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Day 97 of 97 - September 3rd: Lima, Peru to Vancouver, Canada via Los Angeles, USA

Wow, it's the very last day. And in the Lima airport at 1:30am, my flight left the terminal. I got in the plane, really exhausted, and happy to see a complimentary blanket and pillow. I figured this plane would be big (with how far it had to go), but it really surprised me how new and modern it was. Each row had 9 seats and each seat had a new, touch screen display. The safety announcement was played on it initially, but this screen could be used for any movie or game i wanted. Didn't exactly use it to the fullest though - as soon as the in flight snack was given out, I ate, then fell right asleep. The man next to me offered me his dessert, which i found funny since that was kind of my thing during ecuaexperience. I gravoled myself to sleep for several hours, then when breakfast came around, the guy beside me was kind enough to wake me up. After eating, we talked for a good while about my trip and his upcoming destination (Shanghai). When we landed, I found out by looking at the logo on his bag that he was a doctor. That gave us more to talk about. We carried on together for the next little while. On the way to customs, he was questioned by a chinese-american officer, and afterwards, we joked that he probably just wanted something from shanghai. As it turned out, after the first customs check, I needed to grab and recheck my bag. Good thing I checked. My bag was then rescanned before I was allowed to leave, but of course all was good. We had separated at this step, but we were at different terminals anyway, so from here on out, i would have to hope for good, reliable wifi to save the day. I printed out my ticket to vancouver and then went through another extensive bag check before continuing. The whole fire drill lasted 2 hours in total - and this was just a connecting flight!! Lucky me, the wifi was perfect so i was at least amused during my long layover in LA. Just as I was about to board my final flight, I went to txt home to say i was getting on. As I was about to press send, sure enough, I get a call from mom. Looks like we're close enough now for our minds to sync. I had my last long distance convo with her before getting on, then got in my seat by the window. Just as the plane was being taxied out, the bar securing the taxi broke. So we had to wait around for some 15 minutes for them to inspect the plane and get a new taxi, but it was fine since our pilot made up the time in the air. In a little over 2 hours, i was seeing familiar scenery out the window - greater vancouver. I'm pretty sure I set a new land speed record through customs and baggage. After nearly 24 hours in transit, I was ready to be out of an airport. And thus, my trip came to an end with the long awaited hugs of my parents at the arrivals area. I had my sister and dog, along with lasagna and cake waiting for me at home. And now, as I write my last words, I have my nice soft bed to appreciate. This has been a summer of a lifetime for me. I've learned so many things and I imagine that I'm a bit different than when I left Canada 3 months ago (hopefully changed for the better). I've met so many people and I hope to reunite with all of them again in the future. As a final word, make sure to never forget the countless blessings we are given each day. We don't need bars on our windows and broken glass lining brick walls around our houses. You don't sit at a bathroom stall each day, charging 50 cents for toilet paper. We live in a country with a comfortable middle class majority, instead of a chasm between rich and poor. Yet there is genuine happiness, generosity, and kindness to south americans, regardless of if they are well off or in need. I never met a person that i disliked in any of these countries. If even the poorest of people that we built houses in ecuador can be happy with so little, perhaps all we need to be happy is to step back and realize what we have. Anyway, here it goes - THE END!

Glitches

Day 96 - 2 de septiembre: Quito, Ecuador to Lima, Peru

What a great feeling to finally sleep in. Woke up at a little past 9, had a shower and casually made my way down for breakfast. Same food as usual, but it's really good stuff here. After eating, I had a bit of a task ahead of me - having to repack everything for my flight today. Keep in mind, I arrived in south america with a full bag, but now, i have enough stuff for two pieces of luggage (although, my job at the car lot has given me experience in finding room for things without the space to do it). It was easier than I expected and before long, I was checking out of the hotel. I had 4 hours to kill before i needed to get a taxi for the airport, so the hotel was able to put my bags in storage for me. I took off to the main square and sat myself down in an outdoor table of a coffee shop with the ecuadorian version of an iced cappuccino. I strategically chose this place for the free wifi, and used it to make some calls and browse the internet. They also had a band off the street that decided to perform here. I hung out here as long as the wifi lasted (pretty sure they kicked me off after a while). Then wandered around a bit. Eventually i had lunch at a place in the square. They had a 3 course special for cheap, so i jumped on that which filled me up. Afterwards, I slowly made my way back to the hotel and chilled on their wifi for about an hour until i needed to go. The hotel called a taxi for me and soon enough, I was on my way. I heard him radio the other taxis, asking for a traffic report (it was rush hour right now). It must have been pretty rough since he decided to take me through a completely different route. I went through rich areas, poor areas, alongside cliffs and over rivers and experienced all kinds of traffic but eventually, I did make it to the airport. I would typically be worried about this change in route, but the way was well signed to the airport. He made some pretty good time, as do all taxis here. At times, he was weaving through traffic like it was mariokart. Still in one piece. Once arriving, I waited a good while in the baggage drop line and when I arrived up front, i was pleased to see that my bag was just on the maximum weight - good to go. The lady said my bags would go straight to vancouver, but we'll see. I don't quite trust these checkin staff. Arriving at the terminals, I was given a slight heart attack. The screens said that my flight was delayed 3 hours, which would make me miss my next flight! i looked everywhere for someone from LAN airlines, but when I next checked the screen, my flight was back to normal - must have been a glitch. The terminals had weak wifi, in which i communicated back home with scrabble chat. I found a place with good spaghetti for dinner, and before long, I was flying to Lima. I stayed awake on this ride so that i could sleep on the next one. When i arrived, the screen was messing with me again - my flight which wasn't for hours said "last call for boarding". It fixed itself eventually, but that was the most status screen glitches i had seen ever and both were the same day! I had three hours until my next flight to LA with no wifi in the lima airport, but somehow by walking around and playing phone games, i amused myself until the flight. Time for the longest flight of my trip - we'll see how it goes. 

