Oldies On Tour

Thursday 2 May 2013

Up early this morning, just for a change, breakfast was at 6 am, we manage it quite easily now, as we are so tired at night, we are going to bed about 9 pm.

A quick breakfast, then in the dinghy for 6.45 am today we are going to Espanola Island, we motored through the night, and arrived here about 2 am this morning.

Sea-lions on beach

We are off to Punta Suarez, we were supposed to be having a dry landing today, but the sea-lions have taken over the landing, so instead we had to go to the beach.

On arrival we saw lots of sea-lions just resting in the sun, there were a variety of babies up to three years old, they do not worry about people, it is fantastic, and some even pose for you.

Marine iguanas

Mingled in the rocks were the marine iguanas, lava lizards and Sally light-foot crabs, everywhere you go, or walk there is something to look at.

We continued around the cliff tops, the views are amazing, we

Blue footed boobies doing their courting

had to stop at one point as there was a pair of blue footed boobies (yes it is their name!) doing their courting ritual, they did not seem to worry about us, we slowly walked passed them, whilst they just carried on!  We saw mockingbirds, Darwin finches, and swallow tailed gulls.

Further around the coast we came to an impressive blow hole,

Blow hole

which squirted large amounts of water, as it did so you could see a rainbow, we stopped on the rocks and just watched it for a while.

We have been out for about three hours, but unlike the jungle it was fascinating, I just love it here,

The zodiac picked us up, and as soon as we were back on the boat, we set sail for Gardner Bay, just the jib and the staysail, everything we could wish for; trouble is Geoff will want a boat again!!

Lunch with the crowd

We had our lunch, which was squid, not as good as we get in our favourite restaurant in Pillar de Horadada, but it was tasty.  We had our normal laugh at lunchtime, everyone is great, six of us have birthdays within a few months of each other, and for a change I am not the oldest.

After lunch it was snorkel time, which I enjoyed, but did not see much, trouble is we have been spoilt in the Caribbean.

Back on board we motored a bit further, when it was back in the zodiacs again for a lovely

Beautiful sandy beach with a colony of noisy sea lions.

walk along the sandy beach, and go for a swim if we wanted, which Jane and I did, after we had watched all the sea-lions and an iguana playing in the water. The beach was beautiful here; it reminded me of Barbuda in the Caribbean.

It is all go here, but not tiring or stressful, it is very very enjoyable. We had a lovely dinner, and then after Larry produced a piece of paper and we each had to name what we had seen today, there were 25 living creatures/insects, and 2 suspect ones, we included the blow-hole and the rainbow!

Tired so most of us retired early again, ready for another full day tomorrow.

Wednesday 1^st May

Being 7 hours behind the UK, having breakfast at 0700hrs local time seemed much more civilised bearing mind the un-godly hours we have been getting up!

Sea-lion resting on the seat

Anyway, best breakfast we have enjoyed since the Liberator hotel in Cusco, very nice and our travelling companions are all very sociable with no apparent peculiarities, well that we have seen so far!!!!

So following breakfast we were off in the dingy to Puerto

The Chiva we used to go up to the top of the hill

Velasco on Floreana Island for our first trek, upon landing firstly we had to help push start our “Chiva”, that’s a converted lorry that had rather hard seats built in the back, before it could take us to the centre of the Island, and then we trekked up the mountain.

After a rather bumpy and bone jarring ride we arrived at the drop off point, at which point we walked.

Tortoises being fed

Our first stop was a very natural enclosure where they have placed a number of mixed breeds of giant tortoises and fortunately for us, being Wednesday, it was feeding day.  These animals only get food 3 times per week though they can go up

Tortoises

to 6 months without food and water, quite extraordinary; this was one of the contributing factors for their demise.  In the 19^th century when Pirates, Whalers and any other passersby used to load these giant tortoises onboard, and as there was no need to feed them they were quite happy, and when the crews wanted fresh meat, it was to hand!

The Galapagos administration is trying to re-introduce the correct giant tortoises to the respective islands; yes over the thousands of years, each island has its own particular strain of tortoise.  The ones above have dubious pedigrees, so have been isolated, neutered and can now live their lives in comfort without expanding this “mongrel” population.

Caves we trekked through

We also walked through the nearest thing they have to caves which were as close as you can get to one of only two natural springs on Floreana.  Years ago people adopted these “caves” for living in.

Floreana is very short of natural water so there is a very small population though the vegetation and food crops have adapted very well.  It has a bit of a chequered history as far as humans are concerned.  Back in the early 19^th century it became a penal colony for Ecuador and then it was abandoned until a couple of German “unusual” people inhabited the Island early in the 20^th century trying to get away from it all in their country and these were followed by another German family whose off spring, through several generations, are still here today. Our guide told us some fascinating stories about these early inhabitants and what they got up to but they are not for here!!!!

We then made the return journey by the same Chiva to the dock, then onto our Zodiac dingy and back to the Beagle.  Prior to lunch we were exposed to “boat drill” to ensure we all knew what to do in the case of an emergency.  We then had a very nice fish lunch followed by a short “nap” for those who wanted one.

