Hey yall.
So it's been a little over 3 weeks since I got back to the states, and I'm not gonna lie.. it sucks. I'm trying so hard to love my life again (not that I loved it last semester.. cause it was alright), and I've found myself still craving that spanish, my friends, my host family, my school (ha), and my traveling. I think it's going to be a good while before I get completely acquainted with my new life (cause it will be different and nothing like what I had before Ecuador). The first week I did not hang out with a single person.. only went to the college and 20 somethings ministry that I typically went to on Tuesday nights so that was good cause I got to get a lot of hugs and people telling me they love and missed me. I didn't want to lie to anyone, so I just told them I love them and that it was going to take me a while to be glad to be back. I'm not ready. I knew I wasn't. I've also tried to do some fun things like go out with friends, see my small group girls, go to the movies and beach, etc, and it's been great, but something always reminds me of the wonderful life I was just living. I know that the Lord had a plan for me to be gone for 5 months and then be back, so I know he's got some kind of plan for me here. Maybe if I spend some time with him again, he'll show me. I'm struggling getting into spending time with Him, and I think it's because i really withdrew from him while was in the 'dor. I have a lot of free time since I'm taking 1 class (but pretty much 2 with the lab) and only have something planned every monday and tuesday night. I should be using that accordingly, but all I've done is watch FRIENDS and movies. It's kind of sad really. I don't feel like myself being all bummed and stuff. I have come to accept that I'm not going to be fully happy yet, but I really don't love it. I don't love America yet (besides the luxury of always having toilet paper in the stalls). I'll get there. I need some prayers and I need to do something about my life.
I've continued to talk to my ecuanovio (ecuadorian "boyfriend") Fernando pretty much every day on the phone or skype, with my host mom and host sister a few times a week, and some of my american friends that I met there, so I don't think that helps me to get over my life that I had. I don't think I want to get over it. I don't want to forget it. I want to remember it for the rest of my life. The most amazing 5 months (so far) of my life. I guess I'm just gonna need a little help, a little time, a little Jesus, and some love.
miércoles, 11 de junio de 2008
lunes, 12 de mayo de 2008
more stamps in the good ol' pasaporte
I finished classes and all of my exams and final projects for university last week on Wednesday, which is super, because exam week actually starts this week! My friends Ryan, Josh, and I decided to go to Colombia for the weekend! (despite people saying how stupid we were and how dangerous it was and how we shouldn't) We left on Thursday at about 530 or so to go to Tulcan, which is about 3.5 miles from the border and stayed there that night. Actually when we got to the bus station, we took a taxi to what we thought was supposed to be a hostal, but apparently the guy didnt hear ryan include the world hotel, so he took us the the district of the town that had the same name. He couldn't find the hotel after that, so we gave him another name of a hotel in our travel book and he couldn't find that either, so we rode around in the taxi for about 20 minutes and all along he was saying this one is good and this one is good but a little expensive until we finally decided on one since he didnt know the other 2. He only made us pay $4 for the 30 minutes he was driving us around and then even got the price down on the hotel we were going to stay in. The room only had 2 beds in it so we pushed them together and I slept close to the crack while hogging a little bit of Ryan's covers.
We woke up whenever we wanted to on Friday (and Saturday and Sunday) and took a taxi to the border, where we were supposed to get our exit stamp and Andean card from Ecuador and our entrance stamp from Colombia, and our taxi driver drove us past the Ecuador border and right before we crossed over, he was like oh crap i forgot! haha So we got all the stuff we needed to, walked across the river (no man's land) and got our entrada in Colombia. We also got us a picture with the sign saying welcome to Colombia! Then we had to take a taxi from the border to Ipiales, which we were planning on stopping in on the way back, so we took a bus from there to Pasto. It took about 5.5 hours to get to Pasto, where we arrived and stayed in this cool inn called Koala. The people that owned it were very nice and the place was super cool and our room was HUGE! AND we each had a bed to ourselves!
