Author: Lindsay and Igor

Day 327: Isabela Island – Day 3

For our second day-trip in Isabela, we booked a snorkel excursion to Los Tuneles, AKA “The Tunnels.” An open-air bus picked us up from our hotel a little after 7:30AM and drove us to the pier where we directly boarded a speedboat (funny how the local tour operators are allowed to use the dock – when we arrived a few days ago, everyone had to pay an extra USD $1 for a water taxi, claiming the dock was not big enough for the ferry boats). The group size was pretty manageable: two families with two kids each plus a backpacking couple. Per usual we were asked to wear ridiculously oversized life jackets, at least until we were out of the harbor – once we were out of sight, we stuffed them under our seats for the rest of the day.

Los Tuneles are located in a protected bay full of shallow, clear pools of water, surrounded by a labyrinth of stone arches created by lava flows. The area is only accessible by small boats as there is a gnarly breaker to navigate around to reach the calm inlet. Before we had a chance to jump into the water, our boat pulled up to the rocky ledge and allowed us to disembark for a short walking tour. The stone bridges that make up the tunnels were incredibly beautiful, and the visibility of the water was so clear, it was like looking into an aquarium!

 

As our boat drives into the Los Tuneles area, we see dozens of male Blue-footed Boobies diving head-first into the water, trying to catch fish. Since the males have a slightly smaller beak they must gather more momentum and dive deeper – up to 3M! – whereas the females can snare larger fish at a shallower depth with their longer bills

 

Brown Pelican and Great Blue Heron sitting in the mangrove trees near shore

Our boat slowly meanders its way through the shallow maze of Los Tuneles, with the cloud-covered volcano in the background

 

Los Tuneles – naturally occurring stone tunnels formed by lava flows

The best part about the tunnels walk, however, was the ability to get up close to the Blue-footed Boobies. Sure, we’d gotten a chance to photograph these guys on Seymour Island as well, but the boobies on Isabela let you get *really* close! These guys also seemed to be gearing up for mating season – we found a lot of male/female pairs perched around the tunnels. Unfortunately, none had yet made it to the dancing stage yet (where the boobies will repeatedly lift their bright blue feet as high in the air as they can, showing off the healthy, attractive color to their prospective mate – a process that can last for hours) – instead we saw a lot of disinterested females trying to take a nap.

 

A male Blue-footed Boobies tries to show a female that he is interested in her, but she pretends to be asleep – poor guy!

 

Igor’s photoshoot with a male Blue-footed Booby

 

Igor getting close to a female booby – the male gives him an eye as if to say, “back off, buddy!”

After about 45min of walking, we returned to the boat and motored off to our first snorkel spot, within the tunnels area. The water was incredibly clear, but unfortunately we didn’t see anything more interesting than some schools of large Surgeonfish. The second location was much better: our guide took us to a warm, shallow mangrove forest that was just teeming with wildlife! Because the water here was so shallow and murky, the fish were much safer from predators, so it was like a nursery for just about everything! We saw sharks, a seahorse, plenty of fish, and more turtles than you could imagine! Best snorkel location of the trip! Well, at least so far…

 

Clear visibility for schools of fish at Los Tuneles

 

The mangrove forest is a bit murky, but full of life! Our guide finds a seahorse hiding near the mangrove roots

 

So many sea turtles, munching on sea grass

 

Igor swimming with sea turtles

 

A group of a dozen White-tipped Reef Sharks hide on the seafloor under a tunnel

We returned to our hotel around 1PM. We decided to lounge about in the shade for a few hours, waiting for the afternoon heat to break before venturing out again. In the afternoon, we headed back out to the island’s trail system, this time taking the route to the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center. We arrived a few minutes before closing time, but the ranger let us come in for a quick walk-through anyways. We’d already visited 2 other tortoise centers at this point, so we were pretty quick about it. The return walk took us through a pretty lagoon where a large population of birds were milling about in the late afternoon light.

 

Taking a mid-day siesta in the hotel common area to relax in their beachfront hammocks and use their fast Wifi

 

Late afternoon walk to the island’s Giant Tortoise Breeding Center (the logo says it all!)

 

We don’t see any amorous tortoises, but we see a pair of ducks violently doing the nasty during our walk back! Dude nearly drowns his lady in the process!

 

Pretty pink flamingos in the Golden Hour

Day 326: Isabela Island – Day 2

Today we booked a half-day tour to hike the rim of two volcanos: Volcán Sierra Negra and Volcán Chico. While the height of the volcanos is around 3,700ft, our shuttle bus brought us to 2,700ft, so we only had to huff it up a third of the mountain. We were bit disappointed when the agency picked us up in the morning and discovered that our group was sold out to the max: 16 people! We were even more bummed when our guide started the tour by warning the group to stay together: apparently his group the day before had a couple who dawdled behind taking hundreds of pictures and made the entire group so late that half the guests missed their afternoon ferry! Sounds like the delinquents were arrogant jerks about it too, saying, “We paid for the tour – we’ll stay as long as we like.” Our guide reminded all of us that this was NOT a private tour. Ugh, sounds like *so* much fun.

After his speech, the guide directed everyone to use the restrooms before we started, as there were no facilities on the trail. Igor and Lindsay were getting antsy – the cool morning weather was quickly heating up – we wanted to start climbing as quickly as possible before it became unbearable! Our guide seemed to notice our impatience and said, “You can start if you like.” Nice! Turns out, his rules about “staying together” only apply to those lingering behind he couldn’t care less if you rush ahead!

 

Our guide gives us a stern briefing to stay with the group and to finish the trek ON TIME

 

Gearing up for the punishing equatorial sun: Igor dons his safari hat and Lindsay douses her face with globs of sunscreen

 

Morning hike to the edge of Volcán Sierra Negra

The crater of Volcán Sierra Negra – the 2^nd largest caldera in the world

We beat the group to the first viewpoint, where we waited for the guide to catch up and give us info about the Sierra Negra crater. At 9.3KM x 7.2KM it is the second largest caldera in the world, after Ngorongoro in Tanzania (which is 20KM in diameter). Sierra Negra is the most active volcano in the Galápagos – it’s latest eruption was in 2005. There was no access to the barren interior of the caldera – we could only view the inside from the rim, 330ft above.

