I went to the hospital in Istanbul (at the end of our tour of Turkey) because, regardless of the heart problems i encountered in Kas, i had been in generally poor health in Turkey and took a definite turn for the worse in Istanbul. Essentially, i just had a fever of about 103 and felt very bad and had diarrhea. We thought it would be a good idea to see a doctor and the hospital just happened to be the best option if for no other reason than we had heard the rumor that the English would be good there.

anyway, on to the examination in the hospital…

i was in a standard hospital room designed to contain maybe 6 patients all separated by curtains. After the doctor asked me what was going on with me (he actually spoke very good English and was very good at interviewing), he did some routine-type examinations. one of these involved feeling my abdomen and determining whether i had any pain in that area. of course, we have all had this exact same examination in the Dr’s office. in order to do this properly, he asked me to unbutton my pants and then he pulled them down maybe an inch or so. ok. fine. also perfectly normal. he finished, stepped back and said, “ok, you can take your clothes off now.” wow! this was really going to be a thorough examination. Michele later reported thinking this exact same thing.

so, i felt just a tiny bit uncomfortable removing all of my clothes (just as most people would) but i did it — every last stitch of clothing. after laying there on the hospital bed completely naked for a few minutes, a male nurse came in. He walked over to my right arm, took my blood pressure and then walked out. hmmmmm… i needed to have all of my clothes off in order for them to take my blood pressure??

a few minutes later, the Dr. came back in and said, “ok, you can take your clothes ON now.” he continued by saying, “i think you misunderstood me. i told you you could take your clothes on, not put them off.” ????

Michele and i both clearly heard “off” not “on” and it wouldn’t have made any sense to us for the Dr. to have said ON anyway because to us, my clothes weren’t off while he was feeling my abdomen.

what could this poor nurse have thought??? he walked into this room expecting a routine blood pressure check and instead his eyes were assaulted by the sight of some crazy, completely naked American. i’m sure he was traumatized!!

anyway, this story has provided both Michele and i with many, many laughs since. we hope everyone else also enjoys it.

a tangent — subsequent discussions have examined the flaws of the English language. it doesn’t really make any sense that we say “take clothes off” and “put clothes on”. the verbs should clearly be swapped such that a person takes their clothes on and puts them off. this, was the logic the Dr. used which may have added to the confusion. regardless, the Dr. in this particular story definitely said OFF and, in theory, the preposition should be the key word in this instance.

On June 15th we set 3 alarms for 3:00am in order to be sure to get up in time to catch our pre-arranged taxi that was scheduled to pick us up at 4:00am. Our hostal owner, who spoke no English, told us (in Spanish) that he would make the arrangements for a taxi pick up. We were both a bit nervous about this and had “Plan B” in case there was no taxi at 4:00. “Plan B” was simply to go out on the main street and flag down a cab. This was not an option we wanted to take since the neighborhood we were staying in has a reputation for being dangerous at night.

We were very thankful to find the cab outside our hostal at 4:00a. We got to the airport with no problem and the 5 hour flight from Quito, Ecuador to Houston, Texas (USA) was uneventful. At about 12:00 noon we entered the United States.

We had been out of the United States for over year and had visited 29 countries. We doubted we would just walk through customs like all the other people – and we were right. On the U.S. immigration card one of the questions asked what country we had been to before coming to the U.S. We both wrote “Ecuador + 28 others”. We got in line with several hundred other people and commented to each other that we had never seen so many people at a border crossing.

At passport control we explained to the officer that we had been out of the country for over a year and I showed him a list of the countries we had visited. These included:

Iceland
Netherlands (Holland)
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Estonia
Norway
Poland
Czech Republic
Hungary
Turkey
Malta
Morocco
Greece
Kenya
Tanzania
Egypt
India
Thailand
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Malaysia
Singapore
New Zealand
Tahiti
Chile
Peru
Ecuador

He immediately wrote a code on the top of our immigration cards and sent us on our way. When we got to customs, we noticed most people just walked on through. When we got to the customs officers they sent us to a special customs room. Once we were in the customs room we saw the majority of people following green arrows and their luggage was being x-rayed by a machine. We were told to follow the red arrows where our bags would be inspected by hand.

Neither one of us wanted to unpack our bag – not because we had anything to hide, but because it took us so long to find the perfect spot for each item so that everything would fit. Plus, we had carefully wrapped many of our souvenirs in articles of clothing and strategically placed them in just the right place so that they wouldn’t get damaged. Michele also bought some artwork that had been professionally packaged and unwrapping (then rewrapping) that would be a nightmare.

We went to two different officers. Michele’s customs agent asked her which countries she had been to, whether she was carrying food, flowers, or plants, and which countries were her favorites. He also asked her to describe the artwork that she was hand carrying. After answering these questions she was told to exit the room. Meanwhile….

Mike’s customs officer took every single item out of his pack and put it on a table to examine. Mike had some souvenirs wrapped up and the officer even unwrapped the individual souvenirs to take a closer look at them. Mike was also asked a lot of questions. The officer explained that there had been a recent increase in drugs smuggled from Ecuador and that’s why he wanted to go through Mike’s bag so thoroughly. The officer was pleasant enough and after 30 minutes of digging through Mike’s stuff, he let Mike repack his bag. During this time Michele waited outside the special customs room and asked people exiting whether or not Mike (tall guy with long beard) was still talking with an agent. One couple told Michele, “It’s going to be a while. He’s got the entire contents of his pack spread out all over a table.” About 45 minutes after Michele exited, Mike walked through the door.

