March 11

We had to wake up very early for our bus tour. Our tour guide, Paula, was very nice. We went to 2 basilicas. One was really big and if you looked at the glass heart in the wall, you could see the statue of the Virgin Mary. The second basilica was painted on the inside with 100% gold leaf. HISTORY: when an electrical fire started inside, the gold leaf started melting. Now the only evidence of it is a cherub that still has a sooty face. There was also a "grande" box with a lot of little boxes with numbers on them around a big door. Paula joked that the maker had his tongue cut off because treasure was in that box. So we tinkered around with it and it opened! Sadly, no treasure. Next we went to lunch. I got chicken soup and an empanada. Gaby was about to go into the boys bathroom but Uncle Michael yelled out, "Gaby! The girls lay the eggs!" ha-ha. Then we went to the equator. We had this really cool guide! He showed us everything from shrunken heads, to finger bananas, to animals that swim up where the pee comes from if you swim in the amazon. We tried all of this different stuff on the equator to see if it was easier, and it was! Also, water actually flows clockwise-counterclockwise in the different North-South areas, and on the equator it goes straight down. Then we took the bus back to our hotel.

March 10

My omelet was so good! I also got biscuits and gravy, bacon, and eggs. After breakfast, Madeleine and I went up to our room. Then when she went downstairs to get the key to her room, I followed her. When the elevator opened to let me out, she was there! So at the end of a long discussion, we decided to go to the (top) 10th floor. Between floors 2&3 the elevator stopped and the doors wouldn't open! I prayed. Then I told Madeline to lay on her stomach and not panic. After what seemed like forever (thinking about what would happen if it dropped) a mechanic came and pried the doors open. They knew that we were in there because Madeline had pressed the help button twice. The adults told us that they had thought it was weird that the elevator was not moving, but when they looked closer, Uncle Michael said, "HEY! Those are our kids!" We almost missed the tram because of "The Elevator Of Doom" but we made it and met mom and dad at brookstone. By then, there were gale force winds outside and pounding rain. "Would we be able to fly?"


We were. The airplane ride was great (LAN rules!!) we had TV's on the backs of our seats and everything was free! Even the adult drinks! (daddy liked that) But sadly the airplane ride seemed like only 5 minutes before we got into Quito and checked in at The Radisson Quito. I had Shrimp Soup and empanadas for dinner. I fell asleep on the couch-bed in Gaby and Poppy's room (with the help of a sliver of ambian.) :)

March 9

We woke up at 6:00 in San Francisco and barely made it to the shuttle. The airplane trip was OK. When we got to our hotel on Miami, Braeley and I were starving!So we ordered pizza. When we were coming back to our room after exploring, the other Moran's jumped out of THEIR room and said, "Hello!" Then we fell asleep in our room.

Today we went exploring. We found an abandoned pirate cave! Then we drove to a giant lava tube. There was once pirate gold in it. There was an overhang that was 2 feet off the ground. Gaby's face was priceless when she saw she had to crawl through it! We ran up the stairs to the top. The trucks were waiting for us there. We drove to the airport and flew to Quito. We settled in and went to bed.
Braeley

Today after breakfast we went and hiked the wetlands. There we saw marine iguanas and lots of funny flamingos. We kept walking and came into a jungle. As I walked in there were benches around a little table with a little apple on it. I found out that it's a was a poison apple. We walked a while to a tortoise farm. There were hundreds of them. They had them in every age, even 150 years old! We went into a learning center. It was pouring down rain. But my dad got us popsicles. We waited a while for the cars and then we drove to the Wall of Tears. The motto when they were building it was "the weak died and the strong cried". We climbed up 188 steps, then we drove to the dock. We boated to Santa Cruz. We drove to the Charles Darwin Research Center. Then we saw the land iguanas. They're all yellow. We learned all about them. There were also giant tortoises. Did you know their main predators are rats and ants? After that we drove to where we ate on the first day. We ate lunch there and hung out until dinner. That night we slept in these awesome tree houses! Then we went to bed.
Braeley

Today we drove to the base of a volcano. On the way up I saw a red bird called the Vermilion Flycatcher. Also, this wacky group on the way up sang songs, like "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho", "Follow Me, Boys", and "The Beer Song". When we got to the top our guide, Carmen, got a stick and started explaining the volcano. On the way up, my dad was complaining about a bubbly stomach. So, when she started talking about gases getting so excited and explosive, I bet you know what's coming next! My dad started cracking up! Then after we came down, we ate at a fruit farm. They had an "Egg Plant" (a kind of cactus with eggs on the tips). We also saw a tree as toll as the redwoods. There were also awesome hammocks. We ate lunch and went to our beach we played in the ocean for a long time and then we went to bed.

Braeley

Today we ate breakfast and drove to the tortoise "sanctuary". When we came in we almost stepped on one! There were 20-30 of them. Afterward we watched them for awhile we went in to some crevices. We also saw a pirate cave! It even had a stove. On the way down they gave us "plums". They tasted horrid! After we got back we packed up and drove to the dock. On the steps there were 6 baby sea wolves. We had to shoo one away to get out to the boat. We drove to Isabela and found that we got a free yummy drink! We then went snorkeling, came back and went to bed.