Making memories! ?

Like every other study abroad blogger who started out diligently recording her experiences, as the semester has been winding down I've been off the radar. 

Not to say I haven't done a lot.  A few of the bigger trips included:

I spent a week in paradise in the Galápagos.

Crabs befriending iguanas

Sea lions are the best

Can you tell which is rock, which is iguana?

Same question, applied to giant tortoises

proof that dinosaurs existed

Pelicans, sea lions, and boobies are all excited for the leftovers at the fish market

Sea turtle rape.  I mean,"mating" by multiple males

Blue-footed Booby!

Frigatas!

Posing in the soft streetlight

I finally made it to the coast--the deserted and beautiful Mompiche, the lively Atacames with as many ceviche venders as big turquoise waves.

$5 hostel in Mompiche, 5 steps from the shore

All ours

I took the >8hr bus journey to the lovely Cuenca in southern Ecuador, visited Incan ruins, went to a Panama hat museum.

Mimicking "la Cara del Inca"

Cuenca is known as the cultural capital of Ecuador

National park Cajas, before the lightning and thunder settled in

Ingapirca, the somewhat unimpressive Incan ruins

I've attended two world cup qualifying games of the national team as they won first against Venezuela, next against Perú.

Not a seat unfilled at el Estadio Olimpico

I hiked Rumiñahui, a volcano overlooking underlooking one of Ecuador's Big Ten, Cotopaxi.  Oh, and happened to see a CONDOR (the nation's bird, with a ten-foot wingspan) nbd.

Got lost and accidentally climbed that hump. Huff puff

The world is your oyster

Thunder in the distance, all we've got is sunshine

 All of this only made me realize that the "time of my life"-type experiences happen when I wouldn't even think to bring my camera, within walking distance of home, in ugly buildings with poor lighting, in the rain, in otherwise mundane settings.  The bigger trips I've taken that outwardly seem to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity have been more frustrating and disappointing than anything.  This only makes me wish I had some way of recording the dinnertime jokes made with July, the empleada, about that handsome guard, the eye contact made with tired strangers as we'd stand squished up against each other on the nighttime bus home, teaching a teacher how to gracefully pick up American chicks (hissing, whistling, bad!), realizing at times I could relate more to one of the two Ecuadorian friends I've made here than all of my gringo friends.  But all of that just passes like this: