April 15, 2023
The night ended in one of those spontaneous travel adventures that you never expect but always remember. Back from another excellent day of adventuring, it started to rain as we got ready to leave for the beachfront bar for happy hour and sunset. Instead of passing as it usually does, it started pouring, and instead of clearing, it ended up storming intensely all night. When it was still light out we walked to the bar and brought drinks up to the covered rooftop area, where we saw marine iguanas hanging out and climbing around the walls onto a little platform for them. The rain picked up and sunset was a bust, but we huddled in a corner to avoid the wind pushing the rain into us, enjoying our mojitos and chatting. We finally went back down and found a covered area without wind, and hung there around other people in the sand enjoying another round and fun conversation. We finally decided to make our way to a restaurant Paulina said was close, and it entailed sloshing through ankle-deep muddy puddles that had formed in the street. We were a few drinks in at the restaurant and were having a great time on the covered porch, me being judgmental of non-NY pizza (it wasn’t that bad). On the walk back I whipped out the umbrella, as I was the only person with one, and really enjoyed it, despite soaking ankles. How fun!
Well earlier in the day was amazing too. After an early and annoying wake up call from the local roosters, we started after breakfast by taking a bus to the giant tortoise breeding center, and got to see tons of these prehistoric-looking beasts at different ages. The smallest ones were in covered cages, but from ages 2ish and up they were in open pens and we could see them up close. The little ones were super active and adorable. The older ones were a little sluggish. We saw a male humping a female, which apparently is complicated and takes hours to finish. He was moaning a lot. They live up til about age 150 and reproduce starting around age 25. I loved these guys!
We then followed a trail from the center along some unique flora and fauna, like poison apple trees and mangroves. We were treated to a group of 4 flamingoes, hanging out in a pond under a boardwalk. They were young and lighter pink, and apparently the same breed as the ones I hung out with in Aruba. Cuties! The boardwalk ended with lots of marine iguanas, including a building that was decorated with climbing iguanas and fooled us into thinking they were real. We were able to walk back to town from there via the sandy beach.
It was early so we went back to change, then some of us went to get lunch at a falafel place (the only one on the islands). It was good, and my plum juice was delicious (all the fresh juices here are amazing), but we ended up having to rush back for our 12:45 meet up. We took a bus to the pier and boarded a small boat, which took us around some islets where we saw cool rock formations and some blue footed boobies hanging out. We disembarked for a short walk through some lava fields, with very unique lava rocks and colorful lichen on them, feeling very much like being on another planet. Parts of the trail were closed for marine iguana nesting. A little canal under a boardwalk is a spot where there are often white tipped sharks, because they have to constantly move to breathe and the canal lets them rest while still flowing a little. But we didn’t see any. We ended at a little beach and watched some sea lions, then headed back onto the boat. We got into our snorkel gear quickly, and jumped off the boat for another round of snorkeling. The visibility wasn’t as good today, but I saw a sea turtle, a sting ray, and lots of big parrot fish – including an iridescent green and blue one I especially loved. The goal was to look for sharks, and 3 people in our group saw one but I did not. It felt crazy that we were swimming around trying to chase sharks, no fear and just fascination.
The boat took us back, where we departed for our hotel before our adventurous night out. Tomorrow, up early for our big volcano hike!
travels.of.tara 