Magical Adventures, Part II

Hola hola Coca-cola,

(That’s part of a rhyme I learned in my high school Spanish class—thanks Senor Giorgis! It goes:

*Hola hola coca-cola. (Hi coca-cola)

-Que pasa calabasa? (What’s up pumpkin?)

*Nada nada limonada. (Nothing nothing lemonade)

I taught it to my brother here, and he thought it was the funniest thing. Now we always say it to each other. J)

Ok, so where did I leave off? Oh right. The end of our first day in the Galapagos. Alright, so our second day was even better!! We got up semi-early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed, in a little bus, back across the island of Santa Cruz (where our hotel was) to the canal we first crossed. We started from a tropic port, aboard a tiny ship. We passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour…for a threeee hour tour…(I was trying to make a joke, but for some of you youngin’s, that was an illusion to the early sit-com, Gilligan’s Island.) But seriously, we did pile onto a charter boat with a number of other tourists for a short, day-tour of some nearby islands. Our first stop was at an island full of animal life. We saw all kinds of sea lions basking on the rocks near the shore, iguanas of several species, and the ever-fascinating Fraggot birds with their bright red breasts that they puff up when attracting mates or defending their nests. We hiked a couple of miles around the island and recoated ourselves with sunscreen several times during the tour. Sun rays at the middle of the earth are brutal! Anyways, it was awesome nonetheless. Once back on the boat, we were served a delicious lunch prepared by the boat staff, which included some very good mystery fish, rice, and vegetables. After that, I think just about every person on the boat (minus the captain, I hope!) conked out into deep sleeps until just before we arrived at out next stop. Did I mention the sun is brutal? It takes a lot out of you…When the boat stopped, we were about 200 meters away from the shore of our next island. They said we’d be walking a bit, but that we could swim if we wanted to. Well of course we wanted to swim! All of us, INCLUDING MARIA, jumped from the top level of the boat and swam to shore. If I’ve never told you I love to swim, and that I LOVE LOVE to swim in the ocean, well, I DO. And swimming in jello-colored water is even more of a bonus. I hope you all either have a facebook account or know someone who does, because I’m in the process of posting pictures…which describe it all much better than I could ever hope to. And thanks to my AWESOME camera (thanks DAD!) I’ve been named MVPT, “Most-valuable Picture-taker.” (Don’t tell anyone, but I really don’t know what I’m doing. I have a very smart camera, and I’ve just been seeing a lot of really pretty things lately…) Ok, so swimming was fabulous, and then we hiked a bit of that island. The highlight of that hike was seeing flamingos! Real live flamingos in their natural habitat! Awesome. (Alas, I didn’t have my camera that time because we swam from the boat. Oh well.) That ended the boat trip…or what was planned of the boat trip…This is where my illusion from earlier comes back into play. We were all sitting on the top deck of the boat taking in what an incredible day we had had, and then GRUMPIFT GRRREEIIICK! The motor of the boat made a noise of something awful, and then went caput. “WE’RE STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN!!” It was funny because we had been talking about having an ADVENTURE the entire duration of the trip, so having our boat break down was really, a dream come true…Actually, there was a small motored-raft that they use to get people to and from shore hanging off the back of the boat. It only held about 10 people so we let everyone else go first J. We stayed back and manned the ship until a private boat passing by stopped and rescued us. It felt pretty cool to have to be rescued from the middle of the ocean by a bunch of randoms. There were actually a number of gringos on the boat, all from the U.S., and one who actually grew up in Forte Wayne, IN! It was also no coincidence that this boat was named Magic...the whole day was magical!

After dinner, we “chicos” stopped by a convenience store to buy some cookies for dessert. Ecuador has these little wafer cookies called “Amor” that are pretty good. There are all sorts of flavors, and none of us had tried them all. A package is only about 50 cents, so we decided to buy one of each and share. My favorite, personally, is the lemon. But don’t be confused by the green on the packaging, most lemons in Ecuador are green. With stomachs full and empty cookie bags, we piled into one of our hotel rooms for our weekly Bible study. Together, we’ve been studying both the book of Daniel and Hebrews. They were sort of random choices, but I think we’re all enjoying them a lot. I love what each person brings to our Bible studies, and I love we can have genuine discussions like we do as an entire group. I would like to mention again what a blessing it has been to be part of this group of students, and how thankful I am for each person.

