#the shark found him after reading the yelp reviews

[winryofresembool]

Edwin week, day 7: Promise

Summary: Ed brings Winry a special gift from Creta (and may also attempt to ask a question). (Part 2/2)

A/N: here is the second part to the fic I started yesterday! <- Go read it first if you haven’t, as this will make more sense after that. This is my last post for the Edwin week (;_____;) this year so I’d like to thank the mods for organizing this event, and everyone for the amazing contributions! ♥ It’s been a real blast, and I hope to see you guys again next year! But now, enjoy this, and don’t forget to review! 

@503week

AO3

Words: 1900+

Genre: floof

Warnings: Ed’s language

The day of Winry’s homecoming started surprisingly smoothly. When she exited the train, Ed was at the platform waiting for her, with a small bouquet of flowers he had picked on his way to the station in his hands. Al had once again insisted that’s what he should do, especially after what had happened to his automail. That way he could most likely protect himself from Winry’s wrath for a moment longer.

Winry was all smiles when she spotted her fiancé’s (she wasn’t sure what name to use) golden hair among the crowd. As she got closer, she noticed he had flowers in his hands, and her happiness changed into confusion. Since when was Ed so considerate that he’d even bring flowers? She got a strong suspicion that Ed had some ulterior motive, because the Ed she knew wasn’t usually that thoughtful. Of course it was possible, she thought, that Al was behind it… She decided to not question it as she finally reached her destination and gave Ed a warm hug.

“Hi! I wasn’t expecting to see you here!” she greeted him when they separated, Ed offering to carry her bag.

“Of course I came! You’re… I mean, that old hag would have made me wash two months’ worth of laundry if I had stayed in the house,” Ed claimed. “She’s still doting on Al; he only has to peel a couple of potatoes for the stew…”

“Right,” Winry snickered, seeing right through him. The blush on his face told her that was actually not the reason why he was there.

“Uh, these are for you,” he pushed the bouquet in Winry’s hands awkwardly.

“Aw, thank you, Ed! They look nice.” She buried her face into them for a moment, taking in their nice scent.

“That was nothing… So, how was your trip?” he asked quickly before Winry could think of some other way to make him blush.

“It was good! I am so close to getting my official automail mechanic license now! Mr. Garfiel still wants me to write a final analysis on the use of different metals in automail limbs, but that’s easy for me, I have years of practice on… why are you looking at me like that?” Winry asked when she saw Ed stare at him weirdly.

“No reason… I had just forgotten how passionate you get about mechanical limbs,” Ed grinned, making Winry glare at him angrily. “Sorry, sorry. Please, go on! You were about to say something about that analysis…” Ed had realized that the longer he let her rant, the less likely she was to pay attention to his slight limping, but there was something else too; he actually found himself interested in what she had to say.

“You were actually listening?” Winry asked with surprise.

“Why do you sound so surprised, I always listen…” Ed retorted.

“Yeah, right. Well, anyway… As you know, some metals are lighter and thus more comfortable for the user to wear, while…”

Winry continued her ranting happily all the way to the Rockbell house, while Ed made an occasional short comment. He sighed of relief when they made it inside the house without her noticing his issue at all.

…

Later that afternoon, it seemed it would start raining soon, and a neighbor of the Rockbells came to ask if someone would be willing to fix a hole on the roof of his sheep barn before that. He would have done it himself, but his back had been acting up a lot recently, and he didn’t think he’d be able to climb on the roof in that condition. Ed volunteered, happy about an excuse to get away from Winry’s knowing look for a moment.

In about 15 minutes, Ed managed to get the roof fixed with no problems. However, things took a turn for worse when he was trying to come down the ladder. It had gotten slippery in the rain, and unfortunately for Ed, he was wearing a shoe only on his real leg because he hadn’t bothered to put the other one on for such a short period of time. The combination of smooth, wet wood and a metal leg turned out to be dangerous for Ed, who could only scream when he slipped on the ladder and fell several meters before hitting the ground. Thankfully, there was nothing sharp under him, so his real limbs got off with relatively little damage… but he wasn’t so lucky with his automail. It got big dents on the surface, and based on the weird feeling on his leg, Ed was worried the wiring had gotten damaged too. Winry would definitely kill him now…

“Are you alright?” the neighbor asked him worriedly when he saw Ed lying on the ground helplessly.

