Sharks and Rays and Boobies, Oh My!
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2008
1
5
21
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno,
Ecuador
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Galapagos yesterday, to San Cristobal Island. Most tourists fly to
Baltra, but there were no tickets available to there, so we came here
instead. Flying out of Quito was beautiful--you could see lots of
snow-capped peaks. The airport on San Cristobal is tiny, and open air!
We walked the half mile from the airport into town and found our hotel.After
checking in we visited the interpretation center (about the history and
environmental goals of the Islands) and went for a hike around the edge
of the island. We went up to the top of Frigate Hill, so named because
of the frigate birds that are everywhere. You had to step very
carefully as little tiny lizards were everywhere. There´s also an
enormous statue of Darwin. When you get down to the water´s edge,
there are sea lions everywhere. Back in town we sorted out a
day trip for today, going out to Isla Lobos and Kicker Rock for
snorkeling. Then an excellant seafood dinner (fish for me, fish and
lobster for John).Today we went out on a catamaran for the day.
In addition to us, there were a Russian couple (also snorkeling), an
Ecuadorian couple (he snorkeled, she was afraid of the water), an
American woman working on her advanced open water scuba certification,
and an American man and his young son (he went diving, the kid did
not). Snorkeling out at Kicker Rock was amazing--we saw two kinds of
sharks (Galapagos and Black-tooth), lots of different fish, sea
turtles, and a school of rays. The divers went around to a different
spot (not safe for snorkeling) and were lucky enough to see about 20
hammerhead sharks. On the cliffs there were also Nazca Boobies.
After snorkeling, we came back to Isla Lobos for more swimming
and snorkeling. There are a lot of sea lions here and they are
extremely cuious. They swim right past you, within 2 or 3 feet. They
also kept coming up to the boat to check it out. One of them kept
trying to chew on the line tieing the boat to shore. There were also
blue-footed boobies on the island. We both got a bit too much sun
today (despite wearing wet suits and applying sun screen) so we´ll have
to be even more careful tomorrow. Right now it looks like an especially
bad farmer´s tan.This evening we were lucky enough to find a
place offering trips to Punta Pitt tomorrow. We had tried to arrange
that yesterday and no one seemed to be running trips. It´s a little
further away and you need a certified guide to land there, so the trips
aren´t as frequent. Punta Pitt is one of only 2 places where you can
see all 3 species of booby (nazca, red-foot, and blue-foot), as well as
all sorts of other wildlife.
The day after tomorrow we´re
going to try and do a Highlands Tour, this takes you up to the volcanic
crater in the middle of the island as well as to a breeding ground for
Galapagos Tortoises.So, random interesting things about the Galapagos: every
island has a goal for % of renewable energy they want to achieve, you
are not allowed to flush toilet paper, and they fumigate every airplane
that lands here.
