(Sunday, January 2, Day 195)

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."

Phrase of the day: Isla de la Plata, tiene suerte que Clark estaba aqui... Silver Island, you're lucky Clark was in town.

Yeah, his name is actually Chris. But he reminds me of Clark Kent(aka Superman). This could be because I was watching a lot of Smallville episodes, which Brian Brown put on my super-sweet netbook, when I met him. He's the one on the left.

He's a cool kid from Kansas City, who, unfortunately, decided to end his service here a few months ago. Thankfully though, he came back to visit for New Years. Seeing as how he was in town, I figured I could shell out the $30 to tour Isla de la Plata, "The Poor Man's Galapagos". (Normally I wouldn't have a problem paying for new experiences, but it isn't whale watching season right now).

We took a two hour boat ride out to the island. It was by far the craziest boat ride I've been on; the water was extremely rough and a few people got sick. Luckily I did not. This boat was cool, but thankfully not ours.

When we got there, we ate a snack and headed up to the first landing.

Our guide was named Cherry, and he was just as ridiculous as his name.

Speaking of names, they mean nothing here. Sorry if I've already mentioned this in the past. It still baffles me though. Almost as much as you're baffled by the fact that I'm using the word "baffle". (Probably incorrectly, at that!) Ha. So yes, names mean nothing. Among other crazy names, there are kids named Coffee and Coca-Cola. Seriously. Anyway, this is one of the views from the first landing.

We continued on our 7km hike, stopping along the way to take pictures of the island.

I made sure to snap a few of Clark and Cherry too.

The landscape reminded me of when Me, Rajib, BB, and Slick went to Zion National Park in Utah. It was very dry, but nice.

We saw the infamous Blue-Footed Boobies, which the Galapagos Islands are known for. They were interesting. The older they were, the more blue their feet were.

I'm not really a bird person, so the cliffs were my favorite part.

Unfortunately there was no where good to jump from. Although the water was just asking for it! (No worries bubs, I'm not crazy).

Cherry on the other hand... well this is him doing the Blue-Footed Boobies-Dance.

We also saw the red-footed boobies and other bird species. Brent, Me, Clark, and Claire.

After the hike, we had a quick lunch on the boat and headed out to do a bit of snorkeling. As usual, I was scared of sharks the entire time I was in the water.

The island was nice overall. I'll definitely be back in the fall for the whale watching.