At 1400hrs we were loaded back into the Zodiac’s and taken to some rocks jutting out of the sea for our first snorkel. It was recommended we had wet suits on but alas they didn’t have large ones so I went without.

We arrived at out snorkel site and they all went in but the water was cold so I took a rain check, besides, Christine said afterwards that I hadn’t missed anything, which was lucky!!!

Back to the boat, a quick shower then off to the beach for a wet landing and to see another aspect of Floreana. We were accompanied to the beach by several young sea lions, playing around our dingy, fascinating.  We landed, walked around then over the hill to another, white sandy beach.  Behind the beach were sand dunes and we were warned to stay well away from these dunes as they were where the sea turtles had laid their eggs.  Above, flying around were many frigates just waiting to catch a baby turtle that had just hatched.

The animals are so tame, it is amazing

Normally nature takes a hand and these baby turtles “pop” out of their buried nest during the hours of dark, but on occasions, something goes wrong and they “pop” out in daylight and the frigate birds are there to pick them off for their tea.  This was an amazing beach as we saw 3 species of Sting Ray, sea lions, 1 shark, red crabs and blue footed Booby’s, we saw much more here in one day than we saw over the four days we were on the Amazon.

We were off the beach just after 1800hrs and back on board for tomorrow’s briefing followed by dinner.

Dinner tonight was a jolly affair, everybody gets on well with each other, the party has bonded well in the short time we have been together, and we all had a great laugh, though tomorrow is a 0600hrs start, oh dear, back to normal!!!

Tuesday 30^th April 2013

I have had another bad night, I have been on the looe more times than I can remember, so when the alarm went off at 5 am, I was a bit slow to say the least, I wanted to pack last night, but went to bed instead, so this morning after the packing was done, Geoff had a quick cuppa, I didn’t want to drink until we got to the airport.

Our transport over the river with luggage on roof

Today it is Galapagos, this is what it has all been about, our flight was on time, and we landed at Guayaquil, before continuing onto the Galapagos, when we arrived, we were on a very desolate Island, we were met by our guide, and went by coach, barge, coach, zodiac dinghy to the Beagle. On route we

The Beagle

had a briefing on the Islands, and what we would be doing.

After lunch we went on the Dinghy to the Charles Darwin

Darwin Centre

Research Station on Santa Cruz, It was brilliant, we have seen more animals and birds this afternoon then we did in four days in the Jungle!

Apparently the tortoises were heading for extinction, but with a

Galapagos tortoises doing what comes natural

careful planning, they are managing to bring the numbers up, each Island have a different sort, and they hatch the eggs, bring the tortoises on for five years, and then return them to the native Island that they come from, it was all very interesting.

On the way back to the Town we stopped at a fish market, where the sea lions, and the pelicans were hovering for tit bits, an

FishMarket

amazing place, and that is just the first day.

Back to the boat for showers, dinner, and into bed quite early, we seem to have a good group of people.

^{Monday 29th} April

Well we had a reprieve this morning, we were originally told we would be woken at 0530hrs but they changed it to 0600hrs as we made better progress up river than anticipated following the loss of one of our props.

The river is like the M1 transporting lorries etc up and down

We were packed, and completed our breakfast and into the canoe by 0710hrs and then we were on our way.  Again the driver had to pick his way around the sand bars but a little under two hours we arrived back in Coca.  We jumped into a couple of Taxis and arrived at this wonderful airport, well, probably the smallest airport I have ever been to in the world.  Our guide was telling us that before the new airport in Quito was built, 50% of all flights were late arrivals in Coca; now there is a brand new modern, sophisticated airport, 80% of all flights were late and that included both our flights; so we had to wait, fortunately they have a VIP lounge there so we were OK, however I would add their VIP lounge was probably equivalent to the normal seats around gates at most airports!!!!

Another good, comfortable flight with the airline “Tame”, straight up and virtually straight down arriving in Quito airport 25 minutes after we left.  With only hand luggage we were

One of the many churches in Quito

straight out and there waiting for us was Danny, our driver, together with our two main suitcases.  We then started the drive into Quito, and after about one hour, we arrived back at our “favourite” hotel, ha ha!!!!!!!!!  This time though they gave us a bigger room, great but unfortunately there was very limited hot water, so Christine, who had been planning and looking forward to this shower all morning had to have a cold one, very disappointing, still that’s a bed and breakfast for you, Boutique Hotel, my foot!

A typical street in the Old Town

At 1500hrs our city tour guide arrived in reception.  Our local tour operator, to make amends for the shambles on our last visit, had organised a private city tour for us, we didn’t have the heart to refuse and say we had already had a private tour,

San.Francisco Convent

so hey we went and he took us to places we hadn’t visited before including the magnificent San Francis Convent, with its Spanish designed quadrangle and beautiful

Gardens at San Francisco Convent

golden chapel. As it was also raining we didn’t want to do too much walking, so he drove us up and down every street in the old town, wonderful.

