Well, it is late and so I will make this short today. Blame it on my pants. I believe that I mentioned that my capris had
a blow out and I tried to patch them.
Well, a sewn rip on the thigh is not going to hold against all of the
sweat and sand and salt water it has had to endure here. So, today I bought some 'I love Boobies'
patches and did a real patch job. The 'I
love boobies' patch was the biggest I could find. There was a lot of tear to cover. Plus I
added a second one on the worn bit on the other leg because it is going to go
too if I try to force my wet self into it one more time.
But I still needed another pair of pants.
I wanted to use the capris for snorkeling. I have been warned that snorkeling in just a
bathing suit is a sure fire way to burn my buns badly. But, if I wore the capris in the water, then
I didn't have any other pants than my jeans for the rest of the day. I wore my jeans today because we were in the
'highlands' but I was still stinking hot.
So when we were in town today, I bought some quick dry pants. It is only a matter of minutes before I am a
yuppie. But of course they were too
long. So my evening has been spent
patching my capris and hemming my new pants.
I don't even know if they are going to fit or if the new hems are close
to even. Not a lot of room here for
trying things on.
Anyway. Today. We woke up early because we had a very early
hike on Isla Lobos (island of the wolves - which are sea lions), which is just
off of San Cristobal. (there were sea
lions sleeping in our dinghy when we got up which was fun but not for the guy
who had to clean up the poop).
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| Sea lions in our dingy |
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| A naked lady and her scantily clad husband, cleaning sea lion poop off their boat. As you can see, they will soon have to clean the other side too. |
On Isla Lobos, finally got some decent pictures
of blue footed boobies (which, I suppose, is why I love boobies today). We learned about the mothering habits of sea
lions. They give birth and then two
weeks later leave their tiny babies for up to 15 days while they go eat at
sea. So we saw many skinny little babies
lying around, looking up at us with their liquid eyes: 'are you my
mother'. I have a backpack full of them
now. No, not really but it was
hard. We saw a couple of skeletons of
babies whose mothers obviously didn't come back in time. Look away, look away.
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| Love the blue boots |
Back to the boat to sail back to San Cristobal's port, Pto Baquerizo
Moreno. We went into town for a bit
where I bought my patches and pants. And
then tried to connect to the supposedly free port internet. Don't believe a word of it. Last night, I managed to connect for a couple
of minutes from the boat but the wifi was so slow, I never got my Yahoo open
before it the connection died. It has
not worked since. So, having promised my
loyal fans a post today, I wandered around a bit because I knew there were some
shops with wifi, I could see them on the list of possible connections but I
didn't have the necessary passwords.
Nicely, the place I found was an ice cream shop so that worked out
well. But I only had a couple of minutes
so please forgive last post's spelling errors, factual errors, grammatical
errors and all errors of omission.
Back to the boat for lunch and to wait for the new people. We lost Anya and Doris. Doris is now off to finish her South
American leg of her awesome trip. The
new girls are two Danish and one Brit.
The Danes (names as yet unremembered) are travelling together and picked
up the Brit (Kat) at English School in Quito.
But poor Zander had to give up his excellent room and also ended up with
a roommate (the British girl). He is so
sweet, he is taking it all in stride.
The Danish girls are very young and talk a lot (loudly). They have already changed the dynamic of the
group. I don't think for the better but
I suppose time will tell. They are so
white, that once they burn and/or barf, it should humble them a bit.
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| The new girls, Danish, Danish, British (Kat) and Anne (who isn't new and doesn't speak loudly) |
Speaking of burning. I mentioned
that Val had burned her legs and feet.
Well, over the last two days, her burns have gotten progressively
worse. Blisters, swelling, pain. Poor girl.
We went to another tortoise farm today and Val had to wear shoes. There was some hobbling, but stoic hobbling.
The tortoise farm was interesting.
Another highlands situation but the tortoises on San Cristobal are
endangered so this area is now parkland.
Plus, they are breeding them. So
we got to see baby tortoises. Which are
much cuter than the giant adult version.
