South Plaza

We awoke this morning anchored in a channel between South Plaza Island and Santa Cruz. South Plaza Island is a low lying, arid small island. The Island is less than 1 square mile with a maximum elevation of about 75'. The island is the result of an uplift caused by volcanic activity on nearby Santa Cruz. Evidence of an uplift can be seen in the coral remnants scattered about the island.

We were very fortunate. As we were clambering ashore, one of the naturalist spotted a hybrid iguana. The hybrid had the tail and eyes of a marine iguana with the snout of a land iguana. The hybrids are very rare and, to date, sterile.


Nearby, Paula spotted a sea lion that had just given birth. The frigates and pelicans were squabbling over the placenta. The sea lion picked up the newborn trying to get it to nurse but it was obvious that it was still born.



The pelican initially won the contest over the placenta but lost out to the frigate birds while trying to flip it into his pouch. Then it was the battle of frigates.


This final picture really demonstrates the uniqueness of the habitat. In this picture are a mature swallow tail gull, an immature gull, a land iguana, lava lizard, and marine iguana. None of the animals display fear.


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Location:South Plaza Island, Galapagos

More photo's from today

I had to delete several pictures from the earlier blog in order to post it. The satellite Internet is limited.

We were tickled to stumble upon this striated heron while walking through the village


Here's a picture Paula took of your faithful scribe working on the blog today.




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Location:Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos

Post Office Barrel and Giant Tortoise

Yesterday afternoon, after snorkeling and lunch, we made a wet landing on Floreana to visit thenPost Office Barrel. The post office barrel was set up during the eighteenth century and used by sailors, primarily whalers. The tradition is to review all the letters in the barrel hand deliver any letters that are near an area you plan to travel through or near your home. We ended up with four letters to deliver and left one of our own.



We sailed overnight from Floreana to southern end of the island Santa Cruz. We anchored in a bay just off from the largest town in the islands, Puerto Ayora. The new anchorage appears to be more protected and we are experiencing much less pitching and rolling. Before weighing anchor off of Floreana, we had to have a firm grip on something to move around. Huge pods of dolphins accompanied us until dark. It seemed they were having a contest as to the largest splash. One individual would leap high in the air and land on his back. Another would accelerate through the water and then slap it's head into the water. Another would leap up only to smack the water with his side.

We were up early this morning to visit Puerto Ayora along with the Darwin Research Center and National Park headquarters where we encountered our first giant tortoises.


We saw the first tortoises at the research center where the park service has a breeding program. We also spotted our first land iguana.


After visiting the research center we drove into the highlands. The highlands receive more moisture and is the wild habitat for the tortoise. Before hunting for more tortoises, we explored a lava tube. The tube ran for about five hundred yards and in places the ceiling was so low we had to crab walk or almost crawl. Other areas were cathedral like.


The hunt for wild giant tortoises was not much of a challenge. We walked through open meadows in knee deep grass.



It's after 5:00 pm so time for a cocktail and to make plans for tomorrow.

Location:Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos

Another Full Morning

We've had another busy morning. After breakfast, we boarded zodiacs to find a Floreana mockingbird. Each island has unique or, endemic animals. There are four different mockingbirds in the islands. To date, we have sighted three. We saw the Floreana for the first time this morning. There are only 200 remaining so it was a thrill to see three this morning. After circumnavigating the small island, we donned our snorkeling gear for another adventure. We dove in adjacent to a steep cliff in heavy seas. The currents were strong but ran parallel to the cliffs. The water was a little warmer today, up to 72 degree. We show large schools of fish and many sea lions. The sea lions were in a playful mood and would mimic our actions; spin, they spin, roll, they roll. They would get so close it was difficult to film them.

Here are a few of Paula's picture from yesterday.







Espanola Mockingbird




Marine Iguana



Swallow-tailed Gulls

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Location:Galapagos

Morning Swim with Sea Lions

Today we are exploring Espanola (Hood) Island was named in honor of Spain. It also is known as Hood, after Viscount Samuel Hood. It has an area of 23 square miles and a maximum altitude of 676 ft.

Española is the oldest island at around 3.5 million years, and the southernmost in the group. Due to its remote location, Española has a large number of endemic species. It has its own species of lava lizard, mockingbird, and tortoise. Española's marine iguanas exhibit a distinctive red coloration change during the breeding season. Española is the only place where the waved albatross nests. Some of the birds have attempted to breed on Genovesa (Tower) Island, but unsuccessfully. Española's steep cliffs serve as the perfect runways for these birds, which take off for their ocean feeding grounds near the mainland of Ecuador and Peru.

Española has two visitor sites. Gardner Bay is a swimming and snorkeling site, and offers a great beach. Punta Suarez has migrant, resident, and endemic wildlife, including brightly colored marine iguanas,


Española lava lizards,


hood mockingbirds


swallow-tailed gulls, blue-footed boobies,


Nazca boobies,


red-billed tropicbirds, Galapagos hawks, 3 species of Darwin's finches, and the waved albatross


This morning we woke up anchored in Gardner Bay


and spent the morning snorkeling along a sharp cliff face in 20 to 30 feet of very cold water, about 70 degrees. The day is windy and overcast which made the water feel all that much colder. The area is thick with fish because of strong, upwelling currents that carry nutrients up from the deep. The cold was shocking when we first dove in but we quickly acclimated when we started seeing large schools of fish and feeding sea lions. The sea lions were curious and playful which made them hard to photograph. I soon learned to forget trying still photos and switched to videos. I don't think I'll be winning any Oscars but I was able to get several good shots of the sea lions. Oops, it appears I need to set up a YouTube account to publish videos. Maybe later. The boat is rolling so severely now that it is hard to type.

After snorkeling we visited the beach to warm up.



After lunch, we motored to Punta Suarez and walked a few miles across the island. As you can see, Espanola is loaded with wildlife. Because of the lack of predators, the animals, from sea lions, birds, iguanas, or even lava lizards have no fear. It would be easy to pick up any wild life by hand. In several places it was difficult to avoid stepping on nesting birds, iguanas, or sea lions.


Time for cocktails. More later.

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Location:Espanola, Galapagos

Galapagos, Arrival

Our flights out of Houston and Miami to Guayaquil were smooth and uneventful. Much like our previous experience with National Geographic, everything was on time and professionally handled. After an hour and a half flight this morning from mainland Ecuador to San Cristobal Island we were picked up by zodiacs for a short ride across a busy harbor crowded with small fishing boats and sea lions to board the Islander.


The Islander is a yacht size catamaran outfitted with 24 guest cabins. This trip has 33 guest aboard. Paula and I were fortunate and have one of the two staterooms overlooking the bow. We have a large cabin with windows wrapping around two sides.







We left the harbor and sailed for Cerros Brujo. On the way we sailed past a magnificent tuff cone called Kicker Rock.


The entire time we were accompanied by dozens of frigate birds surfing along the ship and diving for fish in the wake.


We put into Cerros Brujo by zodiac along another tuff escarpment. The cliffs are riddled with caves





and blue footed boobies dive vertically from the cliffs into the water. None of the animals; birds or mammals showed any fear but, for the most part, ignored us like this brown pelican.


We made a wet landing on a green, olivine beach among a number of slumbering sea lions. A few of the mammals barked and snorted but, for the most part, ignored us completely.





Small yellow warblers and Darwin finches flitted about everywhere and would walk up so close it was difficult to photograph them.


The geology of the islands is fascinating and plays an important role in the unique nature of the islands. For anyone interested, I will insert a short description at the end of this blog on the geology of the Islands.

Galapagos Geology

"I scarcely hesitate to affirm, that there must be in the whole archipelago at least two thousand craters ...Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. (Darwin 1845)

The Galapagos Islands are volcanic but, unlike 99% of the world's volcanoes, the Galapagos are not associated with tectonic plate margins. The Galapagos Islands are believed to be associated with a hot spot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume. This is the same process believed to have formed the Hawaiian Islands. As the Nazca Plate drifts west, new volcanoes are formed over the hot spot resulting in a chain of islands with the oldest, Espanola, in the southeast with rocks above sea level aged at three and one quarter million years. The youngest island, Fernandina in the west, is still being formed and is less than seven hundred thousands years old. The most recent eruption on Fernandina was in April 2009.

