Note: I am posting this from Isla Isabela, a lovely island with lousy internet. Consequently I can not include a lot of pictures, but check the Facebook page as I will load more pictures up there as internet access permits.

Rock ‘n Roll All Nite

You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy!

Remember that bit in the last post about the roll in the Port Ayora anchorage on Santa Cruz and us not having an easy stern anchor? Well that oversight is one I will continue to castigate myself for until I can finally overpay for a decent stern anchor in some faraway port. Because we REALLY needed it in Port Ayora.

Eventually Kathy and I took to sleeping across our bed so we didn’t get tossed onto each other all night when the boat fell the wrong way across the waves and began rocking violently in the middle of the night. Will had the worst of it as he sleeps in the bunk room and there was no real way for him to sleep across the boat rather than lengthwise. Nobody slept well. We even tried to find an anchor in town we found two, both WAY too large and harder to use than the spare anchors we carry already. Live and learn is the name of the game out here.

Tortuga Bay

On the way out of town in Port Ayora is a path one can follow to Tortuga Bay. The park service has build a really nice stone path through the scrub and cacti down to the water. Its a bit of a hike, a couple of kilometers, but the walking is easy. The park service in general has done an excellent job with these sorts of paths, they make the park areas accessible and do a good job protecting the off path areas from violation by clumsy tourists.

This bay consists of two distinct beach areas. The first stretch of beach is wild surf and strong undertow. It is very popular with surfers but is not recommended for swimming due to the dangerous rips and currents. It is a gorgeous white sand beach and the kilometer walk along it to the other beach is lovely on firm sand. The beach is backed by dunes and grass and dotted with sea turtle nests at this time of year. Observers mark the nests with flags to protect them from accidental damage and to help ensure better survival of the hatchlings.

At the end of this long white beach are some rocks and trees leading up to the mangrove cove on the other side. And marine iguanasLOTS of iguanas piled all over each other on the rocks and in the shade.

The second cove is supposed to be a good snorkeling cover where one can see white tipped reef sharks, turtles and other wild life. While the water was calm and flat we must have caught it on a bad day because the water was so murky as to make snorkeling useless. Not that we didn’t try, but we couldn’t see anything. On the other hand Will, who hates snorkeling, rented a kayak for an hour and paddled all over the bay. He saw a number of the sharks from the kayak as well as some turtles. It was still a nice place and very pretty though we did leave a little disappointed by water clarity at least someone saw a shark.

Almeurzos and Huge Beers

One of the more pleasant discoveries in the Galapagos was the Ecuadorean national beer. Cleverly named Pilsner all one needs to at almost any restaurant is ask for a cerveza grande and out comes and ice cold beer that is something like 600 ml a little over 20 ounces for around $3.50. Most places only carry the local beer, but that’s OK because it is always really cold and very refreshing and who wants to spend $5.00 or more on an imported Budweiser?

Another $3.50 discovery in Port Ayora is the Almeurzo, which is a fixed price lunch menu available in the restaurants off the main tourist strip. For around $3.50-$4.00 many of the restaurants provide a lunch with soup, some sort of meat entree, rice or similar and juice a filling, really good lunch. Finding this is a cheapskate’s dream, especially when most of our food on board can’t be easily replaced in the Galapagos for anywhere near what we paid for it. Since we’ve got a three+ week ocean passage ahead of us it is a wonderful excuse to go out to lunch.

And it’s so cheap you can easily give your juice to the kids and justify a crisp cold cerveza grande

Lava Tubes and the Tunnel of Love

Much of the ground in the Galápagos isn’t quite as solid as it seems. Almost all of the islands here have been extruded by undersea volcanoes, some of which are still active. Much of the landscape is obvious lava flows with broad swaths of rippling rock that is now stippled with cacti and scrub-like plants. Even the higher regions with their more verdant foliage are still sitting on top of lava flows.

When lava flows sometimes the outside of the lava cools first while the inside continues to flow. Eventually the molten lava flows out which leaves a tube of cooled stone hollowed out behind. Lava tubes are all over the Galápagos.

Some of the tubes are collapsed and worn when they come near the ocean (more on that when I post about Isabela!). Others are completely hidden under accumulated soil and growth and vegetation. And a few are still intact except in a few spots where they’ve opened to the surface and can be accessed.

Outside the town of Bellavista is such a place. On a private farm there is access to some of the longer lava tubes that are accessible from the surface. The full extent of the tubes near this spot is somewhere around 2.5 kilometers. The tube we were able to explore was just under one kilometer in lenght.

