Miscommunication

I thought I understood numbers in Spanish but I need to double check. I thought my Galapagos tour would start today at doce (noon) but it starts at dos (2) which is a two hour difference. This makes me sad because I rented a bike and tried to make it to a beach on a different part of Santa Cruz. I turned around to make it back by noon and in fact made it back by 11, which is why I'm on the computer in Galapagos at all. I have an hour to kill and I have visited the local stuff. But Grrr! Learning lesson. Just got to keep on telling myself that.

So I called my mom and brother yesterday because I do touristy stuff during the day but the nights so far in Galapagos have been a bit slow. When I talked to my mother, I asked if she read my blogs because she never leaves comments and stopped email me comments. She said, "Yes, but you mostly write it for your friends". What?! One, I consider my mother my friend but I'm writing this for everyone in my life. (The idea of strangers reading it is a bit wierd because my online security is lacking). My mother said she was more interested in the scenery (than my life thanks mom) but really I realized that I'm in another country but I'm not painting a picture of it all for everyone. If I was going to critique my blog: plenty of action, little character development, and no description of the world. Also wow, I started to reread my blogs and the grammar and spelling errors are harsh. I would love to have time to go back and add description to my previous blogs but I just do not have time. From now on, I will try to describe my surroundings more and maybe even add images. Woohoo! How fun is that. Really fun! But if anyone has more constructive criticism that would be great. That was really the point of my Q&A blog but I did not realize it at the time. If there is more of something that you would like to read about, tell me and I will try to change. I mean you all asked for photos and I delivered.

Oh yeah, funny story (sorry mom), my mom complained that she could only see 12 photos so I sent her the link. Same problem. I'm talking with her on the phone going step by step. It clicks! Mom, you got to click on the pictures that you see because they are the album covers. That was a frustrating and funny conversation.

The problem with writing more detailed blogs is time and money. The usual suspects. I want to do things and be involved while I travel (and my whole life). I sometimes feel like I'm stopping my travels to blog. If I have no one to hang out with at night or downtime, and a computer available than all good. The other concern being that usually I'm paying for internet. The average is a dollar per hour which is not bad but it adds up. Also I can get awesome street food or entry into a museum for a dollar or dollar fifty. I do want to make this blog better for everyone so I will try to find the time to post entries that really rock. I will probably cut out some details about what I actually do at an event because I'm already two weeks behind and I will sonn be departing on a cruise so I will be like 3 weeks behind.

My brother had his own story to tell me about when on the phone. My cat is pissed about where she is. She has started to use his bed as the kitty litter. She has never done this in her 15 years of life. She poohed on his bed once and while he was cleaning his sheets, did it again. She later peed on his clean sheets. I recommended that he let (kick) her outside. He was worry she would not come back but I'm mostly confident. I feel really bad about this but can do nothing. Enough seriousness and story time!

This morning I awoke at 7:30am. My body refuses to sleep anymore which makes sense since I went to bed at 9pm. I fought to go to bed at that time. I had hiked at least 5 km yesterday and more like 7 to 8 kms. I also swam twice so I was tired. I spread out on my bed. It is huge! (for me) It is like a double. I look around the room and it is like most private bathroom hostels. There is the big bed, a tv, a nightstand (which is kinda unusual), and a place to hang clothes. The floor is white tile and the walls are a boring beige. There is a sliding door that leads to the bathroom which is a typical bathroom except there is a cloth curtain inside the bathroom to block the public from looking in and another plastic curtain to protect that curtain. There is also another shower curtain on the other side which it the norm. I climb out of my bed and start packing. I'm actually starting to get a bit sick of constantly packing and repacking, but I'm not sick of traveling yet so it is just a necessary part of this life. I had my clothes cleaned at a lavanderia the otehr day so my clothes are already folded. I love have my clothes cleaned and folded by another person for only 3 dollars. I only have to kilograms of clothes but still a great deal. I try not to think about why this is such a great deal and the fact that this country is so poor. I get everything packed and I'm ready to roll.

