Day 1: Dark and stinkin’ early on Saturday the 8th of April (why do all of our road trips have to start so darn early?) we got up and headed up to the airport in El Alto. The airplane took us from La Paz, Bolivia to Lima, Peru, and then on to Quito, Ecuador. We arrived in Quito in the early afternoon so we dropped off our bags at the hotel (the Casa Sol – a beautiful little place, brightly painted and with a court yard and fireplace – our double room included one bed up in a loft, where Les slept) and then headed down to the historic downtown (which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site all by itself) to see what we could see before things closed for the night. We decided to try out the Quito trolley system, but found ourselves so squished on our ride down to the old town that we didn’t try it again. I’ve spent my fair share of time packed onto public transportation, but my kids haven’t and they complained. Down in old town we visited the Monastery of San Francisco which is the oldest church in Quito, dating from 1534 – the ancient carved altar was covered in tons of gold. Then we headed over to Antonio Sucre’s house, now a museum – Sucre was the field marshal of the rebel forces in South America’s war of independence from Spain and was the second president of Bolivia (after Bolivar himself.) I’d hate to be a hero in South America because, like so many others, Sucre was assassinated by politicians after the war who were afraid of his popularity. Before leaving the old town we stopped in at a 150-year-old ice cream shop – we tried various unique local flavors and they were all yummy. From there we caught a bus out to the equator, which is just north of Quito. Leslie tells me that I pronounce “equator” like a hick – I guess you can take the boy out of the country… Out at the equator we all took turns jumping back and forth between the northern and southern hemispheres. Back in Quito that night we looked for the popular BBQ place listed in our guidebook, but it was closed – so we followed our noses and found a great little local joint just down the street and had a lovely dinner anyway.
Day 2: Bright and early we headed back out to the airport and caught the plane for the 1000km flight from Quito to Guayaquil to Baltra. Baltra is one of the Galapagos Islands out in the middle of the group where the US military built an air and sea base during WWII to protect the Panama Canal – the airstrip and port, long since turned over to Ecuador, now serve the tourists. Anyway, we kept a very close eye on our bags this trip – a friend of ours had told us about someone who was arrested on arrival in the Galapagos after the police “found” a stash of planted drugs in their bag and then had to pay a $15,000 “fine” to get out of jail – but we faced nothing so nasty as all that. We were met at the airport by the guide from our boat, Estefan, and he took us down to the docks where we boarded our boat – the Eden. At the docks we had to step over all of the sea lions sunning themselves right where we needed to walk. The Eden, our home for the next eight days and seven nights, was a 79 foot yacht that had eight two-person cabins, each with a private bathroom and air-conditioning. We had a crew of six on board, plus our guide. There were only fifteen passengers, so CJ got his own room for the duration of the cruise. On board we met our fellow passengers; all together we were an American family of five living in Bolivia, and there was a Danish/Austrian family of six living in Venezuela, a young couple from the Netherlands, and a retired couple from England. All aboard and we drove south to the next island down, Santa Cruz, to the Bachas Beach, where we took a short hike over the sand dunes to a lagoon where we watched the greater flamingo. Also in the sand dunes were “tractor” tracks left behind by sea turtles who’d been laying eggs in nests in the sand. While we were watching a cruising Frigate bird snatched up and gobbled down a newly hatched turtle before it even got out of the nest. Also while we watched the Blue-footed Boobies dive bombed with their needle-beaks into the ocean to spear fish, the pelicans hung out on the rocks among the neon orange and blue Sally Lightfoot crabs and the black marine iguanas (about 1 meter long) that were the same color as the black lava rocks. We swam in the ocean for an hour or so, until the beautiful flame red and orange sunset. Being on the equator the sun set faithfully at 6PM and rose each day at 6AM. Our dinner (nearly every night) was a fish named Wahoo (I’m not making that up) – it’s a large white-meat fish related to tuna and was very versatile as our cook came up with a half dozen different ways to prepare it. After dinner our boat took off for Seymore Island and I stayed up talking politics with our new friend from Venezuela. It was interesting to hear first hand how bad things are in Venezuela, economically and security-wise, especially since Bolivia idolizes Venezuela and wants to become just like it. He didn’t recommend traveling there – said it wasn’t safe anymore.
