Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

So when we last left you all, we had finally arrived at our second lodge…Erika Lodge on the Madre de Dios River and had gone on an interesting night walk through the jungle.

Overnight it rained a considerable amount so when we headed to the trail the next morning we found that a large section of it had been completely washed away. No worries though…our intrepid guides just pulled out their machetes and hacked us a new one!  The first activity slated for us on that third morning was a jungle canopy tour via ziplines. For those who don’t know what a zipline is…basically you get harnessed in and attached to a cable then you “fly” from one platform to the next high in the trees. Here we are before our first flight:

And here we are individually arriving at one of the platforms:

We spent the afternoons wandering around the grounds of the lodge, taking naps, taking pictures…and spotting some more critters. Early one morning we saw a spider monkey swinging around outside our rooms…again, I’m cheating a bit on the pictures as the photo would have been too far to see anything and I’ve lifted this photo from a different website. Also…various bugs, flowers and other critters taken by both me and Lindsay. 

Spider Monkey

This crazy bird (A Blue-throated Guan) showed up every afternoon for a snack of popcorn

On the final full day before heading back to Cusco we got up really early again (4 am) to make it to a local parrot clay lick. What is a clay lick, you might ask? Well…it’s just as it sounds…a large cliff made of clay where parrots land and “feed” early every morning. Apparently the clay contains all sorts of nutrients and minerals that are imperative for the parrots’ digestion and general good health. A picture is below (again, stolen).

The parrot clay lick

One of our guides returning from a fishing expedition

All too soon it was time to head back to Cusco so we got up early on Friday morning and boarded a bus for the long journey back.  Things were going well…indeed we were ahead of schedule, when we ran into Calamity #1…this landslide:

Apparently it had happened the night before around 6 pm and as it was now 9 am the next day they had quite a crew working on clearing it.  Estimates were frequently given at “one more hour”….3 hours later the landslide (and a huge tree that came with it) were cleared and we were once again on our way.

Or so we thought.  Forty minutes after finally progressing past the landslide…we achieved Calamity #2…a tire blew on our bus:

No worries…as it was lunch time, our guide got out the lunches that were packed for us back at the lodge.  They were so adorable…and I’ve been slacking so much on food pictures lately…that I took a picture for you guys.  Yep, that’s a banana leaf…the second picture shows what was in it.  It was really, really good.

It seems that our driver was experienced at changing flats so soon we were on our way again.  This time we made it out of the rainforest…out of the cloud forest and back into the Sacred Valley of the Incas before Calamity #3 struck…unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of this one but I think you can all use your imagination for the following scene:  two buses and a mountain road only wide enough for one of them.  After we all disembarked  (just in case he went over the cliff?) the driver was able to back up and eventually maneuver around the other bus ultimately making it back to Cusco in the early evening unscathed.

OK, I’m light on text today but I’m in a hurry as I need to get to my Spanish class, run errands and head out for a night on the town for New Year’s Eve.  Coming soon…how I spent my Christmas and New Year’s Eve, a little about my current location of Arequipa and finally you’ll get to meet the kids I’ve been working with in the orphanage.  Also, I have a few more jungle critter pictures to include and since the next post might be lacking a bit, I’ll include them on the next post later this week.  Happy New Year’s to all!

Sunrise in the jungle

OK, so I thought we’d kick off today’s post with a little pop quiz about my and Lindsay’s trip to the jungle of Peru’s Manu National Park.  Don’t worry…the answers are very simple and it’s multiple choice.

Which of the following things are likely to happen to two girls from Wisconsin traveling in the Amazon River Basin during the rainy season?

1. The vehicle they are riding in on the way to the jungle breaks down and they get stranded for 5 hours without guide or driver.
2. Upon acquiring a new vehicle they drive on some skinny, not-well-maintained roads on the edge of a mountain and even drive through a waterfall.
3. At the end of their time in the jungle, they head back towards Cusco only to discover the road is blocked by a recent landslide which takes 3 hours to clear.
4. Upon getting past the landslide, they drive 45 more minutes at which point one of the tires on their bus blows.
5. The tire is repaired but they are soon obliged to disembark the bus while the driver navigates past an oncoming car on the edge of the mountain.
6. Their brother Dan comes as close to being an only child as he’s ever been at least 6 times.
7. All of the above.

