Arrived in the Galapagos

I don´t have a journal here and I wish I did, so I´ve come into one of the many internet cafés here and decided to write what I´ve seen so far.

First, we were worried that there wouldn´t be people selling tours and you would be out of luck if you didn´t have everything planned - but it was just like Mindo or Baños where there are tour shops on every corner (so if you ever go to the galapagos, just book your plane ticket and take advantage of all the last minute deals, including a hotel). We booked our hotel in advanced, but its so nice. The rooms aren´t luxurious but we really just paid for the view. We are right on the ocean, listening to the waves at night. We wake up and see crabs scattered along the rocks, seals chillin on the docks, and pelicans flying by. And the pelicans are so cool! Just like in Finding Nemo, and you see them everywhere. While we were on our snorkeling tour today we saw them diving into the water to catch the fish. We also saw blue-footed boobies which are only in Ecuador (we saw these in Atacames also) and a bunch of other birds during one of our breaks. But on our tour today we left around 7am to get to the boat launch 45min up the island, then we rode around to 3 different spots - Daphney, Baltra, and North Seymour. We didn´t go on any of the islands, but we didn´t need to. The first ¨practice¨spot for the divers (Ben & Alexandra) Sarah and I (the snorkelers) saw a sting ray as well as a bunch of other fish. There were sea lions basically tanning on the white beach island nearby - I thought they were people at first. Then the second place we went there was a sea lion (seal) who must have had a blind eye because it was the only one we saw with a purple eye, came up to us and basically was playing with us and following us around. You can´t touch them back because his mom could have been looking out and plus its forbidden, but we were close enough where we could have if we wanted. Then we also saw a turtle that came up right behind us. It was probably the same size of you making a circle with your arms. It certainly moved slow though, so we got plenty of pictures (Alexandra has a camera that can do 10ft underwater). The third place we saw a group of 3 sea lions who weren´t as playful but still fun to spot, thousands of different schools of fish, and A SHARK. It was below us and probably didn´t notice us, but I did my best not to completly freak out. It was awesome. The waters where we snorkled were very rough though and we had to be careful we didn´t go to close to the rocks, but we´re going to Isla Bartolomé tomorrow and I´m pretty sure it will be more tranquil.

Yesterday was great too. We arrived at the airport, got a student discount because we had our University of San Fransico Quito IDs (even though we should have had a student visa, but we still got the $75 off deal), and then took the boat ride across to Santa Cruz, the main island. 18,000 natives live here which was a big surprise, and basically it has the same small town feel as Atacames mixed with a little bit of Mindo, the people are really friendly, and it seems like most people basically just work for toursim but have this whole separate community. It´s awesome and such a beach town. The 45min ride from the top of Santa Cruz to the action in the bottom was sooo interesting too. We started out in a completly barren location where there was no tree life, nothing. Then it gradually changed into a selva-jungle type that had the same types of plants as Mindo with cooler wind, and then we reached the bottom where there were more cacti and not as abundant vegetation. I couldn´t believe how much it changed in such little time. Then after we got settled into the hotel, we went to the Tunnel of Lava which was as the name implys a tunnel made out of lava that we walked in for about 5 mintues until it got pitch dark and there was no way you could go any further. It was discovered about 15 years ago, so its pretty young. Then we saw some of the really big turles, two twin craters (that were apparently formed from lava and collapsed), then we went to Tortuga Bay which has white softer than soft sand and huge waves.

I have a ton more to say, but my internet time it running out. I´ll be writing more...