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Published: June 14th 2008
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our 4 day trip around the islands was fantastic. again- we promise to try to get some pictures up but we made the mistake of showering first when we got into town, so the other volunteers snagged up the computers at the faster cafes so we´re left back at the slower one with the cranky keyboards..
heres a bit of a breakdown of our tour...
day 1:
we met our group at 6am and boarded our boat and headed off to floreana island- tiny, with only 100 inhabitants. we had lunch and then headed up into the highlands on something that looked like a cross between church seats and a pickup. once at the top, we visited some of the giant tortioises, saw some old caves, and generally some nice landscapes. it was a pretty island but not much to see.. so we boarded the boat, and headed off to isabella island.
a few hours later we got to isabella, and with 3000 people it seemed huge in comparison to floreana. isabella is awesome. it was lush and green and had bright tropical flowers everywhere. the town was adorable and the streets were covered in sand. isabella also
has a volcano erupting on it at the moment. so once the sun went down, our tourguide who happens to be named wilson, suggests we walk down to the beach. he instructs us to look west-- and the sky is red in that direction. we could actually see the lava coating the horizon (we were about 30 miles away). i wish we had a picture but the cameras couldnt capture the shot. just imagine a totally black sky, except for the bottom portion along the horizon being bright red... it was almost like the end of a sunset...but absolutely incredible. there was a bar on the beach, so we just grabbed some drinks there and watched the volcano erput until it was time for bed.
day 2:
we got up early and headed up to the highlands of isabela by bus. half way up we were dropped off and told to pick our horse that we would be riding to the top of the island. the horse ride was an adventure in itself-- most of us are not experienced with horses, and they seemed to take on a differnt mentality when all 17 tried to cram up a tiny
little trail together. ryan even got kicked by another horse, and mine nearly felll down... suffice to say, we were all a bit scared and unhappy to be on these horses.
but, the horses took us to the top safely and to the second largest volcanic crater in the world.. the thing was huge! we continued to walk around and the landscape was truly alien... if i had seen a picture of where we were, i would have thought it was mars. we were surrounded by landforms made out of lava that were only black, red and a golden color. a few cacti grew but that was it.. it was truly surreal.
once we got back down to the coast we went snorkeling with penguins, rays, sea lions, penguins and fish and then took a walk around the mangroves. headed back to dinner and then back out to the bars on the beach.
day 3:
sadly, we had to leave isabela today. on the way to santa cruz island, we stopped at another snorkeling spot. i didnt go in (im not a fan of deep, open ocean coupled with dark caves) but ryan did-- they swam into
some cave off of a rocky landform and said it was great. i stayed on the boat with some others and watched the blue footed boobies and other animals that were enjoying the rocks. eventually we made it to santa cruz, with a population of 15,000. checked out the charles darwin research station and headed into town for dinner, and again, more drinks (dont worry, we werent drinking too much.. that wouldnt have gone over well on the boats in the morning).
day 4:
we had free time in the morning and headed out to tortuga bay. it was a 40 min walk from town, but we were rewarded with a huge white sand beach. it was a bit cloudy but still beautiful. we also got to see loads of marine iguanas hanging out. around the corner was a calmer inlet where a group of school children were playing so we relaxed there for a bit before heading back to the boat.
on the way back to san cristobal, we stopped at a beautiful spot off of santa fe island for more snorkeling and swimming but finally we had to get back. we all had one last dinner
together in port and then headed back up to the highlands.
overall the trip was great and well worth the money. we wouldnt have been able to organize all that on our own so we are so happy we did it, despite the expense!
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