But I don't need any incense.

Tuesday, April 14^th, 2015.

Los Angeles, CA / San Francisco, CA

It’s 7:30am, time to wake up for Girl’s Wine Trip 2015! My bags are packed, outfit picked out, and work email in order. By 8am I am out of the door. Today I am driving to San Francisco to meet my long time friends-turned-travel-buddies, Sarah and Laura, who are flying in from Austin, TX.

I am out of LA in 30 minutes flat. The traffic gods are on my side.

I make my first stop at the rest stop just over the grapevine. I will end up making 3 other stops over the course of my short drive to San Francisco. 2 of which will involve multiple emails and work-related phone calls. It’s a rough trip but I finally make it to the bay around 5pm. Again I am worried about traffic, but it all seems to be heading out of the city and the lanes heading inward are completely open. I take the bay bridge bay and end up paying the toll twice (once through my FasTrak transponder and once in cash). Oh well, I’m here! It’s awesome!

Our hotel is in Union Square and I quickly find the suggested parking garage. When I go to check in I learn that Sarah and Laura have yet to arrive and that I have to wait for them since the room is under Sarah’s name. I leave my bags behind the front desk and wander off to get coffee. I grab a small drink and snack and sit quietly to wait for my friends. While I am waiting a young man asks me to buy incense and when I refuse he calls me racist. I am offended but slightly amused. I forgot what a real city was like.

Soon my travel companions arrive and we all finally converge in the lobby of The Herbert. Vacation Commence!

We quickly check-in and drop our bags in a large room with 2 beds. Tonight I get my own bed, but I will have to share for the next two nights. My travel companions are sisters, ergo everything is divided equally.

Eventually we pick a brewery for dinner and order an Uber to get there in minimum time. Apparently, there is a Giants game happening (we are sports-oblivious) and we really luck out by getting a table without a wait. I eat fried cheese curds for the first time (I maintain that they are really just stubby cheese sticks) and drink 2 very nice IPAs.

After dinner we wander around the city checking out various pubs. We have a lot to check up on. Sarah has changed cities, I have changed relationship status, and Laura has changed modes of transportation (my first friend to earn a motorcycle license!). Naturally, my relationship status temporarily trumps all topics.

Around midnight my travel companions are getting tired. They are from the Central Time zone and it is 2am for them. I don’t mind heading back though, I am secretly tired too. 

Tomorrow we will leave for Napa!

Solita

Saturday September 6th, 2014.

Quito, Ecuador / Miami, FL / Los Angeles, CA

It’s 5am; I am very groggy. Laura is gathering her bags and will soon leave to catch her 7:30am flight back to AUS. As she exits I wave from underneath the covers and promise to see her again soon. By 5:05 I am fast asleep again.

At 8am my alarm goes off. I have 4pm flight back to LAX and half of day to spend in lovely Quito. I quickly get ready, gather my bags and head downstairs to find a driver. I am going to Cuidad Mitad del Mundo. Direct translation: Middle of the Earth City. This is where the equator monument has stood since 1936 (new technology has since proven that the equator is slightly north).

Throughout this entire trip I’ve had a very difficult time communicating with the front desk at this particular hotel and today is no different. As a result of sheer will power (and a lot of gestures) I am able to book a driver to take me to Cuidad Mitad del Mundo, watch my bags while I look around, and then drive me to the airport. I worry incessantly that something will go wrong.   

The morning starts out with a pretty long drive to the actual equator (the driver thinks I should see it and I agree). There is some conversation on the way there, but it is very rough. I keep catching the word “solita”, which I understand to mean small and alone (later it’s explained to me that it’s slang for "little lost child").

Soon we arrive at our destination. There is a small science center and a vista that overlooks a village that sits on the true equator. The view is nice, but there is really not much to do here. After 20 minutes, we leave for Cuidad Mitad del Mundo. Here I explain again that I want one hour to look around and that I would like to leave my bags in the car. I am sure he doesn’t understand, but I really, really want to see the monument. I abandon both my driver and my bags and hope for the best.

The monument is everything that I had hoped. There are cheesy gift shops and little museums all over the place, as well as, a thick yellow line that represents the equator.

The first order of business is to get a few photos of myself on that yellow line. Unfortunately, this is a task not suited for even the most independent traveler; I am going to need help. I look for a trustworthy tourist and eventually find one. As I approach her I realize she doesn’t speak English, but I use the universal gesture for will-you-take-my-picture and she seems to understand. What doesn't translate is that I want multiple pictures and I want them to all to be silly. Eventually I get my point across and she laughs heartily while I pretend to balance on the equator. When my impromptu photo session is complete, I retrieve my camera, thus crossing off another major bucket list item. Boom.

