Galápagos,
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Certainly the most remarkable place to visit in Ecuador was the Galápagos islands. Upon arrival at Baltra Island, my sister and I were received by who was going to be our guide in the next week. Although we had been assured that he and the other crew members would be English-speaking, we soon found out that we had to rely completely on our Spanish. The first day we spent exploring the Charles Darwin Research Centre, and some other parts of the Santa Cruz island. Although we were supposed to leave that night by boat, when we arrived at the boat it was explained to us that there were some technical problems with the boat and that we would leave the next morning.
When finally we left in the morning, it rapidly became clear that we had rightly assumed that the boat was not very stable. It was lying on one side, and while trying to cross the enormous ocean waves this proved to be a major disadvantage. First of all, the boat was too weak to really advance, but secondly it received blows from all sides. Most of the passengers and crew were sick, or better: very sick. I only managed not to throw up by concentrating on the horizon instead of the unpleasant sight and sound of food coming out of fellow travellers where it had gone in just hours before. But once we got used to the effect of the waves of the small boat, we had a fantastic time.
We managed to persuade the captain to travel at night, so we could see the maximum possible animals during the day. I never expected to be so thrilled by tame animals, birds, and most of all by playing with seals. We took a huge amount of pictures, because we were amazed by the abundance of colours, and animals which instead of walking away for humans, actually posed to have a better picture taken. It was a great joy, seemingly endless, to watch those animals and hear the explanations of the guide as to their behaviour. Clearly, the fact that the animals were in their mating season had its effect also on some of the passengers. After the stormy beginning we were all sad when after a week out on the seas we had to board a plane back to Guayaquil.
