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.

 

Snorkeling Highlight of our Lives (to date)

We think we've figured out how to stay here in the Galapagos, see what we need/want to see, and not break the bank.  Bolivar is the MAN!!!  We've now taken his advice on the second tour of the island, and this one was definitely worth the price of admission.

In his own words, Bolivar is our agent and believes that his job is fix our problems, and in general make our life while here on Cristobal as perfect as it can be.  He always offers to take our trash to town, he's fixed our fumigation paperwork, and he has ensured that the Park officials are happy with the state of the boat.  The latest in his recommendations was a "buddy" of his, who has a boat for touring the islands, and for fishing.  Along with our gang of six, Bolivar showed up with a 3-pak of Ecuadorians and we were away for a day of fishing, snorkeling, and beaching.

The ONLY man to know in town!

Bolivar and his captain friend were keen to do a bit of fishing along the way, so at various times they threw their hooks out.   With the exception of a "bambini" barracuda, they were thwarted in catching everyone a bit of yellowfin for a sushi dinner.  However....

The day started out by heading directly away from Cristobal, past the only two sailboats in the harbour, and out to a rock that all of us sailors had seen coming into port.  

No photoshopped colour - Sundancer and Mar de Luz

The Rock - A Baby Island with it's own light

Due to an entire flock of petrels showing the way, the guys were hoping for a few strikes here but it was not to be.

This island, called Leon Dormido was our destination.  The Sleeping Lion didn't look too much like its namesake, but the gap was the site for our snorkeling adventure.  It's known for hammerheads and other types of sharks, which we all hoped to see, sort of.  

Leon Dormido

We saw what we came to see.  It was truly like being in the middle of a Galapagos documentary.  The rays of the sun shining down through to the depths, the deep blue colour, the vertical walls of the rocks plunging to the sea floor, and a layering of marine life; the six of us snorkeling at the surface, the marine turtles lazily swimming just below, second floor down were the spotted rays, which looked to be about 4-5 feet in diameter, and then the sharks.  All those sharks!  None of knew how many there were, but suffice it to say that there were "enough".  Slowly patrolling the channel, these guardians were obviously well fed, as the countless schools of fish, the turtles, us....they just didn't seem too interested in any of it.  For which we are grateful!  

Ron was able to take some pretty amazing footage on our GoPro, which due to slow internet upload speeds here, you can find via this link on YouTube, if you are interested.  

http://youtu.be/lNmo7BATyCc

http://youtu.be/qRHXzsMeaYE

Consider our minds blown, and despite what friends have said about the sea life we will be seeing in the upcoming months, we wonder if anything will ever be able to top this. 

Another stop, but this time at a deserted island, complete with lots of interesting plant growth patterns.  At first, when I saw them on the beach, I was sure it must have been someone's handiwork, but further into the mangroves, we came upon this under the water.

 

As I mentioned, Bolivar is a good man to know.  We had wandered through town upon our arrival, inquiring at various tour agencies about a trip out to Leon Dormido, and had gotten quotes in the range of $75-100 per person.  We had our own snorkeling gear and wetsuits, we didn't need a picnic lunch, and we had Bolivar - the cost was $84 for the both of us for this 6 hour excursion.   

It looks like we'll be moving on in the next day or two.  We've decided, after much discussion to bypass Santa Cruz.  Although this is the place that has the most tours, and supposedly is a very lively town, we've also heard that the anchorage is crap, being quite rolly.  There are moorings, but friends on Aros Mear, after a very uncomfortable night, decided that anchoring was better.  As the anchoring area is very small and tight, a stern anchor is needed to keep your boat from swinging into other close-by neighbors.  We don't really like tight, and we're not here to be a part of a lot of tourists, so we'll just head over to the westernmost island, Isabela.  Plans today include replenishing provisions we've used up in the last 3 weeks since leaving Bahia, as well as to top off the 15 gallons of diesel we've used up so far.

Until next time....