i´m not sure why i said ¨so-called.¨ that makes absolutely no sense now does it? WELL ANYWAY.
galapagos islands. you may have heard of them, i believe they were recently discovered by the discovery channel. or at least that´s what my super smart sister told me. i´m pretty sure i was one of the first people to explore them. or maybe i was just one of the first people UNDER AGE 65 to explore them. hehe. i´m funny. but yeah, truth.
Leo and i stumbled, literally, onto a four day cruise of the islands. in quito while trying to book a hotel, we walked into a ¨last minute deal¨ kinda place, there are about a million of those lining the streets of new town. ¨deal¨ my ass. but whatever makes people think they are getting a steal.
so.
cruise ship w just 11 other people.
surprisingly they were not *all* retired.
i felt spoiled.
i saw boobies. of the blue-footed species, you sickos.
i snorkled. with sharks. yeah i don´t really care if they´re supposed to be ¨vegetarian¨ ok, a shark is a shark and i don´t feel like getting ¨eaten.¨ i´m a pretty tasty catch, veg or not. but really, that´s cool, huh? yeah and lots of colorful fishes of course. the underwater world is freaky, man! not to let out any secrets, but ashley if you´re reading this, i think you know what i mean about underwater sea creatures...though it wasn´t deep sea.
little penguins. actually i only saw one.
sea lions. not quite as fat as the ones in oregon...go figure.
fur seals. they are DIFFERENT than any other seal or sea lion. still not sure why the guide had to make that so clear.
oh n i got sea sick before the boat even left puerto ayora. that boat was just moving SO MUCH. why??? but after the first night i was ok. and i made good friends with the captain, he even gave me pink pills (whatever those were) and sunburn cream. and the rest of the crew was cool. they laughed at me for being sea sick but then i showed them i can speak spanish and they liked me. plus, who wouldn´t love the smallest, youngest girl on the boat? yeah i was spoiled.
what else...
the food on the boat was not bad.
the guide was good-lookin.
oh, how about those giant turtles??? yeah they were big.
the sand on the different beaches was all really different. actually, most things about all the islands were really different. some were made up of just lava fields. some had no vegetation. some sand was red, or black or really white. some water was green, some more blue, n one beach was just clear clear clear.
marine iguanas! and i´m talking a thousand or more all hanging out in one place. they´re ugly.
jumping crabs. diving birds.
golden mantarays swimming slow slow underneath our dingy boat.
tons of elderly folks. did i already mention that?
the cabin was sticky and warm and smelly. i don´t think i like living on boats. but really, it could have been a lot worse, i think i just expected that since i was being spoiled my room would have a nice big soft bed, perfect temperature, smelling of fresh flowers. expecting too much? don´t worry, i didn´t complain. too much.
do i have a tan? of course not! but my burn didn´t turn out too bad.
30 degree C weather, waking up at 530am to climb to the top of a volcano, more and more volcanos, sitting the deck of a boat as we ride into a storm, open ocean, waking up each morning to a new side of the galapagos islands, searching red mangrove surrounded cove for mating sea turtles...cool man.
i think i´m heading off to the coast again. two of my special loves from the hostel went to columbia and now are heading back through ecuador so i think i´ll hitch a ride with them for my last week.
(i don´t really want to leave.)
thanks for reading.
m
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