This post features student writing.
Hola desde Ecuador!
Before we left Santa Cruz for San Cristobol, we set off on an excursion to a nearby beach called Tortuga Bay. There, we swam with some sea lions and spotted our first Blue Footed Boobie! After a short walk from the beach we boarded the bus to visit La Grieta, two big rock formations that had a salt water pool in between them. The pool was 30 meters deep! We jumped off of a dock and swam in the pool for a while. After the Grieta, we made our way back to the hotel where we rinsed off and got ready for lunch. We ended lunch with some delicious ice cream and then said goodbye to Santa Cruz and sailed on the boat to San Cristobal. Once in San Cristobol, we had a relaxing evening off and got our snorkel equipment and explored the town before dinner. We went to a delicious sushi restaurant followed by some ice cream to celebrate a the start of our adventure in San Cristobol!
We began day two in San Cristobol with surfing lessons from our local guides on Puerto Chino beach. Although the waves were huge, we were all very excited and took on the water by storm. We were all successful in standing up on the board at least once and overall a great start to the day! We took a short bus ride to la Galapaguerra, a tortoise breeding laboratory for the national park. We walked around for about an hour with our guides and learned about native, endemic and introduced flora and fauna in the area. A highlight of the day was seeing all of the little tortoise babies; kept in a special area of the reserve! They were adorable. After the center we took a trip to this amazing restaurant in the mountains where we had a tasty meal including some orange papaya juice that everyone loved. We returned to the hotel for a quick change of footwear and then biked to el Loberia beach. After a short ride we arrived at the beach for our first snorkel of the trip! We saw many brightly colored fish along with some sea lions and sea turtles. There were also tons of iguanas and sea lions laying on the beach! It was a great introduction to our Galapagian snorkel adventures. The next day was the best day ever! We went to Kicker rock and snorkeled and saw so many animals. Our guides were amazing and showed us all kinds of animals like turtles, starfish and once again sea lions. The day was full of snorkeling and beach time to relax. We had lunch on the boat and just enjoyed the fact we are in Galapagos. We’ve loved every minute of it! Our last dinner was overlooking a sunset in a very pretty setting were our leaders gave us a forget-me-not gift. We ate delicious food and started getting ready for our big goodbye.
