Turtles and Tortoises

We have seen the land turtles on all three islands so far. We have been to three breeding centers, the one on Isabela being the largest so far and the only one breeding five of the ten remaining species in the Galapagos. The famous Lonesome George died last year and sadly was the last of his species leaving ten of the original 15 species left. Each island and in fact each volcano had its own species of turtle.

They are a strange and interesting animal moving slowly but steadily and the larger ones it seems with great effort. The breeding programs are aimed at restoring their numbers which today estimate to be about 25,000, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands that must have once existed. In the 1800's ships would stop by the islands and stock up on turtles as a supply of food, stacking them in the hold taking up to 600 turtles at a time. Apparently, these turtles can survive a year without food or water. There are records showing that up to 200,000 turtles were taken by the whaling ships during a 30 year period. So you can imagine how many turtles once lived on these islands.

Their enemies are few once they reach a certain size which is at the age of four. Their eggs and new hatchlings are sought after by rats and cats (which were brought to the islands by humans) and birds. If they survive to see their fourth year, they can live as long as 180 years.

I don't know what is the difference between a tortoise and a turtle. But we seem to use the term tortoise only for land turtles. We have also seen a lot of sea turtles in the water here. I think most of them have been green turtles, but not being a turtle expert, I can't be sure. They also grow to be quite large and don't mind us swimming around them. It seems most of the animals we encounter are not too bothered by us.

Lazy Days in Isabela

We have been extremely lazy since arriving to this island. I don't know of it is the heat and humidity that has tapped our energy, or if we have caught the 'island bug' which causes you to think and move more slowly and to postpone activities as there will always be time tomorrow.

We have a list of seven things we would like to do before leaving this island. So far, we have managed to do only one. We walked through a mangrove to the lagoon for a bit of snorkeling with the turtles. But now, after an afternoon with the other cruisers, we have a plan for the next five days - diving, a trip to the farm for some fresh vegetables, a boat trip to the lava tunnels for snorkeling, and so on.

We have been giving a little more thought to our crossing. There are several boats here and the discussion is around wind, weather, provisioning and what to do on arrival to French Polynesia. Time to get your atlas out once more. We are planning to arrive to Nuku Hiva in the Isle Marquise's which is about 3,034 nautical miles from Isla Santa Cruz, which is our planned departure point here in Galapagos.

If we travel an average of 5.5 nautical miles per hour, we will do 132 miles in 24 hours which means about 23 days at sea. But we will provision for 30 days at minimum in case we run into some doldrums and have to wait it out for a few days. We will be sending our oGPS coordinates to Michelle (my sister) on a regular basis and we are working out a way to share it on Facebook so you can track our progress.

Below you see the boats at anchorage at Isla Isabela. Some of them are leaving for the Marquise's as early as next week. We plan to leave some time after the first of April.

Isla Floreana

Today we leave Isla Floreana, also known as Santa Maria and Charles Island.

We arrived the day before yesterday having left San Cristobel at first light and motored all the way across as there was absolutely no wind. It was 57 nautical miles and we arrived in good time. We had the water maker running the whole day to fill our tank which had dropped down to 1/4 tank. We use a little more water these days as it has been hot and humid and a quick shower before bed always helps you to fall asleep. And after swimming in the ocean it is always nice to rinse the salt off the body.

We spent a nice day exploring the island, taking a trip up to the highlands to Asilo de la Paz to see the tortoise reserve and the caves where pirates and early settlers lived. This island is famous as a stopping point for ships to get water which is found in the highlands, slowly dripping out of the rocks.

The beach where we anchored is called Playa Negro (black beach) because the sand is very coarse and black, of course. There is a hotel here run by a descendant of the early settlers on the island. Erika was born on this island and has lived here all her life. She brought out a book for us to sign. This, it seems, has been a tradition going way back as the book we signed had entries from the seventies and one entry referred to a previous book that dated back to the fifties.

We met a young woman staying in the small house next to the beach. She has been here for a couple of months now and is studying Darwin's Finches. She told us she had seen Orcas that morning, so we are now on the lookout as this is one animal that we would all dearly like to see.

We took an afternoon walk to the point where we saw crabs, iguanas and sea lions, had a swim and a snorkel and generally just a lazy day.

What was the last thing you saw last night just before closing your eyes and dropping off to sleep? For Jens and I it was a sky full of stars, the Milky Way stretching over us and stars reflected in the sea. It was such a gorgeous evening that we pulled up the cushions from the salon and made a bed on the deck. The stars were our blanket and the sound of the waves on the beach gently lulled us to sleep.

