Mantas, and turtles, and penguins....oh, my!

We've been very busy these last few days.  With our buddy Ron on Mar de Luz, we continue to check off the "must-dos" here on Isabela.  We have had to break into the piggy bank tho, something we aren't really happy about due to the bank situation here.

But back to the fun bit.  After roaming around town and interviewing a few companies, we settled on Rosedelco to use for our snorkeling trip out to Los Tuneles.  A murky start to the day had us all wondering whether we had made a mistake, but the second stop of the day saw us on top of a distinctly "darth vader-like" sting ray, a MASSIVE manta ray surfacing and diving just off the boat, and turtles.  Lots and lots of 4-5 feet long turtles (no lie, not a fish story, they really were this big) which we were able to swim alongside.  For me, the highlight of this stop was a seahorse.  Other than the descriptive of "yellow", I have no other specific info.  Oh, and it was about 8" long (tall).  Very, very cool, indeed.  

Which brings me to etiquette.  Ron and I are not really "group" people.  We actually try to do things on our own as we always find that in a group, the guides are more interested in getting you to lunch so they can have a break, or they just want to hurry you along so their entire day will be finished.  So we try to NOT do the group thing.  We want to mosey, take lots of photos without random strangers cropping up for the inevitable photo bomb, and can see the stuff we want to see without intrusion.  This snorkeling trip was a challenge.  We happened to be with a few snorkelers that didn't quite know that its not so cool to kick your flippers really hard, stirring up the mucky bottom.  Or that they shouldn't get so excited that they park themselves in front of whatever it is the guides have found, or that being aware of where your flippers are, is really important to the guy behind you.  At some point I just swam away, as I'd rather have a more peaceful snorkeling experience.  The seahorse was a case in point.  In only 6 feet or so of water, the guides' admonishments of "just float, people, just float; no kicking" fell on deaf ears.  Visibility was obliterated in a matter of seconds.  I let everyone leave, hung around for the muck to settle and the water to clear so that I could have another go at seeing the one thing I really wanted to see - and this little guy didn't disappoint.  It's obviously where he/she usually hangs out, as the guide knew exactly where to take us. 

We all piled into the boat again for the last stop of the day, which was in a series of grottos all created from lava tubes when the local volcano, Sierra Negra, blew her top.  Penguins, and incredibly clear water were what awaited us.  The visibility had to have been 30-50 feet, and the most insane colour we've seen yet.  AND yet another seahorse, this time bright red.

My snorkeling checklist for the Galapagos is now complete!

We're never bored

Life has yet again, settled into a nice routine.  Ron and I, after living on a boat for 4+ years, seem to need a day of rest in between our bouts of activities.  I guess that's why it's taken us so long to get here - just recently I read a blog talking about a couple that had circumnavigated the globe, taking 5 years, and yet another rally, the World ARC, takes boats around in 15 months.  WTF?  We would NEVER be able to do this.  Must have time to "just live", surely.

With our "one day on, one day off" schedule, we can combine really fun stuff, with still continually working to improve our home.  But the fun stuff is what you really want to hear about, don't you?

Assembling the bikes once again, we headed off to see the Wall of Tears, a short, but uphill, 6 km to a former penal colony.  The Wall of Tears was imposed as a form of punishment, and I surely know that building a random lava rock wall, in the middle of nowhere, for no reason other than to break my spirit....I would be a model prisoner.  Ron's recent posting on Facebook has given rise to many quotes, coming in from all around the globe, referencing Cool Hand Luke....but even "shaking the bush, Boss, shaking the bush" has a purpose.  This wall...not so much.

So terribly pointless

 We continued to explore, and there are a lot of little nooks and crannies to ride the bike, walk, and explore, all not costing a penny.

The obligatory cemetery shot, although a bit sad

Our first lava tunnel

Uh huh, these guys are even cooler than tortoises

Publicity shot for his portfolio

Ron making friends wherever he goes - doesn't the iguana look thrilled?

Yesterday was boogie boarding day.  Just as I'm wading in, Ron yells "SHARK!".  Whipping my head around to check to see if he was laughing, with nary a smirk to be found, I waited a bit.  When he said, "I'm sure they are friendly", I thought good enough.  We both had an excellent time, boogie boarding and body surfing, with our friends the sharks, and each brought home a fantastically painful sunburn.  Surely we have learned....Me, I also rediscovered my intense hatred of sand.  How could I have been a surfer chick for so long with this loathing?  Perhaps because now I have to clean it up when it gets on the boat!!!

Today we just swam from the boat.  We headed across the bahia here, in search of.....whatever.  The most unique thing we found were thousands of baby puffer fish.  Oh, and penguins.  Oh, and rays.  Oh, and sea lions.

Yup, livin' in the zoo.

