warmth of the sand

What should you do when you are on the Galapagos? Island hop and get golden brown.

It tops one of the most enchanting places i´ve ever been, and nears the top of my list of most memorable days of mi vida.

The bunch of us took a boat around the bay near the main city on Island Isabela, the biggest island by land area, but not by people... The roads were made of sand, our hostel was on the beach, and our dinner was under $3 every night.

From the boat we saw sea lions splashing and showing off in front of us. They are as common as dogs here, lying in boats, and posing for the pictures we were taking. The guide took us to a small island that was taken over by animals.

Hundreds of iguanas covered the black lava rocks, some half my size. We walked over the rocks to look down into a small inlet created from the lava. We looked down and saw around 50 white tipped reef sharks. The sharks feed at night and go into this inlet to hang out and sleep during the day... the locals call them the ´sleeping sharks.´ A bit further down the path we got to another small bay that was full of sea lions , including a HUGE alpha male that was barking and barking at us, warning us to back off. We kept our distance long enough to see sea turtles paddling along with the sea lions. We walked back to the boat and took a quick dip in the tourquise water.

Later a boat took us out to an area to snorkel off the barren island of Bartolome, where we spent the afternoon swimming with with penquins on the equator. More than once i was face to face with a sea lion, and one followed me up on to a beach and kissed me on the knee when i relaxed on the sand.