I had two years of French from Madame Ewell, and I had assured my father I’d be able to translate for the family while we were in Canada.

I’ll never forget arriving at the Montreal Holiday Inn.  As we pulled our car into the hotel garage a bellman approached.  I got out of the car, ready to parlez-vous francais.  The bellman spoke.  To me, it sounded like unintelligible gibberish.  This wasn’t the French Madame Ewell spoke.

I stood there in stunned silence.  I could see my father’s face getter redder and redder.  I can only assume he was hurriedly devising a Plan B since I would clearly be no help.

My own experience as a father has been quite different.  Quite simply, I’m not sure how Dani and I would have managed if our kids didn’t speak Spanish.  They have handled all the difficult transactions, the questions and answers, and when required, the small talk.

When we did find people who spoke some English, comical conversations often ensued.

Once in Ecuador, I had a twenty minute conversation with a guide. He asked “What kind of cars are popular in the United States?”  I explained about the popularity of Japanese cars, the rapidly improving cars from South Korea, and the difficulties facing the American auto industry.

He nodded the whole time.

Then I asked him about cars in Ecuador. He said: “We have many kinds.  We try to eat some every day.  Roasted.  Boiled.  We use it to make bread.”  Turns out the topic was corn – not cars.

One of our last days in Quito we visited the San Francisco Monastery.

As we entered, a young man approached us and asked if we would like a guided tour.  His English seemed quite good, so we accepted.  He was a young man, about 25, with kind eyes and a gentle demeanor.

He led us through the monastery, explaining each work of art – the religious symbolism and history behind it.

Near the end of the tour he told us about his dream to study in the United States.  He had applied to a program in Texas, and expected to hear soon if he had been accepted.

I asked him how he had learned to speak English so well.  He said he had studied it in school, but had really improved his English by listening to American TV shows and movies.

Then he told us this story:

He had been watching a lot of action movies featuring African-American actors and had learned many new words and slang terms.  He was always looking for opportunities to use the new words he had learned.

One day, an African-American couple visited the Monastery – a rare occurrence.  He sensed an opportunity.

He walked up to the couple, held out his hand and said: “What’s up [n-word]! Want a tour of the monastery, my man?”

Not “Feelings“.  Not “Yesterday“.  And most definitely not “Hotel California“.

If I have to hear “Hotel California” on the pan flute one more time I think I’ll scream.

On our final night in Ecuador we had dinner at Cafe Mosaico, considered by the New York Times to be the “most spectacular eatery in Ecuador.” It’s an amazing place to watch the sun set and the city lights come on.

Our final report on our time in Ecuador – what we did, what we recommend – is here.

For a different view of Ecuador, we headed to Mindo, in the Cloud Forest, for a few days. But when we arrived, instead of clouds, the roads were what caught our attention. And we wondered if we’d made a mistake in coming.

But were were there. So we settled in to El Descanso (clean and with a lovely hummingbird garden behind the dining room).

We took a long walk up the tropical path to the Butterfly Garden accompanied by “Friendly” the dog. He became our spirit guide for the afternoon; he walked us everywhere until we got back to town. He made us realize that it’s not the condition of the road, but who you’re walking with that matters.

Inside the butterflies’ enclosure, I was most excited to see the irridescent blue morpho; Caroline had done a project on this very butterfly in Sra. Newman’s class in third grade. The morpho was shy, but this Ojo de Buho (“owl eyes”) butterfly found a nice spot to pose for our camera.

Early the next morning (after a 5:30 breakfast!), we joined Julia Patino, a birdwatching guide, for a trek into the misty hills to see toucans, tanagers, cuckoos, and parrots. This less rare beauty served as our alarm clock:

We spent the afternoon on the river in tied-together inner tubes while guides muscled the make-shift craft around boulders and through coursing rapids. (We left the camera at the hostel for fear of losing it in the water.)

As we prepared to head back to Quito, we stopped in for a delicious fruit shake at our favorite place in town – this juice bar run by a young ex-pat from Germany.

Mindo had grown on us, and once again we were reminded that first impressions are often wrong.

There are more pictures of Mindo posted here.

I recently read the story of a young man who was both a worry and a disappointment to his parents.

The father wanted his son to be a doctor, but the young man flunked out of medical school. The boy was considered by all to be rather average, and he had few prospects.

With medical school out of the question, the father pushed his son to become a clergyman, and the young man had resigned himself to the idea.

But then came the opportunity for the son to take a trip around the world.

The young man was very interested, but needed his father’s permission and financial support. His father objected to such a frivolous waste of his son’s time.

Fortunately, a kindly uncle intervened.

He convinced the boy’s father that his son had a unique opportunity to do something few would ever have the chance to do. And along the way, his son might just find his way in the world.

The father relented and allowed his son to travel around the world.

The boy, of course, was Charles Darwin. And the trip he took round the world – five years in all – was described in the book Voyage of the Beagle.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Darwin’s father didn’t live long enough to see the impact his “aimless” son had on our understanding of the natural world.

But one tribute to Darwin’s life work lives on at the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos.

The center has become an important advocate and advisor for protecting the Galapagos. One of their most important missions has been to help repopulate the islands with giant tortoises, which where well on their way to becoming extinct.

During our visit to the center we were able to see Lonesome George, perhaps the most famous reptile in the world.

