Las Islas Galápagos, part 1

I can guarantee that describing my experience at the Galapagos Islands is going to be a challenge without showing a video of my entire week stay there, but I'll try my best. Cruising around the Galapagos in an amazing boat, snorkeling and hiking every day, and seeing the most fantastic creatures can only make me want to do anything to go back. Also, I'm losing my ridiculous tan at an unflattering rate, and would like to keep looking at least semi-Ecuadorean.

I don't think I've ever been so tan.

To start our adventure, we flew directly from Quito to Isla Baltra, also known as North Seymour Island (all the islands have at least one Spanish name and one English name, which isn't confusing at all). We soon arrived at the Santa Cruz, our home in the water for 5 days. It was a gorgeous cruise with more old people than we would have preferred, but it seems it's the thing to do when you're 65 years old and retired. The food was amazing for the most part, minus the weird vegetarian mush at dinner, and I had my fair share of pan de yuca every morning at the breakfast buffet. Also, fresh cheese was provided at every meal, and who am I to turn down delicious cheese?

M/V Santa Cruz, the only boat I've ever been on

that came with chocolates on my pillow every night.

Anyway, along with our cruise we had a guide assigned to our group, who always had to be with us on the islands, by law. Our guide, Edison, was from Santa Cruz and was really knowledgable about all the ecology of the Galapagos. He brought us to all the best snorkeling places, and he seemed to be relieved to be with a group of college students rather than another group of elderly tourists.

Edison and our group in one of the Santa Cruz's pangas.

We visited five of the islands in the archipelago: Santa Cruz, Baltra, Isabela, Fernandina, and Floreana. All the islands had something different to offer, from lush highlands to underwater caves to awesome lava tunnels. My descriptions of all these amazing places only go so far, so I shall try my best to supplement with some of the hundreds of photos I took. There will definitely be more posts to come with more details, but for now, here are some teasers:

 I don't think it's possible for baby sea lions to get any cuter.

We got to go snorkeling inside this awesome cave. 

Just one of the tons of amazing beaches we got to stop by. 

Also, there are tons of sea turtle nests right behind the photographer of this picture!

Carnaval!

So between all of our incessant traveling around Ecuador (so annoying, I know), my group and I figured we should do something for Carnaval. Mardi Gras is really only big in New Orleans in the US, and in other random parts of the world, like Rio de Janeiro. Here in Ecuador, I thought Quito would be teeming with life the week before Lent, but we soon found out everyone deserts the city to head to the coast. Unfortunately, we had just arrived back in Quito from our ten day trip to different parts of the coast, and the long journey was not one we wanted to make right away again just for a day or two. We asked around, and with some advice from our host families, wound up staying Sunday night before Fat Tuesday in Ambato, a small city about 3 hours away from Quito.

Our destination was decided the day before, and getting to the bus terminal we needed in South of Quito was an adventure on its own. I had no idea what to expect, and as poorly planning college students, we soon wound up in Ambato with backpacks and no idea where we were going to stay the night. We walked around quite a bit until we found a semi-crowded area somewhat decorated for Carnaval, and tested a few different hostels until we found a cheap one with almost enough beds for all. The shared bathrooms in this hostel were not exactly ideal, and may have been used for the settings of more than one horror movie. Anyway, it was only one night, and we decided to rough it for the sake of Carnaval in Ecuador.

Soon we made our way through a packed-as-sardines street of Ecuadoreans, who often made use of the weapon of choice for Carnaval - foam sprayed out of a can. The first time we were a little confused, then after the 45th time or so, we realized we were specifically targeted because we were the only gringos wandering around Ambato. We fought through the crowd (with the help of a newly purchased foam weapon of my own) and eventually wound up listening to some live music set up in the street. After hearing a surprising amount of 80s classic rock, we moved on and wandered around more of the foam-filled city. The night ended on an unusual note with a street hamburger served on a hot dog bun. I guess hungry pickers can't be choosers.

Foam defeat.

Foam victory!

The next day we saw more of the city that was celebrating Carnaval, and wound up at the Festival of Fruits and Flowers, which is essentially Ambato's only claim to fame. We saw an awesome mural made of fruit, and went to a museum filled with flower displays. Soon we headed home, with an much-needed stop in Salcedo for the most delicious helados known to man. All in all, Ambato was a fun, very impromptu, adventure in Ecuador!

The only mural around that probably tastes as good as it looks!