JAB Post 30

Day 2 was our shortest day, only about 2 km. We took the opportunity to sleep in, enjoy the campsites, and generally relax.

We woke up at Heaven Lake to a light fog, which made the campsite seem even more peaceful and timeless. For all we knew, we could have been the only people on the entire trail that morning. It’s no wonder that someone had once built a cottage overlooking this lake.

By the time we finished packing up the campsite, the fog had worn off and we met our first fellow travelers of the day, come to view the lake, have a swim and replenish their water supplies. We took that as our queue to move on.

Possibly my favourite aspect of La Cloche Silhouette is the variety of the terrain. In almost every other trip I’ve taken, the surroundings remained fairly constant. Lake-side or forest, mountains or desert, the scenery might have chnage changed but the basic elements remained the same. On this hike, from one hour to the next everything could change. At the lakesides we had to watch our steps around the bogs, the reeds and marshy mud. While climbing the heights of the ridge, we scrambled on giant slabs of the Canadian Shield breaking through the thin covering of moss. And the valleys were lush with a boreal forest canopy over a pine needle carpet.

Our campsites also reflected this variety. At the end of our short hike on the second day, we set up camp amid 100-foot pines, overlooking Bunnyrabbit Lake.

Since we arrived right around lunch time, we took the opportunity to listen to music, read about the history of the trail and I even went for a swim across the lake. The water was a little bit chilly to get in, but absolutely beautiful once I got going. I had to stop several times just to float on my back and enjoy the surroundings.

It was the only time during the trip that we every had noisy neighbors, but after dinner, they settled down and we never really noticed them again. The sunset, as always, was stunning. We enjoyed our Ardbeg by the lake and turned in for the night.

Click here to view the full album of photos from July 20: http://picasaweb.google.com/jbartucz/20100720?feat=directlink

While we were eating breakfast, an announcement came over the loudspeakers that we should head to the bow of the boat. We all rushed out to see what it could be. As we looked down, 4 dolphins were jumping in the water swimming back and forth between the hulls of our catamaran. I asked the captain how fast we were going and he said about 15 knots.

We landed on Islas Lobos (Sea Lion Island) and went for a hike. The highlight of this trip was certainly the blue-footed boobie nests, which were literally under foot. The birds were so non-chalant that one could have picked up the chicks and carried them around.






After chugging along for a couple of hours, we stopped at the Island of San Cristobal. We took a 30-minute bus ride across to a Tortoise breeding farm. Every year, they take about 10-20 eggs, put them in an incubator and breed them to maturity before releasing them back to the wild.

The goal is to attain proficiency at breeding in captivity in case anything drastic should happen to the wild tortoise population. Michelle spotted about 10 of the 30 captive tortoises and we all got some good pictures.


After San Cristobal, we visited the town of Puetro Baquerizo Moreno, the political capital of the Galapagos. We all bought souvenirs and wandered up and down the main street along the shore. About 5,000 people live in the town, but it seemed completely deserted.

Click here to view the full album of photos from July 19: http://picasaweb.google.com/jbartucz/20100719?feat=directlink

On Monday, we had breakfast with Doug and Mandy. Doug is in the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center and Mandy teaches biology on the base as a civilian. They live in Kaiserslautern, just outside the base and they decided to travel all the way to the Galapagos for their honeymoon. We ended up eating most of our meals sitting between them and the Swiss couple, Daniel and Cassienne. I suppose it was the “young couples” group.





After breakfast, we were dropped off on the beach of James Bay and went for a really nice hike. We saw our first finches, night herons and even a great blue heron. Of course, the requisite mockingbirds, crabs, iguanas, sea turtles and sea lions were also present.






We spent quite a bit of time near a small inlet/large tide-pool with a natural bridge over the entrance. It was entrancing to watch the sea lions playing together, twirling around and jumping out of the water.





After the hike, we snorkeled around the beach of the same island and we saw a couple more sea turtles and even a manta ray in the sand. Snorkeling in the Galapgos is a different experience every day. The water at this time of year is usually reasonably clear and cold. Javier said that the advantage to the cold water is that there is more oxygen available and therefore more nutrients for the fish (and the rest of the food chain) which makes for a better experience.





We went for one more hike on Tuesday, this time on Rabida Island. The highlight of the hike was supposed to be a nesting ground of flamingos, but none of them were home that day. It was literally the _only_ time we went to an island to see a specific animal and they did not appear. I don’t know if it was typical of the Galapagos, but we seemed to have led a charmed tour.

Click here to view the full album of photos from July 18.

On Sunday we woke up at 6:45 to pan-flute Lionel Ritchie musak on an overcast day with a light drizzle. Not to be deterred, after breakfast we had a quick safety meeting and then we all jumped in the 2 pangas for a cruise around the mouth of “Sea Lion island”, Isabela. Despite the cloudy sky, we saw dozens of Blue-Footed Boobies, Noddy Terns, Frigate Birds, iguanas and crabs above the water, and sea-turtles, fur-seals and fish swimming below us.



After the panga cruise, we immediately changed back into our wetsuits to see what else we could find below the waves. The visibility was not quite as good as the day before, but we still managed to see all kinds of fish, sea turtles, a few small jelly-fish, one shark and a very playful family of seals.



After about 30 minutes of snorkeling we were all pretty cold, so we got out of the water and into the Pangas. On the way back to the Athala, the drivers chased around a Galapagos sun-fish (mola mola) which has no tail, but a large dorsal fin that sticks above the water and a ventral fin underneath. Because of the strange anatomy, the fish sways and rolls from side-to-side to propel itself forward.



We were really cold after that, so we took a long, hot shower and had lunch. This time it was chicken and beef tacos. The meals were all served at a single large table with all the guests seated together. The first portion of the cruise was attended by a family from New York, a family from California, a couple who were friends of the Californians, a couple from Switzerland and an American couple living in Germany who were on their honeymoon. The group naturally separated into three – the Californians who all knew each other from before, the NY family of five, including their three 20-something daughters and then the three couples: Swiss, American and us.



We were given almost 30 minutes to relax before our next outing, this time for a hike on Fernandina island. This is the first time we really got close to the animals on land. There were dozens of boobies dive-bombing for fish off the edge of the island. They truly are graceful in the air, despite their awkward clown-walk on land. Once we alighted, we saw hundreds upon hundreds of iguanas, lizards and crabs.

The iguanas had just finished their lunch as well and many were swimming in a line through the lagoon towards the shore. On the shore itself were several sea lions basking in the sun as well as a male and female pair of terns at their nest. Some previous guides had also collected the bones of a sperm whale which had beached across the island and laid them out in bright contrast to the black lava rock.



As we sailed to and from Fernandina, we crossed the equator each time. This trip was the first time I had ever crossed the equator by any means. In addition, while we were enjoying some time to read and relax on the upper deck, the captain made an announcement that whales were spouting ahead of us. True enough, about a kilometer ahead of us we could see the spray shooting up into the air every few minutes. Another first for me.