I am going to sum up Quito because we have been super busy and have not had enough time or consistent wifi to keep up with the blog. We have stayed in our apartment that we rented and have spent most of our time doing school as we are trying to get three weeks worth done in one week.
Here are the things that we did in addition to school:
On Saturday we went to a college soccer game, this was super cool and it was a nice stadium. People even brought drums and whistles to support their team. On Sunday we crossed the Equator. At the equator museum we learned that the actual Equator is 5km wide, and the actual 0 degrees latitude moves around throughout the year.
On Monday we went on a free walking tour of the old city in Quito. This was very educational and informative. We learned about many museums although we didn't go inside of them on the walking tour.
Another defining factor of Quito is the malls. They have all sorts of shops including KFC, Cinnabon, Nike, Adidas, and Samsung. When we asked the locals what was cool to see in Quito all of them said that the malls were awesome, however it is kind of pointless for us to go and waste our time in the mall when we cannot buy things because we don't have room in our backpacks. We also met with the Ecuadorian YL (Younglife) director. He had an amazing story and we learned that he had started YL in Ecuador and had been calling it Young Life without even knowing that the real organization of YL existed. He even ran it the same way that YL is run. He has now partnered with and officially started YL in Ecuador. That basically sums up our week in Quito.
9/4/15
Today we woke up at 3am to head to the Galapagos!!! Our taxi came at 4am and we all piled into the van and drove an hour to the airport. At the airport we had to go through special Galapagos security and fill out papers and stuff like that. Once we had finished checking in and going through security, we made it to our gate and had to wait about an hour before boarding. It was only a two and a half hour flight to the Galapagos, once we arrived I was just in awe. We cleared customs and then had to wait 4 hours for the rest of the people in our boat to arrive. During this time we got some breakfast (it was only about 9am) and played a bit of soccer on the sidewalk while we waited. When the rest of the group arrived we loaded our stuff into a truck that would take our bags to the boat. We then went on a ferry to get to the next island and started seeing wildlife right away.
After the ferry we hopped onto a bus and drove for about a 1/2 hour and arrived at a privately owned ranch where many of the Galapagos giant tortoises were. We had lunch at the ranch's restaurant, put on rubber boots (because it was muddy and wet), and then went out to see the tortoises. The tortoises were incredible, they weren't even scared of you, they let you get right up to them and didn't seem to have any fear at all. It was amazing!
After seeing and looking at the tortoises for about an hour we then went to the Charles Darwin Station. I was honestly not that impressed by this, it was basically seeing the same tortoises that we just saw except for the fact that they were not as big and they were in captivity which took away some of the meaning. After the station we went to get on the boat so that we could sail overnight to the Island of Floreana. The boat was amazing and incredibly nice. It was a positive change compared to Guatemala. We had an awesome fish dinner, were briefed on what tomorrow was going to have in store and then went to bed. Because it is a yacht you can feel the rocking of the ocean, which I really enjoyed and thought had a hammock effect (although it did make some people feel sea sick).
9/5/15
I set my alarm for 6:15am, although it failed to go off, I ended up getting up at about 6:45am. We had breakfast at 7am and it was delicious, we had eggs, toast, granola, cereal, yogurt, and jam. We then had about a half hour to get ready before we headed out in the pangas (dinghys). Today we went to the island of Floreana. When we arrived the dinghy did a 180 degree turn and just let the waves pull us into the beach. We had only walked a short ways when we saw four flamingos in a lagoon. Sadly, since my go-pro has no zoom and the flamingos were a far ways off, I was not able to get a picture, however, one of the guys who was on our boat and from Australia had an awesome camera with a huge 400mm telephoto lens and was able to get this photo and he generously let me use it.
Afterwards we saw a Floreana Lava Lizard,
and then we saw a finch.
So far I have only seen 3 animals but I have already been astounded by how little fear of man these animals possess. It is incredible that they let you get inches from them and stick your camera in their faces, but yet they don't run away. After this we went to hands down the coolest beach that I have ever been to.
Sadly, you couldn't swim at this beach because there were stingrays that buried themselves under the sand and you wouldn't want to step on the poison barb inside their tail. After all of this we headed back to our boat, which was named the Beluga, to go snorkeling. When we were on the pangas heading back to the Beluga, we saw an awesome sea lion on the platform of the boat. This picture is one of my favorites from the Galapagos and I even made it my wallpaper.
I love that photo. We had about a half hour until we would head out to Devil's Crown to go snorkeling. The snorkeling was incredible. The water was so clear and we saw so many fish. Here are some photos that I was able to get.
see if you can find the fish that is hiding in this photo
After snorkeling we had a half hour drive to a different part of Floreana where there is a "post office" and a cave. This was not a normal post office because you had no idea how long it was going to take for your letter to get delivered. This was because every time a tourist group arrived here they had to look through all of the letters, if there were any from their state or country it was their opportunity to take at least a few of them back and mail them. We even found one from our city in MN where we live, we grabbed this one and will hand deliver it when we get back in a year. Here is a picture of the box where people deposit their letters:
After the post office we went into a dark lava cave that was three stories deep and had sea water in it. Afterwards we headed back to the boat where the captain let us jump from the second story. Again, this photo is not mine, the man from Australia took this photo for us. We swapped some photos because he and his wife wanted some of my underwater photos/videos as well.
