GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, DAY 2

On day 2, we headed to the Galapagos Islands. But first we had a quick breakfast at our hotel, the Hilton Colon in Quito. They had quite a spread for the breakfast buffet (I'll have pictures in a later post), but one thing I found really interesting was in the fruit section where I found this unusual looking fruit called a granadilla:

I had a very thick rind on the outside, and none of knew what it was. When we cracked it open, this is what it looked like inside:

It kinds looks like a passion fruit, (a fruit that I love), but it actually tastes pretty funky. I didn't like it at all. I later learned that this fruit is called a sweet passion fruit, but really, if you like passion fruit, it's a totally different thing.

After about a 3 hour flight, we ended up in Baltra Island in the Galapagos (that's where the airport is located) and our first stop was the island of Santa Cruz, the most populated island in the Galapagos. We arrived in the morning and hit the ground running, start off with some hiking, visiting a private farm that had giant turtles and also walking in the national reserve where we saw a ton of giant turtles.

The also had passion fruits growing in the reserve (which the turtles like to eat) and our guide gave me one of the to snack on:
It was pretty tart, but so much better than what I had eaten in the morning. We also fed on to a turtle. After our long walk and hike through some lava tunnels, we were finally able to eat a well deserve lunch. As you can imagine, it's pretty hot on the Galapagos, but that made it pretty appropriate to have a dining room open to the outdoors:

First, we were given a bowl of chicken soup. It was pretty damn tasty, and nice to know that they used local chickens (like the ones that freely roamed around us).

With lunch, the also served a juice of a fruit that I'd never tried before - the tree tomato.

I must say, it tastes nothing like a tomato. Actually, it's kinda hard to place what it tastes like, but it was cool and refreshing and fairly mild and inoffensive, so I drank it.

For lunch we were served two types of meat (chicken and beef) along with salad and veggies.

Though the food was really simple (and maybe cause I was starving from not having eaten in like 8 hours) I found our meal to be delicious. The view was also pretty damn great, looking out over the farmland, you could see all the way to the ocean.

After lunch we headed off to our hotel, the Red Mangrove Aventura Lodge in Puerto Ayora and after dropping off our bags, we finished our day with a stroll to the Charles Darwin Research Center and the viewing of some more giant turtles.

It had been a very very long day for us, that started early in the morning, and we had just begun our Galapagos adventure. One thing to know if you're every considering a trip there - it's an active vacation, with not much time for relaxing or sitting on the beach. After our long day, we were certainly ready for a nice meal. The great thing about our trip was that we had an all inclusive vacation booked for us (when you're traveling with 9 people, it makes life a lot easier), which meant that all our meals were taken care of. It's actually so nice not to have to think about which hotel you're staying at, checking in, meals, logistics - it was totally worth the money to have that taken care of for us.

But this also meant that we had most of our meals at the hotel. The only downside was that every evening, we had a preset menu, so we were never able to take advantage of the sushi bar at our hotel (it was known for having the best sushi in the Galagpagos, though I don't really think there's much sushi being served there anyway).

The dining room at the hotel was open to a small harbor that belonged to the hotel, so you could always see wildlife outside (like the great blue heron drinking from the jacuzzi that we saw on the first night). sealions and crabs, but which meant we also had constant dining companions -

Yes, they're geckos. But they were totally harmless and just hung out on the walls during our meal. The mosquitoes were a lot more annoying. Every meal that we had at the hotel involved 3 courses. On the first night, I started off with a shrimp salad. I think it was supposed to contain avocado, but didn't have any. However, the salad was very good. They were very generous with their shrimp and use a lot of local ingredients. For my entree, I had fish, served with mashed potatoes and green beans:

Again, the food was really well prepared and flavorful. The fish was locally caught. Tom loved the potatoes (actually, the potatoes in Ecuador were one of the highlights of the trip for him).

And I finished off my meal with a fruit plate:
Unfortunately, they served a bunch of tropical fruits that I don't eat (bananas, papaya, etc. ), though if you look at the bottom there was one piece I did eat, which was a local pineapple. Apparently the pineapples in Ecuador are white fleshed, but they're equally tasty and I enjoyed having it frequently.

I was really plesantly surprised at the quality of the food that we were having. It was obviously well made, well flavored and utilizing local ingredients when possible. Though it was really authentic in any way, I still enjoyed my meal, and would continue to enjoy all the meals we had.