Tuesday - Isabela

Punta Moreno
On Tuesday morning, we arrived at Punta Moreno, on Isabela. During the briefing before landing, Mauricio warned us that this would be a dry landing on very jagged and uneven lava. (The boulders on Espanola would seem easy compared to this.) As the pangas pulled up to the island, I wasn't even sure how I was going to scramble up the cliff. Usually there is something that at least resembles steps - this time - no. I almost considered getting back into the panga and going back to the yacht, but it was even scarier turning around than going up. Once I reached the top, I looked out and saw a vast expanse of the same rough, brittle, pahoehoe lava. In my mind, walking across lava was going to be like walking across blacktop with lots of cracks. Boy was my mind wrong!

After a few minutes of struggling with trying to figure out where to step, Mauricio decided that it would take a month for me to walk the trail on my own. He told me to grab his hand and stay to his right, and he would lead me through the trail. On one hand I was very thankful that I had his help, but on the other hand I kind of felt like a dork. Like a blind dork. I even commented that I felt like I was blind, with him leading me by the hand and my walking stick clicking against the lava in the other hand.

There were a few areas where the lava flattened, but most of the time, my ankle and knee were at weird angles. There were also quite a few ledges and crevices. The crevices usually weren't more than a foot wide, although they were really deep.

The ledges were on edges of cliffs filled with sharp pointy lava - and sometimes pools of brackish water filled with sharks! Mauricio kept steering me towards the ledges and I kept trying to follow behind him, rather than beside him. Every now and then he would "yell" at me for not walking where I was supposed to, since he claimed the edge of the ledge was more solid than where he was walking. I knew I should trust him, but I really didn't want to end up at the bottom of one of those cliffs!

While there wasn't that much to see on the surface of the island (a few small plants and cactus), there was a lot to see at the bottom of the cliffs. Those areas often filled with brackish water (salt water from the ocean running up fissures in the lava, and fresh water running down from the volcanoes). Small fish and sharks would get into these pools through the fissures with the salt water, then grow too big to escape back to the sea, getting trapped.

Lots of plants grew along the edges of these pools, and the water attracted flamingos, stilts, martins, and other shore birds.

After the walk was over, came the part I was dreading the most. Getting back down the cliff and into the panga. My descent was less than graceful, and I basically fell into the boat. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to get back on the yacht!

After we were all back on the Beluga, the captain turned on the engine and we started moving to Elizabeth Bay. We ate lunch while the yacht was moving, which was quite an experience in itself. Most of the time, meals were served when the yacht was anchored.


Elizabeth Bay, Isabela
Shortly after lunch, we dropped anchor and went snorkeling at Elizabeth Bay. There were a couple of penguins zipping by, but they were very difficult to capture on film. There were also a few flightless cormorants, which were equally quick swimmers. As we moved closer to the rocky/lava shoreline, there were all sorts of inlets to explore.

There was one narrow channel that led to smaller pools surrounded by lava. Getting through that was difficult, since the tide was going out, and you really had to swim against the current (and push off against the rocky bottom). Once it that area, there was a mix of brackish water - it almost looked like we were snorkeling in oil, since the mix of fresh and salt water caused a filmy cloud. This made taking pictures rather difficult.

As we moved further inland, there was one area that Mauricio told us not to miss. He made it all very mysterious, saying that we couldn't wear our flippers or kick our feet in that area, and only 3 people could enter at a time. He then swore the leaving people to secrecy, so they couldn't tell anyone else what they saw. In order to get into this area though, you needed to take off your flippers, and walk about 3m across the same sharp, uneven lava that we walked across earlier in the morning. Sheesh! I could barely walk across that with shoes - let alone barefoot. Several other people were equally hesitant to walk across that lava, so we problem solved and made a path with our flippers. That way, even though the sharp lava was underfoot, our feet were actually touching the rubber flippers. Mauricio assured us it was worth the effort. IT WAS! In addition to all sorts of fish, there were about a half dozen sea turtles in an area about the size of my bedroom, gracefully swimming along beside us. What an incredible experience.

