Ecuador - Galapagos

Synopsis:
How to describe a place where everyone values the land on which they live? Where even the granules of sand stuck between your toes are seen as a loss to the beach from whence they came? I know of no other place where environmental protection operates with such intensity as it does on the Galapagos Islands. And what results? I was within inches of sea lions, white tip sharks, penguins, pelicans, iguanas, giant tortoises, and my personal favorite, the blue-footed booby birds.

Warning! More details than you ever wanted…
One of the other IRCs, Melanie, and I, along with 50 other TSS students found ourselves with Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, one of the Galapagos Islands as our home base for five days. Our first day we flew from Guayquil (where the boat was docked), took a bus through the highlands, to a ferry through the blue waters decorated with stunning wildlife, to a bus to find our convenient located hotel. We barely dropped our bags, consumed some incredibly succulent tuna before we headed out to snorkel with sea lions in water cold enough that you find yourself praying to just go numb. The next morning we got up at the delightful hour of 4:30am to take a five hour boat ride out to Floreana Island. As the crew made us breakfast on the boat, I was astounded at the ability to scramble eggs without starting a fire when I was hanging on for my dear life!

15 of us jumped on top of a truck (yes, I said on top) and drove about 40 minutes into the highlands, mind you the drop from 70 degrees and dry to 50 degrees and wet was more pronounced from the top of the vehicle and needless to say that most opted for an indoor ride on the return. In the highlands, we tiptoed around 2,000 giant tortoises – some that were over 200 hundred years old and 700 pounds (they move as slow as you’d imagine, although you probably would too if you rocked out at 700lbs). As we hiked about, I drank from the water source that dripped from the moss over-hangings of the volcanic mountains, just an fyi, water can seriously taste yummy. J

Back down near the beach, we gladly put on our newly hired wetsuits and went snorkeling before passing by Devil’s Crown (the remains of a volcano’s crater emerging in the sea).

Day Three they let us sleep in until 5:30am (mom, you should be proud of my early starts!) and we had a short three hour boat ride out to Bartholomew Island. We hiked up to the top of a volcano for stunning views of the islands cliffs and beaches. On the boat to the beaches below we found a penguin (I’d like to say they were just like those in Happy Feet, but really it’s a like a cousin of those guys…). Exploring the beaches we happened upon a sun-bathing sea lion (don’t get between them and the sea, they don’t like that too much), crabs the most stunning yellow-speckled red you’d ever seen, and lizards running about.

Day Four was a wee one hour hike out to Tortuga (Turtle) Bay, where we found hundreds of iguanas sunbathing (seriously, they sit out and absorb the sun to keep them warm in the water – good life, huh?), blue-footed boobies that really have blue webbed feet, the pictures don’t do them justice, and as I walked my sea kayak out for a row, I was walking amidst white tipped sharks! So incredible… The afternoon was more tortoises, a different species though, and a short walk/crawl through volcanic caves.

The last day we made our way to the Charles Darwin Research Park and saw baby tortoises (I couldn’t believe they start the size of your hand!) and Lonesome George, a saddleback tortoise who is not only the last of his species, but he won’t mate with any of the lady tortoises to even get a sub-species going… so sad.