Jen Goes to the Galapagos!

So the past 5 hours have been relaxing.  I napped on the deck, played a little cards, bonded with my peers.  Same old.  It feels like everyone is trying to make the best out of the little time we have left together.  Like right now, jamming out to Thank You by Dido.  Dance like nobody’s watching.

We had a goodbye drink, goodbye dinner, and went to Santa Cruz.  Elena and I didn’t want to go shopping, so we stayed on the boat a little later and talked with the crew.  When we got on land, we went to a bar called Bongo, and Carlos bought us all a drink. I’m going to miss Carlos.  We went across the street to a club and danced.  It was a lot of fun, but no San Cristobal.  I miss it.  But we made the best of it.  The locals were a little sketchier in Santa Cruz. Anyway, we took a cab-boat back to Archipell II, and we hung out for a little while.  I jumped off the boat and swam.  It was so nice.  A few of us slept on the deck outside.  Waking up to the sun was amazing.  This morning, we left early and went to another tortoise breeding center.  Carlos left early, so only Javier took us.  It started raining so we left, but we still got to see a few tortoises.  I love rain, it wouldn’t have stopped me.  However, the people on this trip aren’t exactly low-maintenance.  We went to a lava cave- this long cave naturally made by gases expanding in the lava.  It was unbelievable.  Literally.  I must have asked Javier 3 times if he was sure it wasn’t man-made.  There were parts where we had to crawl (everyone got nice and dirty), and climb a little bit.  It was amazing.  Last we went to something called the twin craters.  They were two giant holes in the ground made naturally by the expanding gases in the lava.  Amazing.  They started growing vegetation.  It was so cool.  And finally, airport time.  It was not easy saying goodbye to the Galapagos.  Mentally and physically.  We took a bus, to a ferry, to another bus.  There was a point on the first bus ride where Bob Marley was playing, and there was and endless road ahead.  It was humid, and we were covered with dirt and rain.  It was perfect.  I also bonded with this little bug.  Life was good.  We also ran into our friend from San Cristobal, Edison on the ferry.  He is a naturalist.

We waited at the airport, and left.  The airport was nothing like the airports in America.  It was small, the roof was leaking, and there was only one plane.  The flight was short, uneventful, and now we are back in Quito.  It was so hard saying goodbye to Carlos.  He said he will try to go to the goodbye dinner, but I doubt he will.  I’m going to miss him so much.  I have never had a teacher so invested in his students.  Hopefully we will keep in touch.  We just went to this square in Quito and bought ecuadorian chocolate.  There is so much to do there, we are going back tonight.  I miss San Cristobal