Added pics from Easter Island and our Santiago Christmas finally! Link is in the blogroll.
Have a fantastic New Year`s everyone-I`ll be celebrating on the beach in Viña del Mar/Valparaiso a few hours from Santiago.
Til 2008…
xoxo
December 2007
Monthly Archive
December 28, 2007
December 26, 2007
Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!! Still in Santiago figuring out how we will be spending our last month in South America. We have to decide a route and if we will be visiting just Argentina and Brazil, or if we´ll throw Bolivia into the mix. It´s very difficult to choose- benefits to each course of action- and up until this point, we have pretty much had things planned out. From now on, we are kind of on our own and have to actually figure out the next steps. We did change our flight to India- we are now leaving 3 days earlier from Brazil and spending those days in London! Dee has never been and I´m really excited to meet up with Ali and all of my other English friends who live in and around London, including the new ones we have made thus far along the way. I´ll keep you updated on our plans.
Meanwhile, managed to have a fantastic Christmas! On Xmas Eve, Dee and I separated for three hours and bought each other stocking stuffers. Other than a vast amount of sweets, her gifts included canned peaches, yummy smelling deodorant, sunscreen, gummy pizzas and candy canes. I attempted to get her “Siddhartha,” because I really think she should read it before we get to India, but the tiny English book store closed 5 mins before I got there! I also tried to get her a gift certificate to Pizza Hut (she is beyond obsessed with pizza), but after spending 20 minutes trying to explain in Spanglish (mostly English actually) what a gift certificate is, I found out they don´t do that here. Being away from my translator was QUITE the challenge!! On Christmas morning, we exchanged pressies underneath the tree in the hostel. She got me an adorable tank top (that I´m now refusing to take off, as having a 4th shirt to choose from is beyond exciting!), a huge Toblerone bar, and a mani/pedi set- along with a “coupon” for one free pedicure courtesy of Dee. After present time, we completely vegged out in the TV room and watched Frasier, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Office, Friends and ER. Since everything else in the city was closed, we ordered Domino´s pizza for delivery! It was fantastic to do absolutely nothing.
In the eve, we met up with Romayne and Darren, our Aussie friends from the Galapagos, at their hostel across town. We had an awesome night making new friends and hanging out with everyone at their hostel. They are pretty much the cutest couple ever.
We have run into some problems being American lately though. I tried befriending a Russian girl last night by telling her I was part Russian, but she just berated me for about 20 minutes about how Americans and the USA completely suck and what an idiot I must be for being an American, etc. The previous night, Dee and I had a similar situation with some Brazilians, who went on for about an hour about how we are all completely brainwashed losers and should be doing something to stop the war. This one guy also kept going on about how all the citizens of the country should just come together and bring down Bush, etc. It was absolutely TERRIBLE and made us both feel like shit. We are getting that a lot lately. It´s pretty awful being personally blamed for all of the horrors going on in Iraq and in the rest of the world. He also insisted that the US govt planned 9-11 and we were all assholes for not understanding that. It´s like we are expected to keep apologizing for things we can´t control- ie the privileged country we were born in. UGH!!!!! NOT fun, let me tell you.
Anyway, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas too!! Not sure where we will be for New Year´s Eve yet, though I´m sure it will be someplace exciting. We are in Santiago until Friday waiting on our Brazilian visas to be okayed by the Embassy, but will let you know where we go after that. I love that we have no idea and it´s just a few days away. :)
Peace in the middle east!
xo
Jillian
***************UPDATE****************
We decided! We are going to skip Bolivia on this trip. Logistically, it doesn´t make too much sense to go ALL the way up there, then go back down to Buenos Aires, then all the way across to Rio. Check out the map below to get a better idea of these distances:
So now, we´re going to head down to Puerto Montt in the Lakes District of Chile, then cross over in Bariloche to Argentina, make our way up to Buenos Aires. From there, we´ll either go to Iguazu Falls (one of, or possibly the biggest, falls in the world) or through Uruguay to get to Rio de Janeiro! Yay- very exciting to have the groundwork for the next month all set.
