Yikes! I haven't written in 5 weeks, but (1) there's lots to do to enjoy the special place I'm in and (2) the Internet takes me back to the 90s when we all had dial up connection. The Internet could compete with a tortuga.... my money is on the tortuga winning. So yea also explains the lack of pics. If it's not already on there, you should add Galapagos to your bucket list, the flora and fauna are endemic and the interaction with them is surreal. Especially for me in the water, I go beserk with all the fish! Being able to identify most of them definitely adds to the thrill and whether I'm getting nibbled by them (tiny territorial damselfish defending their algal patches), or having fish swim so close to me that I can just reach out and touch them (like Spinster wrasse of Mexican hog fish), or best yet diving around the bottom of a rock enclosed channel with sharks (white tip reef, black tip reef, and Galapagos), which I've gotten to do twice now, is wicked sweet! Being in the water with these guys is an inspiring feeling, a connection to nature and a realization just how talented these creatures are in simplistic ways (whenever I swim with sea lions they make me feel like a tortuga next to them embarassingly lacking their graceful, agile, and swift swimming technique or when I place my hand on the carapace of a sea turtle to swim alongside it and feel how mellow these dudes are). While I won't go heavy into all the fantastic marine animals, although I could in a heartbeat, I'll list just a couple of the cool and some endemic creatures hanging around this joint: Galapagos sea lions, Galapagos fur seals, Galapagos penguins, a plethora of whales, sharks, and fish, marine iguangas, blue footed boobies, red footed boobies (haven't seen the Nazca booby yet), frigate birds (yes, those that blow up their red chests to attract females and are kleptoparasitic so they steel food from other birds), sea and land tortugas, rays, and lots of other birds. Conveniently I met a guide who helps me build up my knowledge arsenal on species identification, behavior, and habitat when my professors and id books have reached their max limit. This info also helps in those occasional moments where I'd rather not be attacked or stuck in a crossfire between animals, like when I'm at the beach and get surrounded by young but big and hormonal male sea lions who are on the verge of fighting each other.
And by host mom is absolutely great! They have a strong accent here on the islands so it makes interpreting a little difficult, but she's able to manage my pescatarian diet and is a chef at one of the restaurants here. One of her favorite things to say to me is, "Carolina gordita es bonita", thus always giving me enough food for 2 or 3 of me. We have a simplistic humble home that she keeps well tidied and is perfect for me. She's taken me to her land up in the arriba which are the highlands of the island for a picnic where we roasted whole fishes over a fire and stuffed ourselves full till we had to be rolled down the road back to town. We've also gone to the only fresh water lake in the archipelago and the land turtle reservoir where the tortugas range from the size of an egg (literally) to the size of a boulder.
This is all I can write about now, have a fear that if I include too much stuff I'll have probs uploading.
Galapagos shark at Leon Dormido
Hawksbill sea turtle
view of Leon Dormido from the arriba
Mexican hogfish
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