Back from Ecuador!

I'm back from Ecuador and just starting to get my bearings again. I have about 500 cell phone images and 1000 camera images to go through. No idea how to present them; location, theme, etc?

Overall, I would consider the trip a fantastic success with few complaints. To get the issues out the way they were (1) too much gringo food in the Galapagos - we're in the middle of the ocean and you're feeding us ham sandwiches and pizza??? (2) not enough biology - visited the Equator at a tourist site - would have preferred to have gone off to cloud forest. Anyways, these are relatively minor and I think the five students had a great time. 

I ended the semester giving an exam, grading, traveling. I gave myself two days of sitting around and it ends tomorrow morning. 

I'll put out a series of posts on food, culture, and ecology of Ecuador. I fell in love and I want to get back. 

Ecuador: Day 1

Left Wilkes at 8 AM and arrived at Newark around 1030. Security was a breeze and the flight to Miami was without incident. We had three hours to kill in Miami so he had lunch. For me it was a mojito and ceviche.

Flight to Quito had about a third of the plane's capacity to lots of room. The folks from Posada Mira Linda have been great and picked us up at the airport. I'm in the room and the students are out eating snacks and playing cards. Off to bed. 

Predicting first bird will be a black vulture. 

Ecuador in five days

I wasn't going to post anything about Ecuador until I got there. I can't help it - too excited. Five days to go and everything is lined up there. I just need to pack. 

Taking a convertible backpack (turns into a wheelless suitcase)  and a regular backpack. So those will be fun moving around. 

Before leaving I still need to (so this is me mumbling to myself so I remember)

• let my credit card company know I'm going abroad
• figure out how to use Verizon abroad
• get mo money out 
• pack
• grade and submit grades
• buy some essentials (toothpaste, pepto, etc)
• answer as many emails as possible
• get student passport data to public safety (they don't know they're getting it - but that's going to one of the policies I start as study abroad director)
• would be good to transplant my persimmon and milkweed seedlings to their own pots 
• I'll have to edit this later - no doubt I'm forgetting things :)

Milkweed and persimmon seedlings