You Can Find a Sample of the World’s Population in the Galapagos

Thursday, April 29, 2011:

This morning, I woke up with a hunger from last night. Before I leave my hotel, Martin (another local who I met in Santa Cruz who lives here in San Cristobal) called me and asked if I wanted to go scuba diving. His job is a dive master, so I assured him I did! Even though I’m not certified, he said it didn’t matter. I was going to meet him at Casa Blanca at 12:00pm to hang out.

After this chat I was ready to feed my hunger. To my surprise, I just had to walk less than half of a block and I saw Jenny and Hannah eating breakfast. I later learned that it’d be uncommon not to run into everyone at one point in the day the island is so small. We all at a Galapagos breakfast which consisted of a Concho (I think that’s what it was called), beef bits, and an egg. A Concho is a ball of platanos and cheese. I put ketchup on it and it was actually pretty delicious. It filled me up too which is impressive as well.

After breakfast, I was on the search for some internet. I heard I could get signal on top of these public bathrooms where there was a little terrace. Unfortunately, nothing worked up there. On the bright side, I ran into Wilson, a person who lives in Cuenca but comes to the Galapagos for 3 months out of the year every year since he was 20 years old. He soon left, probably to finish his walk. Whenever I see that guy on the island he is just walking with no place in particular it seems.

As I’m climbing down the stairs, I see Veronica walking over by Casa Blanca across the street and I yell out to here. She told me that she was meeting some people at Casa Blanca, so I decided to join them. At Casa Blanca, it started out with Veronica, myself, and another English teacher from England named Nile. He had a very chivalrous style accent and very proper British English. I forgot where he was from exactly. I know his dad teaches at one of the UK’s top Universities… Not Oxford… another one, but that’s where he lives/lived. As time passed, we collected gringos and ended up with about 7 people around our table.

Finally, I remembered the reason why I was over in that area – to get internet. I had to say my good by’s until later and find some internet. I ended up going to another restaurant that had their own network and they let me use it. I had to sort through a TON of e-mails, read over our Global Petals initial web contract, among other things. While I was sitting there, more people came to say hi.

Earlier, when Martin told me to meet him at 12:00pm, it was more of just saying hello and he left, but he said to meet at his shop at 3:00pm for scuba diving. It got to 3 o’clock, so I went to his shop and we suited up. We ended up going about 15 meter deep which is relatively shallow I guess since it was my first time. It was so cool and so much better than snorkeling. We saw marine turtles, sea lions, 2 octopus, different families of fish, amazing rock formations. This is when my underwater camera would have come in handy… We scuba dove for an hour and made our way to the surface. It was great.

Out in the harbor, there was this boat. It was a pirate style boat and it turns out it was a school for the Ecuadorian Naval Armada. I thought it would be awesome to buy a boat like that and make an entertainment company in which you completely replicate the pirates of the Caribbean life. You take them out for a week, put them in pirate clothing, eat with their hands, be ship hands, and fight another ship. People would pay for that! Who’s childhood dream is not to be a pirate?!

After scuba diving, I went to go shower then head back to Casa Blanca for happy hour where everyone and any one was there! Not only were there people from my group of locals that I knew but also groups of Germans (3 people sailing the WORLD in their small normal sailboat – 2 year trip), Sweden, Brazil, Holland, Switzerland, USA, England, and I’m sure there was more. It was incredible. I felt like I was on my Euro trip again. This is why I LOVE traveling. I get to meet all the amazing people from all around the world with all the same goal: to live life to the fullest. I think it would be AMAZING to sail the world. Maybe I’ll do it at around 28 or 29 years old right before I’m ready to have kids – one last adventure while not a parent and at that age, you still are agile enough to do all that. I’d have to take sailing lessons on the weekend the year before to prepare myself though. I should have enough money by then to buy a sweet catamaran at that point…

Also, there was this girl named Cat. I think she was in her early thirties. She was from London and had the biggest London accent I’ve ever heard. It was so cool. I felt like I was listening to the main girl in We Will Rock you when I was in London this past summer. Anyway, she is the perfect example of why so many people end up doing these types of world trips. They get fed up with their marriage, job, life, or all three and just say screw it all, I’m traveling the world and doing what I’ve always wanted to do… for once in my life. I’m glad I’m getting to do what I want and travel before I go crazy like that, but for some people, that’s what it takes.

