Day 6 on the Samba

Well obviously I wasn't able to finish my Galapagos write-up before leaving for Paris- I got back from Paris a few days ago (on Thursday).  Paris was wonderful of course but for whatever reason I didn't want to spend my limited free time writing detailed blog posts!  I guess I'm much more the type that likes to reflect on everything afterwards.

We leave for India in mid-October and I assure you I will have everything documented by then!  That trip will be about 3 weeks with a lot of time in a car so hopefully I will be able to write about it a bit during the trip.

January 29, 2017
This morning started off at Elizabeth Bay on Isabela Island.  We took a tender ride around a mangrove which was only okay.  It was really hot and once you were in the mangrove forest there was no breeze.  There also wasn't really that much to see.  We saw sea lions resting up in the mangrove tree which was pretty cool.  On the way back in the bay we followed some groups of penguins for awhile.

Pelicans taking off in Elizabeth Bay

Flightless Cormorant

Blue-footed Boobies

Sea lion in the mangrove tree

   

Penguins are really hard to photograph!  This was the best I could do.

In the afternoon, on the way to Punta Morena, Santiago called us all to the deck to see another Bryde's Whale and a bunch of boobie birds and pelicans diving into a bait ball of sardines.  We hopped into the tenders to go closer and it was probably one of the coolest things I've seen.  It was crazy to see the birds diving with such precision into the water and then seeing tons of sharks circling the bait ball.  The whale came by a bunch of times too!

We were in two tenders and would drift over the bait ball and all of a sudden we felt a huge THING ram the bottom of the boat.  Of course it was a shark going crazy and feeding and not paying attention but it knocked boat so hard!  I can't even imagine if one of us had fallen into the water.  We fell onto the floor of the boat luckily though.

The last bird to arrive were the frigate birds who actually steal fish from the pelicans and the boobies since they can't dive.  We saw them hover a few times and steal the fish from right out of the mouths of other birds!

Not the best picture but the only one I got with the whale!

The other tender,  you can see the mass of birds

Our fearless guide and tender driver

This video above is from when we first arrived.  You can see there's a lot more action and birds diving than compared to the video below which was when we left.  Also in the video below there are frigate birds (the large  black birds).  They are skimming the surface (and looking to steal fish from other birds) because they can't dive.

We headed on to Punta Moreno.  We first went snorkelling but the water was really rough.  We were still able to see a sea turtle and some rays.  It was interesting snorkeling here since the water was pretty shallow you could dive down and see the bottom pretty easily.  We were looking for sea horses but Santiago said the water was too rough and we wouldn't see them.

The last activity for today was a walk around Punta Moreno.  It was mostly lava rocks so there really wasn't too much wildlife.  We saw some flamingoes and ducks in the small pools.  There were some small pioneer plants that were slowly turning the lava rocks into dirt, that was interesting to see.  The green plants around the salt water ponds was very striking.

This was also where I finally figured out that my camera was fogging up when I took it out of the air-conditioned cabin immediately into the humid, warm air- the interior lens would fog up for about 15 minutes.  Now I know to take it out earlier the next time I travel to a humid place!  I'm not really a photography fanatic but my early photos from each hike seem dull and not crisp and this is probably why.

The landscape of Punta Moreno

Pioneer plant

The lava had many different textures

A saltwater pond

Flamingoes and a duck

Another saltwater pond.  I loved the contrast of the green with the black rocks.

Day 5 on the Samba

Wow I am cutting it really close on my goal of finishing my write-up of the Galapagos trip before I leave for Paris!  I've been super busy at work these past few weeks and I think that's normally the time I would do stuff like this.  Anyway, I'll do what I can!  If anything, I'll have tons of time on the plane right?  We're also predicted to get 8+ inches of snow on Monday night so maybe Tuesday will be a snow day??

January 28, 2017

In hindsight I think today was my favorite day on the Samba.  This day was so great everything afterwards seemed kind of dull and throwaway.  I know that sounds terrible to day because it was still vacation in an amazing place but really nothing could compare to what we saw this day.

We started the day on Fernandina Island at Punta Espinosa.  The part of the island we were on was mostly lava rocks and marine iguanas.

The day started out cloudy but towards the end the clouds burned off and it was pretty hot and sunny.  The tenders brought us to the rocky beach and the algae covering the rocks made it so so slippery!  Luckily no one fell but there were a few times I thought it would!

Santiago was telling us that the El Nino last year (?) made it hard for the green algae to grow and the marine iguana population really suffered because that's all they eat.  Punta Espinosa had a lot of iguana skeletons all over so it was very clear how hard it was for the iguanas to survive during that time period.  What I thought was so interesting about the Galapagos was how untouched everything was- if an animal dies it's body it just left there for nature to take care of and eventually it will turn into bones.

Slowly making it over the precarious rocks

An iguana resting on the skeleton of another iguana

The cove at Punta Espinosa

A sea of resting iguanas around a shrub

Probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip.  A sea lion in a cove on Punta Espinosa surrounded by crabs and algae.

Santiago telling us about this whale skeleton

Next we went snorkeling in Tagus Cove which is on Isabela Island.  This was such a great snorkeling session.  The cove has steep walls so we stayed along the walls and were able to see all the wildlife along the wall but also everything that hung out in the deep water.  On this trip I also started to learn how to dive with a snorkel- have I mentioned yet that I am a very novice snorkeler?

The captain of the boat, Jose, was a great snorkeler/guide and somehow saw lots of animals that I never would have seen on my own.  He could also dive really deep and took people down that wanted to see things closer.  I never went down that deep with him since the water pressure made me uncomfortable but it did motivate me to dive a little bit!

