Guayaquil, Ecuador (September, 2015)

Our final stop (#6) on the Ecuador journey was Guayaquil, Ecuador. We used 5,000 American Airlines Aadvantage miles plus $12.50 per person (30,000 Aadvantage miles plus $75.00 total) from Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos to Guayaquil (intra-Ecuador flights are a steal using American AAdvantage miles). We used 30,000 Hilton points per night for 2 nights at the Hilton Colón Guayaquil and got the double upgrade (room above the junior suite) with the Diamond Hhonors status. The breakfast spread was plentiful and the lounge had full-on food most of the day (filled up on steak and chicken one night and empanadas and meatballs on the 2nd night). It's definitely hard to beat Hilton with all the Diamond freebies!

 Nash had his birthday at the Hilton in Guayaquil and the hotel staff was kind enough to bring a little customized dessert to our room and sing to him.

The next morning we headed out on an all day tour where we visited a cacao farm and learned in a hands on way about chocolate. This turned out to be an amazing day and one of the highlights of the entire trip (there were many).

 We travelled outside of Guayaquil for about an hour to a farm at the base of the mountains.

 Ryder, with a new fruit that none of us had ever tasted, called Mamay. We were able to pick fruit from many of the trees on the farm...some of the fruits we had never tasted.

Video of us picking fresh bananas off the tree for our chocolate fondue.

 Family picture at the cacao farm.

Sawyer, picking cacao.

 Nash, with his cacao.

 Ryder and Zander, showing the cacao that they picked.

 We were able to cut our own sugar cane...very good to suck on right from the plant.

Laying out the seeds from the cacao fruit to dry in the sun.

 Video of us peeling the cacao to reveal the fruit and seeds inside of it...can you guess what color the cacao fruit is? We made the most delicious juice with the cacao fruit...no sugar added! Basically, you just take the fruit straight from inside the cacao and squeeze it...amazing flavor.

 A plant with a bunch of cacao.

Our family walking through the cacao plants and digging up some fresh ginger (roots) to be used in making hot chocolate (we also were able to pick fresh vanilla from the tree and add it to the hot chocolate as well).

The kids, roasting the already dried cacao seeds. You can see by their faces that they were intrigued and loved getting this hands on experience with how to make chocolate.

The family peeling the now roasted (and cooled) cacao seeds before we grind them down to a paste for fondue.

The kids, grinding the peeled cacao seeds to a paste with a hand grinder. Sawyer finding out that chocolate without sugar isn't the chocolate she knows and loves.

 We had fresh fruit salad to be dipped in our chocolate fondue. Fruits, that we picked directly from the trees, include bananas, starfruit, guava, mamay, and sugarcane.

Enjoying (eating) the fondue and the product of our labor.

 Eliza eating patacones con queso (fried plantains with goats cheese)...delicioso!

Trying the cacao juice...no sugar added, straight from the tree...amazing!

Driving past many rice paddies on the way out to the farm.

After finishing at the farm, we went to a city park where there were tons of wild iguanas. They were all up in the trees and on the grass when we arrived at the park. We bought some bananas before entering the park, and it seemed that the iguanas all knew we were coming because they immediately came down from the trees to greet us and eat some bananas.

 Zander, giving an iguana some food.

 Ryder, giving an iguana some food.

 Cody, teasing an iguana with a banana.

 Zander, petting an iguana that had crawled up Cody to get some food.

Nash, feeding an iguana.

Daddy and Ryder feeding an iguana in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Daddy and Nash feeding an iguana in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Daddy and Zander feeding an iguana in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

After Guayaquil, it was time to head back home to Santiago, Chile. We took a direct flight from Guayaquil to Santiago on LATAM in Economy class for 12,500 British Airways Avios plus $122.73 each (75,000 British Airways Avios plus $736.38 total). It was an uneventful flight and we concluded our awesome vacation to Cordoba, Argentina; Quito, Ecuador; 3 different Galapagos Islands (Santa Cruz, Isabela, and San Cristobal), and Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (September, 2015)

Stop #5 on the Ecuador adventure was Isla San Cristobal. We had to take 2 boats (2 hours each) to get to Isla San Cristobal since there were no direct routings (it was a long day). We paid $250 for the 6 of us for both boats. Again, there were no points hotels, so we paid $159/night (includes breakfast) for 2 nights for a quadruple room. There were thousands of sea lions at the port to greet us.

We took a stroll around the town later that day and during this learned that sea lions will mimic your behavior (so when Eliza and Sawyer decided to run, guess what the sea lions decided to do?) Sawyer was scared to death and was convinced that they were out to get her.

Sawyer, running from the sea lion on the dock at Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador.

The next day, we took an all day snorkel tour out to Kicker Rock ("Leon Dormido") to see more underwater wildlife.  We had wetsuits this time and the water was a bit cold for the kids (even colder than at Los Tuneles on Isla Isabela). They toughed it out for as long as they could...we had to swim quite a bit around and through the rocks out in the open ocean, so by the end of it, they were quite cold and tired, but we were proud of them.  Comparing this to Los Tuneles on Isla Isabela is probably not fair since there seemed to be a much higher concentration of wildlife at Los Tuneles and it was much easier, but there certainly was plenty to see at Leon Dormido, it was just much deeper and you had to work much harder for it. I think this would be an amazing scuba site. We saw a bunch of sea turtles, and the wildlife on the cliffs was pretty cool...many different kinds of starfish and small fish. There were a couple bigger sharks around, but only those in the front caught any glimpse of them because they quickly swam away...we did manage to get a few pictures though.

 Kicker Rock ("Leon Dormido")

Underwater video of 4 sea turtles at Leon Dormido.

 There were thousands of fish about 15 feet below the surface. If you could swim down below them, a hole would open up and you could look back up through the hole. The fish were like a big black cloud.