Once the group was ready to go, however, we suddenly found ourselves at the back of the herd – a foursome of Argentinean tourists in particular seemed desperate to be first! Even though they ran ahead, we soon caught up and passed them going at a steady pace. (Guess their mate boost wore off! Either that or the Argentinos got tired from carrying the heavy thermos in their backpacks. Seriously, we can only shake our heads at the ridiculousness.) At the next group break, we took off while everyone was still sipping water and didn’t stop until we reached the end of the trail. Sure we missed a bit of the guide’s commentary, but we got to enjoy the volcano on our own.

 

Stuck behind the group after a bottleneck at the mirador

 

With the permission of our park guide, we hike ahead of the group, soon leaving them far behind. Luckily, the volcano trail is well-marked with posts so we are able to enjoy the scenery in solitude

Unlike Sierra Negra, Volcán Chico didn’t have a well-defined caldera – it was just a huge, barren field of rocks, hardened lava flows and vents holes (some tiny, and some very big). The landscape was very otherworldly – the crunch of the volcanic rocks as we walked down the trail made it feel like walking on Mars or something. Whereas the trail on Sierra Negra had plenty of trees flanking each side, Chico was almost completely desolate – only a handful of Candelabra Cacti were able to survive in the arid environment.

 

Two lone hikers on the volcano trail

View of the Isabela coastline from Volcán Chico

 

The harsh volcanic landscape is slowly starting to soften: Candelabra Cactus manage to survive among the rocks and vent holes

The desolate view from Volcán Chico

 

We return down the trail with time to spare before our shuttle comes to fetch us. As we sit in the shade and prepare to eat our packed lunch, we are horrified when we see a starving stray dog. The poor guy was literally skin and bones. We instantly fed him our tuna sandwiches, and we suspect several of the other guests did the same. Poor thing – not sure if that will be enough to help him.

Day 325: Isabela Island – Day 1

Our day began with yet another harrowing, 2hr. “ferry” ride, from Santa Cruz to Isla Isabela. The boarding process at the pier was marginally better – since there are twice as many ferries heading toward both San Cristóbal and Isabela at the same time, better organization was a must. This time, each passenger was given a color-coded necklace corresponding to their boat, allowing each operator to find their group more quickly. But we still didn’t leave on time.

Once we reached Isabela, we walked a short 10min along the road to our hotel – Casa de Marita. It was a beautiful white stucco building, framed by tropical plants with a prime, oceanfront location. Lindsay was impressed Igor had found such an awesome hotel for such a cheap price of USD $80/night! We checked in and got our key to our room…which was in the annex…across the street. Well that’s a buzzkill. Don’t get me wrong, the room was fine: quiet, clean, good AC & shower. But no Wifi and no beach.

Whatever – it’s not like we planned to spend much time in our room anyways. Isabela had a lot of attractions to see, so we dropped off our stuff and headed into town to start exploring. We visited a few tour agencies to book day trips for the next few days, then picked up a couple of rental bikes for the afternoon. One of the most popular activities on the island was to visit El Muro de las Lagrimas, or “The Wall of Tears,” – a dark vestige of Ecuadorian history when the island hosted a brutal penitentiary. While the history may be ugly, the trail itself was beautiful and gave us a good work-out and entertainment for the afternoon.

 

Enjoying the neighborhood and beach in Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island

 

Marine iguanas crawl all over the sand and rocks on the beach

 

Igor and Lindsay rent some bikes for the afternoon and venture out of town

 

Riding 5km to visit the infamous “Wall of Tears”

 

The Wall of Tears was built by convicts back in the 1950s when Isabela Island was being used as a penal colony by the Ecuadorian government. The purpose of building the wall was simply to give the inmates punishing work to do. It’s no surprise that in the harsh environment, many perished during the hard labor – thus the name of the wall

 

Hmm…as far as walls go…we’ve seen bigger…

 

Lindsay huffing and puffing her way up to the viewpoint. From here you can see that the rest of Isabela is nearly uninhabited – nothing but trees as far as the eye can see

View of the coastline of Isabela Island, with Puerto Villamil far away in the distance

 

A Giant Tortoise slowly walks across our bike path as we head back to town, passing through a “poison apple” grove and some tall Prickly Pear Catrus Trees

 

The bike trail has many scenic spots to turn off: tranquil lagoons and a beachfront cemetary

 

Pelicans hide in the branches of mangrove trees growing along the beach

Candelabra Cactus frame a peaceful lagoon during the Golden Hour

 

So many marine iguanas! These guys are lying all over the trail and sneeze salty loogies at our feet as we walk by

Sunset over the lagoon on Isabela Island

 

Taking a moment to enjoy the sunset

In consideration of our fellow tourists, we returned to our annex hotel room to shower and change before dinner. We were a little apprehensive about the cost of food – up until now we’ve tried to cook all of our meals to save money (Galápagos is insanely expensive!), but we finally found ourselves in a hotel with no self-service kitchen option. The street fair from the night before was surprisingly well-priced, so we hoped we could keep to the same budget.

Guys, I don’t know why, but Isabela has really cheap dinner options! Almost every restaurant along the main street in town offered a 3-course dinner for USD $7pp! Granted, “dessert” was usually a small bowl of fruit or Jell-O, but at least we weren’t hungry!

 

Restaurant after restaurant offer the same exact menu – even though there isn’t much variety, a 3-course meal for USD $7 is a deal!

