So... We ended up going to that Halloween party at Epica. We were futbol players because nobody felt like being creative or spending money on costumes. It was fine though- about half the people there dressed up and the other half were lame. There was a competition for best costume and the winner was.... drumroll...... a guy dressed up as a Chilean miner with 2 girls in wedding dresses.> I don't know if this story was as popular in the U.S. since we're a bit closer here, but after the mining accident 2 wives came forward for one of the guys and it was totally out of Law & Order. He had two families, kids about the same ages, etc. I wonder if that's all he was thinking about for those couple months. He must've known they found out about each other.< We stayed there until 1am and then went to Penthouse, another club, to meet up with Andres and Milton for a couple hours. The whole night was so much fun! Even though, as a consequence, I had to suffer from about 3 hours of sleep and a hangover on the way to the Galapagos.
On to the Galapagos... I'm going to try to remember everything (Liz was supposed to email me the list she was making... lying little...). The first day we landed on Baltra around 1pm. Right away we took a ferry and crossed over to Santa Cruz, another island. It's probably the most touristy of all the islands. We checked into our rooms, ate lunch, and split into 2 groups. One group went to Tortuga beach (which I'm actually really sad we couldn't go to both because it's supposedly one of the prettiest beaches in the world) and the other group went on this hike over volcanic grounds, a salt mine (which was so pretty) and to this channel where we could snorkel and cliff jump. Per usual, my pride got in the way. There were several different levels you could jump from but I insisted on having to jump from the highest one, even though Daniel warned me that the previous semester only 1 person jumped from there, etc. When I got to the top I really do think I peed a little. It was terrifying! Right under the surface of the water were these 2 enormous rocks you had to clear. Well apparently when I finally did jump I long-jumped it or something because everyone watching said they were afraid I was going to hit the other side. Then because it was so high up you really start flailing and can't really control your body so I went in at a bad angle and literally physically bruised my butt and thighs. I thought I died.
2nd Day! We spent the morning on Santa Cruz before taking a two-hour boat ride to San Isabela, the most gorgeous place in the world. After breakfast we went through these ENORMOUS lava tunnels left over from when the gases after an eruption disappear. I don't know what I expected but they were big enough to fit houses in, underground. The designs in the rocks leftover were so amazing. After walking through them for about an hour we went to a tortoise farm. I know they're the "image" of the Galapagos but I'm far more impressed by the sea lions. (They call them sea wolves) We took pictures and walked around but they're sort of... slow. After the tortoises we had lunch and got on the boat for San Isabela. I barely made it off alive. I never thought I got sea sick but maybe it was just because it was such a small boat really in the middle of the ocean. Plus we were SO crammed. But for probably the last half hour I was sweating (even though it was wet and windy) and salivating in my mouth... terrible. By the time we settled into our hostels (we were split up) we just had a little bit of free time before dinner. This is when the gorging began. This is the last time I'll mention it (maybe) but I have never eaten so much as I did in the following 4 days. They stuffed us so full of food, a great idea for days spent in bikinis. It was disgusting.
3rd Day! Right after breakfast we took a boat ride to Tortuga Island (looks like a tortoise... supposedly). We drove around the whole island bird-watching and then got out to snorkel. All of the Galapagos are leftover volcanoes but you could really see it on Tortuga Island. The stratifications and the way the rock broke off was so cool looking! I still can't get over it. While we were snorkeling we saw a huge sting ray! (does that make it a manta ray?) I swam down to try to take a picture but it's sort of impossible to see through the eye holes in disposable water cameras. Also it expired 3 years ago so I have no idea if these pictures are going to come out. After that we went snorkeling at this other place and I saw a few sea turtles and sea lions. I was also body slammed by a sea lion that was "playing" with me. One of the girls in our group got swept away into some rocks and ended up getting stitches in her knee. It was free too!(socialized healthcare, ya know Dad?) After (an enormous) lunch we walked around this little island and saw tons of iguanas, reef sharks, and SEA LIONS. They're my new obsession. There were so many and they're so cute and I love watching how they play with each other. They're such a physically loving animal. Ahhhh. Iguanas- disgusting. I hate them. They scare me. Ok wow. We really did a lot this day. AFTER that we went to see the Wall of Tears- a monument leftover from an old prison, the original Alcatraz. It's also in the middle of a super deserty part of the island so they just assumed if anyone DID escape, they'd die anyway.
