i don't like soup anymore

Just like every other friday... NOT!!!!

I would like to note that the television we have does not work. It only gets sound. And my brother, dad, and the man that constructed the house tried for another hour to fix the satellite dish. And I think the dog tried to help to by chewing the cable, which might have been part of the problem.

I would also like to note that the soup that takes six hours to make is not worth the pain. I might have spent the night writhing in pain. okay maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, though not much. I spent most of the night leaning over my bed at the point of puking into the trashcan I strategically placed there. Apparently, so I am told, the maní (peanuts) in the soup affect some, but not others. Out of the 12 people that ate it, 2 went down. Me and my uncle who is half Spanish, half native american. I guess the gringo blood failed us majorly. (someone please explain to me why they have this tradition if every year someone gets sick. every year. but its still this huge deal! i really don't get it...) Anyhow, I didn’t eat today really. I mostly just laid in my bed all day after we went to milk the cows, and drank whatever remedy my mom gave me. It was probably better that I didn’t ask what each was. Except the glass of straight up lemon juice. I definitely understood what that was (though I’m pretty sure it just made it worse…) Then my family was going to my aunt’s house for dinner at which point my mom convinced me that I would feel better if I went, walked a little, and played some games. Okay, so she pretty much guilt tripped me into going. And everyone ate a new batch of the soup. I didn’t even chance it. I happen to be a math major and know that 2/12 (16.67%) is not very good odds for a soup that I don’t like all that much. They said if I ate more I would feel better. I didn’t believe them. Instead my aunt came up with the idea that I should go for a run to gather energy. Which was a sight to see!  First of all, there aren’t any gringas here- yes I am the only one with blond hair blue eyes- and already I stuck out like a sore thumb before I even started the whole "I like to run thing." In general, when I say hi to all the neighbors, they mostly they just laugh.  But I guess I could do anything and they would just laugh and say, "Oh- la gringita! Mira!" But on top of it all, I didn’t have my running clothes with me and i didn't feel like crossing the bridge to get them. So I borrowed some black leggings, a v-neck shirt, my cousin’s nike high-tops from way back in the day, and tall white socks. Yep, I looked like I came out of an 80s workout video. Then my family decided that it would be fun to run with me. Not sure where they got the idea but I swear I didn’t trick them into anything. They came willingly. And I’m still not sure why because my aunt has probably never run in  her life. And my two cousins, 11 and 12, like to spend the day watching television. But we managed to go 100 yards without stopping- and yes if you were wondering, it was uphill so they’re not that bad. Just mostly out of shape. What a spectacle we were!

I would also like to note that learning card games in Spanish is a lot harder than it appears. I swear they kept inventing new rules!!! And i kept losing. But only corn kernels, nothing more. :)

soups, machetes, empenadas, and life

so i guess i forgot to upload a story yesterday... it might have been because i happened to be hiking a volcanic crater lake. NBD. :)
But the saga continues...

Have you ever spent 6 hours making soup? No, I bet you haven’t. But I have. It was supposed to be the best soup of my life, but honestly it tasted just like every other soup. Except it took forever and a day to make it. I’m pretty sure here they assume that if you put 8 kinds of beans, corn, other exotic bean-like things, and enough grains for a grand total of 12, plus fish you have the best soup ever. I don’t completely agree, but on the bright side? I learned how to make empanadas, with the cool little fringy thing and everything!

Today like every day, I rounded up the cows to milk them, and in the evening I herded the calves so that tomorrow we will have milk. Although today as I was leaving the house, I was reminded “no te olvides el machete!” Never in my life did I think I would ever hear those words… don’t forget your machete. Generally its don’t forget your cell phone, or your lunch, or your wallet. No, here it is more important that you always have your machete. Safety first! (oh wait. we run with machetes in hand...maybe its not so safe...)Yes, I have decided that I’m living a strange vacation.

Today i also learned that cows only like to eat ripe bananas. And that rain brings out the crabs, which to me didn´t make sense because the crabs live in water already...

