Woofie as we fly away from the Galapagos

More sea lions playing. The pelicans and some sea lions wait at the fish station for free hand outs!

Some popular T-shirts!!

Islands that we past as we traveled.

The sea lions playing near the pier.

Baby sea lion nursing. Mama appears to have four nipples. The babies make big slurping sounds!

Ginny and one of the babies.

OK. so I have not figured out how to properly label these photos. I will get help from Linda on Monday, and get some additional pics posted... and properly labeled, I hope!! The plan is to get a photo album put together... so hopefully, some of you can see that!

If you can, plan a trip to the Galapagos Islands. It is a treasure worth seeing!!

Friday in the Galapagos

Ecuador Galapagos Friday April 1, 2011 We got up early this am to take pictures of the sea lions before catching the 7am ferry back to Santa Cruz. We were totally entertained again by the sea lions. We had a very pleasant and fast taxi ride back to the island. We stayed in town and had a nice breakfast before heading back to the house. Cleaned up and went back into town for the last minute shopping. I think it was even hotter than it has been… and it has been hot (and HUMID!!)! It will be nice to get back to the cool, wet weather! One last dinner together, back to do our final packing and finish these blogs. Definitely need to plan another trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands!! Hasta luego!

Thursday in San Cristobal

Michael and Midene Some underwater shots, fish and sea anenomes.

Approach to the beach

Ginny by the fountain on San Cristobal Island, the sea lion is enjoying the fountain, also!

Sea lion sleeping inside the slide at the children's pool!

The bench says "Conserve what is ours". Seems appropriate!

One of the National Geographic ships!!

Thursday in the Galapagos

Ecuador Galapagos Thursday, March 31, 2011

Ginny and I had a leisurely breakfast this am then headed down to the tourist office to get our tickets to San Cristobal. We had a fast taxi boat ride in a very comfortable boat. We had hoped that Midene would be there to meet us, but it was not to be. So we got directions to the hotel and started off that way.

We were totally distracted by the dozens and dozens of sea lions everywhere! They were all over the stairs, piers, benches and sidewalks. There is even a shallow pool area with tube slides for kids and the sea lions come up and go through the slides!! They were very funny to watch. As we were strolling along, Midene found us!! They had checked on the ferry schedule and were told there was only a 2pm boat, so they figured we would not come over. They just happened to be having lunch and she saw us! Yay!!

We sat down and had lunch with them. I had a wonderful bowl of chopped fruit with yoghurt ($2) and a grilled ham and cheese ($2). Then I saw fried plantains and cheese (also $2) and had to order that! I thought each item would be rather small… not! It was quite the meal. Any two would have been enough… but I managed.

We got checked into our hotel and grabbed snorkel gear and headed off to La Loberia. It is a pretty beach where you can often swim with the sea lions… and we did!! We snorkeled for over an hour, two sea lions were with us. There were also lots more fish than I have seen in other areas. There were waves and rocks, so I had to just be very aware as I was swimming, but it was the BEST snorkeling I have done on this trip! We were hoping to also see some sea turtles, but we never did.

After cleaning up, we went to the interpretive center. It is very nicely done. Michael got up on the super neat stage that is there and he did some “Texas Monologues” that were very funny. We had some good laughs.

We spent the next hour (or two!) just watching the sea lions as they came in for the night, covering the local beaches. They were so entertaining to watch! We were making up dialogues of their conversations. Too funny.

It was finally well after dark and we went for dinner. We stayed and talked for quite awhile. Midene and Michael are a fun couple. We exchanged email addresses. I hope we can keep in touch in some way. They expect to be on their cruise for another 6 or 7 years. I may have to join face book just so I can keep up with their adventures!

We finally let them go back to their boat and Ginny and I went back to our hotel. Ahhhh, air conditioning! We managed to sleep better, even had to use our blankets! This was such a fun day.

My advice to future travelers is to stay on San Cristobal for 3-4 days. Do lots of snorkeling (and SCUBA diving, if qualified). There were several hikes I would have liked to go on. There is not the diversity of animals here as there is on some of the other islands, but it was definitely my favorite day of the trip. I am going to check to see if there are houses for rent (like Pablo’s house) for a trip in the future. I am also looking forward to chatting with Carol about her cruise.

Maybe the next trip will need to be a 4 day cruise and 3-4 days on San Cristobal… something to think about!!

Wednesday in the Galapagos

The baby iguanas really blend into the lava rock! Adult tortoise.

There are baby iguanas on the lava rocks.

The sea lion we were snorkling with!

The water taxi for the shallow lagoon. A blue footed booby.

