Galapagos Islands - Day 1: Welcome to another planet

Friday, November 2, 2007

Well, Halloween may have been banned here in all public schools and looked down upon in many areas, but there was still a holiday near October 31 – Dia de los Difuntos, on November 2, so we didn’t have school on Friday!

To take advantage of our lack of classes, Megan, Pedro, Liz, and I (with a lot of help form Megan’s host mom) planned a trip to las Islas de los Galápagos, the Galapagos Islands!

Thanks to my million and 7 (give or take a million) biology classes I’ve had, I’ve heard a lot about the Galapagos Islands and Charles Darwin’s finches and his book Origin of Species, but I never thought I’d actually get to go there.

Still, bright and early, Friday morning, the four of us met at the Quito airport and boarded a plane heading the Galapagos (which, in case you were wondering, are named after the huge Galapagos tortoise species that is on the islands). After making a quickish stop in Guayquil to drop off some passenger and pick others up, our plane took off again for the islands.

Thanks to the time change, we landed on Baltra, a pretty unpopulated island where there used to be a U.S. military base, around 11:00 a.m. The airport was pretty small and we followed all of the other passengers to the entry lines to the Galapagos.


The airport on Baltra, all of it was open to the outside! I guess there is some advantage of not having the crazy snowstorms of Chicago

Well, the entry fee for foreigners to the islands is $100, but only about $10 for nationals. We had heard that since we were students living in Ecuador for a long time, we might be able to sweet-talk the guards to letting us in for $50.

So we got in the “foreigners” line with out Censo cards, which are our ID cards here that say we’re living in Ecuador, and ready with our best Spanish. When we got to the counter, we told the agent that we were students living here, and he told us to go to the “nationals” line! Haha, we felt pretty cool getting to stand in the locals line. So when we got to that agent, we only had to pay $25 to get in. Sweet!

Anyway, we continued through the open-air terminal to meet one of the guides from Hotel Ninfa, the hotel we were staying in that also led tours. We headed to the baggage claim, which was basically a pile of everyone’s luggage. But we got our bags without a problem!

One of the funny things about the Galapagos’ airport is that nearly everyone there is a tourist so I felt no shame at taking pictures of pretty much everything….the only problem was that I had to make sure I had room on my memory card!

Anyway, the guides herded us all onto big busses where we drove through the windy roads of Baltra. I have no idea why the roads were so curvy though because the island is pretty barren looking with few trees. The dirt is brown-red and makes a really cool contrast with the bright blue ocean.

So we finally ended up at a small dock where we all loaded onto some boats to take us across a channel to the island of Santa Cruz, the most populated of the three populated islands in the Galapagos where our hotel was.

From there we were officially introduced to one of our main guides for the weekend, Luis, as well as a bunch of other people of our tour group. Though the group changed slightly day by day, there were usually about 14-20 of us together. Our group was really cool with people from Ecuador (of course), Brazil, Germany, France, China, India and us from the U.S. Our guide spoke all in Spanish, but occasionally he like to throw in the random English words. He loved to say, “buenas pictures.”

So after taking a small bus to Puerto Ayora, the town our hotel was in, we went to the small restaurant area and ate a delicious almuerzo. The cool thing about the package for the trip that we got was that it included our lodging, meals, and tours.


Pedro, me,Megan, and Liz on the bus headed to the Baltra dock!

After lunch we met up with our tour group and headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station where there were lots of Darwin’s finches, crazy cacti, and of course lots of tortoises, including Galapagos!


One of Darwin's finches...maybe I should send my high school bio teacher this pic to show that I remembered at least some of what she taught

The plants and animals on the island are all so crazy-looking and absolutely incredible. Also, since none of the animals had any predators, they’re not scared of humans at all so you can get so close to them! Pretty much the only thing that keeps you from not touching them is Galapagos rules.


The cactus' "leaves" were so flat and big I wanted to give them a high five...except they happened to have ridicuosly long and pointy needles. Well, I guess that is a main characteristic of cacti

We also saw Lonley George, a big turtle who is the last of his species. He’s near 100 years old, but still holding on! The tortoises can actually live well over 100, sometimes 200 years. According to Luis, it’s because they eat a lot, don’t move much, and don’t talk much. He said he can’t live that long because he talks a lot.

