Beaautiful Boobies! te he...
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
1
21
122
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Galapagos Islands,
Ecuador
Thursday, October 30, 2008
After much convincing from tourists and locals alike we decided to check out Isabella Island over San Cristobal. We boarded the boat at 2pm and after jolting our kidneys for 2 hours we arrived in the sleepy town of Puerto Villarmi. The town is little more than 4 streets and a lagoon beside a paradisiacal strip of beach. We found the grocery store for some supplies, bartered with the hotel owner, had some ice cream, cruised the beach and then hit the sack. Nothing too exciting. The lagoon behind the town does have a flamingo...one lonely flamingo.
Day 7
Today we work up early and had some breakfast from the common area of our hotel. Our hotel is amazing; our room is 2 steps from the beach and the beach is 10 steps from the turquoise ocean (one of the nicer places we´ve stayed at). After checking out some tours and unsuccessfully negotiating a better price for a tour to the Volcano we ran into an English couple who are also staying at our hotel. They had a snorkeling tour lined up and needed 2 more people, perfect. The tour started with a 45 min boat ride east to an area called ¨Los Tuneles¨ aka ¨The Tunnels¨
A rock in the middle of the ocean
. The tunnel phenomenon is caused by lava flows where the outside of a flow cools but the inside remains hot and tunneles further into the ocean. After the lava flow settles the waves and water break down sections causing a maze of rocks and natural lava bridges (see picture). For us this meant a cool hike over a one million year old lava flow with water channels for spotting huge pacific turtles, fish, and sting rays. We also had a face to face encounter with a Blue Footed Boobie who was kind enough to display his feet for a portrait.After the hike we did some snorkling around the tunnels. The highlight was turning a corner and Arik almost running right into a big green Pacific Turtle - less than a foot away face to face.
The next snorkling spot was called ¨Las Tintoreras¨ or ¨The Shark Pit¨(we think). The tide was low, leaving about 4ft of water in this so called shark pit. The visibility was very clear, even still Charis´ first interaction with these amazing creatures was when one bumped into her...yikes! The various tidal pools were about 10 ft in diameter with small channels and tunnels for the sharks to move between. In one area we were swimming in water up to our chest with 6 of thse 1 to 1.5 meter long beauties, an amazing experience!!!
Day 8
We ixned the Volcano tour and decided to spend a day on the beach. The white sand, a good book, ahhh a vaccation from our vaccation. We managed to enjoy the sun without a burn, yay we ARE sun smart.
Day 9
Boat ride at 6am for more kidney jolting
Heading over to snorkle at the tunnels
. Spent the morning in Santa Cruz for breakfast and last minute purchases. After the flight to Guayaquil we headed to the Malecon to catch a movie at the IMAX for $3 (Eagle Eye). We would have to travel overnight either way so we figured we would squeeze this, and a museum stop, in before an overnight bus to Peru.The End...
After 9 days on these amazing islands we very sad to leave. The water, the beaches, the landcape and the wildlife are more amazing than we ever imagined. In all we visited 4 islands: Santaz Cruz, Bartolome, Floreana, and Isabella. Each has it´s own benefits. The view on Bartolome was spectacular, snorkling at the Tunnels on Isabella was amazing, and Santa Cruz was a nice island town to chill out in for a few days. The only downside was that the Galapagos Islands are a backpacker budget killer, more like a budget mass murderer...with prices 5 to 10 times more expensive than the mainland! We have to give big thanks to Phil, Tatianna, and their friend Intie for their hospitality. We hope you visit us in Canada! We have already planned a return, in about 5 years to see the islands from the deck of a sail boat with Tatjanas father´s company, Angermeyer Crusies.
Comments
Blue footed boobies
for years I have given Dad books about people ship wrecked when they tried to sail across oceans. One of the recurring themes was that when they were floating aimlessly along in life rafts, blue footed boobies would land on their boat, or alongside, often for days on end. Some day we hope tos ee them - like you have - not when we are ship wrecked!
Re: Blue footed boobies
Yea the blue footed boobies are pretty amazing. We have never seen anything like them before. But yes it would be great for you both to see them while sailing through the Beautiful Galapagos not ship wrecked!