I have entered my last week in Quito and have mixed feelings. i am really excited to be able to travel for nearly a month but it also signifies the end of my year long vacation that i have enjoyed a lot. when i return to the states i will begin working and school again; not something i am looking forward too.
however, this past weekend we had no school on thursday so we went to montanita which is a very very touristy beach on the pacific ocean. all of the students flew there tuesday night but 70 dollars for a 30 minute flight is too much so i decided to take a bus for 8 hours and 10 dollars; i left wednesday night. I arrived there on thursday morning and unpacked, showered, ate, etc. and then went to the beach to hang out. i went swimming for a little while but the current was really strong and the waves were huge so it was pretty tiring to be out there for a long time. Then the night started. Montanita is a huge party place that literally doesnt stop until 8am in the morning, clubs with music are blasting, people are wondering the streets drinking beers until they all pass out and the sun has risen. then the city is quickly cleaned up and another day starts, i know that NYC is called the city that never sleeps but im pretty sure that montanita has it beat. so the first night we ate some food, drank some beers and then some people went dancing, others went to the beach, and still others just checked out the city. I fell asleep pretty early becasue i was exhausted from the bus ride and lack of sleep.
the next morning, we went to the beach pretty early and i went swimming for a while, i then laid down for wat was going to be 15 minutes and turned out to be about 1.5 hours; i got extremely burnt but fortunately it still doesnt hurt too much. later that not i didnt really go out to drink because i decided to go scuba diving early the next morning so i tried to get some sleep but the music was going all night so it was very difficult to sleep. the scuba with Kamala was decent, the worst of the three places i have been so far but certainly not awful. The first dive was rather murky and difficult to see much but after getting close to the bottom of the water, the visibility increased a lot. the location didnt have many big fish or anything but was filled with lots of brilliantly collored coral and reef fish. the second dive was really cool and while there werent many fish it was sort of like cavern diving where we would swim through lots of coral tunnels which was awesome, however there was some current so it was possible to get thrown into the rocks if you werent careful. after diving we got some dinner and then started the night. we played beer pong flip cup, two american games that i didnt not expect to play in ecuador but it was fun finding them. then we wandered through the city and split up. we all got to bed pretty late and so we woke up kind of late but managed to get out just in time for checkout. the rest of the day was spent traveling back to quito, i returned at about 230 on monday morning.
i have three finals this week and a farewell dinner and then i am out of here.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Its been a long time since I last posted, mainly because I have remained in Quito doing school work and trying to save some money. School is winding down and there are only two weeks left and I am standing in good position in all of them from what I know, which is good but also very boring. I haven’t done much the past two weeks; some students climbed a mountain called Cotopaxi while others went to a beach called Canoa. I did neither and decided to remain in Quito spending nearly every hour doing work. The weeks have been pretty plain as well as I have mainly just gone to class and then ran errands during. However, this weekend was rather interesting; we had two 21st birthdays as well as the biggest soccer game of the season for Ecuador. It was Kathleen’s birthday and for the night we met at her house for food and drinks and talking then later in the night we met up at this really chill bar called Cassette which had drinks but played good music although it was American. For Saturday it was Phil’s birthday and we met at his house very very early to do much of the same; eat, talk, drink. Later that night we went to the mariscal to get some drinks and then go dance, it was a very long night but fun. While we were out in the mariscal some people went to a concert here in Quito; the Doors were playing. I don’t love the doors, they are ok but I heard that it was a great concert. What made the night really long was the fact that I needed to wake up the next morning at 730 to get to the soccer game. Also on the day of Phil’s birthday we woke up at 730 to head out to the stadium to get the tickets where we waited online until about 11 and got the tickets. While in line I went to get breakfast and found an awesome fruit market where I bought a bunch of maracuyas, mangos, and raspberries for less than 3 dollars. Well anyway, the next morning I woke up at 730, possibly still a little drunk and got ready really quickly and headed out to the stadium which is about 30 minutes away from my house. I got there at 840. I was probably one of the first 200-300 people there but I wanted to make sure that I got good seats for the game so I waited there for about an hour when my buddy came by and we watched the junior or amateur league game where Liga beat Barcelona; I was rooting for Liga. Then the actual game started at 12 and #1 Liga again defeated #2 Barcelona. The goal scored was unbelievable and certainly can’t be explained. After the game I ate lunch and then walked around the city for maybe 3 hours just appreciating where I was and thinking about how I will soon be home for good. Some good news though is that before going home, I get to travel for about a month.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
after a busy week at school in which i had 2 tests and a paper i visited the fairly famous city/town of otavalo. otavalo is known for is large indigenous market place that assembles during the weekends so that the entire town can trade as well as the many tourists that go to purchase some authentic latin american merchandise. it was not exactly what i expected as otavalo was a rather large town that was filled with tents for this specific day. there were a lot of tourists and even more clothing which i did not buy because i wasnt sure what exactly to get. i did however purchase a fake guayasamin painting that i liked a lot. i think my favorite part of otavalo was the bargaining that takes place for every item. recognizing that you are a foreigner they charge you nearly twice as much but being able to speak spanish you can bargain down the price considerably which is fun. it also kind of sucks that you have to go through this process for whatever you want even if your not in the mood. later that day we ate lunch a visited a small lake near the town that was created over a volcano. because of its location there are continuous gas bubbles that come to the surface of the water. we got back home at 730 and i went out for a little and then went to sleep beacsue i was pretty tired.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Well a lot has happened since my last blog, starting with the fact that i wound up not taking a bus. I was all ready to leave school early to hop on the bus when i found my director crying saying that my school was giving her problems about letting me go by myself. The school then proceeded to ask my not to go, to ask my parents to tell me not to go, and to have the director tell me not to go. well that didnt really work out so the school then offered to pay me nearly 1000 dollars to use towards the trip if i went with the group. after hearing that i obviously said yes and was pretty happy with the way things worked out. i was kind of worried that people would get pissed for what happened but none of them got mad just happy that the entire group could now go together.