After being there for a few hours, I went to go get food with José Luis and Veronica. We were all starved. We returned and people were ready to head to Iguana Rock to dance! We were a group of about 30 internationally diverse individuals and when we walked in, it was funny. The music went from clearly Latin to English because of the prominence of our group. I guess they wanted to keep us there so they played music they thought we would like. Tonight was A LOT better than last night and everyone was dancing for about an hour to a mix of Latin/American/UK music. I ended up walking home with a few people from Sweden who were volunteering at the island’s hospital. I told them Nicole was doing something similar in Haiti soon and they were all very impressed.

When I get back to my hostel, what do you know?... yep, the door is deadbolt locked once again. Except this time, there was someone else that was locked out as well. Knowing what I had to do, I shimmied up the same way I did before as this Ecuadorian stood in awe. I got to the 2^nd floor where the owner slept. I literally stood there for 10 minutes YELLING for her to get up. I even started going “beep, beep, beep, beep, etc” to try to imitate a wake up alarm. Finally, she gets up and sees that there’s someone waiting outside to get in? What a novel thought… people that stay out later than 11:00pm in a beach atmosphere, on vacation, hmmm. Anyway, she let him in with a smile on her face and we both made it to our respective rooms. He thanked me as we got up.

I can’t even believe that I have only been on San Cristobal for only 2 days and this is my 2^nd night. It’s just like the cottage. Time moves so slow and it seems like you do so much… when you can actually be doing very little. I like it. I can see why people never want to leave this place, and I don’t think they would if there wasn’t such a strict 3 month VISA policy. Anyway, the past 7-8 days in the Galapagos has been an eye opener on how to live life and not need to have a ton of money to be happy. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to be financially affluent, but it gave me valuable perspective. This vacation was perfect. A mix of REAL relaxation, adventure, party, and most importantly made some great friends.

Ciao,

Michael

Join the Local Dinner Party and Fit Right In – Day 1 San Cristobal

Wednesday, April 28, 2011:

My boat trip wasn’t until 2:00pm today, so I had time to kill. After getting up, I wandered over to the apartment of Pablo’s girlfriend. Pablo is from Cuenca and his girlfriend works in the Galapagos, so he is staying with her there. She was at work and he was in his underwear preparing some breakfast when I knocked on the window and yelled, “is Pablo here?!” Thanks to general hospitality, I was invited to eat with him and being a college student on a tightening budget, I happily accepted.

After breakfast, I wanted to spend time just doing nothing on the pier looking out at everything, eating and a nice sun nap. And that’s exactly what I did until it came to my 2:00pm boat ride to San Cristobal. The boat was the equivalent of a big cruiser you’d find in the Mississippi River but it was modified to transport 22 people and their luggage. We were packed like sardines around the sides of the boat, but I didn’t notice a bunch because there we passed an island named Santa Fe which resembled something out of Jurassic Park. See the picture. After that, we still had about another hour of driving ahead of us. This is when it started getting uncomfortable and I had to move to the middle of the boat where everyone’s feet where so I could stretch out. The people sitting next to me were happy as well because it gave them more room.

We arrived in the port to about 10 sea lions lying on the steps. I literally had to walk around them. I heard this island had a lot of them, but damn… it was a site to see one or two on the unpopulated islands. Here, they’re more common than Pigeons on the street in Chicago! If you go close to them though, they barely move. If they get mad, they may waddle toward you and squawk to chase you away, but that doesn’t happen a whole lot. It’s incredible how slow and fat they are on land, but once they get into the water, they are as agile and quick as a fighter jet. I wasn’t intimidated by them until I learned that if you get bit by them you could get that bad infection I mentioned earlier. So, I decided to keep my distance.

