Trip to Quito

One week before thanksgiving, I was a little desperate to get out of town. It had been almost 3 months since we got back from our honeymoon and I was anxious to get out of town. I looked for months for small trips out of Tampa that didn't require me to take any days off. We were almost ready to take a 4 day cruise to Cozumel until I worked a crazy week and got the perfect excuse to compensate those extra hours with 3 days off during thanksgiving week. Since I had Thursday and Friday off, I only needed 3 days to get out of town for one whole week. My boss was OK giving me the days- I wasn't sure I could ask for any more time this year. I checked flights to Quito and LAN had great fares. We left Saturday November 19th and stayed until November 26th. It was only a 3 and a half hour flight from Miami. The pain is always the drive to Miami (4 hours) and that the highway is so boring!!! I loved LAN's airplanes and the personal TVs for each passenger.

Arriving to Quito was beautiful. Flying over the Andes mountains and volcanoes covered with snow was an incredible sight. I was dying to get my camera out but had already been given the warning to turn everything off. Quito is located in the middle of the mountains and the airport is in the valley between them. 

Photo Credit: wikipedia

Vacations always go by too quickly. My husband is from Quito and his family and closest friends live there. This was my first trip to Ecuador. I was excited to see his hometown and try all the foods that he is always craving. I knew that some of my favorite Colombian restaurants were in Quito. No wonder why I gained 7 pounds in just one week!!

Our first day was just dinner with Andre's family and then we went to a bar with some of his friends. I felt a little sick that night. Everyone said it was the altitude. I didn't think it was since Bogota is located at 2,600 meters above sea level and Quito is at 2,800 meters and I never get sick in Bogota.

The next morning we were going to the historic downtown for my first tour of one of the largest historic centers in the Americas.

The Big 30!

I turned 30 while I was doing the Hawaii series and I didn't want to interrupt them (until a trip was really big news to break the series). During my 20s, I was convinced that I needed a "before I turn 30" bucket list. I always imagined that I would be in a different place by the time I was 30. Since I'm got married in August, the plan that I had for years to go to Bora-Bora for my 30th birthday did not happen.  I had no vacation days left. The French Polynesian Islands are on the top of my bucket list, but not this year. I had some friends drive from Miami and we celebrated my birthday during Halloween weekend.

After a bad new year's eve I made a resolution to visit at least one new Country (or at least place) every year. This year was all about planning our wedding in my hometown of Cali, Colombia and our honeymoon in Hawaii. Those are 2 of my favorite places in the world, but I was failing my resolution to visit one new country in 2011. Being 30 and with that bucket list half empty, I needed to at least do something about the resolution that I haven't failed in 6 years. I looked for plane tickets to visit my husband's family in Ecuador during the holidays and they were at least 3 times more than going during thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an american holiday, so traviling outside of the US is still considered low season. If you try to travel inside the US is even more expensive than traveling during Christmas. We decided to travel to Quito for one week and take advantage of my 2 paid holiday work days. I was lucky to get the time off. The past month has been probably one of the busiests months of the whole year at work. I will post the pictures from the Ecuador trip in the next weeks. 

I love Hello Kitty

with my family-missing one sister

Honeymoon Day 10 - The end - Mahalo!!

Our last half day in Hawaii we spent the day snorkeling at the beach by the hotel. All the guests are allowed 1 hour of free rental snorkeling equipment daily.

After out last swim, we checked out and drove to the airport which located around 1 hour away from the North Shore. We said good bye to Hawaii and got ready for a 8 hour flight to Chicago, a 3 hour layover in Chicago, and finally a 2 and a half hour flight to Tampa. Hawaii is too far away to go every year, but I know that we will be back!!! I was worried that maybe Andre wouldn't like it or that he would not consider Hawaii worthy of the long flights. He said it was better than he ever imagined. That was the same feeling that I had when I traveled to Hawaii for the first time. Pictures don't show how amazing it really is. If you are considering a trip to Hawaii, you wont be disappointed.

The lobby at the Turtle Bay Resort

Honeymoon Day 9

I'm so sorry that I have been slacking with the Hawaii posts. We went away for one week to Ecuador and leaving means a lot of work before and after taking the days off. I think I'm finally catching up with everything and I can continue with the last honeymoon posts.