On another note, I slept talked and walked last night. Now my family thinks I’m really crazy. Well, they already knew i was crazy, i just I think I’ve got them pretty scared now. my mom told me to lock my door tonight. i´m still not sure how that helps, but sometimes i just go with the flow and do it despite my better logic.

I also learned how to make cheese. I swear my family cheats. They use this packet of stuff, add it to the milk. Stir it in an hours, and an hour later- presto! Cheese. No churn, no nada. One packet, a few stirs, and a bit of waiting and you have cheese. Not exactly fair, eh?

And finally, on another machete note, i would like to let you all know for your own safety, that some machetes have a blade on one side. Others have a double sided blade. You should always check before you grab the blade. I still have all ten fingers, but will always have a reminder mark on my hand because of this.

Your very own cattle herder

You are just going to have to use your imagination. And i´ll try and use my descriptive words. So I spend the night at my 11year old cousin´s house and have a blast coloring with her late into the night. (yes, coloring. i like to do it still. i hope that's okay with you. and if you were honest with yourself you would say you love it too :)  

We arrive at my house promptly at 9 to go to the other farm to change out the cows. (of course there was an hour+ long pause here because no one had bothered to milk the cows yet, and we had to go do that…) But clearly I was mistaken in what we were going to do. I actually have no idea what I thought “changing the cows” meant. I've just learned to accept that all days are adventure days here.

First it began with my brother getting kicked by the mule- thankfully he turned around really fast and it hit him in the butt and not somewhere else.

Then I proceeded to mount the same mule (yes, probably a crazy thing to do given the circumstances) on a hand made wooden saddle. (Yes, my butt hurt the next day.)

My cousin hopped on behind me on just a piece of carpet-cloth.

My brother mounted the pregnant mule who was “learning”, whatever that means.

My dad, mom, and farmhand took the car and of course of their machetes. 

We got to the other farm, probably about a mile away and proceeded to herd- I kid you not- 32+ cattle on this giant hill of a farm. 

Side notes: no one bothered to tell me that this is where they put all the brutes, the really mean cows. Consequently: all the guys decided that now was the appropriate time to fight, or to mount the girls, or to alternate between the two; when given a chance, they always took off for the door of the coral and bolted; they hate shots for infections- yes I witnessed this; and machetes are my favorite weapons of choice to scare them into obedience  (or I would just take to the other side of the barbwire fence J ). I also almost got kicked by the mule while i was running away from a charging cow. Apparently though i am faster than my brother (thank you soccer!) and didn't get kicked. 

And after all the work of rounding them up, deciding we were missing some, rounding more up, etc, we take 5 of them. Five. Cinco. Seemingly at random. Why we didn´t just take the first five we saw on the farm is a great question! Would have saved us a whole lot of pain! Anyway, we head back to our other farm, again me on a mule trying to herd them with my brother and my parents followed in the car. In total? 6 hours. And probably some of the funniest hours of my life. Please just picture me in sweat pants, rubber boots with crazy hair, sweating, on a mule and trying to herd cattle. And do yourself a favor and; laugh. Because I know I am. :)

Life on the farm... Day 2

Sunday on the farm... not exactly typical... :)

I was told that 7:30 would be a good time to get up so I could shower and eat before church. I thought I had learned really well about the "Ecuadorian time" when I didn’t leave my room til 8. Once again, however, I was fooled, because no one else was up. But when they did emerge, we ate breakfast, and then embarked on the adventure to milk the cows which is an event that takes practically the whole family to herd them, guard the milk from the dogs, keep the calves away from the moms until we milk them first, and actually doing the milking.  About 10:30 we returned, effectively missing church. But with lots of milk? 

So since we didn´t go to church, we decided to go to town to buy the food for the week that we don’t have on the farm. My brother was in jean shorts and a shirt, so I thought I’d follow suit and put on soccer shorts, shirt, and rainbow sandals. Then my mom emerges with a long white skirt and nice shirt, and nice shoes. I think she was trying to hint that I should probably look a little nicer, but then just ended up deciding that I’m the gringa and everyone’s just going to assume that I don’t know what i´m doing anyway. J

Highlight of the trip? My mom convincing distant relative and old friends that I’m her daughter. One just commented, oh wow! She turned out more like your grandpa (who was almost full-blooded German with blue eyes). I think it was a joke. Maybe.

