Let’s skip the trip to Boston during rush hour, and the 4+-hour layover in Newark! First class was quite pleasant and we did see some beautiful cloud formations over Cuba. The captain swerved a bit to miss some big cloud formations but we could see them perfectly out the window.
Flew into Bogotá Columbia, but it was too dark to see anything other than many lights from this surprisingly large city. We then flew another hour or so into Quito, Ecuador. Our luggage is almost last off the plane, but we find ‘Paul’ easily from the tour guide company that will help coordinate our movement in and out of Quito. We get to his bus and surprise-- 10 more of our group have also just arrived!
A quick ride to the hotel where the first couple have already arrived, and all 14 of us are together, ready to start our adventure. A very nice hotel and what seems to be a great group of people, all quite excited to be in a very new place. 2 more divers will join us before we leave for Galapagos, but we learn that the woman has had both lungs recently replaced and that the shots and medicine for staying in the jungle would not be good for her.
More travel! We woke to a sunny day, which should be rather rare according to Paul. Breakfast was a very nice buffet, with strong coffee. We are very limited for luggage to Sacha Lodge, so we leave our ‘dive-only’ bags to be stowed with the hotel. And at 8:30 we are in our bus heading to airport.
A rep from Sacha Lodge meets us at the airport to help us get through airline lines and onto our flight. There has been a slight change in plans as the original airport destination (Coca) has closed the airport for some renovations. Instead we catch an earlier flight out of Quito (in larger airplane!) and fly to Nueva Loja—East of Quito, about 15 miles from Columbian border.
Geri cannot see much as she and a few others are in the furthest row in back of plane. Bob sees some of the mountaintops, with high plateaus that are used for farming. Its fairly cloudy but he gets some good views. The plane is filled mainly with business men (oil) and some locals. We talk with an American man that has some interesting stories about working in Ecuador and the occasional kidnapping that does actually occur. Not a problem for tourists, but for the businessmen. The movie Proof of Life has been filmed in Ecuador, and it appears to be based on some real life issues.
It is quite warm as we land the airplane. We do notice many military at the small airport, it reminds me of our airports after 9-11. We will now take a bus to Coca, approx 2 hours. The girls agree to get on the bus right away to be sure we get seats together. It’s about a half hour or more for the guys to get the luggage off the plane, and luckily the bus is not too crowded.
The bus ride turns out to be quite interesting. The breeze from the windows keeps it very comfortable, much cooler than while waiting at the airport. We see many houses along the way, a few rivers, and buses and trucks traveling both directions. At one intersection, we stop for a few moments and people from the local building come to the bus to see if we want to buy any food from them. One or two locals buy food, but I think most of us are a bit cautious.
We finally arrive in Coca, almost 2 hours later. While it would have saved time to fly here directly, we all are happy to have had an interesting bus ride and to have seen more of the country. Time wise we are about the same, as we would have waited longer at the airport in Quito before flying.
The bus drops us off at a small building owned by Sacha Lodge building, right across from the Napa River. Here we find a cool, covered but very airy building to use rest rooms, drink water and have some box lunches compliments of Sacha. It felt good to have some food, get a little cleaned up, and to have the peace and non-motion of solid ground instead of the bus. We meet Randy and Paula who will be 2 of the guides for our group. Randy is originally from Canada, although he has been in Amazon for many years. Paula is fairly young, from Peru.
Now we pile into the boat that will take us 50 miles up the river. There are approx 10 rows of seats, and we sit 2 or 3 in each. Boat is covered to protect from sun, and has a very strong motor to take us down the river. We zig-zag a bit to avoid shallow spots, but it is a fast and interesting ride. The river is very brown, from sediments and has a very fast current. Approx 13km per hour. Napa is quite wide, and it would be very dangerous to swim across due to current and little whirlpools.
2.5 hours later, we arrive at Sacha landing. Here we get out of the boat, and have a small building with bathrooms and a second floor lookout to see birds and butterflies. We carry our ‘carryon’ and the guides push a big cart with our ‘checked’ luggage. This is basically a small backpack for each person—weighing 15-18 lbs max.
We hike for 30-40 minutes, rather slowly as it is hot and humid. We are on a jungle path, very well marked. Much of it is wooden planks/paths. Shortly after heading out we see a large red snake! Not sure the type, but it moves fast and luckily away from us.
Our hike is over, and we crawl carefully into small wooden canoes. We sit approx 8 people in each canoe, one in front of the other. Each of us is on a small ‘chair’ to make the canoe more comfortable. But it feels VERY tippy! Although later Randy our guide will tell us that they have never had a canoe tip over with guests.
We meander through a very narrow channel, in very black water. Black due to the bark and minerals. About 10 minutes later we come to the lake and can see the lodge on the far side. The lake is very calm and it is quite beautiful. 1-2 other canoes are out with other guests looking at birds and exploring.
We finally arrive at the lodge after another 15 min of paddling. (2 guides paddled, we get to sit and enjoy!) There is a dock of sorts that we pass for fishing and swimming. We dock the canoes and are led up to the lodge, a 2 story building. Very open, with lovely views of the lake and surrounding trees. 1st floor is a dining area. 2nd floor has a bar and relaxing area, including a stairs up to a small lookout on roof.
A cold drink later along with munchies, and Bob and I have also explored up to the loft. We see beautiful birds in ‘hanging’ nests on the nearest trees. Flowering plants and very green jungle.
The rooms are set up like duplexes. We have the right side of our building, room 18. A thatched building, with screened windows and a nice fan to keep cool. Each room has a private bath with a good shower. The best is having a small porch off the back, complete with a hammock! The grounds are maintained, but rugged. Lots of flowering bushes with butterflies all around, and thick jungle 20 yards away.
