Galapagos - Isla Isabela

Dec 21, 22 and 23

We returned to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and flew over to Isla Isabela in an eight-seater plane. The lone pilot fell asleep (seriously).

We checked into a lovely hotel in the small town of Villamil (pop. 1500) with a view of the beach and the setting sun from our balcony. Our first excursion was to the island’s giant tortoise breeding centre. The centre has a program of hatching and reintroducing tortoises into the wild. It’s a long process as they are not released until they can survive on their own at 12 to 15 years of age. The tiny tortoises were like toys – so small and incredibly cute. Isabela is the largest of the islands – 100 km long – and the only one with several different species of tortoise. The distance between the volcanoes and the different habitats allowed for five different species of tortoise to evolve. The centre houses all five species so it’s possible to see the physical differences between them. For example, tortoises from the area where the vegetation is lush and grows close to the ground have the shortest limbs as their food supply is within easy reach.

We walked back to the hotel along a boardwalk through a mangrove forest were we saw a number of flamingos. At the beach, black baby marine iguanas were huddled together on the rocks to catch the last warming rays of the setting sun.

The next morning we travelled by boat to a place called Los Tuneles. We wove our way through several kilometres of odd formations that were created when molten lava reached the cool waters of the ocean and “froze” into various shapes including the tunnels and bridges. We had a quick snorkel among tunnels and saw rays, turtles and white-tipped sharks. (I had to wear a full 3mm wetsuit that I brought from Whitehorse every time I snorkelled because the water was quite cold.)

Video of green sea turtle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxLqZw4vF8I

Next we travelled to another island called Tintoreras where we saw Galapagos penguins and walked among a marvellous density of marine iguanas. Many of the larger iguanas had started to turn the bright colours that signal the approach of their mating season.

We spent our third day on Isabela climbing Volcan Sierra Negra and its ‘offspring” Volcan Chico. We drove part way and then hiked a further hour to the rim if the caldera. As we trekked further we crossed the distinctive flows from the volcano’s eruptions in 1963, 1979 and 2005. The landscape was dry and brittle. From the farthest point we could see the island’s other active volcanoes far to the north.

Photos from Isla Isabela...

Isla Isabela, Galapagos

Galapagos - Isla San Cristobal

Dec 19 and 20

We began our Galapagos tour on Isla San Cristobal – a two hour / 1000 km flight from the mainland of Ecuador. On arrival we wandered through the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and we were delighted by the sea lions lounging randomly on the beachfront, seemingly oblivious to the passing pedestrians and playing children.

The company we were travelling with (ROW Adventures out of Idaho) is one of the few with permits to camp on the Galapagos. This is one of the main reasons we opted to do a ‘land-based’ tour instead of the far more common cruise boat-based tours. Another reason for our choice was the variety of activities included – kayaking, hiking, snorkelling, eating in local restaurants and staying in local hotels. Our group was small – a couple from Atlanta, another couple from San Francisco, our guide Eduardo and us. The Galapagos is 97% national park so we were also escorted by national park guides/ interpreters on all our excursions –a different one on each of the islands we visited.

Our first kayak adventure was a short excursion out of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno along the west coast of the island travelling toward our campsite for the next two days. We only kayaked for about an hour and a half before transferring to a catamaran for another hour’s travel. (Our kayaks were towed the rest of the way by another support boat.) Our camp was all set up and waiting for us on a lovely sandy beach at a place known as Puerto Grande. We watched a stunning sunset, glass of wine in hand and enjoyed a great dinner. I didn’t sleep very well that night. Every time I woke up just a little bit I was jolted awake by the knowledge that I was camped on the Galapagos. It was ridiculously exciting.

The next day we set out from camp in our kayaks and paddled for about 3 hours. The only sign of other people was a small cruise ship way off in the distance. We wound up at place called Isla Lobos where we saw marine iguanas for the first time. There was also a colony of sea lions. As we snorkelled the young sea lions circled us, swimming close to see if we were something to play with. It was hilarious!

Video of swimming with sea lions...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sg5CYWWJoI

After our swim we transferred to the catamaran and headed to our next stop - Kicker Rock. This island is a sheer-walled tuff cone (formed from volcanic ash) that has been eroded in half. The water around Kicker Rock is very deep and attracts many species not usually found in shallower water. We geared up for another snorkel and the catamaran left us to swim through the gap. Our guide Jorge recited the names of various shark species we might see just before we jumped overboard including “if we were REALLY lucky”, a hammerhead. Whew! Turns out we were extremely lucky because we saw three! As you can imagine, it was a little unsettling to see them pass about 15 feet below us. Jorge was thrilled. He hadn’t seen one there for several years and he’d never seen three at once. I was just bewildered.

We had another lovely evening back at our camp – more wine, another spectacular sunset and a full moon. The main activity of the evening was to make the underwater signal for hammerhead and laugh at our good fortune.

Photos from Isla San Cristobal

San Cristobal, Galapagos

Real time update from Panama

It's been tricky getting Internet access as well as time to write up our travels. We are currently in Cerra Punta in Panama not far from the border with Costa Rica. It's cool and wet up here but it's a lovely spot.

I hope to have a few days soon to catch up with our travel news and especially add some pictures from Galapagos. In the meantime here are some pictures from our time in Quito.....

Quito