On My first Galapagos Island

I don´t know if you´ve ever had a dream come true but I´m living in mine at this moment! I can hardly believe I´m sitting in an internet cafe right across the street from turquoise waters framed by palm and cactus trees. It is so beautiful here and the locals and tourist are warm and friendly. I´m on the island of Baltra and later this afternoon, headed for Isabella, one of the most special of islands because it´s wild life has been so well preserved. The population is black, indigenous, spanish, chinese, and a small mix of foreigners, mostly europeans so please tell Rodney King, Yes, we all can get along! It´s almost time for me to catch my boat to Isabelle where I will visit Dolphin beach and Flamingo lake! I need to get help to download photos as the camera and downloading stuff from it is all new to me so please be patient.
PS: Don´t do anything stressful tomorrow, it´s a holiday....my Birthday!!!! so send me some love please:-)
miss u and hope all is well in your world.
Lonnieworld

Sunday in Quito

Thinking about you all and yes, wish you were here! All is well in lonnieworld in Quito. Today was somewhat quiet as it is on most Sundays during low season. The weather was perfect, clear, blue, sunny skies. I bought a camera, Yippee! Even met a couple of Couch Surfers, a travelers´connection resource. Felipe owns a cafe near my hotel and he was very sweet and helpful. I got together with Daniela at a internet cafe and she was a delight. We talked for hours and had some laughs too! Met some other cool folks including a 19yo Australian man who I help order breakfast as he didn´t speak much Spanish except Gracias. Still, I was impressed that he´d already traveled throughout Central and S.America over a 6 wk period, hiking, biking, and getting drunk:-)
I visited a couple of travel offices and made plans for my Galapagos Island tour, will know more about what´s available tomorrow. I visited some of the old churches and convents in the historical area where i´m staying. Will do a more formal city tour and visit La Mitad del Mundo (the equator). I´ll keep you posted, until then, keep well and send me a note when you can.

Loving Quito

Hope all is well and wonderful you...I´m loving Quito despite the´getting here´part. Only when I arrived at the airport did I discover I did not have a window seat (as I requested online) but an isle seat. I worried about getting sleep even though I would be ready at 2am depature time. Not only was I in an isle seat, it was in the last row and directly opposite 2 bathrooms? Not only would I not get sleep, I would have ass and funk in my face...oh well. I quit feeling sorry for myself when a young man showed up to take the middle seat (window seat already taken by an older woman who sat ready with blanket and pillow...witch! Anyway, I felt worse the middle-seat man who had no chance of getting comfortable. Thankfully, he was cute, friendly and smelled good so I took a benadryl and hoped he wouldn´t mind me drooling and snoring should it happen. After 6hr of sleepless torture, it was time to change flights in Panama. I was happy to be off the plane but felt weak and lightheaded from exhaustion. Was served a meal on the Panama to Quito flight but felt too out of it to eat. I had a window seat but the flight was just under 2 hrs, and I couldn´t fall asleep, my body was sore all over.



Enough of the whinning already...I arrived in Quito early afternoon and took a taxi to a hotel I booked from the airport. My first impression was that it looked very much like most other latin cities in structures, layout, people, shops, noice and traffic everywhere on narrow streets and sidewalks. I saw mountains and volcanos off in the distances. I chose to stay in old Quito first, very colonial with the cathedrals, cobblestone streets, parks, musicians playing in the plaza, etc. I checked into my room and when I reached the top of the stairs, 2nd floor, I felt breathless and lightheaded...so now let´s add altitude sickness to my issues?



I left for a walk and to get some water and food.Dinner was chicken, rice and veggies for $2 and was delish! I got back to my room too early to sleep so I decided to try and operate the new camera I got only to discover that the saleslady misled me. It doesn´t take photos and videos, only videos. Meanwhile, I have 2 cameras at home, just had a condensation problem with the camcorder. So that means i´ll have to buy a camera here, oh well! There´s so much to photograph especially when I get to Galapagos Islands.



I´ve only seen most of old Quito in the south but on my way to the north where it´s modern. Will keep you posted. Hasta luego,

Lonnieworld

Nubian Gypsy preparing for S.America travels

Every time I hung up the phone yesterday and today, I ended with, '...have a great weekend..' A co-worker happened to be standing near me when she heard me say this. She reminded me that it was kinda early to wish people a great weekend. That's when it hit me...today is only Tuesday, but for me, it was Thursday because I was already in Ecuador, mentally anyway. Oh well, in a few more days, (planets and stars align), I will be there. I'm hoping you'll join me as I keep you posted on what's going on in Lonnieworld!

Peace and Blessing,
Lonnie