Living With The Wild Boys…

July 9

Waking up to the sound of the surf is a great way to wake up. Pick up time was 9:15, we piled into one of the pick-up truck taxis. The two older boys were ecstatic because we let them ride in the back with the guide on the way to the highlands. Our first stop was a short hike to see if we could find the Pajaro Brujo (Vermilian Fly Catcher Bird). We left the dry dark lava of the south and found green mangrove and other planted trees to make up a forest. Luckily for us, we saw the Parajo Brujo within minutes of getting out of the car. We still went for a short hike along a cow path in the wet forest. The whole area was shrouded with mist and our bird watching tour was successful, as the return of some rain has brought out more insects and thus more birds for us to see.

Our next stop was the Cueva de Sucre (Sucre’s Cave), named after the gentleman who owned the land where the caves are located. Our guide, Junior, told us that Sucre Gil used to hunt wild pigs who would take shelter in the cave when the weather was bad. The cave is actually a lava tunnel. It was really dark. Outfitted with headlamps, we explored the cave, sometimes crawling under ledges. Junior told us that we could not stay in the caves for too long as there is a high concentration of sulfur deposits in the tunnel.

Lunch was at an organic farm called Campo Duro. After we ate a delicious lunch of rice and lentils (and chicken), we had a short rest time in multiple hammocks strung up around a giant mango tree. I wouldn’t call what the boys did “resting”, but they had fun nonetheless practicing sleight of hand. Junior took us on a tour of the fruit grown on the farm and let us sample the different trees. Erez surprised Junior when he capably shimmied up a papaya tree and knocked down a beautiful ripe specimen for all of us to share.

Our last stop on the tour was Mango Look Out, a wooden platform built on a small peak overlooking the south side of the island. The view was gorgeous. We spotted a couple of hunters on horseback with two wild pigs gutted and strapped to the back of one of the horses. They were both chatting on cell phones as they rode by us!

After a short period of down time (something the boys have needed at the end of every day) we returned to their now daily ritual of running and splashing in the waves for an hour or two at the beach outside our door, working up an appetite for our dinner at 6:30.

It is a real treat to walk five minutes to eat on the patio of a lovely restaurant, just after swimming in the ocean. So far we have been away ten days and have already enjoyed some group time, some alone time with each person, a lot of learning and teaching about understanding getting along with others, and we are all still ready for more adventures.

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.

July 7

We got to leave a little later than usual. Pick up was at 10. This gave us plenty of time to pack up and eat a leisurely breakfast. We were picked up by our mini van and then took a water taxi to Baltra Island, and then took a bus to the airport. All of these modes of transportation were organized and provided by our tour company. We did not have a copy of our ticket as the tour company also booked the flight. This led to a bit of confusion as we didn’t know what flight number we were, exactly what time we were leaving, or the name of the airline. Somehow everyone figure out where we needed to go (it is a very small airport and the staff were helpful). They ushered us into a small open VIP lounge to wait. After a few false alarms, we walked out onto the tarmac to board a 9 passenger plane (that is five rows of two seats). Each seat was complete with yellow ear protectors. It was quite loud, and the view was breathtaking, although more so for the half we were beneath the clouds. The flight was about 30 minutes long and we made a smooth landing on Isabela. There is no real airport there, just a landing strip, so we should not encounter the same problems on the way back.

Isabela is the largest island of the Galapagos. It is more than four times larger than Santa Cruz, the next largest island, and it shaped like a sea horse. It has six intermittently active Volcanos. Most of it is uninhabited, including a lot of dark volcanic earth through all but the shorelines.

Only 2000 people live on Isabela. Puerto Villmil is tiny. Emilie, our Quebecoise guide said that Puerto Ayora (where we stayed on Santa Cruz) is like New York compared to here. We rode in one of the pick-up truck taxis to our hotel. We are right on the ocean! The boys needed some serious down time so we did nothing for awhile and then we went swimming and snorkelling out on our beach. Erez saw another stingray, Noam and Aubrey saw more cool fish, and Teva was content to jump waves at the shore. Zev took some time to read and have some alone time. He needed a break from everyone else for a few hours.

We had a delicious dinner on the main strip of restaurants that is the Main Street of town, and of course I fell asleep again in my clothes before 9 o’clock.

Tomorrow, Las Tintoreras

July 6

North Seymour Island

Another early morning pick up. So early that the restaurant wasn’t open yet. They prepared us cheese omelette sandwiches to take on the road with us. We climbed into the bus, buzzing with energy. Unlike the last boat tour, there were no kids, only quiet, sleepy adults.We had a few whispered words to the boys about behaviour and respecting everyone’s space on the boat. Their behaviour was actually very good, and we needn’t have worried.

