GALAPAGOS, DAY 8

For the morning of the 8th day of our vacation, we went snorkeling at a little cove on Isabela. It was cool, since the cove was so protected, and we got to see and swim with some sea lions. Then it was off to Floreana, one of the least populated island in the Galapagos chain, with only 200 year round inhabitants. It took a two hour boat ride to get to Floreana, which wasn't too bad. And we encountered a pod of very friendly dolphins.It was pouring rain when we arrived, but we were able to settle into our cabins at the Red Mangrove cabins in Floreana. They were pretty rustic and minimalist. My sister thought it was like camping. I was thinking this is a close as I'll get to camping (I DO NOT CAMP). Then we headed off for a hike to the sea lion breeding grounds. It was actually pretty cool seeing a ton of sea lions hanging out in the family group. Plus we got to see some rays and sea turtles in the water.

After the hike, we all went back to get ready for dinner. We had to shower early, because the island of Floreana is run completely on solar energy. That's pretty awesome, but it also means there's not hot water after 7pm, and the shut off the power in the evenings. Then, it was off for a 10 minute hike to the restaurant. Now as I've said, Floreana has a tiny population, so they don't exactly have restaurants or shops. We had dinner at a local restaurant, which was attached to a woman's home. It was anything super fancy like we'd had previously, but we finally got to have a local meal and it was actually Tom's favorite meal of the whole trip.

We started off with these fried yucca fritters, served with a mild aji sauce.

I've learned that Ecuadorians are totally not into spicy things, so though the aji sauce was supposed to be kinda spicy, it was really pretty mild. Those yucca fritters, though, were delicious. I'm normally not a fan of yucca, but I've never had it served like this. I just gotta say, frying makes everything taste better. And my dad really liked these, too.

Meanwhile, we were also served a bunch of sides. On my plate below, you'll see veggies, potatoes and a salad involving onions and cucumbers. As always, it was served with rice and it was all really delicious.

The main entree had been cooking on a grill right next to our table:

There was locally raised beef and the foil packets contain locally caught fish. I could tell the beef had been cooked until very well done. This isn't how most Americans like to eat their beef, but apparently, that's pretty much how they serve it. (At least that's true according to that No Reservations episode they filmed in Uruguay). Though my father didn't like the fact that it was so well done, Tom didn't mind. I think he liked the flavor of the locally raised, grass fed beef.

As for the fish. I thought it was allright. It was a seasoned white fish, but we'd had locally caught fish many times during our trip, and I just preferred some of the other ones that we had eaten.

Lastly, there was dessert:

We were served a slice of an incredible dense, sweet cake along with a scoop of super dense ice cream (which was supposed to be chocolate ice cream). I ended giving mine to Tom.

Overall, I was glad to finally have a meal involving local foods. I found it all to be delicious, and the experienced could only had been improved had it been moved indoors and away from all the mosquitoes.