29 November 2014
Saturday in the Park
We headed out to Bull Creek today to get some pictures of our fast growing kiddos. It was, needless to say, a beautiful day!
15 August 2014
Galapagos: Day 4
This morning I woke up early so I could take a hike before the conference started. It was still drizzling when I awoke at 6am. Plus, my phone hadn’t charged overnight. So I delayed leaving until 6:30. I had tried to get various people to accompany me, but no one was interested in getting up that early. In the end, the only time I’ve had to myself for the last five days has been to sleep and shower (since there is no Internet in the rooms, even checking email/chatting with the kids/etc. has been done in the company of others). So I really enjoyed some quiet “me” time.
I walked all the way across town from the hotel on the roughly southern side of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno to the Interpretation Center at the northern side.This was about a 20 minute walk through town. On the way I passed Playa Man, a beach at the end of the waterfront. The beach was covered with sleeping sea lions. I continued down a dirt road. I did not take the recommended path, which was blocked by a cone labeled “Do not enter” and “Iguana nesting area.” Instead, I took an adjacent path and started walking up. The goal was Cerro Tijeretas (Tijeretas Hill). Tijereta is the name of the frigate bird, which frequent this hill. On the way up, I saw lots of finches and a crazy awesome centipede (maybe millipede? I’ve never known the difference). On the way down, I saw more finches and some little lizards. The top of the hill had great views back into Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and out in the direction of Kicker rock. But most of all, at the top were tons of frigate birds. They would perch on the trees just in front of the overlook. They also soared around the air above the cove, making it really easy to see how their tail scissors to help guide them (this is where the name Tijereta comes from). I spent about 20 minutes watching the birds and enjoying the view before I headed back to the hotel for a five minute shower before the start of the conference at 9am.
I walked all the way across town from the hotel on the roughly southern side of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno to the Interpretation Center at the northern side.This was about a 20 minute walk through town. On the way I passed Playa Man, a beach at the end of the waterfront. The beach was covered with sleeping sea lions. I continued down a dirt road. I did not take the recommended path, which was blocked by a cone labeled “Do not enter” and “Iguana nesting area.” Instead, I took an adjacent path and started walking up. The goal was Cerro Tijeretas (Tijeretas Hill). Tijereta is the name of the frigate bird, which frequent this hill. On the way up, I saw lots of finches and a crazy awesome centipede (maybe millipede? I’ve never known the difference). On the way down, I saw more finches and some little lizards. The top of the hill had great views back into Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and out in the direction of Kicker rock. But most of all, at the top were tons of frigate birds. They would perch on the trees just in front of the overlook. They also soared around the air above the cove, making it really easy to see how their tail scissors to help guide them (this is where the name Tijereta comes from). I spent about 20 minutes watching the birds and enjoying the view before I headed back to the hotel for a five minute shower before the start of the conference at 9am.
A church in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
I still like sailboats
Sleeping sea lion
Cuddling sea lions
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
The hiking trail
Candelabra cactus in the lava fields
The view from the hike
Thorny bushes
Opuntia cactus
The coastline of San Cristobal
The cove from the hike
Playful sea lions
Millipede
Frigate bird
View across the coast to Kicker Rock
Frigate bird
Yellow finch
Soaring frigate bird (they scissor that tail in and out to control their flight)
Along the coast of San Cristobal
Finch (aren't they cute?)
Lizard
Candelabra cactus
Blooming candelabra cactus
14 August 2014
Galapagos: Day 3
On Wednesday, we had been given two choices for snorkeling: a place called Kicker Rock or a second place called Isla Lobos. One promised the potential for shark sightings. Tomasz chose that one for us without consulting me.
