Santa Cruz island – whatmamathinks

On the second day on Santa Cruz island, we met our guide, Meriam Leon in front of the Tortuga Bay on Charles Darwin street and got on a tour bus for about a 40 minute ride back to the Itabaca Channel to board the Espanola Yacht for our day long Seymour tour. We sailed for about 45 minutes to North Seymour and boarded a dinghy that took us to an arid island inhabited only by frigatebirds, blue-footed boobies, seals, sea lions, land iguanas, lizards, swallow tail gulls….

The walk, according to our guide, would take no more than 20 minutes but she wanted us to take it all in and not hurry. She did say that we should not be on the island for more than an hour so that other groups can have their opportunity to visit. We ended up staying for a little longer, and went back with images of male frigate birds displaying their vibrant red-throat pouches to attract the ladies, baby frigates peeking out behind their mamas showing us their fuzzy heads, a single blue-footed boobie, colorful lizards darting along the trail and iguanas moving like dinosaurs turning to look at us with stretched lips that almost looked like grins. I have never witnessed such a scene- birds and reptiles relatively unafraid of human presence. We were respectful. We were visitors on their land. We kept our voices down, we did not divulge from the marked trail and we kept respectful distance from the birds and animals.

As we headed back to the dinghy, Sean told me to stop moving, Ryan started laughing and I got nervous. Sean started taking photos of me while saying “Don’t move! Don’t move!”

“What is it? Do I have a bug on my head? Is it a tarantula? Oh my god, what is it?”

The others in the group also stopped in front of me and started wowing. Finally, I saw the photos and realized that I was the chosen one. A lovely grasshopper perched on my head. I actually held still till it flew away on its own accord.

I want to mention the delightful lunch that the staff at the yacht prepared for us. Once we returned to the yacht, we were offered lunch which constituted of white rice, boiled potatoes with queso on top, a simple salad of cabbage and tomatoes with fresh lime, and delectable tuna steak sautéed on a pan. For dessert there were slices of sweet watermelon. This simple fare was immensely satisfying and although we ate many good meals during our 10 day stay in Ecuador, I still fondly remember this lunch.

After lunch, we headed toward a beach for snorkeling. The water was crystal clear but I heard they couldn’t see much as people kicked up the sediment with their flippers as they swam. I did not snorkel since I don’t know how to swim and I am uncomfortable in water. While the group snorkeled, I went for a walk by myself till I came to a quiet inlet. There I saw a solitary flamingo deeply focused in getting his food. I stood there awhile, surrounded by sand, water, greenery and a solitary flamingo. That particular moment is ingrained in my head – a moment of communing between me and a bird that I will never see again. The flamingo was not even aware of my presence and I felt humbled to have the chance to stand there watching him.

The island of birds and reptiles, the crystal clear, aquamarine water, the flamingo in that quiet inlet, a heron sitting completely still; a stillness that very few of us can imbibe within us…. all these have stayed with me. I worry that memory may fade away with time so I am documenting it here. Maybe, in a few years, if I read this blog, I will relive the moment again.

On the 3rd day, we went to see the Charles Darwin Center and learned about the conservation work that many scientists are doing. We also saw saddleback tortoises and the baby tortoises that the staff of Charles Darwin Center are raising to release in the wild when they are five or six years old. But that blog is for tomorrow.

We left enchanting Quito on the morning of December 27th and arrived at Baltra airport a little after 1:15 pm. We were, fortunately, not left stranded here as a man from the tour company, Rebecca Adventures, greeted us at the airport and accompanied us for a 10 minute bus ride to the Itabaca Channel. From there we took a short ferry that took us to the Santa Cruz island and it was at the channel that we encountered our first brown pelican, boldly fishing right next to the boat we were on.

Once we crossed the channel, a pick up truck drove us to meet our guide for the day, Caesar. Almost 70 year old, Caesar was friendly, pleasant, energetic, well-informed and clearly extremely proud of his birthplace. As he drove us to see one of the several lava tunnels that dot the island of Santa Cruz he identified for us the flora, fauna, and different species of animals, reptiles, birds that are either native or endemic to Galapagos. Once we arrived at the tunnels, we got to see a couple of regulars – two barn owls who come to a cozy room to rest. The tunnels were short and well lit. An area was so narrow that we had to get on all fours and even crawl a bit to get to the other side.

After the tunnels, Caesar drove us to a ranch for a delectable lunch and then to meet with the much awaited giant tortoises.

I had read about these ancient creatures and seen pictures of them but seeing them in real time was an experience I am not going to forget. Many of them were over 100 years old. They were staid, steady, gentle. I felt humbled in their presence. Time seemed to slow down as we watched them eat the vegetation. They deliberately, slowly tore the grass, chewed them and went back to tear more. There was a slow rhythm to their movements that seemed almost hypnotic. I felt I could stand there and watch them do the same activity for hours. And as they ate, sometimes they exhaled with a gentle hmmmmmm….sound. That, to me, seemed almost meditative. Caesar is in love with these creatures and his love for them is evident in the knowledge and respect that he has for them. He introduced them as his friends. He has known some of them for over 40 years and has even named them as Caesar 1, Caesar 2, Caesar 3…till Caesar 8. And all these Caesars seemed to recognize the human Caesar’s voice. They heard his voice and raised their heads to pose for him. He introduced us to them and spoke to them as friends, asking how they were doing. Birds like Warbler Finches and Darwin’s Finches were flitting around, eating the seeds from the poop of tortoises, and the fleas and ticks on their bodies. Caesar explained to us the symbiotic relationship of all the birds, reptiles and animals in that natural habitat that keep the cycle of life intact. Endangering one species will tip the scale causing enormous damage to the whole system. We knew that theoretically, but seeing the cycle in action was a true revelation.

After spending a few hours with the tortoises, we were driven to our hotel in Puerto Ayora. Once we settled in, splashed water on our faces and cleaned up, we went out to the happening street Charles Darwin Street where all the restaurants, shops are. And there were sea lions fighting on the dock! The sea lions just claimed any bench or space on these islands and humans made space for them. We encountered the sea lions for the first time and we were super excited. During the course of our stay in the islands, these sightings became so common place that we almost took them for granted. The cutest were the little baby sea lions suckling or waddling behind their mamas.

Huge Christmas tree, lights, music – the merry ambiance made us forget that Christmas was over. In Puerto Ayora, the celebration continued.

We were expected to meet our guide at 7:45 am at Tortuga Bay to board a bus and then a boat to go to North Seymour for a day trip so we found a place to eat dinner and walked back to our hotel to get some sleep. I dreamt of tortoises.