The islands sit atop the Galapagos Platform; a huge underwater plateau that rises up from ten thousand feet of water to less than one thousand feet in just a few miles. The platform stretches for more than 300 miles east to west and less than 150 miles north to south. The extent of the platform is easily seen using Google Earth.

Each major island consists of a single shield volcano with the exeption of Isabella which is formed from six volcanoes that have joined above sea level.

The magma, as in Hawaii, is basaltic. Basaltic lavas have a lower water content and flow more easily than silica-rich lavas. This means, for the most part, that the gas can escape from the more liquid basaltic lava and not result in explosive eruptions. This results in smooth, shield shaped volcanoes. The other type, andesitic lavas, are less fluid and result in explosive eruptions such as Mount Saint Helens, Mount Fuji, and Volcan Cotopaxi. Andesitic lava is associated with geologic activity at plate subduction zones.

While volcanoes dominate the landscape, layers of shell bearing rocks have been found at elevations greater than three hundred feet. It is believed these were uplifted. In 1954 part of Urbina Bay, Isabella Island was raised twelve feet so quickly it stranded marine life including turtles, fish, and lobsters. In 1975 another, smaller, uplift occurred between Isabella and Ferdnandina resulting in the kill- off of mangroves and barnacles.


For those of you that suffered through my geology lesson, here is a picture of the Islander taken from Cerros Brujos with Kicker Rock in the back ground.


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Location:Cerros Brujos

Preparations

As the picture attests, we are ready to head south. I think we have all our gear sorted and easily make it below the weight limit. I'm ready to go and anxious to start blogging for real again.

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The Next Adventure

As you can see from the new map above, we've booked another trip. This fall, we are traveling south first to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and then on to Peru and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. We'll end the trip at Machu Picchu. Stay tuned for more details as the trip nears.

Home Again

I fell short in the chronicle of our latest adventure. Losing the camera put me off my game somewhat but that is no excuse for not finishing the story.

As I recall, we lost use of the camera after clam digging on mud beach and while we were snorkeling Butterfly reef; the site of the great octopus battle. Thankfully, the memory card was okay and we can share clam photos. We have several photos from snorkeling on Butterfly until saltwater did the dirty deed but we do have, courtesy of Mama Laite, photos of the octopus which, we are more than happy to share.


Here we are, clean and happy heading across the lagoon to a neighboring island to capture appetizers for supper.


As you can see, Arthur quickly put us to work digging clams. We noticed the kids from the island village seemed to be getting more clams and were on semi dry land.


I quickly moved in on their territory and soon had our bucket full and were ready to snorkel. We clambered back into the boat for a short ride; a quarter of a mile or less to a point across from Turtle Island, Butterfly Reef. We geared up and dove in (whether anxious to dive into the clear water or to wash off the clam mud, I leave to the readers imagination).


The reef is spectacular and the visibility exceeded anything we had experienced. The fish were rich and varied. Of course, I can make these claims because I failed to fully secure the camera and have no photographic proof. I will not belabor our day of snorkeling or the adventures that followed as I believe they are fully detailed in a previous blog. I will, however, offer some proof of the episode in the following pictorial spread.





We are home for a while. A trip to Santa Fe and North Dakota in mid summer but no adventures firmed up until Antarctica next winter. We've been invited to Uganda and Kenya in the fall and are considering the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu in September. We can't do both and won't be able to do either if we don't make up our minds soon. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

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Location:Elderberry Trce,Sugar Land,United States

Another Day, Another Beach

We were roused from bed by tremendous flashes of lightning and booming thunder shortly after four this morning. The drapes were flapping and standing straight out from the windows. The rain was beating on the roof and we could here the rushing water in the two small streams that circle our bure. We turned on a light, the nights are so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face, and checked to make sure the rain was not blowing in any of the windows. The bure is composed of all louvered glass walls on all sides. Once everything was secure, we snuggled back in bed and listened to the storm rage. We awoke in daylight to the sound of dripping water from the palms and the rushing sounds of the streams. The wind was still blowing and the tide very high but the rain had stopped. Our walk to breakfast along the beach required a little wading due to the high tide.

