And finally.... Isabela.

Finally!!  After all this time, from the beginning thinking I would be stationed in Isabela, to the time the boats got cancelled, and now....  elusive Isabela comes to me (or rather, I to 'her').  So my amigas from the casa de voluntarios and I decided to head off to Isabela on Thursday afternoon, and do some sightseeing.  Isabela is a beautiful island, but I'm glad I didn't live there for 4 months!  The town is very small, and there is very few services.  But hey...  we were tourists!! 

Friday morning we headed off to 'los tuneles', which is nothing like the lava tunnels in Santa Cruz.  Rather, this is more like lava bridges scattered around a sheltered area of ocean.  But to gain access, the 'panga', or small fiberglass vessel must - quite literally- ride a wave over a rocky ridge into this lovely sheltered area.  Now that was scary... but worth it.  There is loads of turtles, marine birds, rays, and other animals that take shelter here.  After a trip around los tuneles, we went snorkelling at 'el findo' (I think?  Dammit, I have to start paying attention!).  There were a group of cownosed rays, eagle rays, turtles, a sea lion came to play, and even some small sharks. 

Near Puerto Villamil is another small island called "Islote Tintoreras", where there is a bay and small channel filled with white-tip sharks.  There is also an abundance of marine iguanas, and the most amazing lava formations!  Afterwards, we snorkelled again in the area, and found another very playful and curious sea lion, and a gigantic ray!! 

The evenings in Isabela were wonderfully clear, and we were graced with the most spectacular views of the Milky Way galaxy stretched parallel from the beach straight up into the night sky....  It was a surreal experience to stare up at millions of stars and simultaneously hear the waves roll gently on the beach. 

On Saturday, we all hiked up the Sierra Negra volcano to take in the most amazing views of the crater, which is 20KM in diameter!!  I couldn't fit it all in one picture, even in the widescreen mode... 

 After arriving back in town, we walked back to our hostel along the beach (which is soooooo pretty BTW!), where I paused to spend some time alone, watching the sunset and thinking about my last 4 months here. Coming to the realization that it was my second last night in Galapagos struck me very hard, and I think I may have experienced a small bit of 'macular diaphoresis' (that's watery eyes for all of you not up to date on your medical latin).   

(sigh....)  Yes, as I write this last and final post, I am sitting in the airport in Houston awaiting my connection back to Vancouver.  These last four months have been quite the experience indeed.  I have seen and done things that regualr tourists never get a chance to do, I made some cool new friends, and learned a lot about how much more work still needs to be done if we are to preserve places that are as special as the Galapagos Islands.... 

(On another note, also sitting here in the Houston airport really wanting coffee since I've been awake since 4 am, that when you don't use your bank accounts for 4 months, they tend to suspend your accounts.....  FRICK!!!)

Elusive Isabela....

(sigh)....  So close and yet so far.

So, this weekend is a long weekend here in Ecuador, and so all the girls from the volunteer house had decided to head to Isabela this weekend for a bit 'o fun.  We bought tickets for the boat, we had bags packed, permissions to bugger-off from work from our bosses...  everything!  And with only a few hours left before the boat goes, an 'orange alert' happens due to large waves all over the coastline, and all marine activity is suspended.  Fishing, surfing, and yes..... the boats to Isabela. With only two more weekends left here, this means that next weekend, I HAVE TO GET THERE!!!  Hahaha!

OK, so I haven't written in a while.  What's been going on?  Not much.  Since the trip to Darwin, things have been relatively quiet around here.  Last weekend on Saturday a group of us volunteers went to climb Cerro Crocker, the volcano peak in Santa Cruz.  It was a rainy drizzly day when we headed out, which made for an extremely muddy trail.  Oh well, right?  Well, Andrea didn't have room in her suitcase for hiking boots, and so I went in socks and my durable Keen sandals, which were promptly filled with mud after about 10 min on the trail. 

And after 2 hours up, and then another 2 down, and a bit of side-trail exploring in between, well let's just ssay it took me several scrub brushes to get the mud out of my clothes and out from under my toe nails.  But, what a view!  When we arrived at the top of Cerro Crocker, we had the most amazing views of .....  absolutely nothing. 

