The Galapagos Islands

If you missed my first update you can check it out here.  

After the team left Ecuador Dustin and I moved to a different part of the city.  

We actually stayed right in the city center in Old Town (the President's mansion is behind us) 

We stayed in the coolest hotel and spent a day exploring this part of the city.  

This is also when we went to the Basilica, which i blogged about it here.  

After a day in Old Town we woke up early Saturday morning and flew to the Galapagos Islands. As we prayed and talked about this Ecuador trip we decided that if we were going to be in a foreign country for work/ministry we wanted to stay a few extra days and do something fun together.  After much research we decided we wanted to make this our destination.  And it.was.incredible.  

The Galapagos islands are a group of islands straight west of Ecuador in the middle of the Pacific ocean.  97% of the islands are uninhabited by people and most of the wildlife that is there is found nowhere else in the world.  It's actually where Darwin came up with his theory of evolution.  

To be honest it's the most unique and beautiful place I've ever been to and there is really no way to capture it in pictures.  These pictures don't do justice at all.  

 One thing we learned about the Galapagos is that it's not easy to get to.  From our hotel in Quito to our hotel on the island of Santa Cruz we took 2 taxis, 2 planes, 2 buses, and a boat.  

 We stayed at Casa De Judy, in a room that overlooked the ocean.  Because there are so few people who inhabit the island and there is literally no pollution the sky is beautiful all the time.  During the day it's a crystal blue and at night you can see stars and planets all around you.  

We had no internet or tv on the island, so we were really able to unplug and just enjoy the scenery and nature around us.  

We went to the Darwin Center one day to see the giant tortoises.  Again pictures don't do it justice of how big these animals are.  

We tried to do a mixture of exploring the island on our own and going on a couple tours to other islands. 

 We counted up in our 5 days on the island we took about 10 boats.  You literally get to everything by boat.  We had the opportunity to snorkel a couple times and swam with giant seat turtles one day.  We got amazing underwater footage on our go pro.  

  

 We saw so much nature around us that we had never seen before. 

 One moment we felt like we were in the desert and the next on a beach.  One island we went to was filled with giant lava rocks and many people described it as walking on mars.  Because everything on the islands goes untouched you really get to see nature in it's truest form.  

 These sea iguanas were everywhere.  They don't hurt you, but as you walk you literally have to watch your step because there are groups of them covering the islands.  

 The Galapagos were formed from multiple volcano explosions, so you see this black lava rocks everywhere.  

On one of our tours our tour guide took us to this giant swimming hole.  The water was so beautiful and natural (and like 50 degrees:)) 

Our plane landed on the Island of Baltra and had to take a boat to Santa Cruz.  They transported our luggage on top of the boat (not strapped down). From that moment on I knew it was going to be an interesting trip:)

We went back and forth on whether we should take this Galapagos trip, but in the end I'm SO glad we did.  The whole time we were there we just kept looking at each and realizing what an incredible experience this was to have together.  We had so much fun exploring the islands, eating good food, talking, and just being in such a unique place.  

I know it's where Darwin came up with his theory of evolution, but I feel like God used this trip to show me in a deeper way what an incredible creator He is.  Our time there was worshipful and made me even more thankful for the God that were serve.  

We came back from the Galapagos rested and rejuvenated and ready to wrap up our time in Birmingham and move to Atlanta 2 weeks later.  

One thing is for sure we will not be able to look back on our first year of marriage and say it was boring:-)  

Here's to an incredible trip and an experience of a lifetime!