Arrival on Santa Cruz
as i was preparing to leave, my memory flashed to the last time i took a ferry ..... between the islands of Utila and Roatan the last 2 years ... and i felt sad .... RIP Capt Vern :(
walked to the pier and went through 'security' ... they check all the bags ! ...i was early, and realized i had forgotten my hat and sunglasses .... what an idiot !!!!! .... can't go without them. i took my bags back to 'security' and said i'd be back in 2 min ... no problem .... got my hat and sunglases and returned ... i looked down and noticed i had my shirt on backwards ... !!! wouldn't have been a big deal, except this shirt has lace in the front :( .... i couldn't leave again, so i held my hat over my chest all the way to Santa Cruz. .... idiot move #2, and it wasn't even 7am yet !!!!!!!!! ....yes, i guess i'm apprehensive :)
there were far LESS people wanting to get on boats today ..... and our 7am boat pulled away from the dock at 7:23 .... pretty good i thought! there were probably 25 on our boat ... it was full, but nobody was standing or squished. and it was one of the nicer boats ... the Privilego :)
what a beautiful morning, i loved the way you could see all the different hills of San Cristobal silhouetted in the mist under the morning sun ....
so i was leaving my 'home' for the last 5+ weeks; with lots of memories, new friends, and ...... photos :) ...it's always kinda sad and hard to leave a place i've been, because i felt really comfortable there ... the excitement of a new place can also be intimidating. but here i go ... 'adventure' is the key word ...
it was a really smooth ride. i saw maybe dolphins jumping out of the water? .. and maybe an Eagle Ray ... but they were far away. we passed a large island, i believe to be Santa Fe. ... they offered us rolls and coke ....and we arrived in about 1.5 hrs ... comfortable good time for a 2hr ride.
so now i'm in Santa Cruz ... the next large island to the west of San Cristobal ....
.... i need to find a place to stay... i don't like this part .... if i didn't have my bags it would be easier. but with all that, it's not easy to just walk around and find a place. i have some recommendations, so i get a taxi and tell him i need a room and give him several hostel names. he takes me to a street and points down there ... i look but don't see any of the places i asked, ... i ask him to wait and i walk down and still don't see it. he finally comes walking to meet me, (irritated i think) and realizes it isn't there. he asks a buddy, and he takes me to Lirio de Mar, one of my options. ...gets my luggage out, takes $2, and leaves ... i hope i like this place ....
private room and bath, fan, WiFi, and a poorly equiped kitchenette .... sounds good to me ...i'd rather eat out .... it's really hot out there, and i don't want to try to find another place. this is my room ....
this is the outside of the building...not as colorful as San Cristobal... but nice .... my room is the last set of windows, just beyond the hallway balcony ...
and the view from the hallway balcony with the sea in sight ...
the town of Puerto Ayoro, is on the south side of the island, and is more of a 'town' .... but not big .... at the top of the map you see Baltra, that is another very small island which is where the airport is that i will fly out of ...
the Malecon, Av Charles Darwin, follows the bay. ....my place is the 'black dot' just NNE of the green-rectangle-inside-the-light-green-rectangle that is on the water ... it's on Islas Plazas which runs perpendicular to Av Charles Darwin. .....so, i'm pretty close to all the 'action' ... :)
they are re-structuring my end of the Malecon, so the roads are a mess. i started walking to the Malecon, checking out stores, etc. ....the Sea Lions do not have their home here as in San Cristobal :( .... but there are a lot of high-end shops and art galleries here .... this is where the rich and famous come ... which is probably why the 'stinky' Sea Lions aren't permitted :(
this is the place where fishermen bring their fish to clean and to sell .... note the pelicans waiting for a free handout ...
it's harder to ID a dead fish, but these sure look like they were pretty when they were alive ...
they sure made a 'killing' .... hope they left some for me to see in the sea ...
i found this interesting restaurant which was closed, it used lots of re-cycled materials ... cool stuff .......... this fish ...
is made out of flattened soda cans ...
and this nice 'divider' ...
is made out of water bottles ....
i eventually found myself on the road to the Darwin Interpretive Center. it's about a 10min walk, so i decided to go there. i really wasn't prepared for walking in the noonday sun ... but there i was with no other plan, so i might as well do it now ...
Diversity in the Islands:
each of the Galapagos Islands are different due to the age of the island and their isolation from each other. the islands in the east are older, flatter, eroded. the west has young active volcanes with high rugged peaks; some have humid zones. in addition, there are different ocean currents which affect their weather. there is the Panama Current, the South Equatorial Current, the Peru Current, and the Humboldt Current, and others, as well as the Upwellings and Undercurrents which disperse around the islands. for these reasons each island supports a different variety of plants and animals.