 Remember, I said it was raining.  Socked in.  Nothing to see.  Hahahah!!  Oh well, it was a very rugged trail with amazing forests to see on the way up. 

On Sunday, the same group of us went to Garrapaterro, a distant beach on the east coast of Santa Cruz (where we carry out the monitoring of juvenile sharks, actually!).  Qué divertido!!!  We played in the surf and relaxed all afternoon...

 

The usual turnover of volunteers continues here, we had a good-bye party for someone last night.  Soon it will be my turn.  Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!!  This weekend, since Isabela has eluded us, we may go camping in the highlands, or maybe just take it easy....  Will post about Isabela when I finally meet 'her'!!

Love, hugs, and kisses from Galapagos!  Andy

In the company of giants...

And they were giants indeed.  Yes, after a few hiccups (to be explained later) I found myself on the expedition to Darwin Island in the north of the archipelago to tag whale sharks for the Galapagos Whale Shark Project!  You can find a link to the non-profit organization on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/sk=inbox&action=read&tid=f4fe602f5c9f4965bc5f8f591eed469f#!/pages/Galapagos-Whale-Shark-Project/213278228710981

This whole amazing project took place in conjunction with the Charles Darwin Research Station, the Galapagos National Park, and the Galapagos Whale Shark Project.  I was extremely lucky to have found myself on this expedition, as tourist who go to the north of the archipelago can go for a maximum of 3 days, and have to pay thousands of dollars for a trip!  I was there for 9 days (plus 2 days if travel in either direction) basically for free, and not only that, but I was privelidged to work with some of the most amazing people!  A thousand Thank You`s to Jonathan, Alex, Cesar, and Eduardo! 

OK!  So what did we do?  Well, there is so much that is unknown about this charismatic and gentle giant, the whale shark.  Jonathan Green put together this project many years ago to study the whale sharks of the Galapagos Islands, and it has only recently come to fruition with this first trip to tag the sharks and follow their movements.  This was an extremely successful trip, as we tagged 14 sharks, and have already started recieving their satellite signals, and they are 500kms away already!! 

What are they up to???  The whale shark population in Galapagos is apparently very special because it is largely females (whereas other populations are mostly males), and to add to the mystery....  most of these females are heavily pregnant when they visit the Galapagos Islands...  Are they here to give birth to whale shark pups?

So, how did we do this?  Well, in two teams of 4 people, we used scuba to wait on a ledge underwater where sharks frequently pass by.  When a shark was encountered, we swam next to it, and used a speargun to shoot a dart into an area of thick cartilage near the dorsal fin, and send the satellite tag away with the shark on the end of a cable.  Easy, right???  Well, it can be dangerous work, especially if the cable becomes entangled on someone, and the shark starts to pull them along (or down!).

So, besides swimming with the largest fish in the world, we also saw schools of hammerhead sharks , green turtles, tunas, and even a passing pod of dolphins took a curious look at us one day while we were 'safety stopping'...!!! 

 In addition to the incredible underwater life, we were also graced with the most stunning views of Darwin, and 'El arco de Darwin' too!  The wonderful cook aboard our boat fed us like kings (I need a diet)!  Well, back to work now...  yeah, this is a tough job.

And Galapagos National Park turns 52 years old....

Hello, my name is Andrea, and I'm a blog-aholic.  It's been 2 weeks since my last post....

Well, much to report on, in that case!  Since our departure to Darwin and Wolf has been postponed until tomorrow morning at 9am, I figure I´d better do something productive.  As the title says, the Galapagos National Park turned 52 years old this weekend, and I was there for the celebration in San Cristobal.  But before I get to all that, let´s catch up on the last two weeks.....  

Well, we went for another day to monitor the juvenile shark population in the mangroves east of Puerto Ayora on the 24th, which was amazing as always.  This timeI didn´t have the guilty job of taking the fin clip for DNA samples, but rather to put the sharks back in the water, and ensure that they are vigourous enough to swim after their experience.  This is done by holding them by the tail and (very carefully!) under the snout, and then ´swishing´ them through the water in a figure 8 motion to pump water over their gills.  When they struggle to get free (rather than rest passively in your grasp) is when they are good to go! 