WE met the group for a quick swim in the lake. Yes, there are piranha, but the non-threatening kind. These are smaller and only go after dead things—so we splash around enough so as not to be confused as a dead body! The water changes from hot to cold spots, in a few inches. At one point I’m commenting that my butt is cold and hands are warm.
Time to change for dinner. We sit at a table with Randy and 2 other couples from our group (Doug and Holly, and Wayne and Kelly). This is our ‘group’ and Randy will be our guide for the duration of our stay. A local guide, Washo, will also be with our group. Another 6 of our dive group are with guide Rudy from Florida. And the final 2, along with the ‘honey moon’ couple (he from England, she from Italy) are with Paula. The plan is to be woken by 4:45, bkfst at 5:15 and on our way to see birds at 6:15. Better get to bed early!
Tidbit: 60,000 species of insects in 2.5 acres (hector) here in the jungle.
Thurs Oct 24:
Slept very well. It rained quite a bit last night and we had fan noise and cicadas to provide great white noise. As it is raining, our wakeup call has been moved to 6am. We meet for breakfast and decide to move out quickly and go look for parrots even though we are starting late. This morning we’ll be exploring with
Canoe to other side of lake, and hike to the Riverboats. On the way, we listen to howler monkeys in the trees. On the walk to the boat we saw several of the common squirrel monkeys. Sadly Bob’s camera is a bit steamy so these shots do not turn out too well.
All 3 groups load onto the boat and venture further down stream. Our motor scared a big group of parrots. We ended up cutting the motor and drifting down the river for some time. Saw some white heron and egrets, one osprey. Along the shore, some beautiful trees and many birds. We watched over a dozen dusky-headed parrots eating on a special clay bank. This is medicinal for them as they get something out of the clay.
We did not get to see as many parrots as hoped for, but the ride was pleasant and the skies are clearing. Back to Sacha property and we split into our groups again. Our group takes a hike all the way back to the lodge through the jungle.
It’s cooler in the jungle, and darker. We see many trees and bushes that have medicinal purposes. Washo knows so much about the local plants and trees. He does not speak English, but will have Randy translate for him. One plant is good for deodorant, another for your skin, for stomachaches, etc. One tree ‘moves’ as it’s mangrove-type branches die on one side and it slowly creeps another direction. Saw Buttress trees with huge lower roots/growth around the base. Caught a quick glimpse of a black monkey.
And the best discovery turned out to be 20 yards from the lodge. We watched the pigmy marm?????, the tiniest primates, eat and run around a tree very close to us. While they were entertaining us, a toucan flew overhead and landed on one of the branches. He was quite large and impressive to see. Evidently they are scavenger type birds—and will go after other birds, animals, nests, eggs etc.
Back to the lodge for a quick shower and lunch. And then a 2-hour free time, which translates into siesta. We slept about an hour and I finally started this journal. At 4pm we met for some piranha fishing. Bob and I watched the group and Douglas actually caught a very tiny one. Bert caught a larger one that actually took a nibble out of his finger! As it was quite hot by the docks, we gathered our hiking gear and grabbed flashlights and headed out for a hike before dinner.
Saw the most incredible tree with the buttress roots! We walked underneath one of its ‘roots’, took many photos and just marveled at its size. Randy took us to one of his favorite spots, which was a small swampy area with a small canoe stationed there. We split the group in two and took turns getting a short paddle through the swamp area as the sun was setting. It was interesting to hear the bird and frog noises change as the sun was going down.
By the time our two canoe rides were over, it was getting dark enough for flashlights and some bug spray. We could actually see fairly well. We found a small possum that posed for us for some time. And then we found bugs and critters! A walking stick, katydids, a scorpion with a cockroach in its mouth, a huge cockroach, many spiders. It was pretty amazing all the different colors and sizes of things. Kelly who warned us about night time screaming if she happened to step on anything ‘squishy’ in her room, found more bugs that anyone else. She and Bob got some great photos.
Another great dinner and we compared a few of the day stories with the other groups. We’re very happy with Randy and Washo with all they have shown us. Oh, forgot about Washo making a lovely basket out of a palm leaf. Bob snapped a few photos and it was quite impressive.
On the way back from dinner, we found the small Cayman that hangs out in a wet area below the lodge walkways. This is a 3-4 foot crocodile-like creature. Sort of reddish. Evidently there is a much larger one that lives in the lake—hopefully he doesn’t like to eat swimmers. The thought is that he may go after the smaller one Cayman, and that is why the smaller one can usually be found in this other area instead of the lake.
A lovely way to end the day! I’m sort of caught up with my journal, and we’ll sleep early as we plan to try the 5am wakeup call again. Can’t wait to see what we’ll find then!
No rain last night, but of course it starts in during our 5:30 breakfast! As it rains harder and harder, we decide to check out the butterfly ‘farm’ instead of a walk. This is fairly complex farm with the first section devoted to plants and caterpillars. As the cocoons are discovered, they are brought into the butterfly room and put into a special ‘cage’ to wait out their hatching period. The morning we are here we see 3-4 emerge right before our eyes.
The rest of the butterfly area has many plants to feed the 23 species of butterflies. Some very large butterflies—some quite ornate. The largest seemed to enjoy sitting on us and drinking our sweat/salt off of our hands. Yes, I even held a butterfly and I think we have photos to prove it.
