Galapagos Adventure days 8, 9, 10

Covers the islands of Punta Suarez, Española; Gardner Bay; Española; and San Cristóbal
At Punta Suarez, Española

The last few days pass way too quickly.  At this moment (from my position in Flagstaff, Arizona), I do not particularly recall all those individual islands.  What stays in my mind in clear, unforgettable snap shots are the sights.  Especially, of course, the animals.

How could I ever forget these trusting babies at our feet?

And this fellow!  Something out of a horror show?  No, just the Christmas iguana all decked out.

You aren't supposed to touch them, of course, but it's hard to resist when they seem to beg for for a little pat, just a little one.

This Nazca booby mom trusts that we will be careful with out feet as she nests inches off the path.

Two eggs, but only one will grow up.

That's the survivor in the back.  Holy cow, he seems bigger than his mother.

Oh, one of my favorites -- the little Galapagos gull.  They are the only nocturnal gull.  We would often see them at night following the boat on silent white wings like fairies in the wind.

The cast-off shell of a Sally Lightfoot is still so pretty and colorful -- maybe not so much as a hat decoration.

At Gardner Bay, Española

Too soon it's our last full day, our last ride out to adventure in the panga.

Omar is at the front looking for just the right place, something special.  We seem to go a long ways.  Now and then we stop and Omar decides to go on.  It all looks beautiful and perfect to us and we are anxious to get in the water!  

Finally, we get there.  "There" seems to be in the middle of nowhere between two islands.  Omar says just go and let the current take you, we'll meet at the cave.  Cave?  But we are all fearless at this point and we bail out of the panga.

The current grabbed us and took us.  It was the most utterly fantastic thing I have ever done.  It was zip-lining through the ocean!  We flew over amazing things so fast we could hardly stop to think what we were seeing.  We just saw it all go by, we felt it, we experienced it -- shoals of beautiful fish, rays on the bottom, sea stars, a shark maybe?   And ZIP, they were gone. 

The current took us exactly where Omar said it would -- at a cave in the side of the island.  We slowed down to see the fish.

We swam with them and then through them.

A cushion sea star close up.

A blue sea star on the rock wall.

Rays gliding by and then quickly off.

Soon we were pulled past the cave and we moved on.  A welcoming committee came to meet us.

They sailed around us and woofed bubbles in our faces and nipped at our fins.

The turtle is happy we are there to distract the sea lions as they like to play with them, too.  I watched one take hold of a large turtle by the edge of its shell and pulled it around in circles.  The turtle tucked in its flippers and sank to the bottom -- no fun at all.  

The next morning, it really is the last panga ride.  We are dressed and dry and on our way to the airport.  I miss our beautiful Evolution already.

I'll never forget --

Our wonderful crew!

The friends we made.

San Cristóbal

Our plane has an iguana on its tail.  

Back in Quito.  

And then back to our own island home.  They made us this wonderful video to take home.  It's a bit over 15 minutes, beautiful videography, great music and very professionally done.  My plan here was to put it up on YouTube and send out a link to everyone.  However, seems it contains copywrited music, so can't do it.  Bummer. Only one thing to do.  I must come to each of your houses and play it for you.  You'll want to get your reservations in for this quickly as I expect the dates to fill up fast ...

Alas, no.  These pictures and words will have to do.  I hope you have enjoyed it.  And if you at all possibly can, do go.  The Galapagos Islands with G Adventures -- amazing, incredible, captured perfectly in our minds and our hearts forever.

We wish you your own adventures,

                                                          On the road again, Bob and Laurie

Galapagos Island Adventure, days 4, 5, 6, 7

Hello!  Sorry for the absence.  We've had 11 of our children and grandchildren visiting over the last few weeks.  It was wonderful and we loved every minute!  You have probably had a few things going on in your lives as well and have now forgotten what we were doing here a month ago.

So, to recap a bit -- we were in the Galapagos Islands and were probably up to about day four of our adventure.  Something like that.  At the very beginning Bob made a map of where we went and somehow it fell off and disappeared, so let's try that again and maybe that will help.

Or not.  Hmmm.  This looks like the Los Angeles freeway system in the old Johnny Carson monologue:  "You take the San Diego Freeway to the Ventura Freeway to the Slauson Cutoff ..." Anyway, the red dashes represent days 1-5 and the black, 6-10.

We are in Santa Cruz at this point.  We went swimming at Bachas Bay and saw these little fellows streaking along in the shallow water.  They are a variety of small shark that you could almost think of as kind of cute.

