Autumn and Drew are "Locationally Unstable"

YES! It is about time! Asia here we come!

Those were some of the phrases rolling around in Autumn and my head as we navigated the Minneapolis airport. We decided to break up our trip to Thailand a little bit by taking 24 hours in Shanghai and using a few Starwood points to make sure that 24 hours was good. By breaking up the trip, we were also able to use some Delta points to get one of the tickets to Shanghai for free which allowed us to splurge on upgrading to Economy Plus seats for the long haul (14+ hour flight). Having now put that flight behind us, I would recommend to anyone that if you can upgrade you should. Obviously this will depend on price, but the extra leg room was a must for me.

The flights themselves were actually quite easy. Not that sitting in one place for 14 hours is ever easy, but Delta did a good job of providing entertainment to make the time go by more quickly. Every seat had a screen on which each person could choose from a variety of movies and tv shows. I think we each watched 3+ movies along with reading our respective books. Autumn was able to get some sleep, but as is standard, I was not.

Our good travel luck extended to getting into China as well. When we landed in Shanghai we were able to clear customs and get a temporary 72 hour visa without issue, which was something both Autumn and I felt unsure about. We had researched a ton about this, but you never know when rules change.

So there you go, we successfully took our first step out the door and got back to being Locationally Unstable. We LOVE it!

The night before we discussed making our last full day in Leticia a little less structured. Autumn and I had a leisurely morning with breakfast at a small café (a ham and cheese omelet, bread, and coffee for $2.10 US) and then met up with the Hetrick’s to try and secure a boat for a half day tour. After getting a stupid expensive quote from a tour company, we walked down to the boat dock and were able to secure a private boat for 3-4 hours for a good price.

The driver offered us three stops for our trip. Our first stop allowed us to take a walk through the jungle. We saw some enormous lily pads, enormous trees, the world’s smallest monkeys, and we even got to swing on vines like Tarzan!

After our jungle hike, we spent a little time in a jungle opening enjoying a quick rain shower with some parrots.

We jumped back in the boat to head over to the place where we held the sloths yesterday. It was a ton of fun so naturally we had to do it again. While in transit we could see a wall of rain coming our way from up river. The driver did a great job of getting us to land and under cover in the nick of time.

Even with the rain we got to hang out with our little creature buddies again!

Nothing like a cup of coffee. In the rain. With an Anaconda. 🙂

And some baby monkeys!

A few more scenery shots on our way back to Leticia.

We wrapped up our day by grabbing a quick bite of linner (lunch/dinner), spending some time in the pool, and watching thousands of parakeets fly in to Santander Park to roost.

Not a bad way to spend our last full day in the Amazon!

After a great start yesterday to our Amazon adventure, we were all looking forward to our full day boat tour. We met up with the guide at the Anaconda Hotel where Erik and Chelsia were staying and were led down to the boat launch. Today’s boat was much larger, a two engine speed boat with 8 other tourists in addition to us. After a quick intro the boat took off upstream against a very healthy current. Fun fact, the Amazon River is the longest, deepest, and fastest moving river in the world. The current was very impressive and we aren’t even in the real rainy season yet! Speaking of the rainy season, the river can rise as much as 50 – 60 feet above its current level. Rather amazing to think about. No wonder why all of the houses near the river were on stilts. Our guide said that everyone is used to this fact and it really isn’t a big deal; like snow in the winter he said…

Anyway, on this trip we saw dolphins again early on and then continued on to Monkey Island. If you would have asked us what we expected out of Monkey Island, none of us would have been correct. Instead of taking a walk and seeing monkeys at a distance, we got bombarded with monkeys almost from when we stepped on land. Seriously, they were jumping on our heads, climbing all over us and in general using us as play toys. Absolutely an amazing experience.

Next stop was at an Amazon village. Apparently in this particular village, the women rule so we were welcomed by the grandmothers and treated to a dance. Autumn got to participate, which was nice, but given that she was already HOT it made for a sweaty few minutes. We then did a little perusing of some of the local wares, but since we aren’t really into trinkets we left empty handed. Sorry Kelly Gardner. L

Next stop was Puerto Narino where we had lunch and then I climbed to the top of a lookout tower. There were some great views.

While I was taking pictures from the tower, Erik and the crew were down below getting his drone set up. He got it going and took some amazing footage and pictures from the air. Talk about a unique view!