This was our last full day in Hawaii. The honeymoon was coming to an end. The whole time that we were in Hawaii we heard a song in the radio that I couldn't get out of my head for days after we got back. We decided to upgrade our rental car for a convertible for the last few days of our honeymoon. We listened to a really good local reggae radio station while we were in Hawaii. I wish that there was one in Tampa.

The view from our room

The first stop was Sunset Beach, my favorite beach in Oahu. We stayed for a few hours and then we drove to the town of Haleiwa for lunch.

Sunset Beach

On our way back, while we were driving on Kamehameha Highway (83) we saw a crowd at the same beach were I saw a huge Hawaiian green sea turtle 3 years ago. Here is a picture of the turtle from my previous trip to Oahu. We stopped to see what was going on. We finally saw turtles up close during our trip. We didn't see any of them laying in the sand, but there were 4 or 5 swimming next to us. I'm sure that they didn't want to get close to the sand because of all the people standing on the beach.

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles

We spent the late afternoon and our last night in Hawaii at the Polynesian Center. We got the ticket for the Ali'i Luau and the evening show. This was a different show than the one I saw 3 years ago. The Polynesian Center is definitely worth a day's visit, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time.

At the Luau

We only had half a day left on our honeymoon and we were not ready to leave Hawaii.

Honeymoon Day 8 - Part 2 - Back to Oahu

We got back from the island of Kauai to Oahu for 2 more days before returning to Tampa. We decided to stay in the North Shore this time. Waikiki feels too much like Miami's South Beach. Kauai was magical and at times I felt in a different world. There were less tourists, it was rural, and the 4x4 jeep allowed us to explore remote beaches.

We wanted to stay at the Turtle Beach Resort for the last 2 days in Oahu. I fell in love with the hotel when I watched the movie "Forgetting Sara Marshall". We spent the evening walking around the beaches by the hotel. We had some drinks at the pool bar, watched the sunset, and had dinner at Leonardo's, the hotel's Italian restaurant.

The view from our room

The massage room

We found some hammocks around the hotel. It was the perfect spot to relax.

We kept walking towards the stables. I love horses. I wished I was staying longer at the hotel to do some horse backriding. We only had enough time to visit the north shore's beaches and the Polynesian Center. We were sad that the trip was coming to an end and wanted to see as much of Oahu as possible.

The end of a perfect day

Hola from Quito, Ecuador

We have been in Quito for 4 days. Our trip has been great except that for the first time in my life I've had high altitude sickness. I got some coca tea to help with the headache and the nausea.

I've taken lots of pictures. Here are some that I took with my cell in the colonial downtown last Sunday. I will post more pictures later. I will continue with the Honeymoon posts first, and then I will write about Ecuador. Chao!

We are off to Ecuador

I have to take a short break from the honeymoon series. Andre and I are going to his hometown, Quito, for one week. I have never been to Ecuador so I'm excited to visit a new place. We are driving to Miami and then flying to Quito with LAN. I heard that the airplanes are nice. Wish me luck!

Chao :)

Honeymoon Day 8 - Part 1 - Kauai from the Air

The best way to say goodbye to Kauai was with a helicopter ride to see the rest of the island. Most of Kauai is not accessible, so the only way to really see it is by air. We decided to use Jack Harter Helicopters for the tour. The other options were the standard helicopters with room for 6 passengers. The passengers are seated by weight, so there is a chance that you wont get a window. The open door helicopter is only for 4 passengers, so everyone gets a prime view. We had seen a lot of Kauai by water and land. It was a great experience and see everything that we visited the days before from the air. This was the first time that I ever went on a helicopter ride. It was a little scary to have the open door/windows, but it was worth it. The tour was unbelievable, the pilot gave us many close ups to the falls, mountains, the valleys in the Napali coast, and into Mount Waialeale. I am happy that we picked Kauai as the island for our honeymoon, it was more beautiful than we imagined. Since pictures are worth a thousand words here are lots of pictures. 

Kalapaki Beach & our hotel on the right side

Jurassic Park Falls

The first sight of the Waimea Canyon

The Napali Coast from the air

I got the front seat and Andre got the back seat

Kee Beach from the air

Bali Hai from the air

Lumahai Beach from the air

Inside an inactive volcano crater

Waterfalls inside the crater of Mount Waialeale

Waterfalls everywhere

Wailua Falls

Mahalo Kauai, until we meet again. We were on our way back to Oahu for 2 more days before saying good bye to paradise.