We had booked our own flights back into the U.S. and purposefully scheduled a 3 hour layover just in case we had trouble getting through customs. We’re so smart!

So, after 374 days, 29 countries and tens of thousands of dollars (look for a complete spending analysis in the near future) we’re happy to report we are alive and well (but a bit tired). What a trip!

As a comparison, here we are before and after our around-the-world trip:

BEFORE leaving on our trip (June 5, 2005):

AFTER our trip (June 15, 2006):

We are now in San Francisco, California visiting friends. Tomorrow we will go to the Portland, Oregon area to visit Michele’s family before returning to our “home” (storage unit and P.O. box) on the East Coast…

Oh, the things i`ve been through on this trip…

As Michele mentioned in Post #136, we didn’t do a lot of sightseeing in Quito. One reason is that we were dealing with the situation described below.
While we were in the Santa Cruise Island after finishing our Galapagos cruise on the Legend i noticed a zit or ingrown hair on the back of my neck just about an inch below the hairline. It seemed logical that it was an ingrown hair because just about 10 days earlier Michele had shaved the back of my neck. One night Michele attempted to squeeze the pus out of it but only got what appeared to be oil. oh well, i figured it would be gone in a week or so…

Well, by the time we were in Riobamba it was not gone. In fact, it had grown a bit and by June 9th (the same day we rode the train), it was a bulge about 2″ in diameter. “hmmm… maybe my ingrown hair is infected,” i thought. I was beginning to think going to a Dr. when we got to Quito would be a good idea. Then, when we got up on the morning of June 10th, i thought it seemed like it was shrinking a bit. “Maybe i don`t need to go to a Dr.” It is such a pain to go to a Dr. in a foreign country. I was also considering the difficulty the language barrier might pose to me in the Dr´s office.

After thinking about it some more while we were on the bus from Riobamba to Quito, i decided it would be best to just go to the Dr. After all, while i do believe i know a bit about medicine, i really didn`t know what this thing on my neck was.

After settling into our hostal in Quito, i went and asked the manager about what hospital would be best for me to go to if i was looking for English-speaking Drs. He recommended Hospital Vozandes which is a hospital the Lonely Planet guide book indicates is American owned (at least it was at the time the book was researched). I understood him to say that all of the Drs there are foreigners and they speak English. Great! The Manager called us a $3 cab to the hospital and off we went.

Upon arriving at the hospital, my hopes were immediately dashed. As i looked around in the reception area of the hospital, i didn`t see a single sign in English… Spanish, Spanish everywhere. I actually began to get a bit angry. I just had different expectations based upon what i understood the hostal manager to be telling me.

We waited in line for a few minutes and were told to walk down the hall to the right and go to the Emergency “room”. When we got there, i began to get more angry. It was totally unclear to me what i was supposed to do next. There was a nurse in what appeared to be an Emergency reception room. She seemed to be “receiving” patients but everything was being conducted in Spanish and patients seemed to be cutting in front of me. I guess i wasn`t being assertive enough. Finally i spoke to the nurse in broken Spanish about why i had come to the hospital and showed her the inflammation on my neck.

A few minutes later i was in the Dr´s office again trying to have a conversation with him about my condition. After having a look, he called another Dr. in the hospital who could act as an interpreter. She explained to me in English what was going on. Ok so, the Dr. was going to drain my abcess and send what he drained to the lab. While we were waiting for the lab results (to be ready 4 days later on Wednesday — which was also going to be our last day outside of the U.S.) they would put me on a course of antibiotics which might be changed depending on the lab results.

So next the Dr. removed whatever was underneath the skin on the back of my neck. Michele and i had already noticed that whatever it was, it felt pretty solid, not like the softer feeling one would expect from a bacterial infection. The “draining” of my abcess was, as of yet, the most painful experience i have ever had.  I was obviously unable to see what he was doing but i felt him repeatedly pull my skin up, scrape around with some sort of blade, dig in the center with another instrument, and poke a needle several times into my neck. He did not use any anaesthetic.
When it was finally over, the collar of my shirt was soaked with blood, and the Dr. had taped gauze to my wound. When he told me i could sit up, i saw the tools the Dr. was using. These included a pair of surgical scissors and a syringe among others. I also noticed the “test tube” into which he had packed the sample. It was about 6″ long, the diameter of my little finger, and it was packed full of blood and something the color of pus but seemed to be solid (or colloidally suspended).

Since the the Dr. and i weren`t able to communicate directly, he called in the English-speaking Dr. to translate again. The translator explained that what i had was most likely the larva of a parasite since the thing in my neck was hard and actually quite difficult to remove. I commented that i also noticed it was hard to remove (was it ever!). So, the course of antibiotics would stand but additionally, i was to keep this gauze over the wound to prevent the larva from getting oxygen. Allegedly they would die within 24-48 hours without oxygen and, when i returned on wednesday, anything still there could be removed. When i explained we were expecting to fly to the U.S. on Thursday, i was told that was no problem.