I head off to the reception to find out what time is check out. It is eleven but can be pushed back to noon. Awesome! because my tour starts at noon or doce in spanish. I decide to eat breakfast in a place instead of just grabbing some bread and fruit from a store. The hotel I'm leaving from is called Los Flamingos and is pretty typical. There is construction on part of it, I believe for the high season that is coming up. There are two buildings that are white and boring. The street and the town is all pretty typical of Ecuador. Run down. That is not true for all parts but stores and homes are small, and usually not painted well. The houses are made out of cinder blocks and cement? or paste between those blocks or they are made out of wood. It is also typical for buildings to look not done. The last floor might have metal rods sticking out or just be frame though to be fair that is not the norm in Galapagos. There are tons of tiendas (stores) and farmacias which all basically sell the same things as the other. The tiendas have water and cookies (and other stuff but really what I care about is the water and cookies) while the farmacias have drugs, water, and cookies. There are many of these little stores so you are always guaranteed easy access to water, cookies, or ice cream.

For breakfast, I went to a panderia and cafeteria. I got a small fruit salad and some pineapple juice. I later grabbed one piece of bread so in fact still got the usual of fruit and bread. I walked up the hill to Hotel Darwin to rent a bike for 2 dollars an hour. I bike around and down the hill to see if the travel agency is open. Nope. Oh well, I will just start off. I head to the main road, Charles Darwin, and start biking up the cobblestone road. It is tough but not too hard. I get to the main road and I'm surrounded by green vegetation. There are some cactus trees but not too many. Cactus trees are exactly what they sound like. They have a bark trunk but have no leaves but are cactus on top. I see a sign for La Mirador. Stop and lock the bike. I hiked a dirt path to see some a lava tunnel. There has been a hole made in the top about 50 meters in so there is plenty of light. There are lots of spider webs and brown rock. The tunnel is pretty mundane but I walk all the way to the back which is not that far. I will admit that I wish I could describe the tunnel better. The sides are smooth and I can see layers, but I'm concentrating on not spraining my ankle on all the big parts of rock. Back to the road.

I swear this bike is a piece of crap because I'm struggling. There are parts that are downhill and my bike just slowly stops. Oh well, I hope I can make it to the beach in the time I got but have to turn around at around 10:45. I bike up this two lane high way. There are talls green grasses and white trunk trees with huge green leaves. I make it to Bellavista. Woot! I find a sign and it says the distance is 6.9km. I stop for a break and two people stop to help me. I do not need help but tell them were I'm trying to go. The road gets smaller and is more hilly. I keep on telling myself, I need to write more description in my blogs. I realize that maybe that tells something about myself because I do not think I always notice my surroundings. There is still lots of lush greenery. I bike some more and turn my head right. Wow. I can see down the green green hill and way off in the distance past some smaller hills is the ocean. What a view. I think about my cat Whiskers. Roy said if I travel again, he cannot take Whiskers. One, she is crapping on his stuff but two, he does not want the responsibility. I was thinking of traveling a lot. What to do? I do not know but have to find her a home or wait for her to die. How depressing is that thought. But I need to travel the rest of South America and I was think living in Australia for a year. That could be a blast. Don't think about it now, but have some major planning when I get home. I bike some more and hope I can make it in time to the beach.

Nope have to turn around. Notice that I can see Puerto Ayora in the distance. Try to capture the moment in film but just can't do it justice. I get back to Bellavista at about 11:05am. I start to fly down the hill. The sensation of have the wind go into your face and going really fast down a hill is impossible for me to describe. Wait! My bike is not crappy, my sense of direction is. I was going up hill the whole time and now is all down hill. I make it back to Puerto Ayora at 11:30am. Dammit! I could have biked more. Oh well. Pay for the hostal and drop my stuff at the agency. I ask her if I have time to get lunch. Yep. Alright. Scraf it down and back to the agency at 12:20pm. Chat with the lady. Ohhhh. The tour starts at dos not doce. Right. What to do. Alright! Go to Galapagos so I can use the internet, which I did. Now I'm off to tour some of the islands in a 10 passagener catamaran (sail) ship that probably also has a motor. It will be loads of fun.