Our trip to the Galapagos was great details in attached notes
911 is inplace here through out the country with lots of billboards telling people how to use it.
Many American regulations and certificate processes are the same, safety standards and inspections for equipment, like the zip lines, limits on how many people in a building.
Election week end there was a ban on selling any alcohol
Dogs are really large here, but on the coast we have not been chased
There are actually turtle crossing signs
A person can only carry one large watermelon on a bike while traveling down the road, but there can be a husband pedelling wife on the front top tube steering and 2 kids on the rack.on the back
The sun is hot on the beach
The flight out to the Galapagos was 2 hours and we landed on Baltra Island. The air strip was all cement, we found out that during WWII the Americans built an air base on the island and had built the runway. No towns there, you take a ferry near the airport to Isla Santa Cruz.
So that day started out with a cab to airport, plane, bus to ferry , from ferry landing to bus #2 to town. It was well over 90 degrees when we got there. There are few cars other than Taxi's on the Island and many rusted bikes. There was a Malacon (ocean side walkway) lined with businesses, restaurants and a commercial dock where the tours and transfers work from.
The harbor is filled with water Taxis and small cruise style ships for those cruising the islands, dive boats and tour boats. We did go to the Kicker Rocks for our dive trip. A up heval rock from where the planets plates colide. The currents around the rocks ever changing and pretty strong. We tried to stay just at the bottom of the life zone where most of the creatures where but the changing currents would push you up and down. The water temperature change was dramatic when we left the warm life zone and dropped into the cold under current.
A one point we became engulfed in a school of fish.... it was like a moving wall of fish above, below swirling all around you and pulling you along. On the rock wall we saw Nimo and his multicolored friends, blue star fish and red seahorses, tube worms, spiky things and eels. The ocean tortoises swam by not at all bothered by our presence, everything from 2 meter hammerhead sharks to smaller Galapagos reef sharks and tiny luminencent fish swimming in and out of the coral. Because of the conflicting currents we had to keep adjusting our level which made it a more difficult dive.
Hammer head sharks like the warm level of water and are extremely shy.
We walked out to Tortuga Beach which no longer had turtles but did have many marine iguanas. They are only found in the Galapagos, having adapted over millions of years. They are black and walk with a waddle, and like to play in the surf, but can dive as deep as 14 meters to catch fish. The island is very dry and the national forest we walked thru had a paved trail thru some real seriously dangerous plants. The trees were really catus some over 150 years old completely covered with needles, the under brush was a tangle of dried branches with 1 to 2 inch thorns and a tree that if you touch it you get a severe rash... the ground is just large volcanic stones broken by the elements piled on top of each othe with deep splits between them not friendly at all. But it was worth the 2.5 km walk to get to the beach where the black volcanic rock had poured down to the sea, stands of mangroves and waves crashing into the shore and rocks. There is also a secluded bay for swimming in the warm Pacific Ocean.
We went to a turtle reserve for land tortoises. These guys were very large, with shells over 4 feet long and many were 150 to 200 years old, but they were very active as this was mating season and they were going at it, all though it was a very slow rocking motion and the male grunted and groaned while having crawled on top of the smaller female... who really looked pissed off to have this 300 lb guy rocking on top of her. We watched turtles making tracks through the rich green grass, and hanging out in pools of mud. They also had volcano tunnels on the property for us to explore. These were created when the lava was flowing.
The birds are pretty different as well, Frigrate birds are large with a 3 foot wing span and fly in a formation, when their shadow comes over head you think we are being invaded by a Japanese movie monster.... they float in the wind currents and it is as if you can actually see the wind as their wings are perfectly still and they circle up above you. Over the water they are in formation skimming just above the water, then diving for fish.
Blue footed Boobies are kind of a ducky bird with really blue feet, they have red footed boobies as well but they are not as strange as the blue ones. They have tee shirts that say I Love Boobies, it has two blue feet on it and Bruce decided it was a you had to be there to understand shirt.
We were on a very private beach as part of the dive trip and realized why the locals were not there. The flies much like horse flies dive bombed us every time we came up out of the water.
We also went to the grato where the island had split and there was a sea river running through the crack. They also has a sea salt farm, drying natural salt on the rocks and the birds stopped in and the bugs and I do not want that natural salt for my food.
We had enjoyed 2 islands, the Darwin Center, the Turtle reserve, lava tunnels, looking into dormate craters, and walking through strange terrain, lots of birds and lizards from golden yellow to black.
The transfer day back to the main land started at 6 am with taxi to bus #1 to ferry, bus #2 to airport, plane with 3 hour delay to main land, taxi to where the bikes where, ( delay made it to late to ride out of town so) pick up taxi back to the bus station ( can not ride through tunnel to bus station) bus to Santa Elana then pick up taxi to Salinas, could not ride as it was dark.all total not including plane cost 52$ and 15 hours and 225 km.One heck of a day!!!
Salinas is a tacky version of Miami beach with high rise apartment buildings filled with vacation apartments for the masses from Guayaquill, lots of tourist shops and new malacon and crumpling buildings and streets and broken curbs on the streets 1 block in from the beach.
We actually rode the next day to Ballenita a small village and stayed put for 3 days of exploratory rides and beach walks. There we were invited to eat with a group of x pats and learned about their homes and experiences living in Ecuador. I really know I am not ready to leave America!
