Friday, July 15, 2011

hike , bike , or kayak ....

tuesday night of our galapagos trip, while discussing wednesday plans with our hostess stephanie, she said that wednesday would be our easy day .... we could choose between hiking, biking and kayaking ... with a long leisurely lunch in the middle of the day .... and we, being we, (or maybe it was just me) planned for little relaxing, but loads of adventure!! when given the choice of hiking, biking and kayaking, what would you choose ...

really ... think about it hard ... what would you like best?

me? i chose all three ... can we do them all ? please?

we woke up at 8 ...
we breakfasted at 8.30 ...
jaime and dora and our van ride at 9 ....
and we drove across santa cruz to bella vista .. beautiful view ... we were at the top of a mountainy spot... and jaime dropped us off ... and really, it was a bit torturous driving up the muddy path to bella vista .... with the wheels spinning out and such ... eek ... so i was perfectly fine with jaime leaving us at the top and driving himself down alone .... our hike had begun ....

 ...up at the top there was a high viewing stand built .... and we viewed .... and it was beautiful .... but it is an interesting phenomenon that you start getting immune to the beautiful and the different! we'd seen so many craters ... and vistas ... and cactus scenes .... it was all beautiful though ....
as we hiked down the high mountain ... it dawned on my just how well we were being taken care of ... no one asked us to hike up the mountain ... they take us to the top and let us walk down .... as we hiked down, dora, our very knowledgeable naturalist, told us about history and the environment ... and we talked about all the things we were surrounded by ....

 now, looking back at my pictures, i remember thinking OH totally cool ... i'll take a picture of that tree so i can remember that story (fact? information? idea? ) forever .... but no ... i do have a picture of the tree .. but it only reminds me of how much you learn and hear and see on a good vacation ... and how little you actually remember ... which is why i keep a journal ... but i did not remember to write about THIS tree in my journal .... alas .... i can't tell you the fabo story of that ordinary looking tree!

after we came down from that mountain ... we walked again, down a path, to another crater ... another beautiful view ... more stories ... and then we hiked back off road .... some of the family members were a bit cynical about this hike ... were we walking in the woods just to walk in the woods ... or were we walking TO something ... 
keep smiling ... the hike is just a hike .... and you listen to the stories and you daydream .... drew, what are you daydreaming about ... and he was daydreaming about if he was hiking at home he would want some g2 and a rest .... g2 is low sugar gatorade that we buy at costco ... my kids love it ..... they all have their favorite colors .... and in our days away, the food and drink had all been not quite like at home ..... so it made sense to daydream about what you miss .... so long as you remember to appreciate the newness while you're experiencing it .....

we hiked back from looking at the peculiar pond that seemed to be in a surprising spot .... but there were no turtles at it ... just finches .... and we walked right to our lunch time restaurant .... where they had gatorades .... ahhhhhhhh .... can a daydream be a premonition?
 while we waited for lunch, dora taught us a card game called 40 ... say 40 in spanish for the name .... the kids played it again before dinner so they liked it ! .... my lunch was shrimp and fish cerviche with popcorn ... yes, popcorn .... it's meant to talke the sour or bitter out of the lemon in the seafood .... then i had shrimp and yellow rice ... both delish ... others had a chicken and veggie entree .... we all had peaches and cream for dessert ... i had a diet coke too! .... that was the relaxing part of the day ....

next blog post ... from relaxing lunch to biking the tour de galapagos ....

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