I spend the rest of my morning shopping for equator-themed T-shirts and walking through the adorably, cheesy Ecuadorian museum of history. When its time to return to the car to head to the airport, I say a little prayer, exit the main park, and find my driver right where I left him. Whew.

 

The ride the airport takes an hour and a half. I sit quietly in the car, watching Ecuador pass me by. Because I had planned for many contingencies (none of which happened), I end up at the airport way early.

I spend the next 3 hours sitting in a very empty terminal. I do some shopping in the duty free shop and play several rounds of plants versus zombies on my iPad. Eventually I board my flight back to LAX. Again, I am flying first class, but as it turns out, American first class is nothing like Delta first class. The service is nice but they do not have flat chairs like Delta. It’s okay though, I am pretty tired and am happy to just sit and watch movies.

There is a layover in Miami, which is a madhouse. I get through customs and just barely make my connecting flight. Eventually I end up back in LA around 10pm. My ride home is waiting dutifully outside.

The car ride back is quiet. I will not begin to fully process this trip for several weeks and I will not fully appreciate it for much longer. For now, however, I am just happy to be back at sea level.

   

Why you should never give up your food-veto power.

Friday September 5th, 2014.

Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador / Quito, Ecuador

Its 8am and we are waking up to our last morning in the Galapagos. It feels good to sleep in. We finish packing our bags and head next door to the hotel-sponsored breakfast bar (apparently its been here the whole time, we were just slow to catch on). We drink a quick cup of coffee and finish our breakfast surrounded by a family of tired parents and screaming children. I also notice a community bookshelf where I ditch my recently completed copy of Farnham’s Freehold (my gift to future travelers).

A few minutes later our original tour guide, Alexandria, arrives to make sure that we get to the airport in one piece. After a 30 minute drive across the island, she accompanies us on the ferry to Baltra, forces us to cut in line for the bus, and then pushes her way through everyone else to make sure that we get our bags first. I am not sure if she is providing good customer service or just wants us off of her damn island! Once logistics are successfully completed Laura and I exchange the obligatory hug with Alexandria and give her our best Texas-sized smiles. We also give her a Texas-sized tip… she was a very efficient guide and a memorable part of our trip.

Once we are in the airport and our bags are checked, we have time to shop around for a little bit. I buy all sorts of chocolate for myself and Laura buys more gifts for her family. After shopping is completed we still have another 30 minutes or so to kill. We grab 2 Coronas from the bar and enjoy our last few minutes at sea level. As we are leaving we notice a little Darwin finch hopping around the inside of the airport terminal. We both say goodbye to the little bird and we are off to Quito.

When we land, we try several different ways to make a quick trip to Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (this is where the famous equator marker is located), but sadly our flight arrives too late and we do not have time. As soon as we land I can feel my stomach starting to cramp up again. We are now back at 9500 feet and my body is not ready for it. 

Our cab ride from the airport back to our hotel takes over an hour and a half. Eventually we arrive at the same hotel where we stayed on Sunday evening. Its nearing 6pm and the streets are packed with bar hoppers (it’s basically Mardi Gras in the middle of the day). Even though we are both feeling sick, we don on our hiking boots and fleece jackets (also known as the only clean items left) and forge ahead into the Quito nightlife.

I’m really not in the mood to eat so I tell Laura that she can pick anything and I promise that I will not veto. She picks Indian food. I immediately regret surrendering my veto.

The Indian restaurant is a lot like a club. It is packed and blasting techno music. We order our dinner and try our best to choke some of it down (neither of us are very successful). After dinner we walk around the bar district for a little bit. It is major culture shock. The streets are shoulder-to-shoulder packed. We duck into a little bar and find a corner table where we can sit down, not talk to each other, and people watch. Laura orders a brandy and I order a godmother. After one round we call it a night. 

Back at the hotel we pack up, climb into bed, and drift to sleep to the sounds of club music, car horns, and very loud voices speaking in Spanish.

Tomorrow we say Adios to South America.   

Mojito Island

Thursday September 4th, 2014.

Santa Cruz, Santiago, and Bartholomew Islands, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Its 5:30am and we are slowly waking for our last full day in the Galapagos. We need to be ready for our bus by 6am. Today we will visit Bartholomew Island, with a bonus side trip to Santiago Island. Again, we are the first hotel on the bus pick up route; we sit quietly as we are driven across Santa Cruz Island to our yacht-for-the-day. Once we arrive, we both order dock coffee and by 7am we are off!