We had originally planned to float and kayak in our lagoon but, after breakfast, decided to picnic on Racheli's beach. Another beautiful beach but without the shade of Devil's or Honeymoon. It was overcast and we could see rainstorms offshore and on adjacent islands. As we watched, a tall volcanic peak on a nearby island disappeared as a large rainstorm past between us and the island. We named the two points protecting our beach Shark Point and the other Crab Point. The sandy spits leading through the lava and coral on the south end of the beach were protected by black tip sharks. The water is so clear you can stare into their eyes as they challenge you before they dart off. The tide continued to recede during our visit to Racheli's and exposed a very pretty little beach beyond a lava flow to the north. As we waded around the rocks to the newly exposed beach we were surrounded by pretty green crabs we'd spied earlier in the rocks and tidal pools. We returned to our bure in the early afternoon to say farewell to a couple leaving. Tonight, we're eating alone on the dock.

I just walked down to the dock to post this blog and Felipe asked me to join him and his brother Ben fishing. They have to be here to greet the plane but we will leave after. Ben is a hoot, I went fishing with him and Felipe a couple of days ago and missed two fish. Ben's English is not the best but every time I see him he holds up two fingers and yells "Two Fish!".


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Location:Fiji

Devil's Beach

Our new favorite beach. Sorry, no pictures since I dunked the camera while snorkeling the previous day. Atu and Laite took us to the beach and while we were unpacking our picnic we asked Atu about the idol. Atu took the lead with Laite bringing up the rear. We splashed, waded, and slipped in the mud through a thick mangrove swamp. We had seen the beach from the boat on our cruise the day before and were impressed by the numbers of huge fruit bats circling a large mahogany tree on a hill top above the mangrove swamp. As we trudged through the jungle, the squealing bats constantly swooped and swirled above us. Paula described them as small people on hang gliders. The round trip into the idol and back to the beach took about 20 minutes and was fun. The beach, as I mentioned, is very pretty; several hundred yards of white sand beach pinched between two lava flows. From the beach we had a great view of Paddy's Island.

As we ate, swam, and laid on the beach we kept seeing snorkelers around Paddy's Island. Throughout the afternoon they continued to work closer to our beach. We recognized them as children from a neighboring island. They were diving for sea slugs. Paula swam out to them. At first, they were concerned that we would chase them away but Paula's smile and shout of "bula" eased their concerns. The kids looked to be 7 to 10 years old. Some of the kids had only on flipper but they all carried a white tote sack to keep the black sea slugs. The kids collect and dry the slugs and sell them to a Chinese man that comes around the villages. This is a source of cash for the islands. Not long after the kids showed us their slugs, Micah arrived by boat to pick us up. He spoke with all the kids and made them leave. The kids are not supposed to come around any beach with guests. He told them which beaches they could use for the rest of the afternoon.

Several of our friends left during the afternoon but they were replaced with several new couple. One couple are getting married on Saturday and everyone is invited.

Sorry for the picture less blog. I will try to work out a solution.


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Location:Fiji

Tragedy Strikes

The day started out wonderfully in the pre-dawn grey as we saddled Dip and Nema for a ride across to the east side of the island. Dip, Paula's mount is an eater and enjoyed stopping along the trail to snack on bushes. The horses seemed to anticipate the sunrise and quickened their pace as we approached Long's beach. A fun ride and beautiful sunrise.


The table was set with breakfast and, of course, champagne.



It was a beautiful sunrise and an early start to a very eventful day.