¿Qué más?  Ah yes, as part of the Galapagos cultural council´s attempt to bring the arts to the islands, they was a jazz and blues concert one night week in the town hall, where a really great, and funny artist from New York belted out great blues tunes on his harmonica and guitar all night!  My new friend Ivo (de Alemanía) and I took in the concert with the rest of my house mates Maita, Gabriela, Alegria, and Billy. 

Ah yes...  On Thursday last week, we went to monitor the lobster population in Canal Itabaca again, but after only getting one collector assessed, our mission quickly turned into a search and rescue for a tourist who´d been lost for three days...!  So we left our lobsters and made a full circle around Santa Cruz looking for the tourist who was supposedly on a beach somewhere (faaaaar away from any civilization).  Even though another boat found this fellow instead after a long day of hungry searching on our part, it was ´vale la pena´ (worth it), because we saw parts on Santa Cruz´s west coast that few people ever get to glimpse (with the exception of dumb, wandering tourists)...  it was gorgeous!!

OK, on to this weekend in San Cristobal!  So Thursday night (or rather friday morning at 2am), the boat taking all the park staff was set to depart for San Cristobal, and I was heading through town with my backpack when I ran into my new pal Ivo.  Being a rather spontaneous individual, Ivo thought going to San Cristobal would be fun, so grabbed little more than his toothbrush and swimsuit and snuck on to the park boat behind Yasmania (the Galapagenian gal from San Cristobal) and I! 

This was a great relaxing weekend!  Since the boat ride over was a rather uncomfortable spot to sleep, we napped after arriving at Yasmanias house, and then Ivo and I hung out on the beach where he grew tired of his dreadlocks and asked me to cut them off (que guapo ahora!!!).  A bit of dinner and happy-hour carparinias at the bar Casa Blanca meeting amazing people before discoing at Iguana Rock again!  Saturday brought hangovers for some (not me!), but we siezed the day and met some of Yasmania´s friends and went to a lovely spot for some snorkelling called Las Tijeretas.  

Saturday night was the fiesta for the park, and so after making some homemade carparinias to-go, we headed off to the concert (after filling our bellies with corviches and empanadas, of course!).  While the starting acts were playing, Ivo and Juan Pedro were convinced to buy raffle tickets...  for (get this)...  a chicken.  The main act ( a salsa orchestra from Columbia) didn´t start until 2am (!), but nonetheless, people were still out dancing to the music until the wee hours of the morning...  this place is great!

Sunday Ivo and I went to La Loberia, which is a sea lion rookery (obviously).  We swam with the sea lions for a while before heading off on a hiking trail to see some amazing views of massive waves pounding the shore far below the cliff we were perched on.  The rugged beauty of this place never ceases to amaze me....

Well, Monday was time to take the boat back to the real world here in Santa Cruz, but much to everyone´s surprise, the park boat left at 2 am rather than 2 pm, and so everyone had to charter a boat back...  (hmmm, surprised?  no, not really).  Oh well...  upon arriving back at the office, I was told that someone had backed out of the expedition to Darwin and Wolf Islands to go tag whale sharks, and there was finally a place with my name on it!  AWESOME!!  We are departing tomorrow at 9 am (after several delays), and so will post again when I return in 15 days time!

(P.S.  Have also found out that I am NOT moving to Isabela afterall...  which is alright, since I am enjoying myself immensely here.  Guess I know what I'm doing on my next free weekend!)

Los tuneles y el mercado Mira Flores...!

Ahhhh....!  I've had a very exploratory weekend!  On Saturday morning I met a Galapagenian gal from my office at the mercado Mira Flores.  This is a gigantic market for fruits, vegetables, meat and fish that takes place every Saturday, and there are great deals to be found on lots of things!  I was thrilled to be able to find a place to buy fresh fruits and veg that doesn't rely solely on the timing of a boat!  Things like melons and pineapple were still expensive, but I bought a massive bunch of fresh basil (and I'm talking an armful!) for $1.50!  So when life hands you lemons, get out your tequila and salt!  I took my fruits and veg home, made a huge fruit salad, and then used a type of local fresh cheese to make 'ensalada caprese' for dinner later that night!  

