One Love, One World: Galapagos Islands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we’ve been here nearly a month now, guess it’s about time to sit down and write a blog about the most beautiful and amazing place on earth!!! Well, there’s steep competition for sure, but the Galapagos are so wonderful, it’s no wonder their other name is the Enchanted Islands. Everything I’ve ever dreamed about the Galapagos is true. Wildlife abounds and it becomes commonplace to be hanging out with sea lions and sea turtles, with countless sea birds like frigates and pelicans soaring above your head. It’s a nature lover’s dream.

This is certainly a place where the pictures say it way better than we ever could- being just feet away from the wildlife or sometimes even closer (too close). Like the time we were snorkeling in one of the crystal clear little bays here and a baby sea lion came up to us, turned on its back and started blowing bubbles as it circled around us. This was the cutest thing we had ever seen until 500lb daddy sea lion decided to join in the fun. Unfortunately he was not as cute as his little baby and his idea of fun was swimming at lighting bolt speed directly toward Donny’s face only to pull up inches away and then start circling around for another run. Luckily we were underwater so no need to run home for a change of boxers but we still made it out of the water pretty quickly. I guess even in the ocean there are lines in sand you don’t want to cross. The list of the wildlife we have seen goes on and on and each encounter seems even more amazing than the last. We’ve taken about a thousand (no exaggeration) photos to remember it all by with every turtle, iguana, penguin, ect, having the slightest different stance or expression (“but it's the cutest thing ever!”) making it impossible to delete the photo.

The Galapagos are certainly a place you never forget and we feel so fortunate to have been able to see the islands in all their glory. Of the 13 main islands, we have seen 3- San Cristobal, Santa Cruz and Isabela. They are all beautiful and completely unique and I only wish we could have seen more. Sadly cruises around to the other islands are quite out of the backpacker budget making us settle for an absolutely amazing, fantastic, incredible, stupendous time on the islands we were able to see! Most of this time has been on San Cristobal, the capital of the Galapagos. Here we have been able to really get to know many of great people (and sea lions, as they outnumber the people) that call the Galapagos their home. Through the GROW Initiative we have also been able to volunteer, teaching at a school for over a week which is truly the way to realize how special a place a place can be. So as we said before check out the pictures and see for yourself. The Galapagos is truly an amazing place!