So after carefully researching the best, and more importantly, cheapest way to do the Galapagos, we were off to what was one of the most amazing places I have ever been to for 5 days. We had chosen to do it through a travel agency that set us up in a hotel for 4 nights, with all the meals included and excursions on the island of Isabella every day. Did we care that we were going to miss 4 days of spanish classes that we already paid for? No! Notre Dame paid for those for us.So we flew out on Thursday and landed on the island Santa Cruz, the only island fitted for normal sized planes. Turns out, the airport was actually constructed by the US military during WWII and used as a base to detect Japanese movements in the South Pacific and to protect the Panama Canal. The first of the 5 nights we were on our own and had to find a hostal and food ourselves on the island of Santa Cruz. Once we got into the city the girls in our group forced me and Brian to check various Hostals for the best price and best rooms like we were shopping for sweaters or something. As we were checking out one hostal that was $12 per person, a woman began flashing signals at me from around a corner indicating that her hostal was only $10. She literally kept peaking her head around a corner, sticking out both hands and all ten fingers until i finally figured out what she was doing. To make it even better, she was friends with the owner of the hostal she was trying to steal us away from. Anyways, we spent the rest of that day walking along an amazing beach, encountering large lizards, more blue footed boobies, and mantarays in the water.
Day 2 we got up rediculously early because the girls said so (they definitely are in charge of our little group). We went to the Darwin Institute thing where they hatch and grow hundreds of giant tortoises. We also met 'Lonely George.' He is the last giant tortoise of his particular species on the planet and he is 90 years old, which is only half the life span of a tortoise. They have him in little area with two female tortoises of a similar species in order to procreate, but the three of them have been together for 25 years and George has not put any moves on them yet. He just has to have one magical night with a willing female for the sake of his species and yet he wont do it...
That afternoon, after swimming in a beautiful estuary, we took a 3 hour water taxi ride to the Island of Isabella which is where we would spend the next five days. The boat was not much bigger than a taxi on the streets, they managed to cram 20 people into it and I got stuck in a corner for the first hour until they noticed that the 20 foot swells on the ocean had me on the verge of vomiting.
Day 3 was by far the most exciting for many different reasons. We took an excursion to the top of a volcanoe via horseback. The horseback ride on the way up was a lot of fun as we were able to gallop numberous times with our horses. My horse was rather small for me though, and i referred to it as Donkey the entire time. Apparently he didnt like that and he got his revenge later. The volcanoe was amazing - the crater is 6 miles across, the second largest in the world. We hiked through dried lava fields and climbed through lava tunnels. Afterwards we ate lunch and began the rather unfortunate horseback ride back down the volcanoe (I have included a detailed account of what happened on this ride back and my trip to the hospital in the post above this one). To make a long story short though, i was thrown from my horse, and had to get three stitches on the palm of my right hand.
Day 4 and 5 included more hikes around the island, two snorkling trips that were made difficult by the fact that i was not allowed to get my stitched hand wet...hence the picture with the brown plastic bag on my hand. And you can also imagine how difficult it is to snorkle while having to keep one hand out of the water and in the air like a shark.
All in all the islands were amazing with crystal clear water, wild life every where, beautiful beaches, and free medical services (insurance is overrated there).
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