Sunday: Baltra and North Seymour

Sunset at 17:57 p.m.

The wake up call was to be at 6:45 a.m., but Charles and I arose at 6:15 a.m.  We were too excited to get on our way.  Fortunately we had gained an hour because Guayaquil is one hour behind.  We would soon gain another, as the Galapagos Islands are not on daylight savings time. 

The breakfast buffet at Café Colon was jaw dropping.   There were a crazy number of options.  One could eat breakfast, lunch or dinner as there was a vast array of offerings.  The waiter showed us a table for four and we helped ourselves to breakfast before Jill and Lauren joined us. Overwhelmed as I always am by a buffet spread, I settled for cantaloupe, a handful of walnuts, and roll with a wedge of cheese.   The first people we met were Maggie and Dave Tietjen, an Army nurse and physician, respectively, who were breakfasting adjacent to us.  Lovely people.  One of my first thoughts of the day was how I missed my dear friend, Linda, who would have loved every second of the experience so far and certainly those to come.

We were back at the room an hour later, making last-minute preparations to meet the group in the lobby at 8:40 a.m. to board a bus to the airport.  I had some time to journal and felt it was a good time to reflect on the upcoming flight and the first glimpse of the island.

I wrote: “So here I am.  Sitting in an armchair, scribing in a small, cheap, green spiral-bound notebook on one of the room’s small, glass-topped circular tables.  What am I thinking?  I have no real sense of what to expect even though I have watched a documentary, read a book on the Galapagos, and recalled its unique place in scientific history.  I had not visited the Lindblad website to check out the boat or our berths.  Charles handled all those details.  All I know is we are boarding a chartered plane, which will convey us across the Pacific to our destination in about two hours.  I learned, from reading, that the first glimpse of the islands may put us off due to Baltra’s arid and barren landscape.  I was expecting this.   I am looking forward to swimming with fur seals, getting close to a hawk, having a mockingbird drink out of my glass, seeing a blue-footed Booby, and having a face-to-face encounter with one of the famed land tortoises.”  It remained to be seen if any or all of these experiences awaited me.

We met in the hotel lobby at 8:40 am, with plastic name badges on, to make the return trip to the airport.  Before breakfast, we had been instructed to put our to-be-checked bags, with an assortment of three different colored identifying tags, outside our room.  Our bags were taken to the airport ahead of us.  Rodney had passed out plastic zip ties and instructed us to use them to secure our luggage from thieves.  That’s why we saw so many plastic-wrapped bags the night before.  We were not in Kansas anymore. 

It was a beautiful day – pleasant, sunny with a few wisps of clouds.  Judging from my hair’s behavior, the humidity wasn’t too bad!  As we drove, I noticed an interesting building on the skyline.  It was a 37-story office building completed in 2014, overlooking the Guayas River, called “The Point” but nicknamed “the Screw”. 

The exterior or the airport had a lovely waterscape at the entrance.  While waiting for our 10 am flight, Jill and I noticed a large memorial statue across the airfield.  We surmised it was of a native about to kill a European, as the latter looked like the former was subjugating it.  We later learned we were way off!  While I haven’t been able to locate it on the Web, one of the figures is Guayaquil and there is nothing sinister in the representation. 

At the airport, we met Jim and Kathy Adams from Dallas, Texas.  We would later learn that the tour operator thought Jill was their child.  Her bags were grouped with theirs and on the return leg home, she was assigned the seat in-between them!  They were awesome folks and, with both being blonde, Jill, frankly, looked like she belonged more with them than with us!

We boarded a much more comfortable – and large and roomy -- plane, owned by Avianca, for this leg of our trip.  Jill and Lauren were in Row 11 and Charles and I occupied seats A & B in Row 17.  The flight wasn’t full so, luckily, we had an empty seat between us.  Incidentally, we learned that the plane is sprayed to eliminate insects prior to take off to keep from introducing new species to the Islands. 

We were handed transit visa papers required for entry.   For obvious reasons, no organic material is allowed on the islands and there is a $100 per person park fee, which was included in our Lindblad fees.

We watched as people boarded and couldn’t help noticing, as Charles quipped,   “Darwin’s ghost” would be joining us.  Or Darwin’s doppelganger.   An older man with white hair and a long white beard was indeed evocative of this famed scientist.

I looked out the windows to see a line of six tour buses wind their way down a ramp to the terminal, presumably to travel to the Islands.  Lots of people want to see this place!

The plane lifted its wheels and rose into the air at 9:59 am.  Right on time!  Charles began dozing and I watched the countryside below me.  It looked like a crazy quilt with well-defined tan borders.  Were they canals?  None of the shapes or sizes was consistent and I wondered if I was looking at agricultural land.  This landscape seemed endless and only disappeared when we were too high to see it. 

(I later learned that deforestation caused by oil palm, cacao, sugar cane, and coffee plantations is a big problem in Guayaquil.  While I can’t be certain, it appears as though I was looking at thousands of acres of oil palm plantations.)

