Wow, ok. Where did I leave you….
Yes. I was preparing to leave on a cruse in the Galapagos. :) Excellent.
Ok to START, I am in a bar right now, internet cafי bar on the island of Santa Cruz, in the town of Pto. Ayura.

MAP:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=-00.7454&longitude=-90.31116

I just finished an ASTOUNDINGLY amazing trip around prehistoric moon landscaped Galapagos islands. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. The really interesting stuff happened at the beginning.

I took a week of Spanish class in TO before I left to come down here. In that class I met a lot of great people! (Hi Terri!, Kornel!) one of them, Ecko Jay (www.eckojay.com) was easily convinced to join me for further learning in Ecuador. Neat! Imported friends.

I arranged a whole 10 days of excellent adventure and debauchery for ecko and I, including a nice trip to cloud forests, little Indian towns, and Spanish lessons for the duration. Our excellent Spanish teacher (Narda) agreed to travel with us around quito while we learned. Neat.

(un?)fortunately, Ecko´s dreams were more grand than a tour around quito. ONWARDS! To the GALAPAGOS ISLANDS! :) He even graciously offered to pay for our Spanish teacher to come with us! WOW! So… Heres where we are at. Going on a 6 day cruse in the Galapagos islands with a friend, and a DEDICATED Spanish teacher. Perfecto.

Heres where things go wrong.

The day before we are to leave (leaving nov12) Ecko begins to feel a little ill in the morning. Me ´´suck it up, your just hung over, you’ll be fine, drink lots of water and I’ll see you in the afternoon for Spanish class´´

Upon my return from some errands (warmer clothes, money, send pictures 2 u guys) I learn that ecko and narda are at the hospital. Uh oh.

Before I tell you what happens next, I want to leave you with this important message.
Drinking at high altitudes (2000m and up) without having acclimatized your body for a few days is a bad idea. ESPECAILLY all night crazy parties on roof tops with many other acclimatized travellers. Doing so will leave your body in a weakened state, and may leave you unable to even climb the stairs to breakfast. Further, it may totally throw all plans out of balance.

Ecko went to the hospital with symptoms of pain in his chest, and shooting pain down his left arm. Eeek, no good. The doctors and ecko believed initially it MIGHT be a heart attack. As it turns out, it was just the drinking. The doctors gave him a clean bill of health and he returned to our hostal.

The mind is a strange thing. For those of you who know me, you know that I like to really explore the problems I am faced with, and I like to help others do the same. Unfortunately, it doesn’t ALWAYS work out for the better. I pointed out to ecko that perhaps he hadn’t had as much to drink as he believed. And that the doctors MIGHT be making diagnosis based on this incorrect information. Further, that if the problems were NOT drink induced. Perhaps the WORST place to be was in the middle of the ocean. Ecko agreed, and was torn by the problem all night. He decided to wait to see how he felt in the morning. Good plan.

445am, nov 12.
Yuck.

We rise to get ready, pick up narda, and get to the airport for 6am. Do any of you feel good at that time in the morning (unless finishing the previous nights festivities)? I sure don’t.

Alas ecko seems to feel fine and we are off to the Galapagos!! YIPPIE!!

Once at the airport, we decide to see, just out of curiosity, how hard it would be to get back to Canada on the 745 AA flight to Miami. To my surprise, while checking, Ecko makes the ticket changes. Blink. Blink.

Blink. Blink.

´´Um… so.. ecko, you´re going home to Canada?´´ ´´Yes, we shouldn’t gamble with our health´´

Right…

All joking aside. I believe ecko made the right decision. When travelling, you should always play it safe with health. Always have an escape plan to reach a WORLD CLASS hospital within 5 hours, and have the resources to back it up. (Thanks mom and dad). I am glad he is fine now, and it appears that he was just hit hard by the altitude.

So as we bid farewell to ecko, narda and I head off to the enchanted isles to see what our world must have looked like 5 million years ago.

More to follow, including more than 300 AMAZING PICTURES!

Tune in tomorrow for stories of playing with baby sea lions, swimming with penguins, and watch as someone scrapes their knee on the surface of the moon.

This story was brought to you by:
My mom and dad
My grandparents
The United Nations, and the ILD – www.ildglobal.org
Don Jones and ExpereinceIT! – www.expereinceitonline.com
Ben Mounsey – Camera support (ben at alexin dot ca)

Thanks for tuning in.

Oh, and by the way, if you want to send a nice little note to ecko, expressing your support and wishes that he will one day see the islands, please do, I know he’ll love it.
jay365jay at yahoo dot com