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

Machu Picchu

Much like the ancient ruins themselves, our tour of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu was shrouded in mystery. It wasn´t even really a language barrier, we just didn´t know what to expect (because no one told us), but most of it turned out to be a pleasant surprise!

We boarded a bus in the early, early morning in Cusco to head up to Kilometer 104 along the Inca Trail , where we were supposed to meet our guide, Reynaldo. Yes, that was the only information we were given, along with a bag filled with styrofoam boxes, which we guessed contained some food. When we got off the bus after an hour and a half, we were told to get on the train (which was through a maze of street vendors selling anything and everything). We figured out where our seats were and thankfully found someone who could explain to us how long we´d be on the train until Kilometer 104. After about another hour, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and they announced, "Kilometer 104!", so we got off. There was no station; we just stood next to the train, literally 4 feet away from it as it pulled away, and found our guide, Reynaldo, waiting for us. We were the only people who got off the train. It all seemed a bit strange.

Once we were united with someone who knew what they were doing, we felt a lot better, well, maybe not completely better, but we were on our way. In case some of you may not know, the Inca Trail is at a pretty high altitude (21oo meters where we started), and we walked pretty much straight up for the first 3 hours of our hike. For Chris and Jen, it wasn´t too bad because we had been dealing with the high altitude for over a week being here in Peru, but for Sue it hit pretty hard. She was a trooper though and managed to gut it out through the long 6 hour hike, with some help from Reynaldo and his magic bag of medicine. It was well worth it. The views and other Inca ruins we saw while hiking were absolutely amazing and when we reached the "Sun Gate" at the end, we had our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, at sunset. It was spectacular! We were all so glad that we did the hike to be able to get our first look at this amazing place from up above. Way better than arriving by bus and seeing it from below. We all would highly receommend it (yes, even Sue).

We spent the night in Agua Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu and then got up before sunrise to go to Machu Picchu before the tour buses showed up. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, so we had to wait it out for about a half hour. But, once we got out there and saw it amidst the clouds, it was awesome. Reynaldo guided us around for an hour and a half, and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. After an hour or so, the sun came out and we had some spectacular views. It is such an amazing place to see in person. It´s hard to believe that the Incas built this entire city on top of a mountain. And to see some of the construction and what the different buildings were used for, was so impressive. They were really very smart people, way ahead of their time. What a great experience to witness all of it!

We hope that this inspires some of you to visit Machu Picchu! We´re off to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow where we may or may not have internet access for the next week. We promise to post tons of pictures when we get back to Quito next week! Enjoy!

Jen and Sue check out the locals.

Smile!

Another "Green Screen" for Tom.

¡Sue Esta Aqui!

As promised, Sue will share the memorable moments of her journey to the other side of the blog dimension...

I can´t believe that I´ve made it to Peru! After reading along with this blog for the past month, I have to admit that I was ridiculously excited to join in (and I guess I was also excited to join up with Jen and Chris and see some of South America too). It´s kind of like jumping into the television and suddenly becoming a character in one of your favorite shows. Pretty awesome.

The journey itself was fairly uneventful except for one somewhat surprising moment which reminded me that I wasn´t in the US anymore. As mentioned previously on this blog, the Lima airport is an entertaining place. Well, now I can also add "disturbing" to that description. I was expecting the glass case of crazy stuff collected at the security checkpoint (saw, rusty shovel, loaded gun, etc.) and the extremely out of place Dunkin Donuts. What I did not expect was the loud noices eminating from a covered stack of crates situated just in front of the Dunkin Donuts. As I went to check in for my connecting flight to Cusco, the kind woman at the LAN check-in counter noticed my continued glances in the direction of the stack of crates. In an effort to reassure me, she told me not to worry, that those were just "the cocks brought in for the cock fighting tournaments. You know, they happen every so often." Of course, no big deal! What?! I suppose if I had seen this anywhere else in Peru except in front of the Dunkin Donuts INSIDE the airport, I wouldn´t have been quite as surprised. But I guess that´s Peru. And sorry Tom, no pictures of the cocks...as you said, the coverage on this site is very spotty. After the excitement of the airport in Lima, I made it to Cusco, had an adventurous ride in a taxi to the hostel, and met up with Jen and Chris.