Moving right along…the first day in Galapagos, pretty fun. The second day, better. The third day, EVEN BETTER! That day, after breakfast, we met with the passionate tour guide from the first day, who took us on a hike to Tortuga (turtle) Bay. It was quite a hike, but totally worth it. When we finally got to the ocean, it just about took my breath away. I could stand on a beach, any beach, listening and watching in pure awe of the ocean for as long as it so faithfully sends each wave. There’s something so enthralling about the ocean, something so mysterious, so powerful that captures my attention and (literally) draws me in. Each wave breaks on cue as if part of an extravagant symphony. Unceasingly, the water rushes to the shore cleansing the vast areas of sand tainted with foot prints and remnants of sea life. The entirety of its depths are unfathomable and its peaceful waves are ever-flowing. Now that I think of it, I don’t believe the ocean is the only being to possess these traits. It is our Lord, the creator of the waters and all that they contain, who bears also these qualities and more. The ocean is awesome, but it is the persona, seen its complexities, that create for me a visual metaphor to the wondrous character of God.

Needless to say we much enjoyed our time in Tortuga Bay. We swam, frolicked, and even played a little ultimate Frisbee on the beach. And trust me, despite our many burns we lathered on the SPF as frequently as humanly possible. Eventually, I torn away from Tortuga Bay, in hope of setting eyes even more awesome beauty of the Galapagos.

We returned for lunch and rest before our next adventure which included another boat tour! Our tour guide for that trip was a card! He was only 14 (and looked about 10!) and really only wanted to make us laugh and to show off. We had fun with him. We snorkeled a bit, where—I must add, I SAW A SHARK! IT WAS HUGE! PROBABLY A GREAT WHITE OR SOMETHING. WHILE I WAS SWIMMING TO GET A CLOSER LOOK, I CUT MY LEG ON SOME CORAL AND THE SHARK CAME RUSHING TOWARD THE SMELL OF MY BLOOD. I BARELY ESCAPED, BUT MADE IT OUT ALIVE THANKS TO MY FIN-LIKE FEET AND INCREDIBLE SWIMMING CABABILITIES.

Ok, just kidding about that last part. Well, most of it actually. But I really did see a live shark, just hangin’ out with the rest of the fish. It was probably about 6 feet long, and it WAS white…It was funny because we continued to joke about our “adventures” and facing all this wild danger while we were there, so when we found out we’d be snorkeling, we asked the guide, “Is it dangerous!?!” “Ohhhh, noooo, its not dangerous don’t worry about it…” “Oh…I guess we don’t want to go anymore…” Hahaha… So yeah, I saw a shark. Umm, then we hiked around a couple of different islands and ended up at this magical lagoon where we hung out for a while and went swimming. Magical you may ask? Yes, it was absolutely gorgeous, more jello water. It was actually a mix of salt and fresh water, which made it even clearer. It was surrounded by tall rocks on either side, some of which we climbed and jumped from. Can the Galapagos get much more fun than this?!?

THE ANSWER IS YES. Our last day, was by FAR the coolest. We arose quite early and were picked up promptly at 4:45 AM! Yes, 4:45 AM, and it was worth every minute of sleep we lacked. We again traveled across Santa Cruz to board our charter boat from the other side of the island. It was still pretty dark when we got on the boat, but that only meant we got to see the sunrise! “Here comes the sun…do do dodo… Here comes the sun…” That song was running through my head the entire time, and has actually made its way back in there as I recall these memories. It’s a nice song, but unfortunately I don’t know any more words and the mere 5 repeating words become quite irritating.

When we arrived at our destination, we all jumped out of the boat to do more snorkeling! At first, I didn’t think the area looked like there would be much of a reef, and that there wasn’t going to be much to see that I hadn’t already seen before. I mean, I’d snorkeled in Mexico a few times, went SCUBA diving off the coast of the Florida Keys… so there couldn’t be much that would really impress me, right?? WRONG. I love being proven wrong, especially when it takes a toll on my pride and haughtiness. And was I EVER proven WRONG. I hate to use this word again, but it was MAGICAL. We used that word a lot over the whole week, because it just seemed so fitting. Just below the surface of the water, there’s an entire world you would never know about if you never stuck your face in it with a piece plastic over your eyes. Fish of every color, sea stars, coral and sea anemones that are, even as a bio-major, still hard to believe as true animals. On top of that, we saw sea lions! Tons of them! There were playing with each other, doing flips and turns, and out of their curiosity, circling around the strange creatures looking so awkward and out of place in the water, us. Even still, we saw a penguin! It was just a little guy, hanging out on the rocks. We asked him nicely to come and play with us in the water, but he just gave us the cold shoulder. Nevertheless, MAGICAL.

Afterwards, we were taken around the island we had just snorkeled near, to hike up and enjoy the view. My words are growing few, but trust me, it was breathtaking. I will also note again that these islands were all created by volcanoes and so the terrain was remarkably fascinating and unlike anything I had ever seen before. Please enjoy the pictures of this trip on facebook, but know that as awesome of a camera as I have, it could not capture ALL the beauty experienced there in real life.

That about sums up our Magical adventures to the Galapagos, as we made our way back to Cuenca the next day. It is my goal to get caught up on the rest of my blogging this week, because for whatever reason our physiology professors canceled class all week!

Con amor, y hasta luego!

Lindsay