 

We are shocked when the waitress refuses to sell Igor a beer with his dinner – apparently all restaurants are required to go dry the weekend before the elections! We notice a few of the pricer places around town breaking this rule, but we decide to stick to juice for the time being

 

Walking by the church after dinner – looks like your average Catholic church at first glance…

 

…however, the inside of the Puerto Villamil Church has a very tropical personality!

Day 324: Santa Cruz in Transit

We had one full week left in the Galápagos Islands at this point, and we weren’t quite sure what we wanted to do with our time. We decided to catch the ferry to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. With a population of 12,000 people it is by far and away the biggest town in the archipelago. And, with its strategic location in the center of all the island, it is the jumping off point for most tours. We figured we could spend the afternoon walking around tourist agencies, and see if anything struck our fancy. Igor had read that it was possible to get rock-bottom priced deals on multi-day cruises – maybe we’d find another boat trip!

We had purchased tickets for the ferry the night before for USD $30pp, although we soon found out that by “ferry” they mean one of half a dozen speedboats that shuttle people from one island to the other. When we arrived at the pier 30min before our departure time, we found an absolute shit-show of confusion as ALL THE BOATS tried to load their passengers at once. Their brilliant method of organization was to simply call out passenger names from a list and hope that people were paying attention/could hear their name being called from the end of the pier. Then they had to squeeze through the throng of people waiting on the dock with their luggage to finishing loading each boat one at a time before the next boat could start. Needless to say, we did NOT leave on time. The boats themselves were almost identical to the little boat we took for our Española tour the day before, however we now had to share the tiny space with 24 people, rather than 10. The seats were narrow and horribly uncomfortable, and only the seats inside the boat had shade (but no air circulation).

FYI, there are small 9-seater propeller planes that fly between San Cristóbal and Isabela. At USD $120pp they are much more expensive than the ferry, but we would have gladly paid the upcharge for a more comfortable ride. Unfortunately, the Thursday flight was sold out so our only choice was a hot, bumpy 2hr. boat ride from hell. When we finally arrived in Puerto Ayora around 10AM, we stumbled over to our hostel and hid in our room for a few hours to recover from the ordeal.

We get an awesome room at Captain Max’s Hostel in Puerto Ayora – spacious with AC, strong Wifi and a hammock! We’ll hide out from the heat in here for a few hours

Once we felt human again, we starting walking down towards the main street, stopping in various tour agencies along the way to inquire about the “LAST MINUTE CRUISES!” they all had advertised outside their windows. True, the prices were about half what they would have been if we had booked online (about USD $150pp/day). Since they include all meals, hotel, transport and activities (walking & snorkeling) for 4-5 days, it was technically cheaper than island-hopping on our own, however we would have had to give up the flexibility of choosing our own itinerary. Sadly, none of the remaining cruises looked that interesting (most would revisit sites we already hit during our dive trip & day trips from San Cristóbal), so we eventually decided to pass, and just continue to wing it. We bought some tickets for the ferry to Isabela the next morning through our hostel (he assured us it was one of the “better” boats), and spent the of the afternoon and evening wandering around town.

 

Sadly, the fish market is closed for the day by the time we emerge from our hostel hideaway, but a handful of birds are lingering by the fishy-smelling tables

 

This stubborn pelican won’t give up his spot (guess he wants to get the best fish pieces tomorrow!) and barely blinks an eye when Igor gets in his face for a picture

 

It’s election time! Ecuador will hold its presidential elections on Sunday, and everyone is out campaigning

OK, *what* is with the caterpillar train? Normally this cartoonish bus takes tourists on a ride through Puerto Ayora, but tonight it was been commandeered by the political rally. And we thought the US election was bizarre…

 

The evening street fair is steps away from our hostel. Most restaurants have an identical menu – a grilled fish for 2 costs USD $22

 

Fresh fish, ready for the grill!

 

Nice variety available – corn on the cob, ceviche, and grilled meats

 

We opt for to share a fish for 2 – buen provecho!

Day 323: Isla Española

We booked a day-trip to Española Island, the southernmost island in the archipelago which is only a 3hr boat ride from San Cristóbal. The island is particularly famous for being the near-exclusive breeding site for the Waved Albatross – the only tropical breed of albatross. Every year, over 34,000 pairs of albatross return to Española to mate and lay one egg. Albatross also mate for life, so when they return, they must find their spouse (although a “widowed” bird will “remarry”).

This all sounded pretty cool to us – we were really excited to see the only type of bird we had missed so far during our exploration of the islands. However, there was one piece of information the booking agencies didn’t think to mention before we signed up for the tour: the albatross don’t return to mate until April, and the last of the baby chicks reached maturity and left the island in December. From January – March there is not a single albatross on the island. BOO!

 

Driving away from a cloud-covered San Cristóbal as we head to the southernmost island in the Galápagos – Española

Our tour started with an hour-long snorkel in Gardner Bay. Even though the water wasn’t terribly cold, the tour agency gave us shorty wetsuits to help keep the chill off while we were in the water. Unfortunately, the fins they gave Igor aggrevated his feet so badly that he stopped kicking altogether and only swam with his arms. We got yelled at by our guide for not keeping up with the group, who seemed to think speed is an asset in snorkeling. He claimed that we just missed a school of 50+ rays and a Hammerhead Shark because we were so far behind. Sure.

 

We jump into the water near a rock pinnacle for our snorkel – sadly, we’ve been spoiled by our diving and are not very impressed

 

We’ve seen hunderds of White-tip Reef Sharks at this point, but they are still so pretty and graceful!

Lunch was awesome, though. Best ceviche we had in Ecuador! And a pretty big portion, too. Sure, it was a bit early (only 11:30AM) when they served us – but I guess they didn’t want us to hike on an empty stomach. When our hosts asked if we wanted anything to drink with lunch, we started to decline as they had just served us juice with our post-snorkel snack, but they kept offering, “Water? Coke? Juice? Wine?”

