The end of the earth

That is kind of what if feels like being in the Galapagos knowing you are 1100 kilometers from a continent. Anyway, I´m back from one of the more enjoyable weeks of my life. The biggest stress was whether I had enough sunscreen on not to get burned. Also, the fact that the water was cold, meaning that while I normally love snorkeling, every time it was on the schedule, I sort of dreaded it, yet I didn´t want to not go, because I was in the Galapagos (!). And I did get my wish from the last blog entry - we saw hammerhead sharks! And other sharks. And sea lions, and sea turtles, and penguins. I snorkeled with all of the above. Plus some eels and an octopus, and of course many fish. On land the amazing thing about the Galapagos is: if it lives there, you see it. We saw every animal that our guide mentioned. Unlike other places, as the South Africa people for instance know, where there´s animals out there but you´re very lucky if you see a lot of them.

Unlike my Africa safari group, I loved the people on the boat. Most were around late 20s/early 30s, and they were all just so nice and excited to be in the Galapagos and it was wonderful to have them there. One of them, from Spain, is a photographer by profession and took 5000 pictures in his 3 weeks in Ecuador. I look forward to seeing his pictures...in 2 or 3 months, since he says he spends 45 minutes on each on the computer.

I was worried for a few days before the trip that the girl from school who went with me wouldn´t like it, andI´d been the reason she had gone. After about 20 minutes of being in the Galapagos I realized that only a Philistine wouldn´t enjoy being there, so I forgot about that concern. I felt not so hot on one part of the boat ride, but only for about an hour and a half - for the most part we moved at night, and I enjoyed the rocking of the ship.

I´ll try to post more pictures but the internet is slow...