Probably because you can't see their tiny baby tortoise faces, unlike
their homely parents. Plus,new bird.
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| The babies are numbered. They are slightly less ugly than the adults (ok, they are kind of cute). |
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| This is Genesis, the only survivor from the first year of hatchlings. He is a few years old. |
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| To remind you of how ugly the adults are, this guy was outside the farm. |
After the hatchery, we went to a fresh water lake in the centre of a
volcano cone. Yay, another hike up a
mountain. It was actually kind of funny,
as we were hiking up, the clouds started to roll in. Just as I crested the cone edge, the lake was
completed socked in with fog. I arrived
(last) and everyone was like "you should have seen it'. I demanded my money back but then the fog
lifted long enough to see that it was indeed beautiful. Plus there were three frigatebirds fishing
which was cool. The pictures do not do
it justice.
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| Wind turbines on the horizon. |
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| View on the way up the stairs |
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| That's our bus at the bottom of the stairs. |
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| My first 'view' of the lake |
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| Then the fog lifted |
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| And the lake was super beautiful |
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| Where's the lake? That way. No, this way. |
Then back to the boat and dinner.
Followed by my 'chores' of hemming and blogging. Now it is after 10 and we have another early
hike and snorkel. So I shall bid you
adieu.
March 18. 3:17 pm. Espanola Island (yesterday) and Floreana
Island (today)
Well, I missed last night’s post because I had another seasick
incidence. But I have discovered the cure
– TWO Gravol. At least it knocked
me out so fast, I don’t remember if I was nauseas again. But let’s start at the beginning of the
day. I have to check my map, we do so
much, it is hard to keep track.
We started the day with a walk on Gardener Beach on the west end of the
island. There is another boat on our
route now so no more isolated beaches for the Sulidae folks unfortunately. Our first few days, we never saw another boat
unless we were in port. But the guide on
our shadow boat is Omar, our first guide from our first day. Happy greetings all around. We had a heart to heart about his love for
Anya. Poor boy. She has gone back to Switzerland to her
boyfriend. We all had a quick swim on
the beach and then took the dinghy out to the first of the Gardener Islands –
three small islands off of the beach. We
all snorkeled for a bit, including Val.
I believe I mentioned Val’s sunburned feet and legs. It was pretty bad the first day but a couple
of days later, they are really bad – swollen, blistered, painful. I think shoving her feet into those flippers
may have been a form of torture. But she
did it. And came back with some ripped
off blisters, now just holes on the top of her feet. Ouch.
Danny, our dinghy driver (and assistant captain) has been providing
fresh cut aloe for soothing relief. I’m
not sure how soothing or how much relief, but he is very good looking so I’m
sure the attention is more helpful for keeping Val’s mind off the pain.
Then we went to another Gardener Island for another snorkel. No sharks but there were lots of rays
around. Plus I think I got an awesome
picture of a sea lion who was swimming beside me. I will check my photos when I am not on
deck. By the way, did I mention I am
writing this while sitting up on the deck with the sea breeze blowing by. Heaven.
The crew has jerry-rigged a shade cover so we all huddle under here as
we travel. We are starting to act like
the sea lions. We swim a bit, we talk to
each other (but a bit more civilly) and then we lounge around, some sleep, some
snooze, some doze, nobody is fully awake.
Since I am on a tangent about the deck, I will tangent again about the sea
lions. We all love the sea lions. They are everywhere here. Practically every beach we visit has
dozens. Even the empty beaches have one
or two. When they are in a group, the
babies are all bawling. Occasionally
they sound like the sea lion sounds we know in BC, but mostly they sound like
they are retching. So, we all retch back
at them. I think the babies are looking
for their mothers so we are probably confusing them to no end. Sometimes they come up to us and have a look. But mostly they ignore us and go about their
business of rolling in the sand, going into the water for a roll in the water,
then back to the beach to roll across another pup. They roll a lot.
Ok, back to our day and back to the boat for lunch. I got to try out my new pants. Excellent, although the left leg is longer
than the right. My standards are very
low now so I don’t care. Just glad to
have clean, dry pants. We moved the boat
to the other end of the island to Punta Suarez.