so for the next couple days that i now had free everyone went to banos except for me, i stayed in Quito to do some homework and just relax and get things in order for the trip that i was now doing. On Good Friday, i was in Quito and got to eat a traditional meal called Fanesca which is just a really thick soup where the broth is made of cream, cheese, and whole milk and in the soup are beans, cheese, fish, empanadas, and more beans. it was really good but really really filling and heavy and i could only eat one bowl.
sunday came and it was time to leave so we all met at the airport in the afternoon and decided boarded our plane to Lima. we got into lima at around 830PM and got to our hotel an hour later. After getting our rooms straightened out we went out for dinner, which happened to be not soo good but very expensive pizza. After that we decided to go out to a bar for a few drinks and after an hour a few of us, including myself decided to go home becasue we had to wake up at around 6 the next morning. it turns out those who did not come home wound up at the only club open at 2am on easter sunday called Taquila. It apparently was like a rave with eccasty everywhere and really really loud european techno with strobe lights. i wish i had went just to see the place and then left but thta didnt happen.
early the next morning we caught a flight to Juliaca via Cuzco. During the connection one of our friends got off the place and didnt get back on until we had his name announced accross the airport which was pretty funny. we then continued to Juliaca. Upon arrival we met our tour guide and took a bus to an inkan cemetery near lake titicaca. we only stayed there for about a half hour to view some of the graves but the coolest part was the vew of some of the islands on lake titicaca. later that night we took a bus to the town we were going to stay in for the night called Puno. We ate some restaurant and most of us got some sort of Al Paca meal which is an animal similar to a llama. it was really good.
the next morning we departed for lake titicaca and visited the floating islands for about 3 hours. the islands were really cool because they are floating on top of the water and are only a few meteres worth of dead floating reeds. the people have built homes, schools, and other building right on the islands. while there we watched how they built the islands and then sang and danced for a few minutes. we then departed for Amantaní island which is the island we stayed the night at. We arrived at the island and got paired up with an indigenous family for the night. Kerry, John, and i got put in the same family who seemed really nice at first but our mom was extremely strict and scary. we first had lunch which was a great bowl of quinua soup followed by rice, potatoes, and fried cheese. I couldnt eat the fried cheese so i gave it to the others. we then took a hike to the top of the island to get a great view of lake titicaca. the hike and the view was really nice. later that night we all dressed up in traditional clothing and met up in town to dance and drink some beers. it was kind of fun but we were all exhausted so we would have rather slept. we then ate dinner which was some gross tuna meal and then went to sleep. as soon as i got into bed the bed broke and i felt really bad but managed to fix it with some help from kerry.
the next morning we ate breakfast really early and then departed for another island called Taquile island where we hiked up to a restaurant on top of the island to eat lunch; it was 930AM. none of us were hungry but we ate anyway. after lunch we got on a boat to return to Puno. From Puno, we got right on another bus headed to Cuzco that ran 2 hours late. we finally got into Cuzco at 11pm. we got to our hotel and went to bed. but only after three of us went walking in the streets until we met a few shady people and decided to come back.
The next morning we met our new tour guide named Eloy, who was awesome and he took us on a bus tour around cuzco to see the city and then we went to the top of Saqsawaman mountain to get a good overview of cuzco. We then visited a small inca fort at the top of the mountain which was really cool, it was kind of small but it had some pretty interesting buildings especially the system of guard towers set up to keep watch over the entire area. we then took a bus to a town closer to machu picchu called ollantaytambo to eat lunch at a peruvian buffet which was pretty good and only 10 dollars. we then continued on by bus to aguas calientes which is machu picchu town. when we first got there it was kind of late and we found our hotel put our bags down and went to check out the town. the town is nice because it sits on a river in the mountains but it is extremely touristy which made me like it not soo much. after walking around for a long time, essentially the entire town, we sat down to eat and get some drinks. it was expensive and not that good but it was worth the money. we then went back to the hotel to sleep.