We got our money exchanged at the border because they use their own pesos in Colombia and its 1700 pesos/$1 conversion which is kind of confusing and a little hard to get used to. We had a lovely lunch and walked around Pasto a bit, then when we returned to our hotel, we had some visitors knocking at our door, which so happened to be 2 girls from USFQ! how random but so cool, so we all walked around together to see the churches and centers and parks and stuff around Pasto then had a lovely dinner, in which we tried these things called Arepas, which were sooo good! Then we hung out the rest of the night in the hotel room drinking just a bit, cause you gotta try beer and alcohol from colombia! The next morning Ryan, Josh, and I woke up and went to this place called Laguna de la Cocha, which was this huge lake with an island in the middle that we boated to and hiked into just a bit for 1000 pesos. The town that is on the edge of the lake is the cutest town and the people are so nice and is known for their trout so we decided to eat some. We didn't have so many pesos left, so we were just hoping to be able to get back. The trout was delicious, but still had the head and the tail on it when we ate it!
We didnt have enough to get back, but we told them we'd pay the rest when we got to the Inn so we split the taxi with an older man. Then we had to try this other thing called something I don't remember and were very very good, but I'd had them before in Ecuador and already loved them. We watched Rumor Has It on tv and passed out that night and headed to Ipiales the next morning. There, the only thing we wanted to do was to see this huge famous church that sits on top of a river! (actually doesnt "sit" persay.. it has huge columns and an archway that are under it) It was so neat to see and so hard to walk up the steps to get to certain points and to get back up to catch the taxi, because it was down in a valley and so steep! My calves still are sore today. Then we took a taxi back to Ipiales, back to the border, got our exit stamps from Colombia, our entrance stamps and andean cards, took a taxi to Tulcan, had a yummy dinner, and headed back earlier than planned to Quito. (we almost didnt have enough money to do anything (pesos wise) so luckily josh and ryan had a little bit left, and I gave the money man a dollar to exchange for 1700 pesos just so i could keep them!)
We woke up whenever we wanted to on Friday (and Saturday and Sunday) and took a taxi to the border, where we were supposed to get our exit stamp and Andean card from Ecuador and our entrance stamp from Colombia, and our taxi driver drove us past the Ecuador border and right before we crossed over, he was like oh crap i forgot! haha So we got all the stuff we needed to, walked across the river (no man's land) and got our entrada in Colombia. We also got us a picture with the sign saying welcome to Colombia! Then we had to take a taxi from the border to Ipiales, which we were planning on stopping in on the way back, so we took a bus from there to Pasto. It took about 5.5 hours to get to Pasto, where we arrived and stayed in this cool inn called Koala. The people that owned it were very nice and the place was super cool and our room was HUGE! AND we each had a bed to ourselves!
We got our money exchanged at the border because they use their own pesos in Colombia and its 1700 pesos/$1 conversion which is kind of confusing and a little hard to get used to. We had a lovely lunch and walked around Pasto a bit, then when we returned to our hotel, we had some visitors knocking at our door, which so happened to be 2 girls from USFQ! how random but so cool, so we all walked around together to see the churches and centers and parks and stuff around Pasto then had a lovely dinner, in which we tried these things called Arepas, which were sooo good! Then we hung out the rest of the night in the hotel room drinking just a bit, cause you gotta try beer and alcohol from colombia! The next morning Ryan, Josh, and I woke up and went to this place called Laguna de la Cocha, which was this huge lake with an island in the middle that we boated to and hiked into just a bit for 1000 pesos. The town that is on the edge of the lake is the cutest town and the people are so nice and is known for their trout so we decided to eat some. We didn't have so many pesos left, so we were just hoping to be able to get back. The trout was delicious, but still had the head and the tail on it when we ate it!
