Galapagos Islands!!!

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Trip Start Oct 11, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 25, 2007 Next
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  Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Monday, April 2, 2007

     We were VERY excited to arrive in the Galapagos Islands, and right away noticed how hot it was. Before this we hadn't realized that we had spent nearly two months in moderate climates in the mountains, without seeing the ocean. Our first day was spent at Tortuga Bay. The bay is about an hour walk out of town on a nice brick walkway passing through dense foliage. Arriving at the beach we were simply in awe of our surroundings. You first encounter a long white sand beach with medium surf. At the end of the beach there is a peninsula of lava rocks with a cactus forest, all enclosed by mangroves. Around the bend you find the second beach, set amidst a lagoon on the far side of the cactus forest. Behind the beach the desert begins immediately, with cactus covered dunes stretching on for miles inland before the mountains. On the first beach we saw a large marine iguana lounging on the sand, and after taking a few pictures we decided it was likely dead. We gently tapped it's tail and it awoke, not dead after all

01 Pelicans and a Sealion at the Fish Market

. It was surprising how little our presence affected his sunbathing, he didn't even move when we got right close to him for pictures. After seeing that one, we soon noticed that the marine iguanas are not a rare sight, they were literally everywhere along the beach, totally oblivious to human presence. We lounged on the second beach under the shade of a mangrove tree all day, and regretted when the time finally came to head home. This was definetely one of the most amazing places we have been.
     The second morning we went on a day trip to the island of Floreana, a two hour ride in a fast boat. Arriving at Floreana, we saw four or five sealions sleeping on the dock, some finding some shade under a truck. They too were very docile and allowed us to approach as close as we wanted, but of course we didn't touch them. We walked to another part of the island where we had our first encounter with the underwater life of the Galapagos. We snorkelled with sea turtles and sea lions, the latter approaching us very close. One thing that surprised us is how cold the water was, much colder that we were used to in the Caribbean. We proceeded to go to three different snorkel sites, each with different attractions. From the boat, we were able to see some Galapagos Penguins on the rocks. At the second site Fran saw four or five really big sea turtles, and the third site offered amazing visibility.

02 Pathway to Tortuga Bay

     On our third day we checked into the Ninfas Hotel, the one we had booked for our tour. It was quite a shock to us, as the hotel was much nicer than we expected or required. It featured a restaurant with meals included, a large pool, our own mini-bar, and overall a nice atmosphere which we were not used to. All of the other guests were older couples or families, and the hotel reminded us both of somewhere we would go with our parents. The first lunch shocked us: fresh seafood cocktail, followed by succulent fish and salad, with a dessert of fruit. It turned out that every meal was three courses...and delicious. The same day we met our divemaster for the week, and went on our first dive. The whole dive setup was much better than we have ever experienced. Our divemaster, Quike, was very thorough with his briefings, and the equipment was almost brand new. Our first immersion was not quite what we expected, it immediately reminded us of BC waters. The water was murky and greenish, and the seafloor had more rocks than coral. Nonetheless, it was a great dive. The most interesting thing we saw was a group of sealions that were very playful, and one even bit Kyle's fin.
     The second day of diving we woke early and took the boat to a more remote site. The boat was located right across from our hotel, on the south side of the island. The site we went to was on the north side of the island. Today we had two others diving with us, and we became friends with one, a Russian named Peter. On our three dives we saw a large school of golden rays, a few very big marble rays, two spotted eagle rays, a few sting rays, many sealions, a few sea turtles, and a stonefish. The coolest thing Kyle saw was a luminescent jellyfish that shined blue and yellow like a movie theatre marquee.
     After the dive we took a bus from the north side of the island, and got out along the way with Peter to explore the twin craters

03 First Beach at Tortuga Bay

. It was very interesting to see two huge volcano craters located adjacent to one-another. While walking on the road towards town we were picked up by a tour bus full of Ecuadorian tourists. We were pressured into singing with a microphone at the front of the bus, this effectively paid our way. We thought we would be taken into town, but instead they let us join in on their tour, normally 45 dollars! The tour took us on a hike through the forest where we saw wild giant tortoises that were HUGE, and likely very old. Along the hike we picked all our own fresh fruits as snacks. The tour then took us to a lava tunnel, essentially a large cave. We went through the tunnels with the tour group and the ride home featured more mandatory singing. That night Peter joined us in the hotel room, for a fun night that included geography quizzes over a box of wine. We managed to name eight of the fifteen countries from the former Soviet Union, and Peter could name five of the ten Canadian provinces.
     The next day of diving we went further north, and again did three dives. The highlights on this day included: a spotted puffer fish, a golden puffer fish, an few ENOURMOUS schools of barracudas, many sealions, about fifteen spotted eagle rays, some golden and marble rays, a juvenile cowfish, a frogfish, some trumpet fish, many triggerfish, sea turtles, and two sea horses mating! The best part of this day was the playful sealions. They were so curious, three came up and rubbed against Kyle, biting his BCD and depth guage

04 Fran on the Beach

. Their faces were no more than six inches from Kyle's face! Unfortunately however, still no sharks...
     The final day of our diving we again did three dives, which all had much better visibility than other days. Finally we saw sharks! On our first dive we saw seven white-tipped reef sharks, two large moray eels, 2 very large trumpet fish, a sea turtle, four spotted eagle rays, a Galapagos nudibranch, and an eel garden. On our second dive we saw four big stingrays, many barracuda, a turtle in a school of krillfish, sea lions, a grouper, and...a tiger shark! This was only the third time our divemaster had sighted a tiger shark, they are not common around the Galapagos. Tiger sharks are known to be aggressive, and are considered dangerous. Our last dive in the Galapagos Islands was very cold, and we didn't see anything of much interest for the first half of the dive. However, all of a sudden we saw a hammerhead shark (finally!) and about a minute later a BIG tiger shark approached very close. This was a VERY exciting moment for us!
     After a very exciting week, the time came to leave the islands and head back to the mainland. It was well worth spending the extra money to see the amazing wildlife in the Galapagos Islands, it was a major highlight of our trip.

Love you all lots, Kyle and Fran

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

05 Marine Iguana	06 Fran with the Iguana	07 Iguana	08 More Iguanas
09 SOOO RANDOM!!!	10 Cactus Forest	11 Cactus Forest	12 Second Beach, Apple
13 Second Beach	14 In Wonder	15 In the Water	16 Cacti
17 View Inland	18 Lava Rocks	19 Footprints	20 Sealions Resting Under Truck
21 Sealion and Iguana	22 Beautiful Beach	23 Penguins	24 Giant Tortoise
25 Our Dive Boat	26 Gearing up to Get Wet!	27 One of the Twin Craters	28 Peter Singing
29 Fran Singing	30 Giant Tortoise	31 Giant Tortoise	32 Lava Tunnels
33 Ready To Dive	34 Pinnacle at Bartolome Island	35 Quike, Our Divemaster	36 Good To Go
37 Pelican	38 Airport

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