Soon after I found my typical Latin American hostel (a piece…), I walked outside to look for something to eat and I ran into Jenny, one of Andres’s friends who convinced me to come to the island. I ended up joining her for a something to eat along with Marica, Hannah, and Suave (Andres) at a very popular outside restaurant/bar named Casa Blanca right down the boardwalk. Typical island life, we were there for a few hours just chatting it up and I was eventually invited to their “tapas dinner party” they were having that night. They said they were going to be cooking small tapas like food and to bring some wine – easy enough. After Jenny and Hannah left, I stayed at Casa Blanca until 8:00pm with Marica and Suave hanging out. We picked up our drinks and headed to their house.

At the house was Hannah (from Sweden – it was her last week), La Nega (Galapagos local – I forgot her real name), Andres (Suave), José Luis (Columbian Fisherman who lives in the Galapagos), Lobo (another Galapagos local), Jenny (From Main, did the GAIS program that I was thinking about doing but 4 years earlier and now married to a Galapagos local), Veronica (from Switzerland, just got here a couple days ago), and Marica (from Holland).

         José Luis brought an octopus for the girls to cook and that was some of the BEST sea food I had eaten in my life. For real… octopus from the Galapagos caught fresh that day… can’t be beat. The food was delicious and we just all sat, talked, and joked around for about 2-3 hours. As we ran out of food and drink we decided then head over to a bar/”club” called Iguana Rock.

At Iguana Rock, there were not a whole lot of people there, but what do you expect for a Wednesday night anywhere, let alone, a small island. We were only there for about an hour when we decide to stroll over to the pier area and after seeing all the fish swimming underneath us, Jenny had the great idea to jump from the pier and go swimming. I thought it was a fantastic idea so we jumped off the pier and swam around it about 3 times. Eventually, La Negra and her Brazilian lover boy for the night along with a few Englishmen decided to join us. Everyone else stayed on top of the pier to embarrassed or something to get it. I’ll swim with the sea lions and fish any day…

Finally, it got late and I was itching to talk with Nicole. I went back and grabbed my things from the apartment/house we were at and called Nicole on my Ecua-phone. There was no internet access at night. What a pain in the butt, but what do these people need internet access for when they have everything they could want on the island!

After talking for a bit, I realized that my hostel was dead-bolted shut and I had no way of getting in to get to my room. I tried yelling up to la senora who was the owner, but I think she sleeps like dad. There needs to be an atomic bomb to get her up. I had no choice but to scale the side of the hostel. I started by sticking my foot into the medal crossbar door and hoisted myself up high enough so that I could barely grab the second floor ledge with my finger tips. From there, I had to use my upper body strength to reach over to the neighboring second floor terrace and fling my legs up onto the ledge. I pushed up from the ground of the outside ledge of the terrace and stood up so that I was standing rect outside the guard rail of the next door 2^nd story balcony. As I was straddling the railing to get to a safe spot, someone popped their head out of my hostel on the second floor with the expression, “what are you doing?” on their face. I sternly gave them a “the door needs to be unlocked” response. From the neighboring balcony, I had to shimmy over to my building on a 3 inch ledge, my chest firmly pressed against the facade of their building. I hopped over the railing and was safely inside and ready for bed.

Like I said before, you don’t need exercise in Ecuador. Something always comes up that takes care f that for you naturally…

Nighty Night.

Michael

Finance Academy and Gaby Reunion!