It was a one hour and ten minute journey to the Island. During this time we got to know some of the other passengers. Everyone was lovely. There was a couple who has lived in Israel for 17 years, transplanted from New York City. They were staying at a “safari camp” that was accommodating the strict Kosher dietary laws. There were two friends from San Fransisco: one French Canadian woman originally from Montreal (although she spoke perfectly unaccented English), and the other grew up in India but had been living in the States for more than half her life. We also chatted with a pair of twenty-something brothers from the US who were in South America for a Jewish family wedding. Their mother was from Bolivia, so we got to learn a tiny bit about the Jewish community in this part of South America. There was also a South American couple who spoke no English.

North Seymour Island was the nesting ground for many different species of birds and it is mating season all year round. We were able to see male Frigate birds on display, trying their hardest to impress the females. This involves inflating a giant, red, balloon-liked pouch from their neck for 5 or 6 hours at a time. During this time they flap their wings, fluff out their neck feathers and make interesting noises, all to get the female’s attention. We thought it looked a bit uncomfortable with this giant balloon under his neck. They only lay one egg a year, and only breed every other year. The duration of time the parents look after the young is longer than any other bird. Scientists also believe the Frigate can actually sleep while flying!

We saw many Blue Footed Boobies at every stage of life: eggs, soft fuzzy chicks, taller fuzzy “kids”, and also the larger “adolescents” with half their body covered in feathers, and half still covered in soft, downy fluff.

We got back on the boat for a delicious fish lunch, and then were taken to a secluded beach called Bachas to see pink flamingos in a small lagoon on the island. We retraced our steps from the small hike and then spent time snorkelling with Sea Turtles. Erez managed to see a stingray as well.

When we returned, we took a walk around the town while the kids vegged out in the apartment. One highlight was our visit to a small art gallery run by a woman who has a life story that could be made into a romantic movie.

We checked out the supermarket to pick up lunch supplies, always an interesting experience when not on familiar turf. We had an eclectic dinner at a small restaurant, while watching strange reality Ecuadorian TV. We ended the day with a walk around the pier, seeing many white tipped sharks swimming though the harbour, and a sea wolf sleeping in a dingy tied up to the pier. As usual, Koren feel asleep ridiculously early in her clothes, before the kids, and Aubrey had to deal with bedtime.

Tomorrow we fly to Isabela Island.

July 5

Santa Cruz

We are staying in Puerto Ayora, at the southern tip of Santa Cruz Island. With a population of approximately 12,000, it is the largest town in the Galapagos. Today was our independent touring day. We let the kids sleep in till 7:40 (as every other day has been before 6).

We walked to the Charles Darwin Station, which was an indoor and outdoor display of the conservation efforts of the Charles Darwin Foundation. It was absolutely fascinating. There was so much about Darwin’s research that we did not know. He was clearly a brilliant thinker who developed theories on the development of atolls based on his observations of islands and reefs, on evolution based on observations of hummingbirds (and the more popularly discussed finches), and on volcanoes.

We enjoyed information about success in protecting the tortoises, the finches, and the iguanas endemic to these islands. We saw logged scrap books of actual plant samples taken by areas scientists. We were followed by an enthusiastic videographer during part of our stay to document our experience and consumption of the displays. We also slowly embraced the information and skeletal samples in the temperature controlled (thus air conditioned) sample room.

So long ago, a few of each species ventured from the mainland and settled in the Galapagos. Without competition, they thrived and evolved to suit their surroundings. Usually based on their particular island food source, those with particular adaptations ate better and thus bred better. We were able to spend time just observing saddleback tortoises move quickly around, and then we saw a large group of tortoises slowly chasing each other and climbing on top of each other. Perhaps they were mating, although it was unclear if these may have been some same sex pairings. Plus they often mounted on the side or at the front.

We had our empanada snack at the local beach. Even with some rain, the boys enjoyed snorkelling and exploring the area. Walking home in the rain, the temperature of the rain was so warm it was almost imperceptible. The droplets did not make it as far as skin.

We dined on leftovers (including some of Teva’s chocolate cake), walked to one end of downtown to pick up new wetsuits, then walked across the downtown and then along the 2.5 km path to beautiful white sand beach of the island at Tortuga Bay. After trekking past large waves and undertow, we made it suddenly from open ocean to a protected cove of calm ocean water. We swam and cooled off, explored the local marine iguana population (mostly lying in the sand looking dead), and then snorkelled in a partially protected area with an igneous rock outcropping. Suddenly we were swimming with two large sea turtles and a few small sharks. Breathtaking.

We survived the swim and the surf and the hour long hike back to our apartment, cleaned up, ate dinner and more ice cream or sherbet (tamarind!) and collapsed into bed again.

Tomorrow North Seymour Island.

July 4

We were very relieved to find two families with young kids on our bus this morning. This was a great sign. First we had an hour bus ride through Santa Cruz Island (from the main town at the south to the main port at the north) to the ferry dock. There we took a zodiac dingy out to our yacht, our home for the day.

It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to South Plaza Island. We saw a small group of spotted rays on the way as well as some playful sea wolves. Our guide Martime adamantly explained that the species here are NOT called sea lions, but sea wolves. They evolved similarly but without any recent relation. Sea wolves are unique to the Galápagos.

South Plaza Island is not very big, but was covered with interesting and colourful flora and fauna. When we disembarked, we saw a colony of female sea wolves lying in the sun, or splashing and playing with each other. We even saw one eat a crab. They were very cute. They were not frightened by us, in fact, they didn’t seem to pay any attention to us at all. As we left, we had to clap loudly to wake up two sleeping females so we could pass them and get into the dingy.

On the island we encountered large land iguanas lounging under Punta Cactii, small lava lizards scurrying across the rocks, marine iguanas on rocks near the water, and a multitude of interesting birds swooping around. The highlight was seeing our first Blue Footed Boobies.

The island is covered with igneous rock with the only vegetation being Punta cactii and interesting red succulent plants. We felt as if we were in an old Star Trek episode on some foreign planet, without the angry alien tossing a (styrofoam) boulder.

After encircling South Plaza Island, we got back on the boat for a fresh tuna lunch en route to our snorkelling destination. We are a bit spoiled having done most of our snorkelling in the Red Sea, but two exciting things of note happened on our snorkelling trip. First, I somehow dropped Teva’s underwater camera while trying to assist him with his mask. This was his new camera we bought him for his birthday last week. The amazing thing was that because it is bright blue, Aubrey spotted it 10 minutes later and Zev excitedly and capably dived the 15ft down to retrieve it. Birthday crisis averted. Teva deserves a lot of credit: he did not panic or get upset, but rather remained patient and calm the whole time it was missing.

The second interesting thing happened to Erez. He was snorkelling along, in the middle of a school of small fish close to the rocky cliff and looking down, when a huge brown pelican swooped down to get a snack, mere centimetres from Erez’s head. The pelican’s foot hit Erez’s hand as it entered the water and completely surprised Erez, who surfaced to figure what had just happened! Aubrey was about ten feet away, felt the commotion,and saw the pelican leave the water.

The boys enjoyed climbing all over the boat as we travelled back to the northern port. We then took the dingy and then the same bus back to the south.

We found a homemade birthday cake for Teva on our kitchen table! We sang and sampled before bed. Teva certainly ended the day full of fulfilled birthday wishes and very tired

We wandered through town and saw many sharks, a playful sea wolf, and a sea turtle at the water’s edge. We ate an authentic Ecuadorian meal (six different versions) with rice and sauces.

Tomorrow, Charles Darwin Station and Tortuga Bay.

The Galápagos Islands

July 3

There are 43 islands that make up the archipelago. We are aiming to visit 5. Our flight from Quito took us almost 1000 km west of Ecuador. We landed on Baltra Island and took a ferry over to the most populated Island, Santa Cruz, where about 18000 people live.

The islands got their name from Tomas de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama. His ship went off course on the way to Peru. They did not stay for long, but wrote to King Charles V of Spain about the giant land tortoises with shells that were shaped like riding saddles. Galápagos means “saddles” in Spanish. They were also called Las Islas Encatadas (The Enchanted Islands) by Diego de Rivandeneira, a Spanish Conquistador. He claimed they were enchanted because the islands supposedly moved with the currents, making it difficult to find them. Scientists now know that this is partly true. Santa Cruz island shifts about 3cm to the east every year. Our naturalist guide, Ricardo, told us that the humans don’t feel it, but the animals and the islands feel it.

During the 1600s, various pirates used the islands as a base, and were the first humans to interfere with the ecosystem. This started the decline of the giant tortoise population. Before humans came along, there was an estimated 250,000 giant land tortoises on the Islands, now there are about 4000.

In 1832, Ecuador officially took possession of the islands.

The islands were also made famous by Charles Darwin, who spent time there studying the wildlife population. These were crucial field studies that led to his formulating his ground breaking theory of evolution.

Today we were lucky enough to visit an area heavily populated with giant land tortoises. Watching them plod along and eat guavas was positively mesmerizing. Their feet look like they belong to an elephant and their jaws are as powerful as a crocodile. We could have sat and watched them all day.

We also walked through a 400m lava tube that ran deep underground. It was amazing to picture the huge vein of molten lava that flowed beneath the surface so long ago, as we were hiking through the cool, humid tunnel, periodically stopping to crawl though cracks in the rock walls.

