Island Getaway

After the somewhat hectic and stressful experience of having all of my important things stolen, I decided to amend the itinerary for my vacation with my parents just slightly. We unfortunately had to cut out Cuenca, as we had lost a few days recouperating from the theft. But that did give us a couple more days to spend chilling out in Baños. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable stay, filled with massages, hot springs, steam baths, good food, and waterfalls. But on the whole, it was not terribly eventful, basically just a spa week to recover from all the adventure we had been through.

Giant Tortoises living in the wild, they really are huge, over 600 pounds!

Sea Lions are just everywhere around the Galápagos, and they are really friendly.

After our detox in Baños, it was time to once again hit the road, and make our way to Guayaquil where we would catch our flight to the Galápagos Islands. This was to be our last hurrah together as a family, and I wanted to make it a memorable one. So after spending a couple nights in a very nice hotel, enjoying the beach and town of Puerto Ayora, we hopped on a six day cruise that we snagged as a last minute deal.

It's the nesting season for most birds and Sea Lions now, this pup is probably a week old.

Me with a coconut, the beaches here are just beautiful!

These past six days have been some of the most amazing of my entire trip. We began in Puerto Ayora, sailed to Puerto Villamil, then all around the western edge of Isabella, then up to Santiago Island, North Seymour, and finished back at Santa Cruz. Along the way we saw some of most incredible wildlife and scenery in the world. There are so many species and landscapes that are entirely unique to these isolated little islands. But the truly wonderful thing about the Galápagos is just how surrounded and immersed you become with nature. The animals living here have almost no natural predators, so they have no fear of humans. For this reason, the Galápagos is probably the only place in the world that you can take a hike and have to look at the ground to keep form stepping on marine iguanas. Every animal, from Blue Footed Boobies to Sea Lions will allow you to practically walk up and pet them without showing the least sign of distress or fear.

The ubiquitous Blue Footed Boobie.

This is the Sally Lightfoot Crab, the colors are just amazing, and this picture doesn't capture them that well.

It was a fantastic trip, with only one downside... we had to live on a boat. One of the things I learned about myself during this trip is that sea life does not agree with me. From the moment I stepped on the boat, I felt dizzy and slightly nausiated. I did eventually adjust, but I never really adapted to constantly rocking back and forth. And throughout our trip I had sever bouts of headache and nausia. But it was still a fantastic way to end our trip, and I an experience I will never forget.

These lava flows cover much of the islands, it really looks like an apocalypse.

The Galápagos is the only place in the world where Marine Iguana's are found, they enter the water to feed and cool off.