Blue-Footed Boobies and MORE

Hi Everyone! GALAPAGOS STORY TIME!

I just got back from an absolutely wonderful week in the Galapagos! Our program took us on a week-long trip to 4 different islands, adventure ensued.

First stop, San Cristobal, aka Home of the Sea Lions. There are sea lions everywhere. On the beach. Lounging under the trees. Blocking the pathways. Sleeping on the boats. They’re just everywhere. Baby ones too! They make this horrible sound like they’re throwing up all the time, but they are super cute.

We also saw where good-ol Carlitos Darwin landed, there’s a huge statue of him.

Next, Floreana, a tiny island with a population of only 120 people. We camped on this island! And saw the first of what would be many, many giant sea turtles. They are huge, and there’s 11 different species, and I swear we saw every type twice, haha.

On the boat ride over, we went snorkeling. 3 of us were a bit ahead of the rest of the group: we looked down, and there they were, some small-but-still-intimidating sharks swimming around. I snorkeled with sharks! And there were sea lions and huuuuuge sting rays and lots of fish, all within a couple of feet of us. It was like jumping in a tank at an aquarium, there was so much wildlife. Cool.

Side-note: Needless to say, the Galapagos sun is ridiculously strong, but I was good and bathed myself in sunscreen and only got burned once! (while snorkeling). But it was impressive to see how fast us northerners can fry, lots of horror stories of large blisters in our group. I did manage to get bit to death by mosquitos though, very attractive.

After that, we were off to Isabela, the largest island, where we stayed for 3 days. First up: 10 mile hike to see the second largest volcanic crater in the world!

That’s right, all 28 of us hiked 10 miles up a volcano in the hot sun. The crater is huge. Probably the size of Gun Lake. Then, we got to see the active volcano Chivo that’s next to the huge crater. It’s really weird: all this greenery grows inside of the volcano’s core. There were all these gases whooshing out also, super cool.

Afterward: more turtles! I now know more about turtles than anyone will ever want to know.

We snorkeled again the next day, I swam beside a sea turtle and saw penguins, that was cool. AND WE SAW BLUE-FOOTED BOOBIES. THEY ARE SO CUTE. Their feet really are violently blue. We went to the beach every single day in the afternoon, lol, we were studying really hard and all...

Side-note: they eat iguanas on these islands, how gross is that? Apparently the US Navy ate so many iguanas on their base on Baltra in Galapagos that the species almost went extinct, grossss.

The other interesting thing about Isabela is the push to remove all of the goats there. The goats aren’t native and they reproduce like crazy and hurt the turtles. One method to get rid of them is to pick them up by helicopter and dump them in the ocean, no joke. Another is the famous “Judas goat”, where they put a homing device on a male, release him and let him lead them to the other goats (and to their imminent demise).

After that, off to Santa Cruz! This is the big tourist-y island, famous for land iguanas, more turtles, and Lonesome George, the poor turtle who is the last of his species and won’t reproduce. They’re trying to breed him with two turtles of his closest genetic relative, appropriately named Georgina and Georgiana. Not working right now, but he’s only 80, still young and all.

We also walked through a cave created by lava, very cool. This was also the first dinner which was not soup, rice, and some form of fish: we ate lasagna, how exciting!

Anywho, this is probably my last update until I’m back in the states! We’re traveling this weekend and probably during the next week, I finished my last homework today. I’m home a week from Sunday. I’m excited for good cereal, Quizno’s subs, Target, and seeing my family and friends, of course.

See you later!

Lisa