A lil bit of my world

Good morning all! I’m up early today to try finish some homework for Thursday, cuz we’re leaving for the Galápagos tomorrow! Friday is the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy Week, e.g. the week before Easter) so we’re heading off with BCA on our next adventure. We’re flying out of Quito on Thursday morning at 8am, arriving at one of the Galapagos Islands sometime in the late afternoon. Oh, for anyone not familiar, the Galapagos Islands are off the coast of Ecuador, and are the site where Darwin came up with his theory of evolution. Ecuador is the most biodiverse nation in the world I believe, and the islands (plus the jungle) are part of the reason; each island has species of plants, birds,and other animals that are only found on that specific island. Pretty cool..I hope to take lots and lots of pictures! With its status as such an important nature reserve, having lots of tourists staying on the islands is discouraged, so we’ll be staying on a boat. Our group has 2 boats, so we’ll all see each other during the day’s activities, but we’ll eat and sleep on our respective vessels. We’re basically going to be spending 5 days swimming, snorkeling, hiking on volcanic rock, sunning, wildlife-watching, etc…what could be better?! We fly back Tuesday and have a lay-over in Guayaquil, the biggest coastal city in Ecuador. I’ve been told that Madrid is to Quito as Barcelona is to Guayaquil (as far as personality goes), so I’m excited about visiting. I think about half our group is planning to just skip the last leg of our flight and go off on our own. We’ll stay a nite or two in Guayaquil, perhaps go to Salinas, one of the nicest beaches in Ecuador that’s 1.5hrs from Guayaquil, and then head out Wed.or Thurs. for Cuenca on a bus. Cuenca is about 2 or 3 hours farther south and is supposed to be a beautiful little colonial town. After a few days there, it’s back to Quito on Sat. or Sun-- back to the reality of classes after our mini-tour of Ecuador. Hope you all have a wonderful spring break and hasta luego!

Ps. I included a map of our trip so you all have an idea of where I’m talking about within the country, but I would like to point out that the Galapagos are not in Peru, as it appears on the map due to the cut out, but are in fact in the ocean, to the West of Ecuador’s coast;)