 

Isabela Update

After our penguin sighting of yesterday morning, we figured we were ready for more exploring. We set off on long walk (okay, it only felt long due to the heat but in reality, we think it was about 5 kms roundtrip) to go to the Centro de Crianza, the Tortoise Breeding Center here on Isabela. There is a wonderful boardwalk that winds past a few pozos (new Spanish word - pools) and through the arid landscape (Ron had read somewhere that not a few people have wandered away, and have gotten lost. They then ended up dead.) This place is covered in hardened lava flows, and the island has no natural water sources, other than what falls during the rainy season. So it was a surprise that we saw these pools and came across the most beautiful coral coloured flamingos.

Another 10 minutes later, and we came to the breeding center. Suffice it to say that we think there is no danger of extinction of the 5 species of Galapagos Tortoises. We must have seen several hundred (maybe more), in all ages, which according to the literature all came from 4 sets of breeding adults. Looked pretty prolific to us.

Back to the beach where we stumbled, almost literally, across another 25,000 +/- marine iguanas, also in various shapes and sizes. There were some big papas roaming around, keeping an eye on the myriad offspring. They were all piled up, and didn't seem to care who's shoulders they stepped on on their way to the top of the heap. Sounds like most of the western world - we have not evolved very far from the our ancestors, the iguanas.

This is the high season here, and although everyone around the world knows about the Galapagos Islands, this place was empty. Not a soul around, which suits us perfectly, but it seems crazy that as well known as these islands are, so far we've seen only 4 boats here in the three days since arrival, with a total of perhaps 40 people. We'd read that the authorities, by the number of flights they allow to land on Baltra and Cristobal can control the number of visitors, and we frankly feel the numbers are just right. We haven't been to the most populated island, Santa Cruz, but as the vast majority of the boats depart from there, we figure it is probably the most lively. For us here, this Darwinian peace is perfect.

We have some hysterical pictures of the wildlife - unfortunately, until we get our internet signal sorted, you'll have to settle for these words.....or start your travel plans, and come out here to see it all for yourself.

Total costs so far, other than our initial $1085 Autografo, (not per person)

San Cristobal (arrived 1/1/15, departed 1/16/15)
Tour to Leon Dormido - $84
Taxi tour of the island - $30
Various fruits/vegies - ~$100
Top up of 17 gallons diesel - $54
Departure Zarpe - $15
Water taxi during stay - ~$30
One dinner out - $30
Various beers/water - ~$20
Total - ~$363

Sometimes days are boring....

...and other times, not so much.

We let go of our mooring ball in Baquerizo 2 mornings ago, with a brisk 15 knot wind blowing. Perfect direction, perfect speed, everything was perfect EXCEPT for the fact that it was Friday. In the book of Sailors' Superstitions, ranking close to #1 is to never set off on a passage on a Friday. We were planning to put this to test.

Within an hour, we were blazing along at a respectable 6.5 knots, a speed which was unheard of heading south along the Pacific coast, and one that we averaged until the wind stopped altogether, around 1:30am. Our trip from Isla San Cristobal to Isla Isabela was approximately 95 miles from start to finish, so we were hoping to arrive just at daybreak the following morning. With dead air, we of course turned to the trusty engine in order to push us onwards. It was also a crew change, and I gratefully headed down below, but sleep was tough due to the fact that there seemed to be an unknown rumble coming from underneath the bed. The Captain didn't want to acknowledge it directly, but 15 minutes later, I heard the engine get turned off, and a summons to come topsides. Seems the engine was getting a bit hot, and Ron determined that a new impeller was needed in the water pump. Nothing like doing emergency repairs while underway, in the middle of the night. We might have just waited but we were only 5 miles off Isla Tortuga, a crescent-shaped island that is the mostly submerged top of a volcano. It's pretty cool, but we didn't want to get any closer, hence the repair.

An hour later we were underway again, and with no wind whatsoever, we slowly made our way into the reef and rock strewn port at Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela.

Now this is what I always envisioned the Galapagos to be. Its much quieter and a quick wander through town showed dirt streets, and everyone on bicycles. We had heard that the islands in the west were quieter and less developed, and we've seen for ourselves that this is true.

We had been having head problems. Not too bad, just seemed like the hoses were a bit clogged as the "outgo" wasn't quite keeping up with the inflow. Another boat project....which I announced yesterday that I was tackling. I believe I saw Ron rolling his eyes in disbelief. Now in cruiser's parlance, there seems to be Blue jobs, and Pink jobs. Pink jobs are usually galley related, and keeping clothes, dishes, and boat generally clean. Blue jobs are....pretty much everything else. Ron is a bit squeamish with anything poo related, and as a woman, I certainly have my fair share of "gross" to deal with and while I wouldn't say that its my favourite job, its easier for me to do. Several hours later, with a gallon or two of sweat dispensed, I announced that the job was done, with nary a leak to be found. 3 hoses, a vent and a y-valve, clean as a whistle. Which also meant that the cleanup also included the entire bathroom - BONUS.

