Between Isabela & Fernandina, 9/8/04, 6 p.m.
There's much to catch up on. Between landings/walks, meals, naps and sleeping and the occasional seasickness, it's hard to find time or energy to write -- or to read! I have much dormant reading material with me. I have listened a bit to my David Sedaris audiobook, but mostly I fall asleep to it.
This trip is exhausting but wonderful. This morning fellow passenger Vanessa asked if this was the best vacation we've taken. I told her it is definitely the most exciting/adventuresome thing I've done, but that I've had more relaxing vacations.
To catch up, on Monday afternoon we had a wet landing at Darwin Bay and walked a bit, seeing lots of great frigates and red-footed boobies. We tried to snorkel but the water was very choppy and thus quite cloudy, so we couldn't see much.
Due to the choppy water, we had an extremely rocky ride that night. Kim started feeling sick right after dinner and headed for the cabin. I was fine -- until I tried to walk without holding a handrail. I suddenly felt like it feels to realize you've had two drinks too many -- I knew I needed to lie down right away or there would be trouble. I made it to the cabin and told Kim to let me on the bed -- she was already sprawled out -- and then we lay there cursing the waves, making deals with each other about who would get up to get floss, who would get up to get contact supplies, who would get up to pull back the covers, etc. etc. It was horrible! We had both taken Dramamine, too. Once I was all ready for bed, though, I was fine. I slept like a baby and actually was lulled by the rocking motion and found it quite soothing.
On Tuesday morning, we stopped at Baltra for fuel while we were having breakfast -- we were supposed to watch a video to kill time but the fueling went more quickly than expected and we were soon on our way to Bachas Beach. The name of this beach comes from the ruins of barges that were wrecked during WWII when the U.S. used this island as a military base. Malena told us how the Americans sort of trashed the place before they left, because they were angry that Ecuador would not let them continue to lease the island for military use. So they left steel beams from docks on the beaches and crashed planes onto the island and so on. Temper tantrum! There are still pieces of steel sticking out of the sand in a couple of places. At the beach we hiked around to a lagoon where we saw four beautiful flamingos -- we just sat and watched them for a long time. It made me wish we could have a Chick Trip on Galapagos someday! We also walked to another pond and saw five more flamingos. We saw some other birds too. Back at the beach, we snorkeled for a while and it was spectacular -- we saw lots of huge tropical fish. Kim saw a sea cucumber but I wasn't able to see it. I've become so much more comfortable with the snorkeling and have even learned how to use my flippers under water even though the life jacket makes this a particular challenge.
After lunch we went to North Seymour Island, where we saw our first blue-footed boobies -- they are so fascinating to look at! There were also lots of great and magnificent frigates (though I'm not sure how to tell them apart) -- and it's frigate mating season there so we saw lots of males with their throats puffed up all red to attract the ladies. Unfortunately we also saw lots of dead juveniles and chicks that had been abandoned, apparently because there hasn't been enough food this year. It was sad to see the fluffy little white lifeless piles.
Last night it was our turn to have dinner at the captain's table -- with the captain! He is quite nice and very handsome, but doesn't talk a whole lot. Luckily we were with Deborah, an Australian woman who thought of lots of questions for him to keep the conversation alive -- good thing, since Kim and I were both too wiped out to hold up our end. He told us he has a pitbull puppy, just 6 months old, who went missing this week and he's sad. Her name is Fiona. (The captain's name is Victor.) He also told us he has a parrot, so I told him about my mom's parrot who is always calling out for beer. He looked puzzled until Kim said, "cerveza!" and then he laughed.
After dinner we were too tired to do anything but sleep -- story of our lives on this trip!
So that brings us to today, finally. Overnight we had a long trip from North Seymour up and around Isabela Island, where we stopped this morning near Fernandina. We started our day with a panga ride along the cliffs of Isabela where we saw lots of blue-footed boobies perched on the sides -- and some exciting stuff like Galapagos penguins and Pacific green sea turtles (like Crush on Finding Nemo, but without the surfer dude accent). That was a great ride until the boobies started indiscriminately pooping on us. I got hit twice, and so did Kim. Yuck! We went into a little cave where the water was so clear you could see fish swimming at the bottom. It was awesome.
