In The Footsteps Of Charles Darwin: Part 8, Lionized

Current Position: Wreck Bay / Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands

Current Situation: Alerto Naranja cancelled – resume normal activities

Date: August 2011

Hello again y buenos diaz for not much longer.

We are pleased to report that the recent high swells have abated and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is back to business.   We continue our departure preparations which included Moe over hauling the head on Saturday (he gets all the good jobs). We also purchased what we thought was going to be 30 eggs and turned out to be 60 (omelet, anyone?)…I heard ‘2 dozen eggs’ and Moe heard ‘2 trays of eggs…’ he thought there were 15 eggs in a tray, so 2 trays would be just fine, and my Spanish remains rudimentary.   The water maker continues to run several hours a day and we have steadily filled the tanks this past week.

Readers with prodigious memories will recall that during our transit of the Santa Fe Channel, back in June, we spent a good chunk of the day trying to get past Leon Dormido, the Sleeping Lion island.   When we eventually arrived at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, we learned that this was one of the sites for the daily dive/snorkel trips.   Several of our friends had earlier visited it during their stays and recommended it, so we concluded it was a ‘must see.’   Which, as it turns out, it was.

We hooked up with Sharksky  once again and were scheduled to go on Saturday (13 August), however the alerta naranja put the kibosh on those plans.   The alerta naranja also put the kibosh on going aloft and cleaning the hull (we have been unable to coax any of the local marine iguanas out and set them to work, and kidnapping them for forced labour is a definite no-no as well).

Before setting off bright and early we were both fitted out with thicker wetsuits than our 3mm ones.   It was a major work out just to get it on, so once mine was on it stayed on till after we’d finished our final dive – I’m sure it was neither the first nor the last time that the local populace has been treated to the sight of an idiot tourist walking down the main street in a figure hugging wetsuit.

We met our dive master and guide, Jose/Jimbo, our 4 other dive mates, the welcoming boat crew, and off we went.   One of our dive mates, Claudio, runs Agua fresca kayak tours  down in Punta Arenas, Chile.   If you look at the map of Chile, you’ll notice that Punta Arenas is about as far south as you can go in Chile and still be on the mainland of South America.   Claudio noted that he was particularly enjoying the warm Galapagoan weather, whilst we were equally enjoying the cool Galapagoan weather…same weather, different perspective.   Our other two dive buddies, Tim and Jamie, from Las Vegas, were in agreement with us…delighted to be away from the intense heat of summer.

First stop was Isla Lobos (Lion Island) for a safety check sort of dive in ~ 4m/12′. The main attraction were the sea lions who were quite unperturbed by our presence, and may even have enjoyed having an audience.   Here’s some photos up close and personal with the sea lions…what a joy it was to share the water with them.

Sea Lion Ballet/Gymnastics 1

Sea Lion Ballet/Gymnastics 2

Sea Lion puppy 1

Sea Lion puppy 2

Moe getting to know more of the locals

Moe, upstaged by a sea lion

Back to the Sea Lion Ballet/Gymnastics 3

Juvenile male Mexican hog fish (Bodianus diplotaenia) with a mid morning sea urchin snack in its mouth. In profile, this fish has a large bump on top of its head, as if it had recently swum into a rock, or had developed a suspicious growth.

A goldfish, previously flushed down the toilet ended up in the Galapagos Islands (well, maybe not)

Sea Lion profile

Group rumble

Or is this my best side?

Sea lion taking a nibble from the waddalog watermark

Sea Lion swimming for the shear pleasure of it

Moe assured me this was a playful move...it was most disconcerting having a mouth full of teeth coming at me

See ya!

1383 Do you think we're enjoying the day?

Once back in the boat, we were off to Leon Dormido/Sleeping Lion/Kicker Rock.   It is several very imposing sharp steep rocks separated by a narrow channel, and which has abundant sea life both above and below the water line.   Our guide Jose referred to it as ‘turtle town,’ and told us we’d likely see hammerhead sharks which used the strong currents to their advantage.   We made two dives, the first a ‘wall dive,’ and the second in the channel.

Leon Dormido / Kicker Rock channel

Nasca boobie

Pair of nasca boobies looking at something very interesting over head

Part of Leon Dormido / Kicker Rock formation

Upon entering the water, one of the first things we noticed was that it was very cold!!   Even with our Michelin Man, 5mm wetsuits…brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, chilly!! However, down we went, the wall pock marked all the way which provided shelter for any number of sea urchins and small fish, large sea stars clinging to the rock and larger fish generally milling about.   We saw a few turtles and briefly, in the dimly lit distance 2 or 3 hammerhead sharks – at the surface, the water a little turbid following the recent heavy swells and the rock wall dark.   The water was clearer the deeper we went, but also darker.

