Ecuador 1/11/2019 - 2/2/2019

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 - Isabela, Snorkeling at Islote Tintoreras

We woke up this morning and packed everything up to go to Isabela. Sisa had spread her belongings out far and wide in the room. I carefully checked the room to make sure we had everything. Some of her clothes were still wet from yesterday's snorkeling adventure, so Craig and I packed those carefully in our luggage so they wouldn't get everything wet in her backpack.

I realized that I hadn't gotten a good photo of the hotel from the waterfront, so as we waited for Fabo, I ran down the stairs to the waterfront to get a photo. I also took a picture of the cheesy statue of Darwin and the Beagle.

Behind the statue were two baby sea lions acting playful. I was slowly approaching to film them when I realized that one of them was chewing on a blue plastic cap from a water bottle. Not on my watch was a baby sea lion going to choke on discarded plastic. I made a sudden movement toward the sea lions, and the baby was startled and dropped the bottle cap. I reached my leg forward and dragged the bottle cap toward me with my foot so that it was out of his reach. He quickly substituted a pebble for the bottle cap and played hockey with it, flipping it into his mouth, biting on it and spitting it out.

When I told Fabo about the incident he said that the little guy was around three months old and was most probably teething. At that age they will bite on anything to soothe their emerging teeth, and plastic is an increasing problem.

With more tourists, there is more litter. The guides always report litter when they see it, and they always fill their pockets with other people's trash. It is a shame that such a fragile ecosystem is disrespected by the very guests who come to enjoy it.

Baby sea lions teething

We took a taxi to the airport, which was pretty close to deserted. They weighed our luggage on an old-school analog scale. It is an 8-passenger plane, and weight limits for luggage are strongly enforced.

We sat at the gate with a handful of other people, and soon it was time to board our Emetebe flight. Sisa and I had window seats in the front row which afforded great views. We wore ear protection and throughly enjoyed the entire experience. Sisa is an old pro at flying, and wasn't intimidated in the least by flying in such a small propellor plane.

8 Passenger flight from San Cristobal to Isabela

After about 45 minutes, we landed on Isabela at an even smaller airport. We got off the plane and they unloaded our luggage. I realized that Sisa's backpack wasn't among the luggage. They checked the cargo hold and made several phone calls back to San Cristobal.

Apparently, her bag had gotten stuck in the conveyor and had never been loaded onto the plane! Welcome to air travel, Sisa! The same plane would be coming to Isabela from San Cristobal tomorrow morning, and they would bring it then. The good news is that we would have it before moving on to Santa Cruz. The bad news is that Sisa would have to get through a day and night in Isabela without her luggage. Craig and I were annoyed but wouldn't portray that to Sisa. We made light of it. Luckily, she had felt chilly first thing this morning and was actually wearing several layers of clothing. Also, between Craig and myself, we had some random clothes of hers which were wet and/or wouldn't fit in her backpack, and these included a bathing suit. What she didn't have included underwear and a toothbrush.

We had many laughs at the expense of the lost bag: ("no ropa interior, no nada" "no underwear, no nothing"). It became a great in-joke. We would buy her a new toothbrush on the island and hand wash her undies, so we would manage to be ok.

On the short drive to the Hotel Volcan, we saw many marine iguanas on the road. Sisa got a big kick out of this. We stopped at the hotel to drop off our bags and eat breakfast. The road was quite muddy, and the taxi driver told us that it had been raining for the past five days. We were quite lucky because today was sunny and warm.

Our rooms weren't ready yet, but we enjoyed scrambled eggs as well as a buffet including fresh bread and fresh fruit. We had some coffee and juice as well.

After breakfast we went to see some flamingoes in a man-made lagoon which was made years ago by a cement plant. This was a different place from where we had seen the birds in 2008. There were thick vines of morning glories growing on the side of the road here.

Next, we went to the giant tortoise breeding center. Although there are giant tortoises on San Cristobal, our itinerary hadn't included any. Today would be the first time that Sisa and Mukul would lay eyes on these gentle giants. How exciting!

There are over a dozen subspecies of giant 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 cacti without their own shell getting in the way. In fact, "Galapagos" is an old Spanish word for "riding saddle" and we could easily see how that name came to be used.

According to The Galapagos Conservancy:

Scientists believe the first tortoises arrived to Galapagos 2–3 million years ago by drifting 600 miles from the South American coast on vegetation rafts or on their own. They were already large animals before arriving in Galapagos. Colonizing the eastern-most islands of Española and San Cristóbal first, they then dispersed throughout the archipelago, eventually establishing at least 15 separate populations on ten of the largest Galapagos Islands.