Saying goodbye to my room

And then there was one

Day 95 - 1 de septiembre: Quito, Ecuador

I decided last night that I wanted to explore the city today. So, before I left the handful of our group left in Quito, I told them that i'd be at their hotel at 8:30 the next morning if anyone wanted to join me. After another great breakfast here at my hotel, I walked the empty, sunday streets to the Nu house hotel lobby. A small group of my friends came down for breakfast, and once everyone had eaten, I had 3 of them with me to see the first site. We took a taxi to the TeleferiQo; a cable car which takes you up the side of Pichincha Volcano here in Quito. Since there was no traffic on the roads, we got their fast and were surprised that this decent cab ride was only $5. I want these cabs back home! Anyway, we got in the ticket line and paid $8 for the gondola ride up - it was a beautiful view of Quito the whole way which reminded me very much of the Grouse mountain gondola which gives you a view of Vancouver. As we approached the top, we realized that we really didn't think when putting on t-shirts for a windy mountaintop. It was kind of chilly thanks to the gusting wind, however we countered that with hot chocolate from a cafe up top. After getting several pictures from the viewpoints, we noticed a higher up lookout that we decided to climb up at a decent pace. Didn't actually realize until later that we were 4100m above sea level here and really should have been taking it easy. No wonder we had crummy cardio. At the top, there were actually a couple llamas, but for the most part, the city view was what we were looking at. It was getting to be close to 11 now and one of our group had to leave for the airport at 12. We took the tram back down, flagged down a taxi and got ourselves back to the hotel for 11:30. We waited in the hotel lobby to say goodbye to the couple of people leaving at this time, then the bulk of our group went for lunch. In a cafe/restaurant in the main square, I actually got to order myself some lasagna which was great. I went to pay with visa, but you needed a $15 dollar minimum, so I paid for another as well, and got myself some needed change from them for the taxi. Not too long after lunch, I wanted to go to the last big site of the city (that was recommended to me) - the historic city centre. At 2pm when everyone was forced to check out of Nu House, I had a couple people who were eager to join me. We got in another $5 taxi and were taken right into a historic old plaza. This place had a parliament building, cathedral and tons of people packed around. As cool as this place was, it seemed to also just be a casual hangout place for a lot of locals. After taking in this plaza, we continued on to see one of the more famous churches: la compañia. This huge church would have been impressive just by it's size and design on the outside, but of course, they had to go all out. The inside was entirely covered in gold! Crazy, intricate design covered in shinning precious metal just kept you looking everywhere. There were tons of statues, paintings and all sorts of art. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed so you'll just have to take my word on this. We then continued on through all sorts of random streets. Old architecture was everywhere so we really weren't needed to go to specific sites. They had a statue of an angel of some sort on top of one of the hills, so when it was in view, we all took pics of it. We came across a couple of museums during our walk, but one didn't look all that interesting and one closed early on us. No matter, the last thing we definitely had to see was their giant basilica. We hadn't really heard much about it, however you could see it from kilometres away and it looked worth checking out. Our map took us up a huge, steep hill but we eventually made it here. It was massive and had two main towers, one being a clock tower. I managed to get a signature picture of me with it - if you saw my Europe pics, you'd recognize it. We also found out that for $2, you could climb the towers. An elevator took us 3 floors, then we were stairing it. As we got higher and higher up the clock tower, the stairs became sketchier and sketchier. Eventually it was a thin, metal, spiral staircase that took us through the clock and up to the bell tower. Again, we got stunning views of the city. It turned out that afterwards, we could climb the second tower, but this would be more of a challenge. We first had to cross a rickety, wood bridge inside the building then climb a ladder in the dark. This took us to a platform outside the tower. From here, we had to climb the tower from the outside, with a metal staircase nearly as steep as a ladder. They put chicken wire around the stairs to somewhat reinforce it, however it definitely wouldn't pass north american safety standards. Slowly but surely, we made it. I took so many photos of viewpoints today that my phone was running low. One of my group had to conquer a decent fear of heights today, and she did a good job, no thanks to the other guy that looked over one of the viewpoints and exclaimed, "that's a fatal fall". Lol. Anyway, by 5pm when the basilica closed, we walked down to a main street and caught a taxi back home. We actually got a better rate back, perhaps because it was an older taxi. After reuniting with the group in the lobby and hanging out all together for a bit, we went to dinner for the last time as a group. We had subway sandwiches, then spent our last hour hanging out before the bus came and took the last of my companions away. I waved goodbye, then made my way back to the hotel. It was a weird feeling to be alone again after all this time, but i'll be leaving tomorrow so it will be fine. I watched some english movies into the night which was great since the internet was down until 10. Set my alarm for 10pm as a safety, but I do want to sleep in somewhat.