We stayed here quite a while as it was raining so hard. We then decide to have some quiet time and reconvene at 10am to check up on the weather. While its still raining then, we decide to put on ponchos and take a hike anyways. Bob decides to sit out and read (and stay dry) while we venture through mud and rain. Our destination turns out to be a huge tower, approx 120 feet. We climb the tower and are now ABOVE the treetops! The rain is stopping and many birds are flying high on the treetops to dry themselves. We see 4 types of toucans, parrots, and many others. It is so beautiful even just looking at the trees at this height. I am sure that the photos will do it no justice to see how huge the jungle is and how impressive the trees are and the many different types.
Leaving the tower we take a slightly different path back and come across a huge vine swing! There is a small seat on the bottom and we take turns getting a quick push. I love the slow, looong swing since the pendulum is so long.
We arrive back just in time for our 1pm lunch. This is followed by the usual siesta time, however we’ll make ours a bit shorter so we can get a few activities in before dinner. We meet at 3pm and head out in the canoes to the other side of the lake. Washo thinks we can perhaps find Howler Monkeys at this place. And he is right! Washo sees them first and quickly calls us over. We watch as a small group passes in front of us, high in the treetops. There is a lead male, followed by several younger (lesser) males. There are a few females and one baby small enough that mom is carrying him on her stomach. They jump from treetop to treetop, and follow along certain branches. They pretty much all follow the same path…it just happens to be up high in the trees.
Back the canoe again, this time we paddle into a small creek that shoots out of one side of the lake. It is hard to even see the creek entrance until we get closer. But we enter the shallow creek and it now looks very ‘jungle like’. I thought we should see Michael Douglas and Katherine Turner at any point. Randy and Washo paddle us through some narrow and shallow spots, and we reach the ‘end’ about 25 minutes later.
Of course, we have another spot to park the canoe and we head up a short path. Paula and her group are here before us and we try to be quiet in case they are viewing anything special. The 5-minute walk takes us to the most incredible tree that has a tower built around it!
We climb wooden stairs around and around the Kapok tree. We reach the top of the tower at 150 feet and the bulk of the tree branches/leaves are still above us. It is so beautiful. We see the Napa River just barely in the distance, and later can see a volcano that lays half way back to Quito.
We see more toucans and other birds. Including one that is similar to a mockingbird, with supposedly 75-80 songs! He sits fairly close and we are lucky enough to both see and hear him. While he is fairly common to hear, it is rare to see him, so we were quite pleased. Also saw some beautiful parrots. Dark heads, green backs, beautiful yellow/gold chests. This group of 4-5 sat on a treetop for some time and we could see them quite well with the telescope brought up by the guides.
Paula’s group heads back a bit before us. As we have Randy the more experienced guide, and a group of gung ho Americans, we will return our canoe ride in the dark. It was a bit eerie to say the least. Especially when the bats started swooping up and down the river! Randy ducked a few times and Bob right behind him was a bit nervous too. I felt a bit safer being 3rd back, but still kept my head pretty low. It was pretty interesting to them flying up and down the creek, catching bugs and zipping all over the place.
The lighting was also rather interesting. Randy would shine his bright flashlight that would illuminate the upcoming creek and all the jungle trees/vines etc around it. Really quite beautiful.
As we made it back to the lake, the sky got a bit brighter. We no longer had the trees above us and could see stars. A very peaceful night for our last evening in Sacha. Boat ride back is not too bad; we wrap up cozy and try to stay out of the rain. Canoe, hike, we headed back to the lodge in time for another lovely dinner. And a special surprise, compliments of Randy and Washo.
Washo met us on the dock after dinner with his ‘pet’. I’ll have to check the name again, but this lovely little critter acted like a cat, very playful. A tail like a monkey or possum that could wrap around things (like our arms). He had claws and teeth, but none were sharp. Beautiful dark fur and big black eyes. We all wanted to take one home with us, but knew that would never work. Called something like a kikijew.
So, another great day at Sacha. I think we would love to be staying one more day, although we feel like we really saw a lot of different and special things in our 2-day visit. Tomorrow we leave quite early…canoe, hike, boat, bus, and plane back to Quito. More later.
Can you say wet?? We get up at 5, and are in the canoe leaving the lodge very early and it is raining, HARD! The boat, bus, airplane, bus, and finally hotel! Some of the group manages to get out for a bit of very successful shopping at the market. Bob and I take a shower and nap as we’re feeling the altitude a bit.
Heather has arranged to take taxis to a nice restaurant that Paul has recommended. We arrive ($2.50 for single cab) and are very impressed at the entrance and lovely restaurant. The 14 of us are in our own side-room off the main dining area. Luckily the menu has English, as our waiter is very Spanish!
Suddenly, we hear music, and a group of 6 locals are playing the bamboo pipes, guitar and drums. It is quite wonderful. At one point they come and play 2 songs to our group! Jonny recognizes them from the market as some of our group bought a cd or two from them earlier in the day.
We enjoy our meal, the entertainment and laugh a lot. The margaritas that Bert and Kelly have ordered are basically tequila with salt. Kelly and Wayne are trying to order coconut ice cream, and the waiter ends up bringing a bowl of whipped cream to go with Wayne’s coffee. A fun evening.
Bob and I are suffering a bit from altitude headaches and are happy to be back to the hotel by 9:30. We had already rearranged all luggage and are ready for a good night sleep!
Sun Oct 27:
More travel. Breakfast at the hotel first, and we meet the final 2 of our group—Rhonda and Gary who arrived late last night. An early bus ride to the airport and we’re off to Galapagos!
While waiting for the plane to leave, we listen to a young woman from Seattle talk about living several weeks in the Amazon with a small tribe of 25. Only 3 spoke Spanish, most spoke the Indian language. She tells us how self-sufficient and strong they are. The woman she reported to, had a baby 3 weeks before and was working everyday with baby in one hand and a machete in the other!