Later that evening, we went to an internet cafe and did a google search on parasitic flys endemic to South America. The most likely candidate we came up with was the Human Botfly which you can read more about at this site http://www.vexman.com/botfly.htm . These creatures infest humans in one of a few ways. One way is that a fly catches a mosquito, lays its eggs on the mosquito and when the mosquito goes to bite a human, the human body heat causes the larva to hatch out of the eggs and burrow under the skin. They also allegedly lay eggs in clothing. When a person puts the clothing on, the eggs hatch and the larva burrow as with the mosquito bite.

Through our research online, we found that the larva use the hole they burrowed through to breath and covering this hole is the way to starve the larva of oxygen and cause them to come back to the skin`s surface in search of oxygen. They can also sometimes be removed manually but care must be taken to remove the creatures in their entirety and not leave any infection-promoting pieces behind.

At this point, we began to get concerned about whether the Dr. had done the right thing by attempting manual extraction. Furthermore, we weren`t confident the gauze was really going to suffocate these bastards. Seemed to us that air can pass through gauze. So that night and the following days we started taking the additional measure of smearing antibacterial ointment on the wound. Yes, we know antibacterial ointment isn´t going to kill a fly larva but the antibiotics of such an ointment is actually held in petroleum jelly (like vasoline). Smearing petroleum jelly on the breathing hole is one proposed way of preventing the larva from getting oxygen. We figured antibacterial ointment is just one step better because we would also be discouraging bacterial infection at the same time.

On Sat, June 10th, upon leaving the hospital i was told to come back on Monday, to get my neck cleaned, and on Wednesday, to get the lab results.

We went back to the hospital on Monday. A nurse cleaned my neck and put a fresh bandage on. About 30 minutes after leaving the hospital i started feeling bad. About 4 hours after leaving the hospital i had a high fever and chills. We decided to go back. This time 2 doctors examined my neck in the emergency room. Neither one spoke English so they got a 4th year med student to act as the translater. They gave me Tylenol to reduce my fever and after some discussion, said (via the translator) that they did not think there were any larva in my neck. After paying $15 for the emergency room visit, I was told to be sure to come back on Wednesday.

And so, this story is now coming to an end…

We went back to the hospital on Wednesday to get the lab results. The doctor we saw did not speak English but i understood about 90% of what she said. She told us the test results were negative for bacteria. This didn’t necessarily mean there were never any larva in my neck. However, she said there was no larva now and that no further action was necessary.
At this time (4 days after the last hospital visit), the thing on my neck is much smaller and seems to be diminishing. Although everything turned out o.k., i will probably never know for sure whether or not there were larva living in my neck. There was certainly something big there at one time but what that thing was will probably remain a mystery.

On the morning of Jun10th, we went to the terminal terriste (main bus terminal) in Riobamba to catch a bus going to Quito. The way it works in Ecuador (and many other South American countries) is that you simply go to the bus station and walk around looking at all the ticket booths and listening for your destination being called out. All of the bus companies have lists showing the times their bus goes to various cities. When it gets close to when a bus is leaving, a guy from the bus company will yell out the name of the city the bus is going to.
On this day, we arrived at the bus station at 9:26 and immediately heard “Quito! Quito! Quito!” We walked up to the man and he showed us the way to his company’s booth where we bought a ticket for the 9:30am bus. After purchasing the ticket we followed him to a spot outside the bus station and in approximately 1 minute, a bus pulled up and we got on.

The 4 hour bus ride from Riobamba to Quito was quite beautiful. Like many bus trips we’ve taken before, at each stop a bunch of people get on the bus walking up and down the isle selling things they have in their hand. They yell out the name of the item and you wave your hand if you want one of the things. About half of the time we can’t identify the thing they are selling but we know it is some type of food or drink. On this bus ride, we observed something not seen before. A man came on the bus and passed out a small book to everyone (except us – the only two gringos). He then gave a speech and people either gave the book back or paid him a dollar. Another time a man got on the bus and passed out necklaces to everyone (again, except us), made a speech and the same thing happened. Either people gave the necklaces back or paid him a small amount of money. We have taken buses all over the world but on this, our last bus trip, we saw this novel way of selling items and it was something we had never seen before.

We arrived in Quito in the early afternoon and were relieved to see our bags were still under the bus. We caught a cab into the Mariscal area, which is where all the backpackers stay. I had previously reserved a “mini-suite” in a hostel for $32/night. This price is quite expensive for Quito backpacker land but we wanted to have a (relatively) nice place to stay during the last few days of our around-the-world trip. Hostal Alcala was a great place to stay. Our room was very large and it had a refrigerator, cable TV with lots of movie channels, a bathroom and several closets. The hostal served a nice breakfast each day (included in the price) and there was a computer with free internet access. Perhaps best of all, there was a flowering tree outside our room where a couple of hummingbirds seemed to live. Each day we spent a few minutes watching the hummingbirds, marveling at their wingspeed. Here is a picture of our favorite guy, who reliably sat on the same branch every day:

So, what did we do in Quito? Well, not much. We had planned to do a couple of day trips out of the city but never did (for reasons we will explain in blog #137).
Still, on a couple of occasions we went to some different markets to look for souviners. One day we also walked all around the Mariscal (aka New Town) area and went to the park. On another day we ventured into the Old Town area which is full of gorgeous architecture. In the Old Town we ate lunch in one of the huge cobble stone squares, had dessert at a heladeria (ice cream shop), and visited two churches. One is shown in the photo below. As you might imagine, one minute after I took this picture it started to storm. Although Quito (at an altitude of 9348 ft.) lies almost directly on the equator and the sun felt like it was burning a hole through our heads when it was out, each day in the afternoon a thunder and lightening storm kicked up for about 30 minutes. Then the sun came out again. So, this photo of the basilica was taken minutes before one of these daily storms.

