Welcome to Quito and Quito Botanical Gardens

Posted on February 19, 2021 by Lark

Welcome to Quito! After nearly two weeks of baking in the Galapagos sun, the cool, night air that greeted me in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, was a welcome change! Quito is way up in the highlands, built on the side of a volcano at an altitude of 9,350ft (2,850m) (for a couple of reference points, Denver, CO is at 5,280ft/1,600m, and Cusco, Peru is at 11,200ft/3,400m… so Quito is somewhere in between). Unfortunately for me, the cool temperatures didn’t extend to daytime hours, so I was still sweating my brains out most of the time.

Last time, we left off on Isabela Island, and the trek from there to my Quito hostel was… lengthy. It involved a 2-ish hour ferry back to Santa Cruz (this was a rough one… I did that thing where I closed my eyes and repeatedly told myself that I didn’t feel nauseous in the spirit of “fake it ‘til you make it”. Didn’t work), a 40-minute taxi ride across Santa Cruz to the northern dock (with our good friend Fredy from our visit to the Santa Cruz highlands!), a 5-minute ferry ride to Baltra Island (where the airport is located), a 10-minute bus ride to the airport, a 4-hour wait at the airport (my family’s flight was earlier, but it didn’t make sense to go separately), a 2-hour flight to Quito, and finally, a 1-hour taxi ride to the city (I researched public transit and it was NOT worth it). Woof.

I have lots of botanical garden pics, so I’m going to start putting them in now. Enjoy!

More dangly flowers! They’re like Christmas tree ornaments.

I gave myself one “chill/get organized” day in Quito before reentering sightseeing mode. After nearly 4 weeks of constant go-go-go, first with my parents in Peru and then with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in the Galapagos, I needed to pull myself back together, take a few deep breaths, and most of all, do some laundry! My clothes were all gross, to the point where it was a struggle to decide what to wear/forgo washing while everything else was being cleaned. I lugged every single item of clothing that I had (7lbs, apparently) to a nearby laundry shop and paid a lady $4.50 to wash it all. Not bad. When I got them back, I think my clothes were the cleanest they’d been in 10 months.

The next day, I rejoined the world. It was a Sunday, so I found an English-speaking church online, got some public transit advice, and set out on my first adventure. Well. The day got off to a rough start. On Sundays, some of Quito’s major roads close to car traffic for the “Ciclopaseo” (bike path). It’s actually awesome – people can bike/walk on 18 miles (29km) of closed roads! But for me, it was a headache. Bus routes on those roads are rerouted, so I hopped on the first bus that was headed in the right direction and figured I’d walk the rest of the way once I got close.

Okay, great, except Quito is HUGE. Since it’s in a valley, it’s somewhat narrow but very long, and for some reason, I could not get a handle on its scale while looking at google maps. I would look up the location of something, see where it was in relation to me, and think, “Okay, looks like maybe a 10-minute walk.” Get directions… “40 minutes”. WHAT.

So, I got off the bus thinking, “I’m pretty close now!” NOPE. 25 minutes. Church started in 20, so I powerwalked it. That would have been fine… except that the high elevation soon had me panting, and surprise! HILLS. My gosh. I juuust made it on time but had to pause outside for a minute to avoid passing out. Inside, I spent the beginning of the service attempting to silently breathe heavily (impossible) and trying (failing) to stop sweating. Well, the good news is that I’ll never see any of those people again. (The bad news is that I’ve gone to church a bunch of times throughout my travels, and no matter how much time I allow to get there… I show up nearly late/panting and sweaty EVERY TIME. I guess that’s just kind of my thing now.)

This flower is crazy! And pretty! But like… what?

Ah I love this one too. (Spoiler alert: I love them all.)

After church, I made my way, at a much more leisurely pace, to the Quito Botanical Gardens. I estimated it should take 10 minutes to walk there. Ha. 30 minutes later…

Botanical gardens are the BEST because you get places like this in the middle of a city

I LOVE BOTANICAL GARDENS. I don’t know anything about plants, but I love flowers. I mean, I also don’t know anything about flowers, but sometimes, it’s nice to have something that you enjoy without needing its whole backstory. And so, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the botanical gardens in general, but mostly, just enjoy the pretty pictures. I don’t know what anything is.

This is the cactus pavilion. I just made that name up, but that’s what it is.

Also, what on earth is happening with this one?! Fascinating. (These captions are basically just going to be my internal dialogue, so apologies in advance.)

Ecuador has incredible ecological diversity, and the Quito Botanical Gardens attempt to capture that diversity in one place. There are plants from all of the country’s major ecosystems… I really appreciated the “tropical rainforest” greenhouse. I was already melting outside, and inside, it was EVEN HOTTER. It actually made the million-degree outside air feel cool when I finally exited (an effect that was, sadly, short-lived).

This is some sort of tropical plant. I know because it was in the bazillion-degree tropical greenhouse. I took very few pictures in there because I was dying.

Roses!! There was a rose garden, but it wasn’t doing especially well. I probably wasn’t there at the right time. But these are looking very pretty!

There were loads of interesting bamboo structures around, and since I had just come from Peru where they were finishing up the **bamboo roof** on our building, I was extremely excited about them.

This is bamboo, too. To make the walls, they split the bamboo and used the fragments to create a flat-ish surface. What a funky shape!

And then there’s this… I am obsessed with this. I want it in my future yard. I don’t know what the thought process was because it’s not especially functional (at least based on my assessment)… but if they were going for pretty and fun to walk through, they nailed it. Except beware because there’s an irrigation system that might surprise you with a nice drip down your back. But hey, if it’s hot enough, that will make you like it even more.

I LOVE THESE. They’re some of my most favorite flowers, and lucky for me, they’re not just found in Ecuador. I’ve even seen people growing them in our neighborhood in Pennsylvania! They’re “lantanas” which I only know because I love them so much and figured it would be good to find out what they’re called so that I can have some someday.

They come in a bunch of different colors.

Some succulents from the cactus area. I think succulents are so interesting and also am sure that if I ever got one, I’d do the impossible and manage to kill it.

I laughed at this… palm tree? It kind of looks like a ginormous aloe plant, but pretty sure it’s a palm tree? Also, those fronds are a little spiky and VERY intense

These. I love them. A part of me wants to eat them because they look a bit like a delicious candy. Also, honestly, they might just be weeds that were growing but I don’t care. I’m no flower snob.

The greenhouses are beautiful! So picturesque.

This is in the “carnivorous plants” greenhouse. When I first got to the gardens, someone went over the map with me and gave recommendations (in Spanish) for where I should go/in what order. I think that I was focusing so hard on understanding what he was saying that when he got to “carnivorous plants”, my mind was so busy translating that it said, “Wait, WHAT?” My eyes got super wide, and pretty sure I looked terrified. He laughed at me and assured me that they don’t eat people. I felt so silly afterward because DUH, I know what carnivorous plants are, but my brain just failed to process the information properly. Whoops. Oh well. Happy to entertain. Anyway, here they are. Ready to eat me.

