Musings

Given how many people we were around during our relocation from the southern hemisphere to home over Sun/Mon, we are unofficially in quarantine. During different parts of our trip more and fewer people around us were masked; however, few of the masks were at this 95% level of filtration, so ya gotta consider that germs were out and about. Thus, we have to trust that our well-fitted 95% masks did their job vis-à-vis Covid (and monkeypox, and the common cold…etc.]. We won’t know for a few more days, however. [I prefer the model on the left. The Guru prefers the type on the right.]

Posted at 8:13 PM | Comments Off on Abundance of caution

I’m going to start Monday at dark in Quito “last night.” This is the main entrance to our hotel-home. The wide entry shoots straight past the desk to the pool area at the rear of the property. Off to the left on this side is the restaurant. Opposite to the right is the lobby where we used the hotel wifi for several hours after we checked out at 2pm. Around 5:30 we moved to the restaurant for a simple meal before catching the hotel’s shuttle to the airport at almost 7:15pm.

We people-watched in the main entry area until 9:15, when the Delta employees showed up. Then, we queued to check ourselves in and check our big suitcase. We relocated past security and bureaucratic whatnot to seats by gate A11, and finally got to board about 10:40pm, for departure before 11:30pm. The flight was almost full, three seats on each side of the aisle in the main cabin. We were oh so fortunate to have a row to ourselves, and an exit row to boot, so relative comfort.

Overnight flights are by definition a trial. Short overnight flights are an even more intense trial. Our flight time was 4 hrs 44 mins, and we gained an hour while in the air. I got maybe two hours of sleep.

We landed on schedule, or was it a bit early?, at perhaps 5:20am. We got through the necessary inspections of documents, luggage collection, etc., and queued anew here outside to wait for the airport shuttle to carry us from the international terminal to the main terminal, where the MARTA trains arrive/depart. Considerable energy has been expended complaining about this awkward situation. We waited just to the right of this frame for something like twenty-five minutes for a bus to arrive, in oppressive, humid 75°F. Nevertheless, we were home shortly after 7:30am, having transferred from the MARTA train to a MARTA bus. Sooo glad we’re home.

We found the house fine, and not too large a pile of mail awaiting us. I started some laundry, as that was pretty much the maximum braininess that I could muster. I also took a ninety-minute nap before noon. Two more loads of laundry and some dry mopping, and what else? Somehow the time ticked by, and I predict an early night. Duh.

Posted at 6:38 PM | Comments Off on Waiting, no game

I looked out the window at 6:30am this morning, and saw the thick clouds mostly obscuring the far hillside (it’s hazily visible as the darker area between the white cloud layers) and thought: this isn’t a day for touring the countryside.

Here’s the hotel pool area at 3pm; it’s been rainy and will be again.

We fly out tonight, just before midnight. We checked out of our room at 2pm, and are ensconced in the lobby by big windows facing west, using the hotel internet and enjoying the fact that other people are far from us, although most are masked, as the hotel requests.

You might think this spot in the lobby is rather boring, but we watched three hotel employees wearing suits and dress shoes herd two Holsteins out of the front lawn about an hour ago.

It’s been a extraordinary trip, and we have accomplished what we set out to do. I sit here in a light jacket, and my trusty Apple Watch indicates it’s 54°F here. It will be months before we see the 50s in Atlanta, I think.

Posted at 5:55 PM | Comments Off on There comes a time…

Not long after we got on the (major, national) divided highway this morning, we came upon a construction zone, and got shunted over this side route leaving both travel lanes to the repaving crew.

During this morning’s jaunt, we came across several groups of bicyclists, leading us to conclude that Saturday is for bicycle outings and practices.

We also found this wide load (carga ancha). Not sure what it was, but it looked rather like a reviewing stand, with many streamers.

Just off the highway, we made our turn at this church to take a very local road to the parking area for hiking in the Pasochoa cloud forest, officially Refugio de Vida Silvestre Pasochoa.

