The Galapagos, Ecuador- Week 1

 8/30

Arrived in Quito, Ecuador about 9 last night.  Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is situated in a valley at 9,350 ft,  It is the oldest of all S. American capitals.  The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  We will be taking a short tour this evening.  Tomorrow we fly to Quayaquil and then onto San Cristobal where we will board the Silver Origin.  

The view from my window at the JW Marriott this morning.

Got in close to 6 miles walking today.  Took the Hop On/Hop Off bus.  

Iglesia La Basilica

Area San Francisco

Panecillo.  Gorgeous views of Quito.  La Virgen del Panecillo - like the Rio statue.  This one made of 7,400 pieces of alluminum.  It was finished in 1975.

  

The park rangers were keeping an eye on this fire.

  

I did not see a lot of dogs around while on the bus, but up at the statue there were a few sleeping and houses had been made for them.

My daughter, Valerie, did a volunteer summer here about 15 years ago.  She recommended the restaurant Crepes & Waffles.  There happens to be one right across from the hotel.  Delicious recommendation.

For our evening tour our guide Maria and driver Hugo took us to the old area.  I did drive through on the bus, but it was nice to walk the area.  

These are on the Basilica from earlier.  Some churches have gargoyles but this has animals from Ecuador.

We had a chocolate tasting and learned about the cacao from Ecuador, which is exported to places like Switzerland.  It comes from a different type of pod, Arriba cocoa beans.  We tasted 100% cacao and it was not bitter.  Ecuador is the 3rd largest exporter of flowers and roses are one of the main ones.  You can buy 24 roses for about $12.

This gentleman is selling a drink called ponche magolita.  It is made of eggs, malt barley, sugar and vanilla and then topped with blackberry syrup.  We could not try it because of bacteria we would not be used to. There were 7 of us in my group with Maria and we did have a police escort.

This is the tourist courtyard in Independence Square in the Archbishop's Palace.

Views of Independence Square

This is potato soup Ecuadorian style.  I was very happy to have it in the hotel after hearing about it from 2 guides.  Potato soup with cheese and avocado.  This one also had peanuts.  

8/31

After 2 short flights we arrived in San Cristobal this afternoon.  To get to the ship we had to take a zodiac.  Before we even got on the zodiac I saw sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs and a marine iguana.  Then on the short ride to the ship we saw 1 sleeping Blue Footed Booby.  The internet seems to be very slow so I may not have daily updates if that continues. 

First an update on the price of roses.  $4 for 25 roses.  They are rejects from being shipped meaning, maybe a kink in the stem or starting to open.

Sea lion, one of many.

Marine iguana, supposedly a small one!

Sally Lightfoot crab, one of many!

Frigate bird

Sleeping Blue Footed Booby, can't wait to see more of these.

Arriving at the Silver Origin

My butler Victor from Quito and my suite attendant Willy from Yaguachi.  My cabin.  I do not have a balcony, but the window comes down halfway and the view from my bathroom.

    

  

We did a sail by Kicker Rock. 

Sunset

9/1

I love wildlife and it's only been a half of day one and I'm overwhelmed with how much wildlife and how they have no trouble with our being here.  There are 88 passengers.

We are at Genovesa Island.

We are where the gray dot is.  This morning my group took a very short beach walk where the light color water is above the dot.  Then we snorkeled around where the camera is.  Sadly I did not have my SD card in may camera today.  This afternoon we will hike where the camera is.

Adult and juvenile swallow tailed gulls

Galapagos sea lions

Lots of Darwin's finches.  There are 17 species in the Galapagos

Marine iguana

Galapagos mockingbird

Yellow crowned night heron

  

Lava heron

Galapagos doves

Nazca boobies - various ages

Great Frigatebirds also many ages

Red footed boobies - various ages

This is a white morph red footed booby.  It flew of towards us.

Brown pelicans

Bones, including skulls of male and female sea lions.

Our guide said the bird is hot so is moving like this.

This afternoon we had a kayak briefing with Paul, who was a guide on the Pole to Pole trip when I went.

Then I went on the Prince Philip's Steps hike.  

Lots of Nazka boobies, which are named after the Nazka plate.  This photo shows just how close we are to the wildlife with my shadow.  We do need to stay 6 ft away.

An itsy, bitsy tiny chick

A big chick feeding.

Blue sky and Mockingbirds

Red footed booby

The little birds flying are petrels. These are a favorite food of the short-eared owl, which I was lucky enough to see two of.

Gorgeous red-billed tropicbirds

A mess of iguanas and one with a feather in it's mouth.

Lava cactus

Juvenille Sally Lightfoot crabs

Galapagos sunset

9/2

This morning we were at North Seymour.  We had a hike and saw some new species.  Paul was our leader and he was a great leader in Antarctica and the Amazon, but in his home country he is spectacular. You can feel the love for his country.

