Iguana Park

After several wonderful months in Ecuador, a bunch of things came together which allowed us to extend our family sabbatical.  A life with choices is a great thing, but it also means making some really tough decisions!  In our case, it was whether to stay in Ecuador, or seize the opportunity to check out some other great place on this continent.  We chose the latter.  After a continent-wide school search (the biggest and most challenging piece of our puzzle), we discovered a little Chilean school near Patagonia.  The decision was made and within short order, we had vet papers for Quilo, a new Lonely Planet-Chile book in hand, and four tickets to Santiago.

But we had one piece of unfinished business in Ecuador. The whole time we've been here, those strange and mysterious islands off the coast were tempting us -- but somehow we just couldn't justify the cost. Yet how could we be so close, and not see the Galápagos?  For a family with youngerish kids, how interesting could variable beak lengths of finches on different islands really be? Or would we be irked every time we look at a world map and see how near we were? Finally, we consulted the 7 and 9 year old Oracles who simply responded: "Go!"

This is how we got there:
The 5 hour drive from Cuenca to Guayaquil is stunning as it weaves its way through Cajas National Park and drops 2500m from the mountains to the coast.

We didn't have much time to explore Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, but did make it down to Iguana Park, where hundreds of land iguanas roam around the main square and hang out like pigeons do in most other parks around the world. They resembled a convention of cranky old men who have indefinitely taken over the central square, and provided more than ample entertainment for all of us.

We then found a kennel for Quilo to spend the week, and hopped a plane for the Galapagos.