End of the Line, Middle of the World

Well, we finally came to the realization that today was going to be the last day of our trip. We are sad to end such a great time, but we´re excited to come home and see all of you! Here´s our last South American post...

We spent our last 2 days here in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Yesterday, we went up a cable car called the Teleferi to get some great views of Quito. Samantha Brown led us to believe there would be a flavored oxygen bar up there, but we were led astray. No such bar was there and we spent our time up at 4,100 meters oxygen deprived. The views were really good though, so we guess it was worth the trip.

Today we decided to end the trip by visiting the equator. Here in Ecuador, there is a huge monument called "Mitad del Mundo" surrounded by a whole little theme park about 22km outside the city of Quito. To the less savvy traveller, this would appear to be where the equator is, but not for us! We did our homework and found out that the actual equator (located using GPS) is a short walk away from the monument in a separate area called the Museo Solar Inti Ñan.

At the real equator, we learned about the indigenous people of Ecuador and got to try our hand at their traditional hunting methods. Sue was a pro. We also got to do some cool things that you can only do at the equator. Chris learned that it is hard to walk a straight line on the equator with your eyes closed because of the centrifugal forces. No, he hadn´t been drinking. We all got the chance to try to balance an egg on the top of a nail and after some persistence, even Jen was able to do it (and earn her certificate!). We also saw one other cool experiment that shows how the water at the equator goes straight down the drain while either north or south (even by only a few feet) it will drain either clockwise or counterclockwise. The real equator was way cooler than the fake one five minutes away.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading our South American blog and we hope that you all tune back in for the New Zealand installment scheduled to start in early January. See you all soon!

Las Islas Galapagos (Days 1 and 2)

The Islands of Bartolome, Isabela, and Fernandina

We know that it´s been quite a while since we´ve last blogged, but hopefully our lengthy details and photos about the Galapagos will make up for it (especially after lunch on a Friday afternoon:)

Day One: We arrived at the Galapagos Islands´Baltra Airport around mid-day. Immediately after arriving, we boarded a bus that took us to the pier where we would find our home for the next 7 days, The Galapagos Legend cruise ship. While waiting at the pier, we were welcomed by a huge group of blue footed boobies (the coolest birds ever, we determined later) dive bombing into the water to search for fish. It was awesome! We also had to be careful not to accidentally step on the sea lions laying right on the pier (they were on the benches too, so don´t even think of sitting!). After waiting a few minutes, we boarded the dingy to the boat. Once onboard, we realized that this was a real cruise! We´ve never been on an actual cruise before, so it was new to all of us. The ship was great and the crew was fantastic.

We filled up on a huge buffet lunch and headed to Bartolome Island for the afternoon. There, we saw some sea lions, very colorful crabs, Galapagos penguins, and American Oyster Catchers (cool birds with long, skinny red beaks). We also saw some great landscapes created by the resident volcanoes. All in all, a great first day!



Day Two: Our second day, we woke up bright and early (as we would everyday for this cruise) so that we could land at Urbina Bay in the island of Isabela. We took a short hike where we saw land iguanas and some more birds. Then there was a chance to snorkel which Chris took advantage of (way too cold for Jen and Sue). The visibility wasn´t great, but there were turtles and eagle rays all in the water and Sue and Jen spotted some huge pelicans from land. We also saw some marine iguanas, completely unique (or, "endemic"as Alex, our tour guide would say) to the Galapagos Islands.

In the afternoon, we went to the neighboring island of Fernandina. This was one of our best stops for viewing marine iguanas. The island is literally covered with them (about 250,000 call Fernandina home). We had to be really careful when we walked because we could have easily stepped on them. These iguanas evolved from land iguanas and gained the ability to swim to find food (mostly the algae growing on rocks underneath the water). It is incredibly cool to see them all together snorting out the salt from the water after a swim.

Fernandina is also home to our tour groups namesake, the Cormorants. Much like penguins, these birds evolved by actually losing their ability to fly. They are excellent swimmers though and they are able to get their food from the sea. They also have a really cute mating ritual. The males search the ground for a nice present to give to his lady. Alex told us that a nice twig is the diamond ring of the Galapagos. This female seemed to appreciate this present.