“I… think so,” Ed lied, cringing as he tried to put on some weight on his automail leg.

“You don’t look OK… Let me take you home with my horse,” the man offered. “You are lucky that you have two medical experts living under the same roof with you… They will surely be able to check you up.”

“Lucky… or doomed.” Ed mumbled under his breath as he sat down on the carriage that took him back home.

…

“What happened?” Al yelped immediately when he saw Ed’s condition.

“I just fell from the ladder a couple of meters… The damn automail made me slip. But don’t worry about it… I have been in much…”

“Brother!” Al stopped him angrily. “I don’t care if you have fought Homunculi and gotten me back from the gate! You should be more careful. That could have ended badly.”

“Al, relax… I swear I’m OK, I just…”

Ed didn’t get to finish his sentence because a young woman’s voice said quietly:

“Edward…”

The blood seemed to escape Ed’s brain when he saw the sadness in Winry’s eyes. She had of course seen that the automail she had built with love was hanging from its port in an awkward position, and the skin of his arms was scraped badly.

“Win, please, let me explain…”

“What is there to explain? That you are the most reckless, irresponsible…” At that point Winry’s voice got so high pitched that Ed couldn’t figure out what else she said. She swept the corners of her eyes with her hands and ran back inside without looking back again. To Ed, that reaction was far worse than if she just started yelling at him.

“What the fuck was that about? Shouldn’t she be happy that I didn’t break my neck or something? Does she only care about her automail?!” Ed asked, kicking the ground with frustration.

“Brother…” Al said calmly. “I really don’t think she was upset about the automail this time, no matter what she says. She must have heard what happened to you and she simply freaked out.”

“Yeah but why?”

“Edward,” Al said seriously (Ed noticed that he used his full first name instead of the usual ‘brother), “you asked her to become your wife, and you still don’t understand how she’s feeling? Imagine how you’d react if Winry fell the same way you did and hurt herself in the process? Possibly because of your automail?”

“Oh,” Ed finally understood Al’s point. “I guess I really messed up. Again…”

“But it was an accident!” Al reminded him. “Just go tell her you are alright. I’m sure she will want to fix that automail of yours.”

“Fine.” Ed gritted his teeth. “Uh, can you help me out a bit? It’s a bit hard to walk with this…” He pointed at his automail.

Al helped Ed inside and upstairs where Winry’s room was but left him alone as Ed braced himself to knock on her door.

“Winry…” Ed said tentatively.

No response.

“Winry, I’m coming in.”

When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Winry working on a blueprint at her desk.

“What are you doing?” he asked, just to say something. He had never been good at this kind of stuff.

“Drawing an automail leg blueprint for an idiot who can’t take care of it,” she said without lifting her gaze from her paper once.

“About what you may have heard outside…” Ed said hesitantly, “I never meant it was your automail’s fault I fell. In fact, it has saved me from more accidents that you know…”

“I know, Ed,” Winry sighed. Her voice had already lost most of its earlier edge. “I just… freaked out.” Just like Al had suspected, Ed thought.

“But I’m OK, I swear. Aside from a couple of scratches…” Ed showed her his arms.

“I know,” Winry repeated. “It’s just, worrying is in my nature; I spent years worrying about you guys, and when you came back, I thought you guys were finally safe… and then incidents like this happen… And I feel it’s my fault…”

“Okay, first of all, it’s definitely not your fault. I was being clumsy, OK? Second of all, I’m sorry. I really should take better care of my automail.” He tried to lighten the mood a bit by saying: “If this is how you react to a little scratch, it’s a good thing you don’t know about my shark fight…” “Your what?” Anger flashed in Winry’s eyes again, and Ed realized he had made a mistake again.

“Eh…” he rubbed his neck. “We just did a little fishing, that’s all…”

“Let’s get back to that topic later,” Winry decided to give up on trying to understand Ed. “Now, let me see your automail.”

Ed sat down on Winry’s bed and Winry lifted his automail leg on her lap. She removed some of the metal plates to see if the wiring was damaged, and that’s when her mouth went into a widest ‘O’ Ed had ever seen on her face. He had forgotten what was inside the leg.

The ring.

“Ed… what is this?” She took the necklace with the ring out of there and dangled it in her hand.