We started the morning with a relatively short but beautiful boat trip to Kicker Rock (also called Leon Dormido, since it looks kind of like a sleeping lion). We were a small group: just 12 of us. We were invited to sit on top of the boat for the ride, which afforded great views of San Cristobal Island, the ocean, and Kicker Rock, as we approached. Kicker Rock is an very small island of volcanic rock It looked impossible to land at the island, but it is home to lots of birds: frigate birds, the masked booby, and some others whose names I didn’t catch. We did two complete circuits around the island, scoping out the birds, the rocks, and the current. Then we donned our snorkel gear (which, thankfully, included wet suits), and fell off the boat into the water.
Even though I had a super leaky mask, the snorkeling was fantastic. I don’t have any photos because I didn’t have a water proof camera. The visibility was kind of low, so the photos might not have been all that great, anyway. Apparently there had been a recent plankton swell. I am no snorkeling expert, but I guess this is a bad thing at the same time that it’s a good thing. It reduces the visibility because the water is clouded with the plankton. However, the fish love the plankton, so there were a lot more fish out. So we saw some really large schools of pretty fish. We also saw some playful sea lions who would swim right up underneath us. We started by swimming most of the way into the smaller split between the rocks that you see in the photos below. We couldn’t swim all the way through, though, because there were rough rocks on the far side. We swam back out and then all the way through the wider split in the rocks. In here, we saw many fish again, but also lots and lots of sea turtles. We snorkeled for about 45 minutes. I’m told that one of our group actually did see a shark after diving down about 5 meters, but I did not.
When we were done snorkeling, we hopped back in the boat and shivered for a ride over to the beach at Puerto Grande, back on San Cristobal Island. We had to wade into the beach from the boat (in fact, Tomasz had to tow the boat closer to the beach before the rest of us hopped out). We spent about an hour just strolling on the beach. There were hundreds of crabs on the beach that scattered when we landed. There were some sea lions on this beach, too. We also came across a couple of hermit crabs (apparently, if you exhale on the hermit crabs, you can encourage them to come out of their shells).
We had lunch back in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (the city on San Cristobal). After lunch, we boarded buses for an afternoon trip around the island. Our bus had a mishap about three blocks into the trip (the mishap involved hitting a pole and bursting a tire). After we recovered (by getting on a new bus), we drove into the center of the island for a short hike up to the caldera of the (dormant) volcano. It was REALLY foggy, so we could barely see the lake in the caldera. On the other hand there were all kinds of various plants and flowers along the path on the hike up. Back on the bus, we headed to San Cristobal’s version of the tortoise breeding center. The mature tortoises were allowed to roam free in this center, which was kind of neat. They also had smaller baby turtles here. When we were finished at the breeding center, we went up the road just a little bit to beach at Puerto Chino. The beach was really pretty, and it was connected to a second beach by a rocky path. The only unfortunate thing was that a sea lion had died on the rocks just off the path. It had perished some time ago, which made for a somewhat less than pleasant odor. I took a lot of pictures of finches on the beach.
In the evening, we headed back to the city and then had dinner at this crazy delicious restaurant where you basically just ordered the type of protein that you wanted (I had shrimp), and they just grilled it up and served it sides. It was super good. We think the place was called Bambu Pizza. They did not serve pizza.
We started the morning with a relatively short but beautiful boat trip to Kicker Rock (also called Leon Dormido, since it looks kind of like a sleeping lion). We were a small group: just 12 of us. We were invited to sit on top of the boat for the ride, which afforded great views of San Cristobal Island, the ocean, and Kicker Rock, as we approached. Kicker Rock is an very small island of volcanic rock It looked impossible to land at the island, but it is home to lots of birds: frigate birds, the masked booby, and some others whose names I didn’t catch. We did two complete circuits around the island, scoping out the birds, the rocks, and the current. Then we donned our snorkel gear (which, thankfully, included wet suits), and fell off the boat into the water.
