Galapagos Islands 2nd Day

January 30, 2010

Here is the video of the 2nd day. It is 11:28 minutes long (53.6 MB), so it's going to take a while to download/buffer. You might want to go ahead and open the other page that I've set it up on
and allow it to be downloading while you read this page first.

——— \/ ^^^ \/ ^^^ \/ ^^^ \/ ———

-- Becky writes unless noted by Marilou --
-- all photos are by Marilou & Becky, unless otherwise noted --

Aloha,

You can see on the map above, our location on day 1 had been south of the equator at Seymour. Our route to the day 2 island of Genovesa would take us over the equator during the night. ET warned us at our briefing that first evening that the ride would be a bit rougher than usual, because the currents at the equator are turbulent. The yacht had good stock of over-the-counter seasick meds for those who needed them and many took advantage of that. I had also brought along an extra anti-seasick prescription medication, just in case the patch wasn't enough. I was determined to not have a "bad time" being on a boat for 11 days!

During dinner the evening before, the boat remained anchored off the coast of Seymour. They always anchor in a relatively calm area. As soon as we finished dessert, the crew pulled up anchor and we were underway. After the after dinner briefing, we headed to our cabin. We were still recovering from our almost 24 hour travel day to get to Quito, arriving there just the night before. By the time we had gotten showers, downloaded photos, unpacked bags, etc., we must have been approaching the equator, because the boat's motion got a lot bigger. I had one small "the world is turning over" reaction, as did Marilou, and so I suggested we split one of the prescription anti-seasick pills I had brought. This particular med makes one drowsy, which would be good, too. We slept really well.

Our first night on the Tip Top IV was a wonderful surprise for me. With the anti-motion patch working excellently, and knowing the extra bit of help in really rough spots was going to do the trick, I was beginning to relax and enjoy being on the boat. My seasickness fears were becoming a thing of the past. I was so relieved and discovered that I loved sleeping to the rocking and rolling of the boat.

When we woke to our alarm clock the next morning at daybreak, the boat was anchored at Genovesa. We got dressed and went up for coffee. (Our cabin was below deck.) Not long later, the chef rang the on-deck bell signaling breakfast was ready.

BREAKFAST / Desayuno

HOME MADE BREAD
Pan homeado
EGGS ANY STYLE
Huevos al gusto
DAMBO CHEESE
Queso dambo
HAM
Jamón
SEASON FRUIT
Fruta
FRESH FRUIT JUICE
Jugo
COFFEE, TEA, MILK
Café, té o leche

Chef Xavier (right photo by Ely)

Here's where we had our excellent meals. At the right, on the teak counter, is the never empty coffee pot/maker. Below that (out of sight in this shot) is a glass front refrigerator with sodas, juices, sparkling waters, beers, wines, and milk. All but the alcohol was included in the tour cost. For regular water, the boat has a desalination machine that supplied all the water needs. There were iced coolers of this fresh water with which to fill our water bottles for hikes. It tasted just fine. No problem at all.

So, we were rested, tanked up, and ready for our first walk on Genovesa, or Tower Island, as it is locally called. It is another fairly small island and not very high, with a quite unimpressive tower on its summit. The tower is for marine navigation, a visual point/marker to use to plan routes.

I want to point out that there are no people living on Seymour, which we visited the day before, nor here on Genovesa. Invasive rats, cats, goats, or any other introduced critter, has been eradicated from these 2 islands and programs are in place to do the same on other islands that may still have such critters.

Getting onto this beach was our first wet landing. From the dinghy we had to drop feet first into about a foot of water and walk ashore. We wore our getting-wet shoes, or no shoes, for this and carried our packs and dry shoes. Once on shore we changed into dry shoes and left our wet stuff at the landing site. The light blue bag near the rocks contains the towels we used to dry our feet. We picked all this up as we returned to the dinghies a few hours later.

Up on this wall of lava rock (above), you can see letters, where folks have written their names and/or initials. This isn't graffiti in the sense of vandal style graffiti. These names actually date back to the 1800s and forward. They are sailor's names and these nooks and crevasses were their mailboxes. Yep, mail would be carried by each ship from their last port and if someone had a "box" here, their mail would be left by the passing ship. Any out going mail would be picked up and taken to the next appropriate port.

The white fluffy bits under this Red-footed Booby is a chick.

These shots (above) are all adult Red-footed Boobies, both the white phase and the brown phase. The term "phase" doesn't denote that they change from one to another in their lifetime, it's not a passing thing. They either are white or brown all their lives. The term refers to the fact that they each are a Red-footed Booby, though different in body color and haven't been designated as separate species. There are more browns than whites. On Tower Island, the world's largest population of Red-footed Boobies nest, about 100,000 pair. The Red-footed Booby are the only Boobies that nest in trees and they are the smallest of the Booby family. A juvenile Red-footed Booby is brown all over, including bill and feet.

