Beach time

After descending from the chilly Andes, we decided that we needed some time in the sun. Unfortunately, coastal fog covers nearly the whole Pacific coast of the continent for much of the year. The exception is Mancora, which for some reason has year-round sun. We shacked up in a cheap hotel $13 with a pool (yay) and took surf lessons the second day. It wasn't too difficult, but that's because our instructors had on flippers and were giving us a good push. When we rented (smaller boards, the only available) in the afternoon, things weren't as successful.

So the next day we switched to boogie boards, the waves were much larger, and we had more fun. Other than enjoying the beach all we did was eat lots of fresh seafood--including ceviche (fish cooked in lemon juice).

We then headed to Guayaquil, Ecuador to book a Galapagos cruise. In the three days before our flight (to the Galapagos) we went to Puerto Lopez where we were able to see humpback whales. They come up here to mate every year and the males breach over and over again to impress the females. It was awesome.

Click on the whale photo to go to our flickr site. We have the Galapagos photos there but haven't had the time to write about it yet.