Also impressive were two volcanic implosion craters diving almost three hundred metres down. Now vegetated, the crater valleys are lush.

After a long fascinating day, we checked into our 3 bedroom apartment suite with a view of the coast. It feels like paradise. After sorting out some of the details for tomorrow’s adventure, we had a delicious dinner at a recommended restaurant around the corner. On this particular street, they close it off to cars, put out wooden tables and chairs, and people eat outside the restaurant in the middle of the road. A perfect end to a perfect day. Tomorrow we visit South Plaza Island.

July 2

Otavalo

Otavalo is a small town with a population of approximately 90,000, but hosts one of the largest textile markets in South America every Saturday. It was over two hours on the main road from Quito.

Although we missed the morning live animal sale (thankfully), instead enjoying a view of a local lake and listening to local indigenous music, we certainly made it to the market while it was plenty busy.

The market was a familiar twisting and turning labyrinth of stalls, where sellers acted as members of a team to provide change (although more often a sales technique to have none) and monitor potential sales. Some sellers appeared to have several stalls far away from one another. The maze made it difficult to find the way back to a previous favourite, which was probably a detriment to the seller.

There were so many amazing things to buy, We had to remember that there is only so much room in our packs to take things home. Ecuador is famous for its hand woven alpaca blankets, scarves, sweaters, indigenous jewellery and indigenous music.

We had an authentic lunch at a local restaurant, a two course meal with soup (we saw sellers at the market eating the same soup!) and a slice of beef under an egg. We even ventured into some cut up tomatoes.

After lunch we more efficiently made our way around and bought a belt, two blankets, a tablecloth and a runner for our buffet. We got a chess set, juggling balls and some trinkets.

Despite the crowded many streets around the market, within the market itself there were several tourists and some locals. But it really wasn’t very crowded and never intimidating. This was most unique aspect of the market: although everyone wanted to make a sale, the selling was never aggressive or intimidating.

The toy tops the boys bought, after seeing a few local boys having a blast in the market, kept them busy outside for over an hour once we returned home to Quito.

Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:30 to catch a plane to the Galapagos.

July 1

Quito, Ecuador

So far, so good.

Today was lovely. We had planned for today to be completely unstructured. Besides the crankiness which we expected, it was a great day. Our main goal was to explore our surroundings.

We went to a cute little mini supermarket and bought some ingredients for breakfasts and lunches. It was a small little store, and we had 4 very excited boys. They weren’t quite sure what to make of us. We are staying in an apartment in a busy residential and business area. There are no tourists. We definitely do not blend in.

We walked about 20 minutes to a park called Parque La Carolina. We were really impressed, It had everything you could want in a community park, and was full of people. First we took advantage of the many mini turf soccer fields to play a family game of soccer. A few people stopped to watch and one of the park workers took photos of us playing. The game didn’t last longer than 20 minutes as some of us were feeling the effects of the 2900m of altitude. There were also basketball and volleyball courts open to the public. There were informal games of soccer happening all over the park in the open spaces. The boys also spent some time rock climbing on some large sculptural piles of rocks put in the park specifically for climbing.

We also took advantage of a huge exercise park. There was all sorts of work out equipment there: chin up bars, giant truck tires to flip, climbing ropes, rings, hurdles, ellipticals, stairs, among other things. It was like an outdoor community gym. Almost everyone was doing things in their street clothes, but there were some serious people doing cross fit or kick-boxing training in pairs.

From there we went to a surprisingly great, but very small museum of biodiversity. Ecuador has a huge variety of geographic areas. They have the coastal area, the Andes with 43 volcanos, and of course, the Amazon rainforest. Although the museum was entirely in Spanish, we got a lot out of it. There was an interesting collection of specimens from insects, butterflies, fish, animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, rocks, shells and minerals. One of the coolest things for the boys was their collection of skeletons.

We also rented a pedal boat in their man-made moat. Features of the park we did not get to do were an outdoor animatronic sea monster exhibit, a botanical garden, a cultural centre, and the many street food vendors. It was a wonderful afternoon.

We finished off our day with dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant and then we hand washed some laundry and hung it up to dry on our makeshift clothesline strung across the kitchen. Tomorrow we head to Otavalo, a huge open air textile market.

After a number of technical difficulties, we finally have our blog up and running. It will be difficult to upload pictures right now from Ecuador, but we will post the text. Also, our last week here, we will not have access to wifi. I have been posting a few pictures on Facebook, so you can look them up if you like. I will edit the posts and add pictures once we get home. All posts have been written jointly by both Aubrey and Koren. one of us usually starts and the other finishes and or edits.  We are about two weeks behind, but we will start at the beginning…