We are at our hotel on the island Santa Cruz and it is 8 p.m. Antoinette and I arrived at the Galapagos Islands yesterday. The airport was Very small. After getting on a bus that took us to a small ferry that took us to Santa Cruz. We took a taxi into town, and our taxi driver, Alfonzo gave us a mini tour on the way there. He stopped to show us lava craters that were huge, and then he took us to go see the giant tortoises. There were some big enough to ride on, but we could only look at them.  It was still really cool though. Antoinette, Dad, and I also ate fresh passion fruit. Antoinette did not like the taste of it. She thought it was too sour. I liked it though. After that we went to see lava tunnels. They were also huge. Then we drove into town and found a hotel. (dad hadn't made any reservation) It had a swimming pool and a hot tub, so we had to go swimming. (The pool was right next to the sea so there was sand in the pool.) After having a swim we went back to our room, we showered and went to bed. We had to go to bed early because daddy arranged a for a tour, and we had to be at the docks by seven to go to another island called Isabella. Daddy's watch was an hour early so he woke us up at five instead of six, but it was worth it. The hotel has two building. One side has the pool, the other (the one we are staying in) has more rooms. The breakfast room just so happened to be on the side with the pool. So as we rush across the street, open the door, and start going down the stairs I almost step on a large sea lion that was sleeping on the mat at the bottom of the stairs. He was very large and was unhappy because he had been enjoying his sleep. We took pictures with him and then walked into the dining room. We were surprised to see no food out, and thus discovered  we were an hour early, and we then returned to our room and fell asleep for another hour.  The tour was lots of fun.  Thankfully none of us got sea sick, but a couple other people who were on our boat did. The boat ride took around two hours. A guide took our group (meaning everyone on the boat) to see wild flamingos and a tortoise center where we saw baby tortoises being raised in captivity until they were big enough to be released into the wild. Then we went to the beach for twenty minutes while the tour bus refueled. We then ate lunch, which consisted of the following : crab soup, a leg of chicken with rice, fried bananas and some sort of vegetable dish. For dessert, we had sliced bananas with this white, creamy stuff on top that tasted like whipped cream and butter. After that we went to get on a little guide/tour boat. When we got to the docks sea lions were napping everywhere. Even on a boat. They did not mind us being near them, but they did not like to be touched. We had to take two of the tour boats. There were about eight people on each boat. They took us to see penguins, black iguanas, white tipped sharks and more sea lions. We went snorkeling after that. Netty and I swam with a sea lion. I saw some really cool fish. The water was a little chilly but it felt nice after being in the hot sun. No one got sick on the way back to Santa Cruz, and we are going to go to dinner soon. We will try to put photos on the blog.
                                                                                              M&A