Plane Ride, Plane Ride, Plane Ride

We finished our journey with one final early morning, pre-breakfast hike. The boat had moved to Seymour Norte, a small island very close to the island of Baltra, where the airport is located. We had a dry landing on Seymour before sunrise.

The sea lions weren't up and around yet, but the beach was littered with them. We remarked about how excited we were to see a sea lion on our first day in the Galapagos. Now, we just walk by them -- paying as little attention to them as they usually pay to us.

Not so sleepy were the birds. The frigate birds were very much up and about, and what they were about was mating! The male frigates build a nest, then they sit in it and puff up bright red air bladder on their chest. When a female flies near, they also spread their wings and make considerable noise.

We saw many males waiting anxiously, but few females seemed to be paying much attention. We saw one female land right between two nests, which got both of the males very excited. We weren't sure if she was deciding between the two of them, or just teasing them both. She sat there and didn't make a move toward either one.

Also abundant on this island are Blue-footed Boobies. We've seen many of these, and noted that they are far more skillful flyers and fishers than their unfortunate name would imply.

When mating the boobies do a sort of dance, showing off their blue, webbed feet for one another. Our tour director described it as a "Hoky-Poky." "You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and you shake it all about...." We were hoping to get a look at this, but the boobies we saw were not in a dancing mood this morning.

Our walk was cut short by the need to get back to the boat. We had a short time to shower, eat breakfast, and finishing our last-minute packing. As we did so, the boat motored the short distance over the Baltra where we would disembark.

We bid farewell to the crew, and took one last zodiac ride to shore. Our luggage came on the next trip. We had to wait some time for the bus, and several other boats disgorged their passengers on the same dock. But we were there first, and so got the first seats on the bus when it finally came.

We checked in at the airport, where our luggage was carefully screened to make sure we weren't taking sand, shells, rocks, bones, or pet iguanas with us. Very stiff fines are in store for any who violate these restrictions. Fortunately, all in our group followed the rules.

In Quito, we were met once again by Juan, our tour director for the mainland portion of the trip. He helped us catch a shuttle and checked us in to "day rooms" at the Wyndham Hotel right at the airport.

First order of business was to get rapid antigen tests for Covid so that we would be able to re-enter the U.S. OAT arranged for a couple of nurses to come right to a meeting room in the hotel, and the price was quite reasonable. Not surprisingly, we all tested negative.

We enjoyed a farewell buffet in the hotel restaurant, then had time to clean up and prepare for our longer flights.

A little after 9 p.m. we loaded up a different shuttle to go back to the terminal. Checking in meant waiting in long lines. It seems that all of the flights leave Quito in the middle of the night. Once through immigration and security, final farewells were said as we waited at the gates. Our group went out on at least three different flights on three different airlines.

Unlike our flight down, everything went smoothly on the way back home. No delays, even though Atlanta made us go through a very slow and inefficient security line once again after immigration and customs, for no apparent reason.

It was a cold morning in Minneapolis, but the Uber car arrived quickly and was well warmed up. We were home with the washing machine hard at work already by noon. There was no jet lag, as we'd not crossed time zones. But we were tired from a long night of flying and little sleep.

This entire trip was one of our favorites ever, but the Galapagos week really blew us away. It's truly been a spectacular experience.

Puerto Ayora

During the night, the boat motored around the island of Santa Cruz, from the northern tip around to the southern, and dropped anchor at the port of Ayora. This town of about 20,000 is spread out around the harbor, which we shared with dozens of other tour boats, and at least one large cruise ship of 100 passengers (the legal maximum for any single ship in the Galapagos).

It’s the home of our tour director, Alejandra, and of many of the crew members. One did not have to understand Spanish to know that they were all excited to be near to family and to have cellular phone service once again.

We boarded the zodiac, and after much pointing and conversation in Spanish between Alejandra and the driver, we navigated to a very secluded, almost invisible inlet some distance from the main harbor. Here we found four sailboat moored parallel to one another. Alejandra explained that her family owns two of them.

One, the smaller boat, is a very old wooden craft that they bought some years ago from a Belgian fellow who was resident here, and who had built it. It has the distinction of being the very first boat registered in the Galapagos, with the license number 01-00001 painted on its side.

Though it is an antique that requires a great deal of maintenance, the family uses this boat as a home away from home, sometimes spending the night on board — especially during the pandemic periods of isolation. It has both wind and solar generators, with refrigerator and even a small electric water desalination unit aboard.

The other boat is a larger craft, 49 feet long, that they purchased from salvage. It is in rough shape, but her husband’s hobby is working on both boats, so it is a work in progress. The problem is that it is currently tied up in legal red tape, because the Ecuadoran government discourages private ownership of larger boats.

One of the primary ways that traffic in the national park is regulated is by limiting the number of commercial boat permits. Even though this family’s dream is to sail to French Polynesia, the government’s fear is that they will use it for tourists. Thus, they are having great difficulty getting the necessary permits for it.