In order to oxygenate their gills, sharks need a continual flow of water over them. They can achieve this by either swimming all the time, or using a current to wash over them as they swim in place, so to speak: it’s like using a stationary bike or treadmill to get the same cardiovascular benefits as an actual walk or bike ride.   The hammerhead sharks like to hang out around Kicker Rock to rest, using the currents to their advantage.

Aquawoman and King Neptune having a Grand Day Out in their home environment

Hammerhead shark, briefly appeared from the depths before disappearing again

After the first dive we rested a little, the boat went around the island to the entrance of the channel and in we went again.   It was interesting to both feel and see the thermoclines: a thermocline is where water of different temperatures meet in different ‘layers’…you can see the water mixing, in so far as it is the equivalent of it  ‘shimmering’ where the very cold and not quite as cold layers met and mixed.   It was interesting to be in amongst these strong currents, but crikey, that water was cold!   There were quite a few reef sharks nearby, perhaps 1.2m/4′ in length.   We very briefly saw a ray, perhaps it was a manta, before it too disappeared into the blue abyss.   I was advised not to take the camera into the water with us at Kicker Rock as we were to descend to ~20m, which was beyond the depth parameters of the Canon Powershot.   Happily, our guide, Jose, had a very snazzy under water camera so the following photos (+ the 2 previous) are courtesy of him.

Margaret, having a Big Hair Day, and who has not fully overcome her fear of deep dark wet places, does her best to smile...do you know how difficult that is with a regulator in your mouth?

Moe, looking for more sea lions

Sea Turtle

'Why are you following me?'

Sea Turtle, not too thrilled having its photo taken

So, now, some readers may be asking, ‘And how does this post relate to Charles Darwin?’   Well, that’s almost too easy:- when Darwin was invited to join HMS Beagle as naturalist, his training in the natural sciences was mostly geology, plus a bit of beetle collecting he’d done as a kid (the universities at the time did not have schools of biology).   The Galapagos Islands are of relatively recent geological formation.   Some of Darwin’s early work was figuring out how coral reefs formed.   Finally, Darwin is lionized here.   So there you have it, in a nutshell, end of story.

I'm outta here...see ya!

Any volunteers to go aloft or clean the hull, please raise your hand.

Thanks for stopping by.   We plan to update our passage to the Marquesas via our ham radio, so no more photos for a little while, just scintillating text.

Margaret and Moe

In The Footsteps Of Charles Darwin: Part 7, Ecuador Independence Day on San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands

Current Location: Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands

Current Situation: Alerto Naranja! (Orange Alert ~ Small Craft Advisory)

Date: 13th August 2011

Greetings once again faithful readers and curious visitors.

As we sit here at anchor, we are currently under an orange alert which has been in effect since Thursday 11th August and will likely be in effect the next several days.   Thursday morning, there were no water taxis in service, no inter island ferries, and no tour boats allowed out of the harbour.   Later in the day we received a written advisory from the port captain (as did all the other boats at anchor) essentially advising us that any boating activities we undertook were absolutely at our own risk.   Serious stuff!

We had earlier hooked a ride ashore with the skipper of a friendly cruise boat dinghy, who was ferrying crew ashore.   When we arrived at the muelle (dock/jetty) we learned why our regular water taxi guys, Vonnie or Romero, had been absent: no taxis allowed to work in the harbour because of dangerously high swells.   Well….swell.     We weren’t quite sure how we’d get back to Wadda, and wondered if a playful sea lion would give us a tow.

Given that most of the commerce of Puerto Baqerizo Moreno is water based: basically tourism (in its many forms) and fishing, we concluded that posting an alerto naranja was a decision that was neither lightly made nor warmly received.

So, we continue to learn ways of how one’s visit to the Galapagos Islands can be extended, (eg undertake extensive and expensive repairs to your sail boat, be confined to the harbour because of dangerous swell conditions) it’s just that we would not recommend any of them.    Interestingly, earlier in the year after the earth quake in Japan, the Galapagos Islands, along with Panama and the rest of the west coast of the Americas, were under tsunami watch.   At that time, all the sail boats at anchor here were ordered to leave the harbour to prevent possible damage from surge.

Presently, if anything, out on Wadda it felt like a regular afternoon at Las Brisas anchorage in Panama (rock’n’roll baby!), perhaps a little noisier as the contents of some of the lockers moved about.    We have now been under the alerto naranja for three days, and truth be told, the boat motion has become a little old.

Thursday and Friday, the town was deserted.   It was oddly quiet with none of the usual boat commerce under way.