Wednesday in the Galapagos

Ecuador Galapagos BlogSpot Wednesday March 30, 2011

Blue and Ginny wanted to stay around the house today, we are all pretty fried by the sun. I wanted to go on another day tour, so I ate a quick breakfast and zipped down to town to see if I could catch a trip to Isabella Island. Colleen decided to join me and we got on a trip that was leaving in 20 minutes!

This trip was about 2 1/2 hours on another boat taxi. Our guide was a young man named Javier. He spoke excellent English, but tended to tell a lot of info in Spanish, then very little in English. This tour ended up being much more hurried, and less relaxing. But we still had a good time.

The marina at the Island is very shallow, so once we docked, we loaded onto small taxi boats to tour the area. We saw some penguins and boobies. Then we went over to a lava rock area and took a short walk to see the “iguana kindergarten” and some sharks! The juvenile iguanas live in the lava rocks here where they can find food in the holes and hide from danger.

The “white tipped sharks” hang out in this channel. These reef sharks feed mainly at night, in total darkness. The eat reef fish which they detect using electromagnetic pulses. Unlike most other sharks, the white tip sharks sleep during the day, living on the ocean floor, alongside rocks or in caves. Luckily, we were able to see many of them cruising through the area where we could see them. We also got to see some sea turtles in the distance.

We did a short snorkel swim. There was a sea lion with us. They are sure funny characters! I got one good photo of him and two that were not good (one of his neck and one of his tail end) but I did not erase the bad photos because it still shows that I was in the water with him!. The pretty little cove is called La Calera. We went back to the mainland to board the taxi bus and went to a restaurant for lunch. We had a nice chicken soup and bread, then fish, rice and salad. This time I knew it was fish (though I did take a taste—very “fishy”) and gave that to Colleen. She enjoyed it immensely. Then we had some time to enjoy another beach.

I went for a short swim then went to the lava rocks to get more baby iguana pictures. From a distance I could see little round protrusions on the tops of the lava rock…I thought they were the heads of the baby iguanas (but was sure I was being fooled) but they really were iguanas! Hundreds (thousands?) of them! There is a protected nesting area in the grasses close by, but the youngsters spend most of their time on the rocks. I got some really good photos. (Thanks again, Gary, the camera is awesome!).

Colleen and I bought some ice cream then off to the next stop. We got to see some wild flamingos in their lagoon. They were a long distance away, but it was neat to see them in the wild. (I grew up seeing them as the first exhibit at the San Diego Zoo!). The last stop was a tortoise breeding facility. Got to see all different ages, sizes and varieties of the Galapagos tortoises. We even saw some youngsters (about 5 years old) play fighting! They bite at each other then pull their heads into their shells and bash shells! Rather comical to watch.

Then it was time for the long boat ride back to Santa Cruz Island. I was sure ready for a shower and change of clothes!

Our tentative plan with Midene and Michael was to catch the 7am boat taxi to San Cristobal and they would meet us at 9am (yep, another two hour boat ride!) and we would spend the day with them. Well, I caught up with my tour agent and there is only normally ONE boat taxi each day… at 2pm!!! The only return is at 7am! BUT then next day they were having a special taxi at 10am. Round trip ticket $50. Hmmmmm, so we would have to stay the night, (where??, but he gave us a hotel name and another $25 per person) and there was no way to get in touch with Midene. Ho Hum, what to do. I was willing to go by myself, but was not too thrilled to be there alone if I was not able to catch up with Midene. Ginny was game to go along. So we decided to bite the bullet and head out in the am. Heck, just another adventure!!
After cleaning up, we had another nice dinner then back home to pack for our little over nighter.

Tuesday in the Galapagos

Sunset as we head back to Santa Cruz Island

The sea turtle swam straight towards me, then under me!

The beach where we went snorkling.

The cave early settlers lived in. Walking through the rock formations.

The tortoises are not "humping", the one on the bottom was in the way of the other one. The top one figured it was easier to go over than around! One of the larger island taxi's

Blue, Stacy and Colleen at Floreana Island

Tuesday in the Galapagos

Ecuador Galapagos BlogSpot Tuesday March 29, 2011

Blue cooked a nice breakfast this am then we all trekked down to the tour office to take a day tour of Floreana Island. Our guide was also named Eduardo, though older and not as good of English as the young guide yesterday. This island was the first island to be inhabited by humans, it has many introduced species, but tortoises are extinct as a result. A small settlement established on Floreana quickly became a penal colony, and stories of subsequent tyranny, slavery and murder on the island abounded. There are interesting books written about the history, some worth pursuing!

It is a two hour boat ride to the island. A few folks got sick, none of our group!! We landed on the island, walked a short distance then loaded onto a taxi bus. We went to a tortoise sanctuary and got to walk through the “woods” to look for tortoises. We found some “in the wild” and many at the feeding stations. The tortoises are fed three times per week, they are on their own the rest of the time. Then we went for a hike through some really neat natural rock formation (think Easter Island on a very small scale) and to some shallow caves where two families lived (at different times) while they built their homes. There was also a stone carving of a head… not sure of the history of that!