  

Let's start with the blue footed booby.

These two were doing a mating dance.  The female is on the right.

Kids might enjoy the one on the right's behavior towards the end.  

Babies are in the guano as camoflouge.  

The darker the feet, the healthier the bird.  Juveniles have the white feet.

Male great frigate birds were showing off.

A family with a chick.  The juvenile still has a white head.

Teaching a young male how to do the mating ritual.

We saw many land iguanas, but they were all female.

Iguana feces

The line in the sand is from an iguana tail.

A couple more Darwin's finches.  The iguanas eat the cactus and so do the finches.

Lava lizard

Large painted locust

A brown booby that does not live here and died from likely lack of diet it needed.

June had just asked if there were snakes and 5 seconds later we saw this one.

This little sea lion thought if it couldn't see us certainly we couldn't see it.  

Zodiac back to the ship

For snorkeling it was much rougher today and slightly colder.  Didn't get great photos.  The other group of snorklers saw some sharks.  We did not.

Reef cornetfish

This afternoon we hiked a lava field at Sullivan's Bay. 1/5 of the island is covered in the lava.  It is not active.  There is very little life in this area, but we did find a bit of life.

  

  

Mollugo plant, in the wet season it is green

Gallapagos sunset

9/3

Galapagos sunrise.  We got up early hoping to see whales in the Bolivar Crossing, but there were no whales.

We had quite a few frigatebirds following us.

There were a few sea lions around, no photo.  Then a large area of fish and shearwaters eating.

It's zodiac cruise day. This morning at Punta Mangle, Fernandina Island.  

Lots of marine iguanas and crabs

Lots of flightless cormorants and crabs

Lava heron and crab

Pelican nesting area

Galapagos hawk

Then came more snorkeling.  It was a good day!

This afternoon we did a zodiac tour around Punta Moreno, Isabela Island.  Tough to get photos but young black-tipped sharks and eagle rays.

Heron and young pelican.

Good fish and lots of diving blue-footed boobies and pelicans.

Galapagos penguins

Marine iguanas

Blue footed boobies, mess of marine iguanas, Galapagos penguin, Sally Lightfoot crab

Galapagos sunset

9/4

Today we are at Santa Cruz Island, the only spot that I will be at both this week and next week.  Twelve people did last week and this week while 5 of us are doing this week and next.  This morning we went to walk through the lava tubes instead of walking with the giant tortoises, which I will do next week.  We also went to see two pit craters. This lave tube was much larger than the one I visited in Iceland.

Santa Cruz has the highest population in the Galapagos, about 18,000.  

Port

Had to wear a hard hat for low areas in the tube.

Flycatcher, finch and 2 pit craters.

  

9/5

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Charles Darwin Center.

  

I have never seen cactus that was old enough to develop a trunk that looks like a tree.  We then went to the breeding center.

  

This is George. A famous saddleback who was actually on display in NYC after he passed away, but is back in the Galapagos.

When we got back we had a ceviche cooking demonstration with the head chef.

Today began with a 7 AM kayak paddle at Gardner Bay, Espanola Island

   

 

I then took a short walk on the beach among the sea lions.

That was followed by snorkeling.  Three different sea turtles and great schools of fish.

9/6 

Yesterday afternoon we took a rather tricky hike at Punta Suarez, Espanola Island to see the Waved Albatross.  I was able to have dinner with the captain and another couple from the UK.  He then offered to show us the bridge.  So very high tech.

There are only 30,000ish left.  Sometimes eggs are abandoned.

Lots of cute little, little baby sea lions.

Different color marine iguanas

Blue booby and baby

American oystercatchers

Mockingbirds

Dove

Warbler

Galapagos hawk

 

Views 

Blowhole

Galapagos sunset

This morning we took a zodiac ride at Isla Lobos, sea wolves/sea lions.  Frigatebirds and Blue-footed boobies.

I have spent most of my time with this group.  Left around to right, Ron and Diane/UK, me, June and Ed/Pennsylvania, Yinner our driver, Bob and Lorraine/Florida, Sonia and John/UK, Sharon/Georgia who I just met this morning and Emil our guide.

Then more snorkeling. Cold water, 68 degrees.

Sea turtle got a bit close

Sea lion feeding

This blob is a big male sea lion that was barking at us.

Largest sand dollars I've ever seen. One dead/one live.

This afternoon we had a beach day at Cerro Brujo, San Cristobal.

Nothing like selfies with sea lions

Iguana tracks

Gorgeous water color even on a cloudy day

Sea turtles swimming

Sea lion and sea turtle

Looking for mama

Our path through the lava rocks

Lava gull

My private "uber" ride back to the ship with Jorge