La Adventura Continua!

Well this week has been eventful to say the least. The galapagos were amazing! We were on a fairly small boat with 15 other people, one couple was from austin, tx they were super cool. There was a girl from Holland, Paulina and a guy from Ireland, Steve. Then there was an older couple who lived in Quito but were from the states- he worked in the US Embassy. The last couple was from Canada. We did some amazing snorkling- with baby sea lions and star fish and mantarays and penguins, iguanas, SHARKS! It was great. We saw a whole bunch of blue footed boobies, red footed boobies and friggid birds as well as finches and some big ole turtles or tortoises im not sure which they were. The water was typically pretty cold but once you got used to it it was perfect! The beaches were beautiful as were the sun sets and the stars at night. We could see the southern cross clearly which you can only see from a certain hemisphere so that was cool. Also one night we literally saw the moon rise- maybe one of the coolest things ive ever seen. Sarah and I made a routine of jumping off one of the higher points of the ship during the afternoon to swim around it was a lot of fun. The food was fantastic, something we were not all expecting, it helped to compensate for the atrocious motion sickness we all felt. Sarah and I slept up on the top of the boat for two of the three nights because the motion was so much less than in our washing machine (our room). Mom and Dad if you are reading this I've decided that im going to make a lot of money and send you on a cruise to the Galapagos but only on a huge amazing boat so mom doesnt get sea sick. The last night of the cruise we docked in Santa Cruz and went out on the town with the crew and our tour guide. SO. MUCH. FUN. There is a new law in Ecuador that bars have to stop selling alcohol at 12 on week days and 2 on weekends- so basically we are back in oxford with out the perks. Well good thing we had Lenny and Co. (boat crew) to take us to some underground salsa clubs!! It was so much fun. After we left the first club we all hopped in a taxi (pick up truck cerca 1940) and asked the tour guide to give us an "island tour"- hilarious. Next we ended up at another club that was still open but here we were the only people, I also remember it being Michael Jackson themed if im not mistaken. We caught a boat taxi back to the Angelique and slept for approximately 2 and a half hours until we had to get up for our final day excursion. After the cruise, Walt Sarah and I decided we wanted to go to the beach for the remainder of the week since we were already so close to the coast! Instead of going on to Quito we got off in Guayaquil and then incredibly found the bus station and the correct bus to Montanita, a beach a few friends of ours had visited and loved a few weeks before. I have to say reflecting back it is really a miracle we make it anywhere around here, we depend so much on the assistance of strangers and other english speaking travelers! We got to the beach- in a nutshell this place is Bonnarroo as a city plus surfing and lots of clubs. The first night we got stuck staying in a more expensive hostal but then we found "rickys hostal" which was one of the best finds of the entire summer trip. The guy working there, Victor Hugo (no lie) was a surfer from venezuela! He taught us how to surf, made us dinner and took us out with his friends! So much fun. The people staying in our hostal were really cool- a guy from london, a girl from Buenos Aires and everyone had great stories to tell. We had some incredible seafood (ceviche) and Sarah and I have found a new drink we are obsessed with- caprinias basically a mojito with a special brazilian liquor. Amazing. Saturday Victor hooked us up with some of his friends who do paragliding and so we hopped in the back of a pick up truck (this seems to be a trend) drove about thirty minutes down the beach with some crazy ecuadorian guys and then jumped off a cliff! Hopefully walt will post his pictures soon of these characters and our paragliding adventure. Sunday we caught a bus ride home and then an airplane to quito. We had orientation yesterday with all the new Ole Miss kids, im so glad they are all here! Last night we went back to our wine place and chilled for a long time, it was nice. Today I woke up with a major headache and Im about to get ready for our afternoon class! We are going to be in class for a lot more time this month but i think our classes will be really interesting. I think this weekend we are going to try and plan a trip to Banos- a place where you can white water raft, repel, all sorts of cool stuff. Then the next weekend we are going to the Tiputini Biodiversity station which should be really really cool. Got to go get ready for escuela! Chao!