For all but perhaps fifty meters of the 5.3 km access road, we bumped along at a very slow speed. Many pickups passed us, despite this being such a narrow, one-and-a-bit lane road.

The land use change is the edge of the park, with farmers pasturing animals right up to the forest.

Here’s the map of the hiking trails, aka senderos. We opted for the medium-length middle one.

The path was okay, not muddy thankfully.

We immediately found bromeliads.

The path was in the selva (jungle), but just in it along the edge of a field. I suspect some of the plants we saw were introduced from agricultural undertakings. Not sure about this, but clover seemed like it was a pasture escapee, as they looked like the versions I’ve seen in fields in North America.

I had one of these, far less vigorous, in my freshman dorm room. I never got to see the new, beige leaflets.

Here is the downside of the path. It went up and up and up, to perhaps 9800 feet (from perhaps 9100 at the parking lot). We took it very slowly, and looked for plants, flowers, and creatures of interest.

I found a slug on a trail marker and heard a very few bird calls. I expected more….

Descending, we found a great valley view. Green green green.

The last feature before the parking lot was a fancy “pic-nic” area. We saw maybe nine of these.

We bumped along that miserable 5.3 km, then took a different route than we came through in the morning, to avoid Sangolquí, which I have nicknamed Traffic Jam Town. This is our turn off the highway to access the route to the hotel. As you can see.

This was a very different day than the previous ones we’ve spent here in the Ecuadorian valleys. Nice to have the diversity. This place is high-altitude for us, and today we really felt it. And survived.

Posted at 8:50 PM | Comments Off on Pasochoa expedition

Today’s goal is to go southeast, crossing a major pass, then turning south toward Tena and Río Napo (~1300 feet was our lowest point), on the west edge of Amazonia. We’re climbing away from the greater Quito metro area. I noticed these large rolls of steel(?) on this truck. Little did we know that we’d be amidst many of these trucks Quito-bound from Amazonia. I do not know where the metal was mined or processed.

I loved watching the clouds “sitting” on the ridges and peaks. The road markings are warning drivers to slow, this time for a sharp curve.

And, of course, the clouds mean waterfalls below.

And with the increasing elevation, the temperature drops. Significantly.

Crossing Paso Papallacta, all evidence indicates we got up to 13,330 feet. Plus or minus. Breathe deeply.

Also, watch out for spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus). Ecuadoreans often mentioned seeing them; however, I don’t know if they were wild and free.

We descended far enough to encounter homes and agricultural undertakings, complete with places to stop and eat.

Clouds are now above us. Sign urges protecting alders and nut trees.

Again, that persistent cloud layer engenders landslides and waterfalls.

Shown here…but the road is open! And navigable in a mediocre rental car.

I’m guessing the regular bridge is left, and we were sent across a “temporary” bridge. Speculation.

Fresh landslide, perhaps two days ago, but not last night.

Horse grazing roadside. Ditch and vegetation clearing crew ahead.

We encountered stopped traffic. An official came by and said there was a bad accident ahead, and it’d be two hours before we could continue.

Our car was stopped with the rear wheels on a bridge over Río Quijos. I could step out and get a great shot, not through the windshield.

And also find flowers to photograph. We were very lucky. In perhaps forty-five minutes we heard a whooping and whistles, and drivers dove into their vehicles. We do not know why down-bound traffic got to go first.

Soon, we saw some of the accident remains. This was on the left. Note the vegetation on top of the tank; it must have rolled. On the right (no photo) was a dually axle. Note the two huge wreckers. Not sure what happened, but it was awful. Not far down the road, we entered a busy town, and the first sign I saw was gruas, that is: wreckers.

We descended and the terrain became much flatter, and the temperature rose (eventually to 88°F).

Another ridge to cross. Glad we don’t have to go straight.

And an overlook: mirador. Not complete Amazonia flatness, but close enough for these two first-time visitors to South America.

We weren’t too happy with the defective metal decking plates on this bridge over the Río Ñachi Yacu.

Note the frond roofing; different plants grow here in numbers. And the tire atop the circular structure and sheet plastic on the others.

