Art's vacation blog: August 2012

Feb 2011 The wonderous Galapagos Island Adventure and surprising Guayaquil: From Guayaquil, we landed on the little rocky, barren Baltra island, where the main airport for the islands is located. We started with a 5 minute bus ride across the desert like terrain to the ferry dock, where we boarded a ferry for the short trip across the narrow channel to another bus on the far side. There we had the bus ride across San Cruz island and into Puerto Ayora. After lunch at a dockside cafe, everyone crowded into the less than 30 ft long shuttle boat for a really rough 2 hour ride across the wide channel to the largest island of Isabela. Puerto Villamil is about the only town on Isabela island. It has a harbor, a scattering of small hotels, restaurants, and homes. That lst day after checking into the little hotel, we toured the flamingo lagoon and saw some of the birds. Day 2 on Isabela and everyone was up early , off to breakfast down the street and then onto a van for our 13 mile ride into the heart of the island and up to about the 1000 meter elevation on the shoulder of Sierra Negro. It is the worlds 2nd largest volcanic caldera with a diameter of almost 6 miles, and was recently active. We hiked in a mostly rainy day up another 1000 feet in elevation and then along the crater rim for several miles out onto a recent and still steaming lava flow. There we had a brief lunch and then the long hike back. Upon returning, we got to snorkel in the Concha Perla lagoon along the mangroves where I saw a nice variety of tropical fish. Day 3 on Isabela and we were off to have a tour of the big tortoise breeding center back in the interior and a visit to the "Wall of Tears" old penal site. Then in the afternoon we had a short boat ride out of the harbor to Islote Tintoreras. There we saw lots of the Galapagos penguins, countless iguanas, blue footed boobies as well as many other sea birds. The harbor area was crawling with many sea lions of all sizes and colors, many drawn up on boats anchored in the harbor. I got to snorkel again and saw some of the sea lions up close along with some white tipped sharks resting on the bottom. Then Day 4 and everyone was off again on the long rough boat ride across the strait back to Puerto Ayora and our hotel there. We then took a ride up into the highlands on the big volcano in the center of the island to the giant tortoise ranch. During a walk into the woods and grass lands, we came upon many of the giant tortoises in their natural habitat , walking or feeding in the wild. Everyone had lunch there before going back to Puerto Ayora and a tour of the Charles Darwin Research Center. We saw Lonesome George , the last of one species of the 7 varieties or species originally on the Islands. George died not long ago in 2012. A last overnight and then we were up the next morning for the trip back to Baltra , the airport and the flight into Guayaquil in Ecuador. We got to stop enroute on Santa Cruz and take a tour through some of the many big lava tube caves, as well as view a couple of the big collapsed former lava dome craters.

Spectacular red orange blooming tree on Isabela Island by hotel

Hotel where we had meals

Puerto Ayora and the harbor monument greeting visitors

Harbor at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island

Friendly brown pelican at harbor edge in Puerto Ayora

Puerto Ayora harbor edge

Welcoming committee of seals in Puerto Villamil harbor on Isabela Island

just a few of the closer flamingos in lagoon on Isabela island

Russian couple from Vladivostok , Sergey from Moscow, me and rest of party headed to Tintoreras Islands not far from Puerto Villamil

a blue footed booby, one of many on little islets

colorful rock crab of which we saw hundreds

one of the countless iguanas that were everywhere

a Seal family at waters edge up close

the famous Galapagos Penguins

a penguin swimming close by to us

The map showing 13 mile van route to starting point for volcano hike

Sign for the 2nd largest volcano crater in world, nearly 6 miles across caldera

Sergey and the two Russian friends peering down into the vast, foggy immense crater.

Me warming hands over a steam vent in lava flow

Sergey, Olga and Samval with the huge caldera of the volcano now visible

Sign at the big tortoise breeding complex on Isabela Island

some of the many tortoise of all sizes in one of the many the breeding areas

Olga posing, wearing one of the huge tortoise shells for a fun photo

sign of the former feared penal colony, the "Wall of Tears"

view of the "Wall of Tears"

Art watching a huge tortoise in the wild , high on Santa Cruz island

close up of one of the giant tortoise living in the wild on Santa Cruz

Sign at entrance to one of the many lava tube tunnels , this one we transited.

Sergey, Olga, Samval and another about to enter big lava tube tunnel

Art at exit of the big lava tube tunnel

Sign at the entrance to the National Park and Charles Darwin Research Center at edge of Puerto Ayora

Sign for last 1 of one of the original 7 giant tortoise species.

Lonesome George, who just finally died at an estimated 75 yrs of age in 2012

Art in the middle of 3 feeding giant tortoise in the Charles Darwin breeding center

Sergey getting "checked out" by one of the many giant tortoise up close

Sign describing the way the old lava domes collapse and leave these vast sink craters

we circled one of the huge lava dome craters

Surprising Guayaquil,
We stayed at the Hilton near the airport and had a nice tour of the city and its handsome downtown with the wonderful new waterfront development. The next day we had a very interesting and fun guided tour. We had a driver and car to take us lst into the greater city area and then on a drive out into the highlands an hour away for a half day in a cocoa and mango plantation. The original owner was German and had about 100 hectares of plantation and a huge, lovely , European style mansion home. We were able to eat fresh mangos and drink some of the chilled nectar drink made from the juice inside the cocoa pods. Both were absolutely wonderful ! I bought a delicious, huge one kilo in size bar of Ecuador's finest chocolate to take home. Finally, after a 2nd night in Guayaquil, we flew to Lima for an overnight in a central hotel and our final day in Peru. We had a half day walking tour of the city center and market place of Lima, a sprawling city with nearly 8 million in the area. Half the population of Peru now lives there. Lima was not nearly as nice or pretty as Quito. All in all it was an unforgettable 18 day adventure that came to an end as we headed to our homes scattered around the globe.