Moroni's Quest

Just got this link for a short composite video from our youth conference last year. They did a pre-made program called Moroni's Quest. I didn't spot Milla watching it, but Sean is at about the 3 minute mark doing the dance they learned for a presentation. You can't miss him! He is also in the battle scene after that right before a kid does a flip (effective battle technique?). It was a great experience for both of them.

Perks

One little perk from being RS president, is getting spoiled by my great presidency. Even though we had a hard time finding a night to go out together the week of my birthday, they persevered and finally took me out to dinner this week-a month after. I never complain about getting to stretch out my birthday!

Elisa, my secretary, always heads up a gift. My kids were all jealous. And may have snagged a candy bar or two before I took this pic. Maybe next time they will smarten up and take the stick too. ;)

Galapagos Finale

Charles Darwin Center

Saddleback type, Dome type, Sea Turtle

Friday March 31st

Last day to play. We took it easy on our final day and just

had a casual stroll out to the Charles Darwin research 

station. We talked about the shell types (saddlebacks 

developed so that the tortoise could reach higher up into

the trees on islands where that was the food source) and 

also were lucky enough to see the famous Lonesome

George! He lived many years in captivity while 

researchers were looking for a mate for him of his same

species after he was rescued from Pinta Island, which

had been overrun with feral goats. It never happened

though, and he never successfully mated with the two 

ladies of a different species that 

he was housed with.  Poor George!  He passed in 2012 

and his body was sent to the US to be preserved. He only

just returned a month before we arrived so we were lucky

to get to see him! He stands alone in the only precisely

temperature controlled room on the island. 

Charles Darwin himself, handsome devil

This was more 'zoo like' so there were exhibits with different animals. We saw our first land iguanas, of the yellow variety. Each island has it's own subspecies. Many are a good jaunt from the shore so are difficult to see in the wild. Although, we did get to see the ones endemic to Baltra as we traveled by bus to the airport. Saw 3 just looking out the windows!

Yellow land iguana

Also at the center we learned about a parasitic fly that has been wiping out some of Darwin's finches. They lay their eggs in the nests. Then when both the birds and fly larvae hatch, the larvae crawl into the nostrils and such of the baby birds and drink their blood from the inside. Or some similar kind of gruesome torture. Nasty. Anyhow, this can, not suprisingly, be fatal to the birds.

Then we got to watch some tortoise gentleman try to, unsuccessfully, take advantage of a lady. I got the final rejection on video, but missed the most amusing part when a competing male fended off his competition with a bite to the neck. In v...e...r...y  s..l..o..w  m..o..t..i..o..n.  The lady seemed to have no feelings for either guy. I think she just wanted them off so she could eat. Haa!

Later that evening Sean and I wandered around town, watched the catch of the day come in and get gutted, got attacked by giant beetles at dinner, had some rockin' milkshakes, and waited 15 minutes to pay because I was out of cash and apparently multiple stores in town share one card reader, so a runner had to be sent out to pick it up. Good times!  Here are some final pictures from town.

Sean and Pelican trying to steal a snack

The fishermen. This is as fresh as it gets!

flock of frigates

More cactus and the the most colorful tortoise shell we came across

Location of beetle attack/ awesome milkshakes

Final goodbye

This last video is really long--you get the idea in the first minute. I missed him playing the little clay bird flute and I kept recording hoping he would go back to it, but he never did. Regardless we really enjoyed this indigenous man and his myriad of instruments. Most of them handmade by him.

We were picked up from our hotel at 8:30 the next morning. Short ferry to Baltra island. Flew to Guayaquil. We had located the temple that is not far from the airport on Google Maps earlier and tried to locate it as we flew in, but no luck. Flew to Quito, Transferred to a nearby hotel briefly so that we could rest during our long layover, then a flight to Dallas, through customs, and a domestic flight to Denver. We arrived home exactly 24 hours from leaving Santa Cruz island. I have never been so excited to see Denver come into view. So excited I took several pics as we passed over Aurora Reservoir that just a few miles from our home. I could even make out the kids high school, middle school and the thin line of our church steeple. Amazing. So good to be home.

This pic is seconds too late to see Cherry Creek and Quincy reservoirs, but Aurora Reservoir is the big one you can see. Our house is just beyond!

The horizontal white strip is the line of 'teepees' that are the Denver airport and the 3 concourses are separate buildings out to the right of that.

Galapagos post 4

Thurs Mar 30 Afternoon

Ha! Tortoise crossing.