Gondola

One of the views

My morning group

Plaza grande

La compañia

Basilica

Signature ic

Another city view

Moving Out

Day 94 - 31 de Agosto: Quito, Ecuador

Feeling a bit groggy this morning. Woke up, wide awake at about 4am so I drugged myself back to sleep and was still feeling it at 7:30 when I awoke. Regardless, I went down for breakfast - the hotel gave us vouchers for food at their partner restaurant next door. I ate, then gathered my things to move from this hotel to my new one. One of my group offered to help me, so together, we brought all my things about 8 blocks to the Vieja Cuba hotel. It was a really nice little place with a gated yard and an old fashion feel. I brought my stuff to my room, then took advantage of my second breakfast of the day! It was huge - scrambled eggs, toast, cereal, pineapple. I was definitely full now. I made my way back to the original hotel with Meagan, then when she had to get ready, I made my way over to a nearby coffee shop to chill until others from my group woke up. They had good wifi, so I was able to call my grandma to wish her a happy birthday. Later on, another one of my group, Jules, woke up and we went on a bit of a city adventure. She wanted to get photos developed, so we first went on a city hunt to find a place. When we finally found one, it was a little shop with a really nice old man that helped a lot and was able to print them all in 45 mins. Next, it was about time for lunch, so I recommended a nearby bakery that was good before. Since I didn't have a map, we had to always return to the main square so that i could get my bearings. We had empanadas and milkshakes which was great. Next, we went to check out a big outdoor market a few blocks away from the hotel. It must have had 100 little shops, selling handicrafts, clothing, souvinirs, etc. For me, there wasn't much that I would buy, since i've seen similar stuff this whole trip, but it was neat to look. Just had to make sure to stuff my phone in my money belt since tight places like these are notorious for theft. I'm hoping that i'm getting all these events in order - we did a lot of walking so perhaps one event came before another but it doesn't matter too much. We eventually went back to the photo place and this nice guy even gave a discount to Jules for ordering so many photos. We returned to the hotel again to drop these off, but after, we were trying to find more things to do in walking distance. The receptionist of the hotel recommended seeing a nearby park so with an hour or so before we said we'd meet up with the other two from the group, we made tracks down the road. When arriving at the park, it was neat, and pretty big, however beside it was a really large, interesting building that we decided to check out. Turned out, it was a big museum with free entrance. We checked out the exhibit, which was on ancient cultures of this region. They had lots of artifacts and models in the first room. When we checked out the models, this cute little girl would come up to us and point out little details on them. I think she must have been a kid of one of the security guards, but who knows - she was our unofficial tour guide. It must be boring for her though - it was a saturday and the museum was literally empty. I guess it must not be very popular in Ecuador. The next exhibit displayed gold artifacts. No english here, but i was able to read the spanish for the most part. Last section was on the arrival of the spanish and christianity. We left a little late from here but it was a cool find. We met our other two members at the bar who said we must be adapting to ecuadorian time (being late). We had a drink here, then moved on to dinner at the popular Crepes and Waffles restaurant. I asked the hotel to find it on the map, then i guided us there. Turns out, it's only a couple blocks away from my new hotel. It was a hard decision what to have since I still wasn't too hungry (a 5pm dinner was pretty early for what we're used to), but I decided on a "special waffle" (4 sauses, whipped cream and ice cream on top). More like a dessert but it was way too tempting to pass up. Walking back, we could tell that saturday night was starting - the streets were lining up with people and the music had already begun. Made my way back to Nü House hotel and hung out for about a half hour until the bus filled with the rest of our group (who went to otavalo today) had returned. We spent our last hour with most of this group in the lobby. The HLD bus returned for them at 8 to take them to the airport, and after a bunch of goodbyes, less than ten of us remained. I hung out for a bit with them, but decided to make my way back to the hotel before it got too late and dangerous. I got comfortable in my new room - had a nice shower and found out that i actually had an internet router in my room! I'm really liking it here - a good place to finish off the trip. I facetimed home to join my grandma's birthday celebration for a bit, the found some english on tv (X-men) before falling asleep

