Galapagos with Martin, and a quick stop in Ecuador: December 2016

Just exactly where are the Galapagos Islands?

                             

This trip was a last-minute thought, and Martin Keck was up for it!  He's been a great traveling companion over the years, and this was our last chance for a Mom-Adventure before he got married.  Martin has enormous intellectual curiosity and is interested in history.  We’ve all heard of Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle… to a trip to the Galapagos was just right for nerdy-Mom and inquisitive-son.

We started in Florida, following a wonderful engagement announcement party arranged by his (future) in-laws, Joe and Cinda Felkner for Martin and Allison. Meeting my future daughter-in-law's sisters was a special treat too.

The gateway to the Galapagos is Guayacil, Ecuador.  Christmas Day breakfast here at the Aeroporto in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Then we caught an early flight to the Galápagos Islands. Martin was interested to see if he can pet a marine iguana. I wanted to see a blue-footed booby, and pay homage to Charles Darwin.


The Galapagos archipelago is comprised of 13 major islands and 7 smaller islands.

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Santa Cruz Island is the first stop for most people arriving by plane.  Every island offers different delights, but we did enjoy the beauty of Isabela in particular.

                

Upon landing at the airport in Baltra on Santa Cruz Island, the second largest island in the Galapago, we took a ferry across to where the road into town began.  Then we got on the bus into Puerto Ayora, which is the largest town on Santa Cruz island.

We were booked into the Aventura Lodge, which has dreadful food but nice rooms with air conditioning – it is HOT and HUMID here in late December.  The entry to the hotel is lovely, however.

                                       

Guess who came to Christmas lunch on the deck 3 feet away from our table at Aventura Lodge, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos ... 5 foot long male marine iguana.  Martin is NOT petting this guy!

                                 

Martin enjoyed Christmas Day afternoon in a sea kayak, exploring near the town of  Puerto Ayora. 

The next day, we took a tour in a small boat that offered snorkeling.   Martin snorkeled.

The tour included coming close to a rocky cliff area where the blue footed booby is often seen – and we saw them!  

We also saw green sea turtles and an eagle ray.

I was thinking of sunbathing on the deck of the hotel, but got pre-empted by this sea lion. 

We went to see the tortoises for which the Galapagos are so rightly famous. You'll get a sense of scale from the tortoise named Martin Keck!




The tortoises immerse in mud to drown ticks and if that doesn't work,a specific type of finch is allowed to groom underarms etc

ET phone home!   A close up of a Galapagos tortoise       

A walk to the morning fish market on Santa Cruz Island provides lots of local color and a bunch of hopeful pelican helpers. Sea lions hope for handouts too.

A highlight of the trip was a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Center.   The road from town to the center  wasn’t quite completed when we were there (December 2016), and it was a hot and dusty walk.  But very worthwhile!  The interior galleries and exhibits were very informative, and the exterior walkways with signage quite interesting.

       

Darwin’s finches, anyone? 

Here’s the link to read why these birds are important in the history of science… his principle of natural selection was refined in his trip to the Galapagos in 1835: 

When your travel expediter tells you that you'll be going from Santa Cruz island to Isabela island by ferry, your default assumption is probably a luxe catamaran. Not so in the Galapagos. Here it is a motor boat rated for 20 passengers but always packed with 30 and tons of luggage, going at 100 miles an hour. Did I mention that this is a two hour trip?  And somewhat terrifying.  One poor passenger spent almost the whole two hours throwing up at the back of this crowded boat, where the piles of luggage gave him some privacy visually, but, oh the smell!

The island Isabela was named in honour of Queen Isabela of Spain who sponsored the voyage of Columbus. With an area of 1,792 square miles, it is the largest island of the Galápagos and occupies about 60% of all the land area of Galápagos. The Equator passes directly through the island.   The island is shaped like a seahorse resulting from the merging of six large volcanoes into a single landmass. All except Volcán Ecuador, which is older, are still active today.

We were fortunate that the hotel we were originally booked into was supposedly full, but when the pickup-truck taxi from the dock drove past, we were so happy we weren’t staying there.  Instead, we stayed at the wonderful (and aptly named)  Iguana Crossing Eco Hotel!  The beautiful beach was 100 feet away!   We did learn to take QUICK showers, as the water to each room is carefully metered for about 20 seconds of spritz – this is understandable, since fresh water is an issue on these volcanic islands.  And the food was wonderful at this hotel!

At the side of the hotel, a path through a swampy area begins.  Imagine my delight to see flamingos so close up!  And…how handy to be able to scratch your neck with your mouth! Those long beaks of pink flamingo come in handy not only to look for lunch in the water, but also to scratch whatever you want -- balanced on one leg too!.

Martin Keck is off on his own, peering down into one of this island's volcanoes.

