Yay! My first photo blog! So, about a year ago, I traveled to Ecuador with my school. We visited Quito and the Galápagos Islands of Santa Cruz and Isabela. The culture and wildlife of these places were terrific, but the people are what stood out the most. Each new person I met had their own story.
Thetwo guys above are some of the nicest people I have ever met. When I asked if I could take their photo, they both broke out into those broad, glittering smiles. The white boxes below the man on the left are filled with hard, fruity candies that burst out with sticky liquid after dissolving on your tongue (they totally freaked me out when I tried them). To the far right is a display case filled with flavored dark chocolate bars. This chocolate is, by far, the best I have ever tasted. What's so special about these guys is that they let us sample any candy we chose and as much as we wanted of it. They never stopped smiling, and as you know, smiles are contagious.
This picture was taken in the historic square of Quito, Ecuador. The woman in the yellow skirt is reading from a bible, the church as her backdrop. This little woman's voice might just be the loudest I have ever heard! She screamed out sacred words with passion no one could ever match. She was truly remarkable.
Right here is the most delightful human being on Earth. This is Wendy. She is very outgoing and brings a light where ever she goes. By the end of the trip, almost everyone was saying, "When I grow up, I want to be like Wendy." One second she would be taking an iguana's picture, and the next, she was knee-deep in the water. If I remember correctly, when I took this picture, she was talking about her husband back home. She is such a wonderful person, and the trip would not have been the same (or as funny) without her.
The man in the photo above doesn't have a story like the other ones, in fact...I never actually interacted with him. It just made me smile that he was carelessly napping on a beach that I found unbelievable. Here is an excerpt about that day that I wrote in my travel journal: "The sand on the beach was the purest, whitest sand I have ever seen. As for the ocean, the tide seemed to be performing a magic show. The water came very high up on the beach and seemed to stay there; farther out, large waves crashed and added to the standing pool of shallow water." When I saw this man sleeping on the sand, I laughed, because to me, this beach was like literal gold, and to him, it was his life.
One night in Santa Cruz, we visited the docks, dun, dun, dun! Just kidding, they weren't scary at all, as a matter of fact, what we found was surreal. Fishermen were selling their catch, pelicans were eating the scraps, sea lions were resting, and stingrays were swimming just a few feet away. It was absolutely breathtaking. The wildlife was so diverse and we were close enough to touch it. You can't see it in this picture, but to the left of this man a boy was swatting away flies from the fish waiting to be cut, I think it was his son. The amazing part of the market wasn't only the wildlife but that, just like the guy on the beach, this was his life.
This trip was the greatest experience of my entire life and I will never forget it. Humanity may seem to be a destructive force in some aspects, but the world would not be the same without it. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed this post!
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