Island Hoppin'

I've been putting off this blog post because there is so much I could talk about this trip. We had the week off of school, so for our fall break our entire program visited three of the other islands of the Galapagos. It was an amazing trip, and impossible to talk about it all. I will post a couple of pictures from each island and try to give as much detail about the trip as possible. So here we go--

Santa Cruz:

We did a lot of snorkeling. This was my group on our first full day in Santa Cruz. The water was cold but we got to swim with sharks!

This was a view of the White Tipped Reef Sharks that we swam with from a cliff over the water.

After snorkeling we went cliff jumping. The scariest part of this was actually climbing up the wall. There was no easy stairwell to the top. You just had to climb as high as you wanted to go, and then jump when you were ready. I think my highest jump was from about 40 feet. The water was crystal clear and felt great.

And of course, we spent one afternoon at the beach. This is our People & Politics class posing for a group photo on the beach! The sand felt like baby powder and the water was the perfect temperature. This was a great way to end our time on Santa Cruz!

Bartolome:

There are no words to describe this island, really. This was probably the most beautiful piece of landscape I've ever seen. This is one of the uninhabited islands, so obviously we couldn't stay on the island. Instead, we just went for a day trip here. We hiked to the top of the lookout point (where this photo was taken), then spent the rest of the day snorkeling and laying on the beach. We swam around with 5 more White Tipped Reef Sharks. I'd say I was within 4 or 5 feet of these guys this time. It was awesome.

Also, the large rock figure on the right side of the photo is known as Pinnacle Rock. This is one of the iconic photos that symbolizes the Galapagos.

This is some of my friends and I on the boat ride to Bartolome. This boat ride was just about as fun as the time on the island. It was a 2.5 hour ride of craziness, good food, and lack of sleep. Naturally we all went a little loco.

Because we're greatly outnumbered, we felt the need to take a dude pic. These were also my roommates for the week long trip: Dave, Quinn, and John-Michael.

Isabela:

Of the inhabited islands I believe that this one was my favorite. It is the largest of all of the Galapagos Islands, but one of second smallest of the 4 inhabited in terms of population. The small town where we stayed had such a beach-town vibe. The roads were all completely covered in sand. There was only a couple restaurants and hotels, and everyone had such a relaxed attitude.

One of the days on Isabela we went on a 16km hike up a volcano and then around the caldera. This land was unlike anything I've ever seen before. We felt like we had been transported into the time of Jurassic Park.

We also went on a hike through an underground lava tunnel. This was very similar to the caves we have in the states, however these were all created purely by lava. It was crazy to think about the concept of lava running through the very caves we were walking through. The island of Isabella had a lot more volcanoes, as it is a much bigger island.

Halloween:
It would be wrong to write about this trip without mentioning our multiple nights of Halloween. The Friday night before we left Cafe del Mar (the cafe where we always hang out) wanted to throw us a Halloween party before we left for the week.

So for Halloween Part I, I was a San Cristobal constructor worker. Also pictured is my fellow construction worker (Anna), and a miner? (Dana).

And our second Halloween night took place on the actual Halloween night. We were on Isabella island, and most of us had very little to work with, as far as costumes go. So my friend Anna Mae and I decided to be the Grandma and Grandpa of GAIAS. Halloween made for some great costumes from friends and definitely brighten up the nightlife of these quiet beach towns Anyway, that wraps up my post on Island Hopping. I wan't able to talk about it all, but hopefully gave you a bit of a picture of what this week was like. This was definitely the highlight of my study abroad!