Swimming with the Sharks
Patrick is here! Travelling with Patrick is like a breath of fresh air – he wants to see everything, meet people, and try new food. His enthusiasm is contagious. We spend his first day and Connor’s 14th birthday in Quito site seeing. We take a gondola above Quito to over 12, 000 feet, where the air is thin but the view is beautiful. Later, we stroll around old town and buy an authentic “Panama” hat for Connor (note that Panama hats actually originated in Ecuador). We celebrate Connor’s birthday with a nice Italian dinner at our hotel and after dinner, the waiter arrives with a slice of cake and a candle, singing “Feliz cumpleanos a ti…”.
From Quito, we go to the Galapagos Islands, one of the most anticipated places of the trip. We take just about every form of transportation to get here: taxi van to airport, plane to Isla Baltra, bus to canal, ferry across the canal to Isla Santa Cruz, truck taxi to Santa Cruz pier, “fast” rough 2 hour boat ride to Isla Isabela, and finally, safari-looking truck to hotel – long day.
The Galapagos are incredible – a place that everyone should visit. Animals are everywhere: iguanas walking down the beach, sea lions relaxing under a bench, giant tortoises walking down the street, crabs scurrying all over the rocks. The animals seem to care nothing about humans and we can get very close to them. Here are our animal viewings: pelicans, blue-footed and red-footed boobies, the famous Darwin finches, frigate birds, flamingos, vermillion fly catchers, penguins, marine and land iguanas, lizards, wild horses, wild mountain goats, red and black crabs, sea lions, sea turtles, hundreds of fish including rainbow fish, and white tip reef sharks. Swimming with the sharks is exhilarating. Our guide, Jhover, explains that we need to go through a narrow volcanic canal in a single file line, not splashing or making noise. We break all of the rules by fluttering our fins and screaming (just I did that through my snorkel). Subsequently, the sharks became restless and swim right near us, instead of resting on the canal’s floor, as they usually do. One shark even comes directly to Patrick’s face, then darts in the other direction. We swim with about 50-60 sharks within a 15 minute span. About 10 swim just 6 inches under me, thus my screaming through the snorkel. After surviving unharmed, we agree that swimming with the sharks is one of the most mind-blowing experiences that we have had.
World Cup fever – we watch the final match between Spain and Holland at a local restaurant with a mix of locals, international residents and tourists. Somehow, I become in charge of the futbol pool, which amounts to $135. More people cheer for the Dutch, but the place erupts when Spain finally scores a goal. Goooooooooool!!!! Our guide, Jhover, our Russian waiter and a tourist from Germany split the pool. The next day, Jhover tells me that he will never forget when I gave him his cut of the pool.
On our last day, Connor, Quinn and I take a boat ride to Floreana Island (Paul and Patrick refrain because of Paul’s tendency for seasickness). We end our island tour by snorkeling with sea lions. They are inquisitive and swim right up to us, peering at our faces. Just before getting back in the boat, a family of six sea lions swims up to Connor and Quinn and “play” with them, circling and diving underneath them. Per Connor, “It was the most amazing thing that I have ever done!” Per Quinn, “Pretty cool!”
Being in the Galapagos with the entire family is very special. I am glad that we will always share these memories.
Tags: Ecuador
hwy1alltheway
Wow- that’s really incredible. I think I’d have a hard time even cage diving, as written about in this article: http://www.bit.ly/drLqzd