Galapagos days 5 & 6

Diving. Yay!! 

Got up at 6, said goodbye to the group. Then off I went to go diving with this crazy Latino dive master. Me and two Americans, a Chinese lady, a lovely Swiss girl and 2 Latinos drove across the islands and got onto a little dive boat, we putted around a smaller island till we reached North Seymour were we got all our gear on and off we plunged off the side and down. 

It was freakin amazing, as we descended a few white tips swam by just chilling and checking us weird creatures out. We swam along a white sand plateau with a field of garden eels below us, we got to a ridge and saw three beautiful spotted eagle rays fly by in the current. Hammerhead sharks and massive Galapagos would appear and disappear in and out of the blue, both an amazing feeling and a slight fear given how quickly they moved in and out of sight. But I am so glad they graced us with their presence as they are just such incredible animals, they move so fluidly and beautifully in the water. It was an incredible dive, just amazing.

Back on the surface we putted over to another dive sight and after a quick lunch got back into the water, it was a fun dive but not as mind blowing as the first and the current was getting stronger as the day wore on. 

BUT 

As we reached the surface for the second time there was a supposed orca sighting so we got in and raced over to the circling birds. I saw the orca jump as we neared the birds but once there the birds moved further into the open ocean so we couldn't follow so headed back into port, where as we where coming into the channel we saw three manta rays, not the open ocean ones but the meter and a half ones from the surface of the water which was amazing!! 

So all and all a pretty great day, topped off with a few Capariñas with my researcher friends that I had met at the Blue House hostel in Quito.

Next day was super chill as I had had too much sun so got dehydrated so didn't go out much. And the next day I went to Quito, back to my home away from home (the blue house hostel) and saw Catrin!!! 

Besitos

Xx

Galapagos Day 1 and 2

I feel that I've written that words cannot describe what I am seeing and experiencing and when it comes to Galapagos that cannot be more truthful. The waters sparkle and the white sand beaches seem to reflect the bright Equatorial sun. We land on the desolate old US military base of Santa Cruz and after passing through varies checks to make sure we definitely haven't brought any foreign flora and fauna into the islands we board a bus and make our way to a ferry to another bus to another boat to Isabela, the biggest of the islands. The boat ride is amazing, I sit on the top deck behind the captain with Rosie. We chat about life and the amazing fact that we are in the Galapagos, something we had both dreamed about doing but never thought we would. The sun set slowly as we rolled along and eventually we reached Isabela, after passing Isla Tortuga and a random jutting of rock that looked like a Giants head as he walked along the bottom of the ocean. 

We are greeted by seals lounging on the fishing boats and penguins diving along side our water taxi. 

We stayed in Isabela for two night. The first evening we went to see flamingos and just chilled, it was a bit weird as I had left my two close friend back in Quito, as they were travelling to Colombia while we were in Galapagos. 

After getting up at 6:30 for breakfast we headed up to the start of the volcanic crater walk. The crater was 10km wide and the 2nd largest crater in the world, it was pretty impressive and I felt incredibly small thinking about the still active volcano. 

And this photo is only a third of the craters immense size, we walked a ways around the crater before turning off and heading down into a desolate valley to have lunch over a deserted lava field. It was pretty barren but had a sense of beauty in its own way. 

Some random tourist was walking through the lava fields and I felt the comparison was quite intense :) (haha I sound like a professional lol ) 

After a tiring and boiling hot sun we went for a snorkel and even though it was quite murky as the waves were crashing in, it was still lovely to be in the water. After snorkelling we chilled on the beach and watched the sunset till we needed to go back for dinner, our first full day and an amazing first day it was. 

Moi on top of lava flow

Path to snorkelling :)

My babies chilling on a park bench 

Chilling at the beach, look at that gorgeous colour. 

Xx

Shuar tribe

We went from one part of the jungle to another, one filled with only the echo of the animals to one echoing with the voices of a village. The people greeted us with open arms and painted our faces all different patterns that had different meanings. My paint meant 'the Stars' which I love and am honoured that they painted my face with such brightness. The chief also gave us Shuar names in order to properly include us into the tribe. Mine was Aja and a few nights later I asked the tribe leader what it meant and it means Mother Earth and the fertile ground which everything comes from, which is pretty amazing. Mother Earth is very important in the culture of the First Nation so to be named after her was something incredible. It was fascinating talking to Estevan about the different legends about the jungle and the spirits of the lakes and trees, about the shrunken heads of their enemies as they Shuar tribe was one of the main tribes who shrunk heads and you didn't want to have long hair as that would be easier to tie onto your spear when you went into battle. 

During the day we did manual labour, such as carry sugar cane and then at night we taught English to the community. The manual labour was tiring yet really satisfying especially after calculating the amount of money the village could gain from 100 sugar canes, I believe it was 60 cents a stock. I also loved teaching as Laura and I had the young rugrats to deal with so we would draw pictures and then out the English word underneath. I really loved teaching one girl in particular because she really wanted to learn and was so enthusiastic about lessons. 

This week was interesting as it was super fascinating learning about the tribe but the weather and schedule meant we had lots of free time so I got closer to three people in the group while the rest of the group clumped closer together. I really think that having three weeks in the jungle brings the best and worst in everyone and even though the whole group isn't tight the 3 I am close to are amazing people that I 100% want to and will keep in touch with. 

Now I am in Quito and heading off to the Galapagos tomorrow

Xx

M