We roll into Tena and find it busy with locals, non-locals, and a wide variety of commercial activity. This town is humming.

And someone had the money and will to build a green-glassed building on a busy corner.

We crossed the new bridge over the Río Napo.

Río Napo’s headwaters are from the flanks of Volcán Cotopaxi and other mountains, It flows 668 mi before joining the Amazon. Clearly, it’s capable of carrying lots more water here, yet is plenty wide today.

We recrossed the river on the old, one-lane bridge.

We are even less happy crossing the Río Ñachi Yacu bridge northbound, closer to the branches and flagging tape.

Aha, here’s the other part of the accident vehicle. We had no clues on why the vehicle rolled.

We took a side trip on a loop through Papallacta, as we’d heard so much about the thermal baths there. Here’s the hotel by the spa and other facilities. Looks special. We did not stop to bathe.

Northbound, we could take the old road out of town (one way), and saw this, Laguna Papallacta. It’s clearly a reservoir, and there was no power generation facility. I speculate it’s to protect the town, which isjust downstream.

There was more rain as we reached the higher elevations. Otherwise, the trip back to the hotel was a version of what I’ve already portrayed.

A fabulous day.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on SSE exploration

Pre-dawn. The colors are ripening.

Left for a wee panga tour of Caleta Tortuga Negra, called Black Turtle Cove in our literature, on the north side of Santa Crúz island. We left at 6am, or dawn. First up: cattle egrets, still in overnight positions at 6:07am.

Less than thirty seconds later: the exodus begins. They fly way inland to feed all day.

About two minutes later; heading deeper in the cove. Sky color still eye-catching.

I could see the napping shark here with my eyes, but my otherwise talented camera could not. This cove is a shark nursery. We saw several young reef sharks and more adults in this cove.

Ducking to get deeper in the cove.

Sea turtle? Can’t remember.

We returned to the larger, outer cove in time to see a feeding frenzy. What you can’t see is that a shark (or perhaps two) came at a school of larger fish, which turned tail and scooted the only safe direction: up. And the birds could see this happening, and hunted the school from above. Carnivores.

Great egrets. Sleeping in compared to the cattle egrets. This was twenty-seven minutes after the cattle egret shots.

Heron, pretty sure, but don’t remember which one.

Rounding the Grace’s stern just before 7am, ending our last wildlife adventure.

We breakfasted while the captain moved Grace into position for us to disembark for the last time. Our breakfast assortment included tamale with a fat sliver of yummy cheese. The maize flour has far more flavor than boring MaSeCa.

The dock we’re headed to is behind that fancy sailing ship.

It’s our final panga ride, of course wearing our life-jackets, with one of these dangling on either side. Despite temptation, I never pulled one. 😎

Waiting for our plane to arrive; it was a little late. We left through Gate 3. While waiting a pair of finches were flying hither and yon beneath this high ceiling and far below that giant fan. One briefly landed on my hat as I sat quietly pondering our terrific trip. Of all things.

Our final steps on Galápagos were on Baltra Island, headed for our ride. Seats 5A and 5B.

Our bland, large, corporate hotel room near the Quito airport NNE of Quito in the next valley. We are clearly no longer on the Grace.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Flights

We traveled overnight, and boarded pangas starting at 6am to walk on North Seymour Island. The park regulations say that no one can be on land between 8pm and 8am. They require overnight ship passengers are only on land until 10am and after 3pm. The day-trippers get the hot, bright hours in between when many of the animals are far less active. I checked and this photo was at 6:07am, just after we started walking. Pretty sure these are frigate birds.

Sofia is discussing rat problems. The trap has low-level sulfur in it, enough to kill the rat after a time, and not enough that a hawk will sicken from eating it. Rats are of course introduced, and a problem along with goats, dogs, cats, and at least one insect, all causing significant problems.

Call this a frigate bird condo. Frigate birds don’t need much personal space, as you can tell, so the gents try to build their nests in the best trees, to catch a lady frigate bird. The red sacs take perhaps twenty minutes to inflate or deflate. They attract lady frigates to check out nest quality. If the latter meets spec, they will stay and mate.