The rest of the time in Quito we did things like meet traveling friends for dinner, hang out at the nearby internet cafe, and watch movies on one of the 10 movie chanels available on the TV in our room. These activities were not quite as exciting as riding on the roof of a train or swimming with hammerhead sharks but we both agreed that after traveling for 373 days, we just wanted some down time before returning to the U.S. and ending our around-the-world trip.

As Mike wrote in the last blog we arrived at our not-so-great hostel (Ecuahogar Hostel) in the suburbs of Guayaquil on Tuesday, June 6th. The main reason for staying at this place was because it was close to the terminal terreste (main bus terminal). So, on the day we arrived we walked to the bus station and bought tickets to go to Riobamba the next day. 

On the way home from the bus station we stopped by a grocery store. (I know this blog is on Riobamba but…) To give you an idea about what Guayaquil is like, we went to the grocery store in the more-safe-than-downtown suburb of Los Sauces and there was a guard tower directly in front of the grocery store doors.  In the guard tower was a guard with a rifle, apparently ready for any person planning on stealing food.  If a person managed to get by the guard with the gun in the guard tower, there were two more guards in bullet-proof vests past the guard tower who stood in front of a metal fence.  We laughed about this but then we thought about buying groceries in downtown Guayaquil where we didn´t go into the store because it had bars on the outside.  Instead, you told the woman what it was you wanted and she passed it to you through a hole in the bars.  In downtown Guayaquil, we also dropped our laundry off through a hole in the bars at the laudry service place and picked it up through the hold in the bars as well.  (Just thought I would share that because it makes for an interesting story.)

Anyway, on the morning of Wednesday, June 7th, we left our not-so-great hostal in the not-so-great Los Sauces suburb of Guayaquil and caught a cab to the main bus terminal.  We checked in at the ticket counter and the guy said something in Spanish that we didn´t understand.  We hear things in Spanish that we don´t understand and if it doesn´t seem important, we generally just ignore them.  Since we had 8:15am bus tickets and it was 7:35 we went and sat in the monstrous waiting area where there were 15 flat screen TVs showing music videos.  At about 7:55a we made our way to the bus where we saw the guy who sold us the tickets.  He and another guy were waving and yelling something in Spanish.  As we walked up, the bus was starting to leave.  Oh sh$&%(/#! One guy yelled at the bus driver and he stopped. The other guy took our bags and put them in the storage area under the bus.  And away we went at exactly 8:00am, 15 minutes early. Whew! That was a close one! In retrospect we think the guy at the ticket counter probably told us the bus was going to leave early that day but since we didn´t understand what he was saying we didn´t know.

The 5 hour bus ride from Guayaquil to Riobamba was filled with beautiful scenary. We actually weren´t sure when we were supposed to get off the bus (a common problem) so we got off one stop early.  The bus attendant yelled, “Cajabamba” and with the Latin American music blaring over the bus speakers it sounded like “Riobamba” to us.  After we collected all our belongings and got off the bus, I said to the man, “Riobamba, Si?”  He said something that I didn´t understand but Mike told me that he said we are near Riobamba but not at Riobamba. So we get back on the bus for another 30 minutes.  When we got off in Riobamba, we were surprised how cold it was but then we remembered that Riobamba lies at an altitude over 9,000 ft (so no wonder it was cold!)  We caught a cab to the downtown area of Riobamba (population 126,000).

Just like many times before, we stood there on the corner in the middle of the city with our bags and our map, trying to figure out where we are.  We didn´t have a place to stay but identified a place in the guidebook near where we were standing and go there.  It turned out to be a lovely place.  It (Hotel Tren Dorado) was a actually several houses, each nicely decorated with a common sitting area and a garden.  Our room had coordinating old-fasioned English furniture and decorations. Best of all it was clean, with hot water (yes!) towels, and soap. All for $16.   

The next day we just hung out in the city, ran errands and caught up on our blogs.  One fun, unexpected thing that happened was that at about 4:00pm, we heard a band playing.  Hmm…what was that? We walked down to the main street in town to find a huge parade was taking place.  It was clear that it was some sort of (beauty?) contest whereby good looking girls in white satin outfits sat on top of different floats waving to the crowd.  Behind each girl and her float were either dancers or a marching band.  We watched the parade for almost an hour.  It was very interesting to watch because each group of dancers or marching band members wore colorful costumes and no two groups were alike. The dancers were in traditional outfits from various cultures. There was one group where the men carried spears, wore scary masks and huge feather headresses and the women carried skulls. Bet you never saw that in a parade in the states!   

The main reason we came to Riobamba was because it is the starting point of a spectacular 5-hour train that includes going down the ”hair-raising” Nariz del Diablo (Devil´s Nose). Passengers are allowed to ride on the roof of the train and that´s exactly what we did.

