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Published: November 24th 2007
Our beloved Boat
Estrella Del Mar IIGood Times to be Had by ALL!
To finish off my 4 month trip blog, I have committed to writing this Galapagos Islands trip. The reason I can still give details is because I actually kept a diary of my galapagos trip like a prudent scout girl. It might sound like a documentary a bit but I will try to spice it up. Just for the record, the trip took place May 15-22, 2006. So according to my journal...here we go:
Day 1 - Lobos Island From Quito, I flew to San Cristobal island. It is one of the two populated islands in the Galapagos. After waiting at the airport, I met my group and we headed or our ship which is called "Estrella Del Mar II". (which means star of the sea). After a small briefing, our guide Billy who was born and raised in Galapagos assigned our cabins to us. I was downstairs by the engine in cabin 3. The travel agency told me I was going to be with a 23 year old American girl but instead I got shaced up with a 59 year old Polish guy named Cezari. Actually he later got the
nickname Smeagle from me. You will see why in the picture.
We first landed on Lobos Island. It is a small island with two sea lion nurseries. We saw a rare bird called the Grey Gull that only lives on Galapagos and there is only 400 of them altogether. Later we went swimming with the sea lions. Sea lions are extremely inquisitive & playful. They would swim with us and play with us as well. There are a lot of fun to say the least. They also like to body surf on the waves which is quite amazing to watch. After that, we had dinner and we sailed for Espanola Island.
Day 2 - Espanola Island Early morning we arrived on Espanola Island. We headed for a beautiful beach which was once again full of sea lions. After a short walk on the beach, I saw my first marine iguana. The are black with red colour on the sides and a crown on top of their head. Baby marine iguanas are all black. I saw one of them spitting the salt out of its glands. They feed on algae and plankton that they scrape off the rocks.
Lobos Island
A beautiful crab They can stay under water for up to one hour because they can slow their heart rate to one beat per minute. They dive deeper into the water to feed. They live up to 65 years versus a sea lion which only live about 15 years.
I thought I was going to go diving but after snorkeling I noticed that my sinuses were hurting, so I skipped on that. While snorkeling about 200 meters from the shore by a large rock, Billy pointed out a white tipped reef shark which we all saw and hopefully without any discoloration of our swim trunks. =) It's quite amazing to be in teh water with sharks. After snorkeling, we returned to teh boat for lunch. The food they cook on the boat is really good.
After lunch, there is a siesta from 1pm to 3pm. I could definitely get used to that at home. In the meantime, the boat took us to the other side of the island to explore more wildlife.
Once again, we saw more sea lions, marine iguanas and lots of them. It is really spectacular how any wildlife you encounter here is really not afraid of
you at all. Further on the walk, we encountered blue footed boobies, masked boobies (those were the only boobies I was going to see on this trip so might as well enjoy it.), galapagos hawks, waved albatross, frigate birds and swallow tail gulls. Swallow tail gulls are the only birds that feed at night. Waved albatross is only found on Espanola Island and nowhere else in the world. They have about 2.2m wingspan and are perfect fliers which means that they can sleep in flight as well.
Blue footed boobies get their blue colored feet when they are sexually mature, unlike blue balls which sexually immature human males get after an unsuccessful night on the prowl. Blue footed boobies can only have on offspring at a time so if there si two that are born, they have to kick one out of the nest, which means they won't feed it so it dies. If it tries to come back, the mother and father along with its older brother kill it. These birds ar also very tame as I took a picture with it being about 1 foot away from me and it wasn't even bothered or scared at all.
Which almost wants to make you grab it and slap it around a bit to teach it a lesson but that's not how we do things in Galapagos.
Day 3 - Floreana Island First thing in the morning we went to the viewpoint. We took a dingy ride along the coastline where we saw more sea lions. Many cactuses grow on the shore. From the viewpoint, I saw my first turtle that was in the water. YEEEEY.
After the view point, we visited "THE BARREL", which is the local post office....however, this post office works differently. You just drop your card in te barrel but you take another one that someone else has left before and you deliver it for that person. Later, someone will deliver yours. I saw a couple of postcards mailed for Canada, and since I know I am lazy, I pretended I didn't see any so I wouldn't have to bother sending them. Some weirdo I am. At least some other responsible being will deliver them. So technically, I am giving the cards hope.
The next visit was a bya or salt lake that is visited by flamingos. We saw some but
Espanola Island
Waved albatross none came close enough for a good picture. We continued on our walk to the other coast where the guide showed us sting rays that were almost on the shore feeding ont eh sand crabs. I had no idea that sting rays come that close to the shore. We had to be careful when watching them because they are hard to see and you don't want to accidentally step on one...unless you crave pain, then you got other problems. After that, we just sat around and observed some crabs and birds before returning to the boat.
After dinner the animals decided to put on a beautiful show for us around the boat. First we saw some sharks, such as galapagos sharks and black tipped sharks that were circuling the boat. The the sea lions came and played in the water. The light from the boat was attracting many animals. Next, a sea turtle showed up. About 5 mintues later, we saw flying fish swimming and flying out of the water. Immediately, th sea lions got in on the action and tried to catch them with lots of success. The whole spectacle was quite unexpected and amazing to see so
Espanola Island
Blue Footed Boobie mating dance much wildlife around the boat.