the next day everyone woke up really early (4am) to get started on the inca trail towards machu picchu, but because i was a late addition there was no room for me on the trail so i had to find things to do for myself. i woke up pretty early and got headed towards a trail that i thought was called intipunku and found that this trail is up near machu picchu, so i hike up to machu picchu which took about an hour and half to find out that to get to intipunku you have to enter machu picchu which costs like 50 dollars and i wasnt going to do that because we were going to machu picchu the next day. i found out that the hike i was really looking for was called puti koosi which was back at the bottom of machu picchu. so i started hiking back down machu picchu, there were buses but they were expensive so i didnt want to take one, which took about 40 minutes. at the bottom i asked around for directions a bunch of times and finally found the beginning trail for puti koosi. i was a little nervous because the guides who showed me where it was said it was dangerous especially to go alone because you have to climb vertically most of the way, which is something i have never really done before. i figured i would check it out and if it was too hard turn back. well it started off easy and then i got to the first latter that i had to climb, which was 90 degrees vertical to the floor but i wasnt nervous at all, i got really excited and decided to go for it. i started climbing really fast through the entire trail except for a few areas where i had to climb rocks. when i got to where i thought was the top i stepped out of the forest covered area to realize that there was a whole other mountain to hike up. this trail was much easier but much slower because it was shallower and the sun was beating down on me which made it really hot. it took me maybe 30 minutes to reach the top of the mountain and i was really tired and had almost no water. the top was really worth it, i got a great view of machu picchu as well as the surrounding mountain range and aguas calientes. i then hiked back down the mountain and felt really sick because i was really dehydrated but after buying a 2.5L bottle of water and drinking it all really quickly i started walking to the museum near machu picchu. i spent about an hour and half in the museum and then went back to the hotel to rest. i saw the others on the way who just ate food so i decided to eat food because i didnt eat anything since about 5 in the morning. then, later that night every came into my room and started hanging out but i was feeling really crappy, they went out for a few drinks and i just went to sleep.
the next morning, which was the day to visit machu picchu i was still feeling pretty crappy but decided to go anyway. we woke up and hopped on a bus to machu picchu at 530 in the morning. at the top we all entered machu picchu and our tour guide gave us a 2 hour long tour of all the important significant parts of machu picchu. he then left us alone to wander around the site. the first thing we did was hike up wynapicchu which is a much larger mountain. it took us about an hour of steep climbing but at the top you get such a great view of machu picchu and the surrounding area that it was really worth it. we then ate lunch up there until it started raining and climbed back down and took a 45 minute hike to a place called the great cavern, which really wasnt great at all and not entirely worth it. we then returned to machu picchu at about 1 in the afternoon and just hiked around the entire city/town looking at all the houses and buildings and stuff like that. then towards the end of the afternoon we hiked to the inca bridge which was the last place we hadnt visited in machu picchu which was pretty impressive how they built up a wall of rocks and then used wood boards to cross it. on a whole machu picchu was really impressive and mystical but very difficult to explain through words and pictures, you just need to go. after machu picchu we all returned back to the hotel, had a few beers, and then went to eat a nice dinner.
the next morning at 530 we had our train back to cuzco. in cuzco we had some time to rest and eat and then went on another tour with Eloy to the temple of the sun and a famous church in cuzco. they both would have been better, especially the temple of the sun, to visit before machu picchu because you learn a lot about inca design and architecture from the temple which can be seen in machu picchu. after the tour we had free time so some of us slept but i went walking around town and got lost and stumbled upon a little party going on in town to celebrate the last sunday of the month with music and food. it was pretty interesting but eventually i was too tired and went to sleep. later that night we went looking for dinner and the five guys went to eat cuy or roasted guinea pig. it was quite a task to eat the whole thing, not because it tasted bad but because all the bones and organs were in it so you kind of had to eat around them, although we ate the heart, liver, and kidneys. on the whole it was pretty good but very greasy and probably would not eat it again. after that we had some beers and some of us went to a bar/club. i left pretty early because i was very tired but a few stayed out and during that night one of the girl´s cameras got stolen. that really sucks because it had a weeks worth of pictures on it, along with my memory card which all got taken. she wasnt too worked up which was good.
after waking up extremely late the next morning we had to rush through the airport to get to our flight which wound up being delayed. we caught our connecting flight from lima to quito just in time and wound up back in quito at 130pm. all of us just slept all day ecause we were all exhausted.
so for the next couple days that i now had free everyone went to banos except for me, i stayed in Quito to do some homework and just relax and get things in order for the trip that i was now doing. On Good Friday, i was in Quito and got to eat a traditional meal called Fanesca which is just a really thick soup where the broth is made of cream, cheese, and whole milk and in the soup are beans, cheese, fish, empanadas, and more beans. it was really good but really really filling and heavy and i could only eat one bowl.
sunday came and it was time to leave so we all met at the airport in the afternoon and decided boarded our plane to Lima. we got into lima at around 830PM and got to our hotel an hour later. After getting our rooms straightened out we went out for dinner, which happened to be not soo good but very expensive pizza. After that we decided to go out to a bar for a few drinks and after an hour a few of us, including myself decided to go home becasue we had to wake up at around 6 the next morning. it turns out those who did not come home wound up at the only club open at 2am on easter sunday called Taquila. It apparently was like a rave with eccasty everywhere and really really loud european techno with strobe lights. i wish i had went just to see the place and then left but thta didnt happen.
