A Few Galapagos Pictures

I know I've been a blog-slacker. Sorry 'bout that.

Here are a few small pics from Galapagos. The amazing thing about the land wildlife was how close you could get to them. Many of them had no fear of humans. Check this out:

This is a sleepy sea lion pup sunning himself on the path.















Here is a land iguana that let me get up-close-and-personal:















The marine creatures were more circumspect. They were curious, but basically behaved the same way they do everywhere else. Way up north at Darwin Island, this hammerhead shark gave me a fly-by:















Here's a shot of a Galapagos shark that came in to check me out:

And finally, the monster we'd all hoped to see:

A 50 ft. whale shark (one of nine we saw this trip)!

Leaving Galapagos

Well, we are back at the Baltra airport with a couple of hours until our flight leaves. I will try to post again when we get to Quito tonight because I bought an 18 minute internet card and time is ticking away.

All but two or three of the passengers ended up with nasty respiratory infections, but everyone snagged antibiotics and kicked it. Hopefully I will be almost well by the time I get home.

I did a total of 16 dives over the week, and saw many many sharks. I got to swim very close to two huge whale sharks and we were almost continuously surrounded by Galapagos and hammerhead sharks. I got a few good pictures, but suffered with technical problems most of the trip.

Other than that, all's well -- I did end up with a few good pictures and some wonderful memories! I also got some great ideas for new scuba equipment I want to buy!

Waiting for "de plane"

We're camped out in the Quito airport, Domestic terminal. It's like every other airport terminal I've seen, except that the air reeks of exhaust fumes.

Our Aerogal flight from Quito is an hour late due to morning fog. We're flying to Guayaquil, then on to Baltra in the Galapagos.

Travelling with an experienced group is the best way to travel. Our luggage was handled from the hotel to the plane, and Aggressor is to handle it from Baltra to the boat. Our airline tickets were waiting for us at the airport, and the tips were collected and disbursed for the group.

One nice thing is that everyone seems to be a lot of fun. There are even several guys who share my sense of humor. There are only two women in our group - the rest are middle-aged men. Big surprise: That's normal for dive trips.

One of the guys has been commenting on how clean Quito is. I don't agree: Although I've seen much dirtier cities, I wouldn't call it clean.

Once we arrive in Baltra, we'll be loaded onto the Galapagos Aggressor II and move to our first dive site while we gear up. We'll do a checkout dive to get our weights set, then have a welcome aboard party. As I understand it, overnight we'll sail 200 mi WNW to Darwin/Wolf Islands, where we'll spend the majority of our time. The objective is to be surrounded by huge marine creatures, mostly sharks and rays.

More when possible!

The Equator

Today we explored the monument at the equator, then went into Quito and hit an old market where they sold indigenous crafts. I bought a couple of gifts for certain people and I'm working on how to pack them for the trip out & home.

The weather was chilly and it rained this afternoon, so it wasn't all that fun to look around. The conventional wisdom is that we're prisoners in the hotel after dark, so we're resolved to amuse ourselves indoors.

Here's a pic of me on the equator.

Quito, Ecuador

We arrived safely, but it was a late nite. Altitude is making it hard to breathe. More tomorrow.

Update:
I'm now using the hotel's computer center (at 0.20/min), but at least I have full access! I'll take some pictures today and see about posting one or two to give you the feel for this place. So far, all I've seen is the hotel; though it's very nice, it's not really different from any other chain hotel I've occupied.

The air is very thin and I get out of breath easily. We're meeting for breakfast at 10 and heading out for an adventure at 12. We're going to straddle the equator!

Butterflies

Well, tomorrow I leave for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

I'll be spending two days in Quito, the capitol, and then seven days aboard the dive boat Galapagos Aggressor II. We'll return to Quito for one night then fly home.

I'm diving with some folks out of South Padre Island, Texas, who have reserved the entire boat. Not all of the 14 passengers are from Texas, but everyone knows Tim. He has been leading this trip once a year for a long time, and I feel a lot better being with experienced traveller/divers that I know and trust. Still, I'm feeling butterflies and I've packed and repacked a couple of times just to make sure I've done it right.

This is the biggie: Tim calls it the "Superbowl of Diving." The water's cold, the currents are strong, and it's no simple (cheap) matter to get there. But like the Superbowl, there's a big payoff just for playing: We'll see some fantastic wildlife, dive in challenging conditions, and will visit the spot where man first began to understand the big picture of the development of life on this planet. It will be a really nice set of dives to enter into my logbook!

Do a Google search for Galapagos and dive and you'll see the phenomenal array of sea life that inhabits the waters around the islands. Sea lions, penguins, and marine iguanas can be found in the shallows, while large schools of jacks and even hammerhead sharks are present a little farther out. In the far northwest, around Darwin and Wolf Islands (a 16-hr boat trip from the main islands), huge whale sharks are often seen with schools of Galapagos and hammerhead sharks. Due to popular demand, our boat will spend most of its time up in the northwest.

There will be dives in other areas where we'll be able to see red-lipped batfish, sea horses, and other small creatures. On our land excursions we'll see the sea lions, iguanas, giant tortoises, and a wide variety of the famous Galapagos birds.

On the downside, I won't have access to the Internet for much of the trip, so I won't be able to share my observations in real-time. As I did in Australia, I'll hand-write my posts and publish them when I get to a computer.

Well, I have to re-pack my camera bag again. I'm not convinced it's perfect. So I'll sign off for now and try to post when I can get to a computer again.