We are having an incredible time.  Today we saw Lonesome George the last tortoise of his species and we went kayaking at a beautiful beach with sharks and tortoises.  Tomorrow we head back to Quito.  Will get in touch from there.

Had a great time today.  We hiked to the top of an active volcano.  Last eruption was in 2005. It was a tough hike on a hot day.  Mike went even further.  We were absolutely filthy.  I don´t think I have ever been so dirty. I hiked about 9 miles and Mike did 12.  We had a picnic at the top of the volcano crater.

 

Tomorrow, we go snorkeling and then travel by boat to Santa Cruz Island.

 

We´´ll send an update as soon as we can!

Hi. We are having a great time.  We are now on Isabela Island.  Yesterday we were on Floriana Island, population 100 people (no Internet there, nor regular power – It was great!!).

We have seen all sorts of wildlife: penguins, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, white tip sharks, whales, dolphins, galapagos tortoises, marine iguanas, and more….  Of course, my camera broke… so no photos for now…

Our group is fantastic we are having a lot of fun together and getting along great.

Last night our hotel was on a black sand beach, absolutely beautiful. We have been doing lots of snorkeling, hiking, boating, swimming, and more. 

Today we will be going to the Wall of Tears and hiking on the back.  Tomorrow we have a 12 mile hike up and down a volcano.

Will post again when we have a chance.

We arrived in San Cristobal Island this afternoon. We had a great flight here and found the island to be beautiful. It was much larger than we expected.

 After getting settled in to our hotel, we went to lunch and then to the top of a peak where Mike and many of the other members of our tour took a downhill mountain bike ride. Lisa chickened out. After the ride, we hiked in to a gorgeous beach where sea lions were everywhere. Laying on the beach and swimming with us. It was incredible!

 Our accomodations are amazing. We are staying right on the ocean with an ocean view. The decor is adorable and it is great to sit out and look over the harbor.

Well we had a great day today. We started off with breakfast (loved the blackberry juice), then decided to take a tour of the city and go to ¨the middle of the world) the equator.

 We hired a taxi to take us and we really got to practice our Spanish. We did pretty good. The city was amazing. We really enjoyed getting to see the Basilica, it had the most amazing gargoyles, and the angel on the top of the hill (I will have to find out it´s real name. The trip to the ¨Midad del Mundo¨was very interesting. There are no posted speed limits and it appears that lanes are a suggestion. It took about an hour to get there and we really got to see the city. Absolutely beautiful! Once we got to the equator, we took pictures at the equator line and explored the beautiful village they have there.

 This evening we went to a great Greek restaurant atop a mountain. We had an amazing view of the city lights.

 My impressions of the city are that it is beautiful. We loved the mountains and the green. The people here are always smiling and laughing, they seem like very happy people. The altitude has impacted us a bit as we seem to huff and puff our way up the stairs and while walking around. It really catches us by surprise. We have felt comfortable walking around and have really enjoyed our brief time in Quito.

 Tomorrow we fly to the Galapagos Islands. We will try to update you from there.

 We have some great pics but I cannot seem to get this computer to recognize the camera as a drive. Will try again soon.

 Check out the blog at lcbyoung.posterous.com

 Love,
Lisa and Mike

Hi! We arrived last night in Quito. The flights were great with the exception of my movie monitor not working... Quito is a bustling city with a crazy nightlife. We were glad we brought earplugs or we would not have gotten much sleep with the bars and clubs going until the middle of the night.

 The city looks a lot like San Diego only greener and with older buildings. The altitude here is nearly 10,000 feet, so it is a little difficult to run up the stairs. We were told to take it easy today. Driving is an experience, everyone honks their horns and it is very full of traffic, you would have to be a very aggressive driver.

 Today we have had breakfast and we met another couple from our tour. They were very nice and they may go to the equator with us today. We will be going to the equator for a tour. We have heard that they have museums where you can do experiments that prove you are on the equator. We will also post a picture of us on the equator later tonight on our blog at lcbyoung.posterous.com

 Tomorrow we fly 600 miles to Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. We them take a boat somewhere and go on a bike ride down a very steep volcano (we will have to report more on that once we do it).

 We will try to update you all regularly!

We are prepping for our trip and plan to post our experiences, photos and videos to share with you.