Lima by Night

Am in Lima, Peru for a couple days of meetings.  Managed to duck out for an evening stroll in the Miraflores District, and found some delightful venues; all along the Pacific waterfront is an ambling malecon, with fountains, lights, churches and a large 3 story mall.  Being such an urban wonk, I am very impressed with the scale and elegance of the oceanfront redevelopment!  More photos to come.  Happy Halloween from Peru! (where they take Halloween VERY seriously!)

Centro Commercial Larcomar on the Pacific

Nuestra Senora de Fatima 

Fatima Church in Miraflores

Shelly's Wall Garden

A couple months ago, Shelly observed that the back yard wall needed some color  . . . and she had just the idea.  We had been inspired by a living wall we saw in Madrid, Spain last year, and the Guayaquil airport just installed one indoors.

We ordered a felt covered series of plant pockets, hung them in the sun, and voila!  Cilantro, mint, lemon balm, basil, tomatoes, and some ornamentals.  As we are about to enter Guayaquil's rainy season, no watering will be needed, and we have our own spice and veggie garden growing on the wall.  More fun in the sun!  (and the rain).



Shelly, Shelly, how does your garden grow?
With lemon balm 'n cilantro,
and cherry tomatoes all in a row!

Shelly and Heather in front
of the Madrid Wall Garden, 2013

Galapagos Hammerheads, Mola Mola, Rays, and Sea Turtles

Green sea turtles---so zen-like, calm, graceful 

White tipped reef sharks sleeping under the reef

Mola Mola Sunfish---can you see his eye?

The second day diving in Galapagos featured a different cast of characters, at a different location.  Gordon Rocks is on the northeast side of Santa Cruz Island and is considered an expert dive site due to currents and topography.  We went on a 25-30 meter dive there, and were delighted to see hammerhead sharks, mola mola (sunfish) (see this article) , eagle rays, and green sea turtles. At times during the dive, we held onto the rocks, as the currents, and these beautiful creatures, went whizzing past.   An extraordinary day!!

Eagle ray taking off!

Green sea turtle underway

Mola mola (Sunfish) is huge! Can weigh about a ton

Hammerhead Shark!

Galapagos Sharks and Seals

Our first trip to the Galapagos Islands, just an hour flight from our Ecuadorian home, but a whole world away.  Two days of scuba diving, On day one, we saw lots of undersea critters, and were just minding our own business when a sea lion sped by us, leading the way to a cave full of sleeping white tip reef sharks, The seal nudged one, and the shark woke up---the seal chased the shark in an undersea dog and cat fight and we managed to catch some of the playfulness on camera.  Oh, not to mention pufferfish, starfish, turtles, manta rays.  Enjoy the magic of this undersea fun!!!

Banana Plantation Nation

Baby bananas

We had a great field trip to a banana plantation today with wonderful colleagues from work.  Learned so much about one of the mainstays of Ecuador's economy . . . this country is the world's largest exporter of bananas and it is not hard to see why.  There are thousands of acres of territory covered in banana plants and plantations, and each is putting out thousands of boxes of "green gold" a day.   We went with the team of banana cutters in the field, seeing first hand this tough but precise work to get the 70 pound banana stems off the plant and out of the field.  We followed the banana tram to the processing facility and watched the inspection, selection, cutting, washing, labeling, and boxing for export.  Then we enjoyed a great lunch our hosts prepared for us - - - what a great day!    Thanks to Elly Martinez and her family!

Ready to cut the stalks from the plants

Work colleagues on a fun Saturday

Welcome to the plantation!

Ready to cut

I cut, you catch

Banana train heading home

Bringing 'em in from the field

Leaf symmetry

Who knew this would be so fun?!

Measuring and quality control

Prepping for a shower and a bath

Shower time

Boxing clean bananas

Labeling for export to Russia 

2800 boxes a day from this plantation alone

Truck takes the boxes to the ship at noon, and they sail tonight

Workers make about $17+ dollars a day,
slightly better than Ecuadorian minimum wage