Today I woke up before my alarm clock and headed down to breakfast alone to catch up on some reading.
If you can see the little finches in the picture above, I spend a good amount of my days in the Galapagos playing with them. They are not at all afraid of people and will hop right onto your plate or eat food from your hand.
After Brad and Alyssa joined me downstairs, we decided to go on a day trip of the island. We had been told that you could just get a cab to drive you around pretty cheaply so we found two other travelers who were planning to do the same thing (Laura from Germany and Jenka from Turkey) and secured a taxi that would take us around for $10/each.
Once we started heading away from the ocean, the climate completely changed. Suddenly it was like being in a cloud forest and the foliage was green and much denser.
Our first stop on the tour was the giant tortoise breeding center. Luckily we arrived right at feeding time, so we got to see tons of them congregated together.
At this breeding center, we learned that the researchers are actually able to manipulate whether the tortoises that hatch are male or female by the temperature they incubate them at. The tortoises that are born in the wild are predominately male because of the cold temperatures on the island so the researchers keep their incubators warmer to ensure they will get females.
After we left the breeding center, we headed to Puerto Chino beach. This beach was beautiful and once was again covered in sea lions, sea turtles and blue footed boobies.
I spent a while reading with all of my finch friends who loved to be right next to me.
We then headed up to Junco Lagoon which is the only fresh water found in the Galapagos. The lagoon is inside of a volcanic crater and was completely covered in clouds and mist. We walked the trail around the lagoon, checking out the view of the ocean and observing the frigate birds.
We then headed to "El Ceibo" which is a hotel room built in a 300 year old Ceibo tree; one of only three Ceibo trees on the island.
The tree house accommodations weren't bad and for only $20/night, I could see the draw for some people to stay there, although the town of El Progresso where El Ceibo is located has absolutely nothing going on.
Down through the trunk of the tree, you can climb into an underground room which I found fairly terrifying- it reminded me of something you'd find in a horror movie when they hold someone hostage. That was my cue to leave, lol.
Once we got back to town, we grabbed some lunch at a local spot on the water. They weren't serving normal food since it was past lunch time, only their local snacks. I decided to try to "patacones with cheese" which I had seen many times on the menu but had no clue what they were. Turns out they are fried plantains rounds with a piece of cheese- not bad but way too many!
Alyssa and I took a walk after lunch to "Playa Mann" which was the closest local beach to town. There we found the most people we had seen the entire time we'd been in the Galapagos. We hung out for a while watching some four year old children antagonize sea lions and then run away from them. The kids looked like they were having a great time, but we were fairly sure we might have a front row seat to a child being mauled. After the beach we walked over to the "Interpretation center" next door. This was a sort of museum about the Galapagos which told the chronological history of its development. I had no idea what a sorted history the Galápagos had! It was basically a dumping ground for the criminals of Spain and was plagued by murders, crime and a complete misuse of its resources for centuries. The US even built an Air Force base in the Galápagos in 1945 to provide protection for the Panama Canal without any agreement between the two countries (during which the US blew up a bunch of land with dynamite in the process of building the base). After learning about its history, it's a wonder there's anything even left to see!
We met up with Laura and Jenka again for dinner at a local restaurant which serves a set menu: juice, soup, fish, salad and rice for $3.50! If you eat what the locals eat, it's actually pretty cheap and it was good! The four of us went out for a few drinks after dinner, ending up at our hotel bar. Alyssa and I were fairly sure that something might be brewing between the two of them, so we excused ourselves early to leave them to their own devices.
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