Vamos a Floreana!

"When you go abroad, you'll get to travel a lot. I saw x countries in one semester!" I have heard people say this to me countless amounts of times. X would regularly equal 5, 10, or 15 countries. My friends who are abroad in Europe have been jet-setting all over; if you count Ryan Air as jet-setting. Studying abroad in South America is a little different. A bunch of my friends are backpacking through Peru, Colombia, and Argentina afterwards, but because I have summer research, I'll be going home directly after my program ends. My mom told me that I would want to travel afterwards! (Note to self: moms always know best). I guess that's just an excuse to come back to South America one day! 

I traveled a little bit in Quito. Part of my tropical ecology class included field trips to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Río Topo, and the Paramo. We also stayed the weekend in Baños after we went to Río Topo. That was my favorite weekend in Ecuador. Baños is the adventure capital of the world, and has really awesome nightlife! I would have traveled more, but I was a little hesitant because my spanish skills weren't great in Quito. We also went island hopping for spring break. Again, these trips were planned by the school. Santa Cruz, Bartolomé, and Isabela were absolutely gorgeous. Just a taste of seeing some of the other islands led me to want more. 

I knew there were some islands that were completely out of the question. For example, the island of Fernandina is only open to researchers, and Darwin and Wolf are only accessible by cruise ship. My best option looked like it was Floreana. Floreana is only accessible via Santa Cruz.  I tried vehemently to organize a trip straight there. If you have enough people, you can charter a boat there. However, I didn't have enough people interested, so instead my friend Karli and I are going to do a weekend mini island hopping trip! 

I am writing this on the two hour boat ride to Santa Cruz. I don't have class today, so I was able to catch the 7 am ferry over. Karli will take the 2 pm ferry over and meet me this afternoon. After getting absolutely everything planned for us, it was a bit of a different experience to attempt to plan a trip by ourselves. Because my Spanish is better than Karli's, I am going to find a hostel for us to stay at this morning. Then, I am going to go to Las Grietas. The word grieta means crack, and that is exactly what Las Grietas are. They are cracks in the lava that have filled up with ocean water. I am so excited to snorkel in them! There are a few of them, and in one of them there is an underwater tunnel that you can swim through with one large breath, and that the other side opens up to gorgeousness. Since drowning is one of my worst fears, I might not be doing that. Actually, I probably will. Sorry mom. 

On Saturday we are going to go to Floreana for the day. We will go to a black sand beach and get a tour of the highlands. I really wanted to go to the post office there, but it's only accessible by cruise ship. It's so interesting! It's not a traditional post office at all. It's literally a barrel, and when you go there, you're supposed to look through all the letters and if you find one that's close to where you live, you're supposed to take it and hand deliver it. Our friends in the marine track will also be coming to Santa Cruz that night, so we are going to meet up with them and go to Bongo, which is a cool bar/disco on the malecon. It's my birthday weekend, so I'm excited to dance! 

On Sunday, Karli and I are going to see if we can scuba dive in Santa Cruz. I don't know if we will be able to dive and then make the afternoon boat back, but we will see! I am excited to see how my trip planning skills work out! 

I am also extremely thankful that I don't get seasick.