After this we began our long ride to the island of Isabela where we would go tomorrow.
9/6/15
Today my alarm actually succeeded in going off and waking me up! I got up at about 6:15am to do devos. After breakfast we headed out to hike Volcano Sierra Negra on the island of Isabela. The weather today was foggy and not raining, but there was a fine mist. At the dock we saw a few sea lions and iguanas. After careful consideration of all the possible animals, I would have to say that the sea lion is my favorite because it is so playful and agile in the water.
We then hopped onto an open air bus, the landscape was incredible because it changed from desert to tropical rainforest almost instantly. After a 45 minute bus ride we made it to the volcano, and when we arrived at the top this was the incredible view that we saw.
Supposedly this crater has the second largest diameter of any crater/volcano in the world. However, as you saw in the photo, we didn't get to see it. After we had hiked back down and rode the bus back to the docks, we had a rest period on the boat, and then we went to a nearby beach where we relaxed until about 6:30, when it was time to go back to the boat for dinner. After dinner I worked on photos, journaled, and then went to bed.
9/7/15
Today I also woke up at 6:15am to do my devos and have breakfast before heading out. At 8am we headed out in the dinghies, and landed on Isabela again, but at a different site today. All you could see was volcanic rock, as far as the eye could see.
There were certain lagoons that looked very out of place against the dry desert-like lava rock. I call it a lagoon because it is salt water not fresh water.
In this lagoon we saw a white-cheeked pintail. We observed many of these in the lagoons. They are similar to a duck but can also be found in the ocean. Now again, I didn't take this photo.
Afterwards we found a lagoon with a shark in it.
And we then took the dinghies to see some marine iguanas, and penguins.
We then returned to the ship to go snorkeling. Today we were after turtles and we saw many!!
After snorkeling we had lunch, a 4 hour break, and then headed to the mangrove swamp. The mangrove swamp was simply incredible, it has been one of the favorite places that I have been to so far. It was so peaceful and quiet, and the water was the clearest water that I have ever seen, it looked like it had been filtered. We saw lots more turtles and even a few stingrays. After the mangroves we had dinner and then went to bed.
9/8/15
Today we once again went through the daily Galapagos morning routine and then headed out to our first site. After about only a minute or two of walking we saw a huge land iguana.
The iguanas were bright yellow because it was mating season and the females pick the iguana with the brightest yellow. We saw a few more along the way and looked for tortoises but didn't see any.
We then headed back to the boat and started our two hour commute to the next site. On the way we saw humpback and minky whales, although I was not able to get a photo because they were a ways off. After lunch we went snorkeling for two hours and this was by far the best snorkel of the entire trip. We saw so many things, I even got two awesome videos of a penguin and a cormorant. Here are the photos:
After snorkeling we went to Darwin's Lake. This is actually an optical illusion because it looks like the lake is higher than the ocean, so therefore Charles Darwin assumed that it would be freshwater; however the lake is actually saltwater and the same height as the ocean, therefore, it should be called a lagoon.
After Darwin's Lake we had dinner and went to bed.
9/10/15
Once again we went through the same morning routine and then headed off to the island of Fernandina. We saw a sea lion and a penguin on the way and then we landed. The island was 100% volcanic lava rock. Isabela had a lot of volcanic rock but it was not 100% volcanic. After about 30 seconds we saw a huge colony of marine iguanas and all of them were sneezing salt. The iguanas were incredibly stinky and they basically laid on each other and went to the bathroom on the other ones all day long.
Afterwards we saw a baby sea lion that had just been born. Our guide, Juan, said that it was just a few hours old, it was even still wet.
We then found another colony of marine iguanas and shortly afterwards we found 3 sea lion pups that had been left while their mothers went to look for food. These were super cute and wanted to play, they even started practicing their poses for us.
We then went back to the boat to get ready for snorkeling. On the snorkel we saw a few more turtles. We also saw a playful sea lion.
And perhaps the largest puffer fish in recorded history, you can even see its spikes.
After this we had a two hour boat ride to the next snorkel spot. This snorkel spot wasn't as cool and we didn't see anything worth noting. We then sailed to the little island of Bartholomew where we climbed 365 steps up to a lighthouse.
9/11/15
Today was our last day in the Galapagos. We got up at 5am to go to a tiny little island where we would see magnificent frigate-birds and blue-footed boobies mating. When the frigate-birds mate they have a massive red pouch that they blow up to try and impress the females.
When the blue-footed boobies mate there is one female and two or three males, they all try to impress the female with their blue feet, and the female chooses the male with the brightest blue feet.
After all of this we took the dinghies back to the yacht where we cruised for a half hour until we got to the island of Baltra where our plane would take off.
Summary:
Overall, the Galapagos Islands were an incredible experience that I will never forget. It was amazing to see how little fear the animals possesed. You could probably touch them and they wouldn't care. The snorkeling was amazing and we saw a huge diversity of marine life. Our boat was awesome and the staff was great. I had an amazing experience and will remember this for the rest of my life.