After hauling ourselves back out of the water and into the pangas, we headed back to the yacht for a warm snack and to change clothes. We had about an hour to dry off and warm up, before we hopped back into the pangas for a ride through the mangroves. The crew also brought the kayaks out, so people could use those if they wanted (there were 2 kayaks for everyone to share).

It was amazing how close we could get to the wildlife in the pangas. Once we got into the mangroves, the motor was cut and the driver pulled out oars, so we could paddle silently in the water. Through the water, we could see sea turtles and a few sting rays, but the real interest was on the shore.

At one point, we came across a group of penguins on the shore. I was close enough that I would have been able to touch them! In fact, I ended up holding onto a branch of the tree they were under in order to keep the panga still, and stop it from bumping against the shore with each wave. It was amazing to see the amount of wildlife hiding in the mangroves. There were pelicans, sea lions, and lots of different kinds of shore birds.


We also stopped for a while to watch heron catching small fish.
There were several kinds of heron present.



As the sun was starting to set, we left Elizabeth Bay and headed back to the ship, where George was waiting for us with hot appetizers and drinks. Most of us got a glass of wine and went up to the sun deck to relax before dinner and enjoy the view of the setting sun. And we were rewared with a spectacular sunset!

Wednesday - Isabela and Fernandina

Urvina Bay - Isabela
You can't even imagine how relieved I was to learn that the trail today was going to be easy! In fact, we were told that it was going to be so easy that we could even wear flip flops! I decided to play it safe and wear the tevas, since I would probably kill myself in flip flops. After the wet landing on the beach, we dried our feet and started on the trail. This was a nice easy trail, consisting mostly of sand or small gravel. There were a few rocks interspersed, but most of it was relatively flat and smooth.

Along the trail painted locusts hopped in and out amid the arid vegetation. One of the first trees we encountered was the Manzanillo tree (poison apple). The fruit of this tree resembles a small apple, but is highly toxic, resulting in stomach cramps if eaten. In addition, the sap in the leaves, can cause burning and blistering of the skin and eyes. We were warned that it was much worse than poison ivy.

The first time we encountered this tree was actually at the Darwin Research Center. We had stopped to look at finches, and as we waited, Klaus got antsy and started playing with a nearby tree. When Mauricio saw that, he nearly lept across the trail and tackled Klaus, and then warned all of us not to touch that type of tree. We all laughed - Klaus had a way of getting into things!

There were also some nice yellow flowers along this path, which attracted quite a few carpenter bees. Mauricio also told us a story about galapagos cotton which grew there (and how the genes were being used for some type of hybrid cotton), and said something about how cherry tomatoes were a result of selective breeding between traditional tomatoes and a Galapagos tomato. He then went into a long speech about how the Galapagos was being exploited for the genes of some of the plants and animals, but Ecuador was not being compensated for this "gift" to the world. I'm not quite sure how accurate this information was.

Not too far along the trail, we spotted a tortoise in the path. Woo hoo! I got to see a wild one! Now I don't feel so bad for missing the walk through Santa Cruz's highlands on Monday afternoon. It was a small one - probably only around 7-10 years old, but wild nonetheless. We probably spent a good 15 minutes standing and staring at it, although it didn't really do anything. As we approached it, it pulled its head into its shell about half way. After about 10 minutes, it poked its head back out, then wandered off into the vegetation on the side of the trail.

A little further along the path, there were a few land iguanas. As we came around the bend in the trail, the amount of vegetation really decreased, and we saw a land iguana digging a burrow. We spent another 10 minutes or so watching it dig the burrow.
We walked further down the trail to a lagoon. We had hoped to see rays and sharks, but didn't have any luck in that regards.

