Thursday! It was still raining! We went to el Muro de Lagrimas (wall of tears) which was appropriate because god was crying. You know, rain. Originally, parts of the Galapagos were used as penal colonies and they made the prisoners build this giant wall of volcanic stones. It was a very impressive wall and even more impressionable because Jeff talked about how much suffering went into the wall. So many prisoners died there, they started with like 3000 and after a few years only 300 were left. Humans do really horrible things to each other. Organized government, especially when it's into punishment rarely ends well for individuals.
We walked a trail along the wall, looked at more of this bizarre thin vegetation. Walked some more along boardwalks saw stately pale flamingos. Their knees are backwards and their throats are flexible tubes. Its amazing they can stand and fly both- their bodies seem designed for neither. Our walk was then along the beach which was beautiful but we were all very sick of the rain and cranky.
In the afternoon we went snorkeling and sightseeing. We went to a place called Tintorearas which is several very small (the size of a house) islands very close to the water level. The whole place looks like it is made of lava dribble castles. We saw boobies and penguins and friggits and sea lions! They were all sitting next to each other and many pictures were taken.
After that we tried to go snorkeling and it was really scary. It might be time to explain the Dana Snorkel Stay Calm method now. Basically, snorkeling involves a lot of things that are scary: being in the water, not having totally free breathing, not being to see clearly, feeling alone, seeing creepy plants, waves, possibility of hitting something, possibility of getting lost, drowning, etc. Basically, I am a fraidy-cat about a lot of thing and snorkeling combines many of them. But I also like water and fish and animals and exploring and I certainly wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. So I tried to look at snorkeling like a meditative, spiritual activity. I worked to slow my breath, audible through the tube. I tried to relax my jaw and shoulders. I kicked evenly and reminded myself bodies float naturally. I let the wave add rhythm. Of course, I still hyperventilated every time I got too close to seaweed and when rocks got too near I almost gave up and sank. But I'm proud of what I did manage.
However, despite my excellent mental control, the snorkeling was pretty bad. The water was deep and cloudy and you couldn't see anything. We tried another spot and that was better but extremely cold and had Dana's enemies, rocks covered in algae, near the surface. I saw a giant ray, though, just chilling out under some sand.
We got out of the water and took a walk to mangroves, another natural environment that I am unreasonably scared of. There was a beautiful bay at the end, though, that reminded me of the dock in Requiem for a Dream. But not horrific and drug addicted. We walked back. There was only van, so half the group stayed behind and drank beer while we waited. Beer is horrible here.
Highlights: lava formations, cute animals! Not dying while snorkeling.
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