We banked southwest and all was quiet save the muffled sound of the plane engines.  By 10:11 am, we were off the coast, heading 320 degrees northwest, flying over the vast Pacific Ocean.  This was a first for our family!   The clouds were flat and looked like upholstery stuffing.

We completed an affidavit testifying we were not bringing contaminants to the Islands.  As I did so, I got that slight nauseous feeling I experience when the plane begins its slow descent.  It was 11:15 a.m. and in 15 minutes we will have reached a place unlike any other on the planet.  I tried to busy myself by taking notes from the Seven Lessons on Physics book.  No use.  My thoughts went to how privileged all of us on that plane were.  We were about to share the incredible privilege of visiting an extremely delicate environment in one of the most strictly protected parks in the world.  The percentage of people who will ever visit the Galapagos must be miniscule!  The pilot came on with an announcement that we would be landing at 10:40 am, another hour gained!  How wonderful!

The plane became quiet, as if we all understood that we were about to enter a sacred space.  I wondered what thoughts were running through THEIR heads.  It was likely no one was taking it for granted.  Bonnie, who has visited this place three times, had told us, “This will change your life!”

I couldn’t imagine how it could since my reverence for Nature is already off the charts.  Yet, this time I would be in the very heartbeat of Nature, a continual font of species evolution and geologic formations unfolding each year.  I promised myself I would do what I could to honor the wildlife.  Undoubtedly, I would feel deeply and painfully apologetic for what my ancestors –whalers -- did to their forbearers. 

Around 10:25 am and headed due west, I caught my first glimpse of the islands.  It was large!  I couldn’t believe I was looking at the place I’ve known about since high school.  It was fitting we landed on a Sunday – the day God purportedly rested and was satisfied. 

Three minutes later I saw another island far off.  At 10:30 am, we began our approach.   The land was indeed barren and arid looking.  The coastline appeared to be a cliff and the cottony clouds above chased shadows across the landscape.  A big thrill was seeing a solitary caldera on our approach to the flat islet of Baltra. 

This spent volcano was a short distance from our landing strip on Baltra (aka South Seymour), where 80% of visitors land. 

Two other planes were disgorging passengers, wheeled carry-ons in tow, walking single file on the cement pathway, flanked by volcanic rock beds filled with prickly pear cactus, salt bushes, and palo santo trees.  It was breezy but, if the wind stopped, it would have been hot.  During World War II, Baltra was established as a United States Army Air Force base. Crews stationed there patrolled the eastern Pacific for enemy submarines and provided protection for the Panama Canal. It continues today as an Ecuadorian military base. 

The queue for Customs in this open-air space moved quickly.  We kept exclaiming to one another how excited we were.  Selfies ensued. 

As we cleared Customs, Enrique, a wildlife naturalist and Nat Geo guide, greeted us.  He directed us to a room that served as our reception area where small cheese sandwiches, fruit, chips, and fruits juices were offered while waiting for our group to reassemble.  It was larger now that the folks from Quito had joined us. 

Shortly, we boarded a tour bus bound for the dock where we were to board Zodiacs, called pangas here.  Jill was astonished by the frigate birds wheeling overhead and wondered why others weren’t giving the birds the attention they deserved.  She had a point.  I think we were so focused on getting to the boat.   The day was gorgeous and a breeze made it even more so.  We were ferried, 12 to a panga, to The Islander. 

Lynn Fowler, “the ship’s deity”, welcomed us aboard and, as she did so, she assessed the ability level of our 46-person group.  The bartender, doubling as our valet, showed us to our room.  Room 402.  When I opened the door, I was absolutely stunned!  I was greeted with a wrap-around view of the sea and island, akin to what the captain experienced in the deck directly below us.  Charles had booked us into a VIP cabin! The girls were on the second level in much more modest housing and I rushed down to get them to come see.  I wanted them to hurry with getting squared away as every second I had to wait almost hurt.  I was beyond excited.  They did come up but only after getting situated.  I understood so I bravely waited.

We only had a short time to arrange our belongings before we had to report to the lounge on the third deck for an information session, which included a muster drill.  Business was concluded by 1 p.m. and we all made our way to the second deck for our buffet lunch.   Pasta salad, greens with shredded beets, al dente green beans, cherry tomatoes with several dressings, and a cheese board were first up.  The entrees were a choice of chicken or wahoo with sides of rice, and more.  Broccoli soup was offered as well.

After lunch, we went up to the Sky Deck to try on flippers and masks and get sized for our neoprene ¾-length wet suits.  For convenience, we were given large mesh bags that had our cabin numbers on them, such as 402A and 402B.  We were to stow

our gear in our bags and keep them for the duration of the trip.  Once this was squared away, we had an hour siesta before returning to the lounge at 2:45 p.m.  This was when we learned about our first excursion and also had a chance to sign up for the next day’s kayak outing.  (We decided to pass as we wanted to snorkel.)

