más galápagos...

Hello again,

Thought I would post the most recent e-mail to my mom as well, a pretty detailed synopsis of the past few days here. Like last time, certain things may only apply to my mom, sorry...


The past 3 days we´ve been on the largest island in galapagos (isabela), whereas the rest of the time we´re staying here in Santa Cruz. Since my last e-mail we´ve done a lot but also got a lot of our ¨education¨/lectures out of the way, after all this trip alone does count for 2 credits. The 14th and 15th we had a lot of lectures, some of which were interesting most of which I tuned out for as there was a lot of repetition. But the night of the 14th, i cant really keep track of the days, we were just hanging out, relaxing down the ocean and saw a bunch of different rays and a baby hammerhead shark. The next day we had another lecture or 2, including a trip to the recycling plant which was really quite interesting. Afterwards we hiked to tortuga bay which is the most breathtaking beach ever. I was expecting lots of turtles but it was really just a huge stretch of pure white sand and gorgeous blue water with lots of manglades (spelling?), cool rock formations, sealions, and birds. It´s actually called tortuga bay (tortuga means turtle) because during the turtle egg laying seasons hundreds go up on shore there to lay their eggs. The next morning, your b-day, we took off to Isabela on a 2 hr boat ride that was incredibly bumpy, but really scenic and we caught glimpses of sealions, turtles, and some shark fins. Once in Isabela we visited a turtle breeding center, which is really interesting and incredibly succesful at repatriating turtles to their own islands, among other sites. The second day there we climbed a volacona that had erupted in 2005 up to its crater. The crater was an amazing site, its was huuuge and very beautiful, we had watched a video of the eruption the night before so it was cool to visualize what the explosion would have been like. After that we hiked around a desert like terrain that was covered in hardened lava which made for unbelievable geological formations and once-in-a-lifetime views. We relaxed the rest of that day after many hours hiking and sore feet by taking to the beach which was also extremely gorgeous and only blocks from our hostel. This morning we worke up early and walked to a swimming hole of which we really had no idea what to expect. We got there and it was a really large pool surrounded in manglade covered rock walls with slight openings that led out to the sea. The water was crystal clear which allowed you to see straight down to the rocky bottom covered in corral reefs. As if that wasn´t enough some sea lions started to show up, I spotted the first one when I was borrowing some snorkles and noticed a huge brown mass swim right under me. To top it off, about 5 sealions showed up and began playing together - passing a stick, jumping out of the water, splashing around, etc... In typical galapagos animal fashion they didn´t care at all that we were around so we came within feet of them as they just splashed about and minded their own business, a truly incredible and memorable way to start the day. Afterwards we boarded the boat again for the bumpy ride back to Santa Cruz. We spent the rest of today back at tortuga bay, but this time we had enough time to take the long walk down the beach to a separate beach in an isolated bay where there´s practically no waves and tons of marine wildlife. After first spotting a few rays, we found a group of about 4-5 white tipped something sharks, about 5 ft in length i´d guess, resting by a patch of manglades only feet from where the water met the sand. As freaky as it was, we walked to within feet of them to get a better view and the whole ordeal was a pretty surreal experience. That pretty much leads me to right now... tomorow we have the day free to do what we´d like but we´re also supposed to investigate a topic and work on a group presentation that we´re supposed to have ready for Sunday. Me and 2 others are talking about the environmental education given to the natives of galapagos and its efficiency, ways to improve it, etc... We´ll see how well we balance work and relaxation tomorrow...

Not sure if I´ll have another chance to post again before my departure from this lovely archipelago, perhaps I´ll be able to write something whilst on my adventure down to Macchu Picchu in Peru. Take care and feel free to write me anytime to let me know how much you miss me or just to fill me in on the brew crew.

Brett