Yo pasé un poco días muy interesante...

Yes, have had an interesting few days here in Santa Cruz.  It's been a bit of a big fuss around here lately, because the president of Ecuador came to visit the Galapagos Islands today.  (well, OK, he's still here... I just watched him give a speech).  Apparently, the Ecuadorians give their leaders a much more warm welcome than Canadians.  (I'm sure if good ol' Stevie showed his face in Vancouver, there wouldn't be a bike rally for him...).  Yes, that's right!  I found myself in an impromptu bike rally this morning, not that I felt like 'working' anyways. 

When I arrived at the office, I was there for all of 5 min when the Ecuadorian (no, the Galapaguenian) gal arrived, looked at me, and said...  "Andrea, vamos!"  And so it was.  Myself, Yasmania, and Eduardo were off to the bike rally to welcome the president of Ecuador to the islands.  The story goes: the Galapapgos government is trying to display how much of a bike-friendly place Puerto Ayora is (and it indeed is bike-friendly...  bike-safe, well that's a bit different), and so a bunch of people met with their bicycles at the gas station this morning just outside town, and when the president arrived, his convoy stopped, the president got on a bike, and rode into town with the bike-convoy...  Que divertido!!! 

That aside...  I feel bad since I put work in quotation marks above.  I actually do work around here, I swear.  On Wednesday after the usual weekly oceanographic monitoring, instead of heading back to Puerto Ayora, we set off to the west side of Academy Bay to collect some organisms for the aquarium, because the exhibits were rather bland, and the aquarium is one of the stops on the presidents visit, it needed a bit of jazzing up.  Now, I don't feel too bad about collecting some sea stars and urchins, a few fish, etc...  but I felt bad about taking the octopus out of it's home and into a tank (well, I didn't do the taking, someone else did, I think I would have 'accidentally' let the octopus escape).  Octopuses have, for a body mass equivalent, a brain similar in development to a fish...  however, they possess the intelligence of a domestic cat.  I'm going to visit my 'pulpo' (octopus) as often as possible, but I feel the need to give it a name...  any suggestions?

On Thursday, we headed off to Canal Itabaca to monitor the lobster population.  On arriving, we found two marine turtles 'copulando' (mating), and we jumped in the water to try to get some phots.  Unfortunately, with the poor visibility, we decided to try to make a video instead...  which quickly turned into jokes about 'tortuga porn'. 

 And on our way back, the coast guard had accompanied a small vessel into the dock due to some very suspicious gear on board.  Large hooks, thick fishing line, a gaffing hook....  and lots of knives.  Everything you need for illegally fishing and finning sharks.  Luckily, the suspects didn't have any fins on board, so we're hoping they were caught before they 'did the deed' so to speak.  What an atrocious practice, to cut the fins from an animal and throw the carcass (alive) back into the sea to die... 

On the hour-long ride back to Puerto Ayora, we stopped on the edge of Isla Plazas to watch the sea lions play close to our boat.... and I was lucky enough to take in the vista of that gorgeous coast east of Academy Bay again. 

And today, the bike rally.  I almost jumped on a boat to go to San Cristobal because I don't have any plans for the weekend, but the girl from Spain that lives in the house with me said she's going to San Cristobal next weekend, and invited me to join her!  I hope my slave-driver of a boss gives me the time off on Friday afternoon....!  Ha ha! 

Hasta luego.  Besos y abrazos de Galapagos!

Flo Flo and the lobo (s)....

So for not having any plans for the long weekend here in Ecuador, I think I've made good use of it.  Friday and Saturday I spent doing a whole lot of SFA....  (Dad, if you need help with that acronym, I'll fill you in later).  I spent Friday and Saturday at the beach, reading, lying in the sun, swimming in the ocean, and swinging in the hammock (read: converted old fishing net) outside the house....  muuuuuy tranquílo!!  But today was the icing on the relaxation cake.  I found room on a boat going to Floreana Island, and so I was off bright and early this morning!  Approaching the island in the boat was a breathtaking view of what superficially appears to be a totally uninhabited island.  Almost...  Floreana has a whopping population of.......  100 people.  They have giant tortoises there, but regrettably, not the native species.  The native Floreana tortoises were exterminated by pirates and settlers early in the 1800's, and so the tortoises living on Floreana today come from San Cristobal.  Why did they put them there....?  I have NO clue. 

