Ambato and Banos

Leah, Host Auntie - Vicki, Host Sister - Zara and Host Mom - Anita

Teena, Host Mom - Anita, Host Sister - Zara, Leah and Host Auntie - Sylvia

We rode in a little iron bucket across a river canyon to the base of another mountain. It was really fun.

Host Auntie Vicki, Teena, Host Sister - Zara, Leah, Host Mom - Anita, Host Dad - Roberto and Wade

The locals making sugar cane toffee

Leah and her host sister, Zara, standing in front of sugar cane

Local traffic

A neighboring tourist attraction, the City of Banos

Complete with a smoldering volcano

Ambato, the city where Leah lives

Leah's Room

Leah's House is very cute and cozy.

Visiting Quito and surrounding area

A really cool outdoor market

A beautiful old mansion where we had lunch. Ecuador exports roses. 1 dozen roses cost $1.00 - This bouquet would have cost approximately, $5.00. We could not believe it.

The Equator

Some history in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador

Indeginous peoples

3 days in the Galapagos Islands

Some of the fun characters we met along the way.

Some fantastic landscapes of the islands.

Our boat for the 3 day trip.

See the little penguins? They were snorkling with us - they were so cute. It was just like Happy Feet.

There were sea lions everywhere, and I mean everywhere. These two little ones were really cute.

This bird is called the Frigate bird and they have a pouch that inflates like an enormous balloon to woo a mate. Later in the trip, we called them the "Friggin" bird because they followed the boat, flying above the upper deck, the tanning deck, and crapped on me while we were tanning.

Wade getting a photo with Patrice

This Iguana always comes out for Guide Stephan to have his photo taken whenever a tour comes through the island. The Iguana's name is Patrice and he is very old.

Some of the Iguanas are big, really big

These birds are called the Blue Footed Boobies and they are all over one of the Islands - these 2 are doing the mating dance. They could go through all this trouble and then the female has a choice to make whether she thinks he "is the lucky one or not".

These land tortoises are living in the middle of land - no body of water is near, only a small mud puddle for cooling off.