Wow, Wonderful, Whales, Water

Hola from Quito again! I just got back from a week in the Galapagos Islands and it was amazing! I miss it already as a matter of fact! Where to begin... we arrived in Galapagos and boarded our sailboat and were greeted by a huge shark in the water (just to encourage swimming for later). That day we stopped at an island for a two hour walk. It was cool,b ecause we were the only people on the island besides all the huge iguanas and all the hoardes of sea lions. Pretty cool. Then we went swimming off the boat which was so super fantastic.

The next days usually included one or two walks a day around different islands, looking at blue footed boobies (it´s a bird), iguanas, albatross, lizards, flamingoes, volcanoes (saw one blowing up one night which was pretty spectacular). Um.. i think we saw a bunch of other animals too but at the moment my mind isn´t remembering them. Every day we also went snorkelling and got to swim with giant turtles.. some of them were as big as me. And we swam with sea lions which was a bit scary and a couple sharks.

The first day I got there I threw up a bunch, but then felt better afterwards. After that things with the stomach seem to have gotten better. Right now i´m still pretty dizzy and such,b ut hopefully that´s just because i´m back on land after being on water for a week! The second day i asked if i could swim from the beach back to the boat instead of taking the little dinghies. It was so great to swim long distances again, except for the jellyfish that decided to land across my head, face and my neck, giving me a nasty sting. I kept swimming mind you because the salt water felt good on it. After dousing it in vinegar, it felt a little bit better but still hurt like nothing else. Now i have some nice marks on my neck to show for it! haha..

Stargazing at night was absolutely incredible. Being on a boat in the dark int he middle of the ocean with nothing around allows you to see quite a lot. It was so fun getting to know everyone on the boat as well. There were 15 women and one man. haha..w hat a ratio. It was great though and the crew was a lot of fun as well. I even got to drive the boat one night! Yay for not crashing!

I probably could go on,b ut I figure it will all go better with pictures. I think I have over 2000 from the last six weeks, so i will probably post them more gradually over time just to not overwhelm!! hehe.. I arrive home tomorrow a bit past 11pm and then i have friday and saturday to write three papers for my class i took in Guatemala. Then I´m off to a retreat course with my uni. And will be gone for a week. crazy times!! Anyway, glad to be back (kind of) and hope you are all well! Stay tuned for some great pics (at least i think they´re great!) BYE!