Galápagos Islands: Part Dos

I'm writing this post from Guayaquil, which feels quite grungy after our time on San Cristóbal Island -- and I think it's just a grungy city in general. We're all in a bit of a post-Galápagos funk. Wyatt curled up in bed this morning at our Airbnb apartment back on the island -- and just did not want to pack his bag or leave all the sea lions. But leave we did, after one more breakfast of fresh bread, hard-boiled eggs, some instant coffee, and orange juice.

Umm, can we keep this view somehow?

We so enjoyed our last couple of days on San Cristóbal. A swell came in and Tim caught some excellent waves on Friday and Saturday. Tim and Wyatt rented snorkeling gear from our buddy Junior at Scuba Eden and went snorkeling. Taylor and I went on a walk and found a new ice cream shop (priorities). We went swimming off Playa Mann. We watched more sea lions, which never gets tiring. And we celebrated Wyatt's 9th birthday on Saturday!  

Nine!

We had hoped to visit at least one other island while we were in the Galápagos. But it didn't happen, and we're ok with that. Had we taken the ferry to Santa Cruz, which has about 30,000 residents, we felt like we would've walked through all the tourist traps in town, and it would have looked like a souped-up version of San Cristóbal. Some of the islands are best known for their dive spots, and we don't dive. We could've visited Espanola (a two-hour boat ride away) on Saturday, but that was Wyatt's birthday and he wanted to spend his day at the beach.

But we got to live on San Cristóbal for over a week, and for that, we are immensely grateful. We got to know the town, we got to see the same people over and over again (a great study in human behavior 😉), we made friends with Junior, we got to know some of the sea lions -- I mean, it really was perfection. The kids completely relaxed -- no more big city anxieties to deal with on a remote and not-well-populated island.

Hi. I'll just be here forever.

We loved, loved, loved the Galápagos. It is a magical place on earth, and we will treasure our memories and photos from there.

So, now, we're in Guayaquil for one night. Tomorrow, we head to Lima -- again for one night. And then Tuesday, we go to Peru's Amazon. We don't anticipate having internet access in the Amazon, so you might not hear from us for a week. No doubt we'll have lots to share after February 8.

Climbing on the rocks at Playa Mann.

Just swingin' at The Pier, a restaurant where we had a Saturday afternoon snack.

Busy writing and drawing at The Pier.

After The Pier, we had to hit the playground.

More sea lions! Do we have to leave them?!! Here, a mother feeds her youngster.

Our home while on the island. Our apartment is the door on the far right.