If you’ve selected number 7 then you are a winner.  Indeed, the drive to and from the jungle proved at least as adventurous (and frequently more dangerous) than the jungle itself.  More on all of these happenings later.

Pre-inca tombs

After one day of rest in Cusco after the Machu Picchu trek, Lindsay and I joined 7 other tourists (3 Spaniards, 2 Peruvians, 1 Frenchwoman, 1 Argentinian) early on Monday morning for the trip to the jungle.  Things kicked off great…we got to drive through the beautiful Sacred Valley of the Incas again on our way east towards the jungle.  Our first stop of the day was late morning at the site of some pre-Incan tombs (estimated to be about 1200 years old).  As you can see in the picture above the tombs are almost like little houses and were built for only most important members of thevillage (including their children).  The corpses were buried with many expensive and valuable items including gold, silver, fine cloths and other artifacts so it comes as no surprise that when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century they opened the tombs, stole the valuables and tossed the bodies.  Not surprisingly there are no bodies remaining in any of these tombs.

The hanging things on these trees are birds’ nests

We spent about a half an hour wandering through (and in some cases, climbing in) the tombs before we attempted to set out again towards the jungle.  Unfortunately, that was not to be…there was a problem with the starter on our van and suddenly we were going nowhere.  The guide takes off to the next village in search of a new van and the driver disappears while the rest of us sort of wait around for the next 5 hours wondering what to do.  To make matters worse, the French girl Elise was suffering severely from altitude sickness so it was exceedingly inconvenient that we got stranded at 3,800 meters (about 12,000 feet).  Five hours later our guide returned…stressed out but with a van owned by a local villager and it is with this vehicle that we continue on a 6 hour, nail-biting journey along the edge of the mountain…ultimately descending into the cloud forest and our first night’s lodging at the San Pedro Lodge (pictured below) where we ultimately arrived around 10:30pm.

San Pedro Lodge in the Cloud Forest of Manu National Park

So when our guide roused us at 4:30 the next morning to go view the cloudforest-native-birds the Cock of the Rock…to say that we were exhausted would be a slight understatement.  We were rewarded with lots of sightings of the birds but since they were too far away for photos, I’ve included a picture here that I nicked off a different website so you can see what they look like.  After breakfast we wandered on an hour or so long walk where we took lots of the surrounding pictures of flora and fauna.  Ultimately we ended up near a little village about an hour from our final lodging place where we did a short 40 minute whitewater raft trip that was pretty tame except for the first rapid which was as close as I’ve ever been to flipping a raft.  Included below is a picture of Lindsay prior to embarkation onto the raft.    

After the rafting we boarded a boat that looked like this:

enroute to our next lodge known as the Erika Lodge. 

Erika Lodge

Our first evening’s activities included a night walk through the jungle canopy where Lindsay got this awesome spider web shot as well as the picture of the bat building a nest in a tree trunk.  The other photo of the weird tree with multiple trunks is actually a tree that moves by growing more trunks like those you see in the photo.  And of course, there is me…always the height of fashion in my jungle rubber boots…a necessity in the rainforest.  More to come from the jungle and the Madre de Dios River so stay tuned…

Can you see the bat?

Walking Tree

Runway model

Classic View of Machu Picchu + Llama

On the 4th and final day of the Classic Inka Trail, we were roused by the chaskies with hot coca tea at the shockingly early hour of 3:30 am.  Our guide was hell-bent on us being the first ones in line at the entrance to MP.  You see, the park opens at 6 am and we still had a 2 hour walk ahead of us before arriving at the actual ruins.  Indeed, we were the first group at the Sun Gate (which we arrived at in 40 minutes rather than the specified 2 hours) and were rewarded with…a beautiful view of fog.  The ruins were completely obscured and we could see absolutely nothing.  Note to self: advise people considering the Inka Trail to NOT go in the rainy season.

We waited a bit hoping the fog would clear but it did not so instead we set out for the the final 15 minute walk to the grounds of the ruins hoping that the fog would clear just enough to get our “Classic Photo”.  Along the way we ran into Machu Picchu’s resident llamas…some of which are pictured here.  Llamas are quite an amusing bunch and these guys just cruise around the grounds, pose for pictures and hang out.  Quite the nice life if you ask me.  The fog was getting a little better by the time we arrived at the grounds and after a trip to the snack bar for some real coffee and a fancy Machu Picchu stamp in our passport, our guide commenced with the guided tour of the grounds.

