26 Jan - San Cristobal, Galapagos .. time to leave

It's the last day here in the Galapagos - tomorrow we pickup backpacks and travel on.    Hard to believe it, we feel so at home here.  We have had our Cuban-Galapagas family here with us in San Cristobal for the last few days. Blanca and Jose Ignacio decided to bring their boys to join us here ... so it's like having a family vacation and a great tour guide all in one, wonderful!

Our hotel here on San Cristobal, the Blue Marlon, is a new one that Jose Ignacio has arranged to work with G Adventures.  It is so comfortable here, pool on premises and lovely big rooms with air conditioning.   Sam says the swimming pool is 'Literally Evil!'  We are all enjoying waking up to lazy breakfasts with a surprise fruit smoothie of the day (batida de fruta).  Even Andy's been waking up happy instead of grouchy (for the first time in his life??)

We spent the first afternoon playing on the piers.  There's a children's area that has 2 water slides that go from the pier down into the water in a little bay walled loosely by rocks so that the water does not come in too fast or deep.   Sea lions are literally everywhere!!  On the benches, in the middle of the streets, the side walks, all over the rocks and the little beach.. sometimes on the boats even!  The children were having a great time of it playing in the little play area, when a big sea lion came into the water to play with them - and they all ran out - local kids know all about aggressive alpha males and are watching the sea lion to see if this is one of them.

Galapagos-5-SanCristobal

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It's been 3 days since we left Galapagos and we are in Cusco now, but I'll go back and finish a little about San Cristobal before moving on...

...

As I mentioned earilier, San Cristobal was particularly different and fun because we had Jose Ignacio, Blanca and all 5 children with us.  We have had such a great time together.   We will miss them very much - but have sneaky plans to reunite again in Rio or Iguassu Falls perhaps.

We all went on a boat out to Leon Dormido, aka Kicker Rock, to dive and snorkel.  First, we stopped on the way at Isla Lobos - which was one of those catalogue-perfect little islands with white sandy beaches and clear, pristine aquamarine blue water.   Belen, who works at G Adventures, had arranged for a wetsuit for Andy and Ben (no small feat!) and they both went in with the dive master to do a test run in the shallow waters of the ocean here.

Isla Lobos just looks like a fairytale.  On the beach, almost as if awaiting our arrival, was a large pelican walking about near a couple of small seal lions playing on the rocks and an iguana scurrying across the sand.   We all jumped out and swam, snorkelled and walked the shore.  On the shore, several sea lion pups frolicked around, being left safely on land while their mama is out fishing for food (sometimes for 2 or 3 days!).  I fell in absolute love with the sea lions and really followed them about.  

Ben and Andy returned from their tester dive, excited to have seen an octopus.  And it was time to move on to Leon Dormido.

Leon Dormido is made up of a lava cone that has split in two. The rocks are beautiful shades of color and are home to families of masked boobies and sea lions as well as marine life that includes almost anything that could pass by: whales, sharks, turtles, rays, you name it.   Andy joined us for the 1st dive.  It was b-r-r-r-r-r cold!!  But we swan along the crevice between the two large rocks and found ourselves surrounded on all sides by tens and tens of sharks .. galapagos and some reef sharks.  Andy looked around in amazement, it was his first shark dive.  

For Justin and me, it was our 3rd, but very different this time. Instead of orderly schools of hammerheads progressing by as if in a school marching band, this time there were lots of sharks just swimming around in different directions, not coordinated.  The Galapagos and reef sharks are slightly more frightening to me because their mouths are bigger than the hammerheads and they seem less decisive about where they're going - but we all still felt calm as the sharks didn't really pay a lot of attention to us.  With the sharks there were lots and lots of turtles (it's coming into mating season) and various rays.   We saw a beautiful purple octopus holed up in a small cave and lots of large starfish.  

The rest of the group snorkelled above the sharks and rays, closer to the numerous turtles coasting along the surface.  All of the boys, including Sam and Ben were able to snorkel close to sharks  and had a chance to observe them along with the turtles and rays.  It was, as Sam would put it, Immense!

We also visited the Interpretation Centre - a museum that explains the history of Galapagos and its' people.  And behind that, Blanca showed us the Tijeras, lava rock and sandy beaches where frigates nest (we really wanted to see them with red chest inflated like a balloon as the males do when in mating season).  We counted something like 15 large turtles swimming within a few feet of the beach where we relaxed.  

There were tens and tens of sea lions on the beaches at Las Tijeras well - with a huge alpha male strolling his territory and barking out his presence amongst his community. I fell in love with one of the many sea lion pups that was itsy-bitsy and looked in need of a good meal.  Blanca explained to me that it's not unusual for mama sea lions to abandon pups because they don't feel strong enough to feed them, perhaps had twins or the pup was too needy, many reasons.  SOB!!  I could barely handle that information  and I made Blanca promise to come back and visit in a few days to see if this sea lions' mum had returned yet. This is survival of the fittest, Darwin style.

We also visited a water filled crater at the top of a mountain - Laguna El Junco the only fresh-water lake in all the Galapagos islands.   We watched the frigates fly into the water to wash the salt of their wings and had a great view of the island. Best yet, was a cycle down from the mountain.  Good roads for a mountain bike!  It was such a fun ride down and we all arrived sweaty and tired at a large Ceiba tree that has had  tree house and swings (and firemans pole) integrated.  So we all got to be kids and swing on the swings and visit the tree house - Ben scaring us to death by coming down the 20 meter firemans pole before we had a chance to tell him not to.