Of all of the native species of Galapagos, giant tortoises were the most devastated after the endemic rice rats, with the majority of rice rat species now extinct. One of the giant tortoise’s most amazing adaptations — its ability to survive without food or water for up to a year — was, unfortunately, the indirect cause of its demise. Once buccaneers, whalers and fur sealers discovered that they could have fresh meat for their long voyages by storing live giant tortoises in the holds of their ships, massive exploitation of the species began. Tortoises were also exploited for their oil, which was used to light the lamps of Quito. Two centuries of exploitation resulted in the loss of between 100,000 to 200,000 tortoises. Three species have been extinct for some time, and a fourth species lost its last member, Lonesome George, in June of 2012. It is estimated that 20,000–25,000 wild tortoises live on the islands today.

In addition to their direct exploitation by humans for both food and oil, giant tortoises faced other challenges due to the introduction of exotic species by human visitors. They suffered — and continue to suffer on some islands — predation on tortoise eggs and hatchlings by rats, pigs, and voracious ants, and competition for food and habitat with goats and other large mammals.

With the establishment of the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation in 1959, a systematic review of the status of the tortoise populations began. Only 11 of the 14 originally named populations remained and most of these were endangered if not already on the brink of extinction. The only thing saving several of the populations was the longevity of tortoises, keeping some old adults alive until conservation efforts could save their species.

In 2015, newly hatched baby tortoises were discovered in Pinzon island for the first time in over 100 years. This is wonderful news as it proves that the tortoises are now able to reproduce naturally in the wild thanks to half a century of conservation efforts.

[A month after we visited, it was announced that a female tortoise was found on Fernandina Island. This subspecies (Chelonoidis phantasticus) was thought to have been extinct for the past hundred years.]

We got to see many giant tortoises (separated in corrals by age as well as island of origin). They were especially active today and were a joy to watch.

Fabo told us that last October, 123 baby tortoises were stolen from this facility, most likely with a local accomplice. But no opuntia cactus (their food) was stolen, so their prospects are slim. Perhaps because of this, we were not able to get up close and personal with a new hatchling and incubating eggs as we had in 2008.

We went into the gift shop and asked Sisa if she wanted to buy a T-shirt. We wanted to support the center, and purchasing something is an easy way to do so. She picked out a pink shirt with the Abbey Road style Galapagos graphic to match her sun hat.

After the breeding center, we stopped in Neotropic Expeditions' gear house to get snorkeling equipment. We walked along the gorgeous beach and observed marine iguanas. We saw that Beto's Beach Bar is just across the street from our hotel. We had enjoyed a nice evening there with Sebastian in 2008.

We went back to the hotel to get settled in our room, #201. It had a nice view of the ocean, which was just across the street. We extracted Sisa's wet clothes from our bags and arranged them in the sun beam coming in through the window to try to dry them. Then we walked to lunch at the Endemic Turtle. Craig and I had salad, rare yellowfin tuna, and papas fritas. It was probably the best meal of the trip; absolutely delicious!

We had about an hour to rest in the room and then we were picked up at 2 o'clock and brought to the Puerto Villamil pier where we met Carla, our naturalist guide, and the rest of our group for hiking and snorkeling at Islote Las Tintoreras.

As we approached the pier, we could see Galapagos penguins shooting through the water like little torpedos. They are such efficient swimmers. Sea lions cavorted in the shallows as well.

We got into our boat and approached some rocks wher blue-footed boobied, Galapagos penguins, and marine iguanas were all basking in the sun together.

We could see a swarm of birds a little ways away, and the captain turned the boat around to chase them. It was a blue-footed booby feeding frenzy. There was a whole flock (hundreds of birds) who were dive-bombing the water right around our boat to catch sardines. Fabricio says that the last time he witnessed something like this was 2 years ago...not a common event for the average tourist to see. We were very lucky! Everywhere we looked there were birds falling out of the sky. It was surreal. As we photographed them, we were splashed as they entered the water.

Blue-footed booby feeding frenzy

According to Wikipedia:

Plunge diving can be done from heights of 10–30.5 m (33–100 ft) and even up to 100 m (330 ft). These birds hit the water around 97 km/h (60 mph) and can go to depths of 25 m (82 ft) below the water surface. Their skulls contain special air sacs that protect the brain from enormous pressure. Prey are usually eaten while the birds are still underwater. Individuals prefer to eat on their own instead of with their hunting group, usually in the early morning or late afternoon. Males and females fish differently, which may contribute to why blue-foots, unlike other boobies, raise more than one young. The male is smaller and has a proportionally larger tail, which enables the male to fish in shallow areas as well as deep waters. The female is larger and can carry more food. Both the male and female feed the chicks through regurgitation.