On another completely random note, I actually don’t know why I was fretting about not having brought face wash! As it turns out, the mud by the waterfall is like a face mask from the spa. What’s more the waterfall is like a massage and the rocks are perfect for ridding my feet of callous. Thank you Mami for teaching me that... Hahaha

Also, I think today found signal up to 30 channels or something on the satellite dish. Not that I’ve ever seen my family watch more than the 5 major ones. 

Your very own farmhand!

Well hello there! I have just gotten back from a week+ of vacations, which I opted to spend at the farm my family owns in the coastal region (the same one I had gone to before…) and it was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made! Soooooo fun. The new plan: I’m going to buy a farm next to theirs (there is one selling for $100,000 dollars right now that has a waterfall and everything though I think the price is a bit steep for me right now). My uncle volunteered to take care of it for me while I’m in the states. And I already found a contractor to build the house with plenty of room for my husband and 5 kids that I’m planning on having. Then I’ll live in the states and vacation in Ecuador. You can all come visit me! It’ll be great! We can go milk the cows, and eat fresh corn on the cob (choclo they call it here, and it is wayyyy better than corn on the cob), and we can make cheese and chocolate and everything.

But anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed myself being a farm hand for the week, and this is the story of my adventures. I tried to write every day about what we did, but somehow I lost a few days somewhere. I’ll post a bit every day for ya’ll to (hopefully) enjoy!

Saturday

When my brother said we were leaving at 7:30, I don’t know why I decided to believe him and get up at 6:45. We didn’t leave til nine.

We almost missed a bus connection because I was dying of hunger and we HAD to stop for food. We lieterally ran after it as it pulled away, with sarcastic shouts of “mira! La gringita!” I literally am always making a scene. I don’t even have to do anything.

My mom made us Agua de Panela for dinner! Super good- like hot tea! However, I’ve come to realize its sugar water. Literally. Panela is the coast’s version of sugar, and she boils the water with the Panela.  I knew there was something fishy about it how good it tasted…

Well, one of the funniest things I have seen thus far is my dad and brother arranging the satellite dish. Yep! We got a tv this week here and a satellite dish. We don’t have Internet (yes I went a whole 8 days without facebook! J), and we only have cell reception in a spot that’s about 2ftx2ft, but now we have a satellite dish. Anyway, so my dad decides the best place to put the dish is in the middle of the road. I guess no one really drives there anyway, but still. So my dad is down by the road, rotating the dish and tilting it in every direction, and my brother’s in the room, shouting how many channels the new position gives. 

One day down... many to go! you'll have to wait until tomorrow!!! :))) Te quiero!

Desert Time

Wow! so its been more than two weeks since i've blogged. Its not that i haven't done anything adventurous, like go to the premiere of Hunger Games and lose my wallet with my credit cards (thankfully i had an Ecuadorian who had international calling and canceled my cards before anything happened), or learn how to dance the salsa (don't even ask me to demonstrate. i'm awful at it!), or try to play soccer with your 6v6 team when we're down a man and the rest of the team is drunk (so it was really more like 2.63v6), or spend the weekend studying the development of pueblos due to the destruction of oil companies like Texaco (incredible trip, horrible stuff that happens! blog post to come on that), or eat dog food (sooooo not my fault. there was a pot of food on the stove and i was hungry so i decided to try it. i asked my brother what it was and all i heard was comida and some exotic name. when i asked if it was for us, he didn't answer, so i tried it. And it actually tasted really good because it consisted of our left over-food from last night and today. Then i found out that it wasn't dinner. it was food for the dogs. good times. never ever going to live that one down...).