Sam, Jose Ignacio Jr and Jose Patricio found a puppy and kitten to love to death.   Tiny, bitty things who stood no chance of hiding from the small children.

Before we knew it, our time was up and we had to say goodbye.  Jose and Blanca returning to San Cristobal and us on to Quito-> Lima -> Cusco where we are now.   We are definitely missing the islands, the weather and of course our friends.   So different here 3,000 meters above sea level with cool clouds floating over us.

23 Jan Ecuador - diving with hammerheads at Gordon Stone, Galapagos

Galapagos-4-SC-GordonDiving I can't believe it'll be time to leave Santa Cruz for another island, San Cristobal, tomorrow!  We have grown so attached to life in this little town of Puerto Ayora.   the kids have been playing soccer at the synthetic pitch and in the parque at the town centre pier.  We've gotten used to the lazy evenings with everyone strolling around and stopping for a chat.  And we've had a great time hanging out with, Jose and Blanca and their little ones, Jose Ignacio and Jose Patricio - they've become good friends here. Aside from strolling around Puerto Ayora, we've been diving out to Rocas Gordon.  That has been my favourite experience so far!!  Why?  Hammerheads, eagle rays, manta ray, green and hawksbill turtles, sea lions, galapagos sharks, white tipped reef sharks ... need I go on?!   Wow, there was so much to see on these dives! We were a bit nervous as we woke at 4:30 to start getting dressed and I had a knot in my stomach.  I knew it would be our first real shark dive - Gordon Rocks are famous for schools of hammerheads.  I wanted to go ahead and get past any fears of bigger marine animals since we'll be continuing on to dive in Australia, Indonesia and Thailand.    The 40 minute boat ride out was in darkness, with sunrise just before we arrived at the rocks.  Gordon Rocks are actually 3 pinnacles sticking out of the water around a crater formed by volcanic activity.   The view of the rocks with a light pink background was stunning.  The water was clear and a brilliant blue-green. We all entered the water together and almost at once encountered the famous currents.   Gordon Rocks dive site is also known as the Washing Machine because of heavy currents entering to the central crater area from 3 directions.  The currents force you to hold on to the rocks sometimes, or let air out to lower.   but it wasn't as difficult to stay level as I'd been warned it might be. Within 5 or so minutes, our guide Simon signalled our attention during a warm current, we were to hang on and look above.  Before us was a parade of beautiful fish and the occasional rays when in entered a formation of hammerheads - to me, it seemed like the school football team was marching through, proud and strong and hanging in a group.   There were about 3  sharks swimming about 3 wide.   We watched in awe and felt strangely tranquil.  Not scary at all, it was a peaceful experience that had us all in awe. Justin and I had waited years to see this and discussed this moment many times.  I needed to pinch myself to know it wasn't a dream. We became used to the hammerheads as they passed and returned about every 10 minutes through our area .. sometimes passing not more than 5 feet away from us.  My favourite was when they passed overhead and you could see the silhouettes against the sky at the top of the water.  They are so sleek and elegant, just magnificent creatures. A seal zipped by playfully and then stopped to look back at us -  what a flirt!  A big green turtle swam past and seemed to hover about, it wasn't hurrying to arrive anywhere.   We love swimming besides these guys and they don't seem to mind people getting reasonably close, they're very calm.   A school of large eagle rays came by - maybe 7 or 10 of them.  I raced to swim a bit closer to them.  They had beautiful white underbellies that look like they'd feel so soft and smooth to touch.   We've stroked a few of the smaller rays while snorkelling and they are soft as they look. Nearing the sandy floor at the base of some rocks, I saw an octopus, maybe a meter long, beautifully camouflaged against the sand.  It was stony grey-white-brown and moved around gracefully.    But there wasn't much time to look as we had to race on and keep up with the group. Justin cleverly spotted an elusive moray eel in the rocks and we all turned around to look.   Morays always look unearthly to me, like dragons of the sea.  With their sharp teeth they look so fierce, but they aren't really aggressive, they only bite in defence - I can't blame them, I would too! There were so many starfish, we lost count.  Not the usual we've seen before, but Galapagos starfish - the big fat ones that look like they've been decorated with rows of chocolate chips (hence the name, chocolate chip starfish).  Lots of sea cucumbers too ... not very exciting, pretty close to a sea vegetable really if you ask me. Soon it was time to surface.   While we did our 3 minute wait at 3 meters from the surface, it occurred to me  .. hmm, this is really the closest we'll come to sticking ourselves out into the path of shark schools, just hanging around in the blue.   I am such a chicken!  But I threw that thought out and tried to enjoy the view instead. We did a second dive that day and then ... being so greedy ... we returned the next day for 2 more dives!!  How piggish.  But we had to seize the opportunity while here.   The dives were similar.  Same things to see and do.  Some of the initial surprise and shock wore off on the 2nd day, but that made room for us to study all the creatures in a relaxed way.   I spent a little more time the 2nd day looking at galapagos and white tipped sharks that swam near.  They are beautiful too.  It was interesting that they swam alone and not with friends like the hammerheads.  That may have just been at this time, I'll have to check.  We did get to feeling all very brave and more comfortable being closer to the sharks, which was wonderful as they are amazing and should be appreciated. How will we ever beat that experience?!   Hmmm, watch these pages...  Well, Saturday night, we went to watch Blanca's basketball team in a championship match-off.  She was terrific, the best shooter by far.  She may be small, but man can she move!   The women's basketball team is no joke here, very serious business.   There were a few penalties and I saw some interesting use of elbows.   In the end, Blanca's team won, hooray! For my birthday yesterday, we all went to Las Grietas.  Rocks where you can jump into the water.   We have some of these back in Tennessee and I was curious how these compare.    We grabbed a water taxi for the crossing the the other side of the harbour where the path begins.  There's a long, but well-marked, path to Las Grietas.  The path is made of volcanic rock stones, rough and jagged.  Along the way, there is a beautiful sandy beach where we found lots of locals basking near the mangroves. Just before the rocks, we encountered a bar run by a couple of young Argentinian guys.  We stopped for Fiora Vanti (the Ecuadorian 'coca cola'), beer and snacks.   The Argentian brothers, Louis and Franco, showed the boys all sorts of magic tricks with centavos (pennies).  I got impatient (after the someone's 2nd beer) and headed off to the Grietas, where the rest joined me a little later. Las Grietas was much more scenic than I thought it would be.  It was actually like a fissure or canal between two large walls made of reddish-brown stones.  It didn't seem very child-appropriate, with uneven surfaces and lots of opportunity to fall and scrape or break something.  But I saw the local kids were clambering over (most, wisely wearing shoes in and out of the water).    With imagination, there were lots of paths up from the water to rock ledges for jumping.  Form a distance, the kids made climbing the rocks look like, well, childs play.   When Ben arrived, he immediately dove in and joined them in the trek up and then jumping off the rocks.  When I swam to the rocks, I saw that up close they are jagged and porous and didn't find it immediately easy to make my way up.  But after a few minutes I found I could manage the climb - not gracefully at all, mind you! The water at Las Grietas is the clearest I've seen yet, anywhere.  I'm not sure the source of the water, but it is brackish. I could taste the salt, but it also felt clean like freshwater.  Justin and I managed to get Sam up onto a lower ledge and jumping into the water ... but he was terrified.  Ben was very brave and went in alone and holding hands with me too.  Andy was so sad that he couldn't do this - but kept making me promise that we'll return to Galapagos again. Heading back, we stopped again to have a drink and visit with Franco and Louis.  They have loaded us up with contact information for when we are in Argentina.  They live in Mendosa, which is a wine growing area.  We've promised to try our best to get out there, but it's in the other side of the country from where we'll be, oh well!! Back at home, in Puerto Ayora, we had a birthday dinner at Isla Grill .. a super-delicious steak house near our hotel.  And we all played Spoons card game, which Katie and Brittney showed us when they were here (thank you!).    Finally, we made it our first early night to bed in weeks.  Ahhhhh.