We didnt have enough to get back, but we told them we'd pay the rest when we got to the Inn so we split the taxi with an older man. Then we had to try this other thing called something I don't remember and were very very good, but I'd had them before in Ecuador and already loved them. We watched Rumor Has It on tv and passed out that night and headed to Ipiales the next morning. There, the only thing we wanted to do was to see this huge famous church that sits on top of a river! (actually doesnt "sit" persay.. it has huge columns and an archway that are under it) It was so neat to see and so hard to walk up the steps to get to certain points and to get back up to catch the taxi, because it was down in a valley and so steep! My calves still are sore today. Then we took a taxi back to Ipiales, back to the border, got our exit stamps from Colombia, our entrance stamps and andean cards, took a taxi to Tulcan, had a yummy dinner, and headed back earlier than planned to Quito. (we almost didnt have enough money to do anything (pesos wise) so luckily josh and ryan had a little bit left, and I gave the money man a dollar to exchange for 1700 pesos just so i could keep them!)
those bare necesities..
We had a Thursday off of school 2 weeks ago, and even though everyone else in Quito had school off, stupid USFQ decided to go against the president and have Friday classes/work, so we skipped it. My friends from the Otavalo trip (pretty much my best friends here) and I decided to go to the jungle aka el oriente. We left on Wednesday night at 1130, got to a town called Lago Agrio at about 630am (which was supposed to be more like 8am), and had to wait a very long 4 hours for the few people that were arriving by plane. Then we took a 3.5 hour bus ride to Putumayo, and a 2 hour canoe ride to get to Cuyabeno which is deep into the jungle and stayed at a camp thingy. The place we stayed at had no electricity so we used candles at night to see in our rooms and outside and eat dinner and play cards at night! It was actually pretty cool. There was a monkey named Poncho that lived at the camp and was like 5 months old and the cutest thing ever. When Melanie and I got to our room on Thursday at about 6 something right when it was getting dark, we were unpacking a few things, and I saw this huge clump of something on our bed and it started crawling! We realized it was the monkey that our friends had told us about, who had gone to the same place the weekend before so we werent so freaked out. It climbed right onto my shoulder and hung out there! Poncho hung out with us all weekend and very often just decided to climb up us and sleep on our shoulders or in our laps and steal some food off our plates! haha
All of the trips we took while we were there were in canoe. We went on a few bird watches, a few walks through the jungle, and swimming a bit. We got to see a ton of toucans and lots of cool and ugly birds, the biggest tree ever with the biggest roots ever (probably 3 times me!), a sloth, the back of a manatee, some pink dolphins, monkeys, spiders, frogs, and snakes! I actually held a snake at one point and he bit me a few times, drawing a little bit of blood, but it's all good.. he's not poisonous! haha We also went fishing for piranhas! You're supposed to swish the pole in the water a lot and wait. Our guide Neiser and Melanie both caught one and the teeth in those things are so large and pointy! It was pretty sweet.
All the food we had there was soo good and typical Ecuadorian style.. soup first, a plate with a meat, some rice, and some veggies, along with a glass of fresh fruit juice (different every night), and then a dessert like fruit or somethin. You could never hear them making it and then all of a sudden they would ring the bell and come out with all this food! There was a group of about 50 high school students there so there were so many people there to feed. I also learned how to actually play spades there and Ryan and I won the first game that we played to 500 so we were pretty proud of that but then we got our butts kicked the next day when Melanie and Josh beat us so bad. It was such a great trip and the last thing we all definitely wanted to do while in Ecuador.
All of the trips we took while we were there were in canoe. We went on a few bird watches, a few walks through the jungle, and swimming a bit. We got to see a ton of toucans and lots of cool and ugly birds, the biggest tree ever with the biggest roots ever (probably 3 times me!), a sloth, the back of a manatee, some pink dolphins, monkeys, spiders, frogs, and snakes! I actually held a snake at one point and he bit me a few times, drawing a little bit of blood, but it's all good.. he's not poisonous! haha We also went fishing for piranhas! You're supposed to swish the pole in the water a lot and wait. Our guide Neiser and Melanie both caught one and the teeth in those things are so large and pointy! It was pretty sweet.
