I love boobies! Blue footed boobies, of course.

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Yay GALAPAGOS!! I can´t believe I'm actually here. It just seems like one of those places that you always go, yeah it'd be great some day but you never actually *go* you know? Ever since bio in sophomore year in high school this place has sounded awesome, and it's been pretty amazing to be here. Within 20 minutes of being here we were already seeing huge birds flying near our bus. Then we stopped at the canal and there was a heron just sitting there, completely uncaring about the fact that we were maybe 2 feet away. Then in the middle of the canal there was a seal happily sun-bathing away on a dingy! And that was just on the ride to our city! Within our city (Puerta Ayora, on Santa Cruz island for anyone who's geography-happy) there's this little dock where fisherman put out fresh fish everyday, and the place is swarming with those birds with the big poches under their beaks, to catch fish... ugh, the name is escaping right now, but I know it.. And seals, one of which we watched happily playing with it's fish by throwing it around and catching it again. Also in the water was this black slick thing that we thought might be an eel, until it climbed up on shore and turned out to be some sort of water iguana! It´s all just amazing. I can't wait till our boat tour (which we're leaving for tomorrow). Yesterday we went to Tortuga Bay, which is this amazing set of beaches. The first has water that reminds me of the Virgin Islands, all emerald green and turquoise blue, with white sand like you find at Crane Beach, huge waves that reminded me of California, and the strangest scenery surrounding - cacti, savannah, and lava rocks! It's absolutely the coolest thing, especially since there are't any buildings anywhere around, so all you get is the unchanged beach. We played in the waves for awhile, then walked on over to another smaller beach with completely still water. Along the way, however, we saw little sharks right on the shore in really shallow water, which were only maybe 1 or 1 1/2 feet long, and white. Then we litterally tripped over iguanas for a good 10 minutes! They were *everywhere*, these big (maybe 3, or 3 1/2 foot long?) black and green iguanas, sunbathing all over the place. We really almost stepped on a few accidentally, and some of them lay around in big groups with their heads on each others backs, which would have been pretty cute if they weren't scaly ugly things. Then we also saw 2 blue-footed boobies, which are pertty much the Galapagos's most famous birds, because they live here only. The blue of their beaks and feet is *really* blue! Like, the blue of this Microsoft Windows explorer window border... We tried snorkling at the other, calmer beach, but unfortunately didn't see much.

Today we're off to some sort of crevase or crater created by volcanos that makes two pools - one of which is salt water, and the other which îs "sweet" water? (I'm not sure what that means...) Otherwise, we've also been to the Charles Darwin research center where we saw giant tortoses (which really are... giant. Their hands are as big as mine!), as well as normal tortoses, "solitare Jorge" which is the last Pisa? tortose on the face of the earth (kinda sad! They keep trying to get him to mate with females of a similar specicies, but (perhaps because he's about 110 years old?) he just isn't interested), and iguanas. Really interesting is that the Galapagos have only been protected since 1959, when they started the Darwin foundation! Before then it was colonized like normal, and now they're trying to save the islands and repopulate them with all the natural flora and fauna, since bringing in cows, cats, dogs, and all sorts of plants and obviously humans has really changed them.

Ok really have to go, but wanted to write a quick entry, even if I still haven't said anything about the Amazon jungle or going cave exploring. Leaving for that boat trip tomorrow so who knows if there'll be another entry. Hope everyone's well back home! Stay warm!!

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Comments

[Maria]

Umm... do you mean pelicans? This place sounds pretty amazing. Someday I'll make it out there... for real tho

[Dara]

I have always wanted to go there! It sounds amazing!