The Galapagos Islands!

So here begins our amazing four day adventure to the some of the most beautiful islands in the world!

Thursday June 24th BALTRA/ SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
We woke at 5:30 to our alarm, after getting about an hour of sleep, quickly had some breakfast and were back to the airport. We hopped on our Tame flight and instantly passed out. I was super excited to be flying to the Galapagos, but also totally exhausted! After a stop in Guayaquil to pick up more passengers, we soon landed on Baltra Island, the first we would see in the Galapagos. We walked off the plane on the little runway that existed, waited in line for customs, found our luggage in a large pile of bags, got a passport stamp, chatted with security guards and finally were met by our gorgeous tour guide, David. Right away Laura and I knew this was going to be a great trip! :) It was a huge process getting to our destination, consisting of waiting at the tiny outdoor airport for passengers from another flight, taking a 45 minute bus up and down the rocky roads to Itabaca Canal, taking a ferry to our next island, Santa Cruz, and then finally taking another bus from the north end to the south end of the island, where we would finally start out cruise! We were greeted by a small dingy (panga) that was ready to take us to our Yacht, the Eden! We were on board our yacht with 13 other tourists, our guide David and an amazing yacht crew. Everyone was very friendly and we instantly felt at home. Laura and I quickly became friends with Julia, an ESL teacher from Pennsylvania who we had so much in common with! She was traveling around Ecuador with her Mom, Debra.

After a quick lunch and some time getting to know each other, it was back on the dingy to explore Santa Cruz. Here we hiked around green, mountainous forest and were brought to Los Gemelos, meaning 'the twins'. These were two giant sink holes, or craters at the very top of the island that were formed from volcanoes. They were beautiful, especially when we were able to see beautiful short-eared owls flying overhead! After los gemelos, we got the chance to walk/crawl through a lava tunnel! David left us alone at a rather steep set of stairs and warned us that it could be a dark and dirty adventure! The tunnel was like something I have never seen before, it varied in size, allowing us to walk normally at times and having to army crawl under lava formations the next couple feet. After the lava tunnel, we set off in search of giant turtles on a ranch. We were told we may have to walk awhile before finding one, but fortunately for us we were lucky enough to find one instantly! It was huge! We all took tons of pictures in case this was the only one we found, but soon realized we had many other picture opportunities, as we saw two or three others up ahead. It was awesome watching these huge, ancient creatures move around in their natural environment.

After the turtle ranch, it was back to the boat for dinner, which was delicious! Our chef on board was so creative and talented; every meal was great! The boat had not even began moving yet, as it was still docked in the harbor of Santa Cruz, but Laura was already getting seasick. She took several nausea pills, courtesy of Debra, and I gave her some Dramamine. It was at this point that I contemplated taking some as well, but realized I've never got sea sick in the past, so I should be fine, which later backfired! After dinner we were able to get off the boat and explore some of the shops and cafes of the island. There are only 2 islands in the Galapagos that people live on and this was 1 of them. It was our last chance to buy anything we needed as the next islands we were visiting have nothing but wildlife. After walking around awhile, we were back on the boat. We had a small briefing about what we'd be doing the next day and then off to bed, anticipating our big day tomorrow. Laura still was not feeling well so she went up to sleep in a lawn chair on the deck of the boat, where I quickly found myself as well.... I went to our room and began getting things ready for the next day. All of a sudden I got SUPER sick. The boat was rocking like crazy and I instantly felt nauseous, making a mad dash to the bathroom where everything I had eaten thus far on my trip seemed to come up. It sucked. I decided to take some of the motion sickness pills Laura had taken and joined her up on the deck. We were both freezing and sick, and as beautiful as the setting was around us, some of the beauty was lost after realizing we were going to have another night without sleep.

Friday June 25th SANTIAGO/ BARTALOME ISLANDS
At 6:00 a.m. we were at Santiago Island, where the sand is black and eroded cliffs surround you. We had no problem finding wildlife here as land iguanas, sea lions, giant crabs and sea turtles were all around us, none of which seemed to mind a bit that we were around. We began with a hike around the island, exploring the two different types of lava that covered the entire east side, and finding more wildlife; my favorite was the mother sea lion and her baby! After the hike we returned to the beach to snorkel! We all squeezed into our attractive wet suits and laughed at how uncomfortable we felt. To add to the picture we grabbed our goggles, flippers, and snorkel and into the freezing pacific we went! I was super nervous at first, and freezing but t was sooooo worth it! We saw schools of beautiful fish, giant sea turtles, manta sting rays, and sea lions. Coming face to face with a sea lion underwater was by far my favorite moment of this first snorkeling experience!

After our snorkeling adventure we returned to the Eden for lunch and relaxation time. Us girls relaxed on the front deck of the yacht basking in the sunshine, drinking iced tea and enjoying the beautiful scenery that surrounded us as the Eden carried us to the next island. We saw dolphins and giant sting rays jumping out of the water and beautiful birds surrounding our boat. There were multiple times where Laura, Julia and I looked at each other and said "this is the life!"

After a few hours of napping and sunbathing on the deck, we landed on Bartalome Island where we saw penguins and blue footed boobies before having more time to snorkel. (Boobies are a famous bird that populate much of the Galapagos Islands. There are 3 types, the red-footed, the blue-footed and the masked or nazca booby!) We snorkeled and again saw amazing sea life. This time we were accompanied by beautiful star fish of all sizes and colors. After snorkeling we explored the beach, found giant holes in the sand which happened to be sea turtle nests, and then began a somewhat challenging hike to the very top of the island. We reached the top of the hill and the lighthouse just as the sun was setting, providing us with a view so spectacular, it took our breath away. We climbed back down the island, hopped in the dingy and returned to the Yacht. We had dinner on the yacht and I went to sleep as I was feeling exhausted. I planned to stay up until midnight to cross the equator, and watch the latitude hit 0.00 from the captains chair but I couldn't do it. I took some Dramamine and went to sleep. Next stop: Genovesa Island!