We have a short flight to Guayaquil in Ecuador, and then our plane leaves for 1.5-hour flight to Galapagos! Xavier, from Peter Hughes, meets us at the airport and gets us by bus to the harbor. (This bus ride is only 5 minutes!) We are ferried to our boat in 2 groups on the inflatable and we are on the SKY DANCER!
This is a lovely boat, very new as it is just over 1 year old. Starting at the top, a sun (shade) deck for lounging. The 2nd floor has 4 cabins (ours is here) the pilot room, and the dive briefing area out back. The main level has the dive deck, and a lovely dining room and lounge area. One deck below is the other 4 cabins.
We learn about our schedules and that the crew will make announcements for us over loud speaker about diving, trips ashore or meal times. A rigorous time schedule (including afternoon siestas) but it insures we can do it all!
Xavier is the dive leader (and speaks the best English) and will be the one keeping us on schedule and sharing his knowledge of Galapagos. Natasha is assistant dive leader and will be leading our group of 8 divers. Frank the captain. William and Beddar will drive our 2 inflatables as we dive and explore each day. Also present is cook, ass’t cook, mechanical engineer, 2nd mate. Most of the 10 crew have several responsibilities and all work very hard.
A quick check out dive is rather interesting. We are hot in our suits and as our group of 8 heads out in inflatable; one of our members breaks a fin strap. Back we go for a quick repair. We dive a short dive to check our weights. The visibility is quite low, but we see some lovely and large starfish. 2 HUGE schools of fish swimming together. We dive 30 minutes and head up, as it is getting dark.
We have a nice dinner and everyone is quite tired and early to bed.
Monday Oct 28th:
Wake up to a beautiful morning. We left the harbor last night and have anchored at Bartolome, a small island off of the NE side of Santiago Island. The landscape is quite intriguing as we wake up to a beautiful pinnacle out of our window.
During breakfast the boat is moved a short distance to Cousins Rock. Our first dive is here! Our group heads out first and on my early descent I see a sea lion diving below us. The rest of the group drops down with their cameras and we’re off along a wall.
Fish, TURTLES, white tip sharks, more turtles, sea lions, an eel, a large seahorse! There is sooo much to see! At one point I look at my watch and it has only been 15 minutes! We round a point and the current is getting stronger. I held on tight to look over the ‘edge’ and see 2 sea lions swirling/swimming together very close to me. Bob signals that he saw 2 hammerheads off in the distance! Natasha, ours guide tries to get some of us to go back to the point, but against the current is too strong.
Bob has signaled that he is low on air, so us 2 will head up. As we get picked up, a sea lion is swimming around the boat, and comes right up to us!
The rest of the group surfaces and we hear that some saw a group of golden eagle rays! What a first dive—we are also thinking of Jeff and Krista who wanted to be on this trip and wish they were here to share it with us.
Back on deck we’re hugging and so happy to have such a wonderful first dive. So many things that even singularly, would have made a dive wonderful. And we had them all on one dive! I had to write while it was still fresh in my mind.
Dive 2: same spot. This dive started a bit slower, but at the base of the ‘V’ we saw 4-5 turtles in one spot! As we crawled to the point, at first it was disappointing to not see anything big…however, a moment later 2 spotted rays showed up! This is probably the closest I ever saw them! They were feeding off the point for a few moments before swimming away.
Large Banded Blenny: camouflage color, orange eyebrows, 7-9 inches. Also a starfish with blue on top of arms, green stripes on the sides, very pretty.
Lunch, and then our group gets a chance to snorkel with the sea lions right off Cousins Rock—what a blast. They are so playful. We had 4-5 circling around us. Then its off to snorkel with penguins—yes, penguins. These are up on the shore on Bartolome. Many other boats are also at this nearby anchorage. We go in the inflatable near the shore, and see a few penguins, more sea lions and iguanas. Oh, Bert also found some sharks right up by the shore underneath a small ledge. Quite the place.
Back to the boat to dry off, and the next excursion is back to shore on Bartolome. We see the most desolate land here—all from volcanoes. We are able to walk up to one high point—via path and stairs. We get views in 360 degrees of all the islands around us. Some are rather hilly, some large, and some very small.
The landscape here looks like the moon. There are maybe 3 types of plants that grow here in a few spots. A special cricket and a lizard. And not much else besides birds flying by or sea lions coming ashore. Xavier explains about the volcanoes and the secondary spirals. We also talk about Darwin and the fact that he published on the same day as another scientist from England (I believe). Interesting to hear that Darwin had taken ‘ill’ before publishing—theories are from a childhood sickness, or more so that he felt he would be challenging so many peoples belief about creation and evolution and perhaps this stress was quite great.
Forgot about the sea lion that greeted us 3 steps onto the island. We board onto a special docking area with steps, and there he is, sunning himself. We take photos sitting 12 inches away from him. He is still there when we return. Guess he is the official greeter and bon-voyager of the island.
Back to the boat, but the day is not over. We have a night dive planned back on Cousins Rock again. Most of us go and are very happy that the current is much less than earlier.
We see a stingray and big marble ray near the very beginning. More turtles show up. Holly and Doug saw a shark! Nice cup corrals, a very pleasant dive. And now we are hungry and they just announced dinner. Gotta go!
We’ve been motoring all night. Traveling north above Santiago around the north point of Isabela Island. During breakfast someone noticed a few whale spouts. Jonny and I went up to the bowsprit after breakfast and sure enough a few more spouts. Now the captain announces the whales and everyone comes up to get a better look.
It’s determined they are Fin whales, named for the pronounced fin on their back. We see some more blows and a bit of their backs, but they do not come up too high. Captain Frank has turned the boat around to get a better look and we’re happy to catch a few glimpses. Paul says these are the second largest whales.