Lindsay + Ruins

As I mentioned in the last post, many theories abound as to the use of Machu Picchu.  Initially it was believed that MP existed as a settlement built to protect the most important of the Incan aristocracy.  Most archaeologists now believe that MP was an estate of the Incan emperor Pachacuti.  Machu Picchu includes 140 structures including parks, residences and temples.  The proprietors of MP added thatched roofs to some of the existing residences to demonstrate what the city may have looked like 500 years ago.  I’ve included a picture of the restored buildings as well as another picture demonstrating how the thatched roofs are attached to the building via leather straps and jungle vines.

The area around Machu Picchu (and truly, much of South America) is wrought with significant seismic activity due to the fact that the entire Andes Mountain range exists because of the subduction of the Nazca tectonic plate beneath the South American plate.  As such, the Incas were no strangers to earthquakes and devised several interesting architecture methods to deal with this calamity.  Take, for example, this door:

All Incan-built doors and windows were constructed so that the tops were narrower than the bottom as this shape withstood earthquakes much better.  Also note the circular stone above the doorway…this was part of an interesting door-locking system.  A second example of earthquake-prevention architecture can be found in this picture of an altar within one of the rooms:

Note how some of the bricks are not fitted tightly together as is the general custom of the Inca’s stone work.  This was to ensure that if only part of a wall collapsed during an earthquake it would be easy to pull out the broken sections and replace them.

A common feature of Incan architecture are, of course, the terraces that are often found on the mountain faces.  While most people know these terraces were used to create flat areas for growing crops, people are frequently unaware that the terraces were also used to prevent soil erosion and land slides.  I’ve included views of the terraces from both above and below so you can get an idea of what they look like.

View of terraces from below

View of terraces from above

As a special Navidad bonus I’ve also included below some interesting pictures from the public market in Cusco (and our chaskies on the trail).  Enjoy and happy holidays to all! 

Some of the chaskies

Ruins of Patallacta

Hola chicos and welcome back to the Extravaganza blog.  Sorry for the delay but since special-guest-star-Lindsay arrived it has been action-packed around here.  We’re back from both Machu Picchu and the jungle so watch for lots of new posts in the coming weeks.  Entonces…

Me at the start of the trek…clearly beauty is not a priority on this trip

Machu Picchu…perhaps the most famous of tourist attractions in South America…certainly the most famous in Peru.  As we learned in the last post, the area surrounding Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas was formerly part of the vast Incan empire way back in the 15th and 16th centuries before the arrival of the Spanish.  It was built around 1450 and abandoned about 100 years later after word came of the arrival of the Spanish throughout the rest of the empire.  Multiple theories abound as to the useage of this fortress though none have been proven thus far.  Lots more on this and the rest of the history at everyone’s favorite information site:  Wikipedia. 

Now the interesting, and most significant, thing about MP is that despite the fact that it is a mere 50 miles from Cusco it was never found nor destroyed by the Spanish as the rest of the Inca sites were.  In fact, MP remained unknown (read: unknown to white people) until 1911 when Hiram Bingham, a Yale University lecturer “discovered” it overgrown and high upon a hill in the Sacred Valley.  You might expect that the Peruvians would be none-to-thrilled that ‘ol Hiram exposed their treasure to the world.  On the contrary…capitalism is alive and well here in Peru and Hiram is just short of revered for bringing an enormous source of capital into an otherwise poor country.  Much more on the history and other goings-on in the Sacred Valley in the next post after our arrival at MP.

Ok, so there are several ways to get to Machu Picchu:

1. Take a train from Cusco or Ollantaytambo (see Peru 2 for details on this charming town) to Aguas Calientes which is the nearest town to MP.  Then take a bus up to the ruins with the rest of the masses.  Best for non-fit people, those with little time and those who enjoy crowds.
2. Spend the night in Aguas Calientes and take the first bus up to the ruins at 6 am before the crowds arrive.  Best for the non-fit, those with little time and those who do NOT enjoy crowds.
3. Take one of the several treks along the Inka Trail (the stone-paved road used by the Incas to travel between Inca sites).  These can vary in length from 2 days up to a week though the Classic Trail is 4 days/3 nights and is the most popular option.  We opted to do the Classic Trail which includes 3 days of hiking, 3 nights camping along the trail and on the 4th day…arrival in MP before the crowds.  Warning:  this trek is not for the unfit or faint of heart.