After the market, my housemates and I piled on to our bikes and rode to a bus station on the edge of town, and then took a bus to the 'altaparte' or highlands.  At the end of the bus line we took a short walk to 'los tuneles', which are the tunnels that were formed hundreds of thousands (or even millions!) of years ago when Santa Cruz was volcanically active.  The tunnels run for 1-2 kn underground, and are about 100-200 m in diameter!  We went though one which had a fee, because it was on private property, but had such a lovely charming family running a little flashlight rental.  They had a collection of old tortoise shells on the terrace that you can crawl into and take pictures.  People who had tortoise shells from many years ago are allowed to keep them as decorations, but of course now to acquire any more shells is illegal for obvious reasons.  From there we took a truck-taxi to another spot that has laval tunnels, but somewhat more rugged.  The entrance was a tight squeeze with no stairs and hand rails like the other one.  This one had no lanterns inside either, so we needed our headlamps and flashlights!  While walking through the dimly lit tunnel, the fellow from Columbia/U.S jumped back and shouted, which drew the attention of the rest of the group.  Turns out, he had come across a skeleton, but luckily it has 4 legs instead of two...!   

 Most likely it was a horse or cow that had stumbled in (God knows how throught that little passage!) and could not get out... 'pobrecito'.  We pressed as far into the tunnel as possible before being turned back by a collapsed exit route, but not before turning off all the lights and standing there for a few minutes in the most complete and utter blackness I have EVER felt....

After this little exploration, we all stopped at a roadside cafe for fried empanadas and coffee!  (there's a picture some where...)  When we finally arrived back home after hitching a ride back to town, we dragged the spare mattresses into the 'dining area' and set up a laptop to watch movies and have dinner/drink cervezas....  carpe diem indeed.
Much love from Galapagos!!

Some fun in San Critstobal....!

Aaaah!  Well, I'm making sure I make good use of my time here in the islands, getting out and seeing as much as I can!!  This past weekend I went with Maita (the gal from Spain who lives with me in the volunteer house) to San Cristobal Island.  Que divertido!!

We left work early on Friday afternoon and took the 2pm boat to san Cristobal, where we met up with Paco (Maita's friend from Madrid) and his mate Alejandro.

 Straight off the boat, we went to a beach in town to watch the sundown with the lobos (sea lions).  I'm finding that the sea lions here are a bit like cows in India...  they're everywhere!! (and, like the cows, you have to give them the right of way at all times!)  Apparently the locals here in San Cristobal find them to be a bit of a pest...  Anyways, afterwards we took in a bit of dinner and then hit the local waterfront bar for the happy hour specials of rum and passionfruit juice! 

 Saturday morning, Maita and I rented some bicis (bicycles) and rode to several different spots on San Cristobal...  we went to El Junco which is an old volcano with a lake in the crater, and then to Puerto Chino beach, where we swam against the strong waves to go turtle watching, and were then promptly eaten by horseflies upon exiting the water...  joder!!! 

Since the road to Puerto Chino was mostly downhill, and we hadn't eaten lunch, we hitched a ride uphill with a local family at the beach in the back of their truck to La Galapaguera to see the tortoise refuge and breeding center.  OK, that was enough for the daytime!  Maita and I found a roadside stall selling empanadas and corviches (tasty deep fried green banana dough filled with fish and served with spicy fresh salsa), and then enjoyed enormous fresh milkshakes of banana, passionfruit and papaya....  oh yummy! 

That evening, rather than going back to the bar for happy hour, Maita, Alejando, Paco and I got a bottle of rum and went to the harbour were we had a few drinks, played a hilarious game of "film charades" aka, guess that film that the person is acting out (no talking allowed).  And then we all crowded in to the local nightclub (which in a town of 8000 people was surprisingly hip!) called Iguana Rock to dance salsa until the wee hours of the morning...!

