Dog days in the Galapagos

Well, the doldrums have hit us here in the Galaps.....we've been here for about two months now, and are itchy to get sailing for French Polynesia.  Only problem is the wind.....ain't none!  All of our online weather prediction models show a vast greasy spot from here to about 400 miles south of here....that's a long way to motor to find the breeze.  But wind or no wind, we plan on heading out by the end of this week.  Lot's of projects to cross off the list yet, but we're making good progress.

Sea lions guard our dinghy...thanks, ladies!

So, what have we been up to lately?  Well, it's been a while since the last post, so we've got a bit of ground to cover!  Hang on, we'll be all over the board with this post!!!

Isla Isabella Fiesta.  

Celebrating 40 years of the incorporation of the island (where we are still at anchor).  Great fun, pretty much the whole island turns out.  A rodeo, dances, horse racing through town, bike races, a marathon....all Galapagos style.  Ya gotta love it!!

Poor kid in the blue shirt got a plastic spoon....We called FOUL but nobody listened!!!

#3 doing a bit of sky watching!

The big boys came out to play!

 

After the games, it was time for the bucking broncos.  Most only stayed on for 1-2 seconds....Saw a few w/ arms in slings afterward!  Ouchh.....Your faithful Bravo crew wasn't even tempted!!!

Guy on the right must've borrowed big brother's bike!!!

The next day it was time for the races...marathon, bikes, and horses.  5 guys on mixed breed steeds for the bike road race, and a few kids doing some laps of the town plaza for the kids race.  "Ya run what ya brung" as the saying goes.  Definitely an unusual race, but a fun one. 








The grand finale was the horse races.  Horse racing, Galapagos style, is a wild and wooly event, right down the main street of town...dogs in the road, no helmets (of course!), cheering fans crowding into the street.  Macho caballeros strutting their stuff.  Great fun (except for the poor dog that got killed running under the thundering hooves).  Wow!

Lots of pre race machismo and trash talkin'

Gloating in the winners circle

Provisioning for the passage to French Polynesia...

Here on Isla Isabela it can be a bit of a struggle to get Bravo stocked up for the coming 3-4 week passage.  Stores are very small, and supplies vary depending on when the ship arrives.  We've enjoyed making weekly runs to a local farm, where farmer Silvio walks us around and points with his machete at whatever is freshest.....You want eggplant, tomatos, onions, peppers, papaya, cantaloupe, pineapples???  How about basil or cilantro?  This guy's got 'em.  And it doesn't get much fresher.  You just have no clue what he'll have till you arrive.  Typical tab is $10-15 for a mountain of freshies...  Always a fun trip.  

Nicole from Bella Star keeps her eyes on the prize of a tasty papaya.

Silvio hacks loose a pineapple.....never tasted sweeter.....

 Getting our propane tanks filled here has been a bit of an adventure as well.  There is no central tank here on the island.  Everyone uses standard tanks which come in by freighter....when empty, you simply exchange for another.  Of course, these tanks don't fit our boats....thus we need to buy one of the tanks and fill our own via gravity, and some jury rigged hose and fittings.  Kids, don't try this at home, but it worked great!!!

CQ Contest.....CQ Contest.....CQ Contest

You can take the sailor out of the geek, but its tough to take the geek out of the sailor.  Most of you know that Adam (K7ST) is a geek at heart, and a long time ham radio afficionado.   A couple of weeks ago was the annual ARRL DX Contest, where U.S. hams try to speak to as many hams in as many countries as possible in 48 hours.  As Adam had received permission to operate in Ecuador, he figured, "why not put Galapagos, a part of Ecuador, on the air for the test?"  Setting up a small portable vertical antenna on the beach was a snap, and K7ST/HC8 (portable Galapagos) was on the air.  I was the rarest of rare countries, as I was the only station active in the contest from this country (Galapagos counts as a separate country for contest scores).  Great fun indeed, as huge pileups of hams were furiously calling for a contact.  I managed to work about 1500 for the weekend for a very part time effort.  Much different experience from contesting in the US.....Yee hah, I was hooked!!!

 

K7ST/HC8 station, iguana's eye view!

 

 

 

Time to head to sea!

The building cruiser bolus!