We were able to see a few shore birds, but there wasn't much in that area other than mocking birds and finches. Each time somebody pulled out their water bottle for a drink the mocking birds would fly in closer, hoping to steal a drink. Unfortunately for them, none of us were willing to share.

Fernandina - Punta Espinosa
During lunch, the yacht headed to Punta Espinosa on Fernandina Island. We were told that this would be a dry landing, with a fairly easy trail. Because of the tide (and my clumsiness), we landed in the mangrove area rather than on the lava outcroppings. I was quite happy with this landing. There were nice concrete steps at the mangrove, and after chasing the sea lions off of them, the landing was very smooth!

After a short walk out of the mangroves, we reached a sandy area surrounded by nesting grounds for marine iguanas. Mauricio stressed how important it was to stay within the boundaries of the trail markers, so we didn't accidentally step on or destroy and iguana eggs. From the numbers of iguanas that were there, I'm not sure it really would have been a problem if we had! There were thousands!

As we were starting to take pictures of the iguanas (and more sea lion pictures) we spotted a Galapagos Hawk further down the trail. Mauricio told us to see the hawk while it was still there. We were able to walk within about 10 feet of it (and a sea lion was peacefully slipping at the base of the tree where the hawk was perched).

On this island more than any, you could really see how multiple types of animals all shared the same living space. It was amazing to see iguanas, sea lions, crabs, hawks, and flightless cormorants all right next to each other -without anyone attacking anyone else! Absolutely incredible! Even more incredible was that humans were added to that mix!

At this point, the trail turned from gravel to lava. This was the kind of lava I expected yesterday. There were big (mostly) flat slabs of lava, resembling walking over flagstone or across asphalt that barely survived expanding and contracting over a particularly rough winter. You had to watch where you were going so you didn't stub your toe, but you didn't have to worry about twisting an ankle. This is my kind of lava!

The highlight of this island was the flightless cormorant. When I originally booked my cruise, I decided that I would rather go to Genovesa and see the red footed boobies, than go to Fernandina and see the flightless cormorants. While I still am disappointed that I didn't see any red footed boobies, I think the afternoon on Fernandina was one of the most spectacular visits during the cruise (at least so far). Words can't even describe how incredible it was to watch the cormorants dive into the water, then get back out and dry out. They went through this little ritual of drying their small atrophied wings. Watching them thermoregulate was also interesting. In their beak, they would have a little water bubble, and then they would pant. It was quite interesting.

The island was absolutely beautiful. There was black lava, white sand, blue sky, green mangroves. There were lots of interesting animals, including frigate birds and blue footed boobies, hawks, crabs, cormorants, sea lions. There were interesting geologic formations, including some giant uplifted areas. There was even an old whale skeleton on the beach.

Once we were back on the ship, they immediately started the engine, since we were going to go up and around Isabela tonight. In doing so, we would cross the equator (twice). To celebrate the crossing of the equator, we all crammed into the bridge so we could see the GPS change from 0.00.00 degrees S to 00.00.00 degrees N. Woo hoo! We celebrated with a rum and tonic (blech!). Good thing we don't have to repeat it when we cross back in about 6 hours. Actually, we were treated to quite a nice sunset in the process and saw a few whale spouts and a few sunfish.

Each day, Mauricio ended the evening briefing by stating that "tomorrow will be even better than today".

This was the first night that I went to bed wondering how that would be possible!

Thursday - Santiago and Bartolome

Santiago - South James Bay
This morning we woke up to the Garua mist, which by the time we finished breakfast had turned into a fast drizzle of rain. We put on our rain gear and hopped into the pangas for a wet landing on the black sandy beach of Puerta Egas on Santiago Island (Also known as South James Bay). After landing on the wet sand, we walked up a slight hill that took us off the beach. The trail followed the black lava coastline, filled with algae covered grottos and tidal pools.

