Zoo – I live in one! #AtoZChallenge
When I wrote my first post for the A to Z Challenge, I did not know the what the remaining posts were going to be about. While blogging about my life in Ecuador for the past month, I realized that I live in a zoo. A natural, wild, amazing zoo! Let’s recap what is in my zoo.
Wildlife in my zoo
Throughout the month, I introduced the following zoo residents: (click link to open post)
- Blue-footed boobies
- Humpback whales
- Iguanas
- In a park
-
- At my home
- A Monkey
- Owls
- A Frog
- Sea Turtles
Rounding out my zoo
No zoo is complete without water and I wrote about natural tide pools and Gary Vance providing drinking water. In the gift shop, there is the Tagua palm nut. The zoo sky is filled with glorious colors at sunset.
There are many more residents in this zoo still to meet.
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| White-edged oriole Puerto Lopez, ManabÃ, Ecuador |
Human activities in my zoo
There is human adventure in my zoo to talk about, too, like whale watching with girls from the Olon Orphanage.
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| Girls from the Olon Orphanage whale watching Puerto Lopez, ManabÃ, Ecuador |
What will I write about in the future?
I will share more about the earthquake recovery efforts and anything else Mother Nature tosses our way.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed what you read in April, I hope you come back for more from my Ecuador zoo life. I will write a weekly post similar to the ones you have been reading. The first comes out on Monday, May 15. Suggestions are welcome – please add them in the comments!
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What are some of the animals in your zoo?
If you are visiting from the #AtoZChallenge please include your blog link in a comment so I can check it out. Thank you for joining me for an amazing month!
Emily Bloomquist
I am a US Expat in Ecuador. I grew up on a Minnesota farm, worked in IT in California's Silicon Valley, then moved to a coastal Ecuador fishing village. My goal is to share Ecuador with you, one snippet at a time. Topics include attractions, compassion, ecotourism, Ecuador products, everyday Ecuador, and flora and fauna. Please let me know what you would like to read more about!
51 Comments
Jz
Thank you, Emily. I have enjoyed reading your slices of life in a different place. Interesting and fun stuff. 🙂
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you, Jz. So glad you enjoyed them. It was fun!
Kristin
Congratulations on finishing the challenge! I enjoyed learning more about Ecuador.
Finding Eliza
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you Kristin! I enjoyed learning about genealogy searches and how complex they can be from your Finding Eliza posts.
Susanne Matthews
Have enjoyed your posts and will be following you. I hope you'll drop by and visit me as well. Find me here.LINK
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Suzanne. I'll hop over and read your Zulu post now!
Molly of Molly's Canopy
Congratulations on finishing the A to Z Challenge and thanks for visiting/commenting on my blog! Loved your posts about the orphanage and all the wonderful activities they have for the children. Looking forward to your A to Z Reflections post when they set the date 🙂
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks for continuing to stop by and reading along, Molly! The orphanage is near and dear to my heart so I love writing about it. I have enjoyed reading your childhood memories on your family farm, too.
Nick Wilford
A great natural zoo indeed! It was fun reading your posts this month. Congrats on completing the Challenge.
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks, Nick! What a fun month it was.
Keith's Ramblings
It has been totally fascinating learning so much about a place of which I previously knew very little. Thank you.Thanks also for joining me in Amble Bay. I cannot think of anywhere more different from your home!
It's farewell to Amble Bay!
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks, Keith! It was fun sharing a bit about Ecuador, especially for people who knew little about it. Hope you come back to pick up a little more through future posts. Thank you for sharing Amble Bay with us, too. I agree – two completely different places!
Anonymous
Living in a zoo, what a wonderful way to end A to Z. I liked how you summed up some of your posts in this final one. I think your other post sound great and I am going to zip back and read a few. Thanks for sharing.
Stopping by from A to Z: Zonked
Shari
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks so much Shari! I think your boys might enjoy the story about the monkey on my head 🙂
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Hi Emily – I've enjoyed your posts about Ecuador … so any more will be wonderfully well received …
… some more stats about wildlife in Ecuador … I gather you've got 10% of plant species in Ecuador, and there are 1700 or so bird species … incredible …
I noted these as I'd just met you blogging here … so the Mashpi Rainforest was being talked about and the aerial system … with its butterfly species: is that right a butterfly centre … Mashpi is way out of my price bracket?!?!!?
Looking forward to see you around … cheers Hilary
http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/z-is-for-zebra-zoo-and-zedland.html
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you for your Ecuador research, Hilary! The amount of flora and fauna here is incredible. For a tiny country, Ecuador has four distinct regions – the ocean, Andes mountains, Amazon rainforest and Galapagos.
I looked up the Mashpi Lodge – way out of my price bracket, too!!! Holy wow!
The best butterfly watching as I understand everyone I have asked is in Mindo. It is in a cloud forest known for butterflies, hummingbirds, and orchids. I will write about it once I go 🙂
Looking forward to seeing you around, too.
Tamara Narayan
You've got some very interesting animals in your zoo. I love blue-footed boobies because of their name and their bright feet. In my zoo, I see cats, raccoons, possums, deer, sparrows, bluejays, cardinals, purple finches, gold finches, red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, mice, moles, butterflies, as well as stinkbugs, spiders, and mosquitos. Not too shabby.
Z is for Zika Virus
Emily Bloomquist
The blue-footed boobies are so cute. Thanks for sharing your zoo residents, Tamara 🙂 Nice variety. Mornings must be wonderful with all of the birds.
