Fully admit I’m a bit behind, and catching up, wi-fi has been patchy and experiences extraordinary, so with the two combined blog has moved a bit into the background! Jumping forward slightly to the here and now I’m finally back in Trevignano and second home, for summer, fab…now back to Ecuador, think Loc was doing an Attenborough below…
I couldn’t resist a few early photo posts a few weeks back, given the Galapagos was quite extraordinary, so whilst more photos will follow, this post will start with Loc’s amazing video of us swimming with wild penguins…this is one of the penguins static to give you an idea of how cute and small they are…above and under and in the middle of the water…then the video!
wild playful penguins
The Galapagos was truly amazing, the animals behave as though you are not there, which means you can get so unbelievably close it’s incredible. We went on a 5 day cruise, including Genovesa island in the itinerary, which is quite a distance, and one of the main spots Darwin spent time, so partly why we chose this particular one, boat truly amazing, Odyssey, only 16 of us, and all got on really well, trying to fit most of us in the jacuzzi for 4 probably helped (!!)
There were usually 4 excursions a day, with half in the water snorkelling, up really early, bed relatively early, fed all the time, different island each day, different geography and flora/fauna each island, incredible.
I’ve already posted quite a few photos of gorgeous Galapagos creatures, so just as a reminder, the links are here:
https://yeehaahols.com/2011/07/05/galapagos-sea-lions-almost-as-cute-as-puskas/
https://yeehaahols.com/2011/07/01/stupendously-extraordinary-galapagos/
After a quick night in Quito, we set off early the next morning on a flight to Coca and the sasha jungle lodge in the Amazon, and by chance one of the couples on the Galapagos cruise, Kyle and Jamie, were doing the exact same thing, so we were lucky enough to spend the whole week with them, most awesome, and looking forward to trying to make it to Colorado you guys!!!
So many of you already know about the anaconda bite, just a few refresher images below:
and there were so many other amazing things, a few photos below, from our many excursions on boat, at night, in tree canopies, amazing again…particularly when you know that the photo below is not a snake, it’s a butterfly wing, how effective is that for scaring off predators?!!
The wellies were pretty much a prerequisite for the muddy walks through the amazon, and the water was our black lake ‘swimming pool’…the caymans didn’t tend to invade until evening so quite safe…although initially I thought anacondas for some bizzarre reason were actually lizards, so my brave swim right into the centre of the lake was a little misguided!!
The pattern below is a parrot clay lick, they need to eat every few days to keep their digestion in order, impressive flashes of green acrobatics as you watch them all fly in and grab a creeper…and a few baby boas, a jungle wombat, and a rather gorgeous butterfly…
In the interest of trying to vaguely attempt to get back up to date, I will post this now, although I could bore you all for hours with lots and lots more photos!!
yeehaahols 
WOW!!