December 26, 2007
Oh boy, is island life SLOOOW! Was just on the extremely remote and tiny Easter Island (65 sq miles total) and I don´t think I´ve ever managed to do less in a week! It certaintly was interesting to go from the intense Inca Trail to a week of nothingness- talk about polar opposites. It was a vacation from my vacation. Horses, cows and bulls just seem to roam free (though they all do belong to the locals) and everyone rides horses around instead of driving cars. I can just imagine growing up there and instead of begging to borrow my parents car, we´d argue about which horse I was allowed to take out for the day! Also, the entire place shuts down for the hours of 1-5pm for siesta time. Ah- heavenly!!
After a bout of food poisoning, or something equally traumatizing, on the 5 1/2 hour plane ride from Santiago to Rapa Nui (as Easter Island is called in the local tongue), we made it to Camping Mihinoa, our hostel overlooking the ocean where we spent a great majority of our week. On our first day, taking the advice of our Canadian roomie, we went on a seven hour hike to check out some Moai (the giant statues the island is famous for) and find some caves.The Moai were pretty easy to find, as they are around 27 feet high, but we couldn´t find the caves for the life of us. We gave up and hired a taxi to take our tired feet back to the dorm.
Before I go any further, let me take a moment to explain a little about the Moai (pronounced Mo-eye) and the origins of Rapa Nui. This information may be a little off base, as I´m reproducing it mostly from memory, but you´ll get the general idea. I´m also taking some of this information from the fictional movie “Rapa Nui,” produced by Kevin Costner, but let´s just go with that and whatever I learned on my tour today, since I´m not claiming to be a Moai scholar. It is theorized that the island was first inhabited by Polynesians, who managed to get to the most remote island in the world on their little wooden boats by following sea turtles and the stars. Once settled here around 600AD, they divided into seven clans and set up villages on the coast. After about six hundred years, the King of the most powerful clan (The Long Ears) started forcing one of the clans with less clout (The Short Ears) to build Moai to honor the spirits and give everyone good Mana (energy). They carved the Moai out of rock in the volcano quarry, which I saw first-hand, then would push them down the hill into a hole that was already dug for them, then would use ropes and pulleys to get them upright, and the Moai would “walk” to it´s Ahu (ceremonial platform) where it would finally be placed. VIPs of the villages were buried underneath the Ahu and their spirit would come alive in the Moai and they would protect the village in that way. All of the finished and placed Moai, except the 7 who were built to honor the original 7 explorers who first came to the Island, are facing the villages for protection. There are 887 Moai in existence, though most of them are still in the quarry either unfinished or awaiting transport to their ahus. No one knows exactly how they were moved six miles, as some weigh 80 tons! They think that they used wooden logs in order to roll them and that would explain why no trees were left on the island by the time the modern day explorers found it in the 1770´s. Some of the Moai even have hairstyles- they have red “topknots,” which basically makes them look like they are wearing hats- very stylish indeed! I also quickly want to explain the “Bird Man Competition.” A man was chosen from each clan to compete in this competition, which decided who would be the next king. The competitors had to run a great distance along the top of a volcano crater, climb down the cliff to the sea, swim to a tiny island off the coast where a special bird lays its eggs (while avoiding the sharks in the ocean), grab the first egg, and bring it back to the village unharmed. Whichever clan´s man did this the quickest, would be the new clan who ruled. Pretty interesting if you ask me. Imagine if Presidents were picked that way?!
And here endeth the history lesson.
Other than learning about the great mysteries of the Moai, Dee and I basically explored the entire island by foot. It was just waaay too expensive to rent a car, or even a scooter, for a day, so we did a lot of wandering. I managed to get the most tan I´ve probably ever been, just by roaming around and laying on the beach. I am paying for it now though and peeling like a mo´fo.´ There is only one real BEACH on the whole island- the other two are in town and are ridiculously small, so I wouldn´t even call them real beaches to be honest. I was surprised. The real beach is 18km away from town and had to take a taxi there and back, which is an annoying and expensive process.
On the second night, we went to see the “Rapa Nui” movie, but before the movie started, they showed a tourism documentary about the island. It was completely pointless because as Dee proclaimed, “You already convinced us- we´re here!!!” There were tons of Japanese people at our hostel and they insisted on cooking fish heads over the fire nightly, and it was absolutely disgusting. They even ate the eyes, which they said are the healthiest part because they make you smarter! Sick!! We also cooked nearly all of our meals at the hostel, though they were a little milder than fish heads, and it was a nice change to cook.
