hey we made it out of that disaster and we're starting off at this campground here it's been
super relaxing we've been very productive getting stuff done i've been working danny's working we're
chowing down and enjoying it having really good sun a shower and a bathroom very close by this
campground is owned by a german so he's got a whole german menu which we tried out last night
and a whole bunch of different german beers which we also had with a lot of the other campers around
and yes there are campers for the first time in so long i've seen a whole bunch of campers
we are we actually expecting this in ecuador um we figured there would be a lot of people waiting
around for peru to open a lot of them had left their car here since the beginning of the pandemic
and came back a couple times at first there was 22 vans here it has been the best way to
recharge after that debacle with the oil pan oh and update on the oil pan is no leaking
you got me you got me why didn't you say hello whatever i said i was gonna scare you didn't
come in i'm cleaning up you still scared me though danny what how are you that is hilarious
so for one of our first looks in ecuador that's not super dramatic
we have a beautiful crater lake here so nice this is not too far from our last campsite you're right
we're able to circumnavigate it but we came here a little bit late because we did get some
vegetarian food so i don't know if we're gonna be able to completely circumnavigate it they say it
takes about five hours to do that eight and a half miles with a thousand feet elevation gain so we'll
see how far we make it it's a pretty nice hike either way beautiful views i mean the whole time
and it's free perfect first stop it's called cotacachi and you can also take a little
boat over to those islands in the center of the lake for three dollars and fifty cents
such a good view out here crater rocks are always the best because you have an epic
view the entire time right now we're at 10 400 elevation which is pretty high and i'm
kind of winded actually walking up that bit that last bit it was a little steep looks
like we have one more steep bit over there and mosquitoes are coming we have to keep walking
such a beautiful place we found over here thanks to ioverlander once again
we did get here a little bit late so we're not going to be able to circumnavigate the entire
crater but we've made it about a quarter of the way after checking
the map and we only have an hour and a half left to walk before the place closes so we're gonna get
a move on it's still a beautiful place we're so happy we got to enjoy it got to enjoy this nature
and man i i'm so far i'm loving the way that that ecuador national parks have treated their
environment no horses beautiful trail very well marked everything i loved it
oh and the best part it was it was free so there was a lot of families walking around
on the hike which is so good to see when they can go places without having to pay for anything
and enjoy the outdoors the only thing that we couldn't do is bring sombrita i'm pretty sure
there's animals out here that they don't want dogs to disturb the whole pan american in ecuador
is like volcano volcano volcano we're really excited to show you guys all these beautiful
places volcanoes we are super close to the equator now so hopefully we can check that out
oh it just feels so good to be in good nature it feels like ecuador is going to be a big place for
camping and heading outside which that's what we always look for whenever we're traveling
all right i want to show you guys something special although we've been in ecuador a few days
we're about to do our first fill up emily did a little bit of research turns out there's two
kinds of gasoline here super and extra which one you think is better super is better than
extra think extra was actually got that super is extra super is 92 octane and the other
extra is 82 octane 85 is pretty low for the us wow my ears are popping ecuador so high elevation
$2.55 a gallon that's more than it was in colombia how many times did he ask me if it was diesel
everybody always thinks it's diesel on yeah let's give this kid a granola bar okay
52.65 for 20.5 gallons so playing credit card
another big thing about getting gas adios further south they pump it for you unless
you're in oregon or new jersey you're pumping your own gas but i haven't pumped gas in two years
we did it
made it to the equator it's hard to overstate how important this moment is on our trip
we have been driving this pan american highway and now we've made it halfway across the planet earth
it just feels so good we've been waiting for this for so long i remember like we were in mexico and
we were like oh my gosh we're never gonna make it down there and now we're here we're at the equator
it feels like an epic huge moment in the trip even though it's just an imaginary line yeah
you can see here on our map here is the equator right here and we're about right there oh my gosh
when we walk over here they're going to have this big sundial at the equator
and that marks halfway of the planet earth yeah i'm so excited
actually there's a really big history in maritime travel for navies and whatnot of
crossing the equator you get your shell back and so we actually have a shell
back award with us here from my great-grandpa my great-grandfather crossed the equator at abemama
during world war ii and my dad gave me this a copy of the shell back award crossing the equator
just feels like such an achievement for us oh my gosh all the ups and downs we've been through
wow so now we're gonna go flush the toilet over there see which way it spins just kidding
we're glad to have you guys along with us as we cross the equator this huge momentous occasion
for the van from the arctic ocean crossing the arctic circle crossing the tropic of cancer
and now the equator we've made it yeah we made it oh my gosh and i never imagined
that at the equator we would be wearing coats at night you know we still have the
down comforter a lot over here it's pretty cold well let's go check out the monument
on the phone let's see when it says zero so right now we're still at zero zero one
so not only is there a museum here but it's gonna wrap around corroborated by the phone
by the smartphone but and then so we're gonna try and cross it okay this is the actual line that
they have set up so you've got to put one side of your body in both oh yeah look at that emily is
half and half north and south hemisphere that's me divided okay so here's the line it says zero yep
okay let's see how far so this is the direction of north yep this is zero this is zero
zero zero one we walked across the equator so we had to go about that far either direction
