At Sea, 9/8/04, 9:25 p.m.
Dinner was, as always, fantastic. Sounds like tomorrow will be full of adventures, but I will save that synopsis for later, after it has actually happened.
The rest of today: After lunch, we somehow managed to be the only two people who didn't go on the deep-water snorkeling trip. Not sure how that happened -- at lunch, Orlando was going table to table asking people if they planned to go and almost sounded like he was discouraging it. We were so tired anyway, and it sounded like lots of people planned to skip it, so we took a nap. We woke up at about 3:02 -- the next island visit was scheduled for 3 -- and panicked that we'd been left behind. Soon I saw the two pangas coming back (tied together -- the one still has a bad motor, I guess) full of EVERYBODY BUT US! I made the mistake of asking a few people how the snorkeling was and they all just raved. Oh well -- sounds like we have a chance to see everything tomorrow, too.
Our afternoon visit was to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island, where we saw tons of marine iguanas and sally lightfoot crabs (which are beautiful -- so colorful) and some sea turtles in the water and a bunch of sea lions, including some little pups. One baby -- so cute -- was about a week old, Malena said. It made the funniest little noises at us. The marine iguanas blend right in with the rock so we had to be careful of where we stepped -- also the lava lizards were darting around so they were a walking hazard too. We saw flightless cormorants sitting on their nests, including one with a chick. They are odd birds, but pretty.
I have a sun rash on my neck and it itches so much. Also my eyes keep watering and my nose keeps running during the hikes -- maybe I am allergic to bird poop. It has seemed worst on the birdy islands. Actually it was really bad on Isabela this morning -- HEY! I left out an entire chunk of the day! Oops.
Between the panga ride and lunch, we stopped at Isabela and climbed up some rocks to a wooden staircase with 129 stairs -- that's my exercise for the year -- and hiked up to a great view of Darwin Lake, a beautiful saltwater lake in a crater. We kept hiking up -- it was quite strenuous toward the top -- and stopped along the way for other views of the lake or to look at a flowering plant (we don't see many leaves or blooms here) or to get a geology lesson from Malena involving tectonic plates (did you know that in about 30 million years these islands will go underwater and melt? Malena says so) -- and finally we got to the top and had a spectacular view of a couple of volcanoes and a lava field. I was quite winded at the top and Malena said, "This is training for tomorrow." Great.
Anyway, my eyes watered then too -- it was quite dusty. We did hear that some animals -- the sea lions and marine iguanas -- expel saltwater through tear production so maybe I am doing that. I certainly have swallowed enough while snorkeling!
It's all so amazing here -- I really can't believe we're here and can't believe it's almost over. Several other people leave when we do, two days before the end, but lots of people are staying on. Here are our fellow travelers:
* Dana and Jeff -- on the first leg of a six-week honeymoon with lots of adventures like this. We met them on the hotel shuttle from the airport -- they were on our flight from Newark. They are nice and funny. Dana thought we were in our early or mid-20s. Yay. They live in Boston but are moving to LA as soon as they get done with their honeymoon; Jeff's going to be an entertainment attorney in the music business.
* Vanessa and Jim -- also stayed at our hotel, we met them the morning of our Galapagos flight. They are great -- really down-to-earth and cool. They live in Chicago.
* Hadas and Gil -- an Israeli couple living in NYC for the past several years. Quite nice and interesting, and quite the world travelers.
* Brian and Nancy -- we haven't talked much to them yet, but Brian is always cracking jokes so we sort of feel like we know them. Nancy is nice -- I've talked to her a bit. They live in Santa Cruz, Calif.
* Larry and Sandy -- they live in Tulsa, he's an orthodontist and she helps him run the business. They have two sons, I think.
* Heather and Herb -- Canadians living in/near (?) Toronto, also on their honeymoon after like 12 years together as an unmarried couple. We haven't had a meal with them yet either.
* Yves and Francois -- Yves is from France and speaks almost no English. But he smiles a lot. Francois has pretty good English abilities and lives in Brazil but is French. He's fluent in Spanish as well as Portuguese -- and I would call him fluent in English, but he demurs.
* Jennifer and Kate -- traveling buddies. Jennifer is from D.C. (!) -- Alexandria, actually -- and works for the EPA in the Ronald Reagan building. Kate lives in Vancouver but lived in Iowa City for several years! Hooray! Kate is quite nice but has a bad knee so some of this is hard on her. (Same with Nancy, I think.)
* Deborah -- the solo traveler -- from Sydney, very nice, very adventuresome and up for anything, it seems. She's probably in her 60s and has been traveling around for several weeks with her partner, Pete, who had to go back to Australia before this leg of the trip.
