We delayed our departure by a few days so Piper could spend her 14^th birthday at home.  We still like to tell the story of her almost being named “Cheese” over her requested dinner of steak and Caesar salad.  I had a dream while I was pregnant that Dwayne missed this birth, too (No, I will not stop bringing that up, Dwayne) and in retaliation, I named her Cheese.  After a third trimester of “the baby is coming” drills, Dwayne was in bed with me when the contractions started, and now she is called one-who-pipes instead of one-who-is-stinky-and-delicious. Piper exemplifies everything I want in an adult and a few of the things I want in a teen I’m supposed to be raising.  She went from a kid who likes arts and crafts to a genuine artist and crafter. The pink platypus is what she crocheted right before we left so she’d have a friend on the trip, and the top is something she experimented with one weekend. She is perfectly horrid to Wes until he is struggling and then she is the first to patiently take care of him.  I think what I enjoy most about Piper is her clever banter and dry sense of humor—and our mutual appreciation of musicals.  I brought this girl to life and love her to death.  I present to you, 14 year old Piper. 

All I knew of Quito before landing there was that it was about 9,300 feet above sea level (though so topographically mountainous that I don’t know what point is flat enough to measure!). Many people experience altitude sickness their first few days; we were fortunate in that we got away with wheezing up any incline, which we totally attribute to the nearly-two-miles-above-sea-level.

I quickly and whole-heartedly fell in love with the capital of Ecuador. We stayed in Old Town at the beginning and end of our time in this country, and its strong European-Latin American fusion awoke my adventurous self while Dwayne and I urban-hiked (huffed?) our way around this area that was conquistador-ed and colonized in the early 1500s before it won its independence in 1820. Quito has cathedrals like Seattle has Starbucks…if coffee stands were around 300-500 years ago.

We eventually lured our children out of the hotel with promises of dessert. Quito gave me another reason to crush on it– my fruit cup came with Ecuadorian cream (thicker, lightly flavored with berries) and grated mozzarella, which should immediately be adopted by the Global Committee of Fine Desserts.

It’s so fun to explore at Christmas time, with extra lights and energetic crowds. We climbed to the top of the basilica, a newbie at only 100 years old–and it had the first heart-shaped window I have seen, as well as gargoyles that represent the most famous Galapagos animals. (They would have tried Amazon animals but no one could find them…she snarked bitterly.) A city of 3 million people, we explored only the smallest fraction, but we ventured out far enough for some pickpocket attempts. But I was never scared or disappointed, just exhilarated by this historical and beautiful city in the mountains.

On our very last night, Kyla wanted street food for dessert. She and I went out with just a few coins in our pockets to the “largest outdoor dollar store”–everything, from baby chicks, mangos, wrapping paper, and candy, is packaged is dollar-sized packages. Kyla got her cake and strawberries to sweeten the end of our adventure.

Just a last note about Patio Andaluz: our hotel for our first and last nights– oh my goodness! A half-block from the heartbeat of Old Town, the location was perfect, but the hotel was more than location. I love the Spanish-influenced interior courtyards and gardens. I found so many great nooks to curl up and read, and they had two different kettles that always were ready to make me a cup of tea. There were daily arrangements of flirtatious flowers and a place for a game of chess or cribbage, and of course, soft pillows to rest our jet-lagged heads!

This is a place worth returning to…when I’m done exploring the rest of the world!

It’s no surprise that the equator goes through Ecuador. We even passed over it twice in the Galapagos. But we wanted to investigate further, so we visited Middle of the World, less than an hour outside of Quito.

There are two places to go: 1) the true, military-grade GPS-located equator with a fun museum and “scientific” interactions, and 2) the giant monument erected to commemorate the equatorial line calculated in 1736, which is really only off about 800 feet, so mad props to 18th-century technology!

We started at the Museo de Sitio, where we divided our family by hemisphere and learned about indigenous culture. Piper took notes on how to make a shrunken head. Wes showed a remarkable skill for getting an egg to balance on a nail head–steadiest hands around. Kyla succeeded once, and the rest of us were egg dunces.

We also did fun experiments, like drain water from tub right on the line, to the north and to the south–scientifically proving that the water drains straight down at exactly 0 degrees, flushes clockwise in the north, and counterclockwise in the south. It also proves that Dwayne spoils the magic when he researches further to find that tubs drain straight when the water has sat for a while, and you can control the direction of flushing by how you dump the water in the tub right before pulling the plug. Ah, science, you slippery thing! But it didn’t make our morning there any less delightful.

Next, we made it to the historical equator, and I climbed to the top of the monument while the others got ice cream.

On the interior, the monument spiraled down to showcase Ecuador’s history over the centuries, as well as its different regions.

The Galapagos is a study of contrasts to the Amazon.  Where dipping a toe in the Napo meant that not only could you no longer see your toe, it may not even be attached anymore, the Galapagos waters were clear enough to see rays, turtles and sharks from the pangas (motorized rafts).  In the Amazon, most of the animals we saw were slightly moving blurs that our guides swore was a monkey or bird.  Just getting off the bus on the Galapagos, this guy greeted us.

We were 5 of the 14 guests, half which were kids, so it was a well-balanced group, with parents kicking kids to their own table so we could have long dinners with adult conversation.

The yacht is exactly what Dwayne will get for himself and his ten best friends. I hope I am invited!

The tour started with a bus ride to lunch and a tortoise preserve, where we immediately saw more tortoises than we saw animals total in the Amazon. One guy smiled at us!