The highlight of our week there was going to the local prison to buy handicrafts. The inmates make these crafts themselves, so they are a lot less expensive than buying them anywhere else on the island. I was trying to bargain with one of them, and he told me that it was already so much less than it´d be at the market, and Dee was like, “Oh yea?! When was the last time you went to the market?” Haha. Anyway, the prisoners are made up of two robbers and a murderer who killed his wife after finding her in bed with another man. It was pretty crazy to be in this laid-back prison, where the gate is simply left open, and the prisoners are roaming around using CHAINSAWS to carve wood during arts and crafts time. They were all very nice and gave us lots of free presents- I think they are starved for attention from the ladies- so rewarded us for our presence quite generously. We both got necklaces made out of conch shells and chicken feathers. Dee received a pencil holder made out of the stump of a tree that was supposed to represent one of the three volcanos on the island. He insisted that Dee “practice” putting a pencil in the hole, because you know, putting a pencil in a hole is a pretty difficult art to master (insert sarcasm here). My free gift was a strawberry carved out of volcanic rock, which is also ridiculously random, but how can you turn something like that down!
On the full day tour we met this guy, David, who was about 65 and had a 32 year old physician girlfriend. He asked me if I could choose three places in the world to reside in for four consecutive months at a time, and I had all the money in the world, where would I live? I chose NYC for spring, Sydney for fall (their spring) and York, England for winter. EVERYONE thought that was absolutely hysterical- who would choose York?! Ali and I went there on our England road-trip last year, and I really just thought it was the cutest place in the world and would be so cozy for winter- like Kate Winslet´s little cottage in Surrey in the movie “The Holiday.” Anyway, thought that was hilarious.
On the 23rd, the man who ran our hostel drove us to the airport for our flight back to Santiago. The girl sitting in the front seat went to put on her seatbelt, but he wouldn´t let her put it on. I was appalled, as I am quite obsessed with putting on my seatbelts and get made fun of quite often for even using them in taxis, so I asked him “por que?” (why?). His reply was, “that´s just not how we do things here.” What is WRONG with putting on a seatbelt though?! Still confused about that one. Honestly though, most of the cars I´ve been in in all of South America don´t even OFFER seatbelts to put on.
Overall, I definitely enjoyed my “vacation,” although we did find it very difficult to fill all of the hours of the day since it didn´t get dark until 10pm and there wasn´t really a lot on the island, other than all the Moai. Had some amazing local fish and amazing papas fritas (french fries). Just to give you an idea of how pricey the island was, one night we went out and each had a cocktail and split a plate of fries and it cost $28! Ridic- just ridic.
December 15, 2007
First off, I just need to show everyone how AWESOME my work friends are…TWC recently had their holiday party and my amazing friends made this sign for me to show the love-
Seriously, how cute is that?! THANK YOU!!! I miss you too!!
Just made it to Machu Picchu (MP means “old mountain”) yesterday, and what an adventure it was. Let me start off by stating that the 4 day hike to MP on the Inca Trail was the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my entire life, by FAR! Just to explain, the Inca Trail is the original trail built by Incas in the 16th century for royal, high-class people to use for their pilgrimidge to MP, though they built it after they built MP itself. Over the 4 days, I walked a total of 45KM (about 27 miles), which does not seem like much, until you consider that it is all uphill and downhill over rocky, off-balance large stones, at ridiculously high altitudes- from 8,000 to 13,200 feet above sea-level! I got a walking stick and was totally hooked on it- can totally understand how elderly people get addicted to canes. Breathing while laying still was even more difficult than usual, so just imagine climbing high mountains! I think I did more exercise and heavy, heart-pounding breathing over the past four days than all the exercise I´ve done in my life put together. Seriously. On both the first and second day we walked for 9 hours each, the third day for about 4.5 hours and the final day was 2.5 hours to Machu Picchu- but then had to climb lots of painful steps to explore MP for 5 hours as well.
