Day 3: Isabela Island January 3rd, 2018
Considering our previous mornings, we actually had a late start to our day. Late being 9:30 am. Victoria and I woke up around 8ish to get ready for our day, pack, check out and make it to breakfast. For breakfast I had some eggs, rolls and plantain chips.
Before we knew it, we were on the bus on the way to the docks. During the day everyone was outside, taking advantage of the wonderful weather. It was a warm 80’s for the most part of our stay in the Galapagos. We then caught a meal at a really nice restaurant right near the docks. I had sweet potato soup with popcorn and then spaghetti. Shortly after we were waiting on the dock to get our bags check.The group then split into two and we got onto two separate little boats. These boats were more like floating taxis, which took us to the larger boat that we would depart to Isabela island. Eventually after loading all our suitcases and persons onto the boat, we were ready to leave. Luckily the ride to Isabela did not take very long! Unlike Baltra, Isabela was as green as the eye could see, and we were all very excited to get to our hotel. Once we all got off the boat, we were greeted by first some beached sea lions and secondly by our tour guide Paula.Paula would be our tour guide for our stay on Isabela island, as well as Diego.She was by far one of the most friendly, most caring most adorable people I have ever met. It did not take long for every single classmate to fall in love with her. She joined us on the ‘bus ride’ to the way to our hotel and briefed us about our itinerary for the rest of the day. The so called ‘buses’ had an extremely low ceiling and was made completely out of wood. Imagine the type of car you’d as a kid would ride at a zoo safari ride, but larger and more off the ground. Although Isabela is one of the largest Islands of the Galapagos, it only has a population of about 2,000 people. So most of the roads entering the island were sand and there was no traffic, meaning our driver could drive as fast as he wanted. Man did he drive fast! |
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Pink Flamingos Facts:
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Before we knew it, we were at our hotel. We had about and hour to grab some snacks and settle in before our next events of the day which included a bike tour of Isabela, our group dinner and a presentation at the end of the night.
Once again, Victoria and I had a room all to ourselves. I would have to say that, not only was Isabela my favorite Island in the Galapagos, but it was my favorite hotel that we had stayed at. Victoria and I made the best we could with our time and unpacked (for we actually could for once), got changed and then headed downstairs to talk to our boyfriends,since this was one of the only hotels that had actually had Wifi. Once the hour rolled around we all took the bus ride with Tait, Lester, Diego and Paula to the bike shop. This is where my lack of skills came into place. See, I do not know how to ride a bike. I told this to everyone before the trip; however, Tait was sure he could teach me how to ride. With that in mind after being on a bike for two seconds, Tait and Diego told me to get off before I hurt myself and then called the bus back for me. Utterly embarrassed, I understood. So while everyone else was making their own ways on the bikes they rented, I got to sit in the front seat of the bus and made great friends with the driver. Boy did he drive fast! When we were about halfway to our destination, we got a call to come back and pick someone else up….. It actually ended up being Elana (Iguana). Turns out, she wasn’t to good at riding a bike either. About ten minutes later we were at one of Isabela’s natural reserves for pink flagimos. It was here that Paula talked to us about the reserve and issues going on on the island (more about this below). After spending about forty five minutes at the reserve we all made our way back to the hotel (bus and bikes and all). Once we were back at the Hotel, Tait could tell that a bunch of us were anxious to take a walk around the town, or to go to the beach (since everything was about a five or ten min walk from the hotel) so he gave us an hour and a half to ourselves. Soon afterwards, we had dinner in the cutest little restaurant on the island. We were in what was considered the ‘city’ of this part of the island. Dinner once again was free, so I ate chicken, rice and beans. Which was absolutely delicious. All the food I ate on the Galapagos was some of the best food I have ever eaten in my entire life! After dinner, we were given permission to go out on the ‘city’ in groups. With a midnight curfew. |
The ‘city’ consisted of small family-run restaurants, small shops, a soccer field, a few ice cream shops, as well as souvenirs shops and a few bars. I suggested to my group that we go get weird flavors of ice cream and this is when the tradition began on the trip. I got almond ice cream, with almonds in it and it was $1.50 and absolutely delicious! Everything on the Galapagos islands cost about the same it would at home, or more; however, no on really cared since this was a once in a lifetime experience! With that in mind, we all took full advantage of our time on Isabela and went into the all the little souvenir shops we could. Afterwards we found the mini soccer stadium and watched/cheered on the teams from the street. Overall I, like everyone else had fallen in love with this island. Everyone was super friendly, everything was super calm and it felt like there was no care in the world!
Sadly we had to cut the fun in the bud, for Elana, Abby and I had to give our presentation on Ecotourism In Ecuador (hit the button below for more information). Victoria and I then got ready for dinner. Afterwards we all (including Tait) went out for ice cream. He then left us to go work on some work of his own, and told us not to stay out too long for we had a meeting again. After our meeting he allowed us to go out on our own, as long as we didn’t stay out too late. The rest of us took advantage of our time to explore the island again and watch some soccer. It ended up being a really relaxing night, walking on the beach and talking about how we were all in shock of where we were. The best part of our night was finding a stray pup that played with us for hours that we name Isabela, after her origins. Sadly, when we told Tait he said we could not bring her home with us…... |
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Information About Isabela Island
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