Museum inside

Museum outside with Jules

Artisan Market

Crepes and Waffles

The Beginning of the End

Day 93 - 30 de Agosto: Santa Cruz, Galapagos to Quito, Ecuador

I thought i'd be sleeping in this morning (last night was a late one), however, I ended up sleeping only until about 7am. The rain this morning was coming down pretty loudly, so I finally decided to get up and have some breakfast. My roommate, Howard, did the same. We were both really craving some good coffee so after breakfast, we went to one of the only places open so early. The island lifestyle is pretty chill so people open their shops when they feel like it. We hung out at this seaside restaurant/cafe for a good while chatting - this view would be one of the last we'd see here in Galapagos. After finishing coffee, we checked out a few stores, where I bought myself a bandana, not to be worn but which had a Galapagos map on it. I thought it was cool. By 9:30, we were loading into the taxi pickup trucks and heading towards the airport. We made one stop along the way though - to pick up some organic galapagos coffee beans from a little shop. Can't wait to try some with my family back home. After getting back on the road, we did technically make one more stop - the road was blocked by a farmer walking his herd of cows down the road. Anyway, when we got to the airport and checked our bags, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to our leader, Olivia, who would be staying here a few more days. We got a picture as a group, but of course once i gave the stranger who offered to take the picture my phone, 3 or 4 more people gave their cameras too (we're sharing the pics but everyone insists on having the same pics on their cameras). We gave our hugs goodbye and just made it on time to board. The flight took what seemed like quite a long time since we had to stop an hour in Guayaquil to refuel the plane and drop off passengers. And when we finally made it to Quito, we had to wait 45 minutes, hungry as ever, for someone to pick us up. As we left the airport, we already had to say goodbye to one of our group. Diego was leaving us to visit family in another city for a few days, and so this was the first real goodbye of this group. It was funny because the first couple songs we played on the bus were slow, sadder songs which had some of the girls in tears after saying this goodbye. I was then made the DJ and got the mood turned around on the bus. Everyone was loving the songs i was picking and wondered why i hadn't offered my ipod up before. The group would always put more pop and hip hop on the previous bus rides and since i don't have any of that, i just listened to my music myself most times. We had fun listening to songs for the first bit of the bus ride, but then it just got tedious. Not only was there traffic, but we were in a bus that couldn't go over 30 or 40km/h without overheating. It was about 8 or so by the time we made it back. We picked up a bunch of the other group on the way back, so it was good to reunite, but I was so tired that I just wanted to eat and go to bed. One of the others shared the same thoughts, so we chose the restaurant just outside the hotel and got burgers (which were amazing - had shrimp and guacamole in it too!). Technically, tonight I was suppose to be in a different hotel, but I wouldn't be able to get to it tonight since the streets were closed for a music festival tonight and it's really dangerous to walk at night here. HLD booked us a room for tonight so I didn't have to brave getting mugged, and tomorrow i'll move to my last hotel of the trip. We'll see what i do tomorrow!