These have to be the weirdest plants. (Also, I have to admit that even though I knew they weren’t going to eat me, being around them gave me the creeps.)

This is not a human-eating flower. It’s just a fun, pretty, dangly flower!

The orchid greenhouse was one of my favorites! There are over 4,000 identified species of orchids in Ecuador, and it has the most endemic orchid species (meaning they occur naturally ONLY in Ecuador) of any country – over 1,700! The botanical garden hosts more than 1,200 species. I didn’t know much about orchids and still don’t… BUT, now I’ve seen a ton of them, and I love them.

But remember, there are 1200 species in the botanical gardens, so this is like nothing.

They’re so interesting! They just look totally different from other flowers

Ooo these are super cool with the multi-colored top and the white bottom! And I clearly have no idea what I’m talking about. Except that they’re definitely cool.

I know that this is totally manmade, but they did a good job of making it feel like a little bit of organized chaos, just like natural nature.

THESE. I don’t have anything else to say. Just look at them!

I think that’s all for my orchid collection.

The plants suspended overhead are my favorite part

Eventually, my wanderings led me to the botanical gardens’ collection of bonsai trees. This was fantastic for multiple reasons. First, bonsai trees are fascinating. Second, they’re housed in the most incredible bamboo structure. I spent more time looking at the bamboo than I did the trees… oops. But come on, can you blame me? Check it out.

Lots of little bonsai trees on their own little podiums

I know that this is probably the dumbest thing I can say… but look at this! It’s just like a tiny tree! (Duh, Lara, that’s the whole point… I KNOW. But it’s still mind-boggling.)

Interrupting the bamboo content with another tiny tree…

Okay, last one. But this one has what looks like tiny little flowers on it, and I am in awe. It’s just like a tiny tree.

I ended my visit in the Zen garden and, since I had nowhere to be, I spent nearly an hour sitting by the pond, enjoying the peace and quiet and reading a book. The botanical gardens are in the middle of a busy park, but somehow, they block out the noise and feel like a secret, silent oasis.

Altogether, I spent about 4 hours in the gardens. I was shocked when I checked my watch. It was like a time warp! It was also the perfect way to start my time in Quito and ease back into sightseeing mode. Calm, relaxing, and beautiful… what more could you want?

Don’t you feel relaxed just looking at it? I feel relaxed.

Isabela Island – Los Túneles

Posted on February 12, 2021February 16, 2021 by Lark

Does it feel like we’ve been in the Galapagos forever? Well, there are certainly worse places to spend however many months it’s taken me to write these posts. Believe it or not, though, we’ve made it to the final full day of our trip! We had one last tour scheduled, and the day kicked off when my alarm went off at 6:30AM… approximately 30 minutes after I fell asleep after spending most of the night trying, and failing, to fall asleep through the New Year’s party happening in the town square. Anyway, suffice to say that the day wasn’t off to an ideal start.

On top of that, it was raining. Of course. I was hoping that it would be like some of the other days when it rained in the morning but stopped by the time we got to wherever we were going, but we weren’t so lucky. The good news is that it’s hard to have a bad day in the Galapagos! Even with the rain, we got to see some amazing things.

Our destination for the day wasn’t too far away. We were headed to Los Túneles (The Tunnels), an area on Isabela Island (where we were staying) that’s known for being a great snorkel spot and for its lava formations. We’ll get to that, but first… it takes about 40 minutes to get there by boat, and on the way, we saw manta rays in the ocean!! I don’t think I even know that these things existed, and if you’re like me… think stingray, but HUGE. The ones we saw were probably at most 10ft (3m) from fin tip to fin tip, but on average, they’re about 15ft (4.5m). At their largest, they can be 23ft (7m) across! Oh, and weigh 6600lbs (3000kg). HOW did I not know about them?? Man, the ocean is a CRAZY place.

For context, we were staying in Puerto Villamil (on the south coast), and Los Tuneles is about at the blue pin.

The captain stopped the boat so that we could watch them, and the guide explained that they are very curious and often stop to investigate/“play” with boats. They were sticking their fins out of the water (looking creepily like shark fins) and flipping over to show their bright white undersides. They may be intimidatingly large, but they aren’t harmful to humans. They can’t sting, and they eat plankton by filter feeding, like blue whales. To do so, they swim with their giant mouths open (the largest ones could fit multiple grown humans in their mouths… eek!) and direct plankton and water in with the help of these weird little flexible horns that they have. Everything goes through a filtering system, and food gets consumed while water gets expelled. They can also swim impressively fast. At a sprint, they can reach speeds up to about 22mph (35km/h), though they usually cruise at closer to 9mph (15km/h). One more fun fact… they have the biggest brains of any fish.

Here’s a not-great-but-best-I-have video of one of them surfacing. You can see the horns I mentioned (they’re the things sticking out of the water above its gills).

After they got tired of us, we continued along to our first stop. Los Túneles has some amazing lava formations. As its name suggests, there are lots of tunnels underneath the surface, plus caves and bridges. Remember how we’ve talked about how lava formed the islands? As we’ve seen in other places, there can be voids underneath the surface in the form of lava tubes and such. That, in combination with the erosion caused by waves crashing into the coastline, created a landscape unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

Aside from the fact that it was STILL raining, I was thrilled to have the chance to walk around. We got to walk over some of the lava bridges, and the water surrounding us was so incredibly clear that we could see all sorts of sea life swimming by! We saw a few golden rays (so, so, so cool to see them swimming! Even if they’re much smaller than manta rays), plus tons of sea turtles. Oh, what I would have given to swim in that water! But it’s a protected area, so no swimming allowed.

Rain making a strong appearance in this picture.

With the bridges and the cacti… man. What a weird landscape, right?

There were also a bunch of blue-footed boobies with some of the brightest feet I’ve seen, plus their chicks. We had seen a few newborn chicks on Espanola Island, and they weren’t especially cute… they looked a bit like dinosaur/alien babies. These ones were a little farther along, though, and they were little fluffballs.

Okay so like… prepare yourself for so many blue-footed booby pics because I tried my hardest to narrow them down, and this IS the narrowed down selection.

They don’t seem to love the rain… Also, those little piles of white fluff (one in front and one in the back) are babies. They… yeah. They don’t look thrilled.

So many pics, I just couldn’t choose between them!

Also a little mysterious/menacing maybe?