Frigates pairing up.

Beautiful morning rainbow omen.

If I have it right, the Galápagos islands were stripped of this lichen at one time, to sell for making a purple dye. Lichens are of course slow-growing, so it has taken many decades for them to return.

Land iguana.

Posing bird. I’m anthropomorphizing.

See the two islands? Those are the Daphnes, with Daphne Major to the left, and Daphne Minor to the right. The famous forty-year study of finches by the Grants was on Daphne Major. Others have continued studies. Check out “The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time” by Jonathan Weiner if you’re interested.

On land you can see pairs of white stakes. We only walk between them.

When the booby parent comes back from fishing, the booby baby (technical naturalist term), bangs beaks with the parent. This eventually stimulates the parental bird to regurgitate. The chick sticks its head down the parental throat to get the food.

Aren’t you glad this isn’t the human style.

Back aboard, the Grace got underway and we had breakfast, then most of us watched two very well-made videos, one on Darwin and Wallace, and one on von Humboldt. The latter was a contemporary of Thomas Jefferson, and probably the first person you could consider a modern naturalist, at least in the Western world. I’m going to hunt up a copy of Wulf’s “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” to read up on this fascinating man and how he laid the groundwork for his successors.

Next, we had a lovely snorkel followed by a late lunch, if I have it right. Or perhaps the snorkel was after lunch? I forgot to record some details.

Our late-day panga trip located, tada!, penguins. The only tropical penguins. Soooo wonderful.

This is a dry landing on Bartolomé. Many other ships in this area.

Bartolomé has a boardwalk, only it’s mostly steps. It goes to the top. We made many photos in the late-day sun.

Note the many cinder cones. Sooooo different from every other island we’ve visited.

When we return after our afternoon excursions, we are greeted by a critter. I think this is a towel owl, a short-eared owl, yet, oddly wearing (my) spectacles. Teehee. John says its a baby Yoda.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on North and west

There’s no such thing as too many beautiful sunrises.

Juice every morning, and every morning a different fruit. This may be what everyone called tree tomato. I just checked the internet, and in New Zealand it’s called tamarillo. It’s in the Solanaceae family, and is Solanum betaceum. Now I know.

Right after breakfast, we had a wet landing on Santa Fe Island. The sea lions were just becoming active.

This was a short walk to see these giant-size opuntias. The pads are not tasty to humans, but are the favorite of land iguanas.

Right on schedule, here’s a large male land iguana.

And another.

Back on the Grace, the crew lowered kayaks and the pangas took us to a good kayaking spot.

After that, we changed into wet suits for a snorkeling expedition. Again, no photos of these two activities. Salt water, you know.

After lunch, I spotted this hitchhiker. Another came and ousted it.

Dry landing on South Plaza island, and a slow 90-minute loop. Nocturnal gull.

Marine iguana. Note longer narrow tail, used as a paddle in the water. Also, the land iguana’s tails are more rounded on the bottom, a good tip if you find their tracks.

A finch busy looking for…seeds, I think.

Little lava lizard…little compared to the iguanas. On the “trunk” of one of the tall opuntias.

Land iguana profile. Those neck spikes draw my eye every time.

The iguanas have so aggressively dined on the opuntias on the west end of South Plaza that the park folk have planted new ones, with these protective cages. Still, they have had to replant and replant, as the small opuntias are easier for the iguanas to climb and access the pads, as you might guess. Even with the protective cages.

Sun is cruising down, although it’s still an hour and a half to sunset.

Sous Chef Washington’s tiramisu was a resounding success. Several of us thought it the best we’d ever had.

Did you catch that we did a walk, a kayak ride, and a snorkeling expedition all before lunch? I have never changed my clothing so many times day after day in my life.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Enough iguanas?

Up with the dawn.

And saw the sunrise. We traveled overnight to Floreana Island, and anchored offshore.

