Cathy and Ed Visit South America 2017

On one of our first days in the park, we decided to spend a half day taking a guided boat tour of the bay along Santa Cruz Island (the island with the main city in Galapagos). It was our first experience with some known Galapagos wildlife! Rock Heron Yellow Darwin Finch Ed scanning the breakers. Time for a swim, for those who wanted to get in. At Las Grietas. Black-Necked Stilt Great Blue Heron

One of our day trips in the Galapagos ended with a surprise trip to a private beach -- our 20 or so travel mates from the boat were the only people on this expanse of white sand. Some people sat and relaxed, others went birding. Here is a pelican and a juvenile lava heron. Others, like Ed, went snorkeling! After an hour or two on private, we hopped back on the boat and went back to town.

Ed talked me into a day trip to Bartolome island. I'll admit it -- I was deeply leery of spending 5+ hours on a boat in open waters. But, it was a terrific outing! And, we got to visit what was consistently described as "the most photographed spot in the Galapagos." These outings are on small yachts. Each boat carries a crew of 3-5 people (including a cook) and maybe 15-20 guests. Our trip to Bartolome included some interesting people, and it was fun to get to know them. Well, Ed got to know them -- I sat there catatonically staring at the horizon. Here was our boat: Bartolome is one of the youngest islands (technically, it's an islet) in the Galapagos. And so, it is mostly barren-looking rock. Of course, once you start looking more closely, you can see emerging plant species, and an entire ecosystem of birds and reptiles (no known mammals yet). These are lava lizards -- male above, and female below. Visitors to this island follow a defined b...

Our first day trip in the Galapagos included a drive-by of Daphne Island. This small piece of land is now completely uninhabited, and no tourists are allowed; however, a few Ecuadoreans did live on the tiny Daphne Island as recently as two decades ago. Please note that the below picture is representative of the island as a whole -- rocky, scrub brush, and no apparent fresh water. Because of the low number of people on the island, and the distance between any of the Galapagos islands, Daphne island is where contemporary research on Darwin's Finches provided the scientific support for the theory of evolution. It's very difficult to get pictures of birds when you are on a bobbing boat, and they are in flight! This is really the only picture I got, and I'm glad I grabbed it as we never saw another Nazca Booby during our trip!

The main town in the Galapagos Islands is Puerto Ayora. About 25,000 people live on the islands, about half of whom live in this one town. The town is definitely catered towards tourists, but elements of daily life (schools, churches, etc) are everywhere, especially if you venture just a block off of the Main Drag. More than people, though, what strikes you about Puerto Ayora is the comfortable interaction between town life and wildlife. There are critters everywhere. Sea lions are so abundant that locals walk by them nonplussed.   Even us, by our 5th or 6th day, we expected to run into sea lions in unusual places. Of course, some tourists can't pass up the chance for a photo op with a sea lion.   Puerto Ayora isn't rich, but it is very comfortable and very safe. It is also picturesque, in a non-commercial way. We started spending our afternoons at the local fish market, located about 1 1/2 blocks from our hotel. At the end of the afternoon, the fishi...

On our last full day in the Galapagos, we decided to take the "short walk" to Playa de los Alemanes. It is indeed a short walk to the entrance of this park -- probably 15 minutes, which had us scoffing at the books that advised us it was a 45-60 minute walk away. But, once you make it past the guard office, there is indeed another 1+ mile walk to get to the beach, and then another .25 mile walk to get to a beach that doesn't have surf that will kill you. On this particular day, it seemed that many residents from Puerto Ayora had had the same idea (though they had gotten up much earlier than us, and were already returning back to town by the time we arrived -- smart, given the heat of the day). Still, don't take any of this as complaining, because look what we were rewarded with. And given the small population on the island overall, even having half the town there meant we had unusual privacy. Of note -- the finches in all of the Galapagos are fearless. Much ...

After leaving Lima, we flew to Cuzco. At 11,000 feet, we wanted at least a day to try to acclimate to the high altitude. I don't think either of us thought the change in altitude would be as difficult as it was on us; we didn't explore much of Cuzco because mere walking around took so much more effort with the decrease in oxygen. Cuzco is the former capital of the Incan empire. The word "Cuzco" translates as "navel," symbolizing its critical role in trade and culture. There are about 500,000 residents in Cuzco, and many thousands tourists every week (the park caps entry at 2,500 people a day, but those spots generally sell out). The town is well set up for international visitors. Here is the breakfast room from one of our hotels; it looked out onto the tile rooftops across the city. I drank a lot of coca tea to help ease the symptoms of the altitude. Because of the high number of tourists, visiting Cuzco is quite simple. We even ha...