And so it began. Instead of paying upwards of $1200 for a 5 day trip to the Galapagos Islands 525 miles off the coast of Ecuador, I paid $325. For this, I am very grateful. On the morning of Thursday April 21, I boarded an airplane with 15 others. With a stop in the coastal city of Guayaquil, we arrive in the Galapagos Islands early in the afternoon. Within one hour of landing, we've already seen crabs, sea lions, fish, and many different kinds of birds. I want to say that these islands are more beautiful than you've ever imagined. The sunset from our boat (Yate Amigo) was probably the most beautiful I have seen in my entire life. Many of us went to bed early the first night, after a brief orientation from our guide Andres and an excellent dinner, with the excitement bubbling inside for our first snorkeling adventure that we would have the next day.
And was it ever an adventure! Over the course of 3 days of snorkeling, we saw sharks, penguins, sea lions, sting rays, an octopus, and dozens of species of fish. The coral was beautiful. The current was strong and the water was warm. Snorkeling was also an excellent way to tan the entire back side of our bodies. I had never gone snorkeling before, so it was a really cool opportunity for me.
We did some walking on some islands to see things like sea lions and land iguanas. We also walked on an island that was a really cool mix of older island that had become more fertile and (relatively) fresh lava that had cooled in really neat patterns. I actually learned a lot. It was cool to pair that knowledge with the experience of sitting on top of our boat to really experience the way the waves crashed against the rocks in the distance or how the sun looked like it was just taking a rest along the horizon.
We spent two nights on the island of Santa Cruz. It felt so much different than Quito. Everyone and everything was more tranquilo. It was safe for us to walk around at dusk without worrying that our things would be stolen from us and without cat-calls. The first night, there was a small music festival that was really cool. The second night, I went to bed earlier to get up for an early flight back to the mainland. It was an easy day to travel- but I managed to take nearly every kind of transport Ecuador offers! We rode in a taxi/truck to a harbor where we took a boat across the way, took a shuttle bus to the air port, flew back only to take a typical taxi home, then to hop on an overnight bus to a beach! It felt like quite an accomplishment.
I went with some other friends to a beach called Puerto Lopez which is really close to a beautiful beach called Los Frailes. It was awesome as well because the beach was pretty empty since it was the middle of the week. We were able to leave our things on the beach while we all swam together, which was fun. We hiked up to a mirador to be greeted with a beautiful view of the sun kissing the cliffs in the distance and waves chasing each other to a distant shore. We spent a couple of our days there, being transported by (as Christina called it) a tuk tuk.
We also spent a day hiking around a place called Isla de la Plata. On the mainland, it's know as the "poor-person's Galapagos" because some of the same animals can be found there. It was a really cool day with awesome lunch on the boat before we did some more snorkeling. I also jumped off the top of the boat! It was a challenge for me because I'm not the biggest fan of heights, but it was something I wanted to do.
We headed back on Friday evening the 29 and it was one of the worst bus rides I've taken in Ecuador (second to Cuenca, where I was sick every hour) I made it, though, to gear up for the last week of classes and catch up on things before I head back to the states on May 15. The week is going well so far and I'll be back sooner than y'all know it!
