STOP 2 | Galapagos: the Beauty!

3rd Day | Sunday: the beauty of San Cristóbal

This day represented what Galapagos was in my mind. We woke up pretty early in the morning and we spent all day doing a 360° tour of San Cristóbal island. Words cannot express what I really felt, but some key points:

  • I was able to do snorkeling indeed, with an instructor this time (woohooo!)
    (and I didn't feel ashamed of my body in the above pic either!)
  • I saw many things but the most beautiful one was a sea turtle swimming a few feet in front of me.


We also saw sharks, dolphins, manta rays and many other things. We had lunch on the boat looking at the shore. We went snorkeling again after lunch and this is when I saw the beauty: Her Majesty Sea Turtle.


And sea lions were so happy to see us tambièn and play with us.

The nature of some spots – only reachable by authorized boat – was unbelievable:



The way back was really bumpy as waves were pretty intense for our small boat. I didn’t think about dying, but it was freaking crazy: I believe it was “just” the nature of the Pacific ocean.



4th Day | Monday: let’s do work.

I’ve realized only recently that technically it’s Fall here: the temperature was warmer than many other summers around the world, except for today: 22°C (72-°F). Monday is the Galápagos day: we went to Gualapaguera again after collecting Otoy plants for feeding the turtles. This time I brought my Canon camera to take hopefully some better pics, after destroying the lens cover in the morning. #takelifeasitcomes, right?!


In the afternoon it was SUP! I worked for less than 1h in the Reserva – this was today’s planned working activity: we are enhancing the Reserva with additional leisure spots for the upcoming guests.

Weather was rainy and windy in the morning so I was not sure if I wanted to do SUP or not. I had already paid and didn’t wanna lose any money. About 3:30PM the sun was almost out, so I decided to go. I got some pics but overall it was a nice 2h experience with me fearing water, a sea turtle come to me saying “Hi” and a lot of sea lions wanting to play with us.



I was able to stand for a good amount but I was shaky enough to slip into the water multiple times as well. Still, I learnt how to put myself together and stand up again.



I want to do it again, now! I would like to practice more. It’s all about Balance, the same balance I have been trying to give my life over the last 1.5y. It’s shaky, you can fall – as it happened to me literally on this day and metaphorically many other times in my life – but the most important thing is to regain balance and stand-up again. As the instructor Eric said – it’s just water! With all the falls, I could not think about the conception of the hero in ancient Rome (as per Aeneid): the hero is not the one who never falls, but the one who falls and knows how to raise again - probably too much, but you get the point :D

After dinner we went out again, as I wanted to experience life. It was a really nice and funny evening.






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