early the next morning we caught a flight to Juliaca via Cuzco. During the connection one of our friends got off the place and didnt get back on until we had his name announced accross the airport which was pretty funny. we then continued to Juliaca. Upon arrival we met our tour guide and took a bus to an inkan cemetery near lake titicaca. we only stayed there for about a half hour to view some of the graves but the coolest part was the vew of some of the islands on lake titicaca. later that night we took a bus to the town we were going to stay in for the night called Puno. We ate some restaurant and most of us got some sort of Al Paca meal which is an animal similar to a llama. it was really good.
the next morning we departed for lake titicaca and visited the floating islands for about 3 hours. the islands were really cool because they are floating on top of the water and are only a few meteres worth of dead floating reeds. the people have built homes, schools, and other building right on the islands. while there we watched how they built the islands and then sang and danced for a few minutes. we then departed for Amantaní island which is the island we stayed the night at. We arrived at the island and got paired up with an indigenous family for the night. Kerry, John, and i got put in the same family who seemed really nice at first but our mom was extremely strict and scary. we first had lunch which was a great bowl of quinua soup followed by rice, potatoes, and fried cheese. I couldnt eat the fried cheese so i gave it to the others. we then took a hike to the top of the island to get a great view of lake titicaca. the hike and the view was really nice. later that night we all dressed up in traditional clothing and met up in town to dance and drink some beers. it was kind of fun but we were all exhausted so we would have rather slept. we then ate dinner which was some gross tuna meal and then went to sleep. as soon as i got into bed the bed broke and i felt really bad but managed to fix it with some help from kerry.
the next morning we ate breakfast really early and then departed for another island called Taquile island where we hiked up to a restaurant on top of the island to eat lunch; it was 930AM. none of us were hungry but we ate anyway. after lunch we got on a boat to return to Puno. From Puno, we got right on another bus headed to Cuzco that ran 2 hours late. we finally got into Cuzco at 11pm. we got to our hotel and went to bed. but only after three of us went walking in the streets until we met a few shady people and decided to come back.
The next morning we met our new tour guide named Eloy, who was awesome and he took us on a bus tour around cuzco to see the city and then we went to the top of Saqsawaman mountain to get a good overview of cuzco. We then visited a small inca fort at the top of the mountain which was really cool, it was kind of small but it had some pretty interesting buildings especially the system of guard towers set up to keep watch over the entire area. we then took a bus to a town closer to machu picchu called ollantaytambo to eat lunch at a peruvian buffet which was pretty good and only 10 dollars. we then continued on by bus to aguas calientes which is machu picchu town. when we first got there it was kind of late and we found our hotel put our bags down and went to check out the town. the town is nice because it sits on a river in the mountains but it is extremely touristy which made me like it not soo much. after walking around for a long time, essentially the entire town, we sat down to eat and get some drinks. it was expensive and not that good but it was worth the money. we then went back to the hotel to sleep.
the next day everyone woke up really early (4am) to get started on the inca trail towards machu picchu, but because i was a late addition there was no room for me on the trail so i had to find things to do for myself. i woke up pretty early and got headed towards a trail that i thought was called intipunku and found that this trail is up near machu picchu, so i hike up to machu picchu which took about an hour and half to find out that to get to intipunku you have to enter machu picchu which costs like 50 dollars and i wasnt going to do that because we were going to machu picchu the next day. i found out that the hike i was really looking for was called puti koosi which was back at the bottom of machu picchu. so i started hiking back down machu picchu, there were buses but they were expensive so i didnt want to take one, which took about 40 minutes. at the bottom i asked around for directions a bunch of times and finally found the beginning trail for puti koosi. i was a little nervous because the guides who showed me where it was said it was dangerous especially to go alone because you have to climb vertically most of the way, which is something i have never really done before. i figured i would check it out and if it was too hard turn back. well it started off easy and then i got to the first latter that i had to climb, which was 90 degrees vertical to the floor but i wasnt nervous at all, i got really excited and decided to go for it. i started climbing really fast through the entire trail except for a few areas where i had to climb rocks. when i got to where i thought was the top i stepped out of the forest covered area to realize that there was a whole other mountain to hike up. this trail was much easier but much slower because it was shallower and the sun was beating down on me which made it really hot. it took me maybe 30 minutes to reach the top of the mountain and i was really tired and had almost no water. the top was really worth it, i got a great view of machu picchu as well as the surrounding mountain range and aguas calientes. i then hiked back down the mountain and felt really sick because i was really dehydrated but after buying a 2.5L bottle of water and drinking it all really quickly i started walking to the museum near machu picchu. i spent about an hour and half in the museum and then went back to the hotel to rest. i saw the others on the way who just ate food so i decided to eat food because i didnt eat anything since about 5 in the morning. then, later that night every came into my room and started hanging out but i was feeling really crappy, they went out for a few drinks and i just went to sleep.