 As you may recall, when we arrived on Isla Isabella nearly two months ago, we were the only cruising sailboat here on the island, and one of only 2 or 3 in the entire Galapagos archipelago.  And it remained that way for the next 2-3 weeks.  It was a pretty sweet time around here.....we got to know many of the locals, as we were a bit of a novelty.  Welll.........the novelty has worn off!  The Galapagos is a major point of departure of boats for the South Pacific, and this is the time when they start the journey.  The anchorage here has been steadily filling up with boats, and we now have nearly 20.  All are friendly, and all share our anticipation of the 3000 mile voyage ahead.   Lots of projects going on, people up their masts for rigging inspections, tanks being topped off.  The excitement builds daily as we wait for the wind.  But it's a very different vibe with so many cruisers descending on a tiny island.  Stores are selling out of provisions, the authorities are getting cranky.  It's time to leave the bolus behind us!!!  Hopefully we'll leave on Wednesday or Thursday.  So, with luck, our next blog post will be while underway!

For us, preparing to leave Latin America is indeed bitter sweet.  We are very excited to be getting underway on our longest passage yet, bound for what by all accounts is truly a tropical paradise...French Polynesia.  But we've had an extraordinary 2-1/2 years here in Central and South America, exploring the various countries and cultures, and making many good friends along the way.  As our Spanish improved, we've enjoyed getting to know some really wonderful folks, from Mexico to Patagonia, and participate in their lives in ways we had never done on our brief vacation visits in past years.  We'll miss the warmth and hospitality of these people, and eagerly look forward to our return in the future.  We know we'll be back.

Now its time to break out Rosetta Stone, and learn a bit of French before our next landfall!!!

Diving in the Galapagos

Hey there....Cindi here with our first Galapagos dive report.  Sorry that this is a bit delayed, but we had been waiting for some underwater photos to arrive from a fellow diver...never showed up, so, sorry, no pix.  Although Adam was sidelined with his mangled shoulder, Kevin, Emily, and I continued to dive at each island we've called upon.  In Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island we chatted with several dive companies and finally found a great one, Macarron Divers, to take us to a highly recommended location.........Gordon Rocks.

Gordon Rocks is usually reserved for more advanced divers but when the dive master learned that we'd just been diving at El Leon Dormido (The Sleeping Lion), it was "no problema".

Bright and early, their boat picked us up right from Bravo, and headed to our dive site.  We were joined by a German traveler, Steffi who had just returned from several days on a live-aboard dive cruise.  Although she had done three dives per day in very cool locations, there wasn't time for Gordon Rocks so she took this day trip with us.

After our check dive to test gear and weights, we headed down, down, down to 100 feet.  Gordon Rocks is a volcanic islet with much of the land underwater.  It is semi-circular shaped with several underwater pinnacles that are home to sea urchins, wildly colorful reef fish, eels, spiny lobsters, and sea stars in every nook and cranny.  We saw a stone fish (venom is more deadly than a cobra's) that was completely camoflaged within the rocks as well.  We were soon joined by sea turtles, manta rays, galapagos sharks, white-tipped and black-tipped reef sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks.  At one point, there were hammerheads above us, in front of us and an adult with a baby swimming on the bottom.  Sharks were literally everywhere!!!  For those of you who know me (Cindi), you know that for years, my fear of sharks was my primary reason for not becoming certified to dive.  Amazingly, we have seen sharks of one sort of another on almost all of our dives.......I haven't been munched yet... seems to be a good way to overcome the fear of these awe inspiring critters!

The second dive of the day was at another area of Gordon Rocks and was equally spectacular.  Our dive guide was great at spotting and pointing out critters for us. 

A few days later, Bravo saddled up and headed to Puerto Villamil on Isabella Island, where we remain today.  Here we arranged to have Isabella Divers boat pick us up from Bravo, and headed out to Isla Tortuga, about 30 minutes from our anchorage.  Like all Galapagos islands, this one was volcanic in origin and so the porous rocky reefs were full of colorful wildlife, similar to our other dives.  No sharks on this dive but we had sea lions and sea turtles to swim with, and I saw my first sea horse (caballito del mar) in the wild!!  Very cool. 

Diving tomorrow with friends from other boats Spruce and Mystic Moon, at Quatro Hermanos site......more to follow!

Between dives, we observed the giant frigate birds in their mating season.  The males have a large inflatable sack in their neck that they puff out to attract the females.  The sack is bright red and shaped like a valentine heart....how romantic!  You could see the red pouches dotting the island as they sat around looking studly and cool. Their stud bubble was burst in a hurry when they tried to fly with the sack inflated.  The usually graceful birds became completely awkward (and probably lost their sex appeal!).

At any rate, the diving continues, though Adam's left flipper is fairly badly damaged.  He had an MRI while he was back in the USA last week.  When the orthopod opened the images, he hesitated for a moment, and just shook his head and said "Whoa"......not a good sign!!!  Turns out that one of the 2 tendons that connect the bicep to the shoulder is completely severed.  And the socket, made of cartilage called the labrum, is badly torn as well.  Surgery is clearly the answer, but we simply don't have the time for the surgery and more important, the extensive rehab therapy now, as we'll be on our way to French Polynesia in about 2 weeks.  When we arrive in New Zealand in November, he plans on having the work done back in Seattle.....hopefully it'll be ok.