Here's some juvenile Red-footed Boobies harassing each other at the tower. The juvies do this a lot. We walked up to the tower and the highest point on the island. It was about a mile each way from our landing point. Some of the path was over large, loose, and rough lava rock. Our first medium treacherous trek. No accidents.

At the high ground of the island were trees about 15 to 20 feet tall. We saw the Large Ground Finch (top) and the Medium Ground Finch (lower) in this area. The size of the bills help to ID the birds. These are part of the Darwin Finch group ... important in that they are different from island to island and this is what Darwin noted in his research, which later led him to formulate his theory.

A Galapagos Mockingbird on a lava rock point.

The Galapagos Dove.

There are 50 birds flying, that I could count, in the above photo. Mostly they are Great Frigatebirds, with some Boobies, too.

On our way to the tower we walked along a portion of beach that is partly separated from the ocean by a peninsular of rock, as you can see in the following photos. At high tide most of the sand would be covered by water and at low tide it'd be dry as you see it now.

Sea Lions lounge along this inland beach. I'm not quite sure what comfort the one resting its chin found in that rock. A Whimbrel darted here and there among the sleeping Sea Lions.

In a tidal pool in this area we saw this octopus. It's about 8 to 10 inches in length. There were other small fish in the pool, too.

3 pairs of Swallow-tailed Gulls. They are the only nocturnal gull and also only come to land when mating. These pairs are in various stages of dancing their particular dances that result in the activity that Marilou has captured in the lower photo. When not on land dancing and nesting, they spend all of their time at sea, hunting during the night for their favorite meals of squid and small fish.

In the foreground is a juvenile Great Frigatebird. There is one other juvi frigatebird I see and the rest are mostly Nazca Boobies, with a Red-footed Booby almost flying out of the frame.

An adult male Great Frigatebird is blowing up his "I am fit and available" red gular sac. This is to catch the attention of females that are flying overhead. It takes about 20 minutes for him to blow this up and he then waggles his head back and forth to shake the red balloon. He also shakes his wings and calls, in order to gain more attention.

A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron drying its wings in the left photo. Another Yellow-crowned Night Heron in the right photo.

After our walk that morning, the dinghies picked us us and returned us to the boat for a snack.

MORNING SNACK / Snack de Media Mañana

FRESH FRUIT JUICE
Jugo de fruta
SEASON FRUIT
Fruta de estación

We then went for a dingy ride along the cliff face of the caldron. The yacht was actually anchored in the water filled caldron that gives Genovesa its crescent shape. We must not have taken our cameras on this ride (probably because we didn't know how wet things might get) for I've no photos.

Our group of 14 fit nicely in 2 dinghies. ET would ride in one and Ely in the other. They would share their wealth of knowledge about what we were seeing as one of the crew would man the motor, puttering us along in the area of interest.

(photo by Ely)

Above is a shot from Ely that shows the rock wall of the caldron and 2 of the crew in the dinghy. This is probably from the snorkeling adventure that happened later that day. When we would snorkel, there would always be both dinghies holding 2 crewmen each, shadowing us as we swam.

When we returned to the yacht, it was lunchtime.

LUNCH / Almuerzo

VEGETABLE SOUP
Sopa de vegetales
CHICKEN BREAST STEW
Pollo al jugo
FRIED PLANTAIN
Maduro frito
LETUCCE, CUCUMBER, RADISH SALAD
Ensalada de lechuga pepino y rábano
BAKED POTATOES
Papa al horno
BROWNIE
Brownie

It was at this meal that we were first introduced to the Ecuadorian love of popcorn. When we sat down at the dining tables, there were baskets of popcorn already on the table. We assumed it was an appetizer and dug in. Chef Xavier and barman Enrique began to bring out bowls of fresh asparagus soup. ET and Ely told us to put the popcorn in the soup. At first we thought they were kidding. Though when we saw that they were doing it, and after more encouragement from them, we (all of us tourists) began to put small amounts of popcorn in our soup. Well, it only took a few bites to discover how good popcorn is in soup.

(photo by Ely)

Enrique - the barman, caretaker of all drinks, with both the special mixed delights and what the self-serve 'fridge holds. He was very mindful of those of us who don't drink alcohol and always had nonalcoholic drinks for us at those times when the tour would provide special concoctions.

After lunch, we pulled and tugged on our wetsuits, jumped into the dinghies, and went for a snorkel a couple hundred yards from the boat, near a rock wall that is the rim of the old volcano caldron. The water was fairly chilly, so the wetsuits really helped us to be able to stay in the water longer.