Having a staring contest with a tortoise...he won, but I think I gave him a run for his money

So after walking back to the hotel, I got to swim in the pool and then we had a delicious cena! We planned on checking out Puerto Ayora’s nightlife, but decided to take a quick nap first. So we fell asleep a little after 7:30 with plans to wake up at 8:30. However, I kept hitting the snooze button on my trusty alarm clock, and by the time we finally woke up, it was past 10 and none of us could get the energy to go out! So we decided more sleep was the best choice. Haha, it was the most sleep I’ve had in weeks, maybe months!

Galapagos Islands - Day 2: Time to Explore

Saturday November 3, 2007

After getting so much sleep the night before, it wasn’t too hard to wake up a bit early and go for a run to explore the island. I didn’t exactly know good places to run and the town was pretty small, so I ended up just running up and down the town’s small streets. It was pretty cool because not many shops were open, but there were still quite a few people out, getting ready for the day. And there were lots of bikers! Mountain bikes, not motor bikes. It was pretty sweet getting to run in shorts and in low altitude!

After a quick shower, we all ate breakfast and met up with our tour group. From there our guide led us on a walk to the entrance of Tortuga Bay. We walked on a gorgeous brick path for about 3 km through a gorgeous forest filled with crazy-looking plants until we came upon…Tortuga Bay! I know, that’s a big surprise.


Wow. A bit dangerous for swimming, but amazing to see

The beach was absolutely gorgeous with bright white sand, turquoise water, and deep black volcanic rocks. At first we thought the beach alone was amazing, and then we started to see all the wildlife on the beach! There were HUGE iguanas everywhere that weren’t afraid of humans at all and you could get so close. They bummed around the rocks and acted like lazy cats. Well, that is until they start swimming…then they looked like dogs doing the doggy paddle! Haha, I think the sight of iguanas swimming is one of the most comical things I’ve ever seen.


Iguana or dinosaur? You decide

There were also bright red crabs and all types of birds. I took tons and tons of pictures, but for a lot of them my camera was accidently set on the black-and-white setting, and the bright colors of the animals was half the reason they were so cool. Well, I still had plenty of pics that turned out!

Though the open water of the ocean was dangerous to swim in due to strong currents, we kept walking a bit to come upon a protected area of water where we were able to swim. Plus there was lots of gorgeous sand (trust me, sand can be gorgeous) and so we couldn’t resist building some sand castles and digging some holes. Though the top layer of sand was white, but as we dug down, there were distinct layers of blue and purple sand! It looked like those sand-layer creations we used to make in art class. Well, I guess we technically made them out of colored salt, but same idea.

After some quality beach time, we headed back to the trail and then to the town of Puerto Ayora. On our way back, Pedro, Megan, Liz, and I stopped by Laguna Las Ninfas where there were lots of kids diving off a pier and jumping off high branches. Then we had to hit up ice cream on the way back. Well, it wasn’t technically ice cream, but helados de paila, which is ice cream made with ice, egg white, and flavors such as fruit juice, and stirred in a paila, a large copper pot. So there’s no cream involved. They were quite delicious, but I’m not sure if it beats ice cream.

After lunch, our tour group drove to the lava tubes, which were as cool as the name implies. The lava tubes are huge underground tunnels formed by lava flow (hence the name). The outside of the lava cooled, forming the roof and walls, but the stuff inside kept going, forming a hollow tube. When I heard about them, I expected them to be fairly small, but they were huge – in width, height, and length! It was kinda like walking through a giant cave, except it was all dry with no animals. Plus the owners had added some lighting along the walls so it was pretty easy to see your way.


I guess a good thing about walking through these tunnels is that we don't have to worry about a train coming through!

After the lava tube adventure, we still had some time before dinner, so us four decided to check out Las Grietas, a cool place we read about in the handy Lonely Planet guidebook. To get there, we had to take a water taxi, and on our way we met up with Rubon and Kathy, a really nice couple from India in our tour group who are working in Quito. So we all hopped in the water taxi which dropped us onto a small dock. From there we followed signs to Las Grietas. At first the path was extremely easy to follow and easy walking but when we arrived to another beach we accidentally followed the path onto a hotel’s grounds where we were politely but firmly told that we had taken the wrong path.

So we back-track and soon found the right path and continued on our way. The terrain was like nothing I’ve seen before with big red rocks and barren trees. Again, I felt like I was on another planet and I wouldn’t have been too surprised to see a dinosaur pop out of the scenery. We also passed a salt mine with bright pink…something (salt-water?).


