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We got up at 6:30 am and I wrote in the journal for a bit and then we went downstairs to the dining room. Felipe was there with his clients and we chatted with him about last night's rainstorm. Breakfast was a buffet with cereal, yoghurt, fried eggs, croissants, coffee, and passionfruit juice. There was a large map painted on the wall which provided an interesting view while we ate. Sebastian joined us at a little after 8:00. We put on our sunscreen and then went outside and met Telmo, our Santa Cruz naturalist guide. The roads were a lot drier this morning and showed no signs of the deluge that occured overnight. As we walked down toward the pier, once again we passed the very modern, and very fancy, World Wildlife Fund building. This time we were very disappointed to see that they intentionally had their front sliding doors pulled wide open. You could actually feel their air conditioning from across the street. Upon closer inspection, it was clear this wasn't a temporary situation and in fact this was normal practice. For all their work on conservation I think somebody is missing the point at WWF. Craig was particularly upset at WWF for witnessing this irresponsible behavior. He was beside himself and desperately wanted to go inside and say something on the spot. We decided we probably couldn't change their practices and that we didn't want to ruin our day by getting too worked up over it. But we did question whether or not this will be the last year we donate to WWF. Cooling the equator with air conditioning seems like a futile prospect to us and we personally don't believe it is a good use of our donated money.
We got to the water and met up with Angel and our inflatable kayaks. As we approached the water we were trying to descend a cement boat ramp that sloped right into the water. It was covered with a thin slipperly algae layer and of course I fell right on my butt. We all laughed as I was off to a great start to the day. This area was quite busy. We had to dodge boats and a web of mooring ropes as we paddled around the mangroves, out into the actual bay. Craig and I found this kayak to be much easier to paddle than our previous one on San Cristobal, as it sat higher in the water. Some big waves came in just as we were breaking away and they were fun to crest in the kayak. A few sea lions and pelicans were posed picturesquely on various boats and docks as we made our way out of port. A cargo boat had come into port and a large crane was arranging its cargo. Watching a day in the life of this quaint port was interesting on its own but we had a mission today. What a beautiful ride this was turning out to be. We exited the port area and followed along the coast. Simply watching all the activity on our way out of the harbor and into the mangrove lined bays was overwhelming. As we continued along gently paddling our way through the quiet water, we caught slight glimpses of a stingray under the waves. We headed into the natural rocky canals wedged between the mangrove forests. We suddenly felt separated from human interaction and felt completely immersed in nature. In these areas we saw many Sally Lightfoot crabs. They were in various stages of development and therefore coloring. We saw blue footed boobies close up and admired their coloration. We also could easily see the way they rustle their neck feathers in order to stay cool. Sebastian stood up in his kayak to point out a spotted eagle ray sliding beneath us. Apart from a couple of photos right after we launched the kayaks, the underwater camera had ceased to function once more. I was wishing I had brought our normal camera, but I had been afraid of getting it wet during the kayaking expedition. You just never really know what to expect from an adventure until you actually start doing it. We approached some rocky cliffs and saw common noddies standing as sentinels in front of a small hole from which we could hear the sound of chicks peeping. We passed several marine iguanas on a rock at the water's edge, and soon another, photogenically peeking out of a hole in the lava cliff face so that only his head and hands were visible. Damn this camera! It was as if it was mocking me! we watched as a noddy stole a stick from someone else's nest and brought it to his own nest. We couldn't help but feel bad as one bird flew away working frantically while the other one simply swooped in stealing his work. At one point We also saw two turtle heads pop out of the water. There were all sorts of rocky canals where we could quietly paddle our way along, constantly being stunned at all we were witnessing. This place was magical. The solitude and quiet was breathtaking until a small boat approached nearby. We could smell all the oil and gas mixture burning. This was another sad reminder of how people can easily damage the environment when not being careful. We felt completely justified quietly paddling along, witnessing this beautiful nature, despite any controvery regarding the practice of kayaks being allowed in the area. Our