The tubes feel like caves except they aren’tbecause the are long and windy and show signs of their formation in hot lava. Large enough to easily accommodate a subway train in them, the high ceilings and rough walls are dotted with condensation and moisture dripping down from above. Someday I need to hire a poet or something to help me with my descriptions, but the best I can come up with is that these things were justcool.

Without a guide, we brought our own flashlights and descended into the Tunnel of Love as a plaque at the entrance proclaimed it. Without a guide we didn’t get a lot of information about the geology/volcanology behind some of the formations but that made them no less interesting. We’ve found that in many cases we’re happier without a guide; when we entered the tubes a group with a Spanish speaking guide was just in front of us. They very quickly zipped off into the darkness. On the other hand we took our time exploring the tunnel, checking out the cracks and fissures and interesting shapes and reflections from our lights.

The other end of the tunnel was almost a let down, it was such an interesting place we wanted to just keep going. When we got back above ground though it was very apparent how the ground had been shaped by some of the tube collapses, and certainly walking around in the dark at night might drop you right back into them!

Cheapskate Tourist’s Note: This site is a good example of how doing a little research can get you an experience that is not only better, but much cheaper. Many of the tour agencies on Via Charles Darwin would arrange a trip to the Lava Tubes for about $25.00 per person. We took our own cab ($9.00 round trip) and paid the $3.50/person admission for a total of $23.00 for the same excursion we could have spent $100 on if we paid an agency to arrange it. And we didn’t get bundle through the tunnels at someone else’s pace.

San Cristobal – the island where Darwin first set foot in the Galapagos.  As it happens it is also where we made our landfall.

Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava is every where covered by a stunted brushwood, which shows little signs of life. The dry and parched surface, having been heated by the noonday sun, gave the air a close and sultry feeling, like that from a stove: we fancied even the bushes smelt unpleasantly. Although I diligently tried to collect as many plants as possible, I succeeded in getting only ten kinds; and such wretched-looking little weeds would have better become an arctic, than an equatorial Flora.

– Charles Darwin, VOYAGES OF THE ADVENTURE AND BEAGLE.

Darwin’s description of the island was kind of harsh, he likened it to the blasted ruin one expect in the bowels of hell, or perhaps an industrial suburb of London…whichever was worse.  While some of the landscape is forbidding and the vegetation is rather prickly I like to think he came about a bit from his initial impression after he got to walk around and meet a few tortoises.

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

This is the town, the only town, on San Cristóbal.  It is the capitol of the province and has around 5,600 residents.  The town is actually a lot nicer and more modern than we expected.  Banks, a post office, restaurants, dive shops and lots of souvenirs dot the waterfront and there is a newish modern park along the water’s edge.  Park benches, lights, shade – all good stuff to keep the sea lions happy.

They put all these nice park benches in for the sea lions, which was very kind.

We also found a favorite restaurant, the name I would happily give you if we’d ever learned it.  But the “Super Combo” of a burger, a banana shake, and fries for $5.00 is tough to beat.  An absolute hole-in-the wall up some narrow stairs where the owner greets you with an enthusiastic smile.  Then he takes your order, cooks for you and serves it.

We found the town to be a pleasant surprise and enjoyed coming in every day to watch the sea lions play and enjoy the water front.

Highlands Tour

The islands in the Galápagos have very distinctive “zones” of the local plant and animal life.  Starting at the water as one moves inland and into higher elevations there are distinct changes in the flora and fauna that you see.  While the sea shore is dominated by a rocky coast, marine iguanas, sea lions and sea birds inland the “highlands” have very different vegetation, birds and animal life.

The lake in the El Junco volcano crater holds all of the fresh water on the island

Junco Lake

The first stop in a “Highlands Tour” of San Cristóbal takes you to el Junco, a volcanic caldera with a lake and the only source of fresh water for the island.  During the rainiest times of the year the lake floods over and runs down the side of the old volcano.

The tour is done in a taxi, which in the Galápagos is generally a white pickup truck with a king cab that seats four passengers.  The taxi pulls up to the base of the hill and a long walkway to the top takes you to the rim of the volcano.

The view from the rim is stunning.  At the heights sometimes there are clouds which manifest like fog when you stand in them.  The view really shows you how this part of the island was ejected from the volcano and formed by the flow.

