last day at sea... :-(

This is our last day at sea, so we made the most of it.

 In the morning, we stopped by a little cove on Floreana island, which hosts the Floreana "post office".  Here is a picture of it:
 This "post office" has been in use since the mid 1700's, when it was first discovered that the island had fresh water (the only fresh water source in the Galapagos), so the ships would stop by to reload.

 They set up a barrel (see left), where messages could be left, and, as other ships traveled by, they  could pick up the messages that were addressed to near where they were going.  It is still used in the same way:  we went through all the post cards in the barrel and picked 3 addressed to Armonk and to 5th Avenue in NYC.  The goal is NOT to mail them, but to hand deliver them.  I'll definitely do that!  we mailed one to ourselves, and one to Adam and Claire (we thought that Hooksett was just too much out of the way for people to drive nearby....  and we only had 2 postcards....).

We then went back on the dinghies for a tricky (but short) ride,










 to a nice sandy beach:  our driver had to maneuver very precisely in between the rocks, and managed to do that without even touching one (although at some point, he had to drive the boat backwards).

On the side of the beach, a sea turtle had just build her nest!  We made sure to stay away and not disturb it.

For the first time on this trip, the point was mostly to enjoy the clear water, swim, kayak or paddle board, and

 take a very short walk just past the light house (the only one I have seen so far, probably because of the tricky rocky formations I mentioned above).

 At the top, we could take in the entire bay and it's turquoise waters, while our guide told us about the history of the island:  The first inhabitant was an Irish seaman who was dropped of by himself for misbehaving.  He was left with water and tropical fruit seeds.  We don't know what happened to him.  The next people came in the early 1930's.  Some crazy German dentist came with his mistress because he liked being alone - side detail:  Before leaving, he removed all of his and his mistress's teeth, to ensure that they would not get infected.... 

Remember, that was the 1930's - not the middle ages!  They moved into a cave and enjoyed their solitude - trading fish and such for other food and water with boats that stopped by.  Then a year later, another German, his wife and son showed up.  The original couple was very upset to have to share the island.  So the new couple moved to the highlands, where they discovered the water source, as well as tropical fruit trees!  Shortly after, a European Contessa came with her 3 lovers and declared she ruled the island.  All of these people stayed on the island until the mid 40's (one even had a child).

By that time, a small town had settled on the other side of the island, but they remained alone.  At which point, all the men started dying under odd circumstances.   The dentist's mistress decided to go back to Germany.  The Contessa is supposed to have died too, and now haunts the island....   people see a woman dressed in white in the middle of the night, children are led astray in the forest.....
The second German woman stayed until she died, in the early 2000, after having resettled to the small town on the other side of the island, and becoming the first post-mistress of the island.  Having been here - I just cannot imagine coming to live here by myself- and then surviving....  I think people were tougher - although this story is in fact not very old.....

We went back to the boat for lunch,  where we discovered that the wonderful crew had arranged the clean towels to look like 2 swans (it is after all Valentine's day!)






and then went snorkeling by a cove where sea lion colony lives.

They were playing in the water all around us - it is really hard to convey how much fun that is.

 They were of course many colorful fish, some of which I had not seen before.

And there were A LOT of sharks!

Some sleeping on the bottom.

Some swimming in groups:  At one point I counted 6 at a time, but could only fit 3 in the picture. (and only the head of one on the right side)- because they were so big and close to me!!!!!!!)

 We then went back to shore to visit a small pink flamingo colony.  The ones that are almost white are juveniles.
Isn't it fascinating to be in a place where both flamingos and penguins live?

Every beach we walk on is different:  some are red, some almost black, some very fine sand.  The one near the pelican was a mixture of volcanic glass, including a lot of olivine (a semi precious stone), which - given enough time- we could have collected in great quantity.

We thought this would have been enough for the day, but the biggest treat was yet to come:  We walked to another little beach of very fine white sand - where turtles go to lay their eggs.  We could see them clearly - dozen of them- in the clear water, right at the edge of the beach, waiting for  sunset to come and lay their eggs.
(its hard to see in this picture- but the black blobs in the water are turtles).

As we were watching them, sting rays came right to the edge of the waves and swam around(these are not underwater pictures-  it's just taken from the beach).

One turtle had come to the beach too early, and decided she needed to go back to the water to wait for sunset:  we watched her inch her way back. 

 It looked like hard work.

