It’s been a long 48 hours. Just yesterday I was skimming in Delray Beach and tonight we watched the sunset in the Galapagos. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Yesterday’s journey started in the Miami airport, and at the dinner table of the airport restaurant I sort of relized who Michael was and what I was getting into sort of. He’s the kind of guy who is so knowledgeable about a million things that he’s so interesting to listen to and that paired with the emense amount of travel he does makes for great stories and conversations.

After a super cold and somewhat stressful flight, we landed in Guayaquil. It was surreal. High concrete walls with graffiti welcomed us into the city but once we got away from the airport it opened up into a really nice South American city. Trees and nicely landscaped medians, lots of artwork, colored buildings and cool weather welcomed us.

I was too wiped out last night to do this entry. We started the day by waking up around 7:30 for breakfast but that was after the roosters and dogs woke us up at 4:30. Over breakfast the host family told us all about their farm and the fruits they grow. They make marmalade’s that we tried for the first time and they were delicious - pineapple, passion fruit, papaya and more. Our breakfast every day is yogurt with fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, and toast with the marmalades.

After our breakfast we went on the bus to the highlands with the rest of the group. We got a nice misty rain on the way and then it cleared up for the tortise center. At the tortise center we got to see the giant tortoises, mockingbirds (one came right up to us!), finches, lava lizards, and lots of indegenous plants. And I almost forgot before the tortoise center we stopped at the house of the first feudal lord of San Cristobal and then an amazing viewpoint.

At the end of the Tortoise center we saw baby tortises and then watched the tortises eat for what felt like an hour… Michael and Ernesto told us to really observe and most of the group did but I didn’t exactly have the patience to be a naturalist lol. Then we had some snacks on the way back and relaxed at the house.

Yesterday was Lion Dormido! We woke up super early like 5:30 and ate breakfast then headed over. Arnav got some water samples on the way and then we jumped into the water. Apparently the crack grows every year and the second crack in the rock is less than 30 years old all the way thru. We saw huge groups of sea turtles, fish, sea lions, sharks and so much coral. It was surreal. It felt like 5 minutes but we were really in the water for a couple hours. Then we had lunch on the boat which was fish, rice, noodles, and salad which was so good. The ride b

Michael left Saturday morning and then we went to a super nice beach with the scouts. I helped with CPR training but honestly I didn’t really say anything. After the scouts left we went into the water and I swam with a sea lion 🥺. Then I fell asleep before our hike back.

I’ve been getting busier… tuesday we had a meeting with the government to talk about environment day - unfortunately it was much less fun than going to Eddie’s farm would have been but we got this gem of a photo:

Dive journal!!! We saw so much it was amazing. Luckily I could go right down no ear problems!! The bottom was only 40 ft so it wasn’t stressful at all, and on the first dive we saw a few sharks in a row and so many fish. I was just starstruck and really distracted by everything that the videos didn’t come out great and I missed a few rays. We also saw like a forest of eels peeking out of their holes in the sand it was really cool.

Luckily the dive master capped our dive at 45 mins because I only had 400 psi after the safety stop so I was done. Everyone else had like half a tank left lol. We got onto the boat and I was feeling amazing! When we got into the water for the second dive I was much more focused. We saw so many rays, sharks, all different fish including ston fish. I spotted a moray eel which was SO cool! At the end when I was running out of air the dive master lead us through a cave with sharks inside! It was so friken cool and I was freaking out. We made our ascent after and a booby landed right next to us. Just a perfect dive. Unreal!

Rewind a bit to catch up on the weekend too. We had our play! I was Blackbeard, the main character in Spanish. A bit out of my comfort zone but it was fun and the kids were non judge mental. We repeated it again with the scouts as the main roles and it was super fun. Then we made our own plays about Pirate Louis the pirate that supposedly hurried treasure on Santa Fe Island.

Everyone started to hate Pirata