Wine? Really? We looked at each other, “OK, I’ll have some wine!” Lindsay replied. Our host seemed a little surprised tha someone would actually take him up on his offer. He went inside the galley of the boat to get the wine. Up until now, all our our drinks (water & juice) have been served in normal plastic cups. When the guy returned with the (boxed) wine, he handed Lindsay a teeny tiny tasting cup and filled with with about a shot’s worth of wine. She didn’t ask for more.

 

An early lunch of ceviche, plantain chips and the smallest glass of wine ever!

After lunch, we changed into dry clothes and rode the panga over to the beach at Punta Suárez for our 1.5hr walking tour of the island. It was INSANELY hot. Española is one of the flattest and driest islands in the Galápagos and there is no shade anywhere along the trail. Luckily, the wildlife eventually distracted us from how uncomfortable we were, and the heat started to break about halfway through the walk. Even though we missed out on the albatross, the iguanas of Española were gorgeous and kinda made up for it.

 

Function over fashion! Lindsay opts for comfort even if Igor thinks she looks like a fool (whateva, I be stylin’)

 

Huge waves pound the rocky cliffs of Española

 

More boobies! The Masked Booby is the third and final booby we see in the Galápagos

 

Booby eggs! Masked Boobies typically lay 2 eggs at a time, so both of these birds proably have another one on the way in a day or so

 

Booby chicks! These guys may look sweet and innocent, but notice how there is only ONE chick – didn’t just say that boobies lay TWO eggs at a time? That’s because the stronger chick will kill the weaker sibling after it hatches in order to get all the food from its parents

 

You guys are murderers.

 

Wow – that is an ugly teenager! This juvenile booby is in the final staging of molting its baby down feathers. It can’t learn to fly until all the adult feathers have grown in – this poor guy looks so ready to grow-up

 

The marine iguanas of Española are by far and away the most colorful we have seen in the Galápagos (on most islands, they are plain black)

 

Notice how the iguana’s face is light-colored? Apparently that is due to salt residue that the iguana constantly sneezes out of its nose – the spray accumulates on the skin and, well, it’s not like these guys have a bathroom sink to wipe off their face…

 

The iguanas of Española are known for having red skin year-round, but they also turn bright blue along the ridges of their backs during the mating season in order to attract a mate (Hey! It worked for the Blue-footed Boobies, right?)

 

A blow-hole shoots up a huge plume of spray every minute or so

Española Island – in addition to being one of the oldest islands in the archipelago, it’s also one of the flattest. Since there is not much landmass to trap passing clouds, it gets the smallest amount of rain per year

 

Swallow-tailed Gulls

 

Lindsay and Igor taking in the harsh, rocky landscape of Española

 

A colorful little Lava Lizard perches on the tail of a marine iguana

 

Heading back to our speed boat for the LOOOOOOONG 3hr ride back to San Cristóbal

Days 321 – 322: San Cristóbal

After a final breakfast buffet, we get kicked off the Humboldt Explorer by 10AM. Boo – now we have to feed ourselves and plan our own itineraries again.

We were pretty lazy our first day back in town. We returned to Casa de Jeimy without a reservation, luckily they had one room left. Even luckier, it was a nicer *matrimonial* room (during our first stay we had two twin beds) – we could sleep like a married couple in the double bed…or use the extra twin bed and remain apart. I’ll let y’all guess which option we chose.

Once the afternoon siesta was over, we walked through town, checking out the various tour agencies for a day-trip to Española Island. We’re suspecting that there is some price-fixing going on in the Galápagos as every single agency offered identical itineraries for USD$180pp. The only difference was which day of the week the tours were scheduled for – each agency seemed to take a different day of the week. We decided to go with the one that ran its tour on Thursday, since we wanted to catch a ferry to Santa Cruz on Friday morning, giving us one more free day in San Cristóbal to visit all the beaches we missed before the dive trip.

 

Saying hello to our favorite lobos at the Puerto Baquerizo Moreno pier

 

Taking care of chores – booking a tour to Española Island for Thursday and doing some much needed laundry

 

We get a much better room when we return to Jeimy’s hostel! Lindsay kicks back with her Kindle while Igor cooks up something tasty

The next morning, we headed out right after breakfast to start hitting all the beaches. We rented a snorkel from our hostel for USD $3 and walked over to the Playa Lobería – a good 30min walk from town, behind the San Cristóbal airport. Judging by the name, we expected the beach to be covered with sea lions, just like the beach in town. HUGE disappointment: there was literally only *one* lobo on the whole friggin’ beach. The beach itself was incredibly rocky, making it difficult for us to get into the water, plus the surf was really strong (we noticed a couple of surfers nearby – looks like this is more of a surfing beach than a swimming/snorkeling beach).

 

Early morning walk to the lobería beach – even though it’s 8AM we are already sweating bullets

 

Igor stalks the one lone sea lion on the whole beach – at least he was receptive to photos

By the time we returned to the road we were ridiculously sweaty. The next beach on our list was all the way across town – we were dreading the long walk! As if in answer to our prayers, a taxi pulled up, dropping off a group of tourists – we quickly grabbed the empty car and gladly paid the $2 fare to Playa Mann. We had passed Playa Mann last week when we visited the Galápagoes Visitor Center – just outside the entrance to the park and is the only beach we found on the island that has a lot of shade. We laid down our blanket beneath a tree and Lindsay settled in with her Kindle while Igor tried to go for a swim.

Just as he tried to get into the water, a large sea lion swam up and started barking. At first, Igor was delighted, and he took ourt the GoPro to film the interaction. However, when he started walking into the water, the lobo started to charge him! For some reason, this guy was being very territorial and wouldn’t let Igor or anyone else into the water. Even after all the people backed off, the lobo wold swim back and forth along the beach. So much for swimming.

 

A very territorial sea lion won’t let anyone get into the water at Playa Mann

We packed up and walked once again, this time into the national park. We returned to the snorkeling cove that we had missed the first time we were in town. Even though there was no beach – just a stairwell down to a rocky shore – a dozen napping sea lions nearby and biting damsel fish near the shore, we were determined to get into the water this time! Lindsay took an exploratory swim with the snorkel, but didn’t see much worth getting excited about. After about 20min, she climbed out and gave Igor a turn.

