Ecuador Vacation Trip

[Guest guest]

The trip was awesome, on many, many levels.

We flew from Seattle to Quito on the 30th, spent the 31st and 1st in

Quito, and then flew to the Galapagos Islands on the morning of the

2nd. From the 2nd to the 9th we were on the boat touring around the

various islands. We got back to Quito on the 9th and then 11 of us

drove to my brother's in-laws farm at El Carmen, south of Quito, on

the 10th. We were there through the 12th and returned to Quito on

the 13th. The 14th was " recovery time " in Quito. We were

originally going to fly home on the 16th but woke up to the fact

while in El Carmen that in changing our flight schedule, American

Airlines gave us a 95 minute connection time in Miami to both clear

customs AND connecting security checkpoints.

Since this was totally inadequate, Barb called American when we got

back to Quito and got our schedule changed so we could fly from

Quito to Miami on the 15th instead (a 10:25 AM departure instead of

a 6:59 AM departure was a bonus as far as we were concerned). We

spent the night at the hotel at the Miami airport and then caught

(or tried to catch) our scheduled 1:40 PM flight to Seattle on the

16th. We checked in at 11:00. Two gate changes later, we finally

got on the plane - and sat at the gate for an hour before they

decided to take the plane out of service because of an inoperative

black box. By that time, we knew we were going to miss our

connection at Dallas. We finally got into Dallas over two hours

later than planned. Fortunately, they were able to rebook us on a

later Seattle flight. We ended up back in Seattle about 10:30 last

night instead of 7:00.

The cruise around the Islands was absolutely incredible. You read

about how tame all the birds and animals are but you really can't

comprehend it until you actually walk down the trail and literally

have to step over the birds because they are nesting right in the

middle of the path and have no intention of moving out of your way -

or until you are swimming at one of the beaches and have Sea Lions

zooming all around you, playing with you. Or until you are

stretched out on a beach towel reading a book and have a Mockingbird

land on your butt. Between Barb and her mother, they took over 2000

pictures. (That's one of the plusses of a digital camera).

Trying to separate the day to day activities is just about

impossible. It was non-stop for a week. General pattern was to get

up, have breakfast, and then disembark in a Zodiac for anywhere from

one to three hours on a nature hike. We would then come back to the

main boat for a snack and then have an hour or so for swimming or

snorkeling. Then back for lunch. After lunch was a repeat of the

morning; either a hike or zodiac ride along a shoreline followed by

a 1-2 hour swimming/snorkeling session. Then back to the boat for

dinner. We saw marine and land iguanas, Galapagos Sea Lions, Fur

Seals, marine turtles, giant tortoises, rays, dolphins and hundreds

of birds - Blue Footed Boobies, Frigates, Brown Pelicans and I

couldn't tell you how many other species.

For those of you who have seen " Master and Commander, " one of the

afternoon hikes included going to the top of hill for an overview of

Pinnacle Rock where the scientist spotted the French ship leaving

the harbor.

Mainland Ecuador definitely had its " major culture shock " moments,

particularly in terms of the disparity between the haves and have

nots. It was also a bit unnerving at times to be driving through a

town and see it patrolled about every three blocks by pairs of

soldiers toting full auto assault rifles and/or submachine guns.

Having an armed, private security guard wearing a bullet proof vest

standing in front of your hotel in Quito was also a bit

disconcerting.

When we were in El Carmen, my brother's brother-in-law set up a one

day fishing trip on the coast for all of the guys. That was an

interesting experience. The first fish landed was a Puffer Fish -

the kind they eat in Japan where the chef has to be specially

licensed because it is so toxic that if not done properly you are

most definitely going to die. After that, there was not one fish

caught that I could identify other than to say it looked like we

were fishing for an aquarium. Some of them were downright ugly and

more than a couple had teeth that looked like they came from

Jurassic Park.

On a different note, does it surprise anyone that I worked on at

least two dozen different people while on the trip? Long flights

bore me so I told the flight attendants on each leg that I was a

massage therapist and would be more than happy to work on any of the

flight crew who wanted me to. I ended up working on ten flight

attendants on the trip. Remember the postings before the trip about

Barb's spine adjusting itself, by itself, like a snake weaving back

and forth? I had two repeats of that with flight attendants. One of

them used exactly the same descriptive language as Barb and the

other had exactly the same side-bending posture as Barb - with the

same results, standing straight when done. I was also able to take

out a migraine for one of them yesterday, in about two minutes with

my standard headache hold.

When we were on the boat, the three of us just used the nausea wrist

points, nothing else, and none of us came even close to getting sea

sick. The other 17 used the wrist bands or Dramamine or both and

almost half of them got hit with at least one " run to the rail "

session during the week. Sadistic pig that I am, I am pleased to

note that one of those was my brother - who scoffed at me before the

trip when I told him that (contrary to his advice to be sure to

bring something for sea sickness that I/we didn't need anything

because I would take care of it with my hands should the need

arise). Add to that that by the end of the two weeks, my brother's

back was in such bad shape that he could hardly walk and at the same

time he had picked up one of those " I shouldn't have eaten that "

bugs, he ended up flat saying " I need your services. " I must have

done something right because after two sessions he said " That's it.

I'm through with Chiropractors. Do you know of anybody in Salem I

can see who does what you do if this happens again? "

But of all the people I worked on, the one that gave me absolutely

the most personal satisfaction was while we were on the farm in El

Carmen. I had worked on a couple of folks the night of 12th. The

morning of the 13th, one of my brother's sister-in-laws came over to

me and said that their housekeeper wanted to know if I could help

her (about 10 years old) daughter. The kid had a really bad

toothache so I used the toothache points to drop her pain level for

her. The look on the kid's face as her pain went away was just

priceless.

While I was working on her, my brother asked what I was doing and I

said " She has a toothache. " His reply was " What good is that going

to do? " referring to the technique I was using. The following

morning, he was the one asking for a treatment. Like I said, the

trip was awesome, at many different levels.

And to wrap this up, an update on Darlene's Acid Reflux. It has now

been six weeks since I gave her that one treatment and she is still

at exactly zero on taking anything for it, literally nothing, not

even one Tums in six weeks.