Galapagos Islands and Tortugrafía

For our fourth and final program trip, we got to go to one of the seven wonders of the world- THE GALAPAGOS! Compared to our other program trips, where we lived without running water and spent our time in charlas, the Galapagos was much less educational and only for vacation.

Friday morning was spent on airplanes. Even though the entire flight was only about two hours, we received a full meal that actually tasted good. Ecuadorian planes > American planes. Our first island for the weekend was called San Cristóbal, which had a town in addition to the airport. After a delicious lunch, we met our boat at a beautiful beach. We were breath taken by the white sand, black rocks, and crystal clear water as well as our first introduction with the locals. What they say about animals at the Galapagos is true...they come right up to you! 

The beautiful bay area

Meeting our first local

Sea lions were everywhere- on the docks, benches, & boats

We all piled on the boat and spent the rest of the afternoon snorkling. Our first stop was Isla Lobos (Sea Lion Island) where we got a foot away from a group of 20 playing baby sea lions.

Next we went to León Dormido (Sleeping Lion) where we saw tons of sea turles (so cool!), glow-in-the-dark-esque sea urchins, and colorful starfish.

Our final destination for the day was Playa Grande where we saw our first marine iguana and got to watch the beginning of the sunset. Qué lindo!

Playa Grande

Getting to another local: the marine iguana

Red crabs as the sun set

Me with the sun setting in the back

Saturday morning we boarded another huge boat and after poppin' some (sea sickness) pills, drove over two hours to our next island destination, Santa Cruz. As we drove up to the dock, we got to see a marine iguana in action.

Next we went to the Charles Darwin Station, which is a laboratory, research, and rehabilitation center for turtles and iguanas. We learned about the fourteen different species of land tortoises (but 3 are now extinct) endemic to the Galapagos about their rehabilitation efforts. We also had the honor of meeting Solitary George, who is over 100 years old, more than 500 pounds, and is the last member of his species. All attempts at breeding George have failed thus far, although a couple of years ago they discovered two fertilized eggs in his enclosure, but they later died. George was a little shy so we only got a view of his butt, but it was pretty incredible to see the famous George (seriously, almost everyone in the world knows his tale).

Baby turtles

Solitary George gettin' wild and crazy (but he deserves to rest...he's got a lot of pressure on him!)

One of the many land tortoises we saw

Terrestrial iguana

The last part of Saturday involved going to the beach, called la Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay). Words alone (and not even pictures) can do this beach justice.

The locals were just so friendly

After a night of relaxing in the beautiful pool and hot tub at the pool, we woke up Sunday morning and took another long boat ride to Isla Floreana. We learned all about a German couple that fled and colonized the then deserted island. The Wittmer family arrived to the island in 1932 and lived off the island until the Baronness Wagner de Bosquet, Lorenz, Phillipson and the Ecuadorian Valdivieso arrived. After a series of mysterious assassinations and disappearences, Margaret Wittmer was the only one left on the island. She set up a hotel which remains on the island.

Other than the Wittmer house and hotel, we saw the trickling waterfall that provides freshwater to the island, pretty flowers...that are made into date-rape drugs (run when the wind blows your way!), and a group of 30 huge tortoises.

Brings a whole new meaning to the term "dangerously pretty"

Then we saw caves (made by pirates!) in the natural rock formations as well as a carved statue. Apparently pirates had a lot of extra free time.

After lunch we finally got to see the ever elusive Blue-footed Booby (too many boob jokes to count), which, along with the tortoise, serves as the symbol of the Galapagos.

Blue-footed Booby, blue feet exposed and all

Although all morning the weather had been misty and cold, we put our snorkling gear back on and (reluctantly) jumped in the icy cold water. However, the cold was definitely worth it as this was the best snorkling spot. The hundreds of huge fish, plants, and other sea creatures were astoundingly beautiful and some of my friends even got to see a Galapagos penguin!

Me, Bethany, and Kaitlyn getting ready to snorkel

After another night of relaxing in the hot tub, Monday morning was our last day in the Galapagos. We drove to Hacienda Primicias, which is a tortoise refuge. After taking a bunch of silly pictures inside of a giant tortoise shell, we saw a pond where about 20 ginormous tortoises were relaxing. We took a bunch of pictures with the turtles, and one of my friends coined the term tortu-grafía. So witty.

The group with our turtle friends!

Then we headed to the airport where we met a nice surprise: we got to go on an earlier flight AND the entire plane was basically empty. Translation: TWO free airplane meals! Score!

The Duke in the Andes personal plane