the next morning, which was the day to visit machu picchu i was still feeling pretty crappy but decided to go anyway. we woke up and hopped on a bus to machu picchu at 530 in the morning. at the top we all entered machu picchu and our tour guide gave us a 2 hour long tour of all the important significant parts of machu picchu. he then left us alone to wander around the site. the first thing we did was hike up wynapicchu which is a much larger mountain. it took us about an hour of steep climbing but at the top you get such a great view of machu picchu and the surrounding area that it was really worth it. we then ate lunch up there until it started raining and climbed back down and took a 45 minute hike to a place called the great cavern, which really wasnt great at all and not entirely worth it. we then returned to machu picchu at about 1 in the afternoon and just hiked around the entire city/town looking at all the houses and buildings and stuff like that. then towards the end of the afternoon we hiked to the inca bridge which was the last place we hadnt visited in machu picchu which was pretty impressive how they built up a wall of rocks and then used wood boards to cross it. on a whole machu picchu was really impressive and mystical but very difficult to explain through words and pictures, you just need to go. after machu picchu we all returned back to the hotel, had a few beers, and then went to eat a nice dinner.
the next morning at 530 we had our train back to cuzco. in cuzco we had some time to rest and eat and then went on another tour with Eloy to the temple of the sun and a famous church in cuzco. they both would have been better, especially the temple of the sun, to visit before machu picchu because you learn a lot about inca design and architecture from the temple which can be seen in machu picchu. after the tour we had free time so some of us slept but i went walking around town and got lost and stumbled upon a little party going on in town to celebrate the last sunday of the month with music and food. it was pretty interesting but eventually i was too tired and went to sleep. later that night we went looking for dinner and the five guys went to eat cuy or roasted guinea pig. it was quite a task to eat the whole thing, not because it tasted bad but because all the bones and organs were in it so you kind of had to eat around them, although we ate the heart, liver, and kidneys. on the whole it was pretty good but very greasy and probably would not eat it again. after that we had some beers and some of us went to a bar/club. i left pretty early because i was very tired but a few stayed out and during that night one of the girl´s cameras got stolen. that really sucks because it had a weeks worth of pictures on it, along with my memory card which all got taken. she wasnt too worked up which was good.
after waking up extremely late the next morning we had to rush through the airport to get to our flight which wound up being delayed. we caught our connecting flight from lima to quito just in time and wound up back in quito at 130pm. all of us just slept all day ecause we were all exhausted.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
This week has been rather normal; I went to school for the week and remained in Quito this weekend. There were a few birthdays of friends during the weekend so we celebrated for that. Other than that I have been trying to get ready to leave for Peru but I have a lot of homework and can’t seem to get it done. Fortunately, I have a lot of time on the bus in the upcoming trip to do my homework so hopefully I can get it done then. Oh, one interesting thing that happened this week was that I tried a new type of soup which was, let’s just say interesting. I tried cow-foot soup which consisted of corn, broth, bone, and foot. It actually wasn’t that bad except for maybe the inside of the foot which was jelly-like. It had no taste but the texture was really weird. Other than that I am just getting ready for Peru by buying some things and packing. I’m pretty excited but obviously a little nervous as well as it is my first time seriously traveling alone and on top of that it is in a country where I don’t exactly understand the language. I’m sure that whatever happens, will be really fun. When I get back it will be the first of April and that means only 5 weeks more of school; it is going really fast.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
after returning from the galapagos i went to participate in an experience called ¨indiginous living experience¨ however it was far from that. i expected to go to the country-side of ecuador in order to live with a family; talk with them, sleep in there house, help out in their jobs, etc. However, all we did was visit a family, listen to them talk for 15 minutes, eat and then leave to visit another family. it really wasnt as valuable as it could have been because you didnt experience anything, it was likely having a professor tell you about them. if i had known that that is what it was going to be like, i would not have went. i spoke to my professor about the trip and told her what i thought and how i would much rather live with a family for a few days than to visit a few families for a few hours. she told me she can try and set that up for me, so we will see how that goes. as far as the rest of the week, im pretty bogged down with school work trying to makeup for the past week that i missed as well as the numerous assignments before our vacation. im pumped to go to peru next tuesday night although the bus ride really will be tough to get through. fortunately i have a few projects to do for the week we get back and the bus gives me plenty of time to ge them done.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Wow this past week has been absolutely great. I spent the beginning of the week of february 24 doing school projects and essays only to find out that we were going to leave for the galapagos friday morning. i was really excited and the entire trip lived up to expectations. So starting early friday morning at 7 in the morning we met at the airport in Quito. With a connecting flight in Guayaquil we arrived at Santa Cruz Island airport and thought that the trip was about to begin. unfortunately because our passports say cultural exchange instead of students they did not believe that we were students so we had to pay $100 instead of $25. None of us had the money so we had to wait about 2 hours until the boat company could wire transfer the money to the government.
after getting past the border we took a short bus ride and then a short panga ride to our cruise ship (totally unnecessary but very nice) called the M/V Santa Cruz. It was a big boat and we were easily the youngest group there by about 35 years. It had private bathrooms, a bar, and bufet breakfasts and lunches. After unpacking, we went to the beach on San Cristobal island and saw a few sea lions and marine iguanas, but there were only a few. We decided to go snorkling which was going great until a gigantic wave came and took my friend who panicked and pulled me underwater; i got thrown onto a rock and have some nice gashes on my hand and my stomach. it took a while to stop bleeding but they werent too bad. we returned to the boat a little later to eat dinner grab a few drinks and then go to sleep.