I went with an agency called Llama Path (I think there are like 10 other companies along the path- 500 people do it per day, including porters and guides) and was really glad we chose them. First of all, and most importantly, they treat their porters really well. Ours were called the “Red Army” (gotta love the Commie overtones) because they all had red uniforms and red backpacks with proper straps. A lot of the porters from other companies did not even have actual straps and their stuff was just hugged to their back with cloth or plastic ropes. Note that the porters carry about 60 lbs each and basically RUN the trail and a lot of them even do it in sandals! Just madness. By the time we arrived at camp, either for lunch or for the night, the dining tent, sleeping tents, juice and our meal was all set up for us. Seriously heavenly. They spoiled us. In the mornings, they woke us up (at anytime between 330am and 6am) by bringing hot tea to our tents. The nights were freezing, so this was a complete blessing. Though the first morning it happened, we started yelling at them because we thought they were just intruding into our tents!!! We felt extremely guilty when we found out their true purpose, thats for sure. The food was amazing too- our chef Jorge was a genius and even created little animals out of food- like a cucumber parrot, etc. I ate like a queen because there was always so much food and after burning up so many calories, it was hard to turn it down. I probably scarfed down the most out of our group- many a joke was made on my behalf about that.
There were 9 of us total , with one guide (Casanio), 14 porters, and one chef. Other than me and Deirdre, we had a Brit named Susie, a Finnish girl named Minna, and 5 Aussies who all knew each other- Jason, Jon, Hay, Ahn and Tim (who is a Pastor). Most groups have about 15 people in them, so we were really lucky and all got extremely close while wallowing in our misery. Susie explained this best as she kept spouting out phrases like, “This is mental! I am totally destroyed. I am totally broken. We are insane! Im sooo done!,” etc. I mean, was really sooo worth every painful step in the end, but man, it was ROUGH going! On our first day, Jon, a 30 (or so) year old Aussie, who weighed about 170 lbs, had to be carried up the mountain by 3 porters! Literally piggy-back-ride carried uphill for an hour. I didnt get to see it (Dee and I were always at the front of the pack, so I was already at the top), but hearing about it was just incredible. I hired a porter to carry my stuff and just carried about 7 lbs on my back, but some of the other people carried their entire 30 lb backpacks the entire way- talk about MENTAL!
Our guide called us CHAMPIONS, but with his accent it sounded like “champignons” (mushrooms in French) so we called ourselves Team Mushroom. We rocked it! We were always the first or second group to finish, but that was mostly because we went a lot further each day than the other groups. For example, our first day was the hardest day because we walked to the farther possible campsite for the night and walked halfway up to Dead Woman´s Pass (the steepest point), while most of the other groups camped closer to the start, but then did the ENTIRE ascent up the mountain on the second day and then had to go all the way back down it. I really liked that we did it our way, because in the end, it made everything a bit easier overall.
Dee had a bit of trouble with Casanio though and though she used to LOVE Latin men, she´s slowly getting over her obsession. For a guide, he was completely inappropriate with her. He kept telling her she should marry him (basically) and live in SF half the year and Cusco half the year, and like kept hugging her and stuff. At one point, when she was getting REALLY fed up, I had to be like “She DOESN´T like you!” and even told him that she was really independent and liked to be left alone, so he would get the hint, but nothing really changed after that, so Dee ended up complaining to the agency about him. It was seriously like jr high! The good thing about Casanio was that he played this traditional Peruvian flute as motivation for us along the trail, and every once in awhile would break into “Turn Around Bright Eyes!” Was hilarious!!
On the final morning, after a HUGE rainstorm (luckily our only bad weather was on the 4th day because seriously can´t imagine doing this in the rain), we woke up at 330am, ate some cake (yep, they baked us a cake for us to eat at 4am- check out my pic of the cake next to my watch), and seriously RACED to the checkpoint- we were the 2nd group there, which meant we would be one of the first to arrive at the Sun Gate for our first views of MP. Along the way, this lunatic boy ran ahead trying to pass everyone, and stumbled and nearly fell off the cliff- was a bit scary because he seriously could have died, but he was being an IDIOT trying to run ahead of everyone, so we all kinda laughed at him. Dumb. Also, we had to climb up the “monkey steps,” and you literally need to use your hands to partly crawl up them- that´s how steep they are!
The views from the Sun Gate were pretty good when we first got there, though soon after it started getting VERY cloudy, as you can see from the pics. The clouds made it all the more gorgeous though. MP really is incredible–was very moving to finally be there and I don`t think it would have been nearly as spectacular if we didn´t have to work so hard to get there. I´m glad we did. Explored MP for about 5 hours. Definitely could have spent an entire day there, had I not done the trail, but was almost a zombie wandering around checking everything out. I “re-energized” myself at the Sun Dial (same place the Incas did this in their time) and had to take a train back to Cusco, where we arrived at 8pm and basically PASSED out. We were all so tired and cranky, whining about everything like we were 6 years old!
