Livin' it up in the Galapagos!

Hey there from the Galapagos Islands, San Cristobal to be exact. We flew in here just yesterday afternoon. This place is great!

The most exciting thing is that today we went snorkeling! The first place the boat took us was a relatively shallow area. When we first got in the water, we were excited just to see a fish, but then we started seeing other things as we went further. There was a sea turtle eating an underwater plant, there was an iguana under the water crawling on rocks to eat algae growing on rocks, while yellow-lipped fish tried scaring it out of their territory. There were sea lions that swam around with us a little bit. We were watching a few females and then suddenly a huge male swam within a few feet of me. The females are pretty docile, but you're supposed to watch out for the males, so even though I didn't feel threatened at the time, I backed off. We saw several rays half-covered in sand, and several schools of fish, some really little, others at least a foot long that were like blue and yellow and had some stripes. I liked those ones. Nothing in the water seemed particularly afraid of us, and sometimes we'd find some curious fish following us.

Then we got back in the boat and headed to this place called the ¨Sleeping Lion¨, a huge rock jutting out of the water, at least like a hundred meters, maybe more. Super steep sides, dropping almost vertically down into the water. I was the first out of the boat here and had to calm myself as I looked down at the side of the rock disappearing into blackness below me. We swam around this island and saw some more cool things. First of all, on the side of the rock were barnacles, probably some types of coral, and algea, I suppose: There were large parts of it that looked like someone went over with a paint brush, alternating between red and blue paint. There were more cool fish. Someone pointed downward towards the nothingness, and we saw a shark, swimming, turned on it's side, swimming along the rock wall. This thing must have been at least 10 feet long. We also saw more sea turtles, some had algae growing on their backs. In a huge crack splitting the rock island, we saw several large rays. Some were ¨golden¨while others were black with white leopard spots on them. We saw a few more sharks before going back in the boat. These ones weren't as big, but still looked really cool!

On the way back from the Sleeping Lion, I lay down on the bow of the boat and ate watermelon and relaxed. It was amazing. One of the coolest days I've had in a long time.

Oh, yesterday, I went swimming with a few friends. One thing you should know about this place is that along the water in most places you go, you'll see sea lions. These guys are everywhere, and they're really cool animals. Anyway, we were swimming and we see one headed right towards us. We backed away a little, and it came and swam in a circle around my legs. It wasn't too much more than a foot or so away.

So right now I'm chilling at this internet place that's on the island where it costs 1.50 for an hour of use. Pretty reasonable, I must say. We're in a town that has shops and restaurants and stuff. It's not a very big town, but we're able to get most things that we'll need. It's not like we're out in the middle of nowhere.

I'll keep you guys updated. I don't know how soon I'll be able to post pictures. I did get my hands on a camera, I'm borrowing it from someone in my house. The only bad news is I don't have the cable to connect to the computer, so unless someone here in my group has the right cable, I'm not gonna be able to get pictures up until I come back around February 8th.

Take care everyone!
-Joey