Galapagos!

The Galapagos Islands are one of the collest places I've ever been to. The little time that I spent there was amazing. I saw so little of what the islands have to offer, and they are beautiful! I saw only 2 of the 13 main islands. I got to snorkle, hike, jump from rocks and just have an awesome time with another 30 some exchange students.
I met everyone at the airport. Like always, the air was buzzing with the excitement of all of us exchange students waiting to go to Galapagos! We were immediatly assaulted by people wearing face masks. Swine Flu was on the rise and people at the airport were taking it seriously. Going to the Galapagos is like going to another country. Just to get in as an Ecuadorian you need a passport. We wen't through a special food and animal security check. (Which was minimal, since someone made it through with honey and limes...) Once on the airplane we saw the magnificent Ecuadorian mountains rising above the clouds. We landed in Guayaquil and waited for 30 minutes, all flights to Galapagos go through Guyaquil. The plane ride was just millions of conversations with everyone! They sprayed Raid in the whole airplane Landing in Galapags was like landing in a desert, it was dry and hot. I remember a girl from arizona saying "Hey, this is like Arizona in the summer." It was hot, we made our way through costoms. which was a pain becuase they wanted us to pay the full fee $100, not $25 which is what Ecuadorians and residents pay. We all made it through and were told to wait. I of course took this opportunity to explore the galapagos terrain. I went running off into the scrub and chased Lava Lizards around for about 20 minuts until the bus came to pick us up. I remember the whole time on our way to the hotel I was so stoked. We took a boat through a small channel and then we continued on in bus. I was so happy there! Everyone was excited and the energy was great.
We made it to Porto Ayora, from there we had a date with Solitary George. The last of a species of Galapagos tortoises, he is kept in the Charles Darwin Research center where they are trying to get him to bread with some other tortioses from another Island that have a relatively close genetic make up. Anyways, we got to see tons of tortioses and land iguanas. It was anticlimatic because I just wanted to see things wild, and it was just like being in a zoo. On the way back to the hotel we all stopped to swim at a beach. It was beautiful. Like being in a pool. The water was clear, and warm. I swam around a bunch and decided to look out on the other side of thwe rocks that protected the beach from the surf. I swam over there with Lea a girl from France. On the other side were people surfing! THe Galapagos has some great surf. We were about to head back when I thought I saw the form of an iguana. I did a double take and was like lets go and see. There was a colony of marine iguanas. We walked around and they let us get really close. They sneezed a bunch expelling the water from their noses. I was tripping out. I couldn't believe that I was starring face to face with probably 30 iguanas! I was to see hundreds in my time in galapagos, but this first sight of them made me feel like an explorer! I was amazed. We swam back to the beach passing mangroves on the way.