nature Archives - Page 6 of 7 - crunchy kat explores

last minute cruise in the galápagos

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When I say I booked a last minute cruise, I mean I hopped on the cruise boat about three hours after I landed on the islands!

The Galapagos is one of those places you learn around in elementary school, but you never think you’ll actually end up there visiting. Well, that changed for me this past week. But with expectations set so high for such a place, you’re almost guaranteed to be let down right? Happy to tell y’all – that wasn’t the case!

Now, this isn’t going to be a post on how to do the Galapagos on a budget because well, I didn’t really do that (though I mean, I wasn’t throwing money in the air either). After I booked my ticket to the Galapagos (about two weeks before I left), I started looking at blogs on what to do while there. Turns out, no matter what, the islands are super expensive (okay, wasn’t THAT surprising to me). Just some numbers for you: $30 transfer each way between islands, $25 minimum hostel cost per night, $15 average cost of a lunch/dinner, $100-200 for a day trip for a snorkel/dive… I had 9 full days and I started to feel overwhelmed with the amount of planning and time wasted every day trying to do everything on my own.

Ecuador, South America

day trip to isla de la plata

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Isla de la Plata. Silver Island. Poor man’s Galapagos.

Living for a month in Montañita has been great, but honestly, the town is super small and I think all of us started to feel like we were trapped. Lucky for some of us in the yoga teacher training, one of the girls was proactive and researched and set up a day trip to Isla de la Plata for us on our free Sunday.

Mountains, United States, West Virginia

wild & wonderful: backpacking dollys sods wilderness

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Grassy meadows, wind carved sand stone, red spruce, bogs. This is what you’ll find at Dolly Sods – one of the most beautifully unique places on the East Coast.

Located in West Virginia, this area was once used the area for artillery and mortar training during World War II. In the 1970’s, with the open land being threatened, The Nature Conservancy, began purchasing the land for preservation and recreational use. Today Dolly Sods Wilderness Area consists of 17,371 acres and almost 50 miles of hiking trails.

If you’re in the Mid-Atlantic (and not afraid to get your feet wet), I highly suggest finding your way to Dolly Sods!

DC, Mountains, United States, Virginia

explore (greater) dc: great falls national park

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In honor of National Park Service’s 101st birthday (ya don’t look a day over 100 NPS!), I present to you… the NPS park that is in DC’s backyard: Great Falls Park!

In order to celebrate their birthday, all National Parks sites had free entry today. I hope you all were luckier than me and had a chance to #optoutside instead of sitting behind a computer all day (regretting not playing hooky!)