All the food we had there was soo good and typical Ecuadorian style.. soup first, a plate with a meat, some rice, and some veggies, along with a glass of fresh fruit juice (different every night), and then a dessert like fruit or somethin. You could never hear them making it and then all of a sudden they would ring the bell and come out with all this food! There was a group of about 50 high school students there so there were so many people there to feed. I also learned how to actually play spades there and Ryan and I won the first game that we played to 500 so we were pretty proud of that but then we got our butts kicked the next day when Melanie and Josh beat us so bad. It was such a great trip and the last thing we all definitely wanted to do while in Ecuador.
Lots of money and mud
So after Montanita and Guayaquil, me and 3 of my friends (Ryan, Josh, and Melanie) decided to take a short weekend trip to Otavalo. Otavalo is only about 2 hours away, but it took us about 3, maybe more, to get there because we always happen to leave at a bad time when there is a lot of traffic (but I guess there is always a ton of traffic in Quito)! Otavalo has one of the largest markets EVER (ha maybe not, but its fricken huge), and it happens every weekend so we went there on Friday night to stay (I actually tried huka for the first time.. never again) and went to the market on Saturday. I bought waaay too many things, but they are all pretty cool things and not all for me so I figured it was ok. We spent about 2 or 3 hours shopping (even the boys)! I bought a hammock and a cute bag and lots of other things. Then we decided to go to this place called El Lechero, which is a "lucky" tree that is supposed to bring health. We decided we might get healthier if we climbed up it, so we did. I still had some stomach problems (which actually lasted about a month, but stopped about a week later) so it didn't heal me! haha We could see the prettiest lake from the top of the tree and took lots of pictures. Then we decided to take a different route back. We had tried to walk there on the way there, but got a tad lost so took a taxi the rest of the way. We wanted to go down the other side of the huge hill thing we were on, so we did. We walked down a pretty steep hill, through some crops that were taller than us, down a dirt road, and then pretty much slid and fell down this steep hill that had a bunch of crevices where the earth has split and there was tons of rocks and mud cause it had rained all day so far. I fell soo much and it was the most hilarious thing ever. My pants were disgusting and so were my tennis shoes (which now smell horribly even after my sister washed them and I will be leaving them here!). We looked pretty rough by the end of that trek, but it was so worth the laughs.
lunes, 21 de abril de 2008
Montanita and Guayaquil.. oh the traveling
So, yet another weekend I traveled.. I could totally get used to this when I get back to the states.. but then I would lose all my money cause gas is so dang expensive and there's nothing that fabulous around. ha So me and some friends decided to go to the beach again.. best beach yet! It's called Montanita and it's about 12 hours from Quito! We took an 8 hour bus to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecudaor, and then took another one at 5:30 am to Montanita. The town was so cute and the streets were covered in sand. It was so lovely and what a nice day! We went to the beach all day and looked around all the stands on the streets that people were selling.. I bought a bunch of jewelry, go figure.. but they are for friends! Our hostal was really cool only cause I got to sleep in a loft! They told us they had a room for the 5 of us, but when we got to our room there were 2 sets of bunk beds so I asked and they pointed up and there was a ladder leading to a top part with 2 beds and a fan! It was lovely as well. So we spent a little more time at the beach on Saturday morning and walked down past the 2nd part of Montanita, where we climbed over some rocks and found a cool kinda peninsula thing.. me ryan and josh decided that we'd make the trek over to the point and look around.. the process was kind of ridiculous because if you went at the wrong time, the waves would crash you against the wall of rock, so we had to spend a few minutes preparing and counting waves and seconds haha. We got to see about 20 dolphins all together and it was sooo cool! None of us 3 had cameras. dang. Then jen and taylor came over and taylor cut her foot then I put a big hole in my heel when I stepped on some sharp thing haha. On our way back to the beach, as we walked across the boulders and crevices, ryan and I got sprayed really bad with a wave that came underneath and through the crevice and shot up real hard. It was hilarious.