We also saw lots of sea lions and were lucky enough to see a mother nursing its baby. The animals are so fearless of humans in the Galapagos that you have to be constantly aware of your surroundings or else you may just stumble on top of one. It is truly an amazing thing to witness and be a part of.

The volcanic landscape of Bartolome.

A brown pelican looks out over Urbina Bay.

Just too cute to leave out, a sea lion relaxes on Fernandina.

Galapagos Part II (Days 3 and 4)

The Islands of Santiago, Rabida, and Santa Cruz

Day Three: To start our third day, we were rescued from our cafeteria exhile. There is assigned seating for our meals and the seats that we were assigned were in the corner, by ourselves, with a two table buffer between the next occupied tables. Apparently we looked dangerous and needed to be quarantined. Thankfully, Gerry and Marsha, some of our fellow "Cormorants" asked the staff to seat us with her table and we had great company for the rest of our meals.

Our first stop of the day was Santiago Island (or San Salvador, or James, they like redundant names here), where we were treated to an abundance of coastal wildlife. Again, the marine iguanas were everywhere. We almost started to get numb to them (they are about as rare as squirrels at home). One of the best displays was the changing of the guard between some Oyster Catchers. The female loudly let it be known that she had just about enough egg sitting and her shift was over. She screamed for the male to come. Eventually he came and dutifully took over the egg watch.

Walking further down the beach over some crazy rock formations and sea arches, we encountered our second species of sea lion, the curiously named Galapagos Fur Seal (we´ve been well schooled on the differences between seals and sea lions, and there are no seals in the Galapagos). Eventually, the female fur seal´s mate climbed up the rocks too and they enjoyed a nice nap together, completely oblivious to the audience.

Next up was snorkeling and the beach was well-guarded by some more sea lions. The water was a little cold so Jen and Sue enjoyed the views from the beach. Chris toughed it out and was treated to a swim with plenty of fish, a couple of sea turtles, and the ubiquitos sea lions.

After lunch, we visited Rabida Island. The landscapes vary widely from island to island and we hadn´t seen anything like Rabida, with its striking red sand and abundance of cacti. We took a short hike around the island admiring all of the different species of birds in the area. The frigates soar over the island and seem to just float effortlessly over one spot. They look like the should have a kite string attached. In stark contrast are the boobies, who take kamikaze dives through the surface of the water every couple of seconds as they try to catch some dinner. Rabida was also the sight of one of the strangest things we´ve seen. After stopping for one of our tour guide´s patented moments of silence in which we all "sit and shut up", we saw a pelican fly by and make a couple of passes. Then, without warning, he dove straight down into the water. Apparently, he thought he was a booby. Our whole group oohed and aahed and eventually, he did it again. We asked our guide about it and he said that it was impossible. "Noboby´s ever seen that." This just reinforced the fact that apparently we are a bunch of nobodies. We waited in anticipation for the pelican to do it again to prove that we weren´t all hallucinating. Finally, he went for it, but instead of going down and getting a fish, he had a horrible crash landing, somersaults and all. And, Alex still thinks we all made it up.

Day Four: Today we visited the island of Santa Cruz to see the famous Galapagos Giant Tortoises. First up was the Charles Darwin Research Center. They are doing a lot of great work there to protect the tortoises and we were able to see everything from newborns, to some of the oldest creatures on the island. Some of the more notorious residents include "Super Diego", who has over 1,200 offspring (and has countless baby´s mamas) and "Lonesome George", who sadly has not been able to breed. He is the last member of his subspecies and if he fails to breed, it will be the end of that subspecies. It doesn´t look good. The center was a great intro, but after seeing so many island animals in the wild, it was weird to be in a sort of zoo.

In the afternoon, we took another excursion and visited some more tortoises in their natural habitat. These guys were a bit more shy than the ones in the center. Some would retract into their shells, others would hiss, but thankfully there was a field full of them and we were able to find a couple that liked us. It really was a great experience too be able to spend the day with the islands´namesake species!

