Home for the next 9 weeks

Here is the start of my nine weeks on San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. The town only takes maybe thirty minutes to walk the entire circumference, so yeah it's pretty little. This is one of those places where everyone knows everyone. There are a few taxi drivers here that can take you to the rest of the island, like other good surf spots, and all I have to tell them is the name of my family and they know which house to go to. I live with a wonderful family; I have a mom, two  twin 13 year old sisters and a very talkative grandpa. My room is extremely nice with an en suite. I posted a collage of my room, one picture from each side, one of my roof, which is just metal, and one of my shower head because it looks like it's going to electrocute me one day. I also have this stone half wall that goes around part of my room that is rather convenient to set things on, but less convenient should you accidentally kick it barefoot. My house is divided into three sections and you have to walk outside to get to each section. The first is a large, empty room that leads to my bedroom and the bedroom that my mom and the twin share. The second is my grandpa's bedroom and study, and the third is the kitchen and dining room, and also the only place with internet. Here's the start of my life here and more to come later!

Sulfur Mines and Swimming with Sharks

On Thursday we hiked a long 25 km to see sulfur mines, which ended up being completely worth it. These holes in the ground of crystallized, bright yellow sulfur that spewed sulfur gas were beautiful. The only problem was that the gas irritated my lungs and thus I couldn't take too many close-up pictures of this stunning view. After the sulfur mines we made a stop at the Flamingo Lake that hosts these giant, pink fellows. They stood out wildly against the brown and blue background of the lake as they stepped from one foot to the other. Flamingos never put both feet down at the same time to minimize heat loss.

On Friday we went snorkeling in a lava tunnel area where we encountered giant sea turtles that were as big as me and sleeping sharks in caves that were just 4-6 feet long. Though small they still gave me that freaky feeling of being surrounded by one of nature's greatest predators. It seemed counter intuitive, but upon seeing sharks we immediately began chasing after them. They seemed more afraid of us than the other way around. The sea turtles could not have cared less whether we were there or not. The guide told us that people have hugged them and they don't even flinch, though it is illegal to be within 6 feet of the wildlife in the Galapagos.

Beginning of the Island Life

We arrived on Isabela Island in the Galapagos on Sunday evening for our last week of Mountain Geology. The journey here involved a plane and multiple boats and buses, totaling about 13 hours of travel time. It was definitely worth the wait though, just during our travels we saw giant tortoises, sea lions, a sea turtle, pelicans and huge dinosaur-like birds. The sand here is amazingly soft and we have spent most of our free time out on the beach and snorkeling. Today we went to Sierra Negra volcano to look at really fascinating lava rock formations. The hike was a total of 10 miles and it was a hot one. After the hike we went to a cave called Cueva Sucre, named after a man, Sucre, that lived in the cave in the 1900s and lived off nature. The inside of the cave was covered with a shiny gold substance that is actually not a mineral at all, but rather a lichen. I'm loving my time here on Isabela and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!