Galapagos Vacation
Saturday, Sept 10th:
The joy of traveling
is somewhat eased having used mileage for first-class tickets. We travel
Sunday Sept 11:
Woke up to a beautiful morning – sunny and
comfortable with temps later in the day to reach approx 65-70. We ask at the hotel about a pharmacy (need to
pick up deodorant, q-tips, some stomach-type medicine). They tell us that there is one a few blocks
away, and that walking is quite safe.
Evidently on Sundays, many large roads are closed to traffic and there
are many people out riding bikes and walking.
The hotel is also able to give me a small guidebook and a map that will
be very helpful. We pack up a backpack,
water and head out around
Found the pharmacy early on, got past the English/Spanish lack-of-communication and feel we found the correct items. We head to a park about 3 blocks from hotel. Very large park with paths, playgrounds, and many vendors. The artists have their paintings hung along the sidewalks on the edge of the park. I’m not much of an art critic, but find it amazing to see the variety of paintings: regional, traditional, modern, bright colors, dull colors, different sizes, etc. quite lovely and certainly something for almost everyone’s style. Within the park there is one section filled with many stalls full of jewelry, scarves, clothing etc. Most vendors are in the native Ecuadorian clothing with bright colors, flowing skirts and beautiful shawls. Miraculously I do not feel I must buy anything.
We
walk and walk. Enjoy the parks, see some statues, a beautiful church in the
distance. Get to the church: (one of many) the Basilica?? It’s up on a hill making the spirals and what
I think are ‘flying buttresses’ even more noticeable. We now make our way into the ‘old town’
section of
Work our way to
As
we get to the park near the hotel we see a clown about to perform and decide to
watch. As the only ‘gringos’, we are
soon the topic of discussion. The clown
really does not speak English and we of course do not speak Spanish. He finds one interpreter to ask a few
questions, and then gets us to sit down and watch the show for some time. At
this point, I’m tired, and sunburned – silly (stupid) not thinking we’d be in
the sun so much. Back to the hotel where we check email and up to room to take
a nap.
For dinner we walk to Hilton hotel – 3 blocks away, next to the large park. Have a scrumptious fancy dinner – very reasonable priced. Bob’s filet mignon is the most tender piece of beef he’s ever had.
Monday Sept 12: enroute
This morning at breakfast we overhear a couple talking about
diving. We meet Lee and Nancy, from
Easy transfers to the airport and onto our plane. We had been a bit panicked Friday night packing for this trip after researching the luggage restrictions. We have a 3 check-in bags (each under 50 lbs) and a good size carry-on each, but we have no problems.
The plane is quite empty and we can spread out to look out
the windows for our short flight to
Others that were on our plane: Ugee and Lisa from
- Lee and Nancy
- Matt and Nadja
- Scott and Nancy
- Mark and Deborah
- Bob and Geri
- Lou
and Scott (father, son
- Ujiro (Ugee) and Lisa from
- Dick and Rainer.
At the boat: we recognize several of the crew from 3 years ago. We have a quite briefing and boat tour. Our first goal is to get our tanks setup, as we’ll have a quick checkout dive to be sure of our weights and gear. We’ll be split in two groups, 8 divers each with one of the dive masters. These groups will always be on the same dinghy (pangy).
Check out dive is a short distance away from the harbor. It is quite shallow, but we are able to check our weights and get a feel for things. We do see some nice fish, and come up to see a group of people swimming/snorkeling. Back on the boat we see how organized our crew is: they bring our tanks on board from the dinghy’s, help us remove wet suits, rinse & hang our wetsuits, and always have warm drink (tea or cocoa) and a warm treat upon returning from a dive.
Now we have time for a short shore excursion: We see many sea lions and some marine
iguanas. Jaime tells us that sea lions
generally have 1 pup. End up nursing and
caring for it for 1.5 years. May have second pup in second year so two are dependent. 2 types sea lions in
Galapagos: Galapagos sea lions and fur
seals. Galapagos sea lions are related
to
We also see frigate birds flying around. These black birds with funny looking tails are quite common throughout the islands. The males have a large red inflatable ‘pouch’ below their beaks. When they are courting the females, they will inflate this brilliant red pouch to try to attract and impress the females.