On our little trip up into the highlands, we also privileged with a fantastic view of one of Floreana's extict volcanic craters.  However, today's highlight was definately swimming with sea lions near "El corona de diablo" (the devil's crown).  There is a spit of beach on Floreana where the sea lions gather, and when you enter the water, their curiosity gets the better of them, and they swim right up to your face!!  The only time a had a twinge on nervousness was when one swam up to my face, paused, and then darted even closer (as if to say...  "Psych!!!!")!  Haha!

Andrea y los tiburónes...

Today for work we went to monitor the juvenile shark populations on the east side of the island....  yes, tough work.  And for as much as I adore sharks, that wasn't the best part of the day.....  The best part of the day was heading out of the harbour and setting off up the east coast of Santa Cruz.  No picture could ever capture the beauty of this scene.  As the early morning sun was still rising in the sky and burning off the rainclouds from last night, the volcanic peak of the island remained shrouded in a gray blanket as streams of sunlight shone through and illuminated the green landscape.  The coast just east of Academy Bay is a sheer cliff of black volcanic rock with a long shallow shore, and so when the swells roll into this section of the island, they don't simply crash against the cliffs.... the waves roll in for a looooong way in a gigantic frothy curl of water before breaking in a magnificent spray of white and blue against the black rocks.  With this vista before my eyes, and with the wind in my face, I think I found complete and utter satisfaction.....

So, back to sharkies!  Today we had to set out a net (in three different locations up the east coast in certain mangrove lagoons), and when we caught a little sharkie, they were brought on board, measured, weighed, given a numbered tag and a microchip under the skin, and a DNA sample taken from the dorsal fin (my job), all in under two minutes.  We even caught some that had been previously tagged, and so we were able to tell how much they'd grown in the meantime.  As a recent raid of a vessel illegally fishing sharks in the Galapagos islands goes to show, it is important to keep an eye on the populations of these apex predators.  The demand for shark fin products has put a real dent in the numbers of these awesome creatures all over the world....  and as I was taking the little snip of DNA samples from these little guys fins, I couldn't help shaking my head and thinking I should have had some chopstick and broth nearby.  Sick joke, I know....    (really sick). 

(sigh)...  what else?  Oh yes, I have started reading Darwin's Origin of Species.  I'm on page 3.  Only some 600 or so more pages to go.  Tomorrow is a long weekend, and I've no idea what I'm going to get up to (reading, evidently).  I'm gutted, as the scuba shop that offers interns a discount is full up for the whole weekend...  maybe I'll try to go to Floreana if there's still room on the boat....  not much else to report on right now.

 Besos y abrazos de Galapagos! 

The beauty of Bartolomé....

Wow....!  What a day.  I admit, it started a lot earlier than I would have prefered, getting up at 0500hrs is NOT my forté, as many of you could attest to.  However, it was totally worth it.  We departed for Bartolome from Canal Itabaca on a lovely boat where we enjoyed breakfast on the deck and watched Dafné Mayor and Dafné Menor (two very small islands) pass by.  As we approached Bartolomé, we were greeted by a group of 5 or 6 bottlenose dolphins jumping in the wake from the front of our boat...  what a nice welcoming party!  Bartolomé is only 108 m high, but looks like a moonscape as it is nothing more than pock-marked lava landscape.  The only thing that reminded me that I was on planet Earth was the crystalline blue ocean sparkling in the background.  The only place there is green is at the 'neck' of Bartolomé near Pinnacle Rock.  The view from the top of Bartolomé is breathtaking, as you can see how the lavaflows had crept their way toward the Island of Santiago (in the background).  After enjoying the view from the top, our group partook in a view from below the water as well!  We snorkelled in the bay (Bahía Sullivan?) where we watched a sea lion doozing at the shoreline, a group of white-tip sharks resting in an underwater cavern, and saw Galapagos penguins dart past....

As it turns out, Bartolomé is a small world.  The other people in our group today were Canadians as well, from Calgary.  One of the couples are neighbours with the sister of a paramedic I used to work with (no big deal for most of you reading, but I'm sure Taiter, and maybe Jess and Merle will get a laugh out of that).  Also, there was another lady who is the cousin of Nancy Knowlton....  for those of you scrathing your heads right now, Nancy Knowlton is the authour of the recent National Geographic publication "Citizens of the Sea: The wonderous creatures from the census of marine life"....  Well, I think it's just nifty.

