Solar power here we come!

Tobey likes things to be efficient. Tobey is also really good about finding ways to save money and when it comes to operating the RV, he is no different.

Last year he was concerned about our energy consumption, so after MUCH research, he installed a monitoring device a TriMetric TM-2025-RV. http://www.bogartengineering.com/products/TriMetric.

He can now tell how full our battery is and can isolate what devices take the most power. (I’m glad he understands all of this because I sure don’t.)

Another thing he did to conserve power in the RV was to install some LED lights. He found that they only use a fraction of the power normal bulbs use and has been happy with the results.

ANYWAY, he has been talking about adding a solar panel to the RV as another way to conserve energy and replenish our batteries for the last two years. Now that our upcoming trip to Mexico is imminent, he put the solar panel project on the front burner.

He researched and researched. We looked at all kinds of options at the Quartzsite RV show in January. He measured and remeasured.  He talked to the manufacturers. He even discussed the installation with our son, Tyler. Last week Tobey took the plunge. He ordered a Uni-Solar PVL-68 flexible solar panel and the parts necessary for installation.

Unfortunately, for Tobey, when the UPS driver rang the doorbell we were in the middle of a meeting with our financial guy and Tobey couldn’t dive in to see what goodies had arrived! As soon as Todd was out the door, the box was opened and packing paper was flying!

Yesterday, Tobey & Tyler started the installation process. They measured and drilled. They ran wires. They were on the roof and under the RV. They thought they were ready to roll out the panel only to discover the adhesive was not only on the bottom side of the panel, but was on the top, so it will have to be returned for one that isn’t defective.

And so, the wait begins again!

Ecuador - Part 5 - the “chicken bus” tour

Okay, this is the part of the trip that Tobey liked the best. (I think.) You have to remember that he doesn’t really speak much Spanish (taco, tequila and Hola don’t count) and he thinks my command of the language is much better than it really is! Armed with 2 years of high school Spanish, one semester of college Spanish, and my pocket dictionary we set out!

We caught a flight to Manta then took a bus south to Puerto Lopez because Effy, our guide at LaSelva, told us a friend of his owned a great restaurant there and it was an up and coming tourist area. We did have dinner at Geos Grill-Bar and the food was great.

Puerto Lopez main street
One of the tourist attractions nearby is the Agua Blanca Cultural and Natural Area. They were just starting a new tourist feature – horseback riding to the museum tour. We were the FIRST people to join this adventure and to make it special for us, they brought the horses into town so we could have a LONG ride. We rode these tiny horses 12 km on WOODEN, yes WOODEN saddles to the archeological site. It was hard to remember many details about the ancient city and museum!  After our tour we had to ride another 5km back to the highway to catch a bus back to town (we could have ridden all the way back to town ...)

I’m sorry, but 17Km on wooden saddles and stirrups that were too short was absolutely horrible! I was black & blue from one knee to the next and Tobey’s buns were bruised and bloody! The next time Tobey every suggests horseback riding he can take his other wife!
From Puerto Lopez we took a bus to San Vincente. We sat in the back and watched as a drunk near the front of the bus thought he was in an outhouse and urinated on the seat in front of him. Not once, but twice! The bus driver stopped and they tossed him off the bus in the middle of nowhere! Now that’s entertainment!

The next day we headed to Canoa. We couldn’t get seats together, so I chatted with Eduardo and his son about their restaurant in Canoa. (referring to my dictionary when I couldn’t come up with the words I needed!) We found the Hotel Bambu (below) and stayed there. Dinner was at the Oasis Restaurant whose owners are in the Lions club there. We enjoyed dinner and trying to communicate only in Spanish! We did have lunch the following day at Eduardo’s café.

On our bus ride from Canoa to Pedernales Tobey FINALLY got his REAL chicken bus! Just north of Jama, a woman and her son got on with chickens. They were squawking and flapping their wings! Later, a woman with 4 children got on (and Tobey & I were not sitting together) and she plopped one of the littlest ones (about 2 years old) down next to me. The little girl fell asleep and I had to put my arm around her because she kept falling off the seat! When the mom & other kids got off the bus she ALMOST left this one with me! I had to call after her to not forget her baby!