Sally Lightfoot Crabs are also to be found everywhere on most all islands, along the shore. These bright orange/red crabs make quite a contrast to the black lava rocks that they are usually found on.
Tues Sept 13:
We have traveled a few hours and wake just off of
Trip excursion to see Boobies, approx 3 hrs.
Early ashore, we come across a Galapagos hawk. We can see him very close, sitting on a bush/small tree just 10-12 feet from us. Saw he was banded.
Beautiful Nazca boobies. Male and females are identical, expect voice: mail whistles, female honks. Also called ‘masked’ boobies due to black around the eyes. The white feathers are incredible—white and look like fur instead of feathers on head and neck.
We
also come across 2 separate young blue-footed babies. Raising one chick is a
major effort and commitment for both parents.
One parent stands guard over the baby, while the other goes out for
food. We luckily saw the changing of the
guard for a few minutes as one returned while we were watching. This lasts somewhere between 6-12 months
(forgot exact timing). Past that point,
the parents will still bring food to the youngster, but he can finally be left
alone while both parents search for food.
Further inland on our walk we come across some Albatross. There is one baby off in the distance and he is huuuge! I was sure he was sitting on a rock, but after looking more closely with Deborah’s binoculars I see the whole thing is the bird and the ‘rock’ is actually his belly! We quickly see 3 Albatross teenagers (2 male, 1 female) practicing mating rituals: beak bumping, dancing, chasing each other within 10-15 feet of us, and even almost running into the group at one point. Bob got some fun photos of these 3.
We pass an incredible blowhole at far end of island. Jamie tells us that occasionally a marine iguana may come shooting up out of the blow whole – we think this would be pretty funny to see, however the iguana is probably not so happy about his surprise flights.
Our first day on the boat has been wonderful. A great balance of below and above sea level, followed by a fun dinner.
Wed Sept 14:
Nighttime travel (still bumpy) takes us to
2nd dive was at a calmer spot. Photo of 2nd dive chart.
Lovely wall with more coral. Turtles turtle turtles. Group of white tip sharks sleeping in the rock ledges. Bob saw a spotted eagle ray on first drop in.
Shore excursion to see flamingos! How magnificent. Feeding in a mostly
brackish shallow pond. One very
close to trail and Bob got some very good photos. The flamingos may migrate
throughout the
Thurs Sept 15. Baltra /
Slightly better night as we headed with the waves, although
still rocky. Got up a
bit earlier as this was to be a long day. 2 dives, stop for ‘gas’, shore trip and early
departure
First dive:
After lunch: We’ve
traveled to the small island called Bartoleme, just off of
The activity: Snorkeling with Penguins--in very cold water! We jump in close to shore and all converge on one lonely penguin sitting on rocks close to the water. Jaime stays in dinghy and points/whistles where the penguins are next. We think it’s a game to see how far he can make us swim with our wetsuits on top of the water. Got a glimpse of a few more penguins in water, and 3 more up close to shore. Of 17 species of Penguins worldwide, the Galapagos penguin is the only one to cross the equator.
After
penguins, 30 minutes to get ready to go ashore on Bartholome and walk up to the
peak. It is very barren – I remember
thinking this could almost be the moon.
It’s a lovely late afternoon and we get some very nice photos on walk
up. Clouds, sun, peaks
etc. Below in the water we see a perfect
circle from earlier eruption. Above the
eruptions have almost been in a straight line and we see many open-top areas
that look like mini volcanoes with their tops blown off. Good evidence and examples of lava TUBES,
where the lava flows (many years) and outer areas may harden while lava
continues to flow inside.
Another good dinner. We watch Matt’s video of diving in
Fri Sept 16: Wolf
We left last night
Our first dive is at
It is an easy dive down to a 30-foot ledge. More coral and colors than the other islands. We settle down close to where the wall would start sloping off. We see hammerheads almost immediately. Sit tight for 5-10 minutes watching them go by, including one big group that must have been almost 20. We slowly work our way lower and further along the wall. The current is noticeable, but not bad. We ‘sit’ a few more times watching hammerheads and Galapagos? sharks go by on regular basis off in the blue. Others occasionally are coming up shallower and passing us above. See many spotted morays – I only see tails, the heads all seem to be buried. Healthy fish life, more nice coral colors. We see one dolphin in the distance- his tail movement easily identifying him.