A Tortoise munches on all the pretty flowers.

A Galapagos Hawk soars over Rabida Island.

Another tortoise cools off in the murky pond water.

Galapagos Part III (Days 5 and 6)

The Islands of Santa Cruz, Chinese Hat, and Floreana

Day 5: On Monday morning, we woke up early (6am!) because we had an early excursion to Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island. This was one of the most beautiful beaches we visited during our time in the Galapagos. We took a leisurely, barefoot hike along the water and ventured slightly inland to a small lagoon where we got to watch a flamingo methodically feeding. After sitting quietly for a few minutes to "enjoy the sounds of nature", we returned back to the ship to say goodbye to a bunch of our new friends whom we had been touring with for the past four days. Many of them booked the 4-day cruise, so they had to leave for the airport that morning. It was sad to see them go, but we were glad to have had such a fun group of people to tour with.

In the afternoon, we made our way to Chinese Hat, a very small island of the southern coast of Sangtiago, which, not surprisingly, resembles a chinese hat. We decided to snorkel there despite the cold water and rough seas. We saw a bunch of cool tropical fish so that was good, and we made it back to the boat in time for hot showers before dinner.

Day 6: The next day (Tuesday), we were back on Santa Cruz at a place called Dragon Hill. Surprisingly, this hill looked nothing like a dragon. The landscape was interesting but there wasn´t a huge abundance of wildlife to really captivate us (we had been spoiled by all the other amazing stops leading up to this one). We also met our new group of Cormorants (our tour group name) and instantly missed our old friends. Thankfully, things improved in the afternoon. After lunch, we cruised to Floreana and went on shore at Cormorant Point (a good omen, or so we hoped), where we were greeted by some loud sea lions as we disembarked. Some were more playful than others (as we would learn later), but they were almost all vocal. The "bull" sea lion (dominant male in the area) was especially loud, making sure that there was no doubt whose territory you were visiting.

We took a short hike to a large lagoon where we saw several flamingos and ducks. We continued on our hike to another amazing beach on the opposite side of the island and saw some sting rays, eagle rays, sea turtles, and even one shark! We headed back to Cormorant Point at the end of the day and it was on this hike that the most exciting event of the day occured. The group of German tourists was in front of us on the narrow path back to the beach. While we were checking out the other side of the island, an adult male sea lion had made his way up the path and sprawled himself completely across it, making it difficult to pass by.
The two old German women in the group (by "old", I mean 87) decided that this was a good time to take out the video camera, walk as close as possible to the sea lion, then start talking very loudly to each other. At first, the sea lion tried to tolerate them and just moaned a bit in their direction to hurry them along. Despite this behavior from the sea lion and their tour guide urging them to give the animals space, they continued to get even closer and agitate the sea lion. By this time, we were also getting agitated as we wanted to get to the beach so Chris could go snorkeling (too cold for Sue and Jen). So we walked far around the sea lion, giving him plenty of room, but at the same time, the old German woman took another step closer and this pushed the sea lion over the edge. He got up screaming, showed his teeth, and charged at her and us on the path. We bolted to the beach and got out of his way and the German woman somehow managed to escape off to the side. She laughed about this incident with her friend immediately afterwards which was really upsetting to see. After being on this trip for several days, that behavior was inexcuseable. We have been reminded on a daily basis about the unique environment in the Galapagos and how we are all really lucky to see it up close in person. Since the environment is so unique and fragile, it is essential to treat all life on the islands with respect. Thankfully, most of the people visiting the Galapagos aren´t as disrespectful as they were, but we can´t help but think how difficult it must be to find a balance between sharing what the islands have to offer with visitors while still protecting the delicate balance that exists here.

After we made it back to the beach, Chris did get to snorkel and he got some great pictures of sea lions and other marine life (check out the photos in the underwater section of the Galapagos posts). Hope you enjoy the photos from part III!

The original and best Cormorants!

A view of the Galapagos Legend from the coast of Santa Cruz.

We didn´t actually see this guy on this day, but we liked his pose and thought it would encourage more comments from Tom. Caption this photo!

