My Itinerary

Good evening!
I figured that you all might like to know what I'm going to be doing each day. With this rough itinerary, you can see what I'm supposedly doing even if I can't update frequently to let you know what exactly happened or how it went. So, here goes! Oh, by the way, Ecuador is one hour ahead of Minnesota, think Eastern time zone. The Galapagos Islands have the same time as Minnesota. Cool!

January 1
11:15 Depart Minneapolis
10:14 Arrive in Quito, meet host families

January 2
Orientation, class

January 3
Class, intro to rainforest

January 4
Travel day, to Coca, then a bus ride to Shiripuno Bridge, and a canoe ride to Shiripuno

January 5
Hike on the "magic canopy trail." And piranha fishing (In all seriousness, I'm excited about this!)

January 6
Early morning bird watching, hike along a trail and to salt licks. Night hike, caiman watching. By the way, caimans are related to alligators.

Januray 7
Two hikes, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, including good spots for seeing hummingbirds and other birds, possibly large mammals too (think macaws, tapirs, and peccaries).

January 8
Off to the Huaroni community of Neoneno to learn about the Huaroni culture.

January 9
Travel day, back to Coca, short flight to Quito.

January 10
Depart to Papallacta, high elevation site. Hike in the afternoon, possibly time for thermal baths! Oh, the Andes and geothermic activity!

January 11
Morning hike, then back to Quito. Orientation for the Galapagos.

January 12
Depart for the Galapagos, board Adventure I (the boat we will live on as we cruise to different islands), afternoon visit to North Seymour (all Galapagos locations are either islands, bays, or other places on islands, if you are curious about exactly where I'm going, you can always find a map!).

January 13
Morning: Escalera Principe. Afternoon: Bahia Darwin.

January 14
Morning: James Bay. Afternoon: Bartolome

January 15
Morning: Puerto Ayora, Darwin Station (lots of research goes on at the station, monitoring the environment, the animals, the plants, and everything else related to the Galapagos National Park). Afternoon: Santa Fe

January 16
Morning: Pta. Cormorant, Corona del Diablo, Post Office. Afternoon: Travel to Isabela, Las Tintoreras.

January 17
Morning: Tortoise Hatching Center, Volcan Sierra Negra. Afternoon: Flamingo Pond.

January 18
Travel day, fly out of Baltra back to Quito. Then, a bus ride to Cotacachi, a native community.

January 19
Morning: Farm activities (please tell me I don't have to plant or tend Christmas trees. I do enough of that at home!). Afternoon: San Antonio, Native weaver. Evening: Andean music and native dancing (this should be awesome!).

January 20
Optional horseback riding, visit to Otavalo market. Return to Quito.

January 21
Free day with host families

January 22
Depart for Mindo, intro to the cloud forest. Afternoon: Hike.

January 23
Early morning: Cock of the rock (according to my books, this is a bright orange bird that has a bizarre mating ritual). Morning: Hike. Afternoon: Hike. Evening: Night walk (AKA, the third hike of the day, a lot of hikes, but they should be sweet).

January 24
Morning: Hike, inner tubing. Afternoon: Back to Quito.

January 25
Morning: Class. Afternoon: Class. Boring, I know, but we actually have papers and exams to do.

January 26
Morning: Exam, evaluations. 11:20 PM Depart Ecuador, flight back to MN.

January 27
11:37 AM Arrival in Minneapolis!

Ahh, travelling is always fun, but it is also good to come back home. I look forward to seeing you all and sharing more of my stories with you when I return!

After Christmas Creation

Here begins my humble little blog. I hope to record some of my adventures, the good times, and the perhaps not so good times. In short, welcome, and enjoy the ride!

In the future, I hope to post what I can, when I can, no guarantees about frequency. However, this should be a fairly good place to inform you, my reader, about my interim in Ecuador. An entire month in the rainforest, cloud forest, and the Galapagos Islands. I'm excited to go, but alas, you all can't join me. Hopefully you can live vicariously through what I jot down here.

By the way, my title is partially inspired from an Einstein quote "All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree." It struck me, since I love climbing trees, science, and attempting to be a well-rounded individual (among many other things that I love). So, my dear reader, read and enjoy some scribblings about my life!