On the ride back to the boat we see a ton of dolphin, some coming right up to the dinghy although sadly we do not go fast enough for them. They ride the incoming waves and some just seem to be lounging near the surface.
Energy – more treats as we come in from the dive and another
hour or so and we’re heading back out for dive #2. Drop down again and sit tight waiting and watching
as more hammerheads come by. Many many hammerheads.
Moorish Idol, my first hawkfish that I liked so much
last time. Big
Another dolphin treat during our safety stop – about 20 or more come by to check us out as we are hanging around 15-20 feet. What a fabulous way to end the dive.
Dive #3: I am sitting out to give my ears a break. Only 4 of our group are on this dive, will have to see what they report on the backswing. I sat with Nadia on the second deck and watched some of the dolphins jumping as well as a turtle or two. Nice to have entertainment even above water. Bob comes back to report that they saw literally 100’s of hammerheads in a never-ending school.
We both sit out dive 4 – the 3rd dive had more surge and current so I figure my ears are happy to relax. It’s few enough divers that they only take one dinghy. More hammerheads, but it is getting darker and not so much visibility. We were happy to have the nap instead of getting wet again. I’ve left my wet suit to dry so we can put a touch of sealer on it – nice little tear on my back end. Luckily Nancy & Scott had a sealant that was quick drying. And Jamie takes care of the entire process for me.
A night dive is offered, but more because there is a sheltered area. Not so much to see as is mainly rocks – no coral. Only 2 decide to go (Scott and Lou) and the rest of us sit down to another nice dinner. Scott comes back to tell us he saw an interesting ‘orange blob’. We look in the marine book and there is a photo of this creature, and it is indeed called an ‘orange blob’. Nice when some names are rather descriptive in nature.
Saturday: Darwin
We get our best night sleep yet. We have a very calm anchorage and do not need
to start moving to
First dive: The boat
is anchored off of
We
swim out into the blue. Near the end of
the dive the second group is near us and we see them swimming frantically. Bob sees the action and is gone – Jamie
motions for everyone and then he is gone too.
What are we heading for? I swim
in the right direction but maintain my 40-44 foot depth, not wanting to annoy
my ears any further. And then I see it –
a magnificent whale shark – huge, beautiful white dots, just like the
photos. He is coming up from behind me
to one side, and I end up right above him (as he is maybe at 50-60 feet
depth). But I see his back
beautifully. I am kicking but not too
hard and seem to be able to stay with him.
Later we talk about ‘drafting’ and feel like several of us we were in
it. I am thrilled with my view (and not
going any deeper) and feel like I get to see him for quite some time. Others are a bit closer and view him from the
side and back. Bob got quite close and
we discover that Lee’s got some great video footage that also has Bob and Jaime
in it.
The ride back to the boat, and getting out of our gear is one big celebration. Everyone is smiling like fools and so happy to have finally seen a whale shark. We are thrilled that the entire group (both dinghy’s) was there to see it.
Dive 2 – everyone still pretty stoked about the whale shark and most everyone is back in the boats. We drop to the same spot and again watch hammerheads going by us in the deep blue as we hold on just above the wall drop off. We venture in and out of the blue, but no whale shark on this trip. At one point we are above a sandy area, and we can see the shapes of hammerheads swimming below us – silhouetted nicely against the sand. We end up in an area approx 45 feet deep with more rocks/coral and see more fish and eels. This was a nice ending spot to the dive.
Lunch, siesta. How are we going to have siestas when we go back to work???
Dive 3: Only a few hammerheads on this dive, they must be resting or playing elsewhere. We venture into the blue and see hundreds and hundreds of the Creole fish (also known as ‘gringo’ fish since they are everywhere). I find the dive rather relaxing (once I got down) just swimming with the Creole.
Oh, forgot to mention the 60-100 dolphin / melon head whales that we are seeing around the boat and our anchorage all day. They seem to be floating near the top, sometimes jumping, tail flapping, just swimming along. Queki says they are melon whales (they are small and look like dolphin to us). Fun to see them here the whole day.
Dive 4: I am resting my ears, and drying my suit – small tear that we’ll try to mend tonight. Bob is out with only Lee, Scott and Jaime –I hope they get a good dive. Off to read on top, and then get the camera to shoot some pictures as the dinghy returns.