There are cliffs there with breeding colonies of boobies and other sea
birds. Luck of luck, we saw a waved
Albatross. It isn’t the right season for
them but we found one of the early arrivers.
Pretty exciting for me, no one else seemed even slightly impressed. The best part of this hike was the baby
boobies. The boobies lay their eggs on
the rocks so there are fluffy babies just sitting there, a foot or so from the
trail. I couldn’t believe how close we
were. The fluffy ones were kind of cute,
but after a few days, they start to look all mangy and gangly and awkward (much
like human teenagers). Lots of photos.
(an hour later). Had a short nap
among the life jackets. Then Chef
brought us some popcorn for a snack. We
usually get cookies and juice after a strenuous afternoon. But today hasn’t been too active for reasons
I will get to.
Back to last night. When we got back
to the boat, we left Espanola Island to head to Floriana. At first the waves were small crests. No problems.
But then we started dinner below deck.
Then the waves got bigger. Things
started to fall out of the cupboards.
And we all started to get somewhat green. Which was appropriate since dinner was almost
completely green. Broccoli, avocado,
fish in green curry peanut sauce. I
mention this because I did a total Linda Blair right after dinner. There is one good thing about having a
bathroom so small it also serves as a shower stall. Much easier to clean up than the bedroom from
the first night. But my two Gravols
knocked me right out until the next morning.
Which was good but I missed all of the excitement that night. The boat broke down and we had to get a tow
from the other ship to get to Floriana.
Just as well we have our shadow.
Val was up on deck for it all and said it was great fun to watch them
all rushing about in a panic.
March 19. 11:29 am. On flight EQ190 from Galapagos to Quito.
I feel so executorial with my laptop on a plane. I must be important, upgrade me to business
class. Alas, that is not going to happen
but our seats are not too bad. Probably
because they bought this plane from Air Canada in 1972 when they were still
nice to their passengers.
With all of the hiking and swimming and eating and barfing and napping, I
have fallen behind on my blog entries.
When last we spoke yesterday, we had just arrived at Floriana Island
with a broken boat. Because we were
going to have to be towed back to Santa Cruz Island, we had to abbreviate our
day on Floriana. We started at the crack
of dawn with a hike to an inland lake where there are usually flamingos. No flamingos, just the first of Floriana’s
bird-related disappointments. Then we
went snorkeling around the Devil’s crown (Corona del Diablo). This is a tiny volcano top sticking out of
the water not far from shore. We were
able to swim into the lagoon in the middle of the crown. But while we were still outside, I was
paddling along when I looked up and there was a shark (black tipped, I later
learned) right in front of my face. I
think I got a picture. I was so
surprised; I didn’t even have time to be scared. He just kept going. Hard to say if he even noticed me.
(Lunch was just served, looks not good).
I think I mentioned that the food on board was not too great the first
night. It improved after that. Like a
home cooked meal every night, with cake for dessert. And always fresh fruit with breakfast and
lunch. Soup too, strangely. Too bad I never really got to enjoy it. But back to the Devil’s Crown for another
minute.
Once we got into the shallow middle part, it was amazing. We have seen lots of fish over the last few
days but this was even better. The fish
were all around us in huge schools.
Blues and yellows, shining in the sun.
Beautiful. Unfortunately, that
was when my batteries in my underwater camera died so I don’t think I got any
photos. I think my last picture was a
starfish, just before the fish arrived.
Back to the boat for an early lunch.
We were shortening our rest time so that we could leave early. So lunch at 11:30 and then the dinghy to the
Baroness’ lookout. We were warned not to
wear red or orange because of the wasps. But when we arrived, there were lots of other
tourists on the beach in red and orange.
Then Alberto, in black, got stung so I don’t know if there was any truth
to the colour theory but I still felt superior to the ones who hadn’t been
told. I like Alberto, he is a good
guide.
The Baroness is an excellent story (Val bought the book, the Curse of the
Giant Tortoise which has the whole sorry business in detail). There were two couples living Floriana in the
30s, happily avoiding the real world.
