Recently, I returned from a trip to the Galapagos Islands, where I had the chance to scuba dive with sharks and observe the pristine natural wonders the islands offer. I recommend that everyone visit if ever they get the chance.
However, I would not recommend this destination for folks hoping to take a working vacation. Although the Galapagos are home to numerous endemic plants and animals found nowhere else on earth, as they are uniquely adapted to its harsh climate (see Charles Darwin for more info), they are also home to some of the earth’s lowest internet speeds. And I mean slow… Possibly slower than the pictured tortoise!
During my eight day trip, I had the opportunity to take hundreds of amazing photographs of its unique landscape and vibrant life, but virtually zero opportunities to share my amazing adventures on Google Photos or social media. In fact, I found that the bandwidth on WiFi was exponentially slower than the bandwidth on cellular (shown above), leading me to believe there is no direct wire connecting mainland Ecuador with the islands six hundred miles west. This suspicion was confirmed after a quick Google search returned Zachary T. Kessel’s blog post surrounding internet in the Galapagos (http://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/sections/research/internet-in-the-galapagos).
The result was a vacation within a vacation. That is, a vacation related to all things tech and I waited until I returned to Quito, which sits atop the world at ten thousand feet before I posted my first photo, which was actually a series of photos of just some of the places visited while in Quito and the Galapagos. Check it out here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BX1vhAAArD6/?taken-by=mmmmbrians.