Guayaquil, Ecuador

A little over five years ago we traveled internationally as a trio for the first time. Our destination? Ecuador. We chose the South American country for two reasons. First and foremost, our globetrotting Australian friends Peter and Nicole would be hitting Quito and the Galapagos Islands during this portion of their year abroad. Second, and only slightly less important, we wouldn’t have to worry about resetting Emma’s body clock to hit this destination. The Ecuadorian people were incredibly friendly and helpful, the food incredibly yummy, and the climate tolerable, considering we were, in fact, vacationing on the equator. Five years later, not much has changed. This time, though, it’s a working vacation for Wade, so you’ll notice even though we spent five days in this port, we have only two SAS excursions and one day out on our own. Nicole, the Field Office Assistant, spent our time in Ecuador leading a trip to the Galapagos Islands, which left Wade to send off every SAS trip while in port. Now, before you start grumbling about Nicole, I should tell you she’s awesome & she’ll be sending off every trip in Peru so our trio can travel the Andes and the Amazon with SAS. Adding to Wade’s work load, he had two days of duty dean responsibilities while in Ecuador. Each day in port one member of the administrative team serves as “duty dean”. This individual is the contact point for all travelers with needs in port. Most often, the field office coordinator doesn’t fill this position since his/her in-port responsibilities are so vast, but because so many were gone to Quito and the Galapagos, Wade picked up a couple of days here. They likely would have been quieter days, but some figured out that the field office coordinator had the duty dean phone, so many field office questions came his way too.