I can already say this is THE most amazing trip I ever had in my whole entire life.

Been to Galapagos Islands during the last 4 days, and I was on a ship.

Galapagos Islands is a remote group of little islands in the middle of the pacific ocean, and is the place where Charles Darwin did his research and eventually came to the conclusion of the theory of evolution. As a fan of Charles Darwin I think I really should visit this island (although I’m only halfway through his best-selling ‘Origin of Species’) Apparently 90% of the wildlife found in Galapagos Islands cannot be found elsewhere in the world. And every island has very different vegetation and animals… this is what amazed Charles Darwin. As an avid wildlife-lover I just HAVE to visit these islands… This is a trip of a lifetime

First of all, there were about 80 people on the ship and we were separated into 5 groups and there will be a tour guide showing us around in the islands. everyday there are 2 excursions in the different islands and we can observe and learn about the very distinct wildlives in these islands. What amused me most were the VERY VERY CUTE SEA LIONS!!! We were just inches away from them! But werent allowed to touch them though.. but that’s good enough, never been that close with sea lions!

There’s an island full of Marine Iguanas….. They look so much like dinosaurs haha…. there were so many of them we had to look at the floor and be really careful not to step on them!!!!!! My group members and I have been calling the island Jurrasic Park!!!! Steven Spielberg must’ve been to this island and got his inspiration!!

There are some blue-footed birds called blue-footed boobies, for obvious reasons, and that blue is so unnaturual you wont believe this is a real animal…

Went snorkeling. The underwater life was beautiful! Schools and schools and fish swam past me as if I werent there. I saw a shark, a starfish, a sea turtle, and even a few sea lions swam past me….. A male was staring at me as he swim past. I was kinda scared to start with since they said males can get very aggresive. But snorkeling in galapagos was delicious! Never seen any water so clear and clean, so unpolluted that I don’t have to dive in order to see everything at the bottom….

You know I took 5 Gb’s of photos just for these 4 days… I guess I won’t upload them here yet… I am definitely going to make a website exclusively for this Latino trip with all those photos and diaries!

There was an american family with 2 teenage girls. That day the father suddenly came towards us and talked in mandarin. I was so shocked and asked where did he learn that. He pointed at his daughter and said (in mandarin) ‘This is my teacher!’ (and his daughter’s about 16/17 only!) Then her daughter talked to me in mandarin. I answered ‘I am not going to embarrass myself, so I am just gonna talk in english. How can an american speak better chinese than a chinese??!’ Apparently they got a Chinese nanny at their home in US and she’s been working there ever since that girl was born. And the father wanted that girl to learn Chinese so he forced the girl to speak only in Chinese to the nanny. So the nanny is actually a private tutor as well. And you know what that girl can WRITE chinese without problem!!! So I guess Chinese to her is like English to me. Her mom then told me she studied university in taiwan!! There are 2 really old grannies travelling with them, and I heard that their grandma just recovered from her cancer surgery and the whole family came to this trip to celebrate!

There was a Piano Bar in the ship. I saw it and got excited. Havent played any piano for more than 3 weeks. there I went. playing a few of my favorite songs.

The next day, a girl in my group (Russian girl a year older than me) came to me and said ‘hey, I heard u play the piano last night’
‘Oh really?’
‘I liked it so much!’
‘haha.. okay… thanks’

Then we started chatting non-stop. About our countries, about our schools, about our lives, about the wildlife in theses islands…. everything. We saw a mom and baby sea lion then we started making up conversations for them…

That night during dinner she came towards my table and gave me her email. wakaka.

Then there’s that american guy. a bit older than me. I saw him drawing a lot, in the beaches, in the forest, in the mountains. Then I told him ‘I like your drawings a lot, they’re just soooooo goood!’ (I did mean it), then he asked ‘was that you who drew that picture on the sand in the beach yesterday????’ I said yes. Then we got all excited and started chatting about japanese comics and animations, for the whole excursion. During the last day we drew pictures in each other’s sketch book, and exchanged emails. I promised to give him a list of must-read comics.

I always sit with my mom and her friends during dinner, and as typical hk ppl we will start observing other ppl on the ship and comment on them.. one by one…. After dinner all the younger ones on the ship liked to hang out at the out-door pool area/bar. Of course I did go and meet them la. There’s a newly wedded couple having their honeymoon in this remote island, we started chatting then she told us how they have been observing other ppl on the ship and commenting on them… one by one… we then broke into hysterical laughters, since our comments on those ppl were exactly the same.. haha

Of course, at the end of the tour I got lots of emails… also some really pretty pictures in my book. OMG! Does these scenes look familiar? It’s so much like all those summer camps I’ve been to! Oh how I miss my summer camps…. those good old days when I wasn’t over-aged for summer camps….

Off to Peru tomorrow. Haven’t expected much, since I have enjoyed Quito and Galapagos sooooooooooooooo much….. I am starting to worry that Peru is going to disappoint me…. Should have done it the other way round.