Post dive: not too much to report – no whale shark and the current picked up some more.
Tonight we stay at
Sunday Darwin
Looks like a rather dark morning, but we’re all up and anxious to see if we will find our whale shark again on the first dive this morning. We drop down in the usual spot, see some hammerheads, and venture in and out of the blue. I’m noticing many more up and down currents and seem to be fighting a bit more with my buoyancy. We come back to the wall and skirt along it. Found an albino moray eel. We finally ‘let loose’ and move quickly as we ascend toward our safety stop. At one point Jaime and Nancy head back down and into the current. None of us have enough air (or energy) to follow. Later we learn that they did indeed catch a glimpse of another whale shark, just the backside as he was heading into the current and at a deeper depth.
The melon whales are still all over the place. We watch them as we return on the dinghy and they also provide entertainment from the boat. At one point we figure there must be at least 100. They seem to hang near the top in groups of 2-3-4-5. Then one will jump or splash, or do a tail slap. No real rhyme or reason. I looked up Melon headed sharks on Internet and find that they may have pods of up to 500!
Dive 2: I have dropped 1 pound of weight and decide to be more aggressive in adding or releasing air. I’m much more comfortable on this dive and do not battle the up/down currents so much. I do see Nancy (of Nancy & Lee) and Scott each at a low point at one time and know they are going through the same thing I did last dive. Sadly, no whale shark, but we did see a few hammerheads. I still enjoy the initial drop off point where we can focus on closer views and see some coral, smaller fish etc.
Dive 3: I sit this one out, but Bob goes. The minute the group leaves, the sun comes out. A few of us are up on deck enjoying the rare sunshine and watching the melon whales. On the return we hear that it was a ‘surge’ dive, but Bob spotted 2 scorpion fish.
Dive 4: what a
ride! Down to our
starting point. Jamie points out
a juvenile Leather Bass, all black with thin white bands. They like to hang out with the urchins and
that’s exactly where this one was. A few
of our group start heading into the blue, but 3 of us are behind as we watch
another group of divers cross along the wall in front of us. Now Bob, Scott and I are trying to catch up
with
Now we are all flying over the rocks at a pretty good clip. I’d LOVE to know our speed! Its time to come up and we can see the surface is pretty rough. We’re concerned about the rocks in the area and decide to surface to be sure we are not getting too close. We see a dinghy close by, however it is not ours. He radios our dinghy driver and lets us know he’ll be here shortly. It’s been a wild ride in the current and we are happy to be up. Those watching from the boat had wondered what was going on as they saw our dinghy in one spot and then watched him quickly take off far to the other side of the Arch. I’m pretty sure that when the 2 groups crossed paths, our driver followed the Aggressor Boat group and their driver followed us. It was a tough dive, but I actually felt better than the first dive of the day.
Before dinner, we leave for Wolf, planning to anchor there overnight. The seas are not too rough, but it is still bumpy during transit. Many red-footed boobies kept us company on the flight over. They flew along the side of the boat, I’m guessing to draft some of the wind we must create. Only 2 hours though, and we’re nice and quiet in a sheltered bay along with 2 other boats.
Monday Wolf
Wake to another cloudy morning. But we’re anxious to dive and see what the day will bring. We bring the boat closer to the dive spot and get to see a lot of the shore on Wolf. Steep steep walls, the homes to many birds: boobies and frigates. On the highest point of the island, we see the top of a lighthouse. We read that there was one here, although I’m not certain if it is still in use or not – more for the ‘light’ than the house if it is. It is possible to land on the island, but I’m sure it’s very limited as to ‘where’ one would land, and what you would do.
Dive 1: We see quite a few dolphins from the boat, and on the dinghy ride. We drop in to a nice shallow spot (35 feet) but there is fair amount of current from the start. We sit for some time watching some hammerheads and other sharks go by in small groups. I enjoy looking at the coral and fish close by and try to balance looking out to the blue and right in front of me. Bob is off taking photos and we later learn he saw an eagle ray. I think this is where we saw a very large scorpion sitting on a nice sandy spot.
