March 2009: Ecuador and the Galapagos

For our big vacation of 2009 Patti and I signed up for a March trip to Ecuador with REI Adventures.  Luckily we did the signing up before the big economic meltdown in the fall, otherwise we probably would have been too intimidated by potential impoverishment to go ahead with the adventure.  In any case, we packed our cameras and jungle-wear and headed for Quito, by way of Dallas and Miami, arriving after almost 10,000 miles and 15 hours of flying.

Our first jaunt started the next day, back down almost to sea level in the jungle for a few days at Napo Wildlife Center.  We flew east over the Andes aboard VIP Airlines, about a 30 minute flight.  Just how Very Important People we were was evident by the personalized service of the airline employees:  The same person who printed our boarding passes also collected them at the gate.  And the two-man ground crew who loaded our bags into the plane unloaded them at our destination (having jumped aboard just before takeoff).  Perhaps the airline's CEO was doing the flying.

Click Here for just the bird pictures.  Hit Next button above for complete slideshow.