On Friday, June 9th, we got up at 5:00am in order to be at the train station by 6:00 to get a good seat on the roof of the train.  A good seat, we were told by another traveler, is towards the back so that you are not sucking fumes from the train engine the entire time. This same person also told us to dress warmly and yes, do rent the seat cusions. That morning we rented 4 seat cushions for $4 - good thing because it would be impossible to ride on the roof without these cushions. Here we are on top of the train:

We didn´t think the train ride was as scary as the guidebook made it out to be but it sure had its fair share of unexpected events.  Oh sure, it started out innocently enough… 

We rode on the roof for about 3 hours before getting to a small town called Alausi. 

Here is a picture from that small town:

From Alausi we started the ”hair-raising” switchback descent along the edge of a cliff.  About 2 minutes after we started the descent, the train derailed. It was obvious something went wrong because the train ride suddenly became very rough.  We waited for about 30 minutes while a couple of railroad employees somehow got the wheel back on the track. Still roof riding, we went down the series of switchbacks to the bottom of a canyon known as the Devil´s Nose, but Mike and I both felt it wasn´t hair-raising or even scary (but it was still pretty fun) . 

On the way back up the switchbacks, we felt that familiar rough ride and knew the train had derailed again.  Only this time we were still going but the other half of the train had been left behind.  It seemed like railroad workers came out of the woodwork because before we knew it, there were many people working on the track.  It took over an hour for the workers to replace several railroad ties and fix a broken piece of the track. Here is a photo of the cars that were left behind:

And a photo of some of the guys who eventually fixed the track (using a variety of materials including logs and tree branches):

So, we survived riding on top of the train, for what would turn out to be a 7-hour train ride, and although it wasn´t scary it was certainly entertaining. Once we got back to Alausi, instead of continuing on the train, we caught a bus back to Riobamba, saving us at least 1.5 hours. 

The next day we took a 4-hour bus from Riobamba to Quito, Ecuador, the last city on our around-the-world trip. 

The next morning, after an uneventful zodiac ride through the mangrove forest of Black Turtle Cove on Santa Cruz, we disembarked the Legend for the final time and arrived at the dock on Baltra Island where we found this fellow waiting for the bus to the airport…

After the bus to the airport we said goodbye to the rest of our group.  From here our guide escorted Michele and i the whole way back to Puerto Ayora back on Santa Cruz Island since it was his destination as well.  Here is a photo of Academy Bay in Puerto Ayora, the town we would be staying in.

When we set up our Galapagos trip, we arranged it such that we would have 4 extra days in Puerto Ayora after finishing the cruise on the Legend.  Three of these were to be spent diving and the last would be spent resting before flying out the following day.  A diver shouldn´t fly within 18 hours of diving and we wanted to play it safe with about 42 hours.  Upon arriving at Hotel Lirio de Mar, in Puerto Ayora, we found they didn´t save the reservation Mike had made 10 days earlier but they had one room left.  The room seemed fine (cold water showers and only a few small roaches) so we moved in…

Concerning our diving… we (Mike in particular) had read a lot about diving in the Galapagos and it turns out all of the good sites (those at which a person might see lots of large marine creatures) require a diver to be advanced level.  We only had 14 dives prior to arriving in the Galapagos and this would not normally be considered an advanced level.  However we do officially hold P.A.D.I.´s title of Advanced Open Water divers and we have been diving in a variety of conditions.  The dive instructor at Galapagos SubAqua, named Inti, told us our first dives would be at N. Seymore during which time she would “check us out” to verify we were ready for something like Gordon Rocks (which has strong current and is for advanced divers only).

So our first day of diving was June 2nd.  We arrived at the dive center at 7:30 and after taking a taxi and the dive boat, arrived at the first dive site at around 9:30.  The second dive was at a location, near N. Seymore, known as North Canal.  Here we saw dozens of garden eels arranged in a matrix pattern on the sandy bottom.  They are quite a site protruding from their holes in the sea floor at what appears to be regularly spaced intervals.  We also saw a large male sea lion swimming around and a couple of medium-sized (1-1.5m) white-tip sharks resting on the bottom under a rock ledge.

The next day Mike rented a digital camcorder with an underwater housing in order to get some exciting footage of marine life.  The day´s dive sites were Daphne Minor and the North Canal (yesterday´s site).  It turns out the dive shop (and camcorder) owner, Fernando, had not used his camcorder in about 1.5 years and wasn´t aware that the battery didn´t work very well.  The battery actually ran down in just about 15 minutes of use.  Fortunately, Fernando didn´t charge us for the rental when we told him about the battery.  Mike does believe he got some good footage but unfortunately we haven´t been able to verify this.  Its a long story actually but Fernando´s camera was dead and Mike´s camera uses an incompatible video system (PAL) so we haven´t viewed the video yet.  Hopefully this can be ironed out when we re-enter the U.S.

Our third day of diving was at Gordon Rocks.  We were a bit apprehensive about how strong the current was going to be here but after being 25 m underwater for a few minutes we got the hang of it.  This was truly and incredible site!  Within seconds of arriving at our maximum depth, we saw schools of barracuda so thick we could hardly see through them, large hammerhead sharks swimming close by us, schools of eagle rays and several white-tipped sharks.  It really was surreal!  Our dive guide was carrying an underwater bell to get our attention and we must have heard it once every 30 seconds.