Our place on Santa Cruz

 After visiting the Rancho we went and checked in to our hotel. We passed several Tortoise crossing signs on the way back. Thankfully, as it took me that long to get a picture!

Hotel Mainao was mediterranean style and just a block off of the main (tourist) street in town that ran along the bay. Made it nice to be able to explore in the evenings.

Love the little doll on our key

Sean relaxing

View from our rooms doorway

 This hotel was a maze of rooms as you can see from the pictures. We only got lost once, though! And Sean did have to duck considerably when he got down to the place where you see the 'Salida' sign. Puerto Ayora is a much larger city (25K?) that Villamil, so all of the streets were paved and the building were more polished. Still quaint, though. After resting for a bit at the hotel, we met up with Julio again and headed out on a small boat for a quick tour and 2nd snorkel.  Then we got to wander a little around an island by Academy Bay. The pile of sea iguanas in the pic were right off of the path, lazy as could be. 

Sea Iguanas

Acadamy bay

At the end of our small hike 

Sayapas

My only, very pathetic pic of a blue footed booby. Taken from the boat so.... 

A young frigate bird. The adults were everywhere..males all black with the red neck pouch (you could see if you were lucky. Generally it was hidden) and the females black with a white neck.

Waiting for the boat. Actually had to step over the tail of a lounging sea lion to get off of the dock

  Soon after we headed over, by boat to swim at las grietas, which is apparently a fairly famous swimming hole. I hadn't heard of it! There were a lot of people, but we decided to venture in and had a nice time swimming the length of it. Long and narrow, it is a mostly sealed off channel from the sea that is very deep. Deep enough they wouldn't let us take our snorkelling gear as it would be irretrievable!

Las Grietas

Julio took a few shots of us without us being aware

The length of the swimming hole

Galapagos Post 3 Are you tired of this yet?

Our group. Notice the sea lion hanging out behind us. The chinese lady with her back turned, got me in trouble later on the island when she motioned for me to take her picture, put her camera in my hand, and then ran out onto the lava rocks.  A big no-no! The guide quickly called, 'Don't take that picture!' and then finally got her to come back to the path. When the guide continued down the path, she lagged behind and jumped back out again onto the rocks. At least this time her accomplice was her husband.

.

Parrot fish. I don't own an underwater camera but we saw a lot like this one!

Sean suited up!

Weds march 29:
Snorkeling! In tintorinas bay. Why have I not done this before now! So relaxing, not stressful to breath as I imagined. Temperature was perfect and the water was smooth. Went with a group of about 10 and our familiar Julio was our guide. Only 5 actually went in the water. After changing out Sean's flippers for a bigger size 'Pablo! Necesito las aletas más grande!',  we slid into the bay by tintorinas island (others in our group were from Australia, India, Israel, and China) and slowly moved around. We came upon a group of 9 sea turtles,  schools of fish (yellow trails/ black and white near eye). Also a lot of parrot fish, puffer fish, thin blue and fat yellow starfish. Green sea urchins, anemones. Not fancy corals,  more moss covered rocks,  but still teaming with life. And only a couple small sharks, contrary to the name.

Again, not my pic, but sharks were just like this. Only a few feet long. Also the sea floor was rocky like this with anemones and starfish but not colorful corals

Puffer

Walk to the sea lions on Tintoreras Island

 















Lunch: tuna again. Mmm. Can't go wrong.
10 km bike ride in the afternoon.  The sun was out in full glory today and I was 'glowing' mightily. We got to see flamingos, mockingbirds, ducks, and the wall of tears. Built by Ecuadorian prisoners between 194_-1957ish, for no reason other than to keep them busy.  Many died of thirst as they had to kill wild goats and drink their blood to get hydrated. 

Wall of tears, with Sean ducking out

Can you see the 2 flamingos?

grazing by the wall of tears

'Petting' the tortoises at the breeding facility

Many Dome tortoises were seen along the way as well as at the breeding facilities. One interesting  fact was that once the baby tortoises hatch in their pit, it takes them 30 days to climb out and they have no food or drink for that time. Virtually none were surviving in the wild because they are susceptible to predators for years after birth, thus the breeding facilities. They keep the eggs in a simulated environment to nature (underground box) until they climb out, then they are in large flat boxes covered with screens with other tortoises for the next 2-3 years, after which they are in open pens (see pic with me below) until they are 8 and are big enough to be released into the wild.