Tuesday, April 27, 2011:

Today is the day that I planned a lot of my trip around – the Finance Academy interview. It was scheduled for 3:00pm CST, but that is 2:00pm island time. I’m thankful for that because I wouldn’t want to be waiting around for another hour to do it. I would have because it’s well worth it though. Anyway, I was just reviewing and preparing for the interview for the whole morning before. My hour count for preparation has been about 5-6 hours so far not including the time I put in contacting everyone making sure everything goes smoothly and earlier research. I got to a point where I didn’t want t do anymore, so when I was at the internet café for the time to come, I set up my online bill pay through Harris Online Banking. I could then pay Dan Graham for his legal services he’s doing for Global Petals and get things kicked off.

Finally, the point of reckoning had arrived. I gave Professor Sinow a call at 1:55pm island time to give a couple minutes window in case something went wrong with the first call. After hours of prep, the interview went like this (simplified):

Sinow: Hi Michael, so where are you right now?

Michael: The Galapagos

Sinow: That must be really fun in paradise

Michael: It’s been an unbelievable experience!

Sinow: Listen Michael, I feel like I know you pretty well and I don’t want to take time away from you when you’re there. There were a lot of people who applied, only 50 got interviews – all very smart and interesting people. We’re going to do a “scrub session” on Saturday about everyone and let people know our decisions next week.

Michael: (not knowing if this is a good or bad sign) –  (I bring up more random conversation and talk about the more impressive things I’ve been up to here relating to finance and business for about 3 more minutes)

Sinow: Well, have a great rest of your trip!

(11 minutes in total)

That’s Professor Sinow’s attitude though. I had him in class and he’s a very smart, interesting, and dry sense of humor kind of guy. At the same time, I can NEVER gauge what his impression is of me or other people… I’m crossing my fingers and praying for the best!

Right after the interview, I had to rush to go over to a restaurant to meet up with Gaby. It is the same Gaby from before – José’s friend. At the lunch, her boyfriend was there, a guy named Pablo – friend of Gaby’s boyfriend, and 2 other Ecuadorian English teachers from Quito. One of the English teachers studied in Massachusetts for 5 years. I was satisfied with our conversation because out of the 2 hours, I we only spoke about 5 English words with each other. The meal was absolutely amazing – soup, fresh fish, rice, some other stuff that I can’t remember, and a piece of cake for desert…$4. The islands are more expensive, but I guess if you know the right places to go, it can still be really cheap. The funny thing was that other people I told about this said that that was expensive.

After lunch, we headed over to Tortuga Bay. After the long walk, we did much of the same thing as yesterday, but I think it could have been even more fun because I was with island locals. I actually ran into some other gringas that study at USFQ as well and they asked who I was here with, and I was just like, “I’m staying with some friends.” It’s a completely different experience being with locals than white people.

Walking back, Gaby, her boyfriend and Pablo were all on a search to find a place to watch the Liga (Quito soccer team) game on that night. To their dismay, cable was down throughout the entire island that night. Fortunately, we found a restaurant playing the game over the radio. Although, once we were there eating and joined up with some other people, no one paid attention to the game.

After the leisurely dinner, we wandered over to the port where we peered out at the ocean, sail boats, and gazed up at the stars. While the couples were sitting there cuddling, I was a few feet away with sitting on a ledge where the water was rolling up the wall. I blocked out their conversation and pretended Nicole was there with me. It was nice. I knew she’d like that instead of studying as well.

Finally, we slugged to Gaby’s house and went to sleep. A great day of doing next to nothing.

Ciao,

Michael

Tortuga Bay Part 1

Monday, April, 26, 2011:

To tell you the truth, I don’t really remember much about Monday. That’s probably because I didn’t do much… I lived the typical island life! Until about 12:00pm, I was just preparing for my Finance Academy interview, reading financial news, reviewing technical investment banking topics, and other things. I also was lucky enough to have the internet working strong enough to talk to Nicole. It’s been hard with the island internet to talk with her, but I enjoy every time I’m lucky enough to get a strong signal.

