15 November 2008. Mike and Dan on the beach on Isla Santa Cruz. Mike is still fresh off the plane and adjusting to being on vacation -- AT LAST!
So, first thing, we take Mike on a short hike through typical Galapagos vegetation.
These are Opuntia cactus. They are as tall as trees and common in the arid lowlands of many of the islands.
The Galapagos Islands are volcanic in orgin and very young. Lava rocks are everywhere.
Mike and Dan wave from above Las Grietas.
Mike and Dan taking a dip.
A view of Academy Bay and Puerto Ayora from el Otro Lado -- the other side, near Las Grietas, where Mike and Dan took a refreshing dip.
16 November 2008. Mike visits the Charles Darwin Research Station and sees a couple captive land iguanas. This is a lonely female.
This is a lonely male. A love story unfolds...
...passion unrequited.
Time for nap.
Lonesome George. The famous old tortoise, the last of his type, from Isla Pinta. He has lived at the Station for decades, co-habitating with a variety of ladies but it wasn´t until this year that eggs were laid and hopes were lifted. Could the 80+ year-old boy still pack some punch? Alas, none of the eggs laid are fertile.
The Station breeds tortoises from the many islands. Once they are old enough and large enough, they are returned to their native islands. Feral goats destroy tortoise habitat and feral rats and cats prey on tortoise eggs and infants.
Mike had a bike for the week. Here he is with Dan outside our house getting ready for a ride. I don´t know why there is a bush right in front of our front door, but there is.
Here is Mike in repose in our living room.
Mike´s bike. He had one gear and cheesy brakes but really, really nice pedals.
The view out Mike´s room. There is an old, blue, wooden row boat, the Maria Jose, parked in the yard across the street. Puerto Ayora yards and empty lots are littered with boats like this.
18 November 2008. A view out the back of our taxi in Puerto Ayora. We were on our way up to Los Gemelos for a screamin´ ride downhill! We stopped at a bike shop just before this to have the brakes on Mike´s bike adjusted.
Mike is ready to roll, but first we need to look at a couple very large holes in the ground, called Los Gemelos.
Here is one...
This is another view of hole in the ground #1.
And another shot...
Here is the path back to the road.
And here is the other large hole in the ground. I hadn´t been up here previously and really, thought this was spectacular.
The highlands of Isla Santa Cruz are usually in a cloud and it drizzles a lot. Hence, no cactus here, but lots of ferns, lichens, mosses, and other vegetation. It is cool and lovely.
On our descent, we stopped in Santa Rosa. Mike´s brakes were working well enough. Though, now he decided to worry about the integrity of the fork and other parts of the bargain rental Dan was so proud of. The man at the bike shop made the bike for Mike.
On the way back to town from Los Gemelos, we stopped in Bella Vista and visited a kilometer-long lava tube. Pretty neat. Pretty dark. You could drive a train train through this tunnel.
The illuminated one.
Here are Mike and Dan exiting the longest part of the tunnel.
My favorite shot in this sequence.
19 November 2008. Okay. Next we took Mike on a day trip to Isla Bartolome. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day. Mike is soaking it in and getting some sun. Life is good.
This is Isla Daphne Major. Long-term studies have been done here on the evolution of finches, which occurs over relatively short periods of time.
This is the view from Isla Bartolome.
Here is Mike in a dingy which we rode from our boat, the Española, to the island.
We ascended 300+ stairs to a viewpoint. Along the was were unusual desert plants.
This is another native cactus.
Nice lava shot, don´t you think?
Notice that Dan and Mike are, by sheer coincidence, leaning at the exact same angle as the pinnacle rock you see off to the right.
The classic Galapagos photo. Isla Bartolome is in the foreground. Isla Santiago is in the background.
Mike, can you spot our boat, the Española?
We had a yummy lunch on board and then went snorkeling here. An organization called WildAid recently installed the yellow bouys for boats to anchor to. This reduces wear and tear on the coral below. 50,000 boats a year anchor here. We tourists are loving Galapagos to death.
A marine iguana blending in nicely. They are found nowhere else in the world. They eat marine algae.
The view as we leave Bartolome.
21 November 2008. This is the pier, or muelle in Puerto Ayora. Mike and I took a day trip to Isla Floreana from here.
A view of the larger, primary pier adjacent to the previous one. The boats don´t use this one. It seems to be just for show.
The building contains ProInsular, a grocery store on the island.
A marine iguana on Floreana. They tend to be more colorful than the ones on Santa Cruz, though I have been noticing that the really big ones here also have this coloring. I think there are different varities on the different islands -- yet another example of evolution.
Once on Floreana -- Mike was glad to get his feet on solid ground -- we boarded this charming bus and headed for the highlands.
First we visited a tortoise ranch.
The Floreana tortoise is extinct. The ones here are from Isla Isabela.
Pirates, bucaneers, whalers, sealers, natural history collectors and settlers all killed tortoises on all the Galapagos Islands for fresh meat or, in the case of the natural history collectors in the early 20th century, for museums and zoos.
The current population of tortoises in the Galapagos is only a small fraction of what it was prior to man´s arrival a few hundred years ago. There used to be many hundreds of thousands. Now there are about 20,000 in the wild, I think.
After the tortoises, we visited a lovely formation of lava rocks that had passageways, caves and lots of vegetation.
A not-so-ancient stone carving on Isla Floreana. It was done in the 1930s by a German settler, Heinz Wittmer.
Early visitors and settlers on Floreana stayed in this cave.
The Galapagos Islands have hardly any sources of fresh water. On Floreana, there are only two small springs. One is near these caves. Can you see the two trickles of water in this photo?
Only about 50 people live on Floreana. They are largely dependent on imports of water, food and diesel (for electricity generation).
Here I am going for a snorkel at Corona del Diablo. It was the best snorkeling I have ever experienced. Pure bliss. Thousands of tropical fish, tortoises, sharks. We saw a school of 20-30 sting rays below us traveling just above the sandy bottom. Sublime. The water wasn´t too cold and the current carried us along.
As we left Corona del Diablo, hundreds of frigate birds circled overhead. I took this photo just a bit too late to capture the sky full of birds.
22 November 2008. Dan and Mike on the path to Playa Tortuga, on Isla Santa Cruz.
Contrary to popular belief, Darwin did not have a flash of insight about the process of evolution by means of natural selection after noticing such variety in the beaks of finches in Galapagos. In his Beagle journal, he only noted the color variations of the birds. Only much later, and with the help of some ornithologists, did he make his famous discovery.
Dan snorkeling at Playa Tortuga with the Opuntia grove in the background.
A nice, big Opuntia cactus and yours truly. There is a nice forest of them at Playa Tortuga. This is one of my favorite places in Galapagos.
Opuntia bark can be flaky but is much like what you see on trees.
There is a colony of marine iguanas at Playa Tortuga. They spit salt out their noses.
Lava that looks like it solidified recently.
Mangroves surround much of this large lagoon on Playa Tortuga.
This was taken the day before Mike left. Something for him to remember during the cold, Minnesota winter.
23 November 2008. Mike´s plane which took him back to Quito. Bon Voyage!