Salt mines...now I want to know why my table salt isn't pink

As we scrambled along the rocks, we passed a guy with a surfboard coming back from Las Grietas. He said it was pretty, but definitely not a good place for surfing. Well, none of us are exactly professional surfers nor had surfboards, so we weren’t too upset about that.

We finally came upon Las Grietas, which in Spanish means The Cracks, and was very-well named. It was a gorgeous, calm water-hole in between two huge walls of rock. I have no idea why the guy we passed thought it would be good for surfing. The water was one of the prettiest deep turquoise-blues that I’ve ever seen, and I tried to capture the color on camera, but some things film just can’t show. We were running out of time before dinner so we couldn’t swim, but it was still a really cool sight to see.



Las Grietas, aka, The Cracks. Well, you gotta give the namer credit for accuracy

Galapagos Islands - Day 3: Out to Sea

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Upon until today, we had been spending all of our time on the island of Santa Cruz, but today we took a boat ride to some nearby islands!

The boat we took was just big enough for all our tour group, and we staked out some great spots on the bow. It was a bit cloudy and chilly, but a perfect place for sight seeing. First our boat went to la Isla Dapne Mayor where which looked like a huge mountain rock rising from the see and you couldn’t get onto the island, but it we boated around it, seeing tons of sea lions, crabs, and of course, birds of all types!


Let's keep a look-out for pirates!

Then we boated over to some nearby rocks that were good for snorkeling by. Luis Alberto informed us that the water was 16 degrees Celcius, but we figured that it wasn’t everyday you could snorkel in the Galapagos, so freezing our butts off would be worth it. So about eight of us from our group hopped into a small dingy and we puttered out to the rocks. After some moaning about how cold the water would be, we sucked it up and jumped in!


Looks like a quality snorkeling rock - just don't touch the rocks!

Though the water was chilly, Lake Michigan has broken me in, so it wasn’t too bad. Still, it was a bit wavy and I had a hard time getting my breathing rhythm down and I couldn’t see too much because the water was dark. Still, I got to see some fish! I guess those are good things to see in an ocean. Better than, say, antelope.


It's not easy to look cool in snorkeling gear, but I'd say we pull it off

After some snorkeling around, we climbed back in the dingy and puttered back to the main boat where we dried off as the boat headed onto the next island, where we got to do some more snorkeling off the shore!

There the water was a bit clearer, and as I was snorkeling, I thought that another snorkeler was by me, but when I turned, there was a huge sea lion playing next to me! I tried to stay still and just watch, but he didn’t seem to mind my presence. I could have probably reached out and touched it, but I didn’t really want to get kicked off the Islands.

After a while, we headed back to la Isla Santa Cruz. Once back on the big island, we drove to Rancho Permiso, where there are tons of giant tortoises in the wild. They didn’t look very wild to me since they walked at, well, the pace of a tortoise. It was incredible just how big they were! I probably could have easily fit into one of their shells. Well, except there was already a tortoise in it.


Hey buddy, I think that shell fits you just right

After making friends with the tortoises, we went to some more lava tubes, which were slightly more difficult to go through since you had to crawl in some places. Still, compared with the bat caves of the jungle, it was nothing!


I gotta remember, don't stand up, don't stand up

Later I got to got for a run to Tortuga Bay, where runners have to sign in at the main entrance before entering the path. I had to be off the path by 6 pm so I just made it to the beach in back before the Island FBI patrol came to get me. Well, maybe just someone would have told be I had to hurry back, but I didn’t want to risk breaking rules when they already limit the number of tourists in the Galapagos.

Galapagos Islands - Day 4: Blue Skies Shining at Me

Monday, November 5, 2007

I got up a bit early and headed to the Tortuga Bay path for a quick run. After signing in at the entrance, I headed down the path once again, which was much less crowded than in later in the day. Pretty much the only people on it were me, and locals either jogging or walking for exercise. I finally came to the beach, which I ran along a bit, and realized I was the only person on this gorgeous beach. There was absolutely no garbage or signs of humans and I praised God for His awesome creativity. Something is pretty cool about just being able to run along a bright white beach with just you and the iguanas.

