Day 13 in Ecuador - Kayaking, Postcards, & Turtle Nests

We wake up today anchored off-shore of Floreana, the most southern island in Galapagos, and known for The Barrister’s Look-out and also home to numerous pirates in the past!

Another new experience for Robyn…kayaking!  We slide into two-person kayaks, and quickly gain our rhythm as we explore the island’s coastline of Black Sand Beach.  

We hear a snort, and a cute sea lion pops up near our kayak checking us out, and then a friend joins him.  They are only there a few seconds, and then they quickly disappear.  

A  few minutes later, more sea lions, and this time, one takes a few graceful jumps out of the water, arches, and dives back in.  They are such playful creatures, and although, they are slightly clumsy on land, water is their element!

I only brought my underwater camera on this excursion since I didn’t want to risk getting my regular camera wet.  I am certainly not an experienced kayaker, and with this being Robyn’s first time, I had only placed odds at 50/50 we would not flip and both end up in the water!

After 1 1/2 hrs steadily gliding from small island to another…and NO flipping…we are ready for a wet landing in Post Office Bay.   Long ago, a barrel was placed here as an unconventional post office for sailors to deposit letters home.  Men on ships were at sea for years at a time with no phones, definitely no internet, and post offices were few and far between. A letter to loved ones meant their sailor was still alive, and hopefully, would return one day.

  

Anyone who visited the island and the barrel would look for an address near where they were heading, take the cards and letters with them, and hand deliver them to the recipients.  The original barrel has long ago deteriorated, but it has been replaced, and the tradition continues today.

We sort through postcards left by other travelers looking for some we can deliver ourselves.  The goal is not to put a stamp on it when back home, but to personally deliver it by hand!

There is nothing from Williamsburg, but I find one from Pittsborro, NC, two from Raleigh, and another from Wilmington, NC.  I can deliver them when I visit Cary and also my friend in Wilmington!  I’m looking forward to ringing a stranger’s doorbell with a missive from the Galápagos Islands!

We have been given postcards ourselves to write and send.  I write one each to my two sets of grandkids…Jackson & Summer, and Whitney & Gemma.  I need to warn their parents a stranger may show up next week or years from now with a message from GJ!

Nearby are the rusty remains and foundation of a Norwegian fish processing plant.  They only lasted here one year before abandoning their efforts.

  

We have spent lots of time snorkeling which I love!  We’ve been deep water snorkeling, snorkeling along a cliff face, and off the beach.  Today we gear up and walk backwards with those clunky flippers into the water.  I can sympathize with a sea lion now!

There is another tour group on the beach down from us playing in the water.  I think they’ve kicked up lots of sand since the water is murky.  We head away along rocks, but this is the cloudiest water we’ve been in.  I still enjoy my time but have found I prefer deep water snorkeling.

After lunch and a short siesta where I am usually writing, we struggle back into wet suits for deep water snorkeling.  Yea!  If you don’t want to snorkel, you can enjoy time on the ship.  This tour doesn’t give much time to lounge like a regular cruise, but as the guides say, it’s your vacation, and you can always decline to join an activity.  

The water is clear, refreshing, and the fish are plentiful.  I have several sea lions playing near me while a nursery is sheltered on a ledge in a cove.  I try to get pictures, but like the finches, they are more interested in speeding through the water than posing for photographs.  They are on both sides of me as I swirl to watch their acrobatics.  They may not be swimming directly with me, but I feel like I have swum with them if only to enjoy their antics twisting and turning gracefully around me.

AND we see a small penguin zip past our group!

Back on board, I get a “hose” shower as one of the crew sprays me off.  There is no time for a real shower and hair washing since we just have enough time to dry off, change, and prepare for another wet landing.  Thank goodness for Tevas which have been perfect for jumping out of the dinghies or “pangas” into the water and wading ashore.

We walk along a path with Jerusalem bushes from the beach to the opposite side of the island.   

  

A pond has a few flamingos, but not the large flock we saw the other day.

