Paradise Found

Iguanas. Pelicans. Lizards. Sea lions. Mocking birds. Giant turtles. Dragonflies. Crabs. Finches. King salmon-sized electric blue fish. Cactus. Volcanic rock. An orchid biologist who looks like Wolverine. An oasis. More fish. A friendly gay couple from San Francisco. Salt flats. A white sandy beach with crystal blue waters. What do all these things have in common? I´ve run into all of them in the roughly six hours I´ve been on the island San Cristóbal in the Galapagos. I don´t even begin my four-day/three-night boat tour until tomorrow and I´m already in awe of this place. I spent all afternoon swimming, scuba-ing and jumping off cliffs in a little oasis a 60 second water taxi ride and a fifteen minute hike away from my hostal.

Where I was last week was amazing too. Rebecca and I had a great time hiking and relaxing in Vilcabamba, a town that I instantly fell in love with. It reminds me of Juneau, what with its great hiking trails and granola cruncher feel. Our hostel, The Hidden Garden, was absolutely charming and had the best included breakfast I´ve eaten my whole trip. I´m talking real, homemade bread here (the bread so far is generally awful) along with eggs, fresh fruit and fresh juice. All this and our room for only $12.50. I´m telling you - this is the life. Actually, the hostal is for sale at the moment, so if anyone has a spare $450,000 lying around please do consider buying it because I´ll totally volunteer to be the manager.

A funny thing about Ecuador - they use American money. I guess they ditched their currency a few years ago in favor of using ours, although Ecuadorian coins are still in the mix. It´s weird seeing dollars again. I feel like things are a bit more spendy here than in Peru; although hey, I did get a full body salt scrub and a facial in Vilcabamba for only $13, so I can´t really complain.

After my tour in the Galapagos I have at least until the 19th to do some exploring on my own, although I could change my ticket and hang out even more if I like. I´m thinking about returning to Vilcabamba (before making my way to Colombia) because I dug the vibe so much. I´m quickly coming to the realization that I probably won´t make it through all of Central America - hell, I might not even make it out of South America - but I am totally ok with. I am absolutely getting something out of every experience and I think that´s what´s really important.

It has been great traveling with Rebecca and we´ve had some good discussions. I have learned a lot about Sweden from her and I find it to be a very impressive country. To start off with, I never realized that the bands ABBA, Ace of Bace and The Hives are all Swedish. But more importantly, in Sweden they have universal health care, public universities that you can go to for little or no cost, six weeks paid vacation a year, free oral contraceptives for everyone until they´re twenty, maternity leave worth 90% of a woman´s pay for one year, and so on and so forth. They even have a law that you can only use naked/scantily-clad women to sell things like lingerie. When trying to figure out things that supposedly make the US superior, all I could come up with was our war machine and the possibility of making it rich. In Sweden, it sounds like family and free time are more important than money and one´s career, which unfortunately I fear have become the focus in the United States.

But anyway - here I am. In the Galapagos and I have at least another three months of traveling to go. I keep hearing people say oh I wish I could do that. But you know what? You can. It´s a choice. Obviously it´s easier for me when I don´t have a ton of commitments. But I think that with a year or so of planning everyone should be able to break away from their established routine and just get out there. Check out the Vagabond link in my ¨Books I´ve Been Reading¨ section, it´s got some good stuff related to this theme. In the meantime, I´m glad you´ve been reading my blog and I promise some good stories after this Galapagos trip.