the next morning we visited my favorite island which was Espanola island. It was covered with sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigates, masked boobies, crabs, marnie iguanas, and various other lizards. The animals showed no fear of humans and you could literally walk to within a foot of them without them moving. It was unbelievable. We spent most of our time taking pictures of the animals but also did a short hike to a water geyser and sat and watched that for a while. It was a very hot day but no one seemed to mind. After the tour of the island we returned to our boat and went for a little swim in the ocean but the salt water really hurt my cuts so i got out pretty early. After lunch we went to visit another island called Floreana which lacked much wildlife other than some birds trees and interestingly some flamingos. there werent a lot of flamingos but they were the pinkest ones that i have ever seen. After view the flamingos we went for a 5 minute walk to the beah where we saw a sea turtle coming on land but we scared it away and it eventually left for the water again. After the short hike we were all really hot so we decided to go snorkling again but this time i didnt get thrown into any rocks. We saw a bunch of goofy looking parrotfish and some angelfish and other fish of other kinds as well as some green sea urchins which were pretty cool. However, the coolest part came towards the end of the swim where three sea lions appeared out of nowhere and started swimming with us. it was absolutely impossible to keep up with them but they always returned. One came very close that it almost hit me but the whole experience was great until it started to rain. we then had to board the boat and eat dinner. This night we stayed up for quite a while talking and playing some games; i did not get to bed until maybe 1:30.
The next morning we decided to wake up really early (5:45) in order to try and see the sunrise over the volcanoes. It was nice but unfortunately cloudy so it wasnt as good as it could have been. In the morning we went to Fernandina where we did much of the same by hiking and viewing the animals. I saw two really interesting things during this island trip, which was the cracked lava expanses that covered much of the island as well as a mosh pit of marine iguanas that numbered more than 50, which according to the guide was the first time he had seen that happen. The terrain looked pretty hostile and if you werent careful you could easily fall and get cut up pretty badly. We then returned to the boat once again to eat lunch and relax for a bit until we took a boat tour of one of the Volcanic islands which i forgot the name of. We only went by boat but saw lots of sea birds and new fur sea lions which live in harsher and rockier areas of the islands. The tour around the island revealed some interesting geologic things such as tear scars from volcanoes which are when the underground tunnels of lava eventually solidify and then are brought above the surface; those were pretty intersting. Another interesting thing was where these two land masses seemed to meet and one was completely pushed up on top of the other, it really was amazing to see that. The only other things were saw were some sunfish that have large fins that stick out of the water and look like shark fins. we all thought it was a shark until we got much closer and realized it wasnt. We returned to the boat, relaxed, ate dinner, and then hung out. I went to bed really early because i was really tired. The next morning we disembarcked onto Baltra Harbor and took a bus to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island. We made a little pitt-stop at the Charles Darwin station to view land tortoises which were gigantic. There was one tortoise called Lonely George because he is the last of his species and doesnt now how to reproduce so he just lives by himself until his death. After this short stop we continued to the airport where Quintin and I managed to change our flight from Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon this way we could go scuba diving. The first day was raining a bit so we hung out with these two Peruvian dudes for a little while and got some lunch, then Quintin and I went to find a place to go scuba diving. We decided to go to Sub-Aqua and complete our advanced divers course because it only costs $350 for the advanced certificate and 5 dives, which we were going to do anyway as opposed to $280 for the four dives. Later in the afternoon we took a boat taxi to a small beach and did a little swimming for about an hour. while on the taxi we saw about 60 private boats in the harbor with ¨Round the World¨ signs so i assume they were part of an organized trip around the world which must be great. That night we got a small meal, drank a few beers with the peruvians and then went to sleep to wake up really early for the next morning.
The next morning we woke up at 6:30 but because of the time difference it was really 5:30 so we had another hour or so to sleep. After the hour we quickly grabbed our stuff and headed to the dive place. Our first dive site was called North Seymour. We dove down to a maximum depth of around 30m and there was a huge thermocline. In a distance of about 2 meters the temperature of the water dropped 9 degrees celcius which is a huge change in temperature. One sea line came swimming by but my camera was fogged up because of how cold the water was. We also saw a few sharks and rays as well as some reef fish. The dive on a hole was pretty good but did not even compare the next dive. Our second dive took us to Mosquera which only has a depth of around 15m but had a ton of different kinds of fish; rays, sharks, eels, sea snakes, coral fish, etc. We even stumbled upon an area where there seemed to be 7 or 8 sharks lying on the ground together, which was awesome. For this dive, we did fish identification as part of our lesson which was a great dive for this specialty. We returned to the dive site went over a few important instructions and then were free to go. Quintin and I just changed our hotel and got some dinner. Then went to sleep at 8:30pm because we were exhausted.