But I have to admit, twas a longer two weeks than i expected. I'll be the first to admit i got hit with homesickness. I hadn't felt it at all really until then. My team back home had some spring games, i missed the soccer banquet, i was altogether ready for spring break (and am still waiting actually... :P ), i had a million things to do, and i just flat out missed home. But the greatest thing about it was that in the hardness of it all, i really found God. More than ever before. Through lots of prayers and great conversations with people back home, (and some tears of course), I came to realize a lot of things, though mainly that the best thing to do is when in doubt, take more time to be with God. My quiet times with God are the absolute richest that they have ever been in my life. It was just incredible.  The more time i spent with Him (whether in English or Spanish :P ) the more filled and loved i felt. I just learned so much, and i just understand more now.

I understand more about why we have the church, both as a center of worship and as a center of support. Since i've been here, i have almost always been gone on the weekends and because of that, i haven't really gone to church. And one of the things i miss most is the worship sessions we have. Oh i miss them terribly. But God, being the gracious God that He is, gave me an opportunity to go to church with one of my friends from the university and i was overjoyed worshiping with the college group, the majority of the songs i either knew in spanish or knew the same song in english. It was soooooo filling to be able to worship in the company of other believers!

 I understand why Jesus went to the desert to be with God.  There are times in our life to be in fellowship with others, like the times Jesus was with his disciples. But there are also other times in our life to be just with God. In my desert time, I came to understand the greatness of the desert, the time that you are drier than dry, without anyone else, but are closer than you ever have been to God. There's something about being broken that brings you so much closer to God, and i can tell you that in my worst days when i should have been depressed i felt happier than i ever have been.

I came to identify with a lot of metaphors, this being one of my favorites:
"The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all smooth nor all down hill. If life were all one dead level the dull sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys. The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah, so it is with us! it is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and brings down the shower of blessing; the hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down the shower. How many have perished in the wilderness buried under its golden sands, who would have lived and thriven in the hill-country; how many would have been killed by the frost, blighted with the winds, swept desolate of the tree and fruit but for the hill-stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb. God's hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!"
Ï just love the imagery. and everything it says...

Anyway, I'm doing great now! I mean i still miss home, who wouldn't with family and friends and a community like i have? :) But i've come to accept were i am, to cry when needed but to laugh more than i think is possible, to enjoy all the moments -even the ones that every ones says are "terrible" or your "hard days," to depend on your friends because they'll be there for you, to live every day like its an adventure- though here it actually is one so that isn't hard, to sleep a lot because you just feel better (not that i've ever had a problem with the sleeping part :), and to enjoy the little things in life- the flowers blooming, the bird that flies by with really pretty colors in its plumage, your crazy kitty falling asleep in your arms, watching the rain fall on the lake at your school, the days your mom makes you your favorite food (and also the days she remembers you don't like mayonnaise on your vegetables), the reaction your mom has when you scrape your knee playing soccer and she thinks the world is going to end, when you find a dime on the ground and realize you can get 1/5 of the way to school with it, the hugs you get at your internship from the kids, the packages that come in the mail, skype dates (you can sign up for yours today! :), the the roses and chocolate your boyfriend sends you (okay so that's a BIG thing, but i sure enjoyed it :);  AND.. to do the things on your to-do list but remember that God has a different schedule and His is always better, to run towards God, to enjoy His presence, to spend more time with Him than with anything else.

That's all the thoughts i have. Probably way to many to read, so i don't blame you if you didn't read them all. Or if you didn't even make it to this line, though clearly you must have, because you're reading this... :)
TE ECHO DE MENOS!!!!!!!! :P

p.s. i'm going off to my family's farm til after easter so i won't have internet. if you were thinking of trying to contact me or something like that i probably wont get it til the 10th of April.

<3 aL

My Bucket List

I love those days when you get to check a bunch of things off your bucket list. I think I might just have to expand mine since I'm getting so much of it done here! Since yesterday, i got to cross off:

 1. driving in the back of a pick-up truck on the freeway. The picture: 3 people in the cab of the small truck, four in the truck bed on top of two beds, probably 10 full sized blankets, everyone's suitcases, pillows, the dishes/pots/pans/silverware for the new house. oh! and don't forget the stove we threw in at the last minute. heaven forbid we forget the stove! Then tie it all down with a black tarp so that the cops don't see you. Then add 2 hours. perfect! i think you've got the mental picture.

