Days 72 - 74: Island tour part 1

Friday, October 31, 2008

Last night was insane. It took 3.5 hours to paint Annie’s entire body – she was a marine iguana and it was absolutely amazing. Shawna S. dressed up as a red-footed boobie, and Lisa B dressed up as a blue-footed boobie. Then Rachel, Sam, and I were members of the Ecuadorian futbol team. Rachel and Sam painted F’s on their stomach’s and I painted and E. Together we were Federacion Ecuadorian Futbol. It was pretty awesome. It ended up being a really late night of dancing and “raving” at Iguana Rock. Around 2 am I think everyone finally headed home because we had to leave for our cruise today.

Unfortunately, I forgot to set an alarm, so I woke up to Rachel calling me at 8:30 am asking if there was still food at school. I said I doubted there would be, but I had to stop by anyway because my computer and Chaco’s were still there. I quickly showered off the residual paint from last night and the cigarette smoke smell as well, threw some clothes on, and hauled my butt to school as fast as I could. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to see that ALL of the food was still out. Thank God Maximo was on vacation in Quito – he always takes the food away quickly but this other lady leaves it out for a while. I was able to get some awesome food, check my email, post on my blog, and grab my stuff before heading back home around 9:30.

It was probably 90 degrees out at this point (at least in the sun it was) and I was sweating bullets. Lisa and I packed the last of our things and headed down to the tourist pier where we would be leaving from. Down there I bought some drinks for the ride since it was super hot, SICGAL checked our baggage, and we boarded our two boats for Santa Cruz. My boat, the Pacific, is a nice boat but the inside has no ventilation. I quickly learned that I also get a bit sea sick, and spent the next 2 hours with my head on the side of the boat, letting the spray hit me and cool me down. Unfortunately that cool spray turned icy after a while, and my nausea was coming in waves (no pun intended). I could not have been happier when we finally arrived in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz has the largest population in the Galapagos. It was obvious from the get-go that this island was much more industrialized/modernized/touristy/dirty. While San Cristobal has a homey feel about it, Santa Cruz is more of a resort/city. I have also been warned not to trust any of the guys because they are less honest than on San Cristobal, which gives me little hope of finding any honest one here. (Don’t get me wrong, there are great people on San Cristobal and in the Galapagos in general, they just have grown up with the perception that white girls are easy because many tourists come to the islands for a vacation and just want to have a fun time). We went to our hotel, Hotel Gardener, where I roomed with Katie D and Danielle. Our bathroom and shower were HUGE – we could have totally had a party in there. Plus, on the roof of our hotel there is a terrace with hammocks, chaise lounges, chairs, benches, etc.

I took a shower to get all the salt water off of me, and since I was still feeling a bit ill I took a nap. When I woke up an hour later everyone was gone (turns out they had gone cliff jumping at Grietas without me) so I went back to sleep for another hour. Once I woke up, I just read a book until it was dinner time. We all walked to dinner together, ate, and got our itinerary for the next day. While some people decided they wanted to go out/hang out because it was Halloween, Danielle and I decided to stay in and watch Hercules on my computer. Tom joined us about half-way through; instead of going out to a bar everyone had compromised and gotten some beer and wine to drink on the roof of the hotel. As soon as the movie ended I was out like a light.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Today is November! That’s crazy to think about. Only 3 more days until the fate of the free world is decided (and by that I mean U.S. election day…) I was really worried about the boat ride today since yesterday was so awful, but we were going on a different boat so I still had hope. After breakfast at the hotel, we got on busses and traveled to the northern part of Santa Cruz, where Baltra (South Seymour) is to get our boat. This boat was bigger and not a speed boat like the Pacific. The Santa Fe II was my boat, and the other group had Espanola. Ours was cooler once again. I got to sit up top, get some sun and a nice breeze, and enjoy a nice calm ride along the coast of Santa Cruz down to Isla Plazas. It took us about 2 hours to get there, but the ride was smooth the whole way.

At Isla Plazas, we saw lots of sea lions, cactus trees (Opuntias), land iguanas, and marine iguanas. We also saw frigate birds, swallow tailed gulls, tropic birds, boobies, and finches. The vegetation was very interesting – burnt orange and red colors that reminded us all of fall back home, aside from the fact that there were no leaves and it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. There were actually a lot of dead sea lions, and we saw the area they call the bachelor pad where all the non-alpha males live, and apparently where sea lions go to die too. Everyone, including myself, was unusually fascinated by the dead sea lions, iguanas, and birds.

After our walk there, we boarded the boat and headed back up the coast to North Seymour Island. It was about a 2 hour 45 minute ride, and we got lunch along the way. The rest of the ride I spent laying on the top deck with Lisa and taking a nap. When we arrived at North Seymour (very hot and sweaty), we disembarked, made our dry landing, and got a short tour of the island which is 100% National Park. This island has tons of frigate bird nesting sites and boobies too. It was cool to see the frigate birds with their red chests puffed out to attract mates, and we even got to see some babies still in their nests! Again, however, we saw a lot of dead birds. It’s amazing how much death you can see on these islands that are so small; it makes me think about the environment and its effects on the animals, and how natural selection works on populations all the time.

