Ecuador/Peru - Part I (Bellavista Cloud Forest)

Hello!

This series chronicles my trip to Ecuador and Peru back in March/April 2017 which includes a cruise of the Galapagos Islands and day trips to Quito, Machu Picchu and Cusco. The whole trip lasted over 2 weeks, and was by far, one of the most expensive trips we've ever taken. It's interesting to think that my husband and I took our first married trip together back in 2007, so it's only natural that we have a bit more financial stability for a larger trip 10 years later. The Galapagos cruise itself was a major portion of the cost. We actually used airline miles for our flights which was a major cost saver. Our airline miles were all through United Airlines, but we used our miles on their partner airlines. The only real negative to this was the difficulty of seat selection. At one point, I just called the actual airline, and they assisted me.

When choosing a Galapagos tour, there are a surprisingly large number of them. You can select the ridiculously expensive expedition with National Geographic, but there are both major and private boats that offer less expensive cruising adventures to the Galapagos Islands. We briefly considered going through one of the major cruise lines, but since we were traveling with a group of friend for this trip, we opted for a smaller cruise company that offered a more customized itinerary. This had both its benefits and its drawbacks which I'll explain in a later blog. We used a company called CNH Tours for the Galapagos portion only, and booked everything else ourselves.

We began our journey with a 7:30AM cab to the airport. Copa Airlines took our carryon bags and checked them (big frowny face if you know my travel style), so I was anxious the entire way to Quito about our bags making it safely. The first leg of our trip was from Dulles to Panama. About 2 hours into the 4.5 hour flight they served us a hot meal. Very strange. They usually try to bring you food/beverage services right away, but not this time. In fact, we were wondering if they would even serve us anything at all. They did, it just took them a while.

After a 45 min layover in Panama, we boarded a 1.5 hour flight to Quito, Ecuador. They fed us again on that flight (a warmed chicken and cheese sandwich with banana chips) which was another pleasant surprise.

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador one full day before our Galapagos flight just in case something went wrong and it took us longer to arrive. But, we got there with no issues. Everyone's bags arrived safely, and our hotel driver was waiting for us at the terminal to drive us to La Casa Hacienda La Jimenita. This hotel was significantly outside "downtown" Quito, but suited our purposes for the 2 nights we would stay there. The drive to get there took us through some less desirable parts of Quito, but the grounds of the hotel were absolutely stunning. The hotel itself was rustic but very charming and the rooms were huge! The travel agency had arranged a delivery of the most stunning roses for all of us which was a pleasant (if wasteful) surprise.

La Casa Hacienda La Jimenita - Quito, Ecuador

We ate dinner at the hotel which was a little pricy, but we couldn't complain about the sheer amount of food they gave us. The night itself was a little rough. Although the rooms were very spacious, they weren't temperature controlled, and we had a rather vocal cricket serenading us.

Since we arrived a full day before our cruise, we arranged for a day trip to a place called the Bellavista Cloud Forest (as if we weren't going to get enough nature in the Galapagos, haha!). (Side note: if you have more than a day, you can actually spend the night at Bellavista if you want to extend your cloud forest experience.) The mini-bus from the facility arrived a little after 6AM to drive us there. Unfortunately the estimated 1.5-2 hour ride took approximately 3 hours. Traffic and windy roads made for a long journey, and we hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

They served us breakfast promptly upon arrival which started out as fruit, granola, and bread, but then they brought around made to order eggs. After breakfast, we all got rubber boots and started our trek through the forest. They asked us which trail we wanted to take: the easy one or the more advanced one. Being a group in our early/mid 30s, we opted for the advanced one. Ha...little did we know. It was fun, but definitely an adventure.

It started off as a nice walk through a forest. The guide told us all about the local flora and fauna. We took pictures of strange plants and bizarre insects. We crossed some wet and muddy areas (glad for the rubber boots), and then we came to a very pretty waterfall. All of the sudden, the guide pointed to a rope on the side and indicated that we were all going to climb UP the waterfall. Have you ever climbed up a waterfall before?? Yeah... me either! Needless to say, the rubber boots only protect your feet from water when you submerse them, not when you have water cascading into them.

