{"id":26999,"date":"2015-04-14T18:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T23:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=26999"},"modified":"2015-04-14T15:24:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:24:55","slug":"visiting-the-galapagos-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=26999","title":{"rendered":"Visiting the Galapagos Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week when we wrote about our trip to Colombia<\/a>, we said we would be back with a post about the following week when we went to the Galapagos Islands.\u00a0 It was a wonderful week, and the only bad thing about it was that Yankee couldn’t be there with me. We definitely will go back together someday, though.\u00a0 Before going we did our research and discovered there are two ways to visit the Galapagos Islands.\u00a0 One way is on a small cruise ship.\u00a0 We saw two companies there – Celebrity and National Geographic.<\/h3>\n

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The other way to do the islands is the way we did which is called “island hopping.”\u00a0 We spent a night or two on an island, saw what there was to see, and then rode on a small boat that held about 20 people to another island.\u00a0 We had our own tour guide for the week.\u00a0 Eight of us who were in Colombia together did this tour, and so, we weren’t with a bunch of strangers, and we could change things up if we wanted to.<\/h3>\n

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We chose the island hopping tour because we love being “with the people.”\u00a0 If we had been on a cruise ship, we wouldn’t have experienced sleeping on the island, eating with the locals, hanging out with the sea lions, taking a stroll at night, and just getting a feel for how people really live there.\u00a0 One of our goals when traveling is to be with the people and see how life really is for them – no matter where we are.<\/h3>\n

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We learned that around 30,000 people live on the Galapagos Islands.\u00a0 The only way they can live there is to either be born there or to marry someone who lives there.\u00a0 The population is tightly controlled to avoid growing and endangering what they have that is so special.\u00a0 Life there is fairly rustic.\u00a0 They only have one television station, internet is very slow, and everything that isn’t grown or caught there comes from Equador.\u00a0 Crime is low, and life is slow and easy.\u00a0 They have amazing views and don’t miss what they have never had.\u00a0 It’s no surprise that tourism is the number one industry.<\/h3>\n

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The Galapagos Islands did not become a protected area till the late 1990’s.\u00a0 We were surprised that it wasn’t protected much earlier.\u00a0 They became famous because of Charles Darwin’s studies there and his theory of evolution based on his findings.\u00a0 Animals definitely have free range and the right of way.\u00a0 Sea lions were everywhere, and they were so cute.\u00a0 They could be sleeping in the middle of the street or on many park benches.\u00a0 We loved seeing the babies nursing from their mothers.<\/h3>\n

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Different islands had different attractions.\u00a0 For instance, twenty some ancient tortoises lived in one area, but there were also tortoises at the research center.\u00a0 The famous tortoise named Lonesome George, who was 150 years old, died just weeks before we were there.<\/h3>\n

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One day we took a six hour trek to the rim of the world’s second largest volcano.\u00a0 The second half of the trek was pretty difficult because we walked on pure lava.\u00a0 We could feel the heat from the volcano coming from this hole.<\/h3>\n

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Walking on the lava felt as if we were walking on the moon’s surface, but when we arrived at the top, we could see for miles and miles.<\/h3>\n

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Iguanas were plentiful also.\u00a0 This guy just walked by when Mom and I were sitting on the beach.\u00a0 We weren’t afraid of him, and he wasn’t afraid of us.<\/h3>\n

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Another day we went to a small islands that was loaded with iguanas.\u00a0 See how well they blend in with the lava rocks?\u00a0 They did. not. move.\u00a0 It was part of their disguise.<\/h3>\n

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We had the opportunity to go snorkeling each day.\u00a0 The first day we rode a boat for two and a half hours to this spot and snorkled between those rocks.\u00a0 It was amazing.\u00a0 We swam with sharks, hammerheads, sea turtles, and all kinds of fish.<\/h3>\n

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We love adventure, and this vacation did not disappoint.\u00a0 The Galapagos Islands are located off of the coast of Equador, and they are about a three-hour flight from Quito.\u00a0 If you ever have the opportunity to go there, do it.\u00a0 You won’t be disappointed.<\/h3>\n

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Thanks for stopping in.<\/h3>\n

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Cheers!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week when we wrote about our trip to Colombia, we said we would be back with a post about the following week when we went to the Galapagos Islands.\u00a0 It was a wonderful week, and the only bad thing about it was that Yankee couldn’t be there with me. We definitely will go back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26999"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27021,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26999\/revisions\/27021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}