quiet intrusion pales in comparison to the sanctioned tourist boat that was driving along far too close to all of the wildlife habitats. It seems to me that the real issue has more to do with the cost of the permits for a larger boat in relation to a few small kayaks. Despite all of these thoughts, it was a stunning morning paddling around the coastline and we felt priveledged to be able to explore there. We kept thinking, "Where is our camera crew? They are missing all of this". Once again we felt completely submerged into a television special that we'll never forget. Finally ready to eat something a little more substantial, we paddled over to the beautiful and sandy Finch Bay. Leaving our kayaks with Sebastian and Telmo so they could be tied up safely, we washed up on the beach of the Finch Bay Ecohotel. This resort is only accessible by water, but we felt a little funny arriving by kayak anyway. The back "yard" of the resort was made up of a large pool with a stone deck surrounding every curve of the pool. There were numerous tables scattered around and each had an umbrella to provide a little shade. They were just waiting for people to sit and enjoy a nice meal. We would be happy to oblige. There were various additional buildings nearby and we quickly noticed that one included a nice clean bathroom where we could wash our hands before lunch. We chose a table and sat right near the pool. The sun was quite hot and I wasted no time ordering a frosty cold pineapple juice. For lunch I chose the ceviche de pulpo (octopus ceviche, which had little purple tentacles) and Craig chose the ceviche mixto (shrimp and lobster) again. He had really loved it a few days earlier so he wondered how this one might compare. Sebastian also settled in with us and ordered ceviche mixto too. Sitting here watching the birds flying around was so peaceful. We could have easily relaxed here for a few hours just trying to process all that we had already seen. When our food arrived, it was quite interesting to see that the ceviche was served with a bowl of popcorn and some plantain chips. Sebastian told us it is very common to see popcorn served this way with meals in Ecuador. We had also seen this in some of the restaurants in Quito but we still found it somewhat unusual despite its simplicity. Before completely giving up on having photos of our morning, I decided to see if the failing camera had any hope of capturing a lunch time photo. Sure enough, after several failed attempts, we managed to take a single photo of our lunch before the camera failed yet again! After we finished our lunch and rested for a few extra minutes, Sebastian wandered over to get Telmo and grab the kayaks for us. I wasted no time and quickly climbed into the kayak from the beach. Then, just as Craig lifted one leg to climb in to the kayak, a wave came along and washed away the sand supporting his other foot. As his body twisted and his foot sank further into the sand, the wave pushed the boat away from him. His leg completely buckled and he splashed spectactularly into the ocean. We all laughed so hard, it was hilarious. So much for trying to remain nice and dry after lunch! After a quick bow towards the hotel (in case anybody happened to witness the highly graceful event), Craig gathered his now floating supplies and hopped into the kayak for the final stretch back to town. Now we were really only a short distance away from the town. As we paddled along the coast, it felt like we were back in no time. We saw many different tourist boats. Some were large, some were small, but all seemingly coming and going from the small port. Although the boats seemed very nice, they all seemed so disconnected from the islands. Feeling this way definitely helped to solidify our happiness to be actually staying on the islands as we explored them. I'm sure both options have their own unique experiences, and both have their pros and cons, but at this point in time we were convinced we chose the right type of trip for us. We paddled our way back to the pier where we started this kayak journey. We needed to dodge a lot of little boats and all types of tangled mooring ropes. The web of ropes were in constant motion and we laughed as we carefully timed each advance. As each wave came, the boats shifted, and the criss-crossed lines slackened and then grew taut again. We wondered if one of them would cause us difficulty as we tried to slide on by. We had no problems but it sure felt a little precarious a few times. As we climbed out of the kayak, I was careful not to slip on the algae this time. Sebastian immediately got all the equipment back into the pickup truck and was awaiting our next instruction. All morning we had been noticing dark rainclouds hanging over the mounatins. Sebastian reminded us that those were the very mountains that we would be hiking this afternoon. Looking at the clouds, as well as our watches, we agreed that it was probably best to skip our hike today. Not only would everything be muddy and slippery, but the clouds would likely prevent us from having much