We certainly worked up an appetite for lunch and enjoyed trout with beans and rice. Then we all took turns holding a humming bird feeder. I absolutely adore humming birds, so this was definitely something I really loved! We could have stayed at Bellavista longer, but we were all pretty tired by that point and knew we had a long ride back. After another 3 bumpy, long hours, we made it back to our hotel.

Hummingbirds - Bellavista Cloud Forest - Ecuador

If you have the time, the hotel grounds has their own tunnels and ruins to explore. I'm almost sad we didn't have an extra day to spend just around the hotel, but our flight to Baltra the next morning wouldn't wait.

Join me next time as we leave the mainland, and head for the islands made famous by Charles Darwin.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Georgia on my mind - Part IV (Atlanta & Stone Mountain)

Hello! Welcome to my last post from my trip to Georgia. After a lovely visit to Savannah, we headed north toward Atlanta. We checked out of the historic 17hundred90 Inn, collected some mini cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins for our 3.5 hour car ride.

We stopped first at the Stately Oaks plantation house in Jonesboro where Margaret Mitchell spent her summers as a child and supposedly set the story of her famed novel, Gone with the Wind. The plantation home was surprisingly smaller than I would have imagined, or smaller than I always pictured Tara or Twelves Oaks being, but it was still really neat to visit a historic plantation from the Civil War era.

Stately Oaks Plantation - Jonesboro, Georgia

From Jonesboro, we drove just 30 minutes more to Atlanta. We didn't spend a lot of time in Atlanta. Major cities aren't really my thing, but we did make a point to visit the World of Coca-cola and the 1996 Olympic Park. If you ever get the chance, the coke museum is super fun. You can taste cokes from all over the world. Some of them are delicious, and other are super super gross!

Olympic Park - Atlanta, Georgia

The olympic park was neat, but it just reminded me of all the other forgotten olympic cities. When we were in Germany, we passed the site of a former olympic games, and there was hardly a marker commemorating it. Cities bid years in advance to host an olympic games, and then spend millions in preparation for it, only to have it practically forgotten just a few years later. I felt the same way when I visited Beijing. We stopped for a glance at the former Olympic park, and that was it.

Anyway, for dinner, we indulged in a some classic southern food. I got fried chicken, and my husband got catfish and grits.

After dinner, we left Atlanta for the Hampton Inn at Stone Mountain. The last day of our trip also happened to coincide with my birthday, so we planned a day at a place called Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is kind of like the Mount Rushmore of the south. It's this giant stone carving that's really really far away. Stone Mountain (unlike Mt. Rushmore) is a carving of Confederate generals from the Civil War.

Stone Mountain - Georgia

We didn't bother walking across the grass to get a closer look. At Stone Mountain, they also have hiking and a high ropes course which we enjoyed, though it wasn't as challenging as I would have liked. It was definitely more geared for kids.

I enjoyed a birthday funnel cake and some mini golf complete with a hole in one! We went to a place called Aldo's Cafe for dinner, thinking it was ok to dress casually. It ended up being a much more upscale Italian eatery, so we felt very underdressed, but enjoyed a delicious meal nonetheless.

We flew home from the Atlanta airport the next morning and were home by dinner. I hope you enjoyed reading about the fun adventures you can have right here in the United States. Although I still think I prefer foreign travel, I really did enjoy this week and remember it fondly!

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Georgia on my mind - Part III (Savannah)

Savannah is a beautiful place to visit, and I have very fond memories of the couple days we spent here, but we had a bit of a rough start getting there. I'm the first person to admit that sometimes despite the best planning, vacations don't always go your way. Maybe an entire vacation isn't awful, but I've definitely had bad moments on vacations even in the most beautiful or exotic places.

Tuesday, May 13 started out as planned. We enjoyed our final meal at the Greyfield Inn which included eggs, bacon, berry smoothies, and banana walnut pancakes. we departed the island at 10:45AM and were back on Amelia Island by 11:30. We got a quick ice cream fix at a local fudge shop in Fernandina Beach before getting in the car and heading north to Savannah.

