Galapagos Excursion

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Herpetology project on Galapagos Lava Lizards.

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So my own host family is kind of terrible (my mom is a TERRIBLE cook, we don't go anywhere except for the cemetery on Family Sundays, etc..) so I have been adopted by Sandra's host family (Sandra is the girl in pink) and they feed me when my mom tries to give me food poisoning, and in this instance they took me out to their finca in the highlands of Isabela. 

Soumya (the Indian), Sandra, and I walked around different farms and tried to steal oranges, which is so much more difficult than we thought it would be. We were trying for a solid hour and only managed to get 3 oranges with a stick. Then we decided to wander through a random trail we found, which was absolutely gorgeous but super muddy and Soumya didn't have shoes so she got stuck at one point and was slipping everywhere. Sandra had to find big leaves and stuff Soumya's sandals every so often. When we finally got back to the family they were laughing so hard at us gringas... their own children were curled up in bed watching TV while we pretended we were explorers.

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There was a competition in town today after a beach clean up, and we (IOI, the program working with UGalapagos) got to participate is a triathalon. 

It was really fun, everyone that wasn't competing got on top of this little bridge, and one of the guys did a C-A-N-E-S spell out for us to cheer to. We got really weird looks from the locals of Isabela, Galapagos.

The first part of the competition was a sack race, which as you can see we did not get first in, but the guy on the ground dove at the kayakers of our group so they could take off running. Sadly our boys are very American and all about safety, so they wasted time buckling their life jackets while all the locals barely wore them. The guys still did really good though and kept up in 3rd place. The first place guys were these intense surfers that were totally killing us. Then there was a bike race, which led to Kevin - our UMiami ex-track runner - that overcame the minute and a half lead the surfers had on us and totally killed it getting us first place.  We were all super happy and people tried to jog with Kevin to the finish line, but he was really quick. #TheyTried

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So we went out to Diego's finca (farm) after a long day of lava caves, and hiking trails, and whatnot. It was a really nice house and we got to play with puppies and look at cattle. Diego's family fed us really well and we celebrated a girl's birthday with some yummy cake, then played Mafia together until they told us we were going camping... in a cow pasture. All fifteen of us were piled into the back of a truck, groggy and tired, and we tried to take a group picture, but the car was too small and the flash hurt everyone's eyes. The group split into two and some hung back at the tents, while I wandered around the cow pasteur looking at stars and stepping in cow crap for several hours with a few other people. It was a great bonding experience and we ended up shoving five people into the tiniest tent possible for a really great night where we didn't stop talking or laughing until ten minutes before Diego came back at 4 AM to round us up to milk some cows. Camping was a cold, wet, and miserable - yet fun - bonding experience. Waking up to milk cows at 4 am... was less than favorable.

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A Charles Darwin Breeding Center and The Twin Craters in Santa Cruz.

The last picture is of two of our guys that bought outfits to match our tour guide Steve.

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September 16, 2014 - Day 4

We got to explore some of Santa Cruz today before we left for an expedition, I bought a really cute hand made beige dress from a local shop - but I couldn't barter with the owner because I forgot my smaller bills. The grocery store was a lot cheaper than expected, the prices seem about the same as they are in the states. Boxes of oreos are expensive (~$5), but the little rolls of oreos are $0.60, so not too bad. 

Two of the guys bought uniforms to match our tour guide (Steve), and then Steve took us off to see the twin craters. It was these two HUGE craters filled with foliage. I got to see a bunch of native species like orchids (which I totally did not know belonged here), as well as the most delicious invasive species that is causing more harm than good aka "Mora" or blackberry. 

We also visited a Tortoise farm. It was really awesome, we took soooo many pictures of all the tortoises in a more natural environment than the small pens I had last seen them in. Also we were able to take pictures with the tortoises where it looked like we were sitting on them but we really weren't. People aren't allowed within 6ft of the animals here, so we had to get crafty and do a bunch of angles and squatting to get the pictures. Also we had Grapefruit that was super yummy and sweet. Grapefruit does not taste like that in Florida.

Afterwards we went to la firma where we celebrated Soumya's birthday. They had really cool sparklers on her cake that are totally a fire hazard, and they made sure to throw her head into the cake too. We sat around playing Mafia and petting puppies until we were told that it was time to go camping... fun. I wandered around with a few people around the pasteur that the ranch owner - Diego - took us to. There was a lot of cow feces. It was very unpleasant and I could not feel any more disgusting after wandering around in there for so long. I think I lost my Ray Bans there :( On the bright side though we did get to see two tortoises wandering around the farm... or hardly moving because tortoises have given up on life. Afterwards we crammed five people into a four person tent, and I got maybe ten minutes of sleep tops. No bueno, but at least it was a funny, eventful night.

I feel so bad for the other two tents to have to hear us talking and laughing all night nonstop. 

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Galapagos Snorkeling

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I can't get over how beautiful this place is.

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September 15, 2014 - Day Three

Last night was really great, we went to this awesome restaurant in Santa Cruz that looks like a tree (and serves awesome ice cream [I got Nutella {tasted like frozen hot chocolate} and Mora {blackberry}] ). Almost all 15 of us were there and we played this game called Thumper where you do the "We will rock you beat" by banging your hands against the table and clapping, then someone starts off with a hand signal and signals the next person, who then has to signal another person, but the beat gets faster under pressure so the game gets really intense. We were banging so hard against the table and making so much noise that we chased away this couple that was sitting right next to our table. I was expecting the staff to ask us to leave, but one of the waiters kept on staring at us as though he wanted to play. When we asked him to join he was super embarrassed and didn't want to get into trouble so he said no... but then this other woman that worked there joined us. She had apparently been watching us the entire time because she had no problem joining in. It was such an awesome bonding experience. We took a picture with the waitress so I'll be sure to find out who took it so I can post it later.

Anyway we once again had to get up early, but it was so worth it. We went snorkeling, but apparently the normal site had terrible weather, so we went to the opposite side of the island and saw so many beautiful things. To start off there were blue-footed boobies everywhere, and sea lions swimming through the water. At one point a sea lion kept on swimming around us trying to play. We also got to see white tipped sharks, and we also saw a ray that was at least 3/4's the size of my body.

On the trip back I sat on the bough of the boat with my three new amigas, and I ended up getting whipped in the face with salt water, froze to death, and received a sun burn... it was honestly pretty fun being at that spot, but never again.

I'll post some pictures next :)

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La Garua in Santa Cruz

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Tortoise breeding center in Santa Cruz