Galapagos!

The last five days cruising around the southern islands of the Galapagos rank among the most incredible days I have spent on this trip. I have never been so close to animals in the wild, never been able to observe them for so long in their natural habitat. The landscapes on each island are so diverse, alongside the amazing variety of birds, mammals and plants. The Ecuadorian government and the Charles Darwin Research Station are doing a fantastic job of preserving and protecting such a precious area of our little planet.

There were 10 of us on the boat, all under 35 – 5 Germans, 2 Canadians, 1 Irish, 1 Dutch and me. We all got along fabulously which always makes a trip even more fun. The second afternoon between hiking and snorkeling, as we were making our way to the next stop, I was laying out on the rooftop soaking up some vitamin D when I got pooped on by a frigate bird. Forty two minutes later, I got pooped on by another one. Did you know that frigate bird poop can stain bathing suits? I won the award on the boat for “Most Times Pooped on by a Bird”. Lucky me.

We stopped at one or two islands each day for a hike with our naturalist guide where in broken English with silly sexual colloquialisms about animal mating rituals, he explained the different animals, plants, etc. We saw sea lion cubs nursing, blue-footed boobies doing their mating dance, albatross babies. We watched sea lions surfing and killing its lunch (this consists of whopping fish from side to side on the surface) and iguanas nearly inhale cactus fruit as it fell to the ground. I saw so many different birds that I stopped trying to remember their names…except the boobie one, that one’s easy. Ha ha…


I honestly have fallen in love with sea lions. I could watch them sneeze, roll in the sand, waddle around and make noise all day long and never tire of it. On a beach one afternoon, I was lying on my sarong about 8’ from a colony of sea lions. After about 10 minutes, one scooted over to smell and nudge my beach bag. Ten minutes after that, one came right up and smelled/ kissed my calf. It was incredible!! They just looked at me with their huge brown eyes to make sure I wasn’t going to eat them or to confirm that I wouldn’t be a tasty snack and then went about their business. It is honestly surreal to think about how close I came to them and how the sea lions and I actually made a connection. Of course, I was talking to them like I talk to our dog, Chance…very baby-meets-puppy-kind of squealing girl voice, so maybe that helped the bonding process!

Snorkeling was also incredible. Again we were playing with the sea lions. I saw two white tip reef sharks, one over 5’ which is quite big for reef sharks! I lost count of how many turtles and eagle rays. A school of about 20 eagle rays and a few turtles swam right under me and I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really seeing what I was seeing! Unbelievable!

On the boat back to Santa Cruz Island yesterday, a few dolphins started following us, jumping, twirling. Of course, I got super excited and basically sprinted to the front of the boat, tripping on a part of the boat that was sticking straight up in plain sight, breaking a toe. I can’t believe I almost made it this entire trip without seriously hurting myself after all these falls and trips, but watching the dolphins in the perfect blue water was well worth the pain I now feel ever step!

On a completely unrelated note: I ran into an Aussie couple that I sailed with when we went to see the Komodo dragons in Indonesia back in April! What a wonderful coincidence that we should meet again on the other side of the planet and how incredibly small the world really is!

Hung out at Tortuga Bay this afternoon with iguanas, trying to be sure that my tan is dark enough so that it actually looks like I have been away when I get home! Tonight those of us from the boat got together for some delicious street seafood. The grill master allowed me to flip and blow dry some of the marlin and prawns (in Asia and S. America they use hair dryers when grilling to speed up the process...pretty genius and entertaining!) I decided against doing any more laundry since I am so close to going home now. I’m sure that my neighbors on my flights won’t appreciate it…everything I own definitely has acquired a ‘traveling scent’ after 16 months. Back to Quito tomorrow where I am meeting up with Eva, my dive buddy from last week, for one last night on the town before packing up and heading back to the USA! Ciao from the Galapagos!