Ecuador

Today is an exciting day! We’re going to board our boat and go on an 8 day cruise around the islands! There are a lot of remote places you can’t reach within a day, and the cruise includes the mandatory Galapagos guide who would (hopefully) educate us a bit on the special animals that live here.

We were told to arrive at the airport by 10:30am to meet our guide. We got there before 10…and ended up waiting until 12:30pm until all 16 of the passengers got together. Arriving on the boat, we had a nice little lunch (everyone was STARVING) and began setting sail for our first destination, the strangely named islet, Chinese Hut.

Our first impression of the guide was rather strange, as somehow he sounded bitter and made some unwelcoming remarks. And our first activity was to snorkel in the bay, but when we got changed and was ready to go, they told us they didn’t have enough snorkels…. W T F? You’re taking us on an 8 day cruise with 8 days of snorkeling/swimming with a set number of passengers, but they somehow didn’t have enough snorkels? Eventually they got us what we needed, but they just didn’t feel like they were trying very hard….

Snorkeling though, was extremely fun! There was such an abundance of fish, really cute and strange looking dolphin fish, and Jiajia even saw some white tip sharks and sting rays! Seems like Alan never has the luck to see everything.

Next, we landed on a beach for a wet landing, meaning you’d be landing on a beach and likely to get yourself wet because of the waves..haha. The tour of the island, strangely named Chinese Hut, was brief but saw the standard sea lions, iguanas and crabs… they’re EVERYWHERE! The sea lions were as cute as always, and the several baby ones just makes you want to take one home… There were also some penguins diving around shallow waters where we landed, doing their thing and catching fish. The sand here was white, and apparently each location has different types of sand, even on the same island! The islands are really amazing!

Signed up for a Bay Tour to get a sense of what the islands were all about before we do some more extensive traveling around the islands aboard of a ship. There were 5 sights for the half day tour, leaving us the other half of the day to visit the beach!

Taking a small boat out to a small islet, we were fitted with snorkels and were told to jump into the water. The snorkels sorta sucked and kept leaking salt water as the currents kept washing us in all different directions. It didn’t matter though, as we snorkeled closer and closer to the islet, it was all good. Sea lions were resting on the islet, but the younger, more curious ones were weaving in and around our group!! They’d swim right up to about a foot away from you, face to face, then take a sharp turn elsewhere. All you needed to do was float in water and watch these amazing creatures at play with you! The guide (all activities on the Galapagos requires a guide) took a rope along, and played tug of war with the sea lions, while others bite on their fin to see what that was. They were so cute! The currents though, were not, as we kept getting pushed in and out of the shallow rocks, making us think what it’d be like tomorrow during the dive!

The next site, we saw some giant tortoises and iguanas swimming about. And finally the last interesting thing was this small chasm about 10m wide with a deeeep drop of water. It was a popular place for a cool swim as it was almost like a swimming pool, but the highlight was climbing up the rocks to dive in. Alan dove in from about 3m high, while exhilarating, was nothing compared to the guide who climbed up to the top and did a perfect dive into the water from about 15m!

We got back, rested and headed to a popular site nearby, Tortuga Bay. It was quite a long ways walk, taking over 45min, but once we got there it was all worth’d. The sand was silky soft, and although the waves were quite strong, the beach was very flat and waves would gently coat the beach with a thin layer of water, casting out a shimmering reflection of the clouds in the sky. It was exactly as you’d imagine a picturesque “beach vacation” pictures, with white sand, blue waters and only the two of us! And the government once again did a fine job, not allowing any vendors onto the beach, and keeping walk paths so you wouldn’t wander out and step on some iguana eggs.

The waters were amazingly clear, and this being the Galapagos, there was wildlife everywhere! Crabs were munching on algae on the rocks while iguanas were all taking a late afternoon stroll along beach. In knee-deep waters, you’d see schools of small fish, and even shrimps! We wandered around but took an amazing nap in the sun. When we woke up, we realized within 2m from us, there were several iguana tracks! They just walked right by us and we didn’t even know it! Ha ha.

Galapagos is awesome!

Taking a morning flight into the Galapagos, we were really excited and not quite sure what to expect… except for animals, and lots of it.

Props to the Ecuador government for making attempts at controlling the environmental damage tourists can do to such a special geological area. They screened even more stringently than American customs, and the whole island itself seems to be controlled (for the most part) to avoid contamination or deterioration of the natural environment… to an extent. And right before you land, even the airlines are required to spray insecticide (?) to avoid accidentally bringing in any more foreign species.

When we arrived, we were pretty shocked at what we saw…. it was a massive, barren piece of land! Somehow we both imagined the Galapagos Islands to be full of lush vegetation with animals hopping around everywhere. Nope, just a strangely barren piece of land. That being said, the airport was built there for a purpose, and we had to take a bus out to the dock where you had to take a ferry about 300m across the channel to the mainland. A 45min taxi ride later, we got into town….and wow, what another surprise! The town feels a bit run down, and is plagued with travel agencies and dive shops like any other city. We were really expecting something with a bit more class, conservation and much much higher prices!

The cool part though, is that animals are EVERYWHERE! We were walking along the pier, wondering where we’d be able to see some sea lions, and right there IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PIER, a sea lion is just taking a nap. Ha ha…so cool. Iguanas, crabs, fish and even rays are abundant along the waters along the shoreline. So, very cool =)

At night, we had dinner at a street market. And the prices were cheaper than most places we’ve been to!!!! IN THE GALAPAGOS!!!!