The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Day 4

Our last day in Smoky Mountain National Park was a rainy one, so we only had a couple hours to try and hike. We stayed in town (Gatlinburg) and took the couple mile Gatlinburg Trail which connected to a couple other trails. We walked a few miles until it started pouring, and then called it a day.

 

We didn't get to all the hikes we wanted to do, so we will be heading back another time - definitely when it is less crowded!

  The Fab Four! 😁

 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Day 3

We were once again up early to go back and hike Laurel Falls Trail, which we didn't realize was paved pretty much the entire four mile round-trip way. We did enjoy some pretty foliage along the walk....

We then decided to go to Cades Cove - it's a valley where people homesteaded in the 1800's.  We thought this would be just a couple hours, but everyone else in the park was also there and it was a much longer afternoon, albeit an interesting one.

The foliage along the drive was quite nice......

A few of the cabins and sites along the way.....

We saw this bear (and her three cubs) as we were leaving

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Day 2

Today we were up and on the road before daylight........

to get a parking spot at Newfound Gap so we could hike the eight mile, 1,886 ft elevation change round-trip Charles Bunion Hike. We found a parking spot in time to see the sunrise....

And get a picture of the four of us before we set off to Charles Bunion:

Note the puffy jackets (which for us, was the fourth layer over fleece and two long-sleeved shirts), gloves, and hats - it was cold - DAMN cold!  A cold-front came in while we were there and it was in the 40's some mornings - could see your breath.  ⛄ (Jeff and Julie also look cold, huh!)

It was a nice hike, with steady elevation. Eventually we hit some fresh snow from the day/night prior....

We arrived at Charles Bunion in about 2 1/2 hours - and were rewarded with clear skies (it was questionable the entire hike) 

 and some beautiful foliage.....

(Notice that after hiking for 4 miles, pretty much uphill, we are still bundled up - brrrrrr!!!!)

We turned around and made our way to the backpacker shelter (about a mile) to have some lunch and continued back towards the parking lot where we passed a ton of people hiking towards Charles Bunion. One more pic.....

 (We did this hike in 2013 - here's the link to compare the trail conditions, us 10 years younger - gulp!, and what the hike looks like in May, rather than October.)

After hot beverages and hot showers, we had an early dinner and then wandered around the town of Gaitlinburg to try some moonshine and local fruit wines.

We paid something like $7 to try seven different types of moonshine - served in (apparently) communion cups! 😅

How did it taste? As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words:

 

But the jars were pretty, which is worth something!

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Day 1

For our first day of hiking, we decide to start with the 5.5 mile Cucumber Gap Trail, and easy trail in the trees. We were visiting the Smoky's with friends from Oregon and this was a nice easy hike to talk and reconnect. Some pics.......

 

 

The next hike we planned to do was the Laurel Falls trail - just a wee bit down the road. Well, it seemed as if everyone else in the park was there, as we could not find parking no matter how many times we drove by the parking lots. We had learned at The Visitor's Center than Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited park in the US - over 14 million people a year and the busiest month? October, Ugh. So that limited our ability to do more than one hike a day, as if we weren't parked by 8am, it wasn't going to happen. Bummer.

So after some lunch and showers, we took a drive and explores some arts and crafts areas/stores nearby. Not our favorite thing to do, but it was nonetheless nice and there was an opportunity for one more photo for the day......

 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - The Drive

We decided to head to the Smoky Mountains to enjoy the fall foliage and do some hiking. (Little did we know that pretty much every other person this side of the Mississippi River had the same idea! More on that later.)

Since moving to Florida, we have repeatedly heard of "Buc-ees" - a convenience store/gas station phenomenon that has a cult-like following. (Yup - we're serious.) So after many drives up/down I-95 going from/to Florida, we finally decided to make the effort to go to a Buc-ees (which also advertise immaculate bathrooms). 

 

The place was HUGE! It was WAY more than a "convenience store" - there was a full grocery section, clothing area, touristy stuff, cookbooks, gift items, etc.... Pretty much they had everything. They even have these "famous" brisket sandwiches (yes, we tried one - it was okay), 

a dozen (or more) types of jerky, 

 

a bakery, and more. Oh yes, and the restrooms were very clean. And there is gas, for sure. No exaggeration - about 100 pumps. All this being said, we wouldn't go back. It takes WAY too much effort to get to the bathrooms and the gas pumps - much easier to go to a more traditional gas station - and most of the time time a decent one has clean bathrooms. 

 

Hello from Brad & Buc-ee!

 

 

The Galapagos Islands ~ Day 9

Our last day was a travel day - literally - a  travel day:

1. 4am wake up to finish packing.
2. 5am left hotel to walk a mile in the dark to the pier.
3. Water taxi to "ferry."
4. 6am "ferry" back to Santa Cruz.

Don't these seats look nice? Well, we were the last people on the "ferry" and there were no seats left - we think they were over their passenger limit - well, we know that they were over their passenger limit by at least one as Suzanne had to wear some old, leftover life jacket and we sat in the back by the motor and didn't enjoy those comfy seats.

