La Casa de Marita Isabela

... roads are wide, made of hard packed dirt. They sprayed our hands with disinfectant again when we got off the boat and as always checked all our bags. <br><br>We arrived to a quaint little hotel and then met right away for our last day of snorkeling. I have to say though, it was the best! A Panga (water taxi) took us to the first part of our day, which was a hike through the black lava to where ...

... to here. Instead we plan to travel for 2 weeks through Colombia to Bogota where we fly out to Anchorage Alaska. Alaska is at the top of both our list of places to go so we want to be able to enjoy it as much as possible, so while the money is still in our accounts(and Alaska is going to be very expensive) we feel we should make the most of it now. From Alaska we will travel by boat to Canada where we will take the train to the Rockies and then head to Vancouver ...

... few days wondering through the old town and visiting more museums and churches - and eating lots of good food! Next stop Rio!  We could definitely see ourselves living here.  We spent the first couple of nights in Ipanema and the last couple in Copacabana - very noice!   We are off to Buenos Aires and will write more from there.  Until then... Anna and Greg

... for a 3 hour boat ride to Isabel island. Isabel is exactly what you picture the Galapagos looking like. As the boat pulled into the harbor, we saw 3 sea lions just snoozing away on another boat. After docking we were met by yet another guide who took us to our hotel and said another guide would meet us in an hour. (yes, this is all in 1 day)... Our guide, Paula, was amazing. Very apologetic about her lack of English (although she spoke quite well), she ...

... of his species. They have searched in vain for a mate for him. Now they are hoping he will mate with a female from a species which is quite close to him genetically so they can get as close as possible to preserving the species. When we went he was certainly doing his best, chasing the females round the enclosure. Not bad for his age (approx 90?) Unfortunately he couldn´t catch up with the 130 year old ...

... as well, but fortunately we had already started rinsing it when I fell so it wasn't the revolting green liquid it had been.) The ride took us uphill away from the beach and it was really exciting to see a few tortoises roaming wild on the way - they had been bred by the tortoise centre and introduced into the wild. We continued all the way to the wall - it surprised me quite how big it was - it certainly towered over us and it ...

... had a fantstic view of the bay [including Alexander] and islet. As we climbed higher to the light beacon we had an overview of the spatter cones and volcano craters and had our photo taken with the group. After a quick change into swimsuits we were out snorkeling around the pinacle, looking at penguins, starfish, the blue and flouescent yellow tailed surgeonfish, alone or in schools or nibbling on a starfish! There are so many ...

On a couple of occasions I went up to help at the tortoise centre with the others. ´Help´ meant shifting wheelbarrows of foliage; tearing it up for the baby tortoises; fighting off the big ones to get into the enclosure; cleaning out and refreshing their water pools - and in my case slipping in and landing awkwardly on my backside and hand ...

... up the sunshine. They are really cool guys. A short drive or 20 minute walk along a sand covered road brings you into the town of Puerto Villamil and if you carry on a little further, you reach the other side. It´s not a big place - most of the roads have a dusting of sand, the lampposts are made from tree trunks and everyone says ´Hola´ The beach is several miles of the softest white sand, with the pacific crashing onto it - the bird life on ...

On Sunday we took a boat trip with the local friendly fisherman, Fabricio. Las Tintoreras are just to the south of the island and a good place for a bit of wildlife spotting and snorkelling. The sharks are just resting in the channel - cool as you like - there were dozens of them. And the sea lion pups were incredibly cute, but mum was just a few metres away making sure we didn´t get too close.