Good-bye Galapagos

The last few days on the islands have been great!

Wednesday we woke up early—6 am—and caught a ride on the Sea Finch to Bartolomé Island. The Sea Finch is a sweet yacht where we finally had room to spread out and enjoy the boat ride. The Finch was fairly small, but had 3 levels with a kitchen dining area, nice bathrooms, etc. Bartolomé Island is a small island, only about 1.2 square kilometers, which looks kind of like the moon! It is the edge of a fallen volcano that is all red because of the iron in the soil. Its terrain is covered in lava flows and it has some little crater-looking side vents of the volcano. There are only two types of vegetation growing on this little island, lava cactus and some other small plant; it is pretty barren. We climbed 375 wooden stairs that lead to the very top of this island. From here is supposedly the most famous picture of the Galapagos with this pinnacle. It was really pretty. The beach just below the pinnacle is where we headed next for snorkeling. Really great snorkeling. I saw a sting ray, and lots of schools of colorful fish, some big bottom feeders, giant starfish, and a couple penguins!

Thursday we had to leave the luxurious Sea Finch and go back to our wave hopping speed boat—which happens to be called Cally, haha. We all kind of dread the Cally, yesterday was by far the worst. We left almost an hour late waiting for the ocean to calm down and it was pretty rainy. Yesterday we went to Floreana, which is in the south. It is a bigger island, but has only 100 people living on it. This number is so small partially because the only fresh water is provided by a small spring that sometimes leaves these 100 people short for water. It is also known as an island of mystery—there are stories about some of the first settlers disappearing and such. We first went snorkeling. We were suppose to snorkel around and then in an old volcanic crater, but as far as I can tell, we snorkeled along the coast! It was still really great. Exactly what I expected the first time I went snorkeling and was disappointed. There were really cool rock formations covered in plant life and surrounded by fish. We saw a lobster (rare I’m told). It looked like it was covered in little Christmas tree lights—so colorful. We also saw the tail of an eel in one of the rocks and I decided some of my favorite fish are Parrott Fish. They are big, super colorful, and always look like they have this big, goofy, buck-toothed grin!

After we snorkeled we went into town for lunch then headed up to the highlands. This is by far my favorite island! Very beautiful. We saw the natural spring and then…we explored pirate caves!! There are these crazy rock formations—tall labyrinth-like—that were maybe formed by ocean currents before the island uplifted, or rain, or lava…no one really knows. But pirates that were looting the coast of Ecuador and Peru back in the day hid in the Galapagos and some used these rocks as a hiding place. You can see where they carved into the rock to place doors and roofs. There are little caves that were used as bedrooms and even a kitchen cave! I really wanted to stay and live like a pirate for a few days…I couldn’t stop exploring! The caves were later used by whalers and there is a cauldron left from them. It was just really cool. Our guide yesterday is really familiar with the island, so he had many cool stories. He also learned English in Britain, so he had really proper English and a sweet accent.

Today we leave in a few minutes to go check out the Charles Darwin Station. This organization is key in conservation efforts in the Galapagos. It is also the home of Lonesome George—a giant tortoise. There were 14 species of giant tortoises in the Galapagos; 3 are now extinct (two by humans). George is the only turtle left of his species. They have tried to get him to mate with a different species to preserve some of his genes, but he just won’t have it! We will then have to say good-bye to the Galapagos L and catch a plane back to Quito. Only a week left in Ecuador—crazy how time flies…