HeyBear

The long awaited departure from Guayaquil had finally arrived and we returned to the ankle-spraining bus terminal to hop a ride to Riobamba. The 5 hour trip took us away from the hot & humid city and up into the lush and much cooler Ecuadorian highlands filled with farmland and rolling hills. We took a cab downtown to find a hostel, agreed to the first reasonably clean and cheap one we saw, then walked/hobbled to the train stain a few blocks away. We planned to take a rooftop train ride down ¨devils nose¨, a steep switchback mountainside outside of Riobamba. After finding out the price had increased significantly ($11 to $25) and that it was no longer possible to catch the train from Riobamba but instead a 2hr bus ride outside of the city, we declined. ... read more

Sarah and I were up and on the deck at 5:30 to watch the sunrise. It was a bit cloudy so we did not get a spectacular sunrise. Still, it was nice to look out over the glass-like ocean as the colors changed. To the north we could see Chinese Hat and the new lava flow on Santiago. It feels like ages since we were there, yet at the same time it was like yesterday. We motor east now, for our last visit, a dinghy tour around Daphne Major. It is a pretty small island so the boat tour did not take long. About 10 years ago it was possible for small groups to do a land visit, but not any more. It sounded like there are a ton of blue footed boobies that nest in ... read more

Success! I do not know if we are all just getting use to the boat, but everybody handled the 11 hour motor well. We arrived to our anchor spot at Punta Espinoza a few minutes before 7. We are anchored about 200 meters off the shore of Fernandina, yet we can still see the bottom of the ocean., Just in the few minutes of taking in the scenery before breakfast we saw two endemic species, the lava gull that was flying around the boat and landing on the dingy, and the flightless Comorant swimming and fishing in the water. The Comorant can really hold its breath a long time. There were also two sea turtles and a sea lion near the boat. That combined with beautiful views of Fernandina on the west and the Wolf and ... read more

At last a solid nights sleep! Sarah and I both got a good, much needed 9 hours. The boat had already moved to Sombrero Chino (Chinese Hat) before dinner yesterday so we were anchored and seas were quiet. At 8 we hopped in the dinghys and got a little boat tour of the south side of the channel on the north side of Santiago where the new lava flow enters the water. From the boat we saw a number of marine iguanas, blue footed boobies, penguins and the Lava Herron (an endemic species). The water was really blue and clear. Then the dinghy took us across the channel to our wet landing on Chinese Hat. There were 4 or 5 young sea lions resting on the beach. We learned that they are fed by their mothers ... read more

At 5:30am the boat engine cut off and I could see out the port window that we had arrived in Genovesa and the sun was just coming up. I went up to the uncovered deck to get a look. Everybody else was still asleep. There were thousands and thousands of birds in the sky hovering over the fairly small cliff edge. Three other boats had arrived as well and were anchored nearby, Genevieve (a large sailboat), Daphne, a first class boat we had been offered and knew this week it was a designated charter, and Comorant, what looked to be a luxury catamaran. After a few photos I went back to the room hoping to get back to sleep. No luck, 6:40 rolled around and we were getting ready for breakfast. All the meals are group ... read more