Day 4 - Santa Isabela Island The plan for this day was simple. We got to town and got into the back of a pick up truck and headed fro the highlands. The ride took about 40 minutes. We got dropped off at some sort of a horse ranch. The weather was cloudy, a little misty and cooler than previous days.
We were to take the horses up to the crater of the volcano. The volcano is called Sierra Negra and has a crater spanning 11 km in diameter. This is the second biggest crater in the world. The horse that was assigned to me was a brown, medium sized horse named Lucero. I wasn't sure if this horse was a wild one or not. After I got on it, I realized that he was just a follower so not too much excitement on the way up. The trek took about 1.5 hours one way.
Once up there, the crater was really huge & still active in some spots which was evident by seeing the steam clouds rise up above the active points. The last eruption was in October (about 7
months ago) but the lava glow was visible at night up to about 6 weeks ago according to our guide but even if he was lying to make a good story...there was no way to prove him wrong. We ate our lunch on top of the crater. I observed some volcanic rock which is very light and rich in minerals that plants need to grow. There were also different colored layers on the sample rocks I picked up. The different colors were due to the different temperatures the rock was exposed to during cooling.
On the way back, I was given a stick so I could whack my horse to get it to move faster. It worked miracles. As I hit the horse on its lazy ass, it would at first trott, which I hate because you bounce up and down so much and you get scared of losing your family jewels in the process. The second whack forced the horse into galloping mode which was me comfortable but hard to keep the balance. However, I made it back ok with only my back being tired and my knees experiencing pain from being twisted while on my hombre Lucero.
After that, we got back into the pick up truck and headed back to town. On the way back, we stopped on teh side of the road to try some new fruit. The shape was like an oversized olive with yellow and red color. It tasted like mango and papaya mixed together.
We came to a beach where we had "ceviche" which is basically fresh raw fish marinated in lime juice, which is supposed to cook the fish with its acidity. Every country does it a little different. (Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador) However, it was cooked and served as soup with popcorn on the side. We relaxed on the beach where I cut my foot on the volcanic rock before heading back to the boat.
Day 5 - Santa Cruz In the morning we headed for shore after the usual breakfast. We got into the taxis tht drove us to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Inside, we saw little turtles in captivity that are kept there untilthey get big enough. Next we saw teh famous "Lonesome George" who is the last tortoise of its race. Then we saw native tortoise from Espanola Island. The difference
Floreana Island
The Post Office between a turtle and a tortoise is that turtles live in teh water while tortoises live on land. There are only two places in the world (supposedly) where giant tortoises are found. Galapagos and an island off the coast of India. They are quiet fascinating creatures and they look really prehistoric. Early sailors used to take them on board their ships for fresh meat because tortoise can live for up to one year without food or water.
The biggest giant tortoise we saw was around 350 pounds but that was later on in the day in the highlands. Next, we saw a large yellow land iguana. I took a couple of pictures and then we went to see other tortoises. It appeared that one tortoise was trying to shag the living daylights out of another one but really slowly. Almost too hollywood like.
After that we were free to wonder around town so I bought a couple of souvenirs and then went on the internet. In the afternoon we visited the highlands where the giant tortoises are found in nature. Since this was a private land we had to pay $3 each to get in. Now as I
Floreana Island
This is where we watched the stingrays went to take a pee, the group suddenly left and I was tring to find them for about 15 minutes. That kind of pissed me off that the guide does not care about the passengers. Basically what I am trying to say is that Billy is a bitch.
Altogether, I saw 4 tortoises which is one more than the rest of the freakin group cause when I got lost, I aw one in th bush that they missed. Luckily for the creature, I had no more pee and I wasn't horny...just kidding. Tortoiseseseses shell is actually an extension of their ribs and is attached to their bones.
Day 6 - Baltra, Seymore and Bartolome Island In the morning we went swimming and snorkeling on Baltra Island while the ship refueled. After an hour, we returned and headed for Seymore Island where we saw many frigate birds, some blue footied boobies (titties) and a land iguana but this one was not as yellow as the one we saw in captivity at th Darwin Station.
This is all I got from my semi narrative journal. I tried to spice it up a bit with my comments. I will
Floreana Island
Dried up blowfish post as many pics as I can on here. Overall, it is a must on any travelers "places to see before I keel over". You probably won't get an encounter with wildlife like that anywhere else but it's definitely cheaper to fly to Quito and buy the tour there than get ripped off by buying the package from Canada for double the price of the ticket and tour combined. However people, do spend the extra cash on a good BOAT because you will be spending a lot of time there. If you cheap out, it might not be as safe and the food can potentially suck...now do we really want that??? Didn't think so peeps. Until next month. ta ta.
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Zuzana
non-member comment
hey
Just wanted to mention good job on the blog Russ, I learned many things, great pictures too:)