“Oh fuck, I forgot…” Ed cursed, slamming a hand against his face. “This is not how I was supposed to give it to you…” “Could you please explain a bit further?” Winry asked, even though she had an idea about what he meant. Her face turned a shade redder.

“I was…” Damn it, why did he always have to get so flustered in her company, Ed cursed in his head, “… Well, remember when I was leaving to Creta a year ago and we were at the railway station?”

“How could I forget that?” Winry asked. They had… they had promised each other to spend the rest of their lives together, after all…

“Yeah, well, anyway…” Ed stuttered. “I realized I never gave you a ring… uh, as a proof of my promise… So… this is kinda it… Winry… are you still willing to give those 85%... or how much you want… of your life to me?”

There was a long silence.

“Of course I am, you silly!” she finally exclaimed and forgot all about the automail when she threw herself at him, making him fall on the bed. The hug lasted pretty long, and when they finally pulled apart, Ed offered to put the necklace on her.

“I think it suits you,” he said, admiring the smooth surface of the golden ring.

“Thank you,” Winry beamed, and leaned to kiss him on the lips. “It’s beautiful. Now, how about we take care of your bruises?” She pulled some disinfectant and bandages from her drawer and started cleaning Ed’s wounds.

“So, I’m more important than that automail, after all?” Ed asked smugly.

“Of course you are, you dumbo. One question, though: was it already broken when I came here?”

“Let’s... talk about that some other time,” Ed said and pulled her for another kiss. She didn’t complain.

[callmeakumatized]

Fish Funk - ch. 2

ao3 ff.net prev ch. next ch.

Mermay Day Two - Prompt: Petty Crime

A mass moved overhead, temporarily covering the light peeking through the holes in the ceiling. Expecting some type of big fish or whale of some sort - and hoping it wasn't something more menacing - Adrien tore his eyes away from his latest ship find - a soft, pink something - and looked up. His eyes did a double-take before widening.

It wasn't a fish, or any type of underwater life. The details of the whatever-it-was was swallowed in shadow, but the way it cut through the water instead of gliding with the flow of it, leaving a massive trail in its wake, gave it a decidedly inorganic feeling. Plagg joined his side, glancing in the direction Adrien was silently staring. His whiskers twitched.

"Is that…?" Adrien asked his companion, words so quiet in pent-up excitement they were nearly lost to the current. His grip tightened around his coral-colored find, his tail propelling him upward to peer at the dark shape through the hole.

"A ship?" Plagg responded. Adrien nodded. "Yeah, that's a ship."

A ship. A real ship!

A million questions raced around Adrien's brain. Looking to Plagg, the start of his sure-to-be-lengthy interrogation on the tip of his tongue, Adrien faltered. For one thing, Plagg's answers were sure to be short and unhelpful. The way Plagg moved now, twitched his body and whiskers and gazing at the fleeing ship only backed his theory. Whether the overgrown fish would simply be unresponsive - or in mild distress - if asked any questions about it, Adrien didn't know. But there wasn't time to debate about asking or not. Before the dark bulk could leave his vision, Adrien darted after it.

Until a hard slap on his tail caused him to flip around.

Plagg looked serious for the first time since Adrien had known him. His wide lips were tight, his body seeming to curl up on himself and back again in clear agitation. The stance caused Adrien to float back down to his friend, though he continued to glance back wistfully toward the ship's direction.

"They're humans."

Adrien turned to look Plagg straight on.

"What?"

"Humans. They look like merpeople, but they don't have tails. They have no fins of any sort, nor scales." He wiggled his own flippers briefly to accentuate the point.

The description left much to be desired, the mental picture it painted enough to cause an uneasy sick feeling in the merboy's stomach.

How could someone with half a body even survive!?

"B-But how - ?" Adrien wondered aloud, twirling his forgotten find around in his hands. "H-How do they swim?"

Plagg's whiskers twitched again, though Adrien couldn't quite read his expression (slightly understandable, since it was just a wide blubbery mass).

"They don't," Plagg spoke flatly.

"Don't - ?"

"They don't swim, 'kid. There's no water up there to swim in." Plagg swam in a circle out of the hold, gesticulating with his tail as he came back to Adrien, belly facing the light.

It was a concept that, as a merperson, Adrien was, quite literally, unable to understand.

