1. Ecuador Adventures and Frogs – Prologue

A green lizard stands behind a tiny frog on a leaf

Every Tuesday at Two PM, I am posting the week’s exciting new Frog Blog on my website, Frog-Artist.com, and on Facebook

See below for the Prologue of my Ecuador Frogging and Galapagos Trip.

June 7th – 28th Three Weeks of Heaven on Earth

Three face plants later on the Ecuador Mainland, 1 stone jab on my right thumb, 1 right calf scrape and one left big toe flipper burn on the Galapagos Islands, my 3 weeks in Ecuador necessarily came to an end. The minor incidents were well worth suffering for the joy I felt in being with like minded people, and seeing many forms of life, but most particularly, frogs in the jungle and cloud forest of Ecuador proper, and penguins on the annexed islands of Galapagos. It was a bittersweet departure as I was sad to leave the beautiful pristine wilderness, but happy to come back to beloved family and friends.

And, I got to extend the adventure by sorting my pictures, writing about our travels, and finishing the marvelous book by Paul Stewart, Galapagos, the Islands That Changed the World. This has a BBC DVD associated with it in three parts, which by watching makes the story even more dramatic than hearing or reading about it could possibly be.

It all started 30 or 40 years ago, when going to Galapagos became a dream someday to come true. In January of this year, Save the Frogs! (STF), my favorite charitable environmental organization, offered a two week ecotour to Ecuador, with a possible add on to Galapagos. As the months went on, the add on was cancelled by STF, but I wasn’t going to be so close without extending the trip myself.

Our eldest, Matthew, agreed to be my travel companion for the last third of the trip, and we decided to take a sailing yacht (actually a converted fishing boat) called the Cachelote from the afternoon of the 23rd of June to the morning of the 28th.

Although I took extensive notes on the trip, I also thought that for the sake of this blog, it would be a good plan to supplement the information with knowledge gleaned from the Stewart book, and the internet. Links are provided where indicated.

Some of the blogs have mostly photos, taken by me, unless otherwise credited to others, and some of them are mostly words. Each one is about 400 – 600 words long. It is my hope that you will be inspired by your reading to explore more of our natural universe, and dedicate yourself even more than you already do to supporting our environment. Each person’s experience is uniquely their own, and if you wish, you are more than welcome to share in mine.

(Photo credit Kerry Kriger, picture of Michael Starkey, Save the Frogs!)

Subscribers regularly receive SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFERS, for example a $200 discount on the Costa Rica 2018 Ecotour.

[Read all about it](http://www.savethefrogs.com/costarica2018)

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