Some of the cows

One last group photo

3 Months

Day 92 - 29 de Agosto: Isla Santa Cruz and Isla Floreana

I got a great sleep at the hotel last night. I've been on gravol for the last little while here since we've been travelling on boats a lot, so it's no wonder the sleeping's easy. We had hard boiled eggs for breakfast today, which i've been turning into some great sandwiches. By 7:30, we were set to leave to the pier for our day trip to Floreana Island. Again, it was a different boat from usual and by chance, I was the last one to board. The boat was really full of people today and this time I had nowhere to lie horizontal... at least I thought. With nowhere for me to sit, I was lucky enough to be given a cot in the front cabin to sleep in! With new gravol in, I was out like a light, all the way to Floreana. We docked in a very small town. Apparently, only a little more than 100 people live on this island! We got on the passenger transport truck (chiva) and were taken to the beginning of a forest trail. Here, we were taken to an artificial habitat for tortoises that were taken as pets and can never adjust to living in the wild. It was actually feeding day today, so a couple of them were munching on some greenery on a feeding platform. We were taught more about the giant land tortoises - there are 10 different types of them in Galapagos. Some of them actually live in the volcanos and have a 6th sense that warns them when a volcano will soon erupt. They can actually walk 3km in one day if they have a purpose like this for it. We continued the hike up a hillside and into some caves and rock pathways made from compact ash. Apparently these areas were first used by pirates, making Floreana one of the first inhabited islands. Lastly, we saw a stone carved like an inca idol. Apparently it baffled people for a long time before they found out that it wasn't ancient or culturally significant at all - one of the first locals had just carved it for fun. After the walk, we went and had lunch in town. You could tell that people were still feeling the drugs - there were times when nobody was talking, just staring blankly. It was time to wake up though; we were now set to head out for our second snorkelling session! 5 minutes on the boat and we were in this particular spot. We got on wetsuits, flippers and masks, then I was the first to brace myself for the cold water. Jumping in was a rush of cold, but luckily it didn't take long to get used to. And even if it was cold, it was quickly well worth it. Before we knew it, we were swimming with sea turtles! The first one surprised me - the second one shocked me by it's size. It was bigger than me! We continued on and saw many more sea turtles as well as countless types of colourful fish. When people started heading back, I did too and quickly changed into some warm clothes. Before leaving, Olivia had a surprise for us - donuts to celebrate 3 things: the end of our galapagos trip, our companion's release from the hospital and me completing 3 months of travel! It was really cool! I got my cabin spot again and got ready for the boat ride back to Santa Cruz, but there was still one more surprise. We stopped at a bay about 10 mins away and saw another amazing animal - a penguin! It was the second smallest penguin type in the world, measuring about 30cm in height. It stood on a rock and posed for us as we took pictures. There were all sorts of other animals in the bay too - perhaps more than some zoos. From here, I lay in my little cot in the boat until we made it back to Port Ayora, Santa Cruz. We had a fair bit of time to chill out until dinner so I decided to just take off and check out the town. I wandered through all the streets of the safest place I've been in on this trip. It's the same sort of logic as why Hawaii has less crime than the other states - if you do something on an island - there's nowhere to run. Anyway, I wandered my way to a little bar by the pier and watched everything go by for the next little while. When it was finally time for dinner, I went back to the hotel and rejoined the group. We went to an awesome pizza place (mine had sausage and chicken and onion rings and all the other ingredients for a heart attack, but soo good). Olivia had a continuous supply of friends here all night - i'm convinced she's secretly the mayor here because she knows everyone. After dinner, we all casually hung out on the hotel terrace until a respectable time to go to the club. To mix it up, the group all put a team effort into DJing with my ipod. Most of the music on here is the stuff from my parent's itunes account, which put everyone in a good mood because the old stuff never goes out of style. The night finished off in a nearby club, trying the local specialty (caña shots). Sugarcane liquor is really popular here and it's good. It was our last night and we had a lot to celebrate. We were a great group and I had a wicked time here with them all!