So Lindsay and I signed up for the Classic Trail along with 14 other tourists, 22 porters to carry all of our supplies (including the chef) and two guides.  The first day is billed as the “Easy Day” and one that is to train the trekkers for the following…much tougher…two days.  Day 1 wasn’t too bad and despite the fact that we were trekking in the beginning of the rainy season we only got a few sprinkles on that first day (though we heard 6 people in another group turned back after the first day).  In total, the entire length of the Inka trail is 44 kilometers (just over 27 miles) which includes a total elevation gain of 1,600 meters (5,250 feet) and 3 mountain passes.

First Pass…Dead Woman’s Pass

As I mentioned, we had 22 porters along who carried all of the our gear, tents, food, gas for the camp stove, dining tent, table and chairs.  Let me say from the outset…these guys are truly amazing.  The Inka Trek was hard enough for us who were just carrying a daypack with water, camera, jacket, etc….but these guys each carried up to a maximum legal amount of 20 kilos (45 pounds) though I suspect some of them were carrying more weight than that.  Not only were they carrying a lot more weight than we were…they were doing it in flimsy leather sandals and in many places were literally running along the trail.  Our guide insisted we call them chaskies (which means fleet-feeted runners in Quechua) rather than porters…either way they were truly amazing people.  I’ve included a picture here of the whole crew…our youngest porter was 20 and the oldest 63 and all are of Quechua (Incan) ancestry and live in the surrounding communities.

The Trekking Crew in Total

There are beautiful views and lots of ruins along the Inka Trail though unfortunately a lot of the pictures were not great as things were shrouded in fog.  The second day of the trail is considered the most difficult as it is straight up the mountain to the first pass known as Dead Woman’s Pass.  They were not kidding…it was a challenge though Lindsay and I were suprised to be among the most fit in the bunch despite the fact we were the 3rd and 4th oldest out of the 16 trekkers.  Day 2 was rough and as you can see from the pictures, rainy and cold.  On the other side of Dead Woman’s pass we descended about 600 meters to the second campsite at Runkurakay and some much needed sleep.

Second Mountain Pass at Qochapata

The morning of the third day was my favorite as we weren’t going up anymore and we were descending into the cloud forest terrain so things were becoming much more tropical.  By lunchtime the sun was shining…but we should have known better.  Soon after it started pouring.  And by pouring…I mean pouring.  By this time we were going down the mountain along stone stairs and there was a virtual river accompanying us on this journey.  It was only at the point that my socks became wet that I became miserable.  We eventually made it to the final campsite and were rewarded with a much needed cerveza.  The 4th and final day is yet to come…until then… 

Third Mountain Pass at Phuyupatamarka

Here are a few things learned on the Machu Picchu trek:

1. Sometimes going down is much more difficult than going up…1000 meters worth of steps is very, very hard on the knees.
2. A person can handle a little bit of rain and dampness…even enjoy it some as it keeps you cool…until your feet get wet.  Then all bets are off.
3. Rice is actually one of the 5 major food groups (though really, our food was amazing considering the conditions upon which it was prepared).

Ruins of Phuyupatamarca

Ruins of Runkurakay

Don’t we look warm?

Name: Hostal Rumi Punku

Location: Cusco, Peru

Address: Choquechaca Number 339; Cusco, Peru

Phone: 00 5184 221102

E-mail: info@rumipunku.com

Website: www.rumipunku.com

Review: Rumi Punku is a very nice mid-priced hotel located very near both the Plaza de Armas and Plaza San Blas in Cusco. The hotel sports its own original Inca doorway which opens into a lovely courtyard where you will find 30 comfortable and spacious rooms. There is a sauna, jacuzzi and a lounging area on the third floor with tables and chairs and a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding Cusco.

Each room has a heater (included) and an amazing shower in the bathroom with hot water 24 hours a day. The rooms have a lot of character and are charming and comfortable. In the center of the courtyard is the reception desk where an English-speaking staff member is always present. There is a safe, luggage storage and travel information as well.