It is a good adventure when you are slowed down by a tortiose crossing.

We went from land reptiles to sea birds. We got to see the famous blue-footed boobies, then heaps of red-footed boobies, nasca boobies, frigates, and then more and more and more birds, possibly to bird ad naseum. But Piper loved the fluffy chicks that were as big as their parents. One of the more educational parts was seeing a feeding/mauling of a parent who made it back with a gut full of fish.

I was pleased when we moved from feathers to fur and fins. The sea life was vast and colorful, with sea lions on shore and off. As always, Water Wes was always the first one in.  Piper, who very reluctantly let Mama talk her into trying it just one time, chided me several times for not being fast enough to keep up with her underwater exploring. Kyla and Wes are both very brave and often swam several feet under to get a closer look. The water was chilly, even with our short wetsuits, and Dwayne had to make zero-fat Wes get back into the boat to warm up the first time out. Unlike above water exploration, where we would get to see lots of one or two species, the tropical fish were varied, numerous, beautiful and fascinating.  We all loved it each of the three times we went out.

One of our beach excursions was the daycare where mamas left their babies while they went off hunting. I will not make anyone watch the reels and reels of baby footage Piper and I took, but the stills are pretty fun, too!

The beaches were the best–organic white and volcanic black both delighted us. The seal lions accompanied us everywhere, and we enjoyed the trails the marine iguanas made in the sand and the colorful crabs. Can you spot all three species … not including the homo sapiens?

Our Galapagos tour was short, not even three full days from airport pick-up to drop-off, but we saw lots of animals (well, many of a few species) and possibly spent too much time looking at the same only-on-Galapagos! birds.  We had warm sand and blue, blue water, and sunburns by lunch–it was the paradise everyone said it would be!

Our first adventure in Ecuador (not counting the worst traveling experience we’ve ever had just getting to South America) was exploring the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin along the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon River. We launched from Coca, and between ship and motorized boat, made it to the Yasuni River and back again. Fun fact: Only 2% of the Amazon Basin is within Ecuador, but it still takes up a chunk of this country.

Do you know the point of the rainforest jungle? It conceals predictors and prey alike.  So, yes, we were surrounded by some of the most amazing species in the world. We even saw a few of them. Want a good approximation? Watch the Disney’s The Jungle Cruise and take out every single speck of CGI (Computer Animated Images).  

Thanks to our guides we spotted some animals, or at least dark smudges that we were assured were fauna. My favorites are when the guide used a scope to spot something, then used my camera’s zoom to take a photo of a bird I “saw”. I dare you to find the toucan in the final picture of this collage:

Of course, there was plenty of wildlife if you know where to look!

Dwayne, who until age 11, lived in a few cleared-out acres in the jungle outside of Porto Velho, Brazil, felt a homecoming with the sounds, smells, and even the weight of the humidity. It was also the first cruise (even if we made up almost half of the twelve guests) for the kids, and it was exciting! Right away, Wes found the jacuzzi on the sundeck and the kids happily unpacked their own special fugue into their cabins.  I love the very taste of adventure—and of cruising cuisine. 

The Amazon and its tributaries are wild—lows, highs, at any time dangerous with swift currents, slow currents, debris, and deadly animals.  At this time of year, our ship was limited by shallow waters outside of Coca and the similarly shallow spots near the Peru border.  It meant that we took powered canoes for hours for our daily excursions.  This was fine for the first two 3-hour rides, but on the third one, I gave up being fascinated by the dense flora and never left the Manatee without slipping the kindle in my daypack.  Here is a glimpse of what going down the river was like; the longer version is more realistic.

A lifetime family highlight was swimming in the Amazon together.  Piper, who had firmly insisted she would never swim in a river where piranhas swim, was second only to Wes in jumping in.  We were in a shallow area with a strong current—and allegedly far, far away from the anaconda resting marshes we had explored the day before.

Our adventures took us on a night hike where the insects feasted upon us, and Kyla and Dwayne held a cute little snake while the guide put a scorpion spider on his face. On Yasuni River, we saw deep swaths tunneled through by (invisible to us) anacondas and the rumps and tails of curious pink dolphins and giant river otters. We fished for piranha, which is also known just as feeding time for the piranah. We hiked to and around a giant kapok tree, which would not have been ashamed in a redwood forest. The guides have relationships with indigenous families who take turns hosting tours, so we were able to meet a family, see their home and farm, and explore more jungle. Dwayne, Kyla, and I transformed into a rare featherless, flightless parrot. Kyla ate ants, which was really cool (the grub stump was out–we checked). We also saw where the parrots licked clay…last month. We were able to hear them fly to their new favorite clay spot not accessible to us. The macaws didn’t show up for their designated tea time at the mineral pool either, even when we waited for two hours. By then, I took my kindle everywhere so I was not too annoyed. Luckily, Wes chose sleep over that expedition.

One of my highlights was our last afternoon, despite of a boa constrictor’s appearance. The kids all elected to stay behind, and the adults hiked through the forest and up a hill a bit to get to a climbing tower that rivaled the height of the tree it was built next to.  Two hundred twelve steps up, and the guides uncorked the champagne as we got to survey the expansive jungle below. Almost no birds or animals celebrated with us; however, we did get to enjoy this sunset and excellent company.

Goodbye, Amazon! We’ll remember you fondly next time Piper gets so bitten by mosquitos that we end up in a hospital many, many hours from closest electic grid.