We had the option to walk at the coastline, over the wet slippery lava, or to stay a little further in the shore, where the lava was flatter and while wet, was not algae covered. I picked the latter. The two trails often overlapped at the flat lava areas, so it wasn't as though I was on my own. In fact, I felt like I had the best of both worlds. I was closer to the grassy areas further inland, so I saw lots of finches, yellow warblers, and Galapagos doves. Plus, I could wander onto the lava (just not all the way to the very edge) to see the lava herons, oyster catchers, and Galapagos fur seals. Within the little lava outcroppings were small blowholes (nothing as grand as on Espanola Island). There was one area that Mauricio called "Darwin's Toilet". The water would fill a rather large hole in the lava, then get sucked out again, making a flushing noise.

As we were leaving the shoreline and walking further inland, the mist started to lift and we could see the rest of the island better. This part of the island was very arid, with lots of palo verde trees, acacia, candelabra cactus, and lava lizards. We flipped over a few rocks and found lots of Galapagos scorpions.

After a nice walk back, the mist started rolling in again. That was ok, because our snorkel gear was waiting for us on the beach. All of the crew came over to the island to play soccer, and brought our gear with them. It didn't matter if it rained while we were in the water.

Despite the rain and waves, the visibility in the water was pretty good for snorkeling. Because it was overcast outside, there wasn't glare on the screen of my underwater camera, and I could actually see what I was trying to photograph. I think I got some of my best snorkel pictures this morning. I was engrossed with watching fish and a large green sea turtle for a while and kind of lost perspective of what was around me.


Suddenly I heard a loud barking in my ear. A male sea lion's mouth was less than a foot from my head, and he didn't seem like he was in a good mood. I backed away from him, freaked out, and headed back to shore.



I used the rest of our snorkel time to explore the beach from dry land!



Bartolome
After snorkeling, we headed back to the yacht for hot soup and lunch. We were told not to unpack our snorkel gear because we would be snorkeling off Pinnacle Rock after lunch. This would be the last snorkel of the trip.

But first, we had a dry landing on Bartolome. The surface of Bartolome is covered with a delicate crust of volcanic ash and very small, low ground cover plants called tequilia. In order to minimize erosion and damage to the island, a wooden boardwalk was built that creates a path most of the way to one of the summits on the island. This boardwalk consists of approx. 350 steps. The last 50 or so steps have a railing that is really really low (about mid-thigh height), which makes it very difficult to use the railing. After walking up to the top of Bartolome, you are rewarded with this spectacular view!

After going back down all the steps, it was back to the boat to change into snorkel gear. We then headed to snorkel on the back side of Pinnacle Rock (the large pointy rock formation on the right side of the picture). One of the bigger (100 passenger) cruise lines was there are the same time, so you were more likely to see another snorkeler than anything else. There were a few penguins in the water, and some sea lions, but the visibility was not all that good. This probably wasn't the best snorkel to end with!

I caught a chill, and it was back onto the boat for some hot tea. We had a great goodbye dinner, and were given instructions for the next morning. Instead of heading out after breakfast, our excursion would be at 6 am! Almost everyone called it an early night to pack and get some sleep.

Friday - Tortuga Negra, Santa Cruz

Tortuga Negra (Black Turtle Cove)
This morning we all got up early and piled in the pangas for the final Galapagos Adventure. We were going to ride through the mangroves at Black Turtle Cove and not have any landing. I wondered how it was going to be different than the panga ride through the mangrove at Elizabeth Bay, and thought this was probably a wasted day.

I couldn't have been more wrong! One of the first things we saw was an early morning feeding frenzy of blue footed boobies. There were 100s of them - maybe 1000s!! They moved as an entire flock, then dive bombed the water. After a minute or two, the flock would fly to another nearby area of the cove, and dive again. Watching the blue footed boobies dive is amazing. They pull their wings in close to their body and dive straight down, like a torpedo or bullet. A few times I nearly had to duck as the flock flew over us, and I was hit more than once with the water from their splash. Being caught in this swirling mass of diving boobies was one of the highlights of the trip!