                               

Farewell Galapagos! Had a great time and saw many animals I may never see in the wild again in my lifetime including: Galápagos penguins, sea turtles, Sally Lightfoot crabs, white tip (reef) sharks, and eagle rays/manta rays. Photos below are not mine... I'm not a snorkeler ... but thought you'd like to see more of the diversity of the Galapagos. Darwin did, after all...

My favorite - Sally Lightfoot crabs

We took the water ferry back to Santa Cruz, and then the bus to the channel ferry, and got on the plane at Baltra for our return trip to the USA via Guayacil, Ecuador.  

So I’ve been to the Galapagos, and I have the tee-shirt to prove it. 

Thinking of going to the Galapagos? A few tips for you to save for the future:

*  if you have 7-10 hours between arriving in Guayaquil Ecuador (airport code GYE) and your flight to Baltra/Santa Cruz Island, then stay/pay the ~$100 at the Holiday Inn at GYE airport as it is very comfortable and good wifi etc and a 5 minute walk OR they have a van every 45 minutes. 

 *   Book the Mi Sol ferry between Santa Cruz and:Isabela Islands; it is big and stable and has 3 motors AND they give you a bottle of water!

      *  On Isabela, stay at Iguana Crossing hotel.

      *    On Santa Cruz the Solimar hotel looked nice; our booked hotel was kinda rustic and the food was just dreadful.

*     *    Pack Imodium; I found out the hard way that it's not sold there. Drink and brush your teeth ONLY with bottled water. 

*        *    On Isabela, not so much English is spoken BTW. 

  

     *  Pack light as hefting luggage from water taxi to ferry to bus etc is a real challenge. If you forget something you can buy it there. Except for Imodium!

Egypt: Archaeological Wonders. Then Israel

Professor Lanny Bell, who holds a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Pennsylvania,  has been leading tours to Egypt for Archaeological Tours (http://archaeologicaltrs.com/product/wonders-of-ancient-egypt-oi-2017/) for many years.   I was fortunate to join the group in ___   My good friend Marian Bagley was with me on this tour;  we always enjoy our exploration of textiles in Arabic cultures.

Italy: antique maps and new cities visited

I'd last been to Italy to go to a trade show in 1997, and I had Martin join me in Rome after the show.  By this time, it was old hat for him to travel to international airports.  I'd booked a modest hotel room just around the corner from the Coliseum subway stop.  The walls had cracks, the sink was chipped, but we had a little balcony from which we could watch a protest march (largely comprised of members of the Italian Communist party) go down the boulevard, chanting and pushing and shoving. On this trip we spent extensive time in the Vatican museums, saw all the major sights in Rome and then took the train to Naples with hopes of visiting the town buried by lava flows during the erruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Naples was quite an adventure as, when we got off the train from Rome, the hotel advocates (shills) literally pushed and pulled us to book at their hotels until I stamped my feet, waved my hands and shouted "Go Away!  Go Away!"   After visiting the mosaics from Pompeii and the Archaeological Musuem in Naples, we tried to go there -- but much of Pompeii was closed for renovation/reconstruction. We diverted to Herculaneum/Ercolano and had a great tour.  Naples won't be forgotten for two other highlights of local culture:  1) motorcyclists who diverted to the sidewalks when traffic got bad, and 2) pizza with sunny-side up egg on it.

But this visit in 2004 was different.  The occasion was a gathering of the International Map Collectors Society, and the opportunity to visit great and usually-closed palaces and villas was a real draw.

Tunisia, beloved of artists and Romans alike

It was easy to fly from Algeria to Tunisia, and my traveling companion Marian Orloff-Bagley and I were anxious to see famous Roman ruins such as Carthage, and to understand why such artists as Paul Klee raved about the light in Tunisia.

A biography of Klee notes:  " Klee's artistic breakthrough came in 1914, after a trip to Tunisia. Inspired by the light in Tunis, Klee began to delve into abstract art."   Tunisia is still a magnet for artists both local and foreign-born, and a great article in the New York Times gives insight:  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/01/t-magazine/tunisia-artists-intellectuals.html?_r=0

Writing this post in 2017, 11 year since the visit there, I am filled with sadness about the recent terrorism that has afflicted this lovely country and its friendly people.  





If you can't wait for my post about Tunisia, this is a very good one on the major sights:  http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/tunis-tun-tc-t.htm

Algeria: Falling Down the stairs in the Casbah in Algers

In April 2006, I joined my good friend Marian Orloff-Bagley on a trip outfitted by Ihab Zaki of Spiekerman Travel Service ( www.mideasttrvl.com) to Algeria.  I was last there in 1974 on the long cross-AFrica trip with the group from Siafu, but that 1974 trip only touched a few places in southern Algeria, in the Sahel.  This trip was more wide-ranging, and started with a jolt.