We finally take off to drift along the wall and we are
clipping by at a good speed. We drop
down 2-3 times to investigate the surroundings and look for hammerheads. We also see turtle intent on his breakfast,
which lets us take many photos. We’ve
seen a few dolphins along the way, and the sharks keep us company in the blue
and also occasionally coming up shallower.
The current is strong whenever we stop.
The goal is to find a good handhold, hopefully somewhat behind a rock
for some protection from the current.
Dive 2: The current seems milder. We ask Jaime if we can do the same as last time, drop and sit for a bit before moving on. It works well and we see many fish in the rocks and coral, yet get our occasional glimpse of the sharks in the deep. A very pleasant dive and during our safety stop we see 6 eagle rays swimming in formation. Matt gets close enough for some good video footage. I swim close enough to see them, but don’t have the energy to chase to far. My first eagle rays of the trip and I’m very happy as they are one of my favorite.
Lunch and siesta—gotta love this place.
Dive
3: no current! Where has it gone? It is a luxury as we can stop, look and
pretty much do what we want without thinking about the current. I’m thinking it’s possibly like our ‘slack
tide’ in
45 foot female whale shark – swam with her for 60 seconds – close enough to touch the whole time (bob) I got to my ‘favorite’ spot: up above the whale shark. Had to fin a bit to get there, but then seemed to be in the draft again. Followed her for quite a while, at one point getting a bit of vertigo wondering if she was going up or down. I keep looking at my depth gauge to keep my ears from getting too unhappy, and I’m pretty much in the high 50’s to mid 60’s. She seems to be coming up a bit and I veer off as I am now tired and don’t want to get in any backwash. – The tip of her tail lightly hit Matt as he gave up the chase. Tons of sharks – hammer and Galapagos that were following the whale shark. Jamie had seen this behavior before and thought that it would be a female whale shark that was about to give birth, thus the reason for the sharks to follow. These huge sharks give birth to a baby that is about 2 feet in size, very tiny. Evidently they may have hundreds of eggs in them at one time, the eggs develop at different rates and when the babies are large enough they emerge. I think we’ll have to do some ‘google’ searching on whale shark reproduction. (post note: there is very little known about whale shark reproduction)
So even without the whale shark, we think this was one of the best dives yet. Now we have a whale shark spotting on top of it! Then enroute back to the boat, we see dolphin jumping, flipping, and splashing off in the distance. They seem to be very playful at the moment and we are thoroughly entertained. A few are riding with us at the dinghy and we get treated to an occasional close jump. Getting back to our boat, we learn that the other group also saw the whale shark – so again, we are quite happy.
Bad news: Bob’s camera stopped working so he has no photos of this whale shark. And Scott must not have seen us all take off – he was a bit behind and did not get to see the shark. He swam a few minutes and then surfaced when he realized he was alone L Sadly, Nadia had chosen to sit this one out too. We’re such a team and want to share the fun with the whole group. Lee had bumped his toe pretty badly, slipping a little on the deck. He’s bandaged up and sitting out as well.
Dive 4: of course now
everyone wants back in for the last dive.
The current has come up a bit, and since we have ‘whale shark fever’ we
mainly drift in the blue. We see some
sharks below us, a few spot dolphin. Pretty soon we are FLYING along wall going
faster and faster. Not much opportunity
to see too much at this point. Looking
below we see some fish that seem to be sleeping in some sandy spots. I see a huge
We
have only 10 minutes to quickly change, as we will do our cave trip. We get onto the 2 dinghies with flashlights
and aim for the steep shore wall. There
is a tiny opening and we all must duck down and get onto the floor of the
dinghy. It is beautiful in here – we
remember this excursion from our first trip and are happy they have offered it
again. The colors inside the cave are
quite extensive as you see different minerals and some vegetation. While it is not a sunny day, you still can
tell how brilliant blue the water is as we head back to the cave mouth. It was a fast trip as we need to be on our
way for 12-16 crossing to the middle islands, but everyone seems to have
enjoyed this quick venture.
Matt lights up his ‘whale shark’ cigar – celebration for seeing the second one. We feel bad that Nadia sat out on that particular dive, but we remind those who did not see that they DID indeed get a good view up at Darwin, and that we had to come to Galapagos for a second trip before seeing any.