After our laziness in the hammocks, we decided to join the others in our group for the laziness at Tortuga Bay – the main beach on Santa Cruz. We hoped into a taxi; all the taxies on the island are white pickup trucks, so if you have 10 people, everyone can pile into the cab and into the back as well. Although, there were only 4 of us, so we all fit into the covered part. We got there and I definitely was not expecting to have to walk for about 20 minutes from the “entrance” of the beach to actually get to the beach. You walk this sidewalk width stone path that weaves through the cactus forest in order to get to the ocean front. It was very very tropical if you can imagine cactus as being tropical – they are in the Galapagos. It was weird because there were like cactus trees; trees on the bottom, but instead of leaves, there were cactus at the top.

We finally got to the ocean front after our trek, and it was a site for sore eyes. Layers and layers of waves were collapsing over each other. We didn’t stay at this one though because it’s a bit dangerous with a lot of undertow, currents, and things of that sort. So we walked another 15 minutes down the ocean front to another more calm beach where we met up with the 4 girls in our group who left earlier. We spent about 2 hours there, just sitting in the water talking and playing with the perfectly white and strangely intriguing grey sand. The sand was like the sand that’s artificially made that gets put into those hour glasses.

As soon as the clouds came overhead, we headed back for the full hour walk in all. I was exhausted by the time we got back. This is why there is no need to do cardio work in Ecuador. The walking does enough… The rest of the day just consisted of getting dinner and ice-cream in front of the pescador (place where the fisherman bring their fish to filet and sell).

I’m slowly but surely liking this island life – aka do nothing life.

Ciao,

Michael

You Won't Believe What These Giant Tortoises Were Doing...

Sunday, April 25, 2011:

Today is our first day off of the boat for a whole day. Most of us still feel like we’re still moving from the rocking water the past 4 days. The main event for today was to go see the Darwin center and see the giant tortoises.

Our first stop was to see “Tortoises in the wild.” We went to someone’s land that they turned into a tourist attraction thanks to the chance of tortoises living on their land. They fenced it in, put in a café and souvenir shop, and it was a tourist hit. Anyway, we went on a short walk where we saw a gain tortoise just laying in the water. Of what I understand they basically just do this all the time… for 100 years or more. Unfortunately, due to the heat that day, we only saw one in the wild because the others were hiding in the shade where we couldn’t see them. Afterward, Andres (or “Suave” or our new name for him “under cover gringo”) gave his talk about the tortoises. Next to him were large tortoise shells that had been left after they died. He then encouraged me to get into it, and to my surprise, they lifted me up! I was a Super Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!!! My dream had finally come true. I can die happy now.

Soon after that, we were finished there and made our way to a lava cave. This is a tunnel that was formed by flowing magma from a volcano. It was about 30 feet high in the beginning and at one point was about 3 feet high. People had to climb on their hands and feet to get through; I didn’t go through that part though. Most of the group just went back to the bus and waited for the 4 people that went all the way through. I would have normally done it, but at that point, I only had 1 more clean pair of cloths and was relying on my bathing suit to get me another day or two.

After the lava tunnel, we came back into the main town in Santa Cruz Island. Right down the road was the Charles Darwin center where they had a few turtle shells of different kinds, maps, and a model of the turtle eggs. Andres gave an informational talk in which he informed us that there were 11 different species of giant turtles – one that will be extinct soon because there is only one left of its kind. They call him “Lonely George.” Once he dies, there will only be 10 species of giant turtles. Obviously, this is why he is called Lonely George. They tried mating him with other turtles, but his seed wouldn’t stick.

After a brief history of Lonely George, we finally got to go see him. We got to his pen and I was surprised at two things. The first is that there were 3 giant turtles. I didn’t know which one was Lonely George or if they were all Lonely George. The second is that they were all humping each other. I guess 175 years without a compatible female mate, and things really get lonely… really lonely. It was funny because one was just dominating the other two and they didn’t pay any attention to us. Also, there were no fences between us and the tortoises – got to love Ecuador! After about 10 minutes of giant tortoise sex, we were ready to leave.

