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!