15 Jan Ecuador - Galapagos, moving to Santa Cruz Island

Finally, a totally lazy day!  As we were heading to Santa Cruz and then onward to San Cristobal, we made a decision to extend our time here in Galapagos til the 29th!!  We couldn't resist.   Where else can you sit with a seal and watch the morning go by on a dock, with pelicans hanging out nearby and iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks?? 

It may be a lazy day, but the stomach bug plaguing us since we left Cusco has meant we have started courses of antibiotics today.  Hopefully, we can kick this thing and start eating the really good spicy stuff again!!!

We're staying at the Lobos de Mar (sea lions) hotel on the seafront and it is nice with a couple of small swimming pools - not as beautiful as the white sanded hotel in Isabella perhaps, but it is in the heart of Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, where we are surrounded by restaurants, cafes and lovely meeting areas with benches along piers with sea lions, pelicans and iguanas.

  

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There are only 4 or so towns or residential areas on all of the Galapagos.  That's partly because 97% of the Galapagos islands is reserved park lands where no one can build or live.    Many of the islands are not inhabited by people at all, some require special permission to visit - in addition to the fact that we need to 'check-in' whenever we enter national reserve areas like volcanoes or highlands.  It's good to see the protection that is being offered to preserve the natural state here.

Tomorrow, we'll head to Rocas Gordon (Gordon Stone) or the nearby island of Floriana for a day of scuba diving.  We were able to arrange a good sitter for the boys - they really like her, an Aussie girl named Kate - and we can have a much-needed child-free excursion.  We're crossing fingers the dive'll be Gordon because we're both dying to see hammerhead sharks, even if it's a drift dive.   If not, we'll be almost as pleased to get out to Floriana with pacific green turtles, rays and galapagos or reef sharks.

We arrived here in Santa Cruz on the 15th with the first item on the agenda being  an x-ray for Andy's injured arm.  Luckily, our G Adventures guide's mom is a pharmacist and dad is a doctor here on Santa Cruz - cause most places are shut on a Sunday.   Blanca's husband, Jose Ignacio, was amazing and escorted Andy and I around to an xray machine and then to visit Blanca's doctor dad for a reading.  As expected, broken - just chipped really, but we need to treat it the same (actually identical break to the one he had on his other arm from falling of playground equiptment).   

Getting Andy's diagnosis out of the way was a real relief, for had it been a bad break we would have had to arrange travel to the mainland for further medical treatment.  None of us was ready to leave the Galapagos yet, including Andy!!