Unfortunately but predictably, we don´t have any photos of the underwater world.  However, Michele did take this photo of Gordon Rocks from the boat…

On, Monday June 5, our last full day in the Galapagos, we walked over to Bahia Tortuga (turtle bay) which was about 3km from our hotel.  The first 500m were through the town of Puerto Ayora but then we reached a guardpost of sorts where we signed in.  From there, it was about 2.5 km along a stonepaved walkway to the first beach and then another 10-15 minutes to the beach with waters calm enough for swimming and/or snorkelling. During our walk to the first beach we counted 63 lava lizards! (On the way back we counted 57.) We felt we had spent enough time in the ocean during the previous three days of diving so, our independent excursion would be on land only.  Mainly, Mike wanted to get his last close-up looks at the marine iguanas without being rushed along by an official park guide.  We saw many marine iguanas a few boobies and a heron.  Here is Michele´s photo of a marine iguana and a heron backed by mangroves…

After our 3-hour excursion to Bahia Tortuga, we got ourselves some lunch and went about putting together some Galapagos blogs.  This is the last of those.

One June 6, after taking a taxi to the bus station in Puerto Ayora, a bus to the canal betwee Santa Cruz and Baltra, a ferry across the canal and a bus to the airport, we boarded our 1.5 hour flight back to Guayaquil, Ecuador.  This was some flight because about 50 of the passengers were children between the ages of 9 and 12.  They were the most unruly bunch of airplane passengers we had ever seen.  They would occasionally run up and down the aisle — literally.

Finally, in the mid-afternoon, we checked into our totally sub-par hotel/hostel in the Sauces suburb of Guayaquil.

We woke up May 30th to find the Legend cruiseship was anchored in a giant volcanic crater.  When we went up to the ship deck we found we were surrounded on all sides by Genovesa island except for a break in the crater where the ship had sailed through.  For our morning excursion we went by zodiac to some steep rocky steps and walked up to the cliffs of Genovesa Island. It was here that we finally saw the Galapagos red footed booby. They obviously have red feet but also have a beautiful light blue beak.  Here is a picture:

On Genovesa we also saw masked boobies, and thousands of birds flying over the sea cliffs.  I commented to Mike that there were so many birds that they looked like locusts. 

After our hike we went snorkeling off of the zodiac boats. The water is supposedly 1000 meters deep around Genovesa so when we went snorkeling we were next to a wall and couldn´t see the bottom.  The visibility was excellent and we saw a white tip shark and a far away hammerhead shark.  At one point we were only about 6 inches away from 3 sea lions who were playing around near us. We also saw a huge (2.5 ft.) blue fish with yellow jigsaw patterns and a lot of smaller intense rainbow colored fish.  Mike spotted a guinea fowl puffer fish and when he dove down to take a closer look it ballooned into a giant yellow puffy ball.

After our lunch and afternoon siesta, we went to Darwin Bay off of Genovesa Island.  We landed on a white sandy beach with sea lions lounging all around.  We again observed the male frigets inflate their red pouches every time a female flew over and we saw several red footed and masked boobies nesting.  We were supposed to snorkel in Darwin Bay but the surf was rough and the visibility was poor so we just swam around.

Back on the ship we were surprised with an ice cream sundae bar. After going back for seconds, we watched a beautiful sunset with Jim, Cathy, and Jim´s mom, Ruth.

Overnight we sailed to Espanola Island. On Wed, May 31st, we went to Suarez Point on Espanola Island for our morning excursion.  On this island we saw a few creatures we had not seen before.  One of these creatures was the large albatross bird. There were many pairs of albatrosses mating and their mating dance was fascinating to watch. They looked like they were actually dancing with each other.  We also saw a new subspecies of marine iguana called the Espanola iguana.  These iguanas are quite colorful as a result of the different nutrients they get from this particular island.  Most are black and red like these two friends: 

 However, other Espanola iguanas were green and yellow like this guy (or gal):

After lagging behind the rest of our group the entire day to examine the Espanola iguanas more closely, we went to the other side of the point.  Here, the landscape included some beautiful lava formations and bright blue sea water. One interesting feature of this area was a blow hole (made out of a lava tube) which erupted with a 30-40 foot blast of sea water every few seconds. Here is a picture Mike took of the sea cliffs in this area:

Our next blog, #134, is the last in our Galapagos Series.  Mike is writing that one now…

The morning excursion was to the Darwin Station nearby the city of Puerto Ayora.  Here, there is an ongoing program to help the giant Galapagos tortoise population recover.  Our guide showed us the egg incubators and several enclosures each containing different age groups of the tortoises.  It was interesting to look at the dates on the pens to see how big a giant tortoise is at various points in its life.  The 2-year-olds weren´t much bigger than my hand but adult Galapagos tortoises can weigh up to 250kg and live for over one hundred years.  I once saw an episode of Crocodile Hunter in which Steve Irwin visited the oldest of these (actually living in Australia now) who is over 160 years old!

After viewing the nurserys, we saw some of the giants.  Here´s one…

 The Darwin Station also had three pens with Galapagos land iguanas.  Land iguanas are an entirely different species from the marine iguanas we´ve already talked about.  I watched a couple who were occupying adjacent enclosures square off through a screened window between them.  I excitedly took some film of the head-bobbing and threatening lunges.  We´ll get a closer look at this species of iguana later.

After the Darwin Center everyone was given about 45 minutes to walk through the town of Puerto Ayora back to the dock.  Michele and i were hoping to stop by the Galapagos SubAqua Dive Shop office to confirm our diving reservations for after we finished our cruise but every shop we saw on the island (there are many)  was closed.  It was, after all, Sunday morning.  