Ronel Janse van Vuuren
It's lovely to live so close to nature. We have guinea fowl, hadedas, plovers, various pigeons, woodpeckers and too many other birds to mention 🙂 Then there's the hares, moles, wild cats that eat all the rats (see – it's awesome to live alongside nature, you'll even rhyme 😉 ) and other mammals. Let's not talk about the snakes and other reptiles… And I'm not even mentioning the pets 😉 I hope you had a great A-to-Z.
Emily Bloomquist
Hi Ronel, Thanks for sharing your South African zoo residents. Nice that your cats eat rats and provide ready-made poetry 🙂 I agree – it is awesome to live alongside nature. Had a great A to Z; hope you did, too!
Judy Rinehimer
Emily, I have learned a great deal about your life in Ecuador and will follow your future posts. Now I need to finish my "Z is for Zebras" blog.
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Judy. Your blog has been a wealth of information. I had no idea there was such a great support network among RVers. Go Giants!
Deborah Weber
What a delightful series about Ecuador Emily – I've enjoyed it thoroughly! And I'll certainly be back for more.
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you Deborah! I really appreciate it!
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you Moon for the incredibly kind thoughts! I wanted to be able to share some of myself via this blog so I am glad it came through 🙂 Congratulations to you, too!
Donna B. McNicol
Such a great blog series, I really enjoyed your perspective on Ecuador, having spent little time on the coast while we were there.
Congrats on finishing – you did good!!
DB McNicol | Oh, the places we will go! | Zippo & Zion
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you so much, Donna. You challenged me to do this; I accepted and I did it (with your support along the way)! I am thrilled that I went on this journey 🙂 Thank you, thank you!!
FinnBadger
Great work on a month of blogging!
Phillip | Z is for Zines | Zoinks! I made it to the end!
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you, Philip!
Leanne
Congrats on reaching the end of the challenge! I bet you're as relieved as I am to be here and I know I am certainly looking forward to going back to my usual three posts a week from today 🙂 Lovely to have connected and I hope we stay in touch x
Leanne | cresting the hill
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Leanne! Yes, relieved and excited to be finished 🙂 I'm looking forward to once per week instead of daily posts.
Shirley Corder
Congratulations on completing the challenge, Emily. I've loved reading about your zoo, and I've signed up to follow your posts.
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Shirley! I look forward to sharing more of my zoo and experiences with you.
Gail M Baugniet - Author
Such a fitting finale for your journey through the wild alphabet, Emily. You truly do live in a zoo atmosphere of beautiful nature. Congratulations for completing the AtoZChallenge.
Emily Bloomquist
I do love the zoo atmosphere where I live! Thank you Gail!
DeeDee
You live in a zoo? like really? Wow, super wow. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for regularly dropping by my blog. Congrats on finishing the A to Z Challenge. Every post was wonderful
A to Z Reflections: Looking Back In Time
Emily Bloomquist
Just a figurative zoo, DeeDee – there are so many animals around and it fit for Z 🙂 Thank you for dropping by regularly. I look forward to reading your reflections once I have written mine.
Michelle Wallace
Congrats on crossing the A to Z finishing line, Emily!
You are blessed to live amongst all these animals.
See you on the #WATWB bloghop circuit!
Writer In Transit
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Michelle, I truly am blessed. It was good to blog about them as a reminder. See you on the #WATWB!
Val
Congratulations. Thanks for sharing all these wonderful photos. My Virtual Vineyard
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Val!
Arti Jain
I'm so glad you decided to blog your way through A to Z from Ecuador.
Visiting your posts has been bolstering my desire to plan that trip I've been meaning to plan for ever to Peru and Ecuador. So all you future posts will be welcome:)
Congratulations Emily.
https://artismoments.blogspot.qa/2017/04/z-is-for-zagreb-and-zindagi.html
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you Arti, you are so kind. I am also glad that I decided to participate in the A to Z! There's nothing to remind yourself how wonderful where you live is like writing about it. I hope that you take that trip – if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Jean Davis
I've enjoyed your posts, animals and otherwise. 🙂 I'll be stopping back as time allows.
Discarded Darlings – Jean Davis, Speculative Fiction Writer, A to Z: Editing Fiction
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks for your frequent visits, Jean!
Arlee Bird
This is a good post to wrap up your A to Z theme. Congratulations on completing the April Challenge with such a fun and enlightening series. Thanks for joining us in 2017.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Emily Bloomquist
Thanks Arlee! I enjoyed participating and look forward to next year's challenge 🙂
Donna H
I actually worked in a zoo. I always wanted to be a zoo keeper, but then it turned out be dealing with a lot of crap (literally) for very little money. I enjoyed your A to Z posts. Girl Who Reads
Emily Bloomquist
Thank you, Donna. That is so cool! (Except for the crap and little money part.)
Nilanjana Bose
Too many people around my places to have space for many animals…but we do get some migratory birds – stop here in the winter, like flamingos. And there are dolphins in the sea…and turtles…
Your posts have been wonderful to read, glad I came back and caught up, missed too many during the challenge. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
All the best. Will be back to read as and when I can/you publish.
Nilanjana
Emily Bloomquist
Having dolphins, flamingos, and turtles sounds wonderful. When there are too many people around and you want to be relatively alone with nature, you can go to the sea.
Thank you so much for coming back and catching up, Nilanjana! I appreciate it.