For the first time in a year or so, this morning I saw the sunrise. Early mornings aren't my strong suit, but the boat was bumping up against the mooring ball, and around 5:30am we were up. Not only did we see the sun come up, but we also saw our first penguins swimming around the boat. Who knew they were so fast?! Another tick in our "what did we see in Galapagos?" book.

When we find an internet signal, I'll post some photos, but for now this update is being brought to you via single sideband

Aside from the flies (of which there seem to be an unending supply of), we like it here!

Again....provisioning!!!

We're on the move again.  Decision has been made.....Thursday we will drop our lines from the mooring ball, and head over to Isla Isabela, the second-most western island here in the Galapagos, and the largest one in the chain.  As far as where we can go, this island will be the most remote, so yesterday we topped up a few things we had used up since the we left Bahia on December 27th.

1) Diesel - We emptied 3 of our 5-gallon jugs into the tanks, and took these to town.  We thought we'd try to be sneaky and see if we could wrangle diesel for the local price, rather than the extranjero rate.  We told our taxi driver that if he'd buy the fuel at his $1.02/gallon rate for us, we'd give him a kickback of $10.  We think we're so clever....the authorities are sooooo onto us.  We first had to head to the Port Captain to get a paper authorizing us in fact, to buy the diesel.  With paper in hand, we hightailed it to the station, made our deal with our driver, and attempted the impossible.  Nope, as we didn't have our passports with us, there was some consternation, but a quick call to the Port Captain assured them we were "authorized" to purchase the fuel.  As far as a deal.....that wasn't going to happen.  We think it might have been possible if we were trying to buy gasoline, but the diesel identified us as "furreners".  I was relieved however, as we only had to pay $3.23/gallon, unlike our friends down in Salinas, that had to fork over close to $6 for their international status.  While in Bahia, we had filled our tanks 10 gallons at a time, as the gas station guy didn't mind charging us the $1/gallon rate for a small amount, even tho it's supposedly illegal to do so.  But....filling our 200 gallon tanks, for $200, rather than $1000....we were willing to try any sort of finagling.  Here, not so much.  When we initially arrived, we had to let them know that we might be wanting to buy a bit of fuel, so we were on record requesting a few gallons.  Although we had told them 15, we were able to get the guy to put in a bit more (paying more, of course) but we got 17 gallons instead.  Where we are going, every bit for the future will help.
2) The inevitable booze top up was required, as well.  In two weeks, I had gone through 3 boxes of wine, so those needed to be replaced, while I could.  Ron had managed to also go through a few beers, so 48 bottles were bought, along with a $10.70 bottle of rum.  The Ron Abuelo was $18, so we'll see if the $10 will only be good for stripping varnish.
3) Vegies - most of our fresh stuff was gone.  I still had onions, potatoes, a carrot, and a rather dubious bunch of celery.  We topped up the potatoes, got a few green apples, some bell peppers, and a bag of 20 WICKED hot yellow peppers (I'm not sure what those'll go into but getting anything spicy in Ecuador is a challenge (impossible to even buy Chili Powder in the major supermarkets), so I always jump when I see anything picante.  We managed to get a very green pineapple for the future, and 10 tomatoes, that are absolutely beautiful (unfortunately, they have no flavour whatsoever).  Added to this was another 5 pounds of potatoes, and a handful of limes.  I think the bill came to around $30.  Can't give an exact number, as we were buying from 3 different venders all at the same time, and money was getting handed to many people.
4) Eggs - Despite the risk of cholesterol overload that the media warns us of, eggs continue to be an important part of our diet.  I try to keep it at a dozen per week for the both of us, which includes baking, but sometimes an egg is just too easy to grab to make a hot sandwich, or to scramble into a breakfast burrito.  I had saved our empty cartons, so we took these along to the mercado and topped up with an additional 5 dozen.  We aren't too sure what we'll find over at Isabela - better to be safe than sorry.
5) Coffee - If you've been reading this blog, you know that we have a bit of an obsession with coffee.  We thought a nice souvenir to take away from the Galapagos Islands would be some of the home grown stuff, a little bit like buying Blue Mountain Coffee when you are in Jamaica.  We had been waiting to go back to the little man we had talked with last week while he was raking the beans on the concrete, drying them out.  (that's a bad sentence...but you get my drift).  He ushered us into his storefront (see the little door below, on the right?), and we proceeded to make a deal.  $5/pound....not bad! 

Professional drying facilities

Fancy Storefront - Organic, no less!

Let's see....how many pounds do we want?

Twigs we get thrown in, no charge

All 6 pounds, bagged up and ready for roasting

Bolivar has been notified that we are on our way....now we just need to store the bikes, buy a souvenir t-shirt or two, and get underway.