Even though I had a super leaky mask, the snorkeling was fantastic. I don’t have any photos because I didn’t have a water proof camera. The visibility was kind of low, so the photos might not have been all that great, anyway. Apparently there had been a recent plankton swell. I am no snorkeling expert, but I guess this is a bad thing at the same time that it’s a good thing. It reduces the visibility because the water is clouded with the plankton. However, the fish love the plankton, so there were a lot more fish out. So we saw some really large schools of pretty fish. We also saw some playful sea lions who would swim right up underneath us. We started by swimming most of the way into the smaller split between the rocks that you see in the photos below. We couldn’t swim all the way through, though, because there were rough rocks on the far side. We swam back out and then all the way through the wider split in the rocks. In here, we saw many fish again, but also lots and lots of sea turtles. We snorkeled for about 45 minutes. I’m told that one of our group actually did see a shark after diving down about 5 meters, but I did not.
When we were done snorkeling, we hopped back in the boat and shivered for a ride over to the beach at Puerto Grande, back on San Cristobal Island. We had to wade into the beach from the boat (in fact, Tomasz had to tow the boat closer to the beach before the rest of us hopped out). We spent about an hour just strolling on the beach. There were hundreds of crabs on the beach that scattered when we landed. There were some sea lions on this beach, too. We also came across a couple of hermit crabs (apparently, if you exhale on the hermit crabs, you can encourage them to come out of their shells).
We had lunch back in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (the city on San Cristobal). After lunch, we boarded buses for an afternoon trip around the island. Our bus had a mishap about three blocks into the trip (the mishap involved hitting a pole and bursting a tire). After we recovered (by getting on a new bus), we drove into the center of the island for a short hike up to the caldera of the (dormant) volcano. It was REALLY foggy, so we could barely see the lake in the caldera. On the other hand there were all kinds of various plants and flowers along the path on the hike up. Back on the bus, we headed to San Cristobal’s version of the tortoise breeding center. The mature tortoises were allowed to roam free in this center, which was kind of neat. They also had smaller baby turtles here. When we were finished at the breeding center, we went up the road just a little bit to beach at Puerto Chino. The beach was really pretty, and it was connected to a second beach by a rocky path. The only unfortunate thing was that a sea lion had died on the rocks just off the path. It had perished some time ago, which made for a somewhat less than pleasant odor. I took a lot of pictures of finches on the beach.
In the evening, we headed back to the city and then had dinner at this crazy delicious restaurant where you basically just ordered the type of protein that you wanted (I had shrimp), and they just grilled it up and served it sides. It was super good. We think the place was called Bambu Pizza. They did not serve pizza.
Kicker rock (in the distance, on the left)
San Cristobal Island, from the boat
Oooo... a selfie!
From the boat
Still San Cristobal Island, still on the boat
Kicker rock is getting closer...
There it is. We snorkeled through the slit on the right, but also through the smaller slit about in the middle of the big rock.
There's both slits.
Kicker rock (and barnacles on Kicker rock)
The other side of the little slit. The white in the water should give you a hint as to why we didn't swim all the way through...
The other side of the big slit. We did swim over here.
The beach at Puerto Grande
Puerto Grande on San Cristobal Island
Mangrove on Puerto Grande
Lava rocks on the beach
A very shy crab. They were all very shy. There were hundreds of them, though.
A sea lion. They kept hollering at me to get closer, but the sea lion kept snorting his disapproval. So this is was more than close enough.
Oops.
Flowers on the hike to the caldera on San Cristobal Island
Miconia blooms
More Miconia
The caldera on San Cristobal (and the lake in the Caldera). This is a freshwater source for San Cristobal, one of the only islands in the Galapagos to have such a source. The frigate birds apparently fly up here to drink fresh water (which is apparently an anomaly for coastal birds) and to wash their wings. They don't eat the fish here, though; they prefer the fish from the sea... specifically fish they are able to steal from other birds (the frigates are apparently terrible fisherman).
Ferns on the hike to the caldera
Tortoise
San Cristobal mockingbird (should be noticeably different from the Santa Cruz mockingbird from yesterday).
Finch
Puerto Chino
Finch
Curious sea lion
Another finch
Pretty leaf
Finch
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)