 Starfish on the cliff.

 Another starfish on the cliff.

 Sea turtles all over the place.

 Eliza and Ryder, swimming through the channel at Leon Dormido.

 A bigger shark in the water with us...it quickly swam away, but not before we could get a few pics. Neither Eliza nor the kids saw this or it may have been the end of the snorkeling for a while (although it wouldn't have mattered much since we were far from the boats at that time).

 There were a few sea lions that came out to play with us. This was the highlight of Eliza's snorkel experience. She was able to swim within a few feet of a sea lion for 5-10 minutes as it circled her and went into and out of the water.

 Our crew at Leon Dormido.

Eliza with a sea lion in the water with her at Leon Dormido.

After we finished our dive at Leon Dormido, we were taken to a beautiful beach for lunch and some downtime. The kids had a blast exploring the beach...they found skeletons of sea lions and some pretty unique sea shells.

 The kids playing on the beach after our dive at Leon Dormido.

 Lunch, back in town...empanadas.

 Nash, playing on the beach after our snorkel at Leon Dormido.

 Sawyer, stacking rocks on the beach.

Zander, playing in the sand.

 Ryder, with the sea lion skull he found.

Kids exploring the beach.

Isla Isabela, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (September, 2015)

Stop #4 was Isla Isabela in the Galapagos. We paid $150 for the 6 of us to catch an early 2-hour boat ride to Isla Isabela from Isla Santa Cruz. Again, there were no points hotels, so we paid $120/night for 2 nights at Hotel Fragatas for a quadruple room. There were baby sea lions lounging all over the place, on people's porches and park benches.

We dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed straight out to a half day snorkel tour to Los Tuneles. This was one of the best, if not the best, snorkel that we had ever done (much different from the Maldives, Ningaloo Reef, and Koh Phi Phi, with lots of different types of wildlife...the sharks probably were what made it so awesome). We were able to see dozens of reef sharks at very close range, several huge sea turtles, multiple stingrays, colorful fish, good coral, interesting terrain below the water (caves, tunnels, and a labyrinth of mangrove roots), seahorses, and more. Outside the water was interesting as well...we saw penguins, blue-footed boobies (birds), and sea lions.

 A family of sharks backed into a cave at Los Tuneles.

 We saw this ray while we were snorkeling.

 Stingray over the coral.

 Seahorse.

 2 sea turtles.

 Sea turtle swimming with us.

 Sea turtle with Cody (on the right) chasing and Eliza, Ryder, and Nash (on the left) chasing.

 From left to right...Nash, Eliza, Ryder, Sawyer...the water was a little cold without wet suits.

 Cody, taking a picture of the sea turtle.

 Sea turtle with Cody in the background.

 3 reef sharks down in one of sea caves.

 Reef shark at close range.

 A family of reef sharks in a cave at Los Tuneles, Isla Isabela, Galapagos, Ecuador.

 Reef sharks swimming in and out of the cave.

 Nash, Eliza, and Ryder.

 Reef shark.

 2 Penguins...Cody snorkeled right up to them on the rocks.

 A blue-footed boobie in the desolate terrain at Los Tuneles.

 Blue-footed boobie.

 The landscape and terrain at Los Tuneles was very unique and interesting.  There were penguins, sea lions, blue-footed boobies (birds), sea turtles, reef sharks, seahorses, stingrays, and all other kinds of unique wildlife both above and below the surface.

 Daddy, with Zander and Nash, walking on the rocks at Los Tuneles.

 Daddy and Zander at Los Tuneles.

 Sea lion at Los Tuneles.

 Ryder and Zander with the sea lion at Los Tuneles.

 The kids at Los Tuneles.

 Cody and Eliza, in year 12 of marriage, at Los Tuneles, Isla Isabela, Galapagos, Ecuador.

 Family picture at Los Tuneles.

Sawyer and Mommy at Los Tuneles.

Video of some reef sharks at Los Tuneles.

Video of a blue-footed boobie at Los Tuneles.

The second day, we went to see some more land turtles (in a reserve and not as good as the ones in the wild on Isla Santa Cruz), wild flamingos, and went to 2 different beaches: Playa del Amor, and Playitas. At Playa del Amor, there were marine iguanas all over the place on the lava rocks. We got to play in a tide pool with a giant marine iguana and a sea lion.

 Flamingos on Isla Isabela, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Close up of flamingos.

 Sawyer and Zander playing in the tide pool at Playa del Amor.

 Ryder, getting close to the big marine iguana that came to play with the kids in the tide pool.

 Big Papi marine iguana checking out the kids in the tide pool.

 Cheers...Lulo flavored Bon Bon Bum lollipops...we ate these by the bag in Ecuador.

 Daddy, Ryder, Sawyer, and Zander in the tide pool at Playa del Amor.

 The kids at Playitas, Isla Isabela, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Ryder and Sawyer, in the land of make believe at Playitas.

Walking on the rocks at Playa del Amor and watching the crabs and fish scurry away.

A marine iguana swimming across a tide pool at Playa del Amor.

Ryder, walking among dozens of marine iguanas at Playa del Amor.

Chasing a marine iguana into the tide pool.

The giant marine iguana swimming past the kids in the tide pool and scaring an Ecuadorian man half to death.

 Two things that Isla Isabela has in abundance...marine iguanas and sea lions.

 Isla Isabela is a very relaxed place...just ask the sea lions...they seem to enjoy the park benches as much or more than the tourists.

 The marine iguanas are abundant and will greet you the minute you step off the boat.

 The beautiful walkway to Concha Perla near the dock on Isla Isabela.

Most of the island is just lava rock...no real opportunity to do anything with it. Isla Isabela is a rough place, but there are some very unique things to see and do.