On the way to the top can be seen Miconia bushes, an endemic Galápagos plant which has come under intense pressure from introduced invasive species like blackberries (also present) and guava.  Finches and warblers flit around the bushes and the occasional lizard scurries off the path.  At top numerous birds are drawn to the heights and the water.  Magnificent Frigate birds circle the lake, buzzing you at almost head level around the rim of the volcano.

Tortoise Breeding Center

Everyone knows about the giant Galápagos tortoises, right?  They are one of the most recognized symbols of these islands.  Perhaps everyone does not know that each island has its own distinct species or two, and some of those species have been driven to extinction.  Others have been brought back from the brink.  In 2012 Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta tortoises, died; a real-time extinction event.

Many factors have contributed to the decimation of these slow-moving, harmless creatures.  Certainly the thousands taken for food by whaling ships and other mariners contributed to the losses.  But perhaps as devastating are the introduced species that either prey on the eggs and tortoises, or compete with them for food.  One one island goats almost completely wiped out the food source for the local tortoise population, and rats, feral cats and dogs prey on vulnerable young and raid nests.

What has arisen on many islands are breeding centers designed to help the native populations recover.  The original population of tortoises on San Cristóbal was estimated at over 100,000.  Present day the estimated population is around 1,400 contained mostly in one small section in the Northwest of the island.  One other population on the island was completely wiped out.

A Geochelone chatamensis at the breeding center. High speed photography is not necessary.

The Cerro Colorado breeding center is focused on the San Cristóbal (or Chatham, as the island was known to the English) tortoise.  The tortoises are kept in a large enclosed area and safe from predators.  When eggs are laid they are recovered and incubated with a 60% success rate – far higher than in nature.  The juvenile tortoises are kept in enclosures safe from predators until they are old enough to release into the wild.  There are several success stories with these tortoise populations, but you can not see them and wonder still how far they are from risk.

Iguanas, Turtles and Snorkeling

The Marine Iguana is another unique, endemic species in the Galápagos.  Like their land bound counter parts they are vegetarians in spite of their somewhat fierce appearance.  These iguanas live on the coast and dive in the water to eat algae and seaweed.

Our final stop of the day was La Loberia, a beach and rocky intertidal area not too far from the airport in town.  The taxi parks a ways from the beach and you walk back.  The undulating tracks of marine iguanas are  seen in the sand as they cross from the dunes to the rocks.  The iguanas themselves are all over the rocks.  While some might call them ugly creatures, I find they have a stoic dignity as they bask in the sun – sometimes in very large numbers.

Continuing down the beach there is a protected lagoon.  Baby sea lions splash in the shallows as they learn to swim.  The water is clear and the snorkeling good with numerous tropical fish.  And turtles…Galápagos Green Turtles.  The turtles stay in the shallows, in spite of being rather large creatures they like it in lagoons like this one.  They really also don’t seem to care one bit about your presence, it seemed at times they were about to swim right into you.

While we were there a slightly older sea lion went zooming by Kathy as she was swimming along.  It beached itself and then sat there in the middle of the people…preening.  You could swear she knew there was an audience – in short order a small crowd was taking pictures while the sea lion posed.

All in all we liked San Cristóbal quite a bit; an island with a nice quiet town with lots to see and do.  If only Darwin could have tried the burger joint.

We’ve been here for not even three full days, and we’ve already seen so much on just one island that I can’t even begin to fit it all in one blog post. This place is just stunning, with the rugged natural beauty, the clear water and air, and the varieties of wildlife that can be see here and nowhere else in the world.

Officialdom

The one thing we’d dreaded about the Galápagos was the clearing in and inspection process. Stories abounded of numerous officials traipsing around the boat, impounding food and generally causing stress. Of late the Ecuadorian government has been more aggressive on checking boat bottom cleanliness, again we’d heard stories about boats being denied entrance to the park and being send forty miles off shore to clean their bottoms at sea before they could pass inspection. The laws require all vessels to use an agent which is also expensive and intimidating, and the paperwork to be able to stay longer than 20 days and visit more than one island is expensive to do. We feared for the life of Bob, Danielle’s hermit crab, as we thought he might violate the seemingly draconian import laws.

The reality couldn’t be more different than we expected.