Afterward, we separated from Andres because it was time for his break and we rested until dinner. After dinner, we didn’t do much. Some people casually drank on the hammocks at the hostel, but I felt it would just be a little inappropriate to drink on Easter… the night ended smoothly talking with my beautiful girl friend J

Ciao,

Michael

Chinese Hat Island, Snorkeling, and Sailing the Open Ocean

Saturday, April 24, 2011:

                Last night, I didn’t end up sleeping up on top of the boat because a group of 5 of us and our guide stayed up really late playing cards and talking. I passed out from exhaustion where I ended last night – outside, on the bench underneath the covered section of the boat. Everyone else ended up falling asleep out there as well, but they were woken up by the crew to go to bed. Since I had my blanket and pillow already out there though, they just left me be.

                Today started even earlier than yesterday at 6:30am because we had a long drive today. First though, we took our Panda Boat over to the “Chinese Hat Island” where we found dozens of baby sea lions! They were so cute and even better than the shed because they don’t look sad for being trapped. We learned that they stayed in their little cove area sheltered by rocks to prevent them from being eaten by sharks and from the crashing waves just 30 yards away from them/us. On the wave side of the island, these things blew my mind. They were gargantuan and made HUGE splashes because the water was deep right up until the rock formation, so the wave was just getting to its break point when it pounded up against the rock face. There was a point as you can see in the picture that the water splashed up behind you while standing on one of the rocks. I wasn’t able to get this picture exactly, but you can imagine.

                We were only there for about an hour then scooted back to the boat and went snorkeling another time. This was probably the clearest water we’ve snorkeled in (even though it has all been super clear). This trip, I was able to swim with 3 more sharks that were about a third of the size as the one yesterday. We also obviously saw sea lions, manta rays, penguins, and various species of fish. We also saw a special type of eel that sticks out of the sand. There is SO much marine diversity! There is no other place where you can get so close to these animals and see so much… not even the Shed.

                Next was lunch, then we made our way to another island for a “dry landing” (jump right onto shore without having to get into the water from the dingy Panda Boat. On the island, we saw the marine iguanas which are all black and are called this because they get their food from the water, but do not stay in there very long. The land iguanas are yellowish brown – the more yellow they are, the more sexually “ready” they are. They are definitely bigger than the marine iguanas and more scary, but we got within 3 inches of them and they didn’t do anything – creepy but harmless. From this point on the island, I got another feeling of being in Never Never land. Similarly, when we came out to the beach, it seemed like out of the scene of Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack Sparrow is stuck in that death beach land. I love when real life reminds me of movies; I think I’m going to be a pirate when I grow up.

                When we got on the boat for the last time, we set off for a 4 hour ocean journey to Santa Cruz, our final destination for our trip. This drive consisted of talking with Will, Ally, Becky’s Dad about anything from politics, our life here, business, and things of that sort. Also, the last 1.5 hours of the cruise, I went up top, by myself and gazed into the ocean at all the islands, boats, and water while listening to the audio book 50 Prosperity Classics. It’s a great book for an overview of the most influential success books, but even more so, it gives me a great reading list of what I would be interested in reading more thoroughly.

When we landed in port, we ate dinner and got ready to go out on the island for the night. On the island, we bought prep drinks and Becky’s Dad bought me a Cuban cigar. Soon, we met some people from the Netherlands (Marica), Sweden (don’t remember), and Main (don’t remember) who teach English in a nearby island. They were actually Andres’s (our guide) friends. So the night was spent listening to live island music and going to a couple different night locations dancing and socializing. Good day/night!

