Mai and Marie's Ecuador and Galapagos Escapade!

Mai and I went through a roller coaster of emotions as we waited for this vacation to eventually materialize. We felt excited, anxious, and nervous. Our vacation was originally scheduled to take place in October, but because of complications with our visa application, it was moved to December. We had briefly given up hope, but we dug in our heels, …

We landed in Quito at five in the afternoon on December 5, and as soon as we exited immigration, customs, and duty-free, we found our guide waiting for us, standing on the right side of the arrivals hall, holding an Adventure Life sign. We were astonished to discover that locating our guide at the airport was so simple. When passengers asked us …

Daniel started introducing Quito to us as soon as we embarked on our vehicle for our transfer to Hotel Patio Andaluz. The main highlights that we learned about the country on our one-hour ride are the following:

- their indigenous group's language is Quechua

- there are approximately 3.5 million people in the capital

- the religion is …

At six in the morning, we tucked into our buffet breakfast. Hotel Patio Andaluz's guests can choose from various pastries, cheeses, eggs, sliced meats, fruits, juices, tea, coffee, and yogurts. Since we couldn't walk around the Old Town yesterday due to our late afternoon arrival, Daniel came to meet us at seven in the morning today to …

Following our trip through the Old Town, we returned to our hotel to complete the check-out procedure. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we could not visit Mitad del Mundo or the Middle of the World. While we were on our way to Otavalo, we made a quick stop to meet the lovely Betty from our local partner's office. Meeting her in person …

I mentioned that we put a lot into our mainland itinerary. Well, today, we woke up very early to soak in the hot springs before breakfast. We tried two different pools, one of which was located directly in front of our room and the other to the left. Just then, we realized that the pools were heated differently. We could only last for about 10 …

After a one-hour drive, we arrived at our local partner's office in Quito. We felt overwhelming happiness as we finally met the whole team in person! It seemed unreal, and the time passed by very quickly. After our brief conversations, snacks, and photo op, Mai and I excused ourselves from their office to attend Mai's worship meeting. This …

Our fourth day in Ecuador marks the day of our arrival in Baltra. We met Via Natura's Quito Airport representative, who assisted us with our flight check-in. We were truly grateful for his assistance.



Our arrival in Baltra was at 9:40 in the morning. As soon as we stepped foot inside the airport, we made our way to the line to pay the …

Our second day was dedicated to Rabida and Bartolome Islands. We explored Rabida Island in the morning. It is also called "red island" because of the high amount of iron that oxidizes over time. It didn't look like anything I'd seen before.



We walked over to a lagoon, where we saw many pink flamingos! It was my first time …