From there, we headed to the snorkel spot. It wasn’t quite as cool as near the tunnels, mostly because the water wasn’t as clear, but there was a LOT of wildlife. In some places, it was very shallow, and the bottom had a lot of loose plant matter on it that people kept kicking up with their fins which made it even more difficult to see (just a PSA if you ever go snorkeling, especially with other people around. Try to keep your feet submerged while you’re kicking so that you don’t create bubbles, and be extra careful not to move the water too much if there’s stuff on the bottom! In general, just try to be aware of your surroundings. Your fellow snorkelers will appreciate it).

Hehe I actually have a few more blue-footed booby pics, but I thought you could use a break.

We saw SO many sea turtles, and some of them were absolutely huge… practically land tortoise-sized! There were approximately a billion fish, some in giant schools, that swam so close I could have touched them (but ew, no thanks). The most exciting thing was that we got to see sharks!! I know, who am I? Me, excited to see sharks? Well, I was also terrified, but I lived through my first shark sighting at Las Tintoreras and was ready for another.

The guide pretty much guaranteed that we would see whitetip reef sharks on the tour, named for the white markings on their fin tips (creative, right?) and the fact that they generally stick to shallower areas, usually in water 25-130ft deep (8-40m). They mostly hunt at night, and during the days, they rest in caves, often returning to the same cave day after day. A lot of sharks need to swim to breathe, but not these sharks! Their bodies can actively pump water over their gills, allowing them to rest in place. We popped our heads into a few of their resting caves and saw crazy numbers of sharks lined up across the cave floor like enchiladas. We saw one swimming, and I almost had a heart attack. He was right in front of me! Came out of nowhere and we were probably within touching distance. I backpedaled a bit, he turned, and whew! I survived. Again, though, I surprised myself and was more excited than scared. Nice!

It’s pretty dark in the caves, so photo-taking isn’t the easiest, but my cousin did get this picture of one chilling close to the mouth of the cave. Note the white tip on the top fin.

The last thing we did was swim through a mangrove… grove? Mangrove forest? Through some mangroves? However you’d properly say it, you get what I mean. Mangroves grow in the water and provide a great habitat for all sorts of creatures, especially for those who are a little more vulnerable, like babies. They can hide in the tangled roots of the mangroves, out of the sight and reach of predators.

We had one last exciting sighting for the day… seahorses! The seahorses found in the Galapagos are Pacific seahorses, also known as GIANT seahorses. Get this… they average 4.5-7.5 inches in height (12-20cm). Massive, right? Like other seahorses, the males carry the babies. Females deposit eggs into a pouch, the males fertilize the eggs and seal the pouch, and after 14 days, they go into labor, pushing out little baby seahorses that are around a centimeter or less in height. They can be a variety of colors, including green, brown, maroon, grey, and yellow. We got to see three! They were clinging to the mangrove roots with their tails, and without a guide pointing them out, there’s no chance we would have spotted them. I suppose that’s kind of what they’re going for…

Seahorse photos also thanks to my cousin!

After that, we headed back to the boat and rode “home” to Puerto Villamil. To everyone’s delight, we saw more manta rays on the way back! What a great day!

That was our final full day on Isabela. The next afternoon, we took a ferry back to Santa Cruz to catch our flights to the mainland. I was headed to Quito, Ecuador’s capital, and the rest of my family was headed back to the States. We did have time for one more little exploration… near the dock in Puerto Villamil, there’s a snorkeling spot called “Concha de Perla” (Pearl Shell). It’s a sheltered little lagoon where you can swim with sea lions and turtles and rays… it’s supposed to be really great! We didn’t have time to snorkel, but we did enjoy walking there through the mangrove groves (hehe) and admiring the crystal-clear water at the other end. So, if you’re ever on Isabela, I strongly recommend snorkeling there. As for me, I guess I’ll just have to wait until I visit again someday!

Of course with some sea lions doing their best to be in the way

The church in Puerto Villamil… interesting architecture

The smaller dock used for excursion departures

North Seymour Island – walk around some blue-footed booby nesting grounds.

Las Grietas and Los Gemelos – lava tubes and other cavities beneath the surface contributed to the formations in Los Tuneles. Check out some lava tubes and collapsed magma chambers on Santa Cruz Island!

Las Tintoreras – if you’re a fan of bright blue water, you’ll love Las Tintoreras.

Sierra Negra Volcano – hike to one of the volcanos that formed Isabela Island and admire some amazing lava colors!

Española Island – go back to where our Galapagos journey began and see some baby Nazca boobies!

Isabela Island – Sierra Negra Volcano

Posted on February 5, 2021February 5, 2021 by Lark

Most Galapagos day tours have a similar pattern… boat ride, walk around and look at animals, snorkel, boat ride, home. On our second-to-last day, we did something a little different and went on a hiking tour! It was to Sierra Negra (Black Mountain), one of the six shield volcanoes that make up Isabela Island, the largest island in the Galapagos. Five of these volcanoes are still active, Sierra Negra included. Its last eruption was in 2018! The main town, Puerto Villamil, is located just to its south, but thankfully, the lava from that eruption mostly made its way north. There are, however, parts of the hiking trail that are still closed because they were covered by lava. Sierra Negra erupts approximately every 15 years, so keep that in mind when you’re planning your trip! Hehe just kidding. They’re super cautious and monitor the volcano closely, and no one is allowed to visit without a guide. I will say, though, that the previous eruption in 2005 came with no advance warning signs… sooo the only sure bet is to steer clear.

Well, I didn’t know any of that before we went, and maybe that’s for the better. We were picked up bright and early, as usual, and took a bus from Puerto Villamil to the eastern side of the volcano. The tour involved a hike up the rim, a walk along the perimeter, and then an exploration of the lava fields to the northeast of the caldera.

Sierra Negra, besides being one of the most active Galapagos volcanoes, has the largest caldera. It’s oval-shaped, and its long axis is almost 6 miles (9.3km) across! Interestingly, it’s also very shallow, only about 330ft (100m) deep, making it the shallowest one on Isabela.

The beginning of the hike was a gradual but constant uphill as we made our way up the side of the volcano to the rim. Remember, shield volcanoes are short and wide and are formed by long-duration eruption events where very flowy lava is supplied continuously. Explosive eruptions, in contrast, are shorter-lived and result in taller and steeper volcanoes. The shallower slope was fine with me! No need to rock climb our way to the rim. Even so, it reaches an altitude of nearly 4,500 feet (1,120m), so don’t be imagining some little hill!

There was a decent amount of vegetation along the way, but as we moved farther up, it began to thin. Sierra Negra is the greenest on its southern slope, the windward side, because it gets more moisture thanks to the wind. That’s also where the Sierra Negra wild tortoises are mostly found. At the start of the hike, there were green, leafy plants and trees lining the path. By the time we reached the rim, there wasn’t much vegetation taller than I am, and the wildlife sightings were limited to a few little birds.

One of the only critters we saw during the hike

Our first view of the caldera was a bit jarring. We were lucky that it wasn’t too cloudy, giving us decent visibility to the other side… which was VERY far away. I mean, I know that I told you how big it is, but to stand there and see miles and miles of black lava rocks… it’s a strange sight.