Wednesday, however was a whole ‘nother story.   We learned on Tuesday, that Wednesday 10^th August was the 181st anniversary of Ecuador declaring its independence.   It’s a somewhat convoluted story, and these are the edited highlights, for the historically inclined:

Ecuador was settled by the Spanish in 1532, and revolted against Spain in 1809.   In 1819, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela became part of the Confederation of Greater Colombia (and just think what a potential economic powerhouse that could have been if the union had survived).   [note: one source included Venezuela in Greater Colombia and another did not…I gathered from my brief survey that the union was never particularly strong…conflicting egos on who was to be in charge it seemed]

In 1830, Greater Colombia collapsed and Ecuador declared its independence (again) as the Republic of Ecuador.   Since that time, the 10th August has been Ecuador Independence Day.   This date somehow is also important as marking the anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha, which was fought in Quito (the capital) against the Spanish in the early C19th.   The local armies were victorious and led to the beginnings of political autonomy.

So, possibly more than anyone wanted to know on the beginnings of Ecuador as an independent state, but it only happens one day a year.

The Independence Day celebrations helped explain why the daily 8am band practice in town had continued after the Naval Week parade.   It seems that the Naval Week parade was a dress rehearsal for Independence Day.

The Independence Day parade, as with Naval Week, involved just about everyone in town and beyond connected with the military, border control, police work, or education. So, in addition to school children of all ages (from excited kindergarteners, through earnest primary school, and onto teen agers looking cool), there was also the navy from the youngest recruits to the officer class, the coast guard, and the police in all aspects of their work .   Possibly the most warmly received paraders were the very youngest children, who once again got to play dress ups: the little kids looked very excited to be in the parade and the adults were amused to see these life sized dolls goose stepping past the official review tent.

It seemed that most of the population of San Cristobal came to watch the parade including the farm workers from the highlands in addition to the townies.   Some of these folk were in traditional attire of fedora hats, ponchos and/or wraps and looked as if they’d just descended from the Andes mountains.

At the completion of the parade (which all up lasted about 2 hours), the national anthem was played.   The Top Brass and some of the Uniforms stood at attention and most everyone else went about their business, until the anthem ended and there was a brief collective, ‘Viva!’

Here’s some of the parade highlights and a couple more sights from around town.

High school band about to make the turn onto Avenida Charles Darwin, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Isla San Cristobal, Ecuador Indpendence Day celebrations, 10th August, 2011. The girls playing the lyre shaped glockenspiels led the way...

...followed by various sized drums, and trumpets bringing up the rear

The Galapagos Islands has two famous adopted sons.   One, as you’ve probably figured out by now, is Charles Darwin.   The other, is Alejandro Humboldt after whom the current is named.

Alejandro Humboldt, Galapagos Islands other adopted son

These boots were made for marching

Ecuador flag (on left) and Guayas province flag (on right)

Part of the spectators for the Independence Day parade, Avenida Charles Darwin, San Cristobal

Junior recruits, jungle camouflage and dress uniforms, having a great time

Junior recruits getting into the spirit of the Independence Day Parade, San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands

Junior recruits...happy as clams to be part of the Independence Day Parade

The Military, locked and loaded

Every man and his dog took part in the parade

You didn't have to have a fancy dress uniform to participate

After marching, the blokes in blue worked crowd control for the ensuing motor bikes drive by

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! One of the motor bike police showing his riding skills

In front of the review tent, the rider did a few tricks with the very frightened horse, until the horse nearly threw the rider and made to bolt from the scene

Horse patrol of some description...police?...military?...border patrol? Somewhere in the highlands?

The only time I would dare photograph these guys is during an Independence Day parade

So, you may have asked yourself, how was the Independence Day Parade in the footsteps of Charles Darwin?   Well, the main part of the parade took place along Avenida Charles Darwin, which runs along the waterfront.   So, perhaps it would be more accurately described as ‘Footsteps on Charles Darwin.’

Independence Day Parade route along Avenida Charles Darwin, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal

Other interesting sights else where around town:

The Darwin finches etched in glass, entry door to the Charles Darwin Convention Centre, San Cristobal

Not the best likeness, nonetheless, Charles Darwin etched in glass, entry door to the Charles Darwin Convention Centre, San Cristobal

Apologies for the intense light here: Peaceful co-existence between the Sally Lightfoot crabs and marine iguana: as long as the iguana occasionally moves, no one will get hurt: the iguana is vegetarian, the crabs are scavengers (the crabs sometimes will 'groom' the iguanas)

That’s it for now.   We continue to have a swell time here as we make final preparations for departure.

Margaret and Moe