A white-barked incense tree whose sap is sticky and smells like incense is also seen throughout the islands.

Two small islands lie offshore.  I think the one to the right looks like an iguana!

  

The upper parts of the beach has deep depressions which are turtle nests which we avoid.  Each nest usually holds 20-40 eggs, and each female will dig multiple nests and lay multiple batches of eggs each year.

  

We actually see a large turtle offshore perhaps waiting for some privacy to dig her nest.  Turtle tracks in the sand show recent activity.

We spend time relaxing and hoping that a sea turtle will saunter past to build her nest and deposit her eggs.  That would be perfect!

This hermit crab definitely needs a bigger shell!

A brown pelican surveys the surroundings.

  

I saw numerous of these green sea urchins snorkeling.

Alberto has a lecture before dinner on oceanography, meteorology, and climatology.  With Galápagos on the equator, it receives ocean currents from the north flowing clockwise, and from the south flowing counterclockwise.  It also has a couple of other currents affecting the islands.

From the south is the Equatorial Current from Chili, Peru, and mainland Ecuador.  The Humboldt current flows from Antartica and is very cold, and penguins followed this to the Galapagos.  The Panama Flow is warm and brought California sea lions with it.  Finally, the Cromwell current is random around the islands.

The Galápagos Islands are built on top of a platform of rock rather than rising straight from the ocean floor resulting in relatively shallow waters.  In the west, up-welling occurs when the water hits this plate of rock bringing nutrients and especially plankton to the surface.  Plankton blooms can even be seen from space.

Galápagos Islands have five marine zones:  1)Genovesa, 2)cold, 3)warm, 4)warm, 5)coldest.  Animals chose to live where food, and thus energy is the most easily available.

There are two seasons in the Galapagos…June-December has strong winds, cold water, and fog.  December-June has warmer waters and is the wet or rainy season.  

When there is high production of plant life on land and thus the proliferation of land-based animals, there is low production in the ocean during December-June.  Conversely, cold water leads to high marine productivity in plants and animals and low levels on land during June-September.  Marine animals mate in September while land animals mate in March.

The Galápagos Islands are the only place in the world you can see a coral reef and a penguin or a fur seal and a hammerhead shark all at the same time!

Animal species are very sensitive to any change in the environment.  If the temperature of the ocean rises by 1/2 degree, penguins will disappear here because they cannot adapt fast enough.

The Galápagos flightless cormorant had food in excess readily available, and over time, it lost its ability to fly because it didn’t need to.  If the environment increases in temperature by 1 degree, there may be no food available, the cormorant can’t fly anywhere and the species will disappear.  

Food on the ship has been amazing!  It is not like a large cruise ship with midnight buffets, and multiple dining rooms.  We all eat together at one time three meals a day, and the attentive crew usually serves us.  While breakfast and lunch are buffets, dinner is plated.

Octopus salad was the appetizer tonight

followed by a steak w/ wine sauce.  

The seafood has been much better than the steak, and we’ve had seafood in lots of ways…ceviche or shrimp for appetizers, different kinds of fish or shrimp as an entree.  The vegetables have been delicious, and everything has been tasty, healthy, and beautifully presented.

Lunch and dinner are always followed by dessert - cakes, flans, puddings, mousse, and even avocado ice cream one night!

We usually have a snack served when we return from an excursion.  We might be hot and sweaty from a hike or dripping wet from the water, but the crew greets us with a type of juice - mango, blackberry, papaya, “lulu” (whatever that is) and something to eat.  It is always a welcome treat!

I’m exhausted and longing for my pillow.  However, Alberto wants us to watch the “Galapagos Affair”, a movie about original settlers on Floreana escaping life in Germany around 1929.  Trying to establish “paradise” leads to jealousies, general unhappiness, a death from poisoning, a death by shipwreck, and two people who disappeared and were never heard from again!

We make it through half of the movie before deciding to finish it tomorrow.  Our eyes are closing, and our brains are shutting down.  It’s time for bed!