The next day, I treated myself to a mani/pedi as a reward, and the woman kept going on about how she could tell how much I´d walked! Had a group reunion that night, with happy hour drinks equalling 3 for the price of 1, and had a great time reminiscing. We took a cab back from the bar to the hostel and stubborn Dee ended up arguing for about 30 minutes with the taxi driver over about the equivilent of 15 cents. Was pretty funny, but she got her money back in the end! Some of the guys in the group were Chinese, so I got to play my favorite Chinese drinking game with them!!! I was so pleased. The Peruvians are fascinated by the Asians and go up to them all the time and ask to take pics with them. I imagine it might be like that for us when we get to India and people start handing over their babies for us to hold! Going to be insanity.
The next morning, Dee asked me what time our flight to Santiago, Chile was for the next day, and I checked and turned out it was TWO hours before that on THAT day!!! We totally thought it was the next day, so we missed our flight, had to pack up everything in a major hurry, get to the airport and buy a new ticket to Lima to catch our connection to Santiago. Luckily, everything worked out and it only cost us $100 each for the new ticket, but it could have been SO much worse. Well, at least we learned our lesson about stupidly just ASSUMING we know when our flights are!
I´m currently in Santiago, which is like a REAL modern city!!! They have department stores around every corner, movie theatres (yess!!), and even a STARBUCKS! Had been 7 weeks since my last iced grande sugar-free hazelnut non-fat latte, so was pretty much in heaven this morning when I discovered it. Families all hold hands here- no matter their age…like 18 yr old girls holding hands with their parents! Right now its nearly 9pm and it`s still sunny too and really really hot. I love this weather. It`s going to be so bizarre to be here for Xmas in the heat!
Tomorrow we are leaving for Easter Island and will be on the most remote island in the world for an entire week just looking at the giant Maoi statues and sunnin´ it on the beach! Cannnnnnot wait.
Also posted some pics in my blogroll from MP and the trail- so enjoy!
I´ll leave you with a poem my dad so sweetly wrote for me:
A LITTLE TRAVEL POEM FOR JILLIAN
I see you lying awake
Staring at the ceiling
Your imagination planning
Tomorrow’s new routes.
I sense you listening
To your inner voice
As it speaks to you loudly
And your heart beats quickly.
As traveling builds your pride
And inner strength abounds
Sleepy senses become acute
Youre learning who you are.
On the road you become a poet
An angel and a dreamer
An ambassador for your country
Filled with bravery and power.
Oh, how you love to travel
Somewhere new, somewhere old
Where the people sing and smile
And dance often and merrily.
On the road you are fearless
Unstoppable and strong
A medicine woman an angel
Sometimes even a genius.
Oh, how you love to travel
On a plane, bus, or boat
Flying like a soaring bird
Overseeing the wonders below.
On the road you speak of others
Tell tales of Auntie Linda
Think back to your earliest travels
When you first fell in love with adventure.
Oh, how you love to travel
Seeing sunsets and new horizons
Your senses finding new things
And never becoming dull
The scent of exotic flowers
The taste of beans and more beans
The sight of Machu Piccu
The sounds of rushing rivers.
On the road you reprimand yourself
And always set new goals
Stop, recharge your batteries,
Then begin anew again.
Oh, how you love to travel
Every part of you comes alive
You are energized and blown away
Every minute of every day.
On the road you experience freedom
You’re a citizen of the world
With humanness, compassion, and affection,
Raised to a level before unknown.
So my advise my daughter
As you travel around this earth
It is fine to arrive on empty
But always leave satiated and full.
