink or wine and visiting and Kichwa old village where the fire was sacred stones of the home using the traditional Mother Father and son stones and always burning gets rid of insects and some plants used to repel insects used and there was a small hammock was leaf wrapped foods above the fire so insects do not eat or enter the food or has any spoilage. The Shaman healer looked in his late 30s or 40s and asked for 3 to 4 people. My husband went and I understood that the herbs he burned and tobacco blow to clear the crown chakra and clear the energy fields of each person kept returning to him 4 or 5 times to clear him as he kept his eyes closed. His herb bundles shook over the body and head to clear all the energies of others. I was crying because he never went through this with another healer before. He was quiet and said he saw a hawk above the Shaman symbol and spirits helping clear him. He was so quiet and reflective for half an hour. I was so grateful and held space praying for him and all and gratitude for the healing. The Indian couple watched me crying quietly, grateful and relieved to see this finally for my husband. They demonstrated hunting with a blowgun and I didn’t have my glasses and they hunted monkeys and pigs etc. They used different plants to make the animal fall sleepy and others to kill from frogs, etc.

They had beads red, white and black bracelets for protection we bought that the women sold. The women made the yucca sweet potato grated wine with tree back to grate and ferment for nutrition for up to 2 to 3 days for infants and after 4 days the wine….We tasted sort of sweet and sour but it was an experience. We then took a balsa wood they assembled in front of you to ride down the Amazon River. They said the piranha’s wont attack you only if you cut fresh blood so I jumped in as my husband and the Indian couple sang Indian Bollywood songs…it was so nice. She was a physical trainer and he was a liquor store owner. He didn’t drink and my husband teased him to send a monthly gift out of alcohol. The next half day we could choose butterfly gardens, hike the cacao farm and taste cacao. Oh by the way it is illegal in the USA. The coca tea helps with altitude sickness or leaves sold at outside vendor markets and we ate these when our lunch was challenged because altitude would go from 4,000 to 10,000 or over 14,000 and then go back down…

Next was the place known as Banos, Ecuador where there was the Samari Resort hotel and was welcomed with their local juices and was a monastery for Jesuit priests 300 years old and other cabinas built in the last 20 to 30 years surrounded by different gardens and once may have been a school for the indigenous. But before this we had to visit a powerful waterfall called “The Devil’s Caulderon” or El Diablor de Calderon with small vendor markets and food but we had no time as we had to climb and hike another suspension bridge to cross over to the waterfalls and 3 rainbows were shining. At one point the mist revealed the skull in back of my Beloved and a rainbow shooting into my heart in our photographs. We were blessed by the environment but had no time to shop or eat but get on the bus to the Samari Resort hotel. The old time swimming pools and lockers made of wood and lounge chairs where the rich would spend time and beautiful gardens and a gazebo with a piano and ancient old time calculators and sewing machines and coffee grinders and radios spread out on walkways towards our rooms. You felt a presence of indigenous ghosts of indigenous and the dining hall was amazing and saw Archangel Michael (San Miguel) and food was okay and like Aztec Or Mayan cuisine that food wrapped and cooked or steamed in leaves. Anyway, I felt a presence of indigenous children forced in their presence to be their and indigenous servants as well.