The following day, the 16th, we all walked to the Darwin Center and had an educational tour from Blanca - I can't believe how much she knows so much about the local geology, history and wildlife.  We splurged on a very good book about the history of the Galapagos called 'The Curse of the Galapagos Tortoise' and currently reading through it.  It's interesting that the first visitors to the island - including the 4th bishop of Panama, thought these islands were literally Hell On Earth.  That's because the Galapagos has virtually no fresh water sources and not much edible vegetation (even the available cactus is very bitter and not really drinkable).   Nowadays, people have adapted to life here by importing the necessities.  There is a great local appreciation of the marine creatures that make up most of the Galapagos wildlife.

While here in the lowlands of Santa Cruz it is very hot and humid, travelling up into the highlands on the 18th, we found a whole new, cooler, wetter climate.   The highlights of the highlands are the giant Galapagos tortoises, huge sink holes and well-preserved lava tunnels.    Blanca and Jose brought their two boys, Jose Ignacio (6) and Jose Patricio (8) along for the day.  They are such sweet boys and our boys have enjoyed meeting them, managing to get past the language barrier pretty well.

We visited the Gemelos (twin) sinkholes.  These are dramatic holes in the earth, hundreds of meters wide and 200 or 300 meters deep.   They were created by pressure from the build-up of toxic gases that hovered over lava, with the earth giving way after the underground chambers emptied of lava.   Although the sinkholes are filled with new vegetation, there is not much wildlife here other than birds and spiders.

After the sinkholes, we drove to Rancho Premicito where there are 70 acres of land dedicated to the wild giant tortoises.  Our visit coincided with the mating season which runs from Jan to March so we had the entertainment of several copulating giant tortoises.  I felt rude interrupting them as they labored on their 2-3 hour sessions.    It isn't much of a life for the poor female, who is 1/3 the size of the male.  The 200 kilo males climb aboard an often unwilling female and hold on to her shell while they do some of the slowest mating of any creatures - poor females, imagine holding all that weight up for 3 hours - no wonder they're reluctant!!!   We answered quite a few interesting questions from the children (our 3 and Blanca and Jose's 2).

We continued with a gentle horseback ride along the boundaries of the ranch and the national park.  All along the way, we rode next to, and sometimes over, large tortoises dragging themselves down the muddy road, eating bits of greenery along the way.  It was raining cats and dogs and we were all thoroughly soaked and chilly as we returned to hot chocolate and coffees.

Finally, we headed to the nearby lava tunnels.  We approached the entrance of the tunnels and headed down some recently added steps (very helpful!).   Aside from these steps, and some lighting placed along the way, the tunnels have been left in their original state.  The lava tunnels were several meteres high most of the way and a couple of meters wide.  The ceiling tapered off a couple of times to hands-and-knees crawling space, but only briefly.  What was interesting was hearing Blanca describe the compositon of the walls - she could describe the minerals that had been deposited here with the lava flow and how they had reacted with air and water to change to the whites, reds, greens and golden browns that pattern the walls.  The children rushed through quickly, enjoying the tunnel, but wanting to be sitting in the car again - this touring stuff can be pretty exhausting!

We spent a quiet evening on the seafront in the main dock area.  There's a skateboarding ramp that the boys like to play on, along with lots of local children.  At the dock there's also free wifi and there are groups of young people hanging out on the docks in the evening, looking at the internet and laughing and talking.   From there, you can also see schools of cow nosed golden rays and sea turtles and puffer fish all swimming around together, attracted by the lights under the pier.  Our boys all love to rush from one side of the pier to the other, following the swimming fish and rays around.

Today we have followed the pattern from last night and floated here and there along the sea front.   We spent a while at the docks where fresh fish come in during the early morning.   Sea lions and pelicans compete for space as the boats come in and unload fish.  Actually, the sea lions follow the boats in like dogs hanging around the dinner table at supper.  They then clamber up the steps from the dock and present themseves at the counters like any other customer.  The pelicans laze about on the dock and scattered about the boats, with herons and lava gulls for company.  Sam got too close to a sea lion and it charged forward at him causing him to scream ...and I was just telling him don't worry pulling him to me when I realised I got too close as well!   We both jumped out of the way faster than kids evading a shower.

Being here without much of an itinerary for a few days feels very relaxing.  Now, if we can only manage to get rid of these stomach problems, we'll be living the life of Riley.

11 Jan Ecuador - Arrival in Galapagos Islands

Ever wondered what it's like to take 3 children on a 2 hour boat ride, followed by a 4 hour wait at the airport (cancelled flights, quite normal here), sleep at a hotel, wake early, take a bus to an airport, wait 5 hours (more cancellations), take 2 airplanes and a minibus, arrive at another hotel, sleep, wake early, minibus to airport, 2 more flights, drive cross an island and take another boat to arrive at FINALLY your destination??  Well, unless it's Disneyland, the kids are not likely to hang in there very well or forgive you any time soon.  It's the sort of material that you just know will feed their psychiatrists for years to come.  

Luckily, our arrival point is Isabella island in the Galapagos islands and almost upon arrival here, the boys had seen a flock of large colorful crabs (flock?, need to check that!), dolphins jumping out of the water, numerous lazy sea lions lounging about, baby sea lions frolicking in the water, and, at our little hotel, a sea lion surfin in the waves, not more than 10 feet from us!!  I think they've forgiven us now.