This island is surely one of the most laid back places you can hope to find. But, it is time to move on once again.

Meeting Sally!

Sally Lightfoot that is! This is the name of one of the 100 species of crabs living amongst the black volcanic rock shores of the Galapagos Islands. There are so many of them sometimes that it almost becomes a bit creepy.

The young ones are completely black blending in nicely with the rocks. As they get older, they become more colorful sporting a nice red back and legs. And the larger ones, about as big as a mans hand, become a bit more orangey with blue under their shells and at the top of their legs.

I was watching them as we were bathing in a shallow pool and saw this very large one chasing a smaller one away. He looked so fierce as he came out from under a rock waving his large claws in front of him. He was so intent on his actions that he didn't seem to notice me as I was getting closer and closer snapping pictures.

Diving Kicker Rock

This was our first salt water dive since Bonaire, which we did just around this time last year. I say our first salt water dive because I actually went diving last summer in Muskoka. It was a deep and cold fresh water dive down to a wreck that was in remarkably good condition. This time, we were hoping to see sharks; white tip, Galapagos, hammerheads and black tip reef sharks.

Kicker Rock or "León Dormido" (sleeping lion) as it is called in Spanish is the remains of a lava cone creating a fabulous wall dive. The current can be quite strong in places sending you quickly backwards or forwards and sometimes sending you down or up a few meters at a time along with the hundreds of small reef fish feeding on the wall corals.

Though not as colorful as some sites we have been to in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, we did see a large variety of reef fish, octopus, barracuda and many, many sharks. They were fairly small and we didn't see the hammerheads, but hey, a shark is a shark and I wasn't altogether calm while they were swimming around me. It was a really cool experience and a little scary but a lot of fun. Swimming with hammerhead sharks will have to wait for another time.

Isla San Cristobal on Bikes

This island has an airport and is the jumping off point for people who have booked a cruise. The cruise ships are not the big mega ships as you tend to see in the Bahamas as they limit the number of people landing on some of the smaller islands in the Galapagos. The town on San Cristobel is very much geared to tourists with many souvenir shops, dive shops, restaurants, hostels and Internet cafes.

The Ecuadorian Government is spending a lot of money to revitalize the town putting in new sewers and roads. They have three large wind mills which they say provide 50% of the town's electricity, the rest coming from diesel powered generators.

There are relatively few cruisers here. I count about 15 boats anchored in this harbor scattered amongst the many cruise ships that come in all shapes and sizes and I am sure all ranges of luxury and price.

We don't take our dinghy off its davits as we know it will soon become a sleeping berth for the sea lions. They come by the boat every night checking to see if it is possible to jump up and find a spot on our deck. I am very happy to find that our boat is not 'sea lion friendly'. We prefer to make use of the water taxis that deliver us to the dock for $1.00 apiece

We, being the sometimes naive tourists, decided to rent bikes and cycle as far as the road goes to a small bay with a beautiful beach, stopping on the way to see the crater lake and the giant land tortoises. I say naive, because although it is only 25 kilometers, the trip is mainly on a gravel road and is uphill, sea level to 600 meters, for the first 15 kilometers. The last 10 k's were easy (downhill all the way) and the beach was absolutely gorgeous.

Thankfully, we took a taxi back to town. We were all rather exhausted but nothing that an ice cold beer and homemade pizza wouldn't cure.

Marine Iguanas

We have landed to Galapagos on the most easterly island and geologically one of the oldest islands, San Cristobal. All the islands in the Galapagos are a result of volcanic activity caused by the movement of the Nazca plate and you will see the terrain is scattered with volcanic rock.

San Cristobal is 558 square kilometers and its highest point rises to 730 meters. The Laguna El Junco in the crater of one of the volcanos provides fresh water to the island. San Cristobal is also the island on which Charles Darwin first landed even though the Charles Darwin Research Center is located on Isla Santa Cruz.

The first animals we saw on arrival were the Sea Lions. They are literally everywhere, sleeping on park benches, dinghies, docks and sidewalks. But, today I will share some pictures of the Marine Iguanas.
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The Marine Iguana is unique to The Galapagos. These swimming iguanas seek its food from the sea, diving down as far as 30 feet. The salt ingested from its diet of seaweed and algae is filtered from the blood through a nasal gland. They will spend hours basking on the black volcanic rocks soaking up the sun and on a closer inspection look about as ancient as the rocks they are sitting on. I got a little too close to one and he snorted a salty stream of snot at me. Very funny.

We expect to see more marine iguanas of various sizes and colors as they are on several of the islands here. You'll notice that they all look quite different, with faces that are almost human. Well, maybe not quite human, but rather cute.