Floreana Island

Tortoise feeding time

Caves

Stone face

The snorkelling spot

The penguin

My new career as a drug dealer

Day 91 - 28 de Agosto: Isla Isabela (Villamil) to Santa Cruz, Galapagos

And so, the dreaded 5am alarm rang and I begrudgingly got up and packed my final items for the boat. We dropped our bags into the back of a pickup truck, then got in our own fancy truck to head to the pier. We got there first, then the luggage truck arrived with Olivia and our other member who was all better from being at the hospital. Finally, our group was all together again and set to head to the next island. Many of our group members got a rude taste of what the pacific can do to one's stomach, so I offered some gravol out to about half of them. We were taken to a similar boat as before and all found our seats inside. Within a matter of minutes, everyone was passed out in a gravol induced coma. I'd find it pretty amusing, but I was passed out too. The boat ride was a lot smoother than last time, so we made some pretty good time to Santa Cruz. Everyone woke up at our destination and got off half awake, happy that the trip went by in the blink of an eye. We walked a couple blocks to the hotel and immediately sat down for breakfast. Everyone were zombies at the table, suffering from the gravol hangover. I was officially the drug dealer of the group and my master plan was to drug everyone, then make off with their luggage. Lol. We had a bit of down time, which I used to explore some of the town with a few of them. We went to a bank where I withdrew what I assume would be my last in American dollars. With only a few days left now, i want to enjoy it. The stupid thing about Ecuador though is that all the ATMs give you $20 bills, however nobody in the whole town has any change to give you. Hence, we all went into the bank and literally cleaned them out of small change. We carried on, checking out tourist shop after tourist shop until finally deciding to go back and chill out for a bit (hopefully getting over the gravol). It wasn't much longer before we were on our next adventure. Firstly, we had to get fitted for masks, fins and wetsuits as tomorrow we would be going snorkelling again. Then we were taken to a little seaside restaurant for lunch. There was a fish cleaning station right across the street from us (covered in hungry pelicans) and we literally had yellowfin tuna that had been cleaned and delivered from right across the street - you can't get it much fresher. For dessert, right beside us there was fresh ice cream waiting. I had cookies n cream, and mocha which was just like an ice cap. The next activity would take up the whole day. We had all of our things and we were going to a famous beach here called tortuga bay. In order to get there, we needed to walk a 45 minute trail through a hilly range. No cars are able to get there (not that there are many cars here in the Galapagos), so the whole way was completely natural. When we arrived, the view of the bay was incredible. Beautiful blue water crashing upon another white sand beach that felt like flour between your toes. Although we couldn't swim in this section because the waves were too intense, I still went in up to my waist to feel the ocean. Most of the group set up camp to lounge away the afternoon in the sun, but a couple of them were going to go walk the rest of the beach, so I decided to join (I'd much rather be doing something on the beach than sitting around). We walked all the way to the edge of the beach, which turned into the entrance to the rest of the park. Funnily enough, this entrance was "blocked" by a row of marine iguanas, basking in the sun. We took pictures with them, copying some of their poses. Carrying on, we found a second bay around the corner which was flat calm. It was the swimming bay but it was hard to believe that it was ocean! It looked more like lake Okanogan. The water was nice there, but after a little bit of time, we continued to explore some of the trails here. In between trails, we ran into a guy that we keep seeing here along the way (he may or may not be stalking us). He let us know about a different trail that had a ton of iguanas. Since we didn't have our flip flops along, we walked back to home base to pick our stuff up. The whole group came with us this time, but we quickly divided again due to our different walking speeds. By the end, I was walking with the original two others and we went to check out the trail. On the way, we ran into Olivia and she pointed out turtles poking their heads out of the bay every so often. Hopefully we'll see more close up later on. The trail winded along the coast, bordered by lava rocks. Half way through, after taking a bunch of photos, we came across the mothership of iguanas. Tons of them were just hanging out, spitting salt water from their nostrils. After this, all of our many iguana picks seemed inferior. The trail soon turned into a cactus forest, with hundreds of these cactus trees that seemed almost fake - like illustrated in a story book. We walked along a raised lava rock coast, surrounded by cacti, in disbelief of this amazing place. By quarter to five, we were worn out and walking back to the hotel to shower off and get ready for dinner. This dinner was one of the biggest meals I had paid for, but I only had a few days left so I don't mind splurging on myself. I had lobster ravioli and chocolate cake for dessert (we were in a place that specialized in desserts). We ended off the night all together, hanging at a local bar. I had a beer and the bar also gave us this complimentary slush drink in a shot glass. It was confusing but good. Tomorrow we would be doing a day trip to another island, and it would be the last full day here in the galapagos!