We stop at Pt Espinosa, on Fernandina Island. Mom and young seal sitting on the docking area greets us. We walk out to the point and see sea lions, a ton of iguanas, cormorants (different from back home, these do not fly, only swim, and their remaining wings are very small). The iguanas sit and soak up the sun and heat from the black lava rocks. The males will ‘bob’ their heads, open their mouths and stick out tongues at each other. Otherwise they do not move too much.
A ton of little pools around the shore and sea lions of various ages are playing throughout. At one point we do see a very large male chasing another between 2 ponds, ‘running’ through the sand.
At a far lookout on the point, the waves are crashing and we see 2 turtles. Then, we watch a sea lion surfing! He did this a few times, zipping along the back of the wave before the curl. Wayne hopefully got it on video, as it was amazing.
Even the crabs are very beautiful. Very red/orange and black. Some had yellow on the tips of their legs.
We saw someone photographing a hawk. This group was from National Geographic and evidently they will have some photos or story in the May issue. We’ll have to look for that. Oh, and the married couple that ended up at Sacha Lodge with us, and the nice restaurant in Quito, are also on the island on this same day. We wave although our groups are not close enough to talk.
A quick crossing to Isabella Island, Tagus Cove for our first dive of the day. No current and great visibility. We dove down off the southern edge of the cove, rounded the entrance and finished well inside. A few sea lions greeted us at from the beginning and dove throughout, spinning circles and swimming around us. Later we see some video footage from Xavier and they are certainly quite the hams.
We see several sea horses, a few turtles, and a good size octopus hiding in the rocks. Many small fish, all shapes and colors. The other group found a frogfish and included him on the video. We’re captivated for a dive that lasts 1 hour.
At this point it is after 2:30 and we are more than ready for lunch! Explore, eat, explore eat, seems to be the routine. After lunch we have time for a siesta, and move the boat 2 hours north on Isabella to a new spot. We’ll dive here late this afternoon, and our night dive.
Punta Vincent Rocca is the name of this site. High cliffs surround it and there is a good size cave off to one side. The first dive goes down to 110 feet to look for batfish with red lips. I can’t descend quick enough to stay with them, but enjoy checking all the cracks and crevices on the wall. Tons of fish of course—I also see a shrimp and small eel. The beginning and ending of the dive has spectacular cup coral and just so many fish hiding everywhere in the wall.
The night dive is beautiful, although we are a bit disorganized. We are slightly hurrying so we can leave for Darwin/Wolf tonight, and the second inflatable drops us off in front of the first group. All 15 are clamoring over each other. We split up partway through the dive. Many large shrimps with beady orange eyes glowing in the flashlights. TONS of ½ inch shrimp are swarming our lights making hard for the photographers to shoot. The orange cup coral is very bright and plentiful. I see an interesting fish that turns out to be a Hieroglyphic Hawk fish.
We see a very large male sea lion that dives around us several times throughout the dive. I saw a good size eel. Bob gets a great shot of a large hermit crab inside a big shell and a balloon fish that watches him shoot. Time for dinner and bed. We cruise all night at one point and hear birds outside, flying back and forth along the boat and looking for fish in the boat lights.
Where to start! We are arriving at Wolf Island, far up on the northwest portion of Galapagos. And we see so many dolphins! Probably hundreds of them. With all of our sailing, we have never seen so many dolphins at one time. And they stay in this area with us—It is now 3pm as I write and they are still outside playing, swimming and having fun. We also have 20-30 brown foot boobies flying around the boat, sitting on the upper deck and railings. Very little fear of us, and we take many pictures very close to them (watching their ‘poop’ range of course!)
Our first dive is called Land Slide. Our group heads out first and see a hammerhead shark early (my first!). This is a very rocky area and we see so many large eels we cannot keep track of how many. Green morays and the darker black ones too. The beautiful Moorish Idol fish is here too—mostly swimming in pairs, they are beautiful to see. Yellow tailed Surgeonfish in small schools. More hammerheads: part of the group says they saw a dozen or so swimming together! The current is very light and we really enjoy this dive. When we see sharks near the end, we hold on to the barnacles on some of the rocks and just watch them go by.
Our second dive is in a new spot, called the Caves or Pinnacle. We get to see both places! Dropping down I see the first yellow puffer of the trip. More Hieroglyphic Hawk fish, a few eels. We are diving along a wall that has 2 caves, 1 as a swim through and 1 as a large cavern. Both are quite beautiful with some soft coral and lots of fish. A large sea lion is following us and heads into the cave with the group. He sticks with us, swimming slowly like he wants to just come along for the adventure.
We round the point and see the pinnacle fairly close to the wall. As we swim to the top of the pinnacle, approx 22 feet deep, we see an amazing collection of fish: Hieroglyphic Hawk fish, a SCORPION Fish, puffer, yellow puffer, on and on (which I knew these fish better!) Finally its time to head up, as the last 3 of us to get into the inflatable are treated to 6 dolphins swimming by!
Our group is on the inflatable and before returning to the boat, we take a side trip to explore a nearby cave. We have to duck to get through the entrance, and then we are inside a large cave that goes into the cliffs about 50 yards. A higher ceiling cavern was near the end—we could only see with flashlights, no natural light got in this far. As we head back to the cave entrance, we finally see some faint light and notice more brightness in the water. It’s quite pretty.