As soon as Igor got into the water, a group of about 20-odd tourists showed up and started getting into the water, kinda ruining the serenity of the place (there were only 3 other swimmers up to this point). Igor swam to the far side of the cove to get away from them…and that’s when he found the sea lions. Unlike the lobo at Playa Mann, these guys were friendly, and one in particular decided to have some fun with Igor! He swam circles around Igor, blew bubbles in his face and kept coming back for more! It was a truly magical moment. (LINDSAY WAS SO JEALOUS.)

 

Snorkeling in Tijeretas Cove

 

Lindsay sees practically nothing during her snorkel – just a bunch of Blue-eyed Damsal fish

 

Igor has all the luck! He finds a trio of sea lions and one starts to play with him!

 

This playful lobo keeps circling ’round and ’round Igor, and even blows bubbles in his face…twice!

 

Igor chases down a marine iguana as it swims by the shore

In order to leave no stone unturned, we still had one last attraction to visit before we could call it a day: the viewpoint at Tijeretas Hill. It was quite a climb, but we got a beautiful view of the cove from the top. We also discovered yet another trail leading to a supposedly secluded beach. It was long – the sign warned that it was 1.5hr (Igor insisted that was the roundtrip time – it was actually *each way*) but we made it there and back. By the time we returned to our room, we were confident that there was *nothing* left to do or see on this island – we were DONE.

 

When the crowds and the clouds roll in, we leave the cove and take a hike up Tijeretas Hill and then follow a long overgrown trail to a secluded beach

 

There’s no one at the beach, but unfortunately the shore is very rocky, so it’s difficult to swim. The only spot in the shade is swarming with mosquitos, so we turn back after only 30min

Day 320: Cousin’s Rock & Santa Cruz

Our boat sailed through the night to return us to the main islands of the Galápagos archipelago by morning. The final full day of our liveaboard trip included two dives at a site off Santa Cruz island, called Cousin’s Rock, followed by a land tour on Santa Cruz Island. Cousin’s Rock ending up being a great dive site! The visibility was one of the clearest we’d had in the Galápagos, giving us the feeling we were scuba diving in an aquarium. We saw a handful of sharks and some disinterested sea lions, but the coolest thing about this site was the sheer number of rays we saw: stingrays, Eagle Rays and Manta Rays. Like most of the wildlife around here, they were completely unafraid of us and allowed us to get quite close for pictures.

Early morning arrival at our last dive site: Cousin’s Rock

 

Surrounded by huge schools of fish – this location was like diving in an aquarium!

 

Apparently Russian divers are subject to a stereotype: they like to touch *everything.* Igor shows his roots during our dive trip – while he resists the urge to touch the sea lions and never gets close enough to a shark, just about everything else within reach falls prey to a little poke from his finger. Each time Lindsay catches him on camera, he turns and gives her an innocent look as if to say, “I didn’t do it!”

 

White-tip Reef Sharks resting below a rock. Look carefully at the gills of this shark – see the bite marks? A few seconds after this shot, the male shark attacked the female in order to have *amorous relations*

 

Igor swims up to a school of Barracuda

 

A starfish and a school of Yellow-tailed Surgeonfish (gray-colored Dorys) on the ocean floor

 

We find a sea lion hiding under a rock – she’s not interested in playing with us, she just wants to quietly roll around on the floor. We must have interrupted her Zen, as she eventually swims off to the surface

 

Lots of stingrays swimming on the ocean floor

 

We see one large Manta Ray in the distance, and a pair of Eagle Rays slowly flapping against the current

 

Lindsay climbs up the rock pinnacle to get a close-up of the Eagle Ray – check out that huge nose and mouth!

 

So many rays! Igor catches up to several Eagle Rays

 

We see the Humboldt Explorer in the distance as the panga picks us out of the water for the last time – very pleased to end our dive trip on a high note!

After lunch, we re-boarded the pangas (in dry clothes for once!) and rode over to the ferry landing at the Itabaca Channel on the northern tip of the island. We took a bus up into the Santa Cruz Highlands to see more Giant Tortoises, before continuing across the island to the town of Puerto Ayora – the most populous city in the Galápagos. While in town, we had a few hours free to walk around (giving the other guests time to do souvenir shopping), before meeting up with everyone for a farewell dinner at a restaurant in town (the only meal & beverages NOT included in our tour package).

 

Group shot of the Humboldt’s guests before our land excursion on Santa Cruz Island

 

We catch a bus at the Itabaca Channel and drive up into the Santa Cruz Highlands

 

Chillin’ out at the Rancho El Manzanillo Giant Tortoise Reserve

 

Igor has to sneak up behind this Giant Tortoise – even though they are GIGANTIC they get rather shy when we approach them, ducking their heads into the shell with a hiss

 

Giant Tortoises crawling slooooowly though the vegetation, munching on leaves

 

An artificial freshwater pond provides the tortoises with drinking (and bathing) water

The first thing we did upon reaching town was to head over to the bank ATM – we were low on cash after paying the balance of our bill to the boat (equipment rental, fuel surcharge and tips). We were mystified when the first ATM we tried told us we had already reached our withdrawal limit for the day. Weird – we’ve been on a boat in the middle of nowhere with no reception for 5 days, how could we have taken any money out? We assumed the ATM was on the fritz, and waited for a different one to open up. Again, the same message. We started to get a bad feeling – we logged into our bank account from Igor’s phone…

…for the past 5 days, someone in *Malaga, Spain* had been taking out the maximum USD $600 per day! WTF!!! We didn’t have a travel notice for Spain!!! We were furious, and immediately called up our bank to report the fraud. Turns out, the bank’s fraud department did flag the withdrawals as suspicious and actually denied the final 2 transactions, and they agreed to refund our lost funds. In the meantime, however, we now had to burn yet another card! Since we would be out of the country for another month, there was no way for us to get a replacement card. Luckily, we still had *one* last card left so we could still get cash, but we are going to have to be borderline paranoid about this one – if yet another card gets compromised, we are screwed!