5. Water taxi to Santa Cruz - where once again we paid $1 to get on the island.

6.  Land taxi to the Itabaca Channel - the airport is on Baltra Island, so we needed to take a....

7.  Ferry to island of Baltra.

8. Shuttle bus to the airport. 

 

 (Brad getting tickets for the shuttle bus.)

 

 

 
9. An 11:40am flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador. However we had to get past this guy at the door! 😄

 

Oh, we had to give back the remaining half of the transit card we purchased when we left Guayaquil the week prior. We had no idea where they were, so the women behind the counter just said, "okay, go ahead." (Guess it wasn't such a big deal!) Oh, and there were huge lines at the airport for those who needed to check luggage (not us!) or check-in (done!) - we just walked right into the terminal - yeah!

10. We then had about a 9-hourt layover in the Guayaquil airport where we got some lunch/dinner and sat around while Suzanne graded papers. Eventually at 6pm we were allowed to go into the international terminal where we went through passport control and once again had our bags x-rayed. The agents must have been bored as they also went through our bags and were concerned at the amount of toothpaste and sunscreen we had.  So they took our bottle of sunscreen - fine - but the toothpaste had about 1oz remaining of a regular tube (for the record, we had gotten into Ecuador with more toothpaste) and Suzanne begged them to let her keep it, saying that she hadn't brushed her teeth since 4am and really needed to. They laughed and let her keep it. 

So we went to the Admirals Lounge where they had......showers! Wahoo! We each took showers (they even provided towels), brushed our teeth with our smuggled-in toothpaste, etc... and waited around until our....

 

11. 11:50pm flight to Florida. (Where we grabbed a Lyft and were home around 6:30am, so yes, a day of travel!)

In sum, the trip comprised of.....

• tens days
  
• three islands
• four flights
• four hotels
• three "ferries" (speedboats)
• two pre-arranged snorkel trips via boat
  
• multiple water taxis
• a few land taxis 

So lots of "moving parts" and they all fell into place. (Lucky us.) There was only one rain storm that didn't impact us, huge thunder storms when we left Guayaquil that didn't impact us, and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale just a few hours before it shut-down for three days due to massive storms. Again, we were lucky.

 

Some thoughts about the Galapagos Islands......in no particular order.......

•  We are glad we went. It was on our list for some time now, and the timing was right to do it now.
• That being said, we enjoyed our trips to Hawaii more - in terms of better snorkeling.
• It is an understatement to say that it is hot at the equator - the sun is relentless. 
  
• The wildlife was amazing - giant land tortoises, sea turtles of all sizes, seal lions everywhere, blue footed boobies, etc.....
• The people were very nice and helpful. While some spoke English, many did not, and most people were very accommodating with our very poor Spanish. (Though Isabela had the most reserved people who did not seem quite as friendly.) It is also a trusting society - as we've mentioned, everyone left their belongings out and never once was anything touched.
  
• There was a bit of a "Mexican border town" feeling in terms of so many unfinished buildings. We wondered if we heard a different language - anything but Spanish - would it still have the same feel. We think so due to the unfinished buildings. (Note - there was none of that peddling that one associates with the Mexican border towns.)
• For some reason, we thought it would be lush and tropical. Nope, very desert-like and arid. 
• We really enjoyed running into some of the same travelers again, such as ones we met on the ferries or a snorkel trip. Nearly all the tourists were super nice and enjoyable. 
• We did feel a little "nickel-and-dimed" with the $1 (or $10) to enter each island, etc...
• We really liked not being on a cruise and island-hopping on our own instead. We very much enjoy immersing ourselves in a culture and meeting locals and other travelers who are like-minded in terms of travel. We also enjoyed the multiple ferry experiences - even Brad who was a bit weary at first. 😉

 And that was The Galapagos Islands.

 

The Galapagos Islands ~ Day 8

Today we had our second pre-arranged snorkeling tour - to Los Túneles. After having a typical breakfast at the hotel, we hung out until we were picked-up at the hotel for our 11am tour. The driver literally took us around the corner. 😕 There we met-up with eight other people - five Germans, one Ecuadorian, one Swiss, and three of us from the US - for our snorkeling trip. 

Picture of the harbor on Isabela Island....

As we were heading to Los Túneles, we saw some mantra rays swimming about, but unfortunately were not able to get a picture. We also saw some Nazca (aka Masked) Boobie birds...........

We then arrived to Los Túneles, which is comprised of lava tubes and lava bridges - it was very cool.

Here is our group....

It was here that we had the opportunity to see the iconic Blue Footed Boobies....

These two are wooing one another. Apparently, Blue Footed Boobies are monogamous for one season only - then all bets are off and it's courting time again!

We then started the snorkeling portion of our tour - this time instead of jumping off the boat into the water, it was an easy push off the side.....

 

The water in Los Túneles was very clear at times and we saw lots of sea life, such as huge sea turtles....(note the size of the sea turtle compared to the people.....)....

 

 .......some small sharks......

 

...a seahorse...

....and a variety of fish....

 

After snorkeling we had lunch of chicken and rice and headed back to town. After showering, etc.... we ended up having dinner at a restaurant on the water with two of the German women we met on the snorkel trip and chatted for quite a while about traveling -  it was a lovely time.

This was our last full day in the Galapagos but the journey is not yet over.......