Dec. 29- Early morning departure to Miami, then a long layover in Mia. On arrival in Guayaquil, there were thousands of people waiting for passengers. Evidently everyone comes home for new year celebration.
Dec. 30- Short Guayaquil city tour, in the little park on the mountain top- smooth billed ani, similar to a long tailed grackle. Up close, by CIG's picture, the bill looks grooved. Large black eyes. Waterfront area paper mache figures up to seven feet, of lots of tv, movie, and cartoon characters- Smurfs, Chucky, Sponge Bob, Spiderman, Simpsons, and on and on. The tradition is to explode them by fireworks at the end of the year so you can start anew. Lots of warning about robbery. We walked to Mall del Sol to get a few things we forgot without incident but Michael told us G was where some of his friends were held up in 2007.
Dec. 31- another early departure to Baltra and then Zodiacs to the Endeavour. Orientation from naturalists- I had forgotten Galapagos refers to the saddle size backs of the tortoises. We went ashore at Bachas in the afternoon. Bachas is a bastardization of barges, which were brought here during WWII. Some of us went on a short walk with Ximena to see the Pacific Green Turtle nests and the predators waiting for the hatchlings- blue herons, frigate birds, ghost crabs. Also feral pigs come to feast. 95% mortality rate. Saw plenty of Sally light foot crabs, a trio of marine iguanas lazing in the sand,and a couple of cute yellow warblers eating flies at the shoreline. The rest of our group had a good time swimming on the beach. A big brown pelican dove right into the middle of a group of swimmers. In the evening 1980s Trivial Pursuit. No one was very good.
A brief note- We learned from the Expedition Leader Cindy that, a few years ago, the government changed the arrangement with the tour boats to reduce the human impact on the islands. The boats went to a two week schedule in which they would visit each place on their itinerary only once. Since each trip is one week long, there is a route A and a route B, so on our trip this time we are seeing very few of the same places. However with this change, it does seem like we see more other boats. Unfortunately, I think we will miss Bartolome, Floriana, and Espanola Islands.
Jan. 1, 2012- Happy New Year! North Seymour Island and Rabida Island- hiking and then snorkeling. The hike was very short, less than a mile but full of wildlife. We had a dry landing on some rocks with sea lions right at the landing. Then we saw lots of Frigate birds of both species on nests, soaring, mating, and trying to attract mates. Swallow tail gulls, G doves, brown noddies chasing sardines down while tuna were chasing them up, lava lizards sparring, nesting Blue footed boobies, small ground finches. Our guide was Celso who filled us in on the soap opera nature of many of the birds' life cycles, which prompted a comment from Graham about "the young and the nestless".
Snorkeling after lunch along the iron oxide cliffs of Rabida Island- a huge school of razor surgeonfish, parrot fish, pencil urchins, and, most notably, a couple of marine iguanas feeding under water. Also a huge sea lion swam by from behind us; I was the only one to see a G penguin go by, but I am positive about the spotting. Water was supposed to be 72 or so but I think 65 or 68 would be closer to correct. A very pleasant new year's day. I did not mention T's run in with the cactus.
Jan. 2- Early this morning I was sitting in the ship library drinking a cup of coffee. A small fly landed on my sleeve. Ecuadorian fly, programmed to evade human attempts to swat it, or G fly, used to live way away from humans and not quite so fast? G fly- one attempt to catch it. This would be a great scientific observation except that in the G's, there are lots of lava lizards and yellow warblers who over time would have taught the flies to be just as skittish. So it was just a slow fly.
Today's first stop was at Fernandina Island for a long hike looking at the wildlife and then snorkeling. The hike included mangroves, pahoehoe lava, aha lava, and brackish pools amidst the lava. For animals, we saw sea lions sprawled in the mangroves, in the fissures in the lava and in the tidal pools, lava lizards everywhere, a marine iguana fight over territory, several green turtles, a snake of some sort, G penguins, and flightless cormorants.
After the hike we had a brief snorkel where we saw more penguins and cormorants plus 2 giant sea turtles and a few fish but not so many as yesterday.
The afternoon activity was pretty relaxed compared to the morning- we went on a zodiac ride at Punta Vicente Roca which is the very tip of Isabela Island right under the rim of the Darwin volcano caldera. This is where we spent a lot of time watching the orcas on the previous trip. The water today was pretty rough and so we went up into a couple of the coves and saw a lot of what we did not have time for last time- lots more penguins, up very close, boobies hanging on to rock cliffs, brown noddies nesting on the same rocks, sea lions, huge turtles, more flightless cormorants (a whole lot more), and fur seals. For this outing we went together as a family in one zodiac. No Thomas incidents.
Also saw a solitary Wandering Tattler and a flock of G Shearwaters fishing.
Watched NG special on land of dragons.
Today we also crossed the Equator twice.
Jan. 3- Urbina Bay is located midway along the west side of Isabela, in the passage between it and Fernandina. The first activity was a 1 mile nature walk followed by a brief swim. The landing spot is on a section of lava beach but the whole area on the interior is sandy. This area just lifted off the sea floor by volcanic activity. Those who went on a longer hike went inland to find coral heads. Our hike, with the whole family except August, who has now got a little gang of little girls she hangs out with, included spotting a tortoise, a couple of land iguanas well camouflaged, a G mockingbird, a G flycatcher, and several finches. This is the first place where we have heard song birds. I got a really good picture of a small billed tree finch.