Since we've arrived, we have done so many things.  We met our G Adventures guide, Blanca, who is a walking wikipedia of information about Galapagos and wildlife here... and lots of fun too, with a good sense of humour.  I don't know where she gets the energy, but she has taken us on a marathon of activities.

First, Blanca took us to climb the volcano Sierra Negra up to its' Caldera - or lava filled active crater.  It is huge, hundreds of meters in diameter because this is a dome rather than a cone shaped volcano and the lava is Basaltic, meaning it is thicker and slower moving than others.  I have to admit a feeling of disappointment when, after hiking upwards for almost 3 hours we saw a large caldera filled with dark brown soil-like material and some green covered areas - nothing red, bubbling or spewing.  But the sheer size and recent activity of the cauldron does make it pretty amazing.  The last erruption of Sierrra Negra was in 2005.  Unlike the images I had built of of violent explosions, the lava rose up to overflow only section of the caldera and flowed down one side of the volcano.  

It was a hot day and the climb was loooong (we're teasing Blanca since each time the kids began their 'how much further?' she would reply 10 more minutes - so they no longer believe her time estimates, not that they usually believe us either!).   After climbing the mountain we cooled off by snorkelling in a mangrove bay near the entry pier of Puerto Villamil, the town here on Isabella.   We entered water where sea lions were frolicking moments earlier and set off on a fast paced snorkel of the bay.  We came upon several Pacific Green turtles and followed them around a little.  We also saw chocolate chip starfish and a few big puffer fish.   Not to mention several sting rays and eagle rays.  We came out on such a high - knowing it would be hard to top that experience!

As we went out for dinner in the town, Andy found a great climbing tree in the park at the city centre.  He was having so much fun - doing his lazy jaguar impression, then swinging from the branches 'hey, look at me!' and then, bam!, on the ground cradling a fragile looking arm with a grimace and a few tears.  I asked him to move his fingers, then turn his wrist - and when he couldn't I knew it was probably broken.  I wandered down to the pharmacy for a sling to put on him until we could get him attention ... but I found it was closed and on my returned saw that Jose Ignacio (manager of G Adventures in Galapagos and also husband of our guide Blanca) had rejoined our group.

Jose took us to the hospital, all the way ... across the street.  It was evening and we were on a little island with roads of sand, but I was so impressed to find we had a doctor  available quickly and he was able to look at it and fashion a halfcast to hold his arm in place until we could take him to the nearby island of Santa Cruz or an xray.  This may not be the right time to mention this, but the doctor was so easy on the eyes - a true latin guapo!  The whole hospital visit was so  fast, so easy, and FREE!    Even the painkiller and antibiotics only came to 6 bucks.   Nice place to be.

We couldn't wait for Blanca to return so we could tell on Jose - left alone to take care of us for a few hours and look what happens!!  Justin has really enjoyed having Jose around to share a beer with.  Luckily, Jose and Blanca both have a good understanding of British humour  ...  Justin is well matched here ;-)

From what Blanca has been tellign us, the Galapagos islands have very distinctive and isolated environments.  One key visible difference is the color of the sand, based on the composition of lava and organic materials - some sands are red, some white, some blackish.  Isabella, where we are now, is the only island with white sandy beaches (and streets).  The beaches look like heaven, white sands, dark lava rocks, all sorts of marine life.   

Even with his arm in a sling, Andy was a real trooper.  He went with us the the Wall of Tears, where Ecuadorian prisoners were sent to Isabella in 1946.  Some genius prison commander had the idea to occupy the prisoners time by having them haul large rocks from the beach a 7 km distance to the location of a wall that would become the fortress-like wall of a new facility.  Somewhere along the way, the prisoners began being treated very badly, worse than the confines of a normal prison.  They were dropping of exhaustion, dehydration and starvation along the path and being buried in the dirt where they fell.  

Eventually, the prisoners made a planned group escape.  Without killing anyone on the island, they stole a ship in the harbour and made for the mainland where they told their stories finally.  It was so sad and they had so much public sympathy that most were pardoned after a few years.   The wall is such a sombre place.   The only lighthearted touch was the multitude of curious lava lizards that live along the wall and out in the cactus strewn desert.

We went on to the Turtle Breeding Centre where we saw hundreds of turtles that are rescued or bred there and are later released into the island.   The facilities are well laid out and there are large pens for different ages of turtles.   Inside the pens are some of Galapagos infamous poison apple trees.  Their apples look like small green ones we eat, but are highly toxic to us and all other animals except the turtles who can nibble to their hearts content.   

We ended this outing with a boat ride out to visit the penguins on their islands and the Tintoreria, aka Sharks Alley.  We arrived too late to see sharks hanging out in the fissure between lava rocks - they'd gone out to look for dinner already.  But it wasn't a wasted trip, we wandered over the island as sea lions were coming on land to rest.  A mother with two young pups was coaxed onto land by a large male sea lion.  She settled to breastfeed the youngest one, jus feet from where we were standing.    We walked on to give them peace and came across an iguana mating session.  It was brutal, the huge iguana yanked the female out of the water by the back of her neck and dragged her on land where he manhandles her into submission, does the deed and then sent her away with another yank on the neck - quite the gentleman!!  Apparently the land giuanas can be just as vicious.  One thing I've learned from being in the Galapagos is reptiles are no Romeo and Juliets.