The 1.5 hour drive went by pretty quickly as we took in the scenery around us and imagined living in a place like that. Our first stop in Savannah was Tybee Island (or Savannah Beach). I was hoping it would be a cute town like Fernandina, but it wasn't. It was literally nothing more than a beach, beach homes/rentals, and a couple of poorly placed junk shops. I was so disappointed. We planned on making this a beach day, but when we found the beach, it was crowded and not even terribly warm outside, so we just left. I guess having a private beach on Cumberland Island for the last 2 days really spoiled us, or maybe I was just over beaching it. I'm not a beach lover generally, but there was nothing in the town. Not even restaurants. Tybee Island - major disappointment.

So, we continued into "downtown" Savannah and checked into our hotel. I wanted to stay at a historic place without spending a fortune. There are a lot to choose from, but not many at the price point (and quality) I was looking for. I chose the 17Hundred90 Inn. Interestingly enough, my sister ended up staying at that exact inn almost exactly a week after I was there. Neither of us knew the other was even going to be in Savannah, let alone stay at inn, but we both had similarly delightful experiences.

After checking in, we found dinner at the Bier Haus before making our way to Forsyth Park and touring some of historic Savannah. What a beautiful place!

Unlike breakfast at the Greyfield Inn, breakfast at the 17Hundred90 Inn was VERY carb heavy. They had mini cinnamon rolls, donuts, danishes, croissants, mini muffins, etc. Delicious, but less than ideal.

After breakfast, we set out to explore this lovely southern city. We started by touring the home of Juliette Low who founded the Girl Scouts. We then visited the giant cathedral and got lunch at a local restaurant.

We spent the afternoon roaming the streets. We did some souvenir shopping and made our way to the waterfront. This really is just a beautiful place to get lost in. Let yourself wander. Take in the beauty of the old homes and the spanish moss.

We made a pit stop at Leopold's Ice Cream which ended up being dinner, but totally worth it. We got ourselves caught in a rain storm in the late afternoon, and then ended the day with a performance of Savannah Life at the historic Savannah Theater. The show was ok. It was pretty much just a 2-hour cabaret with classic and contemporary songs. Nothing too special, but entertaining enough.

I don't know that we needed anymore time than we had in Savannah, but I would have liked another day to explore more streets, more shops, and to relax, but instead we continued our tour through Georgia ending in Atlanta.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Georgia on my mind - Part II (Cumberland Island)

Welcome back to my new series on Georgia (with a touch of Northern Florida sprinkled in). Before I continue on with our time spent at the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island, I thought I would take a quick moment to tell you why this place is so special.

Most of you have probably heard of Andrew Carnegie, right? Pittsburg steel tycoon from the late nineteenth century. Although Andrew Carnegie gets most of the Carnegie family recognition, his brother, Thomas contributed much to the family's steel success and reaped the lucrative benefits. Thomas and his wife, Lucy Ferguson, picked Cumberland Island off the coast of Florida (although it's considered part of Georgia) as a vacation getaway from Pittsburg. Lucy originally bought and restored the Dungeness mansion which remains in ruins on the island now due to a fire. But Lucy also had a hand in the purchase and design of several other buildings on Cumberland Island for her children. Greyfield Inn was built for her daughter but is now open for public reservations (though it's still owned and operated by the Carnegie family). It is still outfitted with the layout and furnishings from when it was originally built in 1900, and the guests get to enjoy a true step back in history complete with no tv, internet, wifi, etc. They also get to dress for an elegant dinner each evening. By contrast, however, there are some caveats to the island that make it not so pleasurable. The bugs, for one. Cumberland Island is completely untreated with any sort of pest control, so the insects are ruthless. (Hence the giant bottle of OFF that we got at Walmart the previous day).

The boat ride from Fernandina Beach took only about 45 minutes. The boat was partially open, so I expected the ride to be breezier than it was. The lack of wind actually made the ride very unpleasant, but I don't really fault anyone for that. The moment we arrived, we immediately got attacked by mosquitos. They weren't kidding when they said the island was untreated.

One of the most amazing things about Cumberland Island are the wild horses. I read about the wild horses in reviews and other accounts of the island, but I didn't know if we would encounter them or not. We definitely did, and they are amazing! More on that in a bit.

