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Galápagos Islands

February - March 2023
A 10-day adventure by Diane Read more
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  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 2

    Getting Around Guayaquil

    March 1, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 88 °F

    We flew with Nance and Sande to Ecuador, arriving ahead of our Galápagos departure to spend a few days in the river port city of Guayaquil—the second largest city in Ecuador. It is a convenient location from which to fly to the Galápagos Islands and where our UnCruise trip will begin.

    The four of us explored several parts of the city, starting with a long walk along the “Malecón 2000,” a riverfront promenade which was part of an urban renewal project. There are several parks and play areas for kids, restaurants, a “London Eye” kind of Ferris wheel and the Museum of Anthropology and Contemporary Art (MAAC).

    Our goal for the first day’s walk was to get to a bike rental place near the pedestrian bridge to Isla Santay, which is a car-free residential island comprised of an “eco-village” where about 50 indigenous households reside. The bike trail was badly in need of repair, but we managed. The nature area contained a crocodile pond.

    One of the other days, we walked up Santa Ana Hill, the original location of the settlement of Guayaquil. There is a fort, a church, and a lighthouse up there. We also went to the MAAC, but none of the signs were in English so we probably didn’t get as much out of it as we could have.

    On our last day we walked into the downtown area to a cathedral and its surrounding park, which is full of iguanas basking. We then caught an aerial tram that took us across the city and over the river to a residential area where we grabbed lunch at a little local place, and enjoyed some fresh sliced mango from a stall on the corner.    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 4

    On to the Galapagos!

    March 3, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F

    After a 2-hour flight from Guayaquil, we arrived on Santa Cruz Island and boarded the La Pinta yacht, along with 40 other passengers, for our Galapagos adventure. Immediately after lunch, we got into pangas (Spanish for dinghys, or in our case, Zodiac boats) for the short ride to hike/walk on North Seymour Island. As we walked across the red volcanic soil, we found blue-footed boobies. The males waddled and strutted around the females showing off their bright aqua webbed feet for their mating rituals. The females have blue feet too, and are slightly larger than the males.

    Next up, we found frigate birds—also making nice mating displays by puffing up their bright red neck pouch. We also saw some more land iguanas.

    It’s wonderful how close we can get to all these creatures without frightening them off.    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 5

    Penguins and Marine Iguanas

    March 4, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    We sailed overnight and woke up at Isabella Island, the largest in the Galápagos. A coastal exploration by panga boat was planned for the morning, where we saw sea lions frolicking, marine iguanas hanging out on the cliffs, blue-footed boobies skimming the water and our first penguins! Galápagos penguins are endemic to the islands and are the only penguin found north of the equator (we are barely north of it). They are the third smallest species of penguin in the world. The ones we’ve seen are about 18” tall.

    A bit later we snorkeled in a cove, where we saw some familiar reef fish (parrot fish, tangs, etc.), but also found friendly sea lions and sea turtles. The water was much cooler than we expected for the equatorial ocean—about 75 degrees. It’s tolerable, but not as comfortable as it was in Hawaii in December.

    For our last activity of the day we went to Fernandina Island, just across a channel from Isabella. It is the youngest of the islands, less than one million years old. It is also the most volcanically active. It looks a lot like the lava fields of Hawaii, with very little vegetation. Fernandina is home to heaps of marine iguanas—literally and figuratively—check out the photos. Marine iguanas like to cluster together for warmth. Land iguanas are much more solitary.    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 6

    Land Tortoises & Swimming with Sea Lions

    March 5, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    We panga’d over to Urbina Bay, on the western side of Isabela Island in hopes of spotting giant land tortoises. Until 1954, this part of the island was underwater; then suddenly a tectonic plate lifted up the ocean floor, and now we can see corals and shells along the trail.

    Next to the trail in several spots were large and colorful Galapagos land iguanas, as well as the giant tortoises. These tortoises can weigh up to 700 pounds and can live to 175 years. They like to live around one of the craters at the top of Isabela, 5,600 feet above sea level, where it is cooler and there is a fairly abundant food source. But the crater is not a suitable temperature to lay eggs, so the females travel over 15 miles from the crater to the beach to nest and then back again.