Time for the nightly briefing ...
This trip is exhausting but wonderful. This morning fellow passenger Vanessa asked if this was the best vacation we've taken. I told her it is definitely the most exciting/adventuresome thing I've done, but that I've had more relaxing vacations.
To catch up, on Monday afternoon we had a wet landing at Darwin Bay and walked a bit, seeing lots of great frigates and red-footed boobies. We tried to snorkel but the water was very choppy and thus quite cloudy, so we couldn't see much.
Due to the choppy water, we had an extremely rocky ride that night. Kim started feeling sick right after dinner and headed for the cabin. I was fine -- until I tried to walk without holding a handrail. I suddenly felt like it feels to realize you've had two drinks too many -- I knew I needed to lie down right away or there would be trouble. I made it to the cabin and told Kim to let me on the bed -- she was already sprawled out -- and then we lay there cursing the waves, making deals with each other about who would get up to get floss, who would get up to get contact supplies, who would get up to pull back the covers, etc. etc. It was horrible! We had both taken Dramamine, too. Once I was all ready for bed, though, I was fine. I slept like a baby and actually was lulled by the rocking motion and found it quite soothing.
On Tuesday morning, we stopped at Baltra for fuel while we were having breakfast -- we were supposed to watch a video to kill time but the fueling went more quickly than expected and we were soon on our way to Bachas Beach. The name of this beach comes from the ruins of barges that were wrecked during WWII when the U.S. used this island as a military base. Malena told us how the Americans sort of trashed the place before they left, because they were angry that Ecuador would not let them continue to lease the island for military use. So they left steel beams from docks on the beaches and crashed planes onto the island and so on. Temper tantrum! There are still pieces of steel sticking out of the sand in a couple of places. At the beach we hiked around to a lagoon where we saw four beautiful flamingos -- we just sat and watched them for a long time. It made me wish we could have a Chick Trip on Galapagos someday! We also walked to another pond and saw five more flamingos. We saw some other birds too. Back at the beach, we snorkeled for a while and it was spectacular -- we saw lots of huge tropical fish. Kim saw a sea cucumber but I wasn't able to see it. I've become so much more comfortable with the snorkeling and have even learned how to use my flippers under water even though the life jacket makes this a particular challenge.
After lunch we went to North Seymour Island, where we saw our first blue-footed boobies -- they are so fascinating to look at! There were also lots of great and magnificent frigates (though I'm not sure how to tell them apart) -- and it's frigate mating season there so we saw lots of males with their throats puffed up all red to attract the ladies. Unfortunately we also saw lots of dead juveniles and chicks that had been abandoned, apparently because there hasn't been enough food this year. It was sad to see the fluffy little white lifeless piles.
Last night it was our turn to have dinner at the captain's table -- with the captain! He is quite nice and very handsome, but doesn't talk a whole lot. Luckily we were with Deborah, an Australian woman who thought of lots of questions for him to keep the conversation alive -- good thing, since Kim and I were both too wiped out to hold up our end. He told us he has a pitbull puppy, just 6 months old, who went missing this week and he's sad. Her name is Fiona. (The captain's name is Victor.) He also told us he has a parrot, so I told him about my mom's parrot who is always calling out for beer. He looked puzzled until Kim said, "cerveza!" and then he laughed.
After dinner we were too tired to do anything but sleep -- story of our lives on this trip!
So that brings us to today, finally. Overnight we had a long trip from North Seymour up and around Isabela Island, where we stopped this morning near Fernandina. We started our day with a panga ride along the cliffs of Isabela where we saw lots of blue-footed boobies perched on the sides -- and some exciting stuff like Galapagos penguins and Pacific green sea turtles (like Crush on Finding Nemo, but without the surfer dude accent). That was a great ride until the boobies started indiscriminately pooping on us. I got hit twice, and so did Kim. Yuck! We went into a little cave where the water was so clear you could see fish swimming at the bottom. It was awesome.
Time for the nightly briefing ...
posted by Kristina at 6:20 PM
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