how dark is dark?

on sunday night, i went to sleep in my tent ... dinner had been at 6.30 ... we were in our tent, walking by flashlight glow, by 8 ... three good night kisses and we parted with kids ... and they flashlighted their way back to tent 5 .... within ten minutes, i was in bed with my kindle (oh my, have i professed yet in this blog how much i love my kindle ... love, love, love ... as much love as one can possible have for an inanimate object ... love...) .... we listened for the kids' tent .. said some not too loud goodnights ... and heard not a peep ... a definite case of three falling asleep the second their sweet heads hit their pillows ... i read for five minutes ... andy was sleeping while pretending to read (he does that a lot, not just on big trips) so i woke him so that he could go to sleep ... ha ...

so round about 8.20 (that was 10.20 at home, so not too pathetic really) four becks were sound asleep for their first tent night ... and i was ready to be asleep ... there was a little glow from the path lights ... but the tent was darker than my room at home is .... and i went to sleep .... and then i woke up .... when i woke up it was so dark that i was really about ready to have a giant freak out ... it was so so dark that i wondered if i was really awake ... it was so dark that i wondered if i'd actually opened my eyes or not .... i had opened my eyes ... and i held my hand in front of my face ... and brought it closer ... and closer ... and closer .... and closer ... and ... oh my, i'm touching my nose and i.can.not.see.my.hand.wow..... that is dark .... so ... come to find out it was a dark and stormy night ... there was not starlight or moonlight ... no other night after that was quite so dark .... but it was DARK ... so i checked my phone ... 12.30 ... ok then ... back to sleep ... in the dark ... somehow it was felt too dark to fall asleep!

now here's the brutal part ... breakfast was at six .... we were supposed to meet our bus to our boat at 6.30 ... so ... at 5.45 andy's alarm went off ... and even after going to sleep by 8.30, it felt VERY early ...
we got dressed and ready to go ...pack your swim shirt, dry clothes, sunscreen, camera, hat .... and wear your swim suits under your clothes ...

breakfast was divine ... it was every morning ... a fancy citrus juice that wasn't what you have at home ... meats and cheeses and breads and fruit (watermelon, pineapple, grapes, apple, pear) ....
we tried on masks and snorkels ... and put five in a bag ... we got towels ... and water bottles ... and a pat on the back and bon voyage ... and we were handed off to jaime .... jaime drove us down the driveway .. past chickens and finches and cows and one giant turtle (hey! what's he doing here?) .... past a gray horse tied to a pole standing on the main street .... and too the first big intersection ... there sat a bus .. it said YATE NAREL ... that's our bus to our boat, the narel ... i'm assuming yate is yacht ... though it was more boat than yacht .... jaime introduced us to alejandro, our naturalist guide (the boat's version of dora the explorer) ... we grabbed our bags , hopped on our bus, and headed to the boat ....

and then, we proceeded to have the absolute fastest, bumpiest, wildest bus ride i have ever had in my whole entire life ... OH MY ... i can't even begin to tell you ... we sat in the back row ... we were airborne over bumps .... the rest of the week, same bus, same driver, our rides were never like that ... maybe partly because we learned to sit at the front of the bus ... but also, i think, that morning was MUCH earlier than any other day ... and maybe it was fast and furious since there was nary another vehicle on the road .... so we tore down that mountain (volcano) to the port ...

you know how when you are doing something new or unfamiliar you feel excited ... but also cautious? that's how it was when i got off the bus ... well .. and a little seasick .. bus sick ... before we even got on a boat ... we were at the port from the day before .... the narel boat sent their zodiac (arturo was the driver) over to us ... alejandro passed out life jackets .... and we got on board ... in the galapagos, they call it a panga ... which means little boat that moves you from your bigger boat to where you are going .... i made that up .... but our panga was called a zodiac, a dinghy, a motorboat, the little boat, the shuttle .... it was a rubber blow up boat with a big motor .... you sat on the edge on the blown up part ...

do you see drew, julia and andy on the panga? so and i were on the dock with a sealion ... 

we took the panga to the narel ... anytime you get off the panga, don't forget to take off your life jacket .... the panga went back and got the rest of our group ... and then we set off on our longest boat ride of our galapagos stay ...two and a half hours to bartholome ....

tomorrow ... dolphins ...