Planning the Galapagos, and having Guests

Part One: Planning The Galapagos.

You guys, I don't think I can keep it quiet any longer.... We are planning a trip to the Galapagos! It doesn't seem like that project I went to in Ecuador is going to start before April-May and I'd been discouraged by the prohibitive prices of the flight tickets to Ecuador to organise it myself... So i was pushing the Galapagos trip back and back and back but let's face it, we're not gonna live in Peru forever and if we don't get our backsides to those islands, we might never do it. And I simply can't face that.
So imagine my happy face when LAN came up with bargain prices to Guayaquil: US$ 160 instead of..... US$560!!! That's a not just a little bargain, that's practically a give away :-D

The second budget buster is the tickets to the Galapagos and sadly there, no chance of getting discounts on flights as the demand is just too high! That'll be US$ 356 (each!) in the airline's pocket. It's cheaper from Guayaquil than from Quito, so at least we save a few bucks there. But we're still looking at something like US$1000 per person for the whole 10 day trip.... :-S Gloups...

It's tricky to plan how much time we'll need and which islands we want to see. Of course, I'm doing the planning... Easter being early this year, we're blessed with Thursday 20th and Friday 21st of March being feriados. Then I figure we can stretch the trip through the following week until Monday 31st, day we would fly back to Lima. Unfortunately, LAN doesn't fly Guayaquil-Lima on Sundays so the return flight will have to be on the Monday.

Mmmm the sweet taste of travel :-)

Wanna read up on the Galapagos? Check out GoVisitGalapagos for a detailed island per island description. And GeoOdyssey for a geo-eco-oceano-evolutionary report. Of course there's always WikiTravel too.

Part Two: Having Guests.

As some know, we have guests staying with us since Wed 6th of Feb and it's really been a pleasure having them (mind you, they're not gone yet!). Paul and Lisseth are a really nice couple. The fact they are canadian and peruvian gives us a nice insight into both cultures and the fact Lisseth is pregnant gives me a nice aperçu of what it'll be like when, er... I get pregnant (some faraway day).

We are renting a car to hit the beach tomorrow. Yannick and I had tried the lengthy walk on the crowded limenian beaches next to our doorstep but the water is really filthy. We're talking about perhaps going to Huancayo by train next week, we'll see if that gets to something. Both Lisseth and Paul are really good cooks and we get to try some of the food they prepare. I've learnt one of Lisseth's Mom yummy salsa recipe and stuffed emapanadas with it.

We also went bowling together, on Sunday, at Larcomar (65 soles for an hour + 4.50 soles for the shoes, bring your socks!) and it was a lot of fun, even though Yannick won both games. Last Tuesday, Paul tried to get us to go to the CineBar, the cinema's fancy theatre where you get a free drink included in the price of your slightly-more-expensive-but-still-cheap ticket. We wanted to see Antes de Partir ( = The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman, not Denzel Washington) but the CineBar was full so we settled for our usual 8.50 soles Tuesday bargain.