We returned from the horse ride in time for another breakfast. Over breakfast, we were convinced by Arthur to join him on a neighboring island mud flats to dig clams. What a hoot. We were all (two other couples joined us) covered in mud looking for clams. There is a small village on the island and the children were on holiday so they joined us on the mud flats. We filled a five gallon bucket with clams and headed around the point to Butterfly reef to snorkel. WOW is all we can say. The fish and coral are beyond description. I would post pictures but it appears that I failed to properly seal the camera. No more underwater photos on this trip. We will try the disposable film cameras and use the cell phone camera. I left the camera in a bag of rice overnight but no luck. Anyway, back to Butterfly reef. We had been snorkeling for about fifteen minutes, I'd gathered several good pectens and Paula was fully immersed in drifting over the multi-colored coral and fish when Arthur found a large octopus in a hole of a coral head. We swooped in to see the purple octopus and were amazed by the size and color. It was much larger than the one on Farthing reef. Arthur quickly dove down and returned with two large brown sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers will put an octopus to sleep. Arthur shoved the cucumbers into the cave with the octopus. As you would expect, the octopus was quick to return the unwanted gift. Arthur continued to force the sea cucumbers deeper into the opening until he decided the octopus must be asleep. He reached into the coral head and the battle was on for the next 30 minutes. We finally called the boat over, they were hand line fishing nearby, and were able to hook two large hand line hooks in the monster. We shoved additional sea cucumbers into the cave with the boat pulling but we were still unable to dislodge the brute. About this time, he decided to release ink. It looked like a volcano or a smoker in the mid-Atlantic rift. Unbelievable amount of ink. Four separate eruptions but the fight continued. The octopus was large enough that if he was able to wrap his tentacles around you, he could drowned a person. Arthur was taking the brunt of the battle and even employed a kayak paddle. The octopus would wrap his tentacles around the paddle we would pull, along with the boat. Finally, after more than thirty minutes, Arthur, with both hands in the cave exploded out with the creature wrapped around him. We returned home that evening with a bucket of clams, four rock fish and the octopus. Appetizers for our evening meal.

Lunch was fun while we regaled our friends with the exploits of the morning. Paula and I were considering a float in the lagoon but convinced Felipe to take us on a tour of the islands in his boat. We took our bure mama Laite and Felipe's brother Bill along on our three hour cruise. It was fun. We were in an eighteen foot John boat with a 9 horse Eveninrude. We putted around our island and the neighboring islands while Laite, Felipe, and Ben pointed out their villages. The whole while we were sight seeing we had two hand lines out. We quickly hooked a two trevalys and lost them beside the boat. We did land a spanish mackerel which the locals call a rainbow fish.

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Location:Fiji

Another Day

The early mornings here are beautiful. They are clear, calm and cool. The
lagoon is glass only disturbed by the frenzied explosion of bait fish as the predators attack from below. At times, the fish fleeing to the surface appears as a silver wave moving across the lagoon.

We slept in a bit this morning and had a pleasant walked along the beach to breakfast. If you look closely, you can see a rainbow.


Breakfast here is decadent. Suffice it to say, we don't miss breakfast (of course they serve from 9:00 to whenever you want so we have yet to hurry).


We intended to snorkel this morning but, at the last minute, elected to snorkel from our beach rather than take the boat around the north point. Fantastic.


Within 50 yards of our porch we were in a different world. Paula found a giant clam and we saw more beautiful fish than can be described including a shy, black and white sea snake working his way through the short sea grass in the sand near the dock.


After snorkeling and Paula's foot massage, we were off to Honeymoon Beach for another picnic. We learned our lesson from our previous picnic. We ordered much less food but still had a table full.


Honeymoon is my favorite beach, so far. The beach is accessed by steps cut into a volcanic cliff with the hut tucked against the base of the cliff.


The cuspate beach is only 50 yards wide, trapped between two lava flows.


The water is crystal clear and provided good snorkeling and, our new favorite past time, floating.


If you look in the lower left corner of the picture above you can see Paula's foot under water.


Or if you prefer seeing both feet and the rest of her.....

After our trek back across the island we decided to rest in the lagoon.


A nice float and it was time to shower and dress for a cocktails and a fashion show put on by the staff. Like most events on the island, it ended up with everyone dancing in the sand.

Paula and I called it a night early. We had to get up at 5:30 the next morning.

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Location:Fiji