Galapagos Part II

Alright well it was raining while I was visiting the Charles Darwin Reasearch Center earlier today and so I´m back at the swank hotel (well $33 per night per person is swank for ME)  with an update on goings on here in the Galapagos Islands. 

It needs to be said that these islands are NOT in Ecuador.  It´s ridiculous to think that if someone visits the islands that they´ve seen anything of Ecuador.  Poppycock.  This place is like Jamaica or Grand Cayman or the Canaries or Fiji.  Saying that I´m in Ecuador is like saying that if I visit Easter Island that I´ve visited Chile.  Pure poppycock.  (Fun word to say)  So, since I´ve realized that this place is not part of the country I´d been serving in for two years, I´m exceptionally glad that I came to visit since residency grants me a waiver from paying the $100 entrace fee normally charged other gringos.  Since being here I´ve seen:

• Blue footed boobies
• Masked boobies
• Brown pelicans
• Flamingoes
• Galapagos penguins
• Oystercatchers
  
• Frigatebirds (with their red inflated pouches)
• Finches of all types
• Marine iguanas
• Land iguanas
• Giant tortoises of all types
• Sea turtles
• Manta rays
  
• Lava lizards
• Galapagos sea lions

And more more more.  Snorkeling, hiking, sunsoaked death marches and rain soaked volcano slogs, as well as the good old lazing around.  All on the relative cheap.  If we manage to get on our plane tomorrow we will have spent 8 nights and 9 days here, having stayed overnight on three different islands for a total of between five and six hundred dollars (including airfare).  That´s sweeeeeet.  The adventure includes unexpected heartbreak at the airport, a flea-ridden hotel room, and a bloody foot.  Everything is OK now though.  We have a little air conditioning, free internet at the hotel, and the much needed chance to RELAX from our insane island vacation.

If you are interested in hanging out in California late April as I get ready to hike the PCT from Mexico to Canada, get in touch with me.  If you´re passing through the New Orleans area before then, send me a line.  Crawfish boil!!!!!

Gotta go.  I´m starving and need some seafood in a bad way.