I really wish I could remember/had the energy to relay all the facts we learned and stuff because some of it really was SO interesting, but I'm too lazy.
4th Day! Despite being close to death on several occasions, this day was AMAZING! If I'm not exaggerating, we probably only hiked for about 6 hours, after breaks. First we saw la Sierra Negra, the 2nd largest active caldera in the world (after the one in Yellowstone that kills the world in that bad John Cusack movie). It was so weird. It was probably around 10-11 when we got there and it was covered in clouds so we were all super bummed and then within like 2 minutes it just COMPLETELY cleared up. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw. It was... awesome. After pictures our hike continued. We ate lunch under this awesome tree. Maybe 7 or 8 on an awesome scale, but when you're that hungry it just seemed all the more magical. Then the hardest part.... we crossed over first into a desert, then into like I don't know an effing lava field. We were walking on old lava rocks in an active area. The soles of my sneakers seriously started to smudge/melt like tar. I drank 4 bottles of water and a gatorade. No joke. I just kept thinking about being stranded in a desert like the Atacama. I would just lay down and die I guess. In the end we summited Volcan Chico, the most active volcano on San Isabela. The view.... I guess just add it to the list of things a photo will never be able to capture and I will never be able to describe to people who will have stopped really listening or caring an hour earlier.
5th Day! This day we had a long boat ride in the morning (we were separated into smaller boats) and it was so awesome. It was like flying... with turbulence. We saw a whole island FULL of boobies, blue-footed and Nazca, about 20 sea turtles and a school(?) of eagle rays, a type of sting ray. We went snorkeling a couple different places. I REALLY hope my underwater pictures came out, ugh. And this one sea lion swam with me for like an hour. It was so scary the first time it went by though because when you're snorkeling you're just in your own little world... everything is so quiet and then it just darted underneath me. Ahh I thought it was a shark.
Last Day :( We woke up at 4:30 to take that godforsaken boat back to Santa Cruz. I took two pills for seasickness though (1 is recommended and I NEVER take medicine) so I passed out on the floor of the boat using my life vest as a pillow. I think everyone else- sick and miserable, crammed in their bouncing seats sort of hated me. It was glorious. We got to the Charles Darwin research center around 8am and ran through it. We saw Solitary George and Diego, the two most famous tortoises in the world. Diego is from San Diego but they brought him to the Galapagos to mate so this one type of tortoise didn't go extinct and I guess it was a success because he has over 10,000 babies. Freak. Also, the whole Solitary George thing really disturbs me. Scientists apparently have tried masturbating him by hand and imitating female tortoises to "turn him on." Just leave him alone. There is only one flight out of Baltra per day so we had to be at the airport by 11:30 but we were late so guess what!!!! I got upgraded to first class :) Such a wonderful trip.
There really just is something so magical about the Galapagos. I don't know what it is and I don't know how to put it in words, but everything amazes you. For example, when we first saw the penguins Lily and I were just like isn't is so crazy how they rode the Humboldt the whole way here and just evolved, etc. And then we'd just realize that this is where that WHOLE theory came together. WE were on such a freaking big part of scientific discovery and its evidence was everywhere. It's almost pathetic the number of times I got goosebumps or started tearing up. When we went snorkeling on Tortuga Island we were literally IN a volcanic crater and it was alskdfjdsf beautiful. Siiiigggggghhhhhhh. The other really weird thing is how much the climate and geography changes within such a small area... you hit jungle, desert, lava, forest, and beach within 100 meters. It was crazy.
Okay I've decided that tomorrow (hopefully!) I'm going to write about everything since the Galapagos. I'm tired.
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