Galapagos & Peru 1997

GALAPAGOS & PERU 1997 - Part Two

Saturday, 10 May, 1997 - Isla San Isabella and Pinzon, Galapagos
We awoke after to find the boat back in the main archipelago. We did a morning dive at Cabo Marshall, where we were told we would likely see giant manta rays ("no guarantees"). Rich started to draw a manta on the dive board and Gary quickly reminded him of Rule 7. We jumped in and find that visibility was about five feet (as opposed to the 50 feet we had become accustomed to). We went down to 90 feet and found a thermacline where the vis improved, but the water was very cold - even with my 7 mm suit, I could feel it. We headed back up and found another fish "conga line", headed in the opposite direction. We didn't see much else, and the most amusing part of the dive was watching Rich sneak up and take one of Scott's fins off of him at about 35' and then swim away. Rich swore that he saw a Manta at the very end of the dive, but Rule 7 was firmly in effect for the rest of us!

The entire boat voted to move to a different site, so we visited Pinzon, another smaller island to the south. Here we found a ton of life: sharks, schools of spotted eagle rays, and more sea lions. The sea lions were very fast and aggressive, and at one point I looked down to see a small Galapagos shark high-tailing it around the reef with a big sea lion in hot pursuit right behind him!

I finished P.J. O'Rourke and gave it to Scott. He and I were having animated but good-natured debates on a daily basis, which usually ended in his claiming that P.J.'s points are biased (true) and mis-informed (possibly), and my defending the Freedom of Speech, noting that even Al Gore is entitled to this freedom, despite his similarities to a King Charles Spaniel. I started reading "Iron and Silk" by Mark Salzman. A ficticious (but somewhat autobiographical) account of an American teacher in China in the 1980's. Intriguing story.

We dove Pinzon again in the afternoon, but I sat out the night dive and watched the stars. It's nice to be so far away from the lights of civilization. Gary had his portable telescope with him, so he set it up and let me get a closer look at the stars. Luckily the boat was not rocking much, so it was quite an impressive view.

Sunday, 11 May, 1997 - Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos
We dove a site called Roca Maria Elena, named by Scott for his wife. It was beautiful, with huge numbers of sea turtles, some swimming, some floating in "cleaning stations" where the cleaner fish swim up and remove small parasites and algae from the turtles. Kind of like having your car detailed. There were also a large, active group of sea lions that played with us for quite a while.

For the next dive, we decided to dive the other side of the Roca. We jumped in and at 40', suddenly found ourselves in a wicked current pulling us around the side of the Roca, towards a strong down current. We had to hold onto the sides of the wall and pull ourselves around to avoid being caught and taken down. My BC hose got caught on a rock and I was buffeted against the wall for a bit until I got around it. We all made it around to the other side, but Cheryl and John got caught in the down current for a while and really had to fight to get out. As Alex and I came up, we were carried by another current and actually ended up closer to the L.L. than the pangas, so we just swam back to the boat.

I finished Iron & Silk, and I'm started reading "The Island of the Day Before" by Umberto Eco. He wrote "The Name of the Rose", and is highly regarded, but he is a TOUGH read.

The boat moved again to Puerto Ayora, the biggest city in the Galapagos, on Isla Santa Cruz. We all went ashore and had a pizza dinner at the restaurant where Scott is a half-owner. We met Scott's wife, Maria Elena, who is the spitting image of Sonia Braga (the actress). The dinner was great fun, but it felt very strange to be on land again. We were all relieved to get back on the boat.

Monday, 12 May, 1997 - Puerto Ayora, Galapagos
We went ashore and toured the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora in the morning. We watched a film about the devastation that feral goats are causing on Isla Santa Isabella. They are an introduced species, and the wild goats have now multiplied to 100,000 and are eating the giant tortoises' food, causing the tortoises to stop reproducing. There is a program in place to eradicate the goats from the island, and they have sent teams of hunters in to shoot the goats. Why do I think there would be a "Goats' Rights" Organization if this was happening in the states? We saw the giant tortoise breeding program, and toured the nurseries and adult enclosures. The adults are just massive, some weighing in at over 500 pounds! But they're not going to set any land-speed records with a max velocity of about 1 mph.

We had a couple of hours to shop in town (the usual T-Shirt and postcard shops), and boarded a bus to go up to the highlands. We stopped for lunch at a nice open air restaurant, and took a tour of a lava tube when we finished. Very interesting - the tubes are long tunnels formed by the cooling lava, and it took about 15 minutes to walk the length of the tube.