 2. sweeping the roof of a rather large chicken house/coup thing. We were cleaning it out to start fresh. Why do you sweep the roof? I still have yet to understand this.

3. climbing the equivalent of a cherry tree to pick/eat the fruit. Delicious! mmmmm capuli!

4. sleeping in a double bed with 3 other people. Not as fun as you would think. I might have taken 2 naps today to make up for it...

5. eating guinea pig. tastes like chicken. but doesn't every exotic animal taste that way? It was only slightly disturbing to think that I had one as a pet when i was a child. Though it could have been more economical to eat Snow White than to give her to the guinea pig rescue lady when i decided i didn't want one anymore...

The cuy cooking...

 Me with the head

head --> mouth

And a picture of the crab soup we made the other day just for kicks and giggles!

Yeah, i'd say my fin de semana was a diverse one! But i think all of them are for me. And about my bucket list... I actually don't have one. Generally I just do cool things and pretend that i'm crossing them off of a list. At least it gives me a sense of accomplishment, right?

That moment when...

Yes, apparently my life has enough funny moments to write this entry another time... :)

THAT MOMENT WHEN...

Your mom picks up the telephone downstairs to see if you brother is talking on the phone with his girlfriend and proceeds to listen to part of it. I thought listening in on conversations only happened in the movies...

Your cousin tells you that your brother is not actually in a rugby class at school. He just tells everyone that so he can spend more time with his girlfriend...

You have gotten so tan that your brother calls you negrita. On multiple occasions. (This by the way is completely politically correct here and a term of endearment, like gordita, or flacita which probably sound like insults as well to you. But just believe me on this one and be amazed that i'm getting tan here... hahaha :)

After telling you that your family is not going to eat meat for a week, your sister proceeds to serve tuna with the dinner. So maybe you misunderstood and she meant just not red meat. But then every day you eat some sort of meat like chicken or carne. I think she's confused on the concept...

As you walk between bus stops you see a fire on the lawn across the street. But nobody seems to notice or care. Interesting...

You see a taxi that is missing its front bumper and decide that there is no way you are going to get in that taxi. unless its a really really good deal.

You realize you always try to say hello and goodbye first because you only have a limited number of ways to greet people and if they steal yours accidentally you are screwed. And here it is always the case that someone will say hello/goodbye with 3 or more phrases, so there is a very good chance you will not have a response that's different than theirs

After 2 months here of riding the bus almost every single day you realize you are the only white person on the bus. 99% of the time. plus one for assertiveness.

You spend all of your Friday night out with friends and have a trip with your program on Sunday, so you plan on spending Saturday studying for mid-terms. But many things happen. First, at 8:30am (early because you were up way past 2am) your sister comes into your room to tell you they are going to the market to buy crab. She says "duerme no mas," which here means continue sleeping (i know right? seems like a contradiction, but "no mas" means continue, not stop). But because you are really tired, you misinterpret her words and think she is telling you to stop sleeping. So you get up, and you end up going to the market (only later do you realize your mistake and understand why she was surprised when you woke up to come). Well, you are told the trip will take 40 mins. 3 hours later you arrive back in your house, but with live crab! So you assume you now have time to study and later we'll have crab. perfect. Wrong again mate! It is time to kill and wash all the crabs (pictures soon to come). And then unbeknownst to you, all the family of your bro-in-law comes over for almuerzo. a few hours later you finish. bueno, its 4pm. you still have time to study. Wrong again my friend! after five minutes of studying, your family drags you (literally, physically) out of your room to play the Ecuadorian version of the board game Sorry!. And when you protest, they lock you out of your room. Yes, literally. Keys and everything. So you think, okay, i'll play one game for an hour, and then i'll work. Wrong once more! The Ecuadorian version of Sorry! also is on Ecuadorian time. After 4.5 hours, you quit because the game is nowhere near ending and are allowed back in your room only because your brother takes your place int he game. I don't think i have ever had anyone lock me out of my room to stop me from studying before. But then again, almost everything here is a first for me...

