An early day today. And I woke before the alarm. Still not confident about making it to things on time since my watch and phone are still pinging to Quito, which is an hour off, so periodically, I have to google what time is it in Puerto Villamil, the town on Isabella Island.
But I made it to the tour office a little bit early. While waiting for everybody going on the Los Tunelos tour and our ride to the port, I sat and talked with our guide for a while, Sebastian. He was very interesting. I forewarned him that as I've gotten older and some health issues, I sometimes have difficulty fighting currents, which is really bad given that I get so excited with the underwater views that I forget to follow the group I'm with so I might get lost a few times. He was good with that. He promised to keep an eye on me, and he was true to his word throughout.
When we got to the pier and boarded the boat, there was a guy from Karlsruhe, Germany, two girls from Brisbane, Australia, and a group from Notre Dame on a school-sponsored fall break trip. Sebastian was great and tried to ensure we were not mixed in with other groups that were out, including the other boat of Notre Dame kids.
My write-up said it would be 2 snorkle sites and one walk. That's not what we got. We got one snorkle site, one walk, and one drive-by. But, I'm not complaining, especially considering that we were in the water for a really long time on our one snorkle! If we're in the same place, I much prefer one long snorkle over losing time by getting a snack between sessions! We got out of the boat and immediately saw a giant marble ray laying on the bottom. I couldn't understand why I was having trouble with focus until I noticed it was on manual focus! I didn't notice it until I left the ray. I'm glad my shots came out.
I got the focus switched over to auto just in time to run into a huge sea turtle!! So many sea turtles in this snorkel! And so many parrotfish and others. Only one king angel, which was odd. I think it was wrasse and damsels mostly. And turtles!
Based on his markings and the scalloped carapace, I initially thought this might be a hawksbill, but I never got a good look at his face to see if he had the beak. Hawksbills are rare in the Galapagos and this guy was really large for a hawksbill, so I questioned it. I reached out to the Monterey Aquarium, and they assured me it is a green sea turtle. The scutes on a hawksbill would be overlapping toward the back, looking more serrated than scalloped, and these do not overlap. The guy at the aquarium made me feel better by pointing out that he is, indeed colored more like a hawksbill than a green, and that he had to look very closely to differentiate.
We also saw a shark cave! There wasn't enough light in there to get pictures, but there were more sharks than I could see and count. Some said they saw at least 8 or 9 in there!
Then we went to the seahorse spot and found one pregnant male Giant Pacific Seahorse. The water was pretty churned up by the time I got there, so I had trouble seeing it. I have difficulty using the zoom in the underwater housing, so I couldn't zoom in on it. I'm hoping the smaller housing will help with that, but I don't have it now. I finally saw it when Sebastian dove down and pointed for me. He offered to take my gopro down with him, but the video that came out didn't have it. He took a really good shot with his GoPro, though, so I'll post his picture here so you can see what I saw, only from a better perspective.
Pregnant male giant Pacific seahorse (not my picture)
We got back on the boat, and he said that was the only snorkel. So everybody took off their wetsuits. I didn't get a wetsuit today. I didn't want to carry it, and the water was warm to me. The last time I wore a wetsuit, I got a little overheated, and I didn't want to do that again. People were shivering and teeth chattering, so apparently the water was cold for most people. On the boat, they gave us hot tea and a choice of ham and cheese or tuna sandwiches. I also had some peach juice. And since we weren't going back in the water, I took the camera out of her condom and wrapped a plastic bag around her to catch any sea spray.
On the way out, we stopped by some blue-footed boobies on rocks. Then we got to the other side of Los Tunelos. Los Tunelos is a place where there was a small volcano and the lava tunnels collapsed. It makes for a very unique landscape. Early in the hike, I took an easy fall, basically just sitting down while trying to make a large step. Some of the kids from Notre Dame got me up before Sebastian could get to me, but he kept me by him from then on, calling me his Lovely Queen. We saw some nesting blue-footed boobies. We think there was a chick under the male because of an opened egg. There were a few more. But my battery ran out after just a few pix, and I didn't bring any extras on this hike. I thought I knew better, but apparently not. So I just enjoyed the rest of the walk. I think I got enough shots to give an idea of the landscape.
This is the male. Females are larger, and males have yellower eyes with smaller pupils. Sebastian believes he was sitting on a new chick, keeping it warm, because of the egg remnants still beside the nest.
At one point, the othe boat with kids from Notre Dame came to Los Tunelos, and they took some large group shots while Sebastian and Luis and I talked about the mainland and the cartel issues. Luis said he understands that containers with drugs are going to Spain, not the US. They were glad to hear Puerto Lopez seems to be thriving, but we all hate what has happened to the major port cities of Manta and Guyaquil.
When we got back in the boat, we got a cookie and apple. I ate the apple on the boat and brought the cookie home.
On our way to our next stop, we came across a couple of manta rays mating. I really didn't see them very well. The captain tried to maneuver the boat around so everybody got a good look, but it was mostly just some large fins slapping the water. I did my best for pix, but these videos were the best I could do.
After watching the water porn, we headed to a rock, which is an old small volcano, dead, where some Nazca boobies nest. Beautiful rock and beautiful birds. Again, with the moving boat, my bird pictures didn't come out very good. I'm going to a nesting area later, so there will be better pictures from there. Here is a picture of the whole rock with its beautiful waterfall that is only active when waves crash onto the area where the birds don't hang out! If you look closely, you can see the birds on the top of the rock.
After circling the rock several times, we headed back to Isabela, where the welcoming crew greeted us.
When we got there, Sebastian gave his go pro to the girl in the office who downloaded them into my phone (and others), and I walked back to my hostel, dumped my pictures onto the computer, took a shower, and fell promptly to sleep.
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