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.
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