While on this trip we met Midene, from Texas. She and her husband, Michael, are cruising on their 45’ sailboat around much of the world. She was very fun to chat with. When they finish cruising, they are going back to their little ranchette in TX and hope to have border collies to do agility and other activities. We had plenty to talk about!! We had a nice lunch at the local restaurant. A starter of popcorn (!), then tuna (I thought it was a pork chop, it was excellent!!), cabbage salad and rice, followed by sliced bananas with a little raspberry sauce on it for dessert. Washed it all down with some nice juice.

Then we took a moderate walk (in the heat and humidity) to a beach to go snorkeling. We trekked by lots of lava beds, they are so neat to look at! They are frozen in time, but you can sure “see” the flow. I had to stop to take photos of all the great crabs on the lava at the surf line. What a bunch of neat little creatures. The beach was beautiful but had more wave action than I expected. Also, we had to swim over some rocks to get to the best snorkeling area. But you float so well in this salt water, I floated right over the rocks (but was watching very carefully!) and got out to a pretty area. There is not any pretty coral and the fish are not as colorful as in other tropical areas I have seen. BUT a sea turtle swam right to me, then under me and on by!! I was so excited, and I even got three good photos!! There was also a sea lion in the water with us. That made for a wonderful snorkeling experience!

We hiked back to the pier and loaded back on the boat to head home to Santa Cruz Island. On the way we detoured by other areas of the island to see blue footed boobies (and their feet are really blue) and penguins. We only saw one lonely little penguin, but several boobies. Booby refers to the Spanish word bobo, meaning clown. The mating dance of these birds is a dance called the “booby two step” and is quite comical to watch. We did not get to see this during the tour, but several of the restaurants have the BBC DVD running and we got to see it on that! We finally headed back to Santa Cruz amid a beautiful sunset. Most of the visitors slept on the way back. I was too busy watching for, and seeing, dolphins and whales!

When we got back to the island, our tired group went back to the house to clean up, then Ginny, Blue and I met up with Midene and Michael for dinner. We had a great visit and worked on meeting up in San Cristobol (where their boat is moored) in two days time. I am sure looking forward to that visit!

Back to the house for a much needed rest! I think I want to try to do another day tour tomorrow…

Pictures from Monday in the Galapagos

Edwuardo in the tortoise shell. Colleen in the shell.

Eduardo telling us about the tortoises.

In the lava tube, looking out! Blue, Colleen, Ginny, Stacy and Jessica in front of the pit. Sorry, I have not figured out how to label these photos properly... Blogging is not a simple sport!!! (at least, not for me!)

Woofie! Don't fall into the pit! The Scalesia forest.

This amazing traditional breakfast... the "ball" is plantain and cheese

Monday in the Galapagos

Ecuador Galapagos BlogSpot Monday, March 28, 2011

We all went into town early this am to enjoy a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast: a plantain (type of banana) and cheese ball, potatoes in a peanut sauce, beef in sauce, and rice topped with a fried egg! Oh, I also had a yummy fresh fruit smoothie. I was stuffed!

Farryde (our local contact) set us up on a tour with Edwardo, a guide that spoke very good English. He took us up to The Highlands. We all piled into a taxi (Toyota truck!) and off we went.

Our first stop was “Los Gemelos” which are a pair of collapse or pit craters. After volcanic events of great magnitude, magma chambers are left empty, with huge lava tunnels. Over time, tectonic processes and erosion cause the volcanic roof to collapse opening up gaping craters to the outside world (copied directly from the information sign!!). These are very impressive, but hard to capture with a photo!

The forest we walked through is called a Scalesia forest. The Scalesia forest is a zone of vegetation in the range of 400-500 meters of elevation. This tree plays an important role in the island ecosystem because it collects and traps rainwater and provides a substrate for many plants such as bromelias, orchids, lichens and mosses. It is also an important habitat for eight species of Darwin finches and the famous vermillion flycatcher. (Yep, from the sign again!)

Next we drove to the lava tubes. I think we traveled about 400 meters underground where it was cool, a little damp and drippy with a few puddles. We even had to crawl for a short distance. I had muddy knees and hands from the crawl. It was a neat experience!

Our last stop was at a tortoise ranch. This is actually a giant ranch that has wild turtles roaming on it. The ranchers do not own the tortoises, they are just allowed to wander at will. We saw several of the giant reptiles and well as a young female tortoise. Back at the gathering area, a few of us crawled inside a tortoise shell for photos. It was pretty funny.