Day 3: We woke up moored just off Seymore Island. Our day started with a little hike, where we were greeted by the Blue-footed Boobie who does this great little dance to show off his beautiful bright blue webbed feet. Then we saw the Swallow-tailed Gulls, with their orange rimmed eyes. There were black marine iguanas sunning themselves on the black lava rocks – we almost stepped on one. Inland a little farther we spotted the large land iguanas with their orange scales – these iguanas were about 1.5 meters long. On down the trail we passed through the Great Frigate bird nesting area, where the males build their nests and inflate the red pouch on their throats and fluff up the green feathers on the back of their necks and call to prospective mates – the females circle around the island looking for the best red pouch and then pick their mates. On the rest of our hike around the island we passed by sea lions, sandpipers, and lava lizards. It was just like one big zoo where you get to walk through the habitats. (Note: the trails that the tourists can walk on are on tiny corners of the islands – the vast majority of the habitats are closed to humans.) Then we went snorkeling where we saw all kinds of bright tropical fish – there were neon red and blue fish, this flat brown fish with both eyes on top. While I was checking out the fish, Annie and Leslie were frolicking and diving with the sea lions, which are amazingly agile in the water – they act like dolphins. That afternoon we motored on down to the Island of Santa Fe, and parked in a bay that was protected by a long narrow rocky island. We started off our afternoon with another round of snorkeling, in that great little bay. There we had colorful fish and playful sea lions again, and then added in Sting Rays, Spotted Eagle Rays, and Sea Turtles. After snorkeling we loaded up in the dinghies and headed to the beach to start our hike across Santa Fe – but we had to circle in the dinghy a couple of times to let the White-tipped sharks thin out a bit before we splashed ashore. You can bet that when we hit the sand we ran up to dry land ASAP. To get to the dry land we had to jump over the napping sea lions, who woke up and chased us off their beach in the middle of putting on our shoes – you should have seen us dashing away with one shoe off and one shoe on. On our hike we went through a prickly pear cactus forest – these plants were way bigger than any prickly pears I’d seen before, with tree trunks a good 16” in diameter. Around the cactus were more land iguanas – these were a bit smaller and paler than the iguanas we’d seen on Seymore. By that evening our kids had made friends with the Danish kids from Venezuela and had a good time playing and exploring together. After our hike, on the dinghy trip back to the boat, we passed through a whole herd of sea turtles and a flock of sting rays. That night, after dinner, we started sailing again and one by one the passengers got sea sick and headed to bed early – it was a very rough night on the open sea in our little yacht – our only salvation was Dramamine. Just getting ready for bed was an adventure – imagine brushing your teeth while standing on the back of a galloping horse.
Day 4: We woke up anchored off Española Island, the southern-most island in the Galapagos, in Puerto Suarez (“puerto” in a purely theoretic sense.) We started our hike by scrambling over the rocks in the “port” where we spotted a marine iguana lounging in the middle of the trail. While we stood there we spotted another iguana sunning itself on the rocks, then another, then five, then ten, and then – oh my gosh – we realized that there were iguanas on almost every rock around the island. We really had to watch where we stepped – they looked just like rocks. Just off the rocks we spotted a Galapagos Hawk, perched on the Galapagos National Park sign – he was no more concerned about us than the hawk was that Darwin himself pushed off his perch with the barrel of his rifle. Past the hawk we tiptoed through the napping sea lions, worried that they’d chase us off again, but they didn’t. Down the trail a ways we arrived at the “Albatross Airport”, a long open rocky area where the Waved Albatrosses nest (these only have wing spans of 8 feet, which makes them much smaller than the Albatrosses down under.) There were only a couple dozen early birds nested down when we were there, but our guide said that in a few weeks there would be 20,000 pairs nested there. At the end of the “airport” was a big cliff that the albatrosses use to take off from if the wind is just right. Since they’re gliders, they never land (for years at a time) except where they can jump off a cliff. And if the wind isn’t just right, and they crash into the sea, they don’t recover. A couple of albatrosses tried their luck and took off while we watched – high drama, akin to watching glaciers melt – we could have watched all day. Around the corner and through the Large Hood Lava Lizards we stopped to watch a blow hole, a crack in the rocks where the sea shoots a plume of water up from the surf about 20m into the sky. While we watched water squirt into the air (think Yellowstone) the Hood Mockingbirds came to check out our backpacks looking for fresh drinking water. One of our companions inadvertently left their water bottle on a rock and, sure enough, they found it with their long straw beaks. Then we hiked through the nesting grounds of the Blue-footed Boobies, where we got to watch their courting dances complete with honks and squeaks. I tried to film it with my digital camera, but every time I started filming they stopped dancing – I guess they’re shy. Mixed in with the Blue-foots were the Masked Boobies, now officially the Nazca Boobies – they were relatively boring as they didn’t do any mating dances for us, but they were a very brilliant white. From the boobie hatch we cautiously tread our way through the iguana nesting ground, where they bury their eggs in labyrinths that they excavate in the soft earth. Back at the dock while we waited for our launches to take us back to the ships, it was fun to watch the sea lions frolic and play in the surf. Back on the boat we moved around the island to Gardner Bay for an afternoon of snorkeling off a white sand beach and turquoise water. We swam out to a rocky island in the bay about 2-300 yards off shore, where we enjoyed another sea water aquarium stocked with angelfish, surgeonfish, sting rays and who knows what all else. On the beach covered with sea lions CJ made a sand sculpture of a sea lion – a sea lion came up and used it as a pillow, much as they do to each other – they really do act like a litter of puppies. That night our boat motored west to the island of Floreana and instead of rocking back and forth we rocked side to side – violently – it was really hard to stay in my bunk (it’s a good thing I was on the bottom bunk – I have a hard enough time staying in bed on dry land.) That night I slept like a marine iguana clinging to the rocks in the surf.
Day 5: We woke up moored off Floreana Island, at Punta Cormorant, and then took our morning dinghy to the green beach (the sand is green due to the presence of “olivine” – little green rocks.) We hiked to a lagoon where the flamingos were vacuuming up the shrimp from the brine and leaving these little maroon trails in the pink brine. Across the lagoon we could hear the bleating of feral goats up in the hills. Feral animals, (goats, horses, cows, cats, dogs, pigs, donkeys), and other undesirable critters imported by sailors in years past (rats, mice, ants, flies, wasps, cockroaches, fungus, etc) are a serious problem for the native wildlife of the Galapagos and the park service has spent many millions of dollars trying to clean up the mess. Anyway, from the lagoon we hiked over the hill to the white “flour” sand beach where we gingerly combed through the surf to see if we could scare up the sting rays that usually flock there, but found none. So we kicked back and watched the orange and blue Sally Lightfoot crabs pester the napping sea lions who obviously didn’t like the little pointy crab feet digging into their hide. Then we hopped in the dinghies and headed out for some serious snorkeling at the “Devil’s Crown”, an eroded volcanic crater a ways off the shore. We dived in on top of a murder of napping white-tipped sharks – one woke up and decided to come check us out – I got some close-ups with my disposable underwater camera. We also saw a host of very pretty angel, surgeon, and king fishes – we just couldn’t get enough. After swimming around the crater we went inside and frolicked with the sea lions. Then we loaded up the yacht and drove around the island to Post Office Bay, where in 1792 whalers set up a barrel as a primitive post office – they left their letters there to be picked up and delivered by the next ship heading home. Now tourists leave postcards there to be picked up and delivered by other tourists going their way. Behind the “post office” we hiked through the ruins of a failed Norwegian fish cannery from the 1920’s on our way to a lava tube cave up the hill a ways. We only explored a little way into the lava tube because only Mark, our new friend from the Netherlands, thought to bring a flashlight. Back on the beach we noticed that about half of our party, including our little girls, was already gone, so we assumed that they’d taken an earlier dinghy back to the boat (while we were up at the cave) and so we took off too. We hadn’t gotten very far when our ship’s cook came running across the beach wanting to go back to the boat too. After we’d picked him up and were headed out again, we noticed our friends from England trotting across the beach, so we headed back for them. Then I started worrying about our little girls, all the way out to the boat, until I found them already back and lounging on deck with their books. Whew. That night we boated up to the south side of the island of Santa Cruz, to Puerto Ayora, the biggest town in the Galapagos with about 15,000 residents. We arrived in port early enough that we got dressed and headed into town for a little souvenir shopping. That was when we first started noticing that the land was rocking.
Day 6: Early in the morning we bid farewell to our friends from Denmark/Venezuela as they were just in for the four-day cruise. After they hit the port we picked up a family of five from Columbia who live in Ecuador, and a German couple who live in El Salvador. With our newly configured group, we headed into town to visit the Charles Darwin Research Center, where they rescue tortoises and iguanas and try to conserve the species of the Galapagos that are endangered. So we got to see a lot of iguanas and tortoises, including “Lonesome George”, the last surviving Pinto tortoise. In order to preserve George’s lineage they’ve introduced some female tortoises of similar species into his habitat, but he’s not interested. I image aliens putting a man and a chimpanzee in a cage together – close but no cigar. After lunch in a lovely Italian restaurant (to give our ship’s cook a break) we took a bus up to the highlands of Santa Cruz to see the giant tortoises in the wild. And sure enough, up on the top of the hills, at the tortoises’ favorite watering hole, we found a herd of tortoises, grazing on the grass and cooling themselves in the mud. These were big boys, standing nearly a meter tall from the bottom of their hooves to the top of their hunched shells. After getting our fill of the giant tortoises, our guide took us over to another lava tube – this one was lit so we could walk the kilometer or so of its length and then back again. At one point the ceiling was only about 50cm high, so we had to crabwalk between the low ceiling and the muddy floor. Then we went to visit a couple of giant volcanic sink holes, now covered in vegetation. We wondered if the early explorers might have been hacking their way through the dense jungle and then discovered these holes by toppling in. That night, as we slept, the boat drove up to Santiago Island.
