Category Archives: Travel

A Morning in San Cristobal and the End of Our Cruise

Posted on August 19, 2023 by silvergrrl

On our last morning, we spent a couple of hours in the town of San Cristobal, which is on the island of San Cristobal, which has an airport. It’s a lovely little town, with some great public art, and we … Continue reading →

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Life Among the Mangroves and Giant Tortoises

Posted on August 19, 2023 by silvergrrl

Today was our last full day on this wonderful adventure. Our morning outing was in dinghies to Black Turtle Cove (in Santa Cruz Island), which is shallow salt water with lots of mangroves growing all over the place. This area … Continue reading →

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Santiago Island and its Incredible Rock Formations

Posted on August 18, 2023 by silvergrrl

Santiago Island was formed by ash and lava spewing volcanic action. Along the coast, you can see quite clearly the thousands of layers of compacted ash (called tuff, pronounced “toof”) and lava that created it. We started our morning with … Continue reading →

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A Quick Correction – Sorry!

Posted on August 17, 2023 by silvergrrl

Yesterday there was a miscommunication and I accidentally misidentified one of the types of bird we saw -what I thought was a blue-footed booby was actually a Nazca booby. I already corrected the original post but I wanted to let … Continue reading →

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Bird Paradise: Genovesa Island

Posted on August 16, 2023 by silvergrrl

Today we visited Genovesa Island. Three trips, altogether. For the first one, we disembarked from the cruise boat at 8 am in rubber dinghies. The cruise boat was anchored a short ride from the island, and we motored in the … Continue reading →

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First Day on the Boat

Posted on August 16, 2023 by silvergrrl

This will be a short post as I’m exhausted and a little seasick. We made it successfully to the islands and onto the boat. In the afternoon we had a beach expedition to the island of Santa Cruz. We walked … Continue reading →

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Next Stop: The Galápagos Islands

Posted on August 14, 2023 by silvergrrl

Today was mostly devoted to getting back to Quito in preparation for the next leg of our trip. After breakfast, we made a visit to the Science Lab at Mashpi. One of the biologists, a woman named Chiara, told us … Continue reading →

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The Hummingbird Center

Posted on August 13, 2023 by silvergrrl

Today’s highlight was visiting the Hummingbird Center, which is part of Mashpi. It’s located a little ways away from main lodge and higher up, primarily so that it can attract hummingbirds from higher elevations as well. It is completely open … Continue reading →

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The Dragonfly Tram, Butterflies, and a Night Walk

Posted on August 12, 2023 by silvergrrl

Our first full day here at Mashpi actually started before breakfast, with a short bird-watching session on the terrace upstairs from our room. I was reminded of how a wave of bird song, to greet the dawn, is continuously sweeping … Continue reading →

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The Lovely, Lovely Cloud Forest

Posted on August 11, 2023 by silvergrrl

Today we drove from Quito to our next destination, Mashpi Lodge in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest. On the way, we stopped at the monument marking the equator. The monument had a view deck and a museum, as well as lots … Continue reading →

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