July 8
Las Tintoreras
We awoke to the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach of the hotel, as this island hotel has an even better view than our Santa Cruz room overlooking the main square and the harbour. The only time we have slept closer to the ocean was years ago in Thailand when we shared with cousin Kady a huge bed in a wooden hut right on the beach.
Every day we have breakfast included at the hotel. We have been enjoying tropical juices, eggs, and this time fresh pressed cheese.
The van picked us up and after a one minute drive we were at the port. We hopped in a small fishing boat and set off for Las Tintoreras, an area of Islets teeming with marine life. We saw a few sea lions and a stingray on our way to an island inhabited by Galapagos penguins (Teva’s favourite). They are small. On our way to our hike, one of the highlights was seeing blue-footed boobies synchronized diving for fish from up in the air. The islet we hiked was another example of dry seemingly extra-terrestrial landscape inhabited by strange creatures: large groups of marine iguanas, colourful crabs, and interesting lichen formations (only on the south side of the rocks due to the winds). We saw a large group of adult white-tipped sharks swimming along a characteristic rock channel.
Our third activity was snorkelling in a small lagoon (which becomes open sea at high tide). We saw oodles of sea turtles up close, swimming marine iguanas, schools of large angelfish, different species of sea stars, globe fish, anemones and urchins and too many others to mention.
Our morning was so successful we were an hour late coming home! Noam and Aubrey explored town to find supplies for lunch (somewhat successful with only two small mini-market hardware stores open at late for lunch time and no one has bread).
With fuller bellies, we took a cab (pick-up truck) outside of town to a flamingo hang-out. We joined a tour group exploring a large land tortoise breeding centre. They are working hard to save the many species of land tortoises on the island which are endangered. We were able to see tortoises of all ages and stages, including some embryonic and incubator samples. Tortoises can generally live over 150 years, but babies rarely survive in the wild with current ant, goat, cow and dog non-endemic and introduced species. Breeding programs here mimic natural processes and then return tortoises to the wild when they are old enough to fend off predators. So far they have been quite effective at turning around the potential extinction of several tortoise species.
We walked home by first taking a pathway over wooden walkways through several lagoons and wetlands. We saw interesting bird life, including a flamboyant of flamingos. At the end of the path, instead of going though the main road of town, we followed the beach home. Afterwards, the older three spent an hour playing in the waves by our hotel.
It is hot in town and cooler by the water, and it gets cool (socks! Pants!) Even in town once the sun goes down. Everything is a bit damp. Our dinner burritos and crunchy rice dish were so good we reserved a table for tomorrow. We also had a (not so young) coconut with a straw and watched part of a local adult turf mini-soccer match.
Tomorrow, the Highlands.