Marilou has a waterproof case for a small camera and takes all the underwater shots.

In the left photo is a Marine Iguana at the surface. In the right photo is a Sea Lion checking us out.

A Giant Hawkfish.

Most of the above are Yellow-tailed Surgeonfish.

I don't know what kind of fish this is.

There were lots of Sea Lions on the rocks above us as we paddled around in the water. Also, there were many Red-footed and Nazca Boobies on the rock wall, perched in their favorite spots marked by their white guano. After 30 or 40 minutes we began to get uncomfortably cold and crawled back into the dinghy to be taken to the yacht.

On the boat again, a snack was waiting for us and then off to a warm shower.

AFTERNOON SNACK / Snack de media tarde

PASTRY FILLED WITH FRUIT MARMALADE
Pañuelo de hojaldre relleno

After that, we rode the dinghies to another part of the island for a dry landing at a stairway carved into the rock face of the caldron. The stairs are called Prince Phillip Stairs and the path is called the Prince Phillip Trail. I'm guessing Prince Phillip has something to do with it...ya think?! Ha!

(photo by Ely)

Once up the steep rock stairs we walked along a path among more Boobies and Frigates to the other side of the island.

Feed me!!! A young Nazca Booby insists that the parent regurgitate lunch for it. Yum Yum!

This Nazca Booby really liked that rock.

A young Nazca Booby whom has lost much of its downy feathers.

Nazca adults bonding.

A newly hatched Nazca chick with a parent.

Nazca Booby

There are both green leafy plants and stickled cactus growing here. Left is a Night Blooming Morning Glory. Right is Finger Cactus.

Then we came across this odd pair. Obviously the one on the left is a brown phase Red-footed Booby. And the one on the right is ...a what? Even ET, who's been walking these paths for 20 years and is a certified Naturalist, was amazed. Juvenile Red-foots have dark grayish-brown bills and feet. It looks more adult, though its bill and feet are without pigment. It's not an albino, for the color elsewhere is normal.

A real odd bird!

We saw a Short-eared Owl in a lava bubble (a cave-like feature in the landscape) sitting in the shade away from the heat of the day. It was too dark for good photos. Below is a shot of a Short-eared Owl taken by Ely on another visit here.

(photo by Ely)

Sally Lightfoot Crab, adult & juvi.

Sea LIons on left and Swallow-tailed Gull on right.

(photo by Ely)

Beautiful Red-billed Torpicbirds above. The 2 long white feathers in the tail are breeding plumage.

2 Galapagos Mockingbirds.

On our way back to the rock stairs and our dinghies, we had to walk over some loose lava rock again. One of our group members took a tumble. She went face first onto the rough and sharp rocks. Cuts to her head and legs bled a lot. ET had first-aid supplies in his pack, as well as many of us also had in our packs. We even had 2 doctors in our group, which really turned out to be wonderful for this instance and a few others in the future. Dazed, the injured lady sat for a while as she was bandaged up and caught her breath. She was a trooper though and managed to get back to a dinghy with a bit of help from all of us.

Marilou and I were seeing much similarity between the Galapagos Islands and the Hawaiian Islands. Of course, there are differences, and yet, so many similar situations, like: unique flora and fauna, issues with invasive plants and animals, and people damaging the environment before education prevailed. Actually, I think the Galapagos National Park has a better grip on restoration than Hawaii does. Though, with many less people there than Hawaii, this probably is somewhat of an easier task.

The days are hot and usually sunny, so we drank lots of water and rest was taken as we could. Being right at the equator, the sun is especially harsh and strong, a bit more so than on Kauai. On our walks I often wore long sleeves so I won't have to use so much sunscreen. I pretty much always had my shade hat on.

Back on the yacht, we all got cleaned up and explored the boat more as we waited for the dinner bell. (Photos later.)

DINNER / Cena

STRIP LOIN IN A PEPPER SAUCE
Lomo fino a la pimienta
ZAFFRAN RICE
Arroz amarillo
SQUASH RATTATUILLE
Ratatuille de Zuccini
ROMAIN LETTUCE, RADISH AND TOMATO
Ensalada de lechuga romana rábano y tomate
PINEAPPLE PIE
Pie de piña

After dinner, ET and Ely briefed us on tomorrow's adventure. We were going to cross the equator again during the night (rough water) and then we'd wake up to the boat still motoring towards our next stop on Isabela Island, with land probably in sight.

Marilou and I each took another half of the extra anti-seasick med and went to bed looking forward to a good night's sleep.

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------------------------------- Day 3 -------------------------------

more to come