I have had some frustration with Sean's quirks over the years and just generally understanding him. I  prayed we could grow closer on this trip and i could love the good in him that is abundantly there. Sean has been pretty patient with my pic taking considering how much he hates having his image captured. And he's been excited to try a lot of new things on this trip.. Even the playful 'crab' finger walk and nose bopping that  he has done in abundance to me on this trip became a little endearing😊


 













 ---------------------------
Thurs Mar 30:

One of the big ones

young tortoise pulling back while I offer passionfruit

Sean relaxing after our hike. Notice the tortoise on the left.

Traveled to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island this morning Via 2 hr boat ride. Spent 90% of time trying to focus on one point in the distance clutching a plastic bag trying not to vomit. Gratefully I didn't, no doubt thanks to the Dramamine i DID remember to take that morning. Other  10% was spent discussing my political leanings with Sean bc of an email from Lys and watching and getting smiles from an adorable Ecuadorian  (I think) family across from us with 2 girls..one 5 yrs, mostly asleep across her parents laps and 1 about 12, con una sonrisa más bonita.

Upon arriving we had breakfast and then were driven (in a white extended cab truck...which all drivers and public taxis drove) to the highlands, stopping at Rancho Manzanito, a preserve for the Galapagos Tortoise. Not thick like cattle, but everywhere on our hike you could pick out at least one at any given time. We also passed a few walking up the road as we drove up. The nearby landowners are sure to keep the bottom wire of their fences high enough to allow the tortoises to pass. (They are only keeping in larger livestock. Dogs roam free on the island, everywhere you look, but we were assured they all had owners.) On our exploration of the Rancho, named after an endemic tree whose apple is poisonous to all but the tortoises, Julio (Guia Naturalista who has been with us in all areas of the Galapagos) cracked open an endemic passion fruit that had fallen and set it in front of one older tortoise. After a few minutes, and deciding that we weren't a threat,  the tortoise slowly reached for the fruit with it's mouth and dug in. I dug into one myself, unbelievably sweet rounded out by a slight tart, and then opened another for a youth  (of maybe 5 years). Julio said the little ones didn't have a mouth large enough to be able to crack open the 2-3 in wide slick, round fruit, so they couldn't taste them until they were 15 or so. I wanted this one to know what it had to look forward to.

Hammock video above contains a multitude of tortoises (6-8). Can you spot them? The last video, listen for the quick expiration that always occurred when we got too close and the tortoise pulled in it's head.

Galapagos post 2

After getting picked up from the Isla Isabela 'airport', we drove into the city of Villamil and had the best tuna steak I've ever had. It came, of course, with yuca fries and some sort of grilled veggies that were to die for. Not sure WHAT they were, but they were good.  After settling into the Volcano Hotel, we got straight to playing. 

Posing in the main town square in Villamil

View out our hotel room

Kayaks! I had already tried some spanish out on our guide Julio, and so when we went to meet the kayak guy (who spoke very limited english), Julio told that guy that I understood a bit of Spanish so he should ride with me and Julio would go with Sean. Hah! My spanish was sooo bad. But it was sweet of him to give me the benefit of the doubt. We stayed near each other, although my boat was always ahead. Finally Sean and Julio caught up to us and as they went by, Julio quipped 'mas despacio, mas despacio!'. An obvious tease to me as at lunch I kept telling him the same thing (about his Spanish...).  I told my partner 'Lo siento, pero quiero velocidad!'   As a sea turtle surfaced near our boat my guide suddenly said 'Quieres velocidad?' and we took off after him. I'm proud to say we kept up pretty well.  

Sayapa or Sally Light foot crab

We saw a ton of sayapa (red crab) in rock shadows of the caleras, boobies dive bombing for dinner just 15 feet from us, lava gulls, pelicans, penguins, sea lions on all the boats. The fishermen put nets on their boats trying to keep the sea lions off, but it didn't seem to make a difference. We would paddle right up to the boats and Julio would do his (pretty impressive) sea lion impersonation. To which they would honor us with a glance and then go right back to sleep. We did see a couple jump out of the water onto the boats. Their muscle power is incredible. The boats decks were as far out of the water as the sea lions were long and they could propel all of that mass up and over the stern in one effortless jump.

