Las Islas Encantadas

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Yesterday we got to the galapagos. and I seriously never want to leave. Its so beautiful here and such a cool atmosphere. We are staying on Santa Cruz, an island in the northern part of the archipelago we are staying in this gorgeous hotel that is about 2 blocks from the ocean and we have a really cool terrace with hammocks and lawn chairs and a sweet view of the beach.
On our way from the hotel to the airport we stopped at two volcanic sink holes and a volcanic chimney. I was in heaven. I literally got to stand on the edge of a volcano. We looked down and you could see for about 10 m but then it got completely pitch black. Our guide said no one has tried to calculate how deep it goes but I'll pretend that it goes all the way to the mantle. yay geology!!

yesterday after we got here, we went to the charles darwin research center and saw the tortoise population restoration projects and we saw all kinds of little babies and some really old ones too that were like 700 lbs. We saw Lonesome George who is the last remaining tortoise from Pinta island and hasn't mated with another tortoise yet and he's like 70 years old. They have tried a thousand different ways to get him to mate but he just hasn't done it yet. I felt kind of bad for him because he is kind of trapped in a small pen and is kind of being exploited for touristic reasons but he is also a pretty important
symbol for the conversation movement in the area so there is two sides to the situation. tomorrow we're going to tortuga bay so we will be able to see giant tortoises in the wild. its totally a dream come true.

today. i got up real early and went for a run during sunrise and it was amazing. the only people out were the guys that worked in the dive shops and the water was so beautiful i wanted to jump right in after my run. the town is so peaceful in the morning. i loved it.

this afternoon we took a boat to one of the other islands and went for a hike. we got to see a ton of blue footed boobies and friget birds. We learned that the blue footed boobies only have one child at a time and if they have two, the older sibling will kill the younger one. I thought that was pretty brutal but everything else about the birds is super cool. they are like little white fluff balls when their young and then they get kind of gray and develop bright blue feet when they hit sexual maturity. I got some really sweet pictures but I wont be able to upload them for a bit because i have to use internet at a internet cafe and its too slow to do anything. we also saw a ton of marine iguanas. they were all lounging on the rocks. it was so cool.

then we went snorkling for like an hour which was probably the coolest thing ever. We saw a ton! of tropical fish, like king's angel fish and rainbow fish and we were swimming with sea lions. The rainbow fish might have been the highlight of the day because it reminded me of my favorite book when I was little. I got so excited when I saw it and it was so beautiful when the sun reflected off of it, it shimmered everywhere. it took my breath away.
At one point, this one sea lion got really close to me and we swam together for like 15 minutes. everybody else was pretty far away and she just stayed right near me and kept swimming underneath me and then looking up at me with this really adorable look on her face. She also kept swimming a head of me but then turning around and giving me this look like 'come on. keep up'. it was so cute. I kind of got upset when we caught back up with the rest of the group because then she got scared with so many people and swam away. The Sea lions are such curious animals and they have no fear of humans so they get really close to us and stay around for a while. It was incredible! I was pretty bummed when we had to get back on the boat but I know we're going again in a couple of days so that at least is something to look forward to.

We have tonight free so I think we're all gonna go out after dinner.
Tomorrow should be another amazing day.

Happy Father's Day, Dad and Ivan.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Love and miss you.

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