We took our lunch back aboard the legend and then re-disembarked back to Puerto Ayora.  The afternoon excursion started with a 45 minute bus ride across the island of Santa Cruz to the Highlands where there is a private giant tortoise reserve.  We spent about 1.5 hours walking around with our group and guide before taking the bus over to visit a lava tube.  The lava tube wasn´t so impressive compared to some of the cave´s we´ve been in but we didn´t spend much time there.

After taking the bus back to Puerto Ayora, Michele and i made a mad dash over to the SubAqua office, sucessfully confirmed our reservation and picked up the standard dive disclosure forms. 

The next day was the end of the cruise for all but six of us (the Boobie group Michele mentioned in part I).  Some of those who left had only been on board for 4 nights while others had been on board the full week.  Before the departing passengers actually departed, we had a morning excursion to Bachas beach on Santa Cruz.

For this excursion, our zodiac landed on the beach and we walked around while our guide explained various features of the wildlife and habitats around us.  Here is a picture of Michele and i on Bachas beach just after stepping off the zodiac.

The first attraction of Bachas Beach was a couple of pink flamingos.  The guides had advised us in the briefing the night before, that there wouldn´t be hundreds of them like in certain places in Africa but we would be able to see them relatively close up.  We stood next to a couple of sunbathing marine iguanas for several moments while watching the flamingos dredge the bottom of this brackish lake in search of food.

After wandering around this beach area for over an hour, Michele asked the guide when we were going to do the morning snorkelling.  Ooops!  The guide had totally forgotten!  He said, “If you want to snorkel we better head back to the beach right now because we´re supposed to get back on the zodiac in 20 minutes.”

Michele and i ditched the rest of the group and hurried back to snorkel for 15 minutes.  We´re glad we did because we found a small (maybe 18″ in diameter) marbled ray gliding across the sandy bottom.

On this morning there was actually a second excursion to a beach near the airport.  Michele and i opted out of this one because it didn´t sound like there was much to see there.  Besides, we had awoken extra early this morning and needed some more rest.

For lunch the six of us remaining from the last cruise were joined in the dining room by about 50 newcomers. 

After our regularly scheduled afternoon siesta, we left the Legend on the zodiac for our afternoon excursion.  We found the group of boobies significantly changed.  For the second half of the cruise there were 14 of us instead of the original 8 (2 left after the first 4 nights).  At first we were a bit concerned that this would be too many people for the group but it turned out ok. 

The afternoon excursion was to one of our very favorite island in the archipelago – North Seymour.  If a person went to the Galapagos and only had time for one island (i don´t know who would arrange their trip this way) they could go to North Seymour and see all the hightlights.  I was particularly excited about this excursion because there was a possibility we would see land iguanas in the wild (so far we had only seen those in Darwin Station).

Upon landing on North Seymour, we were greeted by several frigates with their throats inflated in an attempt to attract a mate.  Here are a couple of frigates with their throat pouches inflated.

A short walk from the frigates brought us to nesting blue-footed boobies with some young chicks. 

Shortly after the booby nests, Michele spotted our first land iguana.  They can actually be difficult to recognize sometimes because their color is not so different from many of the rocks on the island.  After the first far off land iguana we found another just off the trail but obscured by the bush under which it was resting. 

Finally about halfway into our hike around North Seymour, we found a large (approx 3 ft. long) male land iguana eating vegetation off of a small tree just a meter or so off the trail.  This resulted in our most prized series of Galapagos photos.  Here is a sample…

No sooner than we had finished taking several photos of this big male land iguana someone shouted about another one nearby.  This was an interesting site because this one was standing on its hind legs in order to reach some leaves on a tree.  I took a short video but much of the footage (and Michele’s pictures) is obscured by the tree branches.

Wow!  What an island!  North Seymour has nesting blue-footed boobies, frigates in mating, cormorants, lava lizards, marine iguanas, land iguanas, sea lions…

On the morning of May 27th, we arose at our normal early hour, had the buffet breakfast and disembarked for the island of Santiago at 8 a.m. We arrived on a beautiful black sand beach and did an easy hike on a flat trail.  There were sea lions laying all over the place. They are not scared of people and barely move when you get near them. Here is a picture Michele took of a young one:

On our hike we also saw more marine iguanas, pelicans, cormorant birds, herons, and bright colored Sally Lightfood crabs. We walked over a small section that consisted of lava bridges with beautiful blue water below.

Here are a few more pictures:

Lava bridge with sea water below:

Baby heron:

On our walk back to the zodiac, we took many more pictures of lava lizards.  About halfway Mike was lucky to spot this male in the middle of lunch (a dragonfly). 

We watched this lizard for a few minutes as he dashed the protruding dragonfly parts against the rock. Unfortunately, we couldn´t stay for the entire show because our group had gotten way ahead by this time.

After our hike we went snorkeling off of Santiago Island. Again, we snorkled with sea lions around us. We saw beautiful star fish and huge (2.5 feet) fish swimming in large groups.  There were also so many brightly colored fish of all shapes and sizes.  It was really incredible! 