We saw some great scenery as we headed back down stream towards our last stop. Upon arrival at another village, we were led to a thatch building overlooking the river. When we first arrived there were a few monkeys and parrots playing in the building which were very fun to see. The next thing we knew, the local handlers started bringing other animals for us to see and hold.

It started with a crazy prehistoric looking turtle:

Then an owl:

I’m pretty sure that Autumn is getting ready to start school at Hogwarts soon…

And then we maxed out the cuteness scale when they brought out baby sloths. Seriously, they are ridiculously cute, soft, SLOW, and cuddly. Cora and Alia were so happy to be holding them.

Oh yeah, Autumn and I got our share of cuddling with them too!

Manly + Sloths!

And an Anaconda! Eat your heart out Alice Cooper!

Out behind the houses was a little pond with GIANT lily pads over three feet across!

Finally, we saw a capybara which is the world’s largest rat. Aside from looking a little weird it was a cool animal to see. Apparently these are also a favorite meal for large anacondas. The snake would have to be large and in charge to down one of these!

So while in South America we decided we needed to see the Amazon. Forget the fact that a huge chunk of it is in Brazil or in the North of Peru; both of which we decided not to visit. Fortunately, there is a small sliver of land in Columbia which drops down right in the heart of the Amazon; Leticia.

We arrived on December 5^th and were greeted with 90 degree weather and 90% humidity. Wowza! Chelsia had arranged a pickup for us from the airport, which is always nice when arriving in new places. The van took us to Erik and Chelsia’s hotel at which point we said our see you later’s and ventured out to find our hostel. Unfortunately, the map on Airbnb was not remotely accurate, so we tromped around for 45 minutes looking for our hostel. Given the temperature and the fact that we were carrying backpacks both contributed to the rivers of sweat running down our bodies when we finally found it. Not pleasant, but hey it is the Amazon and I guess we’d better get used to it.

We arrived around 11am, so after checking in to our respective accommodations and then a quick stop for lunch we rendezvoused to determine our activity for the balance of the day. Leticia itself is a small city full of motorbikes, river boats, and birds; the main purpose of which is a launch point for Amazon adventures. Not wanting to sit around and wait for the tour we had scheduled tomorrow, Dash (Erik) and I arranged a night tour through an agency in Leticia.

Our first Amazon adventure started that night! The six of us: Erik, Chelsia, Cora (4 yrs old), Alia (2 yrs old), Autumn, and I went on a 4 hour river night tour to search for the Amazon’s night creatures. Very cool! The boat was a long, skinny, wooden motorized boat with a tarp cover. Fun fact, Leticia sits in a very cool location, at the corner of three countries; Columbia, Peru, and Brazil. When we left the (very small) port to venture out onto the Amazon River, we could see all three countries.

After 10 minutes or so in the boat we spotted a family of river dolphins. The handful that we saw were quite young and we were told that not only are the young dolphins small, but they are a grey color which fades into pink once they become adults. Talk about a great sight right out of the gate.

We continued on, but from behind us we could see a storm building with the occasional roll of thunder. So in preparation, we grabbed our rain jackets and pulled down the sides of the tarp. It was then that we got our first taste of the RAIN Forest. We continued to motor while the rain engulfed us. Fortunately, it only lasted 10-15 minutes and then we were free to pull up the sides again for a better view.

The next leg of our journey took us up a small river. The goal of this stretch was to see Cayman, Crocodiles, Owls, and other night birds. Mission accomplished. While we were told there some of crocodiles grow to 16+ feet, we didn’t find any that size. That was okay though because our guide spotted and grabbed a little Cayman for us to look at and hold. Definitely a first!

As we continued up the river, it continued to get smaller and smaller and smaller until we navigated through some areas that were wall to wall reeds. Add that to the fact that I was on the lookout for a 15 foot Crocodile and it made for an exciting boat ride.

On our way back down the river our guide grabbed a little Croc for us to hold and he showed us the difference between it and a Cayman. Definitely more camouflaged and with a more mean look about it.

We also saw owls, frogs, spiders, and night herons. Very cool.

Day 1: We were due to meet our cruise ship back at the airport. It is quite the process consisting of a 45 minute taxi ride, a 5 minute ferry ride, and another 10 minute bus ride. Unfortunately, we were doing this process with 100 other people, so things got pretty sweaty and hectic. Two hours later we made it to the airport and met up with our tour group. After a few minute wait, our baggage was loaded on to another bus and we were off to meet up with our Yacht.