Ciao,

Michael

Swimming with… Everything in the Ocean

Friday, April 22, 2011:

                Last night, at about half way through my sleep, I was woken up by drizzling on my head. It was to be expected considering we’re in the wet season. Actually, it was surprisingly refreshing. I grabbed the pillow, blanket, sleeping pad and i-phone and moved to the second level of the boat where there is cover. I didn’t want to go to my cabin where Matt was sleeping and my stuff was spread unorganized on my bed. So I laid my head down and didn’t hear anything else until the morning when the early risers were peering over the side of the boat on shark watch. And lo, what do you know?! They spot one! This wasn’t one of the foot long sharks though. This was a 6-7 foot HUGE shark circling our boat!!!! It was AWESOME!!!  I followed that for about 10 minutes just intrigued and feeling like I was at the Shed Aquarium…. But a bazillion times better because it was real!

                Soon after, we were called to breakfast where we were greeted with a full America style breakfast for the most part. Eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt and granola. I’ll just say that I had more than enough energy for the rest of the day after that meal. Our first activity for the day was snorkeling. Before we got in the Panda Boat, the guide asked if anyone wanted to swim with the shark. What was racing through my head was how I regretted not running with the bulls, so I threw my flippers and goggles on and was in the water before the guide could ask twice. He kind of looked at me in surprise for actually doing it, but then gave a shrug and was like, “have fun.” At this point, the shark that was a good 2 feet bigger than I was about 15 feet underneath me. What do I do? You guessed it: I held my breath and began to descend into the ocean after it. I got within 5 feet of it, hovering over the king of the sea. At the time, I thought it was a not violent shark, but I found out after that no one was really sure, so…. Yeah, who knows? I’m alive. I have officially swum with a shark! Not just a little dinker.. A real life potential man eater… oh yeah. When 3 more people jumped in to join me, the shark got scared and swam away in freight. My spontaneity and bravery paid off to gain an irreplaceable experience, but at the same time, I’m sure it could have paid off in a dangerous way. But, like I said earlier, I’m alive and well… for now :P.

                We then got into our Panda Boat and drove to an island that was surrounded by coral reef filled with a mountain of species. To sum up what I swam with during the day, it started with that shark and was followed by various tropical and colorful fish, sea lions, tropical penguins, octopus, and crabs. I literally was swimming in the Shed in the close up tank except the natural ocean. Each one of these animals, I came within 3cm-5 feet away. Nowhere else can you have this opportunity where animals are not really afraid of you thanks to the protection of these islands. It ended up getting a little cold at the end, so we swam to the natural perfectly groomed beach between two coral reef coves to flounder around and sun bath…. Again, this is MY life. I can’t even believe it. Oh, and it’s not even 12:00pm yet.

                We then returned for lunch and had some delicious lasagna. I have been very pleased with our food on this boat so far. I think I get spoiled 100% more in this developing country compared to in the US. I’m definitely not complaining. Later, we went o a board walk on Bartolommeo Island that was made of lava from a nearby lava pool under the water. You can see below, pictures of this place. The view looked like a mix of a Pirates of the Caribbean tropical hide out in between islands and Peter Pan’s Never Never land. I felt like I could fly… but didn’t try. I’m not confident in myself that much.

                After leaving the boardwalk, the next activity on the schedule was snorkeling another time. This was at another volcanic island. The current ended up being too strong to swim, so we hopped back into the Panda Boat and they took us to another beach to hang out at for 30 minutes. At the island, I saw an iguana that was jet black to blend into the burnt volcanic landscape – very cool. This was the same island that we came back to about 2 hours later. This island, when explored more thoroughly was like something after the apocalypse. I was imagining that we were the surviving few of the human race after 2012 searching for the promise land and food. You can see the video. Who knows, maybe you’ll agree with me, but regardless it’s by far one of the most unique environments I’ve to in my entire life!

                The rest of the night was eating dinner, chatting, and I’m trying to decide if I want to sleep outside again. For now, it’s raining, so the choices are sleeping in my cabin or on the second floor under the cover. We’ll see. I guess you’ll find out tomorrow.

Ciao,

Michael