of a good view. So we decided to go back to our hotel, take a quick rinse shower, change quickly, and meet up with Sebastian and Telmo again in 30 minutes. It seemed something had to be removed from our itinerary and, given the conditions, the hike was the obvious one to go. In what seemed like only a few minutes, we met up again at the lobby. This time I was ready with my proper camera. The water camera had been problematic in the morning, but now that we were exploring dry land, we could make use of the far more reliable one. This time we walked down the street in the other direction. This led us past a nice little park and an above ground cemetery. We continued walking down the small road to the Charles Darwin Research Station. When we first entered the research station, we saw the tiny baby tortoises. They were in different outdoor pens according to their subspecies and ages. They each had identification numbers painted on their shells, and the color of the paint indicated which area they were from. When they got slightly older, they were moved from what was basically a caged-in tabletop to a caged environment which had water puddles, rocks, and dirt simulating their local landscape. Each pen is surrounded by naturally occuring vegetation and each is accessable via raised wooden boardwalks, like sidewalks, that connect each different zone. This was a straightforward and convenient design to keep the humans mostly separate from the animals. At these smaller pens there were stairs down to the ground level so you could more clearly see the smaller ones. We enjoyed just standing and watching them for a while. Suddenly a rather large, and particularly loud, tour group muscled us out of the way. We were more than happy to move on, or simply let them pass us, but we had just arrived and weren't sure which was best. This group couldn't help but interfere and try to have an effect on the tiny babies' behavior. They all spoke loudly and managed to startle a few of them. Then they actually picked up a few small branches covered with leaves and threw them into the cages. We were aghast! The babies are only fed twice a week, and today wasn't a normal feeding day. As a result, the babies started to go crazy for the food, stepping and climbing all over one another to try to get to it. We were dismayed that people are sometimes overtaken with such selfish desires with little thought to the consequences. After the group moved on, we continued to watch the baby tortoises. The older ones (who are not always fed and instead can forage for their own food) were quite fiesty and frenetic, crawling all over one another jockeying for position. Since their shells make them top heavy, one of them flipped over when he was on the top of the pile and wound up on his back. This is very dangerous and adult tortoises need to avoid this at all costs. Once they weigh several hundred pounds, there is no way for them to physically right themselves. Luckily, this little guy quickly grabbed onto something and was able to turn himself over easily. The loud group moved on as quickly as they arrived and we happily let them pass. There are over a dozen subspecies of tortoise in the Galapagos. They each evolved differently to suit the conditions on particular islands. Tortoises who live in lush verdant environments have dome-shaped shells. These shells are streamlined to help them push their way through the dense undergrowth. Tortoises who live in more desolate islands are smaller overall, and their shell resembles a saddle. These saddleback tortoises developed longer necks and legs to help extend their reach. Their shell also has a deep notch above their necks. This allows them to reach their necks up very high to eat from taller trees and catci without their own shell getting in the way. In fact, we were told that "Galapagos" is an old Spanish word for "riding saddle" and we could easily see how that name came to be used. As we continued along the various walkways, we were gazing down into the pens and admiring all the birds that darted in and out of the trees. Soon we reached a rather large viewing platform and wondered what it was used for. The pen seemed empty on first glance but then it all became clear. This pen was the home of the research station's most famous resident, Lonesome George. He is the sole survivor of the subspecies of Pinta tortoises, who so far has been unable to successfully reproduce. The station has not given up on George and regularly attempts to mate him with the next closest subspecies. Visitors are not able to enter his enclosure, but there is a raised viewing platform which overlooks his paddock. He has a reputation for being pretty shy, and was so far away from the viewing platform that it was difficult to see him in his enclosure. We could barely make out his shape from afar. We tried inspecting his pen from various angles but nothing offered a nicer view of him. In the end we had to settle for just a glimpse of the real George, so we decided to pick up a postcard for a more detailed view. There were, however, some adult