confirmed yay so we're going to tell you guys a couple of things we learned here so
you see this line to the north is actually where the sun will rise at its most extreme end on the
north which would be the solstice and that means if you're up in alaska you got constant daylight
and then on the other side that is where the sun rises from here on the other solstice
and apparently even before the incas they had already figured this all out and created over 200
different sites here that you can explore in the very center the dial of the sundial when
you're here on the right day two days a year there will be a moment at noon when the sun is
directly ahead and there's no shadow at all inside of that dial on the two equinoxes
there's some really funny stuff in the bathroom about which way the water spins in the toilet
the reason that researchers come to ecuador to research the equator is because it's easier
with the mountains that are around the equator here in other countries it's flat or jungle or
here it's a lot easier to find our way welcome to the equator guys woohoo
wow they have a really great garden here
so we're here in ecuador and of course you know the top destination in this country is
the galapagos islands the galapagos islands have been a place we've always wanted to check out
there are four inhabited islands santa cruz being the biggest city then san cristobal
sante sabella and floriana surrounding these islands are loads of islands only inhabited by
the amazing animals that have evolved separately to thrive on them we're really close to quito now
and that's actually where some of the flights fly out of to get to the galapagos quito is
also a huge expat town so about a week ago danny wrote on the expat facebook group asking if anyone
would be able to watch our pets while we head to the galapagos he did get a bunch of replies but
really only one followed through and we met her last night and she was so great she agreed to
watch graham the whole time and he's gonna be the only cat in her house she's had cats before
foster cats and also her own cats she's also a teacher here so she's a math teacher she
teaches at the international school and we're just so happy that graham is going to have
a very safe spot that he's not going to be stressed out with other cats because the hotel
honestly didn't really work out for him the last time somebody on the other hand having a
dog is more of a full-time job than a cat so there weren't really anyone that was able to take care
of san frita for the whole time sombrita really did enjoy the hotel the last time we were there
she was excited to see us at the end of course but the videos that we got sent every day she loved
playing with the dogs and she was super tired out and everything like that so i found a really good
hotel for san fritta they are also going to wash her and give her the vaccines that she actually
needs so we have the pets figured out and the next thing is the plane we have decided to get a plane
three days before we go to the galapagos uh it's pretty insane i don't know anyone else that has
done it like this but we're this is a once in a lifetime thing and also honestly flights are
pretty cheap when you're booking three days away so we had no idea last week we were going to go
to the galapagos we just thought we want to go and then we looked at each other and we said
let's just go now so we booked our flight and it was 383 total said online that
foreigners have to pay more for their ticket but on tripadvisor it said that some people
didn't have to pay more but if we don't it's fine we we're expecting to pay more at the
airport it's no big deal and then once we get off the plane we also have to pay a hundred dollars
each in cash for the national park fee which is quite expensive as well but that's just
what you have to do everyone has to do it to get into the galapagos so here we go trying to
plan a week's worth of activities for this amazing galapagos trip that we want to have
luckily when you do it this close to when you want to be there the prices drop dramatically maybe you
won't get on the specific itinerary which i think is why a lot of travelers would rather just pay
for the security of you know that's what that's what's gonna happen i'm gonna get what i want
but we're kind of like we know what we want we can do it on our own or we can find a half half-price
cruise the very important thing i want to do is scuba dive at a place called kicker rock or a
leon dermida which is supposed to have hammerhead sharks and they are my favorite shark i just
have loved watching videos about hammerhead since i was a kid i'm so excited to see these
amazing animals and oh my gosh i hope we get to do it that's the only thing i really have been like
i want to do this very bad the giant tortoises oh my gosh we're gonna be flying into santa cruz
that's really the only confirmed plan that we have right now it's pretty fun to just go
with the flow sometimes but we got the pet stuff figured out we got the van parking figured out
and we're really excited to take you guys along so another awesome thing that just happened with
our galapagos planning is that the covet tests are no longer required which cuts off another 80
off of our trip so fantastic and also we don't have to run around looking for a pcr test and
everything like that you have to either show your fully vaccinated vaccine card or show a pcr test
uh one more thing is that we did not plan to do all of this right now so we had just gone grocery
shopping so today we are trying to eat every bit of vegetable but we went in here okay so here's
one of our mega veggie meals to get rid of all of our veggies before we go on to the galapagos
i'm gonna make some thai curry with a whole bunch of veggies i'm gonna put some coconut milk in it
these diced tomatoes red curry paste broccoli peppers zucchini and mushrooms and also there's
some onions that are already on the stove wish me luck i hope this tastes good it's gonna be a
lot of our veggies oh it's looking so delish i put it all in one pot because we're just gonna share
minimum work today on feeding ourselves but also a lot of work on trying to get all these vegetables
out of here i also cut up bits of our bread so that we can dip it into this nice curry that i
made and also eat the rest of the bread because that definitely will not stay for a week either oh
man it smells delicious though i'm gonna eat this up look at this cat playing fetch brings it back
bounce is on it
oh you dropped it on my a ton of times now
i'll try again
oh grahamy
oh thanks my guy
see how many cats play fetch there he goes that is ridiculously cute
well we'll see you guys next time for some serious adventure in the galapagos islands i hope
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