Back to the inn itself. You have your option of several types of rooms when staying at Greyfield. Some of them include a shared bathroom, which isn't something I was willing to consider at the time. As soon as the boat arrived, we took a quick tour of the house and grounds before settling into the Porch Suite which came with its own private bath.

Each breakfast and dinner is served communally, but lunch is served via picnic lunch. Before too long, we grabbed our picnic lunch, chose some bikes from their selection, and set out to explore the south side of the island.

We rode to the Dungeness ruins and saw wild horses and turkeys. Then we continued along the path and found the most beautiful deserted beach. Who could resist such a charming place when you have a beach all to yourself. We didn't wear suits that afternoon but made a note to come back the next day.

Dungeness Ruins - Cumberland Island, GA

Wild Horses - Cumberland Island, GA

Deserted beach - Cumberland Island, GA

After our afternoon adventure, we rode back to the inn, got showers and dressed for cocktail hour which ran from 6:00-7:15. We're pretty early eaters, so we were definitely famished by this point. They had homemade watermelon guespacho with two different kinds of salami/chorizzo, crackers, and pickles. It wasn't much, but it satisfied us until dinner at 7:30.

The dinner conversation was relatively awkward because we were easily the youngest people at the table by 30 years. We made polite small talk (and met a lady who rents a property to Matchbox 20) and enjoyed a rather overly fancy meal. The first course was crabcake followed by an oversized dinner plate with 4 sea scallops on it. Dinner was chocolate soufflets. I'm not generally a huge fan of small portion, fancy food. It was fine but not terribly satisfying.

Our night started off comfortable enough. The a/c in the room was very comfortable, but it felt like it turned off in the middle of the night because we woke up sweating. In the reviews, I recalled reading about a very carb heavy breakfast, so I was pleasantly delighted by a breakfast of eggs, sausage and potatoes. After an 8:30 breakfast, we joined the 9:30AM naturalist tour of the northern part of the island given by the Greyfield naturalist, Travis.

The tour lasted 3-4 hours and took us to the Plum Orchard Plantation home formerly owned by one of Lucy Ferguson's children and the first African American Baptist church where JFK Jr got married. The tour was very interesting but bumpy. We all sat in the back of a pickup truck on benches.

Nature Tour (see the gator??) - Cumberland Island, GA

Nature Tour - Cumberland Island, GA

Plum Orchard Plantation - Cumberland Island, GA

When we got back from the nature tour, we ate our picnic lunch in our room while getting ready for some beach time. We rode past the Dungeness ruins again and enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the water. Have you ever had an entire beach to yourself? There's really nothing quite like it.

Empty Beach - Cumberland Island, GA

Back at the inn, we enjoyed another round of appetizers including little salmon rolls with an eggplant and red pepper salsa. Dinner was a cold zucchini soup with shrimp followed by triple tail fish over squash and white beans. They gave us little pound cakes with fruit on top for dessert.

In my journal from that trip, I made the note, "after some witty conversation with a CPA, child psychologist (Catherine), architect (Sven), actor, and several former CEOs, we called it a night."

Our 2 night stay at Greyfield Inn was incredibly expensive, but such a memorable experience. How the rest of the folks at our dinner table that evening could spend an entire week there, I don't know. But perhaps they know the true meaning of unwind and relax, where after day or two, I'm ready to go again. That's the kind of traveler I am.

Next up, we left Cumberland Island and headed for Savannah.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Georgia on my mind - Part I (St. Augustine & Fernandina Beach, FL)

My blogs are overwhelmingly about traveling abroad (except for previous blogs on Alaska and San Francisco). I absolutely love exploring foreign cities and cultures and cuisine. But sometimes (more often than I care to admit) there are adventures to be had in your own back yard (or at least your same time zone). After our MASSIVE 2.5 week trip to Germany, Austria, and Denmark, my husband and I decided that our next vacation would be on a smaller scale (both time and cost). 

