Latest Stories

Most likely I'll post some pics as part of whatever update I give, and given that there is no way all three of my daughters will think that they look good in the same photo at the same time, pics will likely be pulled and right there is your incentive to check back every day to see how things actually went before something gets taken down.This section will contain the running commentary from the trip, in regards to the most recent country we have been in. But once I'm able to start the next country, I'll put the historical posts in the "Old Updates - XYZ" tab above. This all assumes I (or one of my kids) will be able to figure out how to make this website work.

If you want to read about the first 28 days and our time in Italy, then click here.

If you want to read about our time in Turkiye, then click here.

If you want to read about our safari in Kenya, then click here.

If you want to read about our beach vacation in Tanzania, then click here.

If you want to read about our amusement park/desert experience in the U.A.E, then click here.

If you want to read about our desert/beach experience in Oman, then click here.

If you want to read about our jungle ruins experience in Cambodia, then click here.

If you want to read about our elephant/beach experience in Thailand, then click here.

If you want to read about our beach/city experience in Australia, then click here.

If you want to read about our adventure/beach experience in New Zealand, then click here.

If you want to read about our under water adventure in the Maldives, then click here.

If you want to read about our Taj Mahal adventure in India, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney adventure in Hong Kong, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney adventure in China, then click here.

If you want to read about our Political/girlie adventure in Seoul, then click here.

If you want to read about our Adventure with friends in Japan, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney Adventure in France, then click here.

If you want to read about our World School Prom Adventure in Hungary, then click here.

If you want to read about our Sound of Music/Kid Friendly Adventure in Austria, then click here.

If you want to read about our tour that left our family in ruins in Peru, then click here.

The Journey Continues - Ecuador

To jump directly to one of our days in Ecuador, click here:

Cusco to Lima

Lima to Quito

Quito to the Galapagos

Day 257

Megan and I didn’t sleep well at all, Megan felt incredibly hot and dizzy and I felt like I was having a hard time breathing. I noticed her getting up and I asked her if she could get me some altitude pills and she said that she could because she was already getting some for herself. For some reason, our doctors had only given 6 to the rest of us, but gave her 60. After taking them I felt much better the next morning and she felt about 70% better. But neither of us had been sleeping well the past few days. We were going to be leaving for Lima tonight, then Quito for a day before going to the Galapagos, so there was a lot of elevation still to go, and then we were going to do a boat tour of the Galapagos, so going from potential altitude sickness to potential seasickness, didn’t sounds like a lot of fun.

We got up for breakfast and finished packing and Megan and Lily had a course selection meeting with the head of the MKA high school, then we started a tour of Cusco. Originally, the plan had been a 9am tour, then 3 hours of free time before going to the airport, but we pushed it back, figuring that it would be better to hang out at a hotel and rest in the morning than spend 3 hours randomly in the afternoon with no where to stay. I normally would have preferred just walking around and looking at things, but after another poor night of sleep, it probably was the best plan.

We walked from our hotel, which was located on a former Incan palace, into town. Elenna pointed out that this was the second Marriott that we have stayed at that were located on former palaces (Bangkok was the other one).

We went to a local cathedral that was built on top of an Incan temple, where there were temples to rainbows, rain, stars and moon. Today it was built around a rotunda that was beautifully decorated.

More impressive Inca stonework, as well as some nice Spanish architecture.

We walked outside and there was a group of dancers performing in Incan garb on a large field (apparently there are a lot of celebrations up until June 21, the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere).

I can always find time to post a post card on a tour.

Then we visited some ruins including Puca Pucara, or “red fortress” and Sacsahuaman. We also got to see a place where they did some of the mummification (apparently they were as advanced as the Egyptians on that front).

Not as big a ruin as Machu Picchu, but still pretty neat.

The stonework in all of these places was very reminiscent of the work done at Machu Picchu, with large stones carved to fit together perfectly. The largest of the stones was 330 tons, and was taken from a quarry 2 kilometers away. It still boggles my mind, although my family is somewhat less impressed by it all.

