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June 3, the day I lay myself down on my sweet bed

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 Oh, to be on U.S. soil.  No more carrying toilet paper or having to put it in a garbage can instead of flushing it. No more having to drink bottled water.  No more walking 10 miles to the beach, siphoning through things in a suitcase, having to repack everything every other day to travel to somewhere new.  I am home, back in the US, and I'm so grateful. My grass is freshly mowed, the rose garden has bloomed, there are flowers all over my yard.  Purple columbines, Grace the steps to my backyard.   Danielle, my wonderful pet sitter, left my pets in my house at 5:00 yesterday evening, so they were all there to greet and sleep with me.  Dubai is out rolling in the grass, Tinker is sitting on the deck watching her best friend frolic and play in their yard.   There was frio diet Coke and IPA in the fridge waiting for me, instead of having to be hunted down in a foreign land, where diet foods are not at a premium.   I met a little Hi...
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June 2- Last Day Goodies

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       Well I'm sitting here now on the terrace overlooking the malecon and a bunch of night clubs and restaurants and there's music coming from the housing development above on the mountain, below coming from some club, and directly above coming from one of my neighbors in this building. It's traditional, it's Disco, it's Ecuadorian pop, it's more traditional. not a word of it is in English so I don't mind any of it.        Well I'm closing in on the end of my trip - my Great adventure in the Andes and on the Galapagos'.     Today, we took a boat through a massive River about an hour and a half away, and saw birds that look like flamingos, flying into trees.  Across the river, our boat driver paused for a minute and turn the motor down low, almost off.  Out of nowhere, four huge porpoises started displaying tricks and swimming around and up to our boat.  One of them, I'll bet the stinker of the group, did a complete ...
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June 1- means the vacation's about to end

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       I flew back to the mainland and now I'm in Guayaquil. Somehow, I managed to book a fashionable condo with a balcony overlooking the malecon in a bourgeois district.  This is a sharp and welcome twist from the last two hostels I stayed in.   Kim picked me up at the airport yesterday and I got here around 5:30 p.m., just in time to walk out to buy detergent, diet coke, and some snacks. After a delicious, $25 seafood dinner, I came home and crashed.         Here is the housing on the mountain above my high-rise, complete with crowing roosters in the morning.      This restaurant along the malecon is where I had dinner last night.        I'm doing my much-needed wash now, while I enjoy the sunrise over the Island next to us.       Kim is picking me up at 9:00 to go a couple hours to a beach town that she has been raving about.  It will be a good time to chill. ...
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5-30-22: Snorkeling off Isabella Island

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        The famous small Galapagos penguin!       The rock.       Me, getting ready to snorkle.       The Snorkeling crew, 80% of which were in their twenties.       My hostal, with the ocean right outside my back door.        It's strangely exactly 2 hours between each island, which you have to pass in a "ferry." These ferries go about as fast as the speed of light, crashing down slapping across the waves and causing the passengers to have their backs raised off the seats and pummeled back down into them.  In the past 3 days, I have had to ride 3 of these merciless ferries. Then one more, to go snorkeling.  My back feels like I need 50 massages.  It is hard to walk; it is hard to sit.  I have to be battered by one more of these ferries to get back to San Cristobal Island  this afternoon, from which I will fly out of the Galapagos tomorrow morning.  It will b...
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