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.  :) 

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!