Waisting away in Margaritaville

Finally on the islands!  I really enjoyed my time on the mainland, and I’m going to miss it, but I am glad to have reached the Galapagos.  Early Sunday morning, we met at USFQ and then headed to Quito to our flight, which after a quick stop in Guayaquil, headed out over the Pacific for 761 miles.  The first island we saw was San Cristobal, the easternmost of the main 3, as we continued on to Santa Cruz, the most populous of the islands.  As we neared the airport on Baltra, the small island a few hundred meters north of Santa Cruz, we were low enough to get a good look at the sparce vegetation and red rock of the island.  As soon as we got off the plane, we were hit by the heat- that wasn’t as bad as I had expected, though the sun was intense, but all that was minor compared to the fact that I was on the Galapagos!  The quick ferry ride from Baltra to Santa Cruz was our first intro to how clear and sapphire the water of the islands was- I didn’t have to look hard to find fish among the blue water and black volcanic rocks.  On the other side of the channel, we bused the 37 km to Puerto Ayora, the main town of Santa Cruz, ate a quick lunch, and saw our first sea lions & finches before boarding a boat for the 2 hour crossing to Isabela.  The back of the boat where we rode was open air but mostly covered, so we had perfect views of Santa Cruz fading behind us as the twin-outboards kicked up a white rooster tail of spray over the dark blue water.  Half way over, we rushed through a wall of rain, the sky and water both turning to grey as we huddled out of the rain, but just as quickly, we were though, and had clear sailing all the way to Isabela.

Out hotel on Isabel is the Hostal Gran Tortuga- and on an island of only 3000 with the population all clustered within a mile of each other in Puerto Villamil, it’s hard to be far from the beach.  Monday morning class was spent at a farm inland from the coast, where they raised gaint tortoises and a plethora of tropical fruits- maracoya, papaya, lemons, bananas.  After class was spend in the water, snorkeling by Isabela’s tiny harbor in a sheltered lagoon.  There were tons of fish, and a couple big turtles, including one that didn’t mind me hanging out beside it for a while. Tuesday, we hiked on Sierra Negra, the closest of the six main volcanoes on Isabela to Villamil.  A shield volcano, the slope of the mountain is very low, and we only had to hike uphill from the parking lot for 30 minutes before we reached the edge of the caldera.  Over 30km across, it’s the second largest caldera in the world, and was pretty impressive- the third closest to us was covered in a fresh lava flow from the 2005 eruption, and below the surface the rock was still warm, though not molten, and previous night’s rain was evaporating from the caldera as rising curtains of steam.  It was an awesome sight; it wasn’t volcanic gas like we originally thought, but a great view none-the-less.  Hiking around for a portion of the rim, we eventually left the crater and head downhill to Volcan Chico, a series of cinder cones formed as satellites of the main volcano during an eruption in the 70s.  The landscape was completely barren, covered in dried lava flows and lava tunnels.  Despite the stereotype, it wasn’t all black- the lava flow ranged from reddish brown to black, and sulfur deposits left yellow and orange marks on a lot of the rock.  After scrambling to the top of one of the cones made of loose pumice, we returned to greener parks of Sierra Negra. 

Tuesday also marked the last day of Carnival on the island, though Monday was a much larger day of partying.  On the main beach in front of town, split by a pier built from volcanic rock, the town had set up a grounds for the ongoing festivities.  A stage for music and multiple tents set up for vendors and a DJ booth ring a central square of sand.  Music constantly came from the beach, either from musicians of speakers, starting in the morning as people conjugated there, and lasting til late in the night past my bedtime. Colored lights set up over a lot of the booths kicked in at night, and smells from the assorted grills and impromptu bars set up below the lights.

Today was another awesome day of snorkeling- after a test for geology.  The strictly academic part of the day out of the way, we took a cheva, the open air buses built on the backs of trucks, to the “harbor” and loaded into three small boats, then powered west out of town for 45 minutes before we began out approach to the lava tunnels we were to snorkel in.  Cutting through thick surf, we enter the calm of the protected maze of the tunnels.  Almost all of the tunnels had collapsed with age and water action, leaving just mounds of broken black lava, segments were plentiful, appearing as stone bridges over stretches of lagoon water. It was very primordial- the sparce tufts of grass and withered cactuses mounted on black arches over the clear blue water. Zig-zagging through the water, we went deep into the maze before stopping to walk on the bridges of piles of rock, then returned to the boats to enter the water.  Almost immediately, a curious sea lion, a lobo de marino, appeared to check us out, and didn’t mind us pooling around him as he scratched on rocks and pondered us.  The black protrusions from the bottom were a neat obstacle course to swim through, face down in the water.  After a while, we boated down the coast towards Puerto Villamil before returning to the water to a smaller, though no less impressive sheltered lagoon.  In the water, we didn’t see any more sea lions, but we encountered about everything else.  A couple big turtles were in the open by the boats, and plenty of small fish, as well as big parrot fish and an octopus inhabited the rocks.  Oh, and of course there were the sharks.  Multiple times as I rounded rocks, I ran into white-tip reef sharks, about 2 meters long and cruising near the bottom.  For all a shark’s reputation, they were the most skiddish wildlife on the reef, always swimming away from me, except when I trapped one against a rock face that breached the surface, and the shark had to dive below me, his snout, cat-fish whiskers and all, leading the way to freedom.