These are 2 male land iguanas that can be aggressive and territorial. They were head butting and I think I just got the tail end of it, but it was something to see.

This is a video taken at Moray, where the Inca's built several crop laboratories. A fellow tourist brought his flute and started to play music while sitting in the middle-pretty enchanting.

We see the tortoises for the first time

A highlight of the Galapagos trip was getting to see Lonesome George. He is said to be the rarest living mammal. He is a tortoise that is the last of his subspecies and when he dies there will never be another species of tortoise like him. They have tried unsuccessfully to mate him. He is being housed at the Charles Darwin Research Center.

These funny, and very lazy sea lions made us laugh. We saw them everywhere!

The tortoises grow to be 6 feet in length and can weigh up to 800 lbs! They are one of the longest living mammals with a lifespan of up to 170 years.

These huge tortoises are wild and we found them everywhere--even crossing the road!

Here are the Galapagos Islands giant land tortoises. These animals were on the brink of extinction but have been brought back in increased numbers. They were just amazing to see in person.

Also on Isabel island were the Frigate sea birds. These males have a red gular pouch that they inflate when mating to try and attract the females. Pretty amazing sight!

We took a 2 hour boat ride to Isabel Island to see these tropical penguins. Definitely a highlight that we got to see them, they say they can be elusive.

The famed blue footed booby.

The Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands is an amazing place where the wildlife go about their business and you are still able to get surprisingly close to them. We simply loved these islands! Here is the land iguana which are everywhere you go.

Just back from the Galapagos Islands

Hi All--there were no services in the Galapagos Islands so I wasn´t able to post any pictures, but when we get back home tomorrow I definitely will. There were too many cool things going on there not to share. We spent 3 nights there, and could have stayed a week longer. They have so much interesting wildlife that seem unfazed by the tourists there, it is fascinating. We got to see huge land tortises every where--we literally had to slow down to watch one cross the road! We saw the blue footed booby, tons and I mean tons of land iguanas, eagle rays, sea turtles, sea lions and the worlds only tropical penguins! It was a great experience and we all absolutely loved it. We got to see the giant land tortise breeding grounds and saw Lonesome George, the last of his species of the giant turtle (there are lots of different subspecies and George happens to be the last of his kind). We jut got back to Guayaquil and waiting for our flight to Miami that just got pushed back to leave at 1:30am now. Do you think we are going to be a little tired waiting for that plane? Then we get to Miami at 7am and then should be in Omaha at 11am Sunday morning. I think I will scrap anything planned for Sunday in favor up sleep!

Iguana Park

We are back in Guayaquil, Ecuador just for the night before our flight to the Galapagos tomorrow morning. We had a great last night in Cusco, Peru. They have the most fantastic town square I have seen-all lit up with great restaurants and families enjoying the park with 2 gorgeous cathedrals around it. Of course I left my camera! But we did try alpaca that was skewered (a little chewy and gamey) and yucca balls (yummy). I didn't get the nerve to eat the very popular roast guinea pig that was on every menu.
Doug isn't feeling well, probably a culmination of 2 nights of poor sleep, so the kids and I walked to this local park-full of wild iguanas-everywhere!! There must be over 100 of them-its crazy!!
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Olivia taking a shot of oxygen to help with the altitude sickness

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Trying the local snack of corn on the cob--a little bigger kernels than were are used too, but tasty..with lots of salt

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Train Entertainment

We are on our way to Cusco as we leave Peru in the morning and head to the Galapagos Islands. This was our on board train entertainment. They did a dance with the masked guy (the little girl behind us did not love him) and a fashion show of clothes made from alpacas.
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Showing off our souvenirs

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At Machu Picchu

We just got down from our trek up to Machu Picchu. Really incredible Inca city built about 450 years ago. They call it the lost city because the Spainards never found it when they conquered the area. We got our exercise climbing all around it and loved seeing the llamas up there.
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Dinner at Indio Feliz and my avocado and melon salad

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The Thermal Springs in Aguas Calientes

We got to the town at the entrance to Machu Picchu and it was overcast and raining so we decided to check out the thermal springs in town.
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Its a party in the town square

Well, I think we have seen it all. Today when we finished up our day trip there was a big party in the square where all of the locals in their very traditional garb were throwing back the beers and falling over, having a very good time ringing in the New Year. I can't hardly describe it--80 year old women carrying gigantic beers, dancing and getting in arguments. We had to leave-but it was hard not to keep staring! Definitely one of those things you had to see to believe.
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Chinchero

His next town we stopped at were having a big. New Years Fiesta and this is the mayor of the town they were parading around. This town is called the birthplace of the rainbow, but we didn't see any today. This town sits at 12,375 feet which was enough change in elevation from the town we are staying at (8,000) to give us all headaches and make Olivia throw up. We all seemed to get better when we headed back in.
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Day trip around the Sacred Valley

Today we hired a van and went to some sights around the town of Ollantaytambo. Here is the sight of Moray that the Incas built in he 16th Century. They say it is something like a crop laboratory where they think they were planting different crops at different elevations. There were several of these and we walked down into them and all around, so we got a lot of exercise.
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