Our home for the next 8 days and 7 seven nights was called Eden (fortunately not a clothing optional boat). It is a yacht that has room for 16 guests and 7 crew members. Immediately upon getting on the yacht we were led in to a main common area with bar, living room, and dining room. It was there we received a briefing on the boat, outline of the daily routine, and other necessities. After the briefing we got to see our rooms for the first time. There were 4 rooms down below (complete with loud noise from the engine), 1 room on the main level, and 4 rooms on the upper level. Our room was on the upper level, so we had bunk beds, windows facing the water, and a very adequate bathroom (it was bigger than some hostel bathrooms we’ve had). The room itself seems very small upon entry, but actually was quite sufficient for sleeping. Pretty much everything else happened in the open spaces or in the bar/dining room.

Our first and only stop for the day was to Bachas Bay on the north side of Santa Cruz Island. Here our guide, Christian, explained to us that we were going to hear the name Darwin, Galapagos, and Lava used often when learning the names of plants & animals…the people in charge of naming weren’t very original apparently. He also warned us that today we weren’t going to see many animals, but they were in our near future. On our walk we did see Blue Footed Boobies (flying, not up close and personal), sea lions, marine iguanas, turtles (five of them mating in the water), crabs, sea turtle egg shells and a flamingo. Not a ton of wildlife, but Drew and I were still pretty impressed!

Afterwards we were given some beach time to snorkel, walk, or swim. I just observed while Drew went snorkeling. It was a rather short swim though as the water visibility was pretty low. Then, it was time to get back on the boat, shower, gather in the living room for a briefing on tomorrow’s adventure, eat dinner (DELICIOUS), and get ready for bed.

We decided to go to bed early due to the fact that we were exhausted and because the ocean was really rough!! Once dinner ended we were traveling, overnight, 40 miles to the next island. Drew and I both took Dramamine, so we weren’t feeling too terrible, but there wasn’t much else you could do besides attempt to get to sleep amid the heavily rocking boat. I was on the top bunk for all of 5 minutes before I decided that falling out of bed could be a real possibility and even if I don’t I’m anxious enough about it that falling asleep is going to be doubly hard. So, Drew helped me get the mattress off and put it on the floor. We were still getting rocked relentlessly, but at least we wouldn’t harm ourselves in the process!!! The trip to our destination was not so great. Fortunately, the boat arrived in the bay at 2:30am and we were finally able to get some sound sleep. THANK GOODNESS!!!

Day 2

We awoke around 6:45am to try and shake the sleep from our heads before the breakfast bell ran at 7am. Given the rough start to the night I was a little surprised that we both felt pretty decent. We had a good Galapagos attempt at an American breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, etc.) and then loaded up for our first adventure of the day at Tower (Genovesia) Island.

A quick couple of notes on the island itself. The island is crescent shaped due to it being the lip of an extinct volcano. The southern side of the volcano ridge has been eroded away over time due to sea currents leaving the great crescent shape. The island is also one of the farthest north islands in the Galapagos, which, due to wind currents also makes the water the warmest.

Our first activity was to do a wet landing on to the only beach on the island. As soon as we landed we were treated to a mama and baby sea lion on the edge of the beach.

From there we took about an hour walk around the beach area looking at the different types of birds resident on the island. Among the many birds we saw were; Red Footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, Frigate Birds, gulls, terns, and many more. One of the really neat things about the Galapagos Islands are the lack of predators for many of the animals. Due to this, most of the birds and wildlife will let you walk right up to them to take their picture. Sometimes we would even have to leave our designated travel to avoid birds, sea lions, and iguanas who had no interest in getting out of our way.

From the beach we were able to do a little snorkeling. We saw lots of neat fish, but the highlight was when a sea lion came swimming right alongside of us on his way out to go eat! That was definitely a first for both of us.

After a busy morning we retreated to the boat for some lunch and a much needed nap. Activities started again at 2:30pm and included snorkeling around the cliff edges of the island. This was a fantastic snorkel full of colorful fish, big schools and loners. The sea floor is around 320ft deep at its deepest in the bay, so while we were snorkeling along the wall, a quick glance to the left would give you a nice look at a dark abyss.

Back on the boat one more time for a quick shower and then to prepare to go do some more hiking on the island. We were able to get up close and personal to the Nazca Boobies and even a few fuzzy 1 month old. The reason for our walk was to spot the Short Eared Owel. We spotted 3 of them and one of them was in the process of hunting down a small finch. These owls are able to hunt during the day because they have no predators, therefore no reason to hide out at night. Cool!