Isn’t it amazing? The dark spots are cloud shadows

The guide told us that the lava patterns on the floor of the caldera tell the story of how it was formed. I’m not fluent in lava (and honestly, I had trouble paying attention to the guide), so I can’t tell you what they say, but it is interesting to see how much variation exists in something that, at first glance, appears somewhat uniform.

Some better views of the lava variations on the caldera floor

If I told you this was another planet, would you doubt me for a second?

There are a bunch of big cracks along the perimeter, like this one

The caldera was cool, but without a doubt, the best part of the excursion was the lava fields. To the northeast of the main caldera, there’s a “parasitic cone” called Volcán Chico (Little Volcano). I’m not a big fan of that name… it sounds kind of gross. Alternatively called a “satellite cone”, it’s a location where lava escapes from fractures in the side of the volcano, outside of the main caldera, forming cone-shaped lava accumulations. The final leg of the hike took us through the lava fields to the cone of Volcán Chico.

The lava fields are… thought provoking? That’s probably an uncommon assessment, but for me, they prompted a whole series of “THAT’S CRAZY!” thoughts. For example, Isabela is one of the youngest Galapagos islands. As I walked across the barren expanse of lava, I kept thinking about the fact that at some point, all of the islands looked like that. Seeing that made it even more amazing that plants and animals managed to survive and eventually thrive there. Like… there was NOTHING at the beginning. Now, some of the islands even have rainforests!

There is a little bit of life trying to pop up

The guide pointed out various formations along the way and explained that the different colors of lava result from the oxidation of various minerals. By looking at the coloring, scientists can determine what lava came from which eruption. The least colorful stuff is usually more recent because it hasn’t had as much time to oxidize. I’ve seen a lot of lava in my life, but I can’t remember ever seeing so much color and vibrance. It was beyond amazing. And beautiful!!

There are also natural vents across the landscape, places where you can hold your hand above a hole in the ground and feel heat coming out. It’s a little spooky to think that you’re feeling the heat of the Earth’s core. Eek! Also creepy is when you see a formation that looks like it could be water, frozen in time. It’s a bit of a reality check, like, “Hey! In case you forgot, this used to be FLOWING. Oh yeah, and it wasn’t water. It was MOLTEN LAVA.” Nope. No, thank you. You can keep that molten lava faaaaar away from me.

Okay so like I said, I didn’t do a great job of listening to the guide, but he was really amped about this material on the lava… I THINK it’s sulfur, but don’t quote me.

This looks like a wave in the ocean. Okay, now imagine it’s molten lava.

A partially-collapsed lava tube in the lava fields.

Finally, we reached Volcán Chico. The view is bizarre. You can see the northern part of the island, and it doesn’t look like it belongs on this planet. Elizabeth Bay is in the distance. The best part, though, is the COLORS around the cone. I’m not even going to attempt to explain it. Just soak in the amazingness of these pictures.

Sorry in advance for the million pictures that are nearly identical… except that I’m not sorry because they’re awesome and you have no idea how many I filtered out to end up with these million that I want to show you.

I look pretty happy in this picture, but I promise you that this doesn’t even begin to do my excitement level justice.

Then there’s this… black, black, black, GOLD!

It’s like a treasure trove of the world’s prettiest lava rocks

The guides started herding us back to the bus before I was ready to go. It was like looking at really pretty fall foliage, where you wish that you could capture what you’re seeing and what you’re feeling and bottle it up forever, but since you know that you can’t, you want to stay as long as possible to try to imprint it in your brain and heart. You know? Orrr maybe that’s just me. But I guess I did an okay job because even now, I get that same feeling when I close my eyes and imagine that I’m back there, gazing out at the otherworldly landscape.

The hike back was mostly uneventful, but we did get to experience the massive difference in weather conditions between the lava fields and the volcano rim. In the lava fields, the weather was hot and bone dry. As we walked along the rim, it got wetter and wetter, and by the end, we were basically walking through a cloud. And I’m sure that at that same moment, the lava fields were just as hot and dry as when we left them. It’s all about the wind/topography/it makes my head spin!

A nice panoramic photo that absolutely does not do the caldera justice. But I had to try.

We were exhausted when we got back to town, but since it was New Year’s Eve, we went to sleep early and set our alarms for 11:30PM so that we could check out the happenings in the main square. I was only about 20% sure that we would actually wake up, but amazingly, we all dragged ourselves out of bed and joined the festivities!

Ecuador has some funky New Year’s traditions. People make effigies, either of actual people or characters or something that represents the previous year, and at midnight, they’re set on fire as a sort of cleansing ritual before the new year. You know, on our early morning bus ride to the volcano, I thought that I saw a roadside stand filled with paper mâché heads, but it seemed too weird to be true. I assumed that I was out of my mind because it was so early. Nope! Most families make an effigy, and they need to get their heads somewhere!

There were some bigger scenes prepared to be burned at midnight as well… this depicts an incident that occurred at the end of 2019 when a crane unloading a generator from a boat collapsed, spilling hundreds of gallons of oil into the ocean. Obviously, oil spills are never good, and in a place like the Galapagos, they have the potential to be extra bad. I think they contained it really quickly and minimized the damage, but still. Not good.

Here’s a video of the post-midnight mayhem, and you can see different people coming up to toss their effigies on the fire.

After that, we tried to go back to sleep, but our hotel’s great location near the center of town meant that we could hear the New Year’s party going on into the not-so-wee hours of the morning. I think I fell back asleep when it stopped at around 5AM. Ugh.

Iceland Lava Rocks – okay, not the official name of the post, but if you want to see more cool lava colors, check it out!

Perito Moreno Glacier – for a completely different otherworldly landscape, do some glacier trekking!

Mount Aragats – speaking of volcanoes, why not visit Mount Aragats, the volcanic crater that gives Armenia its tallest peak?

Isabela Island – Tortoises, Flamingos, and the Wall of Tears

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Lark

After our morning tour to Las Tintoreras, we still had half of the day free for more activities! My aunt and I went into town after a brief stop at our hotel and started asking around about renting bikes. There’s a 3 mile-long (5km) gravel path to the west of Puerto Villamil (the main town on the island) that winds past different points of interest, and we wanted to make a plan to explore it later in our stay on Isabela.

Here’s Isabela Island, for reference again. And Puerto Villamil, the main town, is on the southern coast.

Welp, as is often the case with traveling, that is NOT what happened. We talked to a few shopkeepers and realized that since the next day was New Year’s Eve, stores were going to be closed for the next two days aka the rest of our time on the island. If we wanted to bike instead of walk the 3+ miles each way, this was our last chance. There was really no question… we went back to the hotel, broke the news to the group that we were NOT going to be having a chill rest of the day, and quickly got ready for another outing.