Plagg "laughed", a short sputtering snort he seemed to reserve for when Adrien looked or did or said something particularly stupid. The merboy was about to reprimand him, but Plagg, with a flash of his eyes, spun around Adrien and took off suddenly, moving faster than Adrien would have believed possible. With only a moment of surprised hesitation, Adrien, with his "treasure" still gripped in his hand, darted after Plagg.

(Where had this speed been when they were chased by a shark just a few days ago!?)

Plagg dove into the collection of jagged rocks that lay next to the open space where the ships were. There was a brasher rushing in the ocean here than Adrien had ever heard before. The countless currents pushed and pulled, tugging at everything that passed through. It was difficult to muscle through, a task made harder by the flighty light of the sun. At times the sun shone brighter, and in other parts, its light was doused completely. At those times, Adrien struggled to get his eyes to adjust fast enough to see where Plagg had gone. It was an irony he didn't find funny at all; having lived in darkness his entire life, Adrien's eyes still struggled to readjust to it after being somewhere lighter.

After a long while, Plagg finally slowed, almost to a stop, and Adrien swam passed him with a yelp before spinning in the water and backtracking. He wanted to say something, wanted to reprimand Plagg for doing this, but his gills at the side of his neck were sucking in water too strongly to eke out any sound. Plagg, who, despite being constantly lazy, hadn't any trouble from the ferocious swim, spoke instead.

"Adrien," Plagg started, voice low and tight. "This is the most important thing to remember: humans can be dangerous." Plagg had been noticeably more agitated this trip than on any other. The subject, and perhaps where they were (wherever this was) seemed to exacerbate the black creature's emotions. His forked tail whipped so hard and fast after his admission to Adrien, it made a loud snap! in the water. Adrien startled at the sound.

"They eat fish."

The disturbing depiction Adrien had painted in his mind from earlier now had a few added rows of shark teeth.

Adrien had no doubt he would have nightmares the next time he slept.

"Plagg…" So many questions, so many things he wanted to know, and Adrien didn't seem to be able to articulate anything. One question, though, had continuously nagged at the back of his mind since their first meeting, and seemed to be the only thing he could ask now.

"Plagg, why are you sharing all this with me?"

All at once, Plagg paused in his movements. He obviously hadn't been expecting this question, but the catfish's lip turned up in the corner a bit. It was almost his signature smile, but the sadness there, the hardness in his blank eyes, made Adrien wonder, not for the first time, not only how old Plagg was, but all the experiences that he had been privy to.

"Because your people have lived in darkness for too long, merprince."

Merprince.

That wasn't actually a word, but Adrien didn't say anything. Plagg had to know that, using it to show Adrien that he, at some point or another, had found out who he really was…or perhaps that he had known all along. Adrien let this realization, and Plagg's confession, sink in, along with its obvious implications.

Like that the merpeople were, or would be, Adrien's responsibility.

And that the prince was meant to bring the light back to them all.

It was something that Adrien had mused over through the years. The plans to do so ranged from daring to secretive, from bringing Plagg in to meet his father, or bringing pieces of the ships to show the merpeople. Every plan, no matter how dumb it sounded, or how well-thought out it was, all ended when Adrien would come face-to-face with his father.

Gabriel was made king years before Adrien was born. No one really knew how old he was. After his victory over the great oppressor, Hawkmoth, Gabriel was granted a trident from Neptune himself, or so the stories went. Among other magical powers, the object seemed to also grant immortality. The new king, upon reviewing their world to be corrupt and dangerous, moved the entire civilization from their previous home of Atlantis - a legend in its own right - to Ferro Papilio, a place buried deep in the mountain regions of the open ocean. It was where they had lived ever since.

It was here, though years later, he had met Adrien's mother, the first woman in his long reign he had ever fallen for.

Adrien was born soon after their marriage, and, according to his private tutor, the kingdom had rejoiced to have a prince. Though he acknowledged his role as a father, Gabriel never seemed to take a real liking to Adrien. Nothing spoke from him of admiration or acceptance, but where Gabriel failed, Emilie, his mother, picked up the slack. From her he learned the value of a soul, of making others happy, or helping others feel loved. Though Adrien was often kept at home for weeks at a time, his mother was there with him, and he really couldn't find a fault in his little world because of it.

