Tag Archives: sea wolves

CHRISTMAS, CRUSTATIONS, & POOP

After our guests left, I flew back to the States to be with my family. We had a family emergency that I needed to attend to before crossing the Pacific. Matt stayed on-board and managed to complete a lot of boat projects, welcome our new guests, and cook up some crustations.

While I was away, our two friends, Ron and Sally joined Sugar Shack. We asked them to join us as additional crew on our upcoming passage to Chile. Matt was the perfect host and tour guide. He showed them around Santa Cruz and San Cristobal and took them to all the hot spots.

Sally met some crustations at the fish market and picked out a few favorites for dinner

Sally picking out dinner: crustations

Ron had fun with all of the Charles Darwin images around the island – remarkable resemblance, don’t you think?

Ron posing next to Chuck

Once I arrived, we unloaded my two enormous bags of goodies. Always a bit like Christmas which is especially fitting since it is so close to Santa coming. We only have a few more days before we have to leave as Ron and Sally need to be in Chile by 3^rd of January.

Christmas on San Cristobal

Unfortunately, a few, large sea lions made it past our fender barrier and on to the boat. Normally, it would be “oh look how cute the sea lions want to come with us.” But when you come back to this, you just want to scream and pull your hair out. Yes, that is poop an dirt all over the cushions, floor, and side walls.

Presents from the Sea Wolves: POOP

Matt and Ron checked out the video from our security camera. Evidently, two sea lions rolled around every seat cushion before leaving us some early presents.

COMING UP NEXT:

We go on a dive tour with Islanders Galapagos and swim with sharks!

Discovering the History of Galapagos

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We had Wayne for one more day and decided to learn a little more about the history of Galapagos. In order to do that, we had to find the Centro de Intrepretacioin Ambiental. The Interpretation Center walks you through the history of Galapagos islands. You can also learn about the animals, flora, fauna, and the local population. Five buildings share the origins of the islands, the Charles Darwin Foundation, and the hope for the future.

Interpretation Center

On our adventure, Matt happened to wear a “Freebirds” T-Shirt. I only mention this because he never does cotton shirts. He normally wears quick dry shirts because cotton is horrible in the heat. But, on this day he wore it and we happened to come across a small eatery called “Freebirds.” What are the odds? Wayne admired Charles Darwin, I kicked up my heels with a blue footed boobie and took a nap on a sunbathing turtle.

Playing the Tourist

After Wayne left, Matt and found the meat market. To our surprise it was home to several begging sea wolves, seagulls, and marine iguanas.

Meat Market for All

The Galapagos have a strong recycling program in force. In addition, they are diligent about keeping their islands clean. One entrepreneurial local educate visitors and residents about the dangers of cigarette butts. He spent well over 25 years creating these displays out of cigarette butts – as if the habit is not disgusting enough…

Display of Cigarette butts

Tortoises and Birds: Galapagos

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The Barkers arranged for a land tour on Isabella (via YachtGala Services). Our first stop was the Centro de Crianza de Tortguas Terrestres “Arnaldo Tupiza Chamaidan. This is a sanctuary and breeding center where their primary goal is preserving these beautiful creatures. Each island has its own version of a tortoise sanctuary with many different breeds of tortoises.

At this particular breeding center, they have over 800 tortoises and 65 of those are breeding tortoises. There are 5 species of tortoises in Isabella, but 2 only two of those species are currently breeding. Most of these tortoises are endangered.

Not so easy for tortoises to breed

The scientists rescued the tortoises from the volcanic areas. Most of the tortoises here are from the Sierra Negra Volcano.

The biggest threats to these gentle giants are rats and goats. The majority of the eggs die in the natural habitat because of these threats. So, the scientists collects the eggs, hatches them at the center, and then releases them into the wild once the tortoises are mature.

Once hatched, the babies are in cages until they are 2 years old. Then they are divided by age, region, and population and moved into small, confined habitats until they become juveniles (4-5 years old). Next, they are moved to the main population once they become teenagers. They are considered mature at age 25 and will live to be over 150 years of age.

Tortoises or Tortugas

Concha de Perla:

We enjoyed a small walk to Concha de Perla, where I dutifully blew out another flip flop. Lucky for me it was soft gravel and I was able to walk barefoot. This is a bird lovers paradise!

We saw flamingos, black neck steel birds, pintail ducks and gallenos. There are only 350 flamingos in the Galapagos so it was a real treat to see these long legged beauties.

Concha de Perla Bird Paradise

The pintail ducks have a beautiful, vibrant green strip on the inside of their wing which I happened to capture!.

After our big day, we stopped in to have lunch at the Iguana Crossing. Leave it to Matt and Diana to find the most swankiest hotel on the island. The hotel claimed to be booked, but lucky for us there were not many guests around. We enjoyed a lovely lunch before heading back into town.

Right by the dock is a beach full of sea wolves. We had a blast doing a small photo shoot.

Sea Wolves Take Over the Islands

Did you notice the marine iguana who left his imprint on the sidewalk?

What’s Next?

Don’t miss out on the next blog as we did a spectacular tour of La Tuneles with the most amazing snorkel adventure!

The Adventures of Sugar Shack

– Sailing Aboard a Catana 471

Tag Archives: sea wolves