We woke up early and ate granola bars that I brought with me to Ecuador. We had booked a half day tour of two volcanoes, Sierra Negra and Chico, the previous day...so that is why we got up early. We walked to the tour company and got on a chiva. We stopped to buy some more water before we left for the tour. We hiked about 10 miles in total during the tour (8 kilometers one way). We first hiked to Sierra Negra, the second largest volcanic caldera in the world and one of the most active volcanoes of the Galapagos volcanoes. It was huge! You could also see steam rising. Our tour guide said that it takes three days to walk around the entire thing. After this, we hiked near Volcan Chico and hiked through lava fields and small fumaroles (steam vents). One guy in our tour group couldn't continue hiking because he was wearing flip flops (not a smart choice). We ate lunch sitting at a high point and taking in the landscape. It started to rain at the end of lunch and continued to rain the whole time during our hike back. We must have been one of the first tour groups out ...which was really lucky. We saw other tour groups arriving in the rain. We at least got some time without rain to take pictures. It got pretty muddy and wet...but it was still fun. We met a women from Montana who carried some of our stuff in her backpack (she had an umbrella).
We got back from the tour and noticed that the streets were starting to flood with water. There was also a large crowd by the beach watching the large waves come in. We also saw a woman save an iguana from the waves. It looked like it was injured and couldn't get itself out of the strong waves. Jared left on a boat at 2pm to go back to Santa Cruz to catch a flight back the next day. He was lucky he could leave because the waves were getting pretty strong.
The rest of the day was rainy and so Alexis and I couldn't do much. We ended up getting organized, getting ice cream and laying in hammocks with some Pilsner. We looked around for places to hang out but many bars were closed because of the weather. We ran into a fellow traveler from Canada that we had gotten to know previously (you bump into the same people a lot on very small islands, haha). We grabbed piña coladas with him at a bar on the beach that he recommended and watched the surfers. We ate dinner at that bar (a very tasty fish that I don't have a picture of!) and then walked home. The streets were very flooded and the bar from the previous night was partially washed away.
We got back from the tour and noticed that the streets were starting to flood with water. There was also a large crowd by the beach watching the large waves come in. We also saw a woman save an iguana from the waves. It looked like it was injured and couldn't get itself out of the strong waves. Jared left on a boat at 2pm to go back to Santa Cruz to catch a flight back the next day. He was lucky he could leave because the waves were getting pretty strong.
The rest of the day was rainy and so Alexis and I couldn't do much. We ended up getting organized, getting ice cream and laying in hammocks with some Pilsner. We looked around for places to hang out but many bars were closed because of the weather. We ran into a fellow traveler from Canada that we had gotten to know previously (you bump into the same people a lot on very small islands, haha). We grabbed piña coladas with him at a bar on the beach that he recommended and watched the surfers. We ate dinner at that bar (a very tasty fish that I don't have a picture of!) and then walked home. The streets were very flooded and the bar from the previous night was partially washed away.