I then headed back the hotel, where we ate yet another breakfast, this time figuring out that we could steal left-over marmalade from tables whose occupants had already left.

We were a bit bummed at the overcast skies as our bus drove to the dock, but as soon as we loaded onto the boat and headed out, the skies cleared up, and our spot on the bow was the perfect place for tanning! Yes, I know tanning causes cancer, but we wore lots of sunscreen, thanks to Liz’s fantastic supply of Target’s waterproof 30 SPF.


It's a good thing the national park believes in letting nature take its course...I can't imagine mowing this tube-like vegetation (This pic so does not do the scenery justice)

We first went to another crazy island with bright red tube-like vegetation and tons of sea lions. There were all types of birds, including blue-footed boobies doing a mating dance, and lots of other huge birds.


Buen provecho! That's "bon appetite" Ecuador style

Then we hopped on the boat again and those of us who wanted to were able to snorkel for about 40 minutes along a huge cliff. The water was so much clearer and since it was a sunny day, it was much more enjoyable to swim. And we saw so many incredible fish! They were brightly colored and HUGE! I got to swim after and watch a sea lion play right by me again.


My sea lion friend, I don't know which one of us is more curious about the other

Eventually, we had to get back in the boat, but we headed to another island, we got to do some more snorkeling! There we saw a manta ray and a shark and of course lots of crazy cool fish! Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but it was amazing! !!!!!!



I think I might be in a postcard

Well, our guide finally rounded us all up and we took our dingy back to the slightly bigger boat and headed back to Santa Cruz. We did some quality tourist shopping and then booked it back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, we finished up with tourist shopping and then realized that we really wanted ice cream. By this time, it was fairly late so we wandered around town trying to find an open place. Many restaurants were open, but had shut off their ice cream machine or stopped serving ice cream. WHO DOES THAT? Seriously.

But finally, we found a restaurant that was smart (if restaurants can be smart) and were able to sit down and order a HUGE thing of ice cream to share. But it turned out that the chef (er, ice cream preparer) had forgotten some ingredients, aka almond pralines, so we got another one for free! Talk about a successful ice cream run.


Ice cream that was so worth wandering around the streets of Puerto Ayora late at night (don't worry, Mom and Dad, we were the most dangerous things on the streets due to our intense craving for ice cream)

After we were nice and hyped-up on sugar, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Galapagos Islands - Day 5: Adios Islas

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
I woke up Tuesday slightly sad because I didn’t want to leave the Galapagos, but determined to get in one last run to Tortuga Bay.

So I headed to the entrance and signed in, once again, and headed to the beach, which, once again, I had completely to myself. On the way back, the guard remembered my name and I felt pretty cool. (Ok, granted I was the only foreigner who signed up to run on the path, and I kinda stand out here, but still.)


The people on the bus go up and down...especially on these roads! Actually, compared to a lot of roads I've been on recently, Galapagos roads were in great condition

So after breakfast, our group had one last excursion on our way to the airport. We stopped by Los Gemelos (in Spanish, The Twins) which are large craters that you can peer down into and hope you don’t fall. It was pretty foggy so picture-taking wasn’t that great, but we were still able to see just how big and awesome they were!


Us U of I kids with Luis Alberto, one of the coolest guides ever


One of Los Gemelos, I hope its fellow twin isn't upset that I didn't post a picture of it as well

Then we had to continue along and took a ferry across the channel to Isla Baltra, the airport island. Isla Baltra has way less vegetation than Isla Santa Cruz, and in some ways it reminded me of Tijuana – except for the bright turquoise ocean in the background. It was also pretty weird because there were lots of old shelters and foundations falling apart, left over from the U.S. military base that used to be on the island.


Scenery on Isla Baltra...you can see the remains of a U.S. miliary building from World War II on the left

Once at the airport, we checked in, did a bit more tourist shopping, and hung out, waiting for our flight. Our first flight to Guayaquil went smoothly, but then right when we were approaching the Quito airport, we had to turn around because the airport was closed due to bad weather!


I took this pic from INSIDE the airport terminal, I guess windows are overrated

So we flew back to Guayaquil (I was very happy that there was apparently plenty of fuel) and we chilled on the Guayaquil runway for a while. Apparently, the Quito airport opened again, because after about an hour of waiting, we took off again, and landing in fog and rain, but safely, in Quito’s airport!

Thus concluded one of the most amazing trips of my life.