The southbound crossing is surprisingly pleasant. It can often be bow-bumping/crashing ride. Matt and Lisa are not feeling good during dinner, but it seems everyone slept well and we are thankful.
Tuesday:
We are in the middle islands, off of Isabella. First dive site Marshall Cabo. As we get our briefing, Jamie points out a ‘bump’ on the island that is pretty much right on the equator. So now we are south again.
We jump into the dive and BURR! Nadia pulls out her mouthpiece to scream how
cold it is. Cold and rather murky, we do
not have good visibility. We do see a
lot of fish, and some yellow/blue striped schools that remind me of grunts in
We finally surface and the dinghy is there to take us to
view some of the low rocky areas around the bay. It is low tide. We see a new sea lion, more boobies and some
wingless cormorants. One pair is
courting and we see the male puffing out his head and neck. The low tide rocks and sea life make me think
a little of kayaking in
Dive 2: move to
We now have lunch and motor 2.5 hours to Porto Eqas, in
We
see the sea lions and many little pups.
Marine iguanas, lizards, a few pelicans, American fly catchers, herons,
and swallows…. The shore is beautiful as
we are here at low tide and can walk the tidal pools. The shore landscape is a mixture of
cut/carved sandstone where you can see layers and layers, and then the deep
black lava rocks as well. The lava is
cut with many holes, tunnels and it is quite lovely. A
perfect place for playful sea lions to live. We all enjoy this trip ashore, especially
with the nice weather. There are some
high hills (mtns) with very sparse trees on them. It looks strange to see such a steep
landscape with so few trees.
Night Dive: 5 of us
brave the cold to do an evening dive. (Scott and Nancy, Bob and Geri, Matt).
I move away and am happy to find a rather small scorpion fish – after checking the fish book; this is a Rainbow Scorpion which will only max at 4.5 inches, so a rather small member of the scorpion family. Matt shows up and captures him on video. We also find a very large turtle, hunkered down for the night in a shallow hole he has dug. Bob sees a puffer. There are some lovely anemones and Bob ends up with one perfect photo. Matt and Queki find a baby flounder only 3 inches big – would have liked to see that! We are all happy with the night dive. And happy to get back on deck!
We find that dinner is still waiting for us. The rest of the group decided to ‘shop’ in
the boutique and have kept themselves entertained looking and buying t-shirts,
caps etc. So we all sit down to a
later-than-usual dinner. Post dinner
entertainment is the crew doing a fashion show.
Fun to see (most) all of them at once. We have a bailey’s toast to what a great week
it has been. We still have one more
night on board, but will probably eat dinner on shore. We motor until
Wednesday: Gordon Rocks
Queki (I finally see how you spell his name) has drawn a lovely map for our dive briefing. Most noticeably is the temp of 70 degrees. We hope his is accurate.
NO—Queki is far from correct as a few hit 59 degrees on this dive. It is c o l d!! However, very nice ending dive. Gordon Rocks are the remains of a volcano. It is circular in shape, with some rocks above water level, and some pinnacles below. The walls are porous lava and inside many of the wholes you see anemone. I spotted an eagle ray up above us, and we did see one hammerhead. . I’m guessing it’s the same eagle ray and we now see him below us – Matt is getting him on video and I get fairly close for a good look. He is not too large, but rather grand to see anyways. A sea lion comes to check us out. He stays with us and eventually brings 2 friends: they frolic, dive, turn and keep us entertained. We swim into the center of the volcano area into the deep. I can see Jaime and Matt heading off one direction. We end up seeing a school of barracuda – 100’s, probably 1000’s of mid-size barracuda. Bob swam into the school. I thought about it but worried I would completely loose site of anything else around me. It is still cold and miraculously we do stay done till the end of the dive. We pass through the pinnacles to the outer side of the volcano. Here our dinghy driver picks us up and we’re anxious to get back on board. On board we have some hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls and quickly head up stairs for hot shower (and more hot chocolate). We planned to do 2 dives here, but it is cold enough that even the hardiest divers are going to pass on #2. We’ll head early to Darwin Research center and have more time to clean up gear and relax.