The biggest rock in the Incan ruins.

We went back to town and ate lunch and then walked back to the hotel. On our way, there was a group of little children doing a dance, and Megan, Liam and I stopped to watch while the girls went to the hotel. Then we left after a while and ran into the girls who were lost. I left them to get some food for Liam, since he didn’t like the pasta (Megan agreed that it was under cooked). When I came out of the store 10 minutes later, I ran into the 5 of them, who had apparently gotten lost again. Then we finally arrived at the hotel and waited around until our driver came to bring us to the airport.

Downtown Cusco had a lot of neat architecture.

The flight was uneventful and we got our luggage and went to the hotel in Lima. Our travel company booked a hotel directly connected to the airport, so unlike the last time we were in Lima overnight, we didn’t have to drive 45 minutes in both directions. The hotel was a Holiday Inn and it catered to people staying overnight - breakfast from 4-10am, 24 hour massage available, etc.

We were being picked up at 6:50am, which only left 2 hours before an international flight, so I had the tour representative take me back to the airport and print out baggage tickets so we wouldn’t have to come back the next morning to do that.

The next morning, we ate breakfast and went to the airport and dropped off our bags and went through security. It only took about 30 minutes from our hotel to the bag drop off, security, immigration and to the gate. This was now our 4th flight on LATAM and I was starting to get used to not having status and boarding in Group 4/5 (but still not liking it).

We landed and it took a while to get through customs because only one person was working there. We found our guide and went to the hotel. We happened to have landed on Ecuadorian independence day (technically they beat the Spanish and got independence, but then the Spanish came back a decade later, and this was the last battle against the Spanish), which was also the first day of work of the new president, so there were a number of roads blocked and it took a little longer than normal to get to the hotel.

We ate lunch at a little restaurant down the street and got some empanadas.

The cheese empandas were huge. Unfortunately, they weren't great. It would have been better if the beef ones were that large.

Then Liam and I went for a Pokemon walk - it was a special Machop event. We walked for a while and found a playground and Liam gave me the phone and played there for a while, so it turns out that some things are better than Pokemon. After about 90 minutes we went back, as I had a horrible headache, and then I took a nap (Megan and Elenna were already asleep).

Ironically, we came across this street when it started to drizzle.

Megan and Lily woke up to do a chocolate tasting, and I had planned to go, but just needed more rest. By the time dinner time came around I felt much better.

The hotel had laundry service, but just like it in India, it was incredibly expensive (I guess that any hotel will over charge you, but this felt like NYC pricing).

DAY 259

We ate breakfast at the hotel and then went on a tour. We had a choice of going to the top of a volcano, or going to a museum located on the equator, where there were some experiments to do. Everyone was a bit worried about the elevation and going another 3,000 ft higher, so we chose the museum.

Another picture on the equator, almost about as far as way as possible from where we took the last picture in Kenya.

The museum was neat. It had a number of things showing how the Quitu Indians lived. It also was located on top of the equator so there were a number of experiments to do about how things worked differently there. It was interesting to see how water on the equator went straight down the drain (it didn’t circle the drain) but if you moved the basin 15 feet to the north or south, it would swirl down the drain (but in opposite directions).

Water went straight down, and didn't swirl when it was on the equator.

There were a couple other things like it was more difficult to keep your arms raised if someone was trying to push them down, while standing on the equator, or to keep your fingers locked in a circle. We also balanced eggs on the equator.

We successfully balanced eggs on top of nails, while at the equator. But I can't say if it was harder or easier to do than normal, since I usually don't try to do that.

We tried jumping on the equator and off of it (this was the one where we weren’t sure if there was a difference). We also found out that since we are at the place that is furthest from the earth’s core, we way 2 pounds less than normal.

Liam, at least got some air.

Although we got our picture taken on the actual equator, we left and went to La Mitad del Mundo. This is a place that I had been to 27 years earlier, and at the time, people thought that it was on the equator line, because someone in the 1700s did the math and said it was there. But it turns out that all these tourists were going there with their smart phones and not getting lattitude 00’00 so the remeasured it about 20 years ago and moved it about 100 meters over, to the museum that we went to. But, since I had been there, I had to recreate the picture. Most people wanted to stay in the bus, but Lily came with me and we recreated it. See if you can figure out which picture was from today and which was from 27 years ago.

You probably can't tell which is which, but the recent one is the one where I'm wearing black shoes.

After that, we drove into the old town and got some gelato, prinones (basically fried dough) and some chips. Then we walked around the old town and visited some churches and some squares, including the president’s house.

Then we went to a place that made chocolate. We tasted about 6-7 different types of chocolate. In general, I’m not a big fan of dark chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, or chocolate with weird flavors mixed in (like lemongrass). But I did like the mint one. The brownie that they served was the family favorite.

Ecuador makes a lot of the cocoa beans that go into European chocolates.

The tour guide then took us to lunch, even though most of us were not hungry after the snacks. The food was good and afterwards we went back to the hotel. Lily had heard that Peru and Ecuador had good hot chocolate, so the guide brought Megan, Lily, Liam and I to a cafe (Liam was more in it for the Pokemon hunting). We were a little underwhelmed by the hot chocolate, which was made with water instead of milk.

We came back to the room and Liam and Megan did some school work, while I got our laundry and packed Liam’s and my suitcase. No one was hungry, but Liam likes to have 3 meals a day, so he and I went to dinner together. He ended up eating 6 pieces of pizza, which is a feat, since it has been so hard to get him to eat anything.

Then we went to bed relatively early since we had to leave the hotel by 5am to catch our flight.

Day 260

We got to the airport and had our bags scanned for bringing plants and seeds, to avoid bringing anything into the Galapagos. We boarded the flight, which had a stop in Guayaquil, where some people got off, but most of us stayed on board. Then some new people got on and we left for Balta airport. It was a little weird to be on a flight where you didn’t get off the plane, but some people did and others boarded, it had been about 30 years since I’d been on a flight like that.

We landed and found the guide for our boat. There were 16 people total including us (apparently all on our flight) who were going with us on our cruise. It was a little worrying as they had us leave our bags, and then loaded the bags onto a bus, which we then boarded. Then we got to a ferry and they took the bags and put them on a ferry. Then we got off the ferry and got onto another bus. Each time, we craned our necks to try to make sure that all of our bags were also making the trip.

The bus drove us to a ranch where we had lunch. We also got our first look at how big the tortoise shells were.

Being a tortoise was harder work than it seemed.

The ranch was next to the national park, and there were a bunch of giant tortoises there. The difference between tortoises and turtles is that tortoises have feet (these feet looked like giant elephant feet) and turtle have flippers.

These guys were big.

We walked around the park and got up close and personal with the giant tortoises (had to stay 2 meters away). They were very neat. Our guide said that no one really knows how long they live, but they believe its over 100 years.

But at least they weren't scary.

We also toured a small cave in the area.

This cave was short, and not too scary for Elenna or Lily to try.

After that, we boarded the bus to take us to the town on the island, where we had 30 minutes of free time. I went to the grocery story because I wasn’t sure if they would have food that Liam would eat - so I bought Zucaritas (Frosted Flakes), Froot Loops and nutella and bread. I had been lamenting the fact that my go pro died when we were in the Maldives, with a strong memory of swimming with the sea lions last time I was in the Galapagos. So I asked one of the ladies in a shop if they sold underwater cameras and she directed me to a shop a few stores down. So I bought a new Go Pro 13, and all of the accessories. So my Spanish was coming in handy.

We got our first view of sea lions on the pier.

Then we got on a Zodiac boat which took us to the main ship that we would be staying on for the next 4 nights. The cruise was very accommodating food wise - serving Liam plain pasta every day for lunch and dinner and the rest of us (ex-Megan) chicken or beef. We were all quite surprised by how good the food was on the cruise.

Our home for the next few days.

We had our welcome introduction to the crew and then went to bed, tired after all of that traveling.

That night, the boat was very rocky. I don’t get seasick, so I felt fine, except there was a good hour or two where I felt like I was on a Disney ride, going up and down and side to side. The whole night I was afraid that Liam was going to roll out of bed, but he didn’t. Although Megan and Keira had taken seasickness medicine, Megan didn’t feel great the next day and apparently Keira had been sick all night.

The next morning we were doing a “dry landing” (where the zodiac would go to a pier and we could stay dry) and walked around an island that had Blue Footed Boobies on it. Keira wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed on the boat, and Megan had to force her to stay above deck in the fresh air, because she would never feel better if she always stayed inside.

Liam’s best friend Chase loves Blue Footed Boobies and had a Galapagos birthday party the year before so we were excited to see them. They essentially look like cool ducks. There were also hundreds of other birds flying around - frigates and finches. I’m not really a bird person, so the Blue Footed Boobies were the only thing that interested me.

Up close and personal with blue footed boobies.

We also got to see some land iguanas.

Maybe a little hard to see in this picture, but then I guess that means evolution is working.

We went back on board and then did some snorkeling. Elenna, Lily and Liam wanted to stay back, so we let them, because there was a second snorkeling trip in the afternoon. The snorkeling was actually pretty good - we saw some rays and some sharks.

Almost as good as the Maldives.

After lunch we went snorkeling again. This time everyone but Keira came. Liam got into the water and then immediately wanted to get out again because it was cold, but we eventually calmed him down, particularly when the tour guide gave him a circular life preserver. Then he happy swam along with us (although Megan or I had a hand on the life preserver at all times).

Liam eventually adjusted to the water.

After snorkeling we did a “wet landing” on an island (where the boat goes up to shore, but you have to stand up in the water when you get out, about knee deep or less). Keira was feeling a bit better and we figured that getting her off the boat was the best thing for her, so she joined us.

On the cruise we met a bunch of nice people. There was an 84 year old man traveling by himself (we had actually met him at our last hotel in Quito). There was also a family of four with two daughters who were 20 and 24 and they took to Liam and often played cards with him, which was great, since there was no wifi to distract him. There was also a nice couple from Minnesota and an older couple with thier son (looked maybe 25-30).

Day 262

We were given the option of getting up and going snorkeling at 6:20 in the morning to potentially see hammer head sharks. Everyone in my family passed (Megan likely would have come if the guide made it sound like we would definintely see them, but since he wouldn’t promise anything, she stayed back with Liam). Only about half of the boat went snorkeling and pretty much right when we jumped in, we saw a couple of hammer heads and a sea turtle. It was all really neat. For some reason, hammer head sharks were something that captured my imagination as a kid, so I was very excited.

It didn't take long to see hammerheads and turtles.

Its funny how against jumping into shark infested waters I would have been before this trip. But after the Maldives, I would dive down a few feet to get closer to the sharks to try to get better pictures. The camera takes pretty wide angle shots, so you actually have to be pretty close to get a good picture.

There is something cool about hammer head sharks.

We got back on board and ate breakfast, then did another tour of another island. Here we saw red footed boobies. The main difference (besides the color of the feet) was that the blue footed boobies had webbed feet like a duck, but the red footed ones had feet that were more prehensile, and therefore they were usually perched on a branch, with their feet wrapped around it, rather than waddling around the island.

There were also a bunch of cute baby ones (you could tell the babies because they were big fluff balls).

A baby bird in our path.

For lunch, we had a buffet on the top deck, which had a gorgeous view of the surrounding islands.

We should have eaten all of our meals outside.

That afternoon, half of the boat went kayaking around the the island while the other half went snorkeling. Liam and I went in one kayak together and it was a little difficult to paddle, but we make it. There were a bunch of sea turtles in the water, and you could see them pop their heads up out of the water.

The kayaks were glass bottom, but you couldn't see much through them. Keira and Lily said that they saw some turtles swim under their kayaks.

That afternoon, we did another island tour and saw a bunch of sea lions. They were pretty much everywhere, laying on the sandy beach and lying on rocks. It was very neat.