You go with your brother to the pharmacy because your brother-in-law has the flu. The first thing that happens is that you are walking down the street and your brother tells you to walk slower, and you are like why? oh, there's just three (armed according to your brother) robbers on the same street up a bit in the shadows walking as well. Great! Good thing you are smart and go a different route. The story continues...You go to 2 different pharmacies and they won't sell you the drug your bro wants because you need a prescription (which means it must be really strong if you have to have a prescription here in Ecuador because nearly everything is over the counter and self prescribed). So he calls his friend who's a doctor and asks for the name of the drug. Sure enough, the name of the drug is enough, and although your brother tells you its illegal to get it without a prescription, the next pharmacy sells it to you telling you they don't administer the shots here; you have to do it on your own. What medicine is it you might ask? Oh it was just penicillin. nbd. With the needle and the the little bottle thing of medicine just like the doctors procure in the doctors office. (All you doctors out there are probably falling out of your chairs right about now.) So with medicine in hand you walk home, without any robbers this time thankfully. And your brother administers the shot in the butt.  Good thing your brother is in med school. I'm pretty sure you can die if you administer a shot wrong with an air bubble or something. Oh and if it wasn't enough to do it once, you buy more the next night and repeat. wow. yeah...


This is probably my favorite because it came after a long, arduous day and made me chuckle: you jump on a bus and after standing there for a minute, realize that yes, the man 3 feet away from you is actually holding a live chicken in his arms; it is not his bag. nobody else thinks anything of it.

Well, that is all for today folks! Hope you at least smiled a bit. Have a blessed day!!! :))))

Galapagos Part 2!

Clearly i failed at the "i´ll blog a little every day" thing. I mean i tried, really i did. One day i uploaded a bunch of pictures so that should count for something right? hahaha. anyway... here´s some more of my fabulous adventures!

A hatchery for the galapagos...

With even the little babies!!!

And we got to hold an egg. The markings on it indicate the position it was sitting when they removed it from the nest. The x has to stay on top for it to survive. Cool fact: the sex of baby turtles is determined by the temperature during the time they hatch. More guys are born at 28.5 degrees celcius and more girls at 29.5 degrees celcius.

Sadly i had to resort to posting the picture of the galapagos sex instead of the video. it still wont load :(.

At one point, the island isabella was where they sent prisoners from the mainland. To keep them occupied they had them build this huge wall (now called muro de lágrimas "wall of tears") which was an incredible amount of labor. It was supposed to be a foursided containment area, but they never finished. After a year the guy in charge died and it all went down hill from there and eventually the island ceased being a prison. Today there´s only one guy alive who was a prisoner and he still lives on the island.

A view from the top of the wall...

And believe it or not, i fell for the ole "do you want to go on a walk for a better view" trick again. What did we do? hike up the side of the mountain. In rainbows (good thing those flip flops were built to last!). I swore i never would fall for it, but i did. i only have myself to blame. However, the view was totally worth it!

Some shots of the playa... gorgeous sunsets here! Radiant colors! We just sat and watched one night for like an hour. It was like a movie...

One of my favorite parts was the coconuts! SOOOOOO GOOOOD! And you get to eat them after... :)

We went and hiked a volcano on the isabella, a six hour extravaganza. The top pic is me overlooking the lava flow area. The volcano is still active and about 30 years ago was the most recent lava flow.  The bottom picture is of a vein of lava that partially collapsed. It still amazes me that lava flows in veins... not sure why, but i think its really cool.

Well, you wouldn´t believe it by the first two picks, but about 4 miles into the hike we got some tropical weather. Usually the storm passes after dumping for about 5 minutes. Well, it didn´t. It continued for the rest of the trip, all 6 miles of it. And it dumped sooooooo much water. Lets just say that the trail had about a foot of water on it the majority of the time... On the bus ride back i snapped this photo of the road. We pretty much drove through a river the whole way. Our driver rocked!

When we were out snorkeling, i got to drive the boat. Sweet deal. And there weren´t any casualties. Plus one for me!

The beautiful sunrise the day we left the island... you only have to get up at 4:45 to see it. NBD.