So there's our cast of characters.
The rest of today: After lunch, we somehow managed to be the only two people who didn't go on the deep-water snorkeling trip. Not sure how that happened -- at lunch, Orlando was going table to table asking people if they planned to go and almost sounded like he was discouraging it. We were so tired anyway, and it sounded like lots of people planned to skip it, so we took a nap. We woke up at about 3:02 -- the next island visit was scheduled for 3 -- and panicked that we'd been left behind. Soon I saw the two pangas coming back (tied together -- the one still has a bad motor, I guess) full of EVERYBODY BUT US! I made the mistake of asking a few people how the snorkeling was and they all just raved. Oh well -- sounds like we have a chance to see everything tomorrow, too.
Our afternoon visit was to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island, where we saw tons of marine iguanas and sally lightfoot crabs (which are beautiful -- so colorful) and some sea turtles in the water and a bunch of sea lions, including some little pups. One baby -- so cute -- was about a week old, Malena said. It made the funniest little noises at us. The marine iguanas blend right in with the rock so we had to be careful of where we stepped -- also the lava lizards were darting around so they were a walking hazard too. We saw flightless cormorants sitting on their nests, including one with a chick. They are odd birds, but pretty.
I have a sun rash on my neck and it itches so much. Also my eyes keep watering and my nose keeps running during the hikes -- maybe I am allergic to bird poop. It has seemed worst on the birdy islands. Actually it was really bad on Isabela this morning -- HEY! I left out an entire chunk of the day! Oops.
Between the panga ride and lunch, we stopped at Isabela and climbed up some rocks to a wooden staircase with 129 stairs -- that's my exercise for the year -- and hiked up to a great view of Darwin Lake, a beautiful saltwater lake in a crater. We kept hiking up -- it was quite strenuous toward the top -- and stopped along the way for other views of the lake or to look at a flowering plant (we don't see many leaves or blooms here) or to get a geology lesson from Malena involving tectonic plates (did you know that in about 30 million years these islands will go underwater and melt? Malena says so) -- and finally we got to the top and had a spectacular view of a couple of volcanoes and a lava field. I was quite winded at the top and Malena said, "This is training for tomorrow." Great.
Anyway, my eyes watered then too -- it was quite dusty. We did hear that some animals -- the sea lions and marine iguanas -- expel saltwater through tear production so maybe I am doing that. I certainly have swallowed enough while snorkeling!
It's all so amazing here -- I really can't believe we're here and can't believe it's almost over. Several other people leave when we do, two days before the end, but lots of people are staying on. Here are our fellow travelers:
* Dana and Jeff -- on the first leg of a six-week honeymoon with lots of adventures like this. We met them on the hotel shuttle from the airport -- they were on our flight from Newark. They are nice and funny. Dana thought we were in our early or mid-20s. Yay. They live in Boston but are moving to LA as soon as they get done with their honeymoon; Jeff's going to be an entertainment attorney in the music business.
* Vanessa and Jim -- also stayed at our hotel, we met them the morning of our Galapagos flight. They are great -- really down-to-earth and cool. They live in Chicago.
* Hadas and Gil -- an Israeli couple living in NYC for the past several years. Quite nice and interesting, and quite the world travelers.
* Brian and Nancy -- we haven't talked much to them yet, but Brian is always cracking jokes so we sort of feel like we know them. Nancy is nice -- I've talked to her a bit. They live in Santa Cruz, Calif.
* Larry and Sandy -- they live in Tulsa, he's an orthodontist and she helps him run the business. They have two sons, I think.
* Heather and Herb -- Canadians living in/near (?) Toronto, also on their honeymoon after like 12 years together as an unmarried couple. We haven't had a meal with them yet either.
* Yves and Francois -- Yves is from France and speaks almost no English. But he smiles a lot. Francois has pretty good English abilities and lives in Brazil but is French. He's fluent in Spanish as well as Portuguese -- and I would call him fluent in English, but he demurs.
* Jennifer and Kate -- traveling buddies. Jennifer is from D.C. (!) -- Alexandria, actually -- and works for the EPA in the Ronald Reagan building. Kate lives in Vancouver but lived in Iowa City for several years! Hooray! Kate is quite nice but has a bad knee so some of this is hard on her. (Same with Nancy, I think.)
* Deborah -- the solo traveler -- from Sydney, very nice, very adventuresome and up for anything, it seems. She's probably in her 60s and has been traveling around for several weeks with her partner, Pete, who had to go back to Australia before this leg of the trip.
So there's our cast of characters.
posted by Kristina at 6:04 PM
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