View of the fishing dock from lunch

Walk to the beach

Posing like an iguana

Lake-like ocean

Cactus forest

Iguana spot

Hugging a cactus

Snorkelling with sea lions

Day 90 - 27 de Agosto: Isla Isabela 

Today was another incredible day. After waking up and having breakfast, we were fitted with masks, fins and wetsuits and taken by the same truck to the marina where we were dropped off at. Our first activity was going to be kayaking. However, it wouldn't be quite like my kayaking in the amazon - this was full on pacific ocean. We had to paddle hard to leave the beach and at first, I actually thought I was getting seasick in the kayak. I got over it as we made our way to more sheltered water. On the rocks, we saw our first typical galapagos animals - blue footed boobies. Although they weren't doing their famous dance here, it was still cool to finally see these. As we continued, we had a sea lion actually surface around our group, wanting to play as if it was a sea otter. As people were leaving, i splashed a little water to attracted it and it actually came over and rubbed it's belly against my hand. Now i'm a felon because you can't touch the animals here ;). We carried on and saw a pelican up close, but didn't see much else for wildlife here. Landing back on the beach was interesting with the tide - i nearly crashed through some rocks. But I made it. We carried on to the next stop - a little nearby bay for snorkelling. The walk down the dock was blocked by a sea lion, chilling out in our way, but he decided to move out of the way for us as we got close. It's funny how much character these animals have. The water in the bay was cold, but we bad wetsuits on which made it fine. The coral reef here had many small colourful fish and even a few pufferfish, but what made it really amazing were the sea lions. A bunch of them entered the bay as we got in (which was apparently really rare). We swam with them and played with them for most of the time. I chased one around in circles and when i decided to leave, this one followed me around like a puppy. It's amazing how natural this place is! Unfortunately, one of our group started having breathing problems while out snorkelling and had to go to the hospital by the end. We were all worried, but had to continue on with our her and Olivia. We were taken to a small place where we had yellowfin tuna for lunch. It was some good stuff - taking advantage of the fish while we can. Olivia told us that apparently there was a nuclear waste leak in Japan recently and there is an advisory out that in a few days, we shouldn't eat any fish from the pacific. Anyway, we had a bit of down time in the early afternoon before we continued on. We were first taken to a lagoon where we saw 13 or 14 flamingos. Then we were taken to the giant tortoise breeding centre that I saw yesterday. We had a guide that actually told us about each part which was useful. I found it interesting that when the turtle eggs are being incubated, the temperature determines the gender (warm = more females). We were then taken to two more viewpoints before our tour came to an end. The truck dropped us off at the beach because we wanted to go to the famous "pink house" of the island. It was a local bar where you could play beach volleyball and indulge in happy hour. We walked over and started up a game. After a few good rounds, some locals showed up to start a real game with us. We divided into teams and played until 15 points before rotating out the losers. My team won every game but one (however I can't say I was the best player on the team). We had a lot of fun for this evening hour, then made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. At 7, we met up with Olivia and first went to check on our companion in the hospital. She was fine at this point, and in good spirits, however the hospital still wanted to keep her overnight. After a bit of chatting, we all left for dinner. We went to the same great restaurant as yesterday and I got to try another new thing - swordfish. It was accompanied by shrimp pasta and tomato soup. Everyone was talking about going out for a little bit afterwards... until we got the unsettling news that we would be waking up at 5am tomorrow! Yes, that dashed everyone's plans real fast. On our way walking back to the hotel, one of the girls asked if I wanted to go check out the big church of this town. I said sure and the two of us sat down inside for a quick prayer. She's been taking care of all of us on this trip - definitely glad to have her in our group. We caught up with the rest of them after a quick trip to the bakery, then went to our rooms to pack up our bags and be ready for 5!

The pink house

Volcanic Activity

Day 89 - 26 de Agosto: Isla Isabela

6:30 seemed like far too early to wake up after a travel day like yesterday, but it was well worth getting up. Breakfast at the hotel was watermelon, eggs, bread and churros. I filled my plate since I knew we were going hiking today. We'd have lunch on our hike too, so after breakfast, the hotel supplied us with the materials to custom make ourselves tuna fish sandwiches. I made mine with cucumber which was good - the cheese provided looked a bit weird. All packed and ready to go, we loaded into this truck that looked sort of like a harvest festival ride (where the backs have rows of seats and the sides are open). This truck picked up some good speed for us sitting relatively unprotected in the back (we were used to this though). It was cool again to see the frequent changes in environment as the road continued. I noticed in particular a whole bunch of a tree that looked sort of like arbutus but without the bark falling off. It looked like the trunk had some sort of varnish on it since it was really shiny. As we drove higher and higher, the weather changed and it got moist and cloudy. When we arrived at the start of our hike, a light misty rain was falling. It wasn't anything that would dampen our spirits though. As we ascended this trail, i noticed more of these trees and asked about them. The guide told us that these were guava trees - and were considered pests or weeds here! It's a big tropical fruit tree - i'd take those over our weeds any day. We continued on through this think mist for a good while until eventually it cleared and the sun was out... or so we thought. Turned out we were actually just in a cloud and had just reached a higher point of the mountain. And it wasn't long on this sunny trail before a spectacular view appeared. The mountain we were standing on was an active volcano (Sierra Negra Volcano) and we were looking down on a massive crater! This volcano last spewed lava in 2005 and we could see the path of the lava from the eruption point. This crater was so huge that the last eruption only filled half the crater. We had several more viewpoints of it as we continued around the crater edge. A little way further down the trail, we stopped under the shade of a tree to eat our lunch. We had a variety of different finches watching us eat, probably hoping for crumbs. After we finished, we carried on down the trail. It was a curvy, dusty road bordered by countless guava trees. Eventually, we came to the edge of a very interesting place. It was a massive lava field. Obviously it had been many many years since there was last an eruption here (there were cacti growing through the lava), however, as we continued, we came to a much newer lava field. The soil was replaced by black rock. We followed signs to an amazing viewpoint. From this volcano (chico volcano), we could literally see half the island, as well as some of the other islands in the distance. After a lot of photos and some time pondering life, it was time for us to walk back the same way. On my way, I was the first to ask if we could eat the guavas from the trees. We could and they were so fresh. I also noticed that I was getting really sunburnt, so i lowered the sleeves of my shirt. It was warm, but we eventually made it to the cloud again and things got cool. We all chatted our way back to the truck and back home. When we arrived, we met up with Olivia again. She took us down to the beach since it just got sunny down at the town. Walking on the beach was amazing - the sand was so soft, it was like I was walking in flour. I don't know why, but we all sort of split up when we got to the beach. Myself and one other girl stayed with Olivia (i figured my best bet to see something cool was with the person who knew the island). The girl with us needed to buy some batteries so we did that first, however we returned to the beach and walked a good ways down. At one point, we left the beach and came across a wetlands area with a large wooden pedestrian bridge through it. Here, we finally saw the galapagos iguanas. They're unique here because they can actually swim. We saw one do this as we were walking. Half way through we actually saw a flamingo in the water too! We carried on down a long trail and found other species like the lava lizard. I could tell we were in a touristy area since there were actually railings on the bridges and warning signs about dangerous plants. Apparently they have a poison apple tree. Olivia left us near the end of the trail and we continued on to see a tortoise reserve. They have this because the stray dogs and cats will eat the tortoise eggs and they want to protect this cool species. There were tons of them here - some small and some massive. We walked through all the areas and saw one really lazy looking turtle which we named garfield. On my way out, a group of locals were stunned to see me walking in the now misting rain with a tank top and shorts (they were all bundled up). I told them i was from canada and they all laughed. We walked back the same way and met up with more members of our group, just before the hotel. We hung out with them for a bit until our exhausted legs were about to give, then finally went back. I chilled out and had another salt water shower before going to dinner. We went to a place where we were able to have a lobster-relative caught right here in the galapagos. It was amazing and a good deal too for lobster. We finished off the night all hanging out in the same room. Everyone's falling asleep now so i'd better get back to mine.

