Since we have made everyone else post their top five and we have been slacking with ours I thought I should get on it sooner rather than later otherwise it would be easy to just ignore not having done it. Here are my top five parts of this trip in no particular order.
1. Everything coming together. During the planning of this trip I managed to stress myself out beyond belief. While in Ecuador we have had a few things go wrong and I have lost some of my happy go lucky, everything will work itself out attitude towards travel. So trying to figure out what boat to take, where to deposit the money, getting money transfered into different accounts, walking down the street with $7,000 stuffed into different pockets in order to deposit it into the correct bank, not to mention the fear that this was all a con job or that the travel agent would go under before the trip, or that the boat would be a floating slum, or that flights would be delayed or canceled and family members wouldn’t make it, is just the short list of fears that went through my mind the months leading up to the trip. I think thats why one of my top 5 has to be that it all worked out and proved to be enjoyable. It took about the first day on the boat for it all to soak in and for me to release the stress but once that was passed I was able to really enjoy the vacation, as can be witnessed by my smile in the pictures.
2. Snorkeling with Hammerheads. One of the appeals to going to Galapagos for me was to see some of the marine life in the pacific which I have not had as much of a chance to see. So when our guide told us we might have a chance at snorkeling and seeing hammerheads in the bay we were in I thought he was just appeasing me, as the likely hood of seeing Hammerheads in the shallows seemed far fetched to me. But then when I realized that the bay wasn’t shallow as it was part of a volcanic crater and it dropped off I got really excited. So when we got the chance to see 12ft hammerheads swimming underneath us I was super excited and was able to check one more thing of my list of underwater sea creatures.
3. Seeing Marine Iguanas. Having a chance to see these prehistoric looking creatures was up there. Between them swimming and snorting out salt water or merely laying in a heap sunbathing, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of them. So now that we have hundreds of pictures of these guys I keep going back to see how cool they really were.
4. Having a chance to spend the holidays with family, in a completely new place. I don’t think there is much more to say about this one.
5. And lastly the scenery of the islands and being at sea. As much as I hike and like the mountains I think the ocean still trumps them.
From Russia with Love 