Carla took us on a short hike on the lava fields of Islote Tintoreras. There we saw many marine iguanas (a land iguana which dives into the ocean for food and excretes the salt it ingests by "sneezing" it out its nose; which we got to witness). We passed workers who were setting traps in small lengths of PVCD pipes to trap invasive rodents which are detrimental to the wildlife.

One of the guys in our group commented that he really wanted to see a shark. As we approached a shallow channel, I remarked to Craig that this was where we had seen sharks in 2008. Craig then had sharks on the brain, and noticed a white tipped reef shark in the channel. He pointed it out and the guy who wanted to see a shark was quite pleased. He said that now all he needed was for it to eat a sea lion, an obvious reference to some amazing TV footage where a great white shark jumps into the air and devours a seal.

A green sea turtle swam back and forth in the channel, occasionally poking his head above the water's surface to breathe.

Marine iguanas blended into the black lava rock of the trail, so we had to be very careful not to accidentally step on one. One baby sea lion was hanging out next to a marine iguana, and it eventually lay down and rested its head on the marine iguana's tail!

After getting to a beachy area, we turned around and retraced our steps on the way back to the boat. We had to wait a couple of minutes to board because the crew were dealing with some floating trash. They had come across a large block of styrofoam floating in the water. They secured it so that it was no longer floating and reported it. Then they came to shore to pick us up. While we were waiting, we enjoyed watching the bright red and yellow Sally lightfoot crabs, as well as their young, who are a black color to blend in with the lava rocks and avoid predation.

Next we went snorkeling. This was Sisa's second time, and she was an old pro. She wore a life jacket and swam with Fabricio, but at times when he dove underwater to get a closer look at things, she held her own by herself. We are so proud of this girl. She is gaining such confidence!

We saw many fish, including colorful parrotfish. They were feeding and Craig called Sisa's attention to the fact that you can hear them scraping food from the rocks through the water. We also saw sting rays, spotted eagle rays, and the grand finale: a Galapagos penguin! These little guys are the northernmost penguin in the world, they come to the equator via the Humboldt current. He swam with us and went toward Craig, squawking happily! It was amazing!

We came back to the hotel to shower (or, as Sisa put it in her journal, "This hotel doesn't have a pool"). We joked more about Sisa's missing luggage, and Sisa wrote in her travel journal.

We looked out the window as the sun started to set and noticed that a marine iguana had sought shelter in a cement cubbyhole across the street. Sisa dubbed it the iguana casita.

Sisa asked if we could take a walk along the beach, which we thought was a great idea. The beach was new to her and we were happy that she wanted to explore. We crossed the street and walked down the beach as the sun set. The sound of the waves was so relaxing. We realized that Sisa was not used to this sound, and we made sure to draw her attention to it. We watched a yong local boy and his toddler sister playing soccer on the beach.

Sisa picked up a mangrove seed pod and started drawing in the sand. I suggested that she write her name, which she did. She then followed this up by writing in English "I love you Achi Mama and Achi Taita." She is such a sweetheart!

Beach at sunset

We had about 30 minutes to rest in the room before dinner. I went through the day's photo on our computer. For some reason, Craig and I started to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody." Sisa was quite intrigued.

We met Mukul and Fabo and walked to dinner. We stopped at a convenience store and bought Sisa a toothbrush. We walked to the center of town, past a nice large park. We noticed a lot of Chinese electric cars. Fabo explained that cars are highly regulated in the Galapagos, with only so many permitted. But there is no limit for electric cars; any resident is allowed to own an electric car.

We ate at Restaurante El Cafetal in the center of town. We had a nice table outdoors. I had a frozen piña colada and Craig had an Endemica Coffee Stout (I had a tiny taste and it was delicious, even to a non-beer drinker like me! ) Mukul ordered a Pilsener. When the server asked Sisa what she wanted to drink, without missing a beat she announced "Pilsener!" Everyone had a good laugh, and she proceeded to order a Coke, which she then drank out of a wine glass.

We had pumpkin soup with garlic bread, swordfish, yucca, and grilled vegetables. For dessert we had tiramisu, and Sisa had ice cream.

It was another amazing day! Sisa is tired but very happy. Isabela is such a beautiful, laid-back island. In 2008 we spent two nights here. This time it was just one night. We would still like to return to this sleepy island for a few days of true relaxation.

I stayed up until 11 o'clock posting to Facebook from the lobby, the only place where wi-fi is available.

Puerto Villamil, Isabela

Islote Tintoreras, Isabela