Day 7: We woke up parked in James Bay on Santiago Island, and then took the dinghies to Puerto Egas, named after a farmer who had lived there and raised tomatoes for a year in the early 1900’s and then disappeared. The ruins of his farm and tomato trellises were still visible. We hiked to some tide pools on the other side of the island, spotting a Galapagos Hawk along the way. The tide pools were inhabited by those orange crabs, sea lions, fur seals, and sea turtles. We also saw a couple of sharks making their rounds and marine iguanas getting their breakfast of sea slime. While hiking inland we were swarmed by mosquitoes for the first time on our trip and were glad to get out to the sea breezes on the beach again. On the boat we drove around the island to Sullivan Bay and Isla Bartolomé. After lunch we went to the beach and took a longish snorkel around “Pinnacle Rock” – this area is the confluence of the cold Humboldt current from Antarctica and the warm El Niño current from California, so we passed through alternating strips of cold and then warm water. Because of the cold water we got to see Galapagos Penguins sunning themselves on a rock on the backside of Pinnacle Rock. We also crossed a couple of white-tipped sharks on our swim which, because of too many scary movies, never failed to take my breath away. There were also the usual host of colorful tropical fish. Finally we tired out and swam back to the beach of golden sand where we warmed ourselves in the sun. That evening we hiked up to the top of a huge cinder cone for an overview of Bartolomé Island and across to Santiago Island and several other surrounding islands in the distance – it was a lovely perch from which to watch the sun set. That night we steamed up over the equator, to Genovesa Island – the northernmost point in our trip.
Day 8: We woke up anchored in the middle of Genovesa Island, which is shaped like a horseshoe and so forms a little bay in its middle. That morning we took a little shore excursion up “Prince Phillip’s Steps” where we finally got to see the Red-footed Booby in addition to the Masked Boobies and Frigate birds. On the far shore there were swarms of the Galapagos Storm Petrel and we even got to see one Short-eared Owl cruising around among the Petrels. We were disappointed that we didn’t actually get to see the owl murder one of the petrels for his breakfast, but we did find a pile of discarded petrel wings where the owls had feasted previously. Then back to the boats and a cruise around the lagoon to see the sea lions and fur seals. Then we went for a long snorkel around the lagoon starting at the steps and ending at the boat – the water was cold and the fish were scarce and we didn’t get to see the promised hammerhead sharks. But we did see more of the blue King Angelfishes with their orange fins and white stripe, the Bump head Parrotfish, the Blue chin Parrotfish, the Yellow tailed Surgeon fish, the Black Triggerfish, the Moorish Idol, the Spotted Eagle ray, the Sting Ray, the White tip Reef Shark, the Black Striped Salema, and a few others that I don’t remember. After lunch we put in at Darwin Bay where we took a stroll through the nesting area of the Swallow tailed Gulls with their bright orange eyes, the Frigate Birds, and the Red footed Boobies. After our stroll and sea lion watching we did our last bit of snorkeling around the other side of the lagoon, where we saw the usual cast of characters including one last close-up of a shark. That last night on the boat we sailed back down below the equator, down to the north shore of Santa Cruz island.
Day 9: We got up at sunrise and took a dinghy ride to Black Turtle Cove in a mangrove forest where the mosquitoes were buzzing and the fish were jumping and the pelicans were swooping. There were sea turtles swimming around and while I was watching a sea turtle on one side of the boat, the guide pointed out a boil of sharks feeding on the other side – there had been a pelican sitting there when last I looked, but I don’t know if he got eaten in the feeding frenzy or if it was some fish or what. As we tooled around the lagoon we passed over and through at least three flocks of Golden Rays that are golden colored on top and white on the bottoms. We spotted several white tipped and a couple of Galapagos sharks. Then as we were about to leave the lagoon, a whole giant flock of blue footed boobies came and landed on the rocks at the entrance of the lagoon as if to bid us farewell. Then, as if on cue, they all took wing and circled the lagoon – their repeated circling just over the water must have rounded up the frightened and confused fish below because then they started diving into the water with their needle beaks piercing the water like a pin cushion. It was a bad day to be a fish we concluded. The flock of boobies followed us out to sea where they repeated their breakfast roundup on the open sea a couple more times, giving us the show of a lifetime (our boatman said he’d never seen such a thing in twenty years in the Galapagos) before we steamed back to our starting point on Baltra, where we boarded our plane for Quito. At midnight we were safe and sound back in La Paz – complete with all of our luggage – so we count this as a successful trip. Whew.
For those of you interested in seeing photos taken during our trip to the Galapagos, let me know – I’ve uploaded them to the Kodak website and can e-mail you the requisite invitation to view them.
