Hello from the Islands

This will be a short update with more to follow when we return to the mainland.  We've had an amazing time here on the Galapagos Islands.  It has been most challenging, and very rewarding.  We've seen giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, penquins, sea lions, iguanas galore, sharks, flamingos, finches, warblers, pelicans and so many more wild life I can't list them all! We spent the night in Santa Cruise in a charming hotel the students dubbed the "Dr Suess"house,  We  spent our first day doing a little snorkling where we spotted our fist sea lion, and lots of Sally \Lightfoot crab.  We ate an amazing dinner and had time to re-group for the next day's trip to Isabella Island.
Next day, After a grueling 2 hr boat ride on choppy waters in a twin engine 26 ft cabin cruiser, we landed on Floreana Island for a hike to a Tortise preserve, and lunch,.  We had a little rain, but the weather was cool enough to hike through the wooded area.  We got up close to many tortoises, and got lots of good pictures.
 When we got back down, we again loaded on the boats for another 2 hours of rough riding to get to Isabella Island - our home for 2 nights.  We were pretty whipped, but were happy to be gounded.    The rains came and we have learned to embrase being wet.
The next day we hiked 4 miles up to 4000ft to the caldera in the rain and mud.  We got to the top only to find the beautiful promised view was fogged in.  We slid down the mountain with many of us landing in the multiple mud puddles.  We all looked like mud-monsters!  But that didn't stop us from going to lunch at a beautiful outdoor camp area, where we woofed down lentals, potatoes, rice, corn, chicken, and fresh oranges.  We spent a little time when the sun came out, playing some soccer.  We got back to the hotel, did some fast washing up  and headed out for another hike in the city to see the flamingos and another turtle preserve.
We spent some time relaxing in the ocean, and playing some additional soccer on the local town fields.
Today we took that same 2 hours boat trip completing the triangle of islands back to Santa Cruise, but not before we did more hiking to see the igauana on Tortuga \Island and some amazing snorkling where we spotted sea turtles, starfish, and lots of crabs.
Tomorrow we are off the the Darwin Center and then hop a plane back to the mainland.  We will be heading to the spa tomorrow evening.  We miss our families but are having a fabulous time.