Every Day

I don’t know how it all seems to work for Ty and I all the time on our international adventures, but it does. Which is why I was willing to start this adventure this morning... but let’s catch you up from the beginning. Yesterday... Ty and I arrived on the island yesterday afternoon and our Airbnb hosts were lovely. We decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and go snorkeling at the local beach. We walked down there and the snorkeling wasn’t really good... neither were the free beaches. Instead, we sat on a break wall and watched the beautiful blue waves crash.  I was so tired last night that we went to bed around 9 and then woke up at 6:30 to be able to get ourselves organized for an adventure! We wanted to visit Clifton heritage park on the west side of the island but no busses went all the way there. We decided to just go with the adventure and we hopped on a bus that would take us within 2 miles of the entrance.  As we went along, the bus that wa...

The last day in the Galapagos! Ty and I wanted to get in one last snorkel and per our favorite travel agent we decided to hit up Charles Darwin beach early in the morning. We all woke up early in the house to go on our morning adventures. The girls were going to the Charles Darwin Research Center, my parents were going to hang out at the research center and the beach and Ty and I were going snorkeling. Tide was low and rocks that we swam over last time were now jutting out of the water. We put on our thickest wetsuits (that we brought) and slowly got into the freezing water. There were two older ladies who were wading in the water as well and giggled at us as we squealed at the cold water. They told us to have a good snorkel and we were on our way. It was cool to see a little closer to all the small fishes and rocks since the tide was out but we really didn't see much. We were not out for long when we got really cold and bored (when you see sharks, turtles and rays on all you...

"9:30 I'm walking out of this house." I announced to everyone the evening before. I wanted to get a good start on our last full day together. At 9:30 am, I did leave the house with only a few other people (funnily enough all the parents) and we walked into town to get our snorkel gear. After the shop handed me a bunch of the same size fins that were too big and a pair of adjustable, I finally actually got a pair of fins to wear for the day. Yay! Just as we were ready to leave the shop, the rest of the gang showed up to get their gear and we said we would meet them at the ferry. On the dock we looked at all sorts of wildlife and also spotted the tiniest little baby sea lion with its mother. It was about two feet long and so adorable. The park service had sectioned off an area for them to be alone but we still had a good view from the dock. The little yelps it was making to get the attention from mama was adorable! Then everyone arrived and we were able to take the ...

Tuesday was off to a slow start especially because of the long, exciting day on Monday. I honestly cannot remember why it took us almost until noon to get moving. We probably made breakfast, sat around and talked and slowly got ready. Its also especially hard to get 8 people out the door at an early hour lol. So before noon we all left the house to go rent snorkel gear only to find out that the place we wanted to rent from was closed. So, we had to try to find somewhere else (added time). With 7 of us needing either a mask, snorkel or both, that was a lot for this place to find. We were probably there for like 20 minutes while they went to their other location (3 times) to try to find what we all needed. I have my own mask but lost my fins in Thailand (you can read up on that in my blog, http://everydaymoad.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-lost-flipper-of-thailand.html ). It was a very sad day and now I'm crazy picky about my snorkel gear. They kept trying to give me adjustable fins and ...

Sunday morning we got up and decided to go for a snorkel at the Charles Darwin Research beach before our friends joined us in the afternoon. Ty and I were the only ones with our own mask and snorkel but my parents had swim goggles. Heres the beach at low tide (you can see the high tide mark) but just as beautiful: It was a warm, sunny day but the water was still pretty chilly. I had my lava core (thick wetsuit type top) and was still cold! It took me awhile to get into the water and it was my first snorkel in over a year so it always takes a little getting used to. You have to breathe differently through a snorkel, long and slow breaths (I keep having to tell myself: no, you are not going to drown with your face in the water, you have a freeking snorkel in your mouth...). Immediately, we noticed the lack of corals but still an abundance of fishes on the reef. My dad stayed with us for awhile but then Ty wanted to get out further and it was just the two of us. We were exploring ...

We started off our day waiting for our shuttle to the ferry just like Saturday except this day our shuttle didn't show up on time. We sat on the corner of our apartment complex and watched the minutes tick by and the vans drive past. We started to get nervous and thought we might need to get a GrabTaxi to the ferry. At a half hour until our ferry took off, and looking on the phone for a GrabTaxi, our driver was waving at us from the median. We ran across traffic like frogger and hopped into the van and hoped we would make our ferry. We made it in time, about 5 minutes early in fact and watched more Mr. Bean on our 2 hour boat ride to Phi Phi. Once we got to Phi Phi, it was nice already know what to do. We had our 20 Baht ready for our entrance into the island and we knew to look for our hotel on the many signs that people were holding on the dock as we walked in. We didn't find our hotel so we took a map and wandered in the correct  direction. Once we got to our place, we w...

Saturday morning was an early one. We all were getting picked up for our weekend on phi phi island! It was a two hour boat ride to the island and so we arrived on the island around 11 and it was pouring rain. We met with our Guide who would take us to the hotel and it was about a 15 minute trek down the streets in the rain. Needless to say we all got wet. One could even say soaking... We got to our hotel and spent a little bit of time relaxing and drying off before meeting for lunch. The host suggested a snorkel tour for the afternoon which we all jumped on. So we ate a quick lunch before heading out on the boat. We practically had to run after our guide through the streets to get to our boat. We got to take a wooden long boat on our trip with a few other people. The motor on the boats comes off the back on a long stick which helps them to maneuver really well. It also is super weird looking and very loud. Our first stop on the boat was monkey beach where monkeys were roaming free ...