We had lunch in Pedernales and discovered that not having a great command of the Spanish language isn’t all bad. I was trying to tell the waiter that we were not very hungry and didn’t want too much for lunch. He thought we didn’t have much money and felt sorry for us, I think. He brought us 2 HUGE bowls of vegetable bean soup, 2 bananas and 2 cokes for $3.00. Maybe that’s the going rate, but I think we got a great deal!

The Ecuadorian people are really gracious. We spent one night in Santo Domingo with the family of an exchange student that I met through CETUSA, an organization that 2 of our exchange students had come through. Joao said we HAD to come see him at his home. (He wasn’t even OUR student!) His family hosted us, took us to dinner and a tour of their ranch outside of Santo Domingo. It was absolutely incredible!

After leaving the ranch, we took the luxury express bus (no chickens or drunks) back to Quito. Tobey carried all of our things in the backpack for our 5 night bus adventure.

Reluctantly, we said goodbye to Ecuador and flew home after an incredible 3 week trip. It’s hard to believe that we ALMOST didn’t go!

Ecuador – Part 4 - Amazon Basin

After an incredible week in the Galapagos, Wendy & Amber headed back to the US while Tobey & I ventured on to the Amazon basin. We flew into Coca then took a boat up the Napo River to La Selva Lodge.

http://www.rei.com/adventures/trips/latin/galapagos.html
We arrived at La Selva where we were issued knee-high boots for our hikes through the rain forest. It didn’t rain – thank goodness – but there was deep mud to slog through!  We could participate in as many of the nature-led hikes and talks as we wanted to, or relax at the lodge.
   
Our huts had no electricity – and when the sun goes down it gets VERY dark! During dinner every night, however, the staff took a lit kerosene lantern to our huts so we didn’t have to come home to a dark house! Nice!
Tobey enjoyed swimming in the lake and I tried my hand at fishing … I caught 5 piranhas in the same water Tobey was swimming in!

Gosh they have an ugly kisser (the fish – not Tobey)!     They don’t have much meat on them, but the kitchen staff cooked them up for lunch for us!  
On one of our hikes  our guide Effy spotted this poison dart frog among the bushes on the ground! How he saw him is beyond me … then he caught it and held it for all of us to take pictures.

Effy also saw a tree that had a spider web over an opening in the trunk. He took a stick & poked into the hole & the bird-eating spider came out!

 
Our other guide, Kuindi, caught an anaconda and Tobey was brave enough to hold it! I was nervous just taking the picture!

Our 4 night/5 day rainforest trek was over before we knew it, but the memories are still with us!

Ecuador - Part 3 - Galapagos

From Quito we flew to Guayaquil then on to San Cristobal for a 7 night cruise through the Galapagos.

The Eric (below) was home. REI Adventures does a great job. Our 20-passenger boat had 2 naturalists on board who led our on-shore excursions and gave informative talks in the evenings.  They were very knowledgeable.

Our first stop was Genovesa, or Tower Island. Because the government controls the number of boat landings and also restricts the size of the boats allowed to cruise the islands, there are few visitors every year. On Genovesa, for example, (the best islands for bird lovers) only boats under 40 passengers are allowed. Our groups were split 10 passengers per naturalist.  Some of the landings are “wet” – where you have to jump out of your boat & swim or wade to the shore and others are “dry” where they actually have a small landing area or dock. The water is the Galapagos is actually quite cold despite being located near the equator … but we did survive!

Here we are on Genovesa stopping by a pair of Nasca boobies. The largest population of birds are the red-footed boobies (below), but are the hardest to spot!

Cerro Dragon, or Dragon Hill, is on the northern tip of Santa Cruz. We saw the this Galapagos land iguana basking in the sun. Land iguanas were once part of the Darwin Station’s breeding program. They have large spines on their backs and look very prehistoric! This guy was about 4 feet long!

On North Seymour island we passed a large colony of magnificent frigates. The males puff their pouch to attract females. (some things never change – no matter the species!) http://www.galapagos-islands-tourguide.com/galapagos-birds.html

Also found on North Seymour are the blue footed boobies. They usually lay 2 eggs which they turn with their feet.  Their feet turn blue as the age. The female is larger and has a black ring around its eyes.
 

Tobey decided to make friends with the sea lions on Isabella – sun-bathin’ buddies - but he sure did scramble when this one decided to bark at him!
The giant tortoise at the Darwin Research station.

