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We arrived in the Galapagos Islands today! After saying good-bye to our two good friends, Anson (who has to go back to work!) and Jose (our fearless bus driver!), we headed to the airport. It was a 90 minute flight west and just before we landed, they opened all of the overhead bins and disinfected all of the luggage. Interesting.
Well, EVERYone was so excited when we stepped off of the plane. We're kind of roughing it in this Eco-Hotel (5 boys in one room and us 4 girls in another!), but the land is amazing. We toured a museum describing the evolution of the islands and the history behind them that makes them so amazing. On our walk, we saw at least 35 lizards...and they are really cool to look at.
Then, we prepped for snorkeling. Stone was so excited to snorkel that he barely ate lunch. He said, "I'm too excited to eat!" However, when we got to the snorkeling area, there were sea lions sleeping on the rocks to enter the water. We tried everything to get them to move, but the "alpha male" made it clear we were not go near them! So, instead, we went to Playa Mann and tried our snorkel gear there. While the waters weren't so clear (and soooo cold), the kids had a BLAST swimming with the sea lions. The sea lions would swim right up to our group and start turning around and demanding attention. I think two went right under Daniel's legs... We spent a lot of time hanging out with them at the beach.
Tonight was dinner and we learned about moon tides...they waves are HUGE...which is rare around here. The night was capped with "helado"-a perfect summertime treat.
WARNING: I probably won't blog tomorrow because we are heading to the other side of the island to camp out on the beach! We'll also get to see the giant tortoises. I can't wait!!!
DISCLAIMER: Currently, the internet in the hotel lobby is painfully slow. The photographer and videographer and I are trying to upload photos/videos to the blog right now...unsuccessfully. As soon as we can, we'll have some photos up for your viewing pleasure. Of course, they are some of the best ones yet!
I'm so excited for this part of the trip that I may not eat either!!!
ReplyDeleteWe love your postings, as well as the pictures. Thanks for keeping us part of the group!
Betsy
I miss you all already! Swimming with the sea lions sounds amazing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about digging for those crabs -- I like the ones at Joe's Crab Shack that come in a little bucket already cooked and ready to eat! It did look like a good excuse to roll around in the mud and get dirty. You all are certainly getting to sample some fantastic food -- no Big Macs on this trip!
ReplyDeleteOn Friday night, there was a show on Discovery Channel and Mike Rowe (the Dirty Jobs guy) narrated the piece. He was talking about a ship that sank in the Pacific and the surviving sailors all died because there was (were) no plankton in the water and therefore there were no fish. Then Mike said that if they had been near the Galapagos (which is when I started to pay attention!!!), but the wind stream kept them away, they would have probably survived because there are so many fish in the water. He talked about the huge schools of fish that the sperm whales and sea lions eat and how the sea lions keep cutting the school of fish into smaller and smaller pieces so the fish get confused and the sea lions can finally catch them and the cold water stream that comes from Antartica which allows the penguins to exist there. It was a very short, but interesting piece made more interesting because Daniel is there RIGHT NOW!!!!
Wow - I can't even imagine how cool that is - can't wait for the pics!
ReplyDeleteThank you for uploading the pics - AWESOME!
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