|
Thursday, March 29th - Fernandina and Isabela Islands |
|
Galapagos Islands March 23rd To April 1, 2007 |
|
We woke up at our normal 5:30 with visions of whale-sightings dancing in our heads! Unfortunately the weather had different ideas! When I came out on deck, you could barely see fifty yards off the bow! Within fifteen minutes, there were twenty of us crammed on the bridge or on the deck directly in front of the bridge, with our binoculars in hand. As the fog slowly rose and our visibility improved, our optimism increased. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be as there were no whales in the waters! We had fun nonetheless! Victoria was totally in her element, sitting in the captain’s chair with Captain Robert’s hat on, chatting with her fellow travelers. The rest of us were enjoying the ship’s fantastic service, as they brought up pitchers of hot coffee and hot chocolate (laced with cloves – mmmmm!). By 7:00, we had thrown in the towel and made our way down to a delicious breakfast. |
|
The morning included a three-hour hike on Fernandina Island for Sharon, Kathie, and Kristen. Starting in a mangrove forest, Boli (our naturalist) took them to the tidal pools to get there before the tide returned and they saw an octopus, a bunch of sally crabs, and a whole bunch of tropical fish. One pool had an opening to the Pacific and they saw a number of golden, eagle, and stingrays. They even got to see some green sea turtles and yet more sea lions. Through it all, there were tons of marine iguanas lounging around. The newest animal for them on this walk was the flightless cormorants – really neat to see them swimming out and then diving into the water to fish. They swim like most birds fly. |
|
Boli and Kristen trying to coerce a hermit crab out of its shell. |
|
Looking for octopi |
|
Looking closely for the octopus |
|
To prove the search wasn’t fruitless |
|
While Kathie, Kristen, and Sharon enjoyed that, Victoria and I stayed onboard the Evolution as I was absolutely wiped out by everything we had been doing. So we enjoyed some quiet time that included a short power nap, a movie on my computer, reading in our cabin and cards on the back deck of the ship. The last was especially nice as we were able to observe some sea turtles, pelicans, and sea lions regularly passing the ship. A most relaxing morning for us.
The rest of the passengers returned around 11:30 in time for lunch as the ship moved on to Isabela Island. We had time for a power siesta before waking up for some more snorkeling. While the prospects of seeing some fantastic sea life was quite good, we faced the daunting chill of the waters of Tagus Cove, our coldest water yet experienced. We knew we were in for some chilly waters when we saw Alex, our naturalist, pulling on a full-body wet suit so that the only part that was left exposed was his face. We did what we could, putting shirts under our own wet suits. Others did a bit more, including Sharon and Kristen putting on two layers of wet suits (on top of long underwear in Sharon’s case!). |
|
These penguins were absolutely adorable (and swam INCREDIBLY FAST!) |
|
It was REALLY cold in the water, but if you hovered at the very top of the water, there was a layer that was warm enough to be bearable. Turned out that it was totally worth the effort. We saw massive pufferfish (above right), a male seahorse that was pregnant (above center), and a number of tiny penguins streaking through the water. The cold temperature of the water seemed to hit us all at about the same time, sending us scurrying back into the boat to regain the feeling in our extremities.
Sharon trying to get a closer look at some turtles → |
|
Dinner was delicious as usual, but we started to get a bit suspicious when Boli and Victoria disappeared for a few minutes. The next thing we knew, the lights went out and the dining room was stormed by a group of “vicious” looking pirates, one of whom was a cute little six year old! They were joined by King Neptune (Boli) who gave special recognition to all of us for visiting King Neptune’s world. Some of us had to kiss King Neptune, others had to kiss his wife (a very scary crew member in drag), some had to kiss the smallest pirate, while others (Kristen and Kate) had to kiss ALL of the pirates. A very fun way to end the day. |
|
Tomorrow: Santa Cruz Island |
|
Our last excursion of the day made up for the cold. About a dozen of us took a long hike up to the top the volcano crater that made up Tagus Cove. Along the way we ran into a huge land iguana that didn’t seem to be pleased to be disturbed by us. It was a long walk to the peak, but was well worth it for the view that was awaiting us. |