Have the greatest trip ever
December 5, 2007
Our night in Guayaquil was pretty boring, as we just ordered Chinese take-away and went back to our room to enjoy the TV that was mounted on the wall. Had to pay for utensils for the Chinese…everything IS so cheap, but the random stuff that is not complimentary gets pretty annoying. I would like to say that Guayaquil is NOT pretty, but didn´t venture further than a few blocks in either direction, so can´t claim that as truth. In the morning, hopped on a 3 hour bus to the Pacific coast, stopping in Montañita, this little surfer town that our Aussie friends told us we HAD to visit. Our first stop upon arrival was to one of the tiny bar-stands, where we ordered piña coladas (it was NOT good unfortch) and walked around town and onto the beach. The town consists of 1 main road and about 2 other ones…TINY! Basically, we just “chillaxed” throughout the two days we were there: took some walks along the ocean, ate some oyster ceviche from a little cart right on the beach-they give you four huge oysters, mixed with lime juice, tomatoes and onions-the freshest thing I´ve ever eaten, took a surfing lesson- stood up on the board for about 5 secs longer than I did when I surfed in Australia, though I mostly “knee-surfed,” and went dancing with some locals at a club on the beach til 1am our first night. Was pretty heavenly, though we actually got bored at times- still not used to doing nothing! Took a 10 hour over-night bus ride back to Quito and unluckily, our assigned seats were directly next to the bathroom! Tried tying shirts around our faces to block the smell, but nothing worked and I hardly slept all night. Oh well, was still better than taking that bus for that many hours during the day.
Today we are leaving to go to Lima, Peru, though not going to make it out of the airport. Our flight arrives at 830pm and then our next flight to Cusco, where we depart on the 9th for the Inca Trail/Machu Picchu, leaves at 530am, so just going to camp out in the airport- going to be miserable, but will hopefully grab a bench to catch a few hours of snooze.
Just uploaded more pics to my Ecuador album and all of my Galapagos pics, so enjoy!!
xoxox
December 1, 2007
Day 33
It´s currently 5:20pm and my tummy is a´rumblin´because if I was still aboard the Golandrina motoring around in the Galapagos, it would be snack time, and my body is now dependent on a very tight feeding schedule. Unfortunately, I am now back to the real world (of backpacking anyway) and in Guayaquil, Ecuador, without a little boat chef to cook me three meals and two snacks a day.
Needless to say, I probably had the best time of my entire life (not an exaggeration) during my the past 8 days in the Galápagos. I´m finding it difficult to put my experiences into words…I think I´m still on sensory overload and there´s just too much to say! I guess I´ll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start….). After our 4 hour flight from Quito to Baltra Island (where the Galàpagos airport is), our guide Enrique found us due to the stickers that the Happy Gringo travel agency forced us to wear. At the port to get on our boat, the fearsome Golandrina, we were met by sea-lions lazily soaking up the sun on benches and one was even on the dock in our path- this was my first notion about just HOW close we would be getting to the animals! Heaven. The Golandrina holds 14 passengers total and Dee and I got our own TEENSY cabin, complete with our own private bathroom and TEENSY (mostly cold water) shower. I felt like a giant. As previously mentioned, we were on a very tight schedule, since the Captain of each ship is provided with a specific time when their passengers are allowed to visit each island. They keep to it very strictly. Each day, breakfast was at 7am, followed by an Island visit. For the most part, this entailed a 2km (about 1 mile) hike that literally took 2-3 hours! If you could see the amount of pictures that I took, you would understand why. Unfortunately, I can´t upload them on this SLOW computer, so you will have to be on the edge of your seat until I can find a quicker cyber cafe. Anyway, after our hike, we would dinghy back to the boat for a 10:30am jugo (juice) break-the juices here are INCREDIBLE- they are basically like smoothies-yummers. After juice, it was snorkeling time! Then lunch at 12, followed by more snorkeling or another hike, followed by a cheesy snack at 5:30pm, then lounging/sunbathing time, another hike, or more snorkeling. Dinner was at 7pm and nearly every night, bedtime was before 9pm. We were like old ladies!
OK, now I will get to the animals, what I´m sure everyone has been waiting for, and the very reason I went to this Archipelago in the first place. I need to emphasize that seeing these creatures on these islands was like nothing I´ve ever experience with animals before. They are simply NOT afraid of humans! I got to watch their every move up close, in the wild, and not in cages. They just g went about their business while I stepped over them, swam with them, and snapped hundreds of pictures (without a flash) in their faces…just incredible.