As the sun came further up, the flock of boobies broke up, with a few remaining in the area, but many heading far out of our sight. We then continued through the mangroves, spotting lots of animal life under the water. One person on the other panga spotted a sea horse. We all tried to crowd around and see it, but I never got a good look at it.



Also under the surface of the water were lots of sea turtles, white tipped reef sharks, a couple of sting rays, and more impressively, a large group of golden cownose rays! They were absolutely beautiful as the glided through the water. I was really happy that I brought my polarizing filter with me!

As we slowly paddled through the cove, I spotted a few pelicans. One of them happened to be sitting on a nest with a chick. I don't think I've seen a pelican chick before, so this was a special goodbye treat.

After about an hour and half, it was back to the Beluga for breakfast and to make one last pass at my cabin to make sure everything was packed. Then we climbed into the panga one last time for our final trip to shore. I must say, I'm not going to miss having to get in and out of the panga!

Once on shore, we waited for the bus to pick us up for the airport, and the crew followed with our bags. We checked our bags at the airport, got a special Galapagos Island stamp in the passport, and had about an hour to shop for trinkets before heading back to Quito.

What a great trip!!

Saturday - Quito

I arrived back in Quito on Friday afternoon and took a taxi to my hotel. I got the same room as I had a week earlier. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon taking a much needed nap, and then wandered around the Mariscal district (gringo Quito) for the rest of the evening. I decided to have dinner in an Italian restaurant a few blocks from my hotel, and walked in to find Hildegard and Klaus. I joined them at their table and we had a nice dinner. They then walked me back to my hotel, since it was on the way to theirs.

On Saturday, I debated whether to catch a bus to Mindo for the day or even Otovalo. Instead, I decided to check out the market at El Ejido park. When I got there, I wasn't in a very shopping mood, and wandered around for a while, but really didn't feel like dealing with the crowds or looking at stand after stand of practically the same stuff. There were a few nice paintings, but they wouldn't have fit my decor, so I wasn't really interested in them.

Since Carolina Park was fairly close, I hopped in a cab and headed over there to visit the botanical gardens. The park was huge, and the gardens were on the opposite side of the park from where the cab dropped me off. I'm glad I didn't tip him!

As I walked through the park, I watched a dog obedience class for a while. There were also several exercise classes going on - aerobics, T'ai chi, etc. Despite all the families and activity in the park, there were also quite a few people that looked unsavory. I felt a little uncomfortable walking through the park alone. In fact, I had that general feeling of discomfort througout Quito.

Once I found the entrance to the gardens, I paid my $2 admission and went in. Once inside, I felt a little safer. I decided that a criminal would probably mug somebody in the park for free, rather than pay $2 to do it in the garden (and then have to pass security on the way out).

The gardens were fairly small, but had quite a bit of diversity, and were nicely laid out. One of the highlights of the garden is that it houses 1200 orchid species, along with representative plants from a half dozen ecosystems in Ecuador.

There were lots of benches so you could sit and enjoy the plants and birds. As I was taking a nice break and just enjoying the gardens, I saw the weirdest looking bird. It looked a lot like a large humming bird, but had a tail nearly three times its body length. It was difficult to take a picture of, but I got a quick shot of it when it stopped to drink out of a puddle (see pink square in the picture).

I think it is either a black-tailed trainbearer or a green-tailed trainbearer. These links take you to better pictures than what I took. Just seeing that bird was pretty cool and worth the trip to the gardens!

After leaving the gardens, I headed back to my hotel for a late afternoon nap. After waking up, I walked a few blocks for an early dinner. My flight was at 6:30 the following morning, so I needed to call it an early night and get everything packed and ready to leave the hotel by 4:00 am. The next morning, I said goodbye to Ecuador.

[I finally edited my Day 1 in Quito entry to include pictures of historic Quito]