wildlife
Ripple2
Fri 2 Jun 2006 15:42
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I haven't done a blog about the wildlife yet &
that is a feature of this leg of the trip.
The anchorage at Wreck Bay was alive with sea
lions, sea turtles and birdlife, including the famous blue-footed boobie
(Darren would not let me buy him a t-shirt that said " I love boobies" and had
two blue webbed feet.... well.... where boobies would be). So we didn't have to
go far to see them. In town one of the beaches was entirely populated by sea
lions rolling back and forth in the waves. We watched juvinile sea lions
suckling milk from their mothers and laying in each others "arms". Some of
the fishing boats and dingies had resident sea lions, the others had spikes or
barbed wire to keep them off!.
We went on an island tour to see the Galapagos
tortoises - absolutely amazing- these huge creatures which look a million years
old ( even when they are babies). We were the only ones there at the time so we
had them all to ourselves. There are 36 tortoises at the sanctuary and we saw
about 15 of them. They were eating some green leaves, stalks and all, swimming
and mating (well it sure looked like it - they were off under the trees a
bit). Unfortunately the Park guide didn't speek English, nor did our tour guide
very much but we managed to get the basics of how the sanctuary/breeding area
came about. The tortoises were transported by boat from the nooth east tip of
the isalnd (no roads) and then by truck. They are basicly in ( protective)
captivity but have a free range of the park.
They are tagged and observed and are breeding. So mission accomplished. There
were also a number of birds there. Mocking birds and several spercies of
Darwin finches.
We also went to a couple of lookouts. One a
crater- lake called Junco. Darren walked around the rim and took in the views
all the way around. My broken toe prevented too much extra walking, it was
already about 100 steps to get up there. The other lookout was on the western
side of the island and had great views to the anchorage and over
to Kicker Rock or Dormir Leone (sleeping lion). There was an intersting
chapel built into the hillside with natural rock formations and a very pretty
Madona shrine.
We picked guavas on the way back. The island
is overrun with them. They are actually a problem. My first fresh guava. It
smells like passionfruit and you can eat the skin. Kind of sweet, mushy and
tany all at the same time.
Next highlight of the trip was the marine iguanas
not far from town. We found them under the sea grapes, a group of 3 together and
a couple of other individuals. They were quite large, about a meter long and
just sitting there immoble, not even one movement. At least they made easy
photographic subjects.
Next we went to Fernandos' place (he arranged the
tour) for a nice lunch of soup, chicken & rice and a piece of banana.
His wife cooked the meal and then went back to work in some sort of a corporate
uniform. [Darren writing now] They have "siesta" here like a lot of ex
spanish countries. So all the businesses close for at least 2 hours in the
middle of the day. So everyone goes home for lunch. So if the wife has a job,
she makes breakfast, works at her job in the morning, comes home cooks lunch for
the family and goes back to work for the afternoon and then comes home and cooks
dinner. Girls, your lucky your not latino. [Darren finished] Fernando had
about 6 guest books which we looked through and found Ripple II in 2000 when
Richard came here. Also found Interlude III anbd Uterus.
The rest of the time in Wreck Bay was spent
variously trying to work out how to send #$!!%$# pictures from an internet cafe
(still can't do it), exploring town, buying groceries and souverniers, and
eating and drinking. Darren went for a dive to Kicker Rock and repereted back
that all the fish are diffenent to the Caribbean. He got to swim with sea lions
turtles and saw Galapagos sharks.
After a week there we left for San Isabela and are
now in Vilamil anchorage. After the first day it has been extreamly rolly and
very rough getting to shore. But the highlight has been a trip up to Chico
Volcano by horseback passing Negri volcano on the way. Not much wildlife
spotting but spectacular scenery and views.
Over to Darren now:
I'll tell you about our trip to the
volcano.
At 8 AM we left in a ute with a driver, guide and 3
other cruising couples. English, German (it's good to see them getting along
these days) and Czech. Nice bunch and all younger than us. After a 45 min drive
up to the highlands we mounted our horses. Annie laughed like a girl many times
during the ride. It was funny as the horses were constantly changing positions
relative to each other and sometimes would take off at a canter for seemingly no
reason at all.
After an hour of this we left the horses and walked
out onto the lava field. The last eruption was in the 70s or 80s. It bwas weird
to walk out on the lava flow. I half expected to see a small wheeled robot with
a NASA sign go by. The guide spoke very good english and filled us in on a
lot of things. Of course there were great views from the top. On the way back we
rode along the rim of a huge 10km across volcanic crator. The floor was all lava
and a few steam vents. Spectacular. [I really hope we can send some photos] I
must say we were all relieved to dismount our steeds back at the road.
Back i nto town and we all had a couple of beers
together. The others went home while Annie and I explored town. WE walked
the beach front and then headed inland and found the flamingo pond. There was
one lovely flamingo. The first day we were anchored here 3 flamingos flew slowly
past our boat. What a sight. I have never before seen a flamingo flying. They
look great all streached out and their wings in the sun, and so pink it's
striking. Then we found a place to get a beer (and have a long overdue pee). We
stayed long enough to have dinner. Then back to the boat. A great
day.
The next day was boat chores ( you can't seem to
get away from them for more than a day at a time). The next day we visited a
small island right next to the boat. There we saw lots of marine iguanas, even
swiming, red crabs, sealions, white tipped sharks and boobies.
The sealions were so calm we could sit on the sand
only a few feet away from them and watch them play in the shallows. Even the
iguanas you can get close enough for a good picture.
We are planning to leave tomorrow (sat June 03) for
the 2973 mile sail to the Marquesas island group in French Polynesia. And there
we were juust starting to get good at Spanish. So there won't be much to tell you all of June as all we will be doing is
sailing for 3 to 4 weeks.
Bye for now, and we will try again later today to
send photos!!!
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