It will take a few hours to get to our first destination (which is Bartholomew Island). Most of the crowd sits quietly inside. Laura and I, however, are stubborn Texans and insist on sitting outside even though the wind and the sun are ferocious.

By mid-morning we are disembarking. At first Bartholomew looks very barren. Upon second look, it is actually barren. This is a good example of a “young” island. There are many strange rock formations, but few plants and animals. The rock formations are still relatively new (geologically speaking), so we have to walk around on a wooden boardwalk. Despite the lack of vegetation, the lava lizards live happily here. After a brief nature talk, we head up a few flights of steps to get one of the greatest island views of all time. Bartholomew turned out to be okay, after all.

Our next stop is Santiago Island for another hike and a viewing of a very large colony of sea lions. In stark contrast to Bartholomew, Santiago has a lot of wildlife. The landscape is very dry, but there are tons of birds and all of their nests are on the ground (you can do that, when you have no predators). There are also plenty of land iguanas. As we continue our hike we approach a large colony of sea lions and seals. It is explained to us that sea lions are brown and “walk” on their flippers, whereas, seals are black and “scoot” using their flippers. Honestly, I can’t always tell the difference. As we approach the colony we are overwhelmed by smell and sound. These animals definitely stink.

The colony is pretty active with sea lions constantly slipping in and out of the water. They alternate between sunning themselves on the rocks and diving into the water to eat and cool off. Every once in while two of them start to fight, but it’s always quickly resolved (I guess there’s really nothing to fight about). Once we’ve had our fill of sea lions and bird’s-nests-on-the-ground, we all load back on the boat for lunch.

Lunch is okay, but not as good as yesterday. It consists of chicken, a few veggies and a whole bunch of rice. After lunch we take the little speed boat to the beach for our opportunity to snorkel and, potentially, see the Galapagos penguins (we will actually not see penguins, but its okay because a whole bunch of other cool stuff is about to happen). 

Snorkeling off the beach at Bartholomew is pretty awesome. Immediately we see all sorts of colorful fish swimming in unison. There are also a few very large fish hanging out near the ground, maybe 10 feet or so from the surface. Next we see a very playful sea lion doing spins and flips under water. I am kind of scared (they are bigger and faster than you think), but I survey our tour crowd and calculate that my odds of being the one to get mauled by a sea lion are pretty low. 

We continue to float around, admiring to vast underwater world. Soon I see one of the marine iguanas drop into the water from a ledge above, swim around the surface for a few minutes, dive to the bottom, attach himself to a rock, and start eating algae. This is so cool. The Galapagos have the only marine iguanas in the whole world. They can hold their breath for up to one hour while they feed on algae underwater and once they resurface they shoot highly concentrated salt water out of a spout on their heads. I watch the iguana for a while before I finally fulfill my tourist duty and call everyone else over to see (I figure that he’s not going anywhere).

Eventually I get cold and decide to opt for beach time before re-boarding the yacht. The sun is warm and the view is beautiful. I am really going to miss these islands. 

Soon we are called back to the boat. They are selling beer and despite the incredibly choppy ride over, we decide that beer is a good idea. As we are leaving the island and the waves begin to hit our boat, one of the guides tells Laura and I that we can shimmy our way over to the front of the yacht (requiring us to walk along a very narrow ledge) to get a better view. As I am saying no-thank-you-we’ll-stay-in-the-back-and-not-shimmy-anywhere, Laura has already scuttled to the front. I sigh and follow. I am clutching the boat with one hand and my beer with the other. Terrified to let go of either.

At first the front of the boat is pretty cool. We can lay in the sun, the view is amazing and we have the whole front deck to ourselves. Soon, though, the water becomes unbelievably choppy. We are holding on to the boat for dear life and are apparently stuck here until conditions improve. Our perspectives of the situation alternate from total fear to hilarity (the beer is helping!). 3 hours and 1 nasty sunburn later the boat is slowing for its approach into Santa Cruz Island. We shimmy to the back of the boat and watch our ascent to the big dock. This is our last yacht trip and we are already nostalgic.

Once we are back on dry land, we board the bus to head back into town. About halfway back, I notice that the bus driver is driving like an actual maniac. He is on the shoulder of the left side of the road and traveling at 50 mph, easily. I assume that he must know what he is doing, but it turns out that he does not. We are all jolted out of our island daze when the driver suddenly slams on the breaks and swerves out of the shoulder. We see a small truck with a family of 5; they are stopped directly in front of us, and are justifiably angry. Words are exchanged and our bus driver eventually takes off again. The passengers remain silent; that was an uncomfortably close call.