Galapagos: Part 1

I´ve decided that since it would take me forever to blog about all that i did and laughed at in the Galapagos, i´ll do a bit each day until its done.

So we arrived in the Galapagos and it was HOT!!!!!! The sun here is already really strong because we´re at the equator but then we added the element of tropical island weather.

We island hopped...

\

To Santa Cruz...

where we saw beautiful forests of scalesias...

and giant craters that had collapsed...

A few of the girls in my group together in front of the crators

We spent the night in this cute little hotel that had a boat. Not sure why, because it honestly didn´t look like it could possibly be used. Maybe they just take decorating to a new level here...

A picture of the bay...

And an iguana crossing the street. No big deal. It happens every day.

 

We saw these sealions on a private dock. After reading (and apparently just ignoring) the area restricted sign, our guide ushered us in to take photos.

Taxi´s here are all just boats... we were frequenters on them as we toured around

If you look closely you might notice something that does not appear to belong... no, the bird didn´t step in wet paint. They have this species of birds called blue-footed bubi. As a lover of the color blue, i was impressed.

We went for a short walk to a place where we went cliff jumping. One of the scariest things of my life. You jumped and then the water took forever to come. FOREVER! Fortunately i landed in a perfect pencil dive, but others who landed on their butts or a bit on their backs were not so lucky and had huge purple welts...

Then we headed to some lava tunnels. As lava flows out of a volcano, it does so in veins like these. There´s apparently tons of them on the islands, but you can´t actually tell they exist until part of it collapses and reveals a tunnel, like this one.  We walked aways through it, even had to crawl for part of the way. The guide told us if we had positive attitudes, it wouldn´t collapse while we were inside. I guess we must be optimists or something.

Contrary to popular belief, "Galapagos" is not actually the name of the islands. The real name is the Archipiélago de Colón, though Christopher Colombus never actually visited. Go figure. But anyway, everyone calls it the Galapagos because of its inhabitants: the galapagos (tortoises like the one seen above). For every volcano (natural land barrier entre the , there is a different subspecies, so there´s 15 different kinds, 4 of which are extinct. Sadly, because of introduced species, the tortoises are dying out, so they have different hatcheries on the islands to repopulate them. No one knows exactly how long they live, but some estimate at least 100 years.We visited a ranch that had tons of turtles, and got to witness a rare event: tortoise sex. Let me tell you, it was an interesting experience. Apparently it takes at least 2 hours. But we realized the reason why. After about 20 minutes, the macho looked like he was quitting and dismounted. Then the head of the sembra popped out. Wrong way dude! Other side! I had a video to upload but it wont upload!!! :( i've spent 2 days trying to get it to work, so i'm just going to give up for now and move on with my life.

They had an old turtle shell there and there was a challenge out to walk 150 steps in the shell for the girls and 250 for the guys. After completing the challenge, i completely understand why turtles walk so slow. With a 25kilo (about 55 pound) shell, it was a rough walk in an uncomfortable position. Only two of the girls and one of the guys in our group finished.

Me chillin on the bow of the boat. BEAUTIFUL taxi ride!!!

We then headed out to an island where iguanas are in the middle of their ´´laying egs´´ time. All the females (hundreds of them) are up on the beach and digging holes to lay their eggs. 

Some get lazy and don´t want to dig a hole. So they try and fight another iguana for theirs, as seen in the video above. Once again, the video wouldn't upload... :( maybe i'll figure it out later...

My hole!

A pretty bridge under the mangle trees

Me with a baby sea lion. And no, its not dead. I swear. And yes, in case you were wondering, I did get a bit burnt. (yes mom, i did reapply with the 50 spf) The only person in our group that didn´t burn was the girl who brought 100spf and applied liberally countless times. She stayed the exact same color as when she arrived. Even the one african american and all of the asians got burnt. It was an epic attack by the sun. And I lost. But i do have some more color now. I´m pretty sure that i´m tanner than i usually am in the states. My brother last night called me negrita, which here is a term of endearment like gringita, gordita, flacita (also terms of endearments). I guess there´s a first time for everything. I never thought in a million years i´d be considered negra.

And the flamingos... just because they´re cute.