Our Galapagos Family

When we arrived in the Galapagos Islands three weeks ago, we didn't really know what to expect as far as where we were staying. All we knew was that our host mom's name was Dora, and we had a map to find her home in the small town of Puerto Ayora (which is actually the largest town in the Galapagos Islands at about 12,000 people). We arrived in the afternoon and were able to walk along the main road and see the harbor before we got settled in at Dora's.

Dora and us on one of our last days in the Galapagos.

We weren't given an address, just a corner where two streets intersected. We were lucky because the first home we asked was Dora's house! She quickly ushered us to our own bedroom with an attached bathroom. Dinner was ready for us within an hour, and she made us feel right at home. Her home isn't large, but the area surrounding is almost like a compound. All of her kids are grown, but it is easy to see that family is very important here as two of her daughters live with us. Her third daughter lives in a building just adjacent from our back door. Her only son doesn't live with us, but he visits almost daily for lunch and sometimes dinner. Along with her own children, she has three grandchildren, Hillary, Brianna, and Jostin, who all live in our little"compound" as well.

Brianna and me playing around with our camera.  She was fascinated with both our
Kindle and our camera!

Jostin being silly with our snorkel gear.

Cooling down in the kid pool in our back yard area.

We also two furry friends to spoil. Vino is a little kitten who loves to whine when she's hungry, sleep on our bed, and climb up in our laps when we're eating to beg. She gets thrown around by the kids quite a bit, so she's become a biter, but she can be so sweet when she's sleeping. Celeste is their puppy, a little white-haired hyper dog. She's not allowed in the house, but loves attention whenever we go outside and gives hugs when you try to walk away.

Vino liked to sleep in our room and she curled up in Sam´s shorts one day.

This is Celeste.  She got a bath almost every other day because she liked to roll in the mud.

Life in the Galapagos is in many ways like it was when we stayed in Kenya. We are still doing our laundry by hand. There is no air conditioning even though the temperature is often in the upper 80's. We only have cold water in our shower, but with the hot weather, neither of us are complaining. At least there is running water, most of the time. We can count on the electricity and even have wireless internet, which is a huge luxury. All of our meals are cooked by Dora's daughter, Angela. No one has cars here, but takes taxis, scooters, or bikes around town (or just walks like we do).

The girls..Angela (on the left) was one of Dora's daughters that cooked for us and  invited me to go to her workout classes.

We practiced Spanish for months before we arrived, but our conversations are still pretty basic. None-the-less, the Santanas always make us feel at home. In our second week, Angela asked me if I wanted to go to her work out class with her (a mixture of zumba and turbo-kick), and we started going together at least a couple times a week. The younger kids were never hesitant to want to play either.

We want to thank our Galapagos family for taking care of us for the past month. Their hospitality was wonderful when we were just getting used to a new place. We will always think of them fondly when we think of our time spent in the Galapagos Islands.

(Written April 10th)