I felt the wine doorway cellar in the dining hall building to some illicit activities amongst the monks, nuns and indigenous children or punishments for the servants. So I didn’t go down the cellar open doorway to feel more. I wanted it to be pleasant. After dining; I played the didgeridoo for the group and drums with my husband drumming to welcome them and the staff liked it. I was tired and went to my room and the room went ice cold with my mediumship experience being ghosts. I felt a presence and did my mental prayers of forgiveness and healing towards light and love to the Creator and allied by my pure light protectors and helpers and their request for their own pure light helpers into light and love and healing into the upper chambers of heaven for the wandering stuck souls who didn’t need to suffer or serve anymore and be at peace as they couldn’t eat, drink, sleep, etc or be seen or heard. It was time to go to the restroom and a white orb and felt a small short presence of a woman indigenous ready to help me from listening to my prayers. The white orb appeared as I was concerned of losing my footing, unfamiliar with the step up to the bathroom and down to the toilet as nature called me. The orb appeared to light and had me follow at my pace. I thank the presence as it wasn’t menacing but servicing an old familiar role for her human body service the priest or monk. I told her with my mind “thank you for your service and you don’t have to serve anymore and please go into the loving light and pure light in peace as you have no body.” The orb left as I didn’t have it, returning back to my bed and felt a peace in the room. I thanked God for this and any souls choosing through their own free will to be free from earthbound duties or existences that no longer were needed as well.

We then toured a rose factory as you can get 3 dozen roses for $25 and they gave us rose liquor, a rose and some rose chocolate and made purchases and llama here and there and also at at a resort farm and they had petting zoo type goats, rabbits and chickens and fed the llamas they brought over for us to see and made our way back to the next destination. They grew all kinds of roses because they are long stemmed and noted certain countries like short stem or fat roses or closed roses or semi closed and certain colors and it was beautiful.

We returned back to the Hilton Colon where we started our journey and our Gate 1 trip ended. We planned freestyling it to the Galapagos Islands and didn’t know it was a bunch of different islands you can choose to visit a week. We were sick in the beginning of the journey welcomed by a seals and pelicans, and iguanas and red crabs but Santa Cruz was amazing with live seals and iguanas freely moving without yelling in this country and respecting our distances and pelicans and sea birds and herons and canaries and Darwin Finches visiting the Charles Darwin Research Center. They don’t let you travel alone to parks or centers without a guide. It is the rule to make sure you don't get lost and honor the environment or animals. We were running out of shirts so we bought a few. We saw live land turtles and visited a tortuga (turtle) farm and man bought 35 to 40 years ago was the guide with the restaurant and led to tunnels (tunnels created by lava rivers that flattened and dried with stalagmites and stalactites over 2,000 years old. The turtles were from 35 years to 200 years old and some wandered other areas of the island in the farmland and you had a law if a cab driver hit the turtle a 15 million dollar fine was enforced. We saw the canaries and finches and mockingbirds and poisoned apple trees that only the turtles could eat. We then jammed with the guide and his volunteer interpreter. You can volunteer on an app and live and be fed for free for maybe a month or two…lots of young folks from France, Germany, etc. and so many hostels to stay in (hostals). People are quite peaceful and we roamed over more seals, iguanas and flew into the airport and took a bus to a water taxi. Bus shuttle $5 each person and Taxi to the island was $1.00 per person. You took a water taxi to the boat to the ferry dock and it was $30 per person as they go by us dollars. The taxis to and from the hotel are basically $25. They try to sell you right away on tours but we booked already in Santa Cruz and decided the next Galapagos Island was the largest called Isabela and it was a 2 hour rough boat ride from Santa Cruz and I was starting to get sick. I arrived at the hotel as soon as I got into the room vomiting…So we missed our snorkel, bike ride (which we found out it was 7 miles on a bike uphill and then afterwards).  I told my husband who just got better to go without me but he was still tired.  They want to reschedule but not refund us and want to charge us $40 more each and not quite well. I was eating their fresh soups (chicken).  So in the end of the first portion of our stay in Santa Cruz island;  we both decided to not pursue it and go to another place called Las Creitas passing Playa de Aleman (which means a German beach). This park and crate park had salt lakes that were pink salt and then hiked to a creator where two land pieces separated by 300 years with pools of water below and saw a parrot fish. There were 2 other species as well and we rented $5 each snorkel gear and food and drink and bathrooms where hammocks and picnic tables were there. The guide allowed us to jam there and the birds gathered and then we returned the equipment and ate then made our way to the beach where unafraid ducks, camorants and Darwin Finches were fascinated with the didgeridoo. The waters were cool and you could see ships in the distance.

