Galapagos Feb 2

Wednesday was the Big Hiking Day. We took buses to the Volcan Chico walk. It was probably 10 k on muddy horse trails, not bad at all. Walking, we had these long discussions about our religious beliefs and how we were raised. Interesting. An hour or so in, we stopped to look at this enormous volcanic hotspot/crater/I don't know that much about volcanoes. It was a huge hole at least 20 k across with sulfur deposits on one end and it was just huge and brought out the agoraphobe in me.

Another thing that was going on during the walk was one of our coordinators was constantly pumping breast milk. She has a 6-month-old baby that she left at home but she was producing milk and was storing it in bottles because she had a psychological attachment to it. This lead to a long question-and-answer session about breastfeeding while we had a snack.

After that health class lesson, we started our descent to the lava fields. This is where I understand when people say the Galapagos looks like Mars. There was so little life, only tiny plants and just endless lumps of lava. You felt in danger there, remember the heat that had rolled down those planes so long ago and so recently, depending on whose eyes you use. It was so hot and sunny and reflective there. I could see coming here, being a pirate, and feeling as though this were hell. And to be stuck there, to not know trails or where the edge was, with no water would be hell. You would die. We climbed up this huge mountain of hard lava (imagine that forming! swirling and bubbling!) and saw the view: forest to one side, ocean to the front, grasslands to the west and hell all around

Alana, Sarvie and I decided to run on the way back. And by run, I mean jog for 20 minutes and then walk the rest of the way. It started raining very very hard midway back so we were very cold. Of course, we beat the rest of the group (but not the people who actually ran) so we sat in this pavilion and contemplated stealing this family's food. We went to this restaurant that would have been lovely had it not been raining because it was entirely unconnected grass huts. However, they gave us scalloped potatoes and hot sauce and fruit and it was good. We took vans home and took naps.

Highlight: is there life on mars?