After the hike (no major accidents or melt downs), most of the group went bathing. There was a solo G penguin swimming among the kids which was very funny because he would pop up near them out of nowhere.
Other things spotted included mating green turtles and nests, spotted eagle ray, and a manta ray shadow.
Quote of the day from Thomas to his two girl friends- "you can touch my blood if you want to".
In the afternoon, hot and on and off cloudy, we first went for a very tiring kayak paddle along the shore of Tagus Cove, and then we came back and went out again for an hour hike up to Darwin Lake, which is a volcano caldera filled with sea water thru underground fissures. No new wildlife-we are getting used to spotting turtles, sea lions, flightless cormorants, and penguins. Definitely earned a brew today.
Tagus Cove was visited by Charles Darwin on the Beagle. There was lots of graffiti from old and modern travelers. The oldest we saw was 1836, right after Darwin.
Jan. 4- Playa Espumilla is a cove where the old pirates landed on Santiago Island. They caught turtles and tortoises and released goats and pigs. All the goats and pigs have been eliminated here now. We started the morning with a hike from the beach where the green turtles lay their eggs. While we did not see many birds or other wildlife, we had a good hike thru sandy beach, then thick mangrove forest, then red lava and Palo de santo trees. There were also a few prickly pear cactus. Back to the ship for breakfast.
The next activity was a glass bottom boat ride with the 3 little ones and with Daniela Cox as the guide. Watch for her to be president of this country in about 25 years judging from resume. In the fall she is going to UNC on a fellowship in public policy.
The location is Buccaneer's Cove on the northwest side of Santiago Island. There was a lot of wave action so we could not see much, but the geography was spectacular- lava crags and spires with guano markings close to the water and prickly pear at the top making a stunning silhouette.
After lunch and a short talk about human activity in the G's, there was a fast hike at Puerto Egas, which in the 1960's was a fisherman's village. When the government told the manager of the town that his town was part of the park and that it would have to be torn down, he protested by saying he was a friend of the president. Didn't matter.
The hike was the best one so far. It started out over black sand and turned to a walk along the tidal pools at the shore line. In addition to black lava smoothed by wave action, we saw a couple of new birds (G hawks, yellow crowned night heron, lava heron), fur seal pups at play in the pools, many many marine iguanas, a couple of penguins, as well as a nesting American oystercatcher.
Did I mention that we have had a steady drizzle much of the day? It must have been a welcome relief to the plants and animals on this dry island.
Jan. 5- Today was tortoise day. We visited the Chas. Darwin Research Center to see Lonesome George and Super Diego (2500 progeny so far), the baby tortoises being raised to be put out into the wild after about 4 or 5 years, and the indigenous plant preservation program, and then we made the mile or so walk through Puerto Ayora and its souvenir shops. The temperature was pressing 100. From town we rode a bus (Connie and Michael rode mountain bikes) to a sugar press, coffee farm, banana farm, and then a delicious swim and lunch at a small hotel on the tropical hillside. Lastly we went on up to a big farm to see tortoises in the wild as they come down from the highlands. We must have seen about 25 or 30 of them, 7 even in one view without a turn of the head. Beth and Gordon saw the vermilion flycatcher which I wandered off on my own to see and just missed.
Jan. 6- San Cristobal, Punta Pitt. I missed my favorite bird, the red billed tropicbird this morning as we anchored. The morning's activity was to go on a long hike up steep very dry terrain to get a good view of the ocean, the boat, and soaring red footed boobies. There was a short zodiac ride around a small island to see more birds, mostly frigates, boobies, and swallow tailed gulls. There was also a number of what were billed as petrels but which I think might have been G shearwaters. Not sure, need to check the books. After the hike, most of the group spent time on a beach swimming with a sea lion and body surfing. At lunch I sat with Walter to see his best pictures which were quite amazing. You can see a lot if you are out here every day.
This afternoon is a snorkel around another island to see sharks.
That was an understatement, written before we went. The site is called Leon Dormir, and it is composed of two large chunks of rock left from an old (maybe 4 or 5 million years old) volcanic cone with a slot about 60 feet wide between the two pieces. The rocks form a sheer wall going down I don't know how far, but the break is full of little fish, big fish, dozens of sharks, tiny orange nettles, and a few turtles. Gordon and I also got a good, long look at a spotted eagle ray. On the top there were frigate birds and boobies. After the snorkel the captain circled the rocks a couple of times right at sunset. What a great way to end this part of the trip.
Here is a link for some more pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/103487700054521552182/20120104ConnieSPicturesFromGalapagos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ_Nh4Xlh7mdeg&feat=directlink and here are more Galapagos pictures from our earlier trip to Galapagos (2005):
https://picasaweb.google.com/103487700054521552182/Galapagos2005?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCML318PfgIaEwAE&feat=directlink
Now on to Machu Picchu for Beth and Connie, Chile for me, and home for the rest.