A good continental breakfast is included in the rate: bread, fruit, cheese, ham, eggs, tea and coffee (real coffee not instant!!!). The breakfast room is very nice with a fireplace, large dining area and some couches for lounging. An additional great bonus in this hotel is the free Internet access (fast!) offered with the two computers in the breakfast/lounge area. The staff is very attentive and very helpful. We paid $40 US per night for a double room in the low season (it goes up to $60 in the high season) which was very reasonable for this highly recommended hostal.

Would I book with them again: Yes, definitely

Name: Hostal Marani

Location: Cusco, Peru

Address: Carmen Alto 194, San Blas; Cusco, Peru

E-mail:  info@hostalmarani.com

Website: www.hostalmarani.com

Review:  Hostal Marani is a delightful mid-priced hostal in the lovely part of Cusco known as San Blas.  There are around 20 rooms built around a nice courtyard with tables and chairs for relaxing.  There is also a small cafeteria (known as the Cafetin) where breakfast is served (choice of 3 breakfasts…the basic continental is included in the daily rate) as well as snacks and light meals.  The people working in the hostal are charming and helpful and there is always someone around who speaks good English. 

The rooms are very clean and spacious with hot water 24 hours a day in the bathrooms.  It can get quite chilly in Cusco so you can rent space heaters as needed (we didn’t) for $5 per day.  There is laundry service available as well as a safe, free luggage storage and assistance with travel plans.  An additional benefit of staying here is that some of the profits go towards a charity that helps Peruvian children in need of health and education services. 

The regular rates for 2007 range from $25 US for a single room to $60 for a quadruple room though we were able to negotiate a discount for a double room to $31.50 (normal rate of $36) during the low season month of early December.  All in all, a very nice place to stay in Cusco for a moderate price. 

Would I book with them again: Yes, definitely

Sacred Valley of the Incas

First off, apologies all around as this post is going to be pretty brief. I had a few more pictures to post and didn’t want to leave you all blog-less this week while Lindsay and I trek to

Macchu Pichu so decided to just do a mini-post to show up while we’re trekking. Enjoy the brevity…

Lindsay and I so enjoyed the village of Ollantaytambo that we decided on Monday that we would head back there and spend the night.  Fortunately it is low season here in Peru so rooms of all varieties are plentiful.  Ollantaytambo is a really nice village that is the traditional first stop on the way to Machu Picchu when taking the train.  The setting is really beautiful with the ruins up on the hill and the little cobblestoned streets down below in the village.  Lindsay became fascinated with all of the colored doorways and thus we embarked upon a photography project (which are unfortunately all on her camera).  I’ve included a couple of the pictures of the streets for your viewing pleasure.  

The ruins here (covered in tourists unfortunately) are an old temple with water fountains, cleansing baths, temples to the sun and other gods.  The town square below is quaint with cafes and shops all around with great outdoor tables for sipping sangria in the Andes.  I’ve also included a couple of people pictures…me and Lindsay (of course) and our new friend Chris (originally of England, currently of New Zealand).

Main Square of Ollantaytambo

Ruins in the baths of Ollantaytambo

View of terraces from the bottom

Since we are about to embark on a 3 night stay in tents (actually, as you are reading this we have already been in the tent for two nights) we decided to splurge a little on our hotel room in Ollantaytambo and stayed at this beautiful place complete with flower gardens and a fireplace surrounded by comfy couches.  It was a nice relaxing way to spend a beautiful evening in the Andes before we head to the Lost City of Machu Picchu.  We’ll be in MP until Saturday evening and then leave for the jungle on Monday morning so watch for lots of new posts coming soon.  Until next time… 

Me and Lins

Lins and Chris

Our splurgy hotel

View of city of Cusco (with special guest star Lindsay) from Saqsaywaman

Hola and welcome to the Peruvian version of the Extravanganza blog.  After a ridiculous amount of travel (9 hours bus across the Ecuador/Peru border, flight from northern Peru to Lima, 3 hour wait for the arrival of Lindsay’s plane, 6 hours in the Lima airport waiting for our early morning flights to Cusco, one accidental flight cancellation (Lindsay) and a two hour delay on my flight to Cusco) we arrived safe and sound and exhausted in the beautiful Incan city of Cusco.  So, the Incas.  What is the deal with the Incas?  Perhaps we could use a little refresher on the significance of the ancient Incas which will give some good background for what’s coming up in here at the Extravaganza.