Sea lions look like they are living the life.

The highlight for me was when Liam played some wave tag. Then he started dancing around. And then a sea lion swam up out of the water behind him and startled him.

The baby sea lion wanted to see why Liam was dancing.

That night, we went up to the roof deck and looked at the stars. The lights of the boat were on, so it wasn’t pitch black, but there was a very good view of the starsl and the Milky Way.

It was hard to get a great picture of the sky because the boat was rocking.

But, the good thing about the lights being on was that it attracted some sea life. We saw fish swimming around and 4 sharks swimming after them. There was also a sea lion going after the fish as well as some pelicans.

This is how I used to prefer watching sharks - from about 20 feet above water.

The next day, we went on another island tour, looking for iguanas and Liam and I counted 45 iguanas and lava lizards.

We saw a bunch of iguanas, and it kept Liam entertained.

Then we went snorkeling again, this time snorkeling near sea lions. It was very neat to watch them swim. They were so fast when they wanted to be. They didn’t get quite as close to us as I remember them being last time I was in the Galapagos, but they did get quite close. Keira didn’t realize how close this one came to her.

I think that Megan originally thought that I paid too much to buy another Go Pro in the Galapagos (I wasn't paying Amazon prices), but by the end of the trip I think even she thought it was worth it.

We did another island tour in the afternoon, looking for a rare diurnal owl (it hunts during the day). We walked around on this cool looking volcanic island, and our guide was starting to get worried that he wouldn’t see one. But then one of the people on the cruise spotted one. I thought that it was kind of neat, but then I realized that most of the reason that I thought it was neat was because that our tour guide said that they were hard to find (the only place in the world where they exist was on that island). Elenna was thinking the same thing and was wondering if maybe the guide was gas lighting us into liking the hike more because we saw something rare, when in fact they were everywhere. But once we found it, the guide went very close up to it and took a few minute video, so he seemed genuinely excited to see it.

Elenna and I weren't sure if we were being tricked, but we still got our pictures taken near the owl.

But then on the way back, we saw 3 more of them, and I was back to wondering how rare they were. The guide said that there were only 16 of them on the island, so we saw about 20% of the world’s diurnal owls.

Then, we did one more landing, this time looking for a unique iguana. Once again, our guide was a little worried because we didn’t see it. But when we turned around, we saw one on the rocks. It was incredibly camoflagued.

That night we had our good by cocktail reception with the crew. Everyone on the boat was so nice and helpful, and they all kept an eye on Liam which was really appreciated. Then they told us we should tip them all (11 crew members) and Megan and I scrambled to see how much money we had to give. Luckily, I always kept some extra money in my suitcase, so I think we gave an appropriate amount, but its hard to tell.

The next morning we had the option of doing a zodiac tour around the island or doing a wet landing and walking on the beach. We and one other person chose the wet landing. Once again, there were a bunch of sea lions on the beach and we got a great look at them. Then we walked down the beach until we saw a marine iguana, and turned around because it was time to get back on board.

I think that the iguana knew where to pose so we could get the rocks in the background.

We ate breakfast and finished packing. We had tried to pack the night before, but the boat was rocking too much, it was hard to stand up, much less pack. But we had plenty of time to pack. Then they took our bags ahead to the airport, and then we boarded a Zodiac, to the pier, then walked a few blocks to a bus, which took us to the airport.

Once again, our frequent flyer numbers weren’t in our reservation, but we went to the preferred check in anyway and they took care of us. I played cards with Liam for an hour in the airport until we boarded. My boarding pass was the only one with priority, and usually they let our whole family board, but they wouldn’t let us all board, so I took Liam’s and my backbacks and the stroller and walked onto the tarmac and up the stairs to make sure that we had room in the overhead for everything, and the rest of the family followed after me.

This was the first flight of our 6 leg trip from Galapagos to Skiathos, Greece (San Cristobal to Quayquil to Quito to Houson to Toroto to Athens to Skiathos). It was going to be something like 45 hours of traveling across 3 days.