STOP 2 | Galapagos: not everything turns out as you want!

Galapagos was really a pretty late booking, added to my itinerary. I planned on a few activities relying on Viator mostly + booked locally.

2nd Day | Saturday: an allegedly productive day!

I had to do so many things today, and I ended up not doing anything robust. I was sad at first, then I remembered that these 3 months are more for me and nothing else, I don’t need to chase anyone or anything, only listening to my dreams and my feelings, as the Medium said. And remember #takelifeasitcomes.

I went to the city early in the morning: Bowen, Marion and Judith planned to go diving. I did not want to join, mainly due to my heart hole (PFO) not fully recovered. So I joined the same taxi, to stay in the city of Puerto Basquerizo a bit, before going snorkeling.

I dropped by a souvenir store, as on top of magnets, I really wanted to buy a Galapagos hat and a back-pack: I love my MIT bag, but wanted something slightly more robust and wider – still as a personal bag to carry on planes.

After done my shopping, I walked 30 mins to reach this amazing beach: Playa Tijereta (actually Muelle/Cerro Tijereta). I went there with all the excitement of a kid about to try/do something new. The path to reach the beach was amazing, just inside the National Park of Galapagos.

I reached the place, a few sea lions playing around, some crabs on the rocks, a giant sea turtle waiving at me and the few other people there: let’s go Luca!

Landscape apart, it was a complete disaster: I didn’t wanna wear my flippers, as I thought I would be clumsier with those (actually it still technically the opposite). I still have issues with breathing, in the tube, probably due to asthma (I need to focus my mind on breathing properly), or probably due to the fact that this would have been the official second time snorkeling for me. Put on the mask, tried to breath, entered the water and I just couldn’t do it. Silly as it may sound, I just could not.

So I try – at least – to swim a bit and I left the mask on the rock. Spent literally a few seconds swimming before realizing that the water was dragging the mask down into the water. I swam back: too late, the rented yellow mask was sinking…in front of my eyes. Ok, that would not be my best day. I got back on the rock, looking at other people happily snorkeling and being ready to re-pay for the mask. A group of noisy American tourists arrived to the rock, all excited to go snorkeling, with a probably certified local instructor, who seemed to be experienced: he was ready to enter the water, helping each one to get used to it, and to wear gear properly. 

Sometimes a sea turtle makes its appearance for a couple of seconds in front of us.

I told myself: “what if the instructor can see my mask and pick it up? It’s flashing yellow eventually”, but didn’t ask for it, as I felt too ashamed. Many things of this trip have been so magical, nothing crazy, just slightly magical. After a few minutes the instructor saw my mask and picked it up: for the sake of honesty, he wanted to keep it, but I waved at him, saying it was my mask and if he could please get it back to me, I would have been appreciative. He looked at me with suspicion, listening to the words of reassurance of a National Park guide I had briefly interacted earlier, saying it was true that I lost my mask in the water and that's why he also didn’t understand why I exited the water so quickly. The instructor looked at me saying: “you exited the water, without noticing you were not wearing your mask?” Dude, I am clumsy and sometime even stupid, I admit it, however I usually don’t go that far with silliness. I confirmed I went for a swim leaving my mask on the rock and water grabbed it. He handed the mask over to me. Quite shameful, but life is different from what you post on your Instagram stories, hence I am being my honest self here: as the Medium asked me, was I focusing more on what my life looks like than on what it feels like?

Everyone left. I was alone on the rock. Sea lions, which are endemic from Galapagos, were in front of me playing with each other. I had enough, I felt sad, but that’s life: #takelifeasitcomes. It’s not ended though. On my way back I got an Almuerzo on the beach: for 5$ I got appetizer and main dish:

And yes, Ecuador has US$ as a currency, which was surprising to me. Before going to my afternoon activity, I went to 3 different ATMs to withdraw money, without success as all of them were not working. Lucky me! I needed some cash to pay for the tour of the following day. No lack at all. But life happened again: with my broken Spanish I told a girl that the ATM was “fuera servicio” and she offered to drive me with her scooter to another one. We started talking and she “gave” me again 25 years. Lorena, already love you. She was not super good-looking, at least to me, but she asked me if I was single and if I was on Facebook: she never added me – just checked – but making connections with strangers is not what we do every day in the most Western (developed? more civilized?) countries: we just don’t have time for humanity in our lives. #sadtruth

SUP activity was waiting for me. I went to the shop and 2 problems, actually 3, occurred.

• I booked for SUP board rental only, if I needed an instructor – which I definitely wanted, especially after my earlier snorkeling experience – I needed to pay more.
• The owner was stuck in the shop, waiting for 5 people who had rented kitesurf equipment but had not shown up in the last 1.5h
• As per above experience with ATMs, I didn’t have any cash with me at all, so I couldn’t pay for the instructor.

So #takelifeasitcomes should hold true in the good and bad luck. I agreed with Erik, the owner (and instructor) of SUP Galapagos, that we would have moved my lesson to Monday or Tuesday. I went home and writing the “Philly” part of the blog – which eventually was not a bad thing at all, as I really wanted to catch-up with writing.

I hit the city after dinner with Marion and Bowen, just for literally a drink, as we would have an earlier start the following morning.