Day 3

Last night wasn’t as rough as the night before, but definitely rough enough to constitute my mattress moving to the floor (it was more of a front to back sway instead of side to side). Due to the fact that we travel at night we get to wake up to a new view each morning. Super fun! This morning’s view didn’t disappoint. The sun was shining brightly over these large, high lava rock formations. Our location was Bartolome Bay.

Drew wasn’t (hasn’t for a few days) feeling well, so he stayed back from the first morning adventure. I went with the group on the search for penguins. We didn’t spot any which wasn’t a huge surprise because 90% of the penguin population lives on Isabella Island (leaving the other 10% to spread out across the rest of the Galapagos). We did see a lot of neat lava rock and sea lions though. Then, we climbed to the top of the tallest hill that overlooked the awesome sandy beaches, hills and other islands. VERY HOT, but also really beautiful.

Up next was snorkeling. This has definitely been the BEST snorkeling experience we’ve had this trip. Luckily, a little nap and some antibiotics helped give Drew enough energy to come along. The water was incredibly clear and the sea life just wouldn’t stop being awesome! We saw two large sea turtles, two sharks, one PENGUIN, one sea lion, many star fish, a Porcupine Puffer Fish, needle fish, and loads more. 45 minutes of our time was all it took to see these awe inspiring creatures and of course we didn’t bring our camera this time. SHOOT! Oh well, I will always remember a penguin bursting by me, a sea lion torpedoing through a group of snorkelers, and two lazy sharks sauntering under my fins.

After lunch we hiked on top of some lava to see the rope-like formations and gas bubble caves. Then, we did some more snorkeling at the beach on the other side of the island from the one we were at in the morning. We made sure to bring our camera this time! And it’s a good thing we did because we saw another sea turtle! Watching such a gentle, carefree creature was a pleasure. Once again we saw many fish and enjoyed the clear water. We boarded the boat and immediately brought in the anchor.

We toured around the Daphne Islands and spotted many turtles, sea lions, and dolphins along the way. But, the best part was when a pod of dolphins raced in front of our boat! They won every race and were still able do barrel rolls and jumps out of the water. SWEET! Then, we were able to enjoy the full moon and frigate birds flying above. Right before dinner we dropped anchor and would stay anchored all night…. HAPPY DAY!!! More sleep for us would be greatly appreciated after all of the sunshine and sea.

Day 4:

Our day started a little differently than most up to this point. Instead of our normal 7am wake up call for breakfast, when the bell rang at 7 it was time to hop in the pangas and do an early tour around Black Turtle Cove. The cove itself is a shallow bay composed of volcanic rock, but has a lush ring of mangroves lining the perimeter which made it much greener than much of what we had seen up to that point. The significance of the bay is that it is where a large number of Green Sea Turtles go to mate. Oh, and we were there at just the right time as you will see from our video. It is true that animals ‘do it like they do on the Discovery Channel’. Fun fact about turtle mating: a typical “session” lasts 2 – 3 hours. Another fun fact: a female typically mates with 3-5 males in succession. She carries the male on her back for the duration too. Whew!

Our tour group had the good fortune to get a front row seat to the action along with the other 4 male turtles all lined up to take their shot.

{mating video to be uploaded soon}

In addition to the mating turtles, we saw plenty of others along with sting rays, sharks, sea lions, and plenty of birds including the always funny blue footed booby. 🙂

After a nice morning in Black Turtle Cove we returned to the boat for breakfast and a fairly short navigation to our next stop, Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill).

We ran into some rain during the navigation, so we got a late start on our hike around Cerro Dragon. As one might expect, after ran in the tropics the heat and humidity were quite high. We had a nice (sweaty) hike up Cerro Dragon and got to see several Land Iguanas. Very cool and quite different from the Marine Iguanas we had seen up to this point. After learning about invasive animals and the eradication efforts under way it was back to the boat for a 2.5 hour navigation to Puerto Ayora.

The weather we experienced early decided to join us on the trip and we were rocked and rolled for almost all of the 2.5 hours. The first hour we tried to rest in our cabin, but after making the mistake of trying to go to the bathroom I had to go get some fresh air. I will tell you that it is no fun to try to pee standing up while being tossed about in a small bathroom. Fortunately no injuries occurred, but my stomach was not too happy with me. The front of the boat, while wet, was a much better place to spend the last hour or so of the trip.