Isabella island is so amazing that we started discussing how to stay in the Galapagos islands for longer.  A weeks is no way enough to experience all of this in.  

Galapagos-2-IsabellaIsland

7-10 Jan Peru - Tambopata Rainforest Reserve

2012-01 B-Peru-Tambopata OK, I'm really backtracking here because we were way too busy for journal entries while at the Tambopata Rainforest Reserve in Peru.   So here's what I remember .... We took a plan ride from Cusco with our fellow travelling family, the Lamberts from Australia.   It was short ... the wait at the airport is the longest point really.   We arrived into the tiny town of Puerto Madonado from where rainforest jungle excursions are arranged.    Once at our hosts' offices in Puerto Maldonado, we were whisked onto a bus and about 40 minutes drive to a river where we all transferred to a large motorised canoe for the 2 1/2 hour ride to our lodge in the jungle.   We saw an agouti on the edges of the brown river.  Other than that, it was mainly the choppy brown waters and lush, tall green foliage all the way.  A packed lunch of chicken and rice wrapped in large leaves was distributed and it was delicious. When we finally arrived at our destination port, we threw our small packs on our backs and climbed up the wooden steps to the jungle track.  It's about a 15 minute walk, but as it was getting dusky, it was difficult to keep our feet out of the mud and on the path.  Rain inour eyes didn't help. We saw some light through the trees and all of a sudden we emerged into an clearing to the impressive view of a large, 2-story, open-sided lodge.  More luxurious than we had ever hoped for, there were candles lighting up the wooden furniture and the place was all aglow.  The children found hammocks, dominoes and bookshelves upstairs.  The grown-ups found beer and wine downstairs around tables with comfortable chairs. If it weren't for the limited electricity and only-cold showers, we wouldn't know how far off the grid we were.   Even the dinners were made so nicely, buffet-style peruvian dishes, mmmm. In the jungle, we trekked about to see the various forms of trees and small creatures.  Our guide Yuri was excellent.  He knew all the local wildlife facts and got everyone (but me!) to try eating some termites ... I just couldn't, but I'm not proud of myself!!  Termites are one of the best sources of food if one becomes lost in a jungle. We saw the largest brazil nut trees and strangled fig (banyan) trees that we have ever seen as well as some huge sayba (mayan tree of life).    We all took turns to stand in groups inside a huge, empty strangled fig - the tree it had engulfed had almost entirely disappeared over time.  It was amazing to look up so high and see ourselves encased in the strangled fig vine-trunks. We all gave a hand (and foot) to climbing vines.  Not as easy as Tarzan made it look!   It takes a lot of muscle to cling on and pull upwards, but it was fun trying. Back at the lodge, Yuri showed us a brazil nut pod - which looks almost exactly like a coconut to me.  He showed us how to open it with a machete and carefully extract the 10-20 brazil nutes inside.  We then carefully cracked the soft shells off the nuts and tasted the nuts.  They were nothing like the brazil nuts I've had before - fresh they are soft and not dry at all, but full of flavour.  I guess we always get them once they've been dried, roasted and travelled around the world. One day, we went tree-climbing.  Only it was nothing like our usual tree climbing.  We were climbing a brazil nut tree, which are around 40 meters high.  For this, we were equipped with climbing harness and 2 locking carabeeners - we moved the hand carabeener up as high as we could reach and then sat back and moved our feet high into a crouch, then stood up to move the hand carabeener up .... looking every bit like inch worms.  Man was this tough!!  By the time I was halfway up, the only thing that madde me keep going was the knowledge that Justin would somehow manage to zip up the line unaided.  So I did it, it was one of the toughest things I've ever done, but I pulled my body weight 40 meters up into that tree.   Athough I've been rock climbing several times, nothing prepared me for the dizzying height of the platform at the top.   I felt slightly nasueous looking around.  Ben, Sam and Kiana were already up there - having been pulled halfway or more to the top.   I watched Ben unhook his attached carabeener and panicked just as the guide at the top grabbed it and re-attached him - phew!!  Real heart-stopping situation! It was a great view from the top.  As I expected, Justin not only made it to the top but beat my speed quite easily - b*#^~@d!!    And he helped pull our friend Michelle up the tree when she tired out too.  Justin went kayaking later, which I was just to tired to do.  He took the camera and managed to see a sloth licking the clay at a salt lick near the river.   He also saw some flocks of macaws flying about in the tall trees. Two were fighting viciously - what drama queens! Our time at the lodge was lovely, but brief.  It gave us a good taster for the rainforest volunteer work we'll be doing on the 30th at Manu Biosphere Reserve in south Peru.   We know know what to expect - the calf-deep mud, the rain, the cold showers ... but also the amazing trees and jungle creatures.   We're looking forward to it.

Jan, Peru - Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Machu Pichu

2012-01 A-Peru-Cusco-AguasCalietes-MachuPichu

Going back a bit to what I've missed since out since Costa Rica.  Peru.  Machu Pichu, Aguas Calientes, Cusco, Tambopata Rainforest Reserve.  I'll make a head start on describing some of these!