Darwin's Finches:
the finches are used as an example of Darwin's theory. 1-2 million years ago the first finches made their way to the Galapagos. once here they encountered little competition (because few birds flew that far), and they dispersed to different islands with very different environments. they evenutually evolved into different species. the diversity of beak structure and feeding habits is 'remarkable'. some have narrow fine beaks for feeding on insects; others developed a thicker beak for cracking and eating seeds; others eat flowers, or leaves; or drink blood from sea animals, some remove ticks from tortoises; some even use cactus spines or twigs to extract insect larvae from holes in tree branches.
few animals are native to the islands because they either had to swim, fly, or float. since it takes weeks to float here, reptiles were able to survive on logs or branches because they were able to withstand that many weeks of heat with no water. frogs, for instance, would dry out in no time ... mammals would never survive either.
Rebuilding Iguana Populations:
In addition to Giant Tortoises, this Darwin Center is also working on a breeding program to restore the Land Iguanas. Wild dogs and cats had almost eliminated the Land Iguana populations on the islands of Santa Cruz and Isabella. it is estimated that tens of thousands of Land Iguanas once roamed Santa Cruz Island, by 1976 fewer than 100 remained. so in 1976 a program was begun to breed the Land Iguanas and eliminate the dog/cat (who kill iguanas) and goat/donkey (who strip vegetation) populations. by 1982 they felt the 'invasive animal' issue was under control.
On the island of Baltra, the Land Iguanas extincton occured in the late 1940s. during WWII, there was an American airbase there to protect the Panama Canal. they used all the sand/gravel on the island for building materials, which left no where for the iguanas to lay their eggs, plus predation by humans/dogs/cats, caused one of the fastest known extinctions of a population of reptiles. by 1954 they were extinct.
in 1977 half of the surviving Iguanas from Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill) were moved to a natural environment. though they were protected, they could not reproduce successfully due to lack of nesting soil. so in 1978 park staff and locals hauled over 300 TONS of sand and gravel to Cerro Dragon, and the iguanas quickly began reproducing. in 1994 the park opened Cerro Dragon as a visitor site. the visitor trail is the trail made when carrying all the nesting soil to the area.
in the first 25 yrs over 800 Land Iguanas were returned to their islands of origin.
enough education for awhile? ....
the Land Iguanas have a more pointed nose than the Marine Iguanas ......
and have beautiful colors, ...even when they are not mating ....
these are certainly not underfed :) ...
i just missed these 2 turtles 'doing it' :( ...the tortoise here are larger than in San Cristobal ... but they are in kind of a 'zoo' ... not near as nice surroundings for them .... and much worse for us people to see ....
after i saw this turtle, i vowed never to complain about my sagging neck skin again !!!! ...
there was a guy there (Douglas, about my age) and we started talking. he's from England .... i just can't get away from those British :) ...maybe because we can actually understand each other :) ..we walked back into town together; then i stopped to get something to eat .... i was hungry ... rice, small piece of fish, in some sauce, and a juice ... $3 .... i like these $3 lunches ... no sense to cook for that price!
i took a cold shower when i got back, it was blazing out there. i got WiFi for a few minutes, then had to take a nap ... after that, WiFi wasn't working, so i went to the Reception area to check the signal there. i met Katharina from Austria who was also trying to use WiFi. she noticed some of my underwater photos and asked if she could 'borrow' them. her luggage was lost along with her underwater camera. yes of course! i can relate to that; i would be devastated if something happened to my camera!!!!
met Douglas at 6pm and we went to a few Travel Agencies to get prices and itineraries for Cruise. he needs to go soon, and i can wait; ... and i don't want to be on the same boat as him.. :( ....this will be a challenge to get to see the places i want to see .... they are different every day, different every week; and there are many ships all with different schedules ..... so it's difficult to know what's available ... and all the agencies have to call somewhere/one to get prices and check schedules .... :(
we walked past the Malecon fish place .... and ... they are frying and serving fresh fish every day starting at 4pm .... i'm going there tomorrow !
we ate at an Asian restaurant on one of the back streets .... i had a ton of shrimp in a garlic sauce with salad, rice, and fried potatoes ... it was very good. on that 'back street' there are many outdoor restaurants set up only at night with cheaper prices.
back at the room, i tried to work on my blog ... but i was too tired ...
this was a hot and tiring day with little sleep ... but i'm comfortable here :)
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