    After lunch we navigated south to Tagus Bay, located at the “belly” of this seahorse-shaped island to snorkel. The highlight of this snorkel was the plentiful and playful sea lions. These are not the sloth-like smelly, noisy sea lions of Pier 39 in San Francisco. These are svelte, active and truly playful creatures. They were so interested in us and swam up to us, nearly chest-to-chest, spinning in circles and looking us right in the eyes. It was quite an experience! (A low-light of yesterday’s snorkel was several of us getting pecked on the arm by the flightless cormorants. No blood spilled, but a few bruises.) Another highlight of today’s snorkel was seeing so many penguins in the water — zipping by and floating on the surface!

    We ended the day with a coastal exploration by panga. Our Ecuadorian (Galapagos natives, actually) guides are so knowledgeable and patient with our questions.

    (Again, we have a couple of fun videos which we will post when we are back!)    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    1
    Day 7

    Flamingos, Sharks and (more) Iguanas

    March 6, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    In the morning, we panga’d over to Rabida Island's red-coloured beach. An hour-plus walk around island taught us about some of the plant-animal interactions. For example, there are a lot of cacti on some of the islands (yes, it’s tropical, but with the volcanic soil, very little water for plants). The prickly pear cacti grow into trees, essentially, and when they are still growing, they produce downward facing spines on their trunks to protect them from iguanas and tortoises that would climb them (or stretch up them?) to eat their fruit and paddles. Once the cactus is mature and established, it sheds those spines, thereby inviting the animals to eat and then spread the cacti seeds. Also, because these are harsh conditions, these prickly pear cacti only put energy into growing very small fruit, not the big red “pears” we see in the American desert areas.

    After our hike, we did another snorkel from the beach and saw so many reef fish and some reef sharks (they didn’t care about us).

    Finally, we navigated to the north shore of Santa Cruz Island, where we went on shore to explore. We got to watch some flamingos feeding in a brackish water lagoon. Flamingos are filter feeders, with a series of plates in their bills that act like the baleen of whales to strain and capture crustaceans, mollusks, algae and insects. There are only about 400 flamingos in the Galápagos Islands.

    Of course we saw more iguanas—the colorful land iguanas, not the smaller, black marine iguanas. Farther along the trail, we came to a lookout with a beautiful view of the bay and the western islands of the Galápagos archipelago.

    Although this is considered the rainy season, we have been very fortunate with rainless days (but much humidity!). The seas have been very calm as well.    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 8

    All About Tortoises: Santa Cruz Island

    March 7, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 81 °F

    Today was a full day away from the water (felt kind of strange). The La Pinta docked near Santa Cruz Island and our pangas brought us to the dock. This port town is the largest town in the Galapagos—a bustling tourist (and residential/fishing) town. Not an iguana in sight. None of the other islands we’ve visited have had a single building on them.

    Our first stop was to the Charles Darwin Research Station. The center and its foundation support many different conservation research projects—control of invasive or introduced plant and animal species, water resources, turtle breeding and so much more.

    The focus of this morning visit was on the efforts to increase the population of land tortoises—because of the high mortality rate of tortoise eggs and hatchlings. While sea turtles may lay up to 80 eggs at a time, tortoises lay 4-5.

    When a tortoise lays her eggs, she covers up the nest and poops on top of it. This may help with the imprinting of the hatchlings to follow mom’s trail back up to the highlands, because mom doesn’t stick around after laying her eggs—the babies are on their own. Researchers know they can safely collect eggs while the tortoise dung is still moist, but if it is dry, the embryos won’t survive transport, so they leave them in place. The eggs are collected from many different islands, and careful records are kept of the location and temperature of the sand where the eggs were originally found. The eggs are placed in labeled incubators and when hatched, they feed on their yolk sac for 30 days in a dark box that simulates the nest. They spend the first 2 years in protected pens, learning to find food and climb rocks. Eventually, they are returned to the place they were born. Then they have to make the long trek up to the highlands where they will live.