The agent handled the paperwork efficiently. When we dropped anchor we were quickly greeted by some men in uniform who boarded the boat. Apparently they are the equivalent of Ecuadorian marines. They had a lot of questions about the boat and a form to fill. They were polite and spoke little English. However they really wanted to learn more, when we broke out our “Spanish for Cruisers” book they were thrilled and excited to learn all the English words for things like “life jackets”, “flares”, “fire extinguisher” and so on. An easy mutual “English and Spanish for Boaters” study session ensued with us teaching pronunciation. Later our agent’s representative came by and spoke to the soldiers and us and told us he’d be back in an hour with the officials. We used the time to take our showers and tidy up the boat a little more.

The group of officials that arrived could not have been friendlier and more helpful. Sure, they opened cabinets and looked in the engine room and took pictures of our holding tank. Their diver inspected the bottom (cleaned the day before we left Panama) and they looked at our fruit and vegetables, telling us just not to eat it in the park. Bob the hermit crab caused much amusement when they asked if we had any pets or animals on board. Given that he is about the size of a fingernail he wasn’t quite what they expected, but the sight of three officials hunched around this tiny crab trying to figure out what he is was quite amusing. All in all they spent about an hour with us, we signed some forms for them and paid the agent for the fees and we were clear. Of course we had prepared – all my documents were organized and out, we cleaned the bottom, tidied the boat, picked out produce carefully and so on, but it was a pretty painless process for us.

Tripping Over Sea Lions

The Galapagos Sea Lion is a close relative of the California Sea Lion. They are EVERYWHERE here on San Cristobal. And they have no fear of humans. Quite literally when walking around the water front you really need to watch where you are walking because you could fall over one of them; they may object to this. Sometimes one will squawk if you startle them but in generally they are completely non-plussed by the presence of human beings. Which is good, because despite the best efforts by the town the sea lions go pretty much where they want. There are always a few on the landing dock and it is not uncommon to find them sleeping on or under the park benches which dot the water front.

We had always enjoyed watching sea lions at the various aquariums we’d visited over the years, their antics and play sometimes were just fun. In the wild, on their own and free it is ten times, a hundred times more fun to watch them. While the older sea lions sleep on the rocks the young ones are constantly playing and engaging in antics. They chase each other around, body surf in the waves, and wrestle. Any floating object – a piece of wood, a hunk of watermelon rind or a plastic bottle (unfortunately some get in the water) all become toys for the playful critters. This morning there was what looked like a three foot by four inch strip of outdoor carpeting that let to endless games of tug-o-war as two or three enthusiastic youngsters splashed and played with it endlessly. Even the larger old ones will pick up a chink of melon rind and give it a shake and toss.

These were among the first Galápagos creatures we saw. There is one dark side to them…while they love sleeping on rocks and beaches the also seem to love sleeping with the rocking motion of being on a boat. Almost all of the local boats have festooned their transoms with barbed wire or some other deterrent. Those that have not are playing host to one or more sleepy sea lions, sometimes a dozen or more. Some friends of ours with a more sea lion friendly swim platform have had repeated attempts at boarding by furry, barking visitors. They are known to climb into dinghies if they are left in the water too, so nobody uses dinghies – instead we use the local water taxi services to get in and out. With no sea lion-safe places to park the dinghy none of us want to come back to an inflatable with two or three sea lions happily ensconced on board.

Our First Walks and Tours

Our first night in town after our arrival we were all fairly tired, but we went on shore and met up with another boat that we’d been in touch with by e-mail and SSB. We ended up having dinner, but that did not of course preclude time spent watching sea lions before and after dinner and walking around town. We agreed we should visit the “Interpretation Center” the next day.

The Interpretation Center provides a good overview of the Galápagos from the geology behind the formation of the archipelago, the history of human occupation of the islands, and the problems faced today and how they are being solved. It provides a nice framework to see the islands with. A little more understanding of how this collection of volcanoes happened to form up at the convergence of several Pacific Ocean Currents does help to make some sense over how the animals that are here live the way they do.

Attached to the Interpretation Center is a walking path back through the hills to reach a cove where one can snorkel and look out over the water. Throughout the path are scenic overlooks. It was on this walk that we saw our first Blue Footed Booby and our first Marine Iguana, two of the species the Galápagos are known for. I’m going to save the pictures of those for another post as we have since gotten some better ones. Look forward to some galleries on Facebook too as soon as I get a better internet conenction!

Evenstar dropped anchor on Isla San Cristobal at 1500 UTC (about 11:00 a.m. EST) and are safely arrived in the Galapagos after five days and twenty hours of travel.

More updates as we get settled and cleared in, fell free to share this out on the Sail Evenstar Facebook page so others that watching the blog will know!