We are still at a loss as to how this card got hacked. We suspected that it must have happened in either the airport in Guayaquil or the only ATM in San Cristóbal (the fact that the fraud charges just happened to occur as soon as we were at sea seemed like too big of a coincidence). The really disturbing thing is that the withdrawals were taken from an *ATM* in Spain, meaning someone had not only copied the magnetic strip of our card, they had also gotten ahold of our PIN! Man, we thought Indonesia was shady – Ecuador is fucking devious.

Once the bank issue was taken care of, we only had an hour left to explore the town. Luckily, we’d be returning to Puerto Ayora in a few days, so we had plenty of opportunity to visit all the sights we missed. We got a quick lay of the land before meeting up with the crew for our final dinner.

 

Strolling down the main street of Puerto Ayora

 

Group dinner at a restaurant in town – Lindsay and Igor would have preferred to have our final dinner on the boat, but Lindsay suspects the operator doesn’t want the guests to overindulge at the open bar on their last night with no morning dive to encourage moderation

 

Igor sits on a park bench behind a sleeping lobo

 

We spot a baby shark swimming in the lighted water off the pier

Days 316 – 319: Darwin & Wolf

The majority of our dive trip was spent at Wolf Island and Darwin Islands. These small, uninhabited islands are located about 150-200KM northwest of the main part of the Galápagos archipelago – since it takes 16hrs of navigation to reach them, only liveaboard tours get to visit them. There are only a handful of liveaboard dive boats operating in the Galápagos, and since we were here in the low season, even fewer were operating tours this week – as a result, the Humboldt Explorer was the *only* boat at these locations the entire week! Talk about exclusive!

Wolf & Darwin Islands are the last landmass before hitting open water, and they are located at the convergence of several currents (the biggest danger here is the currents – the animals are mostly harmless). The currents bring nutrient-rich waters and that is what attracts so much wildlife – especially BIG wildlife. Wolf and Darwin are particularly famous for schools of Hammerhead Sharks, Whale Sharks, Orcas, dolphins, sea lions and Green Turtles. Other than the Whale Sharks and Orcas (which are only there in the “winter” season from June – November) we saw EVERYTHING!

We spent 4 days diving in the northern islands of Wolf and Darwin. Our first two days were intense, with four dives per day at 8AM, 10AM, 2PM and 4PM. Our dives were limited to 55min each (we were usually low on air and coming up to do our safety stop at that point anyways, so the time limit didn’t bother us) and a max depth of 30M (again – didn’t bother us as we are only certified to 30M anyways). We were divided into 2 groups of 8, and we switched between the two dive masters each day, so everyone got equal time with the “senior” guide.

Surprisingly, of all the sites we visited, Darwin’s Arch ended up being a disappointment – we actually had one dive where no one saw a single shark! Some of the guests on the boat actually skipped our morning dive at Darwin being they, “knew it would be shit.” They were right. The currents were incredibly mild this week, so that might account for the lack of activity. The dive masters took a vote among the guests and we all agreed to forfeit 1 dive at Darwin in order to return to Wolf Island where conditions were better (every single underwater photo below was from Wolf!).

When we weren’t diving, we had a very relaxing stay on the Humboldt Explorer. There was no Wifi and no TV (at least, not in our room – even if there were, there was no cable!), so we had a lot of down time for naps, writing, editing photos and pleasure reading. Once we were out of the water after our last dive of the day, we could help ourselves to unlimited beers, and as many glasses of wine we desired at dinner. Of course, we were always aware of the fact that we had a 6AM wake-up call and an early dive in the morning, so our boozing was pretty moderate (well…by our standards at least).

 

Every diver is given an emergency radio and a Dive Alert whistle in case we get caught in a current and surface out of sight of the pangas

 

We get a briefing for each new dive site, going over a rough map and route, depth and current direction, and what kind of wildlife we can expect to see. Afterwards, we go out to the deck to get suited up – Lindsay tries to work in a few stretches in the morning

 

Getting suited up for our 3-4 daily dives in Wolf & Darwin

 

Back-rolling off the panga and into the water – Igor give the OK sign and continues his rapid descent

 

After each dive the panga driver for our group (Green!) picks us up – we hand over our camera, weights, BCD + tank, and fins (in that order) before climbing onboard the boat

 

Even though snacks and hot drinks are plentiful after every dive, we are always ravenous by lunchtime!

 

There is so much to see underwater, sometimes we don’t know where to look without missing something else!

 

Galapagos Sharks! These were the scariest sharks we saw during our dives – they were much more interested in us than the Hammerheads, and would swim closer to us, checking us out

 

The real star of the show: Hammerhead Sharks!

  

THIS is why we came to the Galápagos! Schools of dozens of Hammerheads slowly pass overhead – AMAZING!

 

Lindsay is in awe from all the sea life surrounding us

 

Sharks aren’t the only schools we see – a pod of around 50 dolphins keeps porpoising around our boat. Some divers from the Blue group get lucky when a handful of dolphins swim right into their shark video. Lindsay was so jelly, but she just needed to be patient: the next morning she kept an eye out when we heard the squeaking of dolphins underwater, and she caught a half dozen dolphins on camera!

 

Just as everyone was getting into the panga at the end of a dive, our dive master tells Lindsay a pod of dolphins is swimming on the other side of the boat! She is the only diver still in the water – even though she already took her tank off, she swims as fast as possible with her mask and fins and finally catches up to them! Swear to God, I saw 4 wild dolphins swim 3 feet from my face – INCREDIBLE!