Everyone had his or her own life vest.  We donned these before each outing and lined up on in the reception area on level two to wait being assigned to a panga.  Upon leaving the ship, you had to move your magnet from “Aboard” to “Away” on the nearby white board.  By 4:15 p.m., we were in a panga with Antonio about to disembark on a rocky stretch of the southern shore of North Seymour islet. It was a dry landing.  Towels placed over the slippery wet lava rock made disembarkation a bit easier. 

The island was formed by a seismic uplift of a submarine lava formation.   The entire island is covered with low, bushy vegetation. 

The 1.2-mile loop hike, which required stepping from lava boulder to lava boulder at times, would reveal scads of birds either in courtship mode, resting, or circling for food.  We saw a sea lion immediately and everyone got their cameras out to snap pictures.  The naturalists view them almost like “roaches” as sea lions were everywhere.  We found that they were right.  They WERE everywhere!

Antonio was big into the “highlight” of the day.  The “highlight” of this hike was the Galapagos land iguana that dutifully showed up, to our delight.  He said they were rare so we should appreciate it. It is a slow-growing population on this bit of land.

OUR highlight was the blue footed booby.  Again, we had NO idea we would see so many so the first one we happened upon got the full-fledged paparazzi treatment.  Apparently, North Seymour is an extraordinary place for breeding birds.  It is home to one of the largest populations of nesting blue footed boobies, frigate birds, and swallowtail gulls.

Antonio went into a clever explanation of what we were witnessing as the male Booby high-stepped his duck-like blue feet in the area, never moving forward, only rocking back and forth as he put weight on one leg and then another.  Every now and then, he would stretch his long narrow neck heavenward and let out a whistle.  Apparently a female had flown by.   He augmented this with wide outstretched wings, which, in full span, looked like a moustache, and then he arched them backwards sticking his chest out.  Antonio explained that, even if the female liked his color blue, she might keep him guessing for a week.  The male Booby doesn’t move from the spot he deemed most appropriate for a nest.  It was essentially a clear out circle and, if done right, was encircled with white guano.  When a female came down, he searched for something on the ground, like a miserable piece of twig, and offered it to her. 

We saw a few sea lions slumbering in the soon–to-set sun and iguana tracks.  As we walked, we saw myriad frigate birds in various stages of development.  The saddest were the dead juveniles who had fallen from their nests, becoming inaccessible to the parents whose wide wingspan prevented them from dipping into the foliage to feed or rescue them.  The nests were only 2-3 feet off the ground but nonetheless, this proved deadly.  The youngsters were large fluffy white chicks with big round black eyes.  Adorable. 

We had been walking along the coast and now the clearly marked trail led us more inland.  We marveled at the multitude of birds as we ventured slowly through a tiny forest of silver-grey Palo Santo trees.  They were leafless – waiting for the rain to bring them to bloom again. 

As we came to the end of the loop trail, the sun was setting, affording artistic shots through the palo santo trees silhouetted against the sky.  The sky in the east was far more demure with a two-tiered band of pale blue and soft pink pastels.  Dusk was quiet.  Frigate birds and gulls wheeled overhead.  A sea lion swam up as we were about to push off, as if to say good-bye.   After experiencing the magic of North Seymour, we felt we had already gotten our money’s worth and it certainly exceeded even the most exacting expectations. 

I swear I could have swooned from delight as I re-entered the ship but the business of dinner was at hand.  At 1900 hours, we were to assemble in the lounge for the Captain’s welcome aboard toast.  It was then that we formally met the captain, officers, and natural history staff.   I had put on a pair of black capris and a light blue sleeveless top in no time.  Charles had pre-arranged for a reserved dinner table for our party of seven.  The only table that would accommodate that number was the one being used by the Captain.  We were to keep this corner table for dinner every night going forward, with bottle of red wine open and ready.  The seven of us chatted and laughed and laughed some more and, in so doing, lost track of time.  We looked around to see only one other party was in the dining room and the staff was cleaning up.  We reluctantly left but it was easy to tell we all loved each other.

After dinner, we went up to the sky deck to check out the stars.  A waxing gibbous moon diluted the darkness, obscuring fainter stars, and clouds covered many of those who could stand up to the moon’s light.  I did see the Southern Cross and noticed two bold stars to the right of The Crux.  Turns out these were Alpha and Beta Centauri and I was so excited to get to see them.  My biggest disappointment is that the Milky Way was not in view.  It should have been but it could not rival the Moon in luminosity.

It was hard to leave but we knew there was a lot of fun to be had the next day so we left the deck around 10:30 p.m. 

I have to say it wasn’t hard to leave because our spacious cabin, with its long views of the sky and water, was equally enchanting.   Before retiring, we made sure our draperies were closed to do our part in helping reduce the ship’s attraction to insects.  This is to decrease the potential of inter-land exchange of insects, which could create an invasive species problem.