But she got home, and so must we.....  tomorrow we are heading back, so I'll end with this wonderful picture of a pelican that Joe caught in flight on the same beach.

Love is in the air....

Let me tell you about giant tortoise sex:  It’s a lot less exciting than you think....  Actually, that’s not true- it’s just a lot slower than you think!  But it has drama, fights, jilted lovers!  Everything you need for a good love story – how appropriate for the day before Valentine's day.  

 But that all happened in the afternoon, let’s start in the morning.

We rejoined civilization today, and dropped anchor by the little town of Porto Ayoro, on the island of Santa Cruz.  I did not know that the Galapagos had actual towns, but about 30,000 people live on the islands, 18,000 of them in Porto Ayoro.  It is mostly a tourist town,  

but it is pretty, with many flowers (all of them introduced, the Galapagos only have white and yellow flowers).

It has a lovely little cemetery (I always enjoy visiting local cemeteries), full of whimsical flowers and tile decorations. 

By the harbor, fisherman sell their catch, under the hopeful eye of pelicans and herons. 

While other of the typical Galapagos natives just hang around....

 and play in the water.....

These babies are just a few months old.

The town also hosts the Darwin tortoise research center, where they breed and study tortoises with the goal of reintroducing them where they are extinct, or severely endangered.  It is estimated that their used to be over 500,000 tortoises in the Galapagos.  But, mostly during the whaling times, ships would stop by and load a lot of them in the cargo – because they can live a long time without food.  So they kept them as fresh food.  This makes me so sad I can barely talk about it, so that’s all I’ll say about it.  At their lowest point, there were only about 5000 tortoises left, but thanks to protection of both the tortoise and their habitat, and the reintroduction efforts, there are now about 35,000.  They enjoy playing in the pool together,and hanging out with their friends....

This is Diego - a Very Important Tortoise (VIT).  Diego was brought back from the San Diego zoo, because one of the species of tortoise was very endangered,  but when they tried to breed them, the males just could not figure out what to do:  In order for the male to have enough testosterone to produce sperm, they need to fight with each other.  The two males they had were just too peaceful. Then came Diego - as you can tell from the picture, Diego is tough (note the broken shell), and showed them how to be real dudes!  that worked, and Diego has been credited with 800 baby tortoises!  (you can tell by looking at him that Diego has enough testosterone).

We went for lunch to a beautiful local hotel that can only be reached by boat.  A heron kept us company as we enjoyed the restaurant pool.

 

 And then we went to a tortoise preserve in the highlands.  Tortoises are born at sea level, and stay there (we saw one a couple of days ago) until they are old enough to mate, which is about 25 years old.  Then they move to the highlands, which are much greener and where food is plentiful.  They only go back down to lay eggs (because the eggs need the higher temperature to hatch). 

 They share the land with banana plantations and cattle ranches, but only10% of the land can be used for farming, and tortoise can roam freely anywhere - the barb wires around the cow pastures have to be high enough for tortoise to walk under.  We saw several on the road, and mingling among the cows.

In their natural habitat, tortoises like to cool off by sitting in ponds,









 grazing lazily,

and just hanging around.....

 This time of the year, they also enjoy some hanky-panky.  In fact, just as we entered the preserve, this was happening (below).
it was happening V-E-R-Y  S-L-OOOOO-LY....

 Note that they just don't care at all that all the tourists are looking at them.....  we left them to their business and then stumbled onto true drama:  a big male was running after the much smaller female.....  running may be an overstatement.....  but going pretty fast for a 200 year old tortoise.... 

he got to her and was about to close the deal (honestly, she did not seem that interested....  but he did not seem to care),

when a much bigger male showed up...

 The smaller male gave up the chase right away - but doesn't that face break you heart?  You can tell he is thinking:  "What the hell just happened????"

 And then the older male did it.
This all happened V-E-R-Y S-L-OOOO-W-L-Y...
Tortoise sex may have drama, broken hearts, etc, but it is not fast paced........

and then, as if all this tortoise sex was not enough fun, this innocent little duck (white cheek red bill - native to the Galapagos), jumped on the female next to him and tried to do it - but then a third duck jumped into the fray, and it all ended in a very messy ducky three-some.....  I guess Valentine's day is tomorrow and love is in the air.......
Trust me - in this mess of splashy water, there are 3 ducks just getting it on.

 I'm finishing with a picture of this little Galapagos warbler, because he seemed upset that everyone was paying attention to the tortoises, and not to him: