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.
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.
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