George is the last of the Isla Pinta subspecies of tortoise. At ninety, he has been a confirmed bachelor, thus earning the nickname “Lonesome.”

But George recently made news when six tortoise eggs were found in his enclosure. It seems he must have taken a liking to one of the three females of a closely related subspecies he had been spending time with.

Three of the eggs were accidently destroyed when the tortoises stepped on them. The three remaining eggs are under careful protection and close watch to determine if George actually becomes a father. It will be a few months before the world knows if the eggs are viable.

Though Darwin spent only five weeks of a five year journey on the Galapagos, their impact on him – and his on them – cannot be understated.

I suspect his father would be proud.

[Special thanks for Brantley Tillis for the use of his terrific underwater footage.]

On the public pier in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal Island, we encountered a slight bump in the road.

At least a half dozen sea lions were blocking our way, lounging on the steps we needed to descend to board the dinghy that would take us to the Cruz del Sur, our home for the next week.

When it became apparent the sea lions weren’t quite ready to give up their resting spot, Hanzel, our naturalist guide, led us to another dock where we were able to board our dinghy.

To travel to the Galapagos is to travel to a alternate universe where sea lions, marine iguanas, giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies rule, and where they have found a way to live in harmony.

After centuries on islands with no natural predators, Galapagos wildlife is ridiculously tame.

Seventeenth and eighteenth century sailors were amused by the animals’ “stupidity.”  They never had to hunt for food on the Galapagos; they simply went ashore and grabbed what they wanted, as if visiting a precursor to the modern supermarket.

The animals never fought back or fled.  They knew no danger.

Today their main annoyance is hundreds of pesky humans constantly pointing a camera their way.  Paparazzi in Patagonia clothing.

Our friends, the Gugel-McPhersons (Gail, David, Cam & Meg) joined us on a nearly flawless GAP Adventures family cruise to these other-worldly islands.

Over the course of eight days we visited nine unique islands.  Each has at least two – and sometimes three – names: An English name, a Spanish name and an Ecuadorian name.

In a sense, the history of the islands is written on its maps.

Once we made it aboard the Cruz del Sur (a.k.a. the GAP Adventurer II), we began the overnight journey to Ilsa Espanola (a.k.a Hood Island), our first destination.

The next morning when we went ashore we were were greeted by hundreds of sea lions, marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies and Sally Lightfoot crabs.  We weren’t in Silver Spring anymore.

Soon our days took on a familiar pattern.

Up early for breakfast and shore excursion with Hanzel.  We’d spend two to three hours exploring an island, following well-marked paths.  (Ninety-seven percent of the Galapagos are now protected areas and cannot be entered without a certified guide.)

After our morning excursion it was back to the boat for lunch.

Most afternoons we would go snorkeling, often followed by a  second shore excursion before coming back to the boat for dinner.  At night the captain moved us to our next destination.

On our next to last day we visited the tiny, often-photographed island of Bartolome.  There we hiked to the top of the island for a commanding view of two golden crescent beaches, Pinnacle Rock and a submerged volcanic crater.

Later Hanzel, a remarkable Ecuadorian who in the 1980s completed U.S. Navy Seal training and was sent into El Salvador with U.S. troops, led us on a snorkeling adventure around Pinnacle Rock.

“It’s the best place to snorkel in Galapagos,” he told us.  He was right.

During our ninety minutes in the water, we swam with three white-tipped sharks, two sea turtles, a half dozen sea lions, a family of penguins and thousands of fish of every size, color and description.

As we where preparing to return to the Cruz del Sur, our friend David said, “You know, the only thing we haven’t seen this week is a unicorn.”

Our Galapagos pictures are posted here.

The pair left Chicago in 2004 and bought the Banos B&B Posada del Arte, where we had the pleasure to stay during our visit to this picturesque adventure-filled town.

Jackson and Redd have created a lovely, comfortable B&B which they have filled with imaginative Ecuadorian art.  They recently took over management of Casa del Abuelo, just around the corner.  It too is being filled with local paintings, sculptures and other works of art.

Banos was the third stop on our Ecuadorian road trip.  Every Quiteno we spoke to strongly recommended visiting the place; we’re glad we did.

The small, compact town, surrounded by mountains, is one of Ecuador’s most popular destinations.  It is also the gateway to the jungle – Ecuador’s Amazon Basin.

There are dozens of tour operators offering mountain biking, rafting, canyoning and jungle adventures.

While there is plenty of adventure to be found in Banos, we were in town to relax, so we took in the attraction from which the town takes its name: the steaming thermal baths (banos) heated by the volcano Tungurahua.

After a great dinner and a relaxing night’s sleep at Casa del Abuelo, we went to town’s best known bath, La Piscina de La Virgen.

The baths have three pools of varying temperatures – one cold, another warm and one that reaches nearly 115 degrees – making it a popular spot for vacationing Ecuadorian families.

The murky water (containing chlorates, sulfates and magnesium) is known for its “restorative and healthful properties.”

While there, we mimicked the locals who stood under a cold shower of water diverted from a nearby waterfall, then jumped into the hot pool.

It was the perfect antidote to our bone-chilling night at Laguna Quilotoa.

In fact, the only reason to leave Banos would be another eruption of Tungurahua, the active volcano that looks over the town.

So long as Tungurahua only belches smoke and ash, it’s just another tourist attraction in a town that offers the right mix of adventure and relaxation.