We all had a nice lunch then went back to the house to clean up. I spent the afternoon working on catching up with the blogs. Then I went into town to send what I could to Linda via the internet café. We signed up for a day tour to Floreana Island (also called Charles Island or Santa Maria Island) tomorrow. We have to meet at the tour office at 7:30 am. Ginny and I did a little grocery shopping then headed back for the evening.

Ecuador BlogSpot, Sunday, March 27, 2011

I think most of us slept fairly well last night, even with the hot and humid weather. After a light breakfast, we headed for Tortuga Bay. It took us awhile to find the proper road to the trail, it is just the main road, but we never understood that when asking for directions. (You know, when someone says “you can’t miss it” that is when I know I will miss it…). Anyway, after climbing the big stairs to the check in point, we started out on the trail.

It is a very nice 2.5 km cobblestone path to reach the beach. It moves through a forest of tall Opuntia Cactus and volcanic rock, populated by finches, yellow warblers, mockingbirds and lava lizards.

The Opuntia Cacti (Giant Prickly Pear) are found throughout the islands, with six different species and 14 varieties. The variety on Santa Cruz Island is the tallest, reaching up to 36’ in height! The Giant Prickly Pear is the only Opuntia cactus that grows like a tree. It is able to hold large amounts of water and grows directly from the volcanic rock. When young, the species have a trunk that is covered with fearsome spines. As they develop, the spines give way to a beautiful rich brown bark. I took lots of photos of this cactus at its many stages, but only included a couple of photos for the blog. It is quite amazing to look at!

The little birds and lizards were very entertaining to watch. They run and fly all around you. The trees are green and full due to it being the wet weather. So there is a canopy and shade for most of the walk.

We finally reached the incredible beach. There are good waves for surfing, but tremendous undertows so there is no swimming allowed. Sea Turtles come up this beach to lay their eggs in the dunes. I did see tracks of a sea turtle and got a photo. She went up to the dunes to lay her eggs, then walked back into the water.

It seemed a long walk along the pristine white sandy beach to the lagoon. Just before the lagoon is the hangout for the marine iguanas! There are short trails to view points, keeping visitors away from the iguanas. But I got some great photos with Gary’s camera (thanks for the loan of the awesome camera, Gary!).

We finally reached the lagoon to go swimming. It is gorgeous!! Quickly peeled out of our (very sweaty) shirt and pants and jumped into the water for a long swim and float. It was so refreshing! The water has tiny fish, needle nose fish, little sharks, sea turtles and rays. We even saw an iguana swimming! Got a bunch of photos of that one!

Then time for the long, hot walk back. As we passed through the Iguana area we saw several of the giant lizards resting under some mangrove trees. One giant lizard was on a mission heading towards a group of girls sitting under some trees. I kept watching to see if they would get excited about the creature, but they never saw it, so we continued on. Ginny was really melting. So we just took it slowly and rested a few times. Then we got another jug of water and gulped it down!!

We were all ready for lunch and stopped for a nice meal. This particular restaurant has some floor fans so we got to get cooled off a bit. I had a wonderful grilled shrimp salad for only $6! We went back to the house for a much needed shower and tried to cool off. It is so hot and humid that I was not able to get dry!

Ginny stayed at the house to rest while the rest of us went off to the Charles Darwin Research Center and the Galapagos National Park Headquarters. We got to see the giant tortoise breeding center and a small land iguana breeding center. There were displays illustrating different aspects of the Galapagos ecosystem, the conservation problems and the programs that the Research Station and National Park have in place to combat them. We got to see pens of baby tortoises of different ages. They are not able to be put out into the wild until they are 5 years old! Then their shells are thick enough to protect them from predatory birds and rats. The breeding program is 97% successful! We also walked through three different “corrals” with giant tortoises, including Lonesome George, the last remaining Pinta Tortoise.

The Charles Darwin Foundation has dedicated international staff that works together on research and long-term conservation Programs. Visit their website at www.darwinfoundation.org Back at the house I caught up on the last couple of days of blogging (what a silly word!) so I can get this stuff all sent… Today’s blog was long, but there are so many neat things here! I could go on and on! Watch for more adventures tomorrow!

Sunday, Galapagos Islands

Baby tortoises at the center.

Adult tortoise having a snack.

The incredible cactus. Stacy and Woofie at the research center.

This iguana was heading for the kids, he was on a mission! I kept waiting to see the kids' reactions when they saw the iguana, but they never looked. I don't know if the iguana finally left or went all the way up to the kids.

Blue in the water!

Woofie at the beach.

Self portrait of Stacy in the water.

Tracks of a sea turtle going up to the dunes to lay her eggs, then her tracks back to the water.

Tortuga Bay