Back in the bus and we drove up into the rainforest. We saw lots of interesting birds - including a spotted owl. We climbed past a pit crater (formed by sinking lava), and got caught in a brief rain shower that produced a beautiful rainbow below us in the crater.

We headed back down to town, do a little more shopping, and panga-ed back to the L.L. One of the highlights of the trip happened just before dinner. Dave's bags arrived! We were treated to a mini fashion show just to prove to us that he does own other clothes, and he promised that he will try to wear every piece of clothing over the next day and a half.

Tuesday, 13 May, 1997 - North Seymour & Plazas, Galapagos
Our last day of diving. :-( The Germans announced "Germans don't dive the day before flying," even though our dives were scheduled to be over by late morning, allowing us a full 24 hours before our flight. Woerner, however, bucked the system and dove with us anyway. Dave was fully geared up in his own dive equipment, even though he'd only get two dives out of it.

We dove North Seymour Island, and got pretty close to a large Galapagos shark in a "cleaning station". On the second dive, I did a back roll into the water from the panga and just about landed on top of a small (3 1/2 foot) Galapagos shark. We both eyed each other and swam off in opposite directions.

We finished diving around 11:30, had lunch and then returned to the leeward side of the Island to snorkle with the sea lions. Gary lent me his Nikonis underwater camera and asked me to use up the film in it. We snorkled for about 45 minutes, and I shot about 20 pictures - Gary then gave me the roll of film. I told him that if even ONE of the pictures turned out I will hate him because then I will feel compelled to add underwater photographic equipment to this already expensive hobby!

The boat was festooned with rinsed and drying wetsuits, BC's, fins, swimsuits, masks, etc. Even with a good 18 hours of drying time, I knew my wetsuit would still be damp - and would smell really good by the time I got home.

We went ashore to South Plazas Island, where we saw more sea lions, iguanas, and blue-footed boobie birds than I ever imagined. The sea lions were so bold, and they allowed us to get really close to them.

Back to the boat, where we found that Nick and Beth had bought T-shirts for each of the Blue Horizon's gang - they have a little Galapagos penguin on the front, and they had "NO GUARANTEES" stenciled on the back! We had a farewell toast by the crew, and Scott had wine for all of us at dinner to celebrate his new camera.

Wednesday, 14 May, 1997 - Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos
We woke early and went ashore for one last tour. We saw quite a few iguanas and lizards, and Frigate birds, massive black birds with huge red air pouches on the chests that the males inflate to attract the females (whatever works for them!).

We had to have our bags packed and ready to go at 8:30, so that they could transfer them to the airport, so we went back to the boat, ate breakfast, finished packing, and then did the "hurry-up-and-wait" drill to the airport. We had a couple of hours to kill, which we spent exchanging addresses, e-mails, book recommendations, and examining each others' passports. We all had a group picture taken of the Blue Horizons' gang, plus Danny and Dave (we adopted them), and the divemasters - actually about six different cameras, with Siggie playing photographer for us.

We said good-bye to Scott, who was picking up his next group of divers - he was doing the same trip again - whew! We gave some words of advice to the incoming group, and told them the most important thing about the Galapagos - No Guarantees!

Rich flew back to Quito with us, as he was taking some time to pursue his other business venture, hot-air ballooning in the Andes. Dave and Danny were spending another day in Quito before flying home, so they planned to hook up with Rich for the day. Nick and Beth were taking four days to go up to the mountains near Quito, and Alex was flying home in the morning. We said our good-byes in Quito, and the rest of us were off to Peru and Machu Picchu.

Dude, Joanie, Dude Jr, Cheryl, Gary and I had a three hour (or so) layover in the Quito airport. We got the tickets organized, mail ed postcards, etc. We were flying Servavensa airlines. The flight to Lima was not crowded, and we all stretched out and got a little rest. We were met in Lima by our tour company rep, Pepe, who loaded us and the luggage into a van whereupon we were driven into the demilitarized zone of downtown Lima. The SWAT teams with AK-47's standing on the rooftops were a nice touch. We arrived at the Riviera Hotel, which was a real dump. Gary and Dude Jr wanted to move then, but it was about 10:30 p.m. and we were being picked up at 5:00 a.m. for our flight to Cusco, so we decided to let it go for one night.