we are getting back on the stick....starting...MEOW!

so, no more being lame. we're going to start actually posting again. and being diligent. for real this time.

::NEWS FLASH::

RONALD IS NOW LIVING IN RVA. she joins me in my city. and i must say it has been wonderful thus far. and yes! she got a job at the cutest coffee shop. more on that to come, from her, after her first day tomorrow.

so, it is so unbearably hot here, that i want summer to go away forever and just not come back. it is atrocious. you cant go to anyones apartment without melting into a puddle. i mean, come on: [see below]

my running partner sent me that. and ew. it was so nasty out. so, i have turned my sights on cooking to pass the boredom. baking is not so great in the summer. but i am currently obsessed with making a variety of bizarre lemonades. latest conquest: rosemary lemonade. next time, more sugar. but man, refreshment mania! ive been using a simple syrup foundation and adding what i want to that. its just boiling 1/2 cup of water with a 1/2 cup of sugar. i added rosemary to that this time, but i think i need more sugar next time. it couldve been sweeter. the essence of rosemary was supah good though, which is my favourite herb!

in other news: go HOKIES! our alma mater placed first in the solar decathlon europe! ronald and i both know people on the team that we went to school with and i have seen the house and its pretty great.

[go allison, and the rest of the team!] so proud of them. lots of hard work and time went into the design, research, and construction of the project, and taking it overseas was quite the job. so, way to go.

im tired. so, this was a weak way to get back into it. but i promise we will start spicing it up, once we get on a schedule. and then we will actually be collaborating on posts.

oh and one last note: the trio went to the spitzer house tour through modern rva a few weeks ago and it was gorgeous, darling. do start going to modern richmond tours if you live here. they are fantastic!

[a picture was supposed to be here, but after five unsuccessful attempts at placing it, i give up. and we're going to start looking for another blog site b/c im beginning to hate this one!]

ecuador | days 10-11: galapagos islands: santa cruz part 2

so since we had to come back to puerto ayora to fly out of baltra, we decided to come back a day earlier to avoid the rush. an extra day in santa cruz gave us the opportunity to revisit the places we loved and check out a couple places we didn't think we were going to make it out to.

the island of santa cruz itself is a large dormant volcano and is famous for its lava tunnels. the neighboring towns of bellavista and santa rosa have the longest ones, and the one we went to was the tunel del amor(tunnel of love). ironically the tunnel itself is super muggy and kind of creepy... and on top of that someone decided to throw up inside of it before our visit. not really romantic.

another shoddy photoshop job, but this'll do.

the moisture in the cave, caught on camera.

an attempt at a better picture...

the gorgeous jungle!

and the gorgeous town of bellavista. appropriately named.

the lady maintaining the lava tunnels offered us some red bananas.

after many failed attempts, i finally caught a darwin finch on camera! yes!

and speaking of cool birds, looky at this here egret.

we absolutely had to go back to tortuga bay and playa mensa. hands down our favorite spot in the galapagos. this time around, we actually witnessed a small wedding on the beach. after the ceremony, the newlyweds took off in their private boat. baller!!

the always breathtaking tortuga bay.

playa de mensa, if you look closely there is a wedding going on at the right side of the panorama.

close up of the wedding, i felt like such a creeper.

baby fishies just hanging out.

our friend the hermit crab! we named him calvin.

dilz swimming with his marine iguana.

on our way out to baltra the next morning we decided to make a quick pitstop to los gemelos, meaning "the twins" in spanish, which are two giant craters formed by a volcano eruption. it was unreal, and i wish the pictures would do it more justice...

i tried....ugh! impossible.

this marks the end of our galapagos adventures, one more entry to go!

toodles,

ronald