We’re heading back to the boat and we ask to be able to get out to snorkel with the dolphins that are still throughout the area. I quickly spot a turtle and float watching him for a few moments. Most of the rest of my group have gone off towards shore, but then we decide we’re going to see more dolphins out a bit further. I see some in the distance and swim over their direction. Now I can hear them and they appear. Mostly in groups, some come fairly close. Some are deep below me and others are near the surface as they get air and breach a bit. A few come quite close to check me out, it’s incredible to say the least.
Holly ends up by me and we are mesmerized. At one point we decide we should get a bit closer to the group and start swimming towards them. Then, approx 15 feet below us, something very strange comes towards us. It is a sailfish! He passes us so close. We both stick our heads up asking ‘did you SEE that??’ Unreal! More dolphins as we head back to the group and get on the inflatable.
Well, Bob and Kelly have also had an experience. They are snorkeling along surrounded by two dozen dolphins; Bob is even diving below to see them underwater as well, which causes them to start playing. Suddenly he sees a shark about 20 feet below him and calls Kelly over. Soon there are 2 more sharks, and they are circling, getting closer all the time. Now Bob and Kelly see teeth! As much as they enjoy sharks, these 2 are getting a bit freaked out. Both start frantically waving for the inflatable driver to pick them up, while trying to keep their feet towards the sharks ready to try to kick them away. I think the 2 of them enter the dinghy in half a second flat. Later we look at a video of silky sharks and decide that these three were probably Silky’s instead of Galapagos. Silky’s are very aggressive and curious and as we learned later, have attacked swimmers in the area.
Everyone is safely on deck in time for lunch. We have good stories to share and nerves are a bit calmer. Almost ready for next afternoon dive.
We return to Land Slide again for this dive. While I see no hammerheads, a few others catch a glimpse or two near the end of the dive. The usual beautiful fish, although many seem to be lying at the bottom. At first thought wondering if sick, but perhaps its only siesta time, as there are too many. I am having major mask-leak and am not as comfortable on this dive. Current is still fairly calm, although we swim into it for the beginning part of the dive. As we surface, it is quite choppy and we use the sausage to notify the inflatable. I see a bird that thinks about landing on the top of it, thinks better and just plops down into the water with us.
As it’s been so choppy, the Sea Dancer has moved closer to pick us up after this dive. We had back into the bay where we’ve been hanging out with the dolphin and appreciate the calmer seas here. I spent some time talking to the captain up on the bowsprit. He tells me he has 3 children, and that his wife is mother, father and dentist while he is working his 6 weeks on, 3 weeks off. We watch the dolphins jump and play off in the distance where the waves are larger and breaking. They are going crazy leaping so high and splashing.
Most of us have kept on our wet suits so we can get ready for dive 4 of the day quickly. We always seem to be a bit behind and want to get all dives in before having dinner too late. This dive we drop in a calmer spot near the edge of the bay. Large mushroom shaped coral, pretty plain looking. However underneath the big ‘caps’ you could find lovely corals—yellows, reds, and purples. Many orange cup corals that are just starting to open as we are nearing dark. I’ve taken a flashlight and enjoy seeing the colors emerging during this twilight dive. I’m noticing more of the blennies and smaller fish in these areas. Of course we see large eels and a turtle or two.
The crew now takes us to the western side of Wolf Island, to an anchorage in a small bay. It is dark when we get here, but we can see steep cliffs and an interesting rock-formation up high. It’s very protected for our night dive, and we just swim around the inside of the bay in rather shallow depths. Many large boulders holding king size eels. Colorful sea slugs? Shrimp eyes peering at us from every crack. Bob spies the back of one large turtle underneath a rock, with a big eel as protection.
5 dives today! The last dive on the west side was just one boat going out as only 9 of us make the final dive. Dinner and bed. Seems to be the pattern as we’re quite tired after our busy day.
Halloween! Thurs Oct 31.
Here we are at Darwin Island! The famous arch lies just off this island. The island is quite steep, tall and flat on top. The Aggressor 2 is here, as is a lobster boat. Our first dive we drop down to approx 65 feet and sit/hang onto barnacles and watch the fish swim by. Eels and many fish, but I do not see the 2-3 hammerheads that have supposedly swum by. We check out a few spots, but stay quite close to our dropping point. The current seems strongest right above the wall/reef. If we back off instead of holding on, we do much better. Coming up the current takes out over the deep for our safety stop and eventual loading back into the inflatable. It’s windy and the sea is choppy, makes for fun getting back into the inflatable.
We are on top for an hour and back in to do the same dive. We plan to drop again and pretty much stay put on the edge of the wall, to just watch things swim by. We’re at 70 feet and there are a ton of reef fish on the wall and swimming by. We all are holding onto rocks right at the top edge of the wall, looking out. The only tricky part is to be sure you are holding or standing someplace where a large eel is NOT hanging out. We see only 2 separate hammerheads in the first 5-10 minutes, and then quite a few more. At one point there is a group of 3 together. We also see 1 silky. This is the closest I’ve seen the hammerheads and they are certainly more interesting than scary looking. Most were somewhat below us, but several swam along the edge of the wall fairly close by. We try to breathe calmly as the bubbles supposedly will scare them away.
This is a nice dive, but at this depth, we need to start heading up before too long. The current pulls us along as we head up. The surface is very choppy and while I’d rather wait for the boat a few feet under water, Bob motions me up so I can stay with the group as those on the surface will float/drift much faster than I could keep up below.
We’ve all seen a lot of hammerheads – about 30! Time to warm up, dry off and think about lunch. By the way, water temp here supposedly 79 degrees! We are still using the 6-5-4 and quite comfortable in these ‘still’ dives where we mostly sit and watch.
Lunch and siesta, and we’re off again. This time we’ll drop into a more sandy area, grab onto small rocks or whatever we can and watch to see if the hammerheads will swim by. This area has cleaning stations so perhaps they’ll stop. We are between the arch and the rocks off Darwin.