tortoise paddocks that we were able to enter. These tortoises were much older than the tiny babies we had observed earlier, and were able to wander around the grounds. Here, they are separated by gender. We first went into the paddock containing the females and we quickly saw three tortoises lumbering nearby. The one who was the most accessible was resting on her stone feeding platform. Visitors are not allowed to step on these platforms, so tortoises who want to be alone can lounge there without being disturbed. Next we went into the male pen. These guys were gigantic! We were able to get a picture crouching down next to an especially big one. We approached him slowly and cautiously and he just kept on eating and eating, paying no attention to us whatsoever. His large mouth made A "Garumph" sound as he ripped vegetation from the ground and from the surrounding rocks. At one point he moved toward me and I realized that I was sitting next to some grass he wanted to eat. After moving aside, I took some video footage from only about 10 inches away from him. He wasn't the least bit concerned as I did this. Craig and I just stared at him in wonder. His head and feet were so dinosaur-like. It was as if we had gone back in time. As he chomped away at the vegetation clinging to nearby rocks, we could hear the sounds of his jaw and teeth scratching against them. Looking closely at his features, we were both mesmerized by the sight! This thing was alive, he was real, this was not some nature show on television. We were overcome with awe and felt we could sit and watch them for hours. Moving on, we noticed a few other huge males elsewhere in the paddock who were just lounging around. One big guy was sitting smack dab in the middle of the boys' feeding platform. He looked as if he had passed out while waiting for food to arrive. They may be slow but they sure are deliberate with their movements. Watching them was a seriously thought-provoking experience! We finally left the tortoise paddocks and came across some yellowish land iguanas in their enclosure. It was very interesting to see these as they looked just like what we have seen elsewhere in the world, but they were yellow! They were so different from the marine iguanas that we were now accustomed to seeing. From there we went to a few of the buildings we skipped by earlier. Inside we got to see a big display of various tortoise shells collected from the various islands. It was impressive looking at the significant differences and thinking about the evolutionary "reasons" for the modifications. We stopped wandering and bought some ice creams at the outdoor snack bar. At this point Sebastian asked if had any other questions or if we had anything else we wanted to see before he and Telmo took their leave. We were more than pleased with our day's activities so Sebastian and Telmo left us to explore more at our leisure. We went into the Darwin gift shop and bought a really nice book about the tortoise breeding projects for a mere $5. Feeling rather satisfied with our visit, we left the research station and decided to stop at the National Park gift store which was right outside the main gate. After picking up a few items as gifts we were on our way again. We took our time walking back to the hotel. We passed the entrance to the Red Mangrove, an ecoresort with a highly rated sushi restaurant. When we first saw this place We had seriously considered eating dinner here. Now that we were standing right there, we changed our minds. Through no fault of the restaurant, it was low tide and the smells emanating from the mangroves were far from appetizing. We couldn't stomach eating raw fish in that smell. Just like that, we were on the lookout for another dinner destination. It was still plenty early so we figured we would get hungry again eventually. We stopped by a few gift shops and galleries. There were a lot of very interesting designs in the artwork and very interesting materials being used. All in all we had a very enjoyable time browsing through things but didn't really find anything that was small enough, or appropriate, for us to buy and take home. In one of the smaller shops, the proprietor had an adorable daughter of around 5 or 6 years old. She sort of hid behind the displays and stacks of T-shirts until she poked her head up and said "Hola" with a great big smile. She reminded us so much of our girls in Guatemala that we suddenly missed them very much. We stopped in at the hotel briefly to freshen up a bit and then went back out to town at 5:30. We didn't have an exact destination but figured something would naturally call to us. We wandered along the main road again just taking in the sights. As darkness fell, we ended up stopping at the store that sold the Evolution Revolution T-shirts. I just couldn't get it out of my head; if I could come back with one shirt from the trip, it would be this one. They let me try it on and it was a bit snug, but I couldn't resist buying it anyway. You just don't see that kind of thing every day. Moving along, we looked into just about