Plaza de Armas – Cusco, Peru

The Inca civilization began as a tribe in the Cusco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca Manco Capac founded the Kingdom of Cusco around 1200. Under the leadership of the descendants of Manco Capac, the state grew as it absorbed other Andean communities at that time. It was in 1438, when the Incas began a far reaching expansion under the command of Pachacutec, whose name literally meant earth-shaker. He formed the Inca empire (Tawantinsuyu), that would become the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.

Ruins of Saqsaywaman

In 1532, and after the civil war in the empire between the brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, the Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca territory.  In the following years the conquistadors managed to consolidate their power over the whole Andean region, repressing successive Inca rebellions until the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Perú in 1542 and the fall of the resistance of the last Incas of Vilcabamba in 1572. The Inca civilization ends at that time, but some cultural traditions remain in some ethnic groups as Quechuas and Aymara people.

A condor

So that’s the brief version of the history (courtesy of Wikipedia) but what is so special about the Incas anyway?  Well, having spent the past five days or so surrounded by ruins and ancestors of these people I can tell you that they were a clever bunch.  Take, for example, this masonry:

The stones for these walls were dragged by rope and tree-trunk rollers over 75 kilometers (sorry Americans, I’ve been temporarily converted to the metric system) to their location here just above Cusco at the site of Saqsaywaman.  After being chiseled into perfection they were set together perfectly, without mortar, and ultimately polished into the smooth stone you see here using sand and water.  Hmm…sounds like a piece of cake no?  Well, it turns out that the Incas had a tax system that utilized forced labor rather than income so some 30,000 Incas were working on this particular fortress at a time…always in rotation as most of the Incas were farmers and needed to return to their fields for part of the year to tend to their crops.

Ruins at Tambomachay

While Cusco was a major center in the Incan world there were other (and continue to be other) communities close by located in what is referred to as the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  While Cusco is very beautiful and has lots to look at, it can get oppressive as it’s very touristy and people are constantly

hounding you to buy things from them.  For this reason and the fact that we wanted to get out into the countryside, Lindsay and I decided to take a day tour of the Sacred Valley on Sunday.  The first stop was the Sunday market of Pisac (shown above) where we, unfortunately didn’t get enough time to make all of our purchases so will be returning to Pisac later in the trip.  Above the village of Pisac are the ruins of an incredible old fortress (shown below with all of the terraces).  And, as training for our upcoming 4 day trek to Macchu Picchu we climbed to the top for some great views of the Sacred Valley which I’ve shown here as well. 

My friend Pascal who I met in Ecuador 3 weeks ago and who was on our Sacred Valley Tour

After lunch we were off to another important set of ruins in the adorable village of Ollantaytambo. I included a few other pictures below (notice the face in the center of this one?  It was carved to perfectly splay the light around it at the beginning of the summer solstice.  The building are old  storehouses and the multiple notches are doorways for ventilation).  Also, examples of the crop fields on the mountain faces…it is amazing how they can grow crops on nearly vertical mountain sides.  And finally, one of my favorite type of shots…at dusk and near sunset… 

 

 

 

South Plaza Island

By Day 6 we had seen most of the wildlife species that we were going to see so my picture-taking dropped off considerably.  I mean, how many pictures of sea lions does a girl really need?  Not that many, I can assure you.  Days 6 and 7 did have some interesting hikes on islands with different types of topography.  On Day 6 we headed to San Cristobal on a walk to see frigate birds, sea lions and more blue-footed boobies.  The boobies shown below are engaged in some sort of mating ritual (the female is the larger of the two).  Of course, everyone loves a cute picture of baby sea lions (of which there are many this time of year) so that’s included as well.

Bluefooted Boobies in a mating ritual

How cute is this?

On Day 7 we headed to a small island called South Plaza with some very interesting red vegetation (seen in the picture above) and magnificent scenery.  South Plaza is also home to some rather large land iguanas…not to be confused with marine iguanas…these iguanas do not swim or go in the water.  Though by this time I was tiring of sea lions (and their unfortunate sea lion smell) I had to take a picture of this triumphant lion.  See that cliff in the background?  There’s an equally steep cliff on this side and it took the sea lion about 5 minutes to climb to the top.  Who knew sea lions were such good rock climbers?