 

We asked our dive master if we could find a dive location with sea lions, so he instructs the panga driver to bring us to a spot near the shore where a couple dozen lobos were sitting on the rocks and swimming in the water – we actually had to check behind us before back rolling into the water to make sure we didn’t land on a sea lion!

 

The sea lions went into an excited little frenzy to see they had company! They made multiple passes toward us, checking us out – everyone got a chance to play with the lobos! Lindsay tried rolling around underwater – mimicking the way they play – that got her some attention! After a few minutes of playing, we all started to realize the surge near the shore was quite strong and we were getting very close to being dashed on the rocks, so we reluctantly backed off and found some sturdy boulders to hide behind as we watched the sea lions swim around some more

 

A Needle Fish photobombs Igor’s shark video – guess he wants the other fish to get a little attention!

 

The Galápagos is all about BIG things – even if the fish are small, their schools are HUGE!

 

So many fish in the sea!

 

Gotta be careful – not all the fish are harmless! Igor is so distracted by a passing shark, he nearly puts his hand on a well-disguised rockfish! Looks like this guy has venomous spines on his back – VERY DANGEROUS!

 

Whether or not the rockfish was poisonous, this Scorpionfish looks really nasty! Thanks for hiding in plain sight you deadly fish! Why not find a safe little crevice like this considerate little lobster?

 

What a difference some light makes! We don’t have underwater flashlights which is a shame as the photos our fellow divers are taking are phenomenal! We just happened to be next to someone with a light when we come upon a purple lobster and a seahorse

 

So many turtles, dude! We find so many Green Turtles munching on sea grass

 

We are able to get so close to the turtles – they really don’t care if we are there! In fact, one scares the beejeezes out of Lindsay when it swims up from directly below her and cuts her off while she was filming! Watch where you’re going, buddy!

 

Our final dive in the northern islands is at the caves – we still don’t have flashlights, so we try to stay close to other divers so we can see where we are going. Not much wildlife in the caves – just some lobsters and eels.

 

Back on the boat after a long day of diving – Igor looks at pictures from fellow divers (who have WAY better camera equipment) while Lindsay catches up on her Kindle

 

Igor sips a bruskie and admires the Golden Hour at Wolf Island

Wolf Island, Galápagos

 

The sheer rock face of Wolf Island – park regulations forbid tourists from making landfall…but how would anyone be able to get up there anyways?

 

A seabird flies by the deck just before sunset

 

Darwin’s Arch – just off the coast of Darwin Island. Too bad it was more impressive above the surface than below

 

We had a full moon during our cruise to the northern islands – AROOOOOO!

 

Creative (and tasty!) creations by our chef, including a “Darwin’s Arch Cake” for dessert

Day 315: Punta Carrion & Seymour Island

Our day started EARLY: breakfast at 6:30AM sharp, briefing on the dive site at 7:15AM and geared up and in the water by 8AM. Today was a gentle easing-in for our epic dive trip – only 2 dives today (child’s play!) at Punta Carrion: a location off the northern coast of Santa Cruz Island. Other than White-tip Reef Sharks, we didn’t see much here, but it was a nice, easy dive to get our confidence up. Tomorrow, we face the real shit at Wolf Island – eeek!

 

Lindsay gets over her fear of sharks really fast when we find a school of White-tipped Reef Sharks sitting on the ocean floor. While the Galápagos is FULL of sharks (particularly famous for Hammerhead and Whale Sharks), none of them pose a danger to humans. *Very rarely* someone will spot a Tiger Shark or Bull Shark (yes – those ARE dangerous) but even then, scuba divers are so odd-looking and totally outside their food chain, that aggressive behavior is not common

 

Seriously – if you don’t like sharks, don’t come to the Galápagos

After lunch, we had a chance to get off the boat and go ashore for a guided walk on Seymour Island – a small, uninhabited island off the north coast of Santa Cruz. This island is home to huge colonies of Frigatebirds and Blue-Footed Boobies, in addition to Balta Land Iguanas (which were introduced onto the island in the 1920s – ironically, the iguanas are extinct on Balta thanks to the ecologically irresponsible behavior of the US Army when they were stationed there during WWII). We were only supposed to spend an hour ashore – since we had a whopping 16hr navigation to get to Wolf Island by tomorrow! – but it was such a good tour, our group lingered far longer than we were supposed to. Our poor guide finally had to beg us to keep walking when another boat with G-Adventures turned up, waiting for their turn on the island.

 

A park ranger leads us around Seymour Island, but had no problem when the boys ignore the “STOP” signs to get a close-up of a male Frigatebird

 

A female Frigatebird – unlike most of the other birds on the island, these guys can’t land on water (no flipper feet) so they get their food by attacking other birds forcing them to either drop their prey or throw it up. The Frigatebirds then dive after the dropped food and make off with their stolen meal #gansta

 

A trio of eggs hiding in a cactus, and a male Frigatebird babysits his fluffy white chick

 

The male Frigatebird has a large red neck sack that he inflates to attract a mate. This poor guy seems to have given up on love L

 

Swallow-Tailed Gulls – these red-eyed birds have night-vision and are the only birds in the Galápagos that exclusively hunt fish at night

 

The ridiculous, yet beautiful, Blue-Footed Booby! It’s very hard to tell the males and females apart, but females have larger pupils – we’re guessing this one is a girl

 

So colorful! The bright blue feet are due to the bird’s diet on fish and are a sign of how healthy the bird is. Since the ladies only want to mate with healthy boys, the bright blue feet are also a sexually selected trait (i.e. natural selection – thanks, Darwin!)

 

Huge, orange land iguanas roam all over Seymour – each island within the Galápagos has a slightly different type of land iguana (like the Giant Tortoises, natural selecion caused these geographically isolated animals to evolve slightly different characteristics suited to their environment)

 

The smaller, plain black marine iguana – these guys look pretty much the same on all the islands

 

It’s not unheard of for land iguanas and marine iguanas to interbreed (despite the difference in size!) – looks like the land iguana in this picture has his eyes on a marine-cutie!