Then Isabela had natural organic foods and smaller size hotels. Welcomed by huge iguanas and seals and a spotted stingray coming right off the boat ferried over from Santa Cruz. Then after my two days of being sick in bed drinking electrolyte packets I brought probiotics, coconut juice and huge and delicious soft meat to rehydrate and crackers and soup for dinner and or rice the next day. I was taking antibiotics like my husband took for 3 days as I only took for and we jammed before checking in our room with Daniel and stayed at the Albemarle (seahorse) hotel …he was Venezuelan and stayed a few months and was on his last month in Isabel and had an Ecuadorian girlfriend who spoke Spanish and German (Aleman). He told us to talk the Playa Amor and take a taxi to a park $5 one way each and another park where iguanas and seals wandered and volcanic rock and the mangroves had hidden spaces to hike. It was nice sunny air and I enjoyed it. It prepared our next day taking a wooden bus with a group to Volcano Chicos and they didn’t know it was 10 miles each way walk. They had used horses because of uneven trails marked properly with horses and since covid and didn’t know. I was challenged and my beloved was not used to hiking shoes. I made him buy a tennis shoe and flip flop guy. I already hiked a bit and had boots so I was determined to try this hike. Still not 100%. The guide was there at the point the wooden bus to show us mint, guanabana fresh and lots of water bottles because the steam showed at our first stop of volcano and was huge black crater and then we walked some more to see the red flycatcher vermillion was fascinating but these were abundant in my walks in Purple Heart Park in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Then we saw cows from farms/fincas eating and wandering and horses. Then we saw the mockingbirds here and there cawing just like at the turtle farm. I made at least 16-17 miles and then my calves started to cramp…being gluten and dairy intolerant snack packs didn’t work but I gulped down water bottles and then stretched as my husband hiked me up into the wooden bus ride to return. We took our time at our pace but my husband had to take an inhaler in the beginning and stayed after 6 miles at the ramada to leave backpacks the trail got more uneven with lava trails would’ve been challenging me more but the trails were marked and he wanted to walk maybe 3 to 4 miles more but it got worse with hardened lava flows and lose lava rocks. I turned back on my own and then returned to play my didgeridoo and drums with my Jim/husband. Then hiked back as our guide kept rushing us and we were last and kept walking pacing ourselves. I was trying to watch the last person going to the Volcano Chico. We went and met a woman who is a filmmaker who suffers vitiligo disease from Israel Adina and her husband named Jacob who was newly married one month taking her from Ecuador and Peru to see Machu PIcchu and Bolivia or Chile as their honeymoon. She makes a film called “Stains” about her journey and other people’s journeys with this autoimmune disease. Watch it and celebrate who you are and she does and her sweet beautiful smiles as once in a while so often Jacob kissed her and loved her so. Then we rested a few hours after a nice hot shower of all the mud and red dirt from the hike. We then had dinner again and I had my sopa de pollo. Anyway, the next day before we took a ferry to Santa Cruz to return..we walked the small township and saw the lagoon where the flamingos were peacefully hanging out in the morning after our night’s rest and fly to Quito to stay the night.

We then enjoyed a nice alleyway of seafood vendors heckling you to eat lobster and scorpion fish called “Bruja” which is a pink spotted fish and we ate that the night we shared already and half a lobster not from the alley returning from Isabel. The restaurant guy liked us and said "Can I take a picture to market our restaurant?” We said, “Sure.” . We did enjoy scorpion fish at a vendor where our turtle farm volunteer interpreter was with a friend to have dinner. We enjoyed the food. Then the next night we ate at the seafood alleyway, a family owned business across from the fish we ate and bolon cream sauce seafood and seafood soup with veggies and some soup with a clear broth. It was all delicious. Best meal of all times. 