    After a sumptuous lunch in the open-air dining room of the Finch Bay Hotel, we were taken by bus to the highlands where the tortoises live. The air is cooler (not that we noticed!) and there are natural ponds that form from the more frequent rainfall. The tortoises like to wallow in the ponds to get relief from the insects that bother them. There were varying sizes/ages of tortoises here and a number of very large, mature adults—some probably 500-700 lbs. Again, it was so special to be able to get so close to these creatures.    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 9

    Floreana Island, Part 1: Post Office Bay

    March 8, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    Our last day was so packed, we’re going to divide it into two posts. After sailing all night, we arrived at Floreana. This island is more about human history than natural history (although we did have a greeting party of sea lions and marine iguanas as we arrived at the beach).

    In the 16th century, pirates used the lava caves on the island to hide from the Spanish Armada; Charles Darwin stopped by on the HMS Beagle in 1835; and a strange series of events in the 1930s involved possible German spy activity and mysterious deaths and disappearances. We had earlier watched a film available from the library about it: “The Galapagos Affair: When Satan Came to Eden.” (Summarized well in https://lithub.com/murder-in-paradise-the-tale-…)

    Our group came to this part of the island to help out with the stampless “post office.” There has been a barrel (with a hinged door!) near the beach since the 1800s where whalers and naval personnel would leave mail. When passing ships stopped on their way back to their home port, they would pick up all the letters destined for their home area and deliver them. Nowadays, it is the Galápagos visitors who drop off and deliver mail. We left postcards (one to Erin & Nick, one to Ryan, Eliana and Rory) which will hopefully get picked up by future tourists who live in your areas, and be hand-delivered to you.

    Our guides insisted that any postcards we pick up to deliver must be hand-delivered so we can tell the tale of how they got there. We picked up 2 postcards for Santa Cruz recipients and 2 for people who live in Darryl’s old neighborhood in Altadena! We’ll make it a mission to get the mail delivered sometime! Fun idea, right?

    We were able to take a short hike up to a viewpoint over the bay. Later on, we jumped out of the panga to snorkel along a cliff, where there were lots of sea lions resting in the nooks above and swimming with us below the water. We also saw a couple of sting rays (from a distance), reef sharks and the highest concentration of reef fish yet. Leaving the area, our panga driver got us close to a large flock of flamingos on the beach —spectacular!    Read more

  • Diane and DarrylGalápagos Islands
    Day 9

    Floreana 2: Kayaks & Nesting Sea Turtles

    March 8, 2023 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 81 °F

    While on Floreana island, we were able to take kayaks out from the beach and paddle through coves and fingers of old volcanic flows in the calm, clear turquoise waters.

    Toward the end of the day, we landed at a beach to take a trail to another part of the island to a sea turtle nesting beach. Pelicans were diving in force, and the near-shore waters were plentiful with sting rays (good idea not to motor up and step out into the breakers!).

    Our small group was very fortunate to arrive just as a turtle was finishing laying her eggs (up to 80 of them), and then working to clamber out of her nest to get back to sea. It looked like a lot of work, but at least she didn’t need to head back up a mountain like the mama tortoises.

    On the walk back to the panga launching site, we came across another group of flamingos feeding in a brackish lagoon. Getting into the pangas was trickier than when we arrived, as some pretty good breakers got us all a little wetter than usual.

    Arriving back to our ship, the crew on board pointed out all the sharks in the water around us. The boat has a small dock, so no worries for us. We were a little concerned for the large sea lion that was alone amidst the sharks. We don’t know if it was old and sick, but it didn’t seem in immediate danger. This impressive group of sharks circled around for hours, even past dark, when we got some better photos by the light of the ship. We heard later that the kitchen had tossed some food scraps into the water (one last show for us?).

    This was an amazing trip, with such great guides and crew, impeccably presented meals, and really comfortable accommodations. The other passengers were friendly and had an adventurous spirit, and it was fun to take yet another trip with Nance & Sande. We will miss the sea lions, but are ready for our trip home tomorrow. Thanks for joining us!    Read more

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