Land Iguana

Sea Lion after an impressive climb

Our final hike of the trip took place on North Seymour Island…another great place for wildlife and vegetation.  The main attractions here were the Great Frigate Birds and the Magnificent Frigate Birds (shown below). Also, various migratory shore birds (shown here in flight).

Shore bird of some variety

Frigate Birds

Unfortunately, some of the coolest things we saw I was not able to get on film.  For example on the morning of Day 5 we were awoken by the crew at 6 am as the boat was surrounded by dolphins  swimming alongside and underneath our boat as we sailed to our destination.  There must have been 20 or 25 of them…unfortunately mostly visible only in the water and the pictures didn’t turn out well.  Then, on the last day as we were heading to our final destination in open seas we came across several huge Manta Rays.  One actually got very close to the boat and swam under it…but as it was evening there wasn’t enough light to get a good photo.  The rays were very cool…even the crew was impressed that we saw so many and of such a large size.

On Day 8 it was off to the airport for our return flights to the mainland.  All in all, a good time was had by all on the Nemo II last week.  As it turns out, I’ll be seeing Claire and her parents again as they’ll be in Macchu Picchu with Claire’s sister the same time I’ll be in MP with my sister.  The Gringo Trail is really small after all!  And with that, I’m signing off from Ecuador.  The recordkeepers in the crowd will notice I achieved my goal of 2 posts per week…16 Ecuador posts in 8 weeks.  Keep your web browsers pointed here at the Extravaganza for exciting things to come…like PERU.  And, of course, a very special guest star…my sister Lindsay.  Hasta Luego!

Day 5 gets its very own post as it was the best day.  On Day 5 my fellow passengers and I headed off to the oldest island in the archipiélago…Española…which is approximately 3.5 million years old.  Despite the fact that Española is one of the smallest of the major islands, it has the richest diversity of life…both flora and fauna.  It is the home to lots of wildlife including:

• Marine iguanas – found only in the Galapagos, marine iguanas are the only iguanas in the world that swim and feed in the ocean.  The marine iguanas of Española are the only ones that change colors during the mating season.

Marine Iguanas (piled on top of each other for warmth)

• Blue Footed Boobies – found in multiple places near the Pacific Ocean from California through Chile they are most plentiful (and most famous) in the Galapagos (right).
• Nazca Booby-found in few places outside of the Galapagos, these birds are famous  for practicing habitual plentiful siblicide. They lay two eggs several days apart.

If both eggs hatch, the elder chick will push its sibling out of the nest area, leaving it to die of thirst or cold. The parent booby will not intervene and the younger chick will inevitably die. It is believed that two eggs are laid so that one remains an insurance in case the other gets destroyed or eaten e.g. by gulls, or the chick dies soon after hatching.

Nazca Booby

• Lava lizards – Lots of lava lizards all over the Galapagos but the largest and most colorful species are found on Española.

Male Lava Lizard

Female Lava Lizard

On the morning of Day 5, we spent several hours at a beautiful white sand beach near Gardner’s Bay.  There were tons and tons of sea lions as well as some crazy mockingbirds that would land on your arm, try to get in your backpack, try to open your water bottle…all sorts of stuff.  The really striking thing about all of the wildlife on the Galapagos islands is that it is all very, very tame.  The animals have few, if any, natural predators and the naturalist guides are militant about making sure the tourists do nothing to harm or scare the animals.  Consequently it is easy to get very close to the animals for pictures…helpful when you’re not carrying a big camera with a telephoto lens.

Crazy Mockingbird

Gardner Island was the site of our best snorkeling of the trip where I got some great underwater shots.  When we first got in the water there was this lone sea lion cruising around…getting a little too close for comfort if you ask me but he never touched me.  At first it was a little unnerving but eventually I got used to it and decided to try and get some pictures.  Here are the results…unfortunately sea lions are too fast for my digital camera delay so I never got the whole sea lion in the picture. 

Here are a school of fish I was not able to identify in the book later…

…but this one is a King Angelfish:

Also, a picture of the reef….

…and a sea urchin of some variety. And, of course, a baby sea lion that was following me around.  Enjoy the photos!