Beautiful chapel at the convent

The guide duly delivered us back to the hotel but by that time Christine was feeling under the weather again with a dickey tummy. We went down to dinner but Christine had to depart before she had even finished her soup, oh dear, but I finished hers as well as mine, had a main course then back to the room for an early night as we were being collected at 0600hrs, just for a change!!!!!

Sunday 28^th April 2013

Geoff had asked that we were left this morning, so we slept in until 7.30 am far more civilized! We watched the boat leave with another jungle experience, but we had already decided that we were all jungled out!!

We went on top deck and had our morning tea, I still feel a bit weird, so

Enjoying the trip down the river on our own.

didn’t want breakfast at this point, we slowly came around and at 9am had our breakfast, I had boiled eggs, and Geoff had omelette, very nice it was.

We stayed on deck for a while then went back to have another sleep, I think we are both totally exhausted, too much sun, and too much chasing.

The boat started moving and  then had to stop suddenly apparently it has lost one of its propellers, so they sent all the crew to look for it, three canoes, with five men, then the big one came along and helped also, although they did not find it.

The Captain decided to go on one engine, which was fine for a while, then we went aground, very exciting, they had to get the large canoe to try and dislodge it which they finally did.

Canoe getting stuck because of the lack of water

The level of the water has gone down 3 metres over three days, so the channel has changed, very difficult to navigate.

When everyone was back on board we had lunch, I did not eat much, just some soup, and a little bit of lettuce, should lose weight this week!  I am not very keen on the food here, it is a bit weird.

In the afternoon the trekkers went off again, and we had a nice afternoon cruising the river, apart from having to avoid all the trees that have gone in the water,  it was very pleasant.

We had a quiet dinner, and an early night.

Saturday 27th April 2013

Yet again we were waiting for the alarm to go off at 6 am this morning, although rather than an alarm, it was a music across the tannoy system followed by a reminder breakfast would be served at 6.30 am.  Being awake before the alarm we had time to enjoy a cup of tea on the sundeck and watch the sun come up, very good.

Following breakfast we all mustered below on A Deck when we embarked into our canoe, this manoeuvre was done as the ship was travelling along the river, with the canoe tied up alongside.

Pushing us of the sandbanks again!

We had a pleasant ride in the motorised canoe, getting stuck on the sand bar only once when the guide and the attendant had to get into the water to push us off.

After landing we started our jungle trek, to the Panayacu (Piranha River) , stopping to photo this bug or that leaf, and on one occasion a foot print in the mud! after about half an hour we

Our guide had just spotted some monkeys

got into another but smaller canoe which had to be paddled, thankfully not by us.

After about an hour and a half at looking at numerous species of birds, distant monkeys high in the trees, butterflies etc., etc., we got out of the canoe and started another trek. Again after photographing everything that moved or didn’t, we arrived at a

The tower we climbed

30 metre tower.  Now we did know about this tower but when we got to the bottom, it looked very high and steep and as one of us had to look after the bags I volunteered of course!!  I wasn’t too bothered as I had been up to the rainforest canopy in Australia and that was via a cable

The group before we climbed to the top of tower

car, anyway they all started the climb. Sometime later Christine was the first to come down then the rest followed at short intervals, and we all went back to our paddle canoe for more wandering through the swamps, photographing,

At the top we saw this owl which looked like the tree trunk at first

birds, trees, plants etc., and then the highlight we came across a Black Cayman, it looks like a small Alligator.  He or she lay very still but kept his/her beady eye on us, waiting to see if we made a false move.  Our canoe drifted slowly towards his/her, and we

Black Cayman hiding

came within touching distance, needless to say no hands went outside the boat.

We were hoping to see the unusual pink river dolphins but alas none were home. oh dear what a disappointment!

Next stop a bar-b-q lunch in a clearing, very nice though poor Christine had been suffering with tummy pains so was happy to find a suitable place to carry out her business.

One of the many strange tree roots in the jungle

After lunch the party went off for another trek in the jungle, and no doubt would be photographing anything and everything, Christine and I had a lay down instead.

The trekking party duly returned after  a little more than an hour, and judging by the comments we did not miss much.  So back to our canoe for the return journey seeing much of what we had seen before. Ninety minutes later we left our canoe to trek overland back to our motorized canoe waiting on the Napo River to take us back to the boat the Manatee, moored up stream on another bank.

Back on board for showers etc, although Christine’s tummy is still poorly.  As things are at present we will stay aboard tomorrow. I actually think this will be nice as we were looking forward to cruising the Amazon and going ashore for different interesting visits, but today lasted from 07.15 – 16.45 , nine and half hours in the hot sun, maybe this has also contributed to Christine feeling bad. Anyway, after much deliberation  Christine went to bed, and I went to dinner, I also arranged to change the early morning call from the ‘Heidi Hi’ over the tannoy system to a tap on the door for those who wanted it.

Today was the perfect day for Botanists, Lepidopterologist, Ornithologists, and Entomologists, but us mere mortals who like watching action activities we were quite bored. Like our friends says unlike ABC (Another bloody church) we had MBJ (more bloody jungle).