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(October 30 - November 13, 1997)

Dear All-

First off, thank you to everyone for your responses.

Unfortunately we don´t have access to reply to you in a timely manner, but we love hearing from home. Also, if anyone wants off this list let us know!

On to Ecuador......

Our saga started when we ended up at the wrong airport because Ecuador closed their international airport in Quito, so we flew into Guayaquil. Guayaquil, according to Don, reminded him of East Berlin (but with more rats). It was the kind of place where everyone you meet warns you of the dangers that lie around every corner.

So we flew promptly to Latacunga and then grabbed a bus to Quito. Quito was very traveler oriented and in no time we found a BBQ joint with cable which allowed us to watch the Niners kick Dallas´ butt.

From Quito we took a bus to Riobamba to catch ¨the famous train ride¨. The journey is only 65 km but the route drops 10,000 ft during that time. At 6am we found that the train was not coming to Riobamba that day, so we had to race to the bus station to try and catch the train in another village. From Alausi, in the Andes, we were able to board the train -that is, we got to ride the whole way on the roof of the train!

After about half an hour the train derailed and we had to wait one hour while the workers got us back on track with the help of some rocks and some aloe leaves to grease the track.

Once back on track we completed some sharp switchbacks to descend to a beautiful Indian village where people loaded giant lettuce heads and other vegetables from burros to our train, not to mention a bulldozer that was driven up onto the train as well.

After another half hour, we heard a steady thunderous crashing sound !? and the car in front of us was bouncing wildly (there were people on top of that one too). Eventually we stopped and faced our second derailment but not before tearing up at least a dozen railroad ties. This time the whole wheel assembly was rotated 90 degrees.

No problem, Don had bought beers for this purpose! So we settled in while they tried some more rocks and aloe leaves.

We finally made it after 8 hours (40 miles!!) and a horrendous rain downpour that left us soaked.

On to Galapagos,

We can hardly describe this place it was so magical. The islands are a national park 600miles west of Ecuador. It is where Charles Darwin formulated the Theory of Evolution. The islands are volcanic and harsh, but full of animals, birds, reptiles, who came to these islands from the South American continent by floatation, flight, who knows.

We spent 5 days on a yacht with 10 other travelers touring the islands with a guide, chef and bartender. The first time we snorkeled we saw white-tipped sharks. We also frolicked in the ocean with young sea lions. To list what amazing things we saw... pelicans, marine turtles(mating!), flamingos, penguins, albatross, red-footed and blue-footed and masked boobies (birds),giant tortoises, land and marine iguanas, lava lizards, etc. etc. etc.

All the animals were so unafraid of humans that we could get very near to them. We saw a sea lion cub just a few hours old, blue-footed boobies diving for fish in the ocean at speeds of 40 mph and doing their ¨booby mating dance¨ with their bright blue booby feet.

Now we are in Lima (for less than a day), and Don has already had the watch ripped off his wrist on the street, never to be seen again (luckily we brought cheap ones just for that reason).

We will be continuing on to Arequipa, Nazca (where there are giant drawings in the desert of animals and humans - some astronomical thing), Cuzco, and then Bolivia.

Love, Karen and Don

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