Sunday morning was a bit rough, but more for Maita then myself...  we were off on a snorkel tour of Isla Lobos and Leon Dormido (Sleeping Lion).  Isla Lobos was fantastic as we went swimming with sealions who would come right up to your face!  The large male took particular interest in my underwater camera, and tried to put it in his mouth (I have a photo of bubbles and teeth, which I'm guessing is all I managed to get out of the encounter...).  A large school of sardines had gathered under our boat for protection, and so we could watch the blue-footed boobies dive practically right next to in the water us to catch a little fish....!

Next, off to Leon Dormido!  The water was quite chilly, even in the short-sleeved/legged wetsuits!  But we were graced with the prescence of turtles, and deep down at the bottom of the channel was about 30 young sharks!  Since the visibility was less than stellar, you could only see faint outlines unless you dived down about 20ft....  phew, I was out of breath!

Maita and I were quite tired, but when we arrived back in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (San Cristobal's town), we headed straight off to "La Loberia" which is a sea lion rookery, but also a great place to view red- and blue-footed boobies (the birds!!) 

 However, we arrived at nearly 5 pm, the sun is gone at 6pm sharpish, the bird viewing point was nearly a 1/2 hr hike away, and one of the bug bites from Puerto Chino had swollen up on my foot so badly that I required a bit of field surgery on the beach! 

Needless to say, we didn't make it to see the birdies, but we saw some incredible views of lava-rock strewn beaches being pumeled by frothy blue waves under a incoming stormy sky, it was breath-taking.  I could have stared out on that scene forever....

Well, yes.  As all good things must come to an end, so did this.  Monday morning, Maita and I caught the 7am boat back to Puerto Ayora to head back to work.... 

A day to dive.....

Wow, what a day to spend underwater...  Sunday I decided to give diving at Gordon's rocks another chance, since I was surprisingly underwhelmed my first time there.  The surge had been extremely strong, the visibility was poor, and we didn't see the hammerheads very well...  Ahhh, but this time was different!!!

On our first dive at North Seymour, after about 5 mins below the surface, we watch a group of eagle rays glide lazily past over a bed of garden eels.  For those of you unfamiliar with garden eels, they are a small eel that lives in the sand, with only their heads sticking out, they venture out only slightly to collect food in the area, while leaving the lower half of their body in the sand.  When predators pass overhead, they retract into their sandy tunnel.  They are quite cute, because they look like a bed of grass from a distance.  After, we saw a small group of hammerheards glide past, but their presence was fleeting.  Next, we watched a giant black marbled ray eating something out of the sand, and when it was finished, it simply glided between the circle of land-lubber onlookers on its way out...

After spotting a few small white-tips sharks doozing in a cavern, I managed to get a beautiful picture of a boxfish who practically posed fo rmy photo!  Thanks dude!  And then, to make things better, our group of hammerheads decided to come back for another pass.  For such an odd looking creature, they are still the picture of grace and  beauty....

Ahhh, OK, time to come up for air!!  A modest snack of bread with jam and "squeaky cheese" (the local type of cheese...  seriously, it squeaks when you chew it) was just the thing I needed to warm up.  A 7mm wetsuit and I was still a bit chilled down there!

And with a new tank on my back (which somehow came off underwater and had to be put back on....  tsk tsk, I should change my tanks myself!), we were off to see Gordon's Rocks.  After dropping down to 80 ft, we saw several marine turtles in the area, who seemed totally indifferent to our presence.  A 8 ft galapagos shark in the diastance cought everyone's attention, and when we turned around to head back in the direction of our dive plan....  WHAM!  We ran into a wall.....  of barracuda. 

As we swam closer, the school of barracuda slowly enveloped all 8 divers, our views of each other were obscured by a shimmering cloud of silvery sides, and like a plane coming out of the clouds, eventually all 8 divers emerged out of the other side of the school of barracuda.  And yes...  more hammerhead sharks came past us.  A group of about 10 indivduals swan in our vicinity for several minutes, most were about 6 ft long, but there was one big fellow in the group who was about 8ft....  whoosh.  So cool!

I met some other Canadians on the dive, and the chap from Canmore put it quite well....  "It's the underwater equivalent of going out for a hike, seeing a bunch of bears, some wolves, deer, elk and caribou...  oh yeah, and a massive flock of birds....."  well put Brian.  :)