The girl at the bike rental place gave me a map and some recommendations of where to go and in what order. I love it when someone removes the guesswork and just tells you what to do! She showed me how to get out of town and then recommended that we visit the tortoise breeding center and flamingo lake before following the bike path. There was a general “Do we really have to see more tortoises?” vibe coming from the group, but since she who holds the map holds the power, I said yes, we did. And so, off we went. Also, before you start thinking of me as some sort of travel dictator, I’ll just say that we saw a lot of tortoises on our trip and no one ever regretted a tortoise sanctuary/breeding center visit in hindsight, this time included.

Isabela is, by far, the largest island in the Galapagos. It’s nearly four times the size of the second largest island, Santa Cruz, and was formed by six shield volcanoes. Isabela is home to the most wild tortoises of any island, and due to its size and difficult-to-traverse topography, there are actually five different subspecies of tortoises found across the island. These roam freely in five of the volcano calderas.

The tortoise breeding center on Isabela was founded in 1995 after some fires in the southern part of the island reduced the southern tortoise populations. Even before that, the tortoises faced survival challenges, such as competition for food with an ever-growing population of non-native goats (these have since been eradicated from Isabela). Tortoises were brought from across the island to the center to breed, and the populations have been seeing steady growth ever since. The center protects eggs and hatchlings, and once the tortoises grow big enough to give them a good chance of survival, they’re released.

This map shows where all of the subspecies of Galapagos tortoise are from. As you can see, there are five on Isabela, and they’re each somewhat centered on a caldera.

I enjoyed this visual aid in the little information center. It shows a little timeline of human life vs. tortoise life… the human life starting with a baby and ending with a tombstone around 100 years (optimistic)… and the tortoise starts with an egg and ends with a full-grown tortoise still alive at 150 years.

Hehe I thought it was funny seeing this tortoise flopped on the ground. Looks like she’s having just one of those days, you know?

The tortoises at the breeding center are fed three times per week.

These tortoises were going CRAZY for their leaves.

This guy got scared and hid in his shell. It’s pretty cool… they tuck their heads in and then use their arms to cover/shield their heads.

LOOK AT THIS SHELL. This is a Cinco Cerros tortoise and their shells are just about as flat as they get. It’s almost comical.

After we left the breeding center, we biked a bit farther down the road to hopefully see some flamingos! Isabela has the most flamingos in the Galapagos, and they can often be spotted feeding in the many salty and brackish lakes near Puerto Villamil. We weren’t there at an ideal feeding time and thought we were out of luck when we reached the first lake and saw nothing. Luckily, there were some people coming off of a side street who told us that there were a few hanging out in the next lake over! Awesome!!

The empty flamingo lake… but even flamingo-less, it’s a pretty view!

Flamingos!! You can (maybe?) see one flamingo in the front lake area, and there are two on the far end of the second lake area.

The flamingos were pretty far away, but that didn’t make seeing them any less exciting. My camera lens wasn’t even nearly strong enough to get good pictures of them, so my uncle taught me about the “poor man’s zoom” aka take as many pictures as you can, and once you’re looking at them on a computer, crop the best-quality ones. Ha! So… I took a lot. You can judge the effectiveness of that strategy for yourself.

These two were so far away that there was really no hope

From there, we biked back to the main road and started on the bike trail. The trail started with a sandy stretch, but that thankfully became a nice, packed-gravel path. It was a super pleasant ride, mostly flat with a few uphill sections that weren’t too bad if you accelerated into them a bit.

This sandy stretch was NOT my favorite part of the path. Also, very bold move of me to take a picture while biking on this because I wasn’t feeling especially stable.

Doesn’t this look like it’s meant to be a painting?

We decided to ride to the end of the path first and then slowly make our way back, stopping at the different sights along the way. The path ends at the Wall of Tears (Muro de las Lágrimas), a memorial to one of the many sad chapters in the Galapagos human history. After World War II, a penal colony was established on Isabela as a bad solution to the problem of an oversaturated prison system in Ecuador. If you remember from the Galapagos History post, there were other penal colonies in the Galapagos throughout history, and none of them ended especially well. This one was no exception.

In 1946, about 100 inmates and 30 guards were sent to Isabela. Wooden structures used by American soldiers during WWII were repurposed into prison buildings. From the very beginning, it was a nightmare. There were significant food and water shortages. Many prisoners died from tuberculosis and other diseases. The guards made up pointless tasks to keep the prisoners occupied, the worst of which was constructing a hulking wall out of lava rocks. This process involved harvesting stones from a not-so-nearby quarry and carrying them to the wall location where they were then broken into smaller pieces and stacked on the wall… all while baking in the harsh Galapagos sun. The wall became known as the place where “the strong cry and the weak die”.

“In memory of those who suffered and died here 1946-1959”

This project was a death trap for many reasons. Those who weren’t pushed to exhaustion by the heat and exposure were in danger of injury by the not-infrequent wall collapses. With no access to proper medical care, even minor injuries could lead to much more serious health problems. The guards were cruel and unrelenting, sometimes shooting inmates for not working hard enough. Many people died, slaving over a worthless wall. In 1958, the prisoners had had enough. They rebelled, escaped from the colony, hijacked an American yacht, and sailed to the mainland. Many prisoners and guards were killed in the uprising. The event was reported in American newspapers, shedding light on the horror of the colony, and it was finally shut down for good in 1959.

Today, this portion of wall is all that remains of the prison. It was 620 feet (190m) long, 30 feet (9m) tall, and 20 feet (6m) wide at its base. People say that the wall is haunted, that you can still hear the wails and cries of those who perished, hence the name “The Wall of Tears”.

Everything that I read before we went said that you shouldn’t expect too much, that it’s not especially spectacular or impressive. I don’t agree. It has a sort of haunting beauty to it, and anyone who thinks it isn’t impressive has probably never built anything. The stones are stacked up with no mortar, hence the many wall-collapses during construction, and they’re fitted together like a puzzle. To support its height, the wall has a super thick base that narrows as it rises. Along its length, the whole thing undulates, like a snake. I don’t know whether it’s haunted or not, but there is a definite heaviness to the place. I could feel it clutching at my heart as I walked around, amplified even further by the fog that settled in while we were there.

This is how the weather conditions looked when we started our hike…

…and this is how it looked by the time we came down. That fog really just rolled on in while we were up the mountain.

Nearby, there’s a mountain you can climb for a view of the sea and surrounding area. The weather was already looking a little questionable, but by the time we got to the top, there was no more question. It was going to rain, and we needed to get back to town ASAP.

The trees looked kind of eerie with all of this moss (I assume?) hanging off of them.

We hiked approximately forever… and then there was practically nothing to see from the top.

It was cool to see the coastline, though.

