Day 152, Year 1: A Walk to Tortuga Bay
Date: Saturday, March 18, 2006
Weather at Anchorage: No Change–sunny, clear blue skies
Daytime Air Temperature: 82 degrees F daytime
Water Temperature: 77 degrees F
Location: Academy Bay, Puerto Ayoro, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos
We had planned to begin our Saturday morning by taking off early in the morning for a walk to Tortuga Bay, but Johhny Romero called on the VHF at 0730 and wanted to come out at 0900 to finalize check-in paperwork. Johnny was a little delayed because three new boats for which he is the agent sailed into the anchorage-Procyon, Endangered Species, and Wind Pony, all US boats. He had to stop by to see them and got to us a little later. By the time we finished with Johnny and wrapped up a couple of projects we had started while waiting for him, it was getting close to noon. We went into town and had lunch. Patrick and Margaret from Aqua Magic stopped by to say hello, and Randy and Sherri from Procyon and Rick, Robin, and John from Endangered Species were also there. I think you would be amazed at how many people are out here doing what we are doing. The fact that we can go into a small town in the Galapagos, 2,817.8 miles from home as the crow flies or 5, 195 miles as Windbird sails, and meet people everyday that we have met along the way is unbelievable to me. It is reassuring to know that we will see some of these same people after we travel the next 3,000 miles to the Marqueses. When we see them there, it will be like old home week.
So after lunch, being the intelligent adults that we are, we took off for a long walk in the heat mid-day. We walked about a half mile from town to the top of the barranco (canyon) and climbed steep steps before reaching the “official” path to Tortuga Bay. After checking in with the national park ranger, who wanted to make sure we had agua with us, we started the trek down a path paved with the same tiles that pave the streets here. It was a lovely path winding through the arid zone of the palo santos, a scrubby little tree that has leaves only in the wet season, and Opuntia cacti that are tall like a tree with trunks rising up to 5 meters. We saw many of Darwin’s finches, a couple of yellow warblers, and a number of large brown birds with a very long tail. I’m not sure what those are, but when I read my guide, it seems like they must be dark-billed cuckoos. The book says these birds are rare and observed mainly in the highlands, although in the lowlands during a Nino year. I’ll have to keep checking on this and let you know. We certainly weren’t in the highlands, this isn’t supposed to be a Nino year, and this bird was not rare on our walk, so it was probably something else. I just don’t know what yet.
The sun beat down and the winding path got longer and longer. We came to a gazebo where some people were resting and I said to Mark that this was probably the half-way point. He hoped not, but it turned out to be true. The entire walk was only supposed to be 2.5 kilometers, but by the time we could see the beach and ocean in the distance, we felt like we had walked at least 3 miles. I think the heat just made the walk seem long, but when we got to the bay, the view was breathtaking. The white sand the consistency of finely ground sugar, the black volcanic rocks, the green of the palo santo trees, and hues of green and blue in the water combine to make quite a sensation. The white sand beach curved to make a small bay and surfing waves were rolling in one after another. This has become a hot spot for surfers and they were out trying their skills. We saw Zak from Audentes, and Peter and Jessie from Geodesic. They had walked out with their surfboards and reported that they had had an amazing day. They pointed out a marine iguana who was sitting on a black volcanic rock just above the breaking surf line, so we went near him to observe.
The only marine iguana in the world is found here in the Galapagos. They probably descended from a land iguana from the South American mainland and traveled here on vegetation drifting on the surface of the ocean. They are not a particularly pretty sight, but they are interesting. They vary in length from 60 centimeters to one meter long, with the tail being half of that. They have sooty black skin which serves as a camouflage when they sun on the black volcanic rocks during the day. We watched our little friend lazily climb off his rock and onto the white sand when the surf got closer to him. He then drug his body along as he slowly crawled away from the surf. Evidently they are very lazy and expend as little energy as possible, but after a while, he lifted his tummy off the sand as he continued to walk. They raise the front part of the body above the ground when they get too hot to allow the breeze to circulate under the stomach. He must have been as hot as we were!
There is a second beach a little ways from the one where we arrived, but we decided that walking to that beach would have to wait for another day. Just like our iguana friend, we headed away from the water and down the path that would take us back to the ranger station. We observed more birds and the ever present geckos on our way. These little geckos are seen climbing over and between the volcanic rock that is everywhere on this island. In the arid zone, there is no top soil on top of the rocks, so there are lots of hiding places for the small geckos.
We made it back to town and even had the energy to take a little detour to see the lagoon where local children swim. It was crowded on this Saturday afternoon and everyone seemed to be having a great time. We went back to Windbird to get ready for dinner in town. We were meeting Aqua Magic to celebrate Margaret’s birthday. We were going back in early so I could make a Skype call on the computer to Linda Stuart, my friend back in Concord. Linda, her husband Mike, and their son Garrett, are hoping to meet us somewhere in the South Pacific this summer and we needed to talk to coordinate plans. Looks like they might be coming to Rarotonga in mid-July, and we look forward to their visit. Linda told me that Laura, the professional development office assistant in the Concord School District central office, had her baby on Friday and that all went well. Congratulations, Laura! I know Parker must be so happy to a new baby brother. Enjoy this very special time with the “new addition”.
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| 060318 Day 152 Tortuga Bay, Santa Cruz, Galapagos |