The afternoon excursion was to the island of Rabida.  The cacti and red lava of Rabida made for very interesting landscapes.  We landed on a very red sand beach and were greeted by hundreds of crabs and many sea lions. We went for an easy hike around the island and after our hike we got to do more snorkeling. The visibility in the water was outstanding and we were fortunate enough to see an octopus! Very cool!

Back on the cruise ship that evening we saw a huge thing jump out of the water with wings. What the…?  The huge black and white thing jumped out of the water two more times, jumping up and throwing its wings out each time. Turns out it was a giant manta ray about 10 feet in diameter! Wow! Does life get any better than this?

Our first excursion from the M/S Galapagos Legend was just 2.5 hours after getting onboard.  This was beginning to look like what we experienced in the Amazon Basin — we would be very busy with excursions.  Anyway, the first excursion was to Bartolome, an island closeby Baltra (the one with the airport).  Our trip to Bartolome involved hiking along a boardwalk and up some wooden steps to the highest point on the island.  This wasn´t the best island for wildlife but we did see a dozen or so lava lizards.  Our guide pointed out the difference between the male and female lava lizards.  Basically, the females have red-orange coloration on the sides of their face and neck and while the males also sometimes have a bit of orange around the neck, it isn´t as dramatic as that on the females.  Here is a picture of a female lava lizard…

Along the path up to the island´s peak, our guide stopped to explain some of the lava formations to us.  One of these was a small lava tube formed by lava rushing to the sea. 

The wind was incredible on this island and more than one person lost their hat. While near the peak, the skin on our bare legs was nearly sandblasted off.  At the peak Michele managed to take this nice panoramic of the island.  We arrived on the island near the beach to the right.

After the hike, we spent about 45 minutes snorkeling in the waters just off the beach.  I swam with a few sea lions, while Michele swam with a penguin.  Together we dove to get a closer look at a green sea turtle that was feeding on algae growing on a rock on the sandy bottom below.  Unfortunately, we don´t yet have underwater housings for either of our cameras so there are no pictures of these aquatic creatures.

About 2.5 hours after disembarking for Bartlome, we got back in the Zodiac to re-embark on the Legend cruiseship to relax for a couple of hours before enjoying a fantastic dinner.

The next morning we were up at 6:30 for the 7:00 breakfast before disembarking on the zodiac for what i consider one of the best islands in the archipelago. 

The morning excursion was to Fernandina Island.  As the boat was nearing a small wooden dock pertruding from the lava.  We spotted the stars of the the island — the marine iguanas.  While the marine iguanas are found on most of the islands, we felt this one had the highest concentration of the largest iguanas.  At some points it was difficult to avoid stepping on them. 

These are some of the world´s most interesting reptiles.  They feed exclusively on green algae that grows (mostly underwater) on the rocks.  After warming up in the morning sun, they swim out just a short way and dive in search of algae.  While underwater they bite off as much algae as they can get in one dive (they are lunged air-breathers that have to hold their breath) and if that´s enough, they return to sun bathe on the lava rocks.  Because these iguanas, like all reptiles, are unable to regulate their body temperature internally, they have to use the sun.  So, in order to digest the algae, they essentially ¨cook¨it in their stomachs with solar power.  (this analogy was adopted from the Kurt Vonnegut book Galapagos) Here´s one of our friends trying to decide if he´s/she´s warm enough for the morning swim.  Check out those lips!  Goth Iguana, perhaps?

There were also many lava lizards running around on the lava and across the backs of the resting marine iguanas.  They are even harder to avoid stepping on.

The other big star of Fernandina was the Sally Lightfoot crab.  Again, while these are found throughout the Archipelago, we felt this island had more than the others.  Here´s my photo of one of these colorful creatures.

Unfortunately, about halfway through our hike on this island, one of the members of our group, Ruth (85 year old lady), fell and twisted her ankle.  This injury was to plague her throughout the rest of the cruise.  While we are pretty sure Ruth understood this cruise was going to involve these kinds of hikes over uneven terrain, we understand that many people book a tour on the Legend cruiseship without realizing what it is.  This is not your typical, luxury cruise with late night shows, drinking and gambling.  The main purpose of the cruise is world class wildlife viewing and experiencing the interesting landscapes.  It often requires hikes of 2.5-3.0 hours over uneven lava.

After our hike, we went snorkeling off of the zodiac boats. We swam with sea lions and cormerant birds that dive in the water in search of food. While in the water we also saw huge sea turtles and big schools of brightly colored fish. The only drawback was that the water was extremely cold – so cold that Michele´s hands and feet became numb while in the water.

Shortly after returning to the Legend, we had our fantastic buffet lunch followed by a siesta before preparing to disembark for our afternoon excursion.

The Legend remained anchored at the same spot for this next excursion to nearby Isabella Island and we rode over in the zodiacs.  On Isabella we saw many birds including cormorants, yellow warblers, pelicans, blue-footed boobies and frigates as well as some more lava lizards.  One part of the excursion was a zodiac ride along the shore of Isabella.  During this ride we saw a handful of penguins.  Seems strange to see these birds right on top of the Equator since they are normally thought of as being arctic or antarctic.  Here´s a picture…

After the zodiac ride, we hiked to the top of Isabela Island.  From the look out point, we could see the island´s one salt lake and the massive lava flows frozen in time. The island is covered with cacti and while hiking down the other side we saw sea turtles swimming in the ocean and a baby sea lion with its mother.

The Galapagos adventure continues in Part III…