In Guayaquil, after our lovely less than 3 hour bus ride was along the beach, we got picked up by a friend of my host mom's friend, who drove us around and picked us up and took us whereever we wanted to go the rest of saturday and sunday! He took us to the LIGA vs. Barcelona soccer game (really big rivalry), where there were only about 100 LIGA fans and we couldn't cheer for them because we were surrounded by Barcelona fans (who get a little out of hand and become dangerous to the opposing fans). when we walked in, we were walking down the middle of the side section and 4 rows up and 4 rows down all turned their heads as we walked by.. pretty sure we were the only gringos in the stadium! Needless to say, it was a blast and very crazy, and a tie. ugh. I hate that soccer games can end in a tie. (But they played each other again this past weekend in Quito and LIGA won!! woo hoo!) That night we had to eat some dinner and went to this place down the road from our hostal where the menu was a dry erase board with a few things written on it that did not make sense. When we asked each other what we got, we had no idea because really we had no idea what we ordered. it was delicious though. On sunday, G (i cant remember the rest of his name, but i know it started with a G) drove us to the Malecon, which is a very very long boardwalk following a river. It was so pretty outside and we walked the whole thing. We started playing on a playground, but got kicked off (there were only 3 other kids so i know we weren't disrupting anything.. the big people playground isn't as fun.. just work out stuff!) We went to 2 markets and got a few things then went to the biggest and nicest bus station i've ever seen here. also had the best drink i've had in ecuador called a frozen. we got back on sunday night at about 1030 and i was so tired! what a glorious weekend. oh yeah and every where we went, the 5 of us rode i the bed of the truck to get there! ha it was typical ecuadorian traveling and so fun.
In Guayaquil, after our lovely less than 3 hour bus ride was along the beach, we got picked up by a friend of my host mom's friend, who drove us around and picked us up and took us whereever we wanted to go the rest of saturday and sunday! He took us to the LIGA vs. Barcelona soccer game (really big rivalry), where there were only about 100 LIGA fans and we couldn't cheer for them because we were surrounded by Barcelona fans (who get a little out of hand and become dangerous to the opposing fans). when we walked in, we were walking down the middle of the side section and 4 rows up and 4 rows down all turned their heads as we walked by.. pretty sure we were the only gringos in the stadium! Needless to say, it was a blast and very crazy, and a tie. ugh. I hate that soccer games can end in a tie. (But they played each other again this past weekend in Quito and LIGA won!! woo hoo!) That night we had to eat some dinner and went to this place down the road from our hostal where the menu was a dry erase board with a few things written on it that did not make sense. When we asked each other what we got, we had no idea because really we had no idea what we ordered. it was delicious though. On sunday, G (i cant remember the rest of his name, but i know it started with a G) drove us to the Malecon, which is a very very long boardwalk following a river. It was so pretty outside and we walked the whole thing. We started playing on a playground, but got kicked off (there were only 3 other kids so i know we weren't disrupting anything.. the big people playground isn't as fun.. just work out stuff!) We went to 2 markets and got a few things then went to the biggest and nicest bus station i've ever seen here. also had the best drink i've had in ecuador called a frozen. we got back on sunday night at about 1030 and i was so tired! what a glorious weekend. oh yeah and every where we went, the 5 of us rode i the bed of the truck to get there! ha it was typical ecuadorian traveling and so fun.