Mere weeks before Adrien's 13th birthday, however, his mother died, the love and comfort in Adrien's world perishing along with her.

There were no real threats to them in Ferro Papilio, Gabriel always drawled on. But their protected city didn't stop Adrien from feeling incredibly vulnerable that day. He had wanted to escape, wanted to see something rather than everything here that reminded him of his mother. But Adrien was never let out of the house after that, and never knew why. When trying to talk to his father about it, the merman would never want to see him. The only companion he was left with was a small crab named Nathalie, who, he learned quickly, was more into spilling his secrets to Gabriel than being a confidant. In was in this stretch of time when Adrien had finally seen his home for what it was. Although living in Ferro Papilio kept them safe, it also left the merpeople in endless darkness, figuratively and literally, and they had no idea.

There was one time Adrien had, after a particularly heart-wrenching day feeling the ghost of his mother's love and fearing he would never feel happiness again, went directly to his father to touch on the subject of what was out there. Adrien was looking for hope. But while the suffering merboy had only asked, in his love-starved state, what was beyond the borders Gabriel had raged at Adrien with a maniacal ferocity that made him retch for days. Unable to stand the mention of Adrien any more, Gabriel had sent him out to join the school. It was the first day that Adrien had been out of the house in weeks, and was, perhaps not so coincidentally, when he felt the warmth, when he met Plagg.

It was, perhaps, why he had so willingly followed.

How would he ever succeed the task now laid before him?

Adrien wasn't sure. But he would never give up trying.

The feel of something hard within the smooth texture of his stolen treasure from the ship suddenly caught Adrien's attention. Turning the billowing bulk through the water in front of him, Adrien let it flutter out fully to really look at it while feeling for the hard part that had passed his fingers a moment before. It moved softly in the current, mimicking a jelly-fish in some ways. While their colors were certainly similar, the feel of it resembled a dolphin's sleek body, smooth to the touch. He could see the small bulge now. Something was hidden in a pocket - like a seahorse's - on the side of his treasure. With tentative fingers, Adrien pulled it out, wondering what it was.

It was smooth and round, made out of a shiny substance that Adrien thought he had seen before, though covered with flecked of black and red. The color of this was unmarred, though a subtle pattern seemed etched into its surface: a wonky circle with four smaller circles on the top or bottom, depending on which way he looked at it.

Plagg's voice at his shoulder made Adrien suddenly jump.

"It's a ring. Put it on your finger."

At the same moment Adrien slipped the ring on, another mass passed over their heads. This time, when Adrien started upward, Plagg nodded his encouragement.

Neither saw the eels that had followed them. Nor the bright purple that glowed from their eyes.

[[ A/N: I add in more author’s notes and stuff on my ff.net and ao3 stories, just fyi. Thanks for reading!! :3 ]]

[kktravelblog]

galapagos: november 2017

It’s actually nuts that it took me over a year and a half to leave the country again. Once I got back from Australia, I got caught up in the hustle and bustle of real life and being a settled 26 going on 27 year old adult. Per my parent’s encouragement and American healthcare, I found a real job at an advertising agency, took care of a few ongoing health issues and then eventually moved to Hoboken. I feel the need to add that while I didn’t leave the country that year and a half, I definitely still experienced new things. I went to my first camping music festival (which I would do again a year later), my first of many city festivals, and visited Colorado (three times) as well as Sedona/Grand Canyon. This year and a half was different than previous but I am happy it panned out the way it did. I have made some incredibly awesome lifelong friendships through these experiences and have found an appreciation for live music. More on those adventures some other time. 

The next trip I finally went on was to the Galapagos Islands, all inspired by a Facebook video I saw while avoiding working one day. In my defense being on Facebook was part of my job, mom. For months, Brianna and me would daydream and send each other random ideas, but nothing ever came to be until we saw this marine iguana video. Less than two months later, we had two other friends join the trip (Hi Shannon and Amanda! Amanda also went to the College of Charleston with Brianna and me) and for the first time, these daydreams of travel plans came together to a real thing. At this point in my life, it was a huge personal accomplishment because it proved I am capable of having a traditional life while still taking really cool trips (except that positive mindset only worked for so long… stay tuned). 

