Islas de Galapagos, Isla Santiago, 17-10-1990. Braving the cold crisp air of early morning I peek out of the porthole, a silver line at the horizon and growing fast in intensity, promises me another clear day with great vistas and a sunny waether though the draft of cold air trying hard to invade the warmth under my moth eaten blanket is trying hard to convince me otherwise. Life on a small boat that claims the grandiose title of "cruise ship" and carries four passengers and two crew men plus the by National Park obligated guide, can be claustrofobic and tension high [View Full Entry]

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There is nothing I enjoy more on a Monday night than Jenga and a Pilsener. This night in particular was very special. As we moved on from Pilseners to margaritas, we changed the game from Jenga to "Ultimate Jenga". Once the tower falls, you must rebuild it in the most creative way possible. One margarita later it was every man for himself, and we each built our own towers. One more margarita has us building towers to support our drinks. I think I won for best tower, take a look... [View Full Entry]

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Islas De Galapagos, Isla Santiago, 16-10-1990. Curious prehistoric-looking reptiles eye us, approaching us easily and unafraid while we disembark from our dingy, shoes in hands since we invade this animal kingdom by a so-called wed landing. Slowly they shuffle closer over the black lava bed with its eroded shapes and small pools that house black-colored crabs - perfect camouflage in this volcanic landscape. All around our dingy huge sea turtles awkwardly work their way up the beach, their progress is slow and difficult. Out at sea they might be in their element but here on the hot beach [View Full Entry]

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We were up at 530am for our boat ride back at 6am. This boat was a bit bigger, but still packed to the gills with people...even little kids sleeping on the floor of the boat! I was in the back corner of the boat, so the minimal up and down wave action, so I prob wouldn´t get sick...we also took some sea sickness pills around 530...so I think we´ll be good. We also met a couple people from Calgary (again with the Canadians) on the boat ride that were at our hotel too...but hadn´t talked to them until now. They were [View Full Entry]

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Woke up at 7am for breakfast at 730. I opened my eyes to my mom eating the chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies I had been saving for an emergency (most likely for lunch today since the Russians we met last night said the sandwiches were tuna and vegetable...gross). I was like, WHY ARE YOU EATING THE COOKIES I´VE BEEN SAVING!?!?!? "Because I´m hungry and wanted a snack" was her reply...I was not a happy camper because now I was most likely going to go without food for the majority of the day. At breakfast I met a local Ecuadorean and shot [View Full Entry]

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Islas De Galapagos, Isla San Cristobàl, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, 14-10-1990. A small eatery on Puerto Baquerizo Moreno's quay with the fitting name Comedor Comida Rica - tasty food in the local lingo - is a perfect place for a meal and getting to know our new passengers - a spanish couple in their early forties - while we wait for the crew to load supplies. It takes but a few hundert human steps to get away from the village though, where black eroded lava forms strange and mysterious shapes in an otherwise barren landscape where small cactus roots have found cracks [View Full Entry]

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For the newbies - 1st part English, scroll down for German Off to the Galapagos Islands - Animal Paradise From Lima we were off to the north of Peru to stop in the hiking Mecca of Huaraz. When we got to the bus station to catch a night bus to Huaraz we ran into Flavia, a Swiss girl who we´d already met in the sand dunes in Huacachina when we went sandboarding. That´s so typical for the Gringo Trail. You keep bumping into the same people. Since then we have been travelling together and now Ryan and I have a ‘T [View Full Entry]

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Charles Darwin is the famous philosopher who is most commonly known for discovering the pristine and enchanting beauty of the Galapagos Islands. The first island that Charles Darwin discovered was San Cristobal (the one I am currently living on). He originally spent only 2 weeks on the Galapagos Islands, and spent the next 25 years working on his book called “The Origin of Species”. This book is said to be the foundation of evolutionary biology, and introduced the theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process called "natural selection". It presente [View Full Entry]

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First hour! Amazing! The Galapagos have not disappointed us and we’ve only been here 1 day! Our flight in was spectacular over the lunar arid landscape of Isla Baltra. Within 5 minutes of being in our room (which, by the way, has a balcony which overlooks the sea) we spotted sea lions on the jetty, thousands of huge red crabs, marine iguanas, other iguanas, other crabs, countless types of birds and all in the most turquoise water you can imagine. Rest of Day 1 The afternoon was spent planning our next 10 days on the islands. There was so much to [View Full Entry]

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Update from the land of giant tortoises - We went on a search this weekend for a cheap tour for the week after our last work week at the reserve, which is our last week in Galápagos. We didn´t have much luck in the port of San Cristobal, so we decided to take a ferry over to the bigger town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz. We got here this morning and within one hour of being here we found a tour for an extremely good price, about 1/2 off the normal price! The trick is that it leaves today! So [View Full Entry]

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