Below, we took a picture for our local newspaper. We are surrounded by marine iguanas! They sun themselves on the lava rocks to stay warm – and you hear them “spitting” water.

It is hard to believe what incredible creatures that God has put on this earth. I’m ready to go back!

Ecuador – Part 2 - Otovalo

Our home base in Quito was the Hotel de La Rabida, an old traditional house that was restored to a charming bed-and-breakfast hotel. The staff was great and we were able to store extra luggage there between the different sections of our trip.

They helped us arrange a taxi from Quito to Otovalo - $60 for the 4 of us. We stopped at the Midad del Mundo (Middle of the World) monument along the way. Our return trip by busy ($2 per person!) was much cheaper - but oh my gosh - scarier! The bus drivers do not, I REPEAT, do not slow down or pay attention to no-passing zones ... and the roads are curvy! We saw several buses and cars that had gone over the cliffs!

So why Otovalo? Located in the mountains about 2 hours north of Quito, it is famous for its textile industry and market. We shopped and shopped! There were so many things to choose from: wool woven sweaters, ponchos, Panama hats (an Ecuadorian creation, despite it's name), hammocks, woven tapestries that depict scenes from the Ecuadorian countryside, purses, jewelry, clothing, to name a few. Some of these are traditional crafts, but others have evolved to fit the wishes of the tourists. Because of its success and popularity, other artisans from around Ecuador come to Otovalo to sell their crafts. Poor Tobey became our llama, carrying all of our purchases of woven tapestries to ponchos!

We even ventured into the non-touristy part of the market which sold the fruits, vegetables, and meats. We came across what is supposed to be an Ecuadorian delicacy, cuy.

cuy means guinea pig
cuy = tourist delicacy
cuy = expensive!

Some Americans will believe anything! We didn’t buy any or have them in the restaurants!

We hiked all over the area – from Otovalo to the “Cascada de Peguche,” and took the bus back to Otovalo for 20 cents!

 
We stayed at the Hotel Ali Shungu – very pretty and the staff was friendly! After dinner they even had a folkloric show in the dining room.

 After 2 nights we headed back to Quito before we begin our Galapagos portion of the trip!

Galapagos/Ecuador

 
I was looking through some photo albums the other day and spent a quite a bit of time reminiscing about our 2004 trip to Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands.
Our friend Wendy, a single mom, called me to see if we would be interested in traveling to the Galapagos /Ecuador with her and her daughter, Amber. Seems that 11-year old Amber had just studied the Galapagos and was dying to go – the only problem was she didn’t want to go if it was just the two of them, just in case something happened to mom.

There are very few places on MY “don’t want to go there” list, so I asked Tobey what he thought of the idea. He hadn’t retired yet and it wasn’t high on HIS “want to go there” list, so he really put the idea down. I told Wendy we weren’t going. They were disappointed and decided not to go, either. WELL, a couple weeks went by when Tobey asked me how the plans for the Ecuador trip were coming so he could get the dates into his calendar. You could have knocked me over with a feather I was so surprised!  He said that his lack of interest had never stopped me before, why did it this time?! I made haste & called Wendy to tell her the good news. I could actually hear Amber’s happy dance in the background!

Once we decided to go, the planning stages began. We had several things to consider.

1. Did our son, Tyler, want to go? He would be graduating from high school that spring and wouldn’t that be a cool graduation trip? He wasn’t interested in going! He said he needed to work & save money for college. (Could it have been that he was really weighing 3 weeks in Ecuador with Mom & Dad vs. 3 weeks at home with his girlfriend?)

2. Tour operator. Wendy had already selected an REI Adventures trip that was a 7-night cruise through the Galapagos on a very small boat (20 passengers & crew). We added pre-and post-nights in Quito (our destination airport), and 2 nights in Otavalo.

3. Tobey & I then decided to add on a post-tour to the rainforest in the Amazon Basin – 4 nights at La Selva Eco-Lodge. What a blast!

4. Tobey also wanted to add an extra week to really experience Ecuador by riding the “chicken” buses and staying in $10/night hostels.

Okay – so now the trip he didn’t want to go on is now 3 weeks long!

After checking with the Health Department for vaccinations/medications that we would need (malaria, yellow fever, updating hepatitis & tetanus shots) we were ready to go!

Stay tuned for the highlights!