Without any time problems, the next morning went much better as we woke up, went to the dive site, hopped on a taxi to the harbor, and then took a short boat ride to our first dive site; Daphne Major. This is a small island by Santa Cruz where we did our Boat dive specialty. This dive lacked many larger fish but was filled with rays and and reef fish. We even had a large group of some anglefish following us throughout the dive. The second dive was at Daphne Minor right across the channel which is a smaller island near Santa Cruz. This dive was spectacular with hundreds of fish, many sharks, few rays, and for about 5 minutes there were 4 or 5 sea lions that were swimming with us; it truly was amazing. Another cool part was that it was a wall dive, so it goes really deep and you are swimming against a wall so you can really get close to the small fish in the crevices of the wall. We also happened upon a small cave that we entered which was filled with little orange fish. I dont know what kind they were but there were a lot of them. For this dive, we did peak-performance-buoyancy which required the exchange of weights and adjusting your buoyancy to remain neutrally buoyant. Our last dive wasnt really a dive because it took place in the harbor but it was important to complete the last of our five required dive specialties; this one was navigation. Using only a compass we had to make a straight line back and forth, a square, and a triangle underwater. Everything went really well and Quintin and I passed. Now that we had completed our dive training and dives we relaxed for a bit and then ate some dinner. We went to bed very early because we had to wake up really early the next morning.
The next morning we woke up at 4:30am and quickly got ready and hit the streets. After waiting for about half an hour we grabbed taxi to the two small mountain hills called ¨Los Gemelos¨ or ¨The Twins.¨ We got to the base at about 530 and started to hike up in the dark. We had trouble finding the path and light started creeping up but we managed to get to the top just in time. The sun had just started rising as Quintin and I got to the top to take some pictures. We had to spring through mud, thorn bushes, and giant spiders with giant spider webs to do so but it was worth it. At the top there was some kind of station, im not sure what exactly it was but after we took one picture of the sunrise an extremely loud and annoying alarm started to go off. At first we were thinking abou leaving but realized that we werent going to go through so much difficulty for nothing so we stayed. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes the alarms shut off and we went on taking pictures. At around 6:45 7 we left and got back to the road where we caught a taxi back to town. Back in town we got some breakfast, quickly packed up, and caught a bus back to the airport. We flew directly back to Quito where , what a surprise, it is raining.
i have a bunch of school work to catch up on which i am starting tonight and am going to finish sunday because tomorrow i leave for a ¨Rural Experienc¨ which i think involves living with an indigenous farming family and seeing how they live. I will return on sunday evening.
after getting past the border we took a short bus ride and then a short panga ride to our cruise ship (totally unnecessary but very nice) called the M/V Santa Cruz. It was a big boat and we were easily the youngest group there by about 35 years. It had private bathrooms, a bar, and bufet breakfasts and lunches. After unpacking, we went to the beach on San Cristobal island and saw a few sea lions and marine iguanas, but there were only a few. We decided to go snorkling which was going great until a gigantic wave came and took my friend who panicked and pulled me underwater; i got thrown onto a rock and have some nice gashes on my hand and my stomach. it took a while to stop bleeding but they werent too bad. we returned to the boat a little later to eat dinner grab a few drinks and then go to sleep.
the next morning we visited my favorite island which was Espanola island. It was covered with sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigates, masked boobies, crabs, marnie iguanas, and various other lizards. The animals showed no fear of humans and you could literally walk to within a foot of them without them moving. It was unbelievable. We spent most of our time taking pictures of the animals but also did a short hike to a water geyser and sat and watched that for a while. It was a very hot day but no one seemed to mind. After the tour of the island we returned to our boat and went for a little swim in the ocean but the salt water really hurt my cuts so i got out pretty early. After lunch we went to visit another island called Floreana which lacked much wildlife other than some birds trees and interestingly some flamingos. there werent a lot of flamingos but they were the pinkest ones that i have ever seen. After view the flamingos we went for a 5 minute walk to the beah where we saw a sea turtle coming on land but we scared it away and it eventually left for the water again. After the short hike we were all really hot so we decided to go snorkling again but this time i didnt get thrown into any rocks. We saw a bunch of goofy looking parrotfish and some angelfish and other fish of other kinds as well as some green sea urchins which were pretty cool. However, the coolest part came towards the end of the swim where three sea lions appeared out of nowhere and started swimming with us. it was absolutely impossible to keep up with them but they always returned. One came very close that it almost hit me but the whole experience was great until it started to rain. we then had to board the boat and eat dinner. This night we stayed up for quite a while talking and playing some games; i did not get to bed until maybe 1:30.
