Saturday, June 18, 2016

Galloping Through the Galapagos

The famous Galapagos giant tortoises
This entry is just going to be for the whole trip as I’m writing this all at once. All the pictures are available in this album and for the most part, I’ll let them speak for themselves.

We started out with a long travel to get to the islands. It was a 5 hour flight from San Francisco to Miami, where we met up with Catherine’s family. Then, we had a 4.5 hour hop down to Guayaquil, Ecuador where we stayed overnight in the hotel. There was surprisingly few Ecuadorians on the flight. Instead, it was mostly filled with people doing exactly what we were doing: going to the Galapagos. It was also the oldest plane I’ve been on in a while. Straight out of the 70’s.

The caldera of Sierra Negra
In the morning, we had a leisurely 1.5 hour flight to Baltra that left at a relaxing 11:30. Upon arriving on the islands, the first thing that was striking was the lack of vegetation. One thinks of the Galapagos as being like a rain forest due to it’s tropical location and a reputation as being home to tons of animals. In reality, we were met by a barren landscape with cacti trees and scrub. As the saying goes: water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. It doesn’t actually rain most of the year, so the only moisture available to grow with is that which can be squeezed out of the humid air. Cacti are good at that.

At the airport, we met our guide for the trip Daniel, who would prove to be an incredible guide. He was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna and was a bundle of enthusiasm with an infectious laugh. 

Yep, that's a new lava flow
After meeting Daniel, we boarded a bus and made a stop for lunch up in the highlands at a private facility right beside the national park where the giant tortoises wander through. Because it is private, we didn’t have to stay on the trails, so after a great lunch of tuna steak, we meandered around the grounds. This was our first introduction with the Galapagos wildlife, which doesn’t give a damn that you’re around because they don’t have any predators and thus aren’t scared. It’s rather kind of amazing. There were a couple of dozen tortoises lounging around the field munching vegetation or wallowing in the mud. Walking right up to them didn’t faze them one bit so pictures we easy to come by.

After lunch, we hopped back in the bus and made our way down to the port Ayora where we had some time to poke through the souvenir shops before boarding the boat. The shops are exactly what you would expect, but it was our only chance to buy X-mas gifts so we tried to take advantage.

As the sun set, we took a panga (inflatable dingy with outboard motor) to the boat, the Cormorant. It’s a 3 deck catamaran that can fit 16 people. It was very spacious. I definitely recommend a catamaran over a single hulled vessel. It’s more stable and you inherently get more space. The first floor had the dining room and half of the cabins. The second floor had the other half of the cabins, including Catherine's and mine, and the bridge. The upper deck was open with lounge chairs and a jacuzzi. Below the main deck in the pontoons was the kitchen and most of the crew’s space, which of course we didn’t see. Our group was half the people on the boat. The other guests were an Australian couple currently living in Chile who were on their honeymoon, a family from Calgary, and two hilarious old British ladies.

The divas of the Galapagos animals
On the boat, we settled in, met the crew and had dinner before heading off to bed. The food overall was very good, but it did have it’s consistent structure, so I’ll just summarize it here. Breakfast every day consistent of eggs to order, fresh fruit, juice, yogurt and some kind of carb and meat, like bacon and corn cakes. Lunch consisted of 2 or 3 salads, two choices of meat (usually small pieces) and some carbs (especially after a disaster on the first day where they didn’t serve any and we had to ask them to bring up some rice from the crew meal). The meal was finished with a small desert, which was often a mousse or small cake, with fruit for the gluten free folks. Dinner was mostly just a bigger version of lunch except that there was often a big piece of meat, usually super fresh seafood. The one exception was the two days of BBQ, where we at on the upper deck and they grilled up a variety of meat. The first one was seafood with octopus, fish and shrimp, while the second was chicken, sausage, steak and ribs. Meatover.

On our first day on the boat, we explored the area around Port Villamil. Upon arriving at the dock, we were greeted by sea lions lounging on the benches and marine iguanas basking on the sidewalk. After much jaw dropping and picture snapping, we boarded an open air bus to the caldera of the biggest volcano in the galapagos: Sierra Negra. We had a short little hike up to the rim and were rewarded with a spending view of the sprawling caldera that was dark black with recent lava flows being encroached by bright green vegetation. On our way back down the mountain, we stopped quickly to get a picture of the vermillion fly catcher. It’s a harder to find bird that is bright red and small. 

A pelican and his/her nest
After lunch back on the boat, we veered off on a different road (probably the only other one in town) and had a quick trip to the tortoise breeding center. In order to help the tortoise population thrive, the national park has setup a couple of breeding facilities. Tortoises are bred, hatched and when ready, released back into their natural range. It’s been a big success so far, stabilizing many of the populations. It’s important to put them back in the right spot, because each species (and there are many), have distinct adaptations for the environment. For example, the tortoises that live the in the lowland mostly eat the prickly pear cactus and so their saddle at the neck is high to allow them to reach up. Whereas those tortoises in the highlands have more vegetation to chew on the ground as the mountain wrings out more water from the clouds. So, those tortoises don’t have much of a saddle. Contrary to popular belief, it’s the tortoises that actually triggered Darwin to realize about speciation, not the finches. Though the finches showed different characteristics, he didn’t label his samples and they were thus relatively useless to tie any differences to the animal’s microclimate.

A land iguana
The breeding facility itself is overrun with tortoises. There were two main highlights. First, I saw a tortoise that was having a hard time getting out of a pool of water. He eventually got there, but that’s when I noticed that he was missing a hind leg. What a drag! The other highlight was seeing two tortoises try to mate. Apparently it takes a couple of hours, but I can attest that it’s definitely loud as the male mounts the female and starts to grunt. Loudly.

After the breeding center, we stopped by a brackish pool were we saw some flamingos and then finished the excursion by stopping at a bar by the beach. We had some cocktails and some of us went swimming. I should have worn sandals as it turns out that there were some rocks hidden in the sand. Sharp volcanic rocks. The popular cocktails were the maracuya (passion fruit) margarita and the coco loco which was a whole coconut opened up with a couple of shots of rum thrown in to mix with the fresh water.

Remains of a marine iguana that starved to death
On day three, our morning started with a hike over a fresh lava flow. This was very similar to the terrain in volcanos national park in Hawaii, so it wasn’t as novel for me as for everybody else in the group who hadn’t been there. It is very rough terrain and desolate except for some cacti that started to take hold. The one oasis of life was a brackish pond were we changed upon some flamingos digging for sea monkeys.

After lunch, we did our first snorkeling dive where we were inundated by sea turtles. They were everywhere and it was really hard not to accidentally get thrown into one by the surf. You turn around and BAM! Say hello to an underwater friend. We also saw a big sea horse, some stars and a variety of fish.

Blue footed boobies
After swimming, our activity was a panga ride through the mangroves and around a couple of islands. Some people almost skipped the ride to just relax, but man, were they glad they didn’t. We were greeted by a sea lion posing on our way into the grove. Then in there, we saw manta rays, sea turtles, great blue herons, and even a cormorant catching a fish. Motoring around the rocks near dusk, we had our first view of pelicans, blue footed boobies, penguins and iguanas. There was even, a playful sea lion who followed us around, leaping out of the water in a dazzling display of speed and agility that outshone anything we’re going to see at the Olympics. 

The next day started with another panga ride to a different set of mangroves. We were supposed to do more snorkeling but there were very large swells so that visibility was poor and it would be too easy to be thrown into the rocks. With those swells, we almost couldn’t make it into the mangrove cove, but our amazing panga drivers worked the waves until a lull and then slipped in. Inside was probably the highlight of the trip. It started by seeing the nesting grounds for a bunch of pelicans in the trees. We were able to get really close. Then, we ended up behind a rock surf break were it was incredibly calm. Frolicking there were a group of sea lions. About six of them. Some of them started to play around the boats so we hopped out ingot he waist deep water and they swam all around us, the mangroves and had a glorious time. It was magical.

Iguana hold you tight
After lunch, we had a hairy wet beach landing for a short hike. The other tour boats in the area didn’t go, but we did and the panga drivers were amazing. Between waves, we had to hop out of the boats and get onto the beach quickly. Catherine failed getting both in and out of the boat and got wet each time. The beach has only existed since the 1950s because in 1954, the land heaved up 15 ft, creating a new shoreline. This also meant that there was now a nice sandy area above ground and the land iguanas moved in. These guys are huge, lazy, yellow monsters that were either basking in the sun or chilling below the trees. They are about 4 feet long. Once back on the boat, we had a swim to cool off and took the opportunity to jump off the boat into the water. Wheeee.

