Off to the galápagos!!!

Sunday, July 25th
Today I woke up early to catch my 6am flight to the Galapagos. I was flying with another guy named Matt, from England, who also booked his tour through Paul. Matt wasn't exactly the most social or happiest guy but he had his moments. The flight flew by and before I knew it I was flying over the Galapagos. It was a super cloudy day so I couldn't see all the island from the plane but right before we lande the sun came out and I could begin to see the islands from above. They were beautiful. As soon as we disembarked the plane the other passengers immediately took out their cameras and started clicking away. It was slightly ridiculous. We arrived on an island called Baltra and all it contained was the airport. We took and boat to a bus to get to the inhabited and populous island of Santa Cruz and more specifically the town of Puerto Ayora. The town was very cute but definitely touristy. It was a mixture of traditional basic Ecuadorian architecture and expensive lookin modern hotels. All the locals on the island walked by you with a smile on their face. When I arrived in the town, I met some tourists, had lunch with them, and then booked an 8 day boat cruise. The boat left the island in less than 10 minutes when I booked the tour so I has to hustle to the dock. I had to take a 2 hour boat taxi ride to another island called San Cristobal to meet up with the boat over there. The boat taxi ride was ridicoulously choppy and rough. I had to hold on to my seat the whole ride and stare at the horizon or I was gonna be severly ill. The two passengers on either side of me were passed out and leaning on me with their full body weight and sitting across me was a young girl breast feeding her child. It was a boat ride to remember! When I arrived on San Cristobal I walked around the city Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.  The town was small and the main road ran alongide the water. Along the road was a small playground with your typical swing set and slides; however, ther was something quite unique about this playground. Instead of a bunch of children running around and playing there were numerous sea lions sunbathing in the park. It was helarious! Our sailboat arrived in the evening to pick us up. The boat slept 10 passengers, 2 to a room. On the boat was 3 brits (Jules, Rich and Fishy), 2 Germans (Kristina and her mom), 2 Norweigans (John and Monica), and 2 Danish (Ann and Mads). We also met our guide/naturalist John who was well versed in the history, plant, and animal life of the Galapagos. The whole group was cool and we all got along swimmingly. I had to shack up with Fishy for the first half of the trip; he seemed like a nice enough guy to live in a tiny and cramped space with. The plan for the first night on the boat was first eat dinner together as a "family" and then to sail to an island called Espanola. We would set sail around midnight and travel for about 7 hours to our destination.