Brianna and Amanda both worked long-hour seasonal jobs at the time so they set out a month before and did some much needed traveling around. I was jealously liking Instagrams from my desk. When the Galapagos week finally arrived, Shannon would join them on the Friday before me and I was set to join them early Monday morning, except per usual, I messed up my flights and actually got there on that Tuesday morning. Minor details. Sidenote, prior to the trip Brianna/Amanda and Shannon didn’t know each other, but because Shannon was heading to meet them first, I had to send each of them a picture of the other. Literal blind friend date. It ended up being great because it was college friends and a home friend becoming friends over travel and I wasn’t even there yet. The ideal situation. 

OK so… 

The Galapagos, technically part of Ecuador, are large islands set off the coast known for their large number of wildlife unique to only them including blue-footed boobies, large turtles, sea horses, sea lions, marine iguanas and more. It is why Charles Darwin became the Charles Darwin, scientifically meaning it’s where he created Darwin’s theory of evolution. Apparently a big deal for scientists. So big that the locals referred to him as the respectable name of Chucky. Chucky wasn’t Galapagos’ only claim to fame, it is also notoriously known for its large population of hammerhead sharks, meaning you have a pretty high chance of seeing one when you dive. This realization was definitely one of the main reasons we went. 

Once I met up with the three of them in the airport, we set off and headed to the first island, Baltra. Baltra is really only known for the airport if I’m being flat out. But what I remember it as is my first glimpse of what was to come. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I always do little to no research before a trip because I personally don’t like to have expectations. I’d rather watch it unfold before my eyes as we go. So when we took the first bus to the main town to get the ferry to Santa Cruz, I was shocked. The land was very bare, colorless and open, with tons of cacti and leafless trees. In the distance, you could see the miles of blue water. While different than what I imagined, it was definitely still surreal. 

The outline of the trip was set up very similarly to my last few short trips. If you’re not catching onto the theme, we tend to fly into the main airport, hang in the area, leave to another area, to return back to fly out. So for this trip, we landed in Baltra, ferried to Santa Cruz, hung out a few days, ferried to Isabela, hung out a few days, went back to Santa Cruz for a night and then left from Baltra. 

We used these first days on Santa Cruz to explore the island, learn about Chucky Darwin, go to a turtle observatory, and find a place to scuba dive. Three of the four of us had been previously certified in scuba diving, but we found out that there was also the opportunity to dive even without a certification down there. This is normal in some countries, although I think we were all a little shocked that it was a possibility. We quickly learned that anything really goes in South America! Overall, the diving was incredible. We saw a lot of cool things, most notably, a hammerhead shark swimming by in the distance. 

For me personally, this was a defining travel moment for me. If you read my blog when I got certified, scuba diving is the most out of character thing I have ever done. I am really afraid of water and not a confident swimmer. The water in the Galapagos on the first dive was incredibly choppy and the guide did not speak perfect english, which would traditionally be fine, but I had worked myself up and had what I consider the closest thing to a panic attack that I’ve experienced. I got out of the water, collected myself, and forced myself to go back in on the next two dives. I could not let that small moment define how far I’d come facing a fear, and I am so happy that I did. On a less serious note, it was also on this island that I spent the first three/four days thinking I was telling people “Nice to Meet You” but in reality was saying “I Love You”. Facing one fear at a time. A-hA!  

However after that translation issue, there was no better time to leave the island then after a guy responded with I love you too! So the next morning, we headed to the ferry early, after passing through the sniffing dog security system, and were off to Isabela, “home of the best sunset in the world”. Within minutes of hopping on, one of the workers pointed to Shannon and told her to grab a friend with zero explanation. Before we knew it, Shannon and me were climbing the side of the moving boat and sitting on the top deck of the ferry with the captain. A true blessing to my seasickness. Thanks again Shandog. 

We arrived to the island, greeted by sleeping sea lions and swaying large palm trees, and this is what I thought the Galapagos would be like. We spent the day exploring, eating an abuela’s homemade empanadas, sitting on beaches (locals thought we were nuts because we were literally white girls sunbathing on the equator.. it was justified though if you saw my back after day 1) and walking through a nature park full of pink flamingos. We also chose to book a tour to Tortuga Islet the next day. I have to mention that while at the shop the Lumineers were playing on the radio. If you don’t know, the Lumineers are my all time favorite band and it was really cool to hear them play in such a remote place. Had high hopes for the tour after that. Tortuga Islet ended up being one of the highlights of our time on the island, not only for the large turtles and sea horse sightings, but because of our tour guide Fernando. He also deserves a yelp review and again, I’ll get there one day. On this tour, we were also joined by three guys who were traveling the Galapagos by yacht (bougee!) and two Ecuadorian girls that were definitely entertainment, with their love of selfies and no awareness of personal space. Ask Brianna for more details please, she was the fan favorite. 