And yes, we saw hammerheads! Not sure how many, mostly in groups of 3 or less, occasionally more. We sit/lay down low, using very little air and just watch the show. The current is not too strong, and we glide along (or pull ourselves) to cover a little bit of ground. We end up at a section of coral raised above the sand. Lots of fish and eels in here too and a good place to watch the sharks. We see hundreds of butterfly fish. As we start to come up, we are in the middle of two schools of fish moving quite slowly. They keep us company as we surface.
We’re up for an hour, and wanting to get back in. This time we’ll hit the sandy spot again, and try to keep at 50 feet or less. We see a few sharks, but nothing near the quantities of earlier. The butterfly fish are busy cleaning other fish in this area. We see more turtles and eels. Several have seen an octopus that they coached out of his hiding spot. A spotted eagle ray comes near the group, moving rather slowly so most of us get a good look and Bob snaps a few photos. Another good dive. Our group is feeling smug as we stuck together quite well and are surfacing together nicely.
We’ve decided that we’ll motor back to Wolf Island tonight, and do 2 dives there tomorrow morning. Then we start our long journey back, although we’ll be able to have 2 dives Sat morning along the way. We could have stayed a bit longer at Darwin, as this holds the best promise for whale sharks, however the water is quite warm (reading between 79-81) and this makes it quite unlikely that they will be around. We hope to do the Pinnacle/Cave dive tomorrow at Wolf.
Fun dinner tonight. As we only did 4 dives, we’re able to eat a bit earlier. It’s Halloween, so we are invited to dress up. Doug is Hugh Hefner (robe, and a pipe made from pen / film canister / duct tape and Holly has on black swimsuit, bunny ears (towel around her head) and a bunny tail. Very cute together. Heather has in braids, and no she’s not Pippy Longstocking she’s Mary Anne from Gilligans Island. Wayne is King of the Booby Deck and flashes us with Kelly’s bikini top on. Paul and Diane come us yellow puffer fish—their yellow jackets stuffed with pillows. Rhonda and Gary are newlyweds, wearing their robes, but they won’t tell what’s on underneath.
We start with Doug playing small guitar and Jeff on some tambourine-like instrument. Everyone is singing along with our happy hour cocktails. Dinner is a real treat, fresh lobster from the local fisherman (who are allowed to fish). Very good. As dinner is over, the lights go down, we hear strange noises and the crew and a few divers are performing a skit for us.
Dan is King Neptune complete with mop-wig hair, crown, shaving cream and a pitchfork. The crew is dressed in various items-hats, towels, and goggles. King Neptune introduces his ‘queen’, one of the crew with makeup, a wig and a pretty robe. We are all laughing and taking photos. Doug and Rhonda are called upon to perform the Iguana dance. Wayne and I must do the Booby dance, with fins on. 4 are called up to drink fruit from the sea (turns out to be a hot sauce).
We dance in a limbo-line up to the Booby deck and dance a bit more to Rolling Stones. A lot of fun and laughter, but we’re tired fairly early and get to bed at reasonable time.
We move back to Wolf early this am. A few dolphins around although not as many as the other day. Our first dive is to Landslide and we are blessed with little to no current. A very relaxing dive, we saw several hammerheads, Xmas tree coral, the usual great mixture of fish, turtles, eels and lobsters. Back up top for a little sunshine before the next dive.
Second dive is to Pinnacles/Caves. We find the current that was missing on the earlier dive. This is probably one of the prettiest walls. Again the cave and swim through, and all the cracks for fish and corral. I saw one large turtle, butt facing out as he was nibbling on something good at the back of his small ledge. Saw our first albino puffer, more yellow puffer, and several hammerheads out in the blue. One of the caves had a shark sleeping / moving lazily. As we get towards the point where the pinnacle will be, the current is picking up immensely. I’ve grabbed on to get my bearings and wait for Bob when I see some scuba fins in the blue, heading to the pinnacle. Bob, Kelly and Wayne catch up to me, grab on and I point out the pinnacle. We probably should have stayed on the side, but we give the pinnacle try swimming quite hard in the current. We all get there but are quite tired, out of breath, and getting low on air. We crawl up the pinnacle enjoying the 2 large turtles below and all the fish surrounding it. At the top we know we need to surface so we let go to begin the safety stop. We’re happy that us 4 are together, and the inflatable spots us and picks us up quickly. Holly and Doug are already on board. Seeing a sausage in the distance, we pick up Elaine and Jeff. Our whole group is here (on the opposite inflatable however) and then we see Natasha. So while this was a beautiful dive, we wish we would have been able to go slower on the wall and would have not bothered with the pinnacle.
Everyone is gathered up and its time for lunch. The boat is underway heading south; we have a long cruise in front of us. The waves are pretty large and sitting down to the lunch table does not agree with me. At one point I have to get outside for some fresh air and walk up to the bow. In a few minutes a big wave has splashed me and I am wet! But I do feel better. I start to walk past the dining area to the door and hear everyone inside laughing as they can see me looking pretty drenched. I’m accused of starting a wet t-shirt contest.
Most of the afternoon is sunning, shading and napping. At dinner we are able to select our dive plan for the next morning and we decide to head a bit further to Gardner Rocks for 2 early dives. Hopefully visibility and current will work with us.