Galapagos Part IV (Days 7 and 8)

The Islands of Española, San Cristobal, and North Seymour

Day Seven: We started our last full day in the Galapagos on the island of Española (aka Hood, or as we´ve taken to calling it, "Booby Island"). We´ve seen the Boobies all over the islands diving recklessly for fish, but when they need some time off to rest on dry land, this is where they go.

In addition to all their other great qualities (cool name, cool feet, crazy diving), they are also great dancers. Actually, the males do a pretty clumsy foot stomping routine, but the ladies seem to like it. When the dancing fails to get them any attention, they also try whistling and showing off their wings. We saw one unfortunate bachelor in the middle of our path try this with every passing female. Sadly, he kept striking out. We think he needed a new pickup line. By the way, we´ve learned an inordinate amount about animal penises and mating habits. We started to think that Alex is some sort of pervert. Anyway, we had a lot of chances to see the Booby´s characteristic blue feet up close.

After some more hiking, the island climbed pretty high until eventually falling off into some pretty impressive sea cliffs. The cliffs we home to all sorts of sea birds. Here, we were able to catch a glimpse of some albatrosses, first some babies, then some full grown adults. When one of them took flight, it was easy to believe that these are the largest birds on the islands. Next up were the Masked or Nazca Boobies. They don´t have quite the unique looks or personality that their blue footed cousins do, but they still put on a pretty good show for us.

In the afternoon, we visited San Cristobal for another visit with the Giant Tortoises. Here, more than ever, we missed our old friends from out original Cormorant tour group. The replacement Cormorants were made up largely of an uppity British walking club that call themselves "The Ramblers." One woman works as a tour guide at home and wasn´t able to separate herself from that role. She thought she knew everything. It was always particularly gratifying when she would get one of Alex´s questions wrong, then one of us would know the answer. There was another guy in the group that only believed in Creationism and not Evolution. At one point, Alex was explaining how Marine Iguanas evolved from land iguanas over the last 12 million years and he was just standing there, shaking his head in disagreement. Really, why are you here? Anyway, after seeing so many Tortoises on Santa Cruz, there really wasn´t anything new here. We were pretty lucky that in 14 + excursions, this was the only one that was even slightly disappointing.

Day Eight: Our final excursion was to the island of North Seymour where we saw the last major attraction that we hadn´t seen yet, the Magnificent Frigate. Once again, these birds have enough personality to appeal to event the most hardened anti-birdites (Jen and Sue).

The frigates are the pirates of these islands. They go around stealing food from the other inhabitants. We caught one display of an ornry frigate attacking a blue footed booby to steal his most recent catch.

Thankfully, it was mating season, so the frigate´s signature red pouch was on display all over the island. These guys have to work hard for their ladies´attention. It takes them up to 20 minutes to inflate their jugular sac and since the ladies prefer the men with the largest, most colorful display, they guys go all out. Some of them are so blown up you can actually see how tight and stretched their skin is. It looks so painful, like balloons about to pop. At least the frigates had better luck than the boobies we saw. This guy was able to successfully coax a female into his tree. We thought they made a nice couple.

On our final trek back to the boat, we saw a lot of our familiar friends, boobies, iguanas, and sea lions. It was almost like they all came out to say good bye. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip. We all agree that this ranks at or near the top of the best places we´ve ever seen.

Some masked boobies get affectionate.

Jen strikes a pose with a masked booby.

A pair of boobies on our trail.

Appendix A - Galapagos Debajo de la Mar

Jen just got a new underwater camera and we are very happy with the results! We´ve snorkeled in plenty of other places, but we´ve never had the chance to swim with sea lions, sting rays, and marine iguanas before. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Two playful sea lions

A blue starfish clings to a rock

A green sea turtle enjoying the water

A rare shot of a marine iguana feeding on some algae

We do not know the name of this fish, but we like them

Keeping a safe distance from the sting rays

Another great encounter with some sea turtles

A sting ray plays in the sand

Look closely and you will see this sea lion looking right at you!

A school of colorful fish