Friday, May 11, 2001 -- Bartolome and North Seymour Islands

Mom got up early to take a pre-breakfast climb up 372 steps to the summit of Bartolome island. She came back saying, "I won!"

"What do you mean?"

"I was the first one up and first down."

"Was it a race, mom?"

"Well, nobody else knew it was... but I won. There was a guy with really long legs who almost beat me, but then he stopped for a rest."

After breakfast, we went back to Bartolome to snorkel off the beach, and mom went with me this time. The water was less clear than on some of the previous outings, and the wildlife a little less diverse, but it was good snorkeling nonetheless, and was a nice finish for the snorkeling portion of our trip. We did get to see a pufferfish, which was very exciting.

During lunch, we sailed to North Seymour island, and came across another pod of dolphins that went way out of their way to surf on our bow wake. Seymour Norte is a tiny island just north of Baltra, which is where we ordinarily would have flown, but for repairs underway to the airport. The long walk this day was a loop around the island, and we got to see a lot of blue-footed boobies just beginning to nest.

Blue-footed booby, keeping eggs from overheating

The males had built their nests and were -- as males around the world do -- trying to impress the females with their beauty and their ability to provide. Even though a blue-footed booby nest is just a slight depression in the ground, cleared of all stones, sticks, and other debris, the males will pick up a little stick and wave it in the air to show that he is a wonderful provider. Sometimes he will give the stick to the female, and if she takes it, it is a good sign. They are also really proud of their bright blue feet, exactly the color of the Sky Blue Crayola crayon, and like to show them off by lifting them up, one at a time. In the photo below, the boobies have slightly different colored feet: the one on the right has been in the water, and its blood vessels have constricted enough to change the color.

Pair of blue-footed boobies

Even boobies think it's hot in the Galápagos, and make shade for themselves and their eggs when necessary.

Cooling off

The other big nesting birds were the magnificent frigate birds, which look very similar to their "great" cousins, but sound a little bit different. Most excitingly, though, was getting to see a land iguana! This was really the one species I wanted to see but wasn't sure I would.

Land iguana (well camouflaged, no?)

I wanted to see a hammerhead shark and a whale shark, too, but I thought it unlikely. It turns out that some snorkelers when I didn't go out did see a hammerhead, but I'm only a little bit bitter about that.

 

New Animal Tally
Pufferfish	Magnificent frigate bird	Land iguana
Galápagos snake

Saturday, May 12, 2001 -- San Cristobol Island and Guayaquil

We got up early this morning to watch us circumnavigate a Leon Dormido, a big rock that is for some reason called "sleeping lion." I failed to see the resemblance, and missed the explanation. This was quite an amazing trip, and mom and I decided that anyone who tries to talk to us will just be bored to tears.

As we went into the harbor, we could see the bow of that ship that crashed in the islands. Incredibly enough, it managed to break apart and sink in the 5% of the islands that are not a wildlife reserve. It's right in the harbor of the town on San Cristobol, and the animal death toll was surprisingly low. If there had to be an eye-opener spill -- and I never will understand why there does have to be one -- this was the right way to do it.

Flew out of San Cristobol and back to Guayaquil. On the way back to our snazzy hotel, we were stopped by armed police/guards/something. Evidently, the mayor was in conference at a neighboring building, and they didn't want to let our busload of tourists get past. Our land-based guide seemed to have absolutely no qualms about facing down these heavily-armed, camouflage-covered militiamen, and told them quite firmly that this was a busload of American tourists, just returned from the Galápagos. We were, she said, tired and in need of a shower, and they were, by damned, going to let us through their cordon and to the hotel. She demanded a supervisor, and after much talking on radios and deferring to superiors, we were let through. This was before 9/11, of course, so the sight of armed guards on a city street was still a bit unusual to American eyes.

Mom and I decided to skip several hours of bus tour and shopping in Guayaquil, and just had a lazy afternoon. We did go down to the casino, after dressing appropriately, and spent some time playing $.08 video poker, where I promptly lost $16. A comparative bargain. I never win at video poker or slots. Mom had to be up at 4:30 to catch her plane; I slept for a little while longer, had some breakfast, and headed off to the airport to go to Quito.

 

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