Flight to Quito was the next night and we left $25 one way to the airport by taxi. No water taxis needed at all. We then got a hotel in Quito and it was called Reina Isabela (Queen Isabel) from the Queen who supported Christopher Columbus. Anyway, it was modern and beautiful. We had an okay meal but the filet mignon was delicious and the black forest cake was light. The next day we took a $3 taxi to Teleforico (Cable car in sky to see 5 volcanoes and be amongst the clouds. We had a wonderful light tamal (tamale steamed with chicken and vegetables) and light maracuya cheesecake which was a light cream and sauce gelatin passion fruit/maracuya. Coffee was awesome and friendly dogs and we swung on a swing in the clouds. We took a taxi overpriced because it was a van not a car for $7.  We stopped near an Indian town but things were closed. So we walked around towards our hotel and shopped for jeans for $15 to 20 each. They were good quality and a false claim to have jeans for $10 which is $5 to $10 for jeans in some smaller villages. We then ate bolon chicken soup for $2.75 each and coca cola…Lunch time is a big meal but we snacked earlier and couldn’t eat an entree they offered or fresh mora blackberry juice because it was an hole in wall but organic restaurant that would not agree with our digestive system. Then we rented a standard suite to sleep for our red eye flight to the USA from Quito.

Then we got up after getting loaded up on pharma as you don’t need prescriptions to get things for us and family members.  We then took a taxi to the airport for $25 and then arrived early enough to check in and eat at “Johnny Rockets” . The meat was real and the fries fresher and so huge that the USA Johnny Rockets…..so filling and then we left and boarded our journey home on Delta Airlines. It was interesting as I got a young man who never flew. He was nervous. I asked if he was all right and he said, “Yes.” Then I saw the plane taxiing to take off and he was holding his breath…(He was a Harry Potter reader…into the fire in Spanish). I told him as he spoke English I prayed for the 4 Archangels protection around the plane and Archangel Michael to mark us for protection of the entire plane and for other travelers outside to be safe. Then I ask for the protection of our own guardian angels and pure light protectors and tell him to relax and it is okay. He smiled relieved and told him the console to use what snacks and drinks were involved and extras, headphones, movies, games and he was already set up on his phone and then encouraged him that it was great. I see if the plane waivers it's trying to adjust by the pilot if windy to balance the plane and how mic is on then bathroom no use and then he relaxed and thanked me. He was a sweet teen and his family was very boisterous behind me. He was calm and he had his headphones and I gave him my fruit and cheese plate I couldn’t eat as he was still shy of his environment and a yogurt drink included. He told his family I was helping him. My Jim was too tired and sleeping as his lungs still needed help and a hot shower before we headed out.to warm his chest as he had lost some lung medications while we shopped in Isabel and got a cool jacket to keep him warm at the airport for him. Then we landed and told the young man headed to Syracuse, NY to “stay strong.” He helped get my backpack out of the luggage compartment above. We then took an uber in a cool Tesla the color of blue. We chatted awhile about its mechanics and mileage and then took a drive with my Husband’s car back home as he slept in the hotel after his hot shower before departure; I ordered a few groceries and water to be delivered to our house the later morning as we arrived around 6:30 a.m. and did some bookkeeping entries end of August when we left August 28 and returned gratefully to clear anything as my son and his girlfriend cleaned our home and checked the mail and packages and other properties and did their laundry while getting things done for us. 

So in essence, we got home 9/10/2024 September 10, 2024 and now back to the gym and all the laundry was done and suitcases emptied and pharma sorted and gifts and disinfected our shoes and suitcases. Cooked dinner and dropped off the drycleaning. Now it is back to business on his new book and renting the church we had for rent we own. So it’s back to business and practicing my Spanish with my daughter’s encouragement and for her honeymoon trip and my ukulele. So here is the snapshot of our travels that we hope to return to Ecuador and maybe Peru is next. Keep moving, keep positive, keep curious, keep grateful and keep thriving by saving and making it a world to understand and embrace beyond your 4 walls. Much love.