Looking back...and looking forward .....

Warren flew out on a red-eye last night and should be arriving right about now in Reno (11:00 am Nevada time).  I am using my free day to relax and upload photos to Google Photos and my blog.  They will look back on some of the adventures we shared together here.  Tomorrow I am off to a month in the Galapagos, 3 weeks of which will be in the Island of San Cristobal teaching English to teens and adults.

It's been such an overwhelming amount of new names, places, sites, plants and critters!  Hard to keep it all sorted out.  As usual I had intentions of keeping at least a minimalist journal along the way, but was so occupied that I never did.  My photos are my way of preserving some recollections of the variety of people and nature that we have encountered.  So here we go with some new additions while I have some internet time.

These photos are not in chronological order, but I'll try to group together places.

Here are some more from our 10 day trip to the Amazon (El Oriente):

Cotopaxi (?) from the airplane trip to Lago Agrio

The place where we caught a boat after a long bus ride from Lago Agrio

The "road" to Jamu Lodge

Along the way to Jamu Lodge in the Amazon

Our Anniversay (8th) Surpise...a path of rose petals and.....

...a heart of rose petals on the bed, and a bottle of Gato Negro.....

......and another bottle & glasses on the shelf  in our room....

...and a vase of roses.

We were so surprised - what a treat!  - Remember that this is in the Amazon rainforest, where it's quite a trip  to get there!

It was a foreshadowing of the warm hearts of the people of Jamu Lodge, and the great service.

 It was a very international clientele with Ecuadorian staff.  Our groups consisted of people from the U.S. (L.A.), Belgium, France, Ecuador, Switzerland, Columbia, and Austrailia, and Holland.  English was generally the language used for us to all converse at the table, but it was a delight for me to be able to hear and speak at least a few words of the other languages.

Some of the critters that welcomed us the first evening:

This frog was right at our door

Gecko near the dock...has lost his tail, but will grow it back,,,

Tarantula on a tree near the dock - he was quite high up - probably is about 6 inches across

Another frog - lots of water around the cabins when we first arrived

This was our "roof frog" - may have been the same one from the door...

Some river adventures:

Anaconda

And THESE are Hoatzins - also known as stinky turkeys.

 "The Hoatzin (Ophisthocomus hoazin) is known as the ‘Stinky Turkey’ to Amazon natives because of the bad odors produced by the fermentation of leaves in the bird’s crop. "  quote from http://www.wildnaturephotos.com/Blog/2009/07/stinky-turkey/

Warren had long been looking forward to seeing Hoatzins - when I went to the Amazon last year without him he said "just don't find any Hoatzins without me".....and I didn't - but we saw lots together on this trip.

SO much more to show you about the Amazon trip, but for now off to run errands and then off to have a nice hot Canalazo with Alicia, the hostal manager, who is like a sister.  Then off to the Galapagos tomorrow...

Alicia

Canalazo (image from Wikipedia):

Canelazo is a drink that will warm you up on a cold night high in the Ecuadorian mountains. It's made from brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves, orange and lime juice, and the fiery concoction known as aguardiente (or "fire water"). Aguardiente is a broad term for high alcohol content beverages distilled from different things

http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/drinks/r/canelazo.htm