adiós galápagos

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hmm.

thought we´d put a blip up.

we packed our bags up after a month and some in the galapagos and are headed back to quito on monday.

last update i think emily mentioned we found a cheap boat to hop on to tour the islands. we had intended to just spend a long weekend on santa cruz (another island with a larger town and bigger harbor) to look for ways to get around the islands, but a few hours after we got off the ferry, we happened apon a tour that was leaving that afternoon. they had two places left, and we are two people, and we got the trip at pretty much 50%.

we took our small weekend day packs and hopped on ´rumba´. it was a proud little ship. it held ten guests and the crew. (it seems that most other ships that tour the islands have atleast 16 guests, but many have over 35). the crew was a friendly bunch of guys who made the trip enjoyable and very low key. el capitan was a very short ecuadorian who has been piloting boats in the islands for 25 years. i went up to check out the pilot house/wheel... the ceiling was at my neck and i realized el capitan was standing with a foot to spare. the cook was a crazy afro-ecuadorian. we don´t realy know what language he spoke, but we tried to teach him how to say pop-corn, he couldn´t do it. there were also two more deck hands/crew.

our guide was a friendly, young galapagueño named juan. he was enthusiastic to just sit and talk in english.

we would often travel between the islands at night because the distances were pretty long (50 nm) and the boat was slow. this made for interesting sleeping conditions as our little boat was ragdolled by the open pacific. one night i was awakened as about 10 gallons of cold seawater slopped in my porthole window into my bunk. but it added to the adventure and we enjoyed being on our little ship.

the landscapes and ecology of the islands was incredible. turquiose water lapping at tiny sections of white sand beaches backed by a barren island of volcanic domes and lava rock. red and green sand beaches at the base of huge cliffs. mangroves filled with sharks, turtles, rays and blue footed boobies. reefs clinging to crevaces in subaquatic volcanic formations. swimming with dozens of sea turtles, and playing with inquisitive sea lions and penguins. having to step over (rather than on) marine iguanas and watching an albatross make its first dry land landing. seeing breeching humpback whales. hanging out with tortoises that have been hanging out for over one hundred years. snorkling in cold pacific water, past a slew of exotic fish. we even stood, mesmorized by the ´lava toilet´ juan showed us. truly a world unlike any other.

anyway, we are back on san cristobal and have left the volunteer reserve. our last week at the reserve went well. we got to go through the steps of making coffee (picking through roasting and drinking). we spent more time at the greenhouse and hiked to the coast to collect trash. emily and i went on a hunt for passion fuit and avocado hunt. apparently avocado just went out of season, but we found some unripe passion fruit entangled high in a guava tree covered in fire ants. one day, the water on the reserve stopped working, so a few of us woke at 5 am, climbed up to the river the water comes from and tracked the water pipe through chest deep water and a jungle of dense, usually unfriendly vegetation.

we are back in town and even found a place with hot water and took hot showers for the first time since september 21st. i even got an authentic galapagos island hair cut, haha.

that is all. this is long.

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Comments

[Dad]

Wondering about your wandering
So glad to finally hear from you...We are fine here. I hope you have been taking pictures of all your adventures to share when you get back to reality. Sounds as though you have experienced all the sights and sounds of the mystery of the Galapagos. I hope you will keep us informed of your future travel plans as they are a mystery to us. We are once again having some unusually warm days for November. Savor is still in the water and we may even go sailing over THanksgiving break. Take care, we love you both, Dad