We found that benches are not for people in the Galapagos

  Back on the beach, we admired the black sea iguanas sunning themselves and the sea lions who were happy to pose with about anyone (just don't get right in their personal space, or they will let you know!). We played in the water a bit and at one point, 2 sea lions jumped in the water and swam right by us. I took off with them, not wanting to miss the chance to swim side by side. Unfortunately, they out paced me in after about 6 feet. ;)

pinguino

Pelican eyeing a little sayapa

The calera a ways out from shore creating some nice calm waters for us to kayak and snorkel in

Tues Mar 28:

Sean slept for 12 hours (5pm-5am) that night until I woke him to go see the sunrise...My phone, however, didn't recognize the time change, so I thought it was an hour later than it was. 

Sean passed out at 5 pm

Sean was nice to come out to the beach with me so I could see the sunrise. But then 1. I realized that the way this beach was situated, the sun was coming up behind the trees and 2. The sun comes up at 6. And it wasn't actually 6.  However, this didn't alert me to the fact yet, that I had miscalculated the time, so I was a little nervous when our ride didn't come@ the promised 8:10am for the hike. I stayed calm for a bit, but then the pressure if being the sole adult responsible for this trip took over and I verged on melting down. I could not get the 'emergency phone' that our guide had given us to make a call so I resorted to calling Andean Discovery (back in the states) on my phone after an hour waiting. They said they were working on contacting the guide, when Julio the guide showed up (10 min late of the actual right time...).  All calm now. Back in control.

I took this pic on instinct out on the dark beach that morning. We heard something move and I took a shot in the darkness with my flash and ended up with a leg. I quickly moved my camera and took another shot and got this little guy

Julio told me where to stand so he would look taller...hee hee

We always had breakfast at the hotel. Start with a plate of fruit, toast and jam, various kinds of whipped juice, hot milk/chocolate and then they would bring us eggs and mini pancakes or yuca patties. And often granola and yogurt (poured out of a pitcher). We didn't really order things, they just kept bringing plates. Delicious, I just don't usually eat that much in the morning!

Beginning of hike

First thing this day was a hike up to the Sierra Negra Crater.  It was in the highlands, so much more lush that the more desert environment on the coast. This was national park grounds, although a lot of horses were meandering around the trail from neighboring farms.  It was not a difficult hike, but I think we went about 7-8 miles and it was warm, so it there was definitely some 'glowing' going on (a previous client from an earlier generation had told my guide that she 'did not sweat, she glowed'. So he like to ask me a lot if he was glowing ;)

I was blown away when the crater came into view. Totally huge and the floor was black as night. He said that years back everything was green as plants had begun to grow in over the lava flow, but there was another eruption in 2005 that just covered part of the lower floor. This meant that the flat bottom was black and the sides of the crater were still tree covered. A very stunning juxtaposition. He said there were names for all of the different textures of hardened lava, from the hawaiians, 2 I remember below:

Pahoe hoe:smooth lava
A A : bumpier lava

This is one of those composite pics...so the path is skewed and it unfortunately doesn't show the view well. Standing there, though, we could see down to the coastline and the ocean in all directions. Really beautiful.

The crater Sierra Negra

I asked if people hiked across the lava floor. Julio said people have gotten lost down there and was very dangerous. I was surprised because it seemed so flat and that one could see in every direction, but he said the bumps in the lava flow are actually much taller than a person in many places and you can see very little, as well as the fact that the terrain is so rough it is very hard to hike. So just the view for us.

On the way back we took more notice of the ferns(sword, maiden hair, ladder), the ever present endemicGuava trees, avocado trees, hibiscus tree, sulfur butterfly,waupok tree (don't know how to spell this), etc. There isn't a lot of rain in highlands but fog moistens the moss that grows in trees and that helps retain plant moisture.

 

After a short rest back at the hotel, we left for our surfing lesson!  Sean got to his feet a few times and rode the waves crouched. He was quick to the board.  Carrie rode a wave for a few seconds on her knees. Her glory days. All down hill from there. But enjoyable to be out in the waves and be attached to a flotation device.  Only a tiny start of a burn on the back of my arms today. We were vigilant with our sunscreen! (And consequently ran out 1/2 way through our trip).

After our fruitful search for (muy caro) sunscreen, we found dinner in the village (villamil) and sean willingly tried his first pulpo a la plancha  (grilled octopus) and liked it. Then a grocery stop for chocolate where Sean found the elusive kinder egg, which he says isn't allowed in the US because a toy is packaged with the chocolate. Is this true? Regardless, at 50 cents a piece, we loaded up so the kids could have some at home.