every little shop along the main drag. We didn't really have something specific in mind to buy, we were really just browsing and seeing what we came across. We were both fascinated with some of the wood carvings we saw. There are clearly a lot of talented artists working with wood here. Craig wondered about all the wood though. Some of these pieces were made with very large trees and it seemed unlikely they came from the islands. He eventually asked one of the artists about the wood. He was told that almost all of it is actually imported to the islands, carved and sold here, and then likely exported again after purchase. It sure seemed like a lot of shipping was involved and sadly it probably isn't the most environmentally sound practice. There sure were some beautiful pieces though. We wandered the town looking for a place to eat, but nothing really excited us before reaching the end of the main drag. We even started looking up some of the side streets to see if there were some local places that might do the trick. We did find a few places open but nothing seemed to be appropriate for what we were looking for. Although dinner at The Rock had been great, we wanted to eat someplace different (plus it looked like there was already a wait for tables). We agreed that we didn't want someplace too overtly touristy and we both agreed that the idea of sushi was still not very appetizing to us. We looked up some of the smaller streets and found a couple of little local places that seemed interesting enough, but they didn't serve alcohol, and we had hoped to enjoy a drink with our dinner. We were in that no-man's land of not knowing exactly what we were looking for, but also knowing exactly what we weren't looking for. We finally decided on La Dolce Vita. Italian food didn't seem very Ecuadorian, but it was a cozy little place that looked busy enough to be good. We walked in and asked for a table for two for dinner. The waiter tried to put us at a very small table right next to the bar. It was less than ideal. Immediately, the proprietor, a matronly older woman, shook her head disapprovingly and waved her hand, offering us any table we wanted. We chose a table for four against a wall, and that was much more comfortable. Craig ordered a Pilsener and I had the most creamy pina colada ever. We chose a plate of calamari for an appetizer, and they served us delicious warm bread with garlic butter. Wow, this was a fantastic start to the meal. We both felt that we ended up in the right place after all. For his meal, Craig had fetuccine mare e monte in a cognac sauce with shrimp and mushrooms. I opted for the alfredo penne pasta with prosciutto (well, it was really more ham than prosciutto, but who's keeping track?) It was absolutely delicious and we were particularly glad that we had chosen to eat here. As we enjoyed our dinner, the restaurant began to fill up around us and we thought they were all making a good choice. We finished our leisurely dinner and then decided we would go someplace else for more drinks and dessert. As soon as we left the restaurant and stepped to the curb, it started to rain. Oh no, not this again! But it let up quickly and we walked to La Garrapatta where we had eaten lunch yesterday. I got another pina colada and Craig had more Pilsener. My pina colada had a tiny bamboo umbrella, and we joked that we would be prepared if we were caught in the rain tonight! We almost wished for more rain just so that I could go out into the street like a fool holding a tiny bamboo umbrella over my head. This was the perfect place to stop. It was open on the walls so we could enjoy the beautiful temperatures yet protected by a roof to keep us dry. It was also much more appropriate for people watching which is always a favorite pastime of ours. We eventually ordered some dessert cakes but they were much drier than we liked. They were tasty but we personally felt they would have been much better if they were more moist. We joked that it was extracting all the moisture we had left in our bodies. I was so thirsty that I ordered a watermelon juice to quench my thirst. Perhaps this is an intentional side-effect of serving drier cakes. We noticed that our waiter had a Che Guevara tattoo on his calf and Craig and I said to one another simultaneously "The Evolution Revolution!" We called the waiter over and told him we liked his tattoo. He didn't understand much English but he got the gist and showed it off proudly. Seizing the opportunity, he asked me if I would like to try the drink of the Galapagos, caipiranha. He explained that It was made with sugarcane rum mixed with lemon and sugar. It sure sounded yummy and I gladly accepted. I really enjoyed the sweet yet sour drink but by the time I was finished we thought it was about time to head back to the room. We found our way back at around 10:30, I wrote in the journal for a while and we both went to sleep just after 11:30. |
                
 Watch our Santa Cruz video set to "Santa Cruz Blues" by Iguanamen de Galapagos |
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