The rain really messed up our plans to visit the other sights along the path on the way back to town. We made no stops, just biking and biking and trying to get back to town and out of the rain in case there was a deluge coming. So, it wasn’t quite the outing we expected, but hey, that’s life!

Santa Cruz Tortoises – if you’re not tired of tortoises yet… meet the tortoises of Santa Cruz!

San Cristobal Highlands – and if you’re STILL not tired of tortoises, meet the tortoises of San Cristobal!

Isabela Island – Las Tintoreras

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Lark

Welcome to Isabela Island! After our few days on Santa Cruz, we relocated one final time to Isabela, the largest island in the Galapagos. We’ll talk more about Isabela in the next few posts, but our first day’s adventures started just off the southern coast of the island in a small group of islets called “Las Tintoreras”. The islands are named for the white-tip reef sharks that can be found in abundance in the surrounding waters, or tintoreras in Spanish.

Here’s Isabela Island, for reference. And Puerto Villamil, the main town, is on the southern coast.

Las Tintoreras is the group of little islands that you see here, just off the southern coast of Isabela.

We had a “late” start to the day… our tour pickup was scheduled for 9AM which was a welcome change from the usual 7:30AM and earlier departures that we were used to. We actually had time to eat breakfast without having to just shovel food into our mouths while running out the door! What a luxury!

We also had a much shorter boat ride, which my stomach wasn’t upset about (hehehe get it?). We loaded up and were at the little islands in under 20 minutes.

He was running along the shore while we rode by in our little boat

Along the way, we saw a couple of penguins! Most of the penguins in the Galapagos are located at the western end of the archipelago. If you recall from my intro to the Galapagos post (and even if you don’t), there are a bunch of different currents that converge on the islands. The Cromwell Current, an upswell current from the west, brings cold water from the ocean depths, helping to create a viable environment for the Galapagos penguins. They still have to be careful not to overheat, but in the case of the penguins that live around Las Tintoreras, they’re helped by the many lava caves and crevices along the coast which they use to hide from the hot sun.

Honestly, I find these penguins to be a little creepy looking. I’m not sure exactly why, but I don’t think the red eyes are helping.

Galapagos penguins are endemic, meaning they only exist in the Galapagos, and are the second smallest penguin species in the world! They’re only about 20” (50cm) tall and weigh about 5-10 pounds (2.5-4.5kg). They also have the distinction of being the only penguins that live north of the equator! Most of them live in the southern hemisphere, but since the equator passes through the Galapagos, the tippy top of Isabela Island/penguin country is actually in the northern hemisphere. Made it by a hair! They eat mostly anchovies, sardines, and mullet and can swim at speeds up to 20mph (35kph) underwater while hunting!

Like other penguins, Galapagos penguins mate for life. They can mate up to three times per year, but this really depends on the availability of food. In years with extreme weather and food shortages, like El Niño years, the penguins forgo breeding or abandon their young. This means that their populations are seriously threatened by climate change. They’re endangered, with the current population estimated at fewer than 2,000 penguins.

I love the contrast between the lava and the water

We went ashore on the largest islet, and I was amazed by how different the landscape is from Isabela, especially when the islands are so close to one another. Some people say that Las Tintoreras looks like another planet, and I’d have to agree. The landscape is dominated by funky black and reddish lava formations coated with white and green lichens on one side due to the prevailing winds.

Lots of lichens! (They’re the whitish stuff on the lava.)

One of the highlights of the tour is “shark alley”, a volcanic crack filled with shallow water where sharks apparently like to hang out and rest during the day before they go out to hunt at night. It’s said to be the best way to see sharks in the Galapagos without being in the water with them, but unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to see any. Even so, it was cool to watch the little fish hanging out in the shallow water. You can practically look straight down into the water from above! I can see why it would be super cool if a shark was there.

Shark alley from another angle. I estimated that the water is about 6ft (2m) wide.

Shark alley! Or, in our case, “lots of small fish but unfortunately no sharks” alley.

There are also a TON of marine iguanas lying around. They always seem to be lounging in groups, and that’s because they form colonies of usually 20-500 iguanas but up to 1,000! We’ve seen marine iguanas before, but I haven’t explained much about them. They’re unique because they’re the only lizards in the WORLD that are adapted to a marine existence. They’re vegetarians and eat algae and seaweed. Most of them get their food from shallow areas at low tide, but larger males will actually go diving for algae! They can hold their breath for up to an hour and dive down to 65 feet (20m) below the surface.

Research has shown that they probably share a common ancestor with the Galapagos land iguanas, genetically diverging around 4.5 million years ago to become a new species. They’re different from land iguanas in a few key ways that make marine life possible. They have long, sharp claws to help them cling to rocks, resisting the tides near the shore or underwater. Their tails are flatter which makes them more effective rudders while swimming. Their dark coloring helps them to warm up in the sun after coming out of the cold Galapagos waters. Flat noses and sharp teeth make it easier to scrape algae off of rocks. They also have a special gland that removes excess salt from their blood, a necessity when eating salty algae and seaweed! It’s expelled by a sneeze-like action, and it’s not uncommon to see marine iguanas with salt-encrusted faces. Aren’t they fascinating??

This is a common sight – marine iguanas draped all over the lava and one another.

Look at his little salt-encrusted face! Definitely not cute…

One thing that marine iguanas are NOT is pretty. They were called “imps of darkness” back in the day, and Charles Darwin described them as “hideous-looking” and the “most disgusting, clumsy lizards”. Ouch! It’s true, though. On land, they are horribly clumsy, but in the water, they are incredibly graceful!

Weirdly, even with these many adaptations, it is possible, if uncommon, for land iguanas and marine iguanas to mate. There are some “hybrid iguanas” which generally have a marine iguana father and land iguana mother. Most live on South Plaza Island, a small, skinny island near Santa Cruz. It has been observed that in years when algae and seaweed are scarce, marine iguanas will search for food farther inland. On such a small island, it’s much more likely that the land and marine iguanas will cross paths. Sometimes, a male marine iguana will come across a female land iguana who is still fertile, and voila! A baby hybrid iguana is born. The hybrid iguanas are infertile and have some qualities of each parent… they usually stay on land, but they have the sharp claws of marine iguanas, making it possible to climb cacti for food. Their coloring is unique, usually dark with light speckles and a banded body which is different from both marine and land iguanas.

But I don’t know if the multi coloring makes them any less ugly…

Anyway, back to marine iguanas. The males can get territorial, especially during mating season, and they engage in headbutting competitions if their initial head bob/body stiffening/mouth opening isn’t enough to scare off the invader. These headbutt fights can last for hours and include breaks. Usually, neither iguana is injured (except for pride-wise), but in rare cases, there could be biting and scratching.

We were lucky to catch the tail end (hehe) of an iguana fight, and my cousin took this awesome video from the boat (if you listen to the audio, you’ll hear that I put my money on the underdog, and he won!).

