This place is spectacular!

Oh where to start!

I LOVE this country! Ecuador is a glass full of culture mixed with beautiful people, terrain and outstanding ceviche.

I am here and safe! The first part of the trip I was in Puerto Lopez, a lazy fishing village, to see the whales. The immesity of the whales that we followed is indescribable. You know how bigger men aren´t really graceful, can´t dance and they walk funny? You would think that such a large animal would have trouble manuvering their large bodies (like men) out of the water. It is quite the contrary. Whales would gracefully spring from the water and dance in the waves. At first I thought ´great we just spent a ton of money to look at water.`But out of nowhere these huge, people huge, whales would pop up next to our boat. We spent hours following and finding about 30 whales. It was incredible! The town that day actually had a whale parade to celebrate the opening of the season. It is slightly comparable to Austin`s batfest but bigger. However, batfest is not as cool as whales. We got scammed out of some money and as I was arguing with the Captain we (meaning just Alicia, myself, and the skipper too) were out in the middle of the ocean and no one knew where we were. I thought ´what a perfect place to kill a gringa.` So I let the people take their money.

After Puerto Lopez we went to Guayquil to get ready for the Galapagos islands!!!!!
When I arrived I was a bit taken back at what I saw. I have to admit that the islands were not as I anticipated. My imagination of tropical paradise was replaced with moon like craters and eroding lava. My imagination of giant, shady trees was replaced with cacti and tangled, sporatic brush. But, there is no other place in the world like the Galapagos Islands. And even though it wasn´t exactly what I expected it was just as beautiful... There I swam with huge sea turtles, sea lions, penguins, sting rays, sharks and fish that looked like Skittles. I saw pink flamingos and hundreds of land iguanas. The animals were so tame. I walked up to a mother sea lion nursing her pup on two different ocasions and she didn´t budge. While snorkeling fish don´t scamper away. I floated literally on top of a sea turtle while a sea lion did barrel rolls in between our group. Birds do not fly away. I have tons of great pictures of birds and I´m not even a bird person. They have this ok white girl take your pics and move on attitude. I do love their attitude. As a matter of fact, when returning to our boat one afternoon, a sea lion had perched itself on the deck of our boat. The crew tried to hose it down but it enjoyed the fresh water instead of being bothered by it. So it stayed on our boat for hours basking in the sun. Yesterday though, a male sea lion charged our group bc we were too close to his ´women´ ;). There were about 12 sea lions lying in the sun and while we were taking pictures this huge (about my height and the size of five Japaneese Sumo wrestlers) bounced out of the water, made tons of noise and layed down in between our group and the females. As this was happening our guide told us to back up slowly. So I took a few steps closer and video taped it while laughing at his territorialness. However, we went snorkeling about 40 minutes after that occurence in the same spot and I nearly shit myself fear. Now that I am certified to dive I think that snorkeling is like a teenager with their license still driving with their parents in the car. Its still fun but the amount of freedom is limited.We went to about 5 different islands and each island had a different color sand - black, white, red, brown, and coral (rocks). The govenment protects the islands 100 percent. So much that you can´t carry sand from one island to the other. So we have to be brushed and sprayed before getting on the boat to insure our sand is off. The sand feels like powdered sugar.

At night we had lots of time to read and hang out while we traveled from one island to the next. Alicia and I really lucked out and got to be on a fun boat with lots of positive energy. One of my most favorite things to do is look at the stars. Most of the nights I spent aboard the ship were spent on top of the deck looking at the stars and the different constellations in the Southern Hemisphere. I like to spin under the stars. Spin like a little girl in her new Easter dress. All of a sudden the stars and the enorminty of the world becomes your own personal kaleidescope.

Traveling builds a lot of character. So I have a list of tihngs that I realize about myself. One of them (no you don`t get to know all of them) is that I have learned that I dont get sea sick. As a matter of fact I played `run around the boat and see who spills the least amount of coffee`with another guy on the trip while everyone was throwing up. I actually find the waves and the rocking exhilerating!

I took tons of pictures and hopefully I can post the ones from the islands later today. I must warn you that I have showered about three times since Thursday. I look like a gypsy but I love it. I feel the most free the wilder my hair is! I have tons more to write but that would take too long. Ill tell more stories later.

Tomorrow I go to Quito, say good bye to Alicia, then meet up with Laura to begin our adventure together. We aren´t sure of our plans but Columbia is in them as well as a cloud forest.

I hope all is well to each of you.
I´m safe and building character!
Cassi