Lo to the ja and Cuenca
So the second part of spring break I flew to Loja to meet up with my friends Mark and Gaby in the south of Ecuador because they had been traveling Peru the previous week. When I got to Loja, which was only a 30 minute $80 plane ride, I didn't know that the airport was actually 3o minutes from the actual town of Loja.. I also didn't realize that Loja is a province so I was flying into the province, not the town. I actually hitched a ride with my airplane buddy, some older Ecuadorian woman who lived in Loja, in her daughter's truck! ha Then with all my decision making skills (sike!) I had to look around and find a hostal/hotel for the 3 of us. That took like an hour cause I couldn't decide and there weren't that many great ones, so I had to call my friend Taylor to help me! haha I ended up hanging out for almost 5 hours by myself waiting for them, because apparently something happened with their bus and all different transportation to get there (which definitely isn't uncommon). We walked around and saw a bunch of churches and bought a few things at a small market and headed out to Cuenca (a little farther north and the 3rd largest city in Ecuador) in the late afternoon.
In Cuenca, we stayed at this ridiculous hostal.. Hostal Orquidea.. because we lived in a suite for a few days. It had a spiral staircase leading up to our suite, a kitchen, stocked with everything but food and the blade to the blender, a dining table, a living room with a bar and tv in it, and 2 bedrooms with 2 beds in each and a full bath in each! It was crazy amazing. We attempted to make mora juice, boiling them and trying to strain them with many different devices (including a salt shaker, a bag with holes punches with a fork, a thin thin strainer, and maybe something else.. then decided we'd just drink it with the seeds (which really sucked)) and that didn't turn out so well. We also bought a ton of fruit, so we made a platter one evening to go along with some bread and it had cut up pinapple and grapes and we had strawberries as well. And 2 of the mornings Mark cooked some tortillas (which are pretty much omelets) and I made some strawberry batidos! It was lovely. While in Cuenca we walked around also to see the gorgeous churches and parks, bought some really good icecream a few times, and found some nice jewelry stores. One night we met up with a friend of Mark's, who was studying in Cuenca, from home in Cali!, and went dancing and I got to dance with a band member of the live band that had played earlier! It was fun. I've found that live music here is the best. We took a side trip the next day to a place called Ingapirca which was pretty cool. There were 3 sets of ruins and a bunch of llamas! ha And when we were at the highest one, I just so happened to drop my camera about 30 feet without knowing. Luckily, and not with my luck obviously, it landed in a patch of grass and didn't hit all the rocky steps it could have hit. Jeez. We wanted to go to either some markets about an hour away the next day or go to a gigantic park, but we did neither! ha I actually don't even remember what we did, but I feel like we just found a market or 2 and looked around Cuenca some more.
We decided on that Friday that we'd fly back on Sunday, so our last minute tickets only cost $63 or something which was glorious and were for row 9 which we thought was lovely because it wasn't in the front nor the back.. Deceivingly so, row 9 was the LAST row. This was, by far, the smallest plane I'd ever been on. I sat in a middle seat, the only one on the plane, with my legs propped up on my bag and 2 people on either side of me. It was glorious. I'm pretty sure though that the empanadas they gave me started my sickness, because my stomach has hurt for the past 3 weeks off and on since that Sunday afternoon! Ridiculous. Lovely trip though.
In Cuenca, we stayed at this ridiculous hostal.. Hostal Orquidea.. because we lived in a suite for a few days. It had a spiral staircase leading up to our suite, a kitchen, stocked with everything but food and the blade to the blender, a dining table, a living room with a bar and tv in it, and 2 bedrooms with 2 beds in each and a full bath in each! It was crazy amazing. We attempted to make mora juice, boiling them and trying to strain them with many different devices (including a salt shaker, a bag with holes punches with a fork, a thin thin strainer, and maybe something else.. then decided we'd just drink it with the seeds (which really sucked)) and that didn't turn out so well. We also bought a ton of fruit, so we made a platter one evening to go along with some bread and it had cut up pinapple and grapes and we had strawberries as well. And 2 of the mornings Mark cooked some tortillas (which are pretty much omelets) and I made some strawberry batidos! It was lovely. While in Cuenca we walked around also to see the gorgeous churches and parks, bought some really good icecream a few times, and found some nice jewelry stores. One night we met up with a friend of Mark's, who was studying in Cuenca, from home in Cali!, and went dancing and I got to dance with a band member of the live band that had played earlier! It was fun. I've found that live music here is the best. We took a side trip the next day to a place called Ingapirca which was pretty cool. There were 3 sets of ruins and a bunch of llamas! ha And when we were at the highest one, I just so happened to drop my camera about 30 feet without knowing. Luckily, and not with my luck obviously, it landed in a patch of grass and didn't hit all the rocky steps it could have hit. Jeez. We wanted to go to either some markets about an hour away the next day or go to a gigantic park, but we did neither! ha I actually don't even remember what we did, but I feel like we just found a market or 2 and looked around Cuenca some more.