The tour also included some snorkeling time, and this was probably my favorite snorkeling of the whole trip. We got to see so many things! We were in a big, sheltered area, so the water was calm and without any strong tides. It was about 7-10ft (2-3m) deep which was perfect. There was enough space to maneuver, but you could still dive down to the bottom easily. Also, the water was incredibly clear, partly because the bottom was far enough away that people weren’t kicking sand and such up into the water.

Blue sea star! These can grow as big as 1ft in diameter!

Chocolate chip sea star. The name is perfect, right?

We saw all sorts of awesome things! There was a lobster, one of those ginormous red spiny lobsters, ambling along. It looked like a satellite, there were so many antennae and appendages coming out of it. There was A LOT happening on the bottom… starfish and sea urchins and anemones and mostly things that I don’t actually know what they are, but they were pretty! There were sea turtles and a LOT of fish. I swam around with these huge schools of razor surgeonfish (I think) and pretended I was one of them. And I swam next to a marine iguana!

Here’s another video that I didn’t take (shout out to my cousin and uncle who manned the underwater camera and GoPro long after I decided I was finished taking my phone into the water with me) showing a marine iguana swimming!

The coolest thing? I SAW A SHARK!! It was probably 12ft (4m) away from me, and it was maybe 3ft (1m) long. I was alone, and I started yelling and trying to get anyone else’s attention so that I wouldn’t be the only one who saw it. I should have just swum after it because only one person even heard me/paid attention… but I was so happy! I saw a shark and wasn’t terrified! I was just excited!

I felt like my day was complete after that! Man, what a rush! The tour was definitely what I would call “short and sweet” because we saw all of that and then were back on Isabela by noon! That’s crazy. We still had more adventures ahead which I’ll talk about next time!

I tried to figure it out, but I have no idea what kind of bird this is. Some type of finch, but that will have to be enough.

Some sea lions posing on the dock in Puerto Villamil

Las Grietas and Los Gemelos – check out my other favorite snorkel spot in the Galapagos, Las Grietas!

North Seymour Island – take a look at the Galapagos land iguanas and imagine what a hybrid iguana might look like.

Santa Cruz – Tortoises and Tortuga Bay

Posted on January 8, 2021 by Lark

Last time, we did some adventuring around Santa Cruz Island. We visited some spots downtown and checked out Las Grietas (aka the best snorkeling spot), Los Gemelos lava craters, and the lava tubes of El Chato Tortoise Reserve.

There are a few tortoise reserves on Santa Cruz, and I told our taxi driver, Fredy, to take his pick and that we’d be happy as long as there were lava tubes and tortoises. So, we ended up at El Chato. These reserves are different from the conservation centers because they’re privately owned, and the tortoises are technically wild! They’re there because it’s a good habitat, not because they can’t leave. It was weird to see them in the “wild”… we even saw a tortoise crossing the main road! (That sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.) It was a strange sight after only seeing them in captivity to that point. At least with tortoises, unlike with deer, you don’t have to worry about them speedily darting out in front of your car!

Anyway, El Chato used to be a cattle ranch, but around 20 years ago, the owners started working to return the land from farmland to a natural habitat for tortoises, changing the farmland vegetation to native vegetation. This transition naturally brought tortoises back to the land. Now, it’s a lush, green forest and is really beautiful! Besides the vegetation, there are also a bunch of muddy pools that tortoises love. They sometimes spend multiple days hanging out in them, likely to help regulate their body temperatures and maybe to also kill ticks and protect from mosquitos.

I’ve talked a little bit about tortoises in previous posts, but later in our trip, my aunt and I visited the Charles Darwin Research Center, also on Santa Cruz, and learned a lot about the Galapagos tortoises in general. There were originally fifteen distinct Galapagos tortoise species from ten different islands. Now, unfortunately, only eleven species remain, due mostly to human interference and the thousands and thousands of tortoises that were killed for food and oil back in the whaling days.

This map shows where each of the 15 species originated and differentiates between the ones that still exist (blue) and those that are extinct (pink).

The Darwin Center is a research hub that monitors the wildlife of the islands and works to minimize damage and neutralize threats. The Center is involved with all sorts of conservation projects, and as part of their tortoise research, they’ve identified genes from two of the extinct species, the Pinta and Floreana, in some living tortoises! The hope is that it may be possible to essentially recreate those species through careful breeding. It sounds insane but also kind of amazing!

At the Darwin Center. I’ll never get tired of looking at baby tortoises (note the folded up screen that they use to protect them at night)

It’s just crazy to me that these tiny little things turn into those giant tortoises

This is taxidermized Lonesome George. He was the last Pinta tortoise, found there in 1971. There was a global search for a female Pinta tortoise, but it was unsuccessful, and George died in 2012. He’s now creepily memorialized at the Darwin Center.

The tortoise species fit into two major categories: dome-shell tortoises, and saddleback tortoises. The Santa Cruz tortoises have dome shells. These are typical of tortoises that live in wet zones and where food is plentiful close to the ground. As you’ve seen from the pictures, that’s definitely true of the Santa Cruz highlands! In drier places with less vegetation, the tortoises had to adapt to survive. Saddleback tortoises have shells that allow a wider range of vertical motion which allows them to reach food higher off the ground. It’s so cool to see such a clear example of how different habitats impact how species develop!

This is a good comparison image, showing the difference between the dome shells and saddleback shells.

These are the most dramatic dome shells… It looks like a mushroom was plopped on top of this tortoise. Like it actually almost looks like the tortoise and the shell aren’t really connected.

I don’t know what kinds of tortoises any of these are, but just observe the similarities and differences in their shells. This one has a very dramatic saddleback shape.

You can see that this is clearly a saddleback shell as well, but it’s not quite as dramatic as the last one.

These are definitely from a wet island because those shells are like pancakes.

I was surprised to learn that most Santa Cruz tortoises are migratory. It seems crazy for that to be the case for such a slow-moving animal! They move anywhere from about 65-2,300 ft (20-700 m) each day, and they travel up to 6mi (10km) from the coastal areas to the highlands during the rainy season. Tracking has shown that while most migrate (and move back and forth between two general areas), some of them seem almost nomadic, wandering here and there without any clear rhyme or reason. One aspect of the tortoise conservation work in Santa Cruz has been educating the locals about these migrations and asking farmers to use raised barbed wire fences so that tortoises can freely move about.

In case you’re wondering how quickly that distance is covered…

The answer is, “Not very.”

As you can see, plenty of green things to eat close to the ground

Fredy (our taxi driver) said that the tortoises have the feet of an elephant, the neck of a giraffe, and the face of a serpent. He’s not wrong.

Is it just me or does it look like this tortoise is glaring at us?

