you still get sunburned when it's not sunny here

This morning I enjoyed a nice bit of adrenaline and hyperventilation to wake me up when I put my foot in my sock when getting dressed and discovered a large beetle had decided to sleep there. Fortunately life goes on and after our only decent breakfast at this hotel (a piece of papaya, two very small rolls, and probably three over medium eggs), we embarked on our first adventure. We walked down to the marina and got on a tiny little inflatable boat which took us out to a small yacht. We saw an iguana and lots of crabs and several types of birds in between the hotel and the yacht. We then went about minutes away to a tiny island where we saw sea lions (lobos marinos). They seemed to have mountain-goat-like abilities to climb up rocks, but noticeably less capable-looking bodies for climbing. Then we went to another island where we saw a pond (presumably with a connection to the ocean, although I didn't stand there looking for it because that particular viewpoint was mosquito central) where a shark lives. We didn't see it though; we think it was sleeping. We then walked across the island (through mud which was somewhat reminiscent of Puyo/the Amazon, but without the nice rubber boots) to a beach with lots of iguanas. They're such goofy looking animals, but they're really cool. You can also get quite close to them without them minding at all, so I got some nice up-close pictures. We also had a tiny bit of sun peek out which makes the water especially gorgeous.
Aside on the climate: SO HUMID. Also cloudy almost the whole time we were there, although it didn't rain too much. Not that it made a difference when it did rain, since we were already rather damp just from the air. The temperature was nice though; I like temperatures in the 70s and 80s, and at night it didn't get cold so we could still walk around in tank tops and shorts. People there also wore flip flops, which was so refreshing! We would have looked like tourists regardless of what we had worn, but in Quito people don't wear shorts or flip flops (they should; it's hot here), but on the coast and in the Galapagos they do :)
Anyway, the vegetation on this island was more like the vegetation on the island with the airport (Baltra): dry, lots of cacti, and weird brown grassy-stick things as ground cover. There were more bushes though, so it was greener in general.
We went back to the boat and took the sketchy little inflatable boat to a nearby shore. From there we walked to a small natural pool which was esentially dark blue water in between two cliffs. Swimming was cold but fun. All the rocks underwater were covered in moss, more or less, so they were pretty comfortable to sit on. There were entertaining little fish that thought that too, so we had a good chance to observe some (small) wildlife.
We then walked back to the hotel where were had a less-than-enjoyable lunch with something covered in peanut sauce. I ate lots of rice.
After lunch we had about 45 minutes to kill before heading to a beach, so we laid out by the pool. It turns out you can still get sunburned when it is completely cloudy, you're outside for about 20 minutes, and you're wearing some sunblock. As I've been told countless times here, the sun is very strong (El sol es muy fuerte, to be exact). Needless to say we put on lots and lots of sunblock and boarded the bus. After a nice 40 minute nap, we got to said beach which was gorgeous. We briefly looked at two pink flamingos (I guess they have shrimp here) and then we swam in the water, which was surprisingly warm. I hate cold water and I was comfortable the whole time. I haven't swum in the ocean in a long time, and I enjoyed the big waves the came occasionally.
In the evening, we walked around the town. It's not big and we got a good grasp of the location of everything very quickly, which is refreshing after living in Quito. It also felt much safer, although I was surprised at how few tourists there were; we still stood out and attracted a lot of attention. I would have thought that the locals were used to gringos, but I guess we're still novel.
There was a soccer (futbol) game happening while we were meandering and every store with a TV (there were a surprising number of flat screens) had a crowd of locals that were watching the game from their plastic chairs on the sidewalk (unless we walked by, in which case they watched us). I enjoyed this aspect of the town; it feels like a small community.
Aside: the TVs I'm sure are funded by the incredibly riduculous markup on prices, which, to be fair, are due to two things. First is the fact that everything has to come to the islands by boat or airplane; they're kind of remote and I'm sure it costs more to get stuff there. Second, they can charge whatever they want and tourists will pay because they don't know any better (or, in our case, they have no other options, since prices are much too high everywhere on the islands). A bottle of water costs 30 cents if you get it at a little tienda (store) in Quito, and here it cost anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar, and a package of crackers that should cost 45 cents cost a dollar always :( Oh well.
We bought yuca bread since we figured dinner probably wouldn't be too great, and I want to know how it's made. It's not incredibly flavorable (nothing here is except aji sauce) but I loved it.

bed time! I don't have service learning tomorrow though so I plan to write the rest then :)