We decided on that Friday that we'd fly back on Sunday, so our last minute tickets only cost $63 or something which was glorious and were for row 9 which we thought was lovely because it wasn't in the front nor the back.. Deceivingly so, row 9 was the LAST row. This was, by far, the smallest plane I'd ever been on. I sat in a middle seat, the only one on the plane, with my legs propped up on my bag and 2 people on either side of me. It was glorious. I'm pretty sure though that the empanadas they gave me started my sickness, because my stomach has hurt for the past 3 weeks off and on since that Sunday afternoon! Ridiculous. Lovely trip though.
martes, 1 de abril de 2008
Galapagos Islands = paradise and some Quito
So spring break=amazing! It started the 20th and that morning, really really early, me and 3 other friends, Taylor, Ryan, and Jason, left for the Galapagos Islands. The trip was a tad expensive, but covered pretty much everything and was soo worth it! We got there on Thursday afternoon with time to walk to Tortuga Bay (which actually took like an hour.. long, hot walk.). That was the most beautiful beach I've ever seen.. white sand all around, no shells, and clear blue water! We couldn't swim there because the current was so strong so we walked down to the bay area, where there were absolutely no waves at all! Then we saw a few sharks and decided it was time to get out haha We amused ourselves by taking jumping and shadow pictures and by drawing in the sand. glorious.
Friday we got up early to go to Las Grietas (were going to go kayaking, but this was definitely the better option!). It's 2 cliffs where you can jump from different rocks into beautifully clear blue water! It was amazing. Then we went to the Charles Darwin station where there were too many mosquitos, but got to see tons of turtles and very very small beach that also had too many mosquitos. On Saturday, we left early to go to Isabela Island, which took about 3 hours on a very large boat! We walked around the island a bit, went to the turtle preservation place (where we saw many many big big turtles! even got to see some turtles having sex. pleasant.), stopped by a large lake to see one flamingo (but still amazing since i've never seen one!), walked around a shark resting area of the island (but only saw one shark and then saw a family of sea lions just hangin out on the beach!), and then went snorkeling! While snorkeling, we got to see a few penguins, a bunch of pretty fish, and some sea lions! The sea lions are not afraid of humans and will swim right up in your face! We left the island about 4 pm, but didn't actually get back to Santa Cruz (where we were staying.. in the Red Booby hotel!) until 1 am! a 9 hour boat ride with a lot of black smoke, a pretty sunset, some napping, chilliness, a bit of rain, and moving about 5 mph! ridiculous, but it was pretty cool just hangin out on the pacific!
Sunday, we went with a tour group to Floreana Island, on yet another boat. The boat trip was about 2 hours and Ryan and I got to lie on top of the not very big boat while everyone else was suffocating below us inside the boat! We walked a bit to get to a beach/bay where we could snorkel and the beach was absolutely beautiful! We didn't see much while we were snorkeling, because it was kind of foggy under the water from stirred up sand. My friend Jason and I were some of the last people to come back in and when we got in we saw them yelling at us and didnt know why until we saw a male sea lion swimming about 5 feet from us.. those are only the most dangerous ones! ha Then we all had lunch at this "restaurant" where we were swatting mosquitos like it was our job.. kind of miserable while we were eating. So we got out of there and took our boat to another part of the island about 20 minutes away to do more snorkeling.. we swam with sharks, like a million sea lions, awesome fish, some rays, a few turtles, and lots of pretty coral. The best snorkeling I have and probably will ever do!