My group

Walking up

The crater

Crater view

Lava field (Mars)

Super view

The beach

Lazy Iguana

Flamingo

Lava lizard

Tortoise

Lobster dinner

A completely new land

Day 88 - 25 de Agosto: Quito, Ecuador to Isla Isabela, Galapagos

I really felt the lack of sleep this morning. In fact, my roommate had to wake me up when I didn't hear the first alarm. I had a bard time getting to sleep - maybe I was excited for the day ahead. At 5:30, everyone met down in the lobby to get our taxis for the airport. Our new leader, Olivia showed up to make this happen for us, as well as set us up with boxed breakfasts. I wasn't particularly fond of the soggy, ham sandwich that was in it, but I ate it none the less. At the airport, we first had to check in at a special galapagos desk to get our temporary residency cards. Although these islands are Ecuador's, it's like we were going to a different country. We also had a separate bag check just for organic products before actually checking in at the airline. Our flight path had us stop in Guayaquil (the Toronto of Ecuador) to pick up more people before continuing. It was nice though because i had a whole row to myself to sprawl out. We were mostly flying above cloud the whole way, so when we descended, it was like we were dropping down into a new world. The views from the plane were stunning, however where we landed might give you the wrong impression of Galapagos. The island of Baltra used to be a US military base. Unfortunately, by the time they left, the island was barren and polluted to hell. Although we landed in a wasteland, it still somehow seemed like a fascinating and interesting place. We went through the galapagos version of customs (pay the entrance fee and get a stamp in your passport). We then took a short bus to the coast, and a short ferry across the channel to Isla Santa Cruz. We continued our trek by getting in a taxi (all the taxis are pickup trucks here) and set off down a straight road that seemed to cut through the whole island. I was surprised though - the first climate seemed barren. The trees were without leaves and bushes were desertlike. It was almost like the landscape should be covered in snow, and without this it seemed weird. After a while of this, i nodded off for not more than two minutes and opened my eyes to a complete change - lush green forest all around us. We drove through small towns and continuous change in climate. We eventually made it to the coast and had lunch at a little restaurant. After this we lined up at the marina dock. There was a bag check at every dock where they would ziptie our bags shut when they passed the check. The line for this check took forever because the guy up front was bringing like 6 big suitcases with him. After getting through, it was time for the last leg - by boat. We got into this 30ish foot motorboat and took off into the pacific. I had taken a gravol before, but lucky me, it turned out to be the roughest weather the sailors had seen this year. I was on the outer deck for a bit, but as I slowly became sick, i found a spot inside the cabin where I could lie down. I put my head down awkwardly on a pile of lifejackets and rode it out for 2 and a half hours until we were finally at port. It was later afternoon now so we got in a taxi and headed straight for our hotel. It's a nice little place here. Comfy beds and sometimes the wifi works. I lay down for most of our down time before dinner. I was exhausted, but really hungry and anxious to settle my swaying stomach. We went to a steak place where i got a plate of three different meats. Prices are a lot more expensive here but it's nothing to worry about since they're still not as bad as back home. Also some interesting things to note - the stray dogs of ecuador have been replaced by land tortoises here and the showers and taps are fed with salt water! We did a night time city tour before finally falling asleep.

Galapagos from the air

Beautiful blue water

Barren nothing...

...to lush green

The first of many little birds

The marina