The zodiac continued back into the main harbor and we disembarked at a very prosperous-looking private residence, right on the water, that is the home of one of Alejandra’s friends and her husband — marine biologists and artists. We were seated on the front porch, but did not get a chance to see the home.

The woman explained that, in the work as biologists, they have become very alarmed at the pervasive presence of plastic in the environment — not only along the shore, but also far inland. Birds and other animals either get trapped in the plastic, or pick it up as nesting material, or simply mistake it for food. They then carry it into places that are uninhabited and that normally would have had no pollution.

This couple has obtained equipment from the Netherlands that melts retrieved plastic and extrudes it into molds to make key rings, magnets, jewelry, coasters, and other souvenirs. They thus recycle single use plastics more durable items.

Although the scale of what they are doing is very small, and by itself makes only an infinitesimal dent in a much, much larger problem, their operation serves an educational purpose, raising awareness of the dangers of single use plastics.

Water taxi

When our visit was complete, Alejandra hailed a water taxi, which for 80 cents U.S. for each of us, carried us across the harbor to the main dock that is used by all of the cruise boats. The taxi dropped us in what is essentially the center of town, with a “supermarket” and a church, as well as a little park with a playground.

We had no time to linger, because we were immediately picked up by a small bus that might have held 18 people if we squeezed in. Fortunately, it was just the nine of us plus Alejandra. We did pick up one more, however. After a brief tour of the main drag, pointing out some of the best shops and coffee houses, Alejandra directed the driver to her own home, where she dropped off some of her personal things and picked up her 12-year-old daughter, Olivia.

Olivia accompanied us on the half hour journey up into the “highlands.” One should note that climbing even a few hundred feet above sea level constitutes a great height in these parts. Nevertheless, it was startling to see how green the landscape became, going from desert to grass and trees very quickly. There was also agriculture here, primarily beef cattle and dairy cows grazing.

Our first stop was a lava tube, a natural volcanic cavern some 400 meters in length, and at least 10 to 12 feet, or more in some places, in diameter. The islands are rife with these, most still undiscovered. The most common means of discovery is when a cow disappears and is later located in a sinkhole.

 

From here, the bus took us a very short distance to a “turtle ranch.” No turtles are actually raised here. It is just a piece of property that happens to be located in the midst the natural habitat for the Giant Tortoise.

The tortoises are not kept — they come and go as they please. But these huge land turtles are so abundant that there are always a great many here to see.

The “ranch” makes its money primarily from a restaurant and gift shop frequented by tourists who come to see the tortoises. They served us a pretty decent lunch, and they had free wi-fi for the first time in a week. However, it was so slow that all I could receive were a couple of short text messages.

The bus took us back to town and dropped us once again on the public pier, where several “homeless” sea lions had taken over some of the benches that were supposed to be for waiting passengers.

The zodiac returned us to the boat for a hour or two of siesta, because almost all of the shops in town close from noon to 3 p.m. for siesta, as well.

We returned to town, and because it was beastly hot, Alejandra arranged taxis to take us to our destination, the Darwin Center. This research facility focuses on the Giant Tortoises and operates a breeding program for endangered species.

There, we learned about “Super Diego,” a tortoise from the San Diego Zoo who was sent back to the Galapagos at an age of more than 100 years, and managed to father more than 700 offspring. We also saw the taxidermied remains of “Lonesome George,” who was the last of his now extinct breed.

Lonesome George, stuffed

Like tortoises released into the wild after having been bred in captivity, Alejandra released us to free time in Puerto Ayora. We walked back to town, seeing nothing but tourist shops. It’s a typical tourist town.

But when we arrived at a local microbrewery, we stopped in to cool off. We were pleasantly surprised that the beer was good and the prices were not unreasonable. The open air seating on the top floor gave us a great view of the harbor, shade, and a cooling breeze.

Back aboard the boat, we had a bit of time to get ready for dinner. The captain had sent our group a complimentary bottle of red wine, so we got to enjoy a glass with our meal. Following dinner, Alejandra reviewed the week with a trivia quiz that I won. Writing this blog helped fix various events and places in my memory.

Seventy

We were awake early because the ship weighed anchor and throttled up the engines to reposition for the day. And a beautiful day it was! Clear blue skies, light winds, and pleasant temperatures. I enjoyed my first cup of coffee sitting on the fantail of the second deck, just enjoying the ideal morning.

Breakfast, as usual, was overly abundant. We are all starting to feel fat after almost a week of three large meals every day, plus snacks served every time we return from hiking and snorkeling.

We made a wet landing on a beautiful, sugar sand beach at the base of “Sombrero Chino,” the Chinese Hat. Aptly named, if one simply looks at the shape. Sombrero Chino is a separate island, its own unique volcanic cone, but it is only separated by a matter of yards from the island of Santa Cruz.

The water here was a gorgeous aqua blue and so clear that we could see bottom at least 30 feet or more down. The walk was along black basalt, with sea lions, water iguanas, lava lizards, and the ever-present Sally Lightfoot crabs — not to mention the usual birds, pelicans, penguins, and frigate birds. We were surprised not to see boobies fishing here.