So, I began my research as I always do, try to find something that strikes me as a must see, and plan the rest of the itinerary from there. We considered briefly the diamond mine in Arkansas, but there isn't too much else around there to make and entire trip out of it. Then, I found it. The Greyfield Inn. I absolutely adore history, and the Greyfield Inn is an "all inclusive resort" on Cumberland Island in Georgia. I put the words all inclusive resort in quotation marks for a reason. It's all inclusive alright, but it's also a major MAJOR step back in time. But more on that when we get there. Having decided that the Greyfield Inn would be our central destination for this trip, we started planning other activites around it. The closest airport to Greyfield is Jacksonville, Florida, and that is where this blog series begins. 

Greyfield Inn - Cumberland Island

Unlike most trips I take, where it's go go go without any stopping or relaxing, this trip was absolutely the opposite. I'm definitely not a beach bum, so no vacation of mine will ever include an entire day at the beach, but this trip was way more relaxing than most trips I plan. 

We boarded an 8:30AM flight to Jacksonville, Florida and landed about an hour and a half later. The brilliant thing about traveling stateside is that you can rely on American things. Unlike previous European nightmarish experiences with rental cars, in Florida, we could go with the cheapest rental car we could find (without worrying about automatic transmission and GPS, etc). We then hit up a local Walmart. The saying goes, "whatever you can't pack, you can buy there." Well, I have definitely found that NOT to be true. (Singapore, for example doesn't have the same types of over the counter medications you would expect to find. And we had a heck of a time finding ear drops in Ecuador.) In Florda, however, that wasn't an issue.

At Walmart, we got some fun vacation snacks, a giant bottle of deet bug spray (you'll understand why later), and some cheapo beach towels that we could use, abuse, and discard before going home. From there, we drove about an hour to the town of St. Augustine, the oldest US settlement. I know what you're thinking. What about Jamestown?? Isn't Jamestown the oldest settlement? Well, yes. And no. Haha. Jamestown is the oldest English settlement. St. Augustine was founded by Spain in 1565, but Florida wasn't one of the original 13 colonies, so it's settlements are often forgotten. Jamestown wasn't established until 1607. 

St. Augustine is a super cute town, and we had a great day there. We saw the old Spanish fort, the Lightener Museum, Flagler College, and just walked lazily down the streets browsing the cute boutique shops. The Lightener Museum was really neat. It was originally an early 1900s hotel and spa complete with all sorts of indoor spa amenities that we don't typically associate with the 1900s. I found it utterly fascinating and fun to think about that type of luxury during the Guilded Age. 

Flagler Museum - St. Augustine, Florida

For dinner, we ate at a local place called Barnacle Bills. I wanted to indulge in all of the southern comfort cuisine, and Barnacle Bills hit the spot. Nothing to write home about, but it was fun and satisfying. 

Shrimp 'n Grits with rice, beans, peaches, and hush puppies

Fish tacos with oranges, apple sauce, and hush puppies

We stayed at a hotel (more of a motel, actually) called the Jaybird Inn. I chose it (back in 2014) because it was within walking distance of oldtown St. Augustine (so we could park for free), and because it seemed like it was recently renovated, got good reviews, and was cheap. We stayed for one very pleasant night, enjoyed a light (complementary) breakfast the next morning, and headed slightly farther north to Fernandina Beach.

If there is anywhere that constitutes as a cute American beach town, it's Fernandina Beach, Florida. Our final destination that day was Cumberland Island, Georgia, but to get there, we had to take a boat at our appointed time. First, we found the Greyfield Inn parking lot with ease thanks to the detailed instructions sent to us by Greyfield. We left our luggage in the car for the time being, and walked around town for a little while until we had to meet the Lucy R. Ferguson.

Fernandina Beach, Florida

Fernandina Beach, Florida

Fernandina Beach, Florida

We stopped for lunch at a cute coffee shop and split a bagel and cinnamon roll. Then we walked around this picturesque, seaside town until meeting our boat at 12:15PM.

Lucy R. Ferguson - Boat that took us to Cumberland Island

Starting that evening, and for the next 2 days, we were completely taken back to the land that time forgot. If you ever want to go somewhere that really lets you unwind, unplug, and step back into history, Cumberland Island is the place for you. Stay tuned to my next blog post for all of the details.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler