Friday night into Saturday was rough sailing – or we should say rough anchoring. The boat she is a rocking! Most noticeably when we are at anchor. The spring tide is definitely coming in and the Naturalists tell us that is why the water has been so choppy. It makes for somewhat good sleeping, that is until it wakes you up by throwing you against the wall! That’s how much the boat rocked! Surprisingly our little sea sickness girl, Cathy, handled it extremely well, it didn’t even affect her once. Bravo!
After the rockin’ night, our last full day aboard dawns sunny and warm. So far the weather has been incredible – no rain except at night, clear skies for the constellation watching and open air BBQ – just incredible. We’ve heard the trip before ours only had 2 days without rain and the one previous to that had no sunny days. We lucked!
Today we are back to civilization – Puerto Ayora – the largest town in the Galapagos. Our strategy today is to get the walking done early – to avoid the heat and the possibility of rain later in the day. We made the 1st zodiac and bumped our way into the port, passing various fishing and sailing vessels – some with the ubiquitous sea lions snoozing on the back.
A quick walk through a cute and all but deserted town center (it is only 8 am on a Saturday after all!) takes us to a bus that will transport us to the highlands so we can look for giant land turtles in the wild. The ride is great – It’s cool in the morning, the fresh air through the windows feels great as the bus whips ups through the town and into he outlying Highlands. The roads are great – all well paved – as we pass through verdant, lush farmland (with – yes Sigis – you guessed it – Ecuadorian Cows – la vaca Ecuadoria!!), on our way to the “farm”.
We turn off the main road onto little more than a dirt track – off roading on the bus again! These drivers have no fear! A few moments later, the bus stops and summarily dumps us out in front of a narrow trail heading up a slope. We climbed up through the thicket and towering trees. Michelle at one point decided this was yet another tour description she had to challenge – Farm? Turtles? Huh? OH, the lava tubes! That’s right! At the top of the trail we came upon huge caves caused by Lava flows – the more adventurous of us climbed own into the caves, the others stood back and took pictures!
After exploring the caves, we head back down into the grasslands to search for turtles. We were in luck – and spotted 2 turtles right away – the first was a large female, #882, (they mark their carapaces to keep track of them) who was probably 50 or so years old. Of course, I knew right then and there I was no longer safe! Michelle and Cathy are at it again and here I go – me sitting next to this gigantic creature that weighs more than 150 lbs! Do I look happy???? Rogelio, our guide, think it’s quite funny as he looks on while I lay, exposed, on the ground by the behemoth!
Yikes! Did you hear that thing hiss at me? I don’t believe Rogelio for one second when he tells us that it is jus the air coming out of the turtle’s lungs as she moves her head back in her shell. Yeah, right! Not on your life buddy – it hissed! At me! Ok, Ok, take the darn picture and move on already! Please put me back in the pack, thank you! I’m getting a little tired of this nature thing!
I’m safely back in my pack, until a little ways farther up the field, we spot #302 – a monstrous male who’s very old (the smaller the number, the older the turtle). He’s resting under an equally gigantic grapefruit tree. More pictures, this time of the humans though, not me (thank heavens!!!). And off we go again. We cross paths with Jorge’s group and they report a pair of turtles, possibly mating, under a tree ahead of us. WE scurry over (well, scurry might be a little optimistic as some of the people couldn’t scurry if their lives depended on it), but the only action we see is the female running away from the male. You want to talk about scurrying! Those turtles move faster than you’d expect! Amazing. Rogelio inspected the male, but couldn’t find a number, he’s lived here in Santa Cruz all his life and told us it was more fun when there were no rules and he could ride the turtles (they did all the time in the “no rule” days, I suppose! Can you imagine? Playing with these turtles in the wild as you grew up. Boggles the mind to some degree).
More grassland hiking, literally on the beaten path – searching for more gargantuans. Michelle kindly allowed me to ride with her on her pack – I’m beginning to change my mind about her……. We had started heading back, when a turtle appeared out of nowhere. Looked like she was following us! More pictures, then off to the “farm house” (little more than an open terrace with a bar type area – coffee and tea with a shot of rum are free, soda and water $1). Owner is a native to the degree his parents came over from Seattle and homesteaded in 1949 (what were they thinking? At that time, to come to these islands? Talk about explorers!) and he was born o the island. Said it used to take 4 hours on horseback to get to town, and supply ships only came once every3 or 4 months. Can’t even imagine.
After a short rest, soda and water, we shuffled back to the bus for the ride into town. Much faster on the way back – downhill and flying – we were dropped off in town with only ½ hour before the last zodiac – not much time, but enough to get a flavor of the many gift shops (more expensive than Puerto Boquerzo) and restaurants. Richard and Cathy bought stamps (Richard to collect, Cathy to mail) and then they all headed back on board for lunch, packing (boo hoo) and a little relaxation before the final excursion in the afternoon.
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