The waves crashing on the shore and the red vegetation (it turns green in the spring when it gets more rain) made an enchanting scene, even if the sun was already getting quite hot.

One group member, Nischala Joy, opted to stay on the beach as the rest of us followed our guide along the well-marked trail by the shore. However, two more, the father and son, Srinivas and Skanda, turned back early on. Alejandra, our tour director, led the other six of us part way, then told us to continue at our own pace to the end of the trail and back. She turned back to see to the others.

 

When we returned to the beach, we could see the other four standing in knee-deep water as two sea lion pups were playing very near to them. Alejandra urged us all to get our shoes off and wade in, too. We did so quickly.

Park rules are clear that one is not to approach or touch the animals, but the animals have been given no such instruction about us. Alejandra told us to simply stand still and let the sea lions do what they would do. They continued wrestling with each other, but then to break apart and swim very close to us. We were doing nothing to encourage them.

It was almost as if they were inviting us to join in their play. One came up and tickled my ankle with her whiskers, then shot away, as if playing tag. When I didn't give chase, she came back and sniffed my legs some more, and moved between others with similar behavior.

At one point, she even raised up out of the water to sniff the pockets of my shorts, and even wrapped her front flippers around my knee to hold on. When she finished that, she circled around in the water and came back to put her teeth on my opposite ankle — not to bite or break the skin, but very much like a dog plays.

I decided that things were getting a bit rough, so I got out of the water. But the sea lions continued to play with some of the others who remained. The big bull “daddy” sea lion swam close, checking on the situation, but apparently decided that the kids were alright and having fun, so he moved on.

The zodiac picked us up on the beach and we were to do a very quick turn around to get out of our hiking clothes and into our swimsuits and wet suits to go snorkeling. We couldn’t wait to get into that warm, clear water, and we were a bit impatient when Alejandra and the boat driver stopped to pick up some plastic that had floated in from the sea.

The zodiac took us back to the same stretch of water, but this time on the Santa Cruz side of the narrow channel, less than 100 meters across from the beach and path we had just walked. The water was much warmer than we’d experienced the past few days, but we were still glad for our wet suits.

But the water was exceptionally clear — we must have had at least 40 feet of visibility, sometimes more. There was very little current or wave action.

There were so many fish! Probably thousands, in all sorts of bright colors. A school of large fish would swim right at us, ducking under us, and the swarm of fish seemed to go on and on. Sometimes three different schools of fish — three different species — would intersect, each school going it’s own direction, but all of them weaving among the others to stay with their respective groups.

We saw trumpet fish, which we at first thought were eels. We also saw a couple of good-sized sharks — probably 5 or 6 feet in length. They were pretty close to us, but not at all interested in picking on something their own size when there were so many other fish to feed on. One generally treats sharks like this the same way one treats a large, strange dog — you don’t panic and run away, but you keep your distance and don’t try to pet it, either.

There were very large starfish, and even one rather good-sized sting ray — probably 18 inches across or more. I really wanted to see the ray swim, but he was just sitting in the rocks, not going anywhere.

This was an absolutely outstanding snorkeling experience. Some group members who have snorkeled a lot in the Caribbean or Hawaii said that this was way above average, if not the best snorkeling experience they have ever had.

We didn’t mention to anyone that today is my seventieth birthday, but I don’t think I could have had a better birthday gift than this experience. I would have stayed in the water another hour if Alejandra had let us.

Once back aboard the zodiac, and heading back to the boat, we encountered a flock of at least a dozen penguins, clustered together and just floating on the surface of the water. We’ve never seen so many together in one place, and Alejandra said it was quite rare to do so.

After lunch and a siesta as the boat re-positioned, we prepared for an afternoon hike at a spot called “Cerro Dragón” on the northern side of the island of Santa Cruz. The landing was barely dry, because the tide was high and the usual landing spot was submerged. We got off the zodiac onto very wet sand.

On this very hot and sunny walk we saw various cactus, land iguanas, and in a brackish lagoon, three flamingos. The flamingos have been hit hard by global warming, with the El Niño effect having wiped out much of their food source. Alejandra was surprised to find them here.

We also encountered a number of nasty, biting horse flies — the first insects that have really bothered us while we have been here.

 

Our walk ended with us very hot and sweaty and looking forward to the second shower of the day. But we discovered that the crew, while washing the side of the boat, had sprayed our balcony with a hose and soaked the clothes that we had hung out to dry! We showered, but had to wear some damp stuff.

At 6:30 p.m. we met to have a farewell toast with the crew. We will be sleeping on board tonight and again tomorrow night, but tomorrow’s activities will be in town, without much assistance from the crew. Also, while in port, the crew is very busy re-stocking supplies and preparing for the next group to board. So this is the best time for a farewell.

Mary let the cat out of the bag at the toast, so I got a double shot of aguadiente, roughly translated “fire water,” with my toast drink, which was a hot fruit “infusion,” sort of like a hot cider. It was quite good, especially with the extra booze in it.

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic birthday.