 

A stunning view of the waves crashing on the shore

 

LOBOS! You’d think we’d be sick of these guys after San Cristóbal, but we can’t resist these adorable faces!

 

Look at those purple, puppy-dog eyes!

 

We have a million shots, but when a baby sea lion flops over to Lindsay, she figures we could use a few more

 

A sea lion plays around in the shallow water while a host of Sally Lightfoot Crabs crawl around the rocks

Sunset over Seymour Island

Days 314: Puerto Baquerizo Moreno & All Aboard

We had to check out of our room by 9AM the next morning, but we were able to leave our bags at the front desk while we ran some last minute errands before going down to the dock to meet our boat. While we had prepaid the cruise itself, we still had to pay for our equipment rental, a fuel surcharge, and gratuities in cash (or pay a 20% credit card fee) – we hit up the ATM one last time before shopping for some diving gloves (the *one* piece of equipment the boat wouldn’t provide for some odd reason). Since most people who come to the Galápagos are serious divers and have their own gear, there was not a lot of selection for either rentals or gear for purchase. We found one pair of gloves for a whopping USD $70 – rather than get a pair for each of us, we got one nice pair of gloves, then hit up the local hardware store for a pair of garden gloves. They were a bit ghetto and a big fit, but as long as they prevented our hands from getting ripped up on the rocks and coral, looks be damned!

Afterwards, we walked across town and headed over to the Galápagos National Park Interpretation Center and walking trail. Within this section of the park there was supposedly a nice beach, so we hoped to beat the crowds by heading over first thing after breakfast. There were far fewer people, and a lot more lobos (including a group of three adorable babies snoozing in the middle of the beach). Unfortunately, there also wasn’t any shade. The equatorial sun is strong and it gets hot out here really fast, so we were only able to last about an hour before we moved on to explore the rest of the walking trail.

The official visitor’s center of the Galápagos National Park is located in San Cristóbal

 

Paying homage to Darwin as we lay our bare feet in the sand and play with baby lobos

 

Igor takes an early morning swim to beat the crowds and the heat

 

The storm clouds are in the wrong part of the sky and offer no protection from the punishing sun as we walk through the park path

Tijeretas Cove – a popular snorkeling location that we will visit post-boat trip

We returned to the hostel, picked up our bags and walked back down to the pier at noon, where a pair of pangas met us (and everyone else who just arrived from the airport) and ferried us over to the Humboldt Explorer. The Humboldt is a 106ft yacht, which can accommodate 16 divers and 11 crew. Apparently it’s not the most luxurious of the many dive boats that visit Darwin & Wolf (our cabin bathroom was infested with non-biting bugs each night we were need the inhabited islands of the Galápagos, but mysteriously disappeared once we hit open water), but once we heard that all booze was included we couldn’t care less how fancy the digs were.

Before we could get liquored up, however, we had to try on our rental gear and jump into the water for a short 10min check dive to make sure everything felt comfortable. We were a little apprehensive – as I said above, most people who come to dive in the Galápagos bring their own gear. The rental equipment we used during our practice dives with Las Mantas was absolute shit (holes in the 5mm thick wetsuits, uncomfortable fins, and dive computers that neither we nor the staff at the dive shop could figure out how to use) – we were worried that we would get stuck with more crappy gear. Luckily, the Humboldt came through for us: the 7mm wetsuits were in very good condition, the fins were tolerable (Igor started wearing *socks* with his for extra protection against blisters, but otherwise his feet were OK) and the BCDs had actual bottom dump valves which would theoretically help us descend headfirst during a negative entry (although truth be told, neither of us have the coordination to pull that off yet). And the computers were perfect! Hardly a scratch on them and super easy to pull up our dive history. We were only disappointed that our check dive was so boring – we basically jumped into the water just outside the marina, so there was no interesting wildlife.

 

Our tanks and BCDs have been put away after our short check dive and we are free to enjoy the sunset

Once we got out of the water, we put our gear away in our assigned station. Igor got an extra-large 15L tank so that he could last longer underwater – like most men, he goes through air faster than his female counterparts (bigger lungs!) so the extra 3L of air would give him more or less another 10-15min underwater so he and Lindsay would finish their dives at the same time. After a nice hot shower, we returned to the deck to admire the view and get to know some of our boat mates. Even though we were advised against it, we spilled the beans about our small number of dives immediately (although we did round up to “25-ish” dives – it sounded a lot better than 21!). A few people were surprised, but more because they thought we were spoiling ourselves too early in our dive career – where in the world could we dive next that would beat this? No one seemed annoyed that we would be slow or hold anyone back – more the opposite: so many of the guests were dive masters themselves back home and seemed to enjoy the idea of introducing people to diving so much that they were eager to answer our questions, give us tips, and help us out.

The food was decent – every dinner started with a bowl of soup (mostly veggies – we liked them ’cause we were getting our GREENS), followed by a self-serve buffet (it was a tiny dining area, so it unfortunately could get quite crowded) usually consisting of salad, cooked veggies, fish and meat. Bread was just sliced white or wheat bread. The desserts were not bad – usually some type of cake or flan with fruit on the side. Wine was all you could drink, but limited to Viña Maipo Cab Sauv or Sauv Blanc (owned by Concha y Toro – similar in price & quality to Frontera) which was just fine by us! The pair of French guys on board got a little snobby about the wine selection (Lindsay just rolled her eyes as they complained), but they still downed several glasses per night anyways.

Our room was an ice box by the time we headed to bed. For some reason, the remote for AC unit was missing, so we just turned it off when we went to bed. The boat was gently rocking and lulled us quickly to sleep. We were scheduled to leave San Crisóbal around midnight – we would wake up in a new part of the archipelago: Baltra Island.

 

Freshly showered and enjoying our first night on the boat

 

Welcome drinks and introductions to the crew and guests of the Humboldt Explorer