5/25/22: Wednesday in the Galapagos Islands

 Hola! Como estas?  Por mi muy bueno!   After listening to Kim talk to people in Spanish for two weeks,  I have actually picked up some.  She did NOT follow me to the islands because-thank GOD she can't afford it; nobody I've met on the Ecuador mainland had been to the Galapagos.

Took the flight to the Galapagos Islands yesterday at noon.  Arrived in time to case the town out, walking four blocks in all directions. I'm on San Crystobal Island. Stayed one night in one place, then am staying where the most sea lions congregate on the islands-again, an oceanfront view, tonight.  

Last night, I met a German surgeon and her Dental something-or-other husband.  Everyone here has a buck to spare.

This morning I met Kaki and Alex, a 40-something Indian couple from Dallas.  We became fast friends and they joined me on my taxi ride to two different places in the Northern Highlands;  one is the most beautiful, rocky beach in all the world and the other was home to GIGANTIC turtles-I would guess, weighing in at like 700 pounds, at least. 

Kaki and Alex love beer and gave me a huge bottle of Club, the local beer, to drink on that beautiful beach.  Actually, we found a little path which led to a little forest of what looked like Mangrove trees, and there was actually a table to sit down at and have a drink.  

We spent about an hour at each spot. The taxi driver came with us on the beach spot and showed us the secret ROCKY path up the volcanic rock boulders and to the top of the pile.  Then we had to walk around the outside of the pile and down. Alex had bad knees, too.  I never (well, maybe never) would have started that path upward if I had known how hard the rock was to travel.  (They are both software developers, and have been on five international trips since January. They own Montessori schools, too...and Lord knows what else.  She is such a diva, wearing ultra high fashion outfits, glittery shoes, a bathing suit with a matching midi-length robe.  She loves to have her picture taken, but despite all that, she is not pretentious...except when it comes to posing like a movie star for photos she asks her husband to take of her every two minutes.  Alex is a regular guy. They are both gorgeous.  He just wore jeans and a navy polo.  They came out here on a whim, because they were visiting their daughter who is doing her internship in Quito.  They had no hotels booked or plans made.  They decided to take the ferry with me tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. to Santa Cruz, the next island.  

Our taxi driver had initially told me that the trip to the two spots would cost me $50.  I got him down to $30, which Kaki, Alex and I split, then we each gave him a ten dollar tip.

The internet is extremely iffy out here on the islands, so if you don't hear from me, just know I'm out trying to capture some Blue Footed Boobies or something with my camera!

My back hurts and my knees hurt because all I have been doing is walking uphill, seemingly all the way, for days.  But, I'm wishing the pain away.  (The doctor I met said every case of chronic pain is psychosomatic.) So, I have no pain. Do you hear me- no pain!  

Following are a few of my favorite pics of the animals on San Cristobal Island: Sea Lions, the  Blue-Footed Boobie, Red Crabs, and, tortoises. 

A nursing pup.

My room.

Another nursing pup.

    Before I go on more about today, I want to tell you about the last two days-at least.    

     From Tena (the Amazon), we drove an 8 hour drive that turned into 12 hours, to Cuenca, in the south of Ecuador.  There were rock slides all over the treacherous two lane highway, which was also covered with thick fog...and....wait...severe switchback curves, causing practically no visibility at points.  But there was no where to safely pull over, because we would have had to stop in the road, since the other side was cliffs...so Kim pushed on. And, I must say, did an awesome job driving this hell.  

     I arrived at a gorgeous airbnb condo overlooking the whole city, including the majestic church with the three domes.  A rooster woke me up in the morning.  We did a tour of the city and looked for a lookout point for the better part of 2 hours.  Not the greatest day. Didn't care for the city much, because, although 90% of the Gringos who live in Ecuador, live in Cuenca, it is comprised of lots and lots of small alley-like streets.

    The next day, we drove 5 hours to Guayaquil, where I caught my 11 am plane to the Galapagos Islands.  For this, we woke up at 1 am and left at 2!  Another fun ride. We arrived at 6 am, slept two hours at Kim's place, then drove to the bank, and the airport, which was only 20 minutes away. 

    You're probably wondering what Kim's place was like?  One room was a living room/kitchen and the other was her bedroom.  She offered me her bed, but I slept on the couch on the blanket which was used to keep the dog off the furniture. ARG!

    Today, I'm heading on the ferry with my two new Indian friends to Santa Cruz Island at 7 am.

    It's a two-hour ride, then a whole different ecological extravaganza. Well, I'm sitting in a street-side breakfast "restaurant"; I forgot that their time is an hour before my time, so it's only 5:45 am.  (My phone isn't adjusting, for some reason.)  Still, the sun has come up and it is lovely on the empty street of a world-famous island in the sea.    I passed the luxuriating sea lions spread out on the beach, grunt-calling back and forth to each other; a cacophony of crumudgeons!