Winter leaf

Nice long walk with Udo.

Habaneros

Just a few days later, the habaneros look even better. I was lucky enough to pick them all before it froze.

This is about a week ago - with a little okra on top:

and this is from today:

Made a small glass full of home made ketchup, boiled a bit of tomato puree in apple vinegar, plus salt, 3 habaneros and a pressed garlic clove - done. I keep it in the freezer, but I think it should keep a few days anyway (because of acidity and capsaicin).

It tastes well - super spicy, though.

Peppers

Peppers and Fruits, to be exact.

The medium green items  and the orange in the upper left are Habaneros. Hm, good but really spicy. The small red items are Chile Piquin and Chile Tipin, both pretty hot, some more, some less.
The big green items are not really ripe Pineapple Guavas - delicious in juices, but also just fresh. Once ripe I know them yellow, but these are edible already. And the one really yellow item in the lower right is a Meiwa Kumquat.

Galapagos Trip - Quito, Ecuador

What a city!
Staying for about 2 days only  - what can you see, truly - but wonderful two days.

Nice airport, really. Less than 2 years old, we've been told. 

Beautiful old town Quito - with the colorful houses and narrow streets. We walked some!

Parque el Ejido in central Quito

View from a park to the mountain ranges around Quito.

Basilica del Voto Nacional

One of the steep streets in Quito - lots of people with cars, but more walking on these wonderful days with look at the angel statue 'el Panecillo'.

Sunday in front of the palacio presidencial. 

Downtown - one of the colorful houses. Lots of flowers in many places, and lots of sculptures, too!

Galapagos Trip - Animals on Santa Cruz

Sally Lightfoot crabs.

Sea iguana - a smaller one.

Grasshopper - colorful and as long as my whole hand.

Galapagos flamingos - a few of the ~ 300 bird population. 

A brown pelican in the mini harbor.

And the sea lion - on the planks along the hotel. Yes, its true, and we actually saw a young sea lion suck milk from its mother. 

Galapagos Trip - the beach on Isabella at the hotel

Fine sand - with some lava rocks in some areas - but a wonderful beach. No dirt or garbage, no dogs, no people. Animals up close - pelicans, and a surprise visit of a sea lion, pufferfish in shallow areas. Crabs, sea iguanas on the rocky parts. Absolutely wonderful.

(Galapagos trip part I, part II, part III , part IV, part V and VI )

Sand on the beach 

Chairs are 20 meters from the sea - separated by fine sand only.

Mangrove flowers on the beach 

Sally Lightfoot crabs

Empty beach

Wading bird

Coconut palm

Galapagos trip - Turtle breeding center

I guess even tortoises can run away. The small turtle breeding center on Isabella Island in the Galapagos Islands is small, but important and has become very successful as well. The giant land tortoises - which are endemic to one or several of the islands - are bred for many years before released.

(Galapagos trip part I, part II, part III , part IV, part V)

If I remember correctly, this is an old lady with 143 years on her shoulders, and the oldest member of her species.

And this is a beautiful acacia tree right at the entrance - where rock lizards are scuttling around and finches let us get closer than a yard.

Galapagos Trip V: some plant shots

Lots of plants we usually don't see.

(Galapagos trip part I, part II, part III , part IV)

Coastal plant on Isabella.

Caldera Plant on Isabella.

Ferns growing on trees on Isabella

Remote place on Isabella, grasslike plant with flower on lava.

Acacia - full of thorns, a large tree mainly thorns, at the turtle breeding center on Isabella

Coastal thorn thicket

Close by the tutle breeding center - no idea what plant.

Hibiscus at the Centro Cultural Metropolitano in the center of Quito.

Same place in Quito

... and same place ....

A yucca, same place. 

Galapagos Trip IV - Animals on Isabella

Great snorkeling - although our guide at times seemed more interested in taping animals than guiding us to spots to see them.

Love the fish, sea anemones, wonderful urchins.

I followed a sea turtle, swam with sea lions and penguins, dove with sharks (small and large) and saw grey and black stingrays.

Sea Iguana - I saw one swim, too, but way to fast to take a picture. (And watching trumps taking pictures, anyway!)

Endemic Galapagos sea lion swirling the water. We could see them from the hotel, surfing the waves, and snorkeling around them was fun!

The little harbor on Isabella - great place to snorkel, too. There was a huge school of 'feed' fish attracting lots of other animals. Think of penguins, sea lions, pelicans diving.

Blue footed boobies. Yes, that's their name, and there are lots of T-shirts available with these.

One of many sea turtles we saw (including while snorkeling :-) ). What a beautiful sight when they glide through the water. 

Boobie with chick.

Flamingos, here! There are said to be around 400 flamingos native on Isabella, and they get their color from shrimp larvae. 

Beautiful - but not that eager to move, this one at least. Amazing how slow they move when grazing (on the rocks or under water). Pretty large, this one was at least 1.5 m including tail. 

Different dude, similar expression. 

Hm. Rocks in the water. 

Land iguana. Quite pretty.

Same species.

Sally Lightfoot crabs - famous for their colorful shells. Lots of black crabs, too, which are super hard to see on all the black lava rocks. 

Galapagos trip part I, part II, part III