And a parrot fish looking all dressed up for a date.

We went hiking at Cerro Dragon and were lucky enough to see a few flamingos.

Nap-time

Cerro Dragon Santa Cruz

Finally, we arrive at Puerto Ayora.  This is what we have been waiting for -- the Giant Tortoises!

Santa Cruz Highlands

Although the Galapagos Islands are a national park, they are inhabited by about 30,000 people mostly on the larger islands.  In the upper area of Santa Cruz where the largest tortoises are found, the park essentially pays landowners to allow the tortoises to walk freely on their land and to permit tourists in to see them.  We were told the landowner here was paid about $20,000 a month.  The arrangement includes an agreement to not build fencing that would impede the tortoises from moving as they wished.  

We never saw any park rangers or anyone employed there aside from people in a small picnic area selling refreshments.  Groups of tourists like us arrived and strolled around supervised only by their guides.  You could certainly take a taxi up there by yourself and be supervised by no one at all.  I am picturing tortoises covered in the graffiti.  Fortunately we saw nothing like that. 

What we did see was fairly breath-taking when we first arrived -- these enormous walking boulders everywhere!  They were sleeping in the sun, munching on the lush grass, sitting in mud holes and just living as they have for millions of years.  

Santa Cruz Highlands

They are not quite so oblivious to humans as the iguanas are.  I had the distinct impression that although they tolerated us, they found us annoying.  If you got too close to their faces, they absented themselves from the conversation as all tortoises do.

Keep a respectful distance though and they are more or less content to pose.  

It was lovely up there in the Highlands -- lush and green, sunny, but cool for the equator.  We discovered a side benefit that surprises us when we spotted smooth-billed anis in the trees and on the grass.  It's kind of a primitive-looking bird, but we were nevertheless very happy to see it.  We had chased this particular bird for two visits to Texas, making a dash to where we heard they had been seen only to be told they left the day before.  Well, there he was right in front of us and we only had go to 600 miles off Ecuador to see him.

Then we went back to town to the Charles Darwin Research Station.  

Darwin Research Center Santa Cruz

What we were told is happening here is research and tortoise breeding.  I thought there would be -- I don't know -- researchers?  At least a few employees walking around.  Instead it's a rather sleepy place. They are having funding issues, which is worrying.  

It was also going on mid-afternoon, on the coast, on the Equator and getting real hot.  Maybe that's it.  

Then an interesting thing.  This was Lonesome George's home for over 40 years.  

Lonesome George is perhaps the most famous of the giants tortoises -- although that would be a pretty short list.  In 2012 Lonesome George was found dead in his corral.  It made the news here and all over the world.  There was a great outpouring of sadness.  He was not the oldest tortoise and he was not the largest.  He was the last of his kind.  There are (or were) 10 subspecies of giant Galapagos tortoises.  That fact actually was Darwin's particular interest in them.  To make a long story too short, they don't migrate, if they were born on a particular island, they stayed and developed adaptations to the different environments of each island and thus became different from each other.  In 1971 George was found wandering on Pinta Island.  This was exciting news as Pinta tortoises had been thought to be extinct.  Alas, he was alone on his island.  He was eventually brought to the Darwin Center and provided a large comfortable pen, which his caretakers thoughtfully populated with attractive lady tortoises.  They hoped he would produce offspring that were half Pintas.  But he was having none of it.  In one especially silly episode, they thought that he had forgotten how these things were done and they played videos for him of tortoises mating. Yes, really.  And so it went until the sad day in 2012.  He is still famous and still loved.  His remains are on display at the Smithsonian and wood carvings of his image can be found can be found in any souvenir shop.  The real one is gone now, all of them are.  Perhaps some of George's DNA will be used to create a new line of Pinta tortoises.  But it won't be quite the same, will it?

   

This was George's enclosure.  When he was alive there was a plaque there that read:  "Whatever happens to this single animal, let him always remind us that the fate of all living things on Earth is in human hands."

In other pens, there are lots of babies.  Each has a sign showing their subspecies and the date they hatched.  They are so cute!  They stump around like toddlers exploring their world.  Amazing to look at them and know that, given luck, these babies will live 200 years and weigh 500 pounds.  

We wish them all luck and leave the Darwin Center.  It is a long walk out.  And it's really really HOT now.  We were all drawn as if by magic to the first place we came to that sold beer.  Some time later we are revived enough to continue to the pier where we will be picked up by our panga.  

Oh good -- a parade!  They love them in South America.  They all must feature local beauty queens and this one seems to have a large blue footed booby.

Home, James!