Then the Baroness arrived from Germany with three lovers. Much jealousy ensued. Affairs, murder, shipwrecks. Good stuff that I don’t have time to tell
properly, plus I don’t remember all of the characters. But during all of it, the first baby of the
Galapagos was born. He just died a
couple of months ago. Wilhelm, maybe?
After climbing the lookout (in my flipflops – those things have had much
more of a workout than the communal hostel showers that they were bought for),
we got back into the dinghy. When we had
left the boat, there was a rumour that there were penguins in the area. Omar and his boat folks had seen them on the
rocky islands off the beach. So we took
a very slow cruise through but no penguins for the Sulidae guests. That was even worse than no flamingos. And, there is a rare mockingbird there, the
Floriana Mockingbird, which we also didn’t see.
Oh well, next time (haha).
After the penguin hunt, we went to Post Office Bay. I should mention, Floriana is the island that
has been inhabited the longest. There
are pirate caves and penal colonies and the history is awesome. Every story ends with “and then he was
murdered” or “then he was forced to leave penniless”. I can’t wait to read Val’s book. But, the point is that the sailors and
whalers and possibly pirates had a system for mail on Floriana. For that last two + hundred years, people
would put their mail in a barrel on the beach at Post Office Bay. Then when the next boat would come by, if it
was heading home from Galapagos, they would pick up any mail for the place they
were going and hand deliver it when they got home. Now, tourists keep up the tradition. So we all put in a post card to ourselves, in
hope that it gets sent (or brought) to us back home. There weren’t any for Victoria but I grabbed
two for Canada. I will mail them when I
get home. Fun stuff.
Then back to the boat where I last saw you, napping in the life vests. I had to follow that with a real nap, in my
bunk. Then dinner. We were all so excited – it was lasagna! But alas, mid- dinner, as we were being
towed, we hit some swells again. Red
barf this time (in case you are keeping track). Then I just went to bed. And that is why I am finishing this on the
plane.
This morning we woke up to no power.
They had turned the generator off for some reason. So we had to shower with very little water
and pack with no light. My stuff was everywhere. Damp and crammed in the corners of my
bunk. I do not have one clean piece of
clothing. I am just happy if it is dry
at this point. I bought a T-shirt as a
souvenir, that is going to get pressed into service.
A quick trip to Darwin’s centre to see Lonesome George. The last remaining giant land tortoise from
Pinta Island. He is almost a hundred and
they have spent millions on trying to breed him with other island tortoises
(and/or clone), but so far, no luck.
Then, into a cab with Margorite, Jean, Zander and us. We all are on the same plane that left at
11:25. And now we are caught up. I will try to post this from Quito. I am almost out of power so I have to find
Wifi AND a plug in.
March 19. 4:33 pm. Quito.
Just a quick follow up before I post (if I can, the internet is down). We decided to get a room for our eight hours
in Quito before our night bus to Lago Agrios to our Jungle adventure. We just went back to the Tierra Alta (the
sewer smell hostel). We just needed a
home base to go through our stuff because we took all of our clothes to the
laundry. I am wearing my bathing suit
under my new pants and my new t-shirt.
Literally everything else is at the lavanderia. I would worry it might burn down and leave me
clothesless, but it is pouring rain here so I guess that isn’t a worry.
We are at CoffeeTree for milkshakes and dinner. Val is having fries, I am having a caesar
salad. I am so glad not to be
sweating. When we arrived, we also
stopped in at our travel agency to drop off my bag of unnecessaries (coffee anyone?). And while we were there we also bought a day
tour for Cotapaxi, a nearby volcano, for the Sunday after we get back to
Quito. My salad is here so this is it
for now.
BTW. Now we are both land sick, it
is like the land is moving under us.
Awesome. And it is just bucketing here and we have both gotten out of
the habit of carrying our raincoats everywhere.
Another mad wet dash.
We will be in the Jungle until Saturday so hopefully another post when we
get back to Quito on the weekend.
Although, maybe this post next weekend at the rate the internet is going
here.
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