Going Galapagos... I think

So far so good for the Galapagos. I don’t think they’ve gotten our money yet, but we do have plane tickets and a ride arranged to the airport and a confirmation voucher for the boat, so things are moving along. We are on the boat June 15-22 and then return to Quito on June 23rd. Yesterday, we went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie and Chris is extra excited for the South American jungle (even though the South American jungle in that film was actually shot on the Big Island) and he’s trying to arrange a trip out of Quito right after the Galapagos. I still don’t know how much it will cost and I’m not that interested in the jungle, so I might just hang out in Quito for a few days on my own, we’ll see.

But for now, we are still in Guayaquil. Out of all of the places we have visited in the last four and a half months, this is the city with the most American restaurants and shops and stuff. We’ve been to a few malls (looking for Indiana Jones in English) and they have Nine West, Tommy Hilfiger, Sunglass Hut (even thought they spell it Sunglass Hot), Pizza Hut, Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, and more KFC than most places in the states. I also think that all of this fast food might contribute to the fact that the people here are the fattest we have seen in all of South America. Seriously, they are HUGE. And speaking of huge, I feel like I am on my way because in the past few days I have also had Taco Bell, nutella filled churros covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, deep fried shrimp and calamari, pina coladas, and other varieties of cheesy Mexican food. Chris and I have both lost some weight recently due to constant diarrhea and short supplies of food and no fast food, so I guess we’re just packing it back on. Hopefully I don’t get another diet of vomiting and liquid poop on the Galapagos trip, I don’t know how much more I can handle right now, but at least we’ll be far away from KFC… I hope.

As for more pleasant food related topics pan de yucca, fruit juice, and yogurt in Ecuador are all awesome. From what I’ve gathered, most of the food here consists of fried chicken or some sort of grayish meat in gravy, with white rice, French fries, and maybe some beans. This does not excite me. But, they also have great fruit and yogurt stands with these delicious bread spheres called pan de yucca. The fruit stands just blend up fresh fruit (strawberries, oranges, banana, peaches, papaya, mango, pears, whatever) for about $1 and give you a huge cup of tasty deliciousness. The yogurt is not typical condensed yogurt, but more of a liquid, blended with ice and fresh fruit so you get a milkshake with yogurt, it’s good. Then you get the pan de yucca which is a small ball of bread, and when you bite into the crusty outer layer, you are greeted by a doughy cheesy warm center. It fills you up quickly and tastes wonderful. In Paraguay, they have almost similar bread called chipa, but the pan de yucca version is better as it is lighter and generally tastier.

OK, one more food story and then I am done. At one of the malls yesterday, we went to a large grocery store to stock up on essentials for the Galapagos trip. And apparently, we are unhealthy and disgusting because here are the contents of our cart:
2 bottles of rum
1 bottle of vodka
3 boxes of Kinder Eggs special Simpson’s edition – if you don’t know what Kinder Eggs are, do yourself a favor and Google it, it’s worth it
2 bottles of Coke
4 bottles of sparkling water
4 bags of Doritos

Whoa! We’re gross. From what we’ve heard, booze is expensive on the boat, hence the stockpiling, although Chris decided to have an early birthday celebration on his own in our hotel room last night so we need to restock one of the bottles of rum.

Today, I tried to use the WiFi connection at the fancy Hampton Inn down the street but it was running too slow. Tomorrow we might return to the mall to restock our booze and Kinder Eggs and they have an internet connection there I hope to use. I really want to get our pictures from Machu Picchu and Mancora loaded before we leave on Sunday. I also want to call for Father’s Day, but if it doesn’t work out, Happy Father’s Day dad!

I have a date with myself in a couple of hours to see Sex and the City in English (Chris refuses to go) so I’m looking forward to that, hopefully it’s better than the new Indiana Jones.