The next morning started by going ashore to see colonies of marine iguanas. They eat this green algae, which we were able to see as it washed ashore in the rough seas. There was a ton of it, enough to feed a herd, and that’s what we saw. Hundreds of black iguanas hanging out on the rocks. There was also a bull sea lion honking away to claim his stretch of beach. On the other side of the island, there was a cormorant nest where we got to see the female find a new twig, do a little dance and give it to the male, who was sitting on the eggs. Finally, we saw some blue footed boobies diving into the sea to grab anchovies, which was an incredibly display of arial acrobatics.

Great blue heron and a crab, the only skittish creature.
In the afternoon, we were supposed to do some more snorkeling, but the seas were too rough again, so instead, we just did a panga ride to see some birds (boobies, frigate birds, penguins), nesting on the side of a cliff. Then, we hopped back on the boat and started a long drive to our next stop. Along the way, we saw a pod of dolphins that put on a show. We followed them for a while, then they got bored of us following and hung a quick right and put the pedal to the medal. Zoom. It was amazing how fast they moved.

A male sea lion getting ready for a nap
The next day started with an early morning beach excisions where we got to see a hawk that let us get a few feet away. I’m used to only see hawks a long ways away up in a tree, but this guy was just hanging out beside a sea lion and didn’t care that we were there. There was also some herons, sea lions, many crabs and an egret, who caught a bug while I was watching. 

After that excisions, we did our first of two dives. We had to make up for the missed snorkeling the previous couple of days. On the first dive, we jumped into the water and couldn’t see the bottom thanks to a school of anchovies that were magical to watch. Then we saw a turtle chomping away at some seaweed, a bunch of stars, more fish and at the very end, a sea lion came to join the party and swam under us. on the second dive after lunch, there was a manta ray, a moray eel, many more fish and an underwater cave that Thomas swam through. There was also a black tipped reef shark, but I missed it.

Red footed boobie
That night, we became a long, rough sail to one of the islands a further away. It’s an older island with just the caldera above water now. In the morning, we started with a hike up on the island and wow, was it an island of the birds. There were hundreds of them nesting everywhere. No bird ever shooed us away no matter how close we got. We saw a ton of red footed bobbies in the small trees, nasca boobies on the ground, a small owl and frigate birds in both. The frigate birds were interesting. Some of the males were mating so they inflate this big, goofy red membrane on their throat to woo a mate. It makes them look very ridiculous. They are also a little sinister. They have long, crooked beaks and hang out in the leafless palo santo trees. This gives them an air of a witch’s vulture in the haunted forest. Also, they don’t hunt their own food because they can’t get wet or they will sink. So, they steal from other birds. We saw many of them harassing boobies until the boobie dropped it’s hard fought food. 

Nom Nom.
A pacific green sea turtle chowing down on the seaweed.
After the walk, we went for one last snorkeling session. This time, the main attraction was the hammerhead sharks. Normally they stick to deeper waters, but in this particular spot, they come up very shallow. We saw at least two of them cruising around between all the fish on the reef. Very spectacular.

After lunch, we went kayaking and then went for another very short hike on a beach near some mangroves and not-so-prickly pear cacti. There are no reptiles on this island to eat their pears, so the cacti didn’t evolve spikes. They just have hair for leaves, which are better at catching moisture from the air. Around this vegetation, there were more sea lions and birds hanging out. On the beach, I went for a quick swim with the snorkeling gear and saw some more fish. The most interesting thing was an eel hanging out at the base of a brain coral who was cleaning a big parrot fish. I don’t know why it would do that, but it looked hilarious. The fish looked like a dog whose ear is being scratched.


Male frigate bird looking for a mate.
On our very last day, we had an 11:30 flight to catch, but there was one stop first. Bright and early at dawn, we went for a hike on another bird filled island. This one was full of frigate birds and blue footed boobies nesting. We got to see some dances, a bunch of chicks and some baby sea lions waking up and going out to sea. A fantastic end to an amazing trip.