We are at Gordon Rock, off of Santa Cruz Island. 1 large rock and 2 smaller are above water, and 3 pinnacles are below between them, all forming a large semi circle. We drop down to a very steep wall; it is so close to 90 degrees! Little cavities everywhere with sea urchins, coral, fish in every crack. I’m wondering how to describe it to someone, and all I can think of is a giant wall of ‘sponge’ with the holes and craters everywhere. The current picks up and is very strong. We are mainly clinging to the wall and pulling ourselves along. A great time to view all the little critters in the crevices and I notice more than on any other dive. We see a seal and turtle, but no other large sea life.
We’re on deck for an hour and anxious to get back in. The plan is for Natasha to drop down, check out the current and then we’ll decide which side we will dive. The first spot is too strong so we pull around to the back, and drop in next to half a dozen sea lions floating on the surface—almost looks like they are having a siesta lying on their backs.
We’re moving quite slowly to enjoy all the fish and coral on our last dive. Bob sees a large nudabranch—green and dark blue sliding along the wall nibbling along the way. A few bright blennies, one sea lion keeps us company and several turtles throughout. The current is much better and we’re all able to enjoy this dive more than the last. The group gets a bit split up, but everyone is happy with this final dive. Bob and I surface first and then the others.
Rinsing and hanging dive gear, Lunch, relaxing, and a trip to the engine room before seeing our video of the week. Xavier finally figures out how to show us the video and it is quite good. He has captured a lot of the fun we had above and below the sea.
Now we have a chance to go to the Darwin National Park to see the giant tortoises. This is in Porte Ayora on Santa Cruz. Here they breed these endangered creatures, raise the young until approx 2 yrs old, and then return them specifically to the island where the ‘parents’ came from. It is impressive to see these giant beasts, some approx 150 yrs old. We buy some t-shirts and other items to take home, but the highlight is the stand that sells ice cream treats.
Walking into town, we see a bunch of little tourist shops, dive shops and restaurants. Porte Ayora has about 10,000 people, perhaps 2/3rds of all the Galapagos population. We do our part to help the economy and enjoy the time strolling around. As it’s getting late, we’ll stay in town now for our dinner before going back to the boat. Xavier has made a reservation at a nice restaurant where we sit outside and have 2 tables pushed together for our group. Heather has everyone tell their favorite part of the trip to Galapagos and we enjoy recounting special sightings and meaningful parts of the trip. A lot of joking, but serious talk too in everyone agreeing what a wonderful and special trip this was.
Early this morning we pull anchor and start heading back to Baltra. We’ll have a final breakfast on board, and then start the long process home. It’s truly been a memorable trip—with the amazing diving and sea life that we encountered, and with this group of people. We’ve all been impressed with the passion of Xavier and our guides at Sacha Lodge for their work and their knowledge of their area environment. I admire their commitment, enthusiasm and excitement to share their knowledge with us.
Heading home is still a bit of an adventure. As we fly back to Ecuador and land first in Guayaquil, we learn that a volcano near Quito has been throwing ash and we are not allowed to fly back there. Luckily our tour group has helped arrange a hotel for us to stay at here in Guayaquil. We are at a Hampton Inn downtown. Our first thoughts are a little dismal, seeing all the road/sidewalk work going on in this area. However the hotel turns out to be very nice and very safe.
6 of us are due to leave this evening, and we are able to confirm that we are on our regular flight, as it would have stopped here after leaving Quito enroute to the States. The others will hopefully make their flights tomorrow morning. Jeff and Elaine are the questionable ones, as they have been rebooked for Tuesday flight, not Monday. Hopefully they will get it worked out early Monday.
Not sure what will happen with the luggage we have left in Quito. We hear it is on a bus, with other tourists that are enroute to Guayaquil to catch their plane to Galapagos. (We feel very lucky about the timing of this volcano as the next vacationers are having much more difficulty getting on with their trips). Heather will help coordinate getting luggage back. Ours will actually return to Michigan, and Heather takes care of shipping it back to New Hampshire.
We walk a bit; discover an Internet store across the street and Bob is catching up on emails. Our last group dinner is at the hotel and we have to say good-bye to our new friends.
Rhonda and Gary, Wayne and Kelly leave with us around 10pm for the ride to the airport. Luckily the airport is rather quiet and we feel we’ll have a very empty plane since it will not be stopping or picking up anyone from Quito. Other than 30-40 minutes time spent with the ticket agent being sure our flight is booked correctly (since we are not doing the Quito part) all goes very smoothly. As us 3 couples are tying up 3 of the 4 ticket stations, we feel the rest of the people in line are probably not thinking very good thoughts about us.
The rest of the journey is quite uneventful. Just long. It is good to be home again with some great stories about the places we’ve been, things we’ve seen, and the great people we shared them with.
I made a list of the fish I recognized from the book:
King Angelfish and juveniles
Barberfish
Yellow tailed surgeonfish
Gold-rimmed surgeonfish
Moorish Idol
Jacks
Blue spotted jacks (fluorescent blue along fins)
Giant damselfish
Bump head damselfish
Flag cabrilla
Leather bass, barred juvenile (black & white)
Creole fish
Bump head parrotfish
Many wrasses
Sunset wrasse
Streamer hogfish (very friendly)
Large banded blenny and juveniles
Clinids?
Galapagos triple fin blenny
Galapagos blue-banded goby
One frogfish
Rep lipped batfish
Stone scorpion fish
Coral hawfish
Hieroglyphic hawkish
Puffers
Black with white dots: guinea fowl puffer
Yellow: guinea fowl puffer in golden phase
Balloon fish with points
Yellow-bellied triggerfish
Black triggerfish
Vagabond filefish
Pacific seahorse
Marble ray
Stingray
Spotted eagle ray
Scalloped hammerhead
Golden cow ray
Galapagos penguin
Blue-footed booby
Fur sea lion
Marine iguana
Green sea turtles.