Easter trip. Day 3. The Darwin center and Tortuga Bay

The third day of our trip we were still on Santa Cruz island, as it was still lost of things to see. We had to go to the Darwin Center anyway to get our passports back, but it was a great place to start anyway. We could not resist to stop by the fishermans harbour again, where three sea lions were fighting for a piece of fish.

After getting back our passport and paying the National Park fee, we went to the Darwin center to take a look at the giant tortoises. We learnt a lot about them, too.


Nearby there was a nice beach, too. La playa de la estación, that belongs to the Charles Darwin Research Center, too. Nice and clean beach, not so big though, but great after walking under the sun and watching the tortoises.
Here is one of the marine iguanas on the beach.



After taking a break for lunch, we went to Tortuga Bay, the best beach I have been to ever (that one, and some of the places in Lofoten islands here in Norway, of course). The path to the beach goes through the cactus forest and takes approximately 40 minutes. But when you see THIS, you know it was worth it.





We got the instructions not to swim on the first beach we see, bacause the waves there are too dangerous. So we walked several long kilometers of the beach to a small one where the water is more quiet. Later we realized that for the kind of swimming we need, we can stay on the first beach, we were mostly playing with water and sand, so that was not so dangerous. But this beach was nice, too.



We were supposed to take a boat back to Puerto Ayora, but we had a misunderstanding with the boat guy, so we missed the last one. But that gave us a chance to walk all the beautiful way back under the sunset.

I have never seen her happier!




Now just 40 minutes walking back :-)

We had a great day, Greta enjoyed playing with the sand, the sea, watching the animals on the beach. She even walked (actually, she was running) herself all the long beach. I was so proud of her.
But we will come back here two more times, even if we did not know it yet...

Easter trip. Day 2. Puerto Ayora.

Continuing our story about the trip to the Galapagos Islands. On our second day we left Guayaquil and took a flight to the islands. The airport is on Baltra island, north from Santa Cruz. At the airport we found out they do not accept cards to pay for the entrance to the national park, so they took out passports and let us it, so we had to recover them later, when we got cash. That was unusual, we are so used to pay with card everywhere. Anyway, after a short trip by bus to Baltra port, we took a ferry boat to Santa Cruz, where we continued by bus to our hotel. It is Galapagos Eco Suites in the village of Buenavista, around 7 km from the "center" - Puerto Ayora. The bus driver was very kind and accepted to stop by our hotel, even though he did not know wher it was located. He was unsure, but did find it after a while. We were really happy with our apartment and with the service in general. When we came, we were the only ones staying in the hotel, apparently because it was still long time before easter vacation, and because some celebrations on Isabela island at the same time.
This is the living room, or Greta's room.

And our bedroom.

The view was nice, and it was pretty great to be a bit away from the town, in a small village in the middle of the forest.


The hotel had a swimming pool that we could enjoy any time we wanted.

And we did. After such a long journey it was nice to relax a bit before heading to the town for exploring the new places.

Did I mention the great service? The family taking care of the hotel is very nice, they bring you fruit from the own garden, fresh natural juices, you feel very welcome. All the food they prepared there was from their own garden, all fresh and natural.


After a couple of hours of relaxation, we took a taxi to the town. We wanted to explore a bit the very first day, and we also needed to find a place to get cash (we did). The view from the harbour in the evening.

The town is nice and safe, many places to visit, and great for kids, too.

So ve headed to the fisherman's harbour, where the fresh fish goes straight to the market, and where pelicans and sea lions come to take a chance and try to steal a bit. We heard a lot about the place, and it was great. It is just relaxing to sit there and watch.







We took a walk in the town, found a good place for dinner, and got back to the hotel, still very tired from the jet lag, but happy to be in a new exotic place.

Hello, weekend!

Suddenly, another weekend!! The time goes so fast, and the spring is already here. There is still some snow outsode, in the shadows, but otherwise everything is getting greener and summerly. We even cleaned up the garden today and prepared the terrasse for summer!! In a couple of days the rest of the snow will melt too.
Greta is almost counting days until her grandparents come to visit us. She is very fond of them, of course! Otherwise, there was not much happening here today. I spent the morming (after the garden work) going through Greta's pictures from the kindergarden for the last four months, many good pictures I have not seen before, so I saved all of them for myself. During the weekends we allow Greta to use the flamenco dress at home, but she would use it every day if the could. She likes it too much. Santiago changed our car to summertires today, too. Greta is very proud to become a sister soon, and talks about it all the time :-)
So while Santiago were having his afternoon siesta, Greta and I were playing making heart beads.

Playing with beads is fun!

I am quite impressed how concentrated she can be sometimes. I am a bit jealous that am am not so patient.

After a short trip to the groceries store on a bike to buy butter, I decided to make apple and cinnamon empanadas for dessert. Liked it, even I struggled a lot with the dough.

After the dinner and some computer time, in the evening we went for a stroll with the scooter. A lot of fun now when the weather allows it, but Greta still has to learn to control it better. Also it was interesting to fing flowers along the way.
So it was getting late, even you can not say that when it is so much light in the evenings now. So I told Greta we head back home because I started to freeze :-)

A happy girl found some flowers along the way!


The last two pictures are taken not too far from our home, during our evening stroll. Usually you do not see them, but if you look closer, it is full of flowers everywhere now. We liked them, Greta and me.
We have no big plans for tomorrow, but we surely find something interesting to do!
What are you doing this weekend? Have a good one anyway.

Ksenia.

Mormorio for a present

If somebody tells me once again that I am not patient, I will show them Mormoio. The shawl is pretty easy to knit, that you fell asleep every time you take the knitting needles. But the border part is a bit tricky, because you got used to knit straight all the time, but now you need concentration! Anyway, the original plan was to knit some female present, and it is still the present, even though I don't know for whom.
It is knitted in Holst Supersoft garn, approximately 65g of each color (maybe a bit more white). Wonderful warm and soft wool.

Do not relax!

Even if you think: "ok, now I have a 4 year old, things should go smoothly now", when the evening comes, you get in bed with a couple of parenting books.
The rest of the day was quiet, relaxing after yesterdays party. Greta is so happy about her new dresses that she said that now I need dresses. One with hearts, one with dots and one with flowers. The first one was made today.