Tomorrow, I'm off to bask at Tortuga Bay again with a Brazilian gal from work.  Apparently, there is a much more calm beach a far walk down the long white stretch of the original Tortuga Bay I visited last weekend.  This one supposedly has a little mangrove area as well for some calm snorkelling, good for watching juvenile sharks swim peacefully around the mangrove roots....    Another report to follow.

  Oh also... it seems my english speaking skills are in high demand here.  I'm going to meet a gal from my favorite free wi-fi cafe tomorrow morning while I have a cup of coffee for a bit of 'intercambio la lengua'....

Besos y abrazos de Galapagos!

Bartolomé bound, and Isabela potentially on the horizon....

Look out Bartolomé, here I come!  So, I've decided to take a small trip this coming weekend and go check out some of the other islands while I'm here.  Bartolomé is a short 2 hr boat ride away, so I'll be heading there on Saturday to check out the island.  Will send a full detailed report on my return....  Also, my boss has told me today that there is a very good possibility that I will be heading to Isabela, potentially next month, to do some work there.  Phew, I was just getting settled in here...!

Oh...  have also discovered that I get sea-sick in small boats on choppy waters.  Who would have thought?  (I swear I never used to...)

Besos y abrazos de Galapagos!

Vamos a las Grietas!

Ah yes!  Have spent much time this weekend with Carla and Eduardo...  last night I taught them to play cribbage over a beer, and today (as the title would say) we went to las Grietas! We had to take a small water taxi across the Puerto Ayora harbour, and then walk this insane path of volcanic rocks for about 1km before reaching the pool.  This site is a volcanic fracture which mingle the fresh water coming into it from the land with the salt water of the ocean.  It is wonderfully clear (and 'un poco frío'!), so people come to enjoy a swim and jump from the rocks above into the deep pool.  A halocline (the odd blurriness when salt and fresh water layer over one another) was visible throughout the pool.

Besos y abrazos de Galapagos.....!

P.S.  AJ, this reminded me of Sooke!

The weekend.... thus far.

Well, we've had a few days now of very dark skies with not much coming out of them... until last night.  As myself and another intern and our boss were heading out for a bite last night, a torrential downpour started, and we were completely soaked through to the skin when we arrived at the local food stalls.  This is not like the spitty, misty rain inVancouver at all!  After a bite to eat, we went to a small club for a bit of dancing, since it was a send-off for the gal who's leaving on Monday.  (P.S. things I was sure I'd do in the Galapagos: see animals, take pictures, and scuba.  Things I NEVER thought I'd be doing in the Galapagos....  dancing in a thatched roof nightclub in the puddle that had come through the roof while Lady GaGa's "Poker Face" played on the stereo....)

Today, since I didn't have anything I had to do (OMG, I love being able to say that!), I went to the beach at Tortuga Bay, which is a lovely, long stretch of soft white sand scattered with black-as-night volcanic rocks.  The area is better suited for surfing, but it was lovely nonetheless to lay out on the sand and take a bit of sun, read, and enjoy a modest picnic of guava-jam sandwiches and fruit.   

(Inner thought..... debating whether or not to share the fiasco with the laundry this morning.....  oh what the hell, why not?)  So as I went to do laundry this morning, I found that since the humidity is so high here (and hence, your clothes are never really 'dry'), it's not such a fabulous idea to leave your dirty laundry tied up in a plastic bag for.... 2 weeks until you get around to washing it.  It tends to accumulate....  mold.  Yeeeeeeah, freaky, right?  So, since the washing machine only does 'agua frio', I gave my clothes a bit of a pre-wash in the sink with some hot water, and my vigourous scrubbing gave me a massive blister on my finger...!!!  Hahahah!  Now, all the time I spent in India should have prepared my for a conundrum such as this, but perhaps I'm out of practice.  (And for all of you out there right now thinking "Eeeeeew!"....  well c'mon.  I can't have you guys thinking I live in a TOTAL paradise....  re: reference to toxic 12 inch long centipede in the house). 

Also, AJ....  I have thrown in a little 'bicicleta' photo just for you....  missing you tons.

Besos y abrazos de Galapagos!