The next day, Shannon left us, leaving the three of us to hang around the island for one more day before venturing back to Santa Cruz the next day. It was the ferry back to Santa Cruz that I, and I know Brianna, had single handily one of the funniest travel experiences to date (right up there with the North Island to South Island New Zealand ferry, right Brianna?). I’d be shocked if Amanda didn’t agree. The ferry was super early, so naturally we took the hour and a half to nap using our small backpacks as headrests. Our larger backpacks were sitting in a huge pile with everyone else’s belongings. We just weren’t aware what those belongs were… until all of the sudden about fifteen minutes before docking, we were awoken by a rooster sound. To be honest, at this point, I was so seasick I was doing everything in my power to not throw up, but when I did peak up, I just saw Brianna and the guy across from her uncontrollably laughing. It was then we realized it wasn’t someone imitating or playing the sound, there were ACTUAL roosters in what turned out to be a rooster carrying case. I’ll share the video. You be the judge, but there was no way to know that live roosters were in there. The weirdest part was they were quiet the entire hour and a half ride, and waited until we were docking to starting doing their thing. It’s like they knew it was time to wake us up. I’m laughing while writing this and incredibly grateful that Brianna took a video so you can all also enjoy. If any surprise, this video has been shared amongst the four of us countless times (it’s like you were there Shannon). 

Once we got to land and departed from the roosters, we checked into the first hostel that would take us and set out to explore Santa Cruz for one last day. We started the day off strong by taking a short boat ride to Las Grietas, a stretch of inland crystal clear emerald green water at the bottom of an earth fracture. Basically, it was beautifully clear water set between two large rocks that you were able to snorkel through and had the opportunity of going through the rock tunnels or climbing over. Me being the terrible swimmer that I am chose to climb over the rocks. Looking back, I am not fully convinced climbing over the rocks was any easier than getting the courage to swim through.  

After we returned to the island with the full day ahead of us, so we did what any motivated, dedicated travelers would do on their last day in the remote Galapagos Islands and posted up in a cafe for over six hours and played Rummy 500. Pretty sure we had coffee, lunch and dinner there. Early the next day, we woke up to head back to the mainland, but weren’t able to leave without yet another funny story…

Brianna and Amanda had booked the flight twenty minutes earlier than me. While I was sitting outside security waiting to be let through, I heard Amanda’s name called on the loudspeaker. I didn’t think much of it, until I met Brianna and Amanda in Guayaquil to find out that Amanda was collecting rocks and sediment the entire trip (illegal!!) and had gotten caught. Pretty sure her picture is hanging in the Galapagos airport to this day. Good on ya Amanda! 

Brianna and Amanda had already spent a night in Guayaquil on the mainland of Ecuador, but I had not. I wasn’t sure what to expect but knew it wouldn’t have been anything like the Galapagos. And I was not wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I have heard great things about Ecuador and I am looking forward to returning, but Guayaquil is known to be a bit more dangerous and we got many warnings from locals saying we should not be walking around where we were for too long, especially too late at night. However, even with the warnings, we were able to explore the markets, get last minute souvenirs and eat (pretty sure I had KFC… so cultured!). After a few more hours of cards, Brianna and Amanda left for the airport and I was left to hang in the hostel for one more night before trekking home the next day. 

Galapagos was a really cool trip and definitely once in a lifetime. It sounds like this super remote place, which it is in terms of what it has to offer, but it is incredibly easy to get to and even easier to backpack. I’d recommend it to anyone and everyone. This trip also reminded me just how much I missed the life I once lived everyday. Ten days would never be enough, at least not now. And it was from that point on that I continued to daydream and figure out how I could get out there again… Change was coming! 

[na-vidya-na-avidya]

Man Found to Be Unusually Tasty, News At Eleven