As we are about to enter town, Laura and I make dinner plans with a nice Canadian couple that we met on the boat. They are probably 7-8 years younger than us and are really, really friendly. At dinner we all chat about our lives back home. Laura and I order some mojitos (it took me almost 3 days to succumb to the fact that the mojito is the only decent cocktail on this island. Laura somehow intuitively knew this coming in... she is the more experienced traveler, after all).

Dinner is pretty tame and we part ways with our new friends afterwards. Laura and I are determined to find (and/or create) some nightlife in this town. Now that we both know rum is the only acceptable beverage, we start exploring various venues. We eventually end up at an outside table of an empty restaurant. Our dedicated waiter brings us several rounds as we debrief about our time in the Galapagos. Around midnight the town is totally dead and we head back to the hotel. 

This is our last night here; tomorrow we will fly back to Quito.   

Dos what?!?

Wednesday September 3rd, 2014.

Santa Cruz Island and South Plaza Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Its 7am and we are waking up for the first (of two) yacht tours of the Galapagos! We are super excited and only have about 30 minutes to get ready and go wait outside for a large tour bus to come pick us up. At this point, we are both realizing that we really have nothing to wear. We had put extensive thought into packing for the Inca Trail portion of this vacation and no thought, whatsoever, into this part. I end up wearing jean shorts and a fleece (over my swimsuit) and Laura ends up in a turquoise muumuu, which she drunk-bought the night before.

We are ready – let’s do this!

We only have to wait a few minutes outside of our hotel for a large bus to come pick us up. The bus is empty; we are first on the pickup route. We sit with our noses pressed against the window while we get an impromptu island tour of hotels-that-are-nicer-than-ours. Soon we arrive at the dock on the opposite side of the island (this is the dock that where the big boats come in… different than the bay dock, which is next to our hotel). As we wait for our yacht-for-the-day to arrive Laura and I purchase some pretty bad coffee from the snack shop on the dock. Soon the yacht arrives and we have to take a little boat to board it (the water is not deep enough for it to come all the way in). We board the little speed boat, clutch our coffees tightly, and we are off!

The crowd on the boat is very international and we all sit quietly, hypnotized by the waves for the 2 hour trip to South Plazas Island.     

When we finally arrive, we are treated to a quick island tour half in Spanish and half in English. The guide goes through the Spanish explanations first (which we try to translate) and the English explanations second (which completely discredit our translations). Early in a Spanish explanation of the marine iguanas, Laura catches the phrase “dos penes”. She tells me that she thinks that means two penises, but we are sure that she misheard. Later, during the English explanation, we discover that she did not, in fact, mistranslate. The marine iguanas have evolved two penises, thus allowing them procreate with greater consistency. We cannot stop giggling.  

South Plaza Island is known for its marine iguanas, land iguanas, and crazy flora. The whole island is covered with red plants (later I learned they are called sesuvium) with intermittent large green cacti. The water is a deep blue and the view is amazing.  After a short hike (and a million pictures), we head back to the boat for lunch.

Lunch is pretty good, it consists of fish and veggies (an omelet with veggies for Laura). We take a quick boat ride to a famous snorkeling / dive site where we will see all sorts of little fish and go on a hunt for sharks. The Galapagos is known for its shark population and mainly consists of hammerheads and reef sharks, but there are many other kinds as well. We are going to an area that is known for white tipped reef sharks. Don’t worry, they are nice, our guide assures us.  

Immediately I am amazed by the very large schools of brightly colored fish, which are basically everywhere. Snorkeling in the Galapagos is like floating through a National Geographic magazine. I am happy with all the weird fish, but our guide eventually pulls me over to a group of rocks where he is frantically pointing his flashlight. He watches me with great anticipation until I finally recognize that I am staring at a shark and then he explodes with joy. Our guide is sooo happy, its contagious. He quickly swims off to find more tourists.

Eventually we all board the yacht and begin the trip back to Santa Cruz. We get back around 6pm and load onto the bus to head into town. From here we shower, change clothes, and have a little time to spare before dinner. We spend the evening shopping, drinking, and generally appreciating the beautiful weather and views. Puerto Aroya is really cute and since all of the boat/tour people leave around 5pm, it’s like we have the whole town to ourselves. After dinner and a few rum-based cocktails we head back to the hotel for another full 8 hours of sleep.

Tomorrow is Yacht Day #2.