Our first visit to Peru is with a tour company called Gap Adventures - or G Adventures since they've lost a battle with GAP clothing.  Normally, not one for tour trips with the structured itineraries and whizzing timelines.  But here, having considered that we need to carefully cater to the children in order to hope to see Machu Pichu, we have chosen to use a tour company.

We flew into Lima (arriving late at night due to the delays in Miami) and were initially surprised to be driven 45 minutes from Lima center to Miraflores, a shiny new district with a modern, trendy, cosmopolitan feel.  Our hotel, La Castellana, was a smaller more traditional looking one, but just round the corner from the big modern buildings, reminding me of San Francisco's financial district.  Aside from a very drunken American girl wandering about wearing only a t-shirt and nothing else(!), the hotel was quiet and cosy, nothing much to write about.

There wan't much time to see Lima in any event as we were whisked off to the airport in a minibus the following morning with another family joining the tour and our tour guide Augusta.  At the airport, we found that airlines work on a Hurry-Up-And-Wait system, where it is not unusual for planes to be delayed by 1 to 24 hours and gates are like musical chairs adn don't even bother much with explanations.  Nobody was too worried about this, after the Miami midnight debacle, and our plane was only an hour or so off-schedule (with 3 gate changes).

Arriving 3,000+ meters high into Cusco, a city literally floating in the clouds, was a whole different world.  Walking around took more effort than usual.  Surrounded by giant velvety-green mountain peaks and topped by lazily floating cloud clusters, Cusco sprawls out in muted clay and cream colors.  The old town, where our hotel  Cusco Plaza is located, is lined in stone walls that bring the first images of Machu Pichu to mind.

The boys hung out with Kiana, the 8 year old daughter of the Lambert family joining our tour from Australia.  They were all happy to be at a hotel, feet on the ground, and allowed some electronics to play as a reward.  Once the electronics games are doled out, the children huddle together in a corner and are not heard from again until batteries have drained.  

Although we were handed a spreadsheet which listed our major destinations for each day of the tour, the details for when we were leaving the hotels, taking planes, trains and buses, or having free time were provided on an as-needed basis by Augusta.  It took me time to adjust to having little or no control over these sorts of things, like being a child in school ... but there are some definite benefits to not having to manage all of this information as well.

We left for Aguas Calientes early the next morning.  This meant a 2-3 hour bus ride around picturesque mountain roads to the small town of Ollantaytambo  to catch the Machu Pichu train.   Walking to the train, we passed the steady ants trail of porters carrying huge bag of camping and hiking equiptment for those who were to be hiking the Inca trail to Machu Pichu.  I'd love to do that hike someday as I think it would be the best way to approach the site ... but it's out of the question with little ones.

The train was spacious and comfortable and had an old-world feel to it.  We were served the Coca leaf tea again - which helps with altitude sickness and is a standard hot drink in these parts.  Snacks of crispy, salted plantain chips and sweet-coated brazil nuts were distributed as well.   The views of the Andes mountains were dramatic and breathtaking.  The children weren't as caught up in the scenery and did get a bit bored, but were mostly well-behaved.

Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Pichu town, is surprisingly not as high in altitiude as Cusco, but still feels high.   

Departing the train, we took the main road up through town, steep and slippery in the rain.  We were all soaked through and through by the time we arrived at our little hotel 15 minutes later.  The hotel was full of others heading to or returning from Machu Pichu and there is an air of excitement, a single vision uniting everyone.

Although there was some time for scouting around town, it was pouring it down with rain and cold as well.  We did a little wandering about, passing the folks calling out 'Friend!  Some food?  massage?'.   We ended up choosing a restaurant because it had a kitten out front.  Sam and Andy fell in love with it and, as it was mealtime, that's were we stayed.  We had exorbitantly priced wine and beer while the boys love-tortured the small creature, who did not choose to leave when it had some opportunities.

Wake up for Machu Pichu was at 4:30 AM!  This did not go well with Andy, our night-owl, who hollered and yelped and clung to his blankets.  But we had to be downstairs at 5 AM for breakfast, ready to depart at 5:30 for the bus to carry us up.  We found Ben already having breakfast at a separate table with a German group.

The bus ride up to Machu Pichu was hair-raising and beautiful at the same time.  The drivers would go hell-for-leather up and around steep corners, often almost running into a bus going into the opposite direction - at which point one would retreat as the other could inch past - I still don't know how they find the space to pass, it's like the Harry Potter magic bus.  Looking downwards as the bus bounced and swayed was not a good idea as the drop-off, feet from our wheels, falls steeply for hundreds of feet!

Arriving at Machu Pichu's entrance, we found there was already a huge line waiting to enter and the doors weren't open til 7 am (so why did we have to leave at 5:30?!).  There is only one toilet and it is outside the Machu Pichu gates, so we prepared to each have proof of entry and a passport in the event of needing to make the trek outside for the loo.

Once inside, our guide Augusta, recommended we climb the trail to the Sungate before returning to visit Machu Pichu itself.   We had not idea how steep and far the trail went as we set off ... but figured it out soon enough as we huffed and puffed our way past groups of returning hikers with their climbing sticks in hand.   The children had to stop and rest regularly.  Michelle, Kianas mum, and I panicked occasionally as our children veered to the left edge of the narrow footpath.  One bad slip or accidental step could send a person falling to their death down the dangerous, unforgiving moutainside.   And the path was slippery from the constant rain.  And we had 3 boys who love to push and play fight as they walk.  No handrails to spoil the beauty.  Yes, I did bite  some fingernails on the way up.