Monday, we took a tour bus, just us 4 and our russian lady friend that was traveling with us on all of our trips, to Los Gemelos, which are 2 huge craters from where there were once 2 volcanos that collapsed! Pretty neat. Then we headed to the airport that is the smallest one I've seen! I tried my first empanada there and it was pretty delicious, but it won't be my favorite food here.
Tuesday, Taylor, Ryan, and I went to the Mercado Artesenal which had about 9 rows (2 rows in each one) full of things to buy.. art, jewelry, clothes, bags.. you name it, they got it! I bought a few pieces of art and I don't really rememeber what else. Then we had lunch at a cute place called Coffee Tree and me and Taylor went back to my house to watch American Gangster. We tried to finish it on Wednesday morning, but didn't have much time, i came back and ate with my family for lunch and my brother Pablo took me to the airport...
to be continued.
Friday we got up early to go to Las Grietas (were going to go kayaking, but this was definitely the better option!). It's 2 cliffs where you can jump from different rocks into beautifully clear blue water! It was amazing. Then we went to the Charles Darwin station where there were too many mosquitos, but got to see tons of turtles and very very small beach that also had too many mosquitos. On Saturday, we left early to go to Isabela Island, which took about 3 hours on a very large boat! We walked around the island a bit, went to the turtle preservation place (where we saw many many big big turtles! even got to see some turtles having sex. pleasant.), stopped by a large lake to see one flamingo (but still amazing since i've never seen one!), walked around a shark resting area of the island (but only saw one shark and then saw a family of sea lions just hangin out on the beach!), and then went snorkeling! While snorkeling, we got to see a few penguins, a bunch of pretty fish, and some sea lions! The sea lions are not afraid of humans and will swim right up in your face! We left the island about 4 pm, but didn't actually get back to Santa Cruz (where we were staying.. in the Red Booby hotel!) until 1 am! a 9 hour boat ride with a lot of black smoke, a pretty sunset, some napping, chilliness, a bit of rain, and moving about 5 mph! ridiculous, but it was pretty cool just hangin out on the pacific!
Sunday, we went with a tour group to Floreana Island, on yet another boat. The boat trip was about 2 hours and Ryan and I got to lie on top of the not very big boat while everyone else was suffocating below us inside the boat! We walked a bit to get to a beach/bay where we could snorkel and the beach was absolutely beautiful! We didn't see much while we were snorkeling, because it was kind of foggy under the water from stirred up sand. My friend Jason and I were some of the last people to come back in and when we got in we saw them yelling at us and didnt know why until we saw a male sea lion swimming about 5 feet from us.. those are only the most dangerous ones! ha Then we all had lunch at this "restaurant" where we were swatting mosquitos like it was our job.. kind of miserable while we were eating. So we got out of there and took our boat to another part of the island about 20 minutes away to do more snorkeling.. we swam with sharks, like a million sea lions, awesome fish, some rays, a few turtles, and lots of pretty coral. The best snorkeling I have and probably will ever do!
Monday, we took a tour bus, just us 4 and our russian lady friend that was traveling with us on all of our trips, to Los Gemelos, which are 2 huge craters from where there were once 2 volcanos that collapsed! Pretty neat. Then we headed to the airport that is the smallest one I've seen! I tried my first empanada there and it was pretty delicious, but it won't be my favorite food here.
Tuesday, Taylor, Ryan, and I went to the Mercado Artesenal which had about 9 rows (2 rows in each one) full of things to buy.. art, jewelry, clothes, bags.. you name it, they got it! I bought a few pieces of art and I don't really rememeber what else. Then we had lunch at a cute place called Coffee Tree and me and Taylor went back to my house to watch American Gangster. We tried to finish it on Wednesday morning, but didn't have much time, i came back and ate with my family for lunch and my brother Pablo took me to the airport...
to be continued.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)