I was able to practically cuddle with the following:
-Sea-Lions: these were the most abundant animals on the islands, and were CONSTANTLY on our path (which we were NOT allowed to veer from). One time, I needed assistance getting to our dinghy and off the island because this mama sea-lion was growling at me, but she was literally lying across the length of the path and I HAD to step over her! The pups are so cute- I think the youngest one I saw was FIVE days old. Wait til you see the pictures-unbelievable! They made little noises like lambs “baaaa-ing.” Was able to snorkel with them on four different occasions. It was mostly the juveniles that came to play, and they were so curious and swam around me in circles. The first time I saw one, I freaked, because she was about 3 inches from my face, swimming right at me! The whole time we were playing with them, I couldn´t stop laughing. I think I inhaled more sea-water that way…Snorkeling with sea-lions was 100% the highlight of the entire 8 days!
Boobies: Saw the Red-Footed Booby, The Blue-Footed Booby, and the Masked or Nazca Booby. The Blue is my favorite of the Galápagos birds…so cute & what a name! I really had a problem and couldn´t stop saying boobies. BOOBIES! Luckily, it was mating and nesting season, so got the witness the courtship between the men & women birds. You can only tell them about from their sounds-the boys whistle (sounds sort of like my gopher whistle) and the girls quack like a kazoo.
Other birds: Frigate birds (black with a huge red puff on their chest when trying to impress the ladies), tons of finches (including the Darwin finch, which started Darwin´s theory of evolution by natural selection…), Galapàgos hawks, a few waved albatrosses (love these too and so sad I didn´t get to see more), some Hood mockingbirds (they are absolutely digusting…saw them eating sea-lion puke and pecking out a deceased sea-lions eyes), American Oyster Eaters (the only other Americans we met!), Galàpagos doves, swallow tails, etc. SO many. My dad is obsessed with taking pictures of birds on our vacations to wherever (even if it was like Ohio or something) and he would have been in paradise!
Iguanas: there are two types on the islands- marine and land. This is the only place in the world where marine iguanas exist- the large males actually dive into the depths of the ocean, claw onto a rock, and eat algae at the bottom of the sea! The land ones are bright yellow and eat cacti flowers, thorns and all. We saw thousands of iguanas, and even got to see a wrestling match between two marine iguanas on the beach- they were head butting like rams for about 30 mins! Didn´t get to stay to see who came out victorious!
Tortoises and turtles: only saw one tortoise in the wild, and the rest were in the Charles Darwin research center, but swam with multiple sea turtles. Pictured them all having Aussie accents like Crush from “Finding Nemo.” Saw a bunch of sea turtle sex, including one group session that included 3 boys on one girl- she was NOT pleased to say the least!
I saw soooo many others, but those are the biggies. Oh- I also snorkeled with white-tip reef sharks!!! Awesomeness.
The people on our boat were pretty darn fantastic too! We had two different groups of people (because most people only did the 5 day cruise and it looped while our 8 days were still continuing). Made a ton of new friends and had some extremely dramatic goodbyes, waving and blowing kisses while we were sailing away and they were still on land. Our 2nd group contained an Alison from Nottingham (like my friend Ali (Alison) from Nottingham-this Alison obvi wasn´t nearly as awesome!!!!!!!!!) and two Germans, who can best be described by the Legally Blonde: The Musical song, “Gay or European?” Turns out these guys had girlfriends at home, but I´m still not convinced. We made up a spoof of that song to describe our Ecuadorian boat crew entitled “Five-years-old or Latin?” because the boys were all so excited to have “young women” aboard and were acting like 5 year-olds around us, giggling and clearing their throats whenever one of us would sit next to one of them. It was pretty endearing, but they were all in their 20´s- 30´s! Latin men are extremely immature here! Or at least most of the ones I’ve encountered.
The only bad thing I can say, is that I had to endure a few sleepless nights due to the boat practically FLIPPING over as it rocked from side to side, while navigating 10 hours each night between islands. The water was ROUGH out there my friends. Only got a little seasick once (thank you Dramamine), but just couldn´t sleep because I had to hold on to my bunk for dear life!
There´s so much more to tell, but basically had the time of my life. I hope you´re looking forward to the 500 plus pics I´ll soon be uploading! Have to go for a feed now…it´s WAY past schedule!
Miss you all and Happy December! Can´t believe it´s nearly Xmas and it´s practically 80 degrees here…don´t hate me too much! Off to the Pacific coast of Ecuador tomorrow…I think to a place called Montañita, where they serve fresh seafood cerviche while you´re sunbathing on the beach.
XOXOXOX