Anyway, on this snorkel we saw penguins, swimming cormorants and tons of starfish.  There were lots of different colors of starfish- some were yellow, others were blue and we also saw brittle stars and sea anemones.

Most of the group went in after a bit but Jeremy, his parents and I stayed out with the Captain and I think that's when we saw some of the best stuff.  A school of golden rays passed by deep under us and I dove a bit to get a better look.  We saw a large sea turtle and another very large ray with a snubbed nose.  The Captain saw a swimming puffer fish that he held lightly but it got really mad and puffed up.  It was absolutely hilarious how puffed up and mad it got.  It swam away furiously beating its little fins.

After lunch we went for a walk/hike in Urvina Bay on Isabela Island.  It was gray and raining so I had very low expectations.  We landed on a lava rock beach that was mostly fenced off because it was used as a turtle nesting ground.  We started walking a bit and almost immediately saw a giant tortoise eating in some long grass.  I was super excited so I took a bunch of pictures of him/her.

Little did I know that once we turned the corner on the trail we would see tons more giant tortoises!  In all we saw 21 giant tortoises which Santiago said very rare.  Apparently the rain brought them down to the beach from the highlands to eat, drink, play in the puddles and mate.  Even Santiago was flabbergasted by how many we saw!  At the end of the walk we ran into another group and that guide was surprised as well.  It was truly a wonderful experience.

I was struck by how large and slow the giant tortoises are.  The pictures below don't really do them justice!  They are so shy that even when we walked past them some would shrink up into their shells with a giant exhale to compress their lungs so they would fit.  I regret that I didn't think to take any videos of them.

In the tender on the way back to the boat we saw a bunch of jumping rays.  The crew said that they were small juvenile rays playing.  They leap out of the water so high!  Before this trip I don't think I knew that ray jumped out of the water.  Apparently when they are adults they do it to get rid of parasites but as juveniles it's playful.

As we were heading to the next location the Captain saw a Bryde's whale.  It was such a beautiful sunset and seeing a whale was a bonus!  Not to belittle the experience but I only saw it's back surfacing a few times. I'd love to see a whale tail or head sometime too!

On the lookout for the whale

Day 4 on the Samba

Friday January 27, 2017

If I remember correctly we had a super long overnight navigation.  Sleeping on the boat when it's moving is actually really easy- at least for me.  The motor and rocking is very soothing.  The problem is when the boat stops and drops anchor.  Our room is right next to the anchor and it is so loud!  Some people were bothered by the diesel fumes but I didn't think it was too bad.  There was a small issue with the fumes on the boat from the wastewater.  I know Brandon's parents' room always smelled bad.  Ours only occasionally smelled bad- I think when the tank got really full?  I'm not sure how it's emptied but I suspect that when we're in open water away from land the ship can empty the tank so some days it was noticeable and others it wasn't.

I also can't believe I don't have a single picture of our room!  It was a bunk bed and very small but cozy.  You definitely need to back light for a boat trip.  There were two drawers under the bunk and then a few hooks along the wall and some mini-shelves and that's you're only storage room.  The bathroom had a small shower and sink and toilet obviously.  It is really hard to shower on a moving boat!  I really have no complaints about our room or bathroom though I do wish there had been a hair dryer though.

We packed super light and brought backpacks that didn't take up much space in our room.  I also brought some travel packs of laundry detergent so I did some laundry in the sink a few times.  There were clotheslines around the boat and the sun is so intense that you can hang something up and it's dry in a few hours.  This was also my first trip using packing cubes which were a huge help since I could just throw them in my drawer and didn't even have to unpack.  I definitely recommend them for any trip!

Our two stops today on Isabela Island in red. Punta Albemarle on the northern tip and Punta Vicente Roca towards the northwest tip (which looks like the mouth of a seahorse)

Anyway, we spent today at a few spots on Isabela Island.  In the morning we were at Punta Albemarle where we went kayaking.  I was actually pretty good at sea kayaking and had fun.  The water was really rough though. There was a small cove we should have kayaked into but the entrance was small and the waves were huge so we transferred to the tenders and took those in.  The cove was so interesting.  We saw flightless cormorants for the first time and a few Galapagos hawks and marine iguanas.  There were also sea lions and Santiago told us that the sea lions herd tuna into the cove and kill them on the rocks.  Unfortunately we didn't see that!  I don't have any pictures since we were kayaking and I didn't bring my camera.

We got back on the boat and had about 3 hours to navigate to Punta Vicente Roca (PVR) during which we passed the Equator.  I guess it's a thing on the boat to celebrate this because the crew called us into the cabin and gave us pina coladas and we all counted down until the navigation equipment said 0.

The scenery during the trip to PVR

Celebrating passing the equator!

Anxiously awaiting the equator!

Once we got to PVR we went snorkeling.  We had to wear wetsuits since on this side of the island we are getting the freezing current from the south.  Even in a wetsuit the water was SO COLD.  After awhile my hands started going numb!   The snorkeling was fun though since there were penguins!  We also saw octopus, sea turtles and sea lions.  There was a huge cave to go into and it was interesting swimming along the walls with tons of birds and schools of fish.

After snorkeling we went on a tender ride so the pictures below are from when we were in the tender.  I liked the combination of snorkeling and riding in a boat in the same area since you see totally different things in the same spot depending on whether you're under water or in a boat.

Our boat, the Samba

There is a sea lion climbing this cliff if you look closely

Blue-footed booby

Flightless cormorant

Brandon and a booby and cormorant

Penguins!