This balance between allowing people to live their lives vs. conserving wildlife is complicated. Some people think no humans should live in the Galapagos or even visit. Others think that people should be able to do whatever they want. Neither of these extremes is likely, so the question then becomes, “How can we best serve both interests?” It’s like a case study in compromise, and I think it’s something we can all probably learn from. Don’t get me wrong, the situation is far from resolved. But people are paying attention and trying to figure it out, and I think that’s worth something!

I think this little buddy is a Galapagos flycatcher

The tortoise reserve was our last stop for the day, so we headed back into town when we were finished. Everyone was pretty exhausted!

We had dinner at one of the little restaurants along this road. It closes to traffic at night so that they can put tables and chairs out in the street!

The next day, we had time for one more adventure before we had to catch our ferry to Isabela Island. We decided to check out Tortuga Bay, aka the MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH IN THE WORLD. Yes, another one of those. Like I’ve said, I’m not a great judge of beaches, but this one was definitely memorable.

We walked from our hotel all the way to the beach, first walking about seven blocks to the start of the trail, and then walking another half hour/45 minutes on a shade-less trail to get to the bay.

The scenery along the way isn’t especially exciting, but I was fascinated by these cactuses with trunks that look like cartoon tree trunks. They’re in the opuntia cactus family, or “prickly pear”, and while many varieties exist, the Galapagos opuntias are endemic (they only exist there) and are the only ones that grow like trees! The tallest opuntia are found on Santa Cruz where they can grow up to 40ft (12m) tall! That’s crazy, in case you didn’t know.

Opuntia cactus trunk! Does this not look like a cartoon drawing of a tree trunk? It doesn’t look real. And it feels kind of plasticky and fake as well. But it’s not!

The opuntia cacti are well-suited to survival in the Galapagos. They can store large amounts of water, making them resilient in long dry periods. They can grow directly on rocks, an essential ability when the island is nothing more than a giant lava rock. Finally, they’re able to self-pollinate, so they don’t need other cacti nearby to reproduce. It’s not hard to see why that might be useful in a situation where you’re a wayward seed trying to populate a barren island! These cacti are a critical part of the Galapagos ecosystem. Iguanas and tortoises eat their pads, fruit, and seeds. Cactus finches eat their flowers, fruit, and seeds, extract water from their pads, use them for protection when building nests, and distribute their seeds across the islands (thanks to their poop!).

Try to tell me that these look real. (I won’t believe you.)

When we finally reached Tortuga Bay, we found ourselves at Playa Brava, the longest and flattest beach I’ve ever seen. With its white sand stretching out as far as the eye can see, it felt almost otherworldly. Most beautiful beach in the world? You can decide.

I like how they can curl themselves up like this.

Outcropping separating Playa Brava from Playa Mansa

We walked the endless beach until we reached another, Playa Mansa, where you’re allowed to swim. (You can’t swim at Playa Brava because the tides are too dangerous.) It’s supposed to be a great snorkeling spot because of the nearby mangroves, full of sharks and sea turtles, so my cousin and I decided to check it out. We tried to swim out to deeper water, but the ground sloped so gradually that even after swimming pretty far, it was maybe 3ft (1m) deep. Even so, it was so cloudy that I could barely make out the bottom! There were a lot of dark spots, but most of them seemed like seaweed until… eek! Was that a stingray?? I turned back to check… and it was! A small one, maybe 8 inches (20cm) in diameter. Apparently, I was emotionally unprepared for an actual stingray. My heart skipped, and I let out an underwater scream in surprise! It scared me half to death, and then my scream scared it (hopefully only) half to death! It shifted to the left, then to the right, and then sped away, like when a person gets scared and looks around spastically before sprinting away. Once I calmed down, I felt terrible for scaring it so badly. Sorry, little stingray! It was kind of hilarious… but I also decided that I did NOT like how close I was to it without being able to see it.

I swam over to my cousin to say that I was ready to go. She said that she had seen a shark fin and tried to swim after it, but she couldn’t see much, and it disappeared. I got the “I need to get out of this water immediately” feeling, and we sprinted back to the beach. Later, my uncle told us that he talked to some people who had been kayaking where we were swimming, and they said there were TONS of sharks in the water. EEK. It would have been cool if we could see them, but you know how I feel about swimming in water that I can’t see through. Normally, I’m just irrationally afraid that there are sharks. This time there really were! Nope nope nope. Noooo thank you.

This seems like a good time for a few more relaxing beach pics…

Mangroves! These are another super important plant. Their roots are a great place to lay eggs and hide away if you’re a small fish or other critter trying to escape larger predators. This also means that they’re popular with birds who are looking to eat these little fish! And sharks, doing the same.

I really thought that I took a video of this dude swimming, but I can only find pictures (argh!)

Look! There he goes! You can see his tail snaking behind and propelling him forward.

We headed back to town with plenty of time to grab our bags and head to the dock before our ferry departed. The entire organizational system for ferry boarding is a disaster, but I’m not going to go into that (you’re welcome). Just know that my calling that mess a “system” is incredibly generous. The chaos drove my engineering mind insane (I have approximately 1000 ideas for how to improve it). We ended up on a ferry with a “floating casino” sort of vibe. The only two windows were blue and dolphin-shaped, casting bluish light across the interior, and the seating was a plush, wavy bench that wound around the perimeter. Before we left, a guy walked around with a roll of plastic bags for anyone worried about getting seasick… hehehe that’s comforting, right? We had a bumpy start, but after the captain came down and moved some people around to better balance the boat, it was much smoother! Thank goodness because the ride was maybe 2.5 hours, and I don’t think I could have taken another ferry ride like the one from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz (where I closed my eyes and pretended that I was totally comfortable while repeating to myself, “You’re fine. Your stomach is fine. No, your face doesn’t feel hot. You don’t feel queasy. I’m sure we’re almost there.”).

The ferry took us from Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz to Puerto Villamil, Isabela.

Next time, get ready for more adventures on a new island!

Las Grietas and Los Gemelos – explore more of Santa Cruz and learn about the crazy volcanic activity that created some of the island’s most interesting features.

Kicker Rock – for more adventures of swimming in cloudy water with definite but invisible shark companions…

San Cristobal Highlands – investigate other Galapagos claims of “world’s most beautiful beach” and check out the San Cristobal tortoise conservation center.

Diamond Beach – check out this beach in Iceland that may give Tortuga Bay a run for its money… though in a VERY different way!

Española Island – meet some especially colorful members of the marine iguana family.

Welcome to Quito and Quito Botanical Gardens

Isabela Island – Los Túneles

Related Posts

Isabela Island – Sierra Negra Volcano

Related Posts

Isabela Island – Tortoises, Flamingos, and the Wall of Tears

Related Posts

Isabela Island – Las Tintoreras

Related Posts

Santa Cruz – Tortoises and Tortuga Bay

Related Posts