Jen here....Today, we went back to check out some more of the ruins around the Cusco area. We visited 4 different sites, but still ended up back at "sexy woman" as our favorite. The other sites offered some good views, but the ruins themselves weren´t all that impressive. After relentless efforts, Sue remained strong and refused to go on the rock slide (sorry fans, no video). Instead, she befriended an extremely cute puppy who belonged to a couple of girls who were enjoying the rock slide immensely. We walked around the grounds for a while and had a look at the incredibly huge stones used to build this place. It is still amazing, even a second time around.

We ended the afternoon with a HUGE lunch (pizza and an enormous and delicious crepe). Tonight we plan to meet up with Stacey, the Australian girl who we met while volunteering in Arequipa. Tomorrow is our tour to Machu Picchu so we won´t be able to write again until Monday night at the earliest. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Coming Soon.....

Sue´s amazing adventure to the other side of the blog dimension!

¡Halloween!

Yesterday, we got to experience Peruvian Halloween. Here, it is also Peruvian music day. We stopped and had some lunch in the Plaza de Armas and we were treated to a parade featuring native music, dancing, and costumes.

In the afternoon we went back out to Chachani for the 3rd day (we were lucky enough to be able to go on Tuesday as well). We brought with us some Halloween decorations and activities to do with the kids. For the first time, we were actually able to use a building in the community to do our English lesson. The building consists of one small room where the mothers of the community do most of the cooking for their families. When we arrived, they were just cleaning up from lunch, so we threw the frisbee around for a little while before getting started.

We had a record number of children come out for the activities. We first taught the children the parts of the face in English, using a Jack O Lantern as our model. The kids had a particularly hard time with the "th" sound at the end of teeth and mouth, but other than that, they were great. They spent the next hour working on perfecting their own Jack O Lanterns using the supplies that we had brought with us. Even the mothers and older kids got involved. This was the first time that the mothers were there with us and it was really nice. They were even trying to learn the parts of the face in English too.

When the Jack O Lanterns were finished, they had to say "Happy Halloween" to get some candy. They were so excited about the candy! These children really do not have very much, so even a small thing like contruction paper and candy, is a big deal to them. We gave candy to the mothers too who were so appreciative.

Next up was face painting! Almost all of the kids wanted to have their faces painted with all sorts of things. The most popular seemed to be butterflies (mariposas) and flowers (flores). We stayed an extra half hour and by the time we were done, most of the kids had decorations on both cheeks, hands, and forehead. They kept coming back for more!

They were also really excited about pictures. They always wanted to pose for another picture and demanded to see the results immediately. They love seeing themselves in pictures, especially with their faces covered with paint.

At night, we finished the Halloween celebration with a party with the other volunteers over at the volunteer flat. We managed to scrounge up some costumes at the last minute thanks to Luis, one of the volunteer coordinators, taking us to Halloween central in the city. We had to navigate some crazy streets filled with costumed people to get back at night (and that was at 11:00!). They seem to really enjoy Halloween here. The kids go around the city from store to store saying, "Halloween!" instead of "trick or treat" to get candy. The stores also only decorate the day before, something we´re certainly not accustomed to (are there Christmas decorations up all over the place at home yet?) All in all, it was a great day with both the kids and the other volunteers. Hope you all had a great Halloween as well. Enjoy the photos!

The kids show off their work.

Chris poses for some more photos.

The kids enjoy their lollypops.

Marcos and Anthony pose with their Jack O Lanterns

Another satisfied customer enjoys her face paint.

There was even time for some basketball.

Jen poses with Stephanie, one of the girls that really appreciated us coming each day.