The next morning we decided to wake up really early (5:45) in order to try and see the sunrise over the volcanoes. It was nice but unfortunately cloudy so it wasnt as good as it could have been. In the morning we went to Fernandina where we did much of the same by hiking and viewing the animals. I saw two really interesting things during this island trip, which was the cracked lava expanses that covered much of the island as well as a mosh pit of marine iguanas that numbered more than 50, which according to the guide was the first time he had seen that happen. The terrain looked pretty hostile and if you werent careful you could easily fall and get cut up pretty badly. We then returned to the boat once again to eat lunch and relax for a bit until we took a boat tour of one of the Volcanic islands which i forgot the name of. We only went by boat but saw lots of sea birds and new fur sea lions which live in harsher and rockier areas of the islands. The tour around the island revealed some interesting geologic things such as tear scars from volcanoes which are when the underground tunnels of lava eventually solidify and then are brought above the surface; those were pretty intersting. Another interesting thing was where these two land masses seemed to meet and one was completely pushed up on top of the other, it really was amazing to see that. The only other things were saw were some sunfish that have large fins that stick out of the water and look like shark fins. we all thought it was a shark until we got much closer and realized it wasnt. We returned to the boat, relaxed, ate dinner, and then hung out. I went to bed really early because i was really tired. The next morning we disembarcked onto Baltra Harbor and took a bus to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island. We made a little pitt-stop at the Charles Darwin station to view land tortoises which were gigantic. There was one tortoise called Lonely George because he is the last of his species and doesnt now how to reproduce so he just lives by himself until his death. After this short stop we continued to the airport where Quintin and I managed to change our flight from Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon this way we could go scuba diving. The first day was raining a bit so we hung out with these two Peruvian dudes for a little while and got some lunch, then Quintin and I went to find a place to go scuba diving. We decided to go to Sub-Aqua and complete our advanced divers course because it only costs $350 for the advanced certificate and 5 dives, which we were going to do anyway as opposed to $280 for the four dives. Later in the afternoon we took a boat taxi to a small beach and did a little swimming for about an hour. while on the taxi we saw about 60 private boats in the harbor with ¨Round the World¨ signs so i assume they were part of an organized trip around the world which must be great. That night we got a small meal, drank a few beers with the peruvians and then went to sleep to wake up really early for the next morning.
The next morning we woke up at 6:30 but because of the time difference it was really 5:30 so we had another hour or so to sleep. After the hour we quickly grabbed our stuff and headed to the dive place. Our first dive site was called North Seymour. We dove down to a maximum depth of around 30m and there was a huge thermocline. In a distance of about 2 meters the temperature of the water dropped 9 degrees celcius which is a huge change in temperature. One sea line came swimming by but my camera was fogged up because of how cold the water was. We also saw a few sharks and rays as well as some reef fish. The dive on a hole was pretty good but did not even compare the next dive. Our second dive took us to Mosquera which only has a depth of around 15m but had a ton of different kinds of fish; rays, sharks, eels, sea snakes, coral fish, etc. We even stumbled upon an area where there seemed to be 7 or 8 sharks lying on the ground together, which was awesome. For this dive, we did fish identification as part of our lesson which was a great dive for this specialty. We returned to the dive site went over a few important instructions and then were free to go. Quintin and I just changed our hotel and got some dinner. Then went to sleep at 8:30pm because we were exhausted.
Without any time problems, the next morning went much better as we woke up, went to the dive site, hopped on a taxi to the harbor, and then took a short boat ride to our first dive site; Daphne Major. This is a small island by Santa Cruz where we did our Boat dive specialty. This dive lacked many larger fish but was filled with rays and and reef fish. We even had a large group of some anglefish following us throughout the dive. The second dive was at Daphne Minor right across the channel which is a smaller island near Santa Cruz. This dive was spectacular with hundreds of fish, many sharks, few rays, and for about 5 minutes there were 4 or 5 sea lions that were swimming with us; it truly was amazing. Another cool part was that it was a wall dive, so it goes really deep and you are swimming against a wall so you can really get close to the small fish in the crevices of the wall. We also happened upon a small cave that we entered which was filled with little orange fish. I dont know what kind they were but there were a lot of them. For this dive, we did peak-performance-buoyancy which required the exchange of weights and adjusting your buoyancy to remain neutrally buoyant. Our last dive wasnt really a dive because it took place in the harbor but it was important to complete the last of our five required dive specialties; this one was navigation. Using only a compass we had to make a straight line back and forth, a square, and a triangle underwater. Everything went really well and Quintin and I passed. Now that we had completed our dive training and dives we relaxed for a bit and then ate some dinner. We went to bed very early because we had to wake up really early the next morning.
The next morning we woke up at 4:30am and quickly got ready and hit the streets. After waiting for about half an hour we grabbed taxi to the two small mountain hills called ¨Los Gemelos¨ or ¨The Twins.¨ We got to the base at about 530 and started to hike up in the dark. We had trouble finding the path and light started creeping up but we managed to get to the top just in time. The sun had just started rising as Quintin and I got to the top to take some pictures. We had to spring through mud, thorn bushes, and giant spiders with giant spider webs to do so but it was worth it. At the top there was some kind of station, im not sure what exactly it was but after we took one picture of the sunrise an extremely loud and annoying alarm started to go off. At first we were thinking abou leaving but realized that we werent going to go through so much difficulty for nothing so we stayed. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes the alarms shut off and we went on taking pictures. At around 6:45 7 we left and got back to the road where we caught a taxi back to town. Back in town we got some breakfast, quickly packed up, and caught a bus back to the airport. We flew directly back to Quito where , what a surprise, it is raining.
i have a bunch of school work to catch up on which i am starting tonight and am going to finish sunday because tomorrow i leave for a ¨Rural Experienc¨ which i think involves living with an indigenous farming family and seeing how they live. I will return on sunday evening.
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