Adventures continue in the Galapagos

The 4 of us (Cindi, Adam, and friends Kevin and Emily) have continued to rack up the Galapagos miles, as well as the critter count!  For watching wildlife in their natural habitat, totally unafraid of humans, it's hard to imagine a place coming close.  We've now spent time on the 3 major islands permitted on our autografo, Islas San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, and now Isabela.  The 3 are nice easy 40 mile day sails apart...perfect for hopping from one to the next.  Because of the protected status of the entire archipelago, we must take guided day tours to various snorkeling, diving, and critter watching sites.  Can get a bit pricey, but we haven't been disappointed yet on any of them.  Cindi will write up the diving in a separate blog post, as I haven't been able to join in as I continue to nurse my hurt shoulder.  Update is that it seems to be starting to heal, and I'm gaining some ability to lift it (with the other arm) without pain.  The sling is still on, but hopefully a few more weeks will see it right. 

The primary port cities on each of the 3 large islands are quite different from one another.  Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz is the largest in the Galapagos, with about 12,000 residents.  With a good infrastructure of various stores, dive shops, tour operators, banks, and internet hot spots, it provided a good base to resupply.  We will also stop back there to prepare for our hop across the pacific to French Polynesia in about 1 month. 

Isabela, our current island, is by far the largest of the Galapagos in terms of land area, but Puerto Vilamil, the main city (and our anchorage) only has about 2000 inhabitants.  Supply ships call here just once per month, and the town has a great laid back sleepy ambience.  Whenever it rains, they run a road grader around town to smooth out the mud holes...gotta love it.  Internet and email access is a challenge, but we love it here.  (unable to access our email site...will keep trying!!)  Iguanas and sea lions rule the place.  They swim by the boat all the time (yesterday a baby sea lion got on deck, but quickly dove back in when Cindi surprised him)  We're a bit early for the mass of cruising boats who will be heading here on their way to the South Pacific, so we've been the only cruisers on any of the islands.  Muy tranquillo, we'll probably spend a couple of more weeks here!!!  

Monthly supply day.  Small ship and barges ferry goods from off lying supply freighter (behind the tour boats...Bravo on left, over middle of the blue ferry ship)

Isabela church, religion Galapagos style!!!

Nice stained glass.....iguana, penguin, and booby.   This church has it's priorities straight!!!

 

Sea lion and Adam compare notes on flipper care

Emily gets up close and personal with a favorite iguana.

Iguana tracks everywhere on the beaches

"So these two iguanas walk into a bar....."

Iguana swimming alongside Bravo

Kevin and Emily flew out yesterday to Quito, on their way back to Seattle.  It was terrific to have them join us for the past 2 weeks.  Before leaving, though, we did some great exploring together.  One of our favorite tours was by boat to Los Tuneles, the tunnels.  ($50/pp with Isabela Diving)  An enormous eerie labrynth of volcanic tunnels, bridges, and water pathways, we did some hiking ashore before jumping in the water for some great snorkeling around the area, swimming with white tipped sharks, lots of turtles, rays, and heaps of fish.  It's apparently mating season for the sea turtles, and we were often surrounded by happy couples engaged in their version of the horizontal cha cha for hours of tortugal bliss!  The females will lay their eggs on favorite beaches later in March.

Randy reptiles enjoy their day to play

Blue footed boobies

And their feet are VERY blue.....more so than those we saw in Mexico

Sally Lightfoot crab

Spotted Eagle Ray

Another tour, right next to anchored Bravo, was on the volcanic reef of Tintoreras.  Walking around the islets for a couple of hours we came upon literally heaps of iguanas (the beach is one of their favorite breeding beaches), birds including blue footed boobies, oyster catchers, frigate birds, and sharks and sea turtles.  A perfect way to spend an afternoon ($25/pp)

Oystercatcher

Booby with two Galapagos penguins, the second smallest species in the world

 Sorry if you guys are getting tired of iguana portraits...the guys are just too cool to leave out!!!

 

Big island activity a couple of days ago was watching a crew try to move a wrecked boat up the road to its final resting place several miles away, to be cut into scrap.  There is no trailer big enough here in the Galapagos.  After several hours with 3 earth movers and one road grader it had moved a hundred yards or so.  There it still sits!!  Ahhh....island life, we love it!!

Bravo, out.....