Back on SFII, I got a cold orange Fanta to drink, and laid in the shade on mats with Sonia, Shawna, Rachel, and Sam. We chatted for a bit and eventually ended up taking small nap before arriving back at the canal where we were to disembark. A 45 minute bus-ride later we were back in Puerto Ayora. I walked around town with Rachel, Sam, and Shawna so we could get Sam a new bathing suit. We found one, then met up with the group for dinner, and had the most amazing Spaghetti with meat sauce at a restaurant called El Chocolate. We stuffed ourselves silly (Tom ate about 5 people’s residual plates and 2 more desserts) and then wandered back to the hotel. I took the coldest and most unpleasant shower of my life, got in my pj’s, and uploaded pictures to my computer from my camera. Then it was finally bed time after a long long day.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Breakfast this morning consisted of bread. That was it. Not the greatest breakfast but whatever. We boarded the speed boat from the first day (I was not excited) while it was raining and cloudy and cold. I sat inside because it was too miserable to be outside. Luckily I was able to fall asleep and slept almost the entire way to Floreana (2 hours). We did some sight-seeing and bird-watching first at a little volcanic island, then went snorkeling. The snorkeling was amazing but the water was a bit cold. I got out a bit earlier than most people (I got out with Caroline and Sam). We sat on the front of the boat, warming up in the sun, until everyone else got on. Then we went to another place to snorkel called Devils Crown. It was really neat, but I was so cold that I couldn’t get back into the water, plus my leg still had a cramp in it from the first trip.

Once everyone was back on the boat from the snorkeling, we headed to Floreana. There we got a water taxi to the island, which is the smallest of the 4 inhabited islands. There are only about 90 people that live there – that’s what kind of small we are talking about. It was extremely hot on land with little wind to relieve some of the heat from the sun. There is one species of marine iguana that is found only on Floreana and Espanola and we got to see tons of them. They are very large compared to the others, and they are bright red and yellow and green and blue – very colorful. We saw some feeding, and others swimming. Then we headed to the restaurant for lunch. It was only about a 10 minute walk (or less) but in that heat it felt like forever. I was surprise I hadn’t just melted into the ground by the time we arrived. Lunch was good – they gave us soup which was tasty but not desirable because it was also very hot. The main course was vegetables, rice, and fish (surprise surprise). It was prepared very well though, and the restaurant was nice for being on an island with such a small community (I expect it is mainly a tourist destination for when the small tour boats bring their groups to the island).

After lunch I got my first Magnum ice cream bar ever, and let me tell you it was worth all 400 and some calories. It melted before it even got to your mouth, and the chocolate shell and ice cream were just so smooth and savory, we all thoroughly enjoyed cooling off with a tasty treat. Katie was having breathing problems so she didn’t end up going on the next part of the trip. We boarded one of the open air busses and (Mom don’t kill me) I got to ride up top with 9 other people. They have this iron rack thing on top with boards as seats and we had to fill the top because we wouldn’t all fit otherwise. Anyway, it was a dusty, bumpy, but fun ride up to the highlands of Floreana. The bus wasn’t so reliable though, and it kept stalling out on the way up making those of us on top a bit nervous when it finally started again and lurched forward, causing us to all hold on very tightly so as not to fall off.

In the highlands we split into our two groups again (let me tell you how many problems THAT is causing…) and went off with our guides. Jorge, my guide, took us to the tortoise corral first. We saw TONS of land tortoises and were able to get really close to them. I even got to FEED one with my bare hands, and touch his shell too. Some were very curious, while others were a bit put-off by our presence. Then we hiked to the old Pirate caves/formations. Many years ago (they don’t know how many), pirates came to Floreana in part because of its fresh water spring. From this lookout where they carved odd formations and tunnels, they could see and defend the bay very easily. After playing pirate for a while, we went back to the bus where I boarded the top again, and headed back down to the bay. The ride down was much better than the ride up because I was at the front instead of rear of the bus so I wasn’t getting dust thrown at me.

Back on the Pacific, we headed strait for Santa Cruz. It’s more than a 2 hour journey back to Santa Cruz from Floreana, and I was worried about the open water part, but it turned out to be a fairly smooth ride. I was able to rest outside comfortably and listen to my ipod most of the way and didn’t feel sick when we arrived in Puerto Ayora. We disembarked and headed to the hotel to shower before dinner. Dinner was at the same place as last night and consisted of potatoes, vegetables, rice, and chicken. It was absolutely delicious and I think we are all falling in love with El Chocolate for its food and amazing service. The waiters there are just so kind and they practically pour food down our throats – not that we are complaining… Dessert was a brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and was simply the topped to a pretty sweet day. After dinner I walked around a little bit and eventually went back to the hotel to call it an early night because I was tired.