Galapagos Islands

 

The Galapagos Islands

March 6-10, 2012

We stopped at 7 different places in the Galapagos islands, and were
on the boat for 4 nights.  The vegetation was different on each island.  
Here, San Cristobal, one of the oldest islands, it is lush and green.  
We were there during the rainy season--hot weather and humid.  
It only rained one morning, we were lucky.

This is our Galapagos guide, Luis.  He grew up in the islands so gave us a
great perspective.  I think he said that about 50,000 people
still live in the Galapagos, his family were farmers--still are in fact.  
He is the only one to move from the islands.

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We arrived in the Galapagos Islands on Tuesday, March 6, and our
 first adventure was to don these black rubber boots and hike out to find
the giant land tortoises--we were very successful!  
We got to see nearly a dozen up close and personal,
which is how we saw most of the birds, fish and animals on the islands--it was amazing!

Hey Duane, can you do a push up in there?

 

This is our ship, the Carina.  There were 8 cabins for guests, one for the guide and
there was a crew of 9.  We spent 4 nights on board.

Every day Luis would post the day's schedule.  This day we had a wake up call at 5 a.m., turned out to be rainy so we all had a snack and went back to bed for an hour...or not!  We had wanted to avoid the heat, do our hike from 6-8 a.m.  Luckily the rain let up and we went at 8:00.  The clouds kept the day from being too hot.

This is half of our tour group in the Panga boat.  Our ship would anchor off shore
and we'd get a ride to wherever we were going for the day in this panga boat--
sometimes we'd have to get out in the water and wade ashore--
the water was clear and warm, so fun!

We saw literally hundreds of
Pelicans, this one was watching
us snorkel.

These red crabs were everywhere

And so were these Galapagos sea lions.  We saw them on every beach,
could have touched them, we did get to snorkel with them--we could see
them diving and playing all around us--too cool!

Ann goes for a kiss--they seem willing!



This is the land iguana--they were also all over the 2nd island we visited.

The man in white is our captain, Gregorio,
The other is Luis, our guide.  One day, while
we were traveling between islands, we
heard the emergency siren.  Everyone
wondered if we really WERE having a drill.
The captain had spotted a pod of Pilot
whales near the ship and wanted us to
all take a look.  We must have watched
them for half an hour.  Three dolphins
joined in, right next to the boat.  The
crew was excited as we were--everyone
piled out to watch.

We had a great time playing games--we were usually so
exhausted at the end of the day tho, that our game playing time was
very limited!

Smile, Lori!  The cabins were roomy and comfortable.

Our cabin girl, Cruzita, was constantly making our bed and folding our towels--it was fun to come home from a hike and see what she had done next.  There were 9 crew members (3 cooks, 2 engine workers, a captain and 2 mates and Cruzita)  They worked constantly!  They would work for 6 weeks and be off for 3, and didn't make all that much, however, we all liked them so well and so appreciated their hard work and kind attitudes, that we were all good tippers.

This is Carlos, or Carlitos as everyone called him.  He was the oldest crew member at 48. 
 He was our waiter, the food they brought up was fantastic, and they always
 had some great decoration--fancy fruits and veggies. One of the days our crew went ashore
and played a game of soccer with the crew from another ship
anchored there. They invited us along to be their cheerleaders!

This is Raul, our cook.  He'd come up every night
and serve our soup.  FANTASTIC cook!

And these are the sea-going iguanas, all dressed in their colorful finery for the dating
and mating season.  There was love in the air everywhere!



Just another example of how everywhere you look there were sea lions--lots of babies too.  
Sea lions have one baby each year, and each baby nurses for 3 years--busy mothers.

And here are the amazing Blue-footed Boobies.  The name comes from the Spanish
word "bobo" which means silly or stupid.  They are such fun to watch.  
This pair was nesting on the trail--their nest is just a pile of rocks, not so soft,
but as we approached we had to warn each other to look down--don't step on them.  
They certainly weren't about to move, we all walked around them,
but Grandpa decided they needed a little talking to!

The Boobies were so fun to watch--they fly along until they spot a fish in the
crystal clear water, then they fold their wings back and speed like a torpedo
into the water, it's amazing that they can calculate where the fish will be
once they start their descent.  Once Duane was snorkeling and a booby dove
right in front of him--that was cool for him to see it underwater.

Machu Picchu

 

Machu Picchu

March 2-3, 2012

 This is the Urabamba River.  We took a train from the town of Urabamba in the Sacred Valley of the Inca, here to the city of Aguas Calientes, the jumping off point for Machu Picchu. We rode the bus up the steep mountainside to the ruins.  The first day we decided to walk down instead of bussing down.  It took a couple hours, it was rough stone steps, sometimes rainy, muddy, so beautiful, and great exercise.  We arrived after dark, looking like drowned rats, but it was totally worth it!

Here are the switchbacks, as viewed from the Inca Trail, high above Machu Picchu

As we followed the river on the train Dad, Bert and Grandpa kept a running commentary about how they'd run THAT rapid--it was one series of rock studded rapids after the other--a wild ride!



It's a magical place!  We got there early the second day, the clouds were just rising, quite beautiful.  Our guides gave us a great tour and a good dose of history, he was mestizo--half Spanish, half Native Indian, he had grown up speaking the native language and was a professor of history, so he had a good understanding. It was very interesting and beautiful.

This is part of the Inca Trail--there are actually
thousands of miles of trails, we followed this to
the "Sun Gate" about a 2 hour round trip
right up the side of the mountain.  If the Inca King wanted
fresh fish, they'd send a runner to the coast and by
the next evening, he had his fish dinner.

Poor Grandpa missed Machu Picchu--well, he's there in body, but he was so sick that he just laid out on this stone slab and was out like a light.  Uncle Jack thought that looked comfortable, so he joined him, I think they were both sound asleep.  The background is the Sun Palace, note the perfectly fit rocks.

The "guard house", the llama is guarding I guess!  There are quite a few llamas there at Machu Picchu, roaming freely.  Our guide said they are working animals--the living lawn mowers!  Last time we were there one of them spit on me!

These 2 pictures are from the "Sun Gate", we hiked along the Inca Trail to get here, we had a great view from here looking down on Machu Picchu.  It was a warm day, but we were at times in the clouds so stayed pleasantly cool.  We saw a 6" millipede, black with red legs, lizards, birds and the most amazing iridescent butterflies--they flashed yellow and electric purple--never have seen anything like them.



These were our guides, Maggie and Walter.  Walter was with us the entire week, Maggie was a Machu Picchu specialist--and still in training.  She hiked down the mountain with us, we enjoyed them both very much.



This is heading down the mountain instead of taking the bus.  It was steep, but absolutely
beautiful.  We had to watch our step all the time.



We watched the rainbow for quite a while, it was
maybe the most spectacular rainbow I've
ever seen!

And we arrive at the base of the mountain--neither rain nor tired feet nor dark of night could stop us!