When we reached top, the Sungate, there was a huge sigh of relief.  We climbed the even steeper sets of stone 'stairs' to the flat surfaces just above and enjoyed the view of sweeping mountains topped in wispy floating clouds, a chocolate brown river tumbing by hundreds of feet below.  There were too many clouds for us to see the focus of this point - the Machu Pichu site.  Sungate is one of the 3 sites where the postcard images of Machu Pichu are taken from just above, showing the maze of walls of and buildings.   But not unusually, the clouds covered everything and we strained to see anything of the site.  Still the mountains are amazing from that point.  When the sun rises at equinox, the light goes through the gates of the Sungate and shines directly onto Machu Pichu sun temple.

We performed an Inca ritual with our guide Augusta as that is something she likes to do when visiting.  She took 3 coca leaves and, as we stood i a circle, she thanked the 3 entities:  the Condor of the skies, the Puma of the earth (PachaMama) and the serpents of the underworld.  We all said thank you to mother earth for our individual reasons and Augusta left the coca leaves in place under a bush.  The younger children giggled a bit, but I think Andy thought it was interesting.

We stepped, slipped and slided and our way back down to Machu Pichu again.  Everyone was relieved to see the children on more solid ground and we were all quite tired from the hike.  But nothing could detract from the raw beauty of seeing Machu Pichu for the first time,  hanging in the air ahead of us, majestic, guarded by mountains, shrouded in clouds.   

The children were in awe on this occasion as well, if only for a few minutes.  Then they noticed the llamas that walk around the ruins freely.  At that point, the ruins could not compare.  We all headed  straight for the llamas to attempt to pet one - and the children didn't even mind that they couldn't really pet the llama, but were quite happy to be standing near it.  I'm not so sure the llama reciprocated such loving feelings, but it tolerated us.

We were provided a guide by Gap Adventures and he tok us around the site, describing the layout - where the nobles would have lived, the storage facilities, the common peoples homes, the temples (sun, water and earth 'pachamama').   We walked in and out of the maze of ruins for a couple of hours learning about the way the stones would have been lifted and chiseled perfectly to fit together without mortar.  We saw the irrigation systems re-routing water from the top of the ruins down the mountain in a gentle, unobstrusive way so that the land could be preserved and not flooded or lost.

In the end, we were all exhausted head-to-toe and made our way back to the bus for Aguas Calientes.   I tried not to look down from the window as our bus made harrowing turns and honked people and other buses out of the way.  

Back in Aguas Calientes, we decided to reward our sore muscles with a hot springs soak.  The hot springs were actually not natural, but swimming pools created in concrete and tiles .. but with the spring water imported via pipes and heated - the original springs are not around any longer.  It seemed half the town was in the now-man-made springs at the same time.  We were elbow to elbow with others in the pools and the pools were just luke warm rather than hot.  The water was a yellowy-browny-green and reeked of what we hoped was minerals!  Needless to say, I wasn't a big fan .. but, hey, we tried it.

No matter the hot springs experience, we were all left with a residue of excitement from our visit to Machu Pichu.  It was a fairytale view that will stick with us for a long time.

3 Jan - Lima, Peru

It's a slow wake up today.  New hotel, new people... we just arrived here  (Lima, Peru) at midnight last night and, after breakfast, it's time to head to the airport for another plane journey to Cusco, Peru.  We've just joined into the first and only real packaged tour of our journeys. The tour is by Gap Adventures and will take us through the Inca trails and then around the Galapagos islands across the next 19 days  (I'm feeling tired already just writing that!).

It was quite a journey to arrive here from Costa Rica.  We dropped girls at the airport at 2:15 PM and waited around for our 6:55 PM flight to Miami and then Lima.   The flight was delayed by an hour, which we didn't fuss over since we had a good 3 hour window in the middle of the night in Miami before our plane to Lima.  Then the airplane landed at the wrong terminal, where customs had already closed down.  So we waited another 30 minutes to get to another terminal.

After that, we ran (literally - all 3 boys, in the middle of the night) past all the other passengers  down what felt like a mile of corridors to arrive at immigration.  Our hearts dropped as we saw lines of hundreds of people waiting to get through immigration.  We asked the officials for help since we would miss our connection - but man are they some tough cookies!!  

We finally arrived, panting and sweating, at our LAN gate to board the plan at 1:05 AM ... but we were told that the boarding had closed, even though the plane did not leave til 1:40 AM!!  We were sent another 4 or 5 terminals back to the AA desk to rebook a flight .... and upon arrival found a deserted wasteland, the AA offices at Miami airport close at 11 PM (even before our plane arrived!).  

We were told we'd just have to wait there til 4 am to try and rebook our flight.  But I guess we looked so pathetic that we actually got someone to fetch a lady connected with AA from another part of the airport and she took pity on us and booked us in to a 4:30 PM flight later that day.  She gave us vouchers for a hotel and some food and sent us on our way.

We arrived at the Doubletree hotel at 2 AM and were surprised to find a luxurious hotel, not the cheap motel 6 we'd been expecting  SO in the end , we had a nice luxurious break with hot showers and a delicious breakfast before continuing with our south american journey.  So here we are.  arrived at the hotel for our tour at midnight last night and we are all about to depart again!