That’s our yacht, Grace, in the background. We were ferried to shore in pangas, and with the many activities today, we’ll become very familiar with various ways and situations relevant to entering and exiting a panga, Galápagos style.

Our first excursion was before breakfast, a quick trip to the local post office, old style. Sailors used to stop here and leave mail for a later ship going in the appropriate direction, and collect mail for whomever they could deliver to. We left a few postcards in the spirit of this continuing instituion, and some folks took one to deliver. The delivery is meant to be done in person. This is especially ironic as the postal service for Ecuador has been closed as a cost-cutting measure, leaving DHL and FedEx as options.

Returning to the Grace. Next we were instructed about kayaking and snorkeling. I have no photos of these activities. Too close to salt water. I have now been on my first kayak ride. The Grace carries eight two-seater kayaks, enough for all clients to go at once. Most of us did. Saw green tortoises in the water and sea lions and blue footed boobies on land. Among others.

A quinoa croquette, our lunch starter. Lunch was followed by re-donning our wet suits, hoods, and neon life vests for a deep-water snorkeling experience among some volcanic formations that spear the sky (very vertical and craggy).

Our late afternoon activity was a nature walk on Floreana. Here, we’re headed for our landing place.

We started into the interior of the island and skirted this brackish pond. I saw several pink flamingoes with binoculars on the far side. Genetically, the flamingoes here are most similar to ones in the Caribbean.

We kept walking and popped out on a beach on the opposite side of the island, just in time to witness a bit of a feeding frenzy. Several sharks, diving frigate birds, and rays.

We enjoyed our meet and greet of the staff tonight. Yesterday was too complicated to insert that important activity, although you would expect it on Day One. The crew showed up in their dress uniforms, all white and starched. We attempted our most formal wear. The social director, one very lovely and super-helpful Scarlett (yes, named after Atlanta’s Scarlett) introduced each of the crew members and detailed their responsibilities, and then we introduced ourselves to them.

Previously, I didn’t know who the captain was, and was looking forward to seeing him. I was surprised to discover I had spoken to him several times during panga entrance and exit activities, and he had sprayed my feet with clean water after a snorkeling expedition. Rather egalitarian, ¿no?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Busy on sea and land

Took the hotel shuttle to the airport, and went through special bureaucratic hoops to initiate our entrance into the Galápagos province. Our flight was on an Airbus, with new seats. And new vocabulary: código QR and rodaje. The latter means when taxi-ing.

Here’s our plane disgorging tourists (and a few locals). We found more bureaucratic hoops in the terminal, nothing that wasn’t solved by standing in line and presenting documents.

However, the airport is on Baltra, and we wanted to be on Santa Cruz, and there were many sturdy ferries to move us…

…and our luggage across the Itabasca channel. Yes, that’s the boat we rode in, and that’s our luggage on the roof. Darned sturdy roof.

Our first stop was a turtle sanctuary, where we ate lunch. Having gotten out of bed at 4:40, and it being after one (plus one time zone change), during which time we had little food and no coffee…we were darned glad to tuck into a superb spread cooked by the chef and team from our yacht, Grace. After dining, we donned lovely rubber boots, and took a stroll.

Here’s one of our two guides helping us understand the intricacies of tortoise life, love, and subsistence.

Most of the tortoises we saw were large males, which are typically about three times the size of the females.

We even got to see a lava tube. These are volcanic islands, like the Hawaiian archipelago, but much, much smaller.

Refreshed and excited from many turtle sightings, we bussed through Puerto Ayora to the harbor.

Right by where we put on our life jackets, a pregnant mama sea lion was zoned out while her very large offspring was dining on all milk s/he could extract.

Fascinating feet. Flippers.

We rode on pangas (dinghies) out to the Grace. Wonderful to have arrived at our home-for-a-week. Gorgeous sunset over Puerto Ayora.

And a giant moon in the opposite direction. This is the largest yacht allowed to ferry tourists in Galápagos waters. It has 100 guests. The Grace hosts sixteen.

Reminder: when the post time is 10:22 pm, it was posted at some point after the day it is dated.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Making tracks