Day 1 Sam and Christy’s point of view: 

We begin the day with an unusually slow start. The group all met at the Alaska Airlines international departure at 4:30 in the morning. Luckily security and customs went by rather quickly and without a lot of delay. Everyone scattered in order to get a quick bite to eat and buy a few snacks for the trip before boarding the plane to LAX. After the vigorous and exciting 3 hour plane ride we arrived in the LAX airport where we spent 1 hour eating, sleeping and doing other various entertaining activities while awaiting the boarding call for our flight down to La Paz. We boarded our small plane and sat back for another 3 hour flight. The moment we stepped off the plane we all felt the heat and were ready to get going, however there was one more check through security, and then we were off to the boat. Arriving at the harbor we were happily greeted by our guides, Lela and Stasia, who were more than happy to bring us to our home for the next week. Being that we arrived much earlier than most groups we were given the time to acquaint ourselves with the boat and crew. A safety talk was given and it was time for an afternoon snack. The boat raised anchor and we were off! 

During our time at sea dinner was served, it was a delicious serving of Mexican cuisine, Muy Delicioso! After dinner we didn’t waste a moment and jumped right into the sea. Our first experience of salt water swimming was rather startling; the water was more...salty then expected. After we left the water we had a lot of free time to soak up the sun and settle in, however we knew this would not be the case for the days to come. Before bed time (10 pm) we sat up on the bow of the boat and listened to Lela talk about safety and boat orientation as well as what we would be expecting in the next few days.