After lunch: Santa
Cruz
We anchor in the town of
We head to the center where we learn about the efforts to keep the giant tortoises populations intact. So many 1,000’s where taken for food during the earlier years of these islands. If I remember correctly, there had been approx 14 species and now there is only 11 in existence. Each island species are slightly different from the next. At this center, they breed the tortoises together from specific islands, raise the young for a few years, and then transport them back to the ‘correct’ island to help the population continue.
Some of these tortoises are quite large and can live 150+ years. We take photos and enjoy learning about these animals. Unlike US zoos, we are walking amongst these gentle creatures and have a chance to photo them as we sit quite close. We also see a land iguana (no swimming for this guy). He looks similar to the marine iguanas, but skin coloring is different (almost orange on his arms).
We tour this area for 1.5 hours. A small bird lands on the zoom lens of Bob’s
camera. Now we do a little shopping with
in the center, and slowly make our way through the town hitting many of the
shops along the way. It is a lovely
afternoon, much warmer on shore. We all
seem to find some little trinkets to take home:
I end up with 5 turtles (some wood, some stone). One for us; 4 for the cat
sitter and his little boys. Nancy
and Scott find a lovely sculpture of a sea horse that they will have shipped to
hotel in
Dinner
ashore: Rainer stays on the boat, Ugee
and Lisa hit the Sushi restaurant, but the rest of us will eat at one of the
restaurants. We get there around
Thursday, back to
The last of the late night partiers got back to the boat around
A few notes: The
Galapagos group is made up of 13 major islands, 6 small islands, and many
islets (spits of rocks, etc). These are
all formed by underwater volcanoes erupting over time. The largest
Galapagos was first discovered in 1535 by accident by a
bishop from
We’re off to the airport and Jaime and Queke
handle the luggage – we’re spoiled to the very end. This also guarantees that none of us face any
additional luggage fees that we’ve all read about in the travel books. The bulk of us are off to
Luckily the flight to
We’ve made plans to meet at dinner at the restaurant Nadja and Matt went to on the in-bound trip. Bob and Lee spend some time on the hotel
computers before dinner so Nancy and I take a quick walk to find a breakfast snack
(we’ll both have exceptionally early flights).
Luck would have it, a wonderful bakery is next to the hotel, We each find some
wonderful-looking snacks, just have to try to keep them for breakfast J A few doors down we find a small pizza cafe
and think it might be a good idea for a before-dinner snack. Luckily
We’re entertained by 2 different musical groups during our dinner. A group of 3 men with guitars, and a younger group of 4-5 men with traditional instruments: flutes, perhaps a ukeleli? and others. It’s Thursday night, relatively quiet, so the restaurant staff is quite attentive. This is a wonderful way to end the trip, laughing and reliving our experience of the last 10 days. Not to mention great food, and lots of it! We’re even talking about potential future trips, although the subject of ‘warmer water’ seems to be the common thread.
All to soon its time to say more
good byes and return to the hotel. Nancy
and Scott will be taking a few extra days to explore
Dives:
Monday: checkout dive
Tues: 2 of 2 dives. Trip ashore.
Wed: Geri 2 of 3 dives, bob 3 of 3. Flamingos (I ‘think’ 3 this day, otherwise 2)
Thurs: 2 of 2 dives. Penguin snorkeling and trip ashore on Bartoleme
Fri: 5 dives offered. Bob does 3, I do 2.
Sat: 4 offered. Bob does 4, geri 3.
Sun 4 dives: Bob 4, Geri 3.
Monday: 4 dives: Bob 4, Geri 4.
Tues: 3 dives each (including night) trip ashore
Wed: burr. We only do 1 dive.
Thurs:
Bob: 26 dives, Geri: 22 dives. Not counting checkout dive.
BoB – 16 pounds of weight with vest Geri: ended with approx 18, using vest.
Bob: 7.5 mm suit, 3mm vest. Geri 7.6.5 suit, 3mm vest.
Favorite Fish: Giant (Hieroglyphical) hawk fish, Razor Surgeon Fish (major schools, dark/light gray with yellow tails), Goldrim Surgeon fish (more oval, blue, white/yellow outline and area on tail), small